
It's not official, but it might be, I quote Matt McGee:
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For the past couple months, I've been chasing down a tip that came in from a longtime, usually reliable source: U2 recently signed a new 10-year deal with Live Nation. I pestered our contacts with the band's PR team. I pestered Live Nation's PR. I even got some of the @U2 crew to help with pestering other contacts we have that are close to the band, Live Nation and/or Maverick.
None of the people we contacted denied the story, but neither did anyone provide the second confirmation that I'd require in order to report this as a news story on our home page. One person we asked said we were safe to report the story because, in essence, why would U2 shut down anytime soon? The closest thing we got to an official response was a Live Nation PR person saying, "I don't have anything to share on this."
I have no reason to believe the tip is wrong. The source has been reliable with us over the years, and I think if it was inaccurate, someone we asked would've said so. But without that second confirmation, I'm sharing it here via OTR, a column that we launched in 2001 for this exact purpose: "...to share news, rumors, thoughts, comments, and ideas that just don't seem to fit anywhere else" on @U2.
So, officially we'll call it a rumor. But I believe it's true. What's it mean?
1) I didn't get any detail on timing other than "recently," but let's assume the new deal was signed sometime after the end of last year's Joshua Tree tour and before the start of the Experience + Innocence tour. That means the contract would run til sometime around late 2027/early 2028.
2) It seems safe to report that there won't be a U2 farewell tour anytime soon. I'm betting money that the next U2 tour happens in 2021 and is a celebration of Achtung Baby's 30th anniversary. Depending on how long that runs, it could leave U2 enough time for two more tours ... maybe 2024/25 and 2027/28? All of that likely depends on what they do where new albums are concerned.
3) Finally, if it's true and accurate, the band members would be in their late 60s when the contract ends. That seems to this almost-50-year-old fan like a good age to call it a career. But let's not be surprised if they get close to the end of that contract and decide they want to continue for another year or three. Who knows?
In any case, we'll keep working on this story and try to get a second confirmation. Until then, we're operating on the assumption it's true.
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https://www.atu2.com/news/column-off-the-record--vol-18-774.html
Thoughts?