Inside U2’s Las Vegas residency at £1.8bn Sphere including A-list guests, state-of-the-art screens and huge setlist
CAUGHT LIVE
U2 @ The Sphere, Las Vegas
★★★★★
“WE are the luckiest men on Earth,” said Bono, before the curtain came down on the opening night of their U2:UV Achtung Baby residency in Las Vegas.
But without a doubt it is us, the 18,000 fans in the crowd, who hit the jackpot after the band transported us into their fantastical new home at The Sphere.
The gargantuan concert venue, built smack bang in the middle of Sin City, is quite frankly enormous and came with an equally huge £1.8billion price tag.
At 516ft wide and 366ft tall, it is the tallest spherical structure in the world and the LED screen is the largest, comprising 268,435,456 video pixels.
But only once you are inside does the magic truly start to happen, with U2 launching the venue on Friday night as they kicked off a 25-date residency.
Despite the enormity of the venue, I’ve never felt closer to a band, with Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton taking to a stage which looks miniature thanks to the overwhelming size of the screens behind them.
Blasting through Zoo Station and The Fly, the screens projected crystal-clear live images of U2 behind them — raising the bar for the quality of every big screen in venues across the globe.
At one point, the band were joined for a rendition of Love Me Tender by an image of Vegas veteran Elvis projected as a backdrop.
The spectacle is truly mesmerising and the incredible light displays make it feel like the ceiling is crashing down on top of you.
‘Macca is in the house’
During Even Better Than The Real Thing, the magic of the screens ramped up — with the visual effects making it look like the band were frantically moving up and down, riding on a wave of the music.
I stood agog as I tried to stop the feeling of motion sickness and watched as other fans around me grinned with delight.
The momentous opening night was shared by some of U2’s closest friends and family, with stars including Hollywood actor Matt Damon, rappers Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom watching from the crowd.
Sir Paul McCartney was also there to witness the magic, with Bono giving him a shout out after singing a line from The Beatles’ 1963 track Love Me Do.
Bono, who also played lines from Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) and Blackbird, said to screams from the audience: “Paul McCartney is in the house.
“We love you and we still love your songs.”
Bono’s son Elijah was in the packed-out crowd too, and the Irish superstar took a sweet moment to call out to him amid the mad spectacle behind the stage.
And one lucky fan, an American woman called Janine, was pulled out of the crowd and invited to sit inside an enormous silk swing, which had descended from the ceiling.
She looked as though she’d won big on the slots as Bono serenaded her with Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World.
The show was made even more memorable part-way through, as U2 stripped back the set and played songs fans had not heard live for some time, from their 1988 album Rattle And Hum.
Bono later confirmed that the mid-section of the show would feature hits from a different album each night, giving fans a unique concert experience each night.
Inspired by Brian Eno’s Turntable, the screens turned to black and the bright-white lights focused solely on the stage and Bono as he sang All I Want Is You, dedicated to their drummer Larry Mullen Jr.
Larry has been forced to sit out the Vegas run as he recovers from surgery, with Dutch drumming sensation Bram Van Den Berg taking his place.
Bono told the audience: “That song was for Larry Mullen. Not since October 1978 have we played a show without Larry.
“I would like to introduce to you the only man who we would ask to sit in his shoes. It’s his birthday, Bram van den Berg.”
Speaking into the microphone, Bram added: “Let it be said, there is only one Larry Mullen Jnr.”
After the toned-own interlude — which also included Rattle And Hum songs Desire, Angel Of Harlem and Love Rescue Me — the screens slowly started up again — this time with the silhouettes of insects, as if I was inside a glass jar looking out.
Then with a bang it was back to full-frontal, flashing and furious lights, before, out of nowhere, the Vegas strip appeared behind them.
In a nod to the climate crisis and the destruction caused by rising sea temperatures, the iconic strip started to melt away back to the desert.
Es Devlin was among artists chosen to create work for the show, with a magnificent drawing of some of Nevada’s most endangered wildlife towering above the band during With Or Without You.
They ended their 22-track set with latest single Atomic City and one of their biggest hits, Beautiful Day.
