Boy Tour | ||||
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Tour by U2 | ||||
Associated album | Boy | |||
Start date | 6 September 1980 | |||
End date | 9 June 1981 | |||
Legs | 5 | |||
Shows | 157 | |||
U2 concert chronology | ||||
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The Boy Tour was a concert tour by Irish rock band U2 that took place in 1980 and 1981 to support the band's first studio album, Boy, which was released in October 1980.
Itinerary
The tour consisted of five legs, the first leg was a 3 month stint in Europe between September and December and consisted of 56 shows. This was immediately followed by a short leg in North America seeing the band play 9 venues in 10 days. The U.S. tour began at The Ritz in New York on December 6, 1980, followed by The Bayou in Washington, D.C..[1] The next day they played in Buffalo, New York, the same night John Lennon was shot in New York City.
To further promote the album, U2 ended 1980 and began 1981 with another European leg, entertaining 28 more venues. A larger North American leg took place between March and June 1981 and subsequently was the largest leg of the tour with 60 concerts taking place. U2 finished the tour with 4 finals shows in Europe. The tour was one of U2's largest and was played in small venues, many of which only had 4 or 5 people in it. U2 played 4 concerts at a European Summer Festival before recording October. The band received negative reviews throughout the tour, with one reporter labelling them "a joke."[2]
Setlist
The setlist varied each night throughout the tour, with all songs from Boy being performed with the exception of "Shadows and Tall Trees".[3] Content from U2 3 was played, as were "11 O'Clock Tick Tock", "Touch", and "Things to Make and Do". Towards the end of the tour, songs from the upcoming October were played, including "Fire" and "I Fall Down". "The Ocean", "11 O'Clock Tick Tock", and "I Will Follow" were often played twice due to the band's small catalogue at the time. Most shows began with "The Ocean" and closed with "11 O'Clock Tick Tock". Three unreleased songs, "Father is an Elephant", "Carry Me Home" and "The Cry" were also performed. Throughout the tour, Bono would include snippets of other songs not recorded by U2 - "Send in the Clowns" was often tagged onto the end of "The Electric Co."[4]
References
- ^ "Live in Georgetown Day Before Lennon Shot". Ghosts of DC. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
- ^ "U2 Concert Media Review". U2tours.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ^ "U2 Boy Tour - U2 on tour". U2gigs.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.
- ^ "U2 Send In The Clowns - U2 on tour". U2gigs.com. Retrieved 2013-06-25.