ddarroch

Yep, Bono lies. I really hope there's still going to be significant differences between the pair of shows. Lots of people will be quite unhappy if there's not much difference, myself included. What's the point of buying tickets to 2 shows, if they're just about the same. Good way to sell tickets tough, well done Bono! I saw 4 360 shows in 2009, back to back, & they all had the EXACT same set list. I'm hoping that doesn't happen again. I'm seeing 4 i+e shows, I was considering a 5th. But that won't be happening if set lists are pretty much static between shows. Although, if the show is split in halves, with half performed at the 'I' & half performed at the 'e', I guess the experience could be quite different if viewing one show near the 'I' & the next near the 'e'. Not sure if Bono's voice, or more importantly, Larry's back could handle a significantly longer set list. Guess we don't have long to wait & see.

Yeah true re. aperture. I was thinking about cameras with small sensor sizes (like the GoPro). But you're totally right, for these cameras with much larger sensors, you can bump up the ISO to compensate for quite low light levels, & not suffer from very noisy pictures. Plus, compared to many concerts, the lighting at U2 shows is pretty good. I'm far from an expert, your knowledge would be way, way ahead of mine. Last tour I used a Canon S90. So what I guess was called an advanced compact back then. Manual functions & RAW. Pretty good sensor (1/1.7") for a non-DSLR (did they have micro 4/3's back then), but wouldn't compete with the much larger sensors of today. So the f/2.0 lens helped a lot, as if I bumped the ISO much above 400 noise would become an issue. Technology has certainly moved on a lot since '09, with some pretty amazing cameras in small packages. But I think I'll be sticking with my trusty S90, mainly due to budget constraints.

You wouldn't just look like a dork, but you'd be restricting the view of many people behind you. Have you thought of this? I'd expect you'd get plenty of abuse from those people, & rightly so! The only place you could put it & not affect those behind you would be on a shoulder mount or chest mount. But the cameras view from this height will be restricted, & as said earlier the footage will be shaky & likely unviewable. Only real option would be to get a rail spot, & attach the camera to the rail. I can't see security allowing this, unless policies change. But concert photography is a low light environment. You need a camera with a 'fast' lens. This is a large aperture, which will let in enough light, while using a decently fast shutter speed (to eliminate blur from motion). A GoPro is just not going to cut it in low light conditions, & as said earlier, the sound will probably suck too.

Yeah,you're right. If you have to arrange travel & accommodation for the show, then unfortunately a resale ticket may be the only way. But for those that can afford to wait, I'd recommend looking for a ticket at face value. The more people that pay exhorbitant amounts for resale tickets, the more profitable that business model becomes. The bastards at Ticketmaster are now in on the act. Offloading tickets to it's resale site before they are even put up for general sale. There's a good chance that Live Nation (& possibly the band) are in on the act too. Totally sucks!

Here's the post I sent you over on @U2; Don't do it, don't feed the scalpers! If we pay for these resale tickets it only makes the problems of ticket scarcity & ticket prices worse (really, $100 for a nosebleed). Fortunately the US leg of the tour hasn't been selling very well, so plenty of scalpers will get shafted. There have been nosebleeds for Phoenix going for only $18! Luckily there's a few other routes to find tickets to 'sold out' shows (which aren't really totally sold out). * Ticket Drops - there's usually ticket drops from the official seller. This can be months & months before the show (London 5 & 6 had tonnes of mid priced sets released around a week ago, MSG had $118 seats released a coupel of days ago). All Vancouver, San Jose & Phoenix shows had "Sight Lines & Production seats" released about a month before their shows. It can be right up until show night, I've scored GA's for Sydney within a week of the concert. Problem is ticket drops aren't announced. You can check TM's site regularly, yourself, or you can check forum threads about ticket drops. If you use the notification feature on the forum you can have a notification automatically sent to your email whenever anyone posts on that forum thread. I've started a ticket drop thread on @U2 here, http://forum.atu2.com/index.php?topic=26657.0 There's also a ticket drop thread on interference here, http://www.u2interference.com/forums/f314/ticket-drops-thread-218208.html * Forum face value trade/sale - Just about all forums have a thread for fans to sell/trade tickets at face value. I may be using these in October, as I may have to offload extra GA's for London, & I'd rather they go to a fan. Yeah, if your desparate, & have to organise travel early or something, then resale may be your only option. But as you say, you can afford to wait a while, so I'd recommend trying to get a ticket at face value. Best of luck.

Let's compromise How about a young up 'n comer for the innocence shows & an old school band for the experience shows (if the separate nights are based on themes, or vice versa if they are based on the age of the songs in U2's set).

Nothing beats GA, you're going to love it! How close do you hope to be? How much time do you plan to spend in the line? I usually am in line all day (& occasionally the night before). I would assume you'll need to be in line all day, if you want to be really close, right up front. But this could depend on the weather on the day, if it's blazing hot many people won't want to line up all day. Also much will depend on the stage layout, which nobody knows at this stage. If it's in-the-round, as some presume, there could be many spots which are close with good views. If it's end-of-stage (with a b-stage), it may be harder to get a great spot close to the band (near the main stage). But with this layout a late arrival may still get you a spot quite close to the b-stage. So after the opening shows in Vancouver I'd recommend studying the stage layout. Determine where you'd like to be, & what number you'll likely have to be in line to get this spot. Also determine how to get to this spot once the gates have opened (you can probably already find out which gate you'll be entering the arena from). As for the actual day in the GA line, the main advice I'd give is to watch your HYDRATION levels. You want to make sure you're not dehydrated for the show. Conversely, if you're hoping to be right up front of GA, close to the band, you won't be able to leave your spot once you enter the arena. So no bathroom breaks! So you don't want to drink too much throughout the day. It's a balancing act. I usually drink a lot of water the night before, & during the morning of the show, but nothing after about midday. I also take a couple of fruit box drinks & a snack into the arena, to boost energy levels for the second half of the show. Plenty more pointers, but I'll leave it for Joe to tell you the rest. Joe is pretty hardcore when it comes to GA, & is often one of the first in line. Below is Joe's guide to GA. It's a little bit 360-centric, but I'm sure much of the advice will be relevant to this arena tour. http://onlineonthehorizon.com/ga-guide/ Best of luck, I'm sure you'll have a blast.

This kinda tricked me too, as I didn't read that email from AXS properly. I was a bit confused, but it's a false alarm I think. Brooklyn Bowl is under the Dome, but outside the O2 arena. It's a 10-pin bowling venue, restaurant, & has live music on occasions. So Hothouse Flowers will be performing near U2, under the dome, but in a different venue to U2. So they are in no way supporting U2. Hothouse Flower shows are on 24th, 25, & 26th October, so will coincide with London 1 & 2. Tickets £17, doors 16:00, show 17:30, so could be a good old school warm up for U2 fans with seats for those nights. Bit of a sneeky email if you ask me. But good luck to them, I liked Hothouse Flowers back in the day, & saw them live once, in Sydney. But I'm hoping for a different old school band. A band I REALLY liked back in the day, & a band I've never seen live. Bring on Simple Minds! They've also got their own arena shows at The O2 & Glasgow's Hydro, only a week after U2. So backing U2 in the same venue that they'll be headlining in would be a good warm up for them. Or maybe no opener, which looks like a distinct possibility.

Good Question ! Were those unique requests or did the repeats count too ?You don't like Acrobat? The rules forbid reposting the same requests multiple times, & said these requests wouldn't be counted. But you could retweet other people's requests, which would be counted. I retweeted other people's requests for Acrobat, but I also retweeted plenty of other songs too. To me, Acrobat has always seemed to be the number 1 request for rare/never played songs on fan forums. @u2 forum has a thread about it now, here, http://forum.atu2.com/index.php/topic,26532.0.html. You could only vote once, so all individual users, no repeats. Acrobat scored nearly a third of the total vote, 3 times more than it's closest rival (Mofo). Note, it is only a small sample size (116 votes so far), & a limited choice of songs. But it certainly portrays the wish of a large proportion of fans to hear Acrobat.

Haha, I had the third most tweets/retweet Time to get back to work

No, 'Love' is in many song titles, so it's so large as it's a combination of all those titles. You need to look for 'Blindness' in the pic, Not sure how accurate the pic is really though. Here's a blog that ranks the results, http://u2frases.blogspot.com.br/2015/04/the-most-requested-songs-of-u2request.html. Lists "Love is Blindness" in 13th place, with 623 tweets.

I like your thinking. I tweeted "I threw a brick", "A day without me", "another time/another place", "Seconds", "Two hearts", "Surrender". Plus lots of retweeting of old stuff.

For 360, it was something about lens length, can't remember what length though. Plus no video or audio recording equipment from memory (though you can record video on just about anything nowadays).

It's good to see A Sort of Homecoming big & bold, & Acrobat MASSIVE!

I just checked night 1. Section 116 CAD 302, section 111 (end of arena, RZ side) CAD 113, section 110 (corner, RZ side) CAD 82. Plus fees. Hope they'll be doing this for all shows. F U Scalpers!

I guess it's quite a bit easier to keep things secret for an arena tour than for 360. What with that behemoth Claw dominating the sky line in belgium. Plus rehearsing indoors, right up to opening night too. I'm kinda looking forward to NOT being able to hear the soundcheck, more surprises! So for me, I hope they can keep it secret, right up to opening night. But I'm not going to Vancouver. If I was, & I had GA, I'd sure want to know which direction to run to! Plus, if I had expensive seats, & they turned out to be in a bad location, I'd be pissed I didn't get to see a stage layout before I purchased my ticket. My first show is not until very late in the tour, in London. There's no way I'll be able to keep away from spoilers until then. So not too many surprises for me at my shows. But it would be nice to be surprised at a setlist party for the opening night in Vancouver!

