By Ben Harding
BARCELONA, June 30 (Reuters) - U2 kicked off their first tour in three years on Tuesday, rocking a raucous Barcelona crowd of around 90,000 and reaching for the stars with a live link-up to the International Space Station.
Featuring one of the biggest concert stages ever built, the U2 360 Tour will visit 31 cities across Europe and North America and entertain an estimated three million people. More dates are expected to be announced in 2010.
Fans surrounded the circular platform inside Barcelona's Nou Camp stadium, allowing for a bigger audience and lower average ticket prices during the global recession.
"All around Spain, all around the world, things are difficult. Thank you for coming back to us again and again," Bono said during the high octane show.
The quartet, one of the world's most successful acts, opened with "Breathe" from their acclaimed new album "No Line on the Horizon", and the crowd came to life with the anthem-style "Magnificent" on a hot summer's night.
U2 mixed old songs and new, playing classics including "Beautiful Day" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" as well as "Angel of Harlem", which the band dedicated to U.S. pop star Michael Jackson, who died suddenly last week aged 50.
"We wrote this one for Billie Holiday but we are going to play it tonight for Michael Jackson," said Bono. "Unspeakable talent, that's all there is to say, really," he added, and the song morphed into Jackson hits "Man in the Mirror" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".
Half way through the concert, U2 linked up by video to the International Space Station.
"Very nice to hear you," said one astronaut as the microphone floated around the cabin.
"Commander, can you see Barcelona?" asked Bono.
"Right now the most beautiful sight in our cosmos is the blue planet earth," came the reply.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The tour is reported to be the group's most expensive to date, costing an estimated $100 million, but industry experts suggest it could be money well spent.
Live performance is becoming an increasingly important source of revenue for major acts like U2 as sales of physical CDs declines sharply and online piracy remains rampant.
Billboard, an authoritative music industry publication, believes the U2 360 Tour could become one of the highest grossing ever, possibly eclipsing its 2005-6 Vertigo tour which earned the band $389 million.
The stage, which takes 120 trucks to transport, is another grand statement from U2, which has won more Grammy awards than any other band.
On the Zoo TV tour, huge video screens overloaded fans with flashing images of pop culture. On the PopMart tour, Bono appeared from inside a 12 metre glitterball shaped like a lemon.
The abiding visual memory on this tour is sure to be the "Claw", a four-legged "monster" that towers 50 metres over the band's heads and on which the sound system is mounted. (Editing by Mike Collett-White)
It’s only rock’n’roll, but for a band of U2’s stature, it sure takes some organizing these days. The 120 trucks needed to freight the 164ft centrepiece of the group’s new 360° Tour emptied out their load two weeks ahead of this, the first of 44 stadium shows.
After opening with four songs from the group’s current album No Line On The Horizon, Bono explained his group’s decision to begin their latest adventure in Barcelona. “This is where we wanted to build a space station, designed by Gaudi in the capital of surrealism." But if the huge green four-legged edifice on the Nou Camp pitch – christened The Claw – was inspired by Gaudi, no-one had told the group’s stage and lighting designer, Willie Williams.
Some weeks previously, he had already said that the intent had been to create something between the Theme Building at Los Angeles Airport and the fairground machine in Toy Story.
If nothing else though, it was a good reminder that the man who persuaded George Bush to sanction the largest ever response by a Western Government to the Aids crisis is nothing if not a charmer – or, as the opening song Breathe put it, the last in “a long line of travelling sales people.”
The product, in this case, hardly needed pushing. U2’s Spanish fans were already cheering U2 before a lone Larry Mullen came on and roused the throng into action. Thereafter, what ensued was a cheer so unremitting that, at times, it scarcely abated.
Dedicating Angel of Harlem to Michael Jackson, Bono – dressed in customary leathers and amber shades – deftly detoured into verses from Jackson hits such as Man In The Mirror and Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough as his group free-wheeled the song to a rickety climax. Better still was a version of 1999’s Walk On, given solely to draw attention to Burmese Prime Minister-elect Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the years since her 1990 election under house arrest by the Burmese junta. As an eerie procession of people, their faces obscured by masks bearing Suu Kyi’s face, paced the outer walkway, the new focus of the song seemed to draw out the singer’s most tender performance of the evening.
Over the years U2 have experimented with many different ways of presenting their music, and yet the basic thing at which Bono uniquely excels has remained unchanged. The expression of holy love in a pop song fires up something in Bono that – whilst not hugely hip in rock’n’roll terms – utterly disarms you. At the Nou Camp, these seemed to be the songs that teased out the most goosebumps. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For would have still shaken the foundations, even if Bono hadn’t draped himself in a Spanish flag and begun singing Primal Scream’s Moving On Up over the final minute of the song. Having lain dormant for twenty years, The Unforgettable Fire found its way back into the U2 live set, vast ambient synth oscillations and all, sounding as haunting as ever.
Carried on the back of The Edge’s stratospheric guitar lines, Magnificent showed a band who, on a good day, can still match the peaks of their imperial years. But, at times, this fell well short of being one of those good days.
A seemingly scripted satellite link-up with the orbiting International Space Station was intended to remind us that we all had a duty to look after “the beautiful blue earth”. Instead, it reminded us that satellite link-ups can drain even a packed Nou Camp of all its atmosphere if allowed to go on for long enough.
Their attempt to reimagine I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight as a mid-set trance-techno wig-out did their dignity no favours whatsoever.
And, impressive as the huge quadruped was, you couldn’t help feeling that this “claw” – designed to engage all of the crowd no matter what their vantage point – was ultimately an impediment to intimacy. Playing directly beneath the structure, the four members of U2 had never seemed so tiny. Using the walkways and bridges to reach out to their fans was fine, but only as long as the technology served to assist them. For whatever reason, the group seemed to lose all contact with each other for One. As The Edge soldiered on, his guitar wildly out of tune, a visibly agitated Bono lost his place altogether. He instructed his guitarist to stop, but the ensuing version was no less agonizing.
Some 40ft away, Mullen and Adam Clayton’s mortified corpsing said it all. And yet, to a crowd who had come to celebrate their favourite band, it all seemed to go unnoticed. Having donned the hallowed Barcelona shirt a few minutes before, the last in a long line of travelling sales people led his band into an intense valedictory With Or Without You. As a lesson in keeping the customer happy – regardless of the product – you had to admire it.
Tour continues: Barcelona Nou Camp, July 2
Nothing, not the sneak preview footage on the band's website, nor the pictures on the front pages of the Spanish dailies Qué! or La Vanguardia can prepare you for the monstrous sight that welcomed 90,000 rabid U2 fans inside the home of Barcelona FC.
The aliens have truly landed on the hallowed turf of the European and La Liga champions and winners of La Copa Del Rey. As envisioned and co-designed by Mark Fisher and Willie Williams, the stage for U2's 360° tour looks like a spaceship or a supersized version of HG Wells' War of the Worlds tripod Martian fighting machines with a dash of Catalan visionary architect Antoni Gaudi thrown in for good measure.
It certainly affords every single one of the capacity crowd inside Europe's biggest stadium a clear view of the biggest band in the world returning to the live arena after four years, the longest hiatus in a career that has already lasted three decades and seen them sell 150 million albums.
What looks like four huge tentacles sprout from a central structure wrapped up in video screens and speakers with a radio transmitter on top. The Irish group look like they're about to be squashed like ants. Now I know a fair few people who would like to do just that to Bono, a campaigner for Africa shaming the West into cancelling debt and sending aid but tonight we get Bono the crowd-conducting showman, the frontman of a band that dares to open with four songs from its current album No Line on the Horizon, opening with the startling 'Breathe' and the title track. This is an unprecedented move in the annals of stadium rock, give or take Elton John's disastrous presentation of his double album Captain Fantastic at Wembley in the mid-seventies. That U2 just about pull it off says a lot about their daring, their sense of danger and a good natured audience who join in on the big bad riff of 'Get On Your Boots' and the chorus of 'Magnificent' and are at full volume for 'Beautiful Day'.
