UPDATE: I’ve updated this article to confirm that it was, in fact, an April Fools prank.
Dublin, April 1st 2019 (Reuters) – TalkU2 can confirm that all four members of U2 will visit the International Space Station in September this year, on board a Russian Soyuz Capsule. While on board, they will become the first artist to record a music video in outer space. Principle Management and Live Nation have confirmed that the video will promote a new song which will be used as the theme for a Ron Howard directed movie documenting life on board the ISS. The voyage will begin at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the four band members will be joined by three Russian Astronauts along with long-time collaborator Anton Corbijn, who will shoot the video.
This will be the largest civilian space voyage in history, and the first using Russia’s new Soyuz XLS expanded eight-person capsule. In an interview to air in Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper tomorrow, Larry Mullen Jr told journalist Barry Egan that Universal Studios had agreed to pay the $60 Million dollar price-tag for the trip, in exchange for the rights to Million Dollar Hotel. When asked if U2 would perform in space, Larry said “No, we have no plans for a concert filmed in space,” cheekily adding “we hate playing in venues that have no atmosphere.” When told that the band was 800 Lbs underweight for the expanded Russian capsule, Larry volunteered “Great, we can jettison those 500,000 unsold CD copies of ‘Spiderman: Turn off the Dark.’ They’re too big to be a doorstop.”
“I’ve always thought of myself as a shooting star,” said Bono, “Now I get to live that fantasy.” Edge says they have been talking about this trip for years – inspired by the U2360 space-station hookup with American astronaut Mark Kelly – but it was only when Ron Howard asked them to write the soundtrack for a movie set on the ISS that Edge says “the idle talk suddenly became Sirius.” Egan’s article claims that the band had mulled the idea of beaming the song over all satellite networks without asking permission. “Why would anyone NOT want the first song recorded in space?” Bono quipped. The launch itself will be sponsored by Coca-Cola – the official soft drink of U2 in space, and will be beamed exclusively on Apple TV+. Bono added that this is “One small step for a punk band, one giant leap for punk rock.”
