http://www.u2gigs.com U2gigs.com news, pictures, setlists and reviews en-us hourly 1
Lenny Kravitz - Salt Lake City, Anaheim I, Anaheim II, Denver
The Fray - Oakland, Seattle, Edmonton
Interpol - Minneapolis, East Lansing, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia

No word about the shows in Monteal and East Rutherford at the moment.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article623.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article623.html Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:43:32 GMT 3 June 2010 have been changed to the following schedule:

Horizon subscribers: 10am, Thursday 18 February
Breathe subscribers: 3pm, Thursday 18 February

Boots subscribers: 10am, Friday 19 February
Magnificent subscribers: 3pm, Friday 19 February

The presale closes at 5pm on Saturday 20 February for all subscribers.

The public sale will begin at 10am on Monday 22 February.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article622.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article622.html Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:13:25 GMT 3 June 2010. U2.com also says this is the final date announced for North America.

The presale schedule is as follows:

Horizon and Breathe subscribers: 10am, Thursday 18 February
Boots and Magnificent subscribers: 10am, Friday 19 February

The presale closes at 5pm on Saturday 20 February for all subscribers.

The public sale will begin at 10am on Monday 22 February.

The presale schedule has been updated on 17 February 2010. Check the new schedule here.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article621.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article621.html Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:19:41 GMT 12 September 2010, following the sell-out of the first show on 11 September 2010. This is the first time U2 have ever played two outdoor concerts in the same Swiss city on a single tour. U2 previously played two indoor concerts in Zurich on the second leg of Elevation.

There will be a fanclub presale commencing tomorrow. Entry times for different subscriber groups are not as staggered as usual. In Zurich local time, they are:

Horizon and Breathe subscribers: 10am, Tuesday 2 February
Boots and Magnificent subscribers: 10am, Wednesday 3 February

The presale closes at 5pm on Wednesday 3 February for all subscribers.

The public sale will begin at 8am on Friday 5 February.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article620.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article620.html Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:57:46 GMT an article I wrote about the 23rd anniversary of U2 going "inthistowntastic" 24 years ago today. Does that make barely any sense to you? Good, because the performance itself barely makes any sense.

In fact, the performance makes absolutely no sense if you think about it too hard. Or too little. Or at all.

Or maybe it is the only thing U2 have ever done that makes perfect sense?

By this point, you are perhaps wondering what on earth I am going on about. Well, gather around, for U2 folklore is full of all kinds of bloopers, mistakes, and hilarious moments - but none quite rival the band's ramshackle and presumably drunken appearance on TV Gaga on 30 January 1986. The aforementioned article from last year provides a summary of the two original songs that U2 debuted on an unsuspecting audience that was surely even more confused then than you may be now. It explains why the performance has been dubbed "inthistowntastic" after one of the few lyrics Bono could remember, and it comes complete with videos of those two songs.

What last year's article lacks is a video of the final song of the setlist. Yet no experience of Inthistowntasticism could possibly be complete without a video of what was undoubtedly the highest low point of the night. The band decided to end their appearance with a cover of Bob Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door - a cover that swiftly descends into farce. If Bono forgetting the lyrics, struggling to maintain his balance or composure, and giving Ronald Reagan a random shout-out were not enough, he then swaps roles with an audience member. And compels Edge to swap roles with another audience member.

Or possibly they swap with seagulls. It really is hard to tell.

Hence, for your amusement on this inthistowntastic anniversary day, and to pass the time in the lull between legs of the 360° Tour, I present to you the video I wanted to give you last year. YouTube now provides the goods. Enjoy.

]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article619.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article619.html Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:14:53 GMT 22 January 2010, Bono and Edge performed at Hope For Haiti Now, a telethon event held to raise funds for earthquake relief in Haiti. The event ran for two hours from venues in London, New York, and Los Angeles, and each artist that appeared played for just one song.

Bono and Edge performed at the London venue with Jay-Z and Rihanna. The song they played was a new one Bono and Jay-Z wrote in response to the earthquake called Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour). Jay-Z performed the verses, while Bono and Rihanna dueted on the chorus, although Rihanna largely drowned out Bono. Edge played his Gibson Explorer and was backed by a house band.

The song, as well as others from the event, is available on iTunes with money going to the disaster relief efforts.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article618.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article618.html Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:09:05 GMT reported yesterday, a concert in Zurich on 11 September 2010 has been announced. U2.com has caught up with the promoter and ticket retailer and has the news now. Their tour page has been updated too.

Of particular interest is that U2.com contains information about a fanclub presale. As with last year's presales, it frustratingly begins with very little notice. The usual system of tiered entry for different subscriber groups is unchanged, and will proceed as follows (all times given in Zurich local time):

Horizon subscribers: 10am, Monday 25 January 2010 (at the time of writing, U2.com's Zurich article says "10pm" but 10am is given on their tour page and that is the time meant)
Breathe subscribers: 3pm, Monday 25 January 2010
Boots subscribers: 10am, Tuesday 26 January 2010
Magnificent subscribers: 3pm, Tuesday 26 January 2010

The presale will close to all subscribers at midday on Wednesday, 27 January 2010. The public sale as reported earlier then begins at 8am on Thursday, 28 January.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article617.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article617.html Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:38:54 GMT here. The concert will be held on 11 September 2010 in Zurich.

