PopMart "failure"

[The_acrobat]

Last time I checked, I struggled to find any evidence these were seriously considered (as I noted above).

You're probably right, I just thought I heard that somewhere once. It just seems like they left room in the schedule IN CASE 2nd shows needed to be added, which obviously they didn't. To compare their Australian numbers in 1998 to their next visit in 2006 is astounding!

 

[Axver]

It's a myth that Europe embraced POP.

150,000 people from Reggio Emilia rang and told you that you need to stop grinding that axe.

You're probably right, I just thought I heard that somewhere once. It just seems like they left room in the schedule IN CASE 2nd shows needed to be added, which obviously they didn't. To compare their Australian numbers in 1998 to their next visit in 2006 is astounding!

Yeah it looks like the room was scheduled there in case - though given the transport times required in Australia, especially for that lengthy Perth to Melbourne trip, maybe not. In any case, I can't believe they went from only around 17,000 in Brisbane in 1998 to selling out the same venue (roughly 50,000 capacity) in 2006 and then playing two shows at a similar capacity stadium in 2010.

I lived in southeast Queensland at the time and I remember in the late nineties the sorts of U2 songs getting frequent radio play were New Year's Day and When Love Comes to Town. I'm not sure if I ever heard anything from Pop on the radio. Maybe once Staring at the Sun.

 

[stigman]

I was at the Wembley show it was a full house both nights


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[zooone]

I was at the 2nd Rotterdam show.
Bono spent the the first 15 minutes of the show getting worked up about an entire section of the stadium directly on his right being alarmingly empty.

I don't think U2 have had such poor ticket sales in The Netherlands since.
It's a myth that Europe embraced POP.

Compared to most of the rest of the world, you could say Europe embraced POP.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Here are some of the worst boxscores I have for Popmart:

San Diego: 30,572/40,000
Denver: 28,540/45,000
Tempe: 33,539/45,000
Dallas: 38,043/45,000
Memphis: 22,734/35,000
Clemson: 20,251/36,500
Kansas City: 23,709/38,500
Pittsburgh: 27,785/40,000
Oakland 2: 24,490/42,500
Madison: 34,002/40,000
Chicago 3: 31,972/42,500
New York 3: 36,312/46,666
Detroit: 35,463/40,000

Please note that for Oakland, Chicago and New York i had total Box Scores for all shows, so I divided the totals by the number of shows.


Contrast those results with Canada:

Winnipeg: 42,270 sold out
Edmonton: 90,000 two sell outs
Toronto: 99,519 two sellouts
Montreal: 48,855 sold out


The United States performance was dismal. Even more so when you compare it to 360 in some of the markets!


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[thavidesco]

Yep, in Prague, Czech republic almost 80,000 people. I cannot say I´m sorry I wasn= t there, because it was, well...show promoting Pop and the band wasn´t in top form either

 

[mikal]

I'm surprised that U2 continues to ignore Wisconsin. We've always given them great turnout. I've always thought Lambeau Field would be a great turnout.

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[Axver]

Here are some of the worst boxscores I have for Popmart:

If I remember correctly the Florida shows on the third leg have abysmal attendance?

 

[Axver]

Hang on, here we go: http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f225/attendance-at-all-popmart-shows-137984.html

68. Tampa November 10, 1997 Tampa Stadium GROSS: ? ATTENDANCE: 20,000(unconfirmed estimate)

69. Jacksonville November 12, 1997 Municipal Stadium GROSS: ? ATTENDANCE: 15,000(unconfirmed estimate)

 

[CosmoKramer]

If I remember correctly the Florida shows on the third leg have abysmal attendance?

For some reason, I'm missing a lot of the shows box scores. I'll keep looking but you're right, Florida was really bad.


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[An Cat Gav]

Hang on, here we go: http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f225/attendance-at-all-popmart-shows-137984.html

68. Tampa November 10, 1997 Tampa Stadium GROSS: ? ATTENDANCE: 20,000(unconfirmed estimate)

69. Jacksonville November 12, 1997 Municipal Stadium GROSS: ? ATTENDANCE: 15,000(unconfirmed estimate)

My God, never knew the attendance was that bad...

 

[Galeongirl]

Perhaps U2 should make another Pop. Sure as hell would be much easier to get tickets to their shows than it is now!

 

[djerdap]

Yep, in Prague, Czech republic almost 80,000 people. I cannot say I´m sorry I wasn= t there, because it was, well...show promoting Pop and the band wasn´t in top form either

This is ridiculous. Some of those European shows were incredible performances, some of the best in their career. Leeds, Sarajevo (apart from Bono's voice of course), Rotterdam... The band was in top form at the time.

