The Joshua Tree Tours 2017 and 2019

The inspiration for the tour came in August 2016, during show production rehearsals for U2's headlining appearances at the iHeartRadio Music Festival and Salesforce.com's Dreamforce conference. Initially, the band were interested in marking the 30th anniversary of their 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, with one show in the United States and Europe each, but they eventually decided to expand it into a full tour. Guitarist the Edge cited the 2016 US presidential election and other world events for what he judged to be renewed resonance of The Joshua Trees subject matter. He said, "things have kind of come full circle, if you want. That record was written in the mid-Eighties, during the Reagan–Thatcher era of British and U.S. politics. It was a period when there was a lot of unrest. Thatcher was in the throes of trying to put down the miners' strike; there was all kinds of shenanigans going on in Central America. It feels like we're right back there in a way. I don't think any of our work has ever come full circle to that extent. It just felt like, 'Wow, these songs have a new meaning and a new resonance today that they didn't have three years ago, four years ago.'" Williams said, "After talking over many possible approaches, we looked at the original Joshua Tree stadium stage and then allowed its bold, simple aesthetic to guide the design." On the original 1987 Joshua Tree Tour, the stadium stage was built on one end of the venue as a large proscenium, flanked on the sides by the sound system covered by gold scrims depicting black branches of a Joshua tree. Only at the largest North American stadiums was video reinforcement used, behind the front of house sound mixing station, but it was visible to only half the audience. Williams called the design "maximal minimalism". With concert production values having advanced since the original Joshua Tree Tour, he was initially drawn to returning to the simplicity of a "traditional festival stage", The band's creative team, which included stage designer Es Devlin initially as a creative consultant, were not excited by the idea of building a standard rectangular screen so the possibility of "exploding the frame was appealing", according to Williams. Their first ideas were to make the outer edges of the screen irregular. Early in the creative process, Williams presented eight set list options to the band. These included: playing The Joshua Tree songs first; playing them last; playing them in the middle; playing songs in chronological order of their release; and grouping songs thematically. According to Williams, there were never internal discussions of breaking up the album into sections. The group considered starting shows with the album, but this would have meant leading with the song "Where the Streets Have No Name", which is usually the climax of a U2 concert. Williams also noted that it would still be daylight at the beginning of shows in Europe. Another challenge in structuring the set list was that the second half of The Joshua Tree is "relatively downbeat". Ultimately, the band chose a three-act format, with the album in the middle. Despite honouring a 30-year-old album with the tour, U2 and their creative team rejected characterisations of the venture as "nostalgic", as they wanted it to feel forward looking and the band wanted to perform at least one new song. To aid in this, the team decided against showing archival footage of the band from their younger days in the visuals. They also decided that due to the older age of the band members and the size of the video screen, close-up shots of them would be limited. ==Planning, itinerary, and ticketing==

2017 concerts in June 2017. The tour was announced on 9 January 2017, initially consisting of a North American leg from May to July and a European leg from July to August. It was the first time the group toured in promotion of an album from their back catalogue, rather than a new release. Kyle McGovern of Pitchfork interpreted the tour announcement to be an admission by U2 that they were entering the "nostalgia act" phase of their career. He said, "this tour announcement feels like it's coming from a U2 that's ready to put their work behind glass, as so many of their peers did far earlier... And there's no shame in that..." Pre-sale tickets were first offered to U2.com subscribers starting on 11 January before going on sale to the general public on 16 January (for European shows) and 17 January (for North American shows). Approximately 1.1 million tickets were sold in the first 24 hours of being on sale. After tickets for the tour sold out quickly, second shows were added in London, Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, East Rutherford, Pasadena, and Chicago. As part of the tour's itinerary, U2 headlined the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, in June. Additional dates for the tour were announced on 6 June 2017, halfway through the opening leg; a second North American leg was added to the itinerary for September 2017, initially consisting of seven dates, while a Latin American leg initially consisting of five dates was added for October. Tickets for these legs were offered to U2.com subscribers in a pre-sale starting 8 June, while public sales began on 12 June for North America and 14 June for Latin America. In the weeks after the tour's extension was announced, the band added a show in New Orleans scheduled for 14 September, a show in Glendale scheduled for 19 September, and extra shows in Mexico City, La Plata, and São Paulo. Tour production director Jake Berry said the second North American leg was not originally planned and that the group were scheduled to have a two-month break between the European leg and the Latin American leg. However, since the tour was a "success... beyond everybody's wildest dreams", the group added North American dates in September and shortened their break to four weeks. In North America and Europe, the tour used a "paperless ticket" system requiring concert attendees to present the credit card they used to purchase tickets as well as a photo ID upon entry at the venue. The measures were meant to combat ticket resellers. However, on the tour's opening night in Vancouver on 12 May 2017, attendees faced long queues to enter BC Place; some fans missed the performance of opening act Mumford & Sons. Live Nation officials blamed the delays on a mix-up regarding which gates at the stadium would accept paperless tickets. According to Music Generation, an Irish music education programme for children, some of U2's earnings from the tour benefited the programme, allowing it to expand to nine new areas in the country within five years. The band also donated a portion of its Mexico City earnings to a relief fund benefiting victims of the 2017 Central Mexico earthquake. In the wake of terrorist attacks across Europe, Ireland's police force deployed its Armed Support Units to act as "terrorist spotters" at U2's show in Dublin. Due to safety concerns caused by the 2017 St. Louis protests, the tour's 16 September show in St. Louis was canceled earlier that day. In a joint statement, U2 and Live Nation said, "We have been informed by the St. Louis Police Department that they are not in a position to provide the standard protection for our audience as would be expected for an event of this size." 2019 concerts On 31 May 2019, U2 announced an extension to the tour with an Oceanian and Asian leg later in the year. It commenced with concerts in Australia and New Zealand in November, the band's first time performing in either country since the 360° Tour in 2010. From late November through December, the tour travelled to Asia. The group's initial announcement confirmed their first ever performances in South Korea and Singapore, and included nine concert dates; the date and venue for their visit to Singapore were not finalised until 14 June, when it was announced U2 would perform on 30 November at the National Stadium. After tickets for the Sydney, Auckland, and Singapore shows went on sale, second concerts were announced for each city due to high demand. On 30 July, the band announced the addition of a 11 December concert in the Philippines, their first ever show in the country. Ticket pre-sales for that concert were available to U2.com subscribers from 1–3 September and Smart Communications subscribers on 4 September, before general public sales began on 5 September through SM Tickets. On 18 September, U2 announced the addition of a 15 December concert in Mumbai to conclude the tour, marking their first ever show in India. Ticket pre-sales for that concert were available to U2.com subscribers from 24 to 25 September and PhonePe subscribers from 26 to 29 September, before general public sales began on 1 October. Tickets were offered for purchase by BookMyShow, which partnered with Live Nation Global Touring to bring the band to India. Billboard said that securing a U2 concert in India was a signifier of the country's growing appeal as a touring destination for high-profile Western acts. U2 had long wanted to perform in India but were never able to due to "logistical and infrastructure challenges" and prohibitive production costs. According to Billboard, top international acts usually only performed in India if they were already touring in the region, as standalone concerts were not financially feasible. Arthur Fogel of Live Nation said that one of the factors in finally bringing U2 to India was that they were already "going to Southeast Asia, and there was the ability to add on a week at the end to accommodate Mumbai". On 22 November, the band released a new single, "Ahimsa", with Indian musician A.R. Rahman to promote their concert in India. During their 4 December concert in Saitama, the band announced "U2X Radio", a dedicated U2 radio channel that launched for Sirius XM subscribers and Pandora Radio users in 2020. The announcement preceded a performance of "Elevation", which was streamed on Facebook Live. ==Stage design and show production==

