U2’s Record Store Day 2019 Release Plans: The Europa EP

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2019-01-05)

Originally posted: January 4, 2019 Last Updated: January 5, 2019

We are pleased to share with you that U2 will once again participate in Record Store Day for 2019. Our sources which have been very reliable in the past have told us that this new release is a special one, taken from the recently finished Experience and Innocence tour. The record is being called “The Europa EP” and will be on 12-inch vinyl.

The opening track of the EP will be the previously unreleased mix of “Zooropa” and “Love is All We Have Left” which is backing music behind Charlie Chaplin’s final speech from The Great Dictator. The 1940 film speech was used over U2’s music to open all of the European concerts on the Experience and Innocence tour which ran between August 31 and November 13, 2018.

The EP will likely be filled out with a number of other tracks taken from the live show. These are not from the recent film shoot in Berlin, and we are told that they are taken from other locations on the European tour. There will be multiple tracks on each side.

The title itself leads one to guess that one of the tracks on the EP will be the new remix of “New Year’s Day” which was the featured track while the European Union flag was displayed behind the stage. The release in November of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” was the intermission piece from the tour, but a studio recording of that song, these are expected to be live releases.

The artwork we have used for our posts on social media are not the cover of the EP.

Releases for Record Store Day will be officially announced in late February 2019, so this release will not be officially announced until that time. Record Store Day will be held worldwide on April 13, 2019 this year. The day, which celebrates independent Record Stores sees the release of limited vinyl compilations by artists each year.



VIDEO: U2Gigs shared “New Year’s Day” from Dublin on YouTube

U2 has participated in a number of Record Store Day events over the years, since the event first started in 2008, including both the main Record Store Day, held each April, as well as the Black Friday event held in November:

November 26, 2010: Release of the EP “Wide Awake in Europe” [5000 copies, numbered]

November 29, 2013: Release of the 10-inch single “Ordinary Love” [10000 copies]

November 28, 2014: Release of a North and South of the River Poster / Map

April 18, 2015: Release of Songs of Innocence on double 12-inch vinyl [5000 copies, numbered]

April 22, 2017: Release of “Red Hill Mining Town” as a 12-inch picture disc, also a limited release of a numbered ‘fanzine’ [7000 copies, 1000 copies of US fanzine, 500 copies of UK fanzine]

November 24, 2017: Release of “The Blackout” in 12-inch black and 12-inch coloured vinyl [750 copies limited coloured vinyl, 19250 copies of black vinyl]

April 21, 2018: Release of “Lights of Home” as a 12-inch picture disc [5000 copies]

November 23, 2018: Release of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” as a 12-inch black vinyl [7000 copies]

We recently took a closer look at some of these releases in our History Mix column. We will have additional information on this release in the next couple of days, and will share that information as it is available.

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