Just in the countdown 6th day. Really slowing down at this point. Lots of stories coming in however most of it has been already shared this past week. We still are looking for people to share their videos, photos, comments via the mobile unit. We can handle everything you send to us. Yes Spanish or English will be fine.
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Rehearsals wrapped up last night and here's a look at the set list. Remember we will be bringing the most current information from the tour thanks to our fans.
If God will send his angels
Drowning man
Sometimes you can't make it on your own
Sometimes you can't make it on your own (snippet, linked with) / Bad (incomplete)
Walk on
Walk on (instrumental)
Desmond Tutu speech
Ultraviolet
Where the streets have no name
Unknown song, reportedly sounded like chords from Seconds
I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight (remix)
Pride (in the name of love)
(break)
Breathe
No line on the horizon
Get on your boots
Magnificent
Beautiful day
I still haven't found what I'm looking for
In a little while + Rocket man (snippet)
Unknown caller
The unforgettable fire + Strangers in the night (snippet)
City of blinding ligths
Vertigo
I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight (remix)
Pride (in the name of love)
MLK
Walk on
Where the streets have no name
One
Ultraviolet
With or without you
Moment of surrender
June 21, 2009
Source: New York Times
Alice Rawsthorn
What do you want when you go to see your favorite band playing in a stadium? To hear the music clearly? To see the musicians, even if it's only on a screen because you're in a cheap seat at the back? For them to feel so comfortable on stage (their every Spinal Tappish whim assuaged) that they play spectacularly well? To forget that you're watching them with tens of thousands of people in a place where a ball is usually kicked around?Whoever designs the set has to deliver all of that — and more. As every extra day on tour costs money, the set must be installed and dismantled as quickly as possible, and shipped in the fewest possible trucks. The process also needs to be idiot-proof because most of the crew are hired locally and will only build it once. Financially it's a huge gamble, because the design concept is signed off on before a single ticket is sold.The bill for U2's latest gamble is the $150 million it will cost to keep the band's 360 tour, which starts June 30 in Barcelona, on the road for 18 months. On past tours, U2 has adopted the conventional approach of building a stage at one end of the stadium. This time, the band will perform on a circular stage and runway in the middle. Perching above on four spindly legs will be a steel colossus bearing the lighting, speakers, cables and a giant conical video screen. Looking not unlike an alien sea monster, it is 50 meters high, or about 165 feet, weighs 390 tons and packs away into 180 trucks. (U2 is buying carbon offsets, but no one embarks on a rock tour with a clear eco-conscience.)"Everyone who sees it says that it looks like something different," said Willie Williams, who has worked with U2 since 1982 and co-designed the set with the architect Mark Fisher, a veteran of Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones tours. "Tintin's rocket. The War of the Worlds. Cactus. Octopus. Claw. Whenever it started to look like something, Mark and I would push it in another direction. But it does look as though it has escaped from a giant space aquarium."Rock tours weren't always so flashy. The Beatles performed at New York's Shea Stadium in 1965 on an open stage for a record 56,000 people, very few of whom could see or hear the band. It wasn't until the mid-1970s that bands like Yes and Pink Floyd introduced more sophisticated sound and sets. Like other acts emerging from the late 1970s punk movement, U2 spurned such theatricality for its first stadium shows in the late 1980s.Theatricality took over on the 1991 ZooTV tour, which was conceived by Mr. Williams and Mr. Fisher, in his first U2 project, as a dazzling satire of media culture with giant video screens. The 1996 PopMart set was even wilder. Parodying consumerism, it featured a huge lemon (from which the band had to escape by ladder in one show when it jammed), McDonald's "golden arches" and a gigantic L.E.D. screen. "At the time it was completely new, but every show looks like ZooTV or PopMart now," said Mr. Williams. "We had to move on, and do something that would feel more powerful to the audience."Playing in the round appealed. It is the best way of creating an illusion of intimacy in a crowd of up to 90,000 people, and will release some 20,000 extra seats in the space usually occupied by the stage. But it hadn't seemed feasible for U2 before. How do you build something strong enough to support so much kit without blocking the audience's view? The floating opera stages constructed on Lake Constance at Bregenz in Austria convinced Mr. Williams that it was technically possible. Stylistically, he was inspired by the four-legged arched structure of the 1961 Theme Building at Los Angeles airport. He sketched his ideas for Mr. Fisher to interpret.Ever since he studied under Peter Cook, co-founder of the avant-garde architecture group, Archigram, in the 1960s, Mr. Fisher had wanted to create a portable tensile structure (that's archi-jargon for