the tour, and was meant to showcase and test the new songs in a live setting. The War Tour proper began on 26 February 1983 and lasted until 30 November of that year. In total, the band played 110 gigs in Europe, the US, and Japan to promote War. Over the course of the tour, the band began to play progressively larger venues, moving from clubs to halls to arenas. Bono attempted to engage the growing audiences with theatrical, often dangerous antics, climbing scaffoldings and lighting rigs and jumping into the audience. The sight of Bono waving a white flag during performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" became the tour's iconic image. The band played several dates at large European and American music festivals, including a performance at the US Festival on Memorial Day weekend for an audience of 125,000 people. The group's 5 June 1983 concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on a rain-soaked evening was singled out by Rolling Stone as one "50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll". The show was recorded for the concert video Live at Red Rocks and was one of several concerts from the tour captured on their live album Under a Blood Red Sky. Both releases received extensive play on the radio and MTV, expanding the band's audience and showcasing their prowess as a live act. During the tour, the group established a new tradition by closing concerts with "40", during which the Edge and Clayton would switch instruments and the band members would leave the stage one-by-one as the crowd continued to sing the refrain "How long to sing this song?". The War Tour was U2's first profitable tour, grossing about $2 million. Legacy In 1989, War was ranked number 40 on Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Greatest Albums of the '80s". In 2003, the magazine ranked War 221st on its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", describing it as "the band's most overtly political album... charged with explosive, passionate guitar rock". An updated version of the list in 2012 re-ranked the album at number 223. Slant Magazine ranked War 94th on its list of the "Best Albums of the 1980s." Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot deemed War a "breakthrough" for U2 in which "the band's passion comes through with gripping clarity." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic viewed it as U2's first album to achieve "greatness",