U2 Record Store Day Rumours: 2018

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-03-03)

Record Store Day is just around the corner, falling on April 21 this year, and what would it be without a U2 rumour?

This is the 11th year that Record Store Day has offered a list of rare exclusives to record stores in April, many limited in quantity, that sell out quickly on the day of release. The event has been so successful it has been spun into a second day on Black Friday each year.

The official list is due to be announced on March 6 in events in New York, London and other locations around the world. The list should be announced at 6pm London time / 1pm New York time. Until such time that these are officially announced, any information below should be taken as rumour.

We are told by a reliable well connected source that U2 will be producing a 12-inch vinyl record for Record Store Day this year. It will be a single and we are told that “Lights of Home” is likely to be the featured song. We do not have any information on the exact track list, or the quantities that will be pressed at this time.

While we expect that the release could be announced formally on Tuesday, in the past U2 has sometimes been announced after the main announcement, as part of a separate press release. Last fall, “The Blackout” was released for the Black Friday RSD event, and that vinyl was announced nine days after the initial release list was announced. “The Blackout” was released in two formats, an all black vinyl release and a release in black and white vinyl limited to just 750 copies worldwide. Between the two formats we are told 20,000 copies were pressed of “The Blackout”

“Lights of Home”, like “The Blackout” has not been released to radio for promotion. The band currently is promoting “Get Out of Your Own Way” in North America, and has started to promote “Summer of Love” with DJs in the UK and Europe and on Dutch radio.

U2 has been participating in Record Store Day for a number of years:

  • November 26, 2010: Release of the EP “Wide Awake in Europe”
  • November 29, 2013: Release of the 12-inch single “Ordinary Love”
  • November 28, 2014: Release of a North and South of the River Poster / Map
  • April 18, 2015: Release of Songs of Innocence on double 12-inch vinyl
  • April 22, 2017: Release of “Red Hill Mining Town” as a 12-inch picture disc, also a limited release of a numbered ‘fanzine’
  • November 24, 2017: Release of “The Blackout” in 12-inch black and 12-inch coloured vinyl

Our 2016 History Mix looked back in more detail at many of these releases.

We will update the news here as more information is available. Record Store Day falls on April 21, 2018 this year. When you are popping into your record store, we expect you’ll be able to find the recently announced reissues of Pop, All That You Can’t Leave Behind and Wide Awake in America, which are being released eight days earlier on April 13, 2018.

Many thanks to Alan who passed this information our way.

< Next News Entry | Previous News Entry >

u2songs.com was formerly known as u2wanderer.org. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook