@maoil, once again:
u2 underplayed europe from the mid 80's to the early 90's. it's a fact.
their touring career from 1980 to 1987 focused on the US, for obvious reasons (it's the main music market in the world). they played the US every single year from 1980 to 1987, and in some of those years they toured the country TWICE.
...
Why do you continue to not mention the fact that the Rolling Stones did not play anywhere in Europe from August 1982 through April 1990? Thats 8 years with NO shows at all. In addition, in 1982, they only did 26 stadium shows after having not toured EUROPE since 1976, a big 6 year gap, larger than anything U2 has done. U2's largest gap in hitting Europe is only 4 years.
U2 played shows where they were selling albums. U2 did not play many shows in many area's of mainland Europe because the band had not been selling many albums there and was not well known prior to mid 1980s.
first ever show in spain: 1987
no shows in portugal between 1982 and 1993
no shows in norway and denmark between 1985 and 1993
first ever show in austria: 1992
first ever show in eastern europe: 1993
no shows in finland between 1982 and 1997
Prior to the release of the Joshua Tree, the band did not have large or significant album sales in Spain, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Austria, or Finland. Few if any shows were occuring in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. There may be some exceptions, but it was not the norm at all.
In addition, the major European markets which have the most impact on any artist popularity in Europe are United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy.
between 1987 and 1992 they only played 14 indoor shows in europe, in only 4 countries: France-Holland-Germany-Ireland. and those show were originally meant to be only 12.
(......)
Thats because the band was between albums. U2 did not play the United States or Canada at all from the end of 1987 until early 1992. Europe was lucky to get any shows at all.
their 1987 "major" tour of europe, despite having a couple of reportedly non-sold out shows (but keep in mind that, if I'm not mistaken, Boxscore at the time didn't exist, and most of the times Pimm's numbers were estimates based on newspapers articles), was still UNDERPLAYED. once again: no shows in Austria, Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Finland...only one indoor show in Belgium...
If the band had seriously underplayed Europe, Switzerland would have sold out. In addition, when the band was planning the Euro tour in winter/spring of 1987, their popularity was at a different level. U2's popularity in 1987 sky rocketed making it hard to properly book certain markets.
so, I think there's really no doubt that, had they performed major euro-tours in the summers of 1988, 1989, 1990 (or 1992), they would have enjoyed big ticket-sale success.
There was no reason for a summer tour in 1988 of Europe since the band had just done its largest tour of Europe ever to that point in the summer of 1987. Its like saying that U2 should have toured Europe in the summer of 1994. The band tours to support albums and the shows they played in Europe in 1987 played to a lot of people. Another tour of
Europe in the summer of 1987 while it would have sold tickets would not have done as much business as the 1987 tour. There was no new album to promote at that point and the markets were already used up to a certain degree from the bands large tour there in 1987. Its not to say they couldn't play several markets, its just not something that is done and was not considered by anyone at that time. The bigger, and more profitable market for them was Australia, New Zealand and Japan at the start of 1988. Those three countries had more to offer U2 in terms of tickets sold than another run through Europe in 1988.
Again, should we claim that U2 underplayed Europe in the mid 90s because there were no shows in 1994, 1995, and 1996? Of course NOT!
Finally, If U2 had been seriously underplaying Europe, why were so many shows NOT soldout in the 1993 tour?
Since you insist on reaching and digging up stuff like this lets take a look at some facts about the 1993 Europe tour by U2:
May 19, 1993
Oviedo Spain
Estadio Carlos Tartier
Attendance: 30,000 (No Sellout)
May 26, 1993
Nantes France
Stade De La Beaujoire
Attendance 30,000 (No Sellout)
May 29, 1993
Werchter Belgium
Festival Grounds
Attendance: 73,000 (No Sellout)
June 2, 1993
Frankfurt Germany
Waldstadion
Attendance: 50,000 (No Sellout)
June 6, 1993
Stuttgart Germany
Cannstatter Wasen
Attendance: 53,800 (No Sellout)
June 15, 1993
Berlin Germany
Olympiastadion
Attendance: 40,000 (No Sellout)
Quote:
Though the show is far from sold out, with the second ring completely empty, its the first chance for people from the East side of Berlin and the former East Germany, to see U2.
SOURCE: "U2 Live: A Concert Documentary" Pimm Jal De La Parra
June 28, 1993
Lausanne Switzerland
Stade De La Pontaise
Attendance: 45,000 (No Sellout)
June 30, 1993
Basel Switzerland
St. Jakob's Stadion
Attendance: 50,000 (No Sellout)
August 3, 1993
Nijmegen Holland
Goffert Park
Attendance: 54,844 (No Sellout)
August 18, 1993
Cardiff, Wales
Arms Park
Attendance: 50,000 (No Sellout)
August 20, 1993
London England
Wembley Stadium
Attendance: 42,000 (No Sellout)
Quote:
30,000 seats for August 20 remain unsold. Days before the show, U3 announce that unemployed people who do not have money to buy tickeets will be admitted free if they have a UB40 card. Although a few thousand people take up on this offer, the stadium is little over half-full.
SOURCE: "U2 Live: A Concert Documentary" by Pimm Jal De La Parra
August 24, 1993
Cork Ireland
Pairc UI Chaoimh
Attendance: 39,000 (No Sellout)
Metallica is a band that back then would play anywhere, places like Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont. So its not at all surprising they went to some Eastern European places where the amount of money made IF ANY, was very little at that time.
Again, Paul McGuinness said that anyone who wanted to see U2 in the summer of 1993 in Europe in would be able to. Thats how the tour was designed. To play to as many people as possible. You have a dozen shows above, essentially 25% of the tour, that did not sellout at all. The bands numbers on this tour are very impressive, but they were definitely NOT underplaying the market.
To say this 1993 tour is part of the reason why 360 has been so successful is the height of absurdity!
