U2 Love comes to town tour 1989 (Full tour Itinerary)

After the end of The Joshua Tree tour and the release of Rattle&Hum, U2 went back on the road in 1989 with a tour of only 47 shows. This time USA was left out of the tour itinerary as they just played in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and a few European countries. Amazing setlist changes and BBKing support night after night were the highlights of this tour the fans know as "Lovetown tour".

I have found at least 4 different itineraries for this short tour. Amazing !!

This is the first one I want to talk about as it contains information of basically all the tour. Yellow front cover with huge tour logo and the 4 legs of the tour listed on the righthand  side.


This time short tour means a short list of management and crew people (15 + 26). We have to add them a total of 11 "BB King people" including BB himself, his band, a manager, a road manager and a valet responsible.

I got the chance to get this book signed by Bono and Edge in front of their hotel in Paris just hours before their concert at Stade de France on September 18th 2010.

Back to the book we were talking about , a World Time Zones map is included in the itinerary book this time.


This itinerary is covering the long period from September 9th to December 31st but we can read on its pages that european section of the tour had not finalised when it was printed so some of the information concerning timings and hotels might change.

Crew arrived in Sydney on September the 4th and worked on the production until U2 and the management people landed on the 9th to start rehearsing on the 10th. BB King and his group did not arrive in Australia until the 14th & 15th on two different flights.

On Monday September 18th with they all already in Perth, the first of three full production rehearsals was scheduled at Entertainment Centre.

After Australia U2 flew to New Zealand and Japan before heading to Europe. Their plans were to spend about 10 days in Bangkok between New Zealand and Japan legs and  fly back to Dublin on December 2nd '89 once the japanese tour was over.

Years later I found this page on internet where the tour management informs the crew on some changes to the itinerary. In this case it was information about hotel changes for Sydney and Christchurch.

I will go deeper on those legs when blogging about the other Lovetown itineraries.





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U2 Love comes to town tour 1989 (Australia Itinerary)

In addition to the "full tour itinerary" some other books were issued later on, in order to update or add some useful information for the Lovetown crew. I know about the existance of a minimum of three different books covering aussie, "kiwie" and european legs of the Lovetown tour. Detailed Japan information might be on a separate book..... but I cannot confirm this information.

This is the only book that is not including yellow as the main colour on the cover. The rest of the front cover is very similar to the one issued for the New Zealand leg of the tour.

This book covers from September 16th to October 29th. The list includes not only shows but also three Production Rehearsals at Perth Entertainment Center from September 18th to 20th.

If we take a look at the tour dates printed on this itinerary book, we notice that some of the shows planned did never actually happen. So a final show in Melbourne on October 17th is on the book (U2 played a total of 7 shows but....8 shows are on the list). A similar situation happens when we take look at Sydney shows. U2 played 2 shows in October but three additional shows before the NZ leg of the tour are on the itinerary list of dates (October 22nd, 24th and 25th). The truth is that after visiting NZ the band was back in Sydney for 3 final shows.

It is funny to see that once again the tour personnel list mentions David Evans and Paul Hewson instead of The Edge and Bono. This will change in future itineraries.

 As usually,  the book includes also a list of hotels, tour organisation, venues, flights, time differences, and a very curious page that shows "How to access your email within Australia"...god...that was 1989 !!!

There is also a map of each city where hotels and venue situation is marked.

Finally a list of recommendations per city (Restaurants, Night clubs, Sport Clubs, Tourist attractions,...) is also included.












As I mentioned when opening this entry, this is one of the 4 "Love town" books I ever saw. I never saw the japanese one but considering that apart from the "full tour itinerary" I have found a book for each leg, the japanese one should be around. Hopefully I will find it one day....

On August 14th 2014, Adam Clayton and Bono signed my copy of this rare itinerary book. It was in Nice, at the gates of the Studio Riviera.

RATING: A
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U2 Love comes to town tour 1989 (NZ Itinerary)

I love this itinerary book. It's a nice one!

With the NZ map on the left side, the tour logo is this time on the rigt side of the book cover. The Silver Fern Flag and the texts NZ ITINERARY and NOVEMBER 1989 are also on this beautiful collage front cover.

A picture of each member of the band is included on the "Cole Productions Welcomes U2 to New Zealand" page that is the first one we find as we open the book.

The list of contents includes New Zealand facts and figures, tour schedule, accomodation, maps of each of the cities of the tour, daily itineraries, things to do, restaurants, clubs and other useful information.

U2 arrived in Auckland on October 30th but they won't travel to Christchurch (where the first show was scheduled for November 4th) until the 3rd. Before leaving Christchurch, a press conference is held at the airport with BB King joining U2.

After four shows in New Zealand, U2 leave the country on November 14th to return to Sydney where they will play 3 more shows at Entertainment Centre (They had already played 5 nights at the same venue in October).

No more information was included on this itinerary as it was for New Zealand shows only.

Many years later, on June 21st 2014, I got Bono to sign my copy of this itinerary book "Bono still in Love Town". It was in Cannes and he was there for the Cannes Lion festival.

RATING: A+
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U2 Love comes to town tour 1989 (Europe Itinerary)

This is the last itinerary I have known for the Lovetown tour. It is covering last Japanese show and all the European concerts so this might be the final one. My guess is that having Aussie, NZ and European detailed information in 3 different books, a japanese itinerary might be around.

It comes in a standard cardboard cover in order to protect the colourfull cover we saw in the rest of Lovetown itineraries. In this case that second cover is exactly the same as the one used for the "full tour itinerary".

Data is covering from December 1st , showday at Osaka Castle Hall, to January 1st, when BBKing and his band and crew had to leave Dublin to return home.

Once again the info on the itinerary is not what finally happened. The truth is that some of the shows had to be postponed so after Dublin, the group travelled to The Netherlands for a final "4 in a row" set of concerts in Rotterdam.

The day after Osaka concert, the band and irish crew are returning home for the break while BB and his people are flying to L.A.

On December 11th U2 is on the road again, travelling to Paris where they are playing that night. BB and his group had arrived the day before.

U2 not only uses the planes on this part of the tour. For the shows in Dortmund they travelled from Paris to Dusseldorf by coach, a 4 hours trip. One more hour was needed to go from Dusseldorf to Dortmund, where they played 3 shows.

With the final show expected for the last day of 1989, that day page on the book reads "Will definitelly go into 1990". A second support act was expected to join BBKing and U2 but as far as I know it never happened.

After that night at the Point Depot and the four final shows in Rotterdam, this amazing tour was over. Last show was finally on January 10th.

My copy of this book was signed in Barcelona by The
Edge on October 11th 2015.












RATING: A
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The Collector