I Want To Live In America

[U2Spain]

A European team will win the world cup next year.. I have no idea which one though!!

Getting back on topic, U2Spain, what do you think about the rumours of a European Arena tour next year? Any chance?

No chance I think. Anyway, if there is going to be an australasia or an european leg next year, its not too late for official news??

 

[U2Spain]

IF they come down here in 2006, it will have been eight years since they visited Australia and thirteen since they visited New Zealand.

That is a shame.

 

[Axver]

But Ireland is special for them as UK is. I talk about the other europeans gigs.

What I find interesting is how FEW shows Ireland gets.

Counting Northern Ireland as part of Ireland:

Boy: six (though of course, the majority of shows BEFORE this tour were in Ireland, when U2 hadn't ventured beyond Ireland and the UK)
October: five
Pre-War: six
War: one
The Unforgettable Fire: two (one an unannounced festival appearance)
The Joshua Tree: four
Lovetown: four
ZooTV: three
Popmart: three
Elevation: two
Vertigo: three

Seems surprisingly few to me ...

 

[Axver]

No chance I think. Anyway, if there is going to be an australasia or an european leg next year, its not too late for official news??

It's starting to get a bit late for down here, though with that said, the first leg was announced just two months before it began.

Rumours here vary from "they're definitely coming and venues have been arranged" to "they probably aren't coming" and it's difficult to know what to believe as they seem to all come from reliable sources within the touring/ticketing industry!

 

[Keebler884]

Maybe it has something to do with the size of the cities they are playing, in addition to the size of the arenas and stadiums. After all, stadiums hold at least twice what arenas normally do. Just guessing.

 

[U2Spain]

U2 play in arenas in USA because they are afraid of mid-empty stadiums as it hapenned in Popmart american leg.

 

[OffAxis]

I seem to remember all the Americans getting jealous when they saw pictures of the Europe stage. How the tide has shifted.

Europe would probably get more shows if they had decent arenas. There's no such thing as a state of the art 18,000 seat arena there. (OK maybe there is, but there's not a lot of them.) Europeans fight so much to preserve history they've forgotten about progress.

Australia only has 4 (maybe 5) major cities. That's like coming to California for a tour except California's 3 major cities and surrounding metropolitan areas have more people than in all of Australia. There are more people in Iraq than there are in Australia. I can totally see why they don't ever go down there or other obscure places.

 

[Axver]

I seem to remember all the Americans getting jealous when they saw pictures of the Europe stage. How the tide has shifted.

Europe would probably get more shows if they had decent arenas. There's no such thing as a state of the art 18,000 seat arena there. (OK maybe there is, but there's not a lot of them.) Europeans fight so much to preserve history they've forgotten about progress.

Australia only has 4 (maybe 5) major cities. That's like coming to California for a tour except California's 3 major cities and surrounding metropolitan areas have more people than in all of Australia. There are more people in Iraq than there are in Australia. I can totally see why they don't ever go down there or other obscure places.

Firstly, I take great offence being told this is an obscure country. Watch your wording.

Secondly, the per capita attendance of people to U2 concerts in my part of the world is better than anywhere else on the planet. 1 in 10 Cantabrians attended the Christchurch, New Zealand concert on Lovetown - a STADIUM show. A city the size of Christchurch in the US wouldn't even be able to sell out an arena concert, let alone a stadium. Only Ireland can rival this part of the world for attendance per capita, and yet we still get neglected. To me, it does not make sense to neglect your most dedicated audience.

 

[LJT]

What I find interesting is how FEW shows Ireland gets.

Counting Northern Ireland as part of Ireland:

Boy: six (though of course, the majority of shows BEFORE this tour were in Ireland, when U2 hadn't ventured beyond Ireland and the UK)
October: five
Pre-War: six
War: one
The Unforgettable Fire: two (one an unannounced festival appearance)
The Joshua Tree: four
Lovetown: four
ZooTV: three
Popmart: three
Elevation: two
Vertigo: three

Seems surprisingly few to me ...

