Updated Rumours: NZ, Australia, Asia U2 Tour in 2019

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-05-30)

On May 16, 2019 information was made public on the Australian Ticketmaster site announcing the tour as The Joshua Tree 2019 tour. We have started our usual Questions and Answers piece on the new U2 Joshua Tree 2019 tour here, and expect to be posting little in the way of information at this page going forward.

Updated: May 30, 2019:

Expected dates for the tour are as follows:

Auckland, NZ – November 8 (From previous rumours)
Brisbane, AU – November 12 (From resident pre-sale offers)
Adelaide, AU – November 19 (Confirmed by posted sign in Adelaide)
Sydney, AU – November 22 (Revealed in Australian Press)
Dates are also expected to be announced today for Perth, Saitama, and Seoul. A concert is also planned for Singapore.

Other updated Information:

One radio station has run ads for The Joshua Tree 2019 which says tickets will be available through Live Nation. This is a leak as the announcement isn’t due until morning.
News.com.au has a story up and ready to run which includes a promotional video for the tour, but the video is not yet loading. The headline? “U2 will finally bring their Joshua Tree tour to Australia in November”
Triple M in Adelaide says a big tour announcement will happen in the morning at 7:30am.
Gold 104 in Melbourne says a big tour announcement will happen at 6:00am.
Triple M in Brisbane say a big announcement will happen at 6:15am.
Radio stations in Melbourne and Brisbane have also mentioned a big tour announcement tomorrow.
There are reports that posters for the tour have been spotted in Australia late this evening. See a photo of one of these in the tweet embedded below.
The date on one of the posters confirms a concert in Adelaide on November 19, 2019.
The posters confirm that Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are an opening act for the tour.
Tour graphics have been shared with Australian media, and they have been asked not to post them until tomorrow am.
Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane have sent out a ticket offer to local residents to the stadium. This includes the date of the concert, November 12, and they will have access to a presale starting on June 6.
Public onsales will start on June 7.
U2.Com presales, while not yet confirmed, are likely to be in advance of any other pre-sale offers.

⁦atu2</a>⁩ ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/u2songs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">u2songs⁩ sign spotted in Adelaide this evening. pic.twitter.com/vrK8ED0Gj1
— Brett Jenner (@toolz2112) May 30, 2019

Many thanks to everyone sharing information with us.

Updated: May 29, 2019:

A number of little signs are showing up around the internet that something related to U2 is due to be announced soon.

Live Nation in Australia, Asia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea have all updated their sites to show the new tour picture by Anton Corbijn that leaked on Ticketmaster a few weeks back. (It’s likely one master change, across all of the sites.)
Last night there were modifications made to some of the settings on U2’s Facebook page.
Ticketek has sent out an email to subscribers informing them of an option to sign up for U2 waitlist.

The announcement of the tour has not yet been made. We anticipate the announcement will be made in the next 24 hours. (Barring any further delays)

Updated: May 28, 2019:

We are receiving multiple reports that ABC Radio in Sydney, Australia spoke about the U2 tour, revealed Australian dates, and more on the program Breakfast with Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck this morning (05-29 in Australia). The tour has not yet been revealed on U2.Com or announced by Live Nation, and when questioned about the information, the radio programmer confirmed that he was just talking about rumours from U2 fan sites. He started the segment by saying, ““Speaking of fans, of musicians etc, if you’re a fan of this group (plays “Sweetest Thing”) might be a bit of good news for you. This has not been confirmed, but it’s up on the fan sites…” and then he proceeded to give out further information. The tour announcement is rumoured to be at the end of this week.

Updated: May 27, 2019:

The twice-delayed announcement of “The Joshua Tree 2019 Tour,” which will visit New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan and South Korea, has been scheduled again. We are told the announcement will be late this week, and ticket sales will start in the days that follow. All of the dates for concerts and cities still match with what has previously been shared with us, so there appears to be no changes in dates from what was planned for announcement earlier this month.

