Evolution of Dublin venue choices

[marik]

Anyone have any insight into U2's venue choice in Dublin?

Lets start with UF tour. U2 were playing stadiums. One in Croke Park. Joshua Tree resulted in 2 night at Croke Park.

Then the decision was made to do 4 nights at Point Depot for LoveTown. I would assume that the nature of the Christmas/new years shows in their hometown led them to want to play more intimate shows, so they moved down to arena level but had to play 4 nights to compinsate.

ZooTv (weirdly enough NO Dublin shows were scheduled for the inital Europe run in arenas), but they ended the Zooropa leg with 2 nights in RDS arena. After having just played Stadium shows at Wembley the very week before, I have always wondered why the scaled back arena shows for their hometown?

PopMart had 2 shows at Lansdowne Road. I am not familiar with this venue. IS it comparable to Croke? Any knowledge of why this spot was chosen?

Elevation featured 2 nights at Slane Castle. Was their any reason other than the novelty of "20 yrs ago..." that Slane was chosen over Croke?

Vertigo had 3 nights at Croker. I assumed the move back to Croke was cuz Slane was already booked (only 1 or 2 shows a year allowed at the Castle i believe)

was the break from Croke all those years due to reno's or issues with the venue? I'd be interested in any insight into these venue choices over the years

 

[Axver]

The choice of the Point Depot on Lovetown was motivated by the band being tired of playing stadiums, so they chose a more intimate venue. The four gigs didn't even manage to cater to 20,000 people.

ZooTV's two show were NOT played indoors. The RDS venue is an outdoor stadium - though not as large as Croke. I'm guessing it was held there since Croke has concert limits. In fact, Wikipedia only lists three pre-1993 concerts at Croke - U2's appearances in 1985 and 1987. No idea if that's accurate.

 

[marik]

Is RDS still a concert option that U2 choose Croke over?

 

[digitize]

Is RDS still a concert option that U2 choose Croke over?

Bruce played at RDS recently, so I'd assume so. But RDS is much, much smaller than Croke. I think RDS can hold 30,000-40,000 for a concert with the floor being used, compared to upwards of 90,000 for Croke.

 

[Morgoth321]

The choice of the Point Depot on Lovetown was motivated by the band being tired of playing stadiums, so they chose a more intimate venue. The four gigs didn't even manage to cater to 20,000 people.

ZooTV's two show were NOT played indoors. The RDS venue is an outdoor stadium - though not as large as Croke. I'm guessing it was held there since Croke has concert limits. In fact, Wikipedia only lists three pre-1993 concerts at Croke - U2's appearances in 1985 and 1987. No idea if that's accurate.

The Wikipedia list is fairly accurate, but still incomplete. There are missing concerts from Neil Diamond and Elton John, for instance. Historically though, there just haven't been that many concerts held at Croke Park. It seems that U2's shows in 2005 have encouraged a recent trend for the venue to be used as a regular concert venue, but there have been political ramifications in Dublin as a consequence (tensions between GAA and residents association etc).

One thing has struck me though - it used to be common knowledge that Croke Park was only able to host up to three concerts per year, but whoever sets that rule seems to have relaxed it, as there'll be four this year. (There would've been four last year too, only one was cancelled.)

The obvious question would be: why is / was Croke Park not used as a concert venue for many years, and even now only on rare occasions? I guess, rules and regulations aside, there just aren't that many acts of a stature capable of selling out such a gigantic venue. In 2006, Billy Joel played there, and sold something like 47,000 tickets. In isolation, that sounds impressive, until you remember the stadium capacity - the place would've looked half-empty.

 

[digitize]

The Wikipedia list is fairly accurate, but still incomplete. There are missing concerts from Neil Diamond and Elton John, for instance. Historically though, there just haven't been that many concerts held at Croke Park. It seems that U2's shows in 2005 have encouraged a recent trend for the venue to be used as a regular concert venue, but there have been political ramifications in Dublin as a consequence (tensions between GAA and residents association etc).

One thing has struck me though - it used to be common knowledge that Croke Park was only able to host up to three concerts per year, but whoever sets that rule seems to have relaxed it, as there'll be four this year. (There would've been four last year too, only one was cancelled.)

