All Southern Hemisphere tour information/rumours here please

[Trinity3000]

u2 down under next tour?

Not sure if this is the right place...

Most people I know say that the Vertigo tour was the last time U2 would come to New Zealand.

They don't make it down here every tour, and if the next one is their last tour then probably they won't be back.

What do you guys reckon?

 

[Rich79]

I reckon the next tour won't be their last. At least as far as I can tell. So, you're probably not totally out of luck (yet).

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

Don't know, whether your question hit the right area within this forum, but the mods woll know better. To answer your question: I don't think, that U2 will come to AustralAsia next time around. This said, because I reckon, the tour will be shorter – aka no real world tour as in 2005/06 – but concentrate again on the US and, in lesser dimensions, Europe. A schedule or al least structure as in 2001 might not be unpredictable. And that's because I suppose the tour to happen completely in 2009.
Different would be a scenario with the album needing much more time to be published and the tour therefore to be postponed until 2010. And of course, if the band decided to do a huge extravaganza again worldwide. Australia saw the band in '84, '89, '93, '98 and '06 – so qutie regularly actually. The only real exception was 'Elevation' – because 'The Joshua Tree' had 'LoveTown' to make up for it in a way down under. You might be lucky therefore next tour, too. More complicated might be New Zealand though, where the band only played in '84, '89, '93 and '06. But, who knows?

 

[Earnie Shavers]

The only tour they've 'truly' missed down here was Elevation - and it's well known that it was in large part the Australian dollars fault for hovering at about 50c to the US$. For a couple of years there, we missed many, if not most, of the major tours - even middle sized ones - doing the rounds. They did look into different ways they could bring it, or something, down here, they were even considering a festival appearance to cover for it.

I don't think there's any chance that if they do another global tour that they'll skip Australia/NZ again, as long as it's financially do-able.

Remember, out of the entire Vertigo world tour (all legs) Sydney came in 2nd behind only Dublin for largest total attendance across all shows. More than New York. More than London. More than Boston. It was a raging success.

 

[zoopop]

I think theres a really good chance U2 would hit up Aus./NZ. I think U2 showed alot by coming back 8 months later. Most bands would have cancelled those shows.

With the demand of the Vertigo Tour don't be surprised if U2 doesn't have a bigger tour in store for us...

 

[Rob33]

I think theres a really good chance U2 would hit up Aus./NZ. I think U2 showed alot by coming back 8 months later. Most bands would have cancelled those shows.

With the demand of the Vertigo Tour don't be surprised if U2 doesn't have a bigger tour in store for us...

are you saying you think the next tour will be bigger? in any sense of the word...

I'd like to here other people's responses to this question as well...actually a question I've been thinking about myself...

anyone?

 

[Trinity3000]

Remember, out of the entire Vertigo world tour (all legs) Sydney came in 2nd behind only Dublin for largest total attendance across all shows. More than New York. More than London. More than Boston. It was a raging success.

Sheesh I didn't know that!

I think theres a really good chance U2 would hit up Aus./NZ. I think U2 showed alot by coming back 8 months later. Most bands would have cancelled those shows.

Man I would have been inconsolable if that had happened! It was pretty crazy going to the concert nearly a year after queueing up for tickets...so much had changed.

 

[Axver]

After how successful Vertigo was, I think U2 will probably come back as long as the Aussie dollar is still strong - and hopefully they'll hop over the Tasman too.

Though if they stick to arenas with no stadium setup, I would be a little worried ...

 

[ZOOTVTOURist]

... but before: We need an official tour announcement. And before: We need a new album (*smile*) ...

 

[U2girl]

Depending on the aussie dollar compared to US dollar (which prevented Elevation down under), and whether they do stadiums ROW (outside US) this time. Maybe Vertigo will be the m.o. for their next tours: arenas in US but stadiums everywhere else. (but the band has said since they wanted to play stadiums in US too so who knows)

I presume Australia has appropriate arena-type venues like America and Europe ?

 

[Axver]

I presume Australia has appropriate arena-type venues like America and Europe ?

Yeah, but the problem from my perspective is the demand. To even remotely satisfy demand, U2 would have to play an absolute stack of shows here. They played to over 200,000 in Sydney on Vertigo; an arena tour would need ten nights at the Superdome to get close to that. In Melbourne, they would need to play about eight shows at Rod Laver Arena to cater for the same amount they played to on Vertigo at the Telstra Dome.

I think they will only come here if they can play stadiums. We saw the Elevation stage could be adapted to a stadium setting, so ...

 

[Earnie Shavers]

I'd be surprised if they do another extensive US arena tour. They can cater to the same amount of people, in half the time, with more 'off' days in between by going with stadiums. Surely that will become more attractive as time goes on.

 

[jacobus]

i think they start the next tour in new zealand, than moving on to oz, japon, china, thailand, korea, russia...

 

[last unicorn]

I'm sure they will be back and I hope they'll be playing stadium shows in Europe as well, maybe some more dates than during the Vertigo tour, that would be cool.

