July 25, 201113 yr Author From http://www.nme.com/news/u2/58241#2 July 25, 2011 15:13 U2 dedicate 'Stuck In A Moment' to Amy Winehouse Band honour late singer during Minneapolis gig U2 dedicated their 2001 single 'Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of' to Amy Winehouse during their show at Minneapolis's TCF Stadium on Saturday (July 23). The band originally wrote the song for former INXS singer Michael Hutchence, who committed suicide in 1997 and was a close friend of members of the band. On Saturday though, they played the song in tribute to Winehouse, who had been found dead hours earlier in her house in Camden, London. Before playing the song, Bono said from the stage: "We wrote this next song for Michael Hutchence, but you will understand tonight if we play it for Amy Winehouse." :( Video here
July 27, 201113 yr From: http://www.u2.com/tour/date/id/4536 'Real Thing', The Fly, Mysterious Ways, Until The End of the World... what an unexpected set list U2360° has developed over two years and four continents. Twenty years after release the opening quartet of tracks from Achtung Baby lead us to the 1970's (I Will Follow), back to now (Get On Your Boots), to 1987 ('Still Haven't Found') and we're in 1993 (Stay) before we've even noticed the trip. 'If I could stay, then the night would give you up. Stay, and the day would keep its trust. Stay, and the night would be enough....' Nobody else can do this, nobody else has the songs and the staying power and tonight, as Bono put it, on a beautiful evening in Pittsburgh, 'there's no place we'd rather be'. The penultimate show of the tour, the last one in the US and at Heinz Field, on the site of the old Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh was up to the challenge. 'Hot summer night in the burgh, come on now champions, where you gonna take us?' There's so many great people associated with this city that the band might feel intimidated, suggests Bono, but... actually they weren't! Pittsburgh may have introduced Charles Bronson to the world 'but we have our very own movie star, Larry Mullen Jnr.' Pittsburgh may be associated with that 'paragon of style and comfort Perry Como.. but I give you Adam Clayton!' The world would not be the same without the great Andy Warhol 'but could not the same be said of the man on my right... The Edge?' As for the vocalist, he'll take comparisons with that blue-eyed soul singer Christina Aguilera: 'I'm in touch with my inner chick'. Special guests tonight included a little boy who received a tour of the stage during City Of Blinding Lights and 'Matt and Melissa', serious about the band and about each other, who slow-danced their way through With Or Without You as if they were the only couple in the house. 'I never thought of our band as a smoochin thing... ' We thought it was the beginning of the end when the lights went down, the cellphones came on and the milky way arrived 'for all the people who are trying to hang on' but Moment of Surrender from 2009 led into another song about surrender. This one came from 1984 and it arrives in the show like a miracle on special occasions, tonight complete with some Van Morrison and Lou Reed and a final benediction in '40'. 'This is a special song for a special city. This is for a very special man who grew up on Cedarwood Road. We wrote this song about him, we play it for him tonight...' 'If you twist and turn away. It you tear yourself in two again. If I could, yes I would If I could, I would let it go. Surrender, dislocate....'
July 27, 201113 yr Author Probably :nocheer: The promoter will be adding dates in Bolivia as we speak....
July 27, 201113 yr It is, the only reason I know is that it's in the title of that link I just posted.
