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Description
U2 filmed the music video for “Where the Streets Have No Name” on the roof of this building on March 27, 1987. The video starts with a helicopter shot of a block in Los Angeles, and audio clips of radio broadcasts are heard with disc jockeys stating that U2 is planning on performing a concert downtown and expecting crowds of 30,000 people. Police show up to the set and inform the band’s crew of the security issue that the film shoot is causing. Two minutes into the video, U2 are seen on the roof of a liquor store at the corner of 7th St. and S. Main St., and perform “Where the Streets Have No Name” to a large crowd of people standing in the streets surrounding the building. Towards the end of the song, the police tell the crew that the performance is about to be shut down, and eventually police walk onto the roof while the crowd are booing the police. The video for “Where the Streets Have No Name” was directed by Meiert Avis and produced by Michael Hamlyn and Ben Dossett. The band attracted over 1,000 people during the video’s filming, which took place on the rooftop of a liquor store in Downtown Los Angeles on 27 March 1987. The band’s performance on a rooftop in a public place was a reference to the Beatles’ final concert, as depicted in the film Let It Be.
During the shoot U2 played an eight-song set, which included four performances of “Where the Streets Have No Name”. Prior to filming, a week was spent reinforcing the roof of the liquor store to ensure it would not collapse if it were to be intruded by a group of fans. A backup generator was put on the roof so the shooting could continue in the event that the authorities shut off the power on the primary generator, which happened during filming. The depiction of the police attempting to shut down the filming due to safety concerns actually happened during filming, just as seen in the video. Hamlyn was almost arrested following a confrontation with the police. According to Avis, the events depicted in the video show what actually happened that day “almost in real time”, and that “getting busted was an integral part of the plan.” Band manager Paul McGuinness revealed in 2007 that much of the confrontation with the police was exaggerated; the group were hoping to get shut down by the authorities in order to dramatize the music video, but the police continually gave them extensions for shooting the video. In the background of the video is a sign for The Million Dollar Hotel, which was rebuilt to create some interest, in case no one showed up at the film shoot. Although the video is of a live performance, the audio used is from the studio-recorded version of the song. The video won the Grammy Award for Best Performance Music Video at the 1989 Grammy Awards.