News: Tour News Archives

December 11, 2006

You, too

U2 embraces all comers in an inspired, intimate Aloha Stadium spectacle

by Gary C.W. Chun

Slovenia, Ireland, England, Arkansas ..."

They came from all over, avid fans of a certain band that was wrapping up its world tour Saturday at Aloha Stadium. A guy was telling his friends of the people he'd met from such faraway locales, as a long line of ticketholders finally made it inside to experience the near-evangelical power that is U2 in concert.

True believers all, some of them wore the (Product) Red T-shirts that are part of lead singer Bono's consumer campaign to help finance the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty, particularly in Africa. But in the true rock 'n' roll spirit, others wore amusing, sarcastic knockoffs printed with "INSPI(RED)" and "DESI(RED)." A couple of shirts even read "HAMME(RED)," and one said "BO(RED)."

Regardless of their attitudes, fans filled the stadium to capacity to eagerly attend the Church of U2. As Bono mentioned early on, it was "a gathering of the faithful," and the "congregation," at times, literally shook the venue's rusting stands in gleeful approval. Somewhere in all that humanity, according to stadium spokesman Patrick Leonard, were special guests Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and celebrities Pierce Brosnan, Kid Rock and cast members of the ABC show "Lost."

The singer also thanked the crowd for being patient and having faith in the band. That faith was rewarded several times over the course of the evening.

To celebrate the end of the tour, all the tour dates were scrolled across the giant video projection screen behind the band on stage, and the crowd roared as "131. Honolulu" went by. With that, guitarist The Edge launched into the opening song, "City of Blinding Lights," as Bono strode out holding up the Stars and Stripes.

The entire stage blossomed into a dazzling array of synchronous lights. Combined with the high-definition video screens set atop flanking banks of speakers emitting a clean and clear mix of music, the technical sophistication on display showed why U2's shows are considered the best around.

The band's set and two encores were filled with songs that have been staples on this last Pacific Rim leg of the world tour. After the powerful trifecta of "City," "Vertigo" and "Elevation," U2 delighted veteran fans with a ringing rendition of the band's very first '80s hit, "I Will Follow."

Two semi-circular ramps extended into the audience. At times, the band members (including the always-dashing rhythm duo of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.) would walk down the ramps to join the crowd on the stadium field, proof of U2's intimate rapport with fans.

AS is USUAL with the band's concerts, individual fans were invited on stage. One lucky guy took it to another level by confidently sitting at The Edge's keyboard setup playing with the band through an impromptu read-through of the rarely played "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses." At song's end, the guy ran across the stage and down the stage-right ramp, pausing briefly to raise his arms in triumph before leaping with joy back into the crowd.

Things then got a bit quieter, starting with an acoustic rendition of "The First Time." The audience was reminded of how fine a singer Bono is, and he received cheers and spontaneous applause for his powerful delivery on "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," a tribute to his late father, and "Miss Sarajevo." On that song, he negotiated his way around Luciano Pavarotti's original operatic tenor part very well.

With the prompting of Bono, U2 has been able to balance its Christian-based spirituality and more secular, sociopolitical concerns. The latter was highlighted by the one-two punch of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Bullet the Blue Sky." Bono exhorted the crowd to honor the faiths of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, their symbols helping spell out the word "coexist," blazoned in red behind him.

With Bono being a longtime supporter of Amnesty International, the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights scrolled on the screen during a hearty version of "Pride (In the Name of Love)," the hit written in memory of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. "Pride" originated during the band's first Hawaii visit way back in 1983.

"One" ended the main concert setlist. As cell phones lit a darkened stadium like so many Christmas lights, Bono asked the crowd to join the nearly half-million people who have text-messaged support for his activist One campaign during the tour. (In a neat turn, some of those new supporters' names then showed up on screen.)

U2 would encore twice: first with added visual dazzle on "The Fly" and "Mysterious Ways," then stark and somber in a moving "With or Without You."

Then came an end-of-tour treat: After performing a new single, "Window in the Skies," Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong came out to join the band on "The Saints are Coming," a song the two bands performed on the special occasion of the New Orleans Saints' return to the Louisiana Superdome in their devastated city.

And after that, Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam -- who had already played a well-received opening set -- returned to the stage for a revised rendition of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," complete with a new set of lyrics that furthered the bands' common cause to end extreme poverty.

But U2 would have the last word, or song, as it were, as the night's festivities ended on a gentle note. At the end of "All I Want is You," Mullen was left the last person on stage. He thanked the crowd before he, too, exited.

And with that, the crowd dispersed into the night, later to their homes and regular lives, whether those be here, Slovenia, Ireland, England or Arkansas.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2006

Inside Bono's Dressing Room

By Christine Sams, Sun-Herald

With Irish supergroup U2 about to begin their long-awaited Australian tour, Christine Sams meets their charismatic frontman.

Better than ever...Bono.

Stretched horizontal across a couch inside his dressing room, Bono paused for a moment to take off his sunglasses.

"I've never thought of myself as cool," he said, with a low, throaty chuckle. "Irish people are not cool -- they're hot."

The man who is the world's biggest rock star -- U2 frontman, global political activist and proud Irishman -- took time out of rehearsals in Brisbane last week to chat to S. Bono was so naturally talkative, so warm and effusive, he chatted for nearly 40 minutes. The singer even waved away his PR at one point, saying: "I'm enjoying myself."

So what's Bono like up close? A little more freckly than you might expect, his hair cropped close, his wrists wrapped in motivational wristbands (the familiar yellow logo of Lance Armstrong's Livestrong, plus the white wristband for Make Poverty History), not to mention his toes sticking out of a pair of thongs.

If truth be known, Bono didn't even make it to rehearsals with his U2 bandmates the Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton -- he seemed happier staying inside his dressing room talking.

"The band are rehearsing now, I'm getting out of it by talking to you, which is great because I really can't stand rehearsal," he said, laughing. "I really do find it very hard to sing those songs unless there's people [the stadium audience] there."

To see Bono so relaxed bodes well for U2 fans. It means the band is fresh and ready for some of the biggest concerts of the year, including the Sydney shows, which begin on Friday.

"This is going to be something unique unto itself," said Bono, of the impending concerts. "I think everybody's just excited about it for that reason. I mean, it couldn't be better."

The U2 Vertigo tour had originally been scheduled for March, before it was postponed because of personal reasons -- believed to be an illness affecting a member of the Edge's family.

"I'm sure the shows would have been memorable had we gotten here last time [in March] but there's a very different mood in this camp," Bono said. "We've got a guitar player who is just on fire. I will be discovering the songs in a different way."

He candidly opened up about topics close to his heart as a musician -- including the band he has worked with since his working-class youth in Dublin, through to the fans who love and respect U2's music.

The band

"It's a bit of a street gang," said Bono, puffing his chest out, to show how the group feels when they're together. "I do a lot of work on my own, because I have to, but I'm always reminded of how much I miss that feeling [of the four of us]. It's very different.

"Sticking together is the hardest thing, whether you're a family, a business, a relationship...it's almost impossible to stick together. It's like gravity is against relationships. Everyone seems to as they get older withdraw into their own walled city, where you can be lord of your own domain. I've seen this going through my 30s, as I got to 40, I could see people ridding the room of argument. It just makes it less interesting. It may make it easier, but it's definitely less interesting. That's why, what we have...it's blood brothers.

"When we walk on stage, that's the reason why people's hair goes up, including mine by the way. There's something about the four of us -- it wouldn't happen if there was two of us, it wouldn't happen if there was three of us. There's something about that chemistry, that you know there might be the chance of some magic. Maybe that's all you can expect of a rock 'n' roll show."

The fans

"They've given us a great life," said Bono, of the fervent U2 fan base, both in Australia and overseas.

"I know sometimes you shouldn't judge your audience by the fans you meet, especially if they're in a flowerbed in your garden at home [he laughs] but U2 fans are different, they're very humane," he said.

"Intimacy is a great word. A lot of people are listening to music through earphones [these days] and you know, you're whispering into people's ears. It is a very intimate relationship and I think the place where it flowers is, of course, at these shows. You realise that people are not screaming their lungs out for you -- I've kind of known this -- they're screaming for themselves. And they're screaming for the moments they attach to those songs, the lives. Our songs tend to be with people at either the best of times or worst of times. When things are going normally, I'm not sure people listen to our band very much," he said, laughing again.

"Those songs, they open up a series of memories for people -- and big ones."

On writing songs

"I used to be really cross with our early work because it just struck me as a load of unfinished lyrics. It's a reason to play them now, because I can finish the lyrics. That's one way of looking at it. The other way is that people finish those songs themselves. Really, as a writer I sketch a feeling and I point towards a direction; I think the music is more articulate than I am.

"When I get it right, I try to put into words what the music is telling me. The music is very redolent of all kinds of feelings; you have the ecstatic side of our early work -- the pure joy of it, the punk rock energy, and then the melancholy of some stuff, then the righteous anger. I can tell you what these emotions are because I have to go through them every night, in order to sing them. Some of those notes I can't hit unless I've stepped right inside the song."

On being cool

"Lou Reed told me that growing up in the era where cool was invented he found very restrictive. And this is the coolest man in the world, in the best sense of that word.

"Painters, novelists, poets...just can't be too cool. Because that's what models are supposed to be, that's what fashion people are supposed to be. If your definition of art is breaking open the breastbone and pulling open the ribcage and, you know [he mimes his heart tumbling out], a blood transfusion -- you can't be cool [when you're] like that.

"If you have to be cool, you can't be honest, You can't say when you're afraid, you can't say when you need help, you can't say what are the wildest dreams in your head, because you'd be afraid that people might laugh at you. I've never thought of myself as cool. And yet, if I'm honest, you get better at it as you get older. You have to be careful of that. Irish people are not cool -- they're hot...passionate, Latin. We're like Latin people who can't dance or dress!"

On juggling stardom, activism and family

"It must be my feminine side," said Bono, with a sexy drawl. "I think that's true, it is a feminine thing -- the plate-spinning.

"I think maybe there's a hyperactive kid in me, intellectually more than physically. I can absorb a lot of information in a short period quite well. I work better in short, concentrated bursts -- or another way of putting that is I'm better in small doses," he said, laughing. "I think fear of boredom is the answer to the question."

U2 performs in Sydney on Friday, Saturday and next Monday night (November 13). The band will release two new songs as part of the U218 album release on November 18, through Universal Music.

Posted by Brenda at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2006

Mysterious ways: U2 in 3-D concert film

By Gregg Goldstein

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - U2's Vertigo world tour may soon create a real sense of vertigo among moviegoers as the Irish rockers are planning to release their first 3-D concert film next year.

The untitled feature, being readied for a summer or fall release, will draw from more than 700 hours of footage shot during the trek's South American leg in February and March. In conjunction with its release, U2 might take part in the first live 3-D performance projected in theaters nationwide.

The film was directed by Mark Pellington ("Arlington Road"), who began his career by shooting U2's seminal "One" video, and Catherine Owens, a creative director on several U2 world tours.

A representative for the band called it "the first-ever 3-D multicamera live shoot." Editing is underway in New York. Discussions are under way with several major studio distributors.

3ality Digital Entertainment, the project's producer, put together of the largest assemblages of 3-D camera technology ever used for a single project.

It is expected that the film will screen nationwide using the Real D technology put in place by theaters that showing the current digital 3-D release of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Real D unveiled the first theatrically projected live 3-D event last week at the ShowEast convention of movie theater owners in Orlando, Fla. It is planning a live 3-D concert presentation next fall, and sources said it might be a U2 concert.

