One of the most important live albums of the Eighties is by U2

Released November 21, 1983 “Under a blood red sky” is a very significant album in the recording history of U2. Eight songs recorded live in 1983 in three different locations: Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado, United States; Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, United States; Rockpalast Festival, Sankt Goarshausen, Germany. Below is our review of the album.

“Under a blood red sky” was released in 1983: it is one of the most important live albums of those years. For U2 he acted as a bridge between “War” and the success of “The unforgettable fire”, also thanks to a spectacular version of “Sunday bloody Sunday” which became a video clip for MTV. It was actually a double release, with partly different contents. The live album was recorded during several stops of the tour; the concert film – from which “Sunday bloody Sunday” was taken – was instead filmed in its entirety in the natural amphitheater of Red Rocks, just outside Denver, on 5 June 1983. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world for live music.

“U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky” was released in 1984 on VHS and was the band’s first video release: it was directed by Gavin Taylor and produced by Rick Wurpel. After the re-release on DVD in 2008, a new restored version can be seen until tonight on YouTube, as part of the “The Virtual road” streaming concerts. At the same time as the concerts are being streamed on YouTube, the band is releasing a series of EPs, with songs from the concerts in audio versions on streaming platforms. After the one taken from the concert at Slane Castle in 2001, comes “Under a Blood Red Sky – Live at Red Rocks”: it contains 4 unreleased recordings in audio version.

The history of the concert is in fact complex: as the first sequences of the film show, the evening had several problems, resulting from the uncertain weather and the rain of the previous hours. In the end, the weather conditions contributed to the atmosphere of the evening: the band found the images powerful, but preferred the sound of other shows on the tour, in particular those of the concert in St. Goarshausen, Germany. Thus only two songs from the Red Rocks concert were included on the 1983 album, including the opening track “Gloria” and “Party Girl”. The latter, after that show, became the “Song we reserve for special evenings”, played periodically on every tour until 2015, despite being the B-side of a single off each album, “A celebration”.

The EP recovers in audio version 4 songs from the concert at the Red Rocks, previously published only in video version.

The songs are remastered and merged with each other even though they were not played back to back in the original setlist. There is obviously “Sunday Bloody Sunday”: the video version of the concert is legendary, starting from the famous intro “This song is not a rebel song, this song is.”. There is the famous scene of Bono planting the flag at the center of the stage – although if you look carefully at the video you notice a moment of embarrassment, because the pole doesn’t fit and the staging doesn’t seem to go well. The other three songs are “New Year’s Day”, “. I Will Follow” and above all the final one “40″, in full version. A glimpse of the raw rock power of early U2.

However, it must be said that this EP is still a missed opportunity: why release only 4 songs and not the entire concert? The 2008 DVD version and the YouTube version include all the songs from the concert (minus one: “I fall down”, omitted due to technical problems), including those not included on the VHS. Between digital boxes, extended version reissues and fan club albums, U2 have released many full concerts over the years. This is one of the most important of their career: it would have been appropriate to release it in full as an album, not just as a partial EP. Instead, we can console ourselves with the entire concert on film, which is truly spectacular.