Stadium ready for U2 concert

The biggest rock band in the world is in Joburg, and 98 000 people are expected to watch them perform live. With parking at a premium, buses and trains will help get people to the stadium.

MORE than 98 000 people will be rocking to Irish supergroup U2 at FNB Stadium on Sunday – and organisers are appealing to fans to buy parking tickets and get their transport plans made early to avoid a last-minute rush.

The concert is on 13 February. Organisers say there are less than 2 000 parking tickets. However, there will be park and rides, trains from Pretoria and the East and West rands, as well as a drop off zone.Jacques Grobbelaar, the chief executive officer of Stadium Management South Africa, which runs the stadium, says parking will only be allocated to people who have bought parking bay tickets. Gates to the event will open at 4am and the actual event will be start at 11am. The band will play in the evening.

Johannesburg metro police will patrol to ensure safety. Food and drink will be on sale at 38 concession points, by the stadium‘s 25 concessionaires.

Grobbelaar says it is an event that people cannot afford to miss. “Fans are in for an incredible experience attending this concert on Sunday.” The tour‘s signature stage has been under construction the whole week in the stadium and it is “without a doubt going to provide fans with the most memorable experience”.

Park and ride
There’s loads of ways of getting there. First up, there will be park and ride facilities from Constitution Hill, Emperors Palace, Gold Reef City and Coca-Cola Dome to the stadium. To get park and ride tickets, take your Computicket concert ticket to the entrance for access to the parking area.

Buses will leave from 1pm, and the final buses will leave from the park and rides at 6.30pm. According to the Computicket website, no-one will wait more than seven minutes for a bus.

Buses will leave the stadium for the parking lots from 11.30pm.

There will also be a drop-off zone at the BRT Station – FNB Stadium.

And trains will be laid on, offering return trips, so concertgoers need to keep their tickets to get home afterwards. Computicket says there will be with trains from Pretoria Station, stopping at Centurion, Rhodesfield, Germiston, Johannesburg.

They will start leaving at 2.25pm and the Last train will depart Pretoria at 4.10pm. For more information, visit the Prasa website.

A single train will leave Springs at 2.30pm, and travel via Benoni, Germiston and Johannesburg to reach Nasrec at 4.15pm. There will also be a single train from Randfontein for a return trip. It will depart Randfontein at 3.15pm and travel via Krugersdorp, Roodepoort and Florida, reaching Nasrec at 4.28pm.
Customers must be at the station 30 minutes before departure.

Cable theft
Despite the recent cable theft at the stadium that put paid to the Absa premiership encounter between Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows, Grobbelaar has given an assurance that the venue is ready for the concert. Stadium management has been working around the clock together with City Power to ensure this.

He adds that the power spikes originally experienced are under control, and that management will be working towards a solution to prevent cable theft. One measure will be regular patrols by metro police.
Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows were meant to have met on 5 February. The game had to be postponed.

Parking tickets for the U2 concert are R50 for light vehicles and R220 for heavy motor vehicles, There are also hospitality tickets from R1 950, available at Computicket.

The Irish rock group formed in Dublin in 1976 at the Mount Temple Comprehensive School. Its four members are Paul David Hewson “Bono” (vocals and guitar), David Howell Evans “Edge” (guitar, keyboards and vocals), Adam Charles Clayton (bass guitar) and Lawrence Mullen (the drummer).

From their debut album, Boy, to their latest release, the band has notched up an impressive 22 Grammy awards, more than any group has ever won. It is anticipated that the band‘s Johannesburg date will set a new attendance record.

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Cable thieves jeopardise U2′s South Africa gig

Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium undergoing repairs ahead of next week’s show

Repair work is taking place on a stadium where U2 are due to play in South Africa next week after cable thieves struck in the area.

Bono and co are due to play to 98,000 fans at Johannesburg‘s FNB Stadium on February 13.

However, the Associated Press reports that the theft of power cables around the venue has led to fluctuations in power supplies, which can damage generators and other electrical equipment.

Officials at the stadium have cancelled a soccer league match today (February 5) in order to allow repairs to take place.

Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the band told NME that U2 are in the studio working on a new album but said a release date had not yet been set.

This was after the German version of online retailer Amazon, Amazon.de, listed a new release for the band for May 27.

- NME, http://www.nme.com/news/u2/54835

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New album due in May?

Last summer, Bono told Rolling Stone that U2 have as many as four records ready to go. “We have “Songs of Ascent,” which is the meditative work that was meant to complement “No Line on the Horizon.” We’ve got a rock album. We also have a club-sounding album. And then we have the Spider-Man (musical) stuff.”

Well, looks like the first of the four may be on track for this spring.

U2 fan website @u2 has discovered a listing for a new album on the German version of Amazon.com here.

No details are provided, (the title is displayed simply as “New Album 2011″), Amazon does include a release date of May 27 in the listing.

While the band has not confirmed anything on this news, the information does sync up with what U2′s manager, Paul McGuiness, said in an interview to New Zealand website stuff.co.nz last November: “We are trying very hard to use this time in New Zealand and Australia to finish an album that will be released in the spring… It’s not so much recording as editing and polishing up lyrics and trying to getting it done by the date it needs to be delivered to the record company for release in May. It’s sounding great: lots of hits.”

VIA: http://www.hennemusic.com/2011/01/u2-new-album-due-in-may.html

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U2 concert causes scheduling woes

The announcement that the Irish band U2 will play Moncton this summer is actually bad news for some event organizers.

While most people are excited that U2 will play the Magnetic Hill concert site on July 30, some wedding guests, party-goers and others are now wishing their calendars were free that weekend.

Preparations have been underway for the last couple of months for Moncton High School’s 25-year reunion, which was originally scheduled for the same day as the concert.

“When U2 was announced, it was like, OK, we have to change the dates because I think a lot of the people want to go to the concert probably instead of going to the reunion itself,” said Paul Doiron, who is on the organizing committee.

“I kind of knew something was up when we tried to book hotels probably a month ago,” he said. “When they were charging the minimum two-night stays and for the amounts, I knew there was a concert, but didn’t know which one at that point.”

The reunion can’t compete with U2, said Doiron, so it’s going to be rescheduled for the weekend before or after the concert.

Anyone looking for a room for a wedding or another function will be wishing they’d booked early, said Hammond Joshi, operator of the Econolodge on West Main Street in Moncton.

“The obvious benefit to it is that [the reservation] is there and should an event like a big event come in to play, you’ve already secured your (room.)”

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