U2 will be back in European stadiums

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman. On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Ciara Kelly (0:57)

Silencio, new music, of course, there, from U2. And we are joined now by John Caddell, Deputy Managing Editor of Today FM, Let's discuss the fact that U2, of course, have announced dates. The World Tour, the European leg of their Greatest Show on Earth Tour has been announced. John, tell us what we can expect.

John Caddell (1:15)

Well, they've announced a number of dates in Sweden, in France, the Netherlands, in London, and also Germany and Italy. And they're spreading from the late April to very, very start of July. Now, there's only about 13, 14 dates there, so you would imagine that those available dates will be sort of filled in as we go on.

Ciara Kelly (1:36)

You think that they're just a teaser as opposed to U2 slowing down in terms of, I suppose, the pace of their tour?

John Caddell (1:43)

Oh, God. Now, there's absolutely no way that this is the full entire European tour. No way.

Ciara Kelly (1:49)

Okay. So they're kicking off in February. That's the South American leg. And then they're starting 26th of April, the European leg.

Everybody, I suppose, here, though, listening is going, what about us? Now, they're saying 2028, they're going to end the tour. So we were just discussing all fair there that there is two, as we understand it to be, free dates in Croke Park still next year. But you think it probably will be 2028 for the end of the tour?

John Caddell (2:16)

Well, I think The Edge came out today and said, what we can say is we'll be wrapping it up in Ireland. So I wouldn't, I mean, it says also in this press release in front of me that they have plans to extend the tour into 2028 And just putting that together, it would lead me to believe that, no, we won't see them here in Ireland next year. It'll be 2028 Now, the fact that they did the Buleys balcony and they did Mount Temple was probably a nod to the fact that it's gonna be a while before we see them again in Ireland. But I mean, with regard to what the live show is going to be, I mean, they've already changed the concept of what a live show can be at least twice in the last 30 odd years with Zoo TV and then with The Sphere.

And it struck me that to call your concert tour The Greatest Show on Earth, you're sort of setting yourself up.

Ciara Kelly (3:03)

So you're going to top you're going to top that.

John Caddell (3:05)

Yeah, it won't just be like, you know, just some some basic scaffolding and Bono coming out in a moped. It's it's you know, you would imagine that with this fear behind them, what they're going to want to do next is going to be equally spectacular.

Ciara Kelly (3:18)

There was some issues, wasn't there, around Larry over recent concert dates, obviously some kind of a strain on his arm or what have you. Are we expecting it will be all four lads, if we can still call them lads, back on tour this time?

John Caddell (3:31)

No, very briefly, Larry's back, which he had suffered from for years became untenable and he had to sit out the entirety of the sphere dates in order to get surgery and recovery on his back. In a procedure that he says since only a few weeks ago, said it could have left him crippled, but he said that's how much he wanted to play the drums again in U2.

All right, so he's back. Yeah, he's back. Excuse the pun, and he will be behind the kit for all of these dates.

Ciara Kelly (4:00)

Yeah, and obviously you're saying 2028 And are we thinking then that that would, I mean, I think the last time I saw them was the.

I think the last time I saw them was the Aviva maybe, but I certainly saw them in Croke Park in 2017, I think. Are we thinking it will be a big, big venue like Croke Park or indeed potentially slain? Are we thinking along those lines or do you see them playing somewhere like, like? The three arena?

John Caddell (4:26)

Well, no, I think they did that with Innocence and Experience. The thing about the Innocence and Experience albums is that they were a lot more personal. They were, the songs were a lot, I don't know if they were built for Stadia, you know, U2 themselves may disagree, but they seemed a lot more personal and a lot more intimate.