He suffered fractures of his shoulder blade, humerus, orbit, and pinky finger, leading to uncertainty that he would ever be able to play guitar again. Following Bono's recuperation, U2 embarked on the Innocence + Experience Tour in May 2015, visiting arenas in North America and Europe from May through December. The group structured their concerts around a loose autobiographical narrative of "innocence" passing into "experience", with a fixed set of songs for the first half of each show and a varying second half, separated by an intermission—a first for U2 concerts. The stage spanned the length of the venue floor and comprised three sections: a rectangular main stage, a smaller circular B-stage, and a connecting walkway.
"Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
U2
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
The Innocence + Experience Tour , U2 360° Tour, the Vertigo tour and others. U2 360° Tour, Elevation Tour, Vertigo Tour, Experience Tour, anniversary tours etc 2001 Elevation Tour. Zoo TV Tour, the PopMart Tour
who are the members of the band u2
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Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr.
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where is this band from ?
user
Dublin.
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when was it created
user
1976.
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name their first album ?
user
"Boy".
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what was their musical style ?
user
Rock.
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when was the above album released ?
user
20 October 1980.
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who is the lead singer of the band ?
user
Bono.
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what is he's full name ?
user
Paul David Hewson.
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where was he born ?
user
Dublin, Ireland.
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name some songs from this band ?
user
"Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Pride (In the Name of Love)", "With or Without You", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
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the first song when was it released ?
user
Released as a single on 21 March 1983.
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name some tours of this band ?
user
He suffered fractures of his shoulder blade, humerus, orbit, and pinky finger, leading to uncertainty that he would ever be able to play guitar again. Following Bono's recuperation, U2 embarked on the Innocence + Experience Tour in May 2015, visiting arenas in North America and Europe from May through December. The group structured their concerts around a loose autobiographical narrative of "innocence" passing into "experience", with a fixed set of songs for the first half of each show and a varying second half, separated by an intermission—a first for U2 concerts. The stage spanned the length of the venue floor and comprised three sections: a rectangular main stage, a smaller circular B-stage, and a connecting walkway.
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
The band performed their oft-requested 1991 song "Acrobat" for the first time during the tour, and focused setlists on their "Songs of Experience" and "Innocence" albums. Having toured in 2017 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of "The Joshua Tree", the band decided not to perform any songs from that record on the Experience + Innocence Tour, leaving out some of their most well-known tracks. Tickets for the Experience + Innocence Tour included copies of "Songs of Experience", helping the album reach number one on the US "Billboard" 200. The tour made use of Ticketmaster's "Verified Fan" platform for combating ticket scalping, making U2 the first group to do so for an arena tour.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Introduction
During the encore in North America, U2 played "City of Blinding Lights", "Beautiful Day", and occasionally "Bad". From show to show, U2 alternated between "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "One", and more rarely, "40", as the closing song. The opening show marked U2's first tour concert at which they did not play "One" since its live debut in 1992 on the Zoo TV Tour.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
playing only a single snare drum. The song was followed by "Raised by Wolves", which was written about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974; during performances, the video screen showed pictures of the 33 victims. For the final song of the first act, "Until the End of the World", the Edge performed inside the video screen, while Bono, through his video projection on the screen, attempted to interact with his bandmate. During the song's conclusion, the video screen displayed a light bulb smashing to release a tsunami that washed away the "innocence" of Cedarwood Road, while pages from "Ulysses", "Lord of the Flies", the Psalms, and "Alice in Wonderland" fell from the venue ceiling like confetti.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
The group rescheduled their North American tour dates that year and an appearance at Glastonbury Festival 2010 for the following year, but were able to spend their downtime writing and recording new songs.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Revelation of "Songs of Ascent"
On 14 May 2015, U2 embarked on a worldwide concert tour called the Innocence + Experience Tour. It was U2's first time playing arenas since 2005–2006 on their Vertigo Tour. Comprising 76 shows over two legs, the tour visited North America from May through July, and Europe from September through December. The band structured their concerts around a loose narrative of "innocence" passing into "experience", with a fixed set of songs for the first half of each show and a varying second half, separated by an intermission–a first for U2 concerts. The stage spanned the length of the venue floor and comprised three sections: a rectangular segment that illuminated as an "I" to represent "innocence"; a smaller circular stage that illuminated as an "e" to represent "experience"; and a walkway between them to represent the transition between the two themes.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Innocence + Experience Tour
The Experience + Innocence Tour (styled as eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour) was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Staged in support of the band's 2017 album, "Songs of Experience", the tour visited arenas throughout 2018. Comprising two legs and 60 concerts, the Experience + Innocence Tour visited North America from May through July, and Europe from August through November. It began on 2 May 2018 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and ended on 13 November 2018 in Berlin, Germany. The tour followed U2's 2015 Innocence + Experience Tour as the second in a pair of tours in support of the group's companion albums, "Songs of Innocence" (2014) and "Songs of Experience".
Experience + Innocence Tour | Introduction
Shows on the Innocence + Experience Tour consisted of two acts separated by a brief intermission—a first for U2 concerts–with an encore at the end. The shows began with the band taking the stage accompanied by Patti Smith's song "People Have the Power" playing over the public address system. The first act began with U2 performing "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)", followed by a mix of the group's earliest tracks (such as "Gloria", "The Electric Co.", and "Out of Control") and then "Vertigo" and "I Will Follow". These songs were played underneath a single dangling light bulb, which was inspired by the decor of Bono's childhood bedroom and was intended as a metaphor for the intimacy and innocence of the band's early years.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
For U2's 5 September show in Turin, Zucchero guest starred for a performance of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Noel Gallagher did the same for the band's 26 October show in London, while also helping them cover the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love". Patti Smith joined U2 on two occasions to cover her song "People Have the Power"—in London on 29 October 2015, and in Paris on 6 December 2015 for the first of the band's rescheduled dates in the city. For the tour's closing show on 7 December in Paris, U2 were joined on-stage by Eagles of Death Metal, who were returning to the city for the first time since their show at the Bataclan on 13 November 2015, where the deadliest of that day's attacks in Paris occurred, killing 89 people.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Guest appearances
In 2014, U2 released their thirteenth studio album, "Songs of Innocence", which they supported with the Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015. The group originally began it with the intent to tour in two phases, one with material primarily taken from "Songs of Innocence" and one with material that would eventually be from its follow-up, the companion album "Songs of Experience". However, slow progress on the "Experience" record delayed the second tour. Bassist Adam Clayton said, "By the time we finished the "Innocence" tour and came full circle to focus on the ["Songs of Experience"] album, it was clear we weren't going to be able to flip it really quickly into the "Experience" side of the material and put it right back out on tour." When asked in 2017 about plans to continue the Innocence + Experience Tour, guitarist the Edge said, "We feel like that tour wasn't finished.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Background
The Innocence + Experience Tour (styled as iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE Tour) was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Staged in support of the band's 2014 album "Songs of Innocence", the tour visited arenas throughout 2015. It was U2's first time playing arenas since 2005–2006 on their Vertigo Tour. Comprising two legs and 76 concerts, the Innocence + Experience Tour began on 14 May 2015 in Vancouver, Canada. It visited North America from May through July, and Europe from September through December. Shows were predominantly booked in pairs for each market. Concerts were structured around a loose autobiographical narrative of "innocence" passing into "experience", with a fixed set of songs for the first half of each show and a varying second half, separated by an intermission—a first for U2 concerts.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Introduction
The Edge says this portion of the show represented "U2 stripped back in the innocence moment of the band, referring to those early years where we formed and influenced by the music of the late 1970 and early 1980s, post-punk and punk music." After four songs, the band more explicitly explored its adolescence, beginning with "Iris (Hold Me Close)", which Bono wrote about his mother who died when he was 14 years old. The set's video screen showed old home video footage of her intercut with visuals of stars, matching the song's lyrics that liken her influence on Bono over time to the light of long-dead star.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
Both the 2015 and 2018 tours were structured around a loose autobiographical narrative about U2, grounded in the story of the death of Bono's mother and the violence of the Troubles that shaped the band members' youths in Ireland. Whereas "Songs of Innocence" explicitly revisits memories of their adolescence, "Songs of Experience" took "a more macro narrative stance, almost as if the narrator is writing from beyond life", according to tour designer Es Devlin. Accordingly, the narrative for the 2018 tour was reframed, using the lyric "Now you're at the other end of the telescope" from the "Experience" song "Love Is All We Have Left" as a guiding principle.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Development
The group also committed to a 2017 concert tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their album "The Joshua Tree". Furthermore, lead vocalist Bono suffered what he referred to as a "brush with mortality" shortly after Christmas 2016, further affecting the direction of "Songs of Experience".
Experience + Innocence Tour | Background
"Songs of Innocence" recalls the group members' youth in Ireland, touching on childhood experiences, loves and losses, while paying tribute to their musical inspirations. Bono described it as "the most personal album we've written". The record received mixed reviews and drew criticism for its digital release strategy; it was automatically added to users' iTunes accounts, which for many, triggered an unprompted download to their electronic devices. Chris Richards of "The Washington Post" called the release "rock-and-roll as dystopian junk mail". The group's press tour for the album was interrupted after Bono was seriously injured in a bicycle accident in Central Park on 16 November 2014.
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
The centerpiece of the set was a double-sided video screen that featured an interior catwalk, allowing the band members to perform amidst the video projections. U2's sound system was moved to the venue ceilings and arranged in an oval array, in hopes of improving acoustics by evenly distributing sound throughout the arena. In total, the tour grossed US$152.2 million from 1.29 million tickets sold. The final date of the tour, one of two Paris shows rescheduled due to the 13 November 2015 attacks in the city, was filmed for the video "" and broadcast on the American television network HBO.
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
These setlists were performed at the 25 June 2018 concert held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and at the 10 November 2018 concert held at 3Arena in Dublin. It does not represent all shows throughout the tour.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Set list
The images were captured from the International Space Station and provided by astronaut Tim Kopra, who personally shot many of them. For the European leg, "Love Is All We Have Left" and the accompanying AR segment were dropped from the opening sequence as a result of Treatment reworking the introduction video for Europe. This sequence was followed by "I Will Follow" and then a slot for a rotating song, most often "Gloria", "All Because of You", or "Red Flag Day". After "Beautiful Day", the band performed "The Ocean", during which Bono introduced the show's narrative. For a majority of the tour, the remainder of the first act reprised the "Innocence suite" from the 2015 tour relatively faithfully: "Iris (Hold Me Close)" revisited the death of Bono's mother during his childhood; "Cedarwood Road" featured him performing inside the "barricage" amidst animated visuals of his childhood street; "Sunday Bloody Sunday" revisited the violence of the Troubles during the band members' youth; and "Until the End of the World" concluded the first act.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Concert synopsis
Their U2 360° Tour of 2009–2011 set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour in history. The group most recently released the companion albums "Songs of Innocence" (2014) and "Songs of Experience" (2017), the former of which received criticism for its pervasive, no-cost release through the iTunes Store.
U2 | Introduction
Throughout the 360° Tour, the band worked on multiple album projects, including: a traditional rock album produced by Danger Mouse; a dance record produced by RedOne and will.i.am; and "Songs of Ascent". However, the latter was not completed to their satisfaction, and by December 2011, Clayton admitted it would not come to fruition. The sessions with Danger Mouse instead formed the foundation of U2's next album, and they worked with him until May 2013 before enlisting the help of producers Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney, and Flood. The band suspended work on the album late in 2013 to contribute a new song, "Ordinary Love", to the film "".
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
Upon its commercial release, "Songs of Innocence" sold just 101,000 copies in North America and charted for just eight and nine weeks in the US and UK, respectively. The group's press tour for the album was interrupted after Bono was seriously injured in a bicycle accident. The record received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Album. U2 supported the album with the successful Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015, and followed it up with a companion record, "Songs of Experience", in 2017.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Introduction
After months of speculation about a tour, the band announced the Innocence + Experience Tour on 3 December 2014. Initially, 44 shows were scheduled in 19 cities across North America and Europe beginning in May 2015, with plans for shows in their native Dublin announced but not finalized at the time. Dates were predominantly booked in pairs for each market. Pre-sale tickets for the tour were offered to U2 fan club members on 4 December 2014 before going on sale to the general public on 8 December. In contrast to the U2 360° Tour, on the Innocence + Experience Tour, U2 played arenas, their first time since their Vertigo Tour from 2005–2006.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Planning, itinerary, and ticketing
It is the band's most frequently performed song with over 800 performances. It has been performed at every concert of The Joshua Tree, PopMart Tour and the Innocence + Experience Tour It has been played extensively on every tour with the exception of the Zoo TV Tour, where it was performed infrequently, and was part of the acoustic set, and the U2 360° Tour, where it wasn't played until the third leg. The song appears on the live recordings/films "Under a Blood Red Sky", "", "Live from the Point Depot", "", "", "Live from Boston 1981", "Live from Paris", and "U22".
