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Thu, 16 Jul 1998 10:24:15 -0400
Popmart was fantastic and perfect for the theme of the album. I personally did not enjoy it as much
as Zoo TV -- I prefer a more serious theme.
But why compare it to JT at all? The fact is the tour themes stem from the musical direction they
were going in. A JT style tour would not have fit in the with post modern/industrial musical styles
of AB and Zooropa. Ditto for Pop. Also, U2 was not in a position to come up with a tour like the
last two during the JT years. Those take a lot of time, planning and money to burn. It is not like
they released JT and were given a huge lump some of money and were told -- "hey guys, come up with a
huge visual concert experience -- quickly -- your loaded now." If they had been at the time -- if
UF sold like JT -- maybe they would have. (Although the technology available in 86 wasn't the same
as in 92).
Not to mention the fact that, as Bono put it at the Popmart press conference -- "this is what we
do". They get excited about doing tours like ZooTV and Popmart. They enjoy the creative process
and trying to come up with a concert experience like no one has seen before. U2 doesn't need to do
any of it to sell tickets. The industry does not demand if from them at all. The fact that they
did not take sponsorships should tell you that. If they didn't believe in the art of it, why would
they take the financial risk.
Also, obviously Bono's voice has changed over the last 10-12 years. Most nights it is still
incredible. But they have obviously changed songs to help him out. He wouldn't announce he was
quitting smoking to preserve his voice better if something hadn't changed. Why deny what happens to
everyone as they age. What it has to do with ticket prices or whatever is beyond me though.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Thu Jul 16 1998 - 07:17:42 PDT