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U2 360: 10 Little Things About The World's Biggest Tour

U2 have never done anything on a small scale. Even as they cut their teeth in tiny clubs in and around Dublin in the late '70s, they brought with them a larger-than-life stage presence and an ambition that took years to grow into. By the end of the '90s, U2 boasted three of the highest-grossing tours of all time in The Joshua Tree, ZooTV and Popmart tours. For most bands, this would have been the capstone of a highly successful touring career. But for U2, those tours were just the beginning.

Only a select group of artists have embarked on their most successful tour so late in their career. U2, in perfect style, did exactly that from 2009 to 2011 as they pulled off the highest-grossing tour in music history. When it ended, U2 had racked up $736,421,584 in gross revenue and sold 7.2 million tickets over 110 concert dates. They had performed 62 different songs, for a total of 2,635 song performances. 

Today, June 30, 2019, is the 10th anniversary of the  first date of the tour, and in its honor here are 10 little things about the biggest tour in the world.

1. By The Numbers

It takes a lot of people to execute something of this magnitude. The Claw clocked in at 167 feet high, weighed 200 tons, and cost $750,000 per day to operate. A crew of about 300 people used 180 trucks to ship, assemble, and disassemble it at each city along the way. The articulated screen had over 1 million separate pieces to make it work. Even without the record-setting revenues, the 360 Tour would have been a monster by any standard .

2. W.H. Auden Introduces “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)”

One of the more visually interesting elements of show was the laser jacket Bono wore during the encore performances of “Ultraviolet (Light My Way).” Prior to this song, the large video screens featured an animation accompanied by a mechanical recitation of “Funeral Blues” by W.H. Auden. Originally written as a satirical mourning of a political leader in 1936, the poem took on new meaning as it became a lament for lost love, and a perfect segue into “Ultraviolet.” Unfortunately, this was only featured at a handful of shows in 2009. 

3. Bigger Than The Biggest Stadia

U2’s innovative stage design for the 360 Tour, The Claw, was designed to make a huge stadium feel more like an intimate experience. It wasn’t unusual for the top of The Claw to reach higher than the stadium itself. This became an issue in two stadiums, one in Dallas and one in Montreal. According to Spectrum News and Corus Entertainment, in each city the band paid an additional $2 million to $3 million to raise the Jumbotron TV screens into the rafters, or alter the venue itself, to fit the stage. Other roofed stadiums, such as the Rogers Centre in Toronto, opened the roof to accommodate the show. 

4. Bigger Than The Pope

On September 24, 2009 , U2 played the second of two shows at historic Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in front of huge, packed crowds. So many fans flocked to the shows that the second night broke the Giants Stadium record for the highest single-event attendance. What did they dethrone? Pope John Paul II’s Mass during his October 1995 tour of the United States.

5. Breaking Their Own Records

The Pope’s Giants Stadium record wasn’t the only attendance record U2 set on the 360 Tour. Prior to 2009, the previous U.S. single-concert attendance record was set by U2 on their Joshua Tree Tour show at JFK Memorial Stadium in Philadelphia in 1987. That show was attended by 87,145 fans. Their Rose Bowl show , which was also broadcast on YouTube and later released on home video, broke their own record with an attendance of 97,014. 

6. Space: The Final Frontier

Even before U2 took the stage, the “space” theme was abundantly clear. Even from outside the stadium, The Claw appeared as if it were a spaceship just landed from some other planet. Their walk-up music, David Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity,” set the tone for the night. While the biggest space-themed highlight was the nightly “link-ups” with astronauts on the International Space Station (they were pre-recorded), space imagery was present in the pre-encore visuals too. If you listen to their performance of “Vertigo” on From The Ground Up: Edge’s Picks From 360 , you’ll hear Bono ask the crowd if they’re ready “to get the space station off the ground.” 

7. To The Moon

When it was all said and done, the 360 Tour traveled approximately 55,500 miles from show to show, enough distance to travel the globe 6.5 times. If U2’s tour trucks were a spaceship, they would have made it one-quarter of the way to the moon. (Contributed by Mason Merritt)

8. Breakfast Fruit And Cutlery

The final version of The Claw looked every inch like a landed space station, but its beginnings were far more terrestrial. In fact, its origins lie on Willie Williams’ breakfast table , where he created a rough mock-up of the 360 concept using a grapefruit and a variety of cutlery. 

9. Rarities And New Songs

U2 are not known for playing untested or rare songs on a regular basis. So it was a welcome surprise to see them road-test so many new songs in Europe in 2011. Songs such as “Boy Falls From The Sky,” “North Star,” “Every Breaking Wave,” “Glastonbury,” “Mercy” and “Return Of The Stingray Guitar” all made appearances on stage. Many of them even reappeared in different forms a few years later on Songs Of Innocence . 

10. Google Maps Takeover

Not only did The Claw take over every stadium it was installed in, but it also featured heavily in Google Maps in the weeks before and after each concert. Users were able to zoom into the stadium of their choice and see an overlaid image of what The Claw would look like when it finally landed in their city. While the feature is gone now, you can get a glimpse of what it looked like here .

(c) Betteridge/@U2, 2019

The tech behind U2's record-smashing tour

The U2 360 concerts are huge by any measure. But on Sunday, with what may have been the largest live-stream ever, the tour got even bigger.

PASADENA, Calif.--If you were one of the 96,000 people packed into the Rose Bowl Sunday night for the U2 concert--said to be the largest concert ever held here--you were sharing the experience with at least a few other fans off-site.

There's no way to know yet how many exactly, but it's safe to say millions of people around the world were also watching the concert live on YouTube, a potentially server-crashing Webcast that may have been the biggest live-stream yet.

For months, the band has been on tour with its U2 360 concerts. And to top off the grand claims, it has been called the biggest rock tour in history , at least as measured by the size and cost of its infrastructure--more than $750,000 per show, according to Rolling Stone.

Only days ago, the band announced that it would share the Rose Bowl concert live , with fans across the globe. Just before the band came on stage, a roadie calling himself Rocco got up in front of the crowd of 96,000 and said, "Tonight, you are the ones making history," shouting out that those in attendance would be joined by viewers in "North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica."

Photos: U2 goes global via YouTube

For its part, YouTube wasn't sharing much about how it put together the live stream. Before the show started, there was some discussion among reporters on hand at the Rose Bowl about whether YouTube would be up to the task of delivering the show to so many people, live, on so many continents. But if Twitter is any judge , the live-stream went off almost without a hitch. More to the point, a Twitter feed set up on the official YouTube U2 page showcased comments in a wide variety of languages from Webcast viewers.

Back at the Rose Bowl, in an effort to rally the capacity crowd, the concert-goers were told why this show was chosen by YouTube: "Because right here is where the greatest singers of U2 songs are....Tonight, we need to hear your voices, and to hear you sing. Can you do it?"

In response, the crowd roared its agreement, and indeed, throughout U2's approximately two hours on stage, there were several emotional moments when U2 leader Bono stopped singing and let the audience take over the vocals. These were truly beautiful and awe-inspiring moments, as there is very little on Earth like the sound of nearly 100,000 people singing together.

Ironically, no connectivity These days, you can find out what's happening at just about any event by turning to Twitter. But at the Rose Bowl, this wasn't the case. It turned out that there was nearly no connectivity, and so there seemed to be a dearth of tweets sent from inside the concert. Still, because the show was being watched by millions of people around the world, there is certainly no shortage of posts on Twitter about what was happening.

That's an ironic turn of events, though, and not at all what I expected. I thought there would be a steady stream of tweets emanating from the Rose Bowl, and I had expected to send many of them myself. Instead, this highly tech-centric concert was ground zero for a disconnected audience. We were truly "stuck in the moment," to quote one of U2's hit songs, though I doubt anyone wanted to "get out of it."

A YouTube representative did tell me prior to the show that the service was using 24 cameras to film the concert, as well as 24 additional closed-circuit TV cameras. Further, he said YouTube was offering its stream at three different qualities, so that almost anyone could watch, regardless of the speed of their Internet connection.

Having YouTube produce such a major Webcast is fitting, given the size and scope of the U2 360 tour. Among its facts and figures are tidbits like this: the 360-degree stage--which allowed huge numbers of fans to watch from behind--featured a 90-foot-tall steel structure, topped by a center pylon reaching 150 feet in the air; the innovative video screen atop the stage weighs 54 tons, is 4,300 square feet when closed, and is 14,000 square feet when opened; the screen itself is comprised of more than a million pieces, including components to illuminate 500,000 pixels, as well as 320,000 fasteners, 30,000 cables and 150,000 machined pieces.

The incredible expanding screen The video screen, according to information provided by the band's publicists, is "broken into segments mounted on a multiple pantograph system, which enables the screen to 'open up' or spread apart vertically as an effect during different stages of the concerts."

