The day after the Glasgow show saw Debbi, Julie and I suffering from varying degrees of sunburn. It had been cloudy when we set off for Hampden so we didn't think we needed any sunscreen, but it got out really hot and sunny and there was no shade and now our pale English complexions were bright red! We went to a pharmacy and got some great aloe vera lotion that calmed our redness down a little.
We flew to Dublin for our last two Vertigo tour shows in the British Isles. We were staying at Bewley's Hotel in Ballsbridge, always a good place to make your base in Dublin.
Before the U2 part of the trip we visited our friends in Dun Laoghaire and also had a meal with my German friend Chris who was also in Dublin for U2 gigs. It was good to catch up with them all. That's one of the lovely things about going to U2 gigs, you get to see so many old friends again.
On the day of the gig we all had to kind of split up a bit as we had tickets in different areas of the stadium and were also meeting various friends. So Julie and I headed into town to meet Rosie, our friend from Northern Ireland. We had a meal with her before heading towards Croke Park. Once there we said bye to Rosie too as she was sitting elsewhere.
Our seats were abysmal! And yes, they were fan club seats, shame on you U2! We were at the far end of teh pitch, top tier, four rows from the back. Dreadful seats. I must say I got vertigo at Vertigo we were so high up. Plus there was a hell of a wind blowing up there as well.
I was really looking forward to seeing Snow Patrol, but was really disappointed because the sound was so bad, very muddy.
U2 took to the stage to a raptuous reception, but as soon as they started to play we realised the sound was just as bad for them. When Bono spoke it was impossible to understand what he was saying. The set was a pretty standard one, and for me the show was completely spoiled by the sound. Friends who were in other areas of the stadium said the sound was fine where they were, so we had the bad luck to be stuck almost as far away as you can get from the stage and to have the worst sound I've ever heard at a U2 concert. Shame and very disappointing.
We met up with our other friends once more and hung around after the show, only Larry stopped to speak with fans. He was very friendly and charming, obviously happy to be back on home ground.
We headed off back to our hotel feeling a bit deflated and hoped that tomorrows show would turn out to be a lot better for us.
