The U2 ticket frenzy has begun.  U2360° will visit Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and include U2′s first Perth date since Popmart in 1998 and tickets are already selling fast.

Tickets for the performances in Australia and New Zealand will officially go on sale Friday, September 3 at all usual outlets.

A number of pre-sale tickets have been made available to members of various groups.

U2.com subscribers were be able to buy tickets from Thursday, August 26. These were only made available to those who had been signed up as fans before the tour was announce, with a second batch being released to ‘newer’ fans on Monday, August 30.

Today tickets have been made available for those subscribed to Live Nation, one of the concert promoters involved in bringing the band down under. The pre-sale started at 2.30 this afternoon (Wednesday, September 1) and will continue until the same time tomorrow or until all the allocated tickets have been exhausted.

There is still time to sign up to Live Nation website and receive the password that will allow you access these tickets, at a limit of two per order.

U2 will bring their 360º show to Australia this Summer.

U2 will bring their 360º show to Australia, the Irish Echo has learned.

A source close to the band told the Irish Echo “I believe U2 are going to Australia.”

The band will most likely tour during Australia’s warm Summer months with December reported as the most likely month.

The Irish Echo is trying to confirm dates and venues in time for our next print edition, on sale July 14.

The US leg of the band’s global tour was thrown into chaos last month after Bono was forced to undergo surgery on his back.

However, the band’s manager told the Evening Herald in Dublin that the singer was on the mend.

“He’s making a full recovery,” McGuinness was quoted as saying.

“The doctors told me he’s going to be fine. It was serious surgery but we expect him to make a full recovery. He’s pretty fit.”

“I’ll be very relieved when I see him running around the stage again. The European leg of the tour starts in Turin on August 6 and that has not been postponed.

“Rescheduling the American leg is quite difficult because it is an outdoor show; we can’t do it in the winter because it’s the northern hemisphere.”

Meanwhile, The Edge made an impromptu appearance at the massive Glastonbury Festival last week.

The famed guitarist joined Muse on stage to perform Where The Streets Have No Names much to the delight of the 100,000 plus crowd.

Bono has been forced to undergo emergency surgery in Germany.

U2 have cancelled their headline slot at Glastonbury and postponed much of their world tour after singer Bono was told to rest for at least two months following emergency surgery on his back that almost left him paralyzed.

The singer said he was “heartbroken” after pulling out of the show, which had been booked to mark the festival’s 40th anniversary.

Gorillaz will now replace the Irish band as the headline act, while U2 have also been forced to postpone 16 shows on the north American leg of their U2360 Tour.

Bono suffered a back injury last week and was discharged from Ludwig Maximilians-University Hospital in Munich, Germany, a few days later.

He has been told by doctors to undertake a rehab regime as well as resting for at least eight weeks.

“I’m heartbroken. We really wanted to be there to do something really special – we even wrote a song especially for the festival.”

The shelved US shows were due to take place between June 3 and July 19.

Dr Muller Wohlfahrt, who treated the star and recommended emergency surgery, said: “Bono suffered severe compression of the sciatic nerve. On review of his MRI scan, I realised there was a serious tear in the ligament and a herniated disc, and that conservative treatment would not suffice.”

Bono was said to be in severe pain and suffering partial paralysis in his lower leg. A ligament surrounding a disc in his back had been torn. And fragments of the disc had travelled to his spinal canal.

Professor Jorg Christian Tonn, who carried out the operation, said: “This surgery was the only course of treatment for full recovery and to avoid further paralysis.

“The prognosis is excellent but to obtain a sustainable result, he must now enter a period of rehabilitation.”

Dr Wohlfahrt said: “We are treating Bono as we would treat any of our athletes and, while the surgery has gone very well, the coming weeks are crucial for a return to full health.”

U2 manager Paul McGuinness, who was at the hospital in Munich, said Bono felt he had let down the audience.

“Our biggest and, I believe, best tour has been interrupted and we’re all devastated. For a performer who lives to be on stage, this is more than a blow.

“He feels robbed of the chance to do what he does best and feels like he has badly let down the band and their audience – which is, of course, nonsense.

“His concerns about more than a million ticket buyers whose plans have been turned upside down, we all share, but the most important thing right now is that Bono make a full recovery.”