July 27, 201113 yr Author From http://www.musicrooms.net/alternative/3825...u2-s-wings.html Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody says his group reckon they’ve been very lucky to have fellow rock band U2 take “us under their wings”. The Take Back The City hitmakers have been opening for the Irish group on their 360˚ Tour – which comes to a close on Saturday in Canadian city Moncton at the Magnetic Hill Music Festival – with Gary saying that it has been a wonderful learning experience for Snow Patrol because the veteran band possess such great knowledge of the music business but still somehow hang on to their passion. The 35-year-old talked with Absolute Radio’s Vicki Bright about the Dublin rockers, saying that “all of the group – Bono, too – are music lovers, first and foremost”. Gary added that U2 “have an absolutely voracious appetite for music”, which he finds incredible following “their many years at it” and the fact they are still “hungry to compete against younger bands – bands that are just coming out”. The guitarist and singer is also in awe of U2’s undying enthusiasm to remain at the top of their game, stating that “they want to compete, they want to be relevant, they want to kick ass, but their love of music is kind of overwhelming – they have a great respect for people in bands”. But Gary is particularly astonished that U2 – who are The Edge, Bono, Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton – have spent so much time with Snow Patrol, pointing out that hasn’t always been the case with other groups they have been on tour with. He said that, while “sometimes you are lucky to get a word out of a band that you’re playing with…U2 have taken us under their wings, and they’re big wings to be taken under, I have to say, but you learn an awful lot in there”.
July 29, 201113 yr Author From http://www.billboard.com/news/u2-set-to-wr...92.story?page=2 U2 will perform the 110th and final show :wacko: of its monster U2 360 Tour Saturday (July 30) in Moncton, New Brunswick, wrapping up not only epic technological and musical achievements, but also going into the history books as the biggest tour ever. When the final numbers are tallied, U2 360 will record a gross of $736,137,344 and total attendance of 7,268,430, Billboard.com has learned, both the highest tour tallies ever reported to Billboard. U2 broke the Rolling Stones' previous gross record of $558 million on April 10 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as first reported on Billboard.com April 8. :blink: :blink: :blink: The success of 360 is a testament not only to the enduring global appeal of the band, but also its ground-breaking -- and risky -- 360-degree production, which increased the capacities of stadiums by as much as 25%. Details of the tour were first revealed on Billboard.com in March of 2009, when the tour, in support of the band's 2008 album "No Line On The Horizon," was still operating under the working title of "Kiss The Future." By the time it was officially announced on March 9 of that year, the tour carried the "360" title, which longtime band manager Paul McGuinness says is a reference not only to the unique production of the tour, but also a sly nod to U2's long-term multi-rights deal with promoter Live Nation, "a little private joke to amuse myself at one point." This was the band's first tour under that deal, steered by long-time U2 tour producer Arthur Fogel, chairman of Live Nation Global Touring and his Toronto-based team. The tour began June 30, 2009, in Barcelona, Spain, and swept across Europe before landing on North American shores on Sept. 12 in Chicago. This was the first time the band had played stadiums on the continent since the PopMart tour in 1997/'98. As popular as U2 is worldwide, launching a never-before-attempted 360 configuration that would put 7 million tickets in the marketplace in a treacherous global economy was ambitious, to say the least. "I remember when everything was first laid out, the production was conceived, and we came to the realization of what it did to the capacities," Fogel told Billboard.com/biz backstage at the tour's 100th stop in Nashville earlier this month. "We were in a meeting in New York, we saw the design, and talked about all the different angles. There was a moment of sitting there and everyone thinking, 'do you think we'll sell the tickets?' My gut was 'absolutely yes,' and I remember leaving the meeting and thinking, "oh shit.'" Beyond the huge financial commitment the band and producers had made in launching the massive tour (not to mention a daily nut of $750,000 on the road, according to McGuinness), the aesthetic success of the production and the staging known as "the claw," which literally surrounds the band with fans, depends on full houses. "There's nowhere to hide," Fogel says. "It was definitely scary." But sell those tickets they did, all over the world, and Fogel says what he learned form 360 was "probably more so than any other tour, to trust my instincts." The launch and execution of 360 were meticulously planned for more than a year, but those best-laid plans were blown up when news came last spring that the tour's second North American leg would have to be scrapped due to an injury and resulting back surgery for U2 front man Bono. Producers were already on the ground at what was to be the tour's first stop on that round in Salt Lake City when the news came. Rejiggering the tour midstream was "challenging," says Fogel. But the team moved quickly from the initial shock to rebuilding the North American leg for a year later, and did that so expertly that they not only were able to put most fans in the exact seat they would have been had the tour gone off as planned, but also found seven more shows, including the band's first Nashville stop in 30 years. "It was difficult at the time, but the most amazing thing through it all was the refund rate across all the shows was only about 9%, which is ridiculous," says Fogel. "And we resold all those tickets." The final North American dates are considered by those involved to be among the band's best on the tour, and mark a triumphant return to stadiums on this continent after the last stadium run in PopMart, which struggled to sell tickets in some markets. U2 played stadiums internationally but arenas in North America on the Vertigo tour in 2005-2007 the Elevation tour of 2001. "After PopMart, the strategy was definitely to build back up North America, under-play, create that buzz and that demand, and I think we did a great job with that," says Fogel, who has now produced four of the top five highest-grossing tours of all time. "To go outdoors in America this time, particularly with this production, is a story in itself. This thing, apart from, obviously, the band, great musicians, great music, great songs, was about creating that buzz in the world about this production. That was the hook." Now that U2 360 is set to close, Fogel says the magnitude of the accomplishment, which he calls a "career highlight," is "finally starting to sink in."
July 31, 201113 yr Maritime U2 fans find what they’ve been looking for Some superb pictures here ... http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/1256060.html MONCTON — It's the ultimate musical example of the mountain coming to Mohammad, as U2’s mammoth 360º Tour touched down in Moncton on Saturday night, bringing the Irish quartet’s two-year odyssey — for lack of a better term — full circle. Even years of hype, the halfway-point release of the Rose Bowl show on DVD and the months of building excitement since the show’s announcement couldn’t prepare anyone for the experience of seeing one of the world’s top acts in such an elaborate production worthy of its three-decade reputation. The monstrous, spider-like stage, known officially as “The Claw” has dominated the Magnetic Hill landscape for days, as the gleaming spire that pierced its heart acted like a beacon, drawing more than 80,000 concertgoers from across Atlantic Canada, and the Atlantic Ocean, for the grand finale of the highest grossing concert tour of all time. While Twitter reported Neil Young was spotted in town pre-concert (having breakfast at Cora’s, according to one tweet), a former James Bond, the very tanned Pierce Brosnan (for whom U2 composed the Goldeneye theme tune) made his way to the VIP tent backstage. It seemed as if Bono not only has the ear of world leaders, but Mother Nature herself. The downpour that frustrated drivers making their way to the Maritimes’ hub, and drenched early arrivals jostling for position around the outer lip of the circular stage, came to a halt about an hour before opening act Carny got the ball rolling. Chosen by U2 to help develop the tunes for their Broadway Spider-Man musical Turn Off the Dark, the obscure L.A. band lived up to the latter half of the production’s name with a fierce miasma of sound delivered in theatrical style, interrupted briefly by an odd dash of western swing and punk on Amelie, sounding like Les Paul being put through a blender. Given the age of the audience in the grandstands, the biggest impression Carny made was likely its mashup of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and The Beatles’ I Want You, as its drama was soon outshadowed by Montreal’s Arcade Fire. Fresh from its appearances on Dartmouth’s waterfront and Sackville, N.B.’s, Sappyfest (where they played a not-so-secret show under the nom-de-stage of Shark Attack), the world’s reigning indie pop band bit into the challenge of performing for the largest crowd it has ever seen. The Montreal octet began as it did on Alderney Landing, with Ready to Start prodding the crowd with a double drumbeat from Jeremy Gara and Regine Chassagne, whose sparkling gold lame dress would have been visible from space. Dressed in a jacket pilfered from a first class waiter on a 1920s ocean liner, singer guitarist Win Butler switched to bouzouki for Keep the Car Running, while Arcade Fire’s orchestral pop motor inspired pockets of dancing within the ever-growing mass of bodies filling the space around the stage. “It is our sacred duty to make sure you’re warm for the last show of U2’s tour,” vowed Butler, and the band took it’s job seriously, with big, beaming smiles and generous blasts of baroque, hook-filled tunes. As the sun, what we could see of it anyway, began to set, the air was ripped apart by the earsplitting roar of two Canadian Armed Forces fighter jets flying overhead. The sound system pumped out tunes with a certain finality about them, like Don’t Dream It’s Over and It’s The End of the World As We Know It, before switching to the traditional show opener, David Bowie’s Space Oddity. The air quickly turned electric: U2 was on its way. Suddenly The Claw came alive, its canvas-covered fingers pulsating with light while the sea of people became a living ocean, undulating to Even Better Than the Real Thing while glowing with dots of phosphoresence from its cellphones. As Larry