Please note, that we do understand there is a large number of you who believe that U2 will not tour, and that there will not be an announcement of a tour for 2019. We encourage readers to be skeptical, and indeed we ask that people not book anything until an announcement has been made because things have been known to change right up to the announcement or even after. We do, however, believe a tour announcement is imminent — we know our sources, and they’ve been reliable in the past, and we also know how they are tied to the information that is being shared with us. If it becomes evident a tour is not happening, we would pass that information along, but at this point we still believe that a tour announcement will happen this week, barring any further delays.

All of our previous updates are listed below.

Updated: May 22, 2019:

The tour announcement which was expected on Monday, did not happen, and has been delayed. This is the second time the announcement has been pushed back, having first been expected on April 5, 2019, and then moved to May 20, 2019. Apparently not everything was quite ready to announce, and a few things still need to be finished. We are told that the tour will still be announced, and this should be a short delay. We are told that although they would like to announce it next week, the new announcement date has not yet been picked, and that the parties involved will not reschedule the date until such time that everything is ready to go. All of the concert dates are set and have been for some time, and we have not been told of any changes to those are coming with this delay. We do not expect rescheduling the date of the announcement -this time will take as long as it did the last time. When we have any news on when a rescheduled announcement may happen, we will let you know. In the meantime here are a few additional updates:

Some radio stations in Australia and New Zealand have mentioned that an announcement of a major tour was delayed on Monday, and will be rescheduled for next week. The Mix in NZ confirmed a big tour announcement by a big band was delayed a week. A radio station called The Coast in NZ mentioned a big concert being held on November 8 would be announced soon, but not today, and a couple of stations in Australia have mentioned that a big announcement of a tour was delayed. (Thanks to U2fanz for some of this information!)
A reliable site in South Korea has mentioned that U2 will be playing there on December 8. Thanks to U2Start for that news. Although it mentions hearing from the performers and management about the date itself it appears they are sourcing their information on the tour name from online rumours about the tour.
One radio station in Australia didn’t get the memo that the announcement was delayed on Monday. The crew on the radio on the Kate, Tim and Marty program announced, “You know that U2 have announced their tour for the end of the year. Yes, in Australia! You know how Shawn Mendes did November here, Bono’s doing this November. This November. It’s 2019. It’s the Joshua Tree tour, this will be huge, this will to be massive! Because Bono and Noel Gallagher are mates, there’s rumour mill and scuttle butt that Noel is supporting U2 with his High Flying Birds”. The whole thing can be heard on the podcast at 56:55. Thanks Nicole for the link to share.
U2’s tour was leaked on Ticketmaster in Australia as well on May 16, 2019. More details on what was contained in that leak can be found in our Questions and Answers piece. Ticketmaster will be handling ticketing for three concerts on the upcoming tour. The tour artwork can still be seen on Ticketmaster here.

Updated: May 17, 2019:

Still some information trickling out about the as yet, unannounced, but already leaked The Joshua Tree 2019 tour. We can tell you that the cities planned are Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul. No further cities are expected to be announced with the tour announcement. And the tour is expected only to visit this region of the world, and is not expected to continue into 2020. Second shows are expected for Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo and Seoul. The other cities are expected to get only one show. This is a change from earlier rumours which suggested Perth would get a second show. The announcement is expected early next week.

This tour is being branded The Joshua Tree 2019. A leak of graphics and other materials from Ticketmaster yesterday showed that they will be selling tickets for three of the cities. The remaining Australian dates will be handled through Ticketek. Please visit our Questions and Answers for The Joshua Tree 2019 Tour for more information about this soon to be announced tour. A compilation of our earlier rumours can be seen below.

With this tour leaving the realm of rumours and growing closer to being announced, we’d like to thank those who have shared information about this tour these last seven months, and all of our readers for their support and encouragement. For those attending have a great tour.

Updated: May 15, 2019:

Evidence continues to pour in that the announcement will be next week for the U2 tour of New Zealand, Australia and Asia. We are told by multiple sources that the announcement is likely to be Monday morning. One source has shared that the announcement will be early in the morning Australia time.