Play Belfast

 

[KEVIN051269]

Although i enjoyed the 3x European shows i saw (all in different countries). I have to agree that I do feel a bit short changed.

Have also seen the band twice in the US(1xvertigo 1xpopmart) and agree that imo the European audiences tend to be 'better'.

In general though outdoor shows do have a more 'partylike' atmosphere, so perhaps this tour is a bad example.Funnily enough I also think it makes a difference on which day of the week a concert is held to how good an audience is, people will tend to be more 'relaxed' if a show is held over a weekend ?

It does seem strange that for the duration of the European tour we had a pretty static setlist. Even if a song was 'unexpectedly' performed it was pretty obvious which and where it would be. Although the European shows were generally well received i think they missed that vital ingredient.....spontaniety. To those who argue that 1 show 1 city = static sets, sorry that argument doesnt was with me. Travel round Europe is pretty cheap and easy and the band knows that fans WILL do it, one or two songs a night wouldnt hurt

The weirdest thing for me was how the band thought it was a good idea to do nearly a whole leg playing Vertigox2 and for now on the third leg seem to have dropped the idea.

U2Spain your point about the band jetting back to Nice could be a very valid reason, why rehearse when you can relax ??

Axver, i really do feel sorry for you and your southern hemisphere pals. But it seems to me the bands touring policy only really exists for one reason only........

FLOM ? M everytime......

 

[1stOne]

Have you forgotten our amazing show in Barcelona U2Spain?

 

[KEVIN051269]

Have you forgotten our amazing show in Barcelona U2Spain?

I was also at the amazing show in Barcelona, the best I have ever seen.

Unfortunately for U2Spain he was at all 3 shows in Spain and saw the virtually the same show x3. 1 or 2 variations wouldnt have hurt the band/setlist flow.

Just imagine if before the 2nd Vertigo the band cranked out an impromptu Out of Control for instance at Barcelona ?

Setlists can be static and the show will be great. But little tweaks in the sets can make great shows even better

 

[VertigoGal]

Yeah the European setlists this tour were sort of average from what I saw. I wonder how long they'll keep up the mixing around on this leg.

I hope they go to Australia/NZ, but comparing the number of US to Australian shows is kind of skewed. A better comparison would be Australian shows and shows in Florida, because they have roughly the same population.

I'd guess the reason for fewer shows in Ireland is that there are only like 5 million people in the whole country, and Croke Park holds a lot of people. and they played Belfast on Popmart didn't they?

The UK on the other hand, seems like too few shows for what's obviously a larger country.

 

[Axver]

I hope they go to Australia/NZ, but comparing the number of US to Australian shows is kind of skewed. A better comparison would be Australian shows and shows in Florida, because they have roughly the same population.

Actually, I think the fairest comparison is demand and per capita attendance. As I keep mentioning in these debates, to my knowledge, only Ireland can compete with New Zealand for attendance. 1 in 10 Cantabrians is just astonishing. I'm pretty sure that statistic holds true for the ZooTV show as well as the Lovetown one.

I'd guess the reason for fewer shows in Ireland is that there are only like 5 million people in the whole country, and Croke Park holds a lot of people. and they played Belfast on Popmart didn't they?

Sure, Ireland has a low population, but the demand is ridiculous. They sold almost 250,000 tickets to the Croke gigs in under an hour for each show. The demand was such they could've played a week, even a fortnight. I very much believe U2 haven't come close to satisfying demand in Ireland.

And if memory serves correctly, they played Belfast on Boy, Pre-War, The Joshua Tree, and Popmart.

 

[celticbhoy]

I have had the opportunity of seeing u2 numerous times in both america & europe but now live in melbourne .......so i can see various points of view.....

I have been lucky enough to have seen the band about 40 times from lovetown in dublin to vertigo in dublin , spanning 16 years .

The fact is that if i lived in the new york / boston area i would have been going to 40 shows in just the vertigo tour alone in america.

With the cost of tickets & flights this year i will have spent around $6000 USD to see 7 european & 7 3rd leg shows (14) .

