When the U2 360 Tour begins next month, the band will have three stages crisscrossing Europe and North America. That's one of the things U2 fan Bart Mot of Belgium learned this week while visiting the StageCo grounds in Werchter -- where part of the stage design is being built.

As we've reported on our home page, Bart has been posting photos from his visits to StageCo over the past week, and was able to speak with a StageCo employee about what's going on. Bart's latest photos are posted now; they show the enormous towers that the crew will use to build and take down the stage at each venue. (Scroll to the bottom of Bart's photo page.)

According to Bart, the StageCo employee shared these details about the tour and stage:

• There will be three "claws" built for the tour. (Bart's photos are of the first claw.) The other two haven't been built yet, but will be easier after they figure out how to build the first one.
• This first claw will be used in Barcelona, Gelsenkirchen, two U.K. shows, and Paris.
• It'll take four days to build the claw at each venue.
• The towers are 27 meters high, and the claw itself will be about 50 meters high. The towers will be moved out of the way after the stage is built and before the show starts.
• The "cover sheets" for the claw just arrived and are being tested this week.
• They'll start building the stage in Barcelona on June 15th.
• The tour may visit South America in 2010.

Big thanks to Bart for taking and posting the photos and for sharing these details with us from conversations with the StageCo folks.



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