Larry Mullen Not Entirely Sure What’s Happening

ROCK giants U2 shocked fans, by unveiling their latest studio album “Songs Of Innocence” at yesterday’s star-studded Apple event in Cupertino, California, where the tech giants were showcasing their latest iPhone products.

As a further surprise, the global megastars revealed that the album would be available immediately for free to the 500 million iTunes users worldwide, much to the bemusement of the group’s drummer, Larry Mullen.

“When Bono and Tim started doing their little countdown thing, Larry just kinda nodded along, ” said Barry Mullen, the rock star’s brother. “He’s not really up to speed with the whole downloading music thing… I’m not even sure he can work an iPod”.

“I was talking to him after the show and explained that when Bono said a half a billion people had just received the album, that didn’t mean a half a billion CDs has been posted to peoples houses or anything like that. He was also quite confused at how the people receiving the album were going to pay for it… in fact, the whole notion of giving the album away for free is kinda lost on him”.

Although artists such a Beyoncé have surprised fans, by releasing complete albums without warning, giving albums away for free is still quite rare. Many have claimed that the negative critical reaction and poor sales of the last U2 album “No Line On The Horizon” may have prompted the band to try something unorthodox rather than face another critical drubbing.

Others claim that the lure of an undisclosed sum (rumoured to be north of $100 million) swayed the group into allowing the release of the record for free on iTunes, a ‘gift’ which Apple pushed for in order to increase its user-base and overall revenue stream.

“Larry doesn’t really look after the money end of things,” said Harry Mullen, cousin of the rock star. “Anytime I’ve asked Larry about the band’s income and rumours about tax dodges, he’s always stated that ‘Oh, I just play the drums, but sure Bono is taking care of that'”.

“God love him, he’s a great drummer, but that’s about as far as it goes,” he added.

“Songs Of Innocence” will be available in shops on the 13th October, at which point Mr. Mullen will stop asking people if they want him to sign their downloaded copy.