Watch Bono perform special solo rendition of U2’s ‘With Or Without You’
Bono performed a special solo version of U2‘s ‘With Or Without You’ on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (November 3) – watch below.
The frontman stopped by the US chat show to speak about his new memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, which came out on Tuesday (November 1).
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Appearing as the sole guest on yesterday’s episode, Bono also talked to host Stephen Colbert about meeting his U2 bandmates for the first time, the future of the US, and shared his thoughts on last year’s Beatles film Get Back.
Additionally, the singer treated viewers to a new arrangement of U2’s 1987 single ‘With Or Without You’, the original of which appears on the group’s fifth studio album ‘The Joshua Tree’.
“This is not exactly rock ‘n’ roll, but this is my new book,” Bono said to introduce the performance. “And if you let me just tell you a story as to how we got to this song, that would be great.”
The frontman then delivered a spoken word excerpt as a gentle instrumental led him in to ‘With Or Without You’. Bono was accompanied by a harpist, cello player and percussionist. You can view it below:
Bono is currently out on a 14-date book tour dubbed ‘Stories Of Surrender’, which kicked off in New York City on Wednesday (November 2). He’ll bring the event to the UK and Ireland later this month.
The 576-page Surrender… explores the origins of 40 key songs in U2’s extensive discography. Each chapter is named after the track it covers, with Bono’s life story weaved throughout.
In one section, the singer revealed that he underwent an eight-hour heart operation in 2016 to repair a “blister” on his aorta. “A blister that’s about to burst,” he wrote, “which would put me in the next life faster than I can make an emergency call.”
Elsewhere in the book, Bono talked about discovering that his cousin is also his half-brother, the alleged death threats he’s received in his life, and the 2014 backlash in which U2 arranged for their album ‘Songs Of Innocence‘ to be automatically downloaded onto the devices of 500million iTunes users.
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Tom Skinner
NME