Past rumours indicated that U2 would perform at the Dübendorf airfield. However, the concert will in fact take place at Letzigrund Stadion, the venue that hosted U2 on the Vertigo Tour on 18 July 2005. Hilariously, U2.com's 360° stage diagram for Dübendorf that has been online since September 2009 is currently still up at the time of writing!

Tickets for this concert will be sold by TicketCorner. Sales will begin at 8am on Thursday, 28 January 2010. Specific details regarding fanclub presales are not yet known.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article616.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article616.html Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:47:54 GMT reporting additional details about the Hope For Haiti telethon being held on 22 January 2010. The appearance will not just be Bono solo; The Edge will accompany him. The telethon is being held in three locations: London, Los Angeles, and New York, and Bono and Edge will perform at the London leg. The specific location is not given. MTV simply states it will happen at "a London venue".

Interestingly, MTV also reports that Bono and Edge will be joined by rapper Jay-Z. Although they pitch it as a "once-in-a-lifetime collaboration", it has in fact happened before - very recently too. On 5 November 2009, Jay-Z joined all of U2 for Sunday Bloody Sunday when they performed at the Brandenburg Gate.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article615.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article615.html Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:55:29 GMT
George Clooney and Wyclef Jean are hosting "Hope For Haiti" from 8pm eastern US time on Friday, 22 January to benefit Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation as well as UNICEF, Oxfam America, Partners In Health, and the Red Cross. This two hour long concert-cum-telethon will be broadcast live on MTV and numerous major networks in the US, and will also be viewable internationally.

Numerous celebrity and musical guests are scheduled to appear, such as Sting, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Alicia Keys. However, of most interest to us is that George Clooney stated at the Golden Globes that Bono will be performing. Whether any other members of U2 will perform with him or not remains unknown at this stage. It is also unknown whether Bono intends to perform this new song that has been written.

Stay tuned - we will report more details when they are known, and we will cover the event on Friday.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article614.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article614.html Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:29:20 GMT 25 August 2010 have been changed. Please ignore the earlier published dates. The presale for U2.com subscribers will now begin on Wednesday 9 December, not on Tuesday 8 December.

The general sale will begin on Friday 11 December.

The specific presale entry times for different subscriber groups no longer follow the usual pattern. It will now proceed as follows:

Horizon subscribers: Wednesday 9 December at 9am, local time of the venue
Breathe subscribers: Wednesday 9 December at midday, local
Boots subscribers: Thursday 10 December at 9am, local
Magnificent subscribers: Thursday 10 December at midday, local

The presale closes to all subscribers at 2pm local time on Thursday, 10 December. If you are a Magnificent subscriber, that means you have just a brief two hour window to get in on the presale.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article613.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article613.html Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:26:27 GMT Update: U2.com has changed these details. Please IGNORE the following information and see this article for current Moscow ticket sale times. Thank you.

Finally, it looks like ticket sale details have been sorted out for the concert in Moscow on 25 August 2010. At the time of writing this article, details are not yet on U2.com's tour page, but an official e-mail has been sent out to subscribers. It does not indicate when the general sale will begin. It contains purely presale details for U2.com subscribers.

The presale begins tomorrow. It follows the usual pattern, as outlined below.

Horizon subscribers: Tuesday 8 December at 10am, local time of the venue
Breathe subscribers: Tuesday 8 December at 3pm, local
Boots subscribers: Wednesday 9 December at 10am, local
Magnificent subscribers: Wednesday 9 December at 3pm, local

The presale closes to all subscribers at midday local time on Thursday, 10 December.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article612.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article612.html Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:35:09 GMT announced the Italian concerts that TicketOne had previously confirmed; Turin on 6 August 2010 and Rome on 8 October 2010. This announcement includes ticketing information.

The general sale for both concerts will take place this Friday, 4 December 2009.

A presale will take place beforehand for U2.com subscribers. U2.com currently claim it begins "tomorrow, Wednesday", even though it is Monday. We currently presume they mean tomorrow, Tuesday, and that the presale will follow the usual pattern of Horizon and Breathe subscribers entering on Tuesday, 1 December, Boots and Magnificent subscribers entering on Wednesday, 2 December, and the presale closing to all subscribers on Thursday, 3 December. This article will be updated when details are clarified.

Update: Although the announcement article on U2.com still says "tomorrow, Wednesday", our assumption was correct and the presales are following the usual pattern, as per U2.com's tour page.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article611.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article611.html Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:22:06 GMT tour page at the time of writing, Italian ticketing agency TicketOne - who some of you may remember (with varying degrees of frustration) handled Milan's ticketing this year - has confirmed that U2 will return to Italy in 2010. On this visit, U2 will perform in Turin and Rome, at venues called Stadio Olimpico in both cities.

