1997-09-23 - Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Kosevo Stadium
Setlist:
1. Mofo
2. I Will Follow
3. Gone
4. Even Better Than The Real Thing
5. Last Night On Earth
6. Until The End Of The World
7. New Year's Day
8. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
9. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet)
10. All I Want Is You / Many Rivers To Cross (snippet)
11. Staring At The Sun
12. Sunday Bloody Sunday
13. Bullet The Blue Sky / America (snippet)
14. Please
15. Where The Streets Have No Name
encore(s):
16. Discothèque / Life During Wartime (snippet) / Take Your Partner By The Hand (snippet) / Discothèque Howie B Hairy B Mix (snippet)
17. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
18. With Or Without You
19. Miss Sarajevo
20. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
21. Into The Groove (snippet) / Mysterious Ways
22. One
23. Unchained Melody
Attendance: 50,000
Part of the story of the show, an extraction from Pimm's book U2 LIVE:
Shortly after landing in Sarajevo in the Lemon plane, Bono tells reporters: "It's great to be back. Are we really here? We've been working for four years to come.". In 1993, on the road in Italy, U2 met a film crew from Sarajevo who wanted to interview the band and tell them what was going on in their city. U2's immediate reaction was to perform in the city to draw media attention, but the plan was nixed. It was too dangerous for the band and the audience. Instead the band agreed to do the much discussed live satellite link up with Bill Carter in Sarajevo during the Zoo TV set. Carter's 'Miss Sarajevo' documentary about the young women in the city holding beauty contests during the sieg inspires U2 to write the song Miss Sarajevo, recorded with Brian Eno and Luciano Pavarotti and released under the name of 'Passengers'.
In 1995, Bono and his wife, Ali, spent New Year's Eve in Sarajevo, flying in on a United Nations aid flight. Bono sang a few songs at sessions in bars, and promised to return with the band.
The first band to visit Sarajevo after the war was a Newcastle trio called China Drum. They travelled to the country in July 1996, with their gear, their crew and a journalist, Andrew Mueller, all in one van. Mueller later said the trip was a logistical and administrative nightmare. And that was for one van, three chords and the tutruth. U2 bring in the entire PopMart show. It's the first major show in the country since the war ended in 1995. Not a single comrpromise is made on the production. The Lemon, the Arch, the Stick and the Olive. They're all going in. The band receive help from Moe Sacerbie, the Bosnia Ambassador to the UN. Paul McGuiness comments: "We thought it was going to be difficult. But it's been quite straightforward. People ahve just wanted to help. We've blagged a lot of equipment, forklifts and so on, from the miliary and the local crew have been incredibly enthusiastic. There was talk of just doing a scratich show, but we tfelt it was important that we treat this as another city on the tour, to pay them that respect. To come here and not do the whole show would have been rude."
U2 lose money on the production as ticket prices are kept low, an average of $18, which does not cover the cost of the production. Any income generated from radio sales goes to War Child.
Background story on the Siego of Sarajevo
The Siege of Sarajevo was the longest siege in the history of modern warfare, conducted by the Serb forces of self-proclaimed Republika Srpska and Yugoslav People's Army (later transformed to the Army of Serbia and Montenegro), lasting from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996.
It was fought during the Bosnian War between poorly equipped defending forces of the Bosnian government, who had declared independence from Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Bosnian Serb forces (Army of Republika Srpska) (VRS) located in the hills around Sarajevo, who sought to destroy the newly-independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and create the Serbian state of Republika Srpska (RS). It resulted in large scale destruction and dramatic population casualties. It is estimated that of the more than 12,000 people who were killed and the 50,000 who were wounded during the siege, 85% of the casualties were civilians. Because of killing and forced migration, by 1995 the population decreased to 334,663 - 64% of the prewar population.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo
The band on this show
"And if I had to spend 20 years in the band just to play that show, and have done that, I think it would have been worthwhile."
- Larry highlights the Sarajevo Popmart show as the best ever U2 concert
We encourage you to listen to this bootleg this month and write your own review, the more, the better. Enjoy!
