Announcing an album 2 months out(rumoured eve of US tour release) is cutting it very close.
Not in 2011, but then U2 do generally operate with one foot firmly in 1988.
Traditionally u2 would have promo copies out to a handful of trusted media by now for proper magazine reviews and cover story planning.
U2 don't do that. The long lead journalists get a listen in the studio, the shorter lead reviews go to closed listening sessions, usually at Universal offices, one listen through only, under over-the-top conditions, very close to the release date. They don't do promo copies (no-one of any reputation or value does these days), and they don't do anything 'wide' until only a couple of weeks out.
And in regards to those long lead cover story type things, there's no reason why they couldn't have already prepared those articles. U2 have - to say the least - some super compliant 'partners' on that front. They can get a guaranteed, front cover, glowing article and five star 'best ever' review whenever they want from at least Rolling Stone and Q. I would think that it would not be too hard at all for them to have a few 'old friend' journalists and editors playing their game. There are some that are so compliant, and so fawning, I sometimes wonder what it is that U2 know about them. I mean, what on earth has Bono got over Jann Werner? Clearly something!
And with that sort of thing, its not going to ring any alarm bells once more staff know about the bookings. I mean, they won't have seen the articles, but will know that U2 are booked for the cover of Q in May/June. And why? Glastonbury silly! (And this is likely true - U2 probably
are on the cover of Q in June, or if not, there will 110% be at least a big feature article on them in this issue.) Why Rolling Stone? Eh - because they're due? And the 360 tour is kicking off again.
Its a similar deal with TV. The long lead stuff (shows like Letterman or SNL or whatever) could all be booked in, but why would we know? They take super-star booking literally every day, "OMGU2!" is not really going to gossip its way out of the office. Its no big deal, and they wouldn't be wondering why either.
Not to mention booking high profile endcaps in stores and pressing cds/vinyl. Unless they "pull a radiohead" which I don't see happening.
In regards to manufacturing/distribution, they run a pretty tight ship, with the point being to not have all this shit lying around. Its pretty much produced to within a minute of needing to be shipped to distributors on the day before they need to send it out nationally. If its a release literally right at the end of May, pressing/printing etc wouldn't kick off for a few more weeks yet.
As for retailers, a few people would definitely be all over it. At a head office level, they would have known about a U2 release for some time. In terms of store level promotion, and buying space etc, that's all done at that head office level.
We'll know all about it before the monkeys in-store do. And all of it would have been effectively sorted by now. Especially given that Universal have GaGa so close to this apparent U2 date.
But all of this firing up of the machine that will start taking place in earnest from around now will start sending up smoke, and they surely won't be able to contain all of it.
My thinking is they may have the album/Europe announcement coincide with the first South American dates, but who knows. I wonder if booking boats to ship the claw across oceans needs to done months in advance?
I don't know what the chances are for Euro dates, but I would think that if its on, its only if there's a new album, and there'll be no announcement on dates before the new album is announced/new single released. Wouldn't be surprised if its even later, too. Don't know about announcement, but wouldn't be surprised to see tickets not going on sale until after Glastonbury. That should give them great "U2 Live" hype. That story will be everywhere, and there's a huge TV audience for Glastonbury too. Especially given that the big question mark seems to be over the ability to 'sell' in the UK, that's too good an opportunity. "U2 were fucking
awesome at Glastonbury" might be one of the singular big national stories/talking points of the week - perfect time to drop tour dates on that market. Plus its the other side of the super busy big summer gig and festival spending spree. At the moment, festivals and big outdoor gigs and sweet summer tours are getting announced and going on sale every day. Let that pass, let bank accounts replenish.