Friday in Turin
Update, morning of 31/07: The skepticism expressed below about some of the rehearsal reports was clearly on the mark, especially questions about the authenticity of the Pride video. Bono has still not arrived in Turin. Furthermore, his interview meant to take place last night with Zona Severgnini has been removed from Sky's broadcast schedule. When Bono will arrive in Turin remains the subject of rumours. The rest of the band, however, are in the city.
At the start of this week, rumours suggested that we could look forward to some substantial rehearsals at the Stadio Olimpico. Rumours are fickle beasts, however, and here we are at the end of Friday still waiting for rehearsals like those we followed in Barcelona last year. Lighting tests have been extensive, but beyond that, not a whole lot. There are suggestions that the band have been rehearsing, or perhaps even filming something, in the neighbouring Palasport Olimpico arena, but there are no firm or substantive details about this at all.
However, as we reported earlier, there was a short soundcheck just after midday. Since the publication of that article, U2Italia has updated their post to include Moment Of Surrender, making this the apparently chronological list of songs played:
Pride
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Moment Of Surrender
Where The Streets Have No Name
Unfortunately, their earlier mention of Slow Dancing seems to have been a joke or mistake. The songs reported on U2Italia and U2Place are now the same.
What remains is the question of whether this was actually the band. Bono could be heard singing, but this is surprisingly early for U2 to rehearse - past rehearsals have normally taken place in the evening, sometimes preceded by a late afternoon session. Could it have been a pre-recording? Are the reports from the stadium legit or not? At the end of the day, all we can do is present the details that have been circulating, and you can make up your own mind on the basis of that. To that end, a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube.
A recording of Pride, with surprisingly (or suspiciously) clear audio for the evident distance of the recorder from the venue:
There is also this recording of Breathe from Thursday, a performance that we believe was probably just the band's techs:
Speaking of videos, U2.com have posted their day 7 video, featuring some shots of the stage and not much more. We'll leave you today with the news that the Claw has been lit up again this evening for lighting tests, just like previous evenings. Sometimes it seems like the only thing we know for sure is that the electricity works and the lightbulbs haven't blown yet.
At the start of this week, rumours suggested that we could look forward to some substantial rehearsals at the Stadio Olimpico. Rumours are fickle beasts, however, and here we are at the end of Friday still waiting for rehearsals like those we followed in Barcelona last year. Lighting tests have been extensive, but beyond that, not a whole lot. There are suggestions that the band have been rehearsing, or perhaps even filming something, in the neighbouring Palasport Olimpico arena, but there are no firm or substantive details about this at all.
However, as we reported earlier, there was a short soundcheck just after midday. Since the publication of that article, U2Italia has updated their post to include Moment Of Surrender, making this the apparently chronological list of songs played:
Pride
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Moment Of Surrender
Where The Streets Have No Name
Unfortunately, their earlier mention of Slow Dancing seems to have been a joke or mistake. The songs reported on U2Italia and U2Place are now the same.
What remains is the question of whether this was actually the band. Bono could be heard singing, but this is surprisingly early for U2 to rehearse - past rehearsals have normally taken place in the evening, sometimes preceded by a late afternoon session. Could it have been a pre-recording? Are the reports from the stadium legit or not? At the end of the day, all we can do is present the details that have been circulating, and you can make up your own mind on the basis of that. To that end, a couple of videos have appeared on YouTube.
A recording of Pride, with surprisingly (or suspiciously) clear audio for the evident distance of the recorder from the venue:
Posted on by Axver