U2 minