20th Jun 19, Australasian tour is now official: The new tour of Australia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea has been formally announced and will run from November 8th - December 8th this year. It'll be a continuation of the Joshua Tree 2017 tour and will visit outdoor stadiums for 13 dates across 9 cities. As things stand, this means the Australasia will miss out on the new material of the iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE and eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tours but who knows? Maybe the setlist will be amended to include a few of those newer songs. We'll just have to wait and see.
10th Apr 19, Possible Australian tour?: Hopes are mounting that U2 will announce an Australasian tour in the near future but nothing has been confirmed as yet. None of the last 3 tours made it to Oceania and it's over 8 years since their last show there, in Perth in December 2010. Rumours suggest that Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore will all be included in the new tour schedule - but which tour will it be? A continuation of Innocence & Experience and/or Experience & Innocence? Another leg of Joshua Tree 2017? Given the very different staging involved it seems likely that it could only really be one or the other. Time will tell...
12th Jan 18, Album and tour updates: Songs of Experience has been released and fans have been mostly positive about it. Having listened to it countless times over the past few weeks, I can safely say I love it! The Little Things That Give You Away is definitely the standout track for me. The ticket buying experience for the first leg of the Experience and Innocence tour was as stressful as ever, with the 'verified fan' program seeming to cause more problems than it solved. Scalpers/touts still seem to have got hold of an awful lot of tickets and the seats which were offered through the fan club were often mediocre and sometimes much more expensive than comparable seats on the Innocence and Experience tour. We can only hope that any glitches are ironed out before European tour tickets go on sale...which shouldn't be long now.
02nd Nov 17, eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour announced: U2 have announced that they will hit the road again, starting in Tulsa, OK on 2nd May 2018 and finishing in Newark, NJ on 29th June. The new album will also be out on 1st December. It looks like fanclub presales will be handled differently this time round, with American fans having to register for Verified Fan status in order to take part. There's also an opportunity to participate in a presale by pre-ordering the new album but that presale will only take place after the fanclub one has finished so is more risky. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out and if it has any effect at all on the number of scalpers/touts getting tickets.
29th Aug 17, New single coming in September?: Anticipation is building that U2 will release a new single called You're The Best Thing About Me in the next few days. It's rumoured to be out in early September and there are also rumours that a video could soon be released for another new song called The Blackout. Several fan club members in the US have recently received cryptic letters from U2, hinting that *something* would be released soon...but the crucial details of what and when were 'blacked out'. These letters were received shortly after the total solar eclipse, which was visible across the US on 21st August. Could these two things be related..?? I have no idea but with any luck, we'll find out soon!
06th Jul 17, More tour dates and a petition to bring U2 to Oz: The North American leg of the 2017 Joshua Tree tour is now history and the European leg is only 2 days away, with the first show in London on Saturday. More shows have been added in the US, Mexico and South America for September and October but as yet, no dates have been announced for Australia or New Zealand. Rumours suggest we'll hear something on that soon but we'll just have to wait and see. My friend Naomi has started a petition encouraging them to come. Please sign it! It can't hurt, right? :-)
18th May 17, The Joshua Tree 2017 tour is upon us: We're now 3 shows in to the Joshua Tree 2017 tour and so far there have been a few surprises. All the songs on The Joshua Tree are being played in order in the middle of the set and A Sort of Homecoming has also been played every night. A new song, 'The Little Things That Give You Away', has closed all 3 shows but personally, I would've liked them to continue the Joshua Tree theme by finishing with 40..! The video screen behind the stage is once again utterly spectacular and provides incredible visuals to go with the show and, thanks to streaming apps like Periscope and mixlr, it's been possible for fans around the world to see and hear each show live. I highly recommend you download one of more of those apps if you don't already have them!
08th May 17, Joshua Tree tour only 4 days away: It's only 4 days to go until the 2017 Joshua Tree tour has its first show at the BC Place in Vancouver, BC. Fans have been hanging around outside the venue to hear the band rehearse and numerous video clips have already appeared on YouTube. Apart from all The Joshua Tree songs, there have been a couple of surprises too but I won't mention them here in case you're trying to avoid tour spoilers! :-) I expect U2 will come on stage at around 9.00 pm on Friday night, which is 5.00 am on Saturday morning for me. The question is, can I bring myself to wake up and listen in on Periscope?!
