Bono's Fez album leaked

The View from Fez reported last year that Bono was in Fez and attended some concerts at the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. But the real reason for his visit was to record a new album. Although it hasn't been released yet, Bono was playing it while on holiday in France, and a scheming fan recorded some songs on his mobile phone. The UK's Daily Telegraph has the story:

A Dutch fan of the Irish super group heard the music blaring out of the beachside home in the village of Eze-sur-Mere, near Nice, and recorded them on his mobile phone.

He then boasted about his achievement on U2 fan site Interference.com before putting them on YouTube.

Although U2 has now managed to remove the four leaked songs from YouTube because of “copyright violations”, they have not been able to stop people trading them via email.

The quality is said to be poor - the noise of waves crashing on the beach and seagull cries can be heard in the background - but the new development in the world of pop music piracy is said to have concerned U2 greatly.

“They see Eze as a place where they can get away from it all, and play music as loud as they like,” said a near neighbour in the village.

“Bono had the tracks playing on his stereo and people heard them outside, but nobody expected them to be recorded.” The new album, which is expected to be titled No Line on the Horizon, is U2's first for four years.

It has been recorded in conditions of absolute secrecy, with the band even hiring an isolated house in the medina of Fez, Morocco, to finalise some of the tracks.

Based on the information available on the web yesterday, the leaked tracks were called Moment of Surrender, For Your Love, Sexy Boots, and No Line on the Horizon.

In January U2's manager Paul McGuiness attacked music pirates, claiming internet service providers (ISPs) had “enjoyed a bonanza” over the past few years by accepting fees from illegal downloaders while doing nothing to prevent them from stealing music.

Mr McGuiness called on ISPs to disconnect users caught obtaining music illegally.

“Their snouts have been at our trough feeding free for too long,” said Mr McGuinness.

It is not the first time that U2 has been at the centre of a piracy scandal.

In 2004 tracks from the band's last album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, were leaked after a CD was stolen from one of their photo shoots in the south of France.

U2, which was formed in Dublin in 1976, has sold more than 170 million albums worldwide, and has won more Grammy awards than any other band.

Lead singer Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, is also well known for his campaigning for human rights and social justice.

Eze-sur-Mere is hugely popular with holidaymakers because of its position on a beach below a medieval village dating back to the 12th Century.

The View from Fez is tickled by the idea of an 'isolated' house in the Fez medina. In fact the band stayed in a guesthouse in the Batha area.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news