The obvious question would be: why is / was Croke Park not used as a concert venue for many years, and even now only on rare occasions? I guess, rules and regulations aside, there just aren't that many acts of a stature capable of selling out such a gigantic venue. In 2006, Billy Joel played there, and sold something like 47,000 tickets. In isolation, that sounds impressive, until you remember the stadium capacity - the place would've looked half-empty.

Croke is also supposed to have abhorrent acoustics, no?

 

[Morgoth321]

Croke is also supposed to have abhorrent acoustics, no?

Fair point. Like most stadiums, it's designed for sport, not music; Croke Park in particular has changed extensively during its lifetime with the dramatic increase in capacity caused by the additions of bigger stands. So, yes, the sound there can be awful.

I've been to three concerts there, and U2 in 2005 (first Vertigo show) had probably the worst sound. Bon Jovi in 2006 had fabulous sound, and Robbie Williams the same year was almost as good. But I think, with specific reference to Croker, the sound quality can vary according to where in the stadium you happen to be. Like I said, I thought that the sound at the Robbie show was excellent, but a co-worker sitting somewhere else in the stadium thought that the sound was awful.

 

[PookaMacP]

Some possible answers:

1. Lansdowne Road is the national stadium for rugby and soccer (Croke Park is being used at the moment while Lansdowne is being rebuilt), so it would make sense to play gigs there during Popmart. It held about 45,000 for football so should be about 50,000 for gigs.

2. The reason Croke Park was not used for much of the 1990s and early 2000s is because it was being rebuilt, bit by bit, and so was probably unsuitable for use for gigs. I'd imagine the new stadium required big money events to fill its use and help pay back the money for it, so they probably applied for permission for more gigs when it was re-vamped.

3. The sound was truly awful for the two U2 gigs I saw in Croke Park in 2005, so bad that I promised myself that only U2 or Radiohead would ever make me go back. It's just not designed for the distribution of sound and was/is far too echoey. The upper tiers are particularly atrocious for sound.

4. Slane Castle is quite a special venue for gigs in Ireland so for U2 to play Slane again would probably have taken a little bit of the mystique away. Plus, it's miles away from Dublin and there's no way the people of Slane would allow any more than one gig to take place there (there was uproar even to get the second one there back in 2001), so it would really limit U2's options. It is an amazing place to see a gig though - I've been twice: to see U2 in 2001 and to see The Verve (!) back in 1998. Acoustics are amazing, setting is brilliant, and because it's always a long day with 6 or so acts, it's got a great vibe.

5. I've seen it called 'Croke' a lot on these boards, but nobody in Ireland calls Croke Park this. It's called 'Croke Park' or 'Croker'. It's named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, one of the early patrons of the GAA.

6. Re the RDS - I always thought that if U2 wanted to play a different outdoor venue, then Malahide Castle would be a viable option - holds quite a big crowd, has a great sound and a great vibe (I saw Radiohead and Neil Young there last year) and would hold about 40,000 at a guess. But the problem would be that there's nothing to base the claw stage around, so anything other than stadiums is out. And RDS is not big enough for the claw, Lansdowne Road is being developed and Croke Park is therefore the only option in Dublin at the moment.

 

[Irishteen]

6. Re the RDS - I always thought that if U2 wanted to play a different outdoor venue, then Malahide Castle would be a viable option - holds quite a big crowd, has a great sound and a great vibe (I saw Radiohead and Neil Young there last year) and would hold about 40,000 at a guess. But the problem would be that there's nothing to base the claw stage around, so anything other than stadiums is out. And RDS is not big enough for the claw, Lansdowne Road is being developed and Croke Park is therefore the only option in Dublin at the moment.

Where did you get 40,000 for Malahide Castle from? I've seen it quoted as just being 15000 in newspapers

 

[PookaMacP]

Where did you get 40,000 for Malahide Castle from? I've seen it quoted as just being 15000 in newspapers

At a guess! Sorry - if 15,000 is the number quoted then I'm sure that's more like it. Still a great venue though.

 

[Irishteen]

At a guess! Sorry - if 15,000 is the number quoted then I'm sure that's more like it. Still a great venue though.

Yeah it definitely is, saw Radiohead there great concert

I was just curious. 15,000 does seem a tad small though but who knows