I Will Follow | Live performances
U2 originally began the Innocence + Experience Tour with the intent to tour in two phases, one with material primarily taken from "Songs of Innocence" and one with material that would eventually be from its follow-up, "Songs of Experience". Bassist Adam Clayton said, "By the time we finished the "Innocence" tour and came full circle to focus on the ["Songs of Experience"] album, it was clear we weren't going to be able to flip it really quickly into the "Experience" side of the material and put it right back out on tour." When asked about plans to continue the Innocence + Experience Tour after the Joshua Tree Tour 2017, the Edge said, "We feel like that tour wasn't finished.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Sequel tour
The tour received generally positive reviews, with critics praising both the staging and content of the tour. Jennifer O'Brien of "The Times" praised the group for delivering a message that espoused tolerance and denounced the political climate, and she thought the reliance on new material and absence of "The Joshua Tree" songs did not hurt the setlist. O'Brien said the group were "still at the top of their game, embracing state-of-the-art technologies and moving forward, a direction they clearly hope the US can go". Dave Egan in the "Irish Independent" called the opening night "One of the bravest, most powerful and even angriest performances U2 have ever done" and praised the reintroduction of MacPhisto after an absence of 25 years since Zoo TV.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Critical response
A double-sided video screen was suspended above and parallel to the walkway; the structure featured an interior catwalk between the screens, allowing the band members to perform amidst the video projections. U2's sound system was moved to the venue ceilings and arranged in an oval array, in hopes of improving acoustics by evenly distributing sound throughout the arena. In total, the tour grossed $152.2 million from 1.29 million tickets sold. The final date of the tour, one of two Paris shows rescheduled due to the 13 November 2015 attacks in the city, was filmed for the video "" and broadcast on the American television network HBO.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Innocence + Experience Tour
after witnessing this show. Despite the album's flat, slick surfaces, the Irish quartet made its latest material the centerpiece of its current tour." Jim DeRogatis of WBEZ wrote, "U2 has got its mojo back." Despite doubts about U2 after their previous tour and the release of "Songs of Innocence", the band's opening four songs of a Chicago show "convinced [him] that U2 is as ferocious, focused, and no-nonsense committed as it's ever been". DeRogatis believed that "the new songs were much harder-hitting and far more emotional than in the bland, over-produced versions on record". Ben Ratliff of "The New York Times" called the production grandiose but considered the concert an "achievement, integrated and sure-footed".
Innocence + Experience Tour | Critical response
Initial dates for the tour sold out, prompting Live Nation to extend the tour with additional dates. A sponsorship deal with cloud computing company Salesforce.com, reportedly worth $12 million, was announced in March 2015. The group spent a month rehearsing at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver prior to the tour's opening show in the city on 14 May 2015. During this period, they decided to abandon their plans to alternate between "innocence" and "experience" setlists from show to show, fearing that concertgoers would be disappointed by the omission of certain songs on a given night. On 9 September 2015, the band announced a six-date extension to the tour's European leg, scheduling two shows in Belfast and four shows in Dublin.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Planning, itinerary, and ticketing
The 2018 tour reprised the loose autobiographical narrative from the 2015 tour, along with the original's multifaceted stage comprising a rectangular main stage, circular B-stage, connecting walkway, and doubled-sided LED video screen with an interior walkway. Several enhancements were made to the set, such as a higher resolution and more transparent video screen and the addition of LED panels to the B-stage floor. The band incorporated augmented reality into the tour, building it into a mobile app for fans to use, as well as using it to revive lead vocalist Bono's demonic stage character "MacPhisto" from the Zoo TV Tour in 1993.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Introduction
Dan DeLuca of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" found the segment of the show that addressed the rise of white nationalism the most moving, believing it showed the U2 songs most relevant in 2018 were their older ones. He thought the use of their newer tracks to tell a coherent narrative worked "well enough" and closed by saying "U2 still delivers the goods and can be truly thrilling at times". Dave Simpson of "The Guardian" said, "It is also the most visually spectacular outing yet for a band who have previously toured with a mirrorball lemon and a giant claw". He judged that their social campaigning was more effective during this tour than in the past due to its relative subtlety.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Critical response
So right now, we'd love to finish that tour. I would imagine it's gonna be with very similar production components... But we like that tour and that project wasn't completed. It is still alive in our minds creatively." Several other factors contributed to a delay. Due to the shift of global politics in a conservative direction, highlighted by the United Kingdom's Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election, the band decided to delay "Songs of Experience" from its planned release in the fourth quarter of 2016 to reassess its tone and whether it was still communicating what they wanted it to.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Background
To fit the small venues available in Ireland, the group were forced to reconfigure the show's production. The band donated €2 million from Irish ticket sales to Music Generation, a local music education programme for children. In total, 76 shows were scheduled for the tour.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Planning, itinerary, and ticketing
Dorian Lynskey of "Q" said, "Just as Zoo TV and 360° reinvented stadium rock, this tour offered a glimpse into the future of arena shows." At the 2016 Pollstar Awards, U2 won for the Most Creative Stage Production. The band received nominations for Best Tour at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards, and for Top Touring Artist at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Critical response
The band had played two of four scheduled shows in the city when the attacks occurred, forcing the postponement of the final two shows and the originally planned HBO broadcast until December. During the filmed concert, U2 paid tribute to the victims of the attacks and were joined on-stage by Eagles of Death Metal, whose concert at the Bataclan was the site of the deadliest of the attacks.
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris | Introduction
Several guests joined U2 on-stage during their shows in New York City. On 22 July 2015, "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon performed "Desire" with the group; Fallon previously performed the song on his show with his house band, the Roots, in an imitation of Bono after U2 canceled a week-long residency on the show in November 2014 due to Bono's injury. After Fallon's Innocence + Experience performance with U2, the Roots accompanied them for "Angel of Harlem", much as they did when U2 played the song on "The Tonight Show" in May 2015. On 26 July 2015, Lady Gaga joined the band to play piano and sing for "Ordinary Love".
Innocence + Experience Tour | Guest appearances
The group also unveiled a video previewing their Innocence + Experience Tour. To recompense the Los Angeles area for dropping out of KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, the band performed for 500 fans at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood on 28 May 2015 while between shows of their arena tour. U2 licensed several tracks from "Songs of Innocence" for use in the 2015 music video game "Rock Band 4"; "Cedarwood Road" was included with the game, while "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" and "California (There Is No End to Love)" were made available as downloadable content. Chris Milk and his company Vrse produced a 360-degree virtual reality video featuring U2 that was released in October 2015.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Promotion
This setlist was performed at the 5 September 2015 concert held at Pala Alpitour in Turin. It does not represent all shows throughout the tour. First act Second act Encore
Innocence + Experience Tour | Set list
The two bands performed a cover of "People Have the Power" before Eagles of Death Metal concluded the show with their song "I Love You All the Time". The band had been inviting fans on-stage to perform with them throughout their career, and they made this a regular occurrence on the Innocence + Experience Tour. Guest fan performers included a U2 tribute act and an Elvis impersonator. Prior to the tour, Bono said, "What was at the heart of punk rock for us was the desire to communicate on an equal basis with your audience, meaning there's no division between you and the people that come to see you."
