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U2 at Red Rocks: the 25th anniversary
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As the popular music writer for The Denver Post, I heard U2’s Boy album in 1980 and immediately fell in love with the young band’s music. When U2 came through
When my new acquaintances returned to
So when rain and low temperatures threatened to ruin the entire scenario on the day of the show, and after the promise was given of another concert to be held the following evening in Boulder at an indoor venue, I briefly considered taking the band up on that offer and staying in for the night.
Needless to say, I wised up. I didn’t miss a moment of the now-legendary concert that was subsequently selected in Rolling Stone’s list of the “50 Moments that Changed Rock and Roll.” Shivering but ecstatic, I sat backstage afterwards and wrote the lede for my overnight review, a sentence that has since become part of the U2 fabric: “A lot of things had to go wrong for U2’s show at Red Rocks Ampitheater in order for it to come off so right.”
It’s doubtful that any other band could have turned the adversity at Red Rocks into its favor so convincingly. From day one, the logistics had proven formidable. The director of an avant-garde English video program was flown over to oversee the filming. Steve Lillywhite, the famed producer of the band’s albums, also was transported from
But temperatures dropped to 40 degrees at showtime, and a day’s worth of drizzle evolved into a deluge. It was no place to be holding a concert, and it made for some tremendously difficult decisions. With all the investment in one show, canceling or moving it was out of the question economically.
“We had all the camera people over here. We’d paid all their wages, we’d paid their flights over. We had to go on with the concert,” as Bono later explained.
I vividly remember Bono sitting in the production office and going on the radio – he called every rock station in town, KBPI, KAZY, KPKE, KTCL and KPPL – to tell listeners U2 had decided to play without a warm-up act for whoever braved the weather. Out of the 6,000 advance sale, 4,400 ticketholders showed up to deal with the elements, even subsequent to Bono's vow of an additional indoor gig . The band took the stage despite all of the nightmarish conditions.
Of course, the show went down as one of U2’s defining moments. The pelting rain and swirling mists that rolled in over the mountains provided a eerie, dramatic backdrop for U2’s music. The event ceased being a concert after the second song – it was more akin to a church service, a tangable exchange between a band fulfilling its promise as a premier musical outfit and its soaked yet ecstatic devotees. The most powerful image, one that has stuck in the public’s mind, occurred when Bono immortalized his holy gladiator profile during “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” unfurling and waving that huge white flag in the crowd against the glow of the torches high on the cliffs.
Later, the drama of the mystic, against-all-odds performance made its way to the wonderful Under A Blood Red Sky video and live album. A spiritual and commercial breakthrough, it cemented the natural wonder of the Red Rocks setting in the imaginations of rockers everwhere, and it turned U2 into A-list rock heroes.
“I’d like to thank the man who invented the wide-angle lens – he made the 4,000 people there look like millions,” Bono said.
As fans around the world celebrate the 25th anniversary of the famous show, record companies will mark the occassion by remastering the music on CD with a bonus disc, due in stores June 24, and finally releasing Under A Blood Red Sky on DVD in August.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Under A Blood Red Sky, 102.3 KCUV (www.kcuvradio.com) will replay the soundtrack from the video in the 2 p.m. hour on Thursday, June 5, interspersed with stories from KCUV listeners who attended the show.
