First Night In Israel
PopMart Tel Aviv, Israel
30 September 1997
(67:39)
(55:38)

1. Mofo
2. I Will Follow
3. Gone
4. Even Better Than the Real Thing
5. Last Night On Earth
6. Until The End of The World
7. New Year's Day
8. Pride (In the Name of Love)
9. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
10. All I Want Is You
11. Staring At the Sun
12. Desire
13. Karaoke: Dancing Queen
14. Miami
15. Bullet the Blue Sky

1. Please
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. Lemon Intermission
4. Discotheque
5. If You Wear That Velvet Dress
6. With Or Without You
7. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
8. Mysterious Ways
9. One
10. MLK
 

NOTE:  This is the infamous Tel Aviv soundboard recording.  Sound quality it tremendous...easily one of the three best PopMart bootlegs.  This recording is so good that it rivals the Mexico City bootlegs.  The sound is so clear that the sequencer dances in your head and you can almost feel the reverberation at times.  The only flaws are small pops between many of the tracks and a skip approximately one minute into "Desire".   MY COPY OF THIS RECORDING DOES NOT COME FROM AN MP3 SOURCE.

This had been one of the rarest recordings in the world of U2 bootlegs until someone released a copy of it about a month ago.   My feelings regarding this are mixed.  On the one hand, I have a gut feeling that making everything available to everyone is the best solution.  But lately, I have seen things the other way.  I actually had a copy of the Tel Aviv recording back in November and didn't trade it to anyone.  I had to agree to this in order to obtain a copy.  The fact is that the widespread release of this bootleg will make those who possess such recordings even more hesitant to trade them.  Whether or not you agree with their thinking, there are collectors who believe that buying equipment and taping shows gives them the right to trade the recordings only within confined circles.   I know a few people think that by posting the Tel Aviv recording on the internet in MP3 format they have "defeated" such collectors and "won the battle".  In reality, they couldn't be further from the truth.  If you thought it was hard to trade for "rare" recordings before, just wait to see how difficult it becomes now that one of the rarest recordings around was leaked.  Personally, I think your best bet is to try to make contacts with people in the "inner loop" and get "rare" recordings through trades for other high quality material.  With a bit of effort and perseverance, you'd be surprised at what you can dig up.  Working behind the scenes and agreeing not to trade a recording that someone put a great deal of effort into recording for a copy of "Rock's Hottest Ticket"  may well land you a copy.

Enough preaching for now.  Once the recording had been leaked, I contacted my source and he graciously agreed to allow me to post the show on my site.  I continue to do my best to make material available to everyone.   It's just that the current trading climate dictates that I sit on some things.  Believe it or not, my hands are tied.  Nonetheless, as soon as I get the green light, I post my "rare" material on my site.  So hang in there!