She2: Warren County’s Dana Neal dances on stage with Bono
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That’s exactly what happened to Warren County’s Dana Neal at a recent U2 concert at Philips Arena in Atlanta when Bono pulled her from the audience to share a few incredible moments during the performance.
Neal and boyfriend Chris Basham, who attend East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, never imagined anything like that was in the cards when they went to the concert in November.
“We are huge U2 fans,” said Neal, “and Chris had been saving up for quite a while so we could go to several concerts on this tour. They only tour about every four years. So we went to two shows in Boston on the first leg of the tour, I have family there, and then we went to the two shows in Atlanta.”
The first Atlanta show was a bit of a disappointment, according to Neal.
“The first night we got there was pretty depressing,” Neal said, “because there was like this wall of five people who were over six feet tall in front of us.”
“They were close to seven feet,” Chris said.
“We were so upset because we couldn’t see a thing,” Neal added. “We just went to the back and watched from the sound board.”
Little did they know the next night would more than make up for the frustration of that show.
“For the next night we got there much earlier,” Neal said. “We got there at 7 a.m. and the doors opened at 6 p.m. so we stayed in line a long time.”
Their determination turned out to be worth it. They were the lucky winners of a special lottery where randomly chosen tickets can trigger computers to upgrade that ticket-holder and one other person to front-row status.
“”We were right in front of the bass player Adam Clayton,” said Neal. “It’s as close to the band as you can possibly get.”
“Well, Dana got a little bit closer,” Basham chimed in.
After U2 came on a series of events led to Neal’s up-close encounter with Bono.
“We were making eye-contact with some of the members of the band because we were right in front of the stage,” Neal said.
Eventually Bono came over to their side of the stage and acknowledged Neal during one song, though he then returned center stage. But not long after, during a song called “Mysterious Ways” the singer began reaching out to the audience and made contact with Neal.
“He knelt down on the stage and actually touched my hand this time,” Neal said. “He grabbed it and then pulled away, teasing me. Then he looked at me and motioned for me to come up there.
“All of a sudden I felt about 20 pairs of hands on my back,” Neal said, “and the security guard reaches out and I’m just sort of thrown on the stage.”
And there was Bono.
“He helped me up,” Neal said. “He gave me a big hug and I kissed him on the cheek.”
But though she was on stage with Bono kneeling and singing to her in front of 20,000 people, Neal said a sort of calm came over her and she just started dancing.
“Normally I would have been freaking out,” Neal said, “but it’s like the music takes over and I’m just really into the moment. It was just a very surreal, dream-like experience.”
But one part of the experience did stand out.
“The most vivid memory in my mind I guess is when he first got down on his knees and was singing to me,” Neal said. “I just put both my hands on his face while I was dancing. And I remember thinking, ‘I’m looking down at Bono, looking up at me.'”
Of course, one has to wonder what the boyfriend was thinking during all this.
“It was so surreal,” Basham said. “It was like watching something else. It was kind of an out-of-body experience. But it was fun. It was fun for everybody around.”
Oddly enough an audience member was video-taping the show and got footage of Neal and Bono which has been posted on the Internet. Neal said the she heard later the site had been taken down because it was receiving too many hits and exceeding bandwidth, but not before she and Basham were able to download a copy of it.
The couple also has several digital photos of the event. Neal said she was well aware of Andy Warhol’s prediction that everyone in the future will have their 15 minutes of fame.
“Well, it was only about three minutes,” Neal said, “but that was definitely mine. It doesn’t get any better than that. Unless I get pulled up out of the audience again,” she added with a laugh.