How was the Joshua tree 1987 tour documented on film?...

[kayley10]

The 1st North American leg of the tour was documented in the worldwide TV special Outside It's America. It featured warm-up, promos, rehearsels and footage from the first night in Tampa. It was otherwise, ignored.
On the 2nd European leg of the tour, they filmed the Paris show. Otherwise, a ITV TV special about Dublin and U2's concert at Croke Park was filmed, aired and so on.
The backstage, everyday, behind the scenes (and snippets of some shows) aspects of the 3rd leg was documented in 16mm by a small film crew.
And then, the Denver shows were documented in 35mm (on R&H).
The Tampa shows were documented in 35mm color film.
And then, the lost 35mm gigs:
· Madison Square Gardens was filmed in B&W 35mm film. Snippets can be found on the Rattle and Hum Outtakes.
· Boston was filmed in Color 35mm. Also on R&H Outtakes.
Any more info?
Reel on........................

 

[Nick66]

The 1st North American leg of the tour was documented in the worldwide TV special Outside It's America. It featured warm-up, promos, rehearsels and footage from the first night in Tampa. It was otherwise, ignored.
On the 2nd European leg of the tour, they filmed the Paris show. Otherwise, a ITV TV special about Dublin and U2's concert at Croke Park was filmed, aired and so on.
The backstage, everyday, behind the scenes (and snippets of some shows) aspects of the 3rd leg was documented in 16mm by a small film crew.
And then, the Denver shows were documented in 35mm (on R&H).
The Tampa shows were documented in 35mm color film.
And then, the lost 35mm gigs:
· Madison Square Gardens was filmed in B&W 35mm film. Snippets can be found on the Rattle and Hum Outtakes.
· Boston was filmed in Color 35mm. Also on R&H Outtakes.
Any more info?
Reel on........................

Were the Paris and Dublin gigs filmed? I'm pretty sure they were both just videotaped.

I'm not sure that Madison Square Garden is "lost" so much as it's in the vault. Isn't ISHFWILF on R&H from MSG?

And aren't you forgetting the Tempe shows from R&H?

I'd love to see that Tampa footage, since I was at one of those shows.

I think there is LOT of later JT concert footage from R&H out there we haven't seen in any form. The interesting thing is, with regard to the R&H footage in particular, if the don't restore that film soon, they may never have a chance to. It was shot on cheap film stock, and has likely degraded quite a bit. I just don't see U2 going to the trouble or expense of resorting any of their old "film", which is pretty heartbreakingly disappointing, b/c eventually that stuff just going to be lost for good one way or the other.

 

[kayley10]

Were the Paris and Dublin gigs filmed? I'm pretty sure they were both just videotaped.

I'm not sure that Madison Square Garden is "lost" so much as it's in the vault. Isn't ISHFWILF on R&H from MSG?

And aren't you forgetting the Tempe shows from R&H?

I'd love to see that Tampa footage, since I was at one of those shows.

I think there is LOT of later JT concert footage from R&H out there we haven't seen in any form. The interesting thing is, with regard to the R&H footage in particular, if the don't restore that film soon, they may never have a chance to. It was shot on cheap film stock, and has likely degraded quite a bit. I just don't see U2 going to the trouble or expense of resorting any of their old "film", which is pretty heartbreakingly disappointing, b/c eventually that stuff just going to be lost for good one way or the other.

Sorry. I did not make myself clear. The only filmed footage is the R&H related film. The Dublin and Paris shows were only videotaped.

BTW,
There's more Tampa footage on Rattle and Hum Rough Cut
It goes like this:

16. Bullet The Blue Sky
17. Running To Stand Still
18. Exit
19. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
20. With Or Without You
21. Mothers Of The Disappeared / El Pueblo Vencera
22. Sunday Bloody Sunday
23. Where The Streets Have No Name

Disc 1 (16-19,20) : Tempe (AZ), 20 December 1987
Disc 1 (21,23) : Tempe (AZ), 19 December 1987
The only song also on R&H is Streets.
The rest are actually not on R&H at all or from the other night!
The show from the 20th is not featured at all on the film.

 

[Blue Room]

Just a couple of corrections. First off, the 1st leg of the tour did not play Tampa. They played Tampa near the end of the third leg of the tour. I think you mean Tempe AZ, which is where the JT tour began and ended.

I'm not sure how much or if any of the first leg was shot. Most likely they shot a show or two in some form, most likely just video camera though.

2nd leg Paris was obviously shot by video for TV and most of it was later released on the JT 20th Anniversary box set. Dublin was shot for a documentary on by Grenada TV for the documentary. Otherwise there is no known full length footage in existance of the 2nd leg. However, some may exist in some form, most likely video shot by U2 crew. Most of the other "pro shot" footage that has come out from that leg is TV news footage and most likely does not exist in full concert form (typically just the first 3 songs)

Most of the third leg was shot for the Rattle and Hum filming. Not all shows, but most were filmed by the film crew. Any stadium shows that used a video screen (which was added later on the third leg stadium shows) was filmed also (Ex the LA 87 pro shot bootleg) for use on the screen. I believe this started sometime in October 87, so most stadium shows in that time frame until the end of the tour have complete video footage as well as a lot of film footage. Obviously both Denver shows and both Tempe 3rd leg shows were shot completely with full film production as well.

That is about the extent of what is "known" about pro shot filming/video on the JT tour that I'm aware of. There is probably a lot of footage in the U2 vaults that we don't know about. Even what we do know about will most likely never see the light of day unfortunately. At least not in any complete show form.

 

[chrissybaby]

Just out of interest, does this stuff degrade dramatically? If so wont they have employed somebody to transfer film/video and protect their legacy? Surely with all their cash they would protect everything, including demos, etc. The quality of the AB outtakes would suggest they looked after this stuff...

McGuinness must know that one day people will pay top dollar for this. Look at The Beatles legacy...

 

[TheWanderingFly]

I've seen some footage from Syracuse on Youtube. It's definitely not commercially released. I don't know if there is any other proshot footage from this show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUiOIG-n1vc

 

[Utoo]

Syracuse, LA, and Paris are proshot and available in their entirety.

 

[adam4bono]

Syracuse, LA, and Paris are proshot and available in their entirety.

I think Tampa might be as well.

 

[Blue Room]

Syracuse, LA, and Paris are proshot and available in their entirety.

Syracuse and LA are the video crew pro shots (IE what was being shot to put on the video screen in the stadium). Paris was being shot for TV broadcast. I have never seen a complete pro shot copy of this show. C'mon Everybody was shown on TV, so that is out there, but Stand By Me, that actually opened the show, I have never seen a full length pro shot of.

 

[Blue Room]

I think Tampa might be as well.

Tampa was probably shot by the video crew (IE like Syracuse and LA) but there is no version of it available in circulation (that I'm aware of anyway). The only thing that has surfaced is the TV new crew footage from the pit for the first couple of songs. But that footage is not a complete show obviously.

 

[Utoo]

Syracuse and LA are the video crew pro shots (IE what was being shot to put on the video screen in the stadium). Paris was being shot for TV broadcast. I have never seen a complete pro shot copy of this show. C'mon Everybody was shown on TV, so that is out there, but Stand By Me, that actually opened the show, I have never seen a full length pro shot of.

True---good point on Stand By Me.

I also have never seen Tampa in circulation.