Thu, 09 Sep 2010 3:45

Lead singer Bono of U2. AFP

EntertainmentAfrica.com reports that the With or Without You hitmakers are scheduled for two shows in February, according to a reliable source based in the United Kingdom.

The group, currently on their 360 Degree Tour, are reportedly set to play stadium shows in Cape Town and Johannesburg – marking the first time the full band have performed in the country since 1998.

The official SA tour announcement is anticipated later in September. In the interim, the local branch of U2’s record company, Universal, has issued a statement saying that the tour “is not confirmed”.

The concert spectacle features a 360-degree stage – allowing the audience to sit on all sides – which makes use of a four-legged 50-metre tall structure called “The Claw”. Holding the record as the largest concert stage structure, it holds the speaker system and a cylindrical video screen that hovers above the band, or can be lowered behind the four performers.

Despite the tour being the most expensive ever to run – with 120 trucks needed to transport equipment and staging between shows – it helped U2 top Billboard magazine’s Top 40 Money Makers list with earnings of R872-million in 2009 from touring, record sales, and other royalties.

U2 have been on the road since June 2009 in support of the band’s most recent album, ‘No Line On The Horizon’. They resumed their global tour in Turin, Italy on 6 August following emergency surgery on singer Bono’s back, which forced them to miss a headline performance at the Glastonbury Festival in England and postpone a series of North American dates.

The band last performed in South Africa on their Popmart tour 12 years ago, with the typically over-the-top staging featuring a giant mirrorball lemon, a 30-metre golden arch and a 3.8m olive on a 30-metre cocktail stick. Bono and guitarist The Edge performed at the 46664 concert in Cape Town in 2003.

http://entertainment.iafrica.com

Lisa Derrick Tuesday September 7, 2010 6:38 am

U2’s Turkish debut marks a lot of firsts: the band’s first show in Turkey, their first meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister, the first rock concert ever in the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, and the first time I ever heard the crowd react with boos to something Bono said!

Some background–On Sept 12 the citizens of Turkey will vote on a constitutional referendum which changes the constitution set up after Turkey’s military coup thirty years ago on the date of this new vote. I have spoken to dozens of Turks on the street, at the concert and afterward, who are opposed to the referendum, or at least to two major points, the changes in the judicial procedures. I haven’t met anyone who is for it. One man told me:

It’s sugar coating, a poison pill.

Some media is reporting that this referendum is seen as an important step to joining the European Union, though my random companions have said joining the EU is not necessarily that important for Turkey, which is becoming a growing power in the Near and Middle East; though as many told me with that comes the peril of shari ‘ah, since a union with Arab states could disrupt Turkey’s secular balance.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Which brings us back around to U2 in Istanbul, which this year is the European Capital of Culture. After opening the show with an improvised call to prayer and strong versions of “Beautiful Day” and “New Year’s Day,” last night Bono told the crowd of 50,000 (or 70,000 depending on the reporting) that the band was glad to finally play in Turkey which is such an important country in terms of location and culture. Much cheering and applause. Then:

Yesterday we walked the bridge across the Bosporus with [State Minister and EU chief negotiator] Egemen Ba???

And the the subtle yet audible booing began. The crowd, like everyone I have spoken to here, is not fond of Ba??? who is part of the ruling party and pushing for the referendum. Bono adjusted and turned his charm up to 11.

Okay okay! I won’t mention politicians, but can’t I be a tourist and walk across the bridge?

Bono and Zülfü

The crowd relented and let him speak. Bono went on to say that what is happening in Turkey is important for the country, for Europe and for the world. He won back the crowd, and then gave the audience a beautiful gift. After asking the audience to never forget missing journalist Fehmi Tosun, U2 was joined onstage by Turkish singer Zülfü Livaneli for the song “Mothers of the Disappeared,” then Zülfü–who is like the Leonard Cohen/early Bob Dylan of Turkey–and Bono sang Zülfü’s song, “My Hero,” in Turkish with the crowd joining in. There were tears in the eyes of some people standing by me. It was truly moving and uplifting.

