U2 debut three new songs in Turin

U2 returned to live duty last night in Turin with a belter of a show.
Arriving on stage to the strains of a new instrumental track, ‘Return Of The Stingray Guitar’, the band performed a 24-song set which also included two more newbies– the rocking ‘The Flowering Rose Of Glastonbury’ (Oh, rock and roll sunshine/Oh, a miracle will give you time) and ‘North Star’, a ballad described by Bono as “a love song to the universe”.
As the excellent Interference webzine points out, this is the first time that the band have debuted new material live since a gig in Antwerp in August 2001.
Other suprises were ‘Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me’ and ‘Miss Sarajevo’, whose respective last performances were on the PopMart and Vertigo world tours.
Mr. Hewson being fit again following his serious back injury wasn’t the only cause for celebration.
“You care a lot about family in Italy, right?” Bono said in a break between songs. “This band is also a family: the black sheep of the family, Adam Clayton on bass guitar; on the drums, the baby of the band, Larry Mullen Jnr; and The Edge, our middle child... it's his birthday on Sunday!
“And I'm the prodigal son. And I want to thank you for all the love and letters you've sent me in recent months, thanks for that. That's in the past now and I'm very much fit for the future.”
The next stop for U2 and The Claw is Frankfurt’s Commerzbank Arena on August 10 where it’ll be interesting to see/hear if we get treated to any more new songs.