The tour is expected to visit the following cities: Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul. Both Singapore and Seoul, if announced, are new cities that U2 has not previously visited. The tour will take place in larger outdoor stadiums, and a small number of large indoor venues. The opening act is expected to be Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds for these shows. Although multiple shows are rumoured for Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, and Tokyo, only the first show in each city will be announced with the formal announcement, with the second shows only being announced if sales meet expectations. The tour is expected to run from November 8 into early December.

Although we’ve been told for a number of months that the band would not call this tour “The Joshua Tree Tour,” more recent information has again brought up the possibility that the tour may be branded “The Joshua Tree Tour” in some way. All along we have been told that The Joshua Tree would be a focus again, and that those songs would likely be reintroduced for this tour, and some components of the 2017 staging would be used. It is unclear however, if the band would intend to do the full album from the information we have received. We should know the exact name of the tour, and whether or not it is branded “The Joshua Tree Tour”, as well as the full details of concert dates next week. Until that time, we urge you to not book any travel plans until the rumours are confirmed, as we have seen in the past anything can change right up to the final announcement.

Update 2: May 15, 2019:

A few additional tidbits have been heard on radio in Australia, Cliff Reeve on Triple M radio in Australia mentioned that he’s expecting a big announcement from U2 on Monday. And over in New Zealand, Tracey Donaldson has mentioned on Mix 94.5 that there will be a big tour announcement on Monday but hasn’t mentioned any information about the artist.

Updated: May 14, 2019:

Noel Gallagher, who is rumoured to open dates on the rumoured November / December U2 tour, confirmed today on Talk Sport Radio that he will be playing dates in Australia at that time of the year. He was being asked about his touring plans, and he replied with details about his current stops in Japan, his trip to the US this summer and finished with “We’re busy now up to the end of November, we finish up in Australia.” Many thanks to those who shared the link with us to the interview. (The answer happens just after the 8:50 mark in the link above.) No dates for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have been announced for Australia at this time. U2’s manager, Guy Oseary, has also mentioned being in New Zealand this fall in a recent GoFundMe post.

Updated: May 13, 2019:

We have heard from a couple of additional sources suggesting that the tour announcement may be as early as next week. This included a source close to the band, and a source tied to Live Nation. We are told that the announcement would happen early in the week, with ticket sales starting the same week. The announcement was initially scheduled for early April, but was held back at that time, and has just recently been rescheduled and communicated to Live Nation in Australia. Further we have had evidence shared with us this week that some components of the staging have been worked on and are being finalized. In the past, information has leaked including show posters and tour posters the week prior to an announcement, to date we have not seen any of those shared online, although there have been some well crafted “guesses” that have made it onto social media.

Below you will find a wrap up of some of the rumours to date. More detail can be found in the older updates below this one. As always, until such time that the dates are announced, we have seen in the past that anything can change, so this information should not be used to book travel or non-refundable accommodations.

U2 will tour New Zealand, Australia and Asia in November and December 2019
The tour will start on November 8, 2019 in New Zealand, and will end a month later in Asia.
The tour will see U2 playing bigger venues, outdoors stadiums in most cities.
An opening act is planned. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are said to be the opening act.
The venue in Auckland will be Mt Smart Stadium. Two shows are rumoured for that city.
The first show in Australia will be in Brisbane, and should be on November 12, 2019.
The remainder of the Australia tour will include two shows in Melbourne, one show in Adelaide, two shows in Sydney, and will end with two shows in Perth. The shows will move in that order. The show in Melbourne is rumoured to be at Marvel Stadium.
The tour will then move to Asia, where Singapore will get the first show, expected for the last week of November. The show in Singapore will be at the National Stadium.
The tour will then move to Tokyo where the band will play the Saitama Super Arena, for two shows.
Where two shows are expected in one city, only one show will be initially announced, with the additional show only being announced if sales are good.
There is a city planned for after the Japan shows. It will be in Eastern Asia.
The band is not expected to move into Mt. Smart Stadium until the week of the first show there. Additional rehearsals will take place at another location prior to that time.
This tour will not be in support of a new album.
The tour will not include playing the entire Joshua Tree album as the 2017 tour did, but we are told that album will be a focus on the tour.
Some elements from the 2017 tour stage are in storage in Australia, and are expected to be used in the staging for this new tour.
Rehearsals for the tour will start in mid-October and initially will not be held at the same location that the tour will start.
The tour will start in November 2019, and will continue into the early part of December, at which time we are told the band will take a break to work on a new album before continuing touring at a yet undefined period in the future. At this point we know of no plans to continue into 2020, and have heard no rumours that this 2019 tour will be taken elsewhere.
The band has not yet started rehearsal, and have not started developing a set list, other than making a decision to return to some of the material from The Joshua Tree. These discussions will happen when the band return to one location to rehearse and start building ideas for the tour.

We are aware that the band said they would take a break in 2019, but these comments were made while the band was still rumoured to be planning a visit to Australia at the end of 2018. Further when asked in February about when the band would need to tour again, Adam Clayton responded, “I don’t know. It’ll be when we make a record. When you’re excited about the songs. We get fed up being around each other for a year or so whenever we make a record. And when we feel like we’ve got some songs to go back out on the road with. You know, when you feel you want it. Sometimes you don’t want to go out there when people feel you’ve only just gone away.” Despite these comments, we are still getting information from many sources that have been reliable in the past that continue to point towards a tour being planned, and an announcement getting closer. See our entry on April 16 below for more about rumours, and how we choose what we share.

Updated: May 5, 2019:

We are told that Live Nation communicated the U2 tour to some local employees in Australia, New Zealand and Asia early last week. This is in advance of the expected tour announcement, which we are told is 100% ready to go at this point. The announcement will be made just after the general election in Australia. While we don’t know the exact date of the announcement, it will happen during the work week, and will be made early in the morning in the Sydney time zone so it will be picked up by morning radio and television in the region. The election in Australia is being held on Saturday, May 18, so expect the announcement after that date. An announcement COULD happen as early as the Monday following the election. We have been told that the tickets for this tour will go on sale days after the announcement. If we can confirm the date of any announcement we will let you know in a further update. Live Nation employees were asked not to share information about the tour until it has been announced. The announcement will be made the same day for the shows in New Zealand, Australia and Asia. See the notes in the entry below for more information about the expected tour.

Updated: April 29, 2019:

We’re still waiting on an official announcement of U2’s 2019 tour, the announcement, we are told, should happen in May. We don’t have an exact date yet for an announcement, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks we will finally get a full announcement of this tour.

In the meantime we can share a few additional details. Please remember that until such things are fully announced, details can and have changed so please do not use this information to book travel plans that cannot be changed. While we are confident on our sources, things have been known to shift and change right up to the announcement.

First up, as we told you back on March 11, and opening act is planned for these shows. Of late, U2 have gone without an opening act on arena shows, but have had one for stadium shows. It looks like this pattern will continue. At the time we were told the band were working to book a specific act to join them for all shows on that tour. We can now tell you that our sources have been saying that Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is the act that will be opening these shows for U2. The band, fronted by Noel Gallagher, opened 21 shows on The Joshua Tree 2017 tour, including all of the shows on the second leg in Europe and all of the shows on the fourth leg in Mexico and South America. Gallagher also opened two PopMart shows as part of his previous band, Oasis.

The song “It’s A Beautiful World” by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds was also used as opening music on the Experience and Innocence tour. Starting with the second show in Las Vegas, “It’s a Beautiful World” was the song played just before the opening each night. On the set lists it was listed as “It’s a Zootiful World” a reference to some voices from Zoo TV saying “What do you want?” being incorporated into the mix.

