Zoo TV Tour
Artist	U2
Dates	February 29, 1992 - December 10, 1993
No. of legs	5
No. of shows	157

Zoo TV was a massive, elaborate, innovative, postmodern, multifaceted and multimedia, and very commercially successful world concert tour by the rock band U2 that took place in arenas and stadiums during 1992 and 1993. Different phases of the tour were also known as Zoo TV – The Outside Broadcast, Zooropa, and Zoomerang. Image File history File links U2ZooTVTour. ... U2 is an Irish rock band featuring Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals, guitar and harmonica, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen, Jr. ... February 29 is the 60th day of a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 306 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... A concert comprises a performance, usually involving some degree of formality, and particularly a performance featuring music. ... U2 is an Irish rock band featuring Bono (Paul David Hewson) on vocals, guitar and harmonica, The Edge (David Howell Evans) on guitar, keyboards and vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen, Jr. ... An arena is a circular or oval shaped (or sometimes rectangular) public space (akin to a classical amphitheatre), designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. ... The Athens Olympic Stadium A modern stadium (plural stadiums, Latin plural stadia) is a place, or venue, for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts or other events, consisting of a field or stage partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event. ... See also: 1991 in music, other events of 1992, 1993 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events 1992 was a pivotal year in the development of music. ... See also: 1992 in music, other events of 1993, 1994 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 8 - The U.S. Postal service issues an Elvis Presley stamp. ...

If U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby was, as lead singer Bono said, the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree, then Zoo TV, the accompanying tour, was the sight of four men trying to reject the white-flag-waving, achingly earnest stage performances that had typified their previous tours in the 1980s. The tour demonstrated immense confidence in the new album, typically opening with six to eight consecutive new songs before playing any old material, surrounding the songs with bewildering visual effects and a subversive take on the band's collective persona. See also: 1990 in music, other events of 1991, 1992 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events 1991 was the year that grunge music made its popular breakthrough. ... Achtung Baby is an album by Irish rock band U2, released on November 19, 1991 (see 1991 in music). ... Bono singing on the iPod video TV commercial Paul David Hewson (born May 10, 1960), nicknamed Bono Vox, stage name Bono, is the lead singer of the Irish rock band, U2. ... The Joshua Tree is an album by U2, released on March 9, 1987 on Island Records (see 1987 in music). ... The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ...

The tour began in Lakeland, Florida on February 29, 1992 and ended almost two years, five legs, 157 shows, and over four million audience members later in Tokyo, Japan on December 10, 1993. It was the highest-grossing tour of 1992. Lakeland is a city located in Polk County, Florida. ... February 29 is the 60th day of a leap year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 306 days remaining. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Tokyo (東京; Tōkyō, lit. ... December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

The Stage

The Zoo TV Outside Broadcast stage

The stage was designed by frequent U2 collaborator Willie Williams, and featured 36 video monitors, numerous television cameras, two separate mix positions, 26 on stage microphones, 176 speakers, and 11 elaborately painted Trabants, several of which were suspended over the stage, which all required 1 million watts of power to operate: enough to run 2,000 homes. Image File history File links U2s multimedia extravaganza Zoo TV world tour (1992-1993). ... Image File history File links U2s multimedia extravaganza Zoo TV world tour (1992-1993). ... Willie Williams stage and light design, U2 Vertigo Tour, 2005. ... Trabant is an automobile brand formerly produced by East German auto maker Sachsenring. ...

In order to take this technological monstrosity on tour, 52 semi-trailers were required to transport the 1,200 tons of equipment and 3 miles of cabling, and 200 labourers, 12 forklifts and one 120-foot, 40-ton crane was needed to contruct the stage once it all arrived at the venue.

The Show

The tour, partly inspired by CNN's ad nauseam coverage of the Gulf War, was on one level a straight-faced satire on the media overload that came to define the Nineties. The tour's television screens displayed an eclectic mixture of seemingly random images and slogans created by artists such as Kevin Godley, Brian Eno, Mark Pellington, Carol Dodds, and multimedia performance artists Emergency Broadcast Network in an effort to reflect the desensitising effect of the modern mass media. The Cable News Network, usually referred to as CNN, is a cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner[1] [2]. It is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System, owned by Time Warner. ... Combatants U.S.-led coalition Iraq Commanders Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. ... Kevin Godley (born October 7, 1945) is a British musician and music video director. ... Brian Eno in 1977 Brian Peter George St. ... Mark Pellington is a film director. ... Emergency Broadcast Network is the name of a multimedia performance group. ... Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). ...

The shows began with a memorable fixed sequence of songs. In an interview on the Zoo Radio program, The Edge described the visual material that went with the first three of them: The Edge, 2005 David Howell Evans (born August 8, 1961, Barking, East London, England) stage name The Edge, is the lead guitarist of the Irish rock band U2. ...