Innocence + Experience Tour | Guest appearances
Kot lauded the "Innocence" suite in the act's first half, as well as the "series of songs that savaged the reawakening of the white-supremacist movement in America", but said the latter was undercut by the performance of "American Soul", which he called U2's "clumsiest and least persuasive" political song. "Nashville Scene" said, "When it comes to matching musical themes with jaw-dropping visuals, U2 concerts are the Steven Spielberg films, the James Cameron epics, the "Star Wars"-sized events of rock." The publication praised the group for being "determined not to rest on its laurels", but judged that their emphasis on newer material towards the end of the show at the expense of well-known hits was the one flaw of the concert.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Critical response
During an off-day on 29 July, the Edge and Clayton made a surprise appearance at the 20th anniversary party for the band's fansite @u2, and they joined a U2 tribute act in performing "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "Out of Control". On 30 July, Paul Simon joined U2 to play his song "Mother and Child Reunion", which they had been snippeting regularly on tour. On 31 July, the final date of the North American leg of the tour, Bruce Springsteen accompanied the band for performances of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and "Stand By Me".
Innocence + Experience Tour | Guest appearances
Bono said, "With this record we were looking for the raw, naked and personal, to strip everything back." According to Bono, the tattoo on Mullen's upper arm is based on Native American mythology of the Pawnee tribe and is a symbol of protecting innocence. The cover parallels those of the band's earlier albums, "Boy" (1980) and "War" (1983), which featured the face of a young boy, Peter Rowen, the younger brother of Guggi. The album's title, along with that of the group's 2017 follow-up, "Songs of Experience", are taken from William Blake's collection of poems "Songs of Innocence and of Experience".
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Packaging and title
Public sales of tickets began on 20 November, with registration required by 18 November. The first European dates were announced on 16 January 2018. U2.com subscribers were given the first opportunity to purchase tickets from 18–20 January, before public sales began on 26 January. Initial shows for Dublin and Belfast were announced on 29 January, with two additional Dublin concerts announced the following day. Ticket sales for these Irish dates began on 2 February. After the Belfast show sold out, a second date was added, tickets for which went on sale on 9 February. Every ticket purchased for the North American leg also came bundled with a copy of "Songs of Experience", which helped the album debut at number one on the US "Billboard" 200; it was the band's eighth number-one album in the US and made them the first group to attain number-one albums in the US in four consecutive decades—the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Planning, itinerary, and ticketing
Either "Elevation" or "Desire" were usually played next, although U2 sometimes rotated songs in their place at different concerts, such as "Ordinary Love" and "Volcano". Following B.B. King's death in May 2015, the band played "Angel of Harlem" and "When Love Comes to Town" to honour the singer-songwriter with whom they worked for "Rattle and Hum". An acoustic version of "Every Breaking Wave" was played from the e-stage, with just the Edge on piano and Bono's vocals. During the European leg, Bono and the Edge played "October" after "Every Breaking Wave". For "Bullet the Blue Sky", the singer thematically re-interpreted the song, modifying the mid-song spoken passage to be a criticism of the modern-day Bono and his excesses by his younger self.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
During this first meeting, Williams, Devlin, and Lipson created a scrapbook that served as the "style guide" for the tour's presentation, consisting of cut-outs, drawings, and paintings. Although "Songs of Innocence" was still in progress at the time and did not yet have a title, the autobiographical narrative that would characterise the album was already a driving idea for their tour. The band wanted to tell the story of their adolescence in Dublin in the 1970s and how they were "trying to figure out how they fit into the often violent and disrupted world outside" their homes. The manifesto for the tour was summarised by two phrases: "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me", and "I can change the world, but I can't change the world in me." The first is a lyric from the band's 1981 song "Rejoice" and represents the mindset of a teenage Bono feeling powerless to make a difference in a world plagued by the Troubles, who instead views personal psychological changes as a possibility; the second phrase represents the modern-day realisation that the same person could make a difference in the world through philanthropic efforts but still struggle with the complexities of internal change.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Conception
Each show on the North American leg opened with a trilogy of songs from "Songs of Experience". For "Love Is All We Have Left", Bono performed on the "barricage" walkway by himself. During "The Blackout", the screens displayed silhouettes of the band members that "Stereogum" said resembled "characters in a horror movie trying to break free of a glass chamber". The images flickered and during the chorus revealed U2 inside the "barricage" performing the song. During "Lights of Home", Bono sang on the "barricage" walkway as it inclined and he reached for the titular lights. The visuals showed a custom particle map that morphed into a nighttime image of the city in which the concert was taking place.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Concert synopsis
U2 officially announced the Experience + Innocence Tour and its North American dates on 1 November 2017, the same day they announced the release date for "Songs of Experience". The band decided not to open the tour in a large market such as New York or Los Angeles but instead to do so somewhere where they would face less pressure. The band chose Oklahoma, where Donald Trump received 65.3% of the state's votes in the 2016 US election. The group were curious how their progressive messages would be received in a conservative part of the US. The North American leg of the tour used Ticketmaster's "Verified Fan" platform for combating ticket reselling, making U2 the first group to do so for an entire arena tour leg.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Planning, itinerary, and ticketing
Compared to the album versions of the band's new songs, Ratliff said their live performances had "surprising authority" and "stronger blood". Ratliff concluded his review: "U2's hunger to combine and include has only grown greater; the triumph of the concert was finding an ordered, comprehensive rationale for it." Rob Hastings of "The Independent" called a London concert "one of the most unforgettable arena shows most people will have seen". Despite reservations about U2's new songs, Hastings praised the group for using the visuals to make the songs' personal nature connect with the audience. He said, "The songs blossom as their meanings emerge through the pixels as much as the lyrics." In another review of a London concert, Kitty Empire of "The Observer" said that the video screens offered "mixed-media renderings of U2's songs which veer from the mawkish to the mesmerising", but she thought the band "give great, thoughtful son et lumière".
Innocence + Experience Tour | Critical response
Reviewing the first show at the Forum, Roy Trakin in "Variety" said that "when it comes to performing live, the band remains the gold (and platinum) standard" and noted that U2 refused to rely on nostalgia, with almost half the set being taken from the last two albums. His review also said that the band were performing as a well-oiled machine despite being on the road for only two weeks at that point. Greg Kot of the "Chicago Tribune" called one of their Chicago concerts "sometimes stupefying, sometimes riveting, and brimmed with ideas, if not always the most proficient means of realizing them", while singling out the quietest moments as the most resonant.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Critical response
Bono described the music from the sessions with Burton as "more airborne, more light-footed". The band continued to make "great progress" on the record in January 2011 working with Burton in New York. However, after holding a creative meeting to review their schedule, they realized they would not be able to complete the record that year; their touring commitments limited their availability to work on the album and they had not yet completed the material written during Bono's rehabilitation. In February 2011, McGuinness said that the album was almost complete and had a tentative release date of May 2011, although he noted that "Songs of Ascent" was no longer the likely title.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Sessions with Danger Mouse
In 2016, U2 worked on their next studio album, "Songs of Experience", which was intended to be a companion piece to "Songs of Innocence". The group had mostly completed the album by year's end and planned to release it in the fourth quarter, but after the shift of global politics in a conservative direction, highlighted by the UK's Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election, they chose to put the record on hold and reassess its tone. The group spent the extra time rewriting lyrics, rearranging and remixing songs, and pursuing different production styles. U2 toured in 2017 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of "The Joshua Tree", with each show featuring a performance of the entire album.
