Local construction crews were nearly done Thursday constructing the massive multi-faceted stage for the U2 "360° Tour" at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
About 8 a.m. Friday, the crews tearing apart the stage after the band indefinitley postponed the concert in the wake of lead singer Bono's emergency back surgery.
Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Bono, born Paul Hewson, suffered an injury while preparing for the band's world tour. The tour was to kick off in Salt Lake City on June 3.
U2 planned to start rehearsals in Salt Lake City on May 25, according to the band's manager, Paul McGuiness, in a statement.
Bono's surgery occurred Friday in a Munich, Germany, hospital, according to news reports. The singer, who turned 50 on May 10, will remain in Munich for a few days and then return to his home in Dublin, Ireland, to recuperate.
Jim Wagstaff of Wagstaff Crane, a Salt Lake City-based company, said the stage was 80 percent completed when his crew was ordered to strike the set.
"They were just about done putting it together when they got word today," Wagstaff told the Deseret News Friday afternoon. "And now they're working backwards taking it apart as of right now."
Wagstaff Crane supplied five 90-ton cranes for the project, Wagstaff said. "They were each equipped with 142-feet of boom."
This isn't the first time the company has worked with United Concerts, the tour's promoter, Wagstaff said. The company, founded in 1963, helped set up the Rolling Stones' "Voodoo Lounge" stage when the band played in the Rice-Eccles Stadium in 1994.
"We've worked with United Concerts for as long as I can remember," he said. "We've worked with them for at least 20 years."
In addition, Wagstaff Crane helped with the Eagles concert at Rio Tinto Stadium last year, and in 2002, they helped set up the stadium for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
"We're not necessarily the one's who put the stage together, but we supply the cranes to do the lifting," Wagstaff said. "They just hire us because we're a local company and have a lot of experience."
Wagstaff did say the "360° Tour" stage is a difficult one.
"The stage is the most crazy stage I've ever seen," he said, with a laugh. "This has been the biggest and most challenging (project) for us. It's more extensive than the Stone or the Eagles.… It's a crazy stage set-up and covers half the football field."
One major challenge was raising a roof on to four massive supports above the main stage.
"There's a roof on the structure that is known as 'the claw,'" Wagstaff said. "And we've been assembling that for three days with five cranes. The roof alone weighs 250,000 pounds."
Wagstaff said the crew had to piece together "the claw," with a series of lifts.
"Three of our cranes had to lift simultaneously 180,000 pounds up in the air at a time to get this roof assembled," he said. "It's really a cool site."
Wagstaff said he doesn't know when the concert will be rescheduled. "All I've heard is, they're taking the stage down and postponing it."
U2 fans with tickets to the June 3 event are encouraged to retain tickets until updated show information can be provided.
Additional tour information will be forthcoming. For more information, see www.U2.com.
e-mail: scott@desnews.com