The Joshua Tree Tour 2019 Update

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-07-23)

The general sale for tickets to U2’s shows in Japan started on Saturday morning at 10:00 Japan time. This may seem late to many of you, with other general sales long since started. But Japan handles tickets a little differently than other countries. First we had the U2.Com presales for Japan, right after the announcement starting on June 4. Then for several weeks there was a Japan only presale for subscribers the local ticketing agencies, PIA and ePlus. These Japan only presales started on June 14. Then there was a round of presales for English speaking residents who are subscribers to these ticketing agencies in Japan, which started July 1.

Unlike presales elsewhere, where tickets are held back for the general sale in all categories, in Japan, all tickets are made available in these earlier sales. So when things opened for the general sale on Saturday morning, many areas were sold out for both shows. Although there may have been limited availability when the sale opened of other ticket types, by the time we were able to bring up tickets, there are only SS Seats available for sale for both shows, which are the more expensive seated tickets. (We’ve spoken to others who have had the same results.) The cheaper S seats, A seats, Red Zone, Standing Front and Standing Rear sections are all now sold out. SS Seats are still available now for both concerts. More information on these sales will be available at the Japan micro site.

Speaking of tickets, as of today, there are still 291 tickets left for the show in Seoul, South Korea. These are all general admission tickets in the back GA section of the venue. Seats in this venue sold out very quickly when they went on sale on June 12. Tickets in the front general admission area sold out as well, but took a couple of weeks. These general admission tickets in the back GA area are all that are left, and they are gradually selling, and we expect at this rate the first show will sell out completely in the next couple of weeks. We have been told by our sources that a final decision on a long rumoured second show for Seoul should be made this week.

In Singapore a second show was quickly added after strong sales for the first show. All tickets for that show are sold out at this time. There are tickets available to the sides, and in general admission for the second show in Singapore. The stage in Singapore is being oriented so the stage follows the longer side of the field. This is similar to the set up in 2017 for the show in Brussels, which resulted in a set up where the sound board was almost at the back of the floor in the stadium. (Panorama of Brussels)

Live Nation in Australia and New Zealand confirmed shortly after our last update that all of the dates for the Australian and New Zealand region were now announced, and no further shows would be announced for those regions. A second show that was being looked at for Melbourne will not be held, and a large amount of tickets were released for the first show instead. That show, which once was marked as “Sold Out” on U2.Com, is now no longer marked that way as more tickets have been released.

As of Friday we have been told there are nearly 1,500 tickets available to that first Melbourne show. Originally according to the seat maps, the show was selling well, with only one section that seemed to go unsold, and even that section eventually sold. The tickets that are available now are tickets that weren’t offered in the initial sales, including additional general admission tickets. There are multiple seating configurations available for this venue, and a decision had to be made as to whether to include additional seating, or to sell the tickets as general admission. Eventually it was decided to use this space as floor access standing. At the same time additional tickets were opened on both sides of the stage, as sight lines were determined for the show. Most of the ticket availability now in seats is directly to the right or to the left of the stage.

There are also plenty of tickets available for the second shows in Auckland and Sydney. Although tickets seem to be selling slower than more recent U2 stadium tours of Australia, they seem to be doing better than the PopMart tour of 1998, where a second show for Sydney was planned but never announced even though the first did sell out, and only 80% of the tickets for the show in Melbourne were sold by the time of the concert.

This week saw the rumours that U2 would play in 2020 in Europe crop up on some ticket reselling sites. We are told that at this time there are NO plans to continue this tour into 2020, and the tour of New Zealand, Australia and Asia are the only dates that will be announced. We are told that there are no plans to take this tour for another spin around Europe, or revisit other locations that the tour already visited in 2017. These shows are being done to visit areas of the world the band could not get to in 2017. We are told that the next stage for the band will see them start to work on a new album.

In interviews in 2018 Adam has suggested they will “start from scratch” on the next album and Bono has said “I’d like to make a balls to the wall rock album” so it sounds like they will work on something new, and not return to revisit Songs of Ascent. Although less committal as usual, even Larry when asked about the future said, “You never know. I assume there’ll be another album.”

Finally we’ve had a lot of requests for an update on the home videos for the last two tours (Joshua Tree 2017 and Experience and Innocence). Both were filmed, with The Joshua Tree 2017 tour being filmed in Mexico City by Anton Corbijn, and the Experience and Innocence tour being filmed in Berlin by David Mallet’s Serpent Productions in November. We are told both are still planned for release. But it seems that the release dates continue to be a moving target. The Joshua Tree 2017 one in particular was originally worked on and finished for a Fall 2018 release, and then moved to a Summer 2019 release to look at a limited theatre release. We don’t have any further information on when it may be released at this time, but will pass along any information we get when we get it..

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