U2 Give Backstage Tour of ‘Innocence’ Trek, Talk Edge’s Stage Fall
U2 recently embarked on their Innocence + Experience tour, and the band have already treated audiences in Vancouver, San Jose and Phoenix to remarkable visuals, incredible sound and unearthed fan favorites popping up in the setlist. For CBS Sunday Morning, U2 offered a look behind-the-scenes and backstage at their new tour, from under the stage to between the giant HD screens that project all the action. The group also discussed the Edge’s opening night slip off the stage and Bono’s November cycling accident.
While the Innocence + Experience arena trek is a step back production-wise from U2’s stadium-filling, record-breaking 360 Tour, the band’s latest jaunt still requires 24 semi-trucks to move the gear from venue to venue. As the Edge shows CBS Sunday Morning, that’s because the group’s extensive equipment features “antique amps” and “Guitar World,” an arsenal of instruments housed under the stage because “every guitar in the show has to have a spare,” the Edge says.
When asked if U2 felt they had to top the spectacle of the 360 Tour and recent tours by the Rolling Stones, Bono relayed an anecdote from 1997. “I remember Mick Jagger came to see us at PopMart – we’d really gone to some lengths at PopMart – and he said ‘This is getting like Star Wars.'”
The Innocence + Experience tour sustained a major jolt opening night in Vancouver when the Edge slipped off the stage during “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” After avoiding injury, the Edge and his band mates would later joke about the pratfall. “It was a moment of reverie where I just completely lost track of where I was on the stage,” the Edge said of his stumble off the catwalk. “It would’ve been the shortest tour in history.” Bono then quipped, “I was thinking about days off myself.”
Bono also briefly talked about his serious cycling accident that forced the postponement of the tour, admitting that he still can’t ball fingers on his left hand into a fist and that he’s unsure whether he’ll ever be able to play guitar again. When asked if he can remember the November crash in New York’s Central Park, Bono said he had no memory of the accident.