“Bono had some time off from U2’s tour and they went in the studio together in Cologne,” a Jagger spokesperson reveals. “Mick’s really excited about working with him. They’re good mates and the tracks is going to be amazing but they’re not saying much about what it’ll sound like.”

Due in the late autumn, the opus will also feature Pete Townshend, Lenny Kravitz, Matchbox 20 and Missy Elliott.

After that it was off to Genoa where, donning his Drop The Debt hat, Bob Geldof and himself met with the G8 leaders.

The headlines, though, belonged to the rioters who turned the Northern Italian town into a virtual no-go area.

Reacting to the violence, Bono said: “I’m angry. Though it’s okay to bang your fist on the table, it’s not okay to put your fist in the face of your opponent, whether you’re a protestor or the police. (The rioters and the police) destroyed a day where there was an actual dialogue going on between some African leaders and the wealthy leaders.”

Echoing those sentiments, Bob Geldof reflected that: “From the Drop The Debt point of view, despite the activities on the street, we had a very successful summit. We’ve been in a series of meetings with the heads of state and their advisors for the last two days and have been able to push our agenda of debt cancellation.”

Finally, U2 are up for no fewer than five gongs at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, which are taking place at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House on September 6th. The categories they’ve been nominated in are ‘Video Of The Year’, ‘Best Group Video’, ‘Best Video From A Film’, ‘Best Special Effects From A Video’ and ‘Best Editing In A Video’. Their main rival is Fatboy Slim who could land a record-breaking nine awards.