U2’s frontman Bono is recovering from surgery to treat injuries he sustained in a bicycle accident in New York’s Central Park, while attempting to avoid a collision with another cyclist on November 16th, 2014.
Following what doctors have termed a “high energy bicycle accident”, Bono was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s Emergency Department for evaluation and treatment of his injuries.
Pitchfork and The New York Times Arts Beat Blog report that the singer suffered multiple fractures. Orthopedic trauma surgeon Dr. Dean Lorich, treated Bono, and gave statement to Rolling Stone detailing his injuries. He suffered a “facial fracture involving the orbit of his eye,” a broken left little finger, three separate and distinct fractures of his left shoulder blade, and a gruesome compound fracture of his left humerus, which took some 5 hours of surgery to repair as the bone had broken in six places.
“[Bono] was taken emergently to the operating room…where the elbow was washed out and debrided, a nerve trapped in the break was moved and the bone was repaired with three metal plates and 18 screws,” Dr. Lorich said in the statement.
It is unclear how long Bono will be in recovering from these injuries; however, Dr. Lorich told Rolling Stone that Bono will “require intensive and progressive therapy,” but “a full recovery is expected.”
Thankfully, the band has not made concrete plans to tour, although The Edge spoke to Rolling Stone in September about the possibility of a tour. He said, “the tour is still in the planning stage so it’s too early to describe what it will be like. . .”
Given Bono’s accident this could be viewed as a blessing in disguise. But, his injuries did force the band to cancel a planned weeklong residency on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“It looks like we will have to do our Tonight Show residency another time — we’re one man down,” the band wrote on their website following the crash. “Bono has injured his arm in a cycling spill in Central Park and requires some surgery to repair it. We’re sure he’ll make a full recovery soon, so we’ll be back! Much thanks to Jimmy Fallon and everyone at the show for their understanding.”
People reports that Fallon took it all in stride, and paid tribute to U2 by performing “Desire” with house band, The Roots. He even donned Bono’s trademark look – colourful shades and a cadet cap for the performance.
The Fallon appearance was another piece of the promotional puzzle for the album, Songs of Innocence, which had been released for free via iTunes. Although free, Songs of Innocence created a resounding uproar from iTunes users who were not expecting the album’s sudden appearance in their library or on their devices. This distain for U2’s album led iTunes to create site detailing how to remove the album. Hopefully, the two follow up albums – Songs of Experience and Songs of Ascent, which won’t be free – receive a better reception upon release.
Lastly, Spin is reporting that the band plans to re-issue Songs of Innocence with 11 music videos featuring 11 street artists who have been tasked to produce short films that are inspired by the iconic street murals of Northern Ireland. The music video project, entitled Films of Innocence, will not magically appear in iTunes libraries across the world, but it is going to be available for purchase beginning December 9th, 2014.
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