Following on from news that U2 will embark on an extensive worldwide tour, the design for the band’s “ambitious staging” has now been revealed. Bono and co. will play inside a towering structure nicknamed ‘The Claw’, with four legs and speakers mounted on each side.
According to a cover feature in the US Rolling Stone, the stage set was dreamed up by U2 ‘show director’ Willie Williams. ‘The Claw’ stands at 164 feet tall, which – crucially – is twice as high as the stage set used by that other world’s biggest band The Rolling Stones on their A Bigger Bang tour. “Theirs would fit underneath this one,” Williams bragged to the magazine. It’s unclear yet whether this is a stroke of genius or something of a sci-fi Spinal Tap, but you can’t say U2 aren’t trying.