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U2 staged
the biggest guerrilla gig in history last night in New York
City with a surprise performance at the Empire Fulton Ferry
State Park underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
An estimated 30,000 fans and industry-folk pulled out their
subway maps and tried to navigate their way to out-of-the-way
site where swarms of police and a gigantic MTV film crew
awaited the mob.
Rumours that U2 were playing a secret show began circulating
last week but no one was certain it was really happening
until about noon, when the band climbed on the back of a
giant flatbed truck and drove from upper Manhattan to the
site downtown, performing the whole time.
Industrious fans who saw the band driving down Broadway
outside their office windows were able to jump online and
buy tickets off the MTV website, but most heard from friends
that the biggest band in the world was playing a free show
and decided to turn up and check it out.
The sound of several helicopters circling above intensified
as the band's truck began it's long trip over the Manhattan
Bridge, all of which was visible to the crowd. Fans who
couldn't get into the show lined up along the promenade
on the Brooklyn Bridge, which allowed them to look down
on the stage. The performance drew representatives from
every major TV station, newspaper, and rock magazine in
the city as well as several VIPs including the actor Jared
Leto.
The band took the stage as the skies darkened, threatening
rain, which luckily held off for the duration of U2's stunning
11-song set - which included two airings (at separate locations)
of new single 'Vertigo'.
Bono was his usual magnanimous self, reminiscing about the
band's first trip to New York. He said: "[We remember] what
it feels like to come over the bridge to Manhattan," as
well as philosophising: "Science and medicine and God are
all the same thing and they should always be the same thing."
He also told of how "My father used to conduct the stereo
with my mother's knitting needles," before album track 'Sometimes
You Can't Make It On Your Own', said to be inspired by his
late father, who died in 2001.
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