U2 have been forced to postpone the announcement of their world tour which was due to begin in Miami on March 1st, and come to Dublin's Croke Park in July.
A spokesperson for the band told The Irish Times last night she was unable to deny or confirm reports carried by Rolling Stone magazine's website stating that the tour had been postponed due to family illness.
The original tour was to have taken in 114 shows over 10 months, beginning in the US in March before travelling to Europe in the summer and on to Japan and Australia later in the year.
Tours such as this are arduous for both the band members and their families as they involve long periods of separation. It is understood there will be changes made to the length and duration of the U2 tour.
"We've postponed the announcement of the tour because the routing is still being worked on," the band's manager, Paul McGuinness, said in a statement posted on U2's website yesterday.
The band's spokesperson added that it was "very possible" that most of the US dates and the European dates on the tour would remain, but stressed that an official announcement about the "rerouting" was pending.
No tickets have gone on sale for the tour. The homecoming show in Croke Park in the summer should go ahead, according to sources.
The last U2 tour, the 2001 Elevation show, saw the band play to over two million people worldwide and earned them $42 million. The new tour dates are expected to be announced before the end of this month.
The tour was expected to be one of the biggest grossing events in the music world this year. The band are currently on a new career high following the release of their latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. The album went to number one in over 30 countries in its first week of release and is expected to be one of the band's most commercially successful albums in their 26-year recording career.