 

[CosmoKramer]

My God, never knew the attendance was that bad...

I remember each week picking up Billboard magazine(didn't have internet back them...lol) and I would see their boxscores and cringe. I was always told what a touring juggernaut they were and to see these results was shocking. Then 10 years later I looked at their box scores and was amazed because they exceeded anything I could have imagined!!


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[digitize]

Hang on, here we go: http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f225/attendance-at-all-popmart-shows-137984.html

68. Tampa November 10, 1997 Tampa Stadium GROSS: ? ATTENDANCE: 20,000(unconfirmed estimate)

69. Jacksonville November 12, 1997 Municipal Stadium GROSS: ? ATTENDANCE: 15,000(unconfirmed estimate)

It shocks me that U2 would ever play stadiums in both Tampa and Jacksonville two days apart (or, honestly, in Jacksonville at all).


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[nbelcik]

My God, never knew the attendance was that bad...

I'm pretty sure in U2 By U2 the band specifically mentions the poor attendance at those two shows. Must've been weird for them playing to half empty stadiums when only a few years before they were ruling the world.


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[pudgie_child]

I'm surprised that U2 continues to ignore Wisconsin. We've always given them great turnout. I've always thought Lambeau Field would be a great turnout.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Well, maybe, but not very many people live up in Appleton/Green Bay. I think Miller Park in Milwaukee rightfully gets more stadium tours now.

But you never know. Plus, the NFL put out a report at the time of Super Bowl XXXVI that Bono was a Packers fan:


STUCK IN A SUPER BOWL MOMENT

NFL.com, January 24, 2002

By now you know that U2 will be performing live during halftime at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans. You might be wondering, "What does a band from Ireland know about American football?"

Plenty, as it turns out. Rumor has it that Bono is a pretty big Green Bay Packers fan.

 

[mikal]

Well, maybe, but not very many people live up in Appleton/Green Bay. I think Miller Park in Milwaukee rightfully gets more stadium tours now.

But you never know. Plus, the NFL put out a report at the time of Super Bowl XXXVI that Bono was a Packers fan:


STUCK IN A SUPER BOWL MOMENT

NFL.com, January 24, 2002

By now you know that U2 will be performing live during halftime at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans. You might be wondering, "What does a band from Ireland know about American football?"

Plenty, as it turns out. Rumor has it that Bono is a pretty big Green Bay Packers fan.

I remember that! The one thing about Lambeau Field is that residents of Green Bay and Appleton will go even if they are only casual fans. The excitement over a big name like U2 would be enough to drive attendance.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[thavidesco]

Yesterday I listened to Prague Popmart bootleg and I was quite shocked how bad it actually was musically Bono was in terrible shape, Larry played with hardly any dynamic and in very economic way, Adam was a bit disconnected with the band with his recently discovered jazzy playing, moreover many´new songs didn´t work - MOFO, Miami, Sun and with Pop Mart it´s also start with the era of warhorses - Bullet, WOWY, One, End of the world, Pride - great songs but sounded extremly tired

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

STUCK IN A SUPER BOWL MOMENT

NFL.com, January 24, 2002

By now you know that U2 will be performing live during halftime at Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans. You might be wondering, "What does a band from Ireland know about American football?"

Plenty, as it turns out. Rumor has it that Bono is a pretty big Green Bay Packers fan.

Bono is NOT a Green Bay Packers fan. He is/was a Brett Favre fan. And that is only because of the movie 'There's Something About Mary', in which Favre delivered a stellar performance as, well, himself.

Not since Dan Marino's dramatic role in 'Ace Ventura Pet Detective' has a NFL QB been so electric on the big screen.

 

[Blue Room]

Yesterday I listened to Prague Popmart bootleg and I was quite shocked how bad it actually was musically Bono was in terrible shape, Larry played with hardly any dynamic and in very economic way, Adam was a bit disconnected with the band with his recently discovered jazzy playing, moreover many´new songs didn´t work - MOFO, Miami, Sun and with Pop Mart it´s also start with the era of warhorses - Bullet, WOWY, One, End of the world, Pride - great songs but sounded extremly tired

I would have to strongly disagree about Mofo. One of the best intros and opening songs U2 has done. Miami was much better live than it was on the album. They could not figure out how to play Staring At the Sun so they went acoustic. I agree, it did not really work. However POP songs like Last Night On Earth and Gone worked very well live. I saw 12 Popmart shows and I thought it was a very good tour. To me, it was as good as Zoo TV. It gets a bad rap due to some of the attendance figures and POP album backlash.