But, it's the first night and guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr make fierce eye contact as they struggle to lock into the chiming 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'. Bono dedicates 'Angel of Harlem' not to Billie Holliday, who inspired the song, but to Michael Jackson and ad libs his way through the late superstar's 'Man In The Mirror' and 'Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough', and even Mullen cracks a smile.
The linkup with the astronauts on the International space Station currently orbiting the Earth 40 years on from the moon landing is the nod in the direction of past U2 extravaganzas like Zooropa and teeters briefly on the edge of the Popmart opening night debacle but when they hit the home run of 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' and 'Where the Streets Have No Name' no band in the world can touch U2 when it comes to life-enhancing spectacle.
Thirty years on, the four Dublin friends still manage to transcend the limitations of stadium rock. After an emotional 'With Or Without You', they even finish with 'Moment Of Surrender', another one of the salient tracks on an album that was started just across the Mediterranean, in Morocco.
The waiting is over, the circus is rolling, and the verdict is: wow. After years of planning and months of preparation and practice, U2 got their 360 tour under way in Barcelona last night and stunned a sell-out crowd at Camp Nou with a spectacular show and a performance that perhaps only they could pull off — intimate despite the vastness of its setting.
>>Click image above to launch gallery
Taking to the stage just after 10pm local time, Larry, Bono, the Edge and Adam immediately launched into Breathe from their new album, No Line On The Horizon, followed by the title track from the same record.
From there on in the balmy Catalan evening was pierced with Get On Your Boots, followed by the latest single, Magnificent.
Bono said that the aim of the show was to make “the audience like the fifth member of the band”.
Last night U2 triumphed in annexing the 90,000-strong crowd as Barcelona bounced, sang and danced to Dublin's finest. The much trumpeted Claw, the centrepiece of the show, drew the crowd in and the dedicated few who managed to secure a berth between the inner and outer stages were treated to unrivalled views of the band as they hurtled through their set list.
This offering drew mostly from the last decade, with eight of the 23 tracks drawn from before 2000.
Seven songs from the new record were included, and I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight was a standout. The audience was treated to a dance remix of the track, with Larry Mullen coming to the outer stage to play the bongos.
Returning to the stage for the encore, Bono was dressed in a black jacket fitted with red laser lights across the shoulders, the beams reaching to different corners of the stadium with his every move.
Camp Nou was completely dark, and the only visual accompaniment to Bono's lasers were streaks of light which were directed at, and bounced off, a giant disco ball which descended from the centre of the Claw.
The there was Larry Mullen's rotating drum kit, the bridges that swivelled around between the inner and outer stages like the hands of a clock, and the sheer sight of the Claw itself.
It took up almost half the length of the famed pitch, its legs reached to each sideline and its spear like centre even managed to peer out from the peaks of one of Europe's biggest stadiums.
It first creaked to life for Snow Patrol, the vast wraparound screen projecting the Northern Irish band's hits including Chocolate and Take Back The City, to a relatively small crowd which mushroomed as darkness fell.
“I bet everybody is wondering what the hell this is — me too,” lead singer Gary Lightbody said of the Claw.
Then it was U2's turn and the Claw unleashed itself in a blizzard of light and noise.
Walk On was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy prisoner, as it will be every night on this tour.
Thousands of fans donned masks of Suu Kyi, as the band had requested. U2 play again in Barcelona on Saturday.
“GROUND CONTROL to Major Tom,” sang David Bowie as the four members of U2 walked onto the stage of Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium last night to begin their “360 Degree” world tour. It was a fitting choice of introduction: on this tour U2 are unveiling a revolutionary new stage design – “the Claw” – which looks like a spaceship held up by four spindly legs.
