U2 to Join Irving and Jeffrey Azoff’s Full Stop Management
U2 is joining forces with Irving and Jeffrey Azoff’s Full Stop Management after nearly 10 years with Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers manager Guy Oseary, sources tell Variety.
A rep for Full Stop had no comment; the news was first reported by Hits.
The group has not toured since completing its “Joshua Tree” anniversary tour in December of 2019, and it seems likely a new album is in the works if not nearly done. The band has not released a new album since “Songs of Experience” in December of 2017. Earlier this week, singer Bono announced a book tour in support of his forthcoming memoir, “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story,” which arrives on Nov. 1; he will tour North America and Europe throughout November.
Given Full Stop’s strength in the touring business — they manage Harry Styles, who has been on a wildly successful global tour for nearly a year — it seems likely that was a factor in the Azoffs’ favor, along with the company’s close relationship with longtime tour promoters Live Nation.
Also rumored — and reasonably so — Irving Azoff‘s participation in a new Las Vegas venue, the Sphere, which would make a fine home for the 360-concert model that the band has employed on its many worldwide stadium treks.
However, the news does come as a surprise. In July, U2 singer Bono told Variety of Oseary, “Trustworthiness is an old-school term, and whilst the manager-client relationship does not require a Hippocratic oath, Guy O. takes this very seriously. That’s one of the reasons we work so well together. He is a most trustworthy person. In the early days, the temperature could get raised as we would debate different aspects of how we go about our business. But in recent times, not so much. He feels like family.”’
When Oseary took on U2 for management in 2013, it was with the encouragement of the band’s longtime manager Paul McGuinness, who had retired. Oseary, a fan of the band since his teens, described the succession as being handed a “great responsibility.”
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