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Fan records new U2 songs blaring out of Bono villa
Peter Allen in Paris18 Aug 2008
Tracks from rock band U2's new album have appeared on the internet illegally after singer Bono played them loudly at his holiday villa in France.
A fan of the Irish group heard the music blaring out of the home in the village of Eze-sur-Mer, near Nice, and recorded them on his mobile phone. He then revealed his achievement on U2 fan site Interference.com and put them on YouTube.
Although U2 has removed the four leaked songs from YouTube because of copyright violations, they have not been able to stop people trading them via email. The quality is said to be poor - the noise of waves and seagull cries can be heard in the background - but the leak is thought to have concerned U2.
"They see Eze as a place where they can get away from it all and play music as loud as they like," said a neighbour in the village.
"Bono had the tracks playing on his stereo and people heard them outside, but nobody expected them to be recorded."
The new album, believed to be titled No Line On The Horizon, is U2's first for four years. It has been made in secrecy, with the band hiring an isolated house in Morocco to finalise some tracks.
