- Music
- 30 Nov 17
10 Hot Press writers share their favourite U2 moments as we get set for the release of Songs of Experience on December 1. On our tenth day, Louise Kane recalls her music induction on the Zoo TV Tour.
I was still a few years shy of being allowed to go to any gigs when I had my 'U2 moment'. But the Zoo TV tour came to Dublin in the summer of 1993 and my friend and I made it our mission to see our favourite band perform.
It was in the RDS, and both of us were just listening outside, plotting how were going to sneak in. Then we spied one of my brother's mates working at security. Miraculously, he snuck us in, brought us all the way round to the back of the stage, and released us right into the middle of crowd.
This was the high point of their Achtung Baby days. They had the whole audio/visual arsenal on stage, and it all looked incredible. It was sensory overload, for us young ones, but we moved in Mysterious Ways for every song.
I think Bono had just adapted that alter-ego of The Fly at this stage, so he looked like nothing anyone had seen before. He'd just taken on this persona as a legendary rock figure. He played Elvis' 'Can't Help Falling In Love' at the very end and the comparisons between him and the King of Rock'n'Roll were never more appropriate.
As a first gig, there's few else that have compared. This was an actual performance. Looking back, it showed just how far U2 had come. They were beyond just great musicians now; they'd transformed themselves into possibly the best group of performers in the world.
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But the song I loved the most from that tour was 'Try To Throw My Arms Around the Wold'. It's not their most well known, but it stayed with me for the rest of my teenagers years. It just one of the end-of-the-night songs, a song that makes you think about everyone from your youth.
This, to a young 12 year old, was my musical awakening. The real thing...