Now if i lived in new york and went to the 8 MSG & 6 Boston shows ( 14 ) it would only have cost me around $2000 USD .

With the average GA ticket price in the US @ $55 and $100 in europe it seems the european fans may have been subsidising our North American cousins ??

So in answering your question U2Spain , at this moment in time while the tour is on 'i would like to live in america' !!

But spare a thought for the aussies & kiwi's , in melbourne during the past 15 years U2 have played only 2/3 concerts while boston ( with a similar population of 4/5million ) will have had around 20 shows by the end of this year ........

Just my 2 cents.......

 

[bakedpony]

Look all you Europeanscan complain about the setlist but at leastU2 is playing in your countries!!! What about us in the Philippines? Is it because we're justa small country that U2 can ignore?! When are they gonna come and do a show here? The Beatles at least came here! Sigh...

 

[Axver]

Look all you Europeanscan complain about the setlist but at leastU2 is playing in your countries!!! What about us in the Philippines? Is it because we're justa small country that U2 can ignore?! When are they gonna come and do a show here? The Beatles at least came here! Sigh...

Yeah, I don't get that - why no show in Manila? And internationally, why no shows in Jakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Calcutta, Bombay, Moscow, St Petersburg, et cetera? All HUGE markets of millions of people.

 

[sebo20]

I think I am going to stick with KEVIN051269 and Axver here. What Kevin says is absolutely true for me. I attended two shows, luckily one of them in Milan where they played two more songs than usual. But the lack of even waiting for a surprise in the set is just too annoying. A few moments ago I read the part of the interview with The Edge for u2.com where he says he can not reveal what they are rehearsing because it would spoil the surprise. Well, I think it's too late for Europe. Speaking of Europe, let me think again: how many shows did they do in the eastern part of Europe? With the exception of Poland, none. But yes, they did shows there in the past. Like they did them in Australia and New Zealand. And South America. But not anymore. Why? FLOM?

 

[Axver]

Speaking of Europe, let me think again: how many shows did they do in the eastern part of Europe? With the exception of Poland, none. But yes, they did shows there in the past.

Rather poorly, mind you. Pre-Vertigo Tour: Budapest, Prague, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, and Warsaw. In roughly 25 years of touring! Now, OK, much of eastern Europe wasn't 'playable' before the fall of the Wall, but that was over 15 years ago. For such a politically conscious band, I'm surprised they haven't celebrated the new-found freedoms of eastern Europe and played more shows there on ZooTV, Popmart, Elevation, and Vertigo.

 

[STING2]

Firstly, I take great offence being told this is an obscure country. Watch your wording.

Secondly, the per capita attendance of people to U2 concerts in my part of the world is better than anywhere else on the planet. 1 in 10 Cantabrians attended the Christchurch, New Zealand concert on Lovetown - a STADIUM show. A city the size of Christchurch in the US wouldn't even be able to sell out an arena concert, let alone a stadium. Only Ireland can rival this part of the world for attendance per capita, and yet we still get neglected. To me, it does not make sense to neglect your most dedicated audience.

These numbers from the last time U2 went to Australia are not great, no matter what part of the world you go to.


Sydney 37,976

Melbourne 23,810

Brisbane 17,567

Perth 13,775


Yes, Sydney and Perth were both sellouts. But the Sydney show was done in an Arena sized venue which explains the sellout there. Sydney had seats on the field. Without seats on the field like for ZOO TV, the show may not have soldout.

U2 were able to do multiple stadium shows with around 50,000 per show in Sydney and Melbourne on ZOO TV. What happened on POPMART in Australia was the heaviest drop in terms of U2's concert attendance of any country on the planet for the POPMART tour.

Strong per capita attendence alone cannot justify a tour stop. I'm sure Iceland would do great in the per capita department, but I think U2 would lose money if they tried to do a stadium show there.

