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Footage of Grafton Street show emerges online

Footage of Bono busking in Dublin over Christmas has emerged online - scroll down and click below to view a clip of him singing 'Silent Night'.

The U2 frontman hit Grafton Street in the Irish capital for his annual festive fundraising performance on December 24, where he was joined by Damien Rice and The Frames singer Glen Hansard.

However, according to the Daily Star, local police didn't recognise the famous trio and tried to move them on.

The 'source' commented:

He was surprised when the police tried to stop him. Bono found the funny side though and the issue was soon resolved.

The 'mole' continued: "Although he always dresses down for the tradition, it was strange the police failed to spot one of the nation's most iconic men."

(Reuters) - U2 lead singer Bono on Sunday denied reports he had been taken to hospital after complaining of chest pains while on holiday in the south of France.

The 51-year-old did attend the Princess Grace hospital in Monaco, but a spokeswoman said it was for a routine checkup.

"Despite press stories to the contrary, Bono has not suffered a recent health scare," the spokeswoman said in a statement given to Reuters.

"Reports of his being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment are untrue. Bono is in good health and enjoying a family holiday in the south of France."

by Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times

U2 guitarist the Edge, whose real name is David Evans, and three other Malibu property owners filed separate lawsuits Friday seeking to set aside the California Coastal Commission's denial of their applications to build ridge-top homes above Malibu.

The plaintiffs, who own four adjacent parcels of land zoned for residential development in the unincorporated Sweetwater Mesa area, allege that the coastal panel's June 16 denial represented an unconstitutional taking of property without just compensation. (Another owner withdrew an application for a fifth home at the site just before the panel's vote and did not file suit.)

Toronto Sun/WENN.com

U2 rocker The Edge has plenty of reason to celebrate - he turns the big 5-0 today.

The Irish band recently wrapped up its mammoth 360 Tour and marked the end of the 25-month trek with an all night boozing session at New York hotspot The Spotted Pig last weekend.

But the party doesn't stop there for the guitar great - The Edge will no doubt be raising a toast once more as he rocks into his 50th year.

And to mark the milestone, WENN has dug deep to find 10 fascinating facts about the man born David Howell Evans.

Guitarist defends the band's business practices in letter to 'Baltimore Sun'

By Matthew Perpetua, Rolling Stone

The Edge has shot down allegations that U2 have been engaging in tax evasion in a letter to the Baltimore Sun. The guitarist was responding to a letter to the paper by a federal employee named Simon Maroney published on July 7th which attacked frontman Bono's ONE campaign and accused the band of moving their business to a tax haven in Holland in order to avoid strict tax rates in their native Ireland.

According to the Edge, Maroney's "contains so many inaccuracies that it is pointless to correct them all." Nevertheless, the guitarist insisted that "U2 and the individual band members have a totally clean record with every jurisdiction to which they are required to pay tax and have never been and will never be involved in tax evasion."

The Edge defended U2's business in Holland by citing an interview with Owen Durgan of Ireland's Ministry of Finance in the March 2009 issue of Spin in which Durgan explained that he "wouldn't make an issue" out of it. "People complained at the time," Durgan said. "But we have companies moving here from the rest of the EU, so it all evens out."

Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone

By Louise Hogan, Irish Independent

U2 BASSIST Adam Clayton left the limelight on stage during the band's 360 Tour of the US to bask in the glow of a mystery brunette.

The enigmatic and normally reticent member of the rock band took a brief break from their gruelling tour schedule to relax on a lounger on a beach in Miami with a tanned, dark-haired lady.

The 51-year-old and his friend attracted little attention as they smiled, joked and shared a kiss under the beach umbrella.

Kelsey Nichols, right, Gilbert Brule and Brule's mom
Lori Johnson at Wednesday's U2 concert in
Commonwealth. Photograph by: Ben Gelinas

By Ben Gelinas, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - Edmonton Oiler Gilbert Brule and his girlfriend picked up an unusual hitchhiker in West Vancouver on Tuesday -- U2 frontman Bono.

Brule and girlfriend Kelsey Nichols were driving to a park to walk Bella, their German shepherd, on Tuesday afternoon near the West Vancouver Yacht club when they spotted a couple of hitchhikers on the side of the road.

Brule, watching out the window, was sure one of them was Bono.

Nichols, who was driving, didn't believe him, because, really, why would Bono be hitchhiking in West Van?

By Tom Morton, Casper Star-Tribune staff writer

"This is for the Rev. Harold Camping," U2's frontman Bono told 70,000 fans at Invesco Field in Denver on Saturday night.

"Being taken up into the air, sounds like fun to me -- just as long as Larry Mullen is with me. God is in the house."

Then Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen tore into "Until the End of the World" from their "Achtung Baby" album from the early 1990s.

By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- After a poignant wake-up song requested by wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords for her astronaut husband, Endeavour and the two other space shuttles each marked milestones Tuesday for the retiring fleet.

In its first full work day in space for its last flight, Endeavour's commander Mark Kelly and his crew conducted their final post-launch inspection for damage to the shuttle heat shield -- a routine procedure started after the 2003 Columbia disaster. Initial results "looked really good" for NASA's youngest shuttle, lead flight director Gary Horlacher said Tuesday.

Back at the Kennedy Space Center launch site, Atlantis, which will fly the final shuttle mission of the 30-year program, moved for the last time from its hangar to the massive Vehicle Assembly Building. And Discovery, which flew its last mission in February, had some of its remaining toxic fuel drained from its smaller engines. It will go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum hangar outside of Washington's Dulles Airport.

By Colin St. John, Reverb

"Sucks" is admittedly a very childish word, as least as far as its utilization within the modern lexicon. But, it's immediate, descriptive and evokes an emotional response. Everybody knows, plainly, that "sucks" is bad. And, quite possibility, it is very bad. Using the word "sucks" may be juvenile, but so is liking U2.

U2's entire image, catalog and influence are a major drain on the rock 'n' roll that surrounds it. The Dublin quartet -- quite literally -- sucks the life out of whatever it touches, progression be damned. (When's the last time you heard a U2 song and said, "Oh my god! That was completely unexpected and fresh!"?) And whether you are as vitriolic and vehement as this all might seem, or you plain don't care about U2 -- like, say, Ric Ocasek whose Cars played Denver on Sunday -- you then have, at least, dismissed them in some way, shape or form. If, however, you are going to Invesco on Saturday, you've got some 'splainin' to do. Of course, as Ocasek says in his New York Times interview, musical preferences are subjective. The point here is just that you shouldn't subject yourself to listening to U2.