U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky
Concert film capturing U2's rain-soaked 1983 Red Rocks performance.
U2 Live at Red Rocks: Under a Blood Red Sky is a concert film by Irish rock band U2, recorded on 5 June 1983 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado during the War Tour. Originally released in 1984 on videocassette, it was the band's first video release and accompanied a 1983 live album titled Under a Blood Red Sky. The film helped establish U2's reputation as live performers and boosted Red Rocks' stature as a venue.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- U2
- Released
- 1984
- Recorded
- 5 June 1983
- Venue
- Red Rocks Amphitheatre (Morrison, Colorado)
- Genre
- Post-punk
- Length
- 55 minutes (1984 release); 82 minutes (2008 release)
- Label
- Island
- Director
- Gavin Taylor
Facts from the source article.
Production
U2's manager Paul McGuinness had been pushing for a concert film to showcase the band's live energy and win over American listeners who didn't yet know them. After a 1981 Denver show, the group visited Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and bassist Adam Clayton later said they immediately imagined playing there because of how striking it looked. Barry Fey, the promoter handling U2's shows in the Southwest, believed in the band and worked to get them booked at the venue. In early 1983, McGuinness reached out to Malcolm Gerrie, who produced the UK TV show The Tube, about filming a performance at Red Rocks. Gerrie first thought McGuinness only wanted a clip of one song, but McGuinness had a full hour-long special in mind. Since The Tube didn't feature just one band, Gerrie said he'd need to pitch it to Channel 4, but McGuinness offered to give Gerrie the rights and let Channel 4 air it for free. The filming budget covered lighting the cliffs, a mobile recording truck, and a helicopter for shots from above. U2 could only put up $30,000, so Fey and Island Records stepped in to help fund it. They set up a joint company called U2 at Red Rocks Associates, splitting costs and sharing any money from TV rights and video sales. The radio rights went to NBC for its Source concert series. During the American leg of the War Tour, U2 was selling out venues about the same size as Red Rocks, so the band expected a full house whose ticket sales would help pay for the production.
Release
The radio premiere of this U2 concert happened on July 8, 9, and 10, 1983, over NBC's The Source network under the title War Is Declared. Budweiser and the United States Army sponsored the broadcast, which was sent to stations on two LPs. The full concert was included except for "I Threw A Brick Through A Window" and "A Day Without Me." Later, Showtime aired twelve songs from the show, and MTV aired nine. The version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from the film became the song's official music video. Malcolm Gerrie, Rick Wurpel, and Paul McGuinness are listed as producers. In June 1986, the video was part of a ten-concert series shown on US television, presented by Coors Brewing Company and Radio Vision International. The Red Rocks film was shown at the CMJ Music Marathon in October 1983 to promote the live mini-LP Under a Blood Red Sky, which came out the next month. That mini-LP has eight songs from the War Tour. Only two tracks, "Gloria" and "Party Girl," come from the Red Rocks concert; the rest are from shows in Boston and West Germany because the band felt those were stronger performances. This was U2's first home video release. It first came out on VHS and Betamax from MCA Home Video in July 1984, with a Japanese LaserDisc from Pony Video. RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video re-released it in August 1986, followed by a LaserDisc from RCA/Columbia and Image Entertainment in 1988. Virgin Video put out another VHS in 1987, and PolyGram did the same in 1991.
Reception
Both the concert and the video received positive reviews from critics. G. Brown of The Denver Post wrote that many things had to go wrong for the show to come off so right. Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised the film, saying the setting lent urgency to U2's songs and that the tape captured the band's earnest intensity, though he noted too many exaggerated camera angles. A review in the Philadelphia Daily News described the camerawork as artful and praised the visuals of the concert and natural surroundings. Louis Meredith of Stereo Review said the video captured the group in absolutely splendid form with inventive and passionately felt instrumental performances, and that Bono turned the outdoor concert into something almost intimate; however, Meredith criticised the cinematography as unimaginative made-for-MTV camera work and judged the soundtrack not as good as the EP. Neal Hall of The Sun said the band proved why it was named top live act of 1983, performing with vigor and vitality, and found the sound surprisingly clean and crisp but noted red trails as a visual problem. Perry Seibert of Allmovie gave the film four-and-a-half stars, praising the band's performance and the venue's role.
Legacy
U2's performance at Red Rocks is widely considered a turning point that cemented their reputation as a powerhouse live band. Music journalist Anthony DeCurtis noted that the concert set ambitions for U2 that would have intimidated most young bands, but the four musicians rose to the occasion and became who they were meant to be. In 1999, Entertainment Weekly placed the show at number 40 on its list of the 100 greatest moments in rock music, describing it as a mystical, against-all-odds performance that was both a spiritual and commercial breakthrough, lifting U2 from college-radio obscurity to A-list rock stardom. Rolling Stone in 2004 named the band's rendition of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from the film as one of the 50 moments that changed rock and roll history, highlighting the image of Bono waving a white flag through crimson mist—created by wet weather, hot lights, and the illuminated rock formations—as the defining symbol of U2's warrior-rock spirit, which broke the band nationwide through heavy MTV rotation. Director Gavin Taylor said the video launched their career like a rocket. A 2005 industry poll ranked the Red Rocks show as the 8th greatest gig in rock history. The Denver Post noted that the concert confirmed Red Rocks Amphitheatre as a premier outdoor venue. In 2003, U2 were inducted into the Red Rocks Hall of Fame, and the venue's official website states that this performance paved the way for other artists like Stevie Nicks, the Moody Blues, John Tesh, and Neil Young to record live videos there, helping the amphitheatre earn its reputation as one of the world's top venues.
More in Island Records Video Albums
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced