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| start_date = 30 June 2009
| start_date = 30 June 2009
| end_date = Late 2010
| end_date = Late 2010
| number_of_legs = 4, literally!
| number_of_legs = 4
| number_of_shows = 90–100
| number_of_shows = 90–100
| 360.U2.com
| 360.U2.com

Revision as of 03:24, 31 March 2009

Template:Future

U2 360° Tour
Tour by U2
Associated albumNo Line on the Horizon
Start date30 June 2009
End dateLate 2010
Legs4
No. of shows90–100
U2 concert chronology

The U2 360° Tour is an upcoming worldwide concert tour by the Irish rock band U2.[1] Launching in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour will visit stadiums from 2009 through 2010, whereas the previous two tours, the Elevation Tour and the Vertigo Tour, were primarily played in indoor arenas. The U2 360° Tour is named after the 360-degree staging and audience configuration it uses for shows,[2] which U2 claims is "the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure."[3]

Itinerary

The initial tour dates were formally announced on 9 March 2009.[3]

U2 are planning to play 40–45 shows in 2009.[4] The tour will begin in Barcelona on 30 June and play in Europe through to 22 August 2009.[4] The North American leg of the tour is planned to begin on 12 September 2009 at Soldier Field in Chicago and will end on 28 October 2009.[4] The band will return to American stadiums for June and July 2010, and travel back to Europe for August and September 2010. The band tentatively plan to tour South America sometime in 2010.[4] The U2 360° Tour could potentially consist of 90–100 shows over the two years.[4]

Stage design

File:U2-360-stage.JPG
A 3D mockup of the stage design.

The tour will feature a 360-degree configuration, with the stage being placed closer to the center of the stadium's field than usual.[5] The stage will have no defined front or back and will be surrounded on all sides by the audience.[5] The stage design will also include a cylindrical video screen and will increase the venues' capacities by about 15–20%.[4] Only tiered football stadiums can be used with this scheme; flat fields and baseball stadiums are not possible venues.[5] Willie Williams, who has worked on every U2 tour since 1982, is again a designer for this tour;[5] Mark Fisher serves as the architect.[3]

Williams had been toying with ideas for 360-degree stadium staging for U2 for a number of years,[6] and presented sketches of a four-legged design to the group near the end of their Vertigo Tour in 2006.[7] The inspiration for the "spaceship-on-four-legs" design, nicknamed "the Claw", came from the landmark Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport.[7] The steel structure will be 164 feet tall – doubling the size of the stadium set for The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour, the previous highest – and will require 120 trucks to transport.[7] Each leg of the structure will contain its own sound system.[7] U2 will purchase carbon offsets to take into consideration the environmental impact of the massive production.[7]

As the tour was announced, U2 guitarist The Edge said of the show's design: "It's hard to come up with something that's fundamentally different, but we have, I think, on this tour. Where we're taking our production will never have been seen before by anybody, and that's an amazing thing to be able to say. For a band like U2 that really thrive on breaking new ground, it's a real thrill."[8] Lead singer Bono said the design was intended to overcome the staid traditional appearance of outdoor concerts where the stage was dominated by speaker stacks on either side: "We have some magic, and we've got some beautiful objects we're going to take around the world, and we're inside that object."[9] He also said that the group's goal was for the show to not be too choreographed.[10] Williams said the goal is to establish a physical proximity: "The band is just sitting in the palm of the audience's hand."[7]

Commercial partnerships and philanthropy

File:U2RedZone.gif

This file may be deleted after Monday, 6 April 2009.

The tour will be U2's first under their 12-year deal with Live Nation.[4] It is sponsored by BlackBerry,[9] in a move that breaks U2's prior relationship with Apple Inc. and opens possibilities for collaborations between U2 and Research in Motion on mobile music experiences.[11] Lead singer Bono said of the new relationship, "I’m very excited about this. Research in Motion is going to give us what Apple wouldn’t: access to their labs and their people so we can do something really spectacular."[12] The explicit corporate sponsorship of a tour was a first for the group, and was due to the anticipated production costs being higher than for any previous U2 tour.[7]

A category of stage-close seats called "The Red Zone" was created to be sold via an auction process, at prices estimated at up to €1,000.[13] All proceeds are to be donated by U2 members to charity, with the The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria expected to receive much of it.[13] Approximately €9 million in U2 360° Tour profits is expected to go to charity.[13]

Tickets

U2 manager Paul McGuinness confessed anxiety over initial ticket sales taking place during the late 2000s recession.[8] Drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. said, "Will we sell it out? Who knows? Will the economic situation have an impact? Probably. But that's not going to stop us."[7] The tour will feature a tiered pricing system for tickets; the most expensive ticket will be slightly higher in price than the last tour, but the cheapest tickets, the general admission tickets, will be lower in price than the previous tour.[4] Playing larger capacity venues allows the band to price tickets more conservatively and subsidize less expensive tickets with costlier ones.[7] Field level tickets will be priced at $55, and approximately 10,000 tickets per show will cost $30. The price points will be $30, $55, and depending on the market, $90–95 and $250.[4] McGuinness said, "We have worked very hard to ensure that U2 fans can purchase a great-priced ticket with a guaranteed great view."[14]

Tickets for European shows began going on sale in mid-March, with very high demand. Shows in Göteborg, Amsterdam and Milan sold out quicky with second dates being added in each city;[15] two of those soon sold out as well.[16] In The Netherlands, demand rendered all of KPN's 0900 paid service numbers unreachable.[17] The tour set a record by selling 650,000 tickets in seven hours.[10] Regarding quick sellout of two Croke Park shows in Dublin, Bono said: "It's overwhelming, really. It's a very big deal for us to sell-out our hometown at such speed, it's unbelievable. ... We don't take anything for granted."[10]. The nearly 90,000 tickets for the opening concert in Barcelona were sold in 54 minutes, establishing a new record for concerts in Spain.[18]