Also, note that the U2 Tour page, http://www.u2.com/tour , now says "PRODUCTION/SIGHT LINE SEATS RELEASED" for the shows in Vancouver, San Jose & Phoenix. This is a new development, & probably means the dimensions of the stage have been defined accurately (it may be built somewhere, they may be rehearsing on it!). So now that they know the stage dimensions, they can release those extra seats (though I doubt they'd be in good locations), & maybe extra GA's if there's room on the floor (could be now, or a day or 2 before the show). So check TM for ticket drops. Weird though, I can't find tickets for the shows listed above. So either the ticket drop hasn't occurred, or scalpers have snapped them up.

I had a VIP pass for the Vegas show last tour. It was a freebie from a friend. I didn't actually use it, other than to get into GA, which I guess is not really allowed (I had ticket for a seat)? The other guys I was with went to the VIP party before the show, in a large tent beside the stadium. Nibbles, champagne, beer, from what I remember. Not sure if there was a gift. Personally, I don't think it's worth it. Seems like a money gouging exercise to me. But hey, if it helps keep down the GA ticket prices I'm all for it, GA all the way! When I was at the Rose Bowl I managed to score a Vancouver GA at face value. I had a cardboard sign (with a picture of the Actung Baby, which hepled define me as a fan), walked the line, a very long line! Didn't take long, but maybe I was lucky, especially as it was a thousand miles away in another country! Had a bit of an incedent entering the stadium in Vancouver. My ticket wouldn't scan. Don't think it was a fake, but who knows. I ended up doing the runner through the barrier, after a few failed scans. I'd started out at about number 30 in the GA line, & was losing my position rapidly.Turned out all right though, as they were holding up everyone at the turnstiles to the entrance to the inner circle (they expected us all to have wristbands, which nobody had). We were all on Adam's side, I spied Edge's side was totally empty. So during the holdup I power walked to the entrance on Edge's side. First in the inner circle, right under Bono's mic, sweet!

I may be going it alone for London 6 (if 2 friends from Italy can't make it). I'll be going alone for Paris 1 & 2. I've been alone previously, once or twice in Sydney, & for Slane. I also did a road trip for the first US leg of the 360 shows with 3 guys I'd never met in the flesh - only spoken online on interference. Had an absolutely amazing time, & we remain good friends. Have made some great friends over both US legs of the last tour. I'd recommend trying to be quite sociable with your neighbours in the GA line. I'm normally quite shy, but make an effort in the line. I met a great group of girls in Sydney for Vertigo, recommended they follow me when the gates opened, & had a great time together by one of the b-stages, with great views of the main stage. Bono actually got down on one knee & sang to one of these girls, so she was stoked! Make friends, or at least be known by your neighbours, then you should have no worries leaving the line for toilet breaks etc. I'd recommend drinking lots of water on the morning of the show (& the previous night), & leaving the line to go to the loo, but drinking nothing in the afternoon. You're right, once you're in the arena you won't want to be leaving your spot, but you don't want to be dehydrated. I take in fruit drinks & energy bars, for the second half of the show.

I got the Pilot Inn, which is very close, & very highly recommended for 90GBP (incl. breakfast for 2 & free cancellation) for the night before London 5. But for other nights it's booked out, or the price skyrockets. Might try airbnb for the other nights. Need to be close, as I'm doing GA with no car. What booking site did you use Wendy?

Got my 3 GA's easily too. Checked 30 mins later & GA's were still available.

Congrats Me too, 3 GA's. As usual, a bit stressful. Got through the waiting room quickly, but was only offered a maximum or 2 GA tickets, weird, as it's not the pre-sale. Bought 1 ticket, then went back in & was able to purchase another 2 GA tickets, this time it offered me a maximum of 8 tickets. Very weird indeed.

Yep, it sounds like they usually let you inside the dome when it opens in the morning. So GA inside the dome, undercover, with restaurants etc, close by. Sounds luxurious! In '09 I spent a night in the GA line in Vancouver in November. Near freezing, threatening to rain, no tent or sleeping bag, just a trash bag & blanket from my hostel........ Ended up first person into the inner circle from Edges side. High fived Joe Ahorro, many will know him, right under Bono's mic (as he was first in from Adam's side). So worth the wait!

Really? I'd like them to come & visit me in Sydney, maybe I should start a petition too.

Not yet, but I'm hoping to get a GA ticket (or 3) in the general sale. I have a GA for the previous show, London 5, on Nov 2 (plus GA's for Paris 1 & 2). I think I'll spend the day in the GA line for London 5, & see how I'm feeling for London 6 (if I manage to get that GA). I did 2 GA's back-to-back in Anaheim last tour. So worth it, but hard work. I like the sound of that 9 day break!