Fans have been wondering and waiting for a Joshua Tree anniversary tour date in Arizona, New Mexico, or Nevada, and finally one has been confirmed. U2 will perform at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale on 19 September. This is the 50th date confirmed for the tour.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday 23 June at 10am local time. U2.com subscribers as usual get their own presale, starting on Tuesday 20 June at 10am local.

This part of the world has a particularly strong connection to the Joshua Tree. The desert landscape inspired much of the album's music and imagery. The original 1987 tour both began and finished at the Arizona State University in Tempe. The tour's first show shows, on 2 and 4 April 1987, were at the university's arena, and the last two nights on 19 and 20 December 1987 were at Sun Devil Stadium. The colour footage on the Rattle and Hum film is from those two stadium dates.

Interestingly, today's announcement says nothing about this show being the last for North America—a comment that has been made on recent tours in the announcement of what proved to be the final shows. So it is possible other dates might be added. There is certainly a likelihood of one more Brazilian show in South America, but North American rumours mainly pointed towards a gig in Atlanta on 18 September. This now seems very unlikely, as it would be the night before Phoenix: the distance is too great between cities, and U2 have not scheduled any shows in different cities on consecutive nights since 2005. The only shows on consecutive nights across the last three tours have been in the same city. But there is plenty of space between San Diego and Mexico City for shows to be added, so we will have to wait and see.