13th Apr 17, Back in business: Due to a slight technical snafu, I lost my database for a while so you may have seen some database errors if you visited this site in the last few days. It's fixed now but I lost a few updates on this front page, which reminds me that I should back up more often! In other news, it's exactly 100 days until U2 play Croke Park. Cannot. Wait.
20th Mar 14, Pre album-release hype...or not?: It’s been all go on the U2 front lately. The band performed at Sean Penn’s benefit for Haiti, won a Golden Globe for Ordinary Love and performed at the Oscars. They were also the ‘victims’ of one of the world’s most infamous photobombs, when Benedict Cumberbatch was snapped jumping into the air behind them on the red carpet outside the Oscars ceremony (photo here and video here ). Rumours have been flying around of impending album release and tour announcement but subsequent rumours have suggested that both of those things may not happen until 2015! Still further rumours say that U2 are considering breaking up because of the difficulty they’re having finishing off the new album.
03rd Feb 14, U2 release Invisible on iTunes: After all the hype, U2 announced their new song, Invisible, in a commercial during last night's Super Bowl. The song was scheduled to be released through iTunes at 6 pm Eastern Time (11 pm GMT) but actually appeared online several hours earlier than that, much to fans' surprise. The song is being used to raise money for the (RED) charity's campaign to bring an end to AIDS, as Bank of America have agreed to donate $1 for every download. Originally this was to be capped at a total donation of $2 million but after a phenomenal response, BofA have agreed to keep donating above that limit. Music is really making a difference. As for the song itself, most fans seem to be impressed and the feeling is that it'll play particularly well in the live environment. Roll on the next tour!
15th Jan 14, Some solid news at last: After months of speculation (remember Larry saying the album would be out last September?), there has finally been something to cheer weary U2 fans - three things in fact! Firstly, the band recorded a new single (Invisible) and made a video for it at Santa Monica Airport, of all places. Then they played a short set at a Haiti benefit concert organised by Sean Penn and finally they won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for 'Ordinary Love', the closing theme from 'The Long Walk to Freedom'. An announcement regarding the release of the new album is expected during the Super Bowl on 2nd February and fingers crossed, a tour announcement will follow soon after that. Exciting times. :)
19th Nov 13, U2's fifth member retires: The online U2 fan community has been buzzing recently over the news that Paul McGuinness is to sell Principle Management to Live Nation and Madonna's manager, Guy Oseary, is to take over the day to day running of the U2 organisation. Live Nation are reportedly paying $30 million for Principle in a deal which will see Paul McGuinness take on a less hands-on 'chairman' role while Oseary manages the band's affairs. McGuinness has always been considered the 5th member of U2 so he'll be a hard act to follow but he himself says Oseary is the best in the business and he wouldn't have considered anyone else for the job. In these days when music sales are falling but concert revenues are booming, Oseary seems like the perfect man for the job.
15th Oct 13, Album delayed until 2014: It looks like we can forget any idea of the new U2 album coming out this year, after Adam said in a recent interview that the band hoped to be finished it by Christmas with an expected release date "very early" in 2014. It would be a shame to miss the Christmas market but no doubt they'd rather make sure the new record is as good as it can be rather than rush it in an attempt to boost sales in the pre-Christmas rush. (Do people still refer to records any more or am I just showing my age, btw?)
04th Sep 13, Adam ties the knot: Congratulations to Adam Clayton on his marriage today to Brazilian art dealer Mariana de Carvalho at a private ceremony in Dublin. They've been together for around 4 years now, which must be a record for Adam. ;-) Apparently neither Bono nor Larry were at the ceremony which is a surprise, especially considering that Adam was Bono's best man when he married Ali in 1982 and Bono has often described Adam as his "best mate". I assumed he'd return the favour but apparently not.
28th Aug 13, Album delays and possible tour: Recent rumours are suggesting that the album which Larry initially said would be out by the end of September may not now be released until November at the earliest - and possibly next spring. Fans are used to this sort of delay of course but it's frustrating when we thought we were so close to the new record coming out. (Do people still say 'record' btw? Perhaps I'm showing my age there.) Bono has also made mutterings about concerts in France next year but I suppose we'll have to wait and see exactly what's planned. There's no point making any travel plans just yet. :)
"And so we are told this is the golden age, and gold is the reason for the wars we wage" - New Year's Day
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