This configuration means there is no stage as such, allowing the band to play in the round. The impression you get is that the band are sitting in the palm of the audience’s hand.
Waiting for night to fall in Barcelona so they could show off their impressive light show, the band didn’t take to the stage until 10pm local time but they were ecstatically received by a 80,000 crowd. Kicking off with a muscular Breathe from the new album, they then turned it up to 11 for No Line On The Horizon , Get On Your Boots and Magnificent .
Addressing the crowd, Bono welcomed all to “our space station” (meaning the Claw), saying “it looks like it was designed by Gaudi, but then this is Barcelona – the capital of surrealism”.
Digging into their back catalogue as the show progressed – Angel Of Harlem , Unforgettable Fire (the song of the night) and Sunday Bloody Sunday – Bono draped himself in the Irish flag for a stirring singalong rendition of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For .
There was an affectionate nod to Michael Jackson, with Bono singing snatches of Man In The Mirror and Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough .
With a giant video screen relaying all the action in precise detail, the band made full use of the walkways stretching out from the stage that brought them right in among the crowd. What strikes most about this new stage configuration is the clear sight lines and, for a stadium gig, it feels surprisingly intimate. It also helps that there are no banks of speakers on view – they are all hidden in the Claw’s legs.
Continuing with the Space Oddity theme, Bono broke off the music to mention how it was 40 years since man first walked on the moon. He then did a live link up with the International Space Station currently circling the Earth. Band members took turns to ask the astronauts questions – including if they had seen any UFOs on their travels yet.
Never one to let an opportunity pass, Bono got one of the astronauts to sign up – from space – to his charitable One organisation.
With their previous two tours – Elevation and Vertigo – playing mainly in indoor arenas as they circled the globe, the 360 Degree tour is a throwback of sorts to the spectacle of the Zoo TV and Popmart tours. It’s a big, bold rock beast of an affair.
Despite leaning heavily on the new album, No Line On The Horizon , at the front end of the show, the set list takes in songs from all their albums from The Unforgettable Fire onwards.
The recession wasn’t far from their thoughts, with Bono saying “We know these are difficult times but we thank you for keep coming back and buying U2 tickets”. He also thanked the concert promoters, Live Nation, “for paying the bills”.
There are always going to be a few rough edges on a world tour’s opening night but they should all be sanded down by the time 360 Degree hits Croke Park on July 24th, July 25th and July 27th. This is a great son et lumière experience – an event, even – which will beguile with its sense of giddy, space-age bravado as it traverses the globe. U2 have re-entered the orbit.
Originally posted by Elektrik2007:No offence, but the shittiest UV ever. Poor song
U2 in space: further thoughts on tour launch
The Telegraph, July 02, 2009
Neil McCormick
Early on in discussions for the launch of the latest U2 tour, Bono floated the possibility that they would become the first band to play a gig on the moon. Larry shot that idea down however. He pointed out that there would be no atmosphere...
Ah, the old ones are...well, not the best...but the old ones, anyway.
Ever since U2 blew the possibilities for live event staging wide open with their multi-media Zoo TV tour, they have been caught in a peculiar trap: how to satisfy audience expectations for hi-tech, cutting edge spectacle while rooting the experience in the very human, emotional contact with fans that is at the heart of their appeal. In other words, how to make it bigger and more intimate at the same time.
U2 360 is their latest attempt to reconcile these sometimes conflicting demands. It cost over $100 million to stage, and the programme credits run to three tightly printed pages. Purpose built for stadiums, it is effectively a stage within the stadium space. U2 play in the round, roughly in the centre of the venue, complete with bridges and runways, so that no corner is too far from the action, with band members able to move easily around, constantly interacting with different sections of the crowd. Towering over them, standing on four great legs, is a construction housing the lighting rig, speakers and (rising and falling) a vast circular ring of screens on which are displayed artfully integrated images. The whole thing looks like a giant alien spaceship, and the sci-fi theme is pushed throughout, with the band entering to the countdown from David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and exiting to Elton John's "Rocket Man." They even pause proceedings for a satellite video link up with the International Space Station in orbit around earth, allowing for some typical U2 calls for global peace and love with a futuristic twist.