I didn't think I'd ever seen such a thing before, and it just about made my jaw drop when I noticed it. Already, the screen was a sight to behold, but it didn't seem all that big, especially when I thought back to what I'd seen the band do with video during its U2 3D film.

Well, it turns out I was right: I hadn't seen anything like this before, and neither had anyone else who hadn't been to one of the U2 360 shows.

"The video screen is the first LED screen to be based on a geometric system that allows it to expand in two directions simultaneously," U2 360 architect Mark Fisher told CNET News in an e-mail interview. "Video screens are normally flat panels that track like closet doors, or slatted panels that roll up like garage doors. The 360 degree screen uses a scissor-like motion to expand in two directions. It starts as a solid elliptical ring approximately 20 feet deep, and transforms into form a cone-shaped mesh 60 feet tall."

Fisher added that this is the first time such technology--what he called "transforming geometry"--has been used to "change the shape of a video screen."

And while Fisher said that, in general, the technology behind U2 360 isn't in and of itself new, the way it's being used during the tour most certainly is.

"The show employs a large number of computers and electric motors to control the motion of the screen, and there are large numbers of computer-controlled moving lights," Fisher said. "The video on the screen is also created using powerful computers that 'map' the picture onto the transforming screen. All of this automation and programming is possible because the computers available in 2009 and more powerful, and cheaper, than they were when we created the Vertigo tour in 2005."

Google Earth Another piece of technology used for the tour--at least in a way that U2's fans can interact with--is Google Earth. Fisher explained that the stage's designers decided it would be fun for fans to see the huge structure on Google Earth.

"So we hooked up with the folks that run the operation, and they agreed to let us put 3D models of the stage into the 3D models of the stadiums where it plays," Fisher said. "The 360 degree stage is turned around in each stadium in six days (and) the models stay in each city on Google Earth for slightly longer."

On U2's official Web site, the band explained what is going on with the Google Earth project: "If you're following the tour as it moves around...there's a very cool new feature on Google Earth--a model of the 360 stage, in situ, at the venue, about a week ahead of each show."

The site also explained that the model that fans see could be red, green or blue, with each color corresponding to one of three "steel teams" that "leapfrog each other from city to city to build the stage in each stadium."

Fisher also weighed in on the site with the real reason why the band chose to implement Google Earth: "We thought it would be interesting to put up on Google Earth a piece of portable architecture, which is what this structure is," he wrote. "In a way it's got no practical purpose...except that it's fun!"

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Ed Sheeran breaks U2's record for highest-grossing tour ever

Suffolk singer’s Divide tour has generated over $736m (£607m), and still has 12 dates left to run

Ed Sheeran’s Divide Tour has been named the highest-grossing tour of all time, breaking a record set by U2 that had stood for eight years.

Coming off the back of the chart-topping album of the same name, the Divide tour began in March 2017, and will have encompassed 255 shows when it finishes with four homecoming gigs in Ipswich later this month. So far it has grossed $736m (£607m), breaking U2 ’s record of $735m, with 12 dates still left to play.

It has also been named the most attended tour of all time: when it finishes, more than 8.5m people across 43 countries will have seen Sheeran perform, breaking U2’s record of 7.3m.

Writing on Instagram , Sheeran said: “Thanks so much for each and every one of you who have come to a show. 12 shows left, will never forget it.”

Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp told Pollstar , who amassed the tour data: “What Ed has accomplished is truly incredible … to even be in the same ballpark as [U2] or spoken in the same sentence with a touring act like that is very humbling”.

U2’s record was set in 2011 by their 110-date 360° tour. Rather than focusing on stadiums as U2 did, Sheeran has included more intimate arenas – his average concert attendance is 34,541, around half U2’s 66,091 average. He also rejected VIP areas and sold tickets at a relatively low price, 14.2% lower on average than U2’s, but the sheer number of dates has ensured the record was broken nonetheless.

Sheeran found time to record a new album during the tour, No 6 Collaborations Project , featuring all-star collaborations with the likes of Cardi B, Bruno Mars, Stormzy, Eminem and Justin Bieber. It was released on 12 July and is currently No 1 in the UK and US, while two of its singles, I Don’t Care and Beautiful People, have topped the UK singles chart.

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U2’s ‘360’ Tour Gross: $736,137,344!

Tomorrow night in New Brunswick, U2 will perform the 110th and final show of its monster "360" tour, wrapping up not only epic technological and musical achievements, but also going into the history…

By Ray Waddell

Ray Waddell

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Tomorrow night in Moncton, N.B., U2 will perform the 110th and final show of its monster 360 tour, wrapping up not only epic technological and musical achievements, but also going into the history books as the biggest tour ever.

When the final numbers are tallied, U2 360 will record a gross of $736,137,344 and total attendance of 7,268,430, Billboard.com/biz has learned, both the highest tour tallies ever reported to Billboard. U2 broke the Rolling Stones’ previous gross record of $558 million on April 10 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as first reported on Billboard.biz on April 8 .

Madonna Thanks 'Incredibly Talented' Kids for Joining Her on Celebration Tour

The success of 360 is a testament not only to the enduring global appeal of the band, but also its ground-breaking-and risky-360-degree production, which increased the capacities of stadiums by as much as 25%. Details of the tour were first revealed on Billboard.com in March of 2009, when the tour, in support of the band’s 2008 album “No Line On The Horizon,” was still operating under the working title of “Kiss The Future.” By the time it was officially announced on March 9 of that year, the tour carried the “360” title, which longtime band manager Paul McGuinness says is a reference not only to the unique production of the tour, but also a sly nod to U2’s long-term multi-rights deal with promoter Live Nation, “a little private joke to amuse myself at one point.” This was the band’s first tour under that deal, steered by long-time U2 tour producer Arthur Fogel , chairman of Live Nation Global Touring and his Toronto-based team.

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The tour began June 30, 2009, in Barcelona, Spain, and swept across Europe before landing on North American shores on Sept. 12 in Chicago. This was the first time the band had played stadiums on the continent since the PopMart tour in 1997/’98.

As popular as U2 is worldwide, launching a never-before-attempted 360 configuration that would put 7 million tickets in the marketplace in a treacherous global economy was ambitious, to say the least. “I remember when everything was first laid out, the production was conceived, and we came to the realization of what it did to the capacities,” Fogel told Billboard.com/biz backstage at the tour’s 100th stop in Nashville earlier this month. “We were in a meeting in New York, we saw the design, and talked about all the different angles. There was a moment of sitting there and everyone thinking, ‘do you think we’ll sell the tickets?’ My gut was ‘absolutely yes,’ and I remember leaving the meeting and thinking, ‘oh shit.'”

Beyond the huge financial commitment the band and producers had made in launching the massive tour (not to mention a daily nut of $750,000 on the road, according to McGuinness), the aesthetic success of the production and the staging known as “the claw,” which literally surrounds the band with fans, depends on full houses. “There’s nowhere to hide,” Fogel says. “It was definitely scary.”

But sell those tickets they did, all over the world, and Fogel says what he learned form 360 was “probably more so than any other tour, to trust my instincts.”

The launch and execution of 360 were meticulously planned for more than a year, but those best-laid plans were blown up when news came last spring that the tour’s second North American leg would have to be scrapped due to an injury and resulting back surgery for U2 front man Bono. Producers were already on the ground at what was to be the tour’s first stop on that round in Salt Lake City when the news came.

Rejiggering the tour midstream was “challenging,” says Fogel. But the team moved quickly from the initial shock to rebuilding the North American leg for a year later, and did that so expertly that they not only were able to put most fans in the exact seat they would have been had the tour gone off as planned, but also found seven more shows, including the band’s first Nashville stop in 30 years.

“It was difficult at the time, but the most amazing thing through it all was the refund rate across all the shows was only about 9%, which is ridiculous,” says Fogel. “And we resold all those tickets.”

The final North American dates are considered by those involved to be among the band’s best on the tour, and mark a triumphant return to stadiums on this continent after the last stadium run in PopMart, which struggled to sell tickets in some markets. U2 played stadiums internationally but arenas in North America on the Vertigo tour in 2005-2007 the Elevation tour of 2001.

“After PopMart, the strategy was definitely to build back up North America, under-play, create that buzz and that demand, and I think we did a great job with that,” says Fogel, who has now produced four of the top five highest-grossing tours of all time. “To go outdoors in America this time, particularly with this production, is a story in itself. This thing, apart from, obviously, the band, great musicians, great music, great songs, was about creating that buzz in the world about this production. That was the hook.”

Now that U2 360 is set to close, Fogel says the magnitude of the accomplishment, which he calls a “career highlight,” is “finally starting to sink in.”

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U2 Announce 360-Degree Tour Details, First U.S. Dates

• By Daniel Kreps

Daniel Kreps

U2 have announced the first dates and details for their globe-spanning U2 360° Tour. As Bono recently told Rolling Stone , the stage’s set up is “an engineering feat that creates this real physical proximity to the crowd,” and over at U2’s 360° Tour page you can check out the virtual blueprints for how the concert will look at each of its stadium stops. As evidenced by the tour’s name, a 360° TV screen hovering over the stage will allow the entire stadium a great view of the band as they perform near the center of the field. Plus, the set-up allows Rolling Stone ‘s current cover stars to perform to an entire stadium rather than have the space behind the stage closed off.

