U2 Start Posting Backstage Photos From the Road on 360 Tour Twitter

Share photos on twitter with Twitpic

U2 have joined the masses on Twitter, establishing @U2_360Tour to give fans a look at life on the road and backstage on their 360 Tour, which is currently in Europe. So far, the Twitter feed has only hosted photos from the band but no text, so Bono hasn’t had to confine his thoughts to 140 characters just yet. Judging by the Twitter timeline, the photos were taken as the band traveled from Paris, having played two nights at the Stade De France, to Nice, where U2 were set to play Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann last night, July 15th. A press release indicates that the bandmembers are snapping the photos themselves.

@U2_360Tour’s first Tweet was an out-of-focus self-portrait of guitarist the Edge. From there, the band posted a series of pictures showing the (literally) red carpet treatment they receive en route to the airport. There are out-of-focus shots of women dragging luggage, off-duty traffic cops, giant Ferris wheels, a dish full of pastries and a picture of what appears to be all of Edge’s onstage jewelry. The band hasn’t posted any live performance shots.

As Rock Daily previously reported, U2 launched their 360 Tour — complete with the innovative new stage some have dubbed “the Claw” — on June 30th in Barcelona with a concert that included both a Michael Jackson tribute and a phone call to astronauts in orbit. Fans in the States will have to wait less than two months until the Irish rockers bring their concert across the Atlantic, starting with a September 12th show at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

- RollingStone.com

Nice, France, July 15, 2009, setlist, images, videos

Main Set: Breathe, No Line On The Horizon, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Beautiful Day, Mysterious Ways, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – Stand By Me, Desire – Billie Jean – Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, Stuck In A Moment, Unknown Caller, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Pride, MLK, Walk On – You’ll Never Walk Alone, Where the Streets Have No Name, One

Encore(s): Ultraviolet, With or Without You, Moment of Surrender

Images:

Edge belting it out in NICE,FRANCE.Show # 7 on the #u230 tour  on Twitpic

Videos:

GQ’s August 2009 issue features an interview with the Edge

GQ’s August 2009 issue features an interview with the Edge, Jack White, and Jimmy Page, who sat down with Will Welch to discuss the new electric guitar documentary, It Might Get Loud. Edge discusses the inspiration behind the un-commercial nature of “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and the experience of playing it live for the first time.

“When you’re writing a song, it can’t just be a nice idea; it’s got to be something that’s important to you at a gut level. Even when ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ was in its rough, early stage, it was cathartic for me. As a band, we decided not to release it as the first single on War, not because we didn’t think it was a great tune but because it would’ve been embarrassing for it to have become a commercial object to be exploited. The first time we played it live, we were in Northern Ireland, and without telling the rest of us, Bono goes, “’We’ve got a song about what’s going on up here. If you don’t like it, we’ll never play it again. Ever.’”

“‘Oh shit. Oh shit.’ Then Bono said, ‘This song is called ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday,’’ and the place went nuts. Two or three people headed to the exits, because from the title alone, you might think it’s a nationalist anthem. But of course, it’s just the opposite: It’s a pacifist anthem. My hands were shaking as I played the guitar.”

“I think the three of us all reverted to type. Jack is the showman—the brassy frontman and the snake-oil trader. Jimmy is the sartorially elegant guitar god. And I’m the sideman. That’s my gig. The sideman has to make it all happen and make everyone else look good.”

Find the complete interview here.

U2 Show Sets Record in Nice, France

Riviera Radio reports that last night U2 broke their own record (set during the Vertigo tour in 2005) for the most attendees ever at a concert in Nice.

The estimated number of concert-goers at the U2360 show held in the Stade Charles Ehrmann was 56,000 people. The capacity for that stadium is listed as “50,000.”

This is a post from the @U2 blog.

U2 Show Sets Record in Nice, France

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