Rattle and Hum - Live Performances

Live Performances

The band chose to film the black and white footage over two nights Denver's McNichols Sports Arena on 7 and 8 November 1987. They chose the city following the success of their "Under A Blood Red Sky" video which was filmed in Denver in 1983. "We thought lightning might strike twice" said guitarist, The Edge. The first night's performance was disappointing with Bono finding the cameras infringing on his ability to play to the crowd. The second Denver show was far more successful and seven songs from the show are used in the film, and three on the album.

Earlier that day, an IRA bomb killed eleven people at a Remembrance Day ceremony in the Northern Irish town of Enniskillen (see Remembrance Day Bombing). During a performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", which appears on the film, Bono condemned the violence in a furious mid-song rant in which he yelled "Fuck the revolution." So powerful was the performance, that the band said they were not sure the song should have been used in the film, and after watching the film, they considered not playing it on future tours.

Colour outdoor concert footage is from the band's Tempe, Arizona shows on 19 December 1987 and 20 December 1987. Tickets were sold for $5.00 each and both nights sold out within days. The set was different each night with the band throwing in some rarely performed songs including, "Out of Control", "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)", "One Tree Hill", and "Mothers of the Disappeared." For the latter, all four members played at the front of the stage, each under a large spotlight.

The performance of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" is from the band's impromptu "Save the Yuppies" concert in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, California on 11 November 1987. The video intersperses the performance of the song with footage from the band's performance of "Pride" from the same show, during which Bono spray-painted "Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic" on the Vaillancourt Fountain. This caused a bit of controversy, and ultimately, the band paid to repair the damage and publicly apologized for the incident. The phrase "Rock and Roll Stops the Traffic" reappeared 18 years later in the video "All Because of You" when an unnamed fan appeared with the sign at 1:55 in the video. It also reappeared in February 2009, when the band played on the rooftop of the BBC Radio studios in Langham Place

Dennis Bell, director of New York gospel choir, The New Voices of Freedom, recorded a demo of a gospel version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". While in Glasgow in late July during The Joshua Tree Tour, Rob Partridge of Island Records played the demo for the band. In late September, U2 rehearsed with Bell's choir in a Harlem church, and a few days later they performed the song together at U2's Madison Square Garden concert. Footage of the rehearsal is featured in the movie, while the Madison Square Garden performance appears on the album. After the church rehearsal, U2 walked around the Harlem neighbourhood where they come across blues duo, Satan and Adam, playing in the street. A 40 second clip of them playing their composition, "Freedom for My People", appears on both the movie and the album.

During "Silver and Gold", Bono explains that the song is an attack on apartheid.

"The Star Spangled Banner" is an excerpt of Jimi Hendrix's famous Woodstock performance in 1969.

The noise of the crowd was sampled extensively by The KLF for 'the Stadium House Trilogy' of singles on their 1990 album The White Room.

Alternative live concert footage captured for the film in other cities during the 1987 tour (but ultimately not utilized for the final cut of the film) included:

• Foxboro, Massachusetts, Foxboro Stadium, 22 September 1987
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Veterans Stadium, 25 September 1987
• New York, NY, Madison Square Garden, 28 September 1987
• Long Island, New York, Rehearsals on a beach, 19 October 1987
• Boston, Massachusetts, Boston Garden, 18 September 1987 (color footage)