North American tickets began to go on sale in late March. Random fans who purchase general admission tickets will be given seating closest to the stage.[4] Presales will be held for U2.com subscribers, with those holding membership the longest getting first chance at tickets.[19] Sales were strong, with initial dates in Chicago and outside Boston and New York selling out within minutes once the public sale began, and with second shows being added at each venue.[20] Due to the higher capacity of the 360 degree configuration, the shows will set records for the largest concert attendance at each venue as well.[20]

Support acts

Support acts for the European dates will include Glasvegas, Elbow, Kaiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol, and Black Eyed Peas.[14]

English rock band Muse announced that they will support U2 at some North American shows in September, including New York on September 24.[21]

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue Opening Act
Europe [3]
June 30, 2009 Barcelona Spain Camp Nou TBD
July 2, 2009
July 7, 2009 Milan Italy San Siro TBD
July 8, 2009
July 11, 2009 Paris France Stade de France Kaiser Chiefs
July 12, 2009
July 15, 2009 Nice France Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann TBD
July 18, 2009 Berlin Germany Olympic Stadium TBD
July 20, 2009 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdam Arena TBD
July 21, 2009
July 24, 2009 Dublin Ireland Croke Park TBD
July 25, 2009
July 27, 2009
July 31, 2009 Gothenburg Sweden Ullevi Stadium TBD
August 1, 2009
August 3, 2009 Gelsenkirchen Germany Veltins Arena TBD
August 6, 2009 Chorzow Poland Śląski Stadium TBD
August 10, 2009 Zagreb Croatia Maksimir Stadium TBD
August 14, 2009 London England Wembley Stadium Elbow
August 15, 2009 London England Wembley Stadium Glasvegas
August 18, 2009 Glasgow Scotland Hampden Park TBD
August 20, 2009 Sheffield England Don Valley Stadium TBD
August 22, 2009 Cardiff Wales Millennium Stadium TBD
North America [3]
September 12, 2009 Chicago United States Soldier Field Snow Patrol
September 13, 2009
September 16, 2009 Toronto Canada Rogers Centre Snow Patrol
September 17, 2009
September 20, 2009 Boston United States Gillette Stadium Snow Patrol
September 21, 2009
September 24, 2009 New York City United States Giants Stadium Muse
September 25, 2009
September 29, 2009 Washington, DC United States FedEx Field Muse
October 01, 2009 Charlottesville United States Scott Stadium TBD
October 06, 2009 Atlanta United States Georgia Dome TBD
October 09, 2009 Tampa United States Raymond James Stadium TBD
October 25, 2009 Los Angeles United States Rose Bowl TBD
October 28, 2009 Vancouver Canada BC Place Stadium TBD

The band also plans to perform in Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Norman, Oklahoma, Phoenix, and Raleigh, though dates and venues have not yet been announced.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Tour News 06 March 2009". U2.com. 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
  2. ^ Lustig, Jay (2009-03-09). "U2's 360 Degree Tour coming to Giants Stadium". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2009-03-09. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Announcing the U2 360° Tour". U2.com. 2009-03-09. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Waddell, Ray (2009-03-06). "U2 to 'Kiss the Future' on Global Stadium Tour". Billboard. Retrieved 2009-03-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ a b c d "Paul McGuiness on U2's World Tour". Hot Press. 2009-03-04. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
  6. ^ McGee, Matt (2002-06-12). "The Full Willie, Pt. 2". atu2.com. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hiatt, Brian (2009-03-23). "Inside U2's Plans to Rock Stadiums Around the Globe". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-03-24. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ a b Waddell, Ray (2009-03-06). "U2 gets on its boots for 2-year world tour". MSNBC. Billboard for Reuters. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  9. ^ a b Vena, Jocelyn and Kaufman, Gil (2009-03-09). "U2 Reinvent Stadium Rock Shows With 360 Tour". MTV News. Retrieved 2009-03-09.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ a b c "U2 set new ticket sales record". Hot Press. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
  11. ^ Spence, Nick (2009-03-11). "U2 dumps Apple for RIM, Palm". Macworld. Retrieved 2009-03-12. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Cross, Alan (2009-03-12). "World Exclusive! Bono Speaks About RIM Deal". ExploreMusic. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
  13. ^ a b c "U2 to give €9m of tour profits to charity". The Belfast Telegraph. 2009-03-30. Retrieved 2009-03-30. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ a b "U2 confirm plans to tour Europe". BBC News. 2009-03-09. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  15. ^ Smith, Jay (2009-03-16). "U2 Sells Out!". Pollstar. Retrieved 2009-03-19. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Grossweiner, Bob and Cohen, Jane (2009-03-16). "U2 tour sells out five stadium shows in first weekend of ticket sales". Ticket News. Retrieved 2009-03-19.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ "'KPN underestimated demand for U2 ticket hotline'". DMEurope via Comtex. 2009-03-17. Retrieved 2009-03-19.
  18. ^ "U2 tickets sell out in under an hour". thinkSpain. 2009-03-25. Retrieved 2009-03-26.
  19. ^ "U2 Tour Pre-Sale FAQs". U2.com. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  20. ^ a b "Live Nation: Stateside U2 Sales Strong". Billboard. 2009-03-30. Retrieved 2009-03-30. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  21. ^ http://www.nme.com/news/muse/43686

External links


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