Twenty eight years ago today, the first of what would turn out to be two multi-day US Festivals — envisioned by their organizer, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, as ‘Woodstock West’ — opened in blistering 110-degree heat at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernadino County, Calif.

Just seven dates into the 360° Tour’s second European leg, U2 has now debuted four unreleased songs with the addition of tonight’s premiere of ‘Every Breaking Wave’ in Helsinki, Finland.

U2’s huge 360° Tour roared back to life in Turin, Italy, tonight, with the band treating fans to a fresh instrumental intro and two new songs — ‘North Star’ and ‘Glastonbury’ — as well as resurrected ’90s cuts ‘Miss Sarajevo’ and ‘Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.’

With their injury-delayed 360° Tour finally set to resume Friday in Turin, Italy, the members of U2 rehearsed Sunday onstage at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino — and treated fans assembled outside the stadium’s gates to what is believed to be a brand-new song.

Nearly two months after scrubbing its North American summer tour, U2 today announced 16 rescheduled dates for the 360° Tour’s second stateside leg, which now will open May 21, 2011, in Denver and run through July 23, 2011, in Minneapolis.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Live Aid, the Bob Geldof-organized African famine relief concert that remains one of the cultural signposts of the ’80s. For readers of this site, the event is perhaps best remembered as the tipping point in U2’s ascent from college-rock upstarts to global superstars.

Fans who shelled out big cash for the just-issued mega-deluxe edition of U2’s new ‘U2 360° at the Rose Bowl’ concert DVD received a nice bonus: a red-vinyl 7-inch single featuring the previously unreleased song ‘Soon,’ a 2-minute track left over from the ‘No Line on the Horizon’ sessions.

While U2 was knocked out of its first-ever Glastonbury headlining slot by Bono’s recent tour-scuttling back surgery, fans still got a taste of the Irish megaband tonight when The Edge joined Muse for an encore of the all-time classic ‘Where the Streets Have No Name.’

This week’s new releases include the ‘U2 360° at the Rose Bowl’ DVD/Blu-ray, the new single from Erasure frontman Andy Bell’s forthcoming solo album, a new Television Personalities album (’A Memory is Better than Nothing’) and a reissue of King’s ‘Steps in Time.’

With Bono’s recovery from back surgery expected to take at least eight weeks, U2 today canceled its first-ever Glastonbury appearance and pushed this summer’s North American leg of its massive 360° Tour to sometime in 2011.

U2 today postponed the opening date of the second U.S. leg of its monstrous 360° Tour — June 3 in Salt Lake City — after Bono this morning underwent emergency surgery in Munich ‘for an injury sustained during tour preparation training,’ according to the band’s official site.

Today we commemorate Bono’s 50th birthday, knowing full well the frontman, and U2 itself, are somewhat divisive forces in the annals of ’80s college rock. Check out the band’s epic performance of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ from ‘Rattle and Hum.’