in Miami Gardens, Florida on 11 June 2017 The set was designed by Stufish Entertainment Architects and built by Tait Towers. Willie Williams provided creative direction for the firms and served as the tour's lighting director. The stage was fabricated by Tait and supported by a sub-deck built by Stageco. The B-stage featured two lifts that could lower a keyboard and drum kit below the stage for better sightlines of the band when they performed on the main stage. As a result of the system's smaller profile, the band were able to reduce the number of trucks required to transport the framing system; a PRG press release claimed a reduction from seven to three trucks, The SPACEFRAME system was used to build an LED video screen measuring wide by high. The screen comprised 1,040 individual ROE Visual CB8 LED video panels with an pixel pitch. The screen had a resolution of 7,200 × 1,560 pixels. According to The Guardian, it was the largest and highest resolution video screen used on a concert tour. Williams said it was similar in size to the one used on the band's 1997–1998 PopMart Tour but 400 times the resolution. PRG provided the tour's 4K (UHD) Broadcast Camera System, the first time it was used on a concert tour. A combination of several products, it connected cameras and LED wall processors via optical fibre cable, a necessity due to the large amount of data transferred and the long distance over which it needed to travel. Designed to operate at the highest broadcast standards, the system provided video at 60 frames per second at a resolution of 3,840 × 2,160 pixels. The broadcast system could be assembled in an hour and be operated by a single video engineer. The fixture was integrated into a spotlight control system called PRG GroundControl. Several environmentally-friendly initiatives were encouraged amongst tour personnel and concertgoers in an attempt to reduce the band's carbon footprint. Some of the efforts included: encouraging fans to use public transportation; offering compostable merchandise bags; requesting venues to offer paper straws (instead of plastic ones) and reusable beverage cups; offering vegan and vegetarian meals to tour personnel; providing reusable water bottles to tour crew and making water stations available to attendees; recycling guitar strings; and using hydrogen vehicles. Tour environmental advisor Michael Martin tracked the model of each tour vehicle and the mileage they accrued in an attempt to calculate the tour's total carbon dioxide emissions. All of the tour's carbon offsets were validated to meet the CDM Gold Standard. ==Concert synopsis==

2017 concerts During the pre-show, the video screen displayed various poems. The band chose specific poetry "that expresses the experience of the country" in which they were performing so the audience members could reflect on it before the concerts. Selected works included: "The Border: A Double Sonnet" by Alberto Ríos; "Kaddish for Leonard Cohen" and "Ain't You Scared of the Sacred" by George Elliott Clarke; "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman; "Ghazal for White Hen Pantry" by Jamila Woods; "One Today" by Richard Blanco; "Filipineza" by Bino Realuyo; and Langston Hughes. The first ten concerts featured the Pogues' song "A Rainy Night in Soho" as introduction music to accompany U2 taking the stage; starting with their performance at the Bonnaroo Music Festival, the Waterboys' song "The Whole of the Moon" was used instead for the remaining of the tour. U2 began the concerts on the B-stage by playing some of their earliest hits, including "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "New Year's Day", and "Pride (In the Name of Love)". The third verse of "New Year's Day" was performed for the first time. many of the trees were burnt, which to Corbijn represented a "burnt American dream". During the song's performance, Bono shone a handheld spotlight on the Edge, evoking the cover image of the band's 1988 album, Rattle and Hum. For "Red Hill Mining Town", the Salvation Army brass band was depicted on screen, with their pre-recorded brass section accompanying the band's performance. It was directed by Corbijn and filmed in Lancaster, California, over a 14-hour film shoot. For concerts in Auckland on the 2019 tour, the band used "One Tree Hill" to pay tribute to the late New Zealander Greg Carroll, for whom the song was written; Carroll's likeness appeared on the screen at the end of these performances. Bono wanted to find "the sort of women that aren't welcome, that President Trump doesn't want in America" and commissioned French artist JR to find such a person. while audience members passed a large sheet of fabric printed with Omaima's passport photo around the venue. Some concerts closed with "I Will Follow", from the band's first album, Boy (1980). Two exceptions to this were the second Tokyo show and the Manila show, where "Gloria" was played instead, making its tour debut. The third verse of "New Year's Day" was dropped from the Adelaide show onwards, with the song ending after the final chorus similar to previous tours. The Joshua Tree segment of the show remained the same as the 2017 shows, with the exception being the end of the main set. Instead of ending the main set with "Mothers of the Disappeared", as they did at the 2017 shows, the band would walk down to the B-stage as the song ended, would then bow to the audience and then end the main set with a performance of either "Angel of Harlem" or "Desire", both of which did not appear at any of the 2017 shows. The band then performed "Elevation", "Vertigo" and "Even Better Than the Real Thing", which was also the same sequence of songs that were used on the second act of the "Experience + Innocence Tour", including incorporating similar visual elements and Bono reprising his MacPhisto/Showman costume from the same tour. The band would then perform a stripped-down version of either "Every Breaking Wave" in a similar performance to the Innocence + Experience Tour, or "You're the Best Thing About Me" in a similar performance to the Experience + Innocence Tour. Patti Smith joined U2 for a performance of the same song during their 26 July 2017 concert in Saint-Denis. She joined them again for a performance of the same song during their 3 September 2017 concert in Detroit. During the band's 15 December 2019 concert in Mumbai, they were accompanied by several guest performers: A.R. Rahman, his daughters Khatija and Raheema, and singer Rianjali Bhowmick joined the band for a rendition of "Ahimsa", which Rahman and U2 had released as a single the month prior; Noel Gallagher joined the band for a performance of "Desire"; and at the end of the show, both Rahman and Gallagher accompanied U2 for "One". ==Reception==