Visiting Las Vegas truly is an assault on your senses, with your ears deafened by music, your eyes blinded by neon lights and your brain feeling wired thanks to the oxygen pumped into the casinos to keep you awake . . . and spending more money.
But nothing in Sin City could have prepared me for watching live music in The Sphere.
It has to be seen to be believed.
U2 SET LIST
“Achtung Baby” part 1
1 – Zoo Station
2 – The Fly
3 – Even Better Than The Real Thing
4 – Mysterious Ways
5 – One/Purple Rain/Love Me Tender
6 – Until The End Of The World
7 – Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
8 – Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Rattle And Hum interlude
9 – All I Want Is You
10 – Desire/Love Me Do
11 – Angel Of Harlem/Into The Mystic/Dancing In The Moonlight
12 – Love Rescue Me
“Achtung Baby” part 2
13 – So Cruel
14 – Acrobat
15 – Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
16 – Love Is Blindness
Encore
17 – Elevation/My Way
18 – Atomic City
19 – Vertigo
20 – Where The Streets Have No Name
21 – With Or Without You
22 – Beautiful Day/Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)/Blackbird
Shania not impressed by age talk
VETERAN Vegas star Shania Twain swapped Sin City for South West London on Friday, but got quite the shock from an audience member.
She performed two special shows in Kingston for fans who had pre-ordered her album Queen Of Me, but was left gobsmacked when one woman said she felt “quite old” at 58.
Looking aghast, Shania – who is also 58 – joked: “That’s gonna stick with me. Frig, I’m traumatised!”
Later, the star was presented with a plaque to celebrate having sold 6million albums in the UK.
Shania told the crowd: “It means so much not only to be able to get up here and do this after all these years, but also that you’re still here too.”
The That Don’t Impress Me Much singer has just completed the UK leg of her world tour and will return to Las Vegas for her third concert residency next May.
All that work will certainly keep her young.
ADELE LOCKS PAUL IN HUG
TWO of Britain’s biggest pop exports came face to face when Sir Paul McCartney attended Adele’s Las Vegas residency on Saturday.
The Beatles legend was seen giving the Rolling In The Deep singer a hug during her show at Caesars Palace.
But it’s dating that has been the hot topic of her recent shows there.
Speaking on stage, Adele, who is engaged to US sports agent Rich Paul, said she is gutted to have never tried online dating.
She said: “I never really got to do online dating. I am with the love of my life.
“We met the old-school way. But sometimes I do wish I’d had that courtship online.”
Kylie’s gigs race against clock
KYLIE Minogue fears the set for her Las Vegas residency will not be ready in time, echoing the chaos surrounding the launch of Adele’s show there.
The Someone Like You singer was forced to postpone her residency in January last year after delays to the production.
Now Kylie has said the venue where she will be performing – Voltaire at The Venetian – still hasn’t finished the building work, meaning the show launch will be “down to the wire”.
She explained: “We’re just in the stages of putting it together – the venue hasn’t even finished its build yet.
“I’m sure it’s going to be down to the wire with plenty of drama, as normal.”
The show, called More Than Just A Residency, sold out in minutes and is due to run for 20 concerts between November and May 2024.
But Kylie, who scored her ninth No1 album on Friday, said the stress hasn’t taken the joy out of the prospect of her Sin City run.
Speaking on Australian radio, she said: “I’m so excited about it. It’s in a really intimate venue, it’s capped at a thousand people.
“It’s my rite of passage having my Vegas residency. There’s going to be a mix of everything.
“We’re creating a pretty punchy show for a pretty small venue.
“There will be a little bit of everything. I am having more fun than ever.”
JOEL FAVOURS UK HOUSE
JOEL Corry is smashing it in Vegas but is snubbing a luxury home there in favour of a bungalow in North London.
The Brit house DJ gets paid big bucks for regular shows at Marquee nightclub in Sin City, but is not keen to move there.
Joel, whose debut album Another Friday Night is out this week, told me: “I’ve got my residency in Vegas, which is going amazingly well.
“I love going over to the States. Dance music in America is really thriving so it’s an exciting time.
“But at the moment there is so much living out of a suitcase that it’s hard to think about buying a house there.
“There’s a lot of back and forth from Europe and America. I’ve got my bungalow in Barnet, which I’m really happy with.”