Mullen pounded the floor toms, Bono came out like a champion, kicking and jabbing with his mic stand like a UFC fighter psyching out his opponent. U2 made The Claw their personal playground, as Bono, The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton crossed the twin bridges to the outer ring for Mysterious Ways. Only a few feet from adoring fans outstreched hands, they circled the catwalk as tens of thousands of voices joined in. Bono shook those hands and menaced a nearby video camera for Faraway So Close. To the faraway crowd gazing at the giant LCD screen suspended over the stage, he looked like a man possessed, and not for the first time that night. After The Edge’s fuzz-draped riff accompanied an impassioned cover of Leonard Cohen’s Anthem, Bono mused “Love, flowers, peace, freedom...somewhere in the world tonight that word freedom feels very expensive.” Chucking flowers into the crowd from the rotating bridge, the frontman began gesticulating like an evangelical preacher, shaking with the spirit. All that was missing was a pair of snakes. After the blistering blast from the past of U2’s debut single I Will Follow, and the sage advice of Get On Your Boots, Bono finally greeted the crowd and mused about the tour’s final resting place. “Moncton...Town of Monks....” he grinned, while remarking that the tour had seen 18 births, two marriages and eight separations among its crew. “I'm still a work in progress,” he then declared as The Edge’s familiar bright arpeggio announced the start of Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, which Bono let the crowd sing while he sashayed around to the back of the stage to conduct the choir loft in the rear grandstand. Then came an a cappella chorus The Ballad of Springhill, which made the crowd lose their collective minds as Bono’s vocal cracked a bit relating the tale of the Nova Scotia mining disaster. “Beautiful tune,” he said in a hushed voice. The beautiful tune was followed by Beautiful Day, introduced by an officer on the International Space Station, who could probably make out the stage and the flashing of a myriad cameras as the clouds parted. While newer tunes made less of an impact with the audience, including one composition from the aforementioned Spider-Man debacle, nostalgic buttons were firmly pushed by Pride (In the Name of Love), and its undying ode to freedom and equality, before the screen elongated to almost stage level and U2 kicked out the jams with its best single of the past decade, the dance-inducing Vertigo, followed by its worst, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, helped only moderately by a snazzy dance remix. Thankfully, the show soon switched gears to cut through to a deeper emotional core as only U2 can do, with Bono delivering a heartfelt Walk On dedicated toAung San Suu Kyi, theBurmese democratic leader who ended 15 years of house arrest last year, and a glorious Where the Streets Have No Name lifted the crowd on a wave emotion that could be felt across the hill, reminding us that music has the power to move mountains. Source..The Chronicleherald.ca Edited July 31, 201113 yr by Sacramento
July 31, 201113 yr Author Yes, what happened to the supposed gig at the new stadium in Dublin? Or has Robbie Williams booked it for his free concert the night they wanted? :unsure: :P
July 31, 201113 yr Author Sooooooooooooooo, what are U2 going to do now? An extended holiday in their respective French Riviera villas? Or maybe get recording this long awaited new album.... :rolleyes:
July 31, 201113 yr Lets hope they get recording and then time for another tour to promote their new album :lol:
August 1, 201113 yr So much for them finishing the tour in Ireland :huh: We have a major recession here :puke2: & what we really need is ' a good session ' :cheer: but a free one as no one can afford to buy tickets anymore :mellow:
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