Currently we expect the tour to look as follows:

This will be a stadium show, in larger venues in most cities.
Two shows are expected for Auckland NZ on November 8 and 9.
The first show in Australia is expected for November 12, and will be a single show in Brisbane.
The remainder of the Australia tour will include two shows in Melbourne, one show in Adelaide, two shows in Sydney, and will end with two shows in Perth. The shows will move in that order.
The tour will then move to Asia, where Singapore will get the first show, expected for the last week of November.
The tour will visit Singapore, Tokyo, and will finish before the middle of December at a third Asian city / country. Tokyo will get multiple shows, it has not been shared with us how many shows Singapore will get, nor what the final city should expect.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds will be the opening act.
Ticket sales will happen within a week of the formal announcement, but only the first show in each city will be announced to begin with second shows being announced only after ticket sales have commenced.
The band is not expected to move into Mt. Smart Stadium until the week of the first show there. Additional rehearsals will take place at another location prior to that time.

All of our previous information is listed below.

Updated: April 23, 2019:

We are told by two sources that the tour announcement will be held in early May. We cannot confirm an exact date. The announcement should include dates for New Zealand, Australia, and three countries / cities in Asia. Further information that we have shared previously is below.

Updated: April 16, 2019:

We have seen some questions and some concerns about the tour rumours and the lack of an announcement. We don’t want to ignore that. As a site, U2Songs.com makes no money from traffic. We have no advertising. We do not accept donations, and we don’t sell anything, and we haven’t in the 24 years we have been doing this. To make up a rumour and share it to “get extra traffic for the site” does not make any sense, as there will be disappointment if the tour never materializes. There is nothing for us to gain from disappointing our readers, so if we are posting something we do believe it to be something that is happening. But until officially announced we will mark such things as rumours, as we do know things can and have changed in the past prior to an announcement.

We don’t post everything sent our way. We get a lot of stuff sent our way that doesn’t make sense, or sounds fictional. We wait for confirmation from multiple sources before posting, and give more weight to previously reliable sources. We do our best to understand who is sharing the information, and how they are connected with that information, even if that is something we can’t share directly with you. The rumours on the upcoming tour have come via a number of sources including crew, the label, the touring company, logistics providers, venue staff and local media. I do believe that a tour is being planned, and an announcement will be made soon about ticket sales.

I do believe our record on getting things right in the past when it comes to rumours has been pretty good. That being said we are capable of admitting when we don’t get it right. Originally we shared that the tour tickets would go on sale the week of April 12. That is the information provided to us by two different sources at the start of March. Obviously that didn’t happen last week, and possibly that was bad information, or its possible that date was changed for some reason. Maybe things weren’t ready, or maybe the announcement would have been later all along. We are told that the announcement will not be this week, but that the announcement should happen soon. Once it is announced, if indeed it is, you’ll know if we were full of shit or not — another reason not to make any stories up.

We hope that answers some of the questions you may have. That being said we do have a little additional information. Two shows are being scheduled for Japan, both at the same venue. The first will be announced by itself as is usual, and the second added after sales for the first have started. These will follow behind the stop in Singapore, and Tokyo will not be the final stop on the tour.

Currently we expect the tour to look like the following:

Two shows in Auckland NZ
One show in Brisbane, two in Melbourne, one in Adelaide, two in Sydney, and two shows in Perth.
The tour will make a stop in Singapore, then there will be two shows in the Tokyo area. Tokyo will not be the end of the tour. (We do not know how many shows Singapore will get.)

Expect that only the first show to be announced in each city initially. The additional dates will be added if sales are good. The tour will start on November 8, and will finish before the middle of December. Expect that tickets will go on sale quickly after a tour announcement, so now is the time to be putting some money aside for tickets. The venues will be outdoor stadiums in most cities.

As reliable as we believe these sources to be, the tour has yet to be officially announced, and we’d like to remind you one additional time, that this information, including dates and cities, is still subject to change, and the band has made changes right up until the week before an announcement in the past. You should not use this information to book travel or accommodations. All of our previous updates are below.

Updated: April 7, 2019:

The announcement being held tomorrow in Australia is for a tour of Australia by Queen. The announcement for U2 will not be tomorrow. With a busy week for Live Nation in Australia with the second shows by Metallica going on sale, and the tour by Queen being announced, we do not expect a tour announcement at this time. We asked our source at Live Nation and they informed us that “U2 fans will have to wait a little while yet.”

The tour is still being spoken about, and this week we received information from another reliable source, confirming the two shows in Melbourne.

