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THE CELTIC CONNECTION • MAY 1992
Page 9
Zoo Station's High Energy: It's All Confusion and Chaos
By BLAIR CHURCHILL
What do getting abducted by a UFO, solving the Kennedy assassination mystery, winning the 649 lottery and finding Elvis alive in Vancouver all have in common? They are more probable events than you or I managing to get tickets to U2's Zoo Station tour.
Tickets for this high-energy, travelling roadshow went on sale for the Vancouver show on March 28 at 9:30 AM. It had been announced previously that the only way to get the tickets was by telephone. The result, when the band was in Los Angeles, was 50 million calls for the available 25,000 tickets. The result in Vancouver was overloaded phone lines and, in some areas, breakdown of the system, which took a couple of days to sort out.
Heavy conditions were imposed on the ticket-buying public, including limiting people to two tickets per call, with verified name, address and phone number plus a personal confirmation number for picking them up. This tough routine was the band's efforts to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers.
Their idea for the tour was to pass up playing huge stadiums,
MUSIC
in favour of giving fans more intimate shows in mid-sized venues. They tried to avoid large blocks of tickets falling into the hands of scalpers and reward their dedicated fans, at least those possessing fast re-dial fingers.
The well-planned effect of these policies has made the Zoo Station tour the hottest concert of the season and a brilliantly executed promotional coup. Rock and roll hype has been elevated to new levels with Zoo Station and it has invented some new tricks. Some tour antics include:
Times Square in New York, Bono appears much larger than life on the 50 foot Sony Jumbotron for an early morning video wakeup call. Jaded New Yorkers actually stopped to look at the spangle-suited vision.
In Auburn Hill, Michigan, Bono walked onstage at the start of the show with a cellular phone and ordered 10,000 pizzas for the crowd. As the pizzas arrived, the delivery guy set up on a corner of the stage and started throwing them like frisbees to the crowd.
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In Tempe, Arizona, true to their promise to stop scalping, the band released an additional 700 tickets shortly before the show, shafting scalpers who were asking US$1,000 per ticket.
The Zoo Station tour catchwords are chaos, confusion, irresponsibility and irreverence. It is reflected in the show's sensory overload staging, involving four giant video screens projecting enhanced clips and action on stage, as well as provocative subliminal nonsense. The full complement of usual tour merchandise is for sale, including Achtung Baby condoms, promoted by Dr. Ruth Wesheimer on American radio commercials.
U2's Zoo Station tour arrangements may have angered a lot of fans who would not have minded working hard to get tickets, but object to this lottery approach. Perhaps they will forgive them for the sheer style in which they have managed the travelling spectacle, its irreverence and sense of fun.
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Impromptu Singing, Whirling Dancers
By KEVIN McFADDEN
They said it couldn't be done, but on Friday night, April 24, they were proved wrong. Vancouver's first dacent Seisitin was held, at the T.B. Vets Hall at 530 W. Broadway. You never saw so much Celtic talent in the one spot at the one time.
Kevin Dooley and the Connolly people got them all together to entertain a goodly crowd of dedicated lovers of traditional Irish music, song and dance. Paddy Graber and Eileen Dooley led the floor and gave instant Irish dance lessons.
In a very short time, the floor was full of dancers, and away they went with the "Walls of Limerick." This particular dance brings back memories of my earlier dancing days in Donegal. I made the hazardous trek across the dance hall at a Ceili Mhor to ask a young woman if she knew the Walls of Limerick. Her reply "I do; they're cousins of mine." There are many ways to be shunned at a dance!
Danny Burns gave a nice rendering of "Take Me Home to Mayo," a song written about hunger striker Michael Gaughan who died in a British prison. Gaughan's funeral was the subject of much controversy in Mayo as the Dublin government refused his family permission for it to be held.
alee gave us "The Currach of Kildare." Surely, it's only a matter of time before Dan gives us a one-man show of readings from his favourite Dublin authors — O'Casey, Behan and James Joyce. Dan has the right dulcent Dublin tones to do it.
Helen McFadden was there with "Four Green Fields." and Maura McCay with two green shoes. John Walsh, who explores calculus by day at the University of British Columbia, show us how versatile the Uileann pipes are in the right hands.
Philomena Jordan gave us some fine traditional ballads, and played a mean bodhran. Stephen Lister on flute, Michael Muldoon with vocals and Barry Hall as guitarist made up a well-balanced team, and impromptu contributions from around the hall rounded out the evening.
This was a worthy start to Vancouver's adoption of a great Irish custom. The T.B. Vets have offered their hall to thelrishcommunity on a regular basis, so these Seisiuns will be held on the fourth Friday of every month. Don't miss them. Bring a tune, a voice, or a story to tell — it's all allowed for. Just check with Kevin Dooley to find a place on the program. The "crack" is mighty. Go dti an t'am sea aris.
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