50 shows in the Netherlands
U2 has a rich history in The Netherlands. From their first concert in 1980 to their last in 2010, U2 always has had a special connection with the Dutch. In this slideshow we will browse through U2's rich history in The Netherlands, that to date consist of as many as 50 shows.
Arriving on Europe's mainland
On October 14, 1980, U2 crossed the sea and landed foot in the Netherlands to make a televised appearance in the city of Hilversum. U2 performed 12 songs: 11 O'Clock Tick Tock, I Will Follow, Touch, An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, A Day Without Me, Twilight, The Electric Co. / Send In The Clowns, Stories For Boys, Boy-Girl, Out Of Control and again: 11 O'Clock Tick Tock.
Audio recording (4,5 stars): 1982-10-01 - Hilversum, The Netherlands
Full photo: Young U2 performs at the Dutch KRO Studios
Dreaming out loud
"There is a big mistake, somebody tells us Whitney Houston is number one in Holland?! Well, wait till next week!"
Bono, 1987
Peaking in Rotterdam
U2 originally had scheduled for 3 nights in Amsterdam near the end of their Lovetown leg in Europe in 1989, only to close their tour in Dublin. Things turned out different, Bono lost his voice and abruptly cancelled the first gig in Amsterdam. To make up for it U2 planned 4 shows early 1990 with the show on the 10th of January to be the final show of the tour. It turned out to be one of the fan's favourite shows. Great audience engagement and memorable performances of Desire and Bad closed Lovetown in style. Editor's tip: Desire's snippets.
Audio recording (4,5) star: 1989-01-10 - Rotterdam
A national record
In the Netherlands U2 has the record of the most number one albums in a row, 9 albums reached the top of the album chart since the Joshua Tree in 1987.
From Rotterdam to Amsterdam
While U2 played many shows in Rotterdam, Amsterdam was were they could be found most in the past decade. U2 last performed in Holland in the Amsterdam Arena in 2009 with two shows. Editor's tip: a rare performance of Bad during the second show.
Show info and downloads: 2009-07-20 - Amsterdam, 2009-07-21 - Amsterdam
Moving away
U2 decided in 2006 to move their legal entity to The Netherlands, this in order to save on taxes. This didn't do well as for general opinion. "We pay millions and millions of dollars in tax. The thing that stung us [about the criticism] was the accusation of hypocrisy for my work as an activist", replied Bono later.
News: Bono 'hurt' by critisism of U2 move to Netherlands to cut tax (via @U2)
50 shows in numbers
123 different songs
I Will Follow the most played song
86 different snippets
Send In The Clowns the most popular one
Gloria the most played opening song
40 closed the most shows
Show catalogue: All shows in The Netherlands
comments
-
The 4 shows in Rotterdam were for ALL people with tickets for the second and third Amsterdam show and SOME people with tickets for the first show.
For each of the 4 Rotterdam shows 1500 ticket numbers from the first Amsterdam show were selected. The people who weren't lucky enough to get a Rotterdam ticket could send in their ticket and get their money back.
Ticket sales for these concerts were already strange. After all sorts of problems when the Joshua Tree tour tickets went on sale (people were queueing all night and fights broke out to get to the front of the queue), this time the promotor decided on a safer system. You had to cut a form from a newspaper and send it in, and hope you'd be lucky enough to get tickets. 44.000 tickets were sold this way. I sent mine in but wasn't selected...
I then paid stupid money on the secondary market for a ticket so when I heard the shows were cancelled I got a bit of a fright!
Luckily my ticket number then got me into the last of the four Rotterdam shows and it was worth every penny. Cent. To this day it's the best U2 concert I've been to. -
thanx
-
Oops.... 3 shows indeed, my mistake.
They canceled 2 shows which needed tot be compensated. -
Pretty sure it was 2 shows at the RAI
RAI had a capacity of 16000 x 2 shows = 32000
They rescheduled for Ahoy with a capacity of 8000 which meant they had to give 4 shows to accommodate all 32000 fans.
The original tickets for the RAI were valid for Ahoy as well.
Every original ticket had a unique ticket number and the way they did this is that you had to look at your ticket number to see for which of the 4 Ahoy shows your ticket was valid.
Night one tickets for the RAI were split up into the January 5 & 6 shows
Night two tickets for the RAI were split up into the January 9 & 10 shows
We had tickets for all 4 nights at the Ahoy and I remember that we messed up for the last night [01-10] and accidentally showed up with a ticket that turned out to be valid for January 9.
We noticed in time and managed to change one of the numbers with a special pen and luckily security didn't notice.
I would have missed a great show if he did...... and the set lists for all 4 shows that I got from a roadie after the last show. -
You're right! We have updated this. Thanks!
-
there were three shows scheduled in Amsterdam for the Lovetown tour, not two