A sort of homecoming: U2 to play Croke Park in July, with tickets from just €30
HAVING REINVENTED live music with the video kaleidoscope of the Zoo TV tour and the motorised lemon mirrorball on PopMart, U2 are seeking to enhance their reputation as the most innovative live act in rock music.
The band yesterday unveiled details of their 360° tour which they will bring to Croke Park in Dublin on Friday, July 24th.
The date was the worst-kept secret in music but fans were surprised that no further dates were announced for Saturday, July 25th, or Monday, July 27th, as had been widely rumoured.
Tickets are likely to go on sale on March 20th. In keeping with these recessionary times, U2 manager Paul McGuinness has promised that at least 10,000 tickets for each U2 concert on the tour will be available at just €30 each.
“We have worked very hard to ensure that U2 fans can purchase a great priced ticket with a guaranteed great view,” he said.
The band have often played in the round on smaller stages, but not on a scale envisaged in the 360° tour.
Video impressions of the new stage set on the band’s website show them playing on a round stage under a giant canopy with cylindrical screens.
There is even a mock-up of how they will play Croke Park. The stage will be set up near the Canal End, but there will be no backstage area and so fans on the Canal End will have the same view as everyone else.
Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna said the band will seek to emulate their series of three sell-out concerts for the Vertigo tour in 2005 and the capacity for the July 24th concert will be about 80,000.
He said it was up to the promoters (Live Nation and MCD) to decide whether further dates will be added “but there is a space in our calendar”.
“We’re working with the U2 guys on the design. It is going to be spectacular. There is no doubt about that,” he said.
“Of all the bands who come to Croke Park, U2 are going to be the most exciting and it is also a homecoming for them.”
The 360° tour will begin in Barcelona on June 30th. The band will play only stadium arenas in an itinerary which will take them to the United States in September.
MCD has not confirmed there will be any more U2 shows in Croke Park, but vacant dates have been left on the schedule which are often filled according to demand. There is a week between U2’s Croke Park concert and the concert after that in Copenhagen.
U2’s innovative road show marks a departure from their conventional stage set-up for the last two tours which in turn were a reaction to the razzmatazz of the PopMart tour which Bono admitted had become “too much”.
Last weekend, drummer Larry Mullen told veteran 2fm DJ Larry Gogan that the new stage would be “like a space ship”.
“I know we have done space ships before and walked out of citrus fruits, but this allows us not be placed right in the centre of the stadium but close to it,” he said. “It is a very unusual production and it has not been done before. It is trying to bring the band closer to the audience.”
The Edge told Billboardmagazine: "It's hard to come up with something that's fundamentally different, but we have, I think, on this tour. For a band like U2 that really thrive on breaking new ground, it's a real thrill."
The full list of U2 tour dates:
U2360 Tour
June 30th Barcelona, Camp Nou
July 7th Milan, San Siro
July 11th Paris, Stade de France
July 15th Stade Charles Ehrmann Nice
July 18th Berlin, Olympic Stadium
July 20th Amsterdam Arena
July 24th Dublin Croke Park
July 31st Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg
August 3rd, Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen
August 6th Slaski Stadium, Chorzow, Poland
August 10th Stadium Makimir, Zagreb, Croatia
August 14th London Wembley Stadium
August 18th Hampden Park, Glasgow
August 20th Don Valley, Sheffield
August 22nd Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
September 12th, Soldiers Field, Chicago
September 16th Rogers Centre, Toronto
September 20th Gilette Stadium, Boston
September 24th Giants Stadium, New York
September 29th FedEx Field, Washington DC
October 1st Scott Stadium, Charlottesville, Virginia
October 3rd Raleigh, North Carolina
October 6th Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia
October 9th Raymond James, Tampa Florida
October 12th New Cowboys Stadium, Dallas
October 14th Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas
October 19th Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Oklahoma City
October 20th University of Phoenix, Stadium, Arizona
October 23rd Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas, Nevada
October 25th Rose Bowl, Los Angeles, California
October 28th Place Stadium, Vancouver, Canada
