ANY band playing an open air concert in Manchester with a set featuring a song called Beautiful Day is surely asking for trouble.

But no sooner had U2 taken to the stage than the rain clouds cleared to bathe the City of Manchester Stadium in glorious sunshine.

Having already established themselves as the biggest rock band in the world, it now seems that not even miracles are beyond Bono and company.

Not that that would surprise their thousands of fans in the stadium, many of whom camped through the night to ensure a spot close to the heroes.

U2's back catalogue reads like an A-Z of stadium rock standards.

And to the delight of their army of followers, favourites such as Where the Streets Have No Name and One were once again delivered with the verve and gusto which has kept the Dublin four-piece at the top for more than 20 years.

The concert marked the start of the British leg of their first world tour for four years and the excitement of the crowd as the Dublin band took to the stage was palpable.

But as with any U2 show this was part rock concert, part sermon at the altar of high priest Bono.

Between songs, the band's leader delivered a series of tirades against third world debt and poverty in Africa, urging fans to send text messages to raise funds for good causes.

The key to U2's enduring success appears to be their ability to continually reinvent themselves and inject each long-playing release with a new freshness and direction.

The latest album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, is a return to the bombast and stadium histrionics of the group's defining years and a gift to fans with a disposition to punching the air and waving lighters above their heads.

On this night, the crowd saw the many different faces of U2, from the posturing defiant pomp of Sunday Bloody Sunday to the techno-ballads of the Achtung Baby! era.

All-in-all, it was yet another triumphant evening for the group, surely made all the sweeter in the spiritual home of the one-time pretenders to their throne, the City-supporting rockers Oasis.

GARETH TIDMAN