After all, the AUS and NZ leg of the tour was considered to be their best and the band seem to feel that way also, so I don't see why they shouldn't be going back.

 

[Trinity3000]

After all, the AUS and NZ leg of the tour was considered to be their best and the band seem to feel that way also, .

Really? I didn't know that. Man we lucked out.

 

[zoopop]

There was an article from Billboard after the Vertigo Tour ended (in Hawaii) with this quote from Paul Mcguiness:

So where does the U2 go from here? The first destination is the recording studio, sometime in 2007, with an eye on releasing a new album by the end of the year. McGuinness predicted the next tour would then begin in 2008.

"All I can say is it will be completely different the next time, but it will be big," he said. "I think our audience expects very big productions. We've become good at doing that, and I think it is part of U2's reputation." The band may even experiment with commercially releasing select concerts as downloads shortly after their completion. "That's something we're exploring," McGuinness acknowledged. "In the future there will be more what we call 'band-to-fan activity."'

http://u2tours.com/news/article.src?ID=1259

U2 has always had an eye on the tours of the Rolling Stones. Although it wasn't as spectacle as the Popmart or Zoo TV, the Bigger Bang production was way more than the Vertigo production (arena/stadium). If U2 is selling out 6 shows in New York, why not make those 6 shows into 2 nights at Giants Stadium. U2 is the biggest band in the world right now. No reason they can't do stadiums again in the US (and worldwide).

Next tour is gonna make a major statement

 

[The_acrobat]

Next tour is gonna make a major statement

Only if they have the goods to back it up (aka the album is a hit). I think U2 know what strings to pull to have a hit album, and they will pull them hard. They won't just release an album blindly and expect millions to buy it. They are currently researching new ways to shove the music down people's throats. Fair play to them, I like it when U2 is on top.

U2 is a stadium band everywhere in the world except the United States. Europe, South America, Australia, no problem. They've always had a little trouble in Japan, but the smaller stadium in Tokyo they played last time seems like the right size venue. In the states, they will do a preliminary run of arena shows to test the markets, and to play in some of those cities that can't support a stadium show (St Louis, Salt Lake City, Columbus (please!). Then return to the US after Europe stadiums in the summer for a Fall US stadium tour. Lots of US cities could sell out a U2 stadium concert, if they maintain/excede an Elevation/Vertigo level of popularity, and make the prices reasonable.

 

[stagman]

So have we heard anything at all about the possibility of U2 touring Australia, South America, New Zealand or anywhere but Europe and North America??

Please share.... alot of us need to know if we are at least a chance of seeing U2 live anytime soon

 

[pepokiss]

 

[Axver]

Billboard's article that correctly forecast the 2009 tour added that a tentative South American leg for late 2010 is in the works. We can only hope the Australian dollar's value improves and the band add some Aussie gigs into that.

 

[stagman]

Coldplay came, no reason U2 cant.. Sounds promising about the South American leg though.

 

[Axver]

But when was the Coldplay tour booked - before or after our dollar took a nosedive?

 

[Sil]

The Edge told me, after mentioning that I am from Brasil, that they will play there when we met U2 outside the Avalon in Los Angeles on March 9th.

 

[pepokiss]

GREAT first post

 

[bella88]

Sil did he say Australia too?

 

[mysterious_jen]

i have absolute faith they will come in 2010. i have believed this since they were last here.

its the only thing keeping me sane whilst EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD GETS THEIR SHOWS!!!!!!!!!

 

[U2BROTHR]

I'm from Toronto. I just came back today after a week in Argentina. Wow... Major major push for the new album. There is an amazing U2 commercial that aired on TV as well for the Motorola U2 phone.

Motorola Argentina – Nuevo álbum de U2 precargado en tu celular MOTOROKR

Considering that on March 24, Radiohead will be playing Argentina....I would think they will come back again for sure to South America.

I saw a TON of ads in the city as well.

 

[Chief43]

World Tour

I didn't want to fit this in a thread and it's too early to start speculating but I would like to anyway.

I am curious to know what is the possibility of an Australian tour of the 360 set? I ask this question this time around as the dollar in Australia is quite weak and the profit margins for such a large production would be minimised. I am wondering if anybody with some good knowledge on U2's touring attitudes could assure me that I am worrying for the sake of worrying. Or that I can wait until U2.com announces something

Thank You.

 

[cdparky]

Someone mught correct me but I think they said if it happens it will be towards the end of 2010 after the 2nd legs in Europe & North America. I guess the key word there is "if".

 

[dazzlingamy]

profit margins be damned!!
I'm sorry but if u2 came here and charged $200 for tickets they would sell out, thats almost double from last time, so their profit would be the same.
In fact why dont they scale everything back to a few amps and none of your high tech shit and play in smaller venues to cut the cost of the bullshit and we then can see what we want to see, the band singing their songs, not some graphics and a woman who can't say the word slavery.