Joshua Tree 2019 Tour Updates and Rehearsals: October 23, 2019

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-10-25)

Update: October 25, 2019:

Word has reached us that the rehearsals are now complete in Monaco. The band have worked in a private space in Monaco for three weeks, as mentioned below, on the material for the upcoming The Joshua Tree Tour 2019. The studio is being emptied, instruments packed up, and will be shipped to New Zealand from here. Much the same as 2018 when the band worked in Monaco before relocating to Laval, no information on what songs were rehearsed is known. In 2018, only one song was known, but only because the band shared video of themselves rehearsing. The crew is expected to start some set up in New Zealand late next week, and some equipment is already present and waiting to be unpacked in Auckland, as can be seen below. The first public show is 13 days away – less than two week. For those still looking at going and don’t have a ticket, tickets are available for many of the shows in New Zealand and Australia from Ticketek / Ticketmaster, and just yesterday there was a drop of tickets in a variety of areas including GA for Sydney 1.

The upcoming rehearsals in New Zealand, starting in early November, will be in an open air stadium, and we expect that information about what is being played will start to leak out. We will mark any song related information with spoiler tags, but we assume at this point that everyone won’t be spoiled by knowing the songs from The Joshua Tree are being played.

Original Story: October 23, 2019:

With the next U2 tour due to start in just over two weeks things have been quiet and we have been getting lots of questions about when rehearsals will start.

They’ve already started! Rehearsals started on October 8, in a private rehearsal space in Monaco. U2 used a similar space in 2018 ahead of moving to Laval for rehearsals. It is private, and little to no information about what was practiced in that space in 2018 leaked, except for information that U2 shared themselves. Likewise this year there has been little to share from the rehearsals there. The first day was mostly set up and the techs at work. The band joined them on the second day with the exception of Bono, who appears to have not been present for the first few days of rehearsal. But the full band has been at work since that week, although we are unable to tell you what has been played.

During the press for the announcement of the Mumbai date, The Edge did reveal that the band were planning on keeping a similar structure to the 2017 tour, with a set of songs released before The Joshua Tree to open the show, then the full album, then an encore of material from after The Joshua Tree but did not divulge any of the songs that would be included. Since the 2017 tour, the band have released a new album, Songs of Experience and fans are hopeful that some of the material from that album may make it to the new tour.

As we told you back in September, the original plan was for U2 to move into Mt Smart stadium on November 3, with the crew setting up the stage that day, and the band starting to rehearse when the stage was set up. They were prevented from accessing the stadium earlier due to a Metallica tour stop on November 2. Metallica has since canceled the tour date planned for that night, and U2’s team now have been able to access the stadium for a longer period. U2Start have posted some photographs by Andrew over on their Twitter feed which shows that containers have arrived and are in storage at the site already:


Although the stage will be ready to go earlier due to the Metallica cancellation, we are told that the plan is still to continue rehearsal until the end of the month in Europe, and the band will not be moving to Mt Smart for rehearsals until early November.

A few other notes on the tour…

In Adelaide it appears there have been some configuration changes to the stadium, and due to this some seats are no longer going to have good visibility. We’ve spoken to a handful of people who have been contacted to be told that their seats are being relocated. In most cases when this occurs the seats are relocated to a similar view point that was expected with the initial tickets. If you are seated for the Adelaide concert, you should keep an eye for any changes in your order. My understanding is that those who are facing changes due to this configuration change are all notified at this point. The changes seem to affect those sitting in sections near the stage on either side of the venue in the original configuration.

Also many fans are starting to worry about receipt of tickets. Ticketek has listed some information on their site about these early shows, which points out that the Collector Tickets will not be sent out prior to October 14, and that mobile tickets will not become active until 72 hours prior to the event. Ticketmaster lists that the collectors tickets will be delayed until a month prior to the event, with mobile and print-at-home tickets being available only 72 hours before the event. (You’ll be able to see confirmation you purchased the mobile tickets before that, but the actual ticket to get in won’t pop up until 72 hours before.) Ticketmaster is also listing that tickets are sent out via mail in batches, so not everyone may receive tickets at one time, and that if you have not received tickets you are expecting via mail 5 days before the event that you should contact customer services.

Live Nation has been sending a more recent update about the Collector’s tickets: “3D Collector tickets for U2 were started to be sent last week. They are sent via registered post so please keep an eye out for a calling card from Aus Post if you happen to miss the delivery. We will be sending out tracking numbers in the coming days.”

Finally there are a bunch of activities being planned around the Australian and New Zealand shows.

Auckland:

  • November 7: Doolan Brothers Bar and Eatery, 6pm, dinner, drinks and U2 music.

Brisbane:

  • November 11: Walking / Sightseeing tour, 8:15 (leaving from Adelaide and Edward Street) or 10:45am (leaving from King George Square). See below for registration details.
  • November 11: Pig ‘N’ Whistle Riverside, 6pm, dinner, drinks, acoustic U2 covers

Melbourne:

  • November 14: P.J. O’Brien’s Southbank, 6pm, dinner, drinks, acoustic U2 covers

Adelaide:

  • November 18: i Darts Adelaide, time to be announced, U2 karaoke, darts and drinks

Sydney:

  • November 21: The U2 Conference Australia Edition 2019: All day event including academic research presentations, and a film screening of Mystify and a discussion with director Richard Lowenstein. (Requires registration, see below for registration details)
  • November 21: The Palace Hotel, 4pm, drinks and food
  • November 21: Harbour Cruise, Circular Quay: Cruise, dance floor with U2 songs, drinks and food (Sold Out)

Perth:

  • November 26: The Camfield Burswood, 6pm, dinner, drinks

For more information about most of these events, you can find the organizers of many of them fielding questions on U2 The Joshua Tree Tour Down Under 2019 over on Facebook. The organizer of the walking tour has asked that you register your place for this free tour. The U2 Conference have information and directions to register for the event here.

Many thanks to Nicole, Phillip, and Nicole for their input on this article.

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