{"id":782864,"date":"2026-09-26T04:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782864\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T04:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:32:16","slug":"u2-at-mount-temple-50th-anniversary-live-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/782864\/","title":{"rendered":"U2 At Mount Temple: 50th Anniversary Live Review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The day before the show, I got an email from U2\u2019s PR that simply said, \u201cMark, call me.\u201d When I rang her, she told me the band were playing Mount Temple the next day and asked if I\u2019d like to go. Of course I said yes.<\/p>\n<p>I stood on a platform at the back of the schoolyard as the students filtered in. Alice Cooper\u2019s \u201cSchool\u2019s Out\u201d played over the PA. Then Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. appeared, and the students went wild.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-213255\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/U2-photo-credit-Rich-Fury-L1290559.jpg\" alt=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back Credit: Rich Fury\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" title=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back 89\"  data-\/>Credit: Rich Fury<\/p>\n<p>U2 opened with \u201cI Will Follow.\u201d The band sounded great, though Bono\u2019s vocal was hard to hear for the first half of the song. Once the mix settled, they moved into \u201cVertigo\u201d and \u201cBeautiful Day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The moment that brought the setting into focus came during \u201cOut of Control.\u201d Bono introduced Larry as the man who had pinned a note to the Mount Temple noticeboard looking for musicians. Here they were, 50 years later, playing their first single back in the schoolyard.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-213264\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/U2-photo-credit-Rich-Fury-L1290310.jpg\" alt=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back Credit: Rich Fury\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" title=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back 90\"  data-\/>Credit: Rich Fury<\/p>\n<p>The band had announced their new album, Carnaval De Luz, and released \u201cSilencio\u201d the night before. Hearing it live, I thought it was their best single since \u201cVertigo.\u201d That was exciting in the middle of a show celebrating everything they\u2019d already done.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-213260\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/U2-photo-credit-Rich-Fury-L1290589.jpg\" alt=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back Credit: Rich Fury\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" title=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back 91\"  data-\/>Credit: Rich Fury<\/p>\n<p>For \u201cOne,\u201d 32 young string players from Music Generation joined U2 onstage, with one representing each county on the island of Ireland. \u201cOne\u201d is always special live, and having those young musicians play it with the band at Mount Temple gave it something extra.<\/p>\n<p>U2 left the stage after \u201cOne,\u201d but the crowd began shouting, \u201cOne more song!\u201d They returned for \u201cWith or Without You,\u201d which Bono introduced as \u201ca little ditty.\u201d He said they hadn\u2019t played this arrangement before.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-213261\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/U2-photo-credit-Rich-Fury_L1300083.jpg\" alt=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back Credit: Rich Fury\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" title=\"U2 return to Mount Temple for a 50th anniversary show that looks forward as well as back 92\"  data-\/>Credit: Rich Fury<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen U2 play on a much bigger scale, but watching them perform for the students at the school where they formed was an experience I won\u2019t forget. Afterwards, we went to McGonagles, where three more songs from Carnaval De Luz were played for us. \u201cThe Greatest Show on Earth\u201d is another U2 epic, while \u201cCan\u2019t Stop Us Now\u201d sounds like the future. We also heard \u201cTorn,\u201d featuring Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n<p>Fifty years after Larry pinned that note to the Mount Temple noticeboard, U2 show no signs of standing still.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day before the show, I got an email from U2\u2019s PR that simply said, \u201cMark, call me.\u201d&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}