Where Europe meets Asia – U2360 Istanbul
First show in Turkey ever for U2 tonight. The band have been checking out the city for a couple of days. They’re really showing it their love and for what we’ve heard Turkish fans and media have replied in style.
Reports from the stadium are promising as rehearsals contained multiple run-throughs of both Mothers of the disappeared and Mercy.
U2log editor is on site, or follow the set here or here.
The first show in Turkey also marks the last show on this tour for support act Snow Patrol and during their song Chasing Cars, as the screens show “U2 crew love Snow Patrol”, all of the U2 crew take the stage and stage manager Rocco even gets to sing a verse, reportedly grabbing the microphone of Gary Lightbody.
-more to come as this might prove to be a very special show-
“Pop-pop-pop”
No….not that Pop… 
After saturday’s announcement of U2360 tour dates in Australia en NZ, today LiveNation & Michael Coppel have revealed Jay-Z will be joining U2 as ”the very special guest” on these dates.
Let’s see if we can expect Jay-Z bringing some “Pop-pop-pop” on stage with U2, as during his surprise cameo in Berlin last year (Jay-Z from 2:50, pop-pop-pop @ 3:21)
(I might soon be ‘popped’ for noting that I can’t help Jay-Z somehow reminding me of Steve Urkel)
Adam talks new songs/album to U2.com
Hat tip: @u2miracle
Adam’s been talking to U2.com about recording ‘quite a lot of tunes’ during Bono’s recovery and ‘tossing a few out into the show’ (‘We could get four songs into the show’).
On a new album: ‘We’re kind of trying to break it up a bit, the idea of doing another big record and going away for a long time doesn’t appeal to us. But the idea of putting out tracks in the show and seeing what happens to them, and then maybe put out a little EP at some point, these are all possibilities we’re thinking about.’
U2360 – Commerzbank Arena – Frankfurt, Germany
Second show on this leg of the U2360 tour in Frankfurt Germany.
Live stream can be found here: http://en.1000mikes.com/show/u2tour_on_air
Popcam
To commemorate (and emphasize) the return of POP in the set (albeit in snippetry) here’s a slideshow of some 106 webcam shots I recently discovered on an old zip-disc (captured in october 1996 during the POP recording sessions).
Splash
This week we’ve been posting the U2.com countdown clips.
Among other things on the band’s official site I don’t understand the splash screen and actually dislike it.
It’s always a hurdle on my way to content when I type U2.com in my browser address bar (I know I can use a favourite, but since U2 is a bit shorter than ‘…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead‘ or ‘Toad the wet sprocket’ typing is just as easy for me…).
But admittedly the latest images, coinciding with the countdown clips, are absolutely lovely:
Can’t wait any longer
Another day of rehearsals and things seem to intensify. Reports of today’s proceedings already noted the performance of another new song, this one supposed to be ‘lenta’ (slow).
Ready to hear some new U2?
Last night during rehearsals in Turin rumors of the past few days seem to have found some actual ground. Fans camping outside the gate captured the sound of a new U2 song being rehearsed.
London-Turin
Willie Willams has arrived, but the question remains…Where’s Bono and Mr. Mullen?
(posted on Willie Williams’ YouTube account)
Brussel/Bruxelles tickets/billets
It’s 7 days until the opening of the next leg of U2360 in Turin, and a bit longer before the production hits Belgium on september 22 and 23.
In an email sent today Live Nation Belgium announces they’ll start sending your purchased tickets for the two shows in Brussels in the midst of august.
All this in an effort to prohibit the illegal reselling of tickets (even calling it “criminal practice”) by shortening the time between ticket-dispatch and the show.
Live Nation urges all ticket buyers who have changed address over the past few months (or are about to move) to update their address at: http://www.teleticketservice.com/tts/nl/aanmelden.
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