New date coming for Edmonton show at Commonwealth Stadium
By Journal Staff, edmontonjournal.com
EDMONTON -- U2's much-anticipated date at Commonwealth Stadium on June 23 has been postponed until 2011 because of Bono's back surgery.
Tour promoters Live Nation announced on U2's website this morning that the 16 U2360° shows from Salt Lake City on June 3, through to New Jersey's Meadowlands Stadium on July 19, will be rescheduled to 2011. The Edmonton concert on June 23 was the first Canadian stop on the tour and the first local visit by the Irish rockers in 13 years.
U2 tour producer/promoter Arthur Fogel, CEO of Live Nation Global Touring, said "although we understand the disappointment to U2 fans, first and foremost comes the recovery of Bono."
Live Nation said today additional details on rescheduled dates will follow shortly and fans are encouraged to hold onto their tickets.
Bono, who recently turned 50, required emergency back surgery Friday morning, forcing the band to immediately postpone the June 3 tour kickoff in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was taken to hospital in Munich, Germany, after an "injury sustained during tour preparation training," but has since been released from hospital.
"Bono has now been discharged from Ludwig Maximilians-University Hospital in Munich (southern Germany) where he underwent emergency surgery on Friday, following a back injury," the Irish band said on its website.
"This surgery was the only course of treatment for full recovery and to avoid further paralysis," the site quoted the doctor who performed the operation, Joerg-Christian Tonn, as saying.
The singer was suffering from severe compression of the sciatic nerve, a serious tear in the ligament and a herniated disc, doctors said. He is to start a rehabilitation program and will need at least eight weeks to recuperate.
Speaking at the LMU University Hospital in Munich, U2 manager Paul McGuinness said "our biggest and, I believe, best tour has been interrupted and we're all devastated. For a performer who lives to be on stage, this is more than a blow. He feels robbed of the chance to do what he does best and feels like he has badly let down the band and their audience. Which is of course nonsense. His concerns about more than a million ticket buyers whose plans have been turned upside down, we all share, but the most important thing right now is that Bono make a full recovery. We're working as fast as we can with Live Nation to reschedule these dates."
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