one with a flexible shape). The 360 set was his chance, and he clad the steel in a tensile fabric originally developed for Formula 1 motor racing. Green in daylight, it will reflect whatever color of light is shone on to it at night. The result evokes Archigram's fantastical 1964 project, the Walking City, which "strolled" around on teetering legs. It will not only give the audience a clear view of the band, but of one another across the stage, which doubles as the roof of a building that houses U2's instruments and the dozen technicians looking after them.The audience will also see live footage of the show on the conical screen. From ZooTV onward, screens have been the phallic symbols of rock tours. The entire stage of Nine Inch Nails' 2008 tour was an interactive screen of images generated by the band's movements. U2's new screen consists of 500,000 pixels mounted on interlocking panels. It will sit still for most of the show, then stretch downward, distorting the images as the panels fragment.It will take a day to install the screen, stage and kit at each stadium. As the steel structure requires four days, three versions have been commissioned. While one is in use, another will be under construction at the next venue and the third in transit, to squeeze as many shows as possible into the tour."Our work is all to do with the logistics of building a very large piece of technical infrastructure in a very short time, and to make something interesting out of it," said Mr. Fisher. "Why do people go to shows like this in the digital age? It's for the huge collective experience, the social and spatial and memories. This set will contribute by creating a massive sense of anticipation and delivering an amazing kinetic performance." (c) New York Times, 2009.
The count down as really kicked in to high gear. I thought I would look for something different today. Easy now stories from the tour will be posted after 4 EST US NYC. Due to time difference. - Peace - Comment and Share.
Album: No Line On The Horizon
"Magnificent"
"It was a joyful noise" -- Psalm 100:1: "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands." (King James; see also Psalm 66:1, Psalm 81:1, Psalm 95:1-2, Psalm 98:4,6)
"Justified till we die" -- the concept of being "justified" shows up all over the place, particularly in Paul's letters, see for instance Romans 8:30: "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." (King James)
"You and I will magnify" -- Luke 1:46-55 is the song of Mary known as the Magnificat for its first line, rendered in King James as "My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."
"Moment of Surrender"
"It's not if I believe in love/But if love believes in me" -- echoes 1 John 4:10: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
"At the altar of the dark star" -- See "Slide Away" (below)
"Unknown Caller"
"3:33 when the numbers fell off the clockface" -- see the cover art for All That You Can't Leave Behind and its reference to Jeremiah 33:3: "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Bono told Rolling Stone, "It's known as 'God's telephone number.'"
"Cease to speak that I may speak" -- may reference Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
"I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"
"Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear" -- more 1 John 4, this time 18: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
"Stand Up Comedy"
"I can stand up for hope, faith, love" -- 1 Corinthians 13:13: "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." (See "Elvis Ate America.")
"God is love"-- 1 John 4:16: "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." (I'm just going to start calling this album 1 John 4 from now on.)
"White As Snow"
"Who can forgive forgiveness where forgiveness is not/Only the lamb as white as snow" -- John 1:29: "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'" (Also see Exodus 12 for a description of the sacrificial lamb of Passover being without blemish.)
"Cedars of Lebanon"
Oh gosh, mentions of the cedars of Lebanon are scattered throughout the Bible. See Song of Solomon 5:15: "His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of pure gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as its cedars."
It will take a day to install the screen, stage and kit at each stadium. As the steel structure requires four days, three versions have been commissioned. While one is in use, another will be under construction at the next venue and the third in transit, to squeeze as many shows as possible into the tour.
The footprint of the structure is approximately 58 meters by 47 meters (190 feet by 154 feet). The tip of the spire comes in at 50 meters (164 feet) tall.
It looks very unique and interesting. Can you describe how you arrived at this design? Who did you work with — Fisher, the band, or both? How many design iterations did you go through?
I had the idea for this production during the last part of U2’s Vertigo tour in 2006. It was the result of my having spent several years thinking around the “problem” of video and how we get ourselves out of the cul-de-sac of big screen media server backdrops, which have swamped every other idea in live performance. Or to put it more simply, how does the pioneering U2 respond to a world where every show out there looks like a cross between ZooTV and PopMart?
