ARNHEM II: GET UP, STAND UP, FALL DOWN

“Alright, we’re a young band from Dublin, Ireland, this is our first single… it’s coming out on CBS Records. We have a new album called Boy, we hope you like it. One day… we’re gunna be the best!”

Arnhem II began with Bono promising to lift the Gelredome’s roof and ended with this impersonation of his younger self introducing Out of Control and sending the crowd into raptures.

Only the best would push their “pop-star power” and get away with asking 35,000 people to sing Happy Birthday to a Dutch friend of theirs. The tuneful crowd was more than happy to oblige [in RealAudio].

During his now-standard Get Up Stand Up chant in Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bono, standing at the tip of the heart, didn’t notice his bass player hit the floor, the poshest member of U2 flailing wildly as he backed over something and landed ungracefully on his arse — he seemed shaken, but not stirred, and was back on his feet in seconds, smirking.

Bono commented on the Elevation sign-epidemic: there were so many requests, flags and slogans being held up inside the heart that it was “like a shopping centre in there”, he said.

Anton Corbijn, sporting a new black hairdo, was tall and famouz in the heart pre-gig. He told U2log.com he had seen the previous night from the back of the venue but was eager to check out the vibe inside. He may have have missed the atmosphere in “the shopping centre” however, appearing minutes later on stage to snap pics as U2 launched into Elevation.