We are still looking for those of you that will be attending the shows. The first show would be great. We will provide you a link just for you to txt your updates and photos direct to us from the show. All credits to you. The best photos and videos will be posted daily as the tour begins. Here are a couple of shots from the setup. Enjoy- Remember to comment directly to us - You will be provide the upload info.
Rockers U2 have hired a security team to guard their dressing rooms during their new tour -- because fans kept nicking mementoes from their backstage compound.
They were so fed-up with items going missing during their last tour they have put beefed-up security measures in place for their first gig in
The measures include drafting in 50 guards, installing CCTV and watch towers to keep an eye on band members' private rooms.
Only their closest friends and family will get anywhere near the band with just 10 Access All Areas passes being handed out for each gig.
U2 are currently rehearsing for their huge stadium tour which kicks off at the Nou Camp on June 30. A group insider said: "The security arrangements around this tour are the most extreme we have ever seen. It is ultra-strict. The security operation will be the biggest ever mounted for a rock tour.
"The problem is during the last tour a few fans even managed to sneak in during concerts and they ended up running off with the band's clothes and possessions."
The group's 360 Degree tour will hit
Inside the stadium there will be five levels of security with different passes for each.
To get into the final zone -- which allows direct access to the band -- lucky VIPs will have to pass a series of security points and undergo a body scan with metal detectors.
While Bono and the group are performing CCTV cameras will monitor the halls leading to their rooms and the whole compound will become a "lock down."
The source added: "It means there won't be a free for all while they are singing."
U2 will be sunning themselves in the South of France this summer, as they make it their base for their upcoming European tour.
The band and their families have holiday homes on the
Claw
Their huge new stage, which has been nicknamed The Claw, is already constructed in the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, and rehearsals are due to get under way in the coming days.
"Nice Airport will be the hub," said a source. "They will fly in and out from there for each of the concerts and will be able to spend their down time with their families at their holiday homes as usual."
Bono and The Edge have been frequent visitors to Eze Sur Mer for nearly 20 years, with Edge buying the villa next door to Bono's after his first marriage broke up.
The two properties are only separated by their swimming pools, but Edge said the only reason he bought the villa was "timing".
"Possessions are a way of turning money into problems," he said. "I don't have a big car collection or anything that I'd miss if it got stolen. I bought the house because it was about timing."
The Edge married his second wife, long-term partner Morleigh Steinberg, in the nearby village of Eze seven years ago.
U2's other members
And the South of France also proved too much to resist for band manager
Tight
The fact that all the band have holiday homes so close together has caused Larry Mullen to comment before on how the group never seem to be able to escape from each other.
"What kind of band goes on holidays to the same place?" he said.
"We are a tight family, with all the pluses and disadvantages of that."
Just thinking that tweeter concept has me to focused on short msg to care #FF
Yes we are looking for those of you that will be attending any U2 concert around the world starting this month. If your one of them. Drop us a note we would like to capture your story, photos and comments of the event.
Author Matt McGee reveals how he compiled the book in this interview and shares some of his findings from “U2 — A Diary.”
You assembled much of the material for this book through your blog, with fans helping out with research and information and photos. When you established the blog, did you envision a book would come out of it?
What were some things you learned from their input that you didn’t know about the band before beginning this project?
There are some key stories in the band’s history that you tackle in this book. Let’s take on a couple of them. What happened during Bono’s visit to Central America in 1986 that helped shape The Joshua Tree?
But, to me, what’s really interesting about it is the timing. I didn’t know that Bono and [his wife] Ali arrived in Central America immediately after spending several days in New Zealand at the funeral of Greg Carroll, Bono’s personal assistant, who had died in a motorcycle accident in Dublin. His death had devastated the whole U2 organization, but especially Bono and Ali — they were very close to Carroll. So, with that in mind, you get a better sense of the mental and emotional state they were in when they arrived in Central America and spent almost two weeks there.
What did you find was the major reason for the difficulty U2 had in recording the Pop album?
What did you find out with regard to the creation of Zoo TV?
You go all the way back to the 1950s Dublin when Bono’s parents were married. What did you find out about his home life?
As far as your research goes, when was it that U2 realized they were going to be big? What were there ambitions starting out?
How has U2 been able to stay together for so long?
Do they work in much the same way they did when they began, or has their celebrity caused changes in how they interact in the studio or on the road?
Why did you choose to use a diary format for the book?
An epic, shoot-for-the-moon band like U2 — with a lead singer who actually believes that rock ’n’ roll can, if not save the world, then at least change it for the better — deserves a book as dense with detail and insight as Matt McGee’s.
Picking up the story in 1950, when Bono’s parents, Bob Hewson and Iris Rankin, get married, “U2 — A Diary” follows the band from its humble beginnings — including the talent contest the band won even though Doves guitarist Fran Kennedy remembers being “... dumbfounded when they won, because truly, they were awful” — all the way through its ascendance to rock royalty.
No stone is unturned here, as McGee, through his painstaking research — conducted through a blog he set up that allowed fans and others to help him nail down the facts — digs out the truth behind just about every U2-related story ever told. It tells the inside story of U2’s connections to an Evangelical Christian group in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It reveals much about a trip Bono made to Central America and the impact events in his life around that time had on the making of The Joshua Tree.
And that’s just a small taste of what lies in store for anyone who picks up “U2 — A Diary.” The timeline McGee sets up and the way he strings together quotes from U2 insiders makes for an easy, compelling read, and the book is full of superb black-and-white images — some of them rarely seen before — that only serve to enhance McGee’s exhaustive history of a band that still matters.