In 2013 I did a few guest posts for my friend Bruce’s blog. It wasn’t intentional. We had been having an email conversation about England’s Greenbelt Festival and some of my experiences there. He took those emails and published them. I figured now, with U2 on the road in North America, would be a good time to share those posts with you. What follows is unedited – I am the “old friend” he is referring to.
An old friend had commented on meeting Depeche Mode at the Greenbelt Music Festival, in 1981, when they attended as fans. He also commented on the unscheduled appearance of U2 at the festival, as follows (e-mail correspondence reproduced with permission):
This was also the festival where U2 played their six songs that changed the world – unannounced, scared out of their minds, but feeling God was telling them to play. How were the organizers going to say no?
They had toured Boy and finished October a few days before. They were obviously up and coming.
But the set was special. No sound check. Opened with “11 O’Clock Tick Tock“, which had been a minor hit in the UK. The crowd knew it. Bono looked out at the 25,000 people and said “we didn’t think you would know who we were.”. Five songs later, they left the stage.
A close friend was second row center. She said you could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence coming off the stage and into the crowd.
I watched from about 150 yards back. When the set ended I channeled Jon Landau’s quote about Springsteen: I have seen the future of rock and roll and its name is U2. Three years later, Rolling Stone would name them “band of the 80s”.
Modern Christian worship music was born that night. If you examine their music closely, you will discover that U2 are essentially a worship band. They share their music with the world, but it is really directed to an audience of One.
Postscript, September 10, 2013: The friend commented further, as follows:
U2 at Greenbelt, August 30, 1981, used borrowed equipment. They didn’t know they would be allowed to play, and didn’t bring their gear with them. The six songs played were:
11 O’Clock Tick Tock
I Will Follow
An Cat Dubh (The Black Cat)
Into the Heart
With A Shout/Jerusalem
Fire
random thoughts from lorne 
[…] before – I think I’ve been to perhaps seven shows since I first saw them in 1981 at a Christian music festival in the UK. They always put on a great show. But having experienced them live before I’m less likely to […]
[…] Time reveals a depth to the message of this band; albums I didn’t like at first grow on me with time. It seems almost as if I have to catch up, musically, lyrically, spiritually with where Bono, Edge Adam and Larry want to take the audience. I wrote off their 1990s output, Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop when the albums came out. Now I see their brilliance. At the time I wasn’t ready to hear the subtleties of the message. I yearned for the brash young evangelists I had seen on stage at Greenbelt. […]
Thank you. Looking forward to June 23 at Rogers Centre.