U2 by UV Brings It Again!

Last year, I saw a picture in the paper that caught my eye.  I thought it was a picture of the band U2 but when I read the caption, it was a tribute band that was performing down the street at Freebirds.  My Sis, and Bro in law went with us to check it out and we were blown away by the band U2 by UV.  We have literally been counting down the months until they returned.  We had even talked about going on a road trip to see them in South Florida! 

Last Friday, was the big day! I invited every Facebook friend that I thought would be interested and talked to everyone else about this concert!  We were pumped and could hardly wait to dance and sing to our favorite U2 songs.  I was so happy that my childhood best friend Jennifer was coming!   She and I had gone to several U2 shows together back when we were teenagers!  On U2’s last tour, we went to Tampa to see them and Jenny hooked us up with rooms in a beautiful resort! 

The thing I was so bummed about was SOOO many things were happening the same night as this concert, weddings, graduations and one of the biggest events of the year, Never Quit. I had about 20 people who had conflicts that couldn’t make it.  The main one I was upset about was my nephew William who has become a HUGE U2 fan and as he puts it “I am pretty invested in the school of the Edge!” He has mastered Edge’s style of guitar playing which is an art in itself.  I was looking forward to him meeting “The Edge” and them having an in depth guitar conversation!  I have given William some of my U2 paraphernalia through the years and even rocks from the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater where U2 recorded, “Under a Blood Red Sky!”   I am so happy I have another U2 obsessed family member who appreciates such things!!! 

Marie, Tampa 2009

I was so pleasantly surprised to run into my college best friend Michell and her boyfriend who were also going to the concert!!  It was going to be a blast!  Michelle and I went on a few U2 concert road trips through the years and she may or may not have smuggled recording devices into shows for me to bootleg the concerts!  The only person that was missing was Marie.  I met Marie in Lakeland in 1992 when we were waiting behind the venue for U2 to come do their sound check.  When Larry Mullen, Jr. pulled up on his motorcycle, the bedlam that ensued was a sight to behold.  Marie and I instantly bonded in a freakish way and from then on, shared so many concert memories together and become linked together forever in our hearts.

Finally this much anticipated night was here!  We got to Freebirds, visited with everyone we knew and even got a few pictures before we heard the beginnings of "Even Better than the Real Thing!”  All my friends who were there were pleasantly surprised at how much this band sounded exactly like U2. They don’t mess around with the arrangements of the songs but keep them as close to the original as possible, which true fans appreciate!! The lead singer not only looks and sounds just like Bono but performs just like him too, interacting with the crowd with Bono-like Charisma!  One of my favorite things about the show was my husband who danced more enthusiastically than anyone there!  He actually sat down for half of the real U2 show so I was really shocked and impressed!!  My awesome brother in law, Brett danced like a maniac too but I failed to document it in pictures!

I also so appreciated the band doing some serious classics like One Tree Hill and 40. The song 40 is the actual straight scripture from Psalms 40 and has always meant so much to me!  I had an explosion of U2 memories going on in my head and a stream of friend’s faces that I have shared special concert memories with.  I may or may not have teared up at this point!  Life is like a blur to me since I “borrowed” my brothers U2 October and War cassettes 30 years ago.  Little did I know, I would become a dedicated, life-long fan of U2!  I want to thank the band U2 by UV for their dedication and commitment in honoring U2’s music with a spirit of excellence.  The lead singer said from the stage that it means the world to them for us to be singing our hearts out and enjoying the music so much.  He said if he wasn’t with us, he would be rocking out alone to U2 music and I believe him!  They have put some serious time into giving us a real U2 experience and this mother of 5, who never gets out, greatly appreciates the effort!  So for now, it’s back to U2 on the iPod until U2 by UV returns again!

Down By the Creek Bank 2013

I am completely overwhelmed, amazed and in awe of what God has done for me.  I have lived a life of always getting in over my head.  If God doesn’t show up and bail me out, I would be sunk.  He has showed up in miraculous ways over and over again through the years. I am not sure how people that don’t have a real personal relationship with God survive this life.  People ask me how I am able to manage my family and all the other stuff I get myself into and the answer is GOD!  He answers my prayers and does above and beyond what I could ever think or ask.

This year, I have seen God bring together an incredible team of teachers for the program that I run at school.  It has been a year of my dreams coming true! We put on an end of the year program showcasing all our students!  This team collaborated and worked together seamlessly with no friction or problems.  It was a beautiful thing to behold.  They planned a show where our choir would sing while the dancers dance and weaved the storyline in with our drama team and it was awesome!

Things were going so smoothly that I was in a constant state of shock.  The only little hiccup that we were experiencing is our soundtrack didn’t come in before our first rehearsal, which didn’t bother me because we had several days until the show. We paid extra for express delivery and I had complete faith and peace that we would have the music.  My dance teacher and I both prayed and asked God to bring it to us on angels wings!  I asked many people to be in agreement with us and to be praying.

The day of the show our music did not come in the mail.  We all went into to overdrive calling manufactures, distributors, postal workers, thinking of any possible way we could get the music.  We wanted our soloist to shine on their own, without the voices on the CD.  I ran into Teresa Rogers, a school teacher at BCS and she casually mentioned that her son had been in this same play 20 years ago at Neptune Baptist Church.  I thought that was cool but didn’t think much else about it.  My sister in law, as usual, swooped in and was racking her brain for a solution, working for hours trying to solve this problem.  

She asked me if there was any way possible that a local church had the music…..ding, ding, ding and I remembered Neptune Baptist!!!  I called my dear friend Nels Gyland, who works at Neptune Baptist, and he happily put me in touch with an “angel” named Lucy who went across the street, searched their library and found a cassette tape of the accompaniment music that we so desperately needed.  I was so very blessed that she helped us!  I rushed and got the tape and another “angel” Pastor Luis, spent 2 hours after work getting the music transferred on a CD and separated all the tracks for us! 

In the meantime, ANOTHER “angel” Mrs. Abraham at the Downtown post office found our lost package!  We talked Dan into driving to the post office meeting this sweet lady in the parking lot and rushing the music back to the church in case the one Luis was working on didn’t actually work. 

The music off the cassette was a little different but our Choir/Drama teacher jumped right in with the kids and helped them make the changes.  James McDonald calmly managed our sound even though we had never practiced with the music!  It was kind of a set up for a disaster on stage but it put us in a place of faith, trusting that God didn’t want these precious children embarrassed and that He truly wanted them all to shine!  The show started and except for a minor breakdown of one of our little singers, which actually added a little extra “drama”, the show was flawless!  It was a true miracle before our eyes.  Would it have been nice to have had the music ahead of time, been completely confident in our preparation, of course!  That would have been a show that we produced in our own strength. What we experienced is God showing up and showing off that He answered our prayers and truly delivered our music on several “angels” wings!!

I am moved to tears when I think about the efforts of so many people that sweetly, sacrificially worked tirelessly to help make our show so wonderful for our families!!  I want to personally thank Tiffany Hartman, Tiffani Casey, Lisa McLatchey, Jill Stanton, Jason Trent, James McDonald, Cara Bernreuter (who did the awesome program!), Luis Montiel, Carrie Wyatt, Lisa Burdette, BC Staff and the complete strangers that out of the goodness of their hearts, helped us make it a special, miraculous night for all!!!  The scripture in Psalms 133:1 that says, “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity” has become real to me in a whole new way and I will never forget this experience!