Take your best shot…

… and send it to Matt McGee.

As you all know Matt runs atU2.com. Over the past few months he’s been busy writing his book ‘U2 – A Diary’ and he’s just handed in his manuscript – we know how that feels!. He’s now looking for pictures to illustrate the book. You’ll find all the details on his book blog. But he’s looking for the following in particular:

  • The “fan displays” at the Vertigo Tour gigs.
  • Photos of Bono changing his shoes during “I Will Follow” at the July 7, 2005, show in Berlin.
  • Photos of the PopMart Lemon getting stuck in Oslo, August 1997.
  • Photos of U2 fans in line at Point Depot for tickets, November 1989.

Think you can help?

Vertigo tour concludes in Hawaii


Photo by Ruth Barohn/U2log.com

(Click on the above photo to see a slideshow of photos from the Honolulu show by Ruth Barohn/U2log.com.)

We’ve heard from our staff and friends who attended the final show of the Vertigo Tour in Honolulu, Hawaii. Everyone reports it was a fabulous show — perfect in every way. Our first report from our I-Wanna-Blog-for-U2log contest winner, Tim Nafus, was a text message before the show that read “So many red shirts, it’s like being at a Cardinals’ game.” Funny, Tim. Tim will be enjoying some time in Hawaii before he gets down to the business of providing a proper report of the show for us. In the meantime, we offer some great photos of the show from Ruth Barohn and dish on who from the celebrity world was in attendance.

The mix desk saw the likes of Kid Rock, Pierce Brosnan, Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day) and his family, Scott Ian (Anthrax), and someone who “may or may not be one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” In the guest seats were Ben Affleck, Bill and Melinda Gates, Susan Buffett, Bobby Shriver, Mira Sorvino, and the cast of the television show “Lost,” including Evangeline Lilly, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn, Josh Holloway, and Ian Cusick. Jeremy Piven of “Entourage” was the only celeb spotted inside the ellipse.

For the final Vertigo show, there were special guest appearances in the forms of Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day joining U2 for “The Saints Are Coming,” and Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam joining the band for a performance of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

The final word of the tour came from Larry Mullen Jr., who was left alone on stage as the band concluded “All I Want Is You.” Larry thanked the audience for coming and said, “See you real soon,” leaving fans wondering if U2 will be performing concerts again sooner than anyone might expect.

‘Window in the Skies’ premieres in Japan

U2’s first Vertigo tour show in Japan was so special that the band actually took Promo Bono’s advice and performed “Window in the Skies” for the first time live. My human counterpart introduced the song by telling the audience, “If this doesn’t sound good, blame Edge.” The warning turned out to be completely unnecessary, as the song and the Edge sounded fantastic.

Setlist
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo (She Loves You snippet)
Elevation
I Will Follow
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Beautiful Day (Sgt. Pepper’s & Blackbird snippets)
Window in the Skies
Walk On (Acoustic — dedicated to the oldest Japanese fan club)
Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own
Bad (40 snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (Rock the Casbah snippet)
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

The Fly (Satisfaction snippet)
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You
The Saints Are Coming
Angel of Harlem
One Tree Hill

Japan welcomes U2

Hi, Promo Bono here. After being stuck in a box on a shelf in Vertigo Air for God-knows-forever, I’ve managed to sneak my way into Japan via Adam Clayton’s man purse. It’s time for Promo Bono to get in on some Vertigo tour fun!

The band and I arrived in Tokyo on Monday and were greeted by Japanese fans at Haneda Airport. The band, whose last visit to the country was in March 1998 during the PopMart tour, were warmly welcomed. I snapped this pic of The Edge at the airport from inside a pocket in Adam’s purse:

Looking good, yes?

The band will perform the first of three shows at Saitama Super Arena tonight. Because entrance into the venue is in numeric order, fans have been instructed not to show up at the venue before 6 pm when doors open. The show will begin at 7 pm without an opening act.

On Friday, U2 will appear on Japanese television to perform two songs, “Window in the Skies” and “Vertigo.”

I intend to (secretly) run around in Japan with the band as much as my little Promo Bono legs will allow me, so come back to read about our adventures.

I-Wanna-Blog-for-U2log contest

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Attention U2log.com readers! We have an assignment for you. We’re looking for one good fan to write a report on the final show of the Vertigo tour in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 9. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be a U2log.com writer, enter our I-Wanna-Blog-for-U2log contest. The winner will receive one OTX Extreme Luau & Ticket Package, which includes admission to a luau hosted by actress Rosario Dawson on December 8 and a general admission ticket to the U2 concert on December 9 with Pearl Jam.

To enter, submit an example of your writing to us at iwannablog4u2log@gmail.com by Wednesday, November 29. You may write about anything you wish; the only requirement is it should entertain us. Please keep the length reasonable; we have short attention spans. The U2log.com staff will choose and notify the winner by Friday, December 1. U2log.com reserves the right to publish the winning entry.

Contest Requirements

  1. You must be at least 21 years old to enter.
  2. You must be a U2 fan. Duh.
  3. You must be able to get yourself to Honolulu, Hawaii. The prize does NOT include travel and other expenses.

