As the 2024 Glastonbury Festival commences, it feels appropriate to look back at U2‘s iconic show 13 years ago on June 24, 2011.
At this point, U2 was in the midst of their biggest concert tour, the “360” tour. It commenced in 2009 and ran until 2011. Over 100 shows were played and the setlist evolved throughout that time. Glastonbury showed the most refined and perfected show they could play.
Their set was very much a 19-song greatest hits show that condensed the “360” tour setlist to the essentials. It also began showing the band's interest in looking back at Achtung Baby and the “ZooTV” tour.
That makes the show worth going back and revisiting. Even if there were some miscues and the rain limited the band's mobility, the show is fantastic in hindsight. It does not feature any skippable performances — even “Get On Your Boots” has its moment.
U2 was actually supposed to headline the 2010 Glastonbury Festival. But after Bono suffered a back injury, they backed out. However, their 2011 show was worth the wait.
A “ZooTV”-like opening
U2's Glastonbury show got off to a somewhat rocky start. Around this time, the band began playing “Even Better Than the Real Thing” in the “Fish Out of Water” arrangement, a remix found on the twentieth-anniversary re-release of the album.
From around this point on, the band continued to play it in this arrangement until their Sphere residency in 2023. For one reason or another, The Edge's guitar had a mishap as he came in.
The band recovers, though. Bono and Larry Mullen Jr. are especially strong in this performance. Luckily, the band also stays strong from “The Fly,” “Mysterious Ways,” “Until the End of the World,” and “One.”
“Zoo Station” remains a better segue into “The Fly,” but from “Even Better Than the Real Thing” onward, U2 played four Achtung Baby songs in a similar order to their “ZooTV” tour.
“One” was especially inspired on this particular night. U2's Glastonbury performance included a snippet of the hymn “Jerusalem” that led into “Where the Streets Have No Name.”
On the “360” tour, Bono got especially creative with his segues from “One” into “Streets.” “Amazing Grace” is perhaps the gold standard. And while he occasionally stumbled with “Jerusalem,” it was an ambitious swing. He returns to it later in the set, but more on that later.
A greatest hits middle set
After “Streets,” U2 plays one of its earliest hits, “I Will Follow.” During the middle eight, Bono sings the line, “I surrender.” What is interesting is the theme of “surrender” heavily influences the band's following three albums and Bono's book. He also continued to sing that seemingly ad-libbed “I surrender” snippet during the song at other shows in future tours.
The energy is kept up with “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.” A snippet of “Movin' on Up” follows the song, which is up there with “Stand by Me” as the best for the song.
Perhaps the biggest “deep cut,” if you can call it that, is “Stay (Faraway, So Close!),” which follows “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.”
No, Bono does not sing the chorus in the falsetto of the original song. But his belting was still at the top of its game. And the song is one of U2's best — the Glastonbury crowd was lucky to hear the live rarity.
For the casuals
U2 had the backs of any casual fans in attendance at their Glastonbury show. While most, if not all of the songs at this point were recognizable, they played a few of their hits from the past decade.
“Beautiful Day” is the song that brought U2 back to mainstream fame. It is played with a snippet of the Beatles' “Rain,” fitting for the night the Glastonbury crowd was in for, and followed by “Elevation.”
This is where the band's lack of mobility hindered their set the most. To his credit, Bono made the most of it and stepped out onto the small extension stage. The connection and intimacy the band usually has with its audience is not able to be had which is a shame.
The only downer in the setlist is “Get On Your Boots.” While the song is not a fan-favorite, it has a live presence that is undeniable. The “She Loves You” snippet, the third from the Beatles, makes it worth a listen.
“Vertigo,” a song similar to “Get On Your Boots,” followed it. U2 then goes back in their catalog to their 1983 album War and plays “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Thanks to Mullen's drum playing, the song is bound to get anyone on their feet.
Unlike a standard U2 show, they were only allotted a select time to play their Glastonbury show. That meant Bono did not have time to talk to the audience or go on rants amid songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Make of that what you will — it does add to the re-listenability of the show.
He does ad-lib something as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” comes to a close that begins with “Reboot yourself.”
Returning to Jerusalem
An emotional performance of “Bad,” one of U2's best live songs, comes next. Nowadays, Bono usually sings an extended snippet of something like David Bowie's “Heroes.” However, this performance features a callback to “Jerusalem.”
The performance isn't technically perfect — it seems somewhat disjointed with the “Jerusalem” snippet that replaces the “desperation, dislocation…” middle eight.
To be fair, the “Jerusalem” snippet fits the melody of “Bad” far better than the mostly a capella performance earlier. And as the song concludes, Bono sings the original middle eight. Bono also belts “wide awake” and hits notes better than ever.
His voice was top-notch at this period in U2's live career. “Pride (In the Name of Love)” then closes out the main set of U2's Glastonbury.
Why U2's Glastonbury show stands out
The encore begins with “With or Without You.” As the song's intro is played, Bono shouts out his wife, Ali Hewson. The performance features a snippet of “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” something U2 used to play a lot in the eighties.
Joy Division is an obvious influence on the band. It is always great to hear them pay homage to the group. He follows that up with a short snippet of Coldplay's “Yellow.” Coldplay is a band inspired by U2 so the reverse engineering is a nice touch.
This leads to “Moment of Surrender” from No Line on the Horizon. The song typically closed out sets on the “360” tour but was followed with a surprise.
“Out of Control,” one of the band's earliest songs, closed out U2's Glastonbury show. More shows should end on it as it is just a joyous song.
While U2's Glastonbury show was not perfect, it encapsulates what makes the band special. Their greatest hits were played and Bono's voice was at the top of its game. It also laid the groundwork for what came next in several ways.
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