U2 still has to confirm the venue for its Dublin gig this summer, with the Phoenix Park on August 30th looking increasingly unlikely. This is due to a variety of planning permission problems, the band said at a press conference in New York yesterday on its upcoming world tour.
If the Phoenix Park is out, the band will play two smaller venues, possibly Croke Park, Landsdowne Road or the RDS on August 29th and 30th.
The tour, which begins in Las Vegas in April and continues until the end of the year, will promote its new album, Pop, which will be released on March 3rd.
The PopMart tour will include "a giant, sci fi disco supermarket setting" according to the band, will feature the world's largest video screen (150 ft by 50 ft, covering 700 square yards) which will be transported from gig to gig and used to show a series of supermarket related images.
Other features of the PopMart stage show will include a 100 ft high golden arch, a 35 ft high mirrorball lemon, a 12 ft wide illuminated stuffed olive (on a 100 ft tall toothpick) and a 3 in tall squeaky Nun.
Believed to be even more technologically advanced and gimmick laden than their Zoo TV tour of 1993-1994, the band will play the US from April to June before bringing the show to Europe in July and August, where it will play in Sarajevo for the first time, as well as gigs in Wembley Stadium, London and Murray field, Edinburgh.
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