“U2 in town. Expect a few surprise guests to come down.”We got them all right.With Bono in particular being mates with everyone who is anyone in music, it seems, the supposedly unexpected appearances are always likely to be a little stellar.One evening we had Noel Gallagher, who made his way to the O2 gig by public transport. Not a bad choice with the roads gridlocked and messed up. For some lucky fan, it’s not every day you have a bona fide rock star sitting next to you on the subway. Photos showed Gallagher engrossed in his phone and avoiding eye contract. But it was that sort of a week.Gallagher joined for a cover of “All You Need is Love.” It was the start of a week-long musical love-in really, with lots of embraces, backslapping and mutual respect.Another special guest: Patti Smith.Bono concluded a version of “Bad” with the usual impromptu fragments of other songs – not this time “Ruby Tuesday” or “Satellite of Love” but Van Morrison’s “Gloria,” a song U2 has covered itself.After a few repeats of the title name, Smith came out from backstage and they powered into her protest song “People Have the Power.”It’s not Smith’s best sloganeering and this was a little ragged maybe, but heartfelt, with genuine passion and affection on both sides. Bono graciously (it was his show after all) pretty much let Patti take the song, only helping out on the chorus.Amid the multiple kisses and embraces, Bono announced as a parting shot “we wouldn’t be in this band without Patti Smith.”The U2 shows this time were stripped down compared with the quartet’s last performances in the British capital. We are not down to an unplugged situation, but this “Innocence + Experience” tour has far less bells and whistles. It is clear that some of the staging, breathtaking though it can be, is hardly needed given the quality of the material.Smith did even better at the Roundhouse over the next few days.The main event was to showcase in full her 1975 album “Horses.” It sounded good when it came out, still sounded fresh at sundry dates in the summer, on its 40th anniversary tour of course. Now it sounded even better at the Roundhouse. Maybe not better rehearsed – they could do it in their sleep – but impressive enough.The shows started with a little poetry and then the provocative declaration of the LP’s opener “Gloria”: “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.”The backing group, led by Patti’s long-time guitarist Lenny Kaye, gradually pushed up the volume as the Morrison song went somewhere its original author would not have imagined: “Make her mine – make HER mine – G-L-O-R-I-A!”To have had “Horses” of course would be quite enough.Smith crowned the show with many extras.There was a Velvet Underground medley by the band, also including Tony Shanahan, Jay Dee Daugherty and Jack Petruzzelli. You could take it or leave it, but then there was Smith’s own “Because the Night.”Things wrapped with a fairly unrestrained cover of the Who’s “My Generation,” along with enough strong language, broken strings and feedback to bring the house down. One is never too old to rock and roll.What was that lyric line in Smith’s track “Land”? It says it all: “Got to lose control and then you take control.”Maybe a good lesson for U2 and Gallagher’s High Flying Birds too: Throw caution to the wind. Whatever musical love-in you have, be daring. Thank you Patti.
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