 

[rennowba]

The tampa show gets a mention in the u2 live book. It says in there that the stadium was less then half empty

 

[mikal]

I would have to strongly disagree about Mofo. One of the best intros and opening songs U2 has done. Miami was much better live than it was on the album. They could not figure out how to play Staring At the Sun so they went acoustic. I agree, it did not really work. However POP songs like Last Night On Earth and Gone worked very well live. I saw 12 Popmart shows and I thought it was a very good tour. To me, it was as good as Zoo TV. It gets a bad rap due to some of the attendance figures and POP album backlash.

Agreed, and HMTMKMKM was really tight as well. The Please-Streets transition was jaw dropping as well.

Can't really think of any performances really that came across as sloppy other than some of the opening night woes.

 

[popacrobat]

Bono is a Patriots fan

 

[thavidesco]

It took almost to third leg until they figured out how to do Mofo live. They had to give up on Do You Feel Loved or Angels, because it didn´t work. They had to strip down Sun to the plain acoustic version... Miami was a disaster except the chorus guitar riff.. I agree Last Night was cool, Gone was mediocre on Pop, it got better on Elevation. Disco was great, so was Velvet Dress. Please was haunting.

The show worked only at some parts, the performances of the songs weren´t so strong compared to Lovetown or ZooTv by any means. Moments like Edge´s karaoke, were not funny, but embarrassing. It ruined the flow of the show. Bono was struggling at most of the nights. Very problematic tour...

 

[Axver]

What on earth are you gibbering about.

 

[The_acrobat]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBsyUwS50vI
Probably the best way to see how empty the stadium was in Tampa. About 1 minute in the lights come on, as they usually do, and you can see it.

According to that thread that was posted earlier, there were 17,000 people at the Popmart Tampa show. Seems strange that they'd do Tampa and Jacksonville together.

 

[YBORCITY]

I had friends at the Tampa show and they said it was awful... Unfortunately ,or maybe not, I was traveling for business. They said they were just handing out tickets before the show

 

[thatsnotmypuppy]

The show in Brisbane was poorly attended. The back stadium stands were not used at all and the side stands were far from empty. I vaguely recall the attendence at about 18,000 in a 52,000 seater venue. Then again the much loved Zoomerang show there wasn't a complete sell out either. Again the back stands were far from full. To be fair neither The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson or Madonna completely sold out ANZ Stadium in the 90's either.

 

[zooone]

Here are some of the worst boxscores I have for Popmart:

San Diego: 30,572/40,000
Denver: 28,540/45,000
Tempe: 33,539/45,000
Dallas: 38,043/45,000
Memphis: 22,734/35,000
Clemson: 20,251/36,500
Kansas City: 23,709/38,500
Pittsburgh: 27,785/40,000
Oakland 2: 24,490/42,500
Madison: 34,002/40,000
Chicago 3: 31,972/42,500
New York 3: 36,312/46,666
Detroit: 35,463/40,000

Please note that for Oakland, Chicago and New York i had total Box Scores for all shows, so I divided the totals by the number of shows.


Contrast those results with Canada:

Winnipeg: 42,270 sold out
Edmonton: 90,000 two sell outs
Toronto: 99,519 two sellouts
Montreal: 48,855 sold out


The United States performance was dismal. Even more so when you compare it to 360 in some of the markets!


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

Here are some more boxscore attendance figures for popmart that were not great:

Minneapolis: 28,724/35,000
St. Louis: 24,807/34,000
Tampa: 17,776/70,000
Jacksonville: 14,491/30,000

Koln: 27,662/35,000
Leipzig: 18,463/25,000
Mannheim: 18,828/25,000
Nuremberg: 29,916/35,000

New Orleans: 21,465/25,000
San Antonio: 26,022/30,000
Atlanta: 26,491/32,500
Houston: 22,981/30,000
Vancouver: 29,468/35,000
Eugene: 25,931/30,000
Seattle: 30,260/40,000

Werchter: 37,498/40,000
Montpelier: 24,188/30,000
Tel Aviv: 31,566/35,000

Perth: 13,775/13,775
Melbourne: 23,810/30,000
Brisbane: 17,567/30,000

Tokyo: 34,265/40,000
Osaka: 19,735/25,000

Remember that the capacities listed for these dates(the second figure after the first which is attendance) are reduced capacities in most cases. Most of these venues have a higher true capacity for a stadium show.