A Velvet Request Honored

My favorite U2 memory happened in 1997, five years after I got seriously hooked on the band at age 15.

In March when Pop came out I was on a year's study abroad in Dublin, and my housemates and I went down to Grafton Street HMV andpicked it up at a special midnight opening with lots of hometown U2 fans who were as hungry for new U2 music as many of us are now.

The next morning, during a groggy break between classes, after an all night Pop listening session me and my girlfriends were discussing the new album. I was half joking when I said I ought to wear a velvet dress to the U2 shows that summer in the wild hopes of attracting Bono's attention. I was half joking, but the idea stuck. The ideawas inevitablyexecutedeight months later when, back in the States, a good friend and I hatched a plan (at the last minute)to drivetwenty eight hours round trip from Virginia to St. Louis to catch the U2 show on my 21st birthday weekend. Once finally in the Trans World Dome, we somehow managed to fanagle our way to the b-stage railing, where I held onto a carefully crafted poster as we waited anxiously for the show to start. My poster read: "Hey Bono, it's my 21st birthday and I wore 'That Velvet Dress' so PLEASE dance with me!!" I stood feeling more than a notch self-conscious in a little black velvet dress, glitter stockings, and a silver jacket.

The show was awesome. Though the Trans World Dome was not quite full, the mood was electric. I will never forget how the bass line that opens 'Gone' tore through the air, the floor, and especially the railing I was holding onto and up my spine. A guy in a MacPhisto get upgot invited onstage during Bullet The Blue Sky and put on a helluva performance with Bono. Our view of the b-stage wasunimpeded. It didn't get any better than that.

But then it did! During Discoteque Bono stopped in front of me and deliberately read my sign. I somehow managed to snap out of a momentary non-believing stupor and blow him a kiss. When he came backover and beckoned me to join him onstage two minutes later I literally thought he was kidding at first. Luckily, he insisted, continuing to beckon and chant into his mike quietly "come up come up" until the oblivious Giant Security Guy finally let me through.

First thing Bono did when I joined him onstage was free me of the silver jacket! I worried about looking chubby while he pulled me in for a slow dance, but only for a split second. Then just pure BLISS.

Then, nearly five minutesin Bono's arms for a slow dance that lasted through the abbreviated form of "Velvet Dress" and then extended through the first half of"With Or Without You", during which he sat me down on the b-stage stairs with him. Just like Sylvia from Costa Rica said, he held me incredibly tight the whole time (I'm sure it barely matched my hopeless fan-lovelorn embrace though). Also like Sylvia said in her Dancing with Bono post, I'm flattering myself by saying we were dancing. Really I was just hanging on him like a limp rag. A limp and extremely happy rag. Oh yeah, and when he sat me down on the stairs with him, then proceeded with the stroking of my hair, I literally passed out and my head hung down limply. When I came to seconds later I was startled by a direct view of his lap! I quickly looked up and was newly startled by all the fans surrounding us and smiling up at us.

Then he stood up, patted me on the shoulder as I sat and gazed wide eyed up at him, and waved goodbye. As the band departed the b-stage Bono mumbled into the mike "Thanks for the dance, that was very Elvis of you" in a southern Elvisy sort of drawl.

It was very nice of them a year or so later to publish in Propaganda (their now defunct paper/snail mail fan magazine)the letter I had written in, thanking the band for the St. Louis show and describing my quest to meet Bono wearing that velvet dress.

Sorry this is so long. Thanks to those still reading!