U2 | "The Joshua Tree" anniversary tours and "Songs of Experience" (2016–2019)
After the relatively lukewarm commercial performance of their previous record, "No Line on the Horizon" (2009), lead singer Bono expressed uncertainty about the band's ability to remain musically relevant. During the five-and-a-half-year gestation period for "Songs of Innocence"—the longest gap between albums of their career—the group reportedly worked on several projects with multiple producers, including an aborted companion to their previous record called "Songs of Ascent". However, they struggled to complete an album to their satisfaction and continually delayed a release. After working with Danger Mouse for two years, the group collaborated with Flood, Epworth, and Tedder to complete "Songs of Innocence".
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Introduction
U2's previous tour, the U2 360° Tour, visited stadiums in Europe, North America, Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America from 2009 to 2011 and comprised 110 shows. The concerts featured the band playing "in the round" on a circular stage, allowing the audience to surround them on all sides. To accommodate the stage configuration, a large four-legged structure nicknamed "The Claw" was built above the stage, with the sound system and a cylindrical, expanding video screen on top of it. At tall, it was the largest stage ever constructed. U2 360° concluded in July 2011 as the highest-grossing concert tour (grossing $736 million) and the highest-attended concert tour (selling 7.3 million tickets).
Innocence + Experience Tour | Background
In November 2015, two films about the tour were scheduled to air on American television network HBO, but both were postponed. The first was a concert film entitled "Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris", originally planned for airing on 14 November to showcase a performance at AccorHotels Arena in Paris from earlier that day. However, the terrorist attacks in Paris the day prior forced U2's performance and the broadcast to be postponed until 7 December. The concert was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and via digital download on 10 June 2016. The second film, a behind-the-scenes tour documentary featuring interviews with the band and tour personnel, was originally scheduled to air on 7 November, a week prior to the original concert broadcast date, but it was also postponed.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Concert broadcast
After the intermission, the second act began with a performance of "Invisible" as a recreation of the Berlin Wall on the video screen dissolved to reveal U2 inside. The group remained inside the screen to perform half of "Even Better Than the Real Thing" before emerging to finish the song on-stage. For the next sequence, beginning with "Mysterious Ways", the band performed on the B-stage and the show was filmed by a fan on-stage with a mobile phone for live streaming online through the mobile app Meerkat. These performances were also projected onto the set's video screens. The live streams were first used during U2's Phoenix and Los Angeles shows.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
Around the release date of "No Line on the Horizon", Bono mentioned tentative plans for the group to release a follow-up record of songs from the album's recording sessions called "Songs of Ascent". Planned as a sister release to "No Line on the Horizon" (similar to "Zooropa"s relationship to "Achtung Baby"), the project was described by Bono as "a meditative, reflective piece of work" with the theme of pilgrimage. The band said that the first single was intended to be "Every Breaking Wave". However, the project was continually delayed, as U2 struggled to complete an album to their satisfaction and were limited by other commitments; these included the group's U2 360° Tour from 2009–2011, as well as Bono's and guitarist the Edge's commitment to writing the music and lyrics to the musical "", which itself experienced numerous delays and creative changes before its debut in June 2011.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Revelation of "Songs of Ascent"
According to "Billboard", the North American leg of the tour grossed US$76.2 million from 36 sold-out concerts. In total, the tour grossed US$152.2 million from 1.29 million attendees. The final date of the tour, one of two Paris shows rescheduled due to the 13 November 2015 attacks in the city, was filmed for the video "" and broadcast on the American television network HBO. In 2018, U2 reprised the tour's autobiographical narrative and stage setup for its sequel, the Experience + Innocence Tour.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Introduction
After "War" had been recorded, but three months before it was released, U2 began playing the Pre-War Tour: 20 shows, and a television appearance, in halls in Western Europe, commencing on 1 December 1982 in Glasgow and finishing in the band's home town, Dublin, on 24 December. These shows generally featured only three songs from the upcoming album – "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", and "Surrender". The 20 December performance in Belfast's Maysfield Leisure Centre represented the first airing of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in Northern Ireland; lead singer Bono told the crowd, "We're going to do a song for you now.
War Tour | Itinerary
Mullen flew home for the funeral and returned to Vancouver in time for the concert. On opening night, during the band's performance of the final song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", guitarist the Edge fell off the stage catwalk while playing guitar and proceeding to the exit. He narrowly escaped injury, only scraping his arm. Dennis Sheehan, the group's tour manager since 1982, died in Los Angeles on 27 May 2015 while on tour with the band. He was 68 years old. Bono said, "We've lost a family member, we're still taking it in. He wasn't just a legend in the music business, he was a legend in our band.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Complications
During the U2 360° Tour, it was snippeted in Pittsburgh (the final American tour date) and was revived on the last night of that tour in Moncton, New Brunswick as the tour's final song. It is U2's 15th-most performed live song, or 12-most performed if snippets are included in its total. The song made its Innocence + Experience Tour debut on 27 May 2015 in Inglewood, and was dedicated to the memory of their recently deceased tour manager Dennis Sheehan, before going on to close many of the subsequent shows on that tour.
40 (song) | Live performances
According to music journalist Jon Pareles, "Songs of Innocence" features U2 strictly playing rock music, particularly arena rock, whose elaborate production "puts a higher gloss, and sometimes a heavier fuzz tone, on the band's instantly recognizable sound". Thematically, "Songs of Innocence" revisits the group members' youth in Ireland in the 1970s, touching on childhood memories, loves, and losses, while paying tribute to their musical inspirations. Bono described it as "the most personal album we've written". In an interview with Gus Wenner of "Rolling Stone", he said, "Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Composition
We've got so much material at different stages of completion, it's going to be a nice problem when we've got a few weeks to look at it." After the band performed at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in November, Bono and the Edge traveled to the South of France for a two-week songwriting session, followed by a studio session in New York City in December. A December 2009 report indicated that U2 had been working in the studio with the goal of a mid-2010 release. By April 2010, U2's manager Paul McGuinness confirmed the group would not be finished by June, but said that a release "before the end of the year is increasingly likely." In May, Bono was forced to undergo emergency back surgery after suffering a compressed sciatic nerve.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Revelation of "Songs of Ascent"
Jeff Miers of "The Buffalo News" gave the concert a favourable review, saying that the band mostly "rose to the occasion through the course of a two-hour show filled with songs and statements that seemed eerily prescient." Miers thought the "Songs of Innocence" tracks were weaker compared to the group's other songs, but overall praised the concert: "During its many majestic moments, the band's show suggested that the spirit that infuses the best rock music – one of defiant optimism, compassion and passion, a liberal and open-minded view of the world, and the stubborn belief that a few chords and a little truth can change the world, one consciousness at a time – was not snuffed out when terrorists stormed the Bataclan." Reviewing the home video release, Mike Mettler of "Sound & Vision" said, "U2's live-stage mastery is on generous full display here, directed with a keen, all-encompassing eye by longtime band video associate Hamish Hamilton".
