U2 The Unforgettable Fire Tour Rider

This is in fact a tour rider and not an itinerary book. And what is a tour rider? This little book includes specifications on stage design, sound & lighting demands, as well as an artist's wish list that goes from transportation and billing to dressing room accommodations and what food and drinks he wants to find when he arrives at the venue.

As you can guess from the title and also from the cover picture I'm showing this book belongs to The Unforgettable Fire tour. I saw it up for auction on Ebay around November 2007 as "U2 Official Tour Rider" and the final price was about 110 Euros.

According to the text on the front cover it belongs to 1985 so there was probably one or maybe more itineraries/riders for this tour as it started in 1984.

Even though I don't have a copy of this on my shelf, I have a picture of one of the pages. As it is kind of an index, I can have an idea about the book content.

As I said before the content is a list of requirements that any The Unforgettable Fire Tour show should accomplish. I can read on the index chapters related to Cancellation terms, Billing, Support bands, Merchandising, Security, Food, Laundry, Garbage, Limousines and other stuff.

All of it interesting information in order to understand how a U2 show works and to know all the details to be solved before our favourite band hits the stage.

This book is missing in my collection so if you own it and want to sell, trade or just share some information with us please contact me.

See you soon

The Collector

U2 ZOO TV Outside Broadcast Technical Outline 1992

In 2018, twenty six years after the end of the Outside Broadcast leg of the ZOO TV tour, I had the chance to get a copy of this amazing book. 

As mentioned on other entries, the tour rider is a compilation of all the requirements that any tour promoter must fulfill when they agree to produce a concert or tour.  

So this book was issued by the U2 management and sent to all the promoters that produced one or more shows of the Outside Broadcast. It contains all the details related to that incredible leg that took ZOO TV to stadiums in North America.

The cover is quite similar to the one used on the ZOO TV Leg 2 Europe itinerary but in this case it includes the text "Technical Outline 1992" in white letters.

Inside this white folder we can find 3 different blocks: The Outside Broadcast Technical Rider (21 white pages), ZOO TV Service Contacts (2 pink pages) and Personnel & Production Crew (4 blue pages).

The copy I got also included 2 more blocks with additional information or amendments to the original rider: One dated on August 6th 1992 (21 white pages) and a second and final one dated on August 22nd 1992 (23 green pages).

The rider includes several topics and information on materials related to the show production such as Staging, Crew Calls, Fork-lifts, cranes and Golfcarts, Seast, Radios, Telephones, Visqueen, Power requirements, Fuel & Transportation, Limousines, Bus/Truck Parking, Laundry, Soundcheck, Sound Volume, Cables, Passes, Toilets, Firs Aid, Towels, Security, Personnel Requirements, Catering Requirement, Private Rooms, Dressing Rooms,....

As you can imagine plenty of details are mentioned on this book as everything has to be under control when the tour arrives to the stadium.

Being a rider for the ZOO TV tour one of the important requirements is the Television Signal Feed that was key in the tour concept. So they needed a minimum of 15 TV Channels including a 24 hour home shopping network and a 24 hour weather channel.

Another requirement was that purchaser had to provide the name and phone number of a throat specialist who should be available from 7 am to 7 pm on the day of the show.







These are just a few details that we can find on this book. As mentioned, this copy covers Outside Broadcast only. We also have an entry for the Zooropa tour rider and we are sure that there were riders issued for the other legs of this tour.

Enjoy!

RATING: A+
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The Collector

U2 Zooropa'93 Tour Rider

As U2 tours become bigger and more professional, technical specificactions also grow and the requests from the band, the management and the show itself are compiled in huge books like this one I'm gonna show on this entry. It contains all the information related to the Zooropa 93 tour.

I found all the information on an online aution so all I can provide are pictures and the information I can see on them. As the number and quality of the pictures is good enough, they are providing some interesting information.

The spectacular cover shows some images of the previous legs of the tour and a big Zooropa'93 logo right in the middle, surrounded by green stars. Official name of this book is Technical Outline.

The first thing we find once we open it is a plastic folder containing 7 b/w pictures of the stage and set construction. According to the seller most of them were taken at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso (TX).

First page on the huge book is a letter from Steve Iredale that reveals that it was issued on March 26th 1993 and that there were some technical rehearsals in Cardington Hall in Bedford, England.

