What can be said about U2 that is not common knowledge? The 22 Grammy awards – the most ever won by a band, enroute to the 12 albums and 145 million records sold, or the watershed Live Aid concert which put U2 and Bono on the map and on the way to becoming a major force for philanthropy through music. 

U2

Today, U2 is not just a rock band. It is an institution of musical wizardry, with magic powers way beyond those of your ordinary garden-variety rocker.

A U2 concert is a seminal event. How Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton reach out and grab individual hearts and minds in the sea of fans at their concerts is a story all by itself. 

The perfect example is the currently on-going 360° tour by U2, supporting their latest studio album No Line on the Horizon. The 2009 leg of the tour has wrapped up, but the next year’s schedule is already laid out for well into fall 2010. 

So much advance planning becomes necessary because of the enormous amount of logistics, equipment and technical know-how that goes into setting up every single concert. It took them 2 years to come up with the production design. The U2 360° tour support staff for each concert travels along with the band in 180 trucks.

The end result of this vast enterprise is that the band – which is truly center-stage with fans surrounding them from all sides – is able to reach out to every single one of their fans during each show. A giant spider-like 170 ft tall steel structure looks down on the stage, and tucks out of sight all the usual tech gear and scaffolding that spoils the visuals.

U2 360° Tour

There are moving bridges which allow the band to move in-between two inner and outer rings of fans and reach out to everyone, with a 360-degree vertically expandable LED video screen and 12 manned cameras to capture all the movement without losing audio and video, and display the show from every angle to every corner of the stadium.

Naturally, with such an expansive setup, the performance and the songs need to be just as good.

No Line on the Horizon debuted at No.1 in 30 countries, and has already sold 5 million copies. U2 tickets for the European and North American legs of the 2009 360° tour were lapped up so fast the band had to add more shows to the schedule to satisfy eager fans. The 2010 tour looks all set to be just as big a success. 

Track List:-
1.  No Line on the Horizon
2.  Magnificent
3.  Moment of Surrender
4.  Unknown Caller
5.  I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6.  Get on Your Boots
7.  Stand Up Comedy
8.  Fez – Being Born
9.  White as Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars of Lebanon

U2 stadium photo by ilovebutter; The Edge photo by chrisharte; Larry Mullen Jr. photo by Zachary Gillman; Adam Clayton photo by Tobias Schleser; Bono photo by jdn