First, the bad news: The tour won’t hit American shores until a September 12th show at Chicago’s Soldier Field. The band will open their trek with a June 30th show in Barcelona, Spain, and then travel across Europe before crossing the Atlantic for the Chicago show. From there, concerts in Toronto, Boston and New Jersey’s Giants Stadium have been scheduled, while stops in Atlanta, Charlottesville, Virginia, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Norman, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Tampa, Washington, DC and Vancouver have been promised but not yet announced. Check out all the dates here .

The good news is that as Bono told Rolling Stone, the band will keep prices down for the tour. As U2’s manager Paul McGuinness said of the European pricing, “U2 has always been at their best when surrounded by the audience, this staging takes a giant leap forward. With 85 percent of the tickets priced at less than 95 Euro, general admission floor tickets priced at 55 euro and at least 10,000 tickets at every venue priced at the 30 Euro price range, we have worked very hard to ensure that U2 fans can purchase a great priced ticket with a guaranteed great view.”

The band will also be taking along some top talent to serve as their opening act, with the Black Eyed Peas, Snow Patrol, the Mercury Prize-winning Elbow, Kaiser Chiefs and Glasvegas all set to join U2 at certain points throughout their travels, with additional artists to be announced as the tour dates keep pouring in. Click below for the North American dates, and for much more U2, check out our new issue now .

U2 September 12- Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field September 16 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre September 20 – Boston, MA @ Gilette Stadium September 24 – New York, NY @ Giants Stadium

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U2, Simple Minds, Big Country, The Alarm, and more all had an unabashed belief in the redemptive power of larger-than-life rock.

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“I have heard the big music and I’ll never be the same,” sang Mike Scott on The Waterboys’ 1984 song “The Big Music” amid keening sax, cannon-blast beats, almost ecclesiastical piano, and wailing female backing vocals. Given his proclivities, there’s a solid chance the lyrics were a metaphor for something spiritual. But admirers eventually latched onto The Big Music as an umbrella term for the loose agglomeration of mid-’80s bands with an epic vibe and an unabashed belief in the redemptive power of larger-than-life rock, including U2 , Simple Minds , Big Country , The Alarm, and more.

Anthems were anathema to the cool kids at the onset of the New Wave/post-punk era. So was earnestness. These signifiers were seen as embarrassing relics of boomer rock. But a small group of the young, punk-informed ranks were proud to fuse classic rock tenets with the surging intensity of the rising tide.

U2 were early adopters. As teens, they were inspired by Stiff Little Fingers and Joy Division but equally fascinated by Bob Dylan and Irish blues-rocker Rory Gallagher . They were covering The Beatles and channeling Jimi Hendrix before the 80s were over. All but Bono were still teenagers in October of 1980 when their debut album, Boy , was released. The underage Dubliners represented an alternative to the crotch-grabbing arena rockers of yore. But crucially, they also wore a willingness to cast all ideas of detached post-punk coolness to the wind in favor of a fresh brand of spiritually motivated, politically potent, banner-waving rock. And that’s what really helped them turn heads from the start.

Listen to the best of U2 on Apple Music or Spotify .

Their sound would turn more sweeping by mid-decade, but from the opening track on Boy , “I Will Follow,” they were already unfolding widescreen vistas for the mind’s eye, with Bono’s clarion-call vocals, The Edge’s unrelenting, reverb-heavy riffs, and Larry Mullen’s huge, galloping beat. Key to the grand-scale sonic architecture was the vision of producer Steve Lillywhite. He’d just recently helped Phil Collins create the immense, gated-reverb sound on Peter Gabriel’s third album that would revolutionize 80s rock, and Boy wouldn’t be the last Big Sound milestone to bear his name.

The summer of 1983 was a banner period in the evolution of the still-unnamed subgenre. Between June and July, Big Country, The Waterboys, and The Alarm all unfurled their first musical statements. On their self-titled EP, the Alarm seemed to suggest an alternate universe where Billy Bragg fronted The Clash. Meanwhile, The Waterboys and Big Country’s The Crossing both underlined Scotland’s knack for birthing an inspirational clamor.

The arty, martial post-punk of Big Country frontman Stuart Adamson’s previous band, The Skids, had helped set the stage for The Crossing ’s fist-pumping feel, but Adamson and Bruce Watson’s unprecedented, bagpipe-like guitar sounds gave the band its own turf. The album’s hits, “In a Big Country” and “Fields of Fire,” hit the charts with a passionate rush of Celtic-flavored rock that felt simultaneously New Wave-friendly and arena-ready. Unsurprisingly, Steve Lillywhite was the eminence grise bringing the whole thing hurtling to life.

The most mercurial band of the lot, The Waterboys had a Van Morrison mystical side, a dash of post-punk urgency, the occasional neo-psychedelic swirl, and Anthony Thistlethwaite’s saxophone smears adding atmosphere to Mike Scott’s wild-eyed poetic musings. From the beginning, their music was full of emotions writ large, and on their second album, 1984’s A Pagan Place , they limned an even larger world, partially thanks to the addition of keyboardist Karl Wallinger.

Simple Minds spent 1984 emerging from their synth-pop/New Romantic chrysalis, born anew on Sparkle in the Rain . Not that their earlier tunes didn’t have their stately side, but cuts like “Up on the Catwalk” and “Waterfront” are where the Minds started positioning themselves for world domination, with the kind of monolithic drums and celestial keyboard lines that made you want to follow them anywhere. And guess which producer was shepherding them along to their rock-star destiny? None other than Steve Lillywhite.

Later in the year, U2 would gain even more from a new production team. Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois’ electronic expertise aided the band on The Unforgettable Fire , building glistening castles in the sky big and bright enough to be admired from anywhere on the planet, like “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “Bad.”

The Alarm, meanwhile, had opened for U2 on the band’s tour the previous year. On 1984’s Declaration they came off as just about the most rabble-rousing gang of street-level spokesmen for the underdog you could imagine. If songs like “The Stand,” “Blaze of Glory,” and “Sixty Eight Guns” didn’t make you feel like pumping a righteous fist in the air, you were probably in urgent need of medical attention.

Covering The Alarm for Creem at the time, Sylvie Simmons wondered, “Is this much-touted New Hope Movement or New Young Guitar Revival or New Folk or New Energy or whatever-you-want-to-call-it-thing just a load of old hippies with a highly advanced fashion consciousness?” But ultimately, she decided, “It’s a beat you want to stomp to and words you want to believe in…. There’s something about people with that much conviction in what they’re doing – you can’t help but go along at least part of the way.”

The next year, The Alarm managed to maintain that intensity while adding a new level of sophistication on Strength , with a burnished brass arrangement on “Walk Forever By My Side,” a Springsteen touch on “Spirit of ‘76,” and their most compelling call for compassion yet in the title track. Around the same time, The Waterboys busted out their own magnum opus, This is the Sea , where Mike Scott embraced his role as the Cecil B. DeMille of rock on the band’s largest-sounding album ever. “The Whole of the Moon” became their biggest hit, an epic paean to “every precious dream and vision underneath the stars.”

With Once Upon a Time Simple Minds reached a new peak too. The album was a seamless transition from their post-punk/synth-pop past to the shining shores of a glistening, stadium-sized sound. With hits like “All the Things She Said,” “Alive and Kicking,” and “Sanctify Yourself,” they channeled their art-rock influences into something accessible enough to make them bona fide international superstars, in a manner not dissimilar to that of So -era Peter Gabriel.

The Call never achieved anything close to the commercial heights of their Big Sound brethren, even with Peter Gabriel himself dubbing the group “the future of American music.” The pulverizing one-two punch of Reconciled and 1987’s Into the Woods tried to make good on that assessment. Like Bono and Mike Scott, Michael Been was a man motivated by the literal salvation of souls. With a drama-filled baritone, he delivered every note like his life depended on it, while drummer Scott Musick’s mammoth whomp and keyboardist Jim Goodwin’s cathedrals of sound amplified his passion on soulful, slamming college radio staples like “Everywhere I Go,” “I Still Believe,” and “I Don’t Wanna.”

U2’s next move wasn’t just an album – it was a full-fledged phenomenon. The Joshua Tree could be seen as the movement’s capstone. “U2 are massive but minimal,” wrote Simon Reynolds in Melody Maker upon the record’s March 1987 release, “majestic but free of pomp or flourish.” Gargantuan singles like the spiritually yearning “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” helped make U2’s fifth album one of the most impactful records of the decade, both culturally and commercially. Like the band itself, it suddenly seemed as though The Big Sound couldn’t get much bigger.