Currently we’re expecting the tour of New Zealand and Australia to consist of the following:

Two shows in Auckland, NZ
One show in Brisbane
Two shows in Melbourne
One show in Adelaide
Two shows in Sydney
Two shows in Perth

Only the first show will be initially announced for each city, and a second show will be added at a later date if demand is good. From there the tour will move to Asia, where U2 will play at least three cities, and possibly four. This will include Singapore and Tokyo. The tour will finish before the middle of December. All of this information is in the below updates, you can continue reading for more information.

Expect an announcement later in the month.

Updated: April 5, 2019:

Today on the Today Show (Channel 9) in Australia, Richard Wilkins mentioned that he will be announcing tour news about one of the hottest bands on the planet on Monday. Will it be the long awaited U2 announcement? We don’t know for sure, but we’ll be tuning in to see. [Note: atu2 have reached out to an unnamed U2 spokesperson and say “A band spokesperson says there is no U2 tour announcement coming next week. (Whatever Australian media is teasing, it’s not about U2.)”]

Updated: April 1, 2019:

Just a few things on the tour front:

There is a lot of false information going around about the pending tour dates, including some carefully crafted “posters” – what we have seen to date is unofficial, and not part of the official press package that will come from Live Nation. It is possible we haven’t seen everything that’s going around though!
The poster saying this is the 10th Anniversary of the U2360 tour, was created by a fan and uploaded – and identified as a fan-made poster when it was posted on the U2Start forums. It has since circulated without that information.
The poster claiming the band will be in Thailand in mid-November is also incorrect, as the band will still be in Australia at that time of the listed Thailand date. (And no, we DON’T know from information shared with us that Thailand is on the list.)
Today is also April Fool’s Day, a day when many will post fake information, and claim it to be real until late in the day. Use caution with anything that is announced today.

And a few bits and pieces about the tour:

We’re told that Brisbane and Adelaide will get only one show. Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth will all get two shows. Only one show will be announced for each city initially and the second will be dependent on good ticket sales. That makes 10 shows for Australia and New Zealand in total if all of them are announced, plus an expected four cities in Asia, some which should get multiple shows.
We’ve seen a lot of people talking about a tour announcement for this week, our information has always been that tickets may start to go on sale next week (April 12) and we’ve suspected the announcement won’t be until next week as well. We are not sure where the information that an announcement will be coming this week comes from, and cannot confirm that information.
Although we appreciate all the questions we have been getting, we don’t have additional information, and will post information when we get more. At this point we don’t expect additional information until Friday.

Updated: March 19, 2019:

After reports of some radio banter on Triple M yesterday, suggesting the radio DJ’s know about an upcoming U2 tour, we’re able to bring a bit of additional information about the tour. As always, until such time that an official announcement is made this should be considered rumour, and should not be used to book non-refundable travel or accommodation.

We are told that tickets for the shows will start to go on sale the week of April 12. This is likely referring to be the general on-sale, and pre-sales through the venue, fan club and other outlets will come before that. As always, long term members of U2.Com should have the first pre-sale, with the others to follow. (Information about fan club pre-sales will only happen after an official announcement is made.) An announcement of the tour with full dates will happen shortly before the sales begin. The tour is set to begin with two shows in Auckland (rumoured dates November 8 and 9) and then will move to a single show in Brisbane (rumoured date November 12 or 13). From Brisbane the tour is rumoured to go next to Melbourne, then to Adelaide, then onto Sydney, and will finish in Perth before the end of November. We believe the band will then move the tour into Asia for an additional four cities, which we are told will include Singapore and Tokyo. The tour will end in mid-December.

The tour is being tightly planned to maximize the number of concerts possible in this time. There will be little time off between shows, meaning additional appearances other than the planned concerts are not expected. The band are expected to stay in Sydney for the duration of the tour in Australia, traveling to the shows.

Again, the news above has not been officially confirmed, and until such time that it is can be subject to change right up until the final announcement.

Updated: March 15, 2019:

Please see below for full rumours about the impending U2 tour that have been shared with us.

