Bono and The Edge reveal in Radio 2 Piano Room love for ABBA & radio

U2’s Bono and The Edge performed in the Radio 2 Piano Room from the BBC’s Maida Vale studios earlier.

In the hourlong special, the pair revealed they are big fans of ABBA and their love of radio as a medium.

Everyone loves radio and Bono revealed that he and the Edge do too: “We’re believers in radio particularly at this time as an immersive medium,” he said. “People get up, they get dressed, they have their breakfast, they move around. They’re not watching the telly when they do that or on the computer, YouTube, all of that stuff.

“Now, the time that people are most vulnerable to being moved, it’s not information, is in their ears. Earbuds, on the subway, on the Tube, listening to music and listening to the radio in their cars.

The cover version of a song they chose to perform was from the band who performed with U2 in Stockholm in 1992 on the Zoo TV tour.

Introducing their cover, the Edge said: “We’re big fans of this Scandinavian band, appreciators of their work in a way that grew over years. We are fans of the Bee Gees which people wouldn’t have imagined. We’re fans of lots of great songwriters who aren’t necessarily seen as very hip, and I guess we’re just appreciators of their work.”

Bono admitted he didn’t have the courage to own up to liking this band when he was 16 years old in the middle of punk rock.

He added: “There is something about ABBA. I can remember ABBA as like the national anthem for young mothers.

“Certainly, at closing time at our local pub, often young women would sing Thank You For The Music, and I would sing it and I was very thankful for the music! But I was like, what is this phenomenon?

“This is before their musicals and all that. What is going on with ABBA? And then Benny [Andersson] came to one of our shows, when we murdered Dancing Queen. And [they] played with us on stage.”

Then, announcing the song, he joked: “It’s not Dancing Queen, this is the great ABBA, and this is a marketing gimmick from U2 called SOS!”

You can watch and listen to U2’s Bono and The Edge perform for Radio 2’s Piano Room on BBC iPlayer here and in an hourlong special, which includes an extended interview, on BBC Sounds here. Both are available for the next 30 days.