As Steve informs on his letter, if additional details and specifications became available they would be sent out to everybody involved.

Next page I'm showing is detailing part of the U2 staff for the Zooropa tour. Apart from the band, some of the people involved in that 1993 tour are still working for U2. Others have been getting off the U2 train. Sheila Roche, Fintan Fitzgerald, Nassim Khalifa and the 3 security guys were working for the band for years but they left their place to new people.

Next page I could see is a compilation of the adresses of the companies involved in the tour. Principle Management Ireland and USA, U2 Accountants Ireland and USA, RMP London and others are listed on this page.

This incredible book does also contain all the requests and terms that any promoter had to agree in order to get U2 play in his city. This page shows terms related to who would be able to take decissions from the purcharser's side and also everything related to staging.

Next page contains everything related to security. All details should be provided in advance to U2 management. Number of persons and positions, passes issued, everybody should be wearing some kind of uniform, water has to be distributed to those people in the first rows,....



This book is also covering everything related to Doctors, Police Escort, Runners, Reception and Catering.

A throat specialist has to be available for the day of the show, Police scort only on request, also three runners available for the production staff,.....

Catering will need one runner with a van and 4 people who "will only be able to watch the show if their job is completed". They should also be aware that their job would "basically be washing up".

There is also a page dedicated to Tour Manager, Accountant and Principel Management Offices requests.

The most interesting for us on this page are U2 Dressing Rooms details. They have to be as close as possible together, never near to food preparation and serving areas and the most important: "There must be showers in the dressing room area. No shower - No show"

Details about decoration and furniture in dressing rooms are also provided. Highest standard furnishing and decoration are a must.

1 Refrigerator (Clean and working), 12 bottles of wine and 12 tall glasses should be placed in the dressing room.

About the wardrobe, 2 full length mirrors and a small table for make up are also needed. 

The book is also including many stage plans with all the measures and technical specifications needed to build the massive Zooropa show.

Definitelly an amazing and very interesting book to have, part of U2 story...part of modern music story.

This book is missing in my collection so if you own it and want to sell, trade or just share some information with us please contact me. 
  
The Collector 
 

Zooropa '93 Stage Construction Book

This stage drawings book was key for the design and construction of the stage for U2's Zooropa performances around the world. The book is in fact part of the work to manufacture all the components of this stage that was used around Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

The previous photo is of the front and the one below is just a close-up photo of the text on the front page.

This rare ring bound book is 230 x 280 mm so it's quite big compared with the itinerary books. UPFRONT, Inc. was the company in charge of this project and all the information included on this book was part of their work.

The book has got 40 pages that basically include detailed drawings of every single section of the stage. These are technical drawings at different scales (1:400, 1:200, 1:300,...). We can find different drawings for the full stage Plan View, the right side, the left side, the B Stage, ....

Interesting details are shown on these pages such as the height of the stage components (24 meters for the towers, 17.5 meters for the rest of the stage), the screens size and other stuff.

Sometimes very technical and even difficult to understand but still very interesting for a non expert like me.

Most of these stage plans were finally used on the final tour rider as you can see on the "Zooropa'93 tour rider" entry. Wanna take a look? Just follow this link:

http://u2itinerarybooks.blogspot.com/2010/10/u2-zooropa93-tour-rider.html

As you can see on the first couple of pictures, on March 25th they printed this first revision. I later knew that there was a 4th revision on May 27th. The funny thing is that the tour had started in Rotterdam on May 9th so it seems they were kind of adjusting things even with the tour already on the road.

And last but not least, I also found these 3 pictures on the internet that I thought would perfectly fit for this entry. They were taken while the stage was being built in one the stadiums that the tour did visit.

The Collector

Zooropa'93 Phone Contact Book

This is a new kind of book I recently discovered. In fact, the only two copies I've ever seen are exactly the same and belong to the Zooropa'93 tour so I don't know if this is a kind of book that U2 management has been printing tour after tour or it was only issued when the Zooropa tour did hit the road back in 1993.

It was issued to tour principals (band,  family members, managers, producers, etc.) so a very limited number of copies might be around.

This 11-page book measures 8 3/8" x 5 7/8" and is spiral-bound, with clear cover.

