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Zoo TV Tour

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For the fan club-exclusive album released from this tour, see Zoo TV Live.
Zoo TV Tour
Tour by U2
Start dateFebruary 29, 1992
End dateDecember 10, 1993
Legs5
No. of shows157
U2 concert chronology

The Zoo TV Tour was an elaborately-staged, multimedia concert tour by Irish rock band U2 that took place in arenas and stadiums over 1992 and 1993. It was a show that operated on many levels; designed to instill a feeling of "sensory overload" in its audience, it used the video age for much of its inspiration.[1] In 2002, Q magazine called it "still the most spectacular rock tour staged by any band."[2]

Different phases of the tour were also known as Zoo TV – The Outside Broadcast, Zooropa, and Zoomerang. The tour began in Lakeland, Florida on February 29, 1992 and ended in Tokyo, Japan on December 10, 1993. It comprised five legs, 157 shows, was seen by about 5.4 million people,[3] and was the highest-grossing tour in North America of 1992.[4]

If U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby was, as lead singer Bono said, "the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree", then the Zoo TV Tour marked a shift from the band's previously achingly earnest stage performances that had typified their previous tours in the 1980s. Differing from all previous and subsequent U2 tours, the Zoo TV shows opened with six to eight consecutive new songs before playing any older material. The songs were complemented by a myriad of bewildering visual effects.

The tour was alternately spelled ZooTV, ZOO TV, and ZOOTV.

The stage

File:Zoo stage.jpg
The Zoo TV Outside Broadcast stage

The stage was designed by frequent U2 collaborator Willie Williams, and featured vidi walls, 36 video monitors, numerous television cameras, two separate mix positions, 26 on stage microphones, 176 speakers, and 11 elaborately painted Trabants, several of which were suspended over the stage with spotlights inserted into headlights, which all required 1 million watts of power to operate: enough to run 2,000 homes.

A total of 52 trucks were required to transport the 1,200 tons of equipment, 3 miles of cabling, 200 labourers, 12 forklifts and one 40-ton crane, required to construct the stage.[5]

The show

The tour, partly inspired by CNN's seemingly endless coverage of the Gulf War[6]was, on one level, a straight-faced satire on the media overload that came to define the 1990s. [citation needed] The tour's television screens displayed a mixture of seemingly random images and slogans created by artists such as Kevin Godley, Brian Eno, Mark Pellington, Carol Dodds, Philip Owens, David Wojnarowicz, and multimedia performance artists Emergency Broadcast Network in an effort to reflect the desensitizing effect of the modern mass media.[citation needed]

The 1993 Zooropa and Zoomerang shows opened with a seven minute piece created by Emergency Broadcast Network, which wove looped images from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will with various war and news imagery sources. Following this, the stadium was darkened and moments later Bono appeared onstage, silhouetted against a giant screen of blue and white video noise. The show began with a fixed sequence of songs. In an interview on the Zoo Radio program, The Edge described the visual material that went with the first three of them:

'Zoo Station' is four minutes of a television that's not tuned in to any station, but giving you interference and shash and almost a TV picture. 'The Fly' is information meltdown – text, sayings, truisms, untruisms, oxymorons, soothsayings, etc., all blasted at high speed, just fast enough so it's impossible to actually read what's being said. 'Even Better Than the Real Thing' is whatever happens to be flying around the stratosphere on that night. Satellite TV pictures, the weather, shopping channel, cubic zirconium diamond rings, religious channels, soap operas ...

File:Rockhall lobby cars 2005.jpg
Trabants from the Zoo TV Tour now adorn the lobby of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The imagery used during "Zoo Station"'s performance was created by blending video noise with stop motion animation sequences of the band members 'filmed' on a photocopier. Some of "The Fly's" meltdown messages included 'Taste is the enemy of art', 'Religion is a club', 'Ignorance is bliss', 'Rebellion is packaged', 'Believe' with letters fading out to leave 'lie', and 'Everything you know is wrong'.

