subject: U2 Tickets - U2 Debuts New Songs At Tour Opener In Turin, Italy [print this page] Irish rock band U2 launched its postponed U2 360 Tour-which was scheduled to kick off in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 3-in Turin, Italy on Aug. 6. The show, which took place at Turin's Olympic Stadium, was U2's first 360 show since the band wrapped up the last leg of its tour in Vancouver on Oct. 28.
Although fans were just happy to see Bono and Co. perform live, the members of U2 delivered a special treat in the form of new and rarely-performed-live songs. U2gigs.com reports that after opening the show with a new, mostly-instrumental intro ("Return of the Stingray Guitar"), the band performed a set list sprinkled with two new songs: "North Star" and "Glastonbury."
Fans in Turin, Italy were also treated to the first performance of "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" since U2's final Popmart Tour date in 1998 and the tour debut of "Miss Sarajevo," which the band last performed during the final Vertigo Tour concert in 2006. U2's tour opener was also packed with classic U2 tracks like "Beautiful Day," "City of Blinding Lights" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and songs off the band's most recent album, 2009's No Line on the Horizon, like "Magnificent," "Get On Your Boots" and "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight." U2 capped off the show with an encore comprised of "One," "Amazing Grace" / "Where the Streets Have No Name," "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," "With or Without You" and "Moment of Surrender."
No one knew when U2's 360 Tour would resume when the band took to their official website to announce plans to push back the tour on May 21. The site reported that frontman Bono sustained a back injury "during tour preparation training" and would recuperate in a hospital in Munich before returning home to Ireland for further recovery.
Along with their planned North American summer tour dates, Bono's injury forced the band to cancel its scheduled headlining spot at the U.K.'s Glastonbury Music Festival. U2 was scheduled to headline the Pyramid Stage on June 25 for their first-ever gig at Glastonbury, but Bono released a statement saying, "I'm heartbroken. We really wanted to be there to do something really special-we even wrote a song especially for the festival." U2 will get another stab at Glastonbury, though, as The Guardian reports that festival organizer Michael Eavis has invited the band to perform at the 2011 edition.
Fans with U2 tickets to see the Irish rock band on their now-scrapped North American summer leg will still be able to see Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr.-although it won't be until 2011.
Billboard reports that on July 13 Live Nation Entertainment announced that all 16 of the band's postponed tour dates will now take place during the spring and summer of 2011.
Paul McGuiness, U2's longtime manager, released a statement thanking fans for the ongoing support, saying, "We're delighted the dates are rescheduled and in all the same venues we originally planned to play. It hasn't been easy to accomplish this, and I'd like to thank the managers of the many venues and sports teams across North America and Live Nation Global Touring for their help and cooperation in making this complex new plan possible. Above all we want to thank U2 fans for bearing with us. They're the best and the band wants to get back to where they belong, surrounded by their audience."
The North American leg of U2's tour will begin in Denver, Colo. on May 21. From there, the band will make stops in Salt Lake City, Utah; Edmonton, AB; Seattle, Wash.; Oakland, Calif.; Anaheim, Calif.; East Lansing, Mich.; Miami, Fla.; Chicago, Ill.; Montreal, PQ; Toronto, ON; Philadelphia, Pa.; East Rutherford, N.J. and Minneapolis, Minn. U2's last road trip scored the top spot on Forbes magazine's list of the top-earning musicians from June 2009 to June 2010 with a whopping $130 million, and the band's current tour is poised to follow suit.
