KEY POINTS:
U2 - PART TWO - is about to begin. And New Zealand will be one of the first countries in the world to test the band's latest pledge on change and originality.
The Irish band is set to play in Christchurch tonight, Wellington Friday night and Auckland on Saturday and Sunday nights, as part of their sellout Australia-New Zealand tour.
Undoubtedly they will play material from their new album, Unforgettable Fire which is soon to be released in Britain.
The album will be launched there with a single, Pride. (to date it is hard to tell the influence that new producer Brian Eno has had on the album but judging by the album and single titles not much has changed.)
But change is supposed to be the key word of the band for 1984, after they vowed to leave their trilogy of albums, Boy, October and War, behind them.
The dropping of Steve Lillywhite, who produced their first three albums, was step one. U2 bassist Adam Clayton said recently that the band intended to make changes in 1984.
"In 1984 - I think the music will become a lot more vital, maybe a bit rougher - not as smooth and produced as it has been. It way go more political overall.' he says.
But you wonder if the band could get more political than they already are.
Talking about the band's success, Clayton said: "The synthesiser bands are already having problems: they can't tour, and they are very reliant on the floating market that buys hit records. They have no more longevity than their next album.
"A lot of these bands may disappear. The vanguard of the new direction is certainly the Alarm and Big Country."
And Brian Eno has promised to send U2 in new directions. The new album was described in a British Magazine, U2, recently as: "A combination of the power of U2 missed with the ambient melodic phrasing favoured by Eno."
Lead singer Bono Vox said of the new album: "With the completion of War we feel we have completed stage one of our career. We have completed a three-album project.
"Everyone feels that a weight has been taken off our shoulders and that we've got something out of our system. With this new album it's like being in anew group."
And that new group is promising to blow New Zealand away with their musical power, passion and subtlety which has made them "patron saints" back in their home-town, Dublin.
As the New Zealand promoters of the tour say: "Those here lucky enough to have tickets are in for a show unlike anything else they have ever experienced."
