U2 by now have already achieved substantial success in their "War" tour, with some shows selling out. Throughout their campaign, the white flag was used frequently by Bono at performances to symbolise peace. And at the US festival in California (which also David Bowie, The Pretenders, Steve Nicks and John Cougar)nbsp;nbsp;where U2 performed in front of a crowd of 300,000 Bono once again catches the audience's attention with his stage antics where he climbed to the top of the stage to get the attention of the people at the back and placed a white flag for all to see. Bono later commented on this event saying - "People are quite aware that there's no stage big enough for me - I like to stretch the stage and I've often found myself singing from the back of the hall rather thant the front".

  Such was their sucess on tour and the advent of MTV and music videos the manager of U2, Paul McGuiness, felt the time was right to record a live performance of U2.

  The venue for the live show was to be Red Rocks, which was located outside of Denver, Colorado and could fit a maximum of 9000 people. Steve Lillywhite and Gavin Taylor (of the "Tube" - a highly rated English rock music show) were put in charge of producing the video and the accompanying album.

  Unfortunately, the area had been raining for days and when the rain didn't stop, U2 were going to make other arrangements, saying that if no one turned up, then they will perform at a nearby indoor venue for free. Despite this, about 8000 people still turned up and waited. It was then that U2 decided to perform in the rain at Red Rocks.

  But for U2, the Red Rocks performance was seen as a success. Edge - "The visual side owes a lot to the weather being so bad. If the sun had been shining I'm sure that video would be oday, but it certainly wouldn't suit the band in the way it does. It's those accidents sometimes that .... it's seizing the moment".