Zoo TV: Live from Sydney

Zoo TV: Live from Sydney
Cover to the standard edition DVD
Video by U2
Released	17 May 1994
Recorded	27 November 1993, Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, Australia
Genre	Rock
Length	118 mins
Label	Island / PolyGram / UMG
Director	David Mallet
Producer	Ned O'Hanlon, Rocky Oldham
U2 chronology
Achtung Baby (1992) Zoo TV: Live from Sydney (1994) PopMart: Live from Mexico City (1998)

Zoo TV: Live from Sydney is a concert video release by rock band U2 from the "Zoomerang" leg of their Zoo TV Tour. Recorded on Saturday, 27 November 1993 at Sydney Football Stadium on the band's featured stop in Sydney, Australia, it was released in May 1994 on VHS and Laserdisc, and re-released in September 2006 on DVD. It won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Long Form in 1994. The show was also broadcast around the world live on pay-per-view.

In 2006, the show was released as the live album Zoo TV Live to subscribers of U2.com.

Footage and history

Sydney Football Stadium, the venue for the filmed performance

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Bullz-Eye	[1]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[2]
IGN	[3]
PopMatters	[4]
Rolling Stone	[5]

This was the second of two consecutive concerts in Sydney. The previous night was used as a rehearsal for the video shoot; however, it is now infamous as the only U2 concert ever played without all four band members present. Adam Clayton was bed-ridden and unable to play, and was replaced by bass technician Stuart Morgan. Although on stage Bono cited a virus as the reason for Clayton's not appearing that night, it has since been revealed that Clayton was too hungover to play, as confirmed by Bono during an interview many years later.^[6] Clayton was back on stage the following night and appears in the video. Clayton no longer drinks and has cited the devastation he felt at missing the Friday concert in Sydney as his motivation for staying sober since.

Years later in a Rolling Stone interview, Bono discussed this performance and its significance to the band. Clayton’s absence the previous night had caused a real situation amongst the band members and they were all wondering what long-term impact the event would have. Bono said he wasn’t sure that they would ever play live again – he realized during the show that it could be the band's last live performance.^[7] As a result, the band's performance that night is particularly emotional, especially during "With or Without You", "Love Is Blindness", "Running to Stand Still" and "Can't Help Falling in Love".

Track listing

1. Show Opening
2. "Zoo Station"
3. "The Fly"
4. "Even Better Than the Real Thing"
5. "Mysterious Ways"
6. "One"
7. "Unchained Melody"
8. "Until the End of the World"
9. "New Year's Day"
10. "Numb"
11. "Angel of Harlem"
12. "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"
13. "Satellite of Love"
14. "Dirty Day"
15. "Bullet the Blue Sky"
16. "Running to Stand Still"
17. "Where the Streets Have No Name"
18. "Pride (In the Name of Love)"
19. "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car"
20. "Lemon"
21. "With or Without You"
22. "Love Is Blindness"
23. "Can't Help Falling in Love"

All tracks played on that night appeared on the video, with the exception of "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World", which was played between "Numb" and "Angel of Harlem". Many speculate it was omitted because of a controversy about Bono sharing a glass of champagne with an underage girl on-stage, while others believe that the band was unsatisfied with their performance,^[8] however, producer Ned O'Hanlon stated in an online chat in 1996 that the concert was too long and needed to be cut for the video release.^[9]

Although there was initial controversy in Japan after the airing of the video on television; in August 2007, Zoo TV set designer Willie Williams confirmed the fact that no offensive phrase towards Japan was ever part of the Zoo TV show, and that it was simply a figment of a reporter's imagination after viewing the hundreds of random words displayed during the song.^[10] In reality, the words displayed were shown in the following sequence — BOMB / WHORE / ULTIMATELY / JAPAN / CHAOS / I / WANT / IT / NOW — which caused the reporter to mistakenly "see" the reported offensive phrase.^[11]

Home video releases

VHS/Laserdisc

After being broadcast on TV the show was first released in May 1994 on VHS and Laserdisc.

DVD release

Zoo TV: Live from Sydney was one of the first titles slated for release in the DVD format in 1997/98, and previews for it appeared on PolyGram DVDs of the time. But the PolyGram release was canceled. It was released on 18 September 2006 under the Island Records label. The DVD was released in a one- and two-disc edition, similar to the DVD release of Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago. Both editions featured the concert in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, remixed with Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, and PCM Stereo audio. The two-disc format featured the following bonus features on disc two:

• Bonus Tracks
  • "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World" and "Desire" — taken live from the Zoo TV Special, Yankee Stadium, New York, 29 and 30 August 1992
  • "The Fly" and "Even Better Than the Real Thing" — taken live from the "Stop Sellafield" Concert, G-Mex Centre, Manchester, 19 June 1992
• Documentaries
  • A Fistful of ZooTV
  • ZooTV – The Inside Story
  • Trabantland
• Extras
  • Video Confessional
  • "Numb" karaoke video remix
  • DVD-ROM features
    • 4 Wallpapers
    • 2 Screensavers
  • Easter eggs

There are three easter eggs. These are all three parts of the Interference documentary from the 1992 Achtung Baby video release, a 75-second video of war-themed warning drills and a time lapse video of the Zoo TV stage being constructed and destructed over the band's song "Some Days are Better than Others".

Limited Achtung Baby Anniversary Re-Issue

The "super deluxe edition" and "Uber edition" of the Achtung Baby anniversary re-issue, which were released in November 2011, contain Zoo TV: Live from Sydney as one of four bonus DVDs.^[12]

References