Roundhay Park

It's just over twenty-seven years since I was last in Roundhay Park. In August 1993, some work colleagues and I went there to see U2 play to their then largest audience of 70,000 people. It was, unsurprisingly, dreadful; horrendous traffic and parking; loads of people all milling around a large open space and queues for everything, and, once the band came on, one had the choice of immersing oneself in this crush of people or, as we did, finding some space near the back.

But we were so far back that the video footage on the screens around the stage was out of sync with the music, so it was mildly nauseating to watch. The sound, though, was excellent, with speakers arranged around the park, all delayed so that they were in time with the sound travelling from the stage. In the end, I lay back on the grass and just enjoyed the music, which was amazing. 'Achtung Baby' and 'Zooropa' remain my favourite U2 albums by some considerable margin.

I was back there, today, as Abi and I went across to see Milly, who has moved to Leeds after finishing university. I manage to see her sisters fairly regularly as they are all in Manchester at the moment, but I have been missing Milly. The lockdown meant that we were restricted to meeting outdoors but that had a silver a lining as I really enjoyed our walk around the park.

And, actually, it was really busy, which was lovely to see. In fact, if you ingnored the modern clothing, the clusters of people walking in the mist had the look of a Victorian card.

****
-12.2 kgs
Reading: 'The Vanishing Half' by Brit Bennett