Under a transparent plastic cover, the first page of the book features a cartoon of the band playing on a stage with the Egypt pyramids and a text that reads: "IF THESE GUYS HAD BEEN AROUND WHEN THE PYRAMIDS WERE BEING BUILT - THEY WOULD HAVE TAKEN THEM ON TOUR."

Inside, it lists the name of all the tour members (including the band members), their contact address and phone numbers. I have covered all contact details in the pictures in order to respect band and staff privacy.

Information regarding a total of 241 contacts can be found on this book. Well known names such as Paul Oakenfold, Stuart Morgan, Joe O'Herlihy, Sam O'Sullivan, Dallas Schoo, Dennis Sheehan, Morleigh Steinberg are in the list.

The Collector

Local Itineraries/Concert Guides

If you have been following this blog over the last months you might have seen that U2 management is usually printing an itinerary book to cover every single leg of the tour.

In addition, tour riders are issued in order to compile all the requirements to cover when a U2 show is planned.

This time I'll write about Local Itineraries. This kind of itinerary book is issued to cover a part of the leg (i.e. UK Leg) or even just a show.

These books are issued by local promoters in order to help out all those people involved in stage construction and any other kind of operation related to the show/shows.

This means that the local books are basically not including information directly related to the band members. Sometimes the hotel where they stay is named on the book but the info is mainly about useful phone numbers and contact persons, sometimes a list of recommended restaurants, bars, pubs, night life, doctor, hair dressers, laundry, air lines, international dialing codes, etc.

Detailed maps are also included with information about where the stage and management areas, catering and others should be located in each stadium.

As I was saying, they might also contain information related to promoter, local crew, band and crew hotels, time schedule for the stage construction and show, etc.

Another curious detail on these kind of books is the size of them. Some of them have the same size of a tour itinerary but some of them are really tiny, just 15x10 cms like the ones from Zooropa'93 in Oslo or ZOO TV in Stockholm (see pictures below). The one that I'm showing from The Joshua Tree Tour in Göteborg was 21x15 cms.

Here is a list of all the local itineraries/concert guides I ever saw:

The Joshua Tree Tour Göteborg Concert Guide (1987)
The Joshua Tree Tour Paris Hippodrome de Vincennes Concert Guide (1987)
ZOO TV Canadian Manifest (1992)
ZOO TV Tour Stockholm Service Guide (1992)
ZOOROPA '93 UK Itinerary (1993)
ZOOROPA '93 Oslo Concert Guide (1993)
ZOOROPA '93 Sweden Itinerary (1993)
ZOOROPA '93 Germany and Austria Handbook (1993)
ZOOROPA'93 German Itinerary (1993)
ZOOROPA'93 Stockholm Concert Guide (1993)
ZOOROPA'93 Oslo Concert Guide (1993)
POPMART'97 UK Itinerary (1997)
POPMART'97 Wembley Itinerary (1997)

I'm showing you some pictures I have been collecting over the years. Hope you like them !

The Collector

LIVE 8 Rider & Itinerary

I didn't really know how to define this documents so I decided to use the "Rider & Itinerary" terms. This is a pack of Memorabilia related to the LIVE 8 show held at London Hyde Park on July 2nd 2005.

As you all might know U2 opened the show playing "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with Sir Paul McCartney. After that they played a set of three U2 songs.

What I'm showing next is some material I got and where you will find the rehearsing/soundcheck schedule, the running order for the concert, the stage plan for U2 and other interesting stuff related to how this masive concert was organised.

About the stage, every band designed a little plan in order to inform the band member's distribution and where all the instruments, monitors, mixers and any other gear should be placed. As you know Edge is always on the right hand side of the stage while Adam prefers the left hand side. In this case, Terry Lawless and his keyboards where also on the stage and not under the stage and we could even see him very close to Larry Mullen Jr during the show broadcast on TV.

According to the event schedule, U2 had planned a soundcheck from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on the morning of the showday right after Dido had finished her rehearsal.

As I said before, the show opener was a U2 and Paul McCartney duet and they had to be on stage at 2 p.m. as we can see on the running order sheet. Full set was expected to last a total of 25 minutes.

There was also a document containing all the information per artist in terms of songs they will play, performance duration and any other thing that everybody working on the show should be aware. In the U2 case, it's curious to read the sentence "Release doves on last track". If you saw the show, you will remember the doves flying out during "Beautiful Day".

   

The Collector