Bono says U2 are becoming irrelevant

Bono has admitted that he fears his band might be becoming ‘irrelevant’ in the modern musical landscape.

Bono photo by David-Shankbone_CC3
Bono

U2 regularly fill stadiums across the world when they go on tour and have sold millions of albums throughout their long careers. They also won a Golden Globe last month for their song ‘Ordinary Love’ which featured in the film ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’.

However, despite all this, as they add the finishing touches to their 13th album, frontman Bono has admitted that his band may be ‘on the verge of irrelevance’.

In an interview with BBC Radio 1, presenter Zane Lowe asked Bono if he found it difficult to remain important to the public.

The singer replied: “We’re on the verge of irrelevance. You have to make stuff relevant to you and where you’re at, make an honest account of what you’re going through.

“If that’s relevant to other people, great. But we don’t know.”

Bono said that he and his bandmates looked back to what made them want to become a band in the first place during the writing process for the new album. He also said that while the band loved playing stadiums they would also like to play some indoor arena gigs.

He continued: “We were listening to Ramones and Kraftwerk – you can hear about on ‘Invisible’. It opened up a whole new valve for me writing, it was like a dam-burst of sorts.

“We love those big outdoors shows – we’ve had some of the best nights of our lives. For this album, we’re going to start indoors. We’d like to play the O2. Sometimes it’s nice to play intimate things like that.”

U2 released ‘Invisible’ during the SuperBowl at the weekend. The proceeds will go to raise money for the fight against AIDS.


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By Michael Kehoe

Michael Kehoe is a writer for Irish Music Daily and Ireland Calling. His favourite Irish Music bands are Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys.