Monday, May 23, 2011

Billboard Awards: 'Top Touring Artist'





The day after U2360° arrived back in the US the band accepted the Billboard award for Top Touring Artist.

On a beautiful, balmy evening in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada  will.i.am introduced the band as 'The most important group in music, my friends and inspiration... U2.'

Here's some highlights of what the band had to say.

Bono: 'Some of the greatest music is made quietly. You can make classic albums in your bedroom, you can play the greatest show of your life on a one string guitar... but we just don't do that.'

Larry: 'I'd like to thank our crew. I'm embarassed to say I don't know all of their names... But they leave their homes and families to put up and tear down our spaceship, our claw.  It's been our home for the last two years and we want to thank them for that.'

Adam added that he thought the stage looks  like a children's toy while  Edge finished up by saying that his favourite part of the show every night is 'when they turn all of that shit off and we get to feel like we're alone with our audience.'



U2 surpassed the Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang Tour earlier this year as the most successful tour ever. By the time the trek ends on July 30 in New Brunswick, it's expected to top $700 million in ticket sales and play to nearly eight million people. The tour was extended when the current North American leg, originally scheduled for 2010, was postponed after Bono injured his back during rehearsals.


Of the tour, the Edge said backstage: "I'm thrilled that more people came to this show than any other. Seven million people I still can't get my head around that figure."



Meanwhie, Bono addressed the intimacy of the tour.
"It's a magic trick," he said. "It's the strange thing about scale and spectacle that disappear."
As for the band's longevity, the Edge attributes it to the group members' ability to get along.
"Because it's a band -- and a real band -- and we're used to working in a cooperative way. We never let anything go that's not great."






A complete list of winners: billboard.com. More pics here.

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