Indeed, there is some surprise that the story has been afforded such a high level of exposure, given that the ‘recordings’ were of such poor – or rather non-existent – quality.
The culprit is believed to be a Dutch fan, who heard the songs – supposedly titled ‘Moment Of Surrender’, ‘For Your Love’, ‘Sexy Boots’ and ‘No Line On The Horizon’ – blaring out of Bono’s French Riviera retreat in Eze-sur-Mere and recorded them with his mobile phone.
“Even by bootleg standards, the audio quality is really, really bad,” an insider tells Hot Press. “You really couldn’t hear anything – it was like something that was playing four or five rooms away being recorded. It really is a bit of a non-event.”
Following copyright violation complaints from U2’s record company, Universal, the tracks were taken down by YouTube who’ve subsequently launched an investigation into the matter.
Universal’s prompt response is, however, an indication of just how jealously any information on the album is being guarded. With Radiohead’s In Rainbows album – which was officially available to download for however little fans wanted to pay – having suffered 2.3 million illegal downloads, there is clearly a lot at stake for both the band and the record company.
As for the song titles, Edge has already spoken about a track ‘Get On Your Boots’, not ‘Sexy Boots’ – though the title might have changed in the meantime. Similarly, Bono has played ‘No Line On The Horizon’ a few months ago – but whether or not that will be the title of the album remains uncertain.