U2 - BBC Sessions, Volume 6: In Concert, Point Depot, Dublin, Ireland, 12-31-1989

This is a particularly good installment in the series of U2 BBC albums. It came at the very end of the tour to promote the 1988 album "Rattle and Hum," so it mostly contains songs from that album, plus the album before it, "The Joshua Tree." It's highlighted by a guest appearance from blues legend B.B. King.

The recording of this concert has a strange history. It has been officially released, but just barely. It was broadcast live not just by the BBC in Britain, but in many other countries, so it was widely bootlegged from the beginning. In 2004, it was released as part of the digital box set "The Complete U2." But you could only get it if you got the entire, very large box set. As the Wikipedia entry makes clear, you can't buy the tracks individually on iTunes or anywhere else:

Live from the Point Depot - Wikipedia

As I mentioned above, B.B. King was a special guest. He played and sang on the "Rattle and Hum" track "When Loves Come to Town," so naturally he joined U2 in playing that song in this concert. But he also joined in "Love Rescue Me," including singing some lead vocals. And I don't think he was on stage, but his band helped perform the song "Angel of Harlem," adding a horn section that was key to the song.

Note that this concert is billed as taking place on December 31, 1989. I'm sure that's what appeared on the tickets, so that's the date I'm using here. But if you listen to the recording, it starts with a New Year's countdown and a performance of "Auld Lang Syne." So pretty much everything after the first minute is really from very early on January 1, 1990. 

Note that some of the songs in the song list are more like snippets. For instance, "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is really just one verse sung acappella. "Dirty Old Town" was also brief. There are some other snippets not mentioned in the song titles, such as a bit of "Exodus" by Bob Dylan during the performance of " I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for," and a bit of "Suspicious Minds" in "Angel of Harlem." And unfortunately, "All I Want Is You" was cut way down, to less than a minute.

This concert marked the end of an era for U2, since it was the last show of a long tour. Lead singer Bono famously mentioned during his banter that the band was going to go away for a while and rethink their sound. That's exactly what they did. They would reemerge two years later with the classic album "Achtung Baby."

Unfortunately, it would be much, much longer before they performed for the BBC again. But they would eventually, so this album series will continue.

This album is an hour and 43 minutes long.

01 talk (U2)
02 Auld Lang Syne (U2)
03 Where the Streets Have No Name (U2)
04 I Will Follow (U2)
05 talk (U2)
06 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for (U2)
07 MLK (U2)
08 One Tree Hill (U2)
09 Gloria (U2)
10 God Part II (U2)
11 Desire (U2)
12 All Along the Watchtower (U2)
13 All I Want Is You (U2)
14 Bad (U2)
15 Van Diemen's Land (U2)
16 Bullet the Blue Sky (U2)
17 Running to Stand Still - Dirty Old Town (U2)
18 The Times They Are A-Changin' (U2)
19 New Year's Day (U2)
20 Pride [In the Name of Love] (U2)
21 Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl (U2)
22 talk (U2)
23 Angel of Harlem (U2)
24 When Love Comes to Town (U2 & B.B. King)
25 talk (U2 & B.B. King)
26 Love Rescue Me (U2 & B.B. King)
27 '40' (U2)

https://www.imagenetz.de/eFsQX

The cover photo is from this exact concert.