U2 Tour Programs

by Eric Naulaerts

Since their War Tour U2 has also sold tour programs during their concerts. This overview only tries to review the ones I know. I will tell you the difference between them. I would appreciate you to email me any additions at eric @ u2vl.org.

War Tour

War Tour Poster/programme

This Poster/Program is a fold-out poster with a photograph from the shooting of the A Celebration video. At the back you find more photos of this shooting, with the band's history until 1982 on a white background. On a red background there are three more pictures of this shooting and the staff for this tour. No dates are mentioned on this program. Folded, it measures 12 inches by 9 inches.

War Tour UK 1983

The UK 1983 Tour program is approximately 12 inches by 9 inches and features the UK tour dates between Feb. 26th and March 29th 1983. The program has 16 pages. Page 2 is an ad for War, Page 3 contains the tour personnel, pages 4-6 and 11 show clippings from magazines and papers, pages 7-10 and 15 show photos in colour which also appear in the poster/program, Page 12 is a discography, page 13 has got the tour dates, page 14 is a merchandise page, and the back cover has a picture of Radar as on the sleeve of New Year's Day singles.

War Tour Japan 1983

The Japan tour program is LP-sized end features the Japanese dates between November 22nd and 30th. The program is 36 pages long. Page 2 has got the tour dates, there's a story in Japanese, 14 pages with black and white photos, 6 pages with colour photos and the rest are advertisements for Potenza, UDO Artist Promotion, Miss DJ, a live LP by Cronamin, Yamaha drums and Roland and Ibanez guitars and The Japanese record company Polystar.

The Unforgettable Fire Tour

From The Unforgettable Fire Tour I have seen 4 slightly different tour programs. They all have a different fold-out cover, but the content is almost the same. In the inside fold-out covers you find a map of the regions with the cities and a list of the tour dates. All pictures are made by Anton Corbijn. Then there's a U2 history, and after that the personnel for that part of the tour. Most of these programs are not so hard to find. I would estimate their value at about $10 - $15 US. However, the Australian one is much rarer than the others, so its price will be higher. They all measure 9 1/2" by 12" inches.

I don't know whether there exists a tour program for the January - February 1985 dates of the European leg. I know they are mentioned in the Festival Europe program, but I've never seen a program especially for this period. Your help is welcome.

Under Australian Skies / Europe August 29th - November 15th, 1984

It's 32 pages long cover included. The map on the front inside fold-out cover is the European map, and the Australian and New Zealand maps on the back inside fold-out cover. I saw this program sold as a UK tour program. Inside you find pictures of USA, Sweden, Ireland, Paris, Torhout (Only here entitled "LIVE"). The discography ends with Summer 1984 and contains a picture of Brian Eno, which is not shown in the other 3 programs. The Personnel page only mentions the New Zealand and Australian promoters.

Europe / USA October 18th - December 16th, 1984

It's 44 pages long cover included. The map on the front inside fold-out cover is the European map, and a North American map on the back inside fold-out cover. Inside you find pictures of USA, here titled New Orleans and Houston, Sweden, Ireland, Paris, Torhout (Only here untitled). The discography ends with December 1984. The Personnel page mentions the European and United States promoters.

USA February 25th - May 3th, 1985

It's 52 pages long cover included. The map on the front inside fold-out cover is a North American, and an American East Coast map on the back inside fold-out cover. Inside you find pictures of USA, here titled New Orleans and Houston, Sweden, Ireland, Paris, Torhout. There is also a double page with three pictures from the Pride video shoot in St. Francis Xavier Hall, which also appears in the next program. The discography is spread over 4 pages and ends with February 1985. This program and the next contain the text: "I don't think it's that important, the big hit single. It's not as if we've opted for the 'pop' format. 'New Year's Day' is one in a succession of what, I believe, are classic records, '11 O'Clock Tick Tock', 'I Will Follow', 'Gloria', 'A Celebration', not one of them has been a 'pop' single. 'Pop' singles are very boring - pap is probably a better word. So I would contest the fact that it has been very important for us." I don't think they already knew the title of their 1997 album.

Europe May 25th - July 7th, 1985

It's 52 pages long cover included. The map on the inside of the front cover is a European, and on the back inside fold-out cover there's a roundup of all concerts (New Zealand 1984 to North America 1985). Inside you find pictures of USA, here titled New Orleans and Houston, Sweden, Ireland, Paris, Torhout. There is also a double page with three pictures from the Pride video shoot in St. Francis Xavier Hall, which also appears in the previous program. The discography is spread over 4 pages and ends with June 1985. This one is very similar to the previous one.

The Joshua Tree Tour

The Joshua Tree Tour brought us 2 different covers, but three slightly different programs. They measure 10" by 12.25". Cecilia Coffey assured me these are the only official programs. I have seen pictures of at least 2 unofficial programs for this tour. These programs were sold in a brown envelope with "U2", "The Joshua Tree" and the tree logo. When the envelope is intact, the value will be higher. The first one with the black cover is rarer than the other two.

