To mark the CD/Vinyl release of Songs of Innocence, the band have been speaking to The Sun newspaper in the UK. A great read with lots of new stories - here's some highlights, follow the link (free registration) to read the two-part interview in full.


Bono on U2's First Roadie
'The Edge's Ma was our first roadie. She had an orange VW Beetle and I don't know how the band fitted into it. We had to put the gear on top. She went out on runs with us after midnight and we would plaster the city with entire rolls of wallpaper.
'We'd open out the rolls, write our lyrics and splash them all over the movie posters. This is vandalism by the way... don't try this at home.'

Larry on The Sweet
'I was really into glam rock. I loved The Sweet... that's where I started from and it was really hard to let go of that.'

Edge on Seeing The Clash
'I meet a lot of people who were at The Clash. It's one of those moments, a generational thing. If you were there, it's indelibly imprinted on your memory.'

Bono on 'What Made Us Want To Be In A Band In The First Place'.
We went back to that period and listened to the music that had turned us on. For me it was like a floodgate moment. The melodies of The Ramones, that are like The Supremes, the innovation of Kraftwerk, Bowie's Low and Heroes, The Clash, the genius of The Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley, then our contemporaries like Joy Division and Teardrop Explodes.'

Larry on David Bowie
'I was completely engaged with Bowie. That was the world I wanted to occupy whereas a lot of punk was a visceral thing...'

Bono on Chris Martin
'We were playing with (Every Breaking Wave) for the last album and Chris talked us out of it. He said, 'That one deserves to be finished.' The half-baked version would have denied us this, so we owe him for that... he's a genius and a very self-effacing guy. He's one of our bodyguards.'