Interestingly, these two shows come at the start and finish of the leg, thus displacing 10 August 2010, Frankfurt as the first show and 3 October 2010, Coimbra as the last show. The dates are:

6 August 2010 - Stadio Olimpico, Turin, Italy

8 October 2010 - Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy

The dates for ticket presales and general sales are not yet known. Stay tuned; we will post them when they are announced.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article610.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article610.html Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:34:49 GMT 26 September 2010, U2 will visit San Sebastian in the Basque Country. They will play at Estadio Anoeta, the same venue at which they played a Vertigo Tour concert on 9 August 2005.

U2.com's tour page says that the general sale of tickets will begin on Tuesday 1 December 2009. There will be a presale, and it begins tomorrow, Wednesday 25 November. It follows the usual pattern of Horizon and Breathe subscribers being admitted on the first day, followed by Boots and Magnificent subscribers on Thursday 26 November.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article609.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article609.html Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:32:18 GMT confirmed it to the BBC. The festival takes place between 23 and 27 June 2010, and U2 will be headlining the Friday night, 25 June 2010. U2.com states that this will be the band's sole concert for the year in the UK and Ireland. It will be squeezed in between two concerts on the 360° Tour in North America - 23 June 2010, Edmonton and 27 June 2010, Minneapolis.

U2, or at least Bono and Edge, have made a number of charity-related festival appearances in recent years. This, however, will be U2's first appearance at a non-charity festival since their unannounced surprise set at the Lark By The Lee on 25 August 1985 in Cork. The last time they were actually billed at a non-charity festival was 7 July 1985 in Werchter.

Oh, and in case you are interested in tickets: Glastonbury 2010 is already sold out.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article608.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article608.html Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:12:46 GMT 16 July 2010) sold out within 20 minutes, a second show has been scheduled. It will take place the next day, 17 July 2010. U2 have played multiple arena gigs in Montreal on a single tour before, but this is the first tour on which they will play more than one stadium gig in Montreal. Besides the reality of ticket demand, the scheduling of a second gig is unsurprising due to the amount of money U2 are investing to make the Hippodrome a suitable - albeit temporary - concert venue.

The public sale for this second show will begin on Monday 30 November 2009. There will be a presale beforehand, and it will follow the usual pattern:

Horizon subscribers: Tuesday 24 November at 10am, local time of the venue
Breathe subscribers: Tuesday 24 November at 3pm eastern (2pm central, 1pm mountain, midday Pacific)
Boots subscribers: Wednesday 25 November at 10am eastern (9am central, 8am mountain, 7am Pacific)
Magnificent subscribers: Wednesday 25 November at 3pm eastern (2pm central, 1pm mountain, midday Pacific)

The presales close to all subscribers on Thursday 26 November at 5pm, local time of the venue.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article607.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article607.html Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:03:32 GMT
Bono and Wyclef have collaborated musically before, and it should come as little surprise that after the award-giving and speech-making, the two performed together at the end of the night's ceremony. Reports are a little sketchy at the moment - they may have performed multiple songs, but we know they sung a cover of Bob Marley's Redemption Song. The two have covered it together before, on 30 June 2001 and again on 27 May 2006. Bono last sung the song on 7 June 2007; the rest of the band have not participated in its performance since 17 July 1993.

This article will be updated if we learn Bono and Wyclef did in fact play more songs. Our database listing for this appearance can be found here.

20/11 update: A press release from the event indicates the only performance featuring Bono was indeed Redemption Song. Wyclef Jean also performed Carnival; out of all the songs entitled Carnival, we believe this refers to his own original song from his 1997 album entitled The Carnival.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article606.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article606.html Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:17:28 GMT confirmed that ticket sales will take place this week for the concerts in Minneapolis (27 June 2010), East Lansing (30 June 2010), and Montreal (16 July 2010). The general sales for Minneapolis and Montreal will begin on Saturday 21 November; East Lansing will follow on Monday 23 November.

The presales for U2.com subscribers begin tomorrow and follow the standard pattern. That is:

Horizon subscribers: Tuesday 17 November at 10am, local time of the venue
Breathe subscribers: Tuesday 17 November at 3pm eastern (2pm central, 1pm mountain, midday Pacific)
Boots subscribers: Wednesday 18 November at 10am eastern (9am central, 8am mountain, 7am Pacific)
Magnificent subscribers: Wednesday 18 November at 3pm eastern (2pm central, 1pm mountain, midday Pacific)

The presales close to all subscribers on Thursday 19 November at 5pm, local time of the venue.

Now only one of the currently announced 2010 concerts is yet to have ticket information announced - the concert in Moscow on 25 August 2010.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article605.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article605.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:25:47 GMT 16 July 2010 was given. After a considerable degree of online speculation, the venue has finally been confirmed. It will be the Hippodrome, often known as Blue Bonnets Raceway.

This marks a change from U2's previous stadium venue in Montreal. All three previous stadium gigs in the city have been held at the Olympic Stadium.]]> http://www.u2gigs.com/article604.html http://www.u2gigs.com/article604.html Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:52:48 GMT