Could it be flu too for U2 tour?

Published on 20/08/2009 11:18

QUIDNUNC doesn't wish to alarm U2 fans looking forward to tonight's concert at the Don Valley Stadium but bookies reckon they are the band most likely to next cancel a tour date due to swine flu.

Paddy Power began taking bets last week after Kasabian had to cancel their Australian tour when frontman Tom Meighan succumbed.

Paddy Power make U2 their 6/4 favourites, closely followed by fellow stadium rockers Coldplay at odds of 7/4 and Britney Spears at 6/1.

A spokesman for the Irish bookies said: "Obviously being a musician in a band on a world tour puts you at greater risk of infection, so we're guessing the bigger the tour the bigger the risk and tours don't get much bigger that the U2's 360!"

Ah, but things haven't always been like that for the Irish superstars.

Quidnunc was talking to someone who remembers being among a sparse audience attending a late Seventies appearance by the band at the Limit club on West Street. There were 13 people there according to the recollection of the venue's co-owner, George Webster.

And now they cavort beneath a monster space-age set with flashing lights. The man responsible, leading stage and set designer Willie Williams, is better known in these parts as Peter Williams, ex-pupil of Silverdale school and son of a medical practitioner and singer with South Yorkshire Opera.

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Could it be flu too for U2 tour?

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