Posted by Brenda at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

U2's Vertigo Tour Hits the Road Again!

It's official! At last we can confirm the rescheduled Vertigo//2006 shows. U2 will hit the road again in November. Starting in Brisbane on November 7th , U2 will play further dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan before finishing in Hawaii on December 9.

Kanye West will join the band in Australia and New Zealand while Special Guests, Pearl Jam will join Rocco and the Devils for December 9 in Honolulu.

These show dates are rescheduled following the postponement of Vertigo//2006 earlier in the year. For full ticket information in your area please see below.

"We are very happy to announce the rescheduling and appreciate everyone's patience." said Arthur Fogel, of TNA.

The Vertigo Tour opened in San Diego in March 2005, is set for a grand finish in Hawaii with the addition of Pearl Jam.

"It's going to be a great night in Hawaii," said Paul McGuinness, U2's manager. "The band are really pleased Pearl Jam could join the bill, a great end to what has already been a very successful tour."

The new show dates are as follows:

Auckland - Ericsson Stadium - (Old Date) Friday, March 17th/06 - (New Date) Friday, November 24/06

Auckland - Ericsson Stadium - (Old Date) Saturday, March 18th/06 - (New Date) Saturday, November 25/06

Brisbane - QSAC Stadium - (Old Date) Tuesday, March 21st/06 - (New Date) Tuesday, November 7/06

Melbourne - Telstra Dome - (Old Date) Friday, March 24th/06 - (New Date) Saturday, November 18/06

Melbourne - Telstra Dome - (Old Date) Saturday, March 25th/06 - (New Date) Sunday, November 19/06

Adelaide - AAMI Stadium - (Old Date) Tuesday, March 28th/06 - (New Date) Thursday, November 16/06

Sydney - Telstra Stadium - (Old Date) Friday, March 31st/06 - (New Date) Friday, November 10/06

Sydney - Telstra Stadium - (Old Date) Saturday, April 1st/06 - (New Date) Saturday, November 11/06

Honolulu - Aloha Stadium - (Old Date) Saturday, April 8/06 - (New Date) Saturday, December 9/06

In Tokyo, 3 New Show Dates have been confirmed

Tokyo - Saitama Super Arena - Wednesday, November 29th/06
Tokyo - Saitama Super Arena - Thursday, November 30th/06
Tokyo - Saitama Super Arena - Monday, December 4th/06

More information for ticket holders in Australia/New Zealand (http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=1969).

More information for ticket holders in Japan (http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=1970).

More information for ticket holders in Hawaii (http://www.u2.com/news/index.php?mode=full&news_id=1968).

Posted by Jonathan at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2006

U2 May Have to Work with UH

by Derek Paiva, Honolulu Advertiser

The final 10 shows of U2's Vertigo tour will be rescheduled for November, vocalist Bono told Australian television yesterday. But a fall date for Honolulu will have to accommodate football at Aloha Stadium.

According to U2's Web site, www.u2.com, the band hopes to make an official announcement on specific dates soon.

The Vertigo tour's final shows, including an Aloha Stadium date on April 8, were postponed last week when an immediate family member of someone in the band fell ill. Honolulu fans were advised to hold onto their tickets and wait for a new date.

Bono commented about rescheduling the postponed shows on Australian Broadcasting Corpo's Enough Rope TV show, saying that he didn't want to leave the country without confirming the band's intention to make up the shows.

"I can't really get into details why," Bono said, regarding the family illness that postponed the dates. "The good news is I think I can announce tonight we are coming back. Looks like November, and that's a great relief to me."

Bono did not say which U2 member's immediate family member was ill but said, "Our music does come out of (a) very tight community. So if one of us is going through it, we're all going through it."

Last week's postponement affected U2 shows in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Hawai'i.

Aloha Stadium Authority spokesman Patrick Leonard said he had not yet heard from the band's management about rescheduling the Honolulu show or specific dates that could be in play.

"But we'd have to know what date they were looking at, because almost every weekend in November has UH football," Leonard said.

University of Hawai'i football home games are scheduled for the stadium on Nov. 11, 18, 25 and Dec. 2. After that, stadium dates are available until the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl on Christmas Eve.

A U2 concert on a UH football home game week in November would have to be scheduled to allow time for concert stage setup and breakdown between the Warriors' Saturday games.

The stage and seating layout would also have to be modified to accommodate the stadium's football configuration instead of the baseball configuration originally set for an April 8 concert.

The configuration change would affect vantage points for some fans holding reserved seats, Leonard said, and would create a narrower field that would alter the space for fans holding general admission tickets.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:58 AM | Comments (4)

March 10, 2006

Bono lays low

By Kathy McCabe

It was meant to be a short holiday with the family before the start of the final gruelling leg of U2's world tour.

But yesterday singer Bono was taking comfort from his wife Ali and their family, including sons Elijah and John, after the Irish supergroup put the Vertigo tour - including two sold-out Sydney dates - on hold due to the serious illness of one of the band's relatives.

As Bono and his family spent the day boating on Sydney Harbour, sympathetic fans speculated that the tour was halted by an illness affecting one of guitarist The Edge's children.

U2's international promoter The Next Adventure and local agent Michael Coppel said: "This action is unavoidable due to the illness of an immediate family member of the band."

TNA president Arthur Fogel said: "Any fan of U2 will realise that this decision has not been taken lightly.

"We will announce further details as soon as we have them."

Ten shows in Auckland, Australia and Hawaii, including the two Telstra Stadium gigs on March 31 and April 1, have been postponed.

Representatives of Michael Coppel Presents and the band's Australian record label Universal refused to confirm or deny reports about the nature of the illness or which band member's family was affected.

The postponement could cost many diehard fans thousands of dollars in non-refundable airfares and accommodation.

But even those fans were quick to post notices on U2-related internet forums expressing their sympathy for the band members and their families.

The Edge dedicated one of the band's recent Grammy wins to his eight-year-old daughter Sian, who it is believed was suffering a serious illness last year.

The Edge has four daughters and a son.

Several containers of staging and other production equipment for the massive outdoor extravaganza has already arrived in Australia. Mr Coppel yesterday confirmed American hip-hop superstar Kanye West, who was the major support act for the tour here, will go ahead with his own headlining shows.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:35 AM | Comments (17)

February 16, 2006

U2 back in Mexico after bodyguard beating

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Irish rockers U2 played to 90,000 Mexican fans at one of the world's most famous football stadiums on Wednesday on their first tour here since a rumpus eight years ago over the beating of one of their bodyguards.

With a red, green and white Mexican flag wrapped around his leather jacket, lead singer Bono greeted an ecstatic crowd in Spanish before kicking off the concert with the group's single "City of Blinding Lights."

Like fans across the world, Mexicans held up cell phones to share the concert with friends and relatives.

Thousands of people had lined up outside the capital Mexico City's Azteca Stadium, the only venue to have hosted the football World Cup final twice, before the concert.

U2's last tour of Mexico, in 1998, ended badly when a security guard working with the band was beaten in an scuffle with the entourage of the son of then-President Ernesto Zedillo. The bodyguard ended up in the hospital.

"I don't know if they're here for the money or if they have forgiven us but the most important thing is that they are here. It doesn't matter why," said Fernando Sanchez, 40, outside the stadium.

While Zedillo met the band in his residence and reportedly apologised, and although U2 frontman Bono says he held no grudge against the country, Mexico was noticeably absent from the band's North American tour in 2001.

The Azteca holds some 100,000 people for football games but its capacity has been cut to around 70,000 for the U2 gigs.

A much-criticised investigation into the death in Mexico of a friend of lead singer Bono, British singer Kirsty MacColl, added to speculation that U2 deliberately snubbed the country.

In 2000, MacColl was swimming off Mexico's coast when she was struck and killed by a boat belonging to a Mexican supermarket magnate.

An employee of the boat's owner was given a prison sentence, commuted to a fine, for manslaughter but MacColl's relatives want the businessman to be prosecuted.

At U2's weekend concert in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, Bono dedicated the song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" to MacColl, prompting President Vicente Fox's spokesman to say that the government was following the case.

Despite the long stage absence, Bono is a frequent visitor to Mexico and has described its beach resorts as his "refuge."

He is friends with Mexican actor Jaime Camil -- who appears in a 2005 film about a desperate attempt to bring U2 to play Mexico -- and with actress Salma Hayek, who participates in Bono's "One" campaign against global poverty and AIDS.

Hayek and Bono were photographed arm-in-arm outside the band's Mexico City hotel on Monday.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:07 AM | Comments (9)

January 24, 2006

U2 Tickets a Hot Commodity Online

By Greg Wiles, The Honolulu Advertiser

Aloha Stadium will prohibit scalpers from selling tickets to U2's April 8 concert on its property, but fans desperate for seats can look online, where a brisk market is developing.

They just need to be prepared to pay as much as 10 times more than face value.

As of late last week, some of the best reserved seating was available at $1,770 from Internet resellers and marketplaces. The same seat sold for $165 when 35,000 tickets went on sale on Jan. 14.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of tickets for the Dublin, Ireland-based band's show, anticipated to be the biggest concert in the Islands this year, are being re-offered online at sites like eBay, StubHub.com and FriendlyTickets.com. The Internet has made it easier for ticket brokers to do business, while giving individuals and scalpers a chance to make a quick profit.

Among the sellers on eBay was Bill Aman, a Mainland U2 fan who started reselling the band's tickets last year when he ended up with a pair of disappointing seats during a pre-sale event for fan club members.

That led him to check resale prices on eBay, where people were turning around and reselling some tickets for more than double.

"I was blown away," Aman wrote in an e-mail. Later, when ticket sales were opened up to everyone through Ticketmaster, he and a friend bought up $2,000 worth and began reselling them on eBay.

"In the end, we made enough money for all of us to go to that show ($724 for four seats next to the stage) and an extra couple hundred dollars to go out to dinner beforehand," Aman said in a message.

Some O'ahu residents also have the same thing in mind, having bought tickets for what is one of the fastest-selling concerts in Honolulu's history. All but 1,000 seats were gone within 45 minutes of the show going on sale, said Patrick Leonard, spokesman for Aloha Stadium.

How much profit they'll make, if any, may depend on whether the band's concert promoters add another show. As of Friday, they hadn't.

A Honolulu resident going by the eBay screen name of Bowen5310 last week offered four choice tickets for $1,600. In an e-mail, he said he stood in line for them at a Ticketmaster counter at a Times Supermarkets location.

"Right now, it looks like people are waiting to see if a second show will be announced," Bowen5310 said, responding to an e-mail inquiring about response to his sale. "If not, tickets should go for a lot."

Reselling of tickets isn't illegal in Hawai'i, though venues such as Aloha Stadium, the Neal S. Blaisdell Center and the Waikiki Shell don't allow it on their properties. Online is a different story, with tickets available to almost any hard-to-get seat you can imagine, even the venerated Merrie Monarch Festival.

The list includes the Feb. 12 Pro Bowl (as much as $420 each for prime sideline seats on Tick etTriangle.com, compared to a face value of $150), Jimmy Buffett's concert last April, and the USC-UH football game.

"It's part of the market that's irritating," said Barbara Saito, general manager for Tom Moffatt Productions, Hawai'i's largest concert promoter. "But until people stop patronizing these types of places, they're not going to go away."

People buying from scalpers and fraudulent resellers run the risk of buying counterfeit tickets. Rolling Stone magazine reported 250 people for U2's Boston concerts last year got bogus tickets from sellers online.

