Bono’s new documentary-of-his-memoir, Stories Of Surrender received a seven minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere on Friday.
The U2 singer was in attendance at the Grand Theatre Lumiere for the event. After the credits rolled, he thanked the audience, Andrew Dominik and the late Steve Jobs – Apple TV+ will be streaming the film from of this month.
And Bono being Bono he couldn’t resist making a point. Invoking the history of the Cannes festival – it was set up in 1939 as a response to the Venice Mostra film festival being essentially taken over by Mussolini – he said: “The festival was set up to fight fascism. Slava Ukraine.”
Whilst he was in Cannes, Bono also gave an update on the new U2 album. In an interview given to Rolling Stone he said, somewhat mysteriously: “Nostalgia is not to be tolerated for too long, but sometimes you’ve got to deal with the past in order to get to the future and to the present. To get back to now is our desire. Get back to this moment we’re in.”
He confirmed the band had been recording and “and it sounds like future to me,” he said. “We had to go through some stuff, and we’re at the other end of it.”
Meanwhile Larry Mullen Jr is apparently fit again for action. “And I can tell you (Mullen Jr.) is completely through whatever storm of injury he’s been through,” Bono said. “His playing is at its most innovative. He’s just all about the band. He doesn’t want to talk about anything else, which is kind of amazing.”
It’s coming up to eight years now since the last all-new U2 album, 2017’s Songs Of Experience. Since then, the band have been working on archival projects, most notably their 2023 Songs Of Surrender album which saw the band re-record highlights from their back catalogue.
That album was a companion piece to Bono’s own 2022 memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. The new documentary has been billed as a “vivid reimagining” of the live events that Bono gave to promote the book, part live gig – he sings a cappella in places – part story-telling session. You can catch it on AppleTV+ from May 30.
