Contrary to reports that have appeared elsewhere on the net, the company responsible for all of U2's artwork, Four5One, say that they've yet to start work on the band's next album cover.
hotpress.com had sought clarification from Four5One's Stephen Averill after a number of respected fansites received promotional posters that appeared to originate from Universal/Interscope in Europe.
Along with a ball of fire image, the posters announced that the follow up to All That You Can't Leave Behind would be released on March 8 2004 in Europe and the Rest of the World and March 9 in the US.
Says Rapid: "We haven't done any work on the cover yet and Solar isn't on the possible list of titles we've been given."
Island International's Steve Matthews is even more dismissive: "It's a complete hoax. Somebody with desk-top publishing obviously has too much time on their hands."
While fans are going to have to wait a while for the new U2 cover, all the old ones are featured in a new Four5One book, Stealing Hearts At A Travelling Show. Limited to 2,000 hardback and 4,000 softback copies, it includes new interviews with Bono, Adam Clayton, Steve Averill and frequent graphic collaborator Shaughn McGrath. Copies priced €55.50 and €38.50 respectively are available from www.four5one.ie/form.asp