Vancouver is the first confirmed date in Canada on U2's Vertigo tour, the Toronto Sun has confirmed prior to today's official announcement about what's expected to be 2005's highest grossing tour. The Dublin rockers play the Canadian West Coast city April 28 at GM Place, part of the first North American leg of the Vertigo trek, which kicks off March 28 in San Diego with opening act Kings Of Leon. A European leg begins on June 10 in Brussels.
"We're anticipating a return to North America after Europe in September, but nothing's set in stone," U2 tour promoter and Toronto native Arthur Fogel told the Sun in a Canadian newspaper exclusive.
"Europe ends mid-August, then there's a break, so it would be mid-to-late September (before the second leg starts.)"
Fogel said a date or dates in Toronto, and possibly Montreal, are expected in that second leg of the North American tour but nothing's been confirmed.
Fogel said U2 will be rehearsing in "a variety of locations" that will be finalized in the next few weeks.
Among them may be Vancouver, for production set-up and rehearsals, but without the band.
"It is possible that some portion of the rehearsals will be in Vancouver, although it isn't necessarily the band rehearsing there," said Fogel. "The production set-up and stuff could very well be there, but there are a lot of variables, the hockey strike being one of them. They can't seem to come to finality one way or the other."
Originally, U2 were going to begin their latest tour on March 1 in Miami, Fogel confirmed, with Toronto rumoured to be getting dates at the Air Canada Centre on March 26-27.
'DELAYED'
But Fogel said the schedules of the band members led to the routing being changed.
"We just had to reorganize based on people's schedules and other factors and so we ended up getting delayed about four weeks," said Fogel, the L.A.-based president of The Next Adventure, a division of Clear Channel Entertainment. "Originally Toronto was going to be in March when we were starting earlier in March."
On Friday, Billboard.com reported ticket prices will average $90 US, including $49.50 on the low end and $165 on the high end. (Go to U2.com for on-sale information.)
Those are relatively inexpensive tickets compared to other major tours of last year. Fogel said keeping U2 ticket prices down had nothing to do with 2004 being considered a poor touring year, but rather U2's 2001 Elevation Tour where the price range was $45-$135 US.
"It was really looking at the last tour and using that as the starting point," he said. "So really the benchmark was the Elevation tour and we went from there."
Like the Elevation trek, the Vertigo tour -- named after the first single from U2's latest album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb -- will have general admission for standing on the floor, and the production, once again designed by the team of Willie Williams and Mark Fisher, will have 360-degree views. "I think you can assume that, in that sense, it will be similar to last time," said Fogel. "The presentation and the concept certainly will be different."
On Feb. 13, U2 will perform at the Grammy Awards in L.A. where they are up for three trophies, and on March 14 they are being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at a ceremony in New York City.
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb has sold 8.5 million copies worldwide since its release last November.
NORTH AMERICA -- 1st Leg
Here are the first U2 tour dates that will be announced today. (Toronto is expected, but not confirmed, to be part of the second North American leg that starts in mid-to-late September):
March 28 San Diego Sports Arena
April 1 Anaheim Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim
April 5 Los Angeles Staples Center
April 9 San Jose HP Pavilion
April 14 Phoenix Glendale Arena
April 20 Denver Pepsi Center
April 24 Seattle Key Arena
April 28 Vancouver General Motors Place
May 7 & 9 Chicago United Center
May 14 Philadelphia Wachovia Center
May 17-18 E. Rutherford, N.J. Continental Airlines Arena
May 21 New York City Madison Square Garden
May 24 & 26 Boston Fleet Center
EUROPEAN TOUR -- 2nd Leg
June 10 Brussels - King Baudouin Stadium
June 12 Gelsenkirchen - Schalke Stadium
June 14 Manchester - City of Manchester Stadium
June 18 London - Twickenham Stadium
June 21 Glasgow - Hampden Park
June 24 Dublin - Croke Park
June 29 Cardiff - Millenium Stadium
July 2 Vienna - Ernst Happel Stadium
July 5 Katowice - Slaski Stadium
July 7 Berlin - Olympic Stadium
July 9 Paris - Stade de France
July 11 Zurich - Letzigrund Stadium
July 13 Amsterdam - Arena
July 19 Milan - San Siro
July 23 Rome - Olympic Stadium
July 27 Oslo - Vallehovin Stadium;
July 29 Gothenburg - Ullevi Stadium
July 31 Copenhagen - Parken
August 3 Munich - Olympic Stadium
August 5 Nice - Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann
August 7 Barcelona - Camp Nou
August 9 San Sebastian - Anoeta Stadium
August 11 Madrid - Estadio Vicente Calderon
August 14 Lisbon - Alvalade
