It’s No Secret: The Fly in Milan

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-10-15)

PHOTO: The Fly in Milan, courtesy of Harry Kantas for U2Songs

Tonight in the third show in Milan U2 pulled out another song for a tour debut. For the first time since Moncton on the U2360 tour in 2011, the band performed “The Fly”. (It appeared on the #U2ieTour, but as an intermission video, with the song performed by Gavin Friday.)

The song was accompanied by a visually stunning presentation on the video wall, while the band performed underneath it. A random wall of letters and numbers would randomly become words, and then would twist away to become nonsense again. Below we have the words we identified on the screen tonight.

FEEDBACK
PLASTIC
ACHTUNG
GO
HUNGER
HANSA
MALAHIDE
BALLYMON
MOTHERS-
SLANE
SQUABBLE
DEFECT
BOWIE
LIFFY
ATOMIC
JIFFY
APART
GUGGI
TROUSERS
BIBLE
MALAISE
PUNKS
MEDIA
BE GENTLE WITH ME
THIS IS NOT A REHEARSAL
TALK TO STRANGERS
ENJOY THE SURFACE
DUBLIN
DANDELION
VIRGIN
LEATHER
ROCKERS
PRUNES
HORIZON
19A
– GUILT –
AMBITION BITES THE NAILS OF SUCCESS
IT COULD NEVER HAPPEN HERE
TASTE IS THE ENEMY OF ART
BELIEVE EVERYTHING
BELIEVE
LIE
EVOLUTION IS OVER
SILENCE EQUALS DEATH
ME TOO
UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA
WATCH MORE TV

(Yes we know it’s usually spelled Ballymun and Liffey, but we’ve written it above as it was written on the screen.)

The words include a mix of references to Dublin (Dublin, Malahide, Ballymon, Slane, Liffey, 19A — the bus that ran along Ballymun Road); the early days of the band (Feedback, Dandelion for the Dandelion Market, Virgin and Prunes for the Virgin Prunes and Guggi), references to Berlin (Hansa, Bowie, Achutng), references to their albums (Achtung, Atomic, Achtung), references to music (Punks, Rockers, Leather and Trousers), as well other words and some phrases familiar from the original Zoo TV tour. One new phrase is “Me Too”, a reference to the #MeToo movement.

With the debut of “The Fly” tonight, U2 are adding more content from Achtung Baby to the show. Rumour has it that the band has also rehearsed other songs from the era, and are changing things up in preparation to film the show in Berlin at the end of the show. In a recent interview, Willie Williams stated that the band didn’t want to film songs that they had filmed on that stage in 2015. Since moving to Europe, the band has added “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and “Zoo Station” to the set list which already featured a number of songs from Achtung Baby.

Below we’ve included a video to allow you to watch the video presentation yourself. Can you pick out any additional words or phrases? Let us know!

VIDEO: “The Fly” in Milan, October 15, 2018, courtesy of U2 en España.

Many thanks to Caroline for her assistance.

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