U2 360 Tour Philadelphia

U2 have recorded a tribute in honour of former South African President Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday

The Irish rock band taped a special performance of ‘Happy Birthday’ in Mandela’s honour during a gig at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

All four members of U2 gathered in front of Bono’s microphone during their final encore and led the sold-out audience in wishing the human rights campaigner birthday greetings.

Bono has worked on behalf of Mandela’s 46664 AIDS charity in the past, even co-writing the organisation’s theme song with the late Clash singer Joe Strummer.

U2′s version of ‘Happy Birthday’ will be shown to Mandela during a birthday party which is to be held at New York City’s Four Seasons on Monday, reports the New York Post‘s Page Six.

Watch amateur footage of U2′s tribute to Nelson Mandela below:

Source: digitalspy.co.uk

About four or five songs into the show in Philly, Bono recalled that the band haven’t been here for some time.

‘It’s been a while since we visited this great city, the city of brotherly and sisterly love, the city of Philadelphia Eagles,  the city of the Philadelphia Fliers, the city of Philadelphia cheese steaks…’

But where else would anyone want to be on a Thursday night in summertime? Nowhere as it turned out, but in this great city, ‘where men would rather be hung for treason than give up on a crazy mad idea called America. That’s right – this is not just a country, its an idea, we love that.’

Everybody here loved the idea too.

‘Wow! Thank you so much. Phil… A… Delphia!’

And as this remarkable journey which began way back in 2009 now heads into a final handful of shows, maybe the band too are sensing something special going on. Bono muses on what he calls ‘a bond of unity’ between ‘this band and its audience.’
‘It defies physical proximity, defies age, defies gravity… it’s a special thing we’ve got going and we don’t take it for granted.’

‘Still Haven’t Found’ becomes Stay, Beautiful Day and soon Philly is a City of Blinding Lights – a city home to some special people too, like the good folk of Clare Brothers, and like Bob Koch who’s brought his 94 year old mother Eleanor  to the show  tonight.

‘Goodnight Pennsylvania…’

Lights down and phones out for Moment of Surrender and ‘one last thing we’re going to do’: a stadium-wide rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to Madiba’ – Nelson Mandela – ‘this man means so much to us’.

Full U2.COM review here

Below, you can see the best videos we got so far and link to constantly updated photo albums, credit to the several U2 fans attending the show and press.

SETLIST

Opening Act(s): Interpol

Main Set: Even Better Than The Real Thing, I Will Follow, Mysterious Ways, Until the End of the World, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Stay, Beautiful Day – Space Oddity, Elevation, Pride, Miss Sarajevo, Zooropa, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo – It’s Only Rock and Roll, I’ll Go Crazy (remix) – Discotheque – Life During Wartime – Psycho Killer, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Scarlet, Walk On

Encore(s): One, Hallelujah – Where the Streets Have No Name, Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender, Happy Birthday

VIDEOS

U2.com Official

Fan Videos

Compiled by U2News. Arrow for navigation to all videos.

PICTURES

Click in the link below to see all photos

Band Members Off-Show: Here
Show Photos: Here and Here