"Mysterious Ways" featured a belly dancer on-stage. "One" was accompanied by the title word shown in many languages, as well as Mark Pellington-directed video clips of buffalos leading to a still image of David Wojnarowicz's "Falling Buffalo" photograph. People found in the song, as they did with the tour, many levels of meaning; released as a single as the tour began,[7] "One" quickly became one of U2's most popular songs. During "Until the End of the World", Bono unleashed a series of egotistical rock star poses with the chaotic visual approach, this time created from a rapid-fire jumble of numbers, many of which reflected topics close to the video artist's and band's heart, [citation needed] including production crew members' birthdays, the date of Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder, the date of release of U2's first 12-inch single release in Ireland, the date of 'Bloody Sunday'. More video montage led into "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World", during which Bono would continue his long practice of dancing with a young female fan pulled from the crowd, only now spraying themselves with champagne and captured each other with a consumer camcorder video feed shown live to the audience.

U2 had used backing tracks in live performance before (such as the synthesized backdrops to "Bad" and "Where the Streets Have No Name") but, with the need to synch live performance to the high-tech visuals of Zoo TV, almost the entire show was synched and sequenced, with most numbers featuring pre-recorded percussion, keyboard, or guitar elements underlying the U2 members' live instrumentals and vocals. This practice has continued on their subsequent tours.[citation needed]

Zoo TV was one of the first large-scale concerts to feature the B stage, a smaller stage in the middle of the floor, intended "to be the antidote to Zoo TV".[8] Here, the four members would play quieter numbers such as acoustic arrangements of "Angel of Harlem" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". After that it was back to the main stage for some U2 classics played straight, but when the encores began, Bono's alter-egos returned.

The concerts usually ended with Achtung Baby's gentler "Love is Blindness", although later in the tour, it was followed by a cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love".

According to VH1's Legends: "Zoo TV saw U2 mocking the excesses of rock and roll by ironically embracing greed and decadence. However, some missed the point of the tour and thought that U2 had 'lost it', and that Bono had become an egomaniac."[9]

Other aspects

Between U2 and the support acts, eccentric Irish disk jockey BP Fallon acted as emcee, playing records and giving a running commentary while wearing a top hat and cape and seated inside a Trabant on the B-stage.[10] He also hosted Zoo Radio, a distributed radio special that showcased selected performances from Zoo TV, audio oddities, and half-serious interviews with U2 members as well as with sometime opening acts Public Enemy and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. Eventually Fallon's off-stage antics got him thrown off the tour by Larry Mullen[10] and Paul Oakenfold, who would go on to become one of the world's most prominent club DJs by the end of the 1990s, replaced him on the 1993 legs.

The tour also had a Confessional Booth where concert-goers could record a personal confession on camera. These confessions were often incorporated into the show, being displayed on the main television screens in the intervals between main show and encore.

The shows included a nightly duet between Bono and a pre-recorded video of Lou Reed singing his song "Satellite of Love" (with a real appearance from Reed on August 12, 1992 at Giants Stadium), and an almost nightly phone call to the office of American president George H. W. Bush. Though Bono never got through to the President, Bush did acknowledge the calls during a press conference.

The novelist Salman Rushdie joined the band on stage in London's Wembley Stadium on August 11, 1993 despite the author's well-publicized fear of violence from Islamic extremists, due to the controversy over his novel The Satanic Verses. When confronted by Bono's MacPhisto character, the author observed that "real devils don't wear horns."

A number of European shows featured nightly live link-ups with people living in war-torn Sarajevo. Arranged by aidworker Bill Carter, (who later with Bono's help made the documentary film Miss Sarajevo[11]), it was intended to bring world attention to the suffering of the people living in the war zone. Carter saw an interview on MTV where Bono mentioned the theme of the Zooropa leg to be an unified Europe; he felt compelled to inform Bono of the plight of the Bosnians in Sarajevo at the time.{[cn}} The link-ups allowed people who had escaped the conflict to speak with family members and loved ones within the war zone, or to accuse the West of inaction and apathy. The link ups though, drew criticism [citation needed] as being inappropriate for a rock show. In 2002, Larry Mullen said: "I can't remember anything more excruciating than those Sarajevo link-ups. It was like throwing a bucket of cold water over everybody. You could see your audience going, 'What the fuck are these guys doing?' But I'm proud to have been a part of a group who were trying to do something."[2]

