The Crystal Ball: Tour Setup, Singles, Home Video

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-08-20)

Well, summer holidays are coming to a close for the band. Although Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam may have a few days left, the crew and tour staff are beginning to convene in Berlin starting today. They will be in Berlin, preparing for the shows, and starting to set up the stage. The stage was shipped to Belgium shortly after the end of the North American leg, and is now in transport from there to Berlin. Opening night of Leg Two is just 11 days away. There is a concert at the Mercedes-Benz arena on the 24th by German performer Marius Müller-Westernhagen, so even though the crew will start arriving this week, full set up of the stage is not expected until the weekend. With “Summer of Love” as the new single, being promoted in Europe now, we’re hoping to hear that the song is being rehearsed once rehearsals begin.

“Summer of Love” was released on August 10. The commercial release featured four remixes, including mixes by Howie B., Robin Schulz, TILT & Danny Stubbs, and Rusty Egan and HP Hoeger. There have also been a couple of promotional mixes issued, including a longer version of the Schulz remix, and a very different mix (the “Heatwave” mix) by Egan and Hoeger. We are told that there are two other remixes by Egan and Hoeger, titled the Chill and Sunset mixes that have been completed but are not yet slated to be released. If you’ve been enjoying the remixes, and would like to hear these additional mixes, now is a good time to speak up on social media that you are enjoying the other mixes. Interested in a bit more information about the remixes? We’ve interviewed 1/2 of TILT along with Danny Stubbs, discussing their remixes. We also interviewed Rusty Egan back when he was working on the “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” campaign. Egan and Hoeger are getting ready to launch their “Welcome to the Beach” album on September 3, 2018, but that album does not include U2.

The next single after “Summer of Love” is set to be “Red Flag Day” which should be released later this fall. While we are told there will likely be some remixes, the campaign for that single is also set to use some live recordings. The live recording of “Red Flag Day” backed with “Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way” from the Third Man Records appearance will be used on a limited physical release (we’re expecting for the Black Friday Record Store Day event in November.) As well, the performance of “Red Flag Day” from the Apollo Theater broadcast was held back for a possible single release. If there is a commercial release of “Red Flag Day” it will be the seventh commercial single from Songs of Experience, Currently that album is tied with Pop for the most songs commercially released, at six songs from each album.

The crew at U2Achtung mentioned a fall release of The Joshua Tree 2017 tour on home video earlier this year. We are happy to be able to tell you that we have confirmed this rumour with our own sources. The release is expected before Christmas of this year, and will feature traditional physical release formats and it will also be available as a digital download. The video will focus on The Joshua Tree 2017 tour, and is not expected to feature any material from the current tour. The footage will be made up mostly of material from the two concerts filmed in Mexico City last October. The film is directed by longtime collaborator Anton Corbin, whose images filled the screens during the tour. Additional footage filmed in San Diego and throughout the South American tour stops on the final leg are expected to be used as well, but we are told the bulk of the footage will be from the Mexico concerts on October 3 and October 4. Those concerts featured unique closing songs for that tour. The first night ended with “Spanish Eyes” and the second night ended with “Sweetest Thing”, both b-sides from the original The Joshua Tree album. We don’t have a release date yet but we will let you know as soon as we have anything confirmed.

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