By this point, some second wavers had appeared on the scene. Dublin band Cactus World News was buoyed by friends in the highest places: Their debut single, “The Bridge,” was produced by Bono for U2’s imprint Mother Records. The capacious environs of their debut album, Urban Beaches , reflected that pedigree accordingly. Londoners Then Jerico had more in common with Simple Minds and reached the upper rungs of the UK charts with 1989’s The Big Area . (Minds keyboardist Mick MacNeil brought things full circle by appearing on one of their 90s albums.) New Model Army was darker and more explicitly political, but it’s easy to imagine them sharing a segment of the Big Country and Alarm audiences.

Through the decades that followed, there’s never been a dearth of bands indebted to the artists who brought technicolor to 80s rock. It isn’t tough to draw a line from The Big Sound to the likes of James, Elbow, Travis, Keane, Snow Patrol, and even world-beaters like Arcade Fire and Coldplay.

Of course, most of the first-gen bands are still out there storming stages and making new music, as well, and their cross-pollination has continued. A latter-day lineup of Big Country included Alarm singer Mike Peters and Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes. Simple Minds covered The Call’s “Let the Day Begin” and “The Walls Came Down” years after Michael Been’s untimely 2010 passing, with Jim Kerr explaining that “he had a similar soul that one perceives in true American greats such as Robbie Robertson and even Dylan himself.”

Maybe the spirit of these bands has survived through the years because their real agenda was all about amplifying the feelings lurking within each one of us. When A Pagan Place came out back in 1985, David Quantick interviewed Mike Scott for New Musical Express and asked, “Why is every song a Spectoresque whirlwind of sound, almost every lyric expressing an epic sentiment, every vocal almost a shout?” The singer earnestly replied, “I don’t know why that is; must be the way I think.”

Steve Fulton

August 8, 2022 at 6:30 pm

This is great article! “The Big Sound” is a very nice to to describe this. ““I don’t know why that is; must be the way I think.” describes my feelings as a teen listening all these bands.

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U2: The boom and bust of the world’s biggest band

‘achtung baby’ was released 30 years ago. the key album of the irish group’s long career reinvented rock music and catapulted them to fame, but it was also their last great record.

“Everything you know is wrong.” The slogan appeared for the first time in the video for The Fly in October 1991, and it would become a refrain of the great Zoo TV Tour (1992-1993). That song, dark, rhythmic, rough and full of intelligent irony, broke radically with the sound and image that U2 had cultivated during the previous decade. The band members – Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. – had already established themselves as the most important rock band in the world thanks to their fifth album, The Joshua Tree (1987).

At that time, the four young Dubliners were filling the biggest stadiums on the planet every night, and arousing a religious fervor among the masses. One rung above what even Bruce Springsteen could achieve, they restored authenticity to great rock music delivered on a big scale, and as an added bonus lent it a humanitarian commitment during the cruel decade of the 1980s.

Overwhelmed and plagued by insecurities, however, U2 were not enjoying themselves at all. Their next project, the documentary film and double album Rattle And Hum , backfired. What they meant to sell as a tribute to their discovery of rock’s American roots was anything but humble. Critics began to turn their backs on them and frequently used terms such as “megalomaniacs” and “messianic” to refer to the quartet.

In the 1990s, U2 went into crisis. It began with a performance at Point Depot in their hometown on New Year’s Eve 1989 that was broadcast globally on radio and TV and where they symbolically said goodbye to the Stetson hats of Rattle And Hum , to welcome the new Europe that was emerging after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Relatively fed up with themselves, they arrived at Hansa Studios in Berlin in late 1990, a legendary place where David Bowie and Iggy Pop had recorded. Either they would reinvent themselves, or they would break apart.

The sessions were traumatic until One was conceived, symbolizing the band’s stronger union in a Germany that had just pieced itself back together. Achtung Baby was electronic and rhythmic, with a dark and sexual vibe. It featured Bono’s best lyrics and shifted the paradigm of what successful bands should do to remain influential. In a time of conflict, and with their vulnerability on the surface, U2 achieved the greatest triumph of their career. Even their biggest detractors eventually admitted that there was something interesting there.

It went even further in their live performances. The Zoo TV Tour was a great postmodern game that allowed them to laugh a little at themselves, to add theatrical effects to their show and to anticipate the new information society. With the internet still in its infancy, multi-screen messages scrolled by, and there were simultaneous video duets with Lou Reed. They called the White House, live. Among their list of opening acts they chose the Pixies, Public Enemy, The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, The Sugarcubes, Björk, PJ Harvey and Pearl Jam, proof that they wanted to nurture the next generation of alternative music.

In the middle of the tour, they did something even more unusual: they recorded and released Zooropa , the unofficial B-side of Achtung Baby . A more radical and risky album, they were only able to play a few songs live a handful of times, though the record deserves to be rescued for The Wanderer , a post-apocalyptic parable sung by Johnny Cash. U2 had become the standard-bearer of creative risk as a symbol of global triumph, a quality perhaps only shared by The Beatles , but even then some were pointing out that the emperor was walking around with no clothes on.

In the penultimate chapter of The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship , a memoir of Charles Bukowski’s last days, the writer describes (without naming names but it’s easy to guess) the night Bono invited him to a concert at Dodger Stadium. “There was a vibrancy there but it was short-lived. It was fairly simplistic. I suppose the lyrics were all right if you could understand them. They were probably speaking of Causes, Decencies, Love found and lost, etc. People need that – anti-establishment, anti-parent, anti-something. But a successful millionaire group like that, no matter what they said, THEY WERE NOW ESTABLISHMENT. Then, after a while, the leader said, ‘This concert is dedicated to Linda and Charles Bukowski!’ 25,000 people cheered as if they knew who we were. It is to laugh.”

U2 would never again have that agenda-setting relevance as a band at the vanguard of their era. Inspiration never resurfaced, and bad decisions began to multiply, until they became a band that arouses as much rancor as admiration. Here is a chronology of their decline in a few unfortunate milestones.

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me , recorded for the Batman Forever soundtrack, was their first bland single since Two Hearts Beat As One (1983). They released a semi-experimental album with the title Passengers , with Brian Eno as a fifth member, but it was quickly forgotten. “There’s a thin line between interesting music and self-indulgence. We crossed it on the Passengers record,” Larry Mullen would say years later in the book U2 by U2 .

Their ambitious new tour was already booked, but the new album Pop was not going to be finished on time. U2 didn’t seem to know what they wanted, and delayed its release several times. Some songs edged towards a more kitsch, electronic direction, and others harked back to a more mellow, classic pop rock. Meanwhile Bono was losing his voice, and the Popmart Tour was getting out of hand. A massive, expensive set-up for stadiums to make an ironic comment about consumer society seemed to miss its own point quite badly. There was a giant mechanical lemon that didn’t function properly, and the band got trapped inside on more than one occasion. For the first time in years, some concerts did not sell out, and there were boos in Barcelona when they shocked fans with a karaoke performance by The Edge of Macarena by Los del Río .

Bono met Pope John Paul II on a series of visits to meet world leaders as ambassador of Jubilee 2000, a project aimed at ending the foreign debt of Third World countries. Bono let him try on his sunglasses and later declared that John Paul II was the “first funky Pontiff.”

Bono produced his first and last film script for Million Dollar Hotel , directed by his friend Wim Wenders. It garnered the most devastating reviews ever obtained by the German director and even its star, Mel Gibson, said in an interview that it is “as boring as a dog’s ass.” Even Bono himself seemed to agree. Meanwhile, the album All That You Can’t Leave Behind was hailed by fans as a return to form, but with a more mainstream character. They entered into a dynamic that other groups of their generation, like R.E.M. or Depeche Mode, would also end up assuming: the same, only less. They attended the Amigo Awards ceremony in Madrid and delivered a part-playback performance of their new single, Beautiful Day . They were the big stars of the gala along with Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera and the Spanish band Estopa.

Their performance at the Superbowl final became a tribute to the victims of 9/11 and to the United States. Bono began his interpretation of Where The Streets Have No Name by shouting “America!” and concluded it by showing the stars and stripes on the back of his jacket, reaching his peak as an emotional manipulator. Gone were the days when the singer would fly a white flag and say that the only color he saw in other flags was the color of blood.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb delved ever more into epic-sentimental rock designed to please all audiences. The band signed an agreement with Apple and released an exclusive iPod model accompanied by a campaign in which Bono appeared singing Vertigo from screens everywhere. In the documentary From The Sky Down (2011), the vocalist declared that they had started off as punks at age 16, seeing The Clash in Dublin, and there came a time when they realized that they had become the enemy. That was what they had wanted to fight against in Achtung Baby . By now, they were clearly the enemy.

The U2 company moved to the Netherlands to pay less tax , and the ensuing scandal reached the Irish parliament. The members of the group tried to justify the move with unconvincing arguments, including that they were running a global business, or that all companies try to minimize their tax burden.

