Bono and The Edge have taken to YouTube to give shout-out to their long-time Irish road crew.
The U2 pair played an acoustic version of Stairway To Heaven in a nod to the road crew who accompany them around the world.
In the clip, the pair send the crew their love before launching into the musical tribute.
"Irish road crew are the best in the world", says Bono.
“That is for sure, we can say that. In the U2 group we have been all over the world and that is well known.”
But in the tongue-in-cheek message, Bono pointed out that the crew tend to soundcheck with the Led Zeppelin classic as opposed to a U2 track.
“There’s one annoying aspect of an Irish crew that has to be said,” Bono says.
“Wherever you go in the world, whatever venue you’re playing — whether it’s the Olympia or 3Arena or Madison Square Garden — you walk into the venue and it’s a big moment, and you’ll hear a song that we said, ‘We’ll never, ever play this.’
“And that’s right, Stairway to Heaven. These professionals believe they play this better than the band. And you know, it might be true.
“Anyway to honour (our) Irish crew,” the singer adds before launching into song.
The YouTube video features a truncated rendition of the song — the first time they’ve performed it outside of tiny snippets during their live shows.
“It makes me wonder if they are not right, if they can play the tune better, we love you”, said the lead singer.
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone magazine has reported that U2 are in the early stages of creating their follow-up to 2018’s Songs Of Experience.
“There’s an album ready to be completed,” Adam Clayton told Rolling Stone.
“It’s very, very fresh. We’ve cut everything quite quickly. We’re coming to things in a shorthand way.
“The feedback we get from that is pretty good. We want to be quick, down and dirty with the next one.”