"Zoo Station" is four minutes of a television that's not tuned in to any station, but giving you interference and shash and almost a TV picture. "The Fly" is information meltdown – text, sayings, truisms, untruisms, oxymorons, soothsayings, etc., all blasted at high speed, just fast enough so it's impossible to actually read what's being said. "Even Better than the Real Thing" is whatever happens to be flying around the stratosphere on that night. Satellite TV pictures, the weather, shopping channel, cubic zirconium diamond rings, religious channels, soap operas ...

(Some of "The Fly"'s meltdown messages included "Taste is the enemy of art", "Ignorance is bliss", "Rebellion is packaged", "Believe" with letters fading out to leave "lie", and "Everything you know is wrong".)

From there, "Mysterious Ways" featured a live belly dancer. "One" was accompanied by the title word shown in many languages, as well as Mark Pellington-directed video clips of buffalos leading to a still image of David Wojnarowicz's "Falling Buffalo" photograph. A song that – like the tour – had many levels of meaning, it was during these shows that "One" rose to the level of one of U2's most beloved. Next Bono unleashed a series of egotistical rock star poses in "Until the End of the World". Another blast of video montage led into "Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World", during which Bono would do a champagne spray and his traditional dance with a young female fan pulled from the crowd, except that they captured each other with a live consumer camcorder video feed shown to the audience, a device that had been used on earlier numbers as well. Belly Dancer (Bananza) is the title of a hit single by R&B singer Akon. ... One is a U2 rock ballad song, featured on their 1991 album release Achtung Baby. ... Mark Pellington is a film director. ... Binomial name Bison bison Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies B. b. ... David Wojnarowicz (1954 - 1992) was a gay painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and activist who was prominent in the New York City art world of the 1980s. ... Champagne is often drunk as part of a celebration Champagne is a sparkling wine produced by inducing the secondary fermentation of wine. ... Before the camcorder. ...

Zoo TV was one of the first large-scale concerts to feature the "B stage", a smaller stage in the middle of the floor, intended "to be the antidote to Zoo TV." Here the four members would play quieter numbers such as a stripped-down arrangement of "Angel of Harlem". After that it was back to the main stage for some U2 classics played straight, but by the time the encores began, Bono's alter-egos were back in full force.

As documented on the Live in Sydney video release, the concert usually ended with a rendition of Achtung Baby's "Love is Blindness" followed by a stripped-down cover of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love". This coupling provided a curiously sedate and almost aloof ending to a show whose principal features mocked media overload. While U2, with their classic finale of the reflective-but-participatory "40", had never subscribed to the structural formulation of Queen drummer Roger Taylor to leave an audience "blinded, deafened and screaming for more" at the end, Zoo TV's roar fell away to conclude with an almost indifferent whisper. Love is Blindness is a song from the U2 album Achtung Baby. ... Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known as The King of Rock n Roll was an American singer, music producer and actor. ... Cant Help Falling in Love is a song based on Plaisir damour by Giovanni Martini that was re-written for the 1961 film Blue Hawaii, starring Elvis Presley, by George Weiss, Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. ... 40, the closing track from U2s War album, was the (Germany-only) fourth single release from that album. ... Queen is a British rock band that came to popularity during the mid-1970s, amassing an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day. ... Roger Meddows-Taylor, a. ...

Thus Zoo TV saw U2 mocking the excesses of rock and roll by ironically embracing greed and decadence - even at times, away from the stage. However some missed the point of the tour and thought that U2 had "lost it", and that Bono had become an egomaniac.

However irony took a backseat on the Zooropa European leg of the tour after the band began initiating nightly live link-ups with people living in war-torn Sarajevo. Arranged by aidworker Bill Carter, (who later with Bono's help made the documentary film Miss Sarajevo [1]), hoped to bring world attention to the suffering of the people living in the war zone that the world media had forgotton about. He saw an interview on MTV where Bono was saying the theme of the "Zooropa" leg of the tour was of a unified Europe. He felt compelled to inform Bono of the plight of the Bosians in Sarajevo in a Bosnia divided on ethnic lines. Aside from bringing much needed attention to the issue, the remarkable link-ups sometimes even allowed people who had escaped the conflict to speak with family members and loved ones within the war zone. The problem seen by some was that Zoo TV was a rock show, and being accused of inaction and apathy by people in constant fear of death by shelling or machine gun fire often deadened the mood of the audience, and the band. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, located at 43°52N and 18°25E. According to a 1991 census, its population was 429,672; currently estimated at around 400,000. ... Bill Carter is the author of Fools Rush In. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Motto: none Anthem: Intermeco Capital Sarajevo Largest city Sarajevo Official language(s) Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Government Presidents Prime Minister Federal republic Sulejman Tihić1 (Bosniak) Borislav Paravac (Serb) Ivo Miro Jović (Croat) Adnan Terzic Independence From Yugoslavia 5 April 1992 Area  â€¢ Total  â€¢ Water (%)   51,129 km² (124th) Negligible Population  â€¢ July...

