Says the man: “I wanted to give something really significant that would mean a lot for me to give,” says the U2 man. “It deserved something that I would miss.”

Why not read this study of The Edge’s Guitar Delay or buy the auction’s catalogue while you recover?

You can get a look of the guitar in question from April 3 to 6 when it goes on display in Dublin’s Clarence Hotel after which it will be auctioned off online at www.juliensauctions.com on April 21st. Starting bid is $60,000. Ask the wife before you remortgage your property.

Other items on auction are The Edge’s worn sneakers, his woolly hat, his necklace, as well as a signed Bill Clinton saxophone, Larry Mullen’s tom drum ($8,000), Bono’s Irish Falcon guitar ($80,000) and handwritten Bruce Springsteen lyrics ($2,000). Personally, we’ve always liked the look of that Hamilton Ventura watch Bono used to sport in the 90s. Would he care to part with that?

Rolling Stone has published a photo of Larry Mullen with his youngest child — a son that little is known about — on the beach in Oahu, Hawaii. According to the music magazine, the boy’s name is Ezra [mental note: contact U2faqs.com with update]. All we know about the boy is he’s darn cute, just like his daddy.

All band members have been generously signing autographs and posing for photos with Japanese fans around the city. The band seem to be truly enjoying their visit to Japan.

New York loves U2, and U2 love New York. A Bono sighting in the Big Apple is a rather common occurrence these days. An Edge or Adam Clayton sighting isn’t completely unheard of either. A Larry Mullen sighting, however, is a rare thing because, despite his pretty-boy looks, Larry has the magical ability to move among common-looking people without getting noticed often — which is why we took note of a sighting of the U2 drummer in the city posted at Gawker.com. We can only imagine what Larry was doing in Soho (uhh…shopping?), but we do suspect that he noted the large photo of his friend Bono in the window of the Morrison Hotel Gallery on Prince Street, where there is an exhibition of rock photography by Neal Preston taking place through June 2nd.

Bono is serious. For their second performance of ‘Vertigo’ of the night, he walks over to the drum kit to ask Larry Mullen how to say 14 ‘as Gaeilge’.

Misunderstanding, Larry shouts: ‘A h-aon’! (‘one’) Bono asks again and this time the drummer gets it right: ‘Ceathar déag’. Three times he tells Bono how to say it.

‘A h-aon, a dhà, a trì, a ceatharmmmmmfrgh!’

Close enough. With an apology to the venue’s local neighbours because the show ran 10 minutes past the 11pm curfew, the band tear up the song something wicked. (They might as well skip the first time they play it at the start of the show.) The place is alight, and all around us kids’ faces are in ecstasy. Croke Park sings along as they have done all night.

The European leg of the Vertigo Tour has officially got lift off. While the first two shows in Brussels and Gelsenkirchen left us a little indifferent and having missed the reportedly better gigs in the U.K., Croke Park I has it all. Drive, energy, emotion and fun – this time the boys were truly back in town.

There were, as expected, few real surprises in the setlist (Wild Horses, With or Without You, I Will Follow), but the passion, the Irish banter (Bono mentioned the Irish poet John Keats when he noticed a banner in the audience that said ‘see you in Rome’) and various ‘new’ snippets like Thin Lizzy’s ‘Jailbreak’ and an improvisational ‘Northside in the Rain’ well made up for that. Talking about the rain… Bono sang some lines of it, twice during the show.

‘Oh, you look so beautiful tonight,’ Bono told the Croke Park audience. Absolutely gorgeous, yes.

Nothing but good about the drummer, he’s characterised as ‘unassuming, polite and a good tipper’.

Staff at this waiter’s bistro are under strict policy to treat celebs as everyone else. Weblogger Waiter can’t help but think the policy is a ‘pain in the ass’ sometimes, as he and his co-worker are ‘HUGE U2 fans’:

“So the next time Larry comes in can we ask him to get Bono to front us a loan?” Arlene asks mischievously.

“Be nice.” I agree

“Yeah.”

“If we were a Third World country.”.

“I’ll settle for tickets.” Arlene says.

“Me too.”

Read the full story at Waiter Rant.

This letter was also published on U2.com.

Thanks, Larry. It’s good to get a statement from a bandmember and truly encouraging to hear you’re looking into this matter personally. Fair play to ya. Don’t be too hard on fans who question, rather than follow blindly. They’re the ones that are prepared to show up even when the going gets tough. Those who love the most, hurt the most, you must know that. Good health to yourself, too and we’ll be seeing you on the road.

150 renowned public figures were filmed by director Bill Hughes, speaking 150 of Wilde’s finest lines, epigrams and verses. Proceeds will go to Amnesty International. A DVD release is expected.

More info here.

Yesterday Larry Mullen Jr. came out of hermit status to help promote a motorcycle safety booklet for the National Safety Council and the Irish Motorcyclists’ Action Group.

Larry announced that he intends to enroll in driving school, having never received formal motorcycle training in the past.

“I just hope that by doing this, someone will listen and decide to do training before getting on a bike. It’s not a cool thing to get on a bike. It’s not cool to take your life into your hands. It is a dangerous undertaking that can get you killed,” warned the U2 drummer. (Photo: Irish Independent)