Fall of Berlin Wall, Free U2 Concert Commemorates

MTV Europen Music Awards Just one of the big acts slated for the on Nov. 5, U2 will play a free concert in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Four days the gig will take place before the milestone’s 20th Anniversary celebration, which looks back on the wipeout of the barrier that stood as the Cold War’s icon, cutting the city in two.
Other artists to perform at the EMA’s include Jay-Z, Green Day, Robbie Williams, Tokio Hotel, Leona Lewis, Foo Fighters and Shakira, reports Billboard.biz.
“It’ll be an exciting spot to be in, 20 years almost to the day since the wall came down — should be fun,” said U2’s manager Paul McGuinness.
Bono & Co. will be in the race for best rock band at the EMA’s.

U2 pays tribute to Boyzone singer at U.S. concerts

U2 consecrated part of their latest concerts to Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, who tragically passed away on October 10.
On their stops in Houston and Dallas on their 360 Tour, the Irish rock band paid tribute to the singer, dedicating “Unforgettable Fire” to his memory.
Bono shared with the crowds that the 33 year old Irish boyband star was “a beautiful spirit and a bright flame.”
Gately and the rest of the members of Boyzone famously appeared in U2’s 1998 video for “Sweetest Thing,” in which Bono says sorry to his wife by bringing in the boyband to serenade her.
The video also features cameos by Riverdance and former Irish world boxing champion Steve Collins.

U2 concert stage being set

The stage isn’t quite set for U2’s reaching in Raleigh, but it’s getting there.
The process of constructing more than 250 people the stage in the center of the football field at North Carolina State University's Carter Finley Stadium, The legendary band will perform in Raleigh for the first time on saturday night.
The 360 degree stage features “The Claw,” a towering, four legged steel structure that holds the speaker system and a cylinndrical video screen over the performance area. A circular ramp will connect the stage to rotating bridges.
The concert on Saturday night is expected to draw 65,000 to 70,000 people. More than 600 event staff will be working the concert, and the Wake County Sheriff’s Office will provide about half the deputies that normally staff a North Carolina State University football game. A security team employed by U2 will handle many of the details for the gig.
To prepare for the event, the sheriff’s office sent a team of deputies to Boston last month to look how the security detail is managed.
The daily costs of the production are an estimated $750,000, and that doesn’t include the stage construction. Truck rentals, transportation and staff wages comprise the majority of that $750,000.
The concert is so long,all the way to Raleigh's Glenwood South it is even spilling. Businessman Niall Hanley, the man behind the Hibernian Irish Pubs in Raleigh and Cary, is holding a pre concert event Thursday at his other major venture, the popular night club Solas. That party will feature U2 cover band “Vertigo.”
“Raleigh has truly arrived,” says Hanley, who, like U2, hails from Ireland. “For a band of U2's caliber to come to Raleigh gigs just how much our city has grown in its reputation as a nice place to live, work and visit.”