Other Highlights

Other highlights of the tour included a nightly duet by Bono and a pseudo-live but pre-recorded video of Lou Reed singing his classic song "Satellite of Love" (with a real appearance from Reed on August 12, 1992 at Giants Stadium), and an almost nightly phone call to the office of American president George H. W. Bush. Though Bono never got through to the president, Bush did acknowledge the calls during a press conference, noting his confusion about why the singer was doggedly attempting to contact him. Lou Reed Lewis Allen Lou Reed (born March 2, 1942), is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, originally from Brooklyn, New York. ... For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 spacecraft, see: Satellite of Love (MST3K) Satellite of Love is one of the best known songs by Lou Reed. ... August 12 is the 224th day of the year (225th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Giants Stadium Giants Stadium is the home stadium for the New York Giants and New York Jets NFL football teams, and the MetroStars of Major League Soccer. ... The presidential seal was first used by president Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... George Herbert Walker Bush, GCB, (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States (1989–1993). ...

When Zoo TV played to London's Wembley Stadium on August 11, 1993, the novelist Salman Rushdie joined the band on stage. The surprise appearance was sensational in view of the author's well-publicised fear of violence from Islamic extremists, due to the controversy raging over his novel The Satanic Verses. When confronted by Bono's MacPhisto character, the author wryly observed that "real devils don't wear horns." The Houses of Parliament and the clock tower containing Big Ben Part of the London skyline viewed from the South Bank London is the capital of the United Kingdom and England. ... Old Wembley Stadium (1923-2000) Wembley Stadium is a football stadium in Wembley, London, England, which is currently being rebuilt. ... August 11 is the 223rd day of the year (224th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie, Urdu: أحمد سلمان رشدی, Hindi: अह्मद सलमान रश्डी on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is an Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ... Islam (Arabic: ; ( (help· info)), submission (to the will of God)) is a monotheistic faith, considered one of the Abrahamic religions, and the worlds second-largest religion. ... Extremism is a term used to describe either ideas or actions thought by critics to be unwarranted or at least beyond what is acceptable in a civilised society. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... The term Satanic Verses was coined by the historian Sir William Muir to refer to several verses alleged to have been part of an early version of the Quran and later expunged. ...

The tour also had a Confessional Booth where concert-goers could record a personal confession on camera. These confessions were often incorporated into the show, being displayed on the main television screens in the intervals between main show and encore.

Before the show began and between opening acts, Irish disk jockey BP Fallon acted as emcee, generally trying to add further confusion to the mix. Fallon would also host Zoo Radio, a distributed radio special that showcased selected performances from Zoo TV, audio oddities, and half-serious interviews with U2 members as well as with sometime opening acts Public Enemy and The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. For other meanings of DJ, see DJ (disambiguation). ... A Master of Ceremonies or MC is the host of a staged event or other performance. ... Public Enemy, also known as PE, are a seminal hip hop group known for their politically charged lyrics and their interest in the concerns of the African American community. ... The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy was a Rap/Hip-Hop/Metal band active during the early 1990s. ...

Bono's Personas

(L-R) The Fly and Mr. Macphisto

One of the other main highlights of the tour was Bono's array of on-stage personas, the most prominent of which was The Fly, who was also immortalised in the music video for the song "The Fly". The Fly was a stereotypical rock star with wrap-around shades - for which Bono became famous - and exaggerated, blatantly sexual mannerisms. "We...assembled [a] postmodern rock star. We have our leg of Jim Morrison, our Elvis top, Lou Reed, Gene Vincent-we glue it all together and create it." The character was invented in Berlin while U2 were recording Achtung Baby. Bono felt that the shades, given to him by longtime U2 stylist "Fightin'" Fintan Fitzgerald, gave him a sense of de-individuation, and he could really "let loose" when he wore them. The shades came to symbolize the "new U2", a diametrically opposed aesthetic to what fans and critics came to love (and hate) about the previously pious, rootsy U2 from The Joshua Tree-era. The Fly has also been interpreted as Bono giving a middle finger to all the critics who said U2 were filthy rich rock stars trying to pass themselves off as do-gooders. He stated in interviews, "They [critics] wanted it, and now they're going to get it." Image File history File links Source: www. ... Image File history File links Source: www. ... The Joshua Tree is an album by U2, released on March 9, 1987 on Island Records (see 1987 in music). ...

