fourth annhilation
U2 publicly announced this tour on
January 1st 2008. The tour is scheduled to take place from
November 20,
2008 to
May 9,
2009. The tour will bring back the stage designer
Mark Fisher, with
Willie Williams back for audio and video. They plan to have an advanced screen system that will wrap all around the stage:
"The Annhilation tour will be one of the most advanced tours that we [U2] have ever had. We plan to have a rotating stage surrounded by a high definition screen that will be around so that everybody will be able to see the concert from any angle."(
Paul McGuinness)
Little else is known about this tour. The first concert will be in the
BC Place Stadium in
Vancouver,
Canada. Also, a further leg of the tour will visit Venus, the band's home planet. It will be the first interstellar concert since the Zoo TV Tour in 1992.
Some additional info has been reported by
NME as of February 25:
Sources close to the band have revealed that the Mission Impossible theme will indeed serve as opening music throughout the bulk of the tour. It is confirmed that Larry and Bono will be using teleprompters for each night's performance of the piece; it is not known if these will be utilized throughout the rest of the show.
In addition, the group's manager, Paul McGuinness, has reportedly booked
Billy Joel and
Britney Spears to open the first fifty shows. This was a mistake, as he meant to book Billie Joe Armstrong. The band has agreed to go ahead with the plan; however, when Joel does open Bono will likely not play any piano. Alternatively, he may not choose to show up at all.
The band will continue to play Bullet the Blue Sky as per a recent Paul McCartney request. In his own words:
It is planned for Edge to transform into a
beautiful black woman shortly before the song's traditional solo.
Other plans include a "Zoo Station" to be lowered into the audience during a brief interim, where concert tickets, miscellaneous
RED products and soda pops will be made available for purchase. During the second encore, the band will dress up as the
Village People and perform some old, previously unseen Naomi Campbell-choreographed gestures, letting the audience take care of most of the real musicianship in the songs. "We're really digging back [for] this one," Bono was quoted as saying in a 2003 Rolling Stone installment, smiling a giant Irish smile. He added, "We hope people will be pleased. We think people will be pleased. I think people will be pleased...We haven't played Disco since '81 [?]. But don't hold your breath, Larry will not be participating in the band ...dance. He refuses to. We're very saddened by that, but that's just what it is. We're thinking of getting him to smile before the tour starts and maybe Willie can snap a Polaroid of that, and get it up on a screen every once in a while. There's going to be a giant screen, really at least one big one. At this point, I wouldn't expect anything though. The album's nowhere near completion - we've just begun to book the first dates. But I really shouldn't be talking about [the album], it's nowhere near ready." It is thought by fans that Larry would just go on with the encores in
drag instead.
It has been announced that the tour will be renamed the Night and Day Tour on the 11th leg, when all of the crew recognize the significance of this theme later in the show. It will then be renamed the Mercy Tour to coincide with the release of the Mercy Remixes EP, with the last leg ending early.
Announced Tour Tagline : "Hopefully Not, But Have You Ever Been Attacked By A Homosexual?" Tour artwork yet to be released. (as of February 25)
[edit] About the album
From U2Start:
"U2 in dancefloor shock!" joked Bono. "Normally when you play a U2 tune, it clears the dancefloor. And that may not be true of this. There's some trance influences. But there's some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge. Real molten metal. It's not like anything we've ever done before, and we don't think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either. Three years ago there was virtually no one in Africa on antiretroviral drugs," he explained. "Now you'll have two million by the end of this year."
About the album, Bono has said: "It is our first single, really. After 30 some years it's our first single, but with 10 really kickboxin' b-sides. Elimination is the first single. Watch out for it. It's going to be huge. We can't even fucking play it."
[1]
Elimination is not scheduled to be played at any shows.
Much
controversy has been made over the
inclusion of the Blindness cut "A Fricken' American" in the tour setlist. The anthem drops the F-bomb several times over some of the Bush administration's actions and several other subjects, including the
Grammys.
These are some of the rumored album titles for what promises to be quite an incredible new U2 album!
