U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 5: Old Grey Whistle Test, Balmoral TV Studios, Belfast, Britain, 3-8-1987

I continue with more of U2 performing for the BBC. This is a short but interesting 1987 concert.

1987 was the year U2 went from being "mere" stars to being superstars, thanks to their blockbuster album "The Joshua Tree." This concert for the BBC TV Show "The Old Grey Whistle Test" took place the day before that album was released. In fact, after the show, at midnight, they went to a local record store and signed autographs for people waiting in line to buy the album as soon as it turned midnight. So this was the first public unveiling of two new songs, "Exit" and "In God's Country." ("Trip through Your Wires" had been performed just once prior to this.) Furthermore, they did two cover songs, "People Get Ready" and "Southern Man." They had done "Southern Man" a bunch of times in 1982, but this was the first time they ever played "People Get Ready" in public. Furthermore, this apparently was the only time they ever played "Pride (In the Name of Love)" in the same key as the album version.

The two last songs are unusual too, but I mention them separately because they're actually from a different show. The main show is rather short, only 22 minutes long. So I wanted to add a bit more. The last two songs (tracks 9 to 11) are from a brief appearance the band made on an Irish TV show just a week later. They did two covers. It was the first time they did "Springhill Mining Disaster," and it was the only time they ever did "Happy Xmas (Was Is Over)."

Everything here is unreleased, as far as I know. But the main show had some serious sound quality issues. There was a constant noise through the whole thing that was annoying. But I used some sound editing tricks to get rid of it. So I would imagine this sounds better than any other bootleg versions out there up to this point.

This album is 28 minutes long.

01 talk (U2)
02 People Get Ready (U2)
03 Southern Man (U2)
04 Trip through Your Wires (U2)
05 Exit (U2)
06 In God's Country (U2)
07 talk (U2)
08 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
09 talk (U2)
10 Springhill Mining Disaster (U2)
11 Happy Xmas [Was Is Over] (U2)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16326160/UTOO1987BBSssonsVlum5OldGryWhstlTstBlmralTVStdosBlfstBrtin__3-8-1987_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is from this exact performance. (Note the "Whistle Test" sign in the background.) Unfortunately, it's probably a screenshot from the video and the picture quality isn't that great.