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Talk about being spoilt rotten. In Sydney right now they must think it's Christmas. Last Saturday the city hosted on of those classic sports encounters; the grandest of grand rugby league finals that stretched into extra time and provided the perfect sports curtain to the decade.
It was a dramatic, passionate affair that was every rugby fan's dream, and it capped off the 80s in classic and impressive style.
But it's not just sports fans over there who have had reason to feel genuinely moved. This week another titanic struggle got underway between two giants of the entertainments industry at the end of the 80s. The struggle between the year's mega movie, Batman, and rock music's biggest guns, U2.
Call it hype, call it hysteria, but the battle between Batman and Bono and the boys is taking on epic proportions. And while we'll have to wait until November on this side of the Tasman for both attractions, they're already at war in Sydney and a clear favourite is already emerging.
Like the league, it's a clash between two in-form giants, and even the colours are the same. Just as the gold and black of the Balmain Tigers was pitched against the green of Canberra, so too is the gold and black bat logo pitted against the green of Ireland.
And just as Balmain were forced to give way to the upstarts from out of town, Batman looks to be up against a problem. By yesterday morning Michael Keaton's batwings were already starting to look more than a little shabby.
When it comes down to the realities, of course, no movie could possibly hold a candle to a great live rock and roll show. And they don't come any greater, liver or livelier than when they're performed by a four-piece band from Dublin.
Now, with the eyes of the world glancing down this way, the Irish supergroup have something to prove. Talk about pressure.
Mind you, Sydney Entertainment Centre helped to settle them down. Two and a half years ago in Birmingham during The Joshua Tree tour, 10,000 people danced to The Beatles singing All You Need Is Love and Love Me Do through a PA system and rose in sequence row by row, creating a wave effect through the crowd, turning the venue into a massive party before the band even came on stage.
On Wednesday on the other side of the world, it happened again. That in itself is a tribute to U2's power of communication, their ability to unite and motivate, but it capped a marvellous build-up that began 90 minutes before when Australian band Weddings, Parties, Anything opened the evening to a half-full hall.
By the time B.B. King took the stage, we were witnessing a celebration. King, who doesn't need to play second fiddle, was the perfect warm-up for the main attraction and lived up to his name with a modest slice of magic.
But he was nothing compared to the headliners.
If U2 have had a fault in the past, it's that they have failed to live up to the targets that they have set themselves, and during The Joshua Tree tour they often showed themselves incapable of matching the artists who they so desperately try and pay tribute to.
Not this time. In Sydney they played like a heroic rock and roll band; not always polished and clean, not always clever and tidy, but with spirit and flair, and most of all, with purpose.
From the outset it was clear they were in inspired form, attacking their material as if they were playing it for the first time but reining in the enthusiasm with a maturity they have rarely displayed before. Even motormouth Bono has discovered the art of hold off.
"I get conscious of talking too much on stage,' he said. "It makes me feel like Bing Crosby or Dick Van Dyke." It never bothered him in the past.
They found the right seam early on, performing with bleak but effective lighting and colourful "Love Town" backdrop.
Desire and Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, the first of several historical references that included The Stones and The Byrds, were raggedy affairs.
Bullet The Blue Sky was suitably dark and brooding, but softened at the edges by Bono's story of a meeting with a girl in King's Cross.
"She said 'no money, no honey. No money, no sex.' 'Sex?' I said. 'I wanted a conversations. We don't have sex in Ireland.'"
Running To Stand Still was built on the simplest of guitar intros, All I Want Is You pretty and simple, Where The Streets Have No Name fierce and powerful, the set lit in red from behind so that the band were silhouetted in the fashion of the Rattle & Hum film.
I Will Follow, raw-edged and dressed up in stark and effective white light, was the first major surprise, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For the first of many community songs, with the crowd bathed in light taking over from the band.
And just as we were starting to cringe during a version of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready, Bono pulled a masterstroke, handing his guitar over to a member of the audience, who joined the band for the song with aplomb.
Bad was another highlight, its centre falling away into Ruby Tuesday before the band pulled it in order again. With Or Without You was delivered with panache and style, and God Part II was dramatic and animated, as an unusually sedate Bono swept from one side of the stage to the other, demanding his audience to rise and dance.
New Year's Day was sloppy around the edges but still a highlight, The Edge swopping brilliantly from guitar to keyboards and back again while Pride (In The Name Of Love) was executed perfectly and brought the set to a close.
That would have been enough, but the inevitable encore of When Love Comes To Town followed, B.B. King joining the band and wrapping the song around his clever little fingers, and with a full brass section fleshing out an outstanding version of Angel Of Harlem.
"This guy came up to me the other day and said how can you sing about Billie Holiday and New York when you're Irish," announced Bono.
"I said the Irish built New York. Is that alright?"
Love Rescue Me was the second encore before the traditional finale 40 brought the set to a close. Rarely has 105 minutes passed so quickly.
It's been quite a decade for Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton. Battling out of obscurity form the musically remote capital of Eire, they turned the postpunk music industry on its head with fledgling albums Boy and October.
But they made their major breakthrough with War, a big album with memorable moments such as New Year's Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday.
They followed that with the now legendary rain-soaked performance at Red Rock and the resulting live album Under A Blood Red Sky, proving themselves to be an ambitious, spirited, bit-hearted rock band with a keen ear for the dramatic and a consistent ability to turn out roller-coaster rock and roll.
Having overwhelmed and conquered their audience, they set off into new territories, probing into the unexplored with the Unforgettable Fire and then finally winning the ultimate prize with The Joshua Tree by conquering America.
And finally, a year ago, they served up Rattle & Hum, a playful and confident double album that was deliberately spontaneous at times and which paid tribute to the founding fathers of modern rock music.
Now they're back again to remind us of exactly what they have achieved; and as the decade draws to a close they are not only stating their case, but putting us on notice that they intend the 90s to belong to them too.
They have no new album, no new story to tell as such. But in Sydney this week they fired the first shots in a lengthy end of year campaign to remind us that when it comes to four guys with guitars, bass and drums, they don't come bigger or better than U2.
Australia's been talking about this tour for weeks, ever since the first dates were announced. Since then U2 have built up a schedule that will see them play throughout October to packed, passionate houses on a scale that few have managed and most just dream about.
But while the fans are flocking to the band in their thousands with their expectations at their maximum, U2 have pressure on the other flank, too. The critics dismissed Rattle & Hum with comments such as "megalomania churning at the hear of this band," and U2 as "the priggish dull-skinned egoist and the three dullards."
Whatever you may think of U2, it's impossible to fault their sincerity and dedication. They have passion by the bucketload and they stir up enough emotion to fill Sydney harbour.
"We'd been touring for about two years after The Joshua Tree," says Bono. "We tried to stay off the road. We thought that if we did that everything would be fine, our friends would start talking to us again and it would all be okay. Wrong. After about two months we were looking for an excuse to get out on the road and do this again."
No wonder. Sydney was, in rock and roll terms, a total triumph, and it will be our turn to witness it all first hand at the beginning of November.
And Batman? Don't be a joker.
