In the video, Chad says he found it on a Japanese fan site and labels it a “mysterious demo from U2′s album recording sessions.”

But in our forum, “Sam” says it’s actually a jam from a somewhat well-known soundcheck that U2 did before its U2 360 Anaheim show in 2011:

“…this particular track is just from the edges earpiece and is merely a sound check of the instruments as bono is just playing main chords of the jam and edge is fiddling his way through it with his signature sound as a test for Willie Williams.”

In the middle of the clip, you can hear Bono saying something that sounds like “Happy birthday, Flory.” As our friend Beth pointed out on Twitter today, Flory Turner was part of the 360 touring crew … which adds credence to this being a soundcheck jam and not necessarily anything related to U2′s next album.

Postscript: Sam (from the forum) has uploaded the full 9+-minute-long jam session from Anaheim, which includes the shorter clip above and continues by becoming “Magnificent.” Here’s the full audio:

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AUDIO: New U2 Album Song Leak or Old Soundcheck Jam?

Predictably, “Mysterious Ways” and “With Or Without You” made the cut, but the rest of the selections are painfully mainstream.

On my personal list, I would have included “The Fly,” “All I Want Is You” and “The Electric Co.”

What would have made the cut for you?

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U2′s Best Guitar Songs

The video is from June 23, 2000, when a group called TROCAIRE organized a small birthday party/event in Dublin in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi (whose birthday is June 19). There’s a longer video of the whole event on YouTube, but U2Valencia edited it down to just the couple minutes where Bono is singing an obviously unfinished version of “Walk On.”

Very cool discovery — one that I missed in U2-A Diary. So, hopefully someday there’ll be another update to the book and I can add this.

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VIDEO: Bono Sings Unreleased “Walk On” in June 2000

It looks like this slipped our radar entirely back in May 2011, when songwriter/producer Paul Brill collaborated with U2 on an acoustic version of “Walk On” for a documentary film called Burma Soldier.

The soundtrack came out on May 17, 2011, and the track sounds to me like it was (at the time) completely new — not a stripped down “acoustic” version of something that had been recorded before.

What’s cool is that you can listen to it for free:

And if you click that “download” link above, you’ll end up on Paul Brill’s page on Bandcamp … where there’s another “download” link that will let you grab the song at no charge.

Pretty cool. Enjoy!

(Thanks to U2valencia.com and others for tweeting about this today.)

Update, December 16

As Aaron S. explained in today’s OTR column, this is not a new version of “Walk On.” The audio is from U2′s concert in Tokyo back on November 29, 2006.

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LISTEN: U2′s Acoustic “Walk On” from Burma Soldier

The real highlight of Saturday night’s The Voice was this opening performance of U2′s ‘Beautiful Day’, which involved all four of the judges bellowing the song into submission, in the manner of a pack of mountain lions mauling a small boy.

So many ‘highlights’. There’s Will.I.Am, dressed in a kind of lavender Buck Rogers spacesuit. There’s the jaw-dropping moment 40 seconds in when Tom Jones comes in, displaying all the vocal subtlety of a town crier. Then, amazingly, it gets even worse. Cringe! As Thingymajig from The Script knee-slides across the stage (1.38). Cover your ears! As Jessie J attempts to sing every note in the scale, plus a few that aren’t.

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Worst U2 Cover Ever?

At the moment it’s only available on Lulu.com, but in a few weeks you’ll also be able to buy it from Amazon.

This version contains the original English-language interviews. If you’d like to refresh your memory of what was in the book, read our @U2 review of the Dutch version.

You can also have a look at the interview we did with the author.

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And They Called Him Bono English version available now

Nogic’s magical smile and the famous banner inspired the Irish rock group U2 to create a song devoted to her and her city — “Miss Sarajevo” — which they often performed with opera star Luciano Pavarotti.

At a U2 concert in Sarajevo in 1997, two years after the war ended, frontman Bono led Nogic by the hand to the stage as he sang “Here she comes, heads turn around, here she comes, to take her crown.”

To this day, the image of an endearing 17-year-old unfolding the historic banner is part of almost every video made about besieged Sarajevo.

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Miss Sarajevo

The film chronicles the life of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her amazing marriage to her British husband in light of the separation she endured from her family during years of house arrest.

U2′s “Walk On” was written about her, and brought awareness of her imprisonment during various tributes at U2′s live shows in recent years.

In the film, “When Love Comes to Town” appears in a joyful scene, and the couple’s son Kim is seen wearing a Joshua Tree T-shirt. There is other U2 music later in the movie.

Today, the leader is enjoying her landslide win in an election that was held just a few days ago. It seems peace may finally prevail.

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U2 Music in The Lady

Over the three months of voting, U2.com asked a handful of guest contributors to offer their list of 22 songs they’d like to see make the cut. Our very own M2 was asked to share his thoughts. After seeing the list, I was curious to see whose list was the closest to what the fans’ final 22 songs were. Drum roll please…

PAUL MCGUINNESS! Yes, that’s right. He got 16 out of 22 correct. Tied for second place were Joe O’Herlihy, Claudia Espanosa (Bajagirl), and M2 with 15 out of 22. Willie Williams tied with John Noble (Bigwave) for third with 12 out of 22, and in fourth place was Caroline van Oosten de Boer (VonB) with 8 out of 22.

There were two songs that everyone agreed upon: “Bad” and “Ultraviolet.” Six out of the seven guest contributors agreed on “City Of Blinding Lights,” “One Tree Hill” and “Zooropa.” Only Joe O’Herlihy included “Elevation,” while only Paul McGuinness included “Mysterious Ways.”

Even though not all the songs I chose made the list, I’m happy with the mix of old and new. My favorite song did make the list (“The Fly”), but it still would have been nice to see some of the more rare tracks make the cut. The biggest surprise was seeing the only song that was in every U2 360 show, “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (remix),” not make it. For a recording that’s representative of the tour, it seems out of place not to have it included.

@U2 readers are sharing their thoughts in our Forum – check out the discussion and add your spin on U22.

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Paul McGuinness and U22 Final Tally

I’ll shutup now and let you enjoy them both.

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VIDEOS: Bono does “So Cruel,” Edge does “Love Is Blindness”