U2 Australia tour 2019: Behind the scenes as Bono rehearses with the band

Before U2 kick off their Australian tour, this is what Bono and the band get up to behind the scenes when they rehearse. SEE A SET LIST SNEAK PEEK

The only comfort Bono and his Irish bandmates could draw from the recent 2019 Rugby World Cup was South Africa’s thrashing of England in the final.

As the band kicked off the long-awaited Australasian leg of their Joshua Tree tour in Auckland on Friday, the U2 frontman inevitably got talking about the All Blacks’ defeat of his beloved Ireland in the quarter-finals.

“It’s a sore spot around here with the All Blacks (losing to England), but it was a particularly sore spot for Ireland. So to have England thrashed by South Africa...I rang home and my missus was on the phone ’Oh, it was the best game ever, I’ve seen it twice!’

“Why? ‘To see them get beaten twice.”

U2 perform at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Dara Munnis

The impromptu sporting conversation came after the Irish rock legends completed their soundcheck for the first gig on Friday on the tour of New Zealand and Australia hundreds of thousands of fans have been hoping for since they last played in 2010.

As tens of thousands waited outside for the gates to open at 5pm, the band ran through an eclectic clutch of songs, from the rarely performed Red Hill Mining Town to the visceral Bullet the Blue Sky.

U2 had keenly felt the Kiwis’ defeat at the hands of England at the World Cup as they had been secretly rehearsing in New Zealand for the past three weeks.

The Auckland show included a tribute to the band’s New Zealand friend and roadie Greg Carroll, who was killed in a motorcycle crash in Dublin in 1986. The song One Tree Hill was written in his honour. Picture: Dara Munnis

The band had been off the road for a year and hadn’t played the Joshua Tree set since they wrapped the South American leg in October 2017.

While they looked both relaxed and tightly in the groove as they exercised their musical muscle memory on the behemoth that is the Joshua Tree stage, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr feel the weight of expectation from their loyal fans who have waited almost a decade to see them back in the Antipodes.

And there’s reputation at stake. While their most recent albums, 2014’s Songs of Innocence and 2017’s Songs of Experience reached the top 10 in Australia, proving their viability as recording artists (even if a raft of critics might disagree), U2’s super power is the live performance of their music.

And their Joshua Tree set has been in mothballs for two years. the band also pride themselves on not delivering a “jukebox set”.

Set list from U2 in Auckland, New Zealand on the first leg of their Antipodean tour. Picture: Kathy McCabe.

It is constructed as a three-act play, introduced by a selection of songs drawn from their pre-Joshua Tree albums performed on the “Tree stage” which extends into the floor of the arena.

They then play the 1987 album in full before closing with a long set of fan favourites.

Different songs are rotated through the first and third acts to keep themselves, and thousands of fans who follow U2 around the world, engaged in the experience.

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U2 perform at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Dara Munnis

“ I know it sound really embarrassing but we really do have to learn these songs again.”

Ahead of the first gig, none of them wanted to declare themselves match-fit.

“We’ve been focusing a bit on the work aspect because we’ve been away from it a little bit. It’s coming together, the muscle memory is happening,” Clayton said.

Mullen weighed in to express the band’s desire to keep improving their beloved repertoire, the soundtrack of the millions of fans.

“It’s not like a motor skill, it’s a different kind of skill. And also we are trying to make those songs better,” he said.

Bono added: “We’re never finished. Edge spent four hours on trying to improve the sound of I Will Follow, 40 years later.”

U2 perform at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Getty

Show director Willie Williams, the man who has helped realise their grand dreams of stadium grandeur, said U2 don’t always soundcheck before a show.

“Theoretically when a tour is really up and running they shouldn’t have to soundcheck,” he said.

“A U2 show isn’t a static thing. This is a slight exception because whatever happens, they are going to play the Joshua Tree.

“If you look at the Innocence and Experience tour format last year and look at the setlist from the first night to the last and it’s an entirely different show.

“Even though on one hand it is the gig that never ends, that’s what keeps the show alive.

“If you have a static show, it gradually begins to die no matter of enthusiastic the band is or how many new territories you go to, you end up there and they just can’t do that.”

Bono of U2 performs at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Getty

Standing on the empty field of Auckland’s Mount Smart stadium as they warmed up for the show, with Bono even finetuning what he might say to the fans during the show, is an awe-inspiring experience.

The Joshua Tree production is mammoth, the state-of-the-art video wall that will project such stunning cinematic landscapes throughout the concert, makes these giants of rock look like ants.

And yet the sheer musical power and compelling presence of these four men who have been at the forefront of shaping popular culture for more than four decades manages to transcend its vastness.

There is no doubt the Joshua Tree tour has been worth the nine-year wait for their Australian fans.

The tour kicks off in Brisbane on Tuesday.

Originally published as U2 Australia tour 2019: Behind the scenes as Bono rehearses with the band