Tubridy marks his first day by waking up Bono

NOT many radio presenters would get away with disturbing the sleep of one of the world’s best known rock stars but Bono was in forgiving form as Ryan Tubridy stepped into Gerry Ryan’s shoes for the first time yesterday.

The broadcaster made a surprise early appearance in the 2FM slot formerly held by his late friend and mentor as he was scheduled to begin the new two-hour show on Monday.

But a sleepy-sounding Bono, who spoke from his bed in Helsinki, where U2 was due to perform last night, was generous with his time and good wishes.

The front man said Gerry had come to him in his sleep the night before and told him that he had known since the days when Tubridy was an office gopher that “the lad had his eye on my job”.

Bono also said Gerry had left a message with him for Tubridy. “He said to say: ‘Et tu Jim-Jim? I don’t know what it means’,” said Bono, referring to a private joke between Tubridy, Gerry and fellow 2FM presenter Jim Nugent.

The singer also revealed his gruelling rehabilitation regime since having emergency surgery for a serious back injury.

He now has toundergo three and a half hours to four hours of physiotherapy every day which consisted, he said, “mainly of large Germans beating me up and putting me into strange positions”.

However, he said he was thrilled with the progress he had made, given that he was fully fit and back performing only 11 weeks since the injury which had threatened to put him out of action indefinitely. “What was dangerous about it was that a piece of disc that had ripped through a ligament had gone down into the spinal canal, and I lost use of my left leg,” he said, before declaring he didn’t want to talk any more about it because it made him sound like an old man.

Responding to random questions from listeners, Bono said his favourite room was his small study at home in Killiney where he could look out on the sea.

“Those first two hours of the morning are very still. It all goes downhill from there,” he joked.

He also accepted congratulations on his wedding anniversary, which falls today and recalled that he proposed to his wife of 28 years, Ali, whom he referred to as “my darling” on Bull Island near their north Dublin homes.

Although the show, simply called Tubridy and running from 9am to 11am, is an hour shorter than Gerry’s epic three-hour stints, it followed much the same format as its predecessor, beginning with a newspaper review and mixing music with listeners’ phone-ins. Tubridy began with a tribute to Gerry and said he was nervous but excited at taking over the slot, widely regarded as one of the most competitive on radio.