We’d almost forget to mention the atU2.com interview with Willie Williams, who remember the birth of Zoo TV: In the spring of 1991 Bono called me having just got home from U2’s exile in Berlin. He asked me to come and join them in Tenerife where they were going to see the carnival. He told me they were making the most exciting album of their career and that it would demand a live show unlike any they’d done before. He had a phrase in his head — “Zoo TV” — which he felt was a key to something, oh, and an absurd pair of oversized sunglasses which he felt were important, too.
Willie also is a firm believer in PopMart goodness: I remain convinced that history will vindicate PopMart. Already, with the distance of just a few years, if you sit down and watch some of each video my point becomes really obvious — it’s PopMart that stands the test of time to a much greater degree than Zoo TV.
Top 5 u2 tours, musically speaking:
1. Elevation
2. Popmart
3. ZOO TV
4. Lovetown
5. Joshua Tree
Top 5 U2 tours, visually speaking:
1. Popmart
2. ZOO TV
3. Elevation
4. Lovetown
5. Joshua Tree
Top 5 u2 tours, musically speaking:
1. Elevation
2. Popmart
3. ZOO TV
4. Lovetown
5. Joshua Tree
Top 5 U2 tours, visually speaking:
1. Popmart
2. ZOO TV
3. Elevation
4. Lovetown
5. Joshua Tree
Musically, I think I’d put The Unforgettable Fire tour first. Visually, definitely PopMart for me. Best experience all round: Elevation.
Musically, I think I’d put The Unforgettable Fire tour first. Visually, definitely PopMart for me. Best experience all round: Elevation.
So many variables go into a good concert experience…music, stage, seats, crowd, weather, who sits next to you, etc. I’ve seen the JT, ZooTV, PopMart, and Elevation tours all from pretty good vantage points. The JT was great because U2 were at the first of several high moments in their career. Elevation was so uplifting and hardly anything can match being inside the heart. I was in the front row, in front of the lemon for PopMart and it was probably a show better viewed slightly farther back. It was BIG but almost bigger than the music or at least it competed with the music. It was ZooTV in my opinion that broke new ground, that brought together so many ideas along with the overall soundscape of Achtung Baby. To do ZooTV after the minimilist shows during JT and LoveTown was truly a turning point for the band. The opening chords of Zoo Station and the image of Bono high-kicking against that blue/star backdrop is vivid still. I will be surprised if Bono every again brings his theatrics to the stage…The Fly, MacPhisto, MirrorBall Man. But in the end, the greatest U2 concert ever will always be the next one!
So many variables go into a good concert experience…music, stage, seats, crowd, weather, who sits next to you, etc. I’ve seen the JT, ZooTV, PopMart, and Elevation tours all from pretty good vantage points. The JT was great because U2 were at the first of several high moments in their career. Elevation was so uplifting and hardly anything can match being inside the heart. I was in the front row, in front of the lemon for PopMart and it was probably a show better viewed slightly farther back. It was BIG but almost bigger than the music or at least it competed with the music. It was ZooTV in my opinion that broke new ground, that brought together so many ideas along with the overall soundscape of Achtung Baby. To do ZooTV after the minimilist shows during JT and LoveTown was truly a turning point for the band. The opening chords of Zoo Station and the image of Bono high-kicking against that blue/star backdrop is vivid still. I will be surprised if Bono every again brings his theatrics to the stage…The Fly, MacPhisto, MirrorBall Man. But in the end, the greatest U2 concert ever will always be the next one!
If I could go back in time, I think I would see a Joshua Tree show first, but I would definetly see EVERY tour eventually… I have always been of the opinion that there was something VERY special about the Joshua Tree era of the band, but really, there has never been a period of U2 I didn’t like… But like DWalt says, the next one is the best!!! I also think it is interesting that some fans (not you guys but some) now prefer the 90’s U2 over the 80’s… Before ATYCLB, you never saw that, but now that they are doing something closer to an 80’s U2 stage show, maybe some people realized how much they liked Zoo TV or Popmart… I saw Popmart and had one complaint, NOT LOUD ENOUGH!!! I couldn’t hear in the back of the cotton bowl in Dallas!!!
If I could go back in time, I think I would see a Joshua Tree show first, but I would definetly see EVERY tour eventually… I have always been of the opinion that there was something VERY special about the Joshua Tree era of the band, but really, there has never been a period of U2 I didn’t like… But like DWalt says, the next one is the best!!! I also think it is interesting that some fans (not you guys but some) now prefer the 90’s U2 over the 80’s… Before ATYCLB, you never saw that, but now that they are doing something closer to an 80’s U2 stage show, maybe some people realized how much they liked Zoo TV or Popmart… I saw Popmart and had one complaint, NOT LOUD ENOUGH!!! I couldn’t hear in the back of the cotton bowl in Dallas!!!
I’d have liked to have seen them in a dingy club in 1980 on the Boy tour. Unfortunately I would have had to arrive in a pram and have my nappy changed before the encore.
I’d have liked to have seen them in a dingy club in 1980 on the Boy tour. Unfortunately I would have had to arrive in a pram and have my nappy changed before the encore.