Nationally, the ticket resale market for concerts, sporting events, stage shows and other events is estimated to be about $10 billion, about $2 billion of which is online, said Sean Pate, spokesman for San Francisco-based StubHub.com, a ticket marketplace. He said the online segment may be growing at 50 to 60 percent annually, while more traditional means, such as hawking tickets in front of arenas and placing ads on bulletin boards, is growing by 10 to 15 percent a year.

That's got the attention of major corporations and StubHub's marketing partners, including several NFL and NBA teams, AOL, and artists as diverse as Coldplay and Jessica Simpson.

Late last week there were 935 tickets for U2's Honolulu concert listed on StubHub, 480 on eBay and 730 on TicketTriangle.

StubHub makes its money from commissions. Sellers pay StubHub 15 percent of a ticket's purchase price, while buyers pay 10 percent. EBay's seller charges vary depending on the sales price.

Tickets for Honolulu concerts usually sell for less than tickets in larger markets, and resellers face disaster when artists add shows, said David Cabrera, vice president of marketing for Petaluma, Calif.-based ticket broker FriendlyTickets.com.

"We got crushed on the Eagles," said Cabrera, who brokered about 40 seats to the shows. He remembers taking a loss on a pair of second-row seats that cost him $270 each. When the Eagles doubled the number of Honolulu shows to four, he was forced to sell the pair of tickets for $180.

Cabrera said to make a profit on tickets for three American Idol concerts here in September 2004, he had to fly to Honolulu and spread word among hotel concierges that he had tickets. He also hawked some of the front-row seats he had on the street before the shows.

Prices for the U2 show ranged widely on the Web late in the week. FriendlyTickets.com, a site trying to build a name as having the lowest prices, had tickets ranging from $250 to $1,770 for reserved seats directly facing the stage in the stadium's orange section. The seats for $250 were from Cabrera's own inventory and cost him about $185. Higher-priced tickets were from other brokers who listed on his site, he said.

As of late last week Cabrera thought the resale prices for U2 in Honolulu will likely drop. He said his company, FriendlyTick ets.com, didn't buy as many tickets as it could have for the U2 show, given his knowledge of Hawai'i and prior experience.

For other, larger cities Cabrera obtained as many as 300 floor tickets sought by fans wanting to get close to the band. For Ho-nolulu, he bought about 100 of the $49.50 floor tickets and resold them last week for $75.50 each.

U2 reserved-seat prices jumped from $450 to $900 in 24 hours for one of the band's San Francisco dates, Cabrera said. Some Rose Bowl tickets surged to $2,500 the day of the game.

Cabrera says despite losing money on some events, he and others in online ticket brokering see the business growing.

"It's substantial," said Stub Hub.com's Pate, noting his site has about 1.1 million tickets for sale on an average day. "The spread of the Internet has facilitated a new outlet for people to buy and sell tickets."

Posted by Jonathan at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2006

U2 Fans Rocked by Backpackers' Price Hikes

By IRENE CHAPPLE

U2 fans travelling to Auckland are being charged extra accommodation costs - raising the hackles of some who say they are already spending thousands to see the Irish rock legends.

Christchurch man Don Burns was shocked to find prices at Auckland Central Backpackers would increase almost 20 per cent while the Irish supergroup was in town.

Burns and seven others are travelling from Christchurch, Wellington and Masterton for the St Patrick's day concert, U2's first in New Zealand since 1993.

The 38,000 tickets for each concert sold out in 90 minutes and group organiser Sally Johnston said the four couples were spending about $1500 each on their rock'n'roll holiday.

Plans went sour after they tried to re-organise their accommodation and found prices had been raised for the weekend. Johnston said she booked four double rooms at the backpackers for $67 each and when she called back to change two of them for $88 ensuites she found prices had gone up to $80 and $105.

The backpackers' front office manager Andrew Hoey said prices had been put up for the Big Day Out and U2 because demand was high and "we had a tough year (last year) so basically we see this as an opportunity to get it back".

The decision to raise prices - which had been done only once before, for the Lions tour - was a "hard dilemma".

"We talk about it a lot, but we have to make money," he said.

Hoey said he would charge the group $67 a double room because it was the original quote given.

A quick accommodation survey by the Sunday Star-Times found other hotels and backpackers put prices up for events such as the Lions tour. The Duxton had not increased prices for U2, but discount specials such as the "superdocket" $199 deal were unavailable.

The Carlton Hotel's director of sales, Brendon Bainbridge, said room prices set before the Lions tour were up from $225 to $250, but when the expected truckloads of fans failed to come, prices dropped to around $200 a room.

The hotel had not increased prices for the U2 weekend but would be unlikely to offer discounts on its published $225 rate.

Bainbridge said customers should expect to pay more for accommodation at premium times, comparing it to flying at Christmas or eating out on public holidays.

"If you and 80,000 of your friends are converging on the same place the price might be higher ... but I haven't seen hotels doing anything crazy".

--Stuff.co.nz

Posted by Jonathan at 01:52 AM | Comments (2)

December 05, 2005

U2 to Play Second NZ Concert

U2 are to play a second concert in Auckland next year after tickets to their St Patrick's Day concert sold out in record time on Monday morning.

All 38,000 tickets to the Irish rockers March 17 show at Auckland's Ericsson Stadium sold out in just an hour and a half.

The second concert will be on March 18 at Ericsson and tickets will go on sale on Monday December 12.

Tickets to the first concert went on sale at 9am on Monday and while the ticketmaster website dealt with heavy overloading hundreds of fans tried for their tickets the traditional way, lining the streets in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Real Groovy manager Steve Richards - a ticketing agent for the concert - was amazed by the response.

"It's been crazy with a huge queue around the block of Real Groovy...it's pretty amazing," says Richards.

Tickets with a face value ranging from $99 to $199 sold are already being sold on auction site Trade Me for $3000 and climbing. That has angered many fans.

"The tickets have all sold already and I've only just got here - whatever the time is - and they're gone," said one of the unlucky fans to miss out.

But things turned out better for some fans who lined up all night to get their hands on the priceless tickets.

"Ecstatic barely describes it...it was definitely worth the wait," said one fan.

U2 haven't played in New Zealand for 12 years and last month's announcement that they would play dates both here and in Australia on the Vertigo world tour had been rumoured for some time.

-- One News/RNZ

Posted by Jonathan at 04:08 AM | Comments (3)

November 08, 2005

Achtung, baby! U2 aiming to crash Games finale

By Patrick Donovan and Peter Ker

THE kings of motor sport are idling, laughter is taking a holiday and there will be no new movies. But Irish rock singer Bono plans to crash Melbourne's Commonwealth Games party.

One of the world's biggest music acts, Bono's U2 is expected to play two shows at Telstra Dome next March in front of up to 80,000 fans on the same weekend as the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony.

After 18 months of negotiations, promoter Michael Coppel Presents is expected to announce the two shows for Telstra Dome on March 24 and 25.

If the dates are confirmed, several hundred thousand people can be expected in the city centre for the shows and sold-out Games events at the MCG and Vodafone Arena.

Blue-ribbon Games events such as the men's and women's 4x100 metre running relays, finals in the women's pole vault -- likely to feature Australia's Tatiana Grigorieva -- and sold-out finals of the netball competition are the pick of Games finals on those days.

The Age believes the rock shows are not of major concern to Melbourne 2006 organisers, who have had strong ticket sales for the nights in question.

But the prospect of adding tens of thousands of concert-goers to Melbourne's public transport system -- which is expected to carry 70 per cent of Games patrons -- is a headache for the State Government, which is already under fire for its public transport policy.

Adding to the pressure, much of Melbourne, including the Docklands precinct around Telstra Dome, will be mired in traffic restrictions on those dates.

The men's 50-kilometre walk travels through Docklands on the day of the first U2 concert, causing many streets around Telstra Dome to be blocked off between midnight and 3.30pm.

Games chairman Ron Walker played down concerns and denied that Games organisers had tried to get the band to play at the closing ceremony.

Most major events have observed an unwritten rule not to schedule events during the Games, from March 15 to 26. Even movie distributors such as Village Roadshow have opted to not release new films during the Games, despite the period coinciding with school holidays.

As well as sports events, the Games will include a multimillion-dollar program of cultural events throughout the city -- including at Docklands.

The Grand Prix and the Comedy Festival are among organisations to have rescheduled around the Commonwealth Games. Plans for Moomba have shifted several times. It will now take place on Monday, March 13.

Rumours of the U2 tour increased after Bono phoned horse trainer Lee Freedman to congratulate him on Makybe Diva's Melbourne Cup win, saying he hoped to meet the mare when he was next in Australia.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:44 AM | Comments (2)

September 26, 2005

U2 back to frisky self this time out

Band digs deep in encore concerts

By Greg Kot, Tribune music critic

In contrast to its four-show run at the United Center last May, when U2 was starting to sound like a highly competent but not particularly adventuresome junior version of the Rolling Stones, the Irish quartet was in friskier mood in two encore concerts last week.

U2 tossed aside the predictable set list and dug deep Tuesday and Wednesday. Here are some key differences between the shows last week and the ones last spring:

Then: The band doesn't make the case for its latest hit-and-miss album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." The new songs are bunched together and dispatched early on, as if Bono and the boys didn't know how to integrate them into their performance.

Now: "Miracle Drug" (with the Edge's beautiful guitar figure getting some breathing room at the top) and "Original of the Species" (a killer soul ballad with falsetto harmonies) are showcased instead of buried. The arrangements are less fussy, the melodies more apparent. These are the kinds of moments that send skeptical fans rushing back to the album to hear these songs with fresh ears.

Then: The theatrics of Bono, who stumbled around stage blindfolded in empathy with Iraqi prisoners and spoke at length about religious tolerance, got to be a distraction.

Now: The blindfold is still around, but Bono tones down the speechifying and play-acting. Instead he focuses on the songs. His voice sounds like a howitzer on the rockers, blowing down the doors on "Elevation," and yet he manages to convey a fragile poignance on ballads such as "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own."

Then: No surprises in the set list.

Now: U2 pulls out the soaring and underplayed "Miss Sarajevo" from its mid-'90s Passengers" side project with Brian Eno. Bono steps in for Luciano Pavarotti, whose cameo vocal carries the recorded version into the stratosphere, and lets it rip. A jaw-dropping moment.

Then: An efficient march through the new album, followed by the hits and two encores.

Now: A hodgepodge of old, new and off-the-cuff gives the evening an anything-can-happen quality, even to fans who have seen several shows on this tour. An acoustic "Wild Horses" is particularly welcome, as is a seemingly impromptu segue into the Broadway standard "Old Man River" in conjunction with Bono's comments about Hurricane Katrina and America's resilience during times of crisis. A flamenco "Fast Cars" turns the first encore into an unruly dance, magnifying the theme struck by the erotic push-pull of "With or Without You."

Then: A relatively simple performance, not too dependent on technology, especially in comparison to past tours such as "Zoo TV" and "Popmart." But the choreography of certain segments is apparent.

Now: The light-bulb curtains remain, but the staging is even more frill-free than before, and there's more room to roam within the set list. The focus is once again squarely on the music.

Conclusion: So long, Dinosaur Act. The art-rocking, risk-taking U2 is back with a timely reminder of why this city embraced the band in the first place, 25 years ago.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:04 AM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2005

Rock music and activism mix at U2 concert, Bono says Martin 'improving'

Angela Pacienza -- Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) - Calling Prime Minister Paul Martin "a friend" who has improved his record on global aid, Bono continued his fight to end African poverty at a sold-out rock show Monday.

