With all the delicacy of an invading army, U2 kicks off its 40-country PopMart tour April 25 in Las Vegas. Among such props as a 35-foot-high mirror ball, the massive set features the biggest video screen ever assembled: a 150- by 60-foot partition constructed of 1 million LEDs. Resembling a Brobdingnagian picket fence, the screen marks the mainstream début of a recently invented piece of electronica.
"Just before we started designing this, the blue LED arrived," explains show designer and director Willie Williams. "Video screens are made of pixels, but these screens are made of red, green, and blue LEDs - and the colors are fantastic." Williams believes the gargantuan pointillist screen - wired with 22 miles of cable and 21,000 circuit boards - will usher in a new era in concert visuals. "I like to make broad strokes, because in a stadium, you've got to do it big or not do it at all."
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