Originally posted by taker:[..]
We have heard from a couple of additional sources suggesting that the tour announcement may be as early as next week. This included a source close to the band, and a source tied to Live Nation. We are told that the announcement would happen early in the week, with ticket sales starting the same week. The announcement was initially scheduled for early April, but was held back at that time, and has just recently been rescheduled and communicated to Live Nation in Australia. Further we have had evidence shared with us this week that some components of the staging have been worked on and are being finalized. In the past, information has leaked including show posters and tour posters the week prior to an announcement, to date we have not seen any of those shared online, although there have been some well crafted “guesses” that have made it onto social media.
Below you will find a wrap up of some of the rumours to date. More detail can be found in the older updates below this one. As always, until such time that the dates are announced, we have seen in the past that anything can change, so this information should not be used to book travel or non-refundable accommodations.
U2 will tour New Zealand, Australia and Asia in November and December 2019
The tour will start on November 8, 2019 in New Zealand, and will end a month later in Asia.
The tour will see U2 playing bigger venues, outdoors stadiums in most cities.
An opening act is planned. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are said to be the opening act.
The venue in Auckland will be Mt Smart Stadium. Two shows are rumoured for that city.
The first show in Australia will be in Brisbane, and should be on November 12, 2019.
The remainder of the Australia tour will include two shows in Melbourne, one show in Adelaide, two shows in Sydney, and will end with two shows in Perth. The shows will move in that order. The show in Melbourne is rumoured to be at Marvel Stadium.
The tour will then move to Asia, where Singapore will get the first show, expected for the last week of November. The show in Singapore will be at the National Stadium.
The tour will then move to Tokyo where the band will play the Saitama Super Arena, for two shows.
Where two shows are expected in one city, only one show will be initially announced, with the additional show only being announced if sales are good.
There is a city planned for after the Japan shows. It will be in Eastern Asia.
The band is not expected to move into Mt. Smart Stadium until the week of the first show there. Additional rehearsals will take place at another location prior to that time.
The tour will not be “The Joshua Tree Tour 2019”, nor will it be a continuation of the “Experience and Innocence Tour” — we are told the tour will be branded with a unique name.
This tour will not be in support of a new album.
The tour will not include playing the entire Joshua Tree album as the 2017 tour did, but we are told that album will be a focus on the tour.
Some elements from the 2017 tour stage are in storage in Australia, and are expected to be used in the staging for this new tour.
Rehearsals for the tour will start in mid-October and initially will not be held at the same location that the tour will start.
The tour will start in November 2019, and will continue into the early part of December, at which time we are told the band will take a break to work on a new album before continuing touring at a yet undefined period in the future. At this point we know of no plans to continue into 2020, and have heard no rumours that this 2019 tour will be taken elsewhere.
The band has not yet started rehearsal, and have not started developing a set list, other than making a decision to return to some of the material from The Joshua Tree. These discussions will happen when the band return to one location to rehearse and start building ideas for the tour.
We are aware that the band said they would take a break in 2019, but these comments were made while the band was still rumoured to be planning a visit to Australia at the end of 2018. Further when asked in February about when the band would need to tour again, Adam Clayton responded, “I don’t know. It’ll be when we make a record. When you’re excited about the songs. We get fed up being around each other for a year or so whenever we make a record. And when we feel like we’ve got some songs to go back out on the road with. You know, when you feel you want it. Sometimes you don’t want to go out there when people feel you’ve only just gone away.” Despite these comments, we are still getting information from many sources that have been reliable in the past that continue to point towards a tour being planned, and an announcement getting closer. See our entry on April 16 below for more about rumours, and how we choose what we share.