Before an adoring public, the U2 frontman challenged Martin to spend the audience's "money on the poorest of the poor."

"He's a good man and he's been improving. Every time you shout he hears you," said the iconic frontman, decked out in his usual black uniform and sunglasses.

"We look to Canada to lead, not to follow."

It was a softer message than the one Bono delivered in April at a concert in Vancouver. At that show, the Irish rock star chastised Martin for breaking a promise to raise Canada's spending on foreign aid.

Back on stage after a month off their world tour, the band, rounded out by The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr., was in fine form Monday, the first of four sold-out shows in Toronto.

Eager to please the frenzied crowd, the band offered a steady flow of new and nostalgic rock anthems.

The approximately 18,000 faithful included musician Daniel Lanois, actor Cuba Gooding Jr., film director Atom Egoyan and singer Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies.

By the concert's mid-point, the band had dipped into its artillery of politically charged songs crying out Love And Peace, Sunday Bloody Sunday and Bullet The Blue Sky.

"What a strange year," declared Bono. "These are strange times to live in London or New York or wherever."

He asked the audience to turn the next song, Miss Sarajevo, into a prayer.

"That we do not become a monster in order to defeat a monster," he said.

The audience obliged, waving their arms in the air in support of their hero's cause.

As the song came to an end, giant screens above the stage listed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Bono hammered home his message by launching into Pride (In The Name Of Love).

"In the name of love! What more in the name of love?" the audience cried along.

At times the audience was singing so loudly even the band seemed impressed.

"Wow," said Bono repeatedly throughout the night.

He also joked about the growing ego of Canada's most populous city.

"Don't get too big for your boots with the film festival and all," he said referring to the Toronto International Film Festival running all week.

"Tonight it's a rock and roll festival."

Bono himself has been making the fest's rounds, hobnobbing at parties and screenings.

Monday's concert launched the third leg of the Vertigo tour. It boasts 50 arena shows in the United States and Canada, with stops in Ottawa on Nov. 25 and Montreal on Nov. 26 and 28.

The band seems to be enjoying the adulation, which seems to only get stronger as the band matures. Unlike some other aging rock bands whose fans show up to concerts only to hear songs of yesteryear, U2's current releases are as satisfying as the early hits.

"This whole band is just getting started," said Bono.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:32 AM | Comments (3)

September 09, 2005

U2 in T.O. for tour rehearsal

By Jane Stevenson - Toronto Sun

If the A-list celebrities in town for the Toronto International Film Festival aren't enough, star-gazers can also look forward to sightings of Irish rockers U2 for the next week.

The veteran Dublin group arrives in the city today to begin rehearsing at the Air Canada Centre before they launch the second leg of their North American tour. They have four sold-out shows here.

"What a week in Toronto," U2 tour promoter and Toronto native Arthur Fogel told the Sun in a Canadian exclusive interview yesterday. "I know there's going to be a lot of people in town and a lot of great events."

So not only might singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., show up at the odd film festival event, but the VIP guest list for the four Toronto U2 shows will be impressive.

"It's definitely starting to reach frenzy point," says Fogel.

"I'm just looking forward to getting rolling again. It's hard to beat this band, this show, and what they represent. It's something very special."

U2's other ACC shows are next Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, with all available tickets being sold in 45 minutes.

Fogel said that the band, who have performed 28 arena shows in North America and 32 stadium shows in Europe so far, will use the Toronto rehearsals to get back in the groove. They've been having a break since their Aug. 14 date in Lisbon, Portugal.

He expects the set list in Toronto will have changed slightly since the San Diego launch on March 28.

"Europe was really incredible," he says. "Playing stadiums is an art form in and of itself and there are very few artists that can pull it off. U2 are one of those, obviously, and they do it in a very different way from perhaps other acts. While the production elements are certainly part of the experience, this band is unique in the sense of how they captivate, project to a stadium. Somehow they make a stadium small. It's a unique ability where they can draw in 60,000 people in a way that makes it seem very intimate."

The mammoth U2 stage began loading into the ACC a few days ago, says Fogel, although that really began in earnest yesterday. Elton John gave two soldout shows at the venue on Tuesday and Wednesday, so they had to wait until he'd left the building.

The big rumour du jour, as posted on the U2 fan site, Interference, is that the band might open their Sunday rehearsal at 2 p.m. here as a Hurricane Katrina Fundraiser.

But Fogel shot that down.

"At this point there's nothing to that effect, no," says Fogel, who also arrives in Toronto today from his L.A. office.

Still, he didn't rule out that the philanthropically-minded U2 might be involved in some kind of Katrina fundraising.

"I really don't know what the plan is, or the thinking is. But when we regroup (today), I'm sure I'll get a sense," says Fogel. "There's no question (the hurricane) was an incredibly impactful event and I'm sure it's on everybody's mind. I've never known U2 not to live up to expectations."

One possibility, also unconfirmed, is an appearance on tonight's international TV special, Shelter From The Storm.

When Fogel is asked why Toronto was chosen as the starting point for the second North American leg of the tour, he says it was due to scheduling, availability of the venue, and logistics.

"It was really as simple as that -- not to mention it's a pretty great place to start off. It's really always been a fantastic U2 market, and very supportive -- you know, Canada as a whole -- but certainly Toronto. I think it'll be a great vibe."

Given how fast tickets went in Toronto, Fogel says they certainly could have added more shows.

"It's a funny thing, but I would say, in essence, we have underplayed in every market on the tour, and Toronto's no exception. But when you have a limited time frame, you have to allocate as makes sense. There's no question we could have done more than four shows."

After Toronto, the band goes to Chicago for two dates, Sept. 20-21, and stays on the road until Dec. 19 in Portland, Ore.

Fogel says the U2 tour is on track to be the most successful of any this year and that more dates could still be added in 2006.

"We have had some preliminary discussion about other parts of the world that we haven't played on this tour, but there's no firm decision."

Posted by Jonathan at 02:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2005

Kings Of Leon Discuss Chilling With Bono, New LP

By: ChartAttack.com Staff

There's nothing like expecting a lecture from Bono and not receiving it. According to the Kings Of Leon, who opened for U2 on the beginning leg of their world tour, the supposed Bono Talk is a fable.

"Yeah, there's no talk, really," says KOL guitarist Matthew Followill.

"Well, there's supposed to be a talk," interjects his first cousin, bassist Jared Followill. "Everybody says it, but we didn't get it. I mean, they called us KFC instead of KOL 'cause we have chicken legs." Both men laugh. "But in a funny, cool way. They're the nicest guys."

That may be, but U2 are Irish, have been playing music for decades and are all in their mid-40s. By contrast, the Kings are one cousin (Matthew) and three brothers (Jared, vocalist/rhythm guitarist Caleb and drummer Nathan) from the Southern U.S. who decided to form a band only five years ago. That's not much common ground to go by. As one would expect the band to say, though, the presence of girls made things easier.

"Their daughters were around a lot and they were always hanging out, so they kept it cool 'cause they're around our age," Jared explains. "And anytime Bono would start talking about something, they'd be like, 'Tell them about Adam' and he'd be like, 'Yeah, Adam has this problem with farting' and it'd be like, 'Yes! We don't have to talk politics.' It was awesome."

Though they've released two albums and have a dedicated fan base around the world, the Followills say opening for U2 showed them how to improve. "It definitely makes you a better band, having to play for a big crowd when you're nervous," Matthew says.

"And it takes your songs to a different place," Jared adds. "You play your songs in a small club and it's a certain kind of style and you play it that way and you fucking go into a stadium and it's not like you can be falling over and interacting with the crowd — it's all focused on your fucking songs, so we'd have to play them perfect.

"I think that was a big effect on our next record, touring with U2. I think that the songs are going to be a lot more tight, a lot more crisp, it's going to be a lot more anthemic and arena-ready."

Touring with U2 also changed how the Kings perform their own songs live. To avoid heckling as the opening band, the Followills played 45 minutes of songs without stopping. Jared says they still don't give their audiences any breathing room. "But now we have to do it for like an hour and 20 minutes, so you get a little bit fucking tired so we'll take a little break and tune every once in awhile. Now we've set up so we have two slow songs in a row ["Milk" and "Rememo"] so you just get to fucking chill and smoke a cigarette, have a beer, write some text messages."

After finishing a series of shows in the U.S. and U.K. later this month, the band hope to head into the studio to record their new material. "We don't have any song actually done, it's just tons of ideas," Matthew says. Song titles are still floating around. Jared explains that one in particular "was called 'Matthew' for a little bit" — "So stupid," his cousin interjects — "...because he came up with the guitar part," Jared finishes. "So stupid," Matthew mutters again.

Regardless, the Followills agree on one thing – their sound will consistently evolve from their previous albums.

"The songs may be longer, bigger arrangements and stuff like that," Jared says. "I hate bands that take it to a weird place just to be different. We're not gonna make it weird. I think the next one, the theme of it is just gonna be like fucking fist in the air."

Kings Of Leon will play Pop Montreal in late September.

—Angela Kozak

Posted by Jonathan at 11:02 PM | Comments (1)

August 01, 2005

U2 tipped for NZ concerts

In the name of love - and big ticket sales - Irish supergroup U2 are likely to play Wellington next year as part of their world tour.

Music industry sources in Australia told The Dominion Post that U2 were seriously considering playing New Zealand early next year once the band confirmed dates in Australia.

U2 are touring Europe till late August, then the United States for the rest of the year. They plan to play Japan and Australia in January and February.

The band has the pulling power to fill Wellington's Westpac Stadium, which sold more than 30,000 tickets to Neil Diamond's show in March.

But sources said U2 had preferred indoor venues on their tours and this was likely to influence their decision. Wellington's biggest indoor venue, The Events Centre, can hold about 5000, which could mean more than one concert.

Centre manager Neville Brown said he had had no contact about U2 playing at the waterfront venue.

The boss of Auckland's planned 12,000-seat Vector Arena said in May that there was "more than a chance" U2 would play Auckland next year.

Industry sources in Wellington said contracts had been signed in New Zealand to supply sound equipment for U2 shows in the capital.

Westpac Stadium chief executive David Gray said he had not been directly contacted about U2 playing there next year. But it was possible promoters - without mentioning U2 by name - were considering bringing the band here.

"There are a lot of inquiries about dates. It's the usual story, you get calls from promoters (and) you don't know what the act is.

"We are not in direct negotiations with anybody, but we're aware that U2 is a possibility of touring this part of the world."

Pacific Entertainment Promotions director Ian Magan had heard nothing about U2 appearing in Wellington, neither had U2's last down-under tour operator, Australia's Dainty Consolidated Entertainment.

U2 last played Auckland and Christchurch in 1993, but Wellington did not have a big enough venue.

Posted by Jonathan at 01:44 PM | Comments (3)

April 27, 2005

From Basketball To Bono: The Key Transformed In A Few Short Hours

By Mary Guiden, Seattle Times

Last night, about 17,000 fans at KeyArena cheered on the Sonics in Game 2 of their playoff series. Just one day earlier in the same venue, fans walked into a completely different space, the high-tech rock 'n' roll showcase that was the stage for megaband U2.

The logistics of that transformation are staggering. The Key hosted the first Sonics playoff game Saturday night. Sunday morning, in less than eight hours, U2's stage and equipment -- 16 semitrucks full -- were unloaded and set up. Within minutes after the second concert ended Monday night, crews were knocking the set down. And the arena was ready for basketball again by 6 a.m. yesterday.

