MAY 10: Bono and Jordan / "Out Of Control" / Bono´s 23rd b-day / Bono´s 33rd b-day / Bono´s 41st b-day / Bono´s 45th b-day!

"Bono and Jordan" - may 10 - 1960 Paul David Hewson born in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin. Twenty-nine years later, his daughter Jordan is also born.

"Out Of Control" - may 10, 1978 - On his 18th birthday, Bono pens "Out Of Control" - A new song which Bono wrote on the morning of may 10, his 18th birthday, is "Out Of Control", an exuberant, energetic song which deals with the realisation that the two major events in life - birth and death - are beyond choice or decision.

"War" - may 10, 1983 - New haven / CT - Woolsey Hall at Yale University. It's Bono's 23rd birthday, and the band is in a good mood. They've set up the first instance of a sattelite stage, or what will be commonly referred to as the "B-stage", in the middle of the audience, in order to bring Bono closer to the audience. Bono is mugged by no fewer than 5 girls during the evening, pausing to take pictures with a group of four of them. Roadie Dennis Sheehan comes onto stage to bring Bono a birthday cake, and the audience sing "Happy Birthday". Support is "Dream Syndicate".

"ZOOTV - Zooropa" tour - may 10, 1993 - Totterdam / Holland - Feyenoord Stadium - Bono celebrates his 33rd birthday onstage at a sold-out gig in the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam. Galway theater group "Macnas" perform an anti-Fascist play before U2 take the stage. Edge does a splendid solo version of "Party Girl" and sings a quick birthday song. During "Trying To Throw Your Arms", two girls from the Dutch fan club enter the stage dressed up as a gigantic champagne bottle and birthday cake. Their appearance takes Bono by surprise and he reels off to mini-stage while the cake collapses in the distance. Bono seeks a female companion to share a glass of the real thing and brings a pretty blonde girl on to the catwalk. After a sip of champagne, he tackles her and finishes the song sitting on top of her while she lies on her back laughing her brains out. The party continues on the mini-stage with Bono ad-libbing in "My Girl"...Edge starts strumming the opening chords of "I Will Follow", the stadium goes mad. They haven´t performed the song since the LoveTown tour and tonight´s version sounds semi-improvised great....It is Bono's birthday, and one of his most memorable telephone calls occurs tonight when he rings a local travel agent looking for a flight out of town, anywhere "as long as it's sunny." After the show, management will contact the agent again to explain Bono's call and offer her two complimentary tickets to the show the following night. Tonight´s show ends with another Elvis cover. "Are You Lonesome Tonight", performed by U2 for the first time. ...The MacPhisto act forces Bono to stretch his imagination to extremes and he obviously enjoys it immensely. "I don´t know where this thing is taking me," he tells Gavin Martin of NME after the show. "What happened tonight you couldn´t plan. It was exciting but scary at the same time."

"Chernobyl" - may 10, 1998. Belarussian/Ukranian government officials announce plans to restart Reactor #3 at Chernobyl on May 18, and keep it running past the agreed shut down date of the year 2000.

"Elevation" tour - may 10, 2001 - Indianapolis - Conseco Fieldhouse - "U2 Elevation 2001, Indianapolis - Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis - It's Bono's birthday. Forty one years young and the arena here at the Conseco Fieldhouse is perforated with 'Happy Birthday Bono' signs and party hats, streamers and flying glitter. One sign reads, '27,000 people came to my birthday and all I got was this card'. 'Today?s my Birthday,' Bono sings as the band take the stage, 'Happy birthday to U2.' But this is no night off work to celebrate - by the time we have reached Until The End of the World, Bono is lying on the catwalk, grabbing a female photographer from a college magazine for a birthday kiss and then, walking down the catwalk, grabbing a pot of glitter from a fan and emptying it over himself. Another girl is up on stage to dance with the birthday man for New Year's Day before Stuck In A Moment (You Can't Get Out Of) receives its customary dedication to a departed member of the glitter band. 'This song is for someone who would have loved to have been here and would have especially loved the glitter. This song is for Michael Hutchence...' Kite arrives and Bono thanks a fervent and energetic audience for spending their 'hard-earned cash' on a rock show. No one is indicating second thoughts! 'This is a song we haven't played very often, this is Kite.' It's also a song that is now a set regular, in part because of the way fans at the early shows lobbied for its appearance. New York is followed by a tune some two decades older in I Will Follow and then Sunday Bloody Sunday, with total audience participation and snatches of Marley's Get Up Stand Up, with the singer wrapping an Irish flag around the microphone. 'Thank you, thanks a lot. I'd like to introduce you to the band old school style. 'In what we'd call high school we met up at 14, 15, 16 years old. I'd like to tell you what everyone was eating..' But he seems to have forgotten. 'On drums Larry Mullen Jnr, on bass Adam Clayton and wearing No. 23, The Edge....' Audience suitably appreciative. Arena roof rises imperceptively as a rejuvenated Desire arrives with Bono and Edge at the point of the heart catwalk and then another recent addition to the show. 'We've been playing this song from a record we don't play very often. At the start of the 90's we did a lot of work at Hansa Studios. It was an extraordinary time for us, we kind of floated out there, we found some beautiful songs...it's very cold in Berlin.' Midway through the song he takes a phone from a fan and sings into it. The lyrics are again transposed, London, Belfast and - with the audience bellowing - 'Indianapolis'. All I Want Is You with Bono opening alone on guitar arrives before Larry and Adam and Edge join in and then becomes Where the Streets Have No Name whereupon the video screens at the back of the stage read 'Happy Birthday Bono'. He sprints around the stage anyway and, with Mysterious Ways, wonders aloud if there are 'Any dancers in the house - it's my birthday.' Onto the catwalk he pulls up a girl from the heart of the audience, and then another.And another. You get the picture. This continues for some time until there are about 30 girls up on stage with U2, some kind of first. 'I feel like Hugh Hefner!' says Bono. But Hefner never had 27,000 people had one of his birthday parties." This night Edge wears red shirt#23.

19th 'VERTIGO' show - may 10, 2005 - Chicago, IL - United Center - Seating Chart - Kings of Leon. 3 fans on stage / champagne on Edge / "Party Girl" and "Original Of The Species" to Jordan / "Happy Birthday" to Bono / a solid performance! - For the 2nd night of U2's home video shoot, the band seeks continuity with last night's show. The setlist is the same until the final few songs. Laura, the fan who played guitar during 'Party Girl' last night, reprises that role tonight - but with a new twist as Bono ends the song by spraying a bottle of champagne on her, the band, and the crowd. It's Bono's birthday, and the crowd sings 'Happy Birthday' to him after 'Mysterious Ways.' Bono dances with a fan during 'Mysterious Ways' and brings a young boy on stage during 'Into the Heart.' Having played Vertigo for the cameras early on in the show, at the end the band reprise their hit single, with Bono claiming 'this one´s for me'The Edge is really into this one tonight, goes up on the ellipse for part of it. Tons of trademark Edge moves. Sunday Bloody Sunday - Great crowd pleaser, Bono sings "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage..." in an obvious tribute to Chicago band Smashing Pumpkins. Party Girl - Strong full band version, graced by fan on guitar trying to keep up with the Edge. She receives a bottle of Korbel for her efforts, and the other gets sprayed into the ellipse and on Edge. Bono is obviously enjoying himself at this point. Dedicates it to Jordan...Original of the Species - Brilliant, Bono says "its the best song off of the record". Edge on piano, it is dedicated to Bono's daughter JoJo, who was obviously in attendance as he pointed to her in the VIP area in front of the sound desk. Some photos on: U2-vertigo-tour