Australia on POPMART was only slightly stronger than the USA in the per capita department. The average attendance per show in the USA was nearly 50% higher than Australia. Average attendance around the globe was double average attendance in Australia. Canada was twice as strong as Australia in per captia attendance and Ireland was 5 times stronger than Australia, perhaps more as the shows in Ireland soldout quickly while half the shows in Australia did not even come close to filling the venue up to 50% capacity.


I still think U2 will go to Australia in 2006. I just hope there has been an increase in U2's popularity since POP there. Both ATYCLB and HTDAAB I think have done well there, so hopefully the turnout for the shows will be similar to ZOO TV or Lovetown.

 

[STING2]

I have had the opportunity of seeing u2 numerous times in both america & europe but now live in melbourne .......so i can see various points of view.....

I have been lucky enough to have seen the band about 40 times from lovetown in dublin to vertigo in dublin , spanning 16 years .

The fact is that if i lived in the new york / boston area i would have been going to 40 shows in just the vertigo tour alone in america.

With the cost of tickets & flights this year i will have spent around $6000 USD to see 7 european & 7 3rd leg shows (14) .

Now if i lived in new york and went to the 8 MSG & 6 Boston shows ( 14 ) it would only have cost me around $2000 USD .

With the average GA ticket price in the US @ $55 and $100 in europe it seems the european fans may have been subsidising our North American cousins ??

So in answering your question U2Spain , at this moment in time while the tour is on 'i would like to live in america' !!

But spare a thought for the aussies & kiwi's , in melbourne during the past 15 years U2 have played only 2/3 concerts while boston ( with a similar population of 4/5million ) will have had around 20 shows by the end of this year ........

Just my 2 cents.......

The average ticket price for the 28 North American shows of the first leg was $96.88. The average ticket price for the European tour of 32 shows was $78.66.

 

[KEVIN051269]

Rather poorly, mind you. Pre-Vertigo Tour: Budapest, Prague, Sarajevo, Thessaloniki, and Warsaw. In roughly 25 years of touring! Now, OK, much of eastern Europe wasn't 'playable' before the fall of the Wall, but that was over 15 years ago. For such a politically conscious band, I'm surprised they haven't celebrated the new-found freedoms of eastern Europe and played more shows there on ZooTV, Popmart, Elevation, and Vertigo.

Interesting that 4 of those shows were on Popmart. Seems Eastern Europe gets one show a tour now if they are lucky?
Strange, how even though they could have sold out stadia in all the above cities again on this tour. Perhaps on Popmart it was convenient to play as many cities (worldwide) as possible to maximise the gross from tickets ? Now that the 'production' costs have decreased on the last two tours the band simply doesnt have to play to as many different audiences, especially the less profitable ones, so they dont.

 

[OffAxis]

Firstly, I take great offence being told this is an obscure country. Watch your wording.

Secondly, the per capita attendance of people to U2 concerts in my part of the world is better than anywhere else on the planet. 1 in 10 Cantabrians attended the Christchurch, New Zealand concert on Lovetown - a STADIUM show. A city the size of Christchurch in the US wouldn't even be able to sell out an arena concert, let alone a stadium. Only Ireland can rival this part of the world for attendance per capita, and yet we still get neglected. To me, it does not make sense to neglect your most dedicated audience.

OK, obscure, maybe not, but low population, for sure.

Yes, I believe that U2 could sell-out a show in New Zealand and Australia, probably quite a few shows, but are they supposed to ship all that equipment and people just for a handful of shows. They would lose a ton of money.

Yes, Ireland may get the concerts, as well as Portugal, Norway, and many other countries comparable to or with less population and attendance than Australia, but all those other places are not off by themselves in a remote part of the world. Australia may be their most dedicated audience, but there's not enough people. Fargo, North Dakota could have the most dedicated audience in the world, but I know U2 is not going to play a show there and it's within a days drive of Minneapolis.

 

[financeguy]

What I find interesting is how FEW shows Ireland gets.