How that concert came together is a lesson in the massive behind-the-scenes logistics of modern high-stakes entertainment.

Pre-dawn truck parade

It's 4 a.m. Sunday, and the streets surrounding KeyArena are lined with semitrucks, engines running. The crew, which will total 200-plus people by the end of U2's stint here, is poised for a flurry of activity.

Sixteen riggers -- all local, and union -- are the first to get started at a few minutes after 4 a.m.

KeyArena still has remnants from Saturday night's game, and the floor is damp in spots after the hardwood basketball floor was removed. Cleanup crews are picking up Sonics signs and abandoned cups.

Riggers in the ceiling, 80 feet up and higher, lower heavy strands of rope to chalk-marked spots on the floor. Workers attach a steel chain that is then pulled back up by the riggers. At the end of the steel chain sits a motor, which will hoist itself and a piece of equipment up the chain and above the stage.

Seattle rigger Maynard Smith, 45, says his crew is in earlier than usual because U2's lighting setup is so extensive. At least 25 trunks containing motors are opened up where the stage will sit later in the day.

"It's physically challenging, because you're lifting heavy amounts of weight," Smith says.

Heavy, indeed. The steel chains weigh roughly a pound per foot, with rigging points going as high as 140 feet in the air. Seattle Center stage-crew chief Marty Pavloff says riggers can pull up 10 steel chains at normal speed and then their arms turn to "noodles."

A slew of chains will eventually hold four video screens above the stage as well as trusses filled with lighting.

The man in charge

Directing all this activity is a man with a far-ranging reputation, production manager Jake Berry.

The U.K.-bred Berry, a 30-year veteran of the music business, got his start with bands like Yes, and in the 1980s he ran production on the metal circuit, touring with Metallica, AC/DC and Motley Crue.

"We would do 12 trucks back-to-back when everyone else would do four," says Berry, 52. To compare that to other shows, Rod Stewart's recent tour was contained in eight semitrucks; Pearl Jam typically uses four.

Berry also works for the Rolling Stones -- he guided them on the Licks World Tour 2002-03 -- and he has worked with Tina Turner. He's been with U2 for about 10 years.

This show has some special challenges. To a crowd it looks seamless, but effects like video screens that drop from the ceiling and trusses that move during the show require complex equipment.

The load-in begins

What difficulties do the production crew face on the road? Berry says one of the downsides of setting up at KeyArena is the loading dock, which can handle only two trucks at a time. Most venues allow for up to five. "I would hate to say the terrible design it has," Berry politely says.

The size of the Key is another hurdle. "Because it's primarily a basketball arena we're losing 50 feet of floor space, and space is the thing we need most," he adds.

At a few minutes after 6 a.m., the load-in -- which means the major unloading of all the trucks -- begins. Thirty local hires, all city employees, start work.

Throughout the days ahead, roughly 160 local workers will assist with some part of the show, in addition to the 62-member traveling crew.

Theresa Ballew, 24, of Kent has been working load-ins for six years and says it is her "starving actor" type of job. "Lighting is my passion and theater. It's hard work, but pushing boxes can be a fun thing at times, and it's like a big family reunion," she adds.

The floor is quickly covered with trunks, speakers -- two huge rows of 12 will be hung on each side of the stage -- and boxes containing lights, spotlights, instruments and the materials that will make up the video screens. "It's a cluster, isn't it?" Berry says.

The secret to knowing what goes where, he says, is on the crates. Every case is marked so that anyone can tell its contents from 50 feet away. Crates marked with red go on the right, blue on the left. Speakers are numbered. "Letters, numbers and colors, so it's like 'Sesame Street,' " Berry says.

Berry says this load-in is going smoothly, although he is willing to share a list of things that tick him off in general: disorganization, people being late. He says he can't handle "walking into buildings after you've done 50 shows and having people try to tell you how to do it."

A few minutes after 7 a.m., the rigging crew is done. (Three workers, including Seattle's Smith, will hang out to monitor potential problems.) Fifteen minutes later, the road crew begins to unload pieces of the stage. Unlike many other acts, U2 brings its own massive, silver-paneled stage. The pieces of the stage are assembled at one end of the floor, complete with instruments, then the crew has to push them into place after the lighting grid is hoisted to the ceiling.

At 11 a.m., a call goes out for "all hands" and workers push pieces of the stage together, grunting as they go. It takes more than a few tries to move the stage just inches, and sometimes when the crew yells "push," the stage doesn't even move.

It's now time for more minor details, like adding a tambourine to the drum kit and putting up barricades around the stage. Nearly half of the people working the load-in are sent home.

The reason for it all

U2 hits the stage a little before 9 p.m. Sunday night, the first of a two-night stand. Bolstering the band's music is a showcase of high-tech effects: video images splaying across a giant curtain that appears and disappears behind the band, and a stage with an elliptical walkway that allows frontman Bono to get close to the crowds on the floor.

The trucks are loaded and ready to go by 3 a.m. yesterday, and the Seattle Center crew makes the transformation back to basketball -- a three-hour feat that required putting in the floor, changing the seating configuration and setting up media areas and interview rooms.

U2's next stop is Vancouver, B.C., where they play tomorrow night, and Berry's crew will do it all over again.

"Bono says it all when he says, 'Thanks for giving us a good life,' " Berry says.

"It is a good life, and I meet a lot of interesting people. I've traveled to India, China and Australia. It is [also] a glamorous profession; people want to talk to you when you say you're the production manager for U2. You don't get the same reaction when you say you're the branch manager of the Bank of America."

Mary Guiden: MKGseattle@aol.com

Posted by Jonathan at 05:10 PM | Comments (2)

March 29, 2005

U2 Go Old School in Cali

By Steve Baltin -- RollingStone.com

This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of U2's debut album, Boy. And while the band's current world tour, which kicked off last night before a sold-out crowd at the San Diego Sports Arena, is in support of last year's chart-topping How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the four lads from Dublin were clearly feeling a bit sentimental, making for some surprising vintage moments during the two-hour set.

The lion's share of material came from the new record, starting with the opening "City of Blinding Lights" and the album's punchy first single, "Vertigo," which singer Bono introduced by saying, "Spanish lessons in San Diego . . . I don't think so."

The night's first surprise came soon thereafter, when Bono announced, "We're gonna go back to where it started." As a flag unfurled over the backdrop featuring the Boy album cover, the foursome -- Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. -- jumped into the way-back machine for "The Electric Co.," with Bono segueing into a snippet of the showtune "Send in the Clowns." U2, who have largely ignored their distant past on recent tours, then treated longtime fans to "An Cat Dubh" and "Into the Heart" -- both also off of Boy. "An Cat Dubh" was the concert's moody highlight, with its hard bass line pulsing under the bluish stage lights.

As Bono worked the runway -- as on the previous tour, the stage set featured a circular ramp that extended out into the middle of the floor -- the band jumped into "Beautiful Day," from 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. "New Year's Day," the band's 1983 breakthrough U.S. hit, followed and received an uproarious ovation, proving that U2 weren't the only ones feeling nostalgic.

The alternation of new and old tracks continued throughout the set. The band effectively combined the new album's mid-tempo ballads "Miracle Drug" with Bono's tribute to his late father "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," during which he removed his trademark sunglasses to deliver his most impassioned vocals. The rocking "Love and Peace or Else," which found Larry Mullen Jr. banging away on the drums at the apex of the ramp, was followed by War's "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

During an acerbic "Bullet the Blue Sky," off of 1987's The Joshua Tree, a blindfolded Bono got down on his knees and held his hands over his head as if bound. The staunch anti-war song ended with snippets of "Johnny Come Marching Home" and the chorus from "The Hands That Built America," a song the group contributed to Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. The political statement continued, as "Bullet" was followed by U2's beautiful Joshua Tree ballad "Running to Stand Still." Featuring Bono on harmonica and acoustic guitar, the song provided the intro for a video listing the articles of the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights.

The band then delved into material from 1991's Achtung Baby, with guitarist the Edge taking the spotlight with the fierce solos that fuel that record. "Zoo Station" and "The Fly" featured provocative sayings flashing quickly on the backdrop of beaded curtains. The show went on to close with a lively rendition of All That You Can't Leave Behind's "Elevation."

Coming back for the encores, the quartet revisited 1984's The Unforgettable Fire for a rousing "Pride (In the Name of Love)," with Bono taking the opportunity to refer to the work he's been doing on behalf of third-world debt relief by asking the crowd to "sing for Africa" at the song's close. And during "Where the Streets Have No Name," an African flag unfurled over the backdrop. Proving he can be high-minded and smooth-talking at the same time, Bono announced, "We are more powerful, we are extraordinary as one" . . . as the band struck the opening notes of Achtung Baby's "One." This was followed by impassioned versions of new songs "All Because of You" and "Yahweh."

The band saved the night's biggest revelation for last, as Mullen began the repetitive drumbeat to "40," the biblical sing-along that used to close U2 shows. In a nod to the early days, at the song's conclusion, Bono walked off the stage first, followed by Clayton and the Edge, while Mullen provided the beat to the crowd's chanting of the chorus "How long to sing this song." When the lights came on, most in the San Diego Sports Arena were still singing.

Posted by Chris at 07:49 PM | Comments (16)

U2 Kicks Off World Tour

By Jane Stevenson -- Toronto Sun

Irish rockers U2 kick off their Vertigo world tour tonight at the San Diego Sports Arena. And after the success of their Elevation trek, the Dublin band -- who will play four sold-out shows at the Air Canada Centre in September -- has a lot to live up to.

Not that long-time band manager Paul McGuinness sounds at all worried about the group, whose longevity after 27 years seems assured given their most recent album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, has sold nine million copies worldwide largely on the success of just one single, Vertigo.

The song also netted U2 three Grammys in February and, earlier this month, they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

"They're very good, I think that's probably the key," McGuinness told the Sun in a Canadian newspaper exclusive last week from Vancouver.

"And they're very ambitious and they work very hard and they really enjoy it and they're very proud of what they do. And, in a way, there's a boxing analogy really. They are the champions. And if somebody else wants to be the champion they have to take the title away. But U2 are going to hold on to it. They're doing their best work creatively, I think, now. If they ever kind of burned out musically, that would probably be when the band ended -- but there's no sign of that."

U2, who built their Vertigo stage at Vancouver's GM Place in late February, arrived in the Canadian West Coast city to rehearse immediately after their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction on March 14 at a ceremony in New York City.

After about a week in Vancouver -- U2 actually started music rehearsals in both Europe and Mexico a few months ago -- the band headed down to Los Angeles for dress rehearsals this past Thursday until Saturday at the L.A. Sports Arena.

McGuinness didn't want to give away much about the Vertigo production but did say like Elevation, it will have a 360-degrees view with the stage at one end of the venue and general admission -- no seats, just standing -- on the floor.

"What used to happen in arena situations in (North) America was that the front few rows, the tickets would inevitably end up on the black market and in the hands of wealthy middle-aged people and if you're performer, that's not who you want to see past the mic line. So this (general admission on the floor approach) has been, in a way, very effective in getting the fans as close to the stage as possible because it is from music fans that comes the energy that produces the performance."

McGuinness is anticipating a "very emotional and very energetic" night of music that's "visually astounding."

"There will be no one else on stage apart from those four guys," he says referring to U2 singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clatyon and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. "It's still that same kind of crisp image of four familiar people whose names you know making an enormous noise. That's what always kind of excited me and I think then about the bands we admired when we were kids. I still find it very exciting."

