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  1. Originally posted by dylbagz:In saying that Dire Straits popularity in Australia in 85/86 odd was astronomical probably to the likes of being some of the craziest numbers ever seen around the world especially per capita. And they were big elsewhere then too.
    Good point about DS, their Brothers In Arms run in Oz was surreal... But their first album came out 2 years before Boy and they're older than U2. I was mentioning younger bands and the current situation in the music industry. How could I forget Coldplay in my rant is beyond me
  4. Coldplay will probably be the last stadium band, at least in the sense that we know it.

    Outside of the US, their drawing power is probably as big if not bigger than U2 ever were. Coldplay will probably outdraw the 360 tour by the time this is over. Their drawing power in Europe as well as south/Central America and Mexico is unreal.


  5. OH come on. If Rattle and Hum and Popmart didnt ruin them neither will this.

    Most people were upset because they didnt have a choice to reject the album. Which is Apples fault. Given their ageing, did anyone really expect hits post Vertigo ?
  6. Some are acting like the Apple mess just happened 🙄 people either like U2 or they don't. Simple as that. Their careers weren't ruined by the SOI rollout. Age and changing trends and tastes in music have been their biggest enemies
  7. Originally posted by muzika:[..]


    OH come on. If Rattle and Hum and Popmart didnt ruin them neither will this.

    Most people were upset because they didnt have a choice to reject the album. Which is Apples fault. Given their ageing, did anyone really expect hits post Vertigo ?
    Rattle and Hum wasn’t that big of a blunder. Sure, the movie performed at a lower level than they assumed, but I could’ve told them that would happen. The album still sold a bunch of copies and produced plenty of hits.

    Popmart… what? Some shows sold poorly? That’s not really that big of a deal, it happens to a lot of bands.

    But SOI… that was a disaster on another level.
  8. SOI/Apple was such a career-ending mortal sin - just look how poorly I+E did LOL. Compare that to Popmart with, yes, half-filled stadiums and cancelled shows. That was a big deal back in 97. And the band and others have acknowledged the optics of R+H..Applegate is being given way too much credit
  9. Originally posted by bonoschild:SOI/Apple was such a career-ending mortal sin - just look how poorly I+E did LOL. Compare that to Popmart with, yes, half-filled stadiums and cancelled shows. That was a big deal back in 97. And the band and others have acknowledged the optics of R+H..Applegate is being given way too much credit
    Cancelled shows???Only 1 got cancelled due to the screen getting damaged they still ended up playing to nearly 4 million people making it one of the highest attended tours of the 90s.
  10. 'how poorly I+E did' says, it was the last tour that bono sang decently
  11. Originally posted by popmarter:[..]
    Cancelled shows???Only 1 got cancelled due to the screen getting damaged they still ended up playing to nearly 4 million people making it one of the highest attended tours of the 90s.
    Popmart’s commercial failure is widely exaggerated. Yes, there were several cities where they should’ve played arenas instead of stadiums. Take Tampa for example: 18,000 in a stadium that could’ve held 50,000 is quite unfortunate. The same 18,000 people in an arena is a sellout. But if you look at attendance figures for Guns n Roses latest tours, they are just as bad in many cases. 19,000 tickets sold in Indianapolis, the same stadium U2 sold 51,000 in 2016. Nobody talks about that.
  12. Originally posted by podiumboy:[..]
    Then 1984 comes and BAM 60,000 tickets sold in Sydney across 5 nights, and the rest of the country did well also. How can this be?! Evidently War and UABRS were huge there.


    I'd put it down to two things. Firstly MTV generated a lot of awareness but more importantly they emerged in an era when rock was dominant on the radio airwaves with stations like MMM constantly playing them. U2 emerged during what is now seen as the golden era of pub rock in Australia - imagine getting to see the likes of INXS or Midnight Oil in a venue that held 500-1000 people; so many people were into the kind of sounds that U2 was making they were destined to become big.