The Sydney Morning Herald published a story today about Elton John’s upcoming visit to Australia, and suggested that the star is having trouble finding accommodations because “John’s stay will coincide with an extended visit by the Irish supergroup U2. The four band members and their respective families are set to stay in Sydney during their Australian tour. And that means a mansion each.” Thank you to Julie for pointing out the news to us, the full link is above if you want to read the original.

Elton John’s tour takes him to Australia starting on November 30, 2019, with a show in Perth. He plays a handful of dates before breaking for Christmas on December 5, 2019. (Note: He has since announced additional dates) Based on information previously shared with us, these dates would happen after U2 has finished their tour in Australia. So the overlap is likely in the weeks leading up to Elton John’s tour, or perhaps U2 plans on using Sydney as a base while touring Asia as well.

Updated: March 11, 2019:

For those who haven’t been paying attention, U2 are rumoured to be near to announcing a new tour, this time of Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and the tour will kick off in November 2019. We have previously shared rumours here and those are also included below as well as a look at the build up to these current rumours. There are some new rumours and further information that has been shared with us about this tour that we can now share with you:

All of this information is unofficial at this point, and has not been confirmed by U2. You should not book non-refundable travel or accommodation, as dates and cities have been known to change right up to the week before an announcement is made.
For those asking when this will be announced, it will be a few weeks yet before an official announcement will be made. Be patient, its coming.
The tour will not be “The Joshua Tree Tour 2019”, nor will it be a continuation of the “Experience and Innocence Tour” — we are told the tour will be branded with a unique name.
This tour will not be in support of a new album.
The tour will not include playing the entire Joshua Tree album as the 2017 tour did, but we are told that album will be a focus on the tour.
The tour will visit stadiums, and the tour should run for about five weeks in total.
Some elements from the 2017 tour stage are in storage in Australia, and are expected to be used in the staging for this new tour.
We are aware that the band said they would take a break in 2019, but these comments were made while the band was still rumoured to be planning a visit to Australia at the end of 2018.
Rehearsals for the tour will start in mid-October and initially will not be held at the same location that the tour will start.
The tour will start in November 2019, and will continue into the early part of December, at which time we are told the band will take a break to work on a new album before continuing touring at a yet undefined period in the future. At this point we know of no plans to continue into 2020, and have heard no rumours that this 2019 tour will be taken elsewhere.
The announcement and advertisement for the tour is apparently ready and in the final approval stages.
A decision on an opening act has not been made, but we are told that there likely will be one.
The band has not yet started rehearsal, and have not started developing a set list, other than making a decision to return to some of the material from The Joshua Tree. These discussions will happen when the band return to one location to rehearse and start building ideas for the tour.

As mentioned above, the U2 announcement should be a few weeks away still.

Some city specific information:

The tour will start in New Zealand, and will then continue to Australia and the on to Asia.
The tour will visit Auckland, New Zealand and this is likely to be the starting city of the tour. This will likely be the only stop in New Zealand.
Five cities are expected to be played in Australia in total, starting in Brisbane and visiting two other cities before Sydney, as well as one city after.
The five cities being played in Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney (and not in that order.)
Many of these cities in Australia and New Zealand (but not all) will be getting two dates.
Singapore is one of the cities in Asia that is being scheduled. U2 have not played Singapore in the past. Singapore is not the only city in Asia being planned.
We are aware that there are cities being planned which we do not yet have information on.

This will be the first time that U2 have returned to play Australia and New Zealand since the U2360° tour visited between November 25, 2010, and December 19, 2010 with stops in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Perth. A total of ten shows were played during that tour, and the band did not play any shows in Asia. The band last played Asia in 2006 at the end of the Vertigo tour. The dates were originally planned for early in 2006, but were postponed to November and December. That tour included stops in Australia and New Zealand, as well as three shows in Tokyo, and a final stop in Honolulu to end the tour. 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the LoveTown tour, which was a tour organized for Australia, New Zealand and Asia, as the original Joshua Tree tour in 1987 did not make it to that part of the world. Although the LoveTown tour would also visit Europe, 70% of the tour appearances were in New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

The current tour rumours have been slowly leaking out over the last few months, but go back before that. Initial rumours during the eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE tour included rumours that the band would visit Australia and New Zealand, as well as other areas at the end of 2018. Those rumours came to an end in July 2018, as it was communicated the band was no longer looking at those options for 2018. But in November 2018, U2Start.Com reported that the crew had been asked to be available at the end of 2019 for some very special shows. We had also heard from previously reliable sources that the band was contemplating a 2019 tour at that time.