The group signed a 12-year contract with the multinational promoter Live Nation, which took control of a large part of the product, including management of ticket sales and merchandising. There was something hidden in the small print that would not become known until 2013: their manager Paul McGuinness, the man who had discovered them in 1978 and could be considered the fifth member of U2, would retire as part of the agreement.

They released No Line On The Horizon , the beginning of their trilogy of sadder albums, followed by Songs Of Innocence in 2014 and Songs Of Experience in 2017. Despite the promotional fanfare that accompanied their releases, no particular song became a hit.

The 360º Tour broke records in terms of global box office sales and the sheer scale of the stage set-ups, though this did not necessarily imply artistic health. There was a lot of paraphernalia, but very little substance: fans basically went to listen to old hits rendered tired-sounding by the passing of the years.

U2 performed at Glastonbury. It was their first time at a festival since 1985, and their debut at the British megafestival. Under normal conditions, it should have been a triumphant concert packed with their greatest hits, but the quantity of banners asking them to pay their taxes overshadowed the music. Their performance lacked conviction.

Other megastars were releasing their albums by surprise or posting them directly online (Radiohead, Bowie, Beyoncé), so U2 decided to have their album Songs Of Innocence automatically installed for free on users’ iTunes libraries... without asking for permission first. Instead of celebrating, many users protested angrily because they couldn’t delete the unwanted tracks. Faced with a barrage of protests, Apple was forced to develop an option to get rid of the record. The first spam album in history is still held up today as the perfect example of a completely misguided marketing strategy.

U2′s appearance on the track XXX from Kendrick Lamar’s album Damn was announced. The rapper’s fans protested, while applauding his collaboration with Rihanna on another song. The band’s first nostalgia tour kicked off, celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree . Some fans were happy because the band decided to perform the album in its entirety, but others were bored by the anticlimactic sequencing of the show. Worse still: on their next tour they decided to do the complete opposite and didn’t play a single song from that album.

U2′s latest release is We Are The People , the official theme song of the UEFA European Football Championship performed by Bono and The Edge together with dance music DJ and producer Martin Garrix. The song is so cheesy it’s beyond parody. If at the turn of the millennium Coldplay were hailed as the contender to take U2′s throne, here the theory that U2 are their own tribute band has been confirmed.

More information

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U2 (formed in 1976) is a highly-successful Irish rock band, formed of Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton, hailing from Dublin, Ireland.

Formed in 1976 after Larry Mullen, Jr. posted an advertisement on the bulletin board at Dublin’s Mount Temple Comprehensive, the band soon began practicing regularly and exploring their musical interests. Initially performing under the moniker The Hype before switching to the name of an American spy plane, the band’s popularity grew in Ireland through a string of independent releases.

The band signed to Isalnd Records and released their debut full-length “Boy” in 1980, followed the year after with the LP “October”. Thanks to American radio play and notoriously impressive live shows, U2 soon made name for themselves a procured a swelling fan base. U2’s subsequent release “War” in 1983 highlighted and cemented the band’s political conscious approach, documenting the unrest in Northern Ireland. The album which debuted at No. 1 on the British chart, spawned the politically-apt singles “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Year’s Day”. Following another whirlwind worldwide tour in 1983 U2 released the live EP “Under a Blood Red Sky” recorded at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, U.S.

U2 went on to release “The Unforgettable Fire” in 1984, the fruit of a collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, despite Island Records’ reluctance. Again the band supported the release with historic arena performances including Live Aid and were even named Rolling Stone’s “Band of the ‘80s”.

By the mid-1980s U2 had become highly revered musicians, however did not become rock superstars until their 1987 album “The Joshua Tree”. It became the band’s first No. 1 U.S. hit and their third consecutive UK album to reach the top spot, certified platinum within 28 hours. The album’s success was due in part to the smash hits “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. Following the release the band explored their fascination with American roots music including blues, soul and folk and delivered the album “Rattle & Hum” in 1988.

The ‘90s brought a novel-sounding U2 and a collection of albums to boot including 1990’s “Achtung Baby”, the Bowie inspired dance and electronic album, “Zooropa” the 1993 techno dance influenced album, and the collaborative album “Original Soundtracks, Vol. 1” with Brian Eno in 1995. The same year U2 renewed their contract with Island Records for an estimated $170 million.

Fan disgruntlement at U2’s new self-conscious, postmodern and dance approach did little to alter the outcome of their subsequent album “Pop”, and ultimately became fan’s least favourite album. With such criticism the band teamed up again with Eno and Lanois in 2000 to record and release “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”. The album was a rock effort and considered one of their best, led by the singles “Beautiful Day” and “Walk On”.

The band followed the release up with the No. 1 album “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” in 2004, which led to the second highest grossing tour ever with $389 million. U2’s twelfth studio album “No Line on the Horizon” arrived in 2009, followed by "Songs of Innocence" in 2014, downloaded automatically to users of apple products.

U2 have sold more than 150 million records worldwide, have been awarded 22 Grammy Awards, have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility and are ranked by Rolling Stone 22nd on their list of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

Live reviews

What makes a U2 concert so special? What is it about a U2 show that compels us to travel hundreds and thousands of miles to see virtually the same concert over and over?

A U2 show is more than just the songs in the concert. It is the feeling you get when you hear those songs. Whether they lift you up or remind you of a special time in your life, either way, the feeling you get when you hear U2 songs is euphoric. But a U2 concert is more than just those euphoric songs that are played. It is 80,000 people singing those songs together. The fact that each person at that show is feeling the exact same excitement you are. It is a sense of community and belonging. More than just the U2 concert itself, it is the whole experience. The traveling and hanging out with fellow U2 fans. The day of the U2 concert is a great time for U2 fellowship since we arrive at the stadium in the early afternoon either to line up in the GA (general admission) line or to wait for Bono, Larry, Edge and Adam to arrive. With many hours to kill before the concert begins, U2 fans share their U2 experiences, such as favorite songs, albums and concerts.

My favorite U2 concert, of the 75 I have seen, was on the Elevation Tour in Providence, Rhode Island on October 31, 2001. It was my favorite U2 member's 40th birthday, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. It was the night Larry and I shared a drink. The morning of the show, I woke up outside around 8am – pretty good sleeping outside in 30 degrees for five hours. I went up to the warm hotel room until about 10am, then had some breakfast. I stayed in the GA line all day without leaving, except to take a shower around 3:30. I got everyone in the GA line to sign the big orange birthday card I made for Larry. I put my name and email address on the back just in case. The band didn’t arrive until after we were inside. Wearing our Larry Mullen Band shirts, we got our spots at the rail up front and center between Bono and Adam.

I held up my birthday card for Larry as they walked on stage, but he didn’t notice it. There were many, many signs including one saying, ‘Bono let Larry sing.’ During Elevation, Bono sang, ‘ Celebration’ then said, ‘Happy Birthday.' After "Stuck in a Moment," Larry’s 40th birthday celebration began. We sang "Happy Birthday" to Larry. A birthday cake was brought out, and Larry pretended to throw it out into the audience. Larry took the mic and came to the front to talk while Bono sat behind the drums. Larry said, "Bono can’t play drums. It took me 40 years to get up front. I’m glad I’m spending my birthday with 18,000 of my closest friends. I feel like I could borrow money from you." Then Bono asked for a bottle of champagne, which he shook up a la ZooTV and sprayed the audience. Edge took a swig, then Larry drank and continued to drink for the next few songs.

After "Kite," Larry got off the drums and made a B line for me. I got my card and shirt in hand so I could give it to him, but that’s not why he was there. He gave me the champagne bottle – with champagne still in it. I drank some and shared it with my friends. Larry wanted to share his birthday with ME! He wanted ME to have a drink on his birthday. I was SO excited I didn’t even realize they played "Wild Honey," which they rarely play. After "Pride," Larry came back over to me so I could give him the birthday card and Elvis tee shirt. I said, "Thank you. Happy Birthday." He smiled and said, "Thank You." Later on, Bono noticed our Larry Mullen Band shirts, shook his head and smiled.

I doubt there will ever be another U2 show like that night in Providence. Granted it was Larry’s 40th Birthday, and I love Larry, but also for the rarities U2 played that night. "Slow Dancing" was played for the first time on the Elevation tour, and only the 11th time ever. "Party Girl" and "Wild Honey" were played for the first time on that leg of Elevation – and I’ve only heard those songs a couple of times ever. There was just a great energy in Providence that night. I still have that champagne bottle that Larry gave me on his 40th birthday.

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Acompanho a Banda desde 1985, na época dos disco long play ou compacto e meu primeiro álbum, o primeiro disco que comprei foi "War". Sempre soube o posicionamento social e político do grupo, penso ser o que me chamou a atenção e cativou desde o princípio.Mas aqui no Brasil, vivemos tempos difíceis, de beligerância e intolerância de diversas formas, racial, social,religiosa. Uma sociedade apolítica, mas que fundamenta suas crenças no que a imprensa local determina.