Counting Northern Ireland as part of Ireland:

Boy: six (though of course, the majority of shows BEFORE this tour were in Ireland, when U2 hadn't ventured beyond Ireland and the UK)
October: five
Pre-War: six
War: one
The Unforgettable Fire: two (one an unannounced festival appearance)
The Joshua Tree: four
Lovetown: four
ZooTV: three
Popmart: three
Elevation: two
Vertigo: three

Seems surprisingly few to me ...

That had struck me before! Your stats seem to show that in recent tours they are playing Ireland less.

Add Joshua Tree's four concerts to Lovetown's four - that's eight concerts in Ireland in the space of only three years - a much higher play rate than in recent tours. For the next tour ZooTV, we had to wait until almost the end of the tour.

In the two most recent tours, Elevation and Vertigo, they only played one venue on each tour - Slane in '01 and Croker in '05.

They have not played an Irish city outside of Dublin since Belfast for Popmart in 1997.

But at least we are more or less guaranteed two plus concerts per tour here so I probably shouldn't complain too much.

 

[financeguy]

I still think U2 will go to Australia in 2006. I just hope there has been an increase in U2's popularity since POP there. Both ATYCLB and HTDAAB I think have done well there, so hopefully the turnout for the shows will be similar to ZOO TV or Lovetown.

From travelling in Australia recently, I can testify that U2 are still extremely popular here, but if they fail to tour Vertigo here then I expect their popularity to decline and to be honest they would deserve it.

 

[Axver]

These numbers from the last time U2 went to Australia are not great, no matter what part of the world you go to.


Sydney 37,976

Melbourne 23,810

Brisbane 17,567

Perth 13,775


Yes, Sydney and Perth were both sellouts. But the Sydney show was done in an Arena sized venue which explains the sellout there. Sydney had seats on the field. Without seats on the field like for ZOO TV, the show may not have soldout.

U2 were able to do multiple stadium shows with around 50,000 per show in Sydney and Melbourne on ZOO TV. What happened on POPMART in Australia was the heaviest drop in terms of U2's concert attendance of any country on the planet for the POPMART tour.

Stating facts is one thing, but in the presentation you can twist them to support whatever premise you like. Perth, they played an arena due to the lack of availability of a stadium. Brisbane is Australia's cultural black hole and they just shouldn't play here on a stadium tour. Melbourne's Popmart attendance is inexplicable and does not make sense.

But at the end of the day, what you have to consider with the timing of Popmart is that it came a year after the release of Pop - the album was received poorly, sold badly, and all the bad press about Popmart would've worked its way to Australia. All of those factors worked against attendance. Meanwhile, on ZooTV, U2 came down here on the back of Zooropa (which would've re-ignited interest in Achtung Baby) and the ZooTV Tour was getting wildly positive reviews. Also, RAH/Lovetown (U2's most successful period in Australia) was a recent memory and still had some currency, but by Popmart, that effect was running out and now it's gone.

Ultimately, I do not believe they should bring the stadium show here unless it's directly on the back of a new album. Otherwise, play arenas. They'll sell out and the production costs are much lower.

In any case, using Popmart to show poor attendance here isn't that wise considering the fact it's an anomaly - attendance-wise, ZooTV and UF did very well and Lovetown was an insanely good success. Going to New Zealand and you don't have any attendance disaster stories - in fact, you have a case of U2 having to add a second stadium show in Auckland on Lovetown when in almost any other country in the world, you wouldn't be able to sell a single stadium! And the fact they could play Christchurch Lovetown at all speaks volumes when US cities today with larger populations don't get shows (i.e. Nashville) even though it's only an arena tour.

 

[Axver]

OK, obscure, maybe not, but low population, for sure.

Yes, I believe that U2 could sell-out a show in New Zealand and Australia, probably quite a few shows, but are they supposed to ship all that equipment and people just for a handful of shows. They would lose a ton of money.

Yes, Ireland may get the concerts, as well as Portugal, Norway, and many other countries comparable to or with less population and attendance than Australia, but all those other places are not off by themselves in a remote part of the world. Australia may be their most dedicated audience, but there's not enough people. Fargo, North Dakota could have the most dedicated audience in the world, but I know U2 is not going to play a show there and it's within a days drive of Minneapolis.