Bono thanks crowd, with subtitles

For those into celebrity spotting, Spike Lee was there, and we chatted for a bit about what I had traveled to see, Sunday Bloody Sunday with videos from last year’s protest during the Iranian Revolution. Bono shouted out that this was

Radio Iran, Radio Palestine, Radio Israel, Radio Washington DC

The cheering crowd knew the words to the song. The images could become a reality elsewhere in the world, as religious fundamentalism of every stripe seeks to suppress freedom of thought and action out of fear and greed.

Aftershow refreshments: Döner kebabs

http://lafiga.firedoglake.com

By John Dorian | September 7, 2010

In a statement, U2 Manager Paul McGuinness said, “We’re delighted with the reaction of our New Zealand and Australian fans and that we are able to add further dates.”

“We’re delighted with the reaction of our New Zealand and Australian fans and that we are able to add further dates,” said U2 Manager Paul McGuinness in a statement.

U2 360° will have extra shows in Auckland on Friday, November 26th at Mt. Smart Stadium. The band will also have second shows in Melbourne on Friday, December 3rd at Etihad Stadium; in Brisbane on Thursday, December 9th at Suncorp Stadium and in Sydney on December 14th at ANZ Stadium.

U2 concert tickets in Auckland will be sold this Thursday, September 9th while U2 concert tickets for performances in Melbourne, Brisbane & Sydney will go on sale this Friday, September 10th. Subscribers of U2.com can buy concert tickets ahead of the public on-sale.

As previously reported, the concert tour will begin in Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium on November 25. On December 1, U2 will play at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, and make its way to Brisbane and Sydney. The tour will end at Perth’s Subiaco Oval on December 18 and 19. On both play date at the Subiaco Oval, rapper Jay-Z will support the band. Billboard earlier revealed that Jay-Z will join U2 on Perth’s stop of their five-city Australian tour.

http://au.ibtimes.com

This is the stadium where the 2004 Olympic Games were held and if the times have changed since those heady days for this country, the venue was packed to the rafters tonight, with the Greek audience generating as much noise as any on the tour to date.

Bono acknowledge that there have been tough financial times here lately before adding, ‘Greece is a great country because of the Greeks… Ireland is a great country because of the Irish..’

The place was illuminated like fireworks night during One, not just with phones held high but an ocean of glow-sticks. Looked like someone even set off a flare in the inner circle. The excitement was tangible.

‘Incredible people,’ announced Bono at the end of a breathtaking performance of ‘Streets. ‘Incredible place…’

Hold Me Thrill Me is back in tonight and by the time we get to With Or Without You, the audience have decided they can sing the song on their own. ‘Wow!’ We won’t forget this…’

If you were there, sounds like it was a night that you won’t forget either. Check out our Tour Page for the entire set list and add in your own review and upload your own photos. Tell us what moment tonight you will never surrender, what you found tonight that you never knew you were looking for.

http://www.u2.com

U2 Nasa Space Station

NASA and U2 have released a commemorative video clip – highlighting a year’s worth of collaboration both in space and the U2 360 Tour. ?

?U2 approached NASA with an idea to include a dialogue between themselves and the crew of the International Space Station in the U2 360 show. NASA astronauts spoke with U2 several times before recording a video segment that U2 incorporated into their concert.??

The Expedition crew members include; NASA astronaut Mike Barratt, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Bob Thirsk, European Space Agency astronaut Frank De Winne, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Roman Romanenko. ??

Commander Frank De Winne, and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko attended the U2 show in Moscow on August 25 and met with the band before the show. Speaking onstage in Houston last year Bono said, ‘These are the very best people in the world – dedicated to figuring how our little planet exists in this cosmos we call home.’

?’Working with U2 is atypical for NASA,’ said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for Space Operations. ‘By combining their world tour with the space station’s out-of-this-world mission, more people – and different people than our normal target audiences – learned about the International Space Station and the important work we are doing in orbit.’

? ?U2.com created the video clip and presented it to NASA so as to document the collaboration between the band and the space agency.

More information about the station.

??More information about NASA.

http://www.u2.com

Bono and co are slated to play the Pyramid stage’s top slot for the festival’s 40th anniversary

Monday 23 November 2009

U2 will headline next year’s Glastonbury festival, it was confirmed today. Bono and co have been slated for the Pyramid stage’s top spot on Friday 25 June, in what will be their first ever appearance at the festival. Organiser Michael Eavis had promised something special for Glastonbury’s 40th anniversary, and in booking a band who have been rumoured to headline every year since the mid 1980s, he’s done just that.

“The 26-year-old rumour has finally come true,” Eavis said. “At last, the biggest band in the world are going to play the best festival in the world! Nothing could be better for our 40th anniversary party. And there are even more surprises in the pipeline.”

Eavis added: “We’ve been trying for years … and now we’ve finally made it happen. I’m sure they will pull out all the stops to make next year’s Glastonbury the most memorable ever.”

U2 will fly to the UK to play the Somerset festival in the middle of their North American tour.

Earlier this year, Bono told BBC Radio 1 that U2 had not been confirmed to play the festival in 2010, but was sure they would play Glastonbury at some point. “I know lots of people who love music want us to. It’s something we’re working up our whole life to do.”

Tickets for next year’s Glastonbury sold out in October after organisers decided to release them early – a scheme that proved successful last year. The festival will take place between Friday 25 and Sunday 28 June 2010. So far, no other headliners have been confirmed. The Guardian is the official media sponsor of Glastonbury festival.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Eclectic-but-aging crowd turns out, some all day long

By MIKE WEATHERFORD
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Bassist Adam Clayton, left, and guitarist The Edge show why U2 is one of the few musical acts that can still fill stadiums.

Fans who waited all day Friday to get in front of the stage rush into Sam Boyd Stadium before the start of the U2 concert. Photos by Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal

The current president appeared in a video graphic and a former one — Bill Clinton — was in the press box. But the night belonged to U2, the rock ‘n’ roll royalty that convenes a party at Sam Boyd Stadium about once every president or two.

And frontman Bono, who’s had the ear of those presidents for his social activism, needed only to spin around in circles a couple of times, arms overhead, to rechristen the stadium for a sold-out crowd of more than 40,000 for the “360″ tour.

But, as he sang in the second song, “Get On Your Boots,” it was too nice a night “to talk about wars between nations.”

“Every religion has its Mecca,” Bono told the crowd. “We (entertainers) end up here, sometimes on our knees, but we come to Vegas.”

He introduced his bandmates with comparisons to every entertainer from Bette Midler to David Copperfield before declaring, “My name is Wayne Newton.”

Before long, he was leading a “Viva Las Vegas” sing-a-long.

The Irish rockers and Sam Boyd Stadium don’t get together too often, but when they do it’s an affair to remember, fleeting but passionate.

It started in November 1992 with the “Zoo TV” tour, the first 80-foot stage with 1,200 tons of giant TV screens the stadium had ever known. It continued when the “PopMart” tour launched in April 1997. Parking-lot bootleggers rolled tape (yeah, it was tape back then) on the nightly rehearsals.

But even after a lot of practice, that date was best known for the boys getting stuck, “Spinal Type”-style, inside a giant lemon.

Now the tour is sponsored by BlackBerry and everyone used their smart phones to talk to friends on the other side.

The massive “360″ stage made it look like the stadium came out on the losing end of a flying saucer invasion, almost a living-room show compared to a recent stop at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium where photos reveal the earthlings won.

Not many bands can host this kind of party. Festivals such as Vegoose — already come and gone since the last U2 stop — mostly replaced single headliners for gatherings of this magnitude. Other stars on the short list, namely the Rolling Stones, opt to play big-money indoor dates on the Strip instead.

The weather smiled on the band’s choice to take the path less Vegas on one of those fine desert nights that wasn’t too hot, too cold or too windy. The crowd had clearly aged along with the band. Tailgating was light and refined; one party of about two dozen even hired a hosted bar with table cloths and a bartender in bow tie.

As he cooked chicken fajitas for a group in the parking lot, Las Vegan Rick Wylie said he was here for the Zoo TV tour in 92 as well, but there was no cooking then.

“Just heavy drinkin’” he said with a laugh. “That’s when we could handle a hangover.”

More current pop stars, Black Eyed Peas, were added as the opening act, possibly to youthen the demographic of a stadium light on the “Now Generation” they sang about.

The crowd was more on the cordial side until frontman will.i.am. won them over with sincerity, a shout-out to U2 and other bands who manage to “stay together for the love of the music,” and a little humiliation of those who would be “chillin’ lackadaisical” up in the stands while Fergie did her “Boom Boom Pow.”

Friday also offered a pleasant morning to those who started arriving at 6 a.m. to line up for a preferred spot on the general-admission floor.

Fans debated whether it was better to be inside the race-track ramp that circled the stage or on the outside of the rail.

“We’re just addicted to it, to be honest with you,” said Pat Dalug, the Princeton, N.J., man who had a place near the front of the line. “Some people don’t understand, but we understand. I always tell my wife — it’s better than smoking crack.”

Dalug even was on the clock, sort of, passing out sunblock samples. As he eyed other fans sipping coffee or napping on air mattresses, he noted, “You forget about all the problems, all the responsibilities.”

“Chicago was a little crazy,” Dalug added. But neither U2 nor its fans are spring chickens anymore. “If you get arrested, it’s on our record. We’re not underage anymore.”

Boris “Bowman” Poehland from Hamburg, Germany, was trying to follow as many shows as he could in the United States.

“This show is all about different perspectives,” he says. “I’ve been almost everywhere with this show.”

But, he confessed, “U2 is the name of my traveling agency. I love this band, but it’s only 40 percent the show. Sixty percent is traveling around the world meeting old friends, meeting new friends, being in G.A. line for two days. That is the fun.”

http://www.lvrj.com/

17/10/2009

Tickets for the U2 concert in Coimbra, to take place on October 2nd 2010, will be available to purchase this Saturday, October 17th, with prices ranging from €32 to €125. The concert is being promoted by ‘Ritmo e Blues’ (R&B), together with Turismo de Coimbra, for U2’s 2010 360º Tour. Tickets can be bought from blueticket.pt, at Coimbra City’s stadium (where the concert will take place) and at cash points across the country.

This innovative style of concert, where the stage is in the middle of the crowd, will be the first of its kind in Portugal: “It’s going to be pandemonium” said Nuno Braamcamp, from R&B. The event promoter said that the stadium has the capacity to hold the massive stage without destroying the grounds and infrastructures of the Calhabé sport complex, where the Rolling Stones performed in 2003.

A total of 400 tickets will also be sold for the ‘Red Zone’, which is located inside the stage. For safety reasons, these ‘Red Zone’ tickets will only be sold at Blueticket centres.

U2’s new concept stage has a 360º configuration, where there is no defined front or back to the stage, as it is surrounded on all sides by the audience. The stage itself has been nicknamed ‘The Claw’, due to its ridiculously large size and innovative design. The steel structure is 164 feet tall and requires 120 trucks to transport it from venue to venue.

http://www.the-news.net/

Image: Albert Olive / EPA U2 kicking off its 360 Tour in Barcelona on June 30.

Legendary Irish rock group U2 has added a second performance to its Helsinki concert at the Olympic Stadium following the immediate sell out of its first date.

U2 will perform in Helsinki on August 20 and 21.

Tickets to the second gig go on sale Friday, October 23 at Lippupiste ticket outlets. Because of anticipated high demand, organisers are implementing a limit of eight tickets per person.

Finnish U2 fans are in for a special treat as the band is not performing its 360 Tour in neigbouring Sweden, Norway or the Baltic States.

The tour is the band’s first stadium outing since their Vertigo tour in 2005-2006.

YLE

http://www.yle.fi/

Photos by Groovehouse

Aftermath: U2 at Reliant Stadium – One Love, We Get to Share It
By Chris Gray in Live ShotsThu., Oct. 15 2009

Photos by Groovehouse

?A day or two before U2 (and love) came to town, a friend emailed us a joke. At least we think it’s a joke. It really doesn’t have anything to do with U2, except that it has everything to do with U2.

“I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, terrorism attacks, World War III, global warming, my retirement savings, Social Security, my job, national health care and my credit card debt that I called Lifeline.