Bono's stage personas

File:Fly mac.gif
(L-R) The Fly and Mr. Macphisto

The Fly

Bono had an array of on-stage personas, including The Fly, who featured in the music video for the song of the same name, as the video of "Even Better Than the Real Thing." The Fly was a intended to represent the stereotypical rock star. He wore wrap-around shades, and carried himself with exaggerated, sexual mannerisms. "We...assembled [a] postmodern rock star. We have our leg of Jim Morrison, our Elvis top, Lou Reed, Gene Vincent-we glue it all together and create it." [citation needed] The character was created in Berlin while U2 were recording Achtung Baby. Bono felt that the shades, given to him by longtime U2 stylist "Fightin'" Fintan Fitzgerald, gave him a sense of de-individuation, [citation needed] and he could really "let loose" when he wore them. [citation needed] The shades came to symbolize the "new U2", as distinct from the pious, rootsy U2 of the The Joshua Tree-era. The Fly was also intended as an answer to critics who said U2 were hypocritical wealthy rock stars. [citation needed] Bono stated in interviews, [citation needed] "They [critics] wanted it, and now they're going to get it."

In Zoo TV performances, The Fly would begin by appearing silhouetted against a video screen, dancing wildly as if drunk as "Zoo Station" opened the show. During the song, he played around with the "typical rock star" act. [citation needed] He would then play guitar during "The Fly." Often, he would make a short introductory speech about Zoo TV after "The Fly," then would play local TV channels on-screen. Then the band would begin "Even Better Than the Real Thing," in which he would play with a handicam, filming The Edge's solo, then himself.

The Mirror Ball Man

The Mirror Ball Man typically came out for the last few songs of the main set and the encores. This character was intended as a parody of American televangelists. [citation needed] The Mirror Ball Man dressed in a suit of shining silver with silver shoes and a silver hat. Typically, upon entering the stage, he carried a large mirror with him, and spoke with a kind of American accent. He would usually attempt to call then-United States President George H. W. Bush, but never got through to him. Bono traded in his Mirror Ball Man persona for Mr. MacPhisto on Zooropa and Zoomerang legs.

One speech of his[12] is a clear parody of televangelism:

I believe in love. Yes, I believe in love! Love! Money! Love! I believe in poetry! Electricity! Cheap cosmetics! I believe in the sky over my head and my silver shoes beneath me! I believe in Las Vegas! I've been there! I know that it exists. I believe in you! I believe for you! I have a vision! I have a vision! I have a vision! I have a vision! Television! Television! Television! Television!

Mr. MacPhisto

Mr. MacPhisto was imagined by Bono to be a corrupted future version of the Fly character who had become an amalgam of The Devil and a Las Vegas-era crooner-thespian.[citation needed] MacPhisto wore a gold lame suit, with gold shoes, and devil's horns atop his head. His face was heavily made-up. He spoke with a thick accent which crossed between many, but was primarily British. This character would subsequently figure prominently in the 1995 music video for "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from the soundtrack of the movie Batman Forever. The video featured an animated version of Bono as a rock star battling between two personas: the Fly and MacPhisto, which was intended to parallel the conflict between Bruce Wayne's ordinary playboy persona and his crime-fighting Batman persona.[citation needed]

The MacPhisto speech at the Sydney 1993 concert exemplified the character:

My time among you is almost at an end...Before I go, I have some messages for the world. People of America, I gave you Bill Clinton — I put him on CNN, NBC, C-SPAN. Too tall to be a despot, but watch him closely. People of Asia, your time is coming — without your transistors, none of this [gestures to Zoo TV stage set] would be possible. People of Europe — when I came among you, you were squabbling like children. Now you're all hooked up to one cable, as close together as stations on a dial. People of the former Soviet Union — I gave you capitalism, so now you can all dream of being as wealthy and glamorous as me.
People of Sarajevo, count your blessings ... There are people all over the world who have food, heat and security, but they're not on TV like you are. Frank Sinatra, I give you the MTV demographic; Salman Rushdie, I give you decibels. Goodbye Squidgy, I hope they give you Wales; goodbye Michael... Goodbye all you neo-nazis, I hope they give you Auschwitz.[13]

