Paul McGuinness has been talking to Hot Press about the imminent announcement of U2's world tour, which is likely to include three Croke Park stop-offs in July.

"This is going to be a very big tour, the biggest shows we've ever done," he reveals. "We're going to play stadiums only. Football stadiums. That excludes, for instance, baseball stadiums because the production that we've designed is 360 degrees. It's a stage with the audience on all sides."

Will the stage be in the centre of the arena?

"Not quite in the centre, it will be towards one end of the field in a typical football stadium, so the places we're playing will be tiered football stadiums; no flat fields, no festivals, no baseball stadiums. Only big, tiered stadiums."

As with previous U2 productions, there's a heavy emphasis on new technology.

"Well, yeah. I mean the engineering to do this, obviously it has to be a freestanding structure that has to support sound, lighting and video. And that's never been done before. Some people have performed in the middle of a field or maybe in a stadium on a one-off basis, but this is a touring production designed by Mark Fischer and Willie Williams, as usual. We've been talking about it for years, and this is the time we're going to do it. It will be necessary to tell people a bit about the production before the tickets go on sale because otherwise they're going to say, 'hold on, that seat is behind the stage'. Now, it's not behind the stage. There is no behind. So we'll be playing to very large capacities and that gives us an opportunity, or we think it's an opportunity, to scale the house in quite a radical way. So I think, when the tour is announced, which will probably be on March 9th, certainly we are going to start in Europe, and basically do six weeks in Europe, take a logistical break and then six weeks in North America. The large capacities give us an opportunity to scale the house and have some seats at very low prices, and there will be higher prices as well. But the breadth of the scaling will be wider than anyone has ever done in our business. That's kinda news."

Asked about all the Croke Park speculation, McGuinness says: "It's always best to know when you are going to announce it, because there are so many things affected by this, like hotels and airlines, and there's speculation on those commodities which have nothing to do with us. So we try to be disciplined about it, otherwise there can be unforeseen circumstances. Also, sometimes with sports facilities that we are looking to use around the world, we have to wait for sports leagues to resolve. Sometimes if a team loses, such-and-such a stadium becomes available. And all those things are a part of the planning so it's better to build up to it."

It's Hot Press' understanding that U2 will initially announce two Croke Park shows on July 24 and 25, with the option of a third on July 27 if, as expected, those sell-out.

Fans hoping for something a little more intimate will be heartened by McGuiness' observation that: "The new O² in Dublin is not what I would call an arena, it's an amphitheatre in layout, but it has the same capacity as an arena, and it's an amazing facility. And this tour is exclusively outdoors, there will be no indoor shows, but I look forward to a tour when we will be indoors again."

U2 360° TOUR :: 2009

Kiss The Future, U2's world tour in support of its new album "No Line on the Horizon," will play stadiums around the world, beginning June 30 in Barcelona, Billboard can exclusively reveal. Details of the tour will be announced March 9.

It's a groundbreaking tour with production that includes a 360-degree audience configuration, ambitious staging and a cylindrical video screen. "We're very excited about the idea to go on the road with this album," the Edge says. "It's an album that I think is going to translate so well to the live context. The songs we've tried in rehearsal are sounding fantastic, so that's got everyone really fired up."

U2 will be playing in a setting unique among all previous tours, by any artist. The tour will be global and lengthy. U2 will stay in Europe through Aug. 22, then hit American shores on Sept. 12 with a show at Soldier Field in Chicago. The band will play in North America until Oct. 28 and plans on working the globe until the fall of 2010. In addition to its production firsts, the tour is destined to become one of the highest-grossing tours ever; at $389 million, the band's 2005-2007 Vertigo tour is second only to the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang trek.

After playing arenas in North America and stadiums elsewhere on their last few tours, U2 will play stadiums everywhere this time out. "This is going to be completely different, and that's what makes it exciting -- finding something new to bring to the touring culture," says the Edge. "It's hard to come up with something that's fundamentally different, but we have, I think, on this tour. Where we're taking our production will never have been seen before by anybody, and that's an amazing thing to be able to say. For a band like U2 that really thrive on breaking new ground, it's a real thrill."

As they have for well over a decade, Live Nation global music chairman Arthur Fogel and his team will produce and promote U2 worldwide. Committing to a global stadium tour is "obviously a major undertaking on a bunch of different levels," says Fogel. "On the last tour it basically broke down indoors in America and stadiums outside of America. Both shows were pretty different and they were both incredible, but I think the general feeling, and certainly mine, was the experience of U2 in a stadium is special and unique, and it would be great for North America to experience that the way the rest of the world did the last time around."

