U2 Returning To Stage In Las Vegas, Minus One Of Quartet

NEW YORK – U2 will return to the concert stage later this year for the first time since 2019, but without one of the original quartets due to the injury of drummer Larry Mullen Jr.

In a commercial that aired during the Super Bowl on Sunday, the band hinted at its return to the biggest stage possible, announcing that it would play a series of shows this fall to kick off the new MSG Sphere venue in Las Vegas.

The shows will center on the band’s 1991 album “Achtung Baby.”

“We need to get back on stage and see our fans’ faces again,” Bono, the Edge, and Adam Clayton said in a statement on Sunday.

Other than Las Vegas, no other dates have been announced, though it’s unlikely that a show will be built for just one city. In 2017 and 2019, the band embarked on a global concert tour supporting its “Joshua Tree” album.

U2 Excited To Get Back On Tour

Mullen is regarded as the band’s founder; the four members met in his Dublin kitchen after responding to an ad he posted on a high school bulletin board looking for musicians. U2 refused to discuss his health issues, but according to a November report in The Washington Post, the drummer had neck and elbow issues that required surgery.

According to Bono’s book, “Surrender,” the band had only performed without all four members twice before: when Clayton missed a gig in Australia due to illness in 1993 and when Mullen broke his foot in a motorcycle accident in 1978.

Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg will replace Mullen in Las Vegas.

U2 plans to release “Songs of Surrender” next month, including re-recorded and re-imagined versions of 40 songs from its catalog.

The Edge was impressed by the cutting-edge sound and video system built for the MSG Sphere. “We all thought about it and decided it would be foolish not to accept the invitation,” he explained.

SOURCE – (AP)