Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 135

EVENING STANDARD MONDAY 1 JUNE 1902- 7 AcMii are bang ted During Mysterious Ways shined from an overhead ga- U2 Earls Court MAXBELL rage of acid-painted Trabants to a solitary dancer pinpointed at the end of a catwalk before Bono menace straight out of Stephen The Stand Even as that evangelical doublespeak slipped away the frivolity was completely by Thi ils way showed all the little boys where to Hendrix debunked by The FHgn po' chording his way into a solo that the little begin with their MUCH of the pre-match excitement surrounding Zoo TV tour centres on the Achtung Baby album whose title is a more than ironic indication of the emotional terrain within Songs on Achtung Baby tend to explode like grenades the listener often during a mind-bogglingly im-aginative set one wondered whether they themselves cared any more about the sublime bubblegum of Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses than they did about a riotous slash across the usually crestfallen Angel of Harlem treated here like a frm-time hymn for the family Motives mid emotions were so confusingly jumbled up during the opening hour that rock and roll became game show But nothing was so simple in the long run Just as U2 threatened to meet The Jetsons Bono started to lay down the litany of Bullet The Blue Sky with an element of Hendriximper-sonations only to be followed by Bono again surpassing the whole shooting match with a snap attack that combined Robert Duvall and Ice before a typically-moving Pride In The Name Of Love If 8 standard practice in some quarters to belittle U2 but the evidence suggests that such criticism now is mean and futile F'rom this perspective they are the acceptable face of mega joined her via a snippet of Unchained Melody a la the Righteous Brothers that segued seamlessly into Until The End Of the World The whole thing sounded like a mickey-take of Simple Minds but was still utterly devastating Talk about the sublime and the ridiculous At one stage Bono grabbed a camcorder and filmed himself in enormous close-up for the screens above the stage in an ironic exhibition of narcissism U2 played the sardonic card so was their only London date As a forestaf subliminal messages snuck through wraparound video screens flashing on highbrow arts cliches and hardcore porn to the ever-obnoxlous MTV Bono The Edge Larry and Adam showed up the frailties of current pop art simply by playing their socks off Meanwhile the design and scope of this show was so imaginative that competitors from the Pet Shop Boys down must be going puce with irritation goes scuttling from the shrapnel only to meet tripwires minefields and quicksand Being forewarned one ignore U2 on this form The barrage of sound and fliry that they invested in Fly was indicative of the desire to subvert rock and crass marketing details It is five years since U2 most popular export since Guinness played in Britain and this TV team claims from her and not murder not done in a salacious But Mrs McLean remained adamant saying: is so soon after Rachel's death We stop the film but can switch off That is peoples the final Rachel McLean: Burled under the floorboards answer SUMMER MADNESS AT COVENT GARDEN GENERAL STORE seen a recording of it Tm nothing to do with the programme other than introducing he said choose the story I make it I just read a script that is written for me have been told that the makers had the clearest permission from the family and that is the crucial issue If that is not the case then I consider the programme should not have gone Mr Winner a strong supporter of the police who ca-mapigned for a statue for murdered WPc Yvonne Fletcher said he found true life crime reconstructions and added: feel for the family very much but if they did give permission and are now having second thoughts afraid they expect the programme not to go The film features a reconstruction of events leading up to the murder last April A hand is seen when body is discovered Those defending the programme maintain that it is not and focusses mainly on the detective work which trapped Tanner An LWT spokeswoman said there was no reason to shelve the programme checked with the all the way along the make sure we had permission The film focusses on the poice action by JeffPostlewaite THE MAKERS of a controversial TV film about murdered Oxford student Rachel McLean insisted today they had the permission to go ahead with the programme The film part of a series presented by director Michael Winner has been criticised as a and mother Mrs Joan McLean has called for viewers to switch off in protest But London Weekend Television who will screen the dramatised documentary on Saturday barely a year after death says it has acted with the co-operation of the family The TV stance was endorsed by the man who led the hunt for killer John Tanner jailed for life last year Det Supt John Bound of Thames Valley CID said parents had written to him in January saying they had no objections to the film provided they were not involved Mr Bound who worked closely with the programme-makers said today: we would not have taken this on if we felt it was going to upset the McLeans the last thing in the world we would want to do we co-operated fully Michael Winner: Presenting programme with the TV company after seeing similar programmes they had made and we were confident that they would do a responsible job LWT wrote to the McLeans via Thames Valley police who passed on the requests to reconstruct the murder police hunt and trial Actors will play Rachel and Tanner who strangled his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend and buried her under the floorboards of her student digs Meanwhile Mr Winner who will host the series in the manner of the Edgar Lustgarten programmes of the Fifties today distanced himself from the controversy He said he had no direct involvement in the McLean programme and had not yet £17Q QQ Set of four white uuij Rattan Furniture Water too dear say customers HALF the water customers in England and Wales think that their bills are unreasonably high according to a survey published today by the Office of Water Services the watchdog Although most of those questioned were satisfied with the service fewer were happy with their taste or information from their local company The Mori survey is said to be the first of its kind Ofwat showed that the average water bill for England and Wales for 199293 is now £170 97 per cent up on last average The increase is 48 per cent higher than inflation over the period The highest charges in the country are for customers of the South East Water Com-any which serves East-ourne Mid-Sussex and West Kent Its average bill this year is £14583 a rise of more than 27 per cent by Andrew Garfield director general Ian Byatt said it showed that half of customers did not expect water charges to increase above the rate of inflation This is despite the fact that the companies have steadily increased their prices above inflation for the last two years and are planning to do so for the foreseeable future A study out last week 107-115 Long Acre Covent Garden London WC2 Open 7 days a week Mon-Fri 930 -11pm Sat 930 -12 Midnight Sun 930 -1000pm 071-8365051.