Bono on Noel Gallagher and his son watching the recording of ‘Stories Of Surrender’, who said he’d “lost the plot”

Bono has revealed that Noel Gallagher came to watch his Stories Of Surrender show, and thought that he’d “lost the plot” because of it.

• READ MORE: ‘Bono: Stories of Surrender’ review: U2 frontman’s stunning stage show becomes unmissable film

The U2 frontman shared the anecdote as part of a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, celebrating the release of his new film Bono: Stories Of Surrender.

The 86-minute feature is a hybrid of concert movie and visual memoir, featuring stripped-back live performances from his one-man shows in 2023, as well as spoken word passages from his 2022 autobiography, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.

In the latest interview, Bono looked back at the one-man shows, which he began by standing on a table, and told Lowe about how the Britpop legend reacted after being in attendance.

“It was a funny moment, [starting with] table and chairs. I’m standing up at the very opening,” he said. “If you make it through the first three minutes of Stories of Surrender, you’re going to be okay. This table can become an operating theatre, where I would get my heart surgery.

“It can become a kitchen table, where all operas really start in the family, and it can become the hospital bed where you say goodbye to your father. That table and chair is important, and then I get up on it, as you know in the first few minutes.

“Noel Gallagher came to see us with his son, and his son says, ‘Bono’s lost the plot. Ah, he’s up on the kitchen table.’ He’s a kiddo.”

While Gallagher was quick to make a quip about Bono’s one-man show, the High Flying Birds frontman has been relatively close to the U2 singer over the years, and joined the band on tour back in 2017 as they celebrated the anniversary of ‘The Joshua Tree’.

In an interview around the time, Gallagher shared how he “had a brilliant time” touring with the band, and that the moment reaffirmed for him “that the Irish are the best people to hang out with and that the Irish are possibly the worst people to drink with”.

“They get a lot of stick thrown at them, U2,” he said. “In America, they’re one of the great bands of all time. But in England they cop for a lot of flack, which is ridiculous when you think about the amount of records that they sell.”

He also looked back fondly at his time hanging out with the members during the 2017 tour, sharing that there was a time when he and Bono got so drunk that he attempted to escape from him.

More recently, he reflected on his friendship with Bono, and recalled the time that he and Bruce Springsteen jokingly aggravated him by sending him a selfie – triggering his FOMO (fear of missing out).

“He gets a lot of flack, but I fucking love him,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, I was on tour with them for the best part of a year and I have only just recovered. It was really great fun, they are really great people and I love them dearly.”

At the Cannes Film Festival, the premiere of Bono: Stories Of Surrender received a seven-minute standing ovation from the audience at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. It was shared on streaming platforms worldwide from May 30.

In a four-star review of the film, NME wrote: “As for the stories themselves, on film, they have an extra layer of emotion, allowing the audience to view every expression and impression on Bono’s face as he recalls constantly fighting for his father’s approval in the local boozer or his “selfish” struggle with striving for greatness, almost at the expense of his marriage. The fact that he does it all with just a couple of chairs, impressions and the odd sound effect is a testament to his skills as a storyteller.”

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