from launch.com (5/30/01, 3 p.m. ET) -- U2's highly praised Elevation 2001 world tour has been living up to its name with audiences in North America since the road trip kicked off in late March. The Irish quartet plans to take its production to Europe for most of the summer, and guitarist the Edge tells LAUNCH he expects more dates to be added to the itinerary, including a return visit to these shores.

"I think we're gonna extend the tour," he says. "We booked only the first six months, and, you know, we wanted to see how we were enjoying it and see how it went. And we're having such a great time that we've decided to add some shows after the summer. So we, we're mostly, I think, gonna come back and play cities that we haven't been to, and we're maybe gonna add a couple of shows in cities we have been to that we really didn't come close to supplying the demand. So I think there might be a couple of more New York shows, maybe. We're still kind of discussing the schedule." But the Edge adds that U2 doesn't plan on extending the tour indefinitely--after the success of the group's latest album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, he says he and his bandmates are ready to make some more new music as soon as possible. "We're also really itching to get back into the studio," he says. "There's something very attractive to us right now about ending the tour during this year and then being able to get back to make another record pretty quick." -- Gary Graff, Detroit