Dublin... we have a problem.

$50 tickets for $299 ea. ?!? Vertiblog staffers remember a day when even the best seats in the house could be had for less than $30 bucks. While the Vertigo Tour is causing more grief than excitement among U2 fans, adjustments are being made to the gameplan. Amex and ETS, both groups who were allocated premium seats to offer their customers, are being asked to return them to the ticket inventory so that U2.com members can have a better shot at getting their presale tickets as promised. Many are suggesting that ticket brokers are getting out of control (one account states that one broker allegedly opened 150 U2.com memberships just to get advance tickets...), and by the amount of tickets already available on eBay, we'd tend to agree...

G-8 and Africa | Pro-Bono

Irish rock star Bono talks during the session 'The G-8 and Africa: Rhetoric or action ?' at the World Economic Forumin Davos. Bono warned the leaders of rich countries they were carrying the hopes of a generation with promises to end poverty in Africa.

U2.conned? | Fans wonder how things got Out of Control...

Well, it would be an understatement to say that many U2.com fans are feeling a little bit let down from their experience with the presale ticketing system employed for the Vertigo Tour. Many fansites are being flooded with posts from fans who feel that U2 has sold out and has been converted to the corporate machine who cares not about the love, but the money. There is even an open letter to U2 asking them what the deal is. At U2log.com there are even more stories of woe. We have to agree that, on paper, it would only make sense to offer your most loyal fans, who pay for the privilege, the best seats in the house. Instead many fans have found themselves spending hundreds of dollars for nosebleed seats or at the opposite end of the venue after Ticketmaster updated their seating chart in the middle of the chaos. Regardless, U2.con (as it's been dubbed by several fans) owes an explanation, if not another presale opportunity with better seats for those who were left without. We have to attribute the chaos and disappointment to the band's apparent lack of involvement with their own fansite. By all accounts, HTDAAB has outsold ATYCLB by hundreds of thousands of copies yet is only being supported by 13 U.S. tour dates. It was a recipe for disaster from day One and we're hopeful that the band does the right thing and takes care of the people who have taken care of them for so many years...

Announcing The Vertiforum

The Vertiblog staffers are happy to report the launch of 'The Vertiforum', a place where U2 fans can discuss all things related to the 2005 U2 Veritigo Tour. Feel free to join, it's free. We'd like to see the forum develop into a community of well respected participants who have open minds and, of course, follow U2. The domain has just been registered so due to inherent issues with DNS propagation, you may not be able to view it just yet... but do not fret it can be viewed at www.vertiforum.com. We've also added a permanent link to the right of this post for your convenience.

Please join and feel free to email the admin for any board suggestions.

Presale ticketing | Not exactly a beautiful day...

This morning U2 fans who spent the $40 to join U2.com and get priority ticketing privileges were justifiably thinking that they'd have first dibs on General Admission tickets to the shows of their choice. As it turns out, Ticketmaster has had several 'glitches' with the presale process and, according to some reports at alt.music.U2, have actually canceled the presale process altogether until they can fix the online ticketing issues. Vertiblog staff also encountered their own frustrations as the only tickets available for MSG as of noon EST were upper level tickets at the $100US pricepoint. If history repeats itself those who are patient will likely see additional tour dates added and will have another shot at getting decent seats for upcoming shows. The rollout of the U2.com membership has left a lot to be desired and often creates more questions than it answers... Why a 2 ticket minimum (4 seems more reasonable for reserved seating...)? Why are many 'bad' seats the ones that U2.com members had limited access to? Offering a premium membership with the implied benefit of getting priority access to 'good' seats seems like a simple idea on paper, but obviously presents its own set of challenges considering likely demand and technical limitations. It'd be nice to see the band respond by hooking up their most loyal fans some sort of remedy to make the situation right.

Bono Walks On...