Before you enter the contest, please be sure that you have the means to get to Honolulu. We recognize that we are not giving much notice for anyone to make arrangements to travel. The OTX package was originally intended for use by one of the U2log.com editors; however, that person is unable to attend.

Other Mumbo-Jumbo

  1. The prize has no monetary value. You cannot convert it to cash. Heck, we’d do that ourselves if we could.
  2. The prize is non-transferable. You may not give it to your buddy or mom.
  3. You are expected to deliver your report in a timely manner. Your report is the property of U2log.com.

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U2’s Aussie Vertigo Tour kicks off in Brisbane

U2 played their first show of the 5th leg of the Vertigo Tour on Tuesday night in Brisbane. The Aussies were treated to the following setlist:

City of Blinding Lights / Vertigo / Elevation / Until The End Of The World / New Years Day / Beautiful Day / Yahweh / Walk On / Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own / Love And Peace Or Else / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Bullet The Blue Sky / Miss Sarajevo / Pride / Where The Streets Have No Name / One / encore: Zoo Station / The Fly / With Or Without You / The Saints Are Coming / Angel Of Harlem / Kite

Some more details courtesy of various fan lists/forums.

U2 in the land Down Under

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U2 have arrived in Queensland, Australia and set up camp in a reportedly ‘stupid expensive’ hotel on the Gold Coast. While their crew continues to work on getting the venue ready for the show, the band will take a few days to acclimatise. Bono told the press: “I don’t really feel like Bono at the moment, I looked in the mirror and saw a little man with sunken eyes.”

Their Denton interview from March this year is going to be repeated on Monday and the band will appear on Rove on Tuesday night.

The stage in Brisbane is almost fully set up.

We haven’t had any info yet on how GA lines are going to be handled. Aussie fans, we welcome your reports and tips.

Meanwhile, Billboard publishes the U218singles track list, including the new song ‘Window in the Skies’, and U2place.net has what might be the album sleeve.

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Vertigo tour tickets can still be found

U2log.com has learned about ticket availability to some of the rescheduled Vertigo tour shows.

“Vertigo tour? What’s that?” you ask.

Well, it’s this thing where four guys stand on an elliptical stage and make a lot of noise. You want tickets to see it, right?

If you answered “yes” to that question, you may be wondering about where to find tickets, aside from vermin scalpers. U2log.com suggests that fans turn to each other first for tickets. Check for ticket trades and sales at fan forums. U2log.com has created a ticket trade group on Google. U2tours.com also has a popular ticket trading forum.

If you have no luck finding tickets from other fans, consider using OTX, the tour and travel operator designated by TNA, the promoter of the Vertigo tour. OTX has just announced that it has a new block of general admission floor tickets for the sold-out shows scheduled in Auckland, New Zealand. OTX has also recently put its packages for the shows in Japan on sale.

Speaking of Japan…our friends at U2japan.com tell us that general admission tickets to the three shows at Saitama Arena were not easy to obtain when they went on public sale in September. Fans had to compete with ticket brokers, which are numerous and very popular in Japan, to get the best tickets.


Image courtesy of U2japan.com

General admission will be handled differently in Japan than anywhere else on the tour. General admission at Saitama Arena will be divided into three blocks: Blocks A, BL, and BR. In addition to a block number, all GA tickets include a position number — from 1 to 4,000. Fans will be granted entrance into the blocks in numerical order. The system sounds a bit crazy, but it does work to keep fans from rushing and crushing.

We’d hate to be the schmuck who has to call out the numbers.

Ovation Travel Experiences to provide Vertigo tour packages

U2 fans who purchased Vertigo tour packages from ETS will be serviced by Ovation Travel Experiences (OTX) when the tour resumes later this year. The following press release, prepared by OTX, provides the details, as well as explains how fans may still purchase Vertigo tour packages.

PRESS RELEASE
HELLO! HELLO! OVATION’S BACK WITH VERTIGO!
September 6, 2006 – Kingston, Ontario

The long-awaited comeback of U2’s Vertigo tour is here! Fans from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Hawaii now have the chance to experience the rescheduled touring phenomenon already seen in North America, Europe and South America. We are proud to announce that Ovation Travel Experiences (OTX) is along for the ride! The staff at Ovation is dedicated to providing our customers with the best event experience possible, with a variety of concert packages for Vertigo 2006.

The music industry was shocked earlier this year to hear about the demise of ETS Travel Services, an industry pioneer dating back to 1973. Attention shifted immediately to the hundreds of clients who had booked with ETS, and were now searching for answers regarding their purchased U2 ticket packages! As one of the major selling outlets for ETS, Ovation Travel felt the effects of their closure first hand. Friends quickly found themselves without work, and the existing OTX staff struggled to keep our own product moving forward. Despite the confusion and hardship, we did not forget about those left in limbo that we had the chance to help! Ovation immediately contacted The Next Adventure (TNA) and offered our assistance to the U2 community, and to help solve the dilemma. The folks at TNA graciously promised to take care of everyone who had booked with the former ETS, providing quick answers to concerned U2 fans. With Ovation’s help, those fans were contacted and once again given the chance to see U2 live in concert!

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