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Popmart
 Legs (4): Leg 1: North America, Leg 2: Europe, Leg 3: North America, Leg 4: Rest Of The World
Shows: 93
  1. Well they more a less abandoned them on subsequent tours bar one or two exceptions ,No line and Pop weren't the success they were used to in the states so both got sidelined because of that however Pop is a better album than anything they've done post 2000 IMO.
  2. Originally posted by popmarter:Well they more a less abandoned them on subsequent tours bar one or two exceptions ,No line and Pop weren't the success they were used to in the states so both got sidelined because of that however Pop is a better album than anything they've done post 2000 IMO.
    Can't disagree with that second statement I'm afraid. POP and NLOTH are very different in most aspects but very similar in some - the band abandoning them being the major.
  3. Another factor that led to poor ticket sales in the US was just over saturation of the market. Playing three shows in places like Florida, (Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa) and two shows in Missouri (St. Louis and Kansas City) in stadiums was not a good idea. If they had cut it down to one or two shows in Florida, and one in Missouri, the stadiums would not have been as empty (hopefully).

    I also looked at the attendance for the Australian shows - they were just as bad as the US. I take it Pop was also received poorly here as well? I noticed they skipped New Zealand all together too. It's widely known that Pop struggled in the US, but this seems like evidence to me that the apathy to Pop was not just in one part of the world.
  4. Originally posted by trainfanjacob8:Another factor that led to poor ticket sales in the US was just over saturation of the market. Playing three shows in places like Florida, (Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa) and two shows in Missouri (St. Louis and Kansas City) in stadiums was not a good idea. If they had cut it down to one or two shows in Florida, and one in Missouri, the stadiums would not have been as empty (hopefully).

    I also looked at the attendance for the Australian shows - they were just as bad as the US. I take it Pop was also received poorly here as well? I noticed they skipped New Zealand all together too. It's widely known that Pop struggled in the US, but this seems like evidence to me that the apathy to Pop was not just in one part of the world.
    The band were reluctant to take corporate sponsorship at the time so they were bankrolling everything themselves rather than hiring the gear they were buying it and transporting it across the globe and ticket prices were high in certain countries as a result ,not many bands would ever consider doing a stadium tour apart from the Stones most do arenas and then the festival circuit the financial risks are huge especially if you aren't selling out 90% of the venue without any safety net, ie Sponsorship. .
  5. Originally posted by trainfanjacob8:Another factor that led to poor ticket sales in the US was just over saturation of the market. Playing three shows in places like Florida, (Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa) and two shows in Missouri (St. Louis and Kansas City) in stadiums was not a good idea. If they had cut it down to one or two shows in Florida, and one in Missouri, the stadiums would not have been as empty (hopefully).

    I also looked at the attendance for the Australian shows - they were just as bad as the US. I take it Pop was also received poorly here as well? I noticed they skipped New Zealand all together too. It's widely known that Pop struggled in the US, but this seems like evidence to me that the apathy to Pop was not just in one part of the world.
    I looked at an article of the tour announcement (thanks, AtU2), and they announced all the U.S. dates at once. Perhaps if they had just announced the spring/summer block of shows then waited to announce the fall block, do you think that would have helped? I think it might have. For example, in Missouri, there would be great demand for May’s Kansas City show, so more people would go. Then all of a sudden the band would announce the November St. Louis show, and the excess demand from the KC market would kind of spill over.

    Also perhaps they could have tried more arenas… I mean, they pulled it off in Perth, right?
  7. Originally posted by thatchos:[..]
    I looked at an article of the tour announcement (thanks, AtU2), and they announced all the U.S. dates at once. Perhaps if they had just announced the spring/summer block of shows then waited to announce the fall block, do you think that would have helped? I think it might have. For example, in Missouri, there would be great demand for May’s Kansas City show, so more people would go. Then all of a sudden the band would announce the November St. Louis show, and the excess demand from the KC market would kind of spill over.

    Also perhaps they could have tried more arenas… I mean, they pulled it off in Perth, right?
    When a band who made Achtung Baby, JT,War and R&H start flirting with Disco and experimenting with hip hop trance etc it was twisting a lemon too far for some particularly in the US, overall the tour was a success the band tried to do everything themselves without having a proper tour promoter who would have planned their itinerary better especially in the US where they played to a lot of half empty stadiums on the 3rd leg of the tour .With 360 they learned their lesson getting Live Nation on board and sold out pretty much every stadium they played .
  8. They messed up the timings.
    Pop was released after the tickets and unlike Europe the audience in the US had no time to digest it.
    They were under rehearsed too and bad reviews slowed down ticket sales for further shows.....upon returning in the autumn then people aren’t going to return to see something unless it was well received the first time on that continent?
    Europe ‘got it’ more as the vibe of pop fitted into the landscape of European music at the time.
    In Europe, South America and Australasia it sold more tickets.

    Aside from a few tracks (Gone, Please, SATS etc) the music wouldn’t work outside of ‘that moment’.

    Just my take on it.
  9. Originally posted by shappers72:They messed up the timings.
    Pop was released after the tickets and unlike Europe the audience in the US had no time to digest it.
    They were under rehearsed too and bad reviews slowed down ticket sales for further shows.....upon returning in the autumn then people aren’t going to return to see something unless it was well received the first time on that continent?
    Europe ‘got it’ more as the vibe of pop fitted into the landscape of European music at the time.
    In Europe, South America and Australasia it sold more tickets.

    Aside from a few tracks (Gone, Please, SATS etc) the music wouldn’t work outside of ‘that moment’.

    Just my take on it.
    Good point about the 2nd US leg, a terrible mistake that they incredibly repeated 20 years later with the Joshua Tree anniversary tour.
  10. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    Good point about the 2nd US leg, a terrible mistake that they incredibly repeated 20 years later with the Joshua Tree anniversary tour.
    No the Joshua tree tour 2nd US leg was a sellout they didn't overplay areas so there was more demand .With Pop and Popmart U2 had moved as far away from themselves as they possibly could had the album been a success in the US they would still be playing it now it's as simple as that, it did go to number 1 in the US but dropped out of the charts like a hot coal the singles didn't get a lot of airplay stateside so I think the band felt for the first time in years a bit dejected by it all that they weren't getting the universal plaudits that they had gotten accustomed to on the last few albums and tours.
  11. Ive been really getting into Popmart stuff lately, especially the rehearsals. Fascinating stuff!
  12. Originally posted by LikeASong:[..]
    And still they didn't abandon the POP songs and kept on performing them until the end of the tour - unlike what happened a decade later with NLOTH


    I think the POP songs were so much a part of the screen and show they really couldn't abandon them completely like 360. Maybe Staring at The Sun acoustic could have been dropped. But songs like Gone and Last Night On Earth really worked when you saw them live and in person. Please into Streets was awesome as well in person. Plus they couldn't drop what I consider U2's best intro of any tour. Pop Muzik into Mofo.

    Whereas NLOTH the only song I thought worked live like the POP stuff was Get On Your Boots. Didn't care for it on the album or even live recordings. But in person it was great. Similiar to American Soul on the last tour. Breathe, like the song, but will down as one of U2's worst opening songs for me. It didn't work as an opener. Abandoning it for the EBTTRT remix was a great move. I wish they had kept the song NLOTH though, the only song from that album I still listen to occasionally.
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U2start is run by fans for fans. Help us reduce personal costs. Consider to make a donation to support us.
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