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris | Reception
"Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris" was originally scheduled to air on American television network HBO on 14 November 2015 to showcase a performance by U2 on their Innocence + Experience Tour at AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France from earlier that day. However, the broadcast was rescheduled after the terrorist attacks in Paris the day prior forced the postponement of the band's final two Paris concerts, which were scheduled for 14 and 15 November. The shows were rescheduled to 6 and 7 December, making them the final dates of the European leg of the tour. According to tour producer Arthur Fogel, "minimal" refunds were requested (3,000 of the 34,000 tickets sold).
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris | Background
Songs from the albums "Eyes Of Innocence", "Gloria Estefan Greatest Hits", "Abriendo Puertas" and "Alma Caribeña" were not included.
Live &amp; Re-Wrapped Tour | Tour history
On their website the band announced that they will be touring with Pillar and The Wedding on their new tour "Nothing and Everything" Tour which started in January 2010. In March, the band toured with Breaking Benjamin, Thousand Foot Krutch and Chevelle, followed by the Awake and Alive Tour with Skillet and The Letter Black.
Red (band) | "Innocence & Instinct" (2008–2010)
For the latter song, Bono also paid tribute to the recently deceased celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. The show was broadcast in North America on Sirius XM's U2 channel. Subscribers of U2.com for 2019 received an exclusive live album entitled "Live Songs of iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE" on double CD and via digital download. The record contained live renditions of 23 songs from the "Songs of Innocence" and "Experience" albums that were performed between 2015 and 2018.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Promotions, broadcasts, and releases
Following the album's release, U2 embarked on a worldwide concert tour, the Joshua Tree Tour. Lasting from April to December 1987, it comprised 109 shows over three legs. The first and third legs visited the US, while the second leg toured Europe. "The Joshua Tree" elevated the group to a new level of popularity; the tour sold out arenas and stadiums around the world—the first time they consistently performed at venues of that size. Songs from the album became staples of the tour's set lists, as the group regularly performed eight of the record's eleven tracks, and the only song not to be played was "Red Hill Mining Town".
The Joshua Tree | The Joshua Tree Tour
Bono said he was uncertain that he would ever be able to play guitar again. The injury forced the band to cancel a headlining appearance at KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas, as well as a week-long residency as the musical guest on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". The other three members of U2 kept a commitment to perform in Times Square on World AIDS Day on 1 December 2014; Chris Martin of Coldplay and Bruce Springsteen filled in as lead vocalists. U2 returned to "The Tonight Show" on 8 May 2015, and participated in sketches in which they mocked Bono's bicycle injury and busked in a New York City Subway station in disguise.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Promotion
Bono called the track a "sneak preview" of their pending record. On 9 September 2014, U2 appeared at an Apple product launch event to make a surprise announcement of their thirteenth studio album, "Songs of Innocence". They released it digitally the same day to all iTunes Store customers at no cost, making it available to over 500 million people in what Apple CEO Tim Cook called "the largest album release of all time". Apple reportedly paid Universal Music Group and U2 a lump sum for a five-week exclusivity period in which to distribute the album and spent US$100 million on a promotional campaign.
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
U2 paid tribute to the victims of the attacks by displaying their names on the video screen during their performance of "City of Blinding Lights". The display was created by Willie Williams and the tour's video team. Guitarist the Edge said the group tried to balance paying tribute "in an artful way that doesn't feel exploitive or jingoistic or anything trite". At the end of the show, the group were joined on-stage by Eagles of Death Metal, who were returning to the city for the first time since their show at the Bataclan where the deadliest of the attacks in Paris occurred, killing 89 people.
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris | Concert overview and production
"Songs of Experience" was released on 1 December 2017. The first single, "You're the Best Thing About Me", is one of many songs from the album that are letters written by Bono to people and places closest to his heart. The personal nature of the lyrics reflects a "brush with mortality" that he had during the album's recording. In 2018, the group embarked on the Experience + Innocence Tour, beginning in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on 2 May 2018. It grossed $126.2 million from 924,000 tickets sold, according to "Billboard". U2's "Joshua Tree" anniversary concert tour visited Oceania and Asia in 2019, marking the band's first performances in Australia and New Zealand since the 360° Tour in 2010, and their first ever performances in South Korea, Singapore, India, and the Philippines.
U2 | "The Joshua Tree" anniversary tours and "Songs of Experience" (2016–2019)
On 9 September 2014, after a five-and-a-half-year gap between records, U2 announced their thirteenth studio album, "Songs of Innocence", at an Apple product launch event. It was released digitally the same day to all iTunes Store customers at no cost. The release made the album available to over 500 million iTunes customers in what Apple CEO Tim Cook called "the largest album release of all time." "Songs of Innocence" revisits the group members' youth in Ireland in the 1970s, touching on childhood memories, loves, and losses, while paying tribute to their musical inspirations. Lead vocalist Bono described it as "the most personal album we've written." It received mixed reviews, and some critics and consumers were critical of the digital release strategy; the album was automatically added to users' iTunes accounts without their consent, which for many, triggered an unprompted download to their devices.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Background
Towards the end of the song during North American performances, he said, "Hands up, I'm an American" and "I can't breathe, I'm an American", addressing the civil unrest in US communities caused by police violence against African-Americans. During the European leg, Bono replaced this segment with pleas for resolution to the Syrian refugee crisis, along with a snippet of "Zooropa" re-contextualised by the crisis seguing into "Where the Streets Have No Name". Performances of "Pride (In the Name of Love)" were preluded by an extended snippet of "The Hands That Built America". "With or Without You" was played late in the second act, with the group often shuffling its position in the setlist.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Show overview
So right now, we'd love to finish that tour. I would imagine it's gonna be with very similar production components... But we like that tour and that project wasn't completed. It is still alive in our minds creatively." On 1 November 2017, the band announced the Experience + Innocence Tour as a sequel to the Innocence + Experience Tour, with concerts in North America and Europe in 2018 to support "Songs of Experience".