Acredito que essa é a melhor Tour em que estive, visto ser minha segunda vez num show do U2. Estive em 2006, em Vertigo e mesmo passando por um momento delicado, pois estava tomando medicação para síndrome do pânico e depressão, saí do estádio 90% melhor do que quando cheguei.

A atual turnê, é de uma dos melhores, se não a melhor, assim como o álbum do grupo e se pudesse iria em todas, Setilist fantástica, iluminação e palco minimalista e remetendo a uma simplicidade do inicio dos shows da Banda. Amei!!!!Parabéns e que venham muito mais........

...............................................

Good Morning,

I accompany the band since 1985, in the days of long or compact disc and my first album, the first record I bought was "War". I have always known the social and political position of the group, I think it is what caught my attention and captivated me from the beginning. But here in Brazil, we live in difficult times, of belligerence and intolerance of diverse forms, racial, social, and religious. An apolitical society, but that bases its beliefs on what the local press determines.

I think this is the best Tour I've been on, seeing it as my second time at a U2 show. I was in Vertigo in 2006 and even going through a delicate time, since I was taking medication for panic syndrome and depression, I left the stadium 90% better than when I arrived.

The current tour is one of the best, if not the best, as well as the group's album and if it could go in all, fantastic Setilist, minimalist lighting and stage and referring to a simplicity of the beginning of the bands shows. Congratulations and many more ........

Let me begin with, "U2 is the greatest band in the universe!" I have a strong connection with the band as the Joshua Tree tour was the first concert I ever attended back in 1987. 28 years later, they are still the best live band. I have been very fortunate to have seen them for most of their tours, Elevation, Vertigo, 360 and now ie. I was a broke college student during Zoo and PopMart.

U2 has a very loyal fan base. You will meet people that have seen 50-400 of their concerts. I am fortunate to have seen them 4x already during this tour.

The live experience during the ie tour is very personal and intimate. Bono shows such strong emotion during Iris which makes you want to cry. I heard Out Of Control at the 2nd Phoenix show and I had tears of joy rolling down my cheeks as that was the one song I have been waiting to hear since Elevation. LA 4th show they played 40 which made me cry......."How Long To Sing This Song......." Such a great tribute to the late Dennis Sheehan. Bono is the perfect frontman, always introducing the band as if we are meeting them for the first time. (Brandon Flowers never introduces the other Killers) Bono always has crowd interaction from shaking hands, kissing women's hands, bringing up a lucky fan for the Meerkat live stream and singing to a lucky fan (like me during Beautiful Day in the 2nd night Phoenix show) I'm still on cloud 9!!! Larry, The Edge and Adam also interact with the crowd. I know first hand as I got an air kiss from Adam. The Edge smiled at my friend. Larry shakes hands with people at the e stage.

I can go on and on how U2 is the perfect band. No other bands compare to them. What band has loyal fans waiting all night thru rain and hail to see them? What band always mentions how they tour for the music and the fans?? I sure don't think they need the money.

I will continue to see them until they tour no more. I ❤️ U2

Great show, very basic staging, which is a nice change of pace for U2 recently. It allowed you to focus on them as a band, 4 guys playing music together.

As a tour kick off, there will be some glitches and bugs, the worst of which is when The band and Bono totally flubbed the entire song With or Without You!!! The band was out of sync right from the start and that must have rattled Bono because he false started the first verse, got the lyrics wrong, then just stood there silent while the crowd sort of tried to chime in with the vocals. It was actually pretty awkward, and Bono didn't acknowledge it except by saying "you guys can sing this one".

It was so great to see them actually play Joshua Tree straight through, track by track. I wasn't sure that's how it would really play out. As an album about the greatness, and hardships, of America, with inspiration from American music, landscapes, and especially politics, there was no way to get through the set without nods (mostly subtle - for U2) to the current leadership in America. The opening 8-9 songs before actually launching into Joshua Tree were pretty telling about the bands politics and values of freedom, truth, and fulfilling the American dream. The fact that opening night coincidentally fell on the 60th anniversary of the Martin Luther King "Give Us the Vote" speech gave more weight to lyrics referencing King's assassination in "Pride (In the Name of Love)".

Finally, totally unrelated to Songkick or U2, but I have to say how HORRIBLE Levi's Stadium is and the whole process of getting there (unmanaged traffic), getting into the venue (no purses bigger than a cell phone allowed and no mention of that fact anywhere), getting food (seemed like only 25 people trying to sell hot dogs to 50,000!). Will never see another show there again no matter who the act is.

This show needed to start and finish in darkness to concentrate the mind on the amazing imagery and truly iconic music.

The lead in through tracks from Unforgettable Fire set the pace and raised the pulse rate to a crescendo at the onset of Where The Streets Have No Name where it remained at rates which would have set off many a hospital vital signs alarm until the end of the a play through of the entire Joshua Tree album.

Had this concert finished there it would have sad to depart - and U2 knew this so included a further array of some of their finest tracks from the last 30 years.

This was the trickiest period of the gig however, as not all of the next 35 - 40 minutes could match the standard set down by some of the best music of the 20th century. Moments of oddness crept in, as is Bono's way, and momentum was lost - not gained - towards the end.

Ultimately, an incredible visionary onslaught and a truly mammoth rendition of One lifted the gig back to the heights of its earlier euphoria.

This could easily have been the best concert I have ever seen, but on balance it dropped short. I would not have missed this for the world and I am sure I will look back in years to come and feel so pleased that I was there and saw what was a true moment in musical history. As it stands right now I have a mixed emotion... but there is no denying that of the many hundreds of concerts I have been to in the last 40 years this was right up there at the very pinnacle - a top ten bucket list moment.

U2 at Arrowhead Stadium in KC was a musical memory I'll put in my Top 10...so far. We got parking lot passes from Ticketmaster beforehand to save $$ & make navigating the throngs of traffic manageble. We got to the lot about 5:30 p.m. People had been there tailgating & the lot attendants were very organized, flagging us in to our spot. We immediately headed in to the Stadium so we could check out the U2 merchandise. Entering was a breeze, even with security, because we had checked online to see what could or couldn't be taken into the Stadium. The restrictions make lines move much quicker, even with entering through metal detectors. Walking up the ramp to our seat level was easy. U2 had merchandise areas set up at more locations, so lines there were less. The concession places had very friendly attendants. The stadium seats were very comfortable. Security was there in abundance & were also helpful & friendly. Concert acoustics for an open stadium were amazing. The only downside was the placement of the

audio towers or whatever they were, but they were necessary to provide the incredible U2 audio & visual experience. After the concert, we waited for an hour on purpose before exiting to avoid sitting in traffic, idling. Again, smooth exit. So I highly recommend seeing U2 for their musical talent, their political message & celebrating the 4th anniversary of the Joshua Tree album. ENJOY!

U2 are a band who have conquered the globe and are considered iconic by fans of most genres. With such staggering reputation it is obviously quite difficult to form a live show of equal stature. Luckily, Bono and co obtain a form of bravado that is required of any iconic band.

The key component of their gigs is that they understand how important and dear the audience hold tracks such as 'With Or Without You' and the intense sincerity in which they perform could not be more appropriate. There is an ethereal state when thousands upon thousands are singing along to 'The Streets Have No Name' whilst four musicians command the entire crowd.

There is no denying Bono performs with the same level of self-assuredness that he conducts himself in daily life yet when the opening bars of 'Pride' begin, this level of bombast is required to tackle these gargantuan anthems. They have an impossible amount of hits to choose from, yet the setlist feels well calculated and not simply a 'greatest hits' compilation. The use of snippets of their own music and classics by the likes of Bowie turned their gig from a concert into a musical celebration.

The concert was awesome but the venue was absolute crap!!!!! Paid $264.00 x 2 & a tower was blocking the view depending where the band was standing on the stage. So view blocked. Support act Noel Gallagher couldn’t hear him speak, don’t know what he was saying & sound not too good at all.

U2 came on & could hardly see them. GA would have been better & cheaper & from what Ive heard, they had the best place to hear.

SCG is not a good venue for a concert & we were so totally disappointed with what we paid, seating & going to ground & trying so squeeze through the line ups for toilets & good to get to the Merchandise shop. Then trying to get back up to level 5.

Please never put a concert there again, unless you our stage in centre, so everyone can see. You shouldn’t charge extreme prices for crap seating.

U2 was awesome as always but couldn’t always see them & at times hear them, the sound got better as the night went on.

Definitely very disappointed with SCG

Amazing concert as always. Lot of security at the entrances so it was a little bit slow everything and I was afraid because maybe I couldn't watch Noel Gallagher but organization was clever and started one hour later more or less. Really it was very difficult to be there at 19 with that security level. But everything was perfect. Noel played lot of Oasis songs with classics like Wonderwall, Little by Little or Don't Look Back in Anger. Then with less than 20 minutes delay, U2 came on stage. Larry Mullen started alone in the middle of the scenario situated at the center of the stadium and it all began... Thanks for allow us to remember a great album like Joshua Tree! All the songs in order, side A and side B if you like more the vinyl. And the last part... Amazing with songs like Elevation or Vertigo. And one last surprise... We could listen a new song from the upcoming album, Songs of Experience. No more to say: GREAT AS ALWAYS U2. We love you!

