Tom Dunne: U2's joyous new album shows it's really not too late

I've been following them since the beginning, and it really is quite the achievement to sound as good as this after 50 years

U2 release Carnival de Luz on Friday, November 13. Picture: Michael Schwartz

Wed, 11 Nov, 2026 - 21:30

Tom Dunne

Tom Dunne is a music-lover extraordinaire who, as well as presenting radio and TV shows, can also be seen in the wild as the lead singer with Something Happens.

U2 want their old job back. I told you this might happen. Yes, some of the new lads are great but U2 were always only on a break. They have rights you know. I’ll let you tell the new lads to sling their hook. Tell them it’s a WRC thing. I wouldn’t have thought these jobs have pension rights, but there you go.

And it is laughable. Fifty years is a lifetime, or at least it was, and that’s how long these boys have been clocking in. It’s the equivalent of an artist from 1917 — say Charles Harrison and his epic Ireland Must be Heaven My Mother Came From There — expecting to give The Beatles a run for their money as they release Sgt Pepper’s.