Innocence + Experience Tour | Sequel tour
In Canada, the album debuted at number five on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 4,600 copies in its first week before dropping off the chart. The album reached number one in Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and Spain.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Commercial performance
The four shows at Milan's Mediolanum Forum grossed $7 million from 50,661 tickets sold, while the four-show run in the band's hometown of Dublin grossed $6.4 million from 46,529 tickets sold. In total, the tour grossed $126,188,344 from 923,733 tickets sold, with an average gross of $2,138,785 per concert, according to "Billboard". During the magazine's reporting period from 1 November 2017 to 31 October 2018, U2 grossed $119,203,900, ranking the Experience + Innocence Tour as the top-grossing rock tour and the seventh-highest overall.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Commercial performance
For the final leg of the tour it was moved back to the midpoint of the show and featured a video of astronaut Mark Kelly. On the Innocence + Experience Tour it has either appeared late in the main set or during the encore. It is featured on the live films "", "", and "". The song was also performed on stage during U2's set at the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park in London. with slightly different lyrics in the bridge that mentioned the different cities where the Live 8 concerts took place.
Beautiful Day | Live performances
The track, written in honour of Nelson Mandela, won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. In November 2013, U2's long-time manager Paul McGuinness stepped down from his post as part of a deal with Live Nation to acquire his management firm, Principle Management. McGuinness, who had managed the group for over 30 years, was succeeded by Guy Oseary. In February 2014, another new U2 song, the single "Invisible", debuted in a Super Bowl television advertisement and was made available in the iTunes Store at no cost to launch a partnership with Product Red and Bank of America to fight AIDS.
U2 | "Songs of Innocence" and Innocence + Experience Tour (2011–2015)
In mid-March 1981, the "Three" songs were united to close the main set. "Stories for Boys" was first, followed by "Boy/Girl", which segued into "Out of Control". This trilogy lasted until the end of the tour. "Boy/Girl" and "Stories for Boys" did not remain in the band's live repertoire long after the end of the Boy Tour. "Boy/Girl" was played three times afterwards, while "Stories for Boys" was initially frequently performed on the October Tour before it was removed from the setlist in late March 1982. "Out of Control", however, remained in the band's live show for longer, rotating with "Gloria" as the concert opener on the War Tour and the first leg of the Unforgettable Fire Tour.
Three (U2 EP) | Performance history
The whole album is first journeys—first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually." He said that he felt challenged to write about more personal themes and why he wanted to be in a rock band after producer Jimmy Iovine told him, "The person you need to be to make the album that you wanna make is a long way from where you live." "Rolling Stone" deemed "Songs of Innocence" as having the feeling of a concept album, a notion that Bono rejected, although he did opine it was lyrically cohesive in a way the group's other records were not. For the album, the group revisited adolescent musical influences, such as punk rock band Ramones and electronic music group Kraftwerk, for inspiration.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Composition
However, it became a regular again on the 3rd leg, being played late in the main set replacing the song "Mysterious Ways", which was used in that spot on the previous two legs. It was played at the majority of both the Vertigo and U2 360° Tours, typically early-to-mid main set. It was used as the closing song at just under half of the shows on the Innocence + Experience Tour, rotating with "One" and "40". Island Records commissioned New York choir director, Dennis Bell, to record a gospel version of the song, and Island intended to release it after U2's single.
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For | Live performances
Bono said the track was not the lead single from its pending record but rather a "sneak preview – to remind people we exist". With U2 having released two standalone singles written during their sessions with him, Burton admitted in March 2014 that he did not know the fate of the record or if he was even still its producer. That month, "Billboard" reported that the album and its supporting tour would be pushed back until 2015, which was denied by a spokesperson for the band. The report also stated that U2 had scheduled additional recording sessions with Tedder and Epworth; the band were seen shortly thereafter with Epworth in London and believed to be working at Church Studios.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Sessions with Tedder, Epworth, Gaffney, and Flood
Since then sequencers are now used on the majority of U2 songs in performance. Songs criticised as being "unfinished", "fuzzy" and "unfocused" on the album, including the live favourite, "Bad", made more sense on stage. For the first time, U2 consistently played in arenas instead of smaller halls and theatres, and sometimes for multiple nights. The group had reached the level of popularity where this was possible, but had not yet broken out into widespread fame and familiarity among the general rock and pop audience; that would come in 1987 with the release of "The Joshua Tree". The band's now renowned performance at Live Aid in July 1985, was watched by millions on television and brought them to a new level of fame and exposure.
The Unforgettable Fire Tour | Introduction
U2 received a nomination at the American Music Awards of 2018 for Tour of the Year. For the 30th Annual Pollstar Awards, the tour was nominated in the Major Tour of the Year and Best Rock Tour categories, while Jake Berry was nominated in the Road Warrior category. At the 2019 "Billboard" Music Awards, U2 were nominated for Top Rock Tour.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Accolades
The closing track, "The Troubles", was described by Bono as "an uncomfortable song about domestic violence". The deluxe editions of the album feature two additional songs. "Lucifer's Hands" is based on an instrumental piece titled "Return of the Stingray Guitar" that U2 debuted live in 2010 and performed as the opening song at each of their 32 concerts that year. "The Crystal Ballroom" is written about the former Dublin nightclub of the same name (later known as McGonagle's) where the band frequently performed in their early years. Lyrically, Bono imagines himself on-stage at the venue witnessing his parents dancing in the audience.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Composition
Progress on their album was further limited by a period of mourning after Mandela's death, the group's promotional commitments for the film, and the awards ceremonies. In November 2013, "Billboard" reported that the band's new album had a tentative release date of April 2014, and that it would be announced in a Super Bowl television advertisement. Instead, another new U2 song, the single "Invisible", was unveiled in the Super Bowl advertisement in February 2014. The song was released digitally in the iTunes Store at no cost to launch a partnership with Product Red and Bank of America to fight AIDS.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Sessions with Tedder, Epworth, Gaffney, and Flood
U2 spent three months in the studio in late 2011, taking a break only for Bono to recuperate from the flu. In June 2012, he appeared on "The Late Late Show" and said that the group had just concluded its "best three weeks in the studio since 1979". In January 2013, the band members said their new album would be released by September and that its working title was "10 Reasons to Exist". Early that year, at Burton's invitation, Swedish singer Lykke Li travelled to Los Angeles to record backing vocals for the song "The Troubles" without U2 present. In May, U2 spent time at New York's Electric Lady Studios with Burton, who was completing his mixing duties for the record.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Sessions with Danger Mouse
The concert was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and via digital download on 10 June 2016. Deluxe editions of physical copies include bonus video material. A super deluxe bundle includes: a USB light bulb; a 64-page hardcover book; stencil set; dog tags; badges; and a downloadable copy of the concert. The packaging for the home release was designed by AMP Visual in conjunction with long-time band consultant Gavin Friday. The cover image depicts a lightbulb, which was used as a prop at the beginning of shows on the Innocence + Experience Tour to represent U2's early, innocent days. The light bulb on the cover was taken from a desk lamp, photographed, and given a "tough punk-like graphic" treatment.
