U2 have paid tribute to the Paris attack victims in a new song.
Last month’s Paris attacks left 130 people dead.
U2 were due to play in Paris in the days after the attacks, but the gigs were canceled.
They played the first rescheduled show on December 6.
“We stand together with the families of those killed in Paris,” said singer Bono, as victims’ names were projected on a huge video screen at the AccorHotels Arena.
“We stand together with the families of those killed in San Bernardino.”
As an encore, Bono wrapped himself in a tricolor flag and sang a verse of Belgian singer Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas (Don’t Leave Me).
U2 will play a second Paris concert on December 7.
Before the gig, Bono revealed that the new song, titled Streets of Surrender, contains lines about Paris being the “city of liberty” and having “streets of love and pride”.
Bono told CNN he originally started writing the song for Italian singer Zucchero. He recited some of the lyrics: “Every man has two cities he needs to be. The one he can touch and the one he can’t see.
Photo Reuters
“The one where a stranger’s a friend. Every man’s got one city of liberty.
“For me it’s Paris. I love it. Every time I get lost down these ancient streets, I find myself again.
“You’re free, baby, baby, free now and for ever. It’s Christmas time, you can decide to forget or to remember.
“You’re free, baby, baby. I didn’t come here to fight you. I came down these streets of love and pride to surrender. The streets of surrender.”
Bono’s bandmate The Edge told the channel: “We think of music as the sound of freedom. We think rock and roll has a part to play, so going back to Paris to us is not just symbolic.
“I think we’re actually starting the process of resistance, of defiance against this movement.”
Bono and The Edge both have houses in France. The guitarist said: “It seemed like the target was culture and every kind of expression of the best of humanity – great music, restaurants, French food – everything that we hold dear.”
Bono said his camp had tried to help the Eagles of Death Metal after the violence.
“We tried to find a plane for them to get out and things like that,” he said.
“Turns out the best way to help them was finding them phones, because their phones had been left in the venue.”
Some reports suggest the Eagles of Death Metal, whose gig at the Bataclan venue was attacked by gunmen on November 13, would join U2 on stage.
However, U2 released a statement saying that was incorrect.
Bono has said sorry after U2’s latest album Songs of Innocence was automatically added to the libraries of all iTunes users around the world.
Speaking in a session on Facebook, Bono said the move was a “drop of megalomania, [a] touch of generosity”.
In response to a questioner who told him it was “rude” to impose their music upon everyone, Bono said: “Oops, I’m sorry about that.”
Apple later released a one-click tool enabling iTunes customers to remove it.
Some users complained that the 11-track Songs of Innocence had been added to their music library without permission and that it was not clear how to delete it.
The questioner on the Facebook session said: “Can you please never release an album on iTunes that automatically downloads to peoples playlists ever again? It’s really rude.”
U2’s latest album Songs of Innocence was automatically added to the libraries of all iTunes users around the world
Bono replied: “I had this beautiful idea and we got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing.
“Drop of megalomania, touch of generosity, dash of self-promotion, and deep fear that these songs that we poured our life into over the last few years mightn’t be heard.
“There’s a lot of noise out there. I guess we got a little noisy ourselves to get through it,” he said.
The music was made available for free to more than 500 million iTunes customers in 119 countries last month. It has been reported that around 5% of those have downloaded U2’s latest opus.
At the time, Bono acknowledged that not everyone would appreciate the move.
“For the people out there who have no interest in checking us out, look at it this way… the blood, sweat and tears of some Irish guys are in your junk mail,” he wrote on the band’s website.
Bono’s apology comes after rock legend Iggy Pop criticized U2 for “giving away music before it can flop, in an effort to stay huge”.
The physical version of Songs of Innocence, including a six-track acoustic session, went on sale on October 13.
U2 are reportedly delaying the release of their next album until 2015 just weeks after frontman Bono told USA Today he and his bandmates were hoping to release new material this summer.
U2 are reportedly delaying the release of their next album until 2015
New reports suggest U2 has also axed a planned tour that was to begin in September.
The dates are now expected to begin next summer. Last month, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. blamed the group’s work on Oscar nominated song Ordinary Love for the album delay.
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