U2 Confirmed For Glastonbury.

kennyu272

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/news/u2-confirmed-for-glastonbury-2010

http://www.hotpress.com/U2/news/Its-official-U2-to-headline-Glasto/6047211.html

It seems too that there will be no additional Uk/Ireland dates next year.

robinph

They will be earning plenty of airmiles that weekend being in Canada on the Wednesday, Pilton on the Friday and Minnesota on the Sunday.

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/09/091123a.shtml

Surprised that it is actually happening though, but should be a good 'un.

Corkfeen

I thought u2 didn't do festivals. Should be good craic though. Heres hoping that I manage to get tickets.;)

poteen

Headlining Friday night on the Pyramid Stage!
best slot of the festival. been twice before. It rocks.

Mossy Monk

poteen wrote: »

Headlining Friday night on the Pyramid Stage!
best slot of the festival. been twice before. It rocks.

What makes Friday better than any other night?

poteen

Mossy Monk wrote: »

What makes Friday better than any other night?

Its commonly perceived to be the best slot. Its the first night of the festival proper. Most people have been on site since the Wednesday and come headline act Friday night the crowd are so up for it and just want to hear some music. There is always so much hype about regarding teh Pyramid stage. In saying this, there are tonnes of other stages and things to do on site if U2 aint your thing. Top Festival. Pity its sold out

youcancallmeal

I didnt think they would ever do it because the money wasn't enough for them. Tickets are sold out though and chances of getting one on the re-sales is fairly slim Anyway I presume the reason they have been convinced to play is because its Glastonbury's 30th anniversary.

tman

Corkfeen wrote: »

I thought u2 didn't do festivals. Should be good craic though. Heres hoping that I manage to get tickets.;)

Erm... There are only going to be a few thousand cancelled deposit tickets released, and now that this news is out I'd be amazed if you manage to get some:s

The pyramid stage will be mobbed for this!

robinph

It used to be that Friday night was some up and coming new'ish chart toppers, Saturday was the main event established act, and Sunday was an old codger coming back out of retirement for one last time.

That has all been mixed about about over the last few years though, but U2 doing the Friday is down to their and not the festivals scheduling. Nobody plays Glastonbury for the money though, I doubt that the cost of even one direction of flights from north America to Pilton would be covered by the cash that they would get. Maybe enough for the bus from Heathrow but that would be about it.

What you do get from Glastonbury is massive amounts of publicity, and shown live on the beeb for headline acts or most people even managing to snag a minor slot on the Pyramid. That and the fact that they were probably fed up with the strangely bearded one phoning them up asking them to play for peanuts will be why they are doing it.

It will be a completely different U2 show than any of their tours though as they will just have them, a stage, some instruments and maybe some flashing lights on a screen behind them. No other razzmatazz.

youcancallmeal

robinph wrote: »

What you do get from Glastonbury is massive amounts of publicity, and shown live on the beeb for headline acts or most people even managing to snag a minor slot on the Pyramid. That and the fact that they were probably fed up with the strangely bearded one phoning them up asking them to play for peanuts will be why they are doing it.

I seem to remember reading in an interview somewhere that this is why U2 have always refused to play Glasto. BBC have the rights to televise Glasto and U2 wont play because because they want exclusive television rights for themselves. Presumably so they can sell more live DVD's. Some sort of agreement must of been reached or else they simply wont televise U2's set?

Mr. Presentable

Be interesting to see if U2 can still cut it as a band, without all the lights and flashy things, rather than as a multimedia experience.

poteen

nipplenuts wrote: »

Be interesting to see if U2 can still cut it as a band, without all the lights and flashy things, rather than as a multimedia experience.

This is true to a certain extent. While they wont obviously have the claw, the headline act on the pyramid stage in Glastonbury will still have a fairly impressive stage show if they desire. But I have always thought that u2's songs were good enough anyway without the big stage show.

robinph

youcancallme>al wrote: »

I seem to remember reading in an interview somewhere that this is why U2 have always refused to play Glasto. BBC have the rights to televise Glasto and U2 wont play because because they want exclusive television rights for themselves. Presumably so they can sell more live DVD's. Some sort of agreement must of been reached or else they simply wont televise U2's set?

U2 are definitely not going to be getting much more in the way of cash as Glastonbury just don't have the money when there are a million other acts to cover costs for as well, but it would make sense if they have come to some deal about live coverage and DVD's to get the to the field.

It will have to be a back to basics whatever happens as they have limited space and time compare to their usual setup, so I'm interested in seeing what they have to offer us. I know more of their back catalogue than I did of The Boss, but if it is just a lot of new stuff then I'll not be impressed as they will have clearly missed the point. The only people who get to play only new stuff are the acts that only have new stuff. At a festival, 90%* of your audience have probably never seen or heard of you before, so your job is to impress them so they want to see you again and buy the DVD/ t-shirt or whatever else mst people have not yet figured out how to download from the internet.

* Statistics are clearly just pulled out of my arse.

asdfgh86

Yeah U2 are doing it because of the 30th anniversary thingy. I think the Stones are rumoured too.

robinph

If the rumours about there being rumours of another bigger act for the Saturday rumour then that basically means the Stones. But just due to the "fact" that he has got U2 already then getting the two longest running rumoured acts for the same year make it a rumour too much.

youcancallmeal

I reckon Radiohead might headline Saturday or Sunday. In fact I'm hoping they don't because I don't have a ticket :cool:

truly_mangled

well i hope radiohead do get confirmed for the saturday cos i'll be trying my best to have my very first glasto next year!
and it's the 40th anniversary of the festival! there will be 4 days of music meaning 4 big headliners. michael eavis wants to have 4 headliners in 4 eras to celebrate... my prediction is this!

70's - The Rolling Stones
80's - U2
90's - Radiohead/Pulp
00's - Muse

robinph

Only three days worth of headliners surely?

I know they changed something with the entertainment license last year possibly to let them actually have live acts on the Thusday in some of the tiny stages, but they are not going to be having anything official on any stages any bigger than Leftfield before the Friday.

robinph

Anyone who's not yet paid up the balance for their tickets has until the end of February to pay it off. Just paid up for all mine last week.

Should be a resale coming up at some point after that where they sell off the last remaining tickets and those that get returned, so I'm hoping to pick up another couple of tickets then if I get lucky.

Chardee MacDennis

robinph wrote: »

Anyone who's not yet paid up the balance for their tickets has until the end of February to pay it off. Just paid up for all mine last week.

Should be a resale coming up at some point after that where they sell off the last remaining tickets and those that get returned, so I'm hoping to pick up another couple of tickets then if I get lucky.

sshhh.. let them forget so i can get mine:D