The rumour that the crew was on hold for a late 2019 was confirmed again for us before Christmas. At that time we were told that the band was planning a tour of stadiums, and possibly some arenas. And that they would be touring Australia, New Zealand and Asia. We were told that they were looking at new locations in Asia that the band had never played before, and we were told they were investigating countries like China, Hong Kong and Vietnam as possible locations. We were told that the band would not play all of these cities, but they were investigating some new options including those cities. At this point the tour was not finalized, nor had individual cities been booked. A stage was being designed, and both Perth and Sydney were mentioned as possible cities in Australia. Our report on these rumours from early December is available here.

On February 7 we were able to share some additional information include a possible first date for the tour. We were told that the first date the band would perform in Australia would be on or around November 13, and that this would not be a show in Sydney, and would not be the opening date for the tour, that the tour would open sooner than this. At the time we were also told that the tour would run into December. On February 9, we were able to confirm additional details thanks to reliable sources, including a date of November 8, 2019 would likely be happening in New Zealand, and at that time four cities in Australia were also being looked at, with a number of cities getting second shows. We also confirmed at that time that Singapore is was on the final list being worked on and was not expected to be the only Asian stop. At the time we were unaware if Asia was before or after Australia. We were also told at that time the tour would likely not continue beyond December 2019, and that it would be branded with its own name, and would not be the continuation of a previous tour. Follow the links above to see the initial reports on those days.

Finally, on March 1, 2019, we were able to update the rumours further based on additional information we had received from reliable sources. This included the following information:

We have been told again that this tour is not being branded as “The Joshua Tree Tour” and it will carry its own name. Nor will it be branded as a continuation of the Experience + Innocence tour, and it should carry its own unique name.
It appears there’s been some work on the dates and may have added a fifth city to the list for Australia. There five cities do not include New Zealand and there will be at least one show in one city in New Zealand as well. Not all of the cities will get a second show, but a number will.
Dates are still expected for Asia. See the previous rumours we shared earlier below.
We are told that the tour routing is finalized, and the tour is being prepped for announcement.
We are told that Sydney will not be the first city in Australia.
The tour announcement could happen soon, once final contracts are signed.

Also on March 1, a friend spoke with Paul McGuinness, and mentioned he was heading to Australia at the end of the year. Rather than deny the tour was happening, the response from Paul McGuinness was “Oh, have they announced it yet?” (Thanks Brat!) The same week, Adam posted a random selfie to U2’s social media channels wearing a coat that appeared to have a design on the lower front that suggested the outline of several parts of Oceania including Australia. Another hint? Or just a random design?

That leads us up to today and the rumours we’ve added at the start of this article. For those who have asked why we sometimes go for weeks with little update on the rumours, we do not approach our sources for regular updates, preferring to let them share with us when they are ready. We do pass information along as we are getting it, and welcome you to check in for updates regularly, as at this point we expect the announcement to be a little ways off yet. The rumours above do not come from one single source. Here at U2Songs we do prefer multiple sources before publishing information, and the rumours we’ve shared above come from a combination of sources, many of whom have been able to share reliable information with our site in the past. We prefer to be correct than to be the first to report on things. But as reliable as we believe these sources to be, the tour has yet to be officially announced, and we’d like to remind you one additional time, that this information, including dates and cities, is still subject to change, and the band has made changes right up until the week before an announcement in the past. You should not use this information to book travel or accommodations.

< Next News Entry | Previous News Entry >

u2songs.com was formerly known as u2wanderer.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook