Amsterdam 18-12-1989 - Bobfather Master

RAI Europa Hall

Amsterdam, Holland.

18 - December - 1989.

Attendance: 16.000 (sellout) - Support: BB King

Disc 1 (73:38)

01. Hawkmoon 269

02. Desire

03. All Along the Watchtower

04. All I Want is You

05. Where the Streets Have No Name

06. I Will Follow

07. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

08. MLK

09. The Unforgettable Fire

10. God Part II

11. Help / Bad

12. Van Diemen's Land

13. New Year's Day

14. Pride (In the Name of Love)

15. "40"

Recording Equipment - History

Aiwa CM-30 stereo microphone + Sony WM-D3 > Analog Master (Dolby B) > Nakamichi CR-7E (Azimuth adjusted) > Marantz DR-6000 > mac rip to disk > Soundforge > flac

Taper: bobfather

Location: 1st floor front row (left side)

Additional notes (by bobfather): Last performance of Hawkmoon 269, and its only performance outside Australia. This concert came to a premature close due to serious problems with Bono's voice that were especially manifested in God Part II. Concerts for the next two nights were cancelled and four replacement shows were performed early in January 1990 in Rotterdam. Due to the premature conclusion of the show, the usual encore with BB King and his band was not played, and accordingly this is the only Lovetown gig at which Angel of Harlem, When Love Comes to Town, and Love Rescue Me were not performed.

Comments

This is another pretty good master by 'bobfather'. Sound quality places in the borderline 'very good / excellent' rating. It's not as punchy and full as my other source of this show (the so-called 'D3 master'), although the output is pretty clear and solid. The only issue here is that it sounds a little thin. Note All Along the Watchtower contains a two-second dropout at 0:46. Note there are noticeable edits before All I Want is You, God Part II and Help / Bad, and after Pride.

The show ends prematurely due to Bono's voice problems. You can notice this problems when Bono really avoids the high notes during Bad. The three-song set with BB King's band is left out, going directly to "40". The last track, "40", includes after the song the comments of the promoter of the concert, while the audience is still singing "how long to sing this song". He talks in dutch, and says the next (according to Pimm Jal de la Parra's book U2 Live by Omnibus Press):

"Quiet please... you may have heard: Bono can't sing another note. With a hundred-thousand apologies, the best audience of the tour so far. His voice is gone, we have to end now. One thing: hold on your tickets".

After this, 6.000 tickets were valid for the four January dates in Rotterdam (1.500 per night), and the 10.000 remaining got their money back.