in London in July 2017 Critical response The tour received critical acclaim from critics, many of whom praised the band's performances, the production, and setlist. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that The Joshua Tree "still held sway" three decades after its release, adding: "Most compelling was that U2 made it sound less like a finished work, a monument from a long-lost decade, than a series of songs still in search of answers." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian complimented the group for keeping older material contemporaneous through lyrical changes and thematic reinterpretations. He said, "But more striking still is how commanding and confident their performance seems, particularly given that it's not without risks." He concluded his review by describing them as "totally in their element". The Evening Standard and The Independent also gave five star reviews, with the latter calling it "a triumphant experience". Accolades At the 2017 Billboard Touring Awards, the tour won for Top Boxscore (at Stade de France on 25–26 July), while receiving nominations for Top Tour and Top Draw. It also won for Top Boxscore at the following year's awards ceremony (for concerts at Estádio do Morumbi on 19, 21–22, and 25 October). At the LOS40 Music Awards 2017, U2 won the Tour of the Year Award. At the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards, they won the award for Best Tour. The group won two awards at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards: Top Touring Artist and Top Rock Tour. The band were nominated in three categories at the 20th Annual Pollstar Awards: Major Tour of the Year, Rock Tour of the Year, and Most Creative Stage Production. The tour also received nominations for Tour of the Year at the American Music Awards of 2017, Live Performance of the Year at the 2017 BBC Music Awards, and top Tour/Event Sound Production at the 33rd Annual TEC Awards. Commercial performance On the opening leg of the 2017 tour, the band's two concerts at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena drew 123,164 attendees, grossing $15.7 million. In Chicago, the two shows at Soldier Field sold 105,078 tickets and grossed $13.4 million. The first North American leg of the tour, comprising 20 concerts excluding Bonnaroo, grossed $123.7 million from 1,043,414 tickets sold, ranking the band first among all 2017 global touring artists with an average gross of $7,276,551 per city. The European leg grossed $83 million from 744,454 tickets sold. The second North American leg grossed $38,585,915 from 350,292 tickets sold, maintaining the band's top rank globally with an average gross of $7,229,076 per city. The Latin American leg grossed $70 million from 574,976 tickets sold; making it the highest-grossing tour of the year. It also ranked as the year's highest-grossing North American tour with $176.1 million earned. U2 were the highest-paid musical act in the world in 2017 with $54.4 million in earnings, $52 million of which they netted from touring. For the 2019 tour, U2 grossed $35.7 million from eight concerts in Oceania and $38.1 million from seven shows in Asia. In total, the 2019 tour grossed $73.8 million and sold 567,000 tickets. Across the two tours, the band cumulatively grossed $390.8 million from 3.3 million tickets sold. == Set list ==

These setlists were performed at the 22 September 2017 concert held at SDCCU Stadium in San Diego, and at the 8 November 2019 concert held at the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland. It does not represent all shows throughout the tour. 2017 First act • "Sunday Bloody Sunday" • "New Year's Day" • "Bad" • "Pride (In the Name of Love)" 'Second act: The Joshua Tree''''' • "Where the Streets Have No Name" • "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" • "With or Without You" • "Bullet the Blue Sky" • "Running to Stand Still" • "Red Hill Mining Town" • "In God's Country" • "Trip Through Your Wires" • "One Tree Hill" • "Exit" • "Mothers of the Disappeared" Encore • "Miss Sarajevo" • "Beautiful Day" • "Elevation" • "Vertigo" • "You're the Best Thing About Me" • "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" • "One" 2019 First act • "Sunday Bloody Sunday" • "New Year's Day" • "Bad" • "Pride (In the Name of Love)" 'Second act: The Joshua Tree''''' • "Where the Streets Have No Name" • "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" • "With or Without You" • "Bullet the Blue Sky" • "Running to Stand Still" • "Red Hill Mining Town" • "In God's Country" • "Trip Through Your Wires" • "One Tree Hill" • "Exit" • "Mothers of the Disappeared" • "Angel of Harlem" Encore • "Elevation" • "Vertigo" • "Even Better Than the Real Thing" • "Every Breaking Wave" • "Beautiful Day" • "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" • "Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way" • "One" == Tour dates ==

Cancelled shows Notes == See also ==