“Got a freakin’ call center somewhere in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal. They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.”

In a concert that stretched from the International Space Station to the strife-torn streets of Tehran to a would-be martyr under house arrest in Myanmar, but never left Houston for a second, U2 owned the 60K-strong crowd at Reliant Stadium Wednesday night before (we’d wager) 80 to 90 percent of them even knew exactly what they were hearing.

?After Muse’s hour of smoky starlight, and an extended set of TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cold War Kids, the Dead Weather, MGMT, etc., caught the hordes of Mix, Eagle and Arrow listeners up on what they’ve been missing, a lone spotlight caught Larry Mullen Jr. strolling across the catwalk to his drummer’s stool. No other timekeeper in rock and roll can tap his sticks with such agility and grace while completely tanning his kit’s hide like Mullen, and his his brief intro/solo to new album No Line on the Horizon’s jagged waltz “Breathe” lifted U2’s entire 180-ton “Claw” contraption off the Reliant Stadium turf all by itself, abandoning a resting position to which it would never return.

People call U2 arrogant. Maybe they are, for making a stadium full of people from Houston, Baytown, Sugar Land (the two area suburbs Bono mentioned by name), Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Lufkin, Tyler, Austin and San Antonio wait through 15 minutes and three songs of new material.

We don’t think so. “Breathe,” ticking six-string IED “Get On Your Boots” and heaven-paging “Magnificent” are new in name only, the latest variations of power-cable guitar, muscle-bound rhythms and cockeyed spiritualism (”Satan loves a bomb scare, but he won’t scare you”) that stretch back to the days of “Gloria” and “Out of Control.”
?
Those songs opened up a wormhole at Reliant Park, slipping through the atomic funk of “Mysterious Ways” and astral gospel of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” skirting the beautiful day of the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” on its way to the acoustic Trenchtown soul of “Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” There were many rivers to cross Wednesday night, and U2 crossed them all.

?Further explorations: “Your Blue Room,” mingling a live feed from outer space with Procol Harum hot smoke and sassafras; Bono, needlessly encouraging “Let’s make some noise” before the Ministry/Jesus and Mary Chain grind of No Line’s title track; requesting “liftoff” as Edge flogged the ghost of Billy Gibbons out of his guitar during “Elevation”; concealing life-or-death subject matter in the rumbling roil and forbidden-fruit arpeggios of “Until the End of the World”; becoming just another awestruck onlooker at the communal cell-phone spectacle of “City of Blinding Light.”

“The Unforgettable Fire” exploded inward as a cone-shaped LED mesh descended from the Claw’s video screen, its pinks and purples raw as a fresh bruise; “Vertigo” exploded outward as Bono acknowledged our neighbors south of the border (”Viva Mexico!”), sing-skiing in Edge, Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton’s ferocious wake.

Through an alien-green fog, a sturdy “Sunday Bloody Sunday” screened digitized images of courageous (and perhaps foolhardy) Iranians taking it to the streets of their capital this past summer, and a time-freezing “Walk On” – preluded by a hymnal verse of “MLK” – brought dozens of masked One Campaign volunteers ringing the catwalk in silent vigil for Burmese political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize winner and U2 cause celebre Aung San Suu Kyi as Edge finally finished what he started on “Magnificient” and “End of the World.”

?

Encore. “Amazing Grace” and “Where the Streets Have No Name,” sending icy-hot slivers of goosebumps into the crowd and into the ether through the open Reliant roof; Achtung Baby’s “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” rebranded as a bonus-disc No Line add-on, Bono’s florescent steering-wheel microphone looking suspiciously like a target; “With or Without You” rescuing the Zoo TV disco ball as you give yourself away; “Moment of Surrender” freezing those who left early to get in the T-shirt lines in their tracks.

And one more. “One.” First out of the gate, first among equals. Again and again (and again), the song written as U2’s lives (and U2 itself) were falling apart brought band, crowd, city and cosmos together under a higher law to peer on a world apart from the one we’re all too familiar with, the one gripped by economic earthquakes, moral blackouts and wars between nations. It leaves you, baby, if you don’t care for it.

But Wednesday night, only love could leave such a mark. Magnificent.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/