First, the "bad" news: With U2's Innocence + Experience tour just a couple weeks away from starting, our major upgrade of @U2 Tours (the former U2tours.com site) won't be finished before U2 takes the stage on May 14.
But I actually think that's good news. Why? Because it's more proof that we're not rushing to get things done quickly; we're working hard to get them done correctly.
Even though it's not finished, the Tours team has made fantastic progress, and I want to share the details of that with you below.
Tour Updates Completed
So far, we've finished updating setlists for the following tours:
When I say we've finished updating setlists, this is what I mean: Our crew has listened to live recordings of every show that has a live recording available, comparing what we hear to what was already listed as the setlist and making all updates needed.
That, as you can imagine, is a gargantuan task and one that we don't want to rush through. The end goal is to have the most accurate U2 concert setlists anywhere -- on the web, in print, you name it. So, we're going to listen closely to live recordings of every show we can find.
We have a private discussion group where the team shares audio clips and has excellent debates over what we hear Bono singing, and whether it should be listed as a snippet. Here's a sample of what we've added to the completed tours listed above:
Boy
- almost three dozens instances of "Cry"
- more than two dozens instances of "Send In The Clowns"
- almost 10 instances of "I'm A Believer"
- six instances of "Yankee Doodle Dandy"
- one instance of Bono snippeting a Mott The Hoople song
- one instance of Bono snippeting a song by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Pre-War & War
- many more "Cry" and "Send In The Clowns" snippets
- 26 instances of "Drowning Man" (plus two others on later tours)
- the first nine instances of "Billie Jean"
- three instances of Bono snippeting the unique lyrics from the "New Year's Day (U.S.A. Remix)"
- one instance of Bono snippeting a band called The Pebbles
- one instance of "The Cutter" by Echo & The Bunnymen (and another on a later tour)
The Unforgettable Fire
- the only known snippet of "Elvis Presley And America"
- the only known instance of "In A Big Country"
- the only known instance of "Little Drummer Boy"
- the only known instance of Bono snippeting a German children's song called "There's A Hole In My Bucket"
- the first and only time Bono snippeted a Simon & Garfunkel song
- the first and only time Bono snippeted a Kool & The Gang song
That's just a sample of what's been added to the setlists, and every week we're adding more songs, new snippets and more, as we continue to track down live recordings of every available U2 concert and listen to them closely so our data is as accurate as it can be.
Other Additions
We're not just updating setlists. Our concert pages have a lot more details than that. We're also adding:
Attendance figures: If attendance and venue capacity are known or can be found, we're adding that. Like this show from 1985.
Audio & Video: We're adding links to great YouTube videos of individual songs, and embedding entire concert videos when available. You can see both in action on this 1984 concert, where almost every song has its own video link, and below the setlist you can watch the whole concert without leaving the site.
Extra "Tags": There's a lot of extra info that we knows fans want to know about, like when Edge has performed outside of traditional U2 shows or when Bono has sung the "shine like stars" coda during "With Or Without You." That's not actually a song, so we can't call it a snippet, but we are tracking when it's sung. Look at the bottom of this concert page where you'll see it in the "Tags" section.
You can click on any tag and see all the shows that match. This is very much still in progress, so expect to see more tags and more instances of "shine like stars" and other tags being added as we go. By the way, the list of Edge appearances is here.
How To Help
As we keep working, there are several ways you can get involved. Let me share a few.
1.) Create your account and U2 fan profile page on the Tours site. It's super easy to do, but we have instructions online to help you get started just in case. Once your profile is setup, find the U2 shows you've been to and click the link to indicate that you were there. Add reviews and photos or, if you wrote reviews long ago over at U2tours.com, claim those so they can be added to your profile.
2.) Help us locate live recordings of the following shows:
- Sept. 4, 1984: Sydney
- Sept. 11, 1984: Brisbane
- Sept. 13, 1984: Melbourne
- Sept. 14, 1984: Melbourne
- Sept. 20, 1984: Adelaide
- Sept. 21, 1984: Adelaide
- Sept. 23, 1984: Perth
- Sept. 24, 1984: Perth
- March 11, 1985: Honolulu
- May 3, 1985: Miami Gardens
- May 4, 1985: Miami Gardens
- August 25, 1985: Cork
- December 1, 2010: Melbourne
- December 3, 2010: Melbourne
- December 8, 2010: Brisbane
- December 9, 2010: Brisbane
- December 13, 2010: Sydney
- December 14, 2010: Sydney
- December 18, 2010: Perth
- December 19, 2010: Perth
- June 1, 2011: Edmonton, Canada
3.) Suggest great YouTube videos that we should link to from our concert detail pages. Here's what we're looking for.
That's all for now. Even though our work isn't finished on the new Tours site, we're planning to operate as you'd normally expect when the tour begins next week. We'll be posting setlists live as they happen, adding photos, videos and our concert recaps -- and inviting you to do the same after each show you attend. Exciting times ahead, and we're excited to share them with you just as we've been doing for 20 years.
(c) @U2, 2015.