Playing in a 360 configuration will increase the capacity by about 15%-20%, depending on the stadium. The configuration opens up myriad opportunities for scaling ticket prices, an important consideration for Fogel and the band. The top ticket price will be slightly higher than last time and the bottom price will be lower, with the floor seats -- the closest to the stage -- the lowest priced. In fact, playing larger capacity venues allows for more conservative pricing overall. Field level is going to be $55, and there will be 10,000 tickets a show, every show, at $30, Fogel says. The price points are $250, $90-$95, depending on the market; $55 and $30.

On-sales will begin in Europe in mid-March, and North American on-sales will start in late March/early April. U2 will also resurrect its random upgrade program first seen on the Elevation tour [sic] in 2001, where select fans purchasing GA tickets will be moved closest to the stage.

The basic layout of the tour is Europe in July and August, America in September and October with a total of 40-45 shows this year; more stadiums in America in June and July next year, then August and September in Europe. The trek then tentatively will hit South America in the fall of 2010, for potentially as many as 90-100 shows over the next two years.

This will be the first tour under U2's 12-year multi-rights deal with Live Nation, though the band's relationship with Fogel dates back to a show at the El Mocambo in Toronto in 1979. "Arthur and I are great friends and I've been very interested in the Live Nation project for years now, and we've been very supportive of it," says U2 manager Paul McGuinness. "We obviously intend to go on performing for a long time to come and that's what the deal reflects. U2 always had parallel careers as recording artists and a touring act and it was always fundamental to our way of thinking that the two should be complimentary."

According to Billboard, U2's upcoming world tour will be called Kiss the Future. As has previously been reported, the tour begins in Barcelona, Spain, on June 30. U2 will stay in Europe through Aug. 22, then hit the U.S. on Sept. 12th in Chicago. The band will play in North America until Oct. 28, and plans on working the globe until the fall of 2010.

Playing in a 360 configuration will increase the capacity by about 15%-20%, depending on the stadium. The configuration opens up myriad opportunities for scaling ticket prices. The top ticket price will be slightly higher than last time and the bottom price will be lower, with the floor seats -- the closest to the stage -- the lowest priced. Field level is going to be $55, and there will be 10,000 tickets a show, every show, at $30. The price points are $250, $90-$95, depending on the market; $55 and $30.

On-sales will begin in Europe in mid-March, and North American on-sales will start in late March/early April. U2 will also resurrect its random upgrade program first seen on the Vertigo tour in 2001, where select fans purchasing GA tickets will be moved closest to the stage.

Stay tuned for the official announcement and tour dates on Monday, March 9th.

That's right 24 hours left and the new CD will be released - If your inclined to purchase on-line please visit either AMAZON or ITUNES from the links within the site. This helps us with our building costs, oh yea a could help feed some coffee into the system.

Welcome to U2's Store

Welcome to U2's Store

For the second time this month, an online music store has started prematurely selling No Line on the Horizon. This time, the Universal Music Australia store has made the entire album available as digital downloads, and fans all over the world are buying it up, putting it on file sharing sites, and sending it to friends. The album's out there now; no turning back. Update: Universal Australia is no longer selling the album; it was available for about 1-2 hours.

Little did anyone know that NLOTH was also available on the Napster Mobile online store. An @U2 reader found it and bought the album on February 8th; it was available all last week, and finally removed yesterday (Feb. 16).

Everyone seems to love NLOTH. Join the discussion, or just see what they're saying in our forum. Link is below. (Note: no file sharing/trading is allowed in the forum.)

Welcome to U2's Store

The location of the unprecedented morning TV event has yet to be announced, but the group's performance coincides with the release of its highly anticipated new album, "No Line on the Horizon," which hits stores Tuesday March 3.

Welcome to U2's Store

The lead single from U2's much-hyped new album last night failed to breach the U.K. Top Ten, with the band hitting the charts at their lowest point in over a decade.

"Get On Your Boots" was the highest new entry of the week in the U.K., but fans were bitterly disappointed that it only charted at 12.

This is in contrast to the Irish charts, where the first single from album No Line on the Horizon shot straight to the top spot.

Online U2 fan forums last night blamed a host of factors for the relatively low U.K. placing, ranging from the changed nature of the charts to internet leaks.

Certainly the changed attitudes of the record-buying public mean that album sales will be the true barometer of the band's popularity. But unless the single rises up the charts in the coming weeks it will mark U2's worst performance since 1997's "If God Will Send His Angels."

That song was the fifth single from the Pop album and was not aggressively hyped or marketed in the way "Get On Your Boots" has been. And while number 12 is a respectable position for most bands, the world-conquering might of U2 has only failed to dent the U.K. top 10 four times in 25 years.

The band have enjoyed a remarkable run of success since their very first number 10 hit "New Year's Day" in 1983.

Elsewhere in the charts, last week's Brit Awards had a huge impact on the record-buying public.