U2: Zoo TV Live from Sydney

I have been a fan of U2 for about 10 years now. I remember watching this concert on video when I was only 9 and being totally blown away by it, which is probably why I still love them now. U2 are an amazing band and this live performance will justify that. Even watching it through a TV screen and not being fortunate to be at this concert (1. I was only 9, 2. It is live in Sydney )is breathtaking. Bono's voice is a sound of perfection. He sounds better than on CD which is a rare thing with singers. My favourite performances are 'Satellite of Love' (with Lou Reed!), 'Bullet the Blue Sky' which merges beautifully (from one extreme to the other) into 'Running to Stand Still' which is quite a dramatic performance. This song is just great and I much prefer to watch the live performance than listen to it on CD. This concert is the best I have ever seen and if you're not a fan of U2, then watching this concert will surely change your mind-it made me a fan! Bono is a great showman and really enjoys what he does, just check out that 'close to tears' look he has when he's staring out at hundreds of thousands of fans, when singing 'Where the Streets Have no Name'. The concert couldn't finish better than with a rendition of Elvis Presley's, 'I Can't Help Falling In Love With You'. Some may criticise them for finishing with a cover but it's beautifully done and always leaves me with a tear in my eye. Bono slowly walks off stage leaving you shocked, teary eyed and so pleased because you have just seen the best live performance ever.

It's impossible to fully capture the bone-shaking, epoch-shaping, life-altering experience of this tour in person. But this film comes pretty damn close. It's on YouTube in its entirety if you've never experienced it for yourself. The musical high points are many - Running To Stand Still has never sounded as bleakly beautiful as it does here, and the segue from that to Where The Streets Have No Name is spine-chilling. The opening barrage of songs from Achtung Baby is stunning, and what the whole film manages to capture so brilliantly is the overwhelming experience the tour was when you actually attended. Yes, other bands had tried aspects of it this before; but none were doing so at U2's planet-bestriding size, with quite as much on the line as they had after the confusing mishmash of Rattle and Hum. That it celebrated living inside post-modernism whilst also critiquing is a trick that few, in any medium, have managed since. Other tours may have been more ecstatic, but little else has been as revolutionary as this was. As such, this is an excellent document of a moment in rock history.

Stadium concerts in Australia were a rarity until the early nineties when the Aussie dollar plummeted and suddenly it was financially viable for big international acts to ship all their steel and speakers over the Pacific. Paul McCartney, Madonna and Michael Jackson all brought their massive stadium shows over, but by far the most exciting and magnificent tour to come was U2 and their Zoo TV tour- which to this day is still a benchmark for all tours to be judged on, including their own subsequent Popmart, Elevation and Vertigo tours.

After humble beginnings in an arena in Lakeland Florida in early 1992, the show evolved and grew into a monster that evolved and matched the continual popularity of their seminal masterpiece, Achtung Baby. U2 had deliberately not played any shows in America since 1987, but with their 're-invented' sound and look they were suddenly the only major draw-card anyone cared about in 1992- box office records were smashed. It was only a matter of time (well, a few months) before the show was let loose on the stadiums across North America and Europe, and everything about the stage show was magnified to the extreme- 36 massive screens, 11 Trabant cars, basically their own traveling satellite TV station.... the days of a big speaker stack and an out-of-sync screen in stadiums were gone.

By the time the tour reached here it was November 1993 (the band had even used a break between the North American and European stadium legs to record the Grammy-winning LP 'Zooropa') it was been tweaked and perfected to be the most perfect of perfect gigs ever recorded. From the opening video sequence the crowd was unbelievably responsive- probably bettered only by the crowd in their recent release 'Live At Slane Castle'. It's interesting to note however that by far the loudest cheer of the night was for when Bono began his usual channel-surfing and happened upon some footage of Richie Richardson being dismissed by Mark Waugh in a recent Australia vs West Indies cricket match!

The show is balanced absolutely magnificently, opening with a barrage of 'new' songs (although Achtung Baby had been released for 25 months by that stage) before switching to the acoustic set and finishing the main set with the absolute classic double punch of 'Where The Streeets Have No Name' and 'Pride'. Interestingly, 'Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World' which was played between 'Numb' and 'Angel Of Harlem' was omitted from the official release, most likely due to the fact that the girl Bono sprayed champagne over was under-age.

Concert highlights for this humble reviewer? Having watched it at least once a week since i purchased it in 1994, and having just bought the DVD release last week, for me it's still 'Until The End Of The World', a song which just swamps the senses. The Edge has never sounded meaner and dirtier than in 'Dirty Day', and this version is infinitely better than the album version on 'Zooropa'. A special mention to the fantastic guitar solo's in 'Bullet The Blue Sky' and 'Love Is Blindness', the latter being perhaps the finest ending to a concert I have ever seen.

This is arguably U2's best concert ever. The band deserves a 10/10 rating for bold creativity and scintillating performances. Complete with loads of video screens of all sizes and blinding lights designed to inflict sensory overload, U2 move through their setlist with raw passion. Having just released their 'Zooropa' album, they combine songs from 'Achtung Baby' - arguably the most influential album of the 90s - with 'Zooropa' and their 80s stuff and they take you on a magical thrill-ride reminiscent of a sci- fi/fantasy movie.

This was a time when the band was considering breaking up due to exhaustion and the band members themselves felt that the Sydney concert would be their last. Hence, Bono, Larry Mullen, Adam Clayton and The Edge pull out all the emotion to deliver their most memorable performance in years. They simply set the stage for today's concerts of all genres.

What I think to be the best of the U2 Videos, and actually, of any videotaped concert. I believe it even won several awards for being the best concert of a particular year.

The entrance the band makes is outstanding, building with a montage of multimedia sensory overload. The music is great, both the bold rock and roll, and the subtle, b-stage acoustic sets. The encores are each great, too. As always, the music is spellbinding. Such a good concert even one who is only vaguely familiar with U2 will have a great viewing experience.