USA April 2nd - May 17th, 1987

It's 60 pages long cover included. the back cover folds out. Apart from mostly black and white pictures by Anton Corbijn there's a short biography for the period May 1985-April 1987, an incomplete discography, a video list, equipment list, a text about Amnesty International, a comment by The Edge, Tour dates and tour personnel. Some of the pictures don't show up in the other two programs.

USA/Europe April 2nd - August 8th, 1987

It's 60 pages long cover included. the back cover folds out. Apart from mostly black and white pictures by Anton Corbijn there's a text by Niall Stokes from Hot Press, a short biography for the period May 1985-May 1987, an incomplete discography, a video list, equipment list, a text about Amnesty International, a comment by The Edge, Tour dates and tour personnel. The 6 last picture pages are not in the other two programs. These are close-up live pictures.

USA September 10th - December 12th, 1987

It's 62 pages long cover included. the back cover folds out. Apart from mostly black and white pictures by Anton Corbijn there's a text by Niall Stokes from Hot Press, a short biography for the period May 1985-May 1987, an incomplete discography, a video list, equipment list, a text about Amnesty International, a comment by The Edge, Tour dates and tour personnel. The 8 last picture pages are not in the other two programs. These are live pictures and pictures taken at the roof of the Million Dollar Hotel. (cover is the same as "USA/Europe April 2nd - August 8th" above)

Here are pictures of two counterfeit/unofficial tour programs

Lovetown Tour

U2 toured New Zealand, Australia, Japan and selected cities in Europe for the 1989 Lovetown Tour. Due to Bono's voice problems, the 2 remaining Amsterdam shows were postponed, and instead of that 4 shows in Rottterdam were held at the beginning of 1990. Since this tour was rather short, the tour programs are quite hard to find. Especially the Japanese and the European version are difficult, since most collector shops are in the UK, where the band didn't play during that tour.

Australasia & Europe September 21th - December 31st, 1989

I found an Australian, English/Japanese and European version of this one.

The Australian and the Japanese version are identical, have 48 pages, cover included, contain 17 pages with new pictures and 16 pages with pictures of the Joshua Tree tour programs. Then there is a new text by Niall Stokes (you can also find this one in Propaganda issue 12), a portrait of the artist Rene Castro (who created the Stage artwork), a biography from Summer 1978 until September 1989, an incomplete discography, videos, propaganda, tour dates, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and tour personnel.

The European version is 4 pages longer, but it contains only newer photos and a segment of eight pages in which random photos from different phases in U2's career are put together. Then there are the text by Niall Stokes (also in Propaganda issue 12), a portrait of the artist Rene Castro, a biography from Summer 1978 until September 1989, an incomplete discography, videos, propaganda, tour dates, Amnesty International, Greenpeace and tour personnel.

All in all it's completely different from the Joshua Tree programs. If you want to have one LoveTown program, try to get this one.

Zoo TV Tour

The Zoo TV Tour in 1992/1993 was quite different from the previous tours, because of the use of video. Three different programs in 6 variations appeared. I find the European Zooropa tour program the hardest to obtain. The other 5 are more common.

USA February 29th - April 23th, 1992
Europe May 7th - June 20th, 1992

These 2 programs are identical except for the fold-out covers which contain the tour dates plus some extra facts from various dates and 4 tear out postcards. Including the cover these are 36 pages long. Both the front cover and the back cover fold out. The text and interviews are by BP Fallon. He interviewed the band and brought together their answers. The program ends with tour personnel. If you want to use the postcards, you'll have to remove a part of the last photo.

Zoo TV Outside Broadcast Tour
USA August 11th - October 9th, 1992

It's 36 pages long cover included. Except the inner fold-out cover all the texts are identical to the previous programs. But, 60 percent of the pictures are different, which makes it worthwile to obtain it, I think. This is one of my favourites, with all the live pictures.

Zooropa Europe May 9th - August 28th, 1993
Zoomerang - New Zooland - Zoo TV Japan November 12th - December 10th, 1993

These 3 programs are identical except for the fold-out cover which contains the tour dates. It's 40 pages long cover included. The program also contains some questions by BP Fallon and more nice pictures. The Zooropa program also has an insert with Zoo ECU's, stamps, etc. The insert isn't added in the other 2 versions. (European cover below left / Japan cover below right)

PopMart Tour

USA / Europe April 25th - September 30th, 1997
South America / Australia / Japan / South Africa January 27th - March 21st, 1998

It's 32 pages long cover included. The inner pages fold out. The program starts with tour dates, which are partially incomplete and incorrect. The text part is a story by Bill Flanagan, author of "U2 at the end of the world".

Then there are two pages on the screen art of the tour, a page with the organisations U2 support, tour personnel and in the back fold-out cover Edge pops out when you unfold it.

The 1998 version only has different tour dates and some photos of the popmart tour (pages 7-8, 19-20, 23-24)

It is possible that there is also a different version of the 1997 program with the North American / Canadian tour dates and a different version for the Japanese 1998 dates. If someone has one of these, please contact me.

Many thanks to Patrice Bruhat, Cecilia Coffey, Simon Daniel, Peter Longworth, Anton Corbijn, Peter Van Herck and Ghislaine De Cock.