Best concert I've ever seen and probably will ever see save for another U2 show. No seat was a bad seat as they had a massive 'screen' that spanned roughly half the length and a third of the height of MSG. The screen could be lowered and raised and there was a catwalk inside of it as well as under it on the floor for the band members to move around on. Animations and live videos of the band members playing were projected onto the screen and could be interacted with inside of the screen. I've never seen anything like it.

They had a great mix of classic U2 songs and new ones all while using mixed media to create much more than a music concert. This was a retrospective art show, film screening, advocacy platform, etc. A final treat was Bruce Springsteen coming on near the end of the show trading mics with Bono to sing Where the Streets Have No Name. You have got to see this band live.

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Taylor swift passes u2’s record.

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DUBLIN, IRELAND - JUNE 15: Taylor Swift performs on stage during her reputation Stadium Tour at ... [+] Croke Park on June 15, 2018 in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/TAS18/Getty Images for TAS)

Taylor Swift debuts her new album The Tortured Poets Department at No. 1 in the U.K. this week. The title was always a lock for the highest rung on the ranking of the most-consumed full-lengths in the country, so it’s not shocking to see it open in first place. The history Swift makes as the collection arrives is impressive, as this new win helps her break out of a tie with some of the most successful musical acts in the country’s history.

The Tortured Poets Department marks Swift’s twelfth No. 1 in the U.K. That’s one of the most impressive accumulations of winners of all time, and with one more champion, the pop/country/alternative powerhouse matches with several stars.

Swift is now tied with both Bruce Springsteen and Madonna with 12 No. 1 albums in that country. The three all jointly claim the fifth-most rulers of all time in the U.K.

Before The Tortured Poets Department hit the charts, Swift was already on the same level as three other beloved musical powerhouses: U2, Rod Stewart, and David Bowie all count 11 No. 1 albums to their credit in the U.K. Swift has passed them all, but this ranking could change again.

The Beatles continue to lead all acts with the most chart-topping albums in U.K. history. The Fab Four sent 16 different projects to the summit in their home country.

The Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams are tied for second place on this all-time ranking. So far, they have both earned 14 No. 1 albums in the U.K., and, again, that figure could increase again in the coming years.

Elvis Presley is just one win ahead of Swift, Madonna, and Springsteen. Throughout his lifetime–and afterward–13 of his releases have hit No. 1 in the U.K. That number includes several posthumous successes, so there’s no telling how many more he may snag.

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The Tortured Poets Department launches at No. 1 in the U.K. with 270,000 equivalent units, which is a massive sum in the nation. It helps Swift land a chart double, as the set’s lead single “Fortnight” with Post Malone also opens at No. 1 on its respective roster.

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It all began in 1976 when Larry Mullen pinned a 'musicians wanted' ad to the notice board at Dublin's Temple Mount School: Drummer seeks musicians to form band. 'So on Saturday 25th September 1976, ' recalls Larry. 'This odd group of people convened in my kitchen in Artane. And that's where it started.' Adam Clayton had discovered rock'n'roll as a thirteen year old, buying his first acoustic guitar and then talking his parents into buying him a bass guitar. 'It just sounded good to me. Deep and fat and satisfying.'

From the beginning, U2 were marked out by their passion. "A band before we could play" was how Bono put it in early interviews. Edge remembers reading UK music papers NME and Sounds every week and then hearing about this 'wild kid called Paul Hewson.'

The four teenagers, who initially called themselves 'Feedback', rehearsed in Larry's Dublin kitchen, Bono on vocals, The Edge on guitar, Adam Clayton and Larry making up the rhythm section of bass and drums. Inspired by punk, but insulated from the standoffish cool by the Irish Sea, Feedback had become 'The Hype' and then 'U2' and were soon building a local reputation based on the passion of their performances. 'I suppose a watershed moment would have been seeing The Jam on Top of the Pops, 'remembers `Edge. 'And realizing that actually not knowing how to play was not a problem... music was more about energy and trying to say something and not necessarily about great musicianship.' After a brief period being managed by Adam, they had met up with Paul McGuinness but an early Irish release in 1979, the 'U23' EP on CBS, proved a one-off. They would wait until the following year to sign a long-term deal with Chris Blackwell's Island Records. 'I was amazed at the quality and talent and ambition of these four musicians and yet we couldn't get a record deal.'recalls McGuinness. 'Everyone in the world passed on U2 before we finally found a home at Island Records . '

"This odd group of people convened in my kitchen in artane. And that's where it started." Larry

U2's first single, 11 O'Clock Tick-Tock , was released in May 1980. Boy , their debut album, was released five months later - promoted by another single, I Will Follow , October, a year later and by May 1983, they had their first UK number 1 album with War , culmination of a trio of albums produced by Steve Lillywhite.

War featured hit singles New Year's Day (the video shot in the snow in sub-zero Sweden) and Two Hearts Beat As One while the live album Under A Blood Red Sky released that November, cracked the US Billboard Top 30. It was also the end of a chapter for the band and the beginning of a quarter century of studio collaboration with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The Unforgettable Fire , recorded in a the ballroom of Ireland's Slane Castle, spawned one of U2's most iconic tracks in Pride (In The Name of Love) ... as well as a whole lot more experimentation. 'In America there was such a backlash when we put out The Unforgettable Fire,' remembers Bono. 'People thought we were the future of rock'n'roll and they went, 'What are you doin' with this doggone hippie Eno album?' 'We owe Eno and Lanois so much for seeing through to the heart of U2.' Three years before the band had played support to Thin Lizzy at the annual Slane outdoor show. Seventeen years later, now established as the pre-eminent live act in rock'n'roll, they would return to play two sell-out shows themselves, later released on a live DVD, U2 Go Home '.

Back in the 1980's, the nine-month tour following the release of 'The Unforgettable Fire' took in 54 US dates and led to the band's unforgettable appearance at Live Aid in July 1985. 'In the middle of Bad he went on a wander trying to pick out some girls to dance with,' remembers Larry. 'It felt like he was gone for ever. We were quite jittery as it was and when Bono went missing, a certain panic ensued.'

They didn't realize it at the time but it was a set that would alert a whole new audience to their music but it was another two years before the band released, The Joshua Tree in 1987, the original working title of which was 'The Two Americas'. If the constant touring had seen the US hypnotise U2, America was about to return the compliment - the singles With Or Without You and the gospel-flavoured I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For , went to the very top of the US singles chart.

The Joshua Tree went on to sell more than 20 million copies and at the 1987 Grammy Awards, won the band 'Album Of The Year' and 'Best Rock Performance', the first of what has become a record-breaking run of Grammy wins. In 2007 a remastered version of the album was released to mark the 20th anniversary of its original release and in their book, 'U2byU2' the band talked in detail about how many of the songs came together . At the 1987 Grammy Awards, U2 won Album Of The Year and Best Rock Performance for The Joshua Tree, their first Grammy Award wins.

When Time Magazine put the band on its cover with the headline "Rock's Hottest Ticket", it was only the fourth time a band had made it to the cover - following The Beatles, The Band and The Who.

A year later, in 1988, U2 topped the British single charts and released in theatres the live concert movie 'Rattle & Hum' which chronicled the US leg of the 1987 Joshua Tree tour. The double album Rattle and Hum ' featured the number 1 single, Desire and a collaboration with BB King, ' When Love Comes To Town '. The band finished their 1989 Lovetown Tour with a series of late December shows at The Point Depot in Dublin when Bono announced that '...this is the end of something for U2...we have to go away and ... and dream it all up again.'

They did too, going away to Hansa Studios in Berlin with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois and dreaming up an album called Achtung Baby which took their music in a whole new direction. Band and production team had clashed over the direction they should be taking but out of this turmoil came one of their most acclaimed albums ever. As Daniel Lanois put it, 'If you manage to get the four of them in one room with instruments in their hands you're going to get results. That has a lot to do with my job - just getting them in the room and playing.' With The Fly , Mysterious Ways , and One U2 began the nineties with a new sound, a new reputation on the dancefloor and a series of their biggest hits.