U2 frontman Bono defied security in Cannes, France last night to get to the NRJ Music Awards ceremony on time. The Vertigo star was late for the ceremony at the Riviera city's Palais des Festival due to the bad traffic and horrified his bodyguards by jumping out of the car and crossing the crowds to approach the red carpet. One security guard says, "It could have been very dangerous for him to walk freely through the crowd without any bodyguards. "Happily nobody was expecting him in the crowd, and he managed to reach the ceremony safely. It's very unusual and very risky for a star like Bono to act that way, but I guess his fans were more than happy to meet him that way." Bono went on to pick up the Special Achievement Award for his charity work. In French, Bono told the crowds: "I'm not from this country but I'll make a little confession to you - it's at the Cote d'Azur I feel at home." .... didn't he say that in Buffalo? (5.31.01)

13 Dates Stateside? | Uno, Dos, Tres... Trece? :-(

We're still trying to get more information on the status of the 1st leg of the Vertigo Tour. We cannot fathom that there will only be 13 (13 = Trece) dates scheduled Stateside for what has been widely anticipated to be one of the most successful tours of all time. Considering that past tours have routinely had over 35 (minimum!) dates per leg, it makes us wonder what might be behind the strategy of this tour's 1st leg schedule. We encourage our global audience to investigate and report back to vertinfo@veriblog.com with any additional inside scoop. 13 US dates + 34 EU dates seems like a paltry sum from the biggest band on the Globe.

Stage details emerging...

While the Elevation Tour will long be remembered for the universally recognized heart shaped stage, the Vertigo Tour is not going to disappoint those die-hard fans who want to get up close and personal. As with the Elevation Tour, some of the best tickets will also be the cheapest, starting out at $50US.

2005 Vertigo Tour | 1st and 2nd legs

NORTH AMERICA DATES AND TICKETING INFORMATION
March 28th San Diego, CA - Sports Arena
April 1st Anaheim, CA - Arrowhead Pond
April 5th Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center
April 9th San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion
April 14th Phoenix, AZ - Glendale Arena
April 20th Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
April 24th Seattle, WA - Key Arena
April 28th Vancouver, BC - General Motors Place
May 7th & May 9th Chicago, IL - United Center
May 14 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center
May 17 & May 18 East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines Arena
May 21 New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
May 24 & May 26 Boston, MA - Fleet

EUROPEAN DATES AND TICKETING INFORMATION
June 10th Brussels - King Baudouin Stadium
June 12th Gelsenkirchen - Schalke Stadium
June 14th Manchester - City of Manchester Stadium
June 18th London - Twickenham Stadium
June 21st Glasgow - Hampden Park
June 24th Dublin - Croke Park
June 29th Cardiff - Millenium Stadium
2nd July Vienna - Ernst Happel Stadium
5th July Katowice - Slaski Stadium
7th July Berlin - Olympic Stadium
9th July Paris - Stade de France11th July Zurich – Letzigrund Stadium
13th July Amsterdam – Arena
19th July Milan - San Siro
23rd July Rome - Olympic Stadium
27th July Oslo - Vallehovin Stadium
29th July Gothenburg - Ullevi Stadium
31st July Copenhagen - Parken
3rd August Munich - Olympic Stadium
5th August Nice - Parc des Sports Charles Ehrmann
7th August Barcelona – Camp Nou
9th August San Sebastian - Anoeta Stadium
11th August Madrid - Estadio Vicente Calderon
14th August Lisbon - Alvalade

We in the States can't help but be a little caught off guard that the preliminary tour schedule has only 13 dates slated for the U.S. on Leg 1 of the Vertigo Tour. For comparison, the Elevation Tour's 1st leg in 2001 conisisted of 50 dates. Hopefully there will be more dates added as there are several days between many of these shows.

2005 Tour Dates to be announced Monday 1/24/05

The long awaited Vertigo Tour tour dates are slated to be announced Monday, January 24th. U2.com members will be emailed (check your inboxes!) a unique pre-sale code allowing members to purchase up to 2 tickets for any US indoor show and up to 4 tickets for any European outdoor show. Pre-sale is scheduled for 1/25/04 via Ticketmaster.