Get set for a Bono blast

So just what can South Africans expect when the world's biggest rock group roll into Mzansi?

Irish supergroup U2 are due in the country next week for two concerts featuring the world's biggest stage in the local leg of the 360 Degree World Tour.

Said John Langford, chief operating officer of promoters Big Concerts: "This is the biggest music concert tour ever in the history of South Africa. Absolutely no amount of statistics can prepare fans for the massive invasion of their senses. Stand back, this is going to be huge!"

Nicknamed "The Claw", the revolving stage for the concert is made up of a four-legged supporting rig - a gigantic 28m tall steel structure weighing a staggering 250 tons.

Fans at the two concerts - at FNB Stadium in Soweto next Sunday and at Cape Town Stadium the following Friday - will also be blown away by innovative technology that has already been hailed as a world first.

It will take a team of 300 international crew and 350 local support crew four days to erect the rig, designed by Belgian company Stageco.

The construction requires the use of high-pressure and innovative hydraulic systems. All the equipment and steel structures have arrived in South Africa by sea freight from Australia.

Langford said 5600 South Africans would be directly involved in the show, from security and ushers to bar staff and drivers.

The amazing visual effects include a cylindrical video screen weighing 54 tons and which, when open, measures just over 4000m².

According to data released by the concert organisers, the 500000-pixel screen also contains 320000 fasteners, 30000 cables and 150000 machined pieces.

The screen is broken into segments mounted on a multiple pantograph system, which enables the screen to "open up" or spread apart vertically as an effect during different stages of the concerts.

U2's show director, Willie Williams, said the extravagant show was the culmination of finding "new and interesting ways to present the music".

"Video is always the loudest voice in the room. If you're in a pub where there's a TV on, even if you want to be talking to the person you're with, you still end up staring at the screen," he said.

"So we decided to rethink playing at stadiums, with video not being so central. Talking with the band, it was clear they wanted to make another quantum shift on a par with the leap between The Joshua Tree Tour and (the) Zoo TV (tour).

"There may be another band with the imagination, ambition and courage to do something like this, but I can't think who they would be."

U2 has sold over 155 million albums since starting out in 1978. The band - Bono, Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton - have become renowned as much for their socially conscious work as for their music and innovative shows.

In 2005, U2 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Over the years, they've won 22 Grammys, an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe in 2003 for best original song for The Hands That Built America, which featured in the Martin Scorsese movie The Gangs of New York.