Getting rid of the big video backdrop — willfully throwing away the most powerful visual tool you have — is brave and dangerous, but it occurred to me that with this band, perhaps a more powerful backdrop would be a stadium full of people. U2 have spent 20 years playing indoor venues using this ‘in-the-round-at-one-end’ configuration, so the challenge was to see how we might be able to do it outdoors, with no building roof. Such structures exist of course, but they always end up looking rather apologetic, like a bandstand, rather than having any real power or aesthetic. Also, there’s the issue of the truss legs and sightlines and so on. The breakthrough for me was the moment of reverse logic when I realized that instead of trying to make this structure as small and discreet and possible, what if it was so big that it became part of the stadium? What if the structure was completely disconnected from the performing area so that the legs were so far from the stage they wouldn’t be in the way?
I emailed Mark Fisher, enclosing an image of the ‘theme building’ at LAX as an aesthetic jumping off point. Mark got it in one and emailed back some early sketches, which I presented to the band. We have been through many, many permutations since then, but the central idea has been in place for 2 1/2 years prior to them setting foot on stage.
Looking at the animated rendering on the U2 360° Tour Web site (360.u2.com), it looks like there’s a lot of projection surfaces draping the legs. Is that the intended purpose of the design?
No, they’re not projection surfaces. I’m sure I’ll light them up, but the ‘skin’ is simply an interesting and unusual way of giving amorphous form to the structure. We looked at a sleek, solid fiberglass cladding, but it looked too much like PopMart and was eye-wateringly expensive. This rather organic, undulating surface feels much more original. It’s very important to me that the audience walks into the stadium to be greeted by something unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.
It looks as if there are a lot of down lights but it doesn’t show much other lighting. Is there lighting positions concealed in the legs or are there other FOH trusses? How much will you depend on followspots for front light?
There are indeed lights — and followspots — in the legs, which will provide the main positions for keylight. The overhead positions are quite severely compromised by the video screen, but will have good shots to the outer runway. ’Front light’ is a fairly meaningless concept with this set up, but there are followspots in the house and around the perimeter of the stadium to give 360° coverage. Having no backdrop opens up a whole slew of potential new positions around the building, which I’m enjoying.
Are you involved in developing the video content as well? If not, who?
I’m very excited to be working with Tom Krueger who was the director of photography on the U23D movie. He’s actually going to come on tour with us to act as video director, in tandem with Stefaan Desmedt, who has been head of video for the past couple of U2 tours. Tom’s ‘inexperience’ in touring means he arrives with no pre-conceived notions and doesn’t have the same instinct to be compromised by what is merely a convenient way of doing things. Most importantly, he has the complete trust of the band to ensure that they look great on screen at all times. Having had to look after that myself for so many years, I can’t tell you what a relief it is to pass that responsibility on to a professional.
Given that the artist is U2, how much was the carbon footprint a consideration in this design? Are there many LEDs or other energy efficient lighting?
U2 are buying carbon offsets in relation to the tour, but other than that I don’t want to speak for them regarding green issues. For myself though, I have spent much time considering the issue and wondering what possible justification there can be in such a carbon hungry enterprise. Radiohead are friends of mine and I have talked to Thom Yorke at length about greener touring. I really admire what they have achieved and Thom is exceptionally sensible about the whole thing. However, with a tour of this magnitude it might appear abundantly clear that the greenest thing would be to just not do it at all. In our defense, even the most massive rock tours are extremely short-lived compared with, say, the life-span of a car factory in China. More importantly, though, on another level, a tour like this has value in another way. Even though eco-issues are becoming more crucial by the day, it would be cultural and spiritual suicide to declare that humankind should cease any and every activity, which is not utterly necessary or practical. I’ve been designing shows for a long time and quite regularly I will be approached by a total stranger who is burning to tell me that some show that I vaguely remember doing was “the high point of my life.” I’m not exaggerating; these shows affect people’s lives in a deeply significant way and somehow provide meaning. That being the case, I really believe that at least some of what we do as an industry has value that is worth a short-term carbon spend.
We will be accepting your posts direct from the tour. Send us a comment with your email and will provide you the link. No spam, No forwarding your name. Just posting services to share your story, videos and comments like this one from Barcelona
This would appear to be incomplete, but it's what fans reported hearing last night:
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Magnificent
Get On Your Boots
Beautiful Day
Vertigo
Moment of Surrender
Magnificent
Get On Your Boots
(break)
Intro
Breathe
No Line On The Horizon
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
(thanks fans listening outside)
Beautiful Day
(message about Desmond Tutu)