OK, I've answered the two basic what/when questions, and I'm about to do the next three.
What were they?
The Lovetown concerts were a series of 47 shows performed after the release of Rattle And Hum. U2 initially planned to commence The Joshua Tree Tour in New Zealand as a tribute to Greg Carroll (whose death inspired the song One Tree Hill), but as the recording sessions for The Joshua Tree finished later than expected, the band were forced to commence the tour in Arizona instead. After playing three legs of the Joshua Tree Tour, returning to the studio to record a new album, and releasing a movie, U2 fulfilled their promise to play in New Zealand and to bring the show to other parts of the world by scheduling the Lovetown Tour. As it did not come immediately after the release of RAH (the movie/album came out in November 1988 but the tour did not start until September 1989), the tour was not a promotional one such as we'd know with ZooTV or Vertigo - it was more a nod to the fans, the fulfillment of a commitment, and a celebration of a decade of U2.
When were they?
OK, this is a good test of my memory:
21 September 1989, Perth, Australia
22 September 1989, Perth, Australia
23 September 1989, Perth, Australia
27 September 1989, Sydney, Australia
28 September 1989, Sydney, Australia
29 September 1989, Sydney, Australia
2 October 1989, Brisbane, Australia
3 October 1989, Brisbane, Australia
4 October 1989, Brisbane, Australia
7 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
8 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
9 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
12 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
13 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
14 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
16 October 1989, Melbourne, Australia
20 October 1989, Sydney, Australia
21 October 1989, Sydney, Australia
27 October 1989, Adelaide, Australia
28 October 1989, Adelaide, Australia
4 November 1989, Christchurch, New Zealand
8 November 1989, Wellington, New Zealand
10 November 1989, Auckland, New Zealand
11 November 1989, Auckland, New Zealand
17 November 1989, Sydney, Australia
18 November 1989, Sydney, Australia
19 November 1989, Sydney, Australia
23 November 1989, Yokohama, Japan
25 November 1989, Tokyo, Japan
26 November 1989, Tokyo, Japan
28 November 1989, Osaka, Japan
29 November 1989, Osaka, Japan
1 December 1989, Osaka, Japan
11 December 1989, Paris, France
12 December 1989, Paris, France
14 December 1989, Dortmund, Germany
15 December 1989, Dortmund, Germany
16 December 1989, Dortmund, Germany
18 December 1989, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
26 December 1989, Dublin, Ireland
27 December 1989, Dublin, Ireland
30 December 1989, Dublin, Ireland
31 December 1989, Dublin, Ireland
5 January 1990, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
6 January 1990, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
9 January 1990, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
10 January 1990, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Not too hard.
Trivia:
- Three concerts were cancelled after 21 September 1989, Sydney due to trouble with Bono's voice. They were rescheduled to 17-19 November 1989.
- One of those rescheduled shows, 18 November 1989, had a bomb threat that meant the entire audience had to be evacuated. The resulting show from U2 was very passionate and energetic, and is one of the few shows from the Lovetown tour to have proshot video footage circulating of it.
- Until this tour, Sydney held the record for the most concerts on a single tour, with eight. New York has now equalled that figure. Melbourne still holds the record for most shows in a single city in a row, with seven.
- Acrobat was born at an Auckland soundcheck.
- Approximately 1 in 10 Cantabrians saw the concert in Christchurch, and although the show actually failed to sell out, it remains the largest concert held in Christchurch.
- The 18 December 1989 show in Amsterdam was cut short due to Bono having trouble with his voice. Shows for the next two days were cancelled and replaced with the four Rotterdam shows in early January.
- A fifth Dublin show was initially scheduled for 29 December 1989 but cancelled at an early stage to give U2 more time off.
- On a personal note, the Rotterdam show on the 9th is the only time U2 played on my girlfriend's birthday and the show on the 10th is the closest U2 have gotten to playing on my birthday BEFORE the date (the 17th) - 23 January 1985, Drammen, Norway is the closest afterwards.