U2 Claw Their Way Down Under


Live Nation Global Touring and Michael Coppel have confirmed that U2 will end the year with live dates in New Zealand and Australia. The U2 360° Tour will visit Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and the tour also includes U2′s first Perth date since Popmart in 1998.
Tour promotor Arthur Fogel announced that the extra capacity of U2 360° means that there are a large number of low priced tickets at every show. Tickets in all 5 cities will be available starting at $39.90 with general admission floor tickets available at $99.90. Additional reserved seat tickets also available starting at $99.90.
Tickets for the U2 performances in Australia and New Zealand will go on sale Friday, September 3rd at all usual outlets. U2.com subscribers will be able to buy tickets ahead of the public on-sale.
Australia & New Zealand Tour Dates
November 25 Auckland, NZ Mt. Smart Stadium
December 01 Melbourne, AU Etihad Stadium
December 08 Brisbane, AU Suncorp Stadium
December 13 Sydney, AU ANZ Stadium
December 18 Perth, AU Subiaco Oval
Bookings: Ticketek.co.nz/U2360 or 0800 TICKETEK
via U2fanz

Universal Australia’s giant FUBAR

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So if you were up early. Or late. Or just… up, you may have been awake for the brief window of time during which getmusic.com.au, which is Universal Australia’s official download platform (!), accidentally sold mp3 downloads of all of the songs on U2’s No Line on the Horizon, more than a week before its official release. Not just for Australian customers… this international cat used Paypal to legally get her paws on the album.

Brief review? Lovin’ it.

According to atu2.com it wasn’t even the first leak. It’s just that nobody noticed the first one. For a few days, the songs were available individually on Napster Mobile. Apparently, not a whole lot of people use that – legal – service.

We hope you got lucky too. Let us know what you think of the album.

Nice: U2 fans are pleading with the web shop not to fire the guy that caused the leak. (Update: fans’ comments have been removed from the site!)

The Little Red Book of Poe-ee-tree

It’s World Water Day, and a handful of U2 fans have put together the the Little Red Book of Poe-ee-tree. It’s fillled with short stories and poetry and all the royalties go to the African Well Fund.

The fans, from the US, Canada, the UK, France and Australia all used to post their poems in a poetry forum, The Heart, which was part of U2’s official fansite back in 2001-2003.

Today is the book’s launch day, so check out the book’s MySpace and buy it at Lulu.com.

All donations to the African Well Fund go directly to Africare (one of the leading private, non-profit, charitable organisations assisting Africa) to fund water projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

U2’s fabulous year

Billboard has published Paul McGuinness’ reflections on 2005:

“This was such a great year for U2. A No. 1 album in 20 countries, 110 shows all sold out, 3.3 million tickets sold, 100% of the tickets we put on sale. Nine million-plus sold of the current record, 3 million catalog, 2 million DVDs. U2 have never been bigger or better. Next year after Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, we will end the Vertigo tour in Honolulu.”

We’d say that was a pretty good year too, full of many numbers.

Atomic Details

U2log.com has learned a few more details from yesterday’s preview of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in Australia, including the running time and producer of each song:

1. Vertigo 3.11 (Steve Lillywhite)
2. Miracle Drug 3.54 (Steve Lillywhite)
3. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own 5.05 (Chris Thomas)
4. Love & Peace 4.48 (Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois)
5. City of Blinding Lights 5.46 (Flood)
6. All Because of You 3.34 (Steve Lillywhite)
7. A Man & A Woman 4.27 (Steve Lillywhite)
8. Crumbs From Your Table 4.59 (Steve Lillywhite)
9. One Step Closer 3.48 (Chris Thomas and Daniel Lanois)
10. Original of the Species 4.34 (Steve Lillywhite)
11. Yahweh 4.22 (Chris Thomas)

Other details emerging from the preview:

  • The second single will be released on February 5, 2005, and the third on May 16, 2005.
  • U2 will perform around 10 shows in Australia and New Zealand during their tour.
  • “City of Blinding Lights” was originally called “Firefly” and was the track the band were thinking of contributing to the “Spiderman” soundtrack. (We had heard it was called “Sky Hawk.”)
  • The band will be doing some video shoots in Dublin in the next few weeks.
  • The band have been working on live versions of the new songs in rehearsals and will return to rehearsing once Bono’s commitments to DATA have been fulfilled.
  • MP3 magazine get their facts straight

    Straight from lalaland, that is. This month’s magazine (the dead trees version) reviews U2 sites and this is what they write about us:

    If it’s U2 news and gossip you’re after, then U2log is an essential destination. Run by a team eagle-eyed fans in Holland, the UK and the USA, the site is updated two or three times a day with the latest rumours and information. There are quotes from newspapers, reprinted articles and links to the best U2 content on the web (the band even let them upload a couple of tracks from the new album). A simple site, but well worth visiting.
    ***

    1. We’re mainly from Holland/Australia/Ireland. None of our editors are from the UK.
    2. We do not reprint articles. We write our own material. This is in fact the strength of U2log.com
    3. We were never given permission by the band to upload their material. Please believe us when we tell you everything we do is WRONG and we’ll go straight to hell for it.
    4. Simple? Yeah, we k.i.s.s. you.

    But we’re well worth visiting. They got that right.