Another prominent persona was The Mirror Ball Man, who typically came out for the last few songs of the main set and the encores. This character was intended to be a parody of American televangelists. Thinking other parts of the world wouldn't understand the televangelist personal, Bono traded in his Mirror Ball Man persona for Mr. MacPhisto on Zooropa and Zoomerang legs of the tour, which visited Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In the USA, a televangelist (television evangelist) is a religious minister (often a Christian priest or minister) who devotes a large portion of his (or her) ministry to TV broadcasts to a regular viewing and listening audience. ...

MacPhisto was imagined by Bono to be a corrupted future version of the Fly character who had become an amalgam of The Devil (heavily drawing from the Pegleg character in Tom Waits' "The Black Rider") and Las Vegas-era Elvis Presley. (This character would subsequently figure prominently in the 1995 music video for "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" lifted from the soundtrack of the movie Batman Forever. The video featured an animated version of Bono as a rock star battling between two personas: the Fly and MacPhisto, which was intended to parallel the conflict between Bruce Wayne's ordinary playboy persona and his crime-fighting Batman persona.) To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Categories: Stub ... This article is about the city of Las Vegas in Nevada. ... Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known as The King of Rock n Roll was an American singer, music producer and actor. ... See also: 1994 in music, other events of 1995, 1996 in music, 1990s in music and the list of years in music // Events January 18 - Jerry Garcia wrecks his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California. ... Batman Forever (1995) is the third of the Batman movies which began with Tim Burtons 1989 version of the character, although it is a major departure from previous entries in the franchise, with the dramatic changes to such things as the cast, design and Danny Elfmans theme, which... The DC Comics superhero Batman (originally and still sometimes referred to as the Batman or the Bat-Man) is a fictional character who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ...

The MacPhisto speech is a masterpiece of bitter irony which continues to blur the question of whether MacPhisto is meant to be a corrupted rock star, or a representation of the actual Devil:

My time among you is nearly over...Before I go, I have some messages for the world. People of America, I gave you Bill Clinton - I put him on CNN, NBC, C-Span. Too tall to be a despot, but watch him closely. People of Asia, your time is coming - without your transistors, none of this [gestures to Zoo TV stage set] would be possible. People of Europe - when I came among you, you were squabbling like children. Now you're all hooked up to one cable, as close together as stations on a dial.

People of the former Soviet Union - I gave you capitalism, so now you can all dream of being as wealthy and glamorous as me.

People of Sarajevo, count your blessings ... There are people all over the world who have food, heat and security, but they're not on TV like you are.

Frank Sinatra, I give you the MTV demographic; Salman Rushdie, I give you decibels. Goodbye Squidgy, I hope they give you Wales; goodbye, Michael; goodbye all you neo-nazis, I hope they give you Auschwitz." [2]

The Lady Diana Frances Spencer (Diana Frances Mountbatten-Windsor, née Spencer, July 1, 1961–August 31, 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. ...

Zooropa the album

U2 went back into the studio to record their next release during a break at the end of the third leg of the tour. The album was intended as an additional EP to Achtung Baby, but soon Zooropa expanded into a full-fledged LP and was released in July 1993. Influenced greatly by both tour life and the ideas of media barrage and irony that they were examining through the tour, Zooropa was an even greater departure from the style of their earlier recordings, incorporating techno style and other electronic effects. A few selections from Zooropa were played on the subsequent Zooropa and Zoomerang legs of the tour. An example of EP, Mint Car from The Cure released in 1996. ... Zooropa is an album by the Irish alternative rock band U2. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Techno- is a prefix relating to technology. ...

Vertigo homage

More than a decade later, during the first two legs of U2's 2005 Vertigo Tour, the band often played (usually as the first encore) a mini-Zoo TV set of "Zoo Station", "The Fly", and "Mysterious Ways", using some of the original Zoo TV video effects set against the Vertigo Tour's curtains of lighted beads. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The rock band U2s Vertigo Tour began in 2005 in support of their album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. ...

Tour Legs

Leg One

Dates: February 29, 1992 – April 23, 1992

Touring: North America World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...

Venues: Indoor arenas

Leg Two

Dates: May 07, 1992 – June 19, 1992

Touring: Europe and UK World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ...

Venues: Indoor arenas

Outside Broadcast Leg (3)

Dates: August 07, 1992 – November 25, 1992

Touring: North America and Mexico World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...

Venues: Stadiums

Zooropa Leg (4)

Dates: May 07, 1993 – August 28, 1993

Touring: Europe, UK, Ireland World map showing Europe Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ...

Venues: Stadiums

Zoomerang Leg (5)

Dates: November 12, 1993 – December 10, 1993

Touring: Australia, New Zealand and Japan

Venues: Stadiums

Further reading

• Samuel R. Smith, "'The Fly' on the Stage: Readings and Misreadings of the 'New' U2", Music Area of The Popular Culture Association, April 1995

External links

• u2tours.com – concert dates, setlists
• U2 official website
• U2 Tour site on Zoo TV Tour