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris | Release
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris (stylised as iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE: Live in Paris) is a 2016 concert film by Irish rock band U2. It was shot on 7 December 2015 at AccorHotels Arena in Paris, France, on the final date of the band's Innocence + Experience Tour. The concert aired on American television network HBO the same day as the show, and was later released worldwide on home video on DVD, Blu-ray, and via digital download on 10 June 2016. The video depicts U2's return to Paris less than a month after the 13 November 2015 attacks in the city.
Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris | Introduction
With the exception of two shows early in the tour, the song was played at every date of the 2015 Innocence + Experience Tour, typically opening the encore. The lighting effects utilised the numerous fluorescent tubes set around the stage, while the video screen showed cityscapes at night superimposed with the band members performances. The song reappeared in a regular slot closing out the main set of that tour's companion, the 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour, with a similar visual presentation. One reviewer called the presentation a "veritable explosion of light effects". The main set finale role held special importance due to the fact that all of the songs from "The Joshua Tree", including "Where the Streets Have No Name", were removed from the Experience + Innocence Tour, having just been played in sequence during the intervening Joshua Tree Tour 2017.
City of Blinding Lights | Live performances
In August 2010, new reports emerged regarding U2's multiple album projects, claiming that the band were working on: a traditional rock album produced by Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton; a dance-centric album produced by David Guetta, RedOne, and will.i.am; and the meditative material comprising "Songs of Ascent". Bono and the Edge continued to express an interest in releasing the songs written for the "Spider-Man" musical. When the U2 360° Tour resumed that month, the group debuted several unreleased tracks live, including "Every Breaking Wave". In October 2010, Bono said that U2's new album would be produced by Burton, and that 12 songs had been completed, while McGuinness said it was slated for an early 2011 release.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Sessions with Danger Mouse
Following the album's release, the band discussed tentative plans for a follow-up record entitled "Songs of Ascent". Bono described the project as "a more meditative album on the theme of pilgrimage". The group embarked on the U2 360° Tour in June 2009. It was their first live venture for Live Nation under a 12-year, US$100 million (£50 million) contract signed the year prior. As part of the deal, the company assumed control over U2's touring, merchandising, and official website. The 360° Tour concerts featured the band playing stadiums "in the round" on a circular stage, allowing the audience to surround them on all sides.
U2 | "No Line on the Horizon" and U2 360° Tour (2006–2011)
According to "Billboard", the North American leg's 36 shows grossed $76,166,563 from 650,582 tickets sold; all shows were sold-out. The two shows in Toronto alone grossed $4.4 million from 38,364 tickets sold, while the eight shows in New York grossed $19,474,285 from 149,942 tickets sold. In total, the tour grossed $152.2 million from 1,286,416 tickets sold, making U2 the fourth-highest-grossing artist of 2015.
Innocence + Experience Tour | Commercial performance
The Innocence + Experience Tour was well received by critics. Philip Cosores of Consequence of Sound, reviewing a Los Angeles show, said, "U2 was every bit the brash, boisterous, larger-than-life rock stars fans would expect, or even hope for". He complimented the show for feeling intimate and said that performances of the new songs "argued that perhaps the most recent U2 output was given an unfair shake from critics more interested in attacking the new album's release method than the actual songs". Greg Kot of the "Chicago Tribune" praised the show, writing, "Visuals, sound and sequencing synced up to tell a story, but it was a story built on emotionally involving songs presented with a minimum of fuss." Kot, who was critical of "Songs of Innocence", thought the album's songs were redeemed by their live performances, saying, "it's tempting to ask for a do-over of [U2's] latest album...
Innocence + Experience Tour | Critical response
The song continued to be performed sporadically through the rest of the tour, appearing at 48 of 113 concerts. "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" was not played during the Vertigo Tour, but U2 revived it on the U2 360° Tour. It was played sporadically on the first and second leg of the tour, and was a mainstay feature of the fifth leg. It was the only song from "Zooropa" performed by U2 at the Glastonbury Festival in 2011. After being absent from the setlists for the entirety of the Innocence + Experience and Joshua Tree 30 tours, it returned for the last 20 concerts of the 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour, when it was performed by the full band and electrically for the first time since the Zoo TV Tour.
Stay (Faraway, So Close!) | Live performances
Presented by Apple Music, the video was promoted in an Apple-branded bus, dubbed "The Experience Bus", that was located outside The O2 Arena prior to the band's London concerts on the Innocence + Experience Tour. The bus was equipped with Oculus Rift headsets and Beats Solos headphones for fans to use to view the video. It was also released through Vrse's mobile app. The video combines footage of U2 performing "Song for Someone" inside an empty Toronto venue with clips of fans worldwide also playing the song. Production on the project began two months before Apple Music's launch and saw filming take place in 11 countries.
Songs of Innocence (U2 album) | Promotion
Although not played until the fourth leg of the PopMart Tour of 1997 and 1998, it returned to the normal set list for 2001's Elevation Tour and saw occasional performances during the Vertigo Tour of 2005 and 2006, sometimes even appearing as the closing song for shows. It made very sporadic appearances on the U2 360° Tour and has featured occasionally on the Innocence + Experience Tour.
Bad (U2 song) | Live performances
The band's first single, "Out of Control", "Bad" and "40" each closed a single show, each of them played after usual closer "Moment of Surrender".
U2 360° Tour | Encores
Bono said the group intended the 2018 tour to be "less self-indulgent" and wanted to stay current by incorporating new technology and audience interaction into the production. Production Resource Group (PRG), which has been involved in each U2 tour since 1992, began planning the Experience + Innocence Tour in September 2017. The firm started by trying to solve the weight problem from the original tour, an issue further complicated by the band's request to make the LED screens higher resolution, more transparent, and able to support an augmented reality (AR) element. The firm re-thought how to design an LED screen and devised a new system called Pure10.
Experience + Innocence Tour | Development
The album cover depicted the same young child who had appeared on the cover of their debut album, albeit with his previously innocent expression replaced by a fearful one. On the subsequent 1983 War Tour of Europe, the US, and Japan, the band began to play progressively larger venues, moving from clubs to halls to arenas. Bono attempted to engage the growing audiences with theatrical, often dangerous antics, climbing scaffoldings and lighting rigs and jumping into the audience. The sight of Bono waving a white flag during performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" became the tour's iconic image. The band played several dates at large European and American music festivals, including a performance at the US Festival on Memorial Day weekend for an audience of 125,000 people.
U2 | "War" (1982–1983)