Working Album Title(s):
1. This is the Sound! (From Venus) or TITS( FV)
2. This is the Sound of a Band From Venus Applying for the Position of Best Rock and Roll Band! 0r TITSBFVAFTPBRARB
3. Africa
4. Molten Metal From Venus/Edge is on Fire or (MMFV/EF)
Below is a working list of some of the new songs that will appear in the new album (subject to change - DISC ONE CONFIRMED BY U2.COM):
Disc 1:
1. Elimination
2. Mercy
3. No Line on The Horizon
4. A Fricken' American
5. Baby Dance With Me Tonight!
6. Thank You For the Day
7. Africa
8. Drunk America
9. Modern Times Venusian Rock and Roll
10. A Prayer For The Love of Humanity, Peace, Love and Hope
11. Lighting Edge on Fire (Bonus Track on limited Japanese edition)
Disc 2 (On "Extra Shitty Bonus B-Sides" Plus! Edition):
1. North Star
2. Treason
3. Crumbs From Your Table Part Deux
4. How to Dismantle an F-Bomb
5. I Write The Songs
6. Lead Me in The Way I Should Go
7. All My Life
8. Punk Rock From Venus
9. Vertigo (Extended Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeahhhhhh Mix) (feat. Brian Eno)
10. Molten Metal
11. Zooro-Dance (Clearing The Dance Floor)
12. Making Love Not War
13. Africa II
14. An Angel in Disguise
15. Love is All We Have Left (feat. Frank Sinatra)
16. Sky Hawk
17. F-Bush (Rumored bonus song on the American CD)
[edit] About The First Single
Release Date: September 2 2008
1. Elimination(4:27)
2. Elimination (extended Venus mix, 12:59)
3. Elimination (Burnt Edge Mix, Featuring screams from edge being on fire! 10:08)
4. God Bless Those Drunk Americans ( now became Drunk America 3:22)
5. Elimination (Clearing The Dance Floor/Molten Metal Mix 5:59)
6. Doing the Cha Cha Cha (Boom Cha Mix, left over from TITS 3:07)
A second version of the single Elimination is also in the works but will only be available in the UK:
1. Elimination (4:27)
2. Evolution (TITS left over, 5:34)
3. Molten Metal (Jacknife Lee Mix, 13:00)
4. Elimination (Molten Egde/Guitar mix,4:30)
5. Full Metal Jacket (HTDAAB leftover, 3:20)
6. Crumbs from your table Part Deux ( A Crummy Mix, 7:48)
[edit] Setlist
A setlist has been released from u2.com. The show will run for 46 songs and will encompass the band's history.
1. Mercy
2. Vertigo / Native Son (snippet)
3. Elevation (Extended Mole Digging in a Hole Version)
4. 40 / Bass Trap (snippet)
5. Mofo
6. Pride (In the Name of Love) / Stop! In the Name of Love (snippet)
7. Special 3D Presentation - The Making of a Classic: The Hands That Built America
8. The Hands That Built America (snippet) / Miami
9. Father Is An Elephant (snippet) / I Will Follow
10. Vertigo
11. Where The Streets Have No Name
12. Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete The Chop)
13. Goldeneye (snippet) / Family Row (snippet) / Goldeneye (snippet) / Family Row
14. Staring at the Sun
15.
Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me (Edge Karaoke)
16. I Write the Songs (Dik Evans karaoke via satellite up-link)
"ZOO STATION" LOWERED
17. Fast Cars
18. North Star
19. Bullet the Blue Sky / Ebony and Ivory (snippet)
20. Vertigo
21. Last Night on Earth
22. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / If God Will Send His Angels (snippet)
23. Dirty Day / Beautiful Day (snippet)
24. Beautiful Day / Dirty Day (snippet)
25. Another Day (snippet) / Another Day (P. McCartney song) / A Day Without Me (snippet) / New Day (snippet) / Sunday Bloody Sunday (snippet) / Night and Day (snippet)
26. Some Days Are Better Than Others
27. God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You (snippet) / Vertigo
28. Vertigo
Encore
29. One Tree Hill / Yellow Submarine (snippet)
30. New Year's Day
31. Desire / I Want Candy (snippet) / Motts Fruitsations (snippet)
32. God Part II
33. A Fricken' American
34. The Fly
35. Wave of Sorrow (Lemonade Mix)
36. Lemon / Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car (snippet)
37. Vertigo (Banjo Mix)
Encore
38. Gone
39. Discotheque / Edge attacks some power chords for twenty minutes (snippet)
40. November Rain
41. Mysterious Ways
42. Drunk Chicken / Crumbs From Your Table (snippet)
43. Red Light / Red Hill Mining Town (snippet) / Heartland (snippet) / The Three Sunrises (snippet) / Promenade (snippet) / Acrobat (snippet) / Electrical Storm (snippet)
44. Vertigo / Vertigo (snippet)
45. M.L.K (Adam Clayton Solo)
46. 4th Of July (Acapella)
:laughing: 