There was (as there always is) some anxiety in the U2 camp during the countdown to blast off. The last time U2 kicked off a tour in stadiums (as opposed to arenas) was PopMart in 1997, with the Las Vegas launch turning into something of a disaster that took a couple of weeks on the road to remedy. It drew their worst live reviews ever, but by the time I caught up with the production in San Francisco, it was so mind blowing that Liam Gallagher (who was supporting with Oasis) stood on the mixing desk with his mouth hanging open, going "**** me!" throughout. With a production of this scale, it's actually a bit unfair to review opening night. There are so many elements to the show, it might be considered more akin to a big theatrical production, where the tradition is that previews run without reviews for a couple of weeks of fine tuning, before the critics are allowed to take their seats. There is no such grace period for a rock band as newsworthy as U2, but they have been at this long enough to know what is expected, and arrived in Barcelona two weeks ago to get ready for lift off.
On opening night at the Nou Camp in Barcelona, it didn't quite all go according to plan (there were longuers in the set, musical mistakes and minor technical hitches) yet the audience was in indulgent mood, pasting over glitches with singalongs so loud and enthusiastic they almost drowned out the band. 90,000 people raising their voices as one is something to behold, an all enveloping, emotionally uplifting testament to the power and universality of music. And whenever the band, staging and audience came together, it hit home with breathtaking power. When U2 played "Vertigo," the stadium seemed to physically shake with 90,000 human beings jumping up and down in unison.
Other personal highlights for me included the roaring opening song "Breathe," a stadium punk version of "No Line on the Horizon," an intimate, soulful "In a Little While" (with really great singing from a vocalist right on top of his game), a singalong "Angel of Harlem" reconfigured as a tribute to Michael Jackson (with Bono delivering an impressive falsetto "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and thankfully resisting the temptation to moonwalk), a kind of stadium karaoke call and response version of "Unknown Caller" and a brave, understated ending with the gorgeous and strange "Moments of Surrender" (which suffered a little from Bono's by then slightly ravaged vocal). Yet I couldn't quite shake the sense of a band in some kind of period of transition, caught between the crowd pleasing epic rock of their greatest hits and some braver, weirder, more atmospheric and understated musical future. And I was not convinced by an almost dads-at-the-disco techno remix of "I'll Go Crazy," with Larry Mullen Jr. going walkabout with a bongo. Still, it is impossible to dwell on reservations surrounded by 90,000 fans on their feet, roaring and waving their fists in the air, while an alien space ship somehow turns into the biggest disco glitterball the world has ever seen.
At the core of this hi-tech spectacle, holding it all together, providing the conduit between audience and band, the beating heart of the music, is Bono. He is one of those rare human beings who seems to have the personality and charisma to fill a stadium all by himself. Bruce Springsteen is the only other performer I have seen who can pull this trick off so effectively, the trick being there is no real trick at all. They are performers whose sense of service to the audience means that they give up every bit of themselves, putting so much effort and emotion into the moment that, by some universal sense of empathy and fair play, we are almost beholden to return the feeling in kind. With songs as the link between all the individuals in the venue, these extraordinary frontmen become our conduit to a communal moment of surrender.
At the end of the night, Bono appeared for encores wearing an LED suit that fired red laser beams in every direction. When he left the stage, the heat and sweat of his body had somehow fused the controls, so that he found he couldn't turn the jacket off. Bundled into a people carrier for a quick exit, he was last seen disappearing down a Spanish highway, firing random lasers through tinted windows into the dark sky. It seemed a curiously fitting exit, as the hi tech and the human fused in unpredictable fashion. The future never quite works the way you want it to.
© Telegraph Media Group Limited, 2009.
)