Music
22 Oct 14

U2 Lead The Way On Later With Jools Holland

The Irish band got top billing tonight, in a stellar cast that also included Sam Smith and Interpol.

U2 made a triumphant appearance earlier tonight on Later With Jools, the iconic BBC music show, writes Niall Stokes.

On a night that also featured the immense talents of Sam Smith, Zola Jesus and Interpol, among others, there was no doubt as to the stand-out performances, as U2 unveiled live versions of two of the most resonant cuts from their latest album, Songs of Innocence.

With U2 opening and closing the show, first up was ‘Volcano’ which has been tipped as a likely staple of the band’s live set when they begin touring, most likely in the spring of 2015. Most notable was the central importance of Edge’s backing vocals on the chorus of the song; Bono, meanwhile, turned in a fine vocal performance, marred only marginally at the end when the mike was angled too low to catch the full power of his vocals.

To end the evening’s music, U2 played the second track on Songs of Innocence, the gorgeous 'Every Breaking Wave’. They opened with just Edge on piano and Bono on vocals, lending the song a greater level of intimacy than on the record. A string section added a fresh dimension of musical delicacy, before Larry Mullen on drums and Adam Clayton on bass weighed in, to lift the performance into overdrive. Bono is clearly in fine voice at the moment, and on this occasion, his vocals – on what is a hugely demanding track – were superlative.

At the close the additional instruments fell away and we were left with Bono alone again, with just Edge on piano backing him.

"Baby every dog on the street,” he sang, "Knows that we're in love with defeat/ Are we ready to be swept off our feet/ And stop chasing/ Every breaking wave.”

On the basis of this performance and their appearance on Graham Norton at the weekend, U2 don’t know the meaning of the word defeat. Following its early iTunes release, their album may not have debuted at No.1 in the UK – as most of their records have done since The Joshua Tree back in 1987 – but there can be little doubt that they are shaping up to make Songs of Innocence one of their biggest albums ever. The next few months will be hugely interesting for U2 watchers...