Zooropa, the album

U2 recorded their next album, Zooropa, during a break at the end of the third leg of the tour. The album was intended as an additional EP to Achtung Baby, but soon expanded into a full LP and was released in July 1993. Influenced by both tour life and the ideas of media barrage and irony on the Zoo TV tour, Zooropa was an even greater departure from the style of their earlier recordings, incorporating techno style and other electronic effects. A number of songs from Zooropa were incorporated into the subsequent Zooropa and Zoomerang tour legs, mostly frequently "Numb" and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)",[14] with "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" worked into the MacPhisto persona during Zoomerang.

Broadcasts and recordings

The Zoo Radio special included live selections from 1992 Toronto, Dallas, Tempe, Arizona, and New York shows. Portions of another 1992 show were taped and later broadcast as a one-hour Fox network television special. The 27 November 1993 Zoomerang show in Sydney was broadcast in the United States on tape-delayed pay-per-view and then aired later as a regular broadcast in other countries,[15] and was subsequently released as the concert video Zoo TV: Live From Sydney. It is difficult for any video footage to capture the full effect of Zoo TV, since the multi-input sensory overload nature of the show is lost as soon as the camera focuses in on any one particular aspect.

Vertigo Tour homage

During U2's 2005 Vertigo Tour, the band often played (usually as the first encore) a mini-Zoo TV set - "Zoo Station", "The Fly", and "Mysterious Ways" - using some of the original Zoo TV video effects. "Zoo Station" included the interference in the background and "The Fly" had the flashing words on the screen, originally similar to the originals from Zoo TV, but which progressed into its own original words and phrases later in the tour. As the tour progressed, "Until the End of the World" also appeared with its original effects of flashing numbers.

Tour legs

Leg 1

  • Dates: February 29, 1992 – April 23, 1992
  • Location: North America
  • Venues: Indoor arenas
  • Shows: 32
  • Supporting act: Pixies

Leg 2

  • Dates: May 7, 1992 – June 19, 1992
  • Location: Europe and UK
  • Venues: Indoor arenas
  • Shows: 25
  • Supporting act: Fatima Mansions

Leg 3 - Outside Broadcast

Leg 4 - Zooropa

  • Dates: May 7, 1993 – August 28, 1993
  • Location: Europe, UK, Ireland
  • Venues: Stadiums
  • Shows: 44
  • Supporting acts: many, sometimes changed with every venue

Leg 5 - Zoomerang

References

Further reading

Notes

  1. ^ Hot Press, "Closer to the Edge (pt. 1)", 4 December 4 2002. Edge says: "... we got the idea of taking images, taking TV as an idea, and putting screens on stage. That started us down that road ..."
  2. ^ a b Q Magazine, "10 Years of Turmoil Inside U2", 10 October 2002.
  3. ^ "U2 Performers". Inductees. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. 2005.
  4. ^ http://www.u2faqs.com/live/#1
  5. ^ http://www.u2propaganda.com/pastissues/issues-17-69-things.htm
  6. ^ Zoo TV Tv Special, Dec 1992
  7. ^ http://www.atu2.com/news/tdih/search.src?TYEAR=1992&Key=
  8. ^ Zoo Radio program, 1992
  9. ^ VH1 Legends episode on U2, first aired 11 December 1998.
  10. ^ a b Bill Flanagan, U2 At the End of the World, 1996, pp. 121-123, p. 348.
  11. ^ http://www.licc.org.uk/culture/reading/fools-rush-in-bill-carter
  12. ^ On the Zoo TV TV Special version of Desire (released as a bonus track on the Zoo TV: Live from Sydney DVD)
  13. ^ http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/lyrics.php?id=210
  14. ^ http://www.u2-vertigo-tour.com/ZOO_TV_Tour.html
  15. ^ http://www.atu2.com/news/tdih/search.src?TYEAR=1993&Key=&TYPE=&Start=426


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