"If you manage to get the four of them in one room with instruments in their hands you're going to get results. That has a lot to do with my job - just getting them in the room and playing." Daniel Lanois

Production designer Willie Williams set about reinventing the rock tour with help from a 130-foot video wall juxtaposing 24-hour hard news, shopping channel ephemera and postmodern slogans

The subsequent Zoo TV tour opened in Florida on February 29 1992 and circumnavigated the globe twice in almost two years before ending in Japan on December 10 1993. Achtung Baby had proved a groundbreaking album and production designer Willie Williams set about reinventing the rock tour with help from a 130-foot video wall juxtaposing 24-hour hard news, shopping channel ephemera and postmodern slogans to ramp up the irony levels. (" EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG "). Guest appearances featured Lou Reed, Salman Rushdie (while in hiding in the aftermath of publication of The Satanic Verses) and Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, who performed 'Dancing Queen' with the band. Still can't imagine what it looked like ? This is what it looked like. It being the run up to the 1992 American Presidential Election, Bono interrupted the set list to make satellite calls to the Bush White House. He never did get through to then President George Bush - little did anyone know that within a few years Presidents and politicians would be taking those calls - but via the ZOO TV satellite link he also called into war-torn Sarajevo, hearing the voices of a city under siege thanks to the maverick journalist Bill Carter.

In the middle of Zoo's European leg the band recorded a whole album, the haunting and experimental Zooropa (1993) featuring lead vocals from Johnny Cash on the final track The Wanderer. The Zoo stop in Sydney was later digitally remastered and released on DVD, ' Zoo TV Live From Sydney '.

The Sarajevo connection inspired one of the tracks on Passengers: Original Soundtracks Volume I, the most experimental album the band had collaborated on - unsurprisingly with Brian Eno at the heart of the mix. 'Miss Sarajevo' featured a star turn by Luciano Pavarotti. Crowning this heady period, Pop (1997) cloaked its heavy lyrical payload in state-of-the-art dance rhythms, a creative collusion with DJ Howie B. 'The themes are love, desire and faith in crisis,' explained Edge. 'The usual stuff.' The resulting tour, POPMART - which saw the band become the first major act to perform in Sarajevo after the Bosnian War - was another visual spectacle imagined by Willie Williams introduced the rave-rock of Mofo and Discotheque to a new generation of fans.

It was four years before another album, but it was worth the wait: All That You Can't Leave Behind features songs which went on to win 'Record of the Year' Grammy Awards in two consecutive years - ' Beautiful Day ' in 2001 and ' Walk On ' in 2002 - the only time this has ever happened. Released in 2000, ATYCLB went on to win seven Grammys and sell more than ten million copies worldwide. 'I think it was a very good idea to make a record that actually sounded like U2 again...' explained Paul McGuinness. 'It went to No.1 in 32 countries.' It was followed by the 113-date Elevation Tour, a similarly stripped-back approach, with the focus firmly on the songs. 'It wasn't really minimalist,' says Edge. 'But compared to POP anything would seem back to basics.' It was the design that grabbed Larry: 'The use of the heart as a runway to get out into the audience and the way the heart itself filled with people, was great. It was almost like a club gig within an arena.'

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) was "very much a guitar record," explained Adam. "Vertigo, Love and Peace, City of Blinding Lights, All Because of You, all pretty up , rocky tunes. A lot of them are a kick-back to our very early days, so it's like with each year we have gathered a little bit more and this is what we are now.' Recorded with both new and old producers - Steve Lillywhite, Chris Thomas, Flood, Jacknife Lee, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Nellee Hooper and Carl Glanville worked on the album - U2's eleventh studio record from was released in November 2004, debuted at at Number 1 in 25 countries and the lead single Vertigo won three Grammy awards, including Best Rock Song. The Vertigo tour which followed was the highest grossing tour of the year and with the album confirmed U2 as "the greatest rock and roll band in the world." During 2005 U2 played to more than 3.2 million people. In March Bruce Springsteen inducted the band into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame, describing them as 'the keepers of some of the most beautiful sonic architecture in the rock-and-roll world," said rocker Bruce Springsteen while inducting U2.'

And then there was Live 8 , beamed live to half the planet, and opening up with U2 performing Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with Paul McCartney. At the 2006 Grammy ceremony, U2 took home 5 Awards, including the coveted Album of the Year for HTDAAB. These new wins brought their total number of Grammy Awards to 22, more than any other band.

While spending a month recording at Abbey Road Studios London in 2006, U2 collaborated with Green Day to record a cover of the song The Saints Are Coming by The Skids. The recording was a benefit for Music Rising , a charity founded by The Edge which aims to help rebuild the musical heart and culture of New Orleans by replacing instruments that were lost during Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. The band have released three 'Best of' collections: ' The Best of 1980-1990 ', ' The Best of 1990-2000 ', and ' U218 Singles ' in 2006 which also featured the new song 'Windows In the Skies' .

Five years after the release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, in March 2009 the band released No Line on the Horizon. Their 12th studio album was written and recorded in in Fez, Morocco, Dublin, Ireland, New York and Olympic Studios in London. The album calls on the production talents of long-time collaborators Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, with additional production by Steve Lillywhite.

In July 2011, two years after opening up in Barcelona , the band played the final show of U2360° . Over 26 months it became the most succesful concert tour of all time, with 110 shows to 7.1million fans in 30 countries on 5 continents .

A revolutionary production, U2360° caught the imagination of its audience, who nicknamed U2's circular stage the Claw, the Spaceship and - in Houston - the Space Station . USA Today described it as 'a four-pronged UFO anchored by a glowing 164-foot pylon and cylindrical LED screens.' But whatever it was called, for the Chicago Tribune, 'The lights, the songs, the audience all synced up. Sometimes size matters.'

Just a few weeks from the end of the tour, the band flew out of the US, back across the Atlantic and landed on a farm in the heart of rural Somerset . After all these years it was time to headline the Glastonbury Festival . OK, it rained, but that didn't stop the band setting the Festival alight - 19 songs from eight albums in an electrifying set over an hour and three quarters. Here's what they played - and what people said about a night to remember .

Just a few weeks later the tour came to a close and ahead of the closing night in Moncton, Canada, Ray Waddell of Billboard summed it all up, 'With tonight's final show, U2's 360° tour will go down as the biggest tour ever reported both in terms of box office gross and attendance. This tour is a remarkable feat on a global scale, from its staging and production, to its video elements, all the way to the scaling of the house, routing and execution. Most importantly, U2 rocked mightily all over the world.'

Some other U2360° facts: 10 million watched a live stream of U2360° at the RoseBowl on YouTube; 320,000 Fans saw 360° in Mexico City ; 7,100 miles - approximate distance travelled by space station while talking with U2; 5,200 Years - collective touring experience of U2 tour personnel ; 400 tons - weight of the fully loaded claw; 134 Crew Members ; 126 Truck Drivers; 53 gigs attended by a single fan; 33 Flemish Speaking Crew members; 11 Babies Born To Crew ; 7 Astronauts Attended; 4 Appreciative Irishmen; 1 Singer in Surgery; 1 World Leader Released From House Arrest During Tour.

In October 2013, the band revealed they'd written a new song, 'Ordinary Love', for the biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. Produced by Danger Mouse, the song was released in a 10-inch vinyl pressing to mark Record Store Day on November 29th and the single sleeve featured a painting of Nelson Mandela by Irish artist and illustrator Oliver Jeffers. Oliver, along with Mac Premo, directed a lyric video for Ordinary Love.

'We thought it should be a love song, a very human song. ' Edge explained, when asked about how the band approached the request by movie producer Harvey Weinstein to write a song for the movie. 'Not epic, not earnest in dealing with world-changing political shifts but personal in two people trying to hold on to one another in the face of dreadful mistreatment and heartbreak.' The song went on to win the golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in January 2014 and was nominated for an Oscar at the ceremony in February, where the band performed it live.

In February 2014, the band released another single, 'Invisible'. Produced by Danger Mouse and mixed by Tom Elmhirst, Invisible marked the launch of a partnership with (RED) and Bank Of America in the campaign to create an AIDS free generation. For 36 hours, every time the track was downloaded from iTunes, the Bank made a donation of $1 to (RED) for the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. More than $3m was raised and when the track went on sale, all proceeds from 'Invisible' on iTunes continued to go to (RED) for the Global Fund. 'The early lyrics were set on a train coming into London for the first time.' said Bono. ' I remember sleeping in Euston station, being broke... coming out of the subway into the spring of 1979, being 18 years old, it was punk rock in London.'

The video for 'Invisible', directed by Mark Romanek, was shot in black and white, in a Santa Monica airport hangar, over three days in January. With a cast of 1200. And flashlights. A sixty second clip premiered on February 2nd during the Super Bowl, to launch the partnership with (RED).

In December 2019 the band played Mumbai in India, the final show of The Joshua Tree Tour 2019. And the final show of four years of touring between 2015 and 2020. And just ahead of their first trip to India, they released a new song, ' Ahimsa ', a collaboration with legendary composer A.R. Rahman.

'This is an invitation to a high location For someone who wants to BELONG This is a meditation on your radio station If you like it you can sing along...'

'We come as students to the source of inspiration.' explained Bono. 'That is Ahimsa… non-violence. India gave this to us… the greatest gift to the world. It is more powerful than nuclear energy, the armies, the navy's, the British Empire. It is power itself. And it's never been more important.'

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