I've never really been a devoted fan of anything and I've never had real idols except maybe for my powerful and modern Grandmother. When my friends were having anxious feelings about Leonardo DiCaprio or Jared Leto at the age of 15, I was desperate to know how does anxious feel. However, I remember when in 1997 U2 brought its Popmart tour to Finland. My sister went to Helsinki to see the concert but I felt too young to go alone and therefore remained home listening to their albums and regretted not going. For more than a decade, U2 has been the Band that I have wanted to see more than any other group. Yesterday, it indeed was a Beautiful Day, when their 360° Tour arrived to the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. Being part of the 50 000 people mass was an amazing feeling and I still can't think of any other band that could offer such a great satisfaction.
I was getting emotional already when seeing the huge stage construction, while I have to admit that U2 has enough charisma and excellent songs that it could do without any special effects. After some trouble with the screen, the audience was getting crazy and waving their white and blue scarves when David Bowie's Space Oddity brought the band members to the stadium. After an instumental intro and Bono jumping around the stage, they started with Beautiful Day. I felt some tears running down my face and thought of the Beatles concerts where girls were fainting and crying, I wasn't quite there yet but I understood a bit better the emotional aspect of such mass happenings. When 50 000 people are waving their hands or singing out loud when Bono asks them to, it is a somewhat unique moment.
They continued with New Year's Day and it took me back to one New Year's Eve at the end of the 1990s when we listned this one song the whole night through. I was sleeping under a sofa table after a house party at my friend's place. My friend had her own house already at the age of 16, not a good idea as she didn't have a great control over her own life. She died 4 years ago, and though I had lost contact with her a long time before that, the song brought me back some good as well as sad memories. However, I mostly connect U2 with my exchange year in Aix-en-Provence: we were a great group of 4 friends and after the year in France we did a road trip in Corsica listening to U2 and REM on the beautiful coastal roads. These are only extremely happy memories and I wish I could have listened One rather with than without them.
They played all the songs I was waiting for impatiently for the last 13 years. Sunday Bloody Sunday, my favourite U2 song at high school (and maybe still today) started with the recognisable drums. I tried to sing along but I had already forgotten the lyrics even if I had translated the song into Finnish for my English class' portfolio. U2 was important for my English already before this when my sister recorded me a C-casette with Numb. It's an unusual U2 song but I loved it at the age of around 7. "Don't piss in the drain" I sang along (no, they didn't play it this time).
Photo by Miikka Pirinen.
While I'm not exactly sure if actions of famous people are purely sincere, I appreciate the fact that they try to use their power to raise awareness and influence political leaders or individual citizens. U2 dedicated the concert to Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Amnesty International brought candles to the stage while the tv screen was providing us more information and powerful images. It was slightly cheesy (even though I've just heard that cynicism and pessimism aren't cool any more) but if even one or two persons in the audience got the message and were encouraged to do something, it might already be a good start. I was happy to think of my monthly donation to Amnesty International.
And do you remember when back in the Middle Ages, people used to wave their lighters in the air during some slow songs. Well, nowadays, you don't need to feel temporarily bad of not smoking as a camera is as good as a lighter. At the end of the concert, Bono invited everybody to turn on their cell phones or cameras, and the stadium transformed into an amazingly beautiful night sky with thousands of stars. By this time, I was influenced by their greatest songs and their peaceful message and I got to draw my own conclusion: while my cell phone alone only illuminates a small patch, a crowd of 50 000 simultaneously performing the same act made it something very beautiful; while my actions alone might not make a difference, together with other people they can turn into something great and important.
P.S. In Moscow, the cooperation between U2 and Amnesty International caught the interest of the police as well. When Amnesty was collecting signatures to support prisoners of conscience and urged the government to investigate on the death of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the police detained 5 activists and obliged them to remove their headquarters (see for example the Guardian). Obviously U2 is having too great an impact on people to act for human rights... I was probably underestimating when I thought that a few people might get influenced by U2's message, already my sister was considering of becoming a monthly donator of Amnesty International after the concert.
They continued with New Year's Day and it took me back to one New Year's Eve at the end of the 1990s when we listned this one song the whole night through. I was sleeping under a sofa table after a house party at my friend's place. My friend had her own house already at the age of 16, not a good idea as she didn't have a great control over her own life. She died 4 years ago, and though I had lost contact with her a long time before that, the song brought me back some good as well as sad memories. However, I mostly connect U2 with my exchange year in Aix-en-Provence: we were a great group of 4 friends and after the year in France we did a road trip in Corsica listening to U2 and REM on the beautiful coastal roads. These are only extremely happy memories and I wish I could have listened One rather with than without them.
They played all the songs I was waiting for impatiently for the last 13 years. Sunday Bloody Sunday, my favourite U2 song at high school (and maybe still today) started with the recognisable drums. I tried to sing along but I had already forgotten the lyrics even if I had translated the song into Finnish for my English class' portfolio. U2 was important for my English already before this when my sister recorded me a C-casette with Numb. It's an unusual U2 song but I loved it at the age of around 7. "Don't piss in the drain" I sang along (no, they didn't play it this time).
Photo by Miikka Pirinen.While I'm not exactly sure if actions of famous people are purely sincere, I appreciate the fact that they try to use their power to raise awareness and influence political leaders or individual citizens. U2 dedicated the concert to Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and Amnesty International brought candles to the stage while the tv screen was providing us more information and powerful images. It was slightly cheesy (even though I've just heard that cynicism and pessimism aren't cool any more) but if even one or two persons in the audience got the message and were encouraged to do something, it might already be a good start. I was happy to think of my monthly donation to Amnesty International.
And do you remember when back in the Middle Ages, people used to wave their lighters in the air during some slow songs. Well, nowadays, you don't need to feel temporarily bad of not smoking as a camera is as good as a lighter. At the end of the concert, Bono invited everybody to turn on their cell phones or cameras, and the stadium transformed into an amazingly beautiful night sky with thousands of stars. By this time, I was influenced by their greatest songs and their peaceful message and I got to draw my own conclusion: while my cell phone alone only illuminates a small patch, a crowd of 50 000 simultaneously performing the same act made it something very beautiful; while my actions alone might not make a difference, together with other people they can turn into something great and important.
P.S. In Moscow, the cooperation between U2 and Amnesty International caught the interest of the police as well. When Amnesty was collecting signatures to support prisoners of conscience and urged the government to investigate on the death of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the police detained 5 activists and obliged them to remove their headquarters (see for example the Guardian). Obviously U2 is having too great an impact on people to act for human rights... I was probably underestimating when I thought that a few people might get influenced by U2's message, already my sister was considering of becoming a monthly donator of Amnesty International after the concert.
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