As for Toronto's quick four sell-outs on Sept. 12 and 14, 16, 17 at the ACC -- tickets vanished in all of 45 minutes -- McGuinness wasn't that surprised given the band's long history with the city.

"We played the El Mocambo in 1980," says McGuinness. "And funnily enough we were playing for (Toronto's) Michael Cohl. He was the promoter. So we actually go back quite a long way. We got played on Canadian radio more at the beginning than in America."

Toronto will also be the starting point for the second leg of U2's North American tour, after playing Europe in the summer. After a month-long break once their European tour wraps up in mid-August, McGuinness said U2 might require a day of rehearsals in Toronto before the first show on Sept. 12.

But, in the meantime, he was pleased to hear the Toronto International Film Festival, running Sept. 8-18, would be in full swing while the group was in town. "If the film festival is on, that's a bit of a temptation," says McGuinness. "(U2) have a lot of friends that make films like Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan, and Bono wrote a film himself a few years ago and I'm one of the owners of the film studios in Ireland, and I used to be an A.D. (assistant director). So the Toronto Film Festival, that looks like a great opportunity."

Posted by Jonathan at 03:28 AM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2005

U2's Manager Tells The Sun All About The Band's Vancouver Tuneup Before Their World Tour

By Jane Stevenson
Toronto Sun

THERE'S JUST five days to go until Irish rockers U2 launch their Vertigo world tour at the San Diego Sports Arena on Monday night. And long-time band manger Paul McGuinness says the group enjoyed themselves during a week of rehearsals in Canada, at Vancouver's GM Place. Toronto has to wait until September for their four sold-out shows at the Air Canada Centre.

"It's fantastic," said McGuinness, speaking to The Sun in an exclusive Canadian newspaper interview down the line from Vancouver. "We're kind of semi-Canadian ourselves, because we've been working with (Toronto concert promoters) Arthur Fogel and Michael Cohl, so we feel pretty much at home here."

McGuinness said that while a crew moved into GM Place on Feb. 25 to start building the Vertigo stage, the band didn't arrive until last week following their March 14 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at a ceremony in New York.

"We arrived that same night," said McGuinness, who was scheduled to leave Vancouver tonight. "We flew out of New York on Monday night and we got into Vancouver very early Tuesday morning."

The next thing for U2 singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who have been rehearsing in various locales since last December, is dress rehearsals, McGuinness said. They take place at the L.A. Sports Arena tomorrow, Friday and Saturday nights with some radio contest winners in attendance.

But while in Vancouver, he said, the band was pretty much left alone: "It was very quiet. No one bothered us. Canadians are very low-key, they leave you alone."

U2 didn't even get out on the mother of all Irish holidays. "I'm afraid St. Patrick's Day was a normal working day," said McGuinness.

McGuinness, who has been managing U2 for 27 years, ever since they formed in 1978, says Bono and company are looking forward to Monday's launch with equal amounts of excitement and nervousness.

"It's quite nerve-wracking," he said. "I'm not a performer. But for them, I think, they're always quite nervous about a new show. We've had some great shows in the past and people have high expectations of what's going to happen at a U2 concert. Anyone who doesn't feel scared going out and performing in front of 20,000 people would be a little odd anyway, I think. They're kind of sensible about it but like any performer, they get nervous and they want it to go well."

The Internet has been rife with rumours about the new Vertigo production, that it will be similar to the wildly successful Elevation trek when the band performed on a stripped-down stage encased in a heart-shaped catwalk.

McGuinness would only say it's an in-the-round stage at one end of the floor similar to the Elevation setup.

"It is a completely different production, but it shares characteristics with the Elevation production," he said.

As for songs, McGuinness said when you've been recording for 25-plus years, you have a lot to choose from.

"It's very difficult to get the balance right between the new material, which they're very excited about and which is currently on the radio, and on MTV and on MuchMusic, and the songs that people really expect to hear. But they are determined not to become their own kind of tribute band. It's not a greatest hits show. It's very important to us to get the new material into the spotlight, so you can expect most of the new album will feature in the set."

McGuinness said sales of U2's latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, which is closing in on worldwide sales of nine million since its release last November, indicate it's poised to become the group's best-selling album ever.

They also won three Grammys in February for the album's first single, Vertigo.

"It's very unusual, in fact, unique," McGuinness said, "to be having a number one record, selling out a world tour, the week that you're being inducted into the Rock And Roll Of Fame," says McGuinness. "That's normally reserved for venerable, rather older, people."

---

A REHEARSAL SET LIST

U2 FAN site Interference posted this set list performed by the band during one of their private rehearsals in Vancouver last week. Band manager Paul McGuinness said it was accurate for that rehearsal, but he stressed that the band is working on a bunch of different set lists. He figures it must have been a fan outside the building "who could tell what the songs were through the steel doors," McGuinness told the Sun. (*Indicates from new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb):

- Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own *
- Stuck In A Moment
- Love And Peace Or Else *
- Out Of Control
- City Of Blinding Lights *
- All Because Of You *
- Yahweh *
-40
- Bad
- Beautiful Day
- Pride (In The Name Of Love)
- Where The Streets Have No Name
- Walk On
- Elevation
- One
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- Vertigo *
- Miracle Drug *
- Bullet The Blue Sky
- With Or Without You
- Running To Stand Still

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/Entertainment/2005/03/23/969631-sun.html

Posted by Jonathan at 08:09 AM | Comments (1)

January 26, 2005

U2 Ticket Presale Inflames Fans

1.26.05 - groovevolt.com

Tickets for the North American and European legs of U2's forthcoming Vertigo tour were pre-sold to members of the band's fan club Tuesday morning (January 25); however, instead of looking forward to the kickoff of the tour in San Diego, California, thousands of fans are up in arms over the way in which the presale was conducted after being shut out and they have jammed U2 message boards to express their displeasure.

U2 fans who paid the band's fan club for a membership late last year were told that the membership would allow them to gain priority access to tickets, including the coveted low-priced General Admission tickets that proved so popular on the band's Elevation tour.

The band's organization emailed patrons a personalized password late last week along with links to a page from which fans could choose a specific show. Unfortunately, when fans attempted to link to the page this morning, many were unable to get through.

Though this is far from typical (a fact to which those who have dealt with Ticketmaster in the past can attest), the problems did not end when fans arrived successfully at a purchasing page. Those lucky enough to arrive at a purchasing page discovered quickly that the allotment of coveted GA seats was sold out (in less than one minute for most shows.)

This left those interested in General Admission seats with the option of purchasing more expensive tickets (which ranged from $98 to $165) or waiting for the public on-sale. Those who chose to search for more expensive tickets ran into some problems that have plagued Ticketmaster ever since they began selling tickets online: Passwords that did not work, pages that froze, interminable waits, and transactions that were mysteriously canceled even after the sale appeared to go through.

Even those who purchased tickets successfully reported that there were significant problems with the ticketing system. A number of buyers reported that the Ticketmaster seating charts they consulted during the purchase were changed later in the day and fans who thought they had prime seats next to the stage (at a cost of more than $175 each including service charges) found themselves in the back corner of the arena. Others pointed out that the seats that were offered were often the worst in the house.

U2 fan Emily Worth summarized the feelings of many of supporters of the band. "U2 backed out on a promise to their most loyal fans," she said. "We joined the U2.com fan club under the premise that we would have priority ticket buying. Well, I'm a member of the fan club, but [three] hours after the pre-sale began, I am still ticketless. U2 have clearly not allotted for enough tickets to accommodate the fan club members. This treatment is unethical and has hurt the people that have funded the band's career for the past 25 years."

This ticketing snafu especially distressed those members of the fan club who were previously members of Propaganda, the band's fan club, which handled ticket distribution for years before closing after the conclusion of the last tour. In the past, ticket sales were handled in much the same way that bands like Pearl Jam handle fan-club ticket sales: Prior to public ticket sales, fan club members received a letter listing the forthcoming tour dates. Fans would then check off the show (or shows) they wanted to see and sent in money for the tickets.

For this tour, U2.com took over the fan club and associated presale chores and attempted to use Ticketmaster and Fanfire to coordinate the sale. Longtime fans were especially distressed. On the message boards at interference.com, U2 fan adenoid_hynkel wrote, "The band took a reliable fan-friendly service like Propaganda and replaced it with a poorly-managed company."

And it wasn't just North American fans that were served poorly today. European fans encountered similar problems went tickets went on sale this morning. At the band's official Web site, u2.com, the following message was posted.

European members have been buying tickets since 10am GMT this morning and some fans have let us know that they have experienced some frustrating technical problems.

Ticketmaster have expressed their apologies to fans who were frustrated in the booking process - and are contacting all U2.Com European Members who failed to book their tickets to explain how they can still do this well within the presale window.

"With tickets available at all venues, we are confident that all those affected by the problem today will have been able to purchase tickets." reads the Ticketmaster statement. "Once again Ticketmaster would like to apologise to those affected by the problem today. Ticketmaster is committed to offering the best possible service and we can assure customers that once we became aware of the problem, we took every possible step to ensure a quick and efficient solution."

Fans of the band have reacted loudly and swiftly, bombarding the offices of U2's Principal Management with phone calls and faxes. They have also posted thousands of messages at the interference message boards, with frustration being the predominant emotion. "Is this any way for a band that thanked their fans "for giving us a great life" in their 2001 tour to treat their fan-club members who paid $40?" fan Patrick Farrell asked. "I clicked for 80 minutes, about 800 clicks... and did get [two] terrible seats for $300 only to have the final click at the Ticketmaster.com site on 'Click here to purchase tickets' bring me to a page that said 'Internal service failure. Please try again.'" A frustrated Farrell added, "I love U2 more than anything except God, Family, Friends, and Country. It disgusts me that the band's image is being raked over the coals with their greatest fans due to the sins of Ticketmaster, U2.com, and the promoters who obviously funneled tickets to brokers because actual photos of tickets were on eBay before the presale."

Numerous calls for comment to Ticketmaster and Fanfire were not returned. Callers to Principal Management were directed to contact their PR firm, Code Blue Media. At press time, messages to Code Blue were unanswered.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:12 AM | Comments (15)

January 24, 2005

U2's North American Tour to Begin in California

1.24.05 - Reuters

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - U2 will kick off its 2005 Vertigo tour March 28 in San Diego, the band said Monday.

Sixteen North American dates are on tap so far for the first leg of the tour, which will wrap May 26 in Boston. Tickets for some shows begin going on sale Saturday (Jan. 29), but paid subscribers to U2's Web site can take advantage of an exclusive pre-sale beginning Tuesday.

The band has also confirmed 24 European summer dates, beginning June 10 in Brussels and concluding Aug. 14 in Lisbon. Although a routing has not yet been confirmed, U2 will return to North America for another 30-date leg in the fall.

As on the 2001 Elevation tour, the arena floor will be general admission for about 1,700-1,800 seats, depending on the building.

"This tour will be not unlike the last production in that the lowest priced tickets will be on the floor," says U2 manager Paul McGuinness. "The best seats are the cheapest, and we want people to get excited."

