Soundchecks are something else, often of poor quality they give a rare glimpse into U2 behind the scenes. Recorded audio you would otherwise never hear, live songs being formed, conversations between crew and band and versions of songs that did not make it to the public stage. And a lot of songs that never got to be real songs.
For many years it has been a wish of us in the crew and many fans for someone to organize those soundcheck recordings which are all over the internet. Just like we started doing 15 years ago with audio recordings (almost 3,000 now!), our goal was to bring order in the disorder and make amazing content widely and easily accessible to all U2 fans.
We catalogued and uploaded 100 soundchecks for you to download. For each soundcheck you can see the setlist, get information on the audio recording and there is an audio sample available for all recordings to assess if it's worth your bandwidth.
How to explore the collection
All "soundcheck shows" are added as separate shows into our database, also because rehearsals often tend to take place not on the date of the actual show. A listing of all shows we have listed as soundcheck can be found here. Or go to "shows" and click "soundchecks". As with the audio recordings you can filter the recordings on quality and tour.
From the soundcheck page you can go to the "main show" of the soundcheck (the show U2 was rehearsing for) and if we have soundchecks for a particular show you will find a listing of soundchecks on the main and audio page, for instance of this show in Turin.
Highlights of the collection
* 3 days of rehearsals for Popmart's opening night in Vegas. What did rehearsals for that botched opening night sound like?
* 3 days of IEM rehearsals for I&E's opening night in Vancouver. With "Keith" subbed in for Larry, an acoustic Mysterious Ways and an "echo Bono" gag.
* BB King passed away on 15 May 2015, prompting U2 to bring out and rehearse When Love Comes To Town in Vancouver.
* Final rehearsal before the 5th leg of Vertigo in Brisbane with Bono singing Two Little Boys, Angel of Harlem performed Bob Dylan style and an intimate tour blessing by Father Jack Heaslip.
* Four sets of rehearsals before the 3rd Elevation Tour leg in Southbend.
* Munich 1993 with Edge on vocals for Zoo Station.
* The famous Hershey recording for Zoo TV with Acrobat and So Cruel.
What is next?
Finally, I would like to thank each and everyone who contributed to this new collection, in particular Sergio/LikeASong. As with audio recordings 15 years ago, this is just the start.
We will continue to add new soundchecks and invite you to submit them as well. You can do so on the show page of the show related to the soundcheck under "audio". Also, let us know if you find anything that is listed incorrectly, I'm sure there are still some errors here and there.