Actually, if U2 brought the arena show to Australia, it would make a healthy profit with 2 Brisbane shows, 4 Sydney shows, and 4 Melbourne shows. I imagine the healthy profit would remain if they added a couple of shows in either Adelaide or Perth too. New Zealand's a little more problematic due to the lack of venues - the Events Centre in Wellington is 5,000, Christchurch's arena is 8,000, and Auckland has a 12,000 seater under construction. Then you just go straight to stadiums - and they could probably sell out a single stadium gig in Wellington today but I think that would only break even, not profit. However, if they did a low budget tour of New Zealand - i.e. four shows in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch each - they would profit, I have no doubt about it.

Ultimately, down here, we just want to see U2. We don't need fancy production, we're not concerned about that. We'd like the four Irish lads, their instruments, and whatever techs they need to make sure the show functions. A stripped down tour would be more profitable, no doubt about it. I don't understand why U2 feel they need to supplement their music with fancy lighting and visuals to be attractive to the general concertgoer. Maybe that's the case elsewhere, but certainly not here.

 

[Axver]

That had struck me before! Your stats seem to show that in recent tours they are playing Ireland less.

Add Joshua Tree's four concerts to Lovetown's four - that's eight concerts in Ireland in the space of only three years - a much higher play rate than in recent tours. For the next tour ZooTV, we had to wait until almost the end of the tour.

In the two most recent tours, Elevation and Vertigo, they only played one venue on each tour - Slane in '01 and Croker in '05.

They have not played an Irish city outside of Dublin since Belfast for Popmart in 1997.

But at least we are more or less guaranteed two plus concerts per tour here so I probably shouldn't complain too much.

Interestingly, there should've been a fifth Lovetown show in Dublin but it was cancelled before tickets went on sale to give U2 a rest. And people at the time complained greatly that U2 were not satisfying demand (those four shows only played to roughly 20,000 people). They could've easily sold out another 5-10 Dublin shows at the Point Depot if they'd wanted to!

I honestly think the last decent tour of Ireland was JT - two Dublin shows, one in Belfast, one in Cork. I'm surprised every tour hasn't had that! I don't think anyone doubts their ability to sell out those four shows. Even with the three Croke shows this tour, I'm sure they could've sold out a fourth there and still played to sellout crowds in the other two cities.

I also must say I find it surprising that they didn't play Ireland on ZooTV's arena leg. I've also always raised an eyebrow a the UF schedule - Ireland's missed on TWO separate European arena legs and isn't played until the festival/stadium leg.

 

[sebo20]

I've been to New Zealand last December, and for sure I can say that U2 is very popular there. In 16 days I spent there I heard All I Want Is You four times on the radio! Not to mention other songs, this is only the winner Thinking that U2 wouldn't be able to fill arenas or stadiums down there is out of question for me. They haven't been there for a few years and people are waiting for them!
Just a thought I came across: Europe got something that also North America did: playing half the number of shows U2 played Vertigo twice at every show in Europe ... that means Europe heard Vertigo just about as many times as North America. What is a bit sad for me is that after attending 3 concerts (one on Elevation, two on Vertigo tour) I heard that song FOUR times. I would prefer to have heard other songs instead of repeatedly this one.

 

[chrissybaby]

Thanks. You'll make me blush if you're not careful.

And at least we got One Tree Hill (NZ)/Van Diemen's Land (Australia) and had the Lovetown Tour. Someone in, say, Russia or India or Singapore has never had the band play their country even though they live in a huge market.

I just live in the past, even though I wasn't old enough to attend the tours we did get!

The shows in Australia during Lovetown are for me the greatest this band has ever been in a live environment. You got the greatest opener to a U2 concert ever too! Hawkmoon....wow!!!

I don't feel too short changed with the European leg though. The screen and support bands made for a great outdoor festival atmosphere, and a great summer!