Here are U2's tour dates:

March 28: San Diego (Sports Arena; on sale Jan. 29)
April 1: Anaheim, Calif. (Arrowhead Pond; on sale Jan. 30)
April 5: Los Angeles (Staples Center; on sale Jan. 30)
April 9: San Jose, Calif. (HP Pavilion; on sale Jan. 30)
April 14: Phoenix (Glendale Arena)
April 20: Denver (Pepsi Center; on sale Jan. 29)
April 24: Seattle (Key Arena)
April 28: Vancouver (GM Place)
May 7, 9: Chicago (United Center; on sale Jan. 29)
May 14: Philadelphia (Wachovia Center; on sale Jan. 29)
May 17-18: East Rutherford, N.J. (Continental Airlines Arena; on sale Jan. 31)
May 21: New York (Madison Square Garden; on sale Jan. 31)
May 24, 26: Boston (Fleet Center; on sale Jan. 29)
June 10: Brussels (King Baudouin Stadium)
June 12: Gelsenkirchen, Germany (Schalke Stadium)
June 14: Manchester, England (Stadium)
June 18: London (Twickenham Stadium)
June 21: Glasgow (Hampden Park)
June 24: Dublin (Croke Park)
June 29: Cardiff, Wales (Millennium Stadium)
July 2: Vienna (Ernst Happel Stadium)
July 5: Katowice, Poland (Slaski Stadium)
July 7: Berlin (Olympic Stadium)
July 9: Paris (Stade de France)
July 11: Zurich (Letzigrund Stadium)
July 13: Amsterdam (Arena)
July 19: Milan (San Siro)
July 23: Rome (Olympic Stadium)
July 27: Oslo (Vallehovin Stadium)
July 29: Gothenburg, Sweden (Ullevi Stadium)
July 31: Copenhagen (Parken)
Aug. 3: Munich (Olympic Stadium)
Aug. 5: Nice, France (Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann)
Aug. 7: Barcelona (Camp Nou)
Aug. 9: San Sebastian, Spain (Anoeta Stadium)
Aug. 11: Madrid (Estadio Vicente Calderon)
Aug. 14: Lisbon (Alvalade)

Posted by Jonathan at 04:11 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2005

U2 Postpone World Tour

1.6.05 - Rolling Stone

Family illness pushes back "Bomb" trek

U2 have postponed their much-anticipated tour behind How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, originally scheduled to kick off March 1st in Miami. "All of the plans are in total flux," a source close to the band told Rolling Stone, citing a family illness as the reason for the change. Tour dates were to be announced and go on sale this month, but those plans have been delayed.

The band, which is nominated for three Grammys for the single "Vertigo," still intends to play the February 13th awards ceremony in Los Angeles and to attend its induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 14th in New York. However, a new timeline for the tour has not been set.

According to longtime tour designer Willie Williams, the tour's stage and video screens are in the process of being built. "We are developing some new technologies to deliver visual content," he told Rolling Stone.

U2's last world tour, in support of All That You Can't Leave Behind, made them the top-grossing act of 2001.

--BRIAN HIATT

Posted by Jonathan at 04:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2004

U2 Throw Themselves A Parade, Give New Yorkers A Free Show

11.22.04 - MTV

NEW YORK -- Parades through the heart of Manhattan are generally reserved for the New York Yankees, victorious troops and, well, giant Garfield balloons. But there they were: U2, on the back of a flatbed truck, led by a blaring police.

On Monday (November 22) the band took over the streets of New York to shoot a video for "All Because of You," the second single off their new How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. They performed the song over and over again as they made their way through the city's streets, cameras running, throngs of bewildered New Yorkers running alongside the truck, helicopters buzzing overhead.

The fact that traffic ground to a near standstill didn't seem to matter. When one of the biggest bands in the world wants to make a video, they make a video. And it was all NYC could do to get out of their way.

This makeshift parade's final destination was the borough of Brooklyn, in an abandoned field beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, where, lo and behold, a stage had been assembled. Over the weekend, U2 fan sites had been abuzz with rumors of a secret show, but until the announcement was made Monday afternoon on U2.com (and then picked up by just about every radio station in the city), no one knew if it would really happen.

Fans showed up by the thousands, standing on the broken Brooklyn streets, waiting for something, anything, to happen. As their numbers swelled, the excitement rose, until people were literally jumping up and down to music only they could hear. And when the security team finally allowed the masses inside, and a mad dash to the front of the stage began, it was all most fans could do to avoid being mashed against the metal barricades.

And then they waited. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes. Forty-five minutes passed. Seagulls swirled in the darkening skies and an army of news choppers whirred noisily overhead. Clearly, something was happening, But what? And when?

Then cheers erupted from the crowd. Most turned from the stage to see a helicopter filming something coming across the Manhattan Bridge. The flatbed truck slowly came into view, crossing over the East River into Brooklyn, and atop it were U2, just specks at the moment, still performing "All Because of You."

The band disappeared from view for several minutes, taking the winding roads that lead off the bridge and down into Brooklyn (not even U2 are powerful enough to defeat NYC's rush-hour traffic), but no amount of waiting could stifle the energy of the crowd. And when U2 did finally take the stage, they were greeted by a thunderous round of cheers and pumping fists. Bono said a few pleasantries, and then his bandmates launched into "Vertigo." The place went nuts.

They quickly followed with "All Because of You" (which you would think the band would be tired of playing by now). The Edge worked a serpentine guitar line around bassist Adam Clayton's thudding backbeat as Bono did what he does best: strike Christ-like poses, straddle the mic, and wear wraparound shades. When the song finished, he surveyed the scene, glanced over at the Edge, and joked, "Why does this feel like a hometown gig?"

Their 45-minute set featured mostly songs from How to Dismantle -- the somber "Miracle Drug," the strutting "Original of the Species," "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" (which Bono dedicated to his late father) -- all of which the crowd greeted with unbridled enthusiasm. And when the band broke out older material, the reaction would've torn the roof off the place ... had there been one.

"Beautiful Day" had kids pogoing out of their shoes, "I Will Follow" had them singing along lustily, and "Out of Control" -- U2's first single, released in 1979 -- nearly gave an entire crowd of 20-somethings a massive coronary.

But it was another new song, "City of Blinding Lights," that probably summed it up best. As night overtook the Manhattan skyline in the distance and the skyscrapers were bathed in neon and florescent light, Bono turned and studied the scene. He explained that he had written the song based on his memories of U2's first trip to New York, when they were just a young band that could've never dreamed how high they would reach.

Bono paused, his back to the crowd, and he gave the skyline a round of applause. And you could tell he was sincerely thankful. He knew the city deserved it. After all, she's always been a gracious host.

Listen to U2's entire new album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, on MTV.com's The Leak.

-- James Montgomery

Posted by Jonathan at 04:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2004

U2 Set For Massive Tour

11.20.04 - Reuters

By Melinda Newman and Ray Waddell

LOS ANGELES/NASHVILLE (Billboard) - With about 115 dates already slotted, U2's 2005 world tour will likely surpass its last outing in capacity and money.

The group's 2001 tour grossed 56 million pounds ($104 million) from 106 shows worldwide, according to Billboard Boxscore. The top gross was 3.4 million pounds ($6.4 million) from four sellouts at Chicago's United Centre.

The new tour, in support of the band's November 23 Interscope release, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," will start March 1 in Florida, according to the band's manager Paul McGuinness.

Building deals and routing for the Clear Channel-backed tour are being finalized.

"We'll play approximately 35 shows in arenas in the spring in the U.S.," McGuinness says. That will be followed by 30 stadium shows across Europe. The group will then come back to the United States for another 35-date arena swing and then go to Japan and Australia for about 20 dates.

The 2001 outing did not include stadium dates, nor did the band play Japan and Australia.

U2 is one of a number of superstar outings projected for 2005. Paul McCartney is believed to be plotting a tour, and there is still the potential for a Rolling Stones trek later in the year. But it is doubtful that either act will play as many dates in 2005 as U2.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:03 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2003

U2 plan to rock 200,000

8.24.03 - Irish Mirror

U2 are being lined up to rock 200,000 fans at Phoenix Park next summer, The Irish Mirror can reveal.

The Dublin super group will stage the record-breaking shows in August as part of a huge tour.

Madonna was originally approached to perform but said she had no plans to tour next year.

So U2 have stepped in and vowed to stage the biggest show ever in Ireland.

A source close to the group said yesterday: "They will perform two nights at Phoenix Park in front of 100,000 fans on each occasion.

"It's going to be the biggest music event of its kind ever staged in Ireland and it's perfect for U2.

"They are really excited about it and will have the new album out by then so it's perfect timing."

Robbie Williams sold out this Phoenix Park spectacular to 135,000 earlier this month and fans proclaimed the venue a hit.

Bono and the lads have been in the studio recording material for a new album which is set for release early next year.

A world tour is also in the planning stages although no official dates have been confirmed.

The source added: "This will be the biggest thing U2 have ever done.

"It may seem like a long way away but two concerts of this size take a long time to plan.

"It's all in the preliminary stages but U2 are up for it and everything is in place to make it happen.

"They want to have their biggest ever concert on their home territory."

U2 last thrilled their Irish fans when they headlined Slane in August 2001.

The band set a new record for the highest grossing tour in America and sold out 70 venues around the world.

The source added: "The last tour was mainly indoor arenas, this time they are going to go back to the open air stadium concerts.

"However, the Phoenix Park shows will be the biggest they have ever done. It's going to be a magical night for everyone."

Posted by Jonathan at 03:11 AM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2001

U2 Scores Superbowl Halftime Gig

12.4.01 - Pollstar

U2's lengthy Elevation tour ended December 2 in Miami but the band will return to the States next year to perform at a uniquely American event - the Super Bowl XXXVI halftime show. The annual extravaganza takes place February 3 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

"U2 is absolutely one of the coolest and creative contemporary bands in the world, and none enjoy greater worldwide appeal," Fox Sports Chairman David Hill said. "It is a privilege to broadcast our third Super Bowl and I'm sure that U2 will provide our global audience a championship caliber performance."

"The E*Trade Super Bowl halftime show is an important part of the Super Bowl and one of the most widely viewed entertainment events of the year," said NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "This year's show will take on new meaning in light of recent world events. We are pleased that the spectacular talent of U2 will become part of our Super Bowl halftime tradition."

This year's game will be televised live on Fox to an expected 130 million viewers in the United States and 800 million viewers worldwide.

Clear Channel Entertainment, the promoter of U2's tour, is producing the halftime extravaganza.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:28 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2001

U2 On Tour: Eight More Shows Added To Sold-Out Elevation Tour!

11.7.01 - CC.com

Fans just can't get enough of U2! Due to overwhelming demand, eight cities have been added to U2's Elevation Tour 2001! At the conclusion of this year, U2 will have played over 101 sold-out shows worldwide! Here's the scoop on the final eight:

11/20/01 - Sacramento, CA, Arco Arena (On Sale 11/10/01)
11/23/01 - Phoenix, AZ, America West Arena (On Sale 11/10/01)
11/25/01 - Dallas, TX, Reunion Arena (On Sale 11/10/01)
11/27/01 - Kansas City, MO, Kemper Arena (On Sale 11/10/01)
11/28/01 - St. Louis, MO, Savvis Center (On Sale 11/10/01)
11/30/01 - Atlanta, GA, Philips Arena (On Sale 11/10/01)
12/01/01 - Tampa, FL, Ice Palace (On Sale 11/17/01)
12/02/01 - Miami, FL, American Airlines Arena (On Sale 11/17/01)

Those of you paying attention have already noted that most of these shows go on sale this Saturday (with the exception of Tampa and Miami)! Keep in mind that every other show on this leg of the Elevation tour sold-out almost immediately, so you've got to make plans to join us now!

Tickets are $45.00, $85.00 and gold circle tickets are $130.00. General Admission floor tickets are $45.00. Tickets are limited to four (4) tickets per person, including two (2) General Admission floor tickets.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:20 AM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2001

Exclusive: New U2 Fall Dates Kick Off Oct. 10

9.8.01 - Billboard

As first tipped here in June, U2 will revisit North America for another leg of 22 dates in October and November, with an official announcement expected Tuesday (Sept. 11). Having already wrapped treks in North America and Europe, the Irish quartet will kick off round three of its Elevation tour Oct. 10 at the 12,000-capacity Joyce Center on the campus of Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind.

Half the cities on the second route are repeat markets from the first leg of the sold-out tour, including Montreal (Oct. 12), Chicago (Oct. 15), New York (Oct. 24), East Rutherford, N.J. (Oct. 28), Philadelphia (Nov. 2), Denver (Nov. 7), and Los Angeles (Nov. 12). Given that U2 has committed to 22 dates and only 16 markets are on the trek, several multiple-night stands are expected.

"We felt we did dramatically underplay some of the major markets," says Arthur Fogel, president of touring for Clear Channel Entertainment (CCE), worldwide producers of the Elevation tour. "We felt it was important to go back and play them again."

So far, U2 has played 50 dates in North America and 33 in Europe on this jaunt, all of which sold out. To date, the tour has grossed $105 million; the remaining dates should take U2's gross close to $135 million for the year. Such numbers make a strong case for the group as 2001's top touring act in the world.

As tours go, Elevation appears to be that rare unqualified success among critics, fans, venues, band, and producers. "It has been an unbelievably smooth tour," Fogel says. He adds that no more dates are expected following the fall North American run. No opening act has yet been finalized, but it is understood that U2 has whittled down the candidates to a list of five. PJ Harvey opened the first round of North American dates this summer, while various artists supported in Europe.

Here are U2's new North American tour dates:

Oct. 10: South Bend, Ind. (Joyce Center)
Oct. 12: Montreal (Molson Centre)
Oct. 13: Hamilton, Ontario (Copps Coliseum)
Oct. 15: Chicago (United Center)
Oct. 18: city/venue TBA
Oct. 19: Baltimore (Baltimore Arena)
Oct. 24: New York (Madison Square Garden)
Oct. 28: East Rutherford, N.J. (Continental Airlines Arena)
Oct. 30: Providence, R.I. (Civic Center)
Nov. 2: Philadelphia (First Union Center)
Nov. 5: Austin, Texas (Frank Erwin Center)
Nov. 7: Denver (Pepsi Center)
Nov. 9: Salt Lake City (Utah)
Nov. 15: Oakland, Calif. (Oakland Arena)
Nov. 18: Las Vegas (Thomas & Mack Center)

-- Ray Waddell, Nashville

Posted by Jonathan at 04:08 AM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2001

U2 Has Luck Of The Irish For Biggest Ireland Gig

8.25.01 - Reuters

By Michael Roddy

SLANE, Ireland (Reuters) - It was a beautiful day, and night too, as Irish supergroup U2 brought its world tour back home on Saturday for an emotion-charged concert before its biggest audience ever in Ireland.

"Thank you so much for coming out," lead singer Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, told 80,000 adoring fans packed into a huge field beside Slane Castle on the Boyne River north of Dublin, under clear night skies.

The mostly young audience went wild as the supergroup launched into some of its biggest hits, including "It's a Beautiful Day," "End of the World" and the political "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" about killings in Northern Ireland in 1972.

The most poignant moment came when Bono sang "Kite," a song he has dedicated to his father, Bob Hewson, a retired postal clerk who died on Tuesday after a long illness.

"I want to thank God for taking my old man away from his sickness and his tired old body and giving him a new one," Bono said before launching into the ballad, which includes the lyrics: "Who's to know when the time has come around/ Don't want to see you cry/I know this is not goodbye."

U2's appearance before a stadium-sized crowd in Ireland was its first since 1997. Fans witnessed one of the most emotional and dramatic shows by one of history's biggest rock acts.

Bono, who has used his stardom as a platform to campaign for relief of Third World debt and other international social causes, was clearly moved.

He seemed to get a special charge out of playing for an audience that knew every word and every twist to every song and poured out enthusiasm for the group, together for 25 years.

FOR IRELAND'S YOUTH

Supermodel Naomi Campbell, former Formula One racing driver Eddie Irvine and singer Robbie Williams were among celebrities publicists said attended, but the day and night clearly belonged to the youth of Ireland, who were in a serious mood to celebrate.

"This is absolutely massive, it's the biggest occasion that has happened here for the last 10 or 20 years," said Darren Byrne, 24, a sales representative in a blue-and-white checked "Mad Hatter" style hat who danced along with friends.

Byrne said he had queued all night to buy tickets for the concert, which sold out in 45 minutes.

Jenny Wright, 50, originally of Northern Ireland and a long-time fan, said she'd flown from Portugal just for the show.

"I'm old Ireland," she said, "but this event is for young Ireland, definitely."

Police and first aid crews took precautions to avoid trouble, including anyone drowning while swimming the Boyne to get in, but reported no serious incidents by early evening.

Police made at least 43 drug arrests and confiscated at least 100 forged tickets.

Slane village was effectively closed to all but locals for the day before and the day of the concert, which irritated some.

"It's a nightmare," said Myra Collins, who lives just outside the walls of the 18th-century castle, where U2 recorded its 1984 album, "The Unforgettable Fire."

Other residents, including some with no interest in U2 or pop music, were happy about the concert, which included other major bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Coldplay.

"It's grand, it brings a bit of activity," said Bert Gough, 80, a retired textile worker sitting on his front steps across from the castle walls, soaking up the rare Irish sunshine and watching the parade of youth pass by.

U2, which began its "Elevation Tour 2001" in Miami in March, has been on the road most of the time since.

Industry publications reported that even before adding 25 additional U.S. dates, the tour had generated an estimated $142 million worldwide.

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July 14, 2001

U2 Scores Most Profitable Tour

7.14.01 - Launch

U2's Elevation tour has been the most profitable tour this season. It has grossed $69 million, and rolls through Europe the next two months. Mid-year touring statistics are featured in the latest edition of tour industry trade magazine, Pollstar. Other rockers in the top five include Elton John and Billy Joel and the Dave Matthews Band.

U2 guitarist the Edge told LAUNCH that the Elevation tour in support of its All That You Can't Leave Behind album is connecting with fans in a special way. "I'm having the best time as we all are. It's been such a thrill to play this album live and to, kind of, just see this it going off in the way that it's gone off," he said. "The shows have been inspirational for us and that our audience seem to be completely into it as well, and it's just great."

Pollstar also notes revenue for the touring industry is down. The money earned from the top 50 tours is down $61 million from the amount earned by the top 50 acts at this time last year. Ticket prices have generally gone up, but some acts, such as 3 Doors Down ($21.82) and Lynyrd Skynyrd ($21.90), have attempted to keep ticket prices affordable. Those two bands had the cheapest tickets of the top 50 tours.

-- Darren Davis, New York and Gary Graff, Detroit

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June 22, 2001

U2 Wraps First Leg Of Elevation Tour

6.22.01 - Launch

U2 wraps up the first North American leg of its Elevation world tour tonight (June 22) at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The tour began in late March in Sunrise, Florida, and has crisscrossed the United States and Canada extensively. During a May break, frontman Bono's wife gave birth to the couple's fourth child and second son, and the group recently filmed a concert in Boston for a home video and TV special that should air later this year.

With nearly 50 concerts under his belt this year, singer-guitarist the Edge tells LAUNCH that playing the Elevation shows has increased his appreciation for the Irish quartet's latest album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. "This record--I can listen to it and I really, I enjoy it, which is a testimony to, I think, a good record. But there's still so many things I'd love to change about it, and in particular now that we've started playing the songs live," he says. "You know, you start to discover things about the songs when you've played them in front of your audience that only that experience could tell you. We know some of the songs could have been even better than they were on the record."

U2 will take a two-week break before kicking off its European tour on July 6 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The band is planning to return to North America this fall, playing mostly cities it didn't hit in the past three months.

-- Gary Graff, Detroit

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April 19, 2001

U2 Pays Tribute To Joey Ramone

4.19.01 - Launch

(4/19/01, 3 p.m. ET) -- U2 frontman Bono may have been the last artist to speak to Joey Ramone, as the singer called him at New York Presbyterian Hospital on Good Friday (April 13). Two days later when Ramone passed away, U2's "In A Little While" was playing. As the song ended, so did his life.

Bono was very moved by Ramone, and he said in a statement, "In Dublin in 1977 when I saw Joey singing I knew nothing else mattered to him. Pretty soon nothing else mattered to me. The Ramones stopped the music world long enough for U2 and the other garage bands to get on. They invented something...the idea that your limitations were what made you...your street, your neighborhood, the clothes on your back, your record collection was the size of your universe."

Upon hearing that Ramone died, Bono sung a rendition of "Amazing Grace" in honor of the Ramones frontman in Portland, Oregon on Sunday (April 15). In San Diego on April 17, he dedicated the song "In A Little While" to Ramone, and prefaced it with his remembrances of the singer. Later in the show he dedicated the Ramones song "I Remember You" to the late singer (U2 also performed the song earlier in the year at New York City's Irving Plaza). In San Diego, Bono also dedicated "Walk On" to Ramone.

-- Darren Davis, New York

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March 25, 2001

U2 Elevation Tour Takes Off Soaring

3.25.01 - Reuters

By Angus MacSwan

MIAMI (Reuters) - Rock superstars U2 launched their first U.S. tour in nearly four years in classic form in Florida on Saturday night, treating 20,000 devoted, delirious fans to a crowd-pleasing mix of old and new songs delivered with their legendary energy free of the extravagances of their most recent tours.

The Irish rockers hit the stage of the National Car Rental Center arena at Sunrise, near Miami, with the house lights still on and launched into a swinging "Elevation" for their new album "All That You Can't Leave Behind".

For the next two hours they put on a performance in which the songs, not the stage props, were the focus. They played six from the new album but also reached back to the socially-aware anthems of their 1980s glory days for a raft of songs from "War", "The Joshua Tree" and beyond, even bashing out their first ever single, "I Will Follow".

The elaborate stage props, production and high-tech music of their 1990s stadium tours -- the Trabants, the giant lemon and the live link-up with Sarajevo -- were also scaled back. Still, a diamond-shaped catwalk surrounded the stage, along which the indefatigable Bono strutted, sprinted and exhorted the crowd.

Inside the circle were a few hundred lucky fans -- when the black-clad singer strode out on the walk-way, it appeared he was walking along the outstretched arms of the faithful.

Much-Anticipated Opening Night

Fans had come from far and wide for the much-anticipated opening night of the Elevation Tour 2001, which will take a band that has sold 100 million albums worldwide since they started out playing Dublin pubs nearly a quarter-century ago on an 80-date trek through North America and Europe.

"I just love U2 and it's always been a dream of mine to see them on an opening night," said Canadian Justin Luey, who had come down from St. Catherine's, Ontario for the show. A veteran U2 follower, he has tickets for 13 of the dates on the tour.

"It's a connection...everything they write makes sense to me. They care about their audience . They challenge us, " the 25-year-old Internet designer said before the concert kicked off. " I'm not worried at all they'll deliver."

Fellow Irishman Elvis Costello, in Miami on vacation, was among the celebratory guests.

The band followed "Elevation" with "Beautiful Day," a song which helped them to three Grammys (news - web sites) at the music award show last month. Then it was into their back pages for "New Years Day."

Guitarist the Edge (Dave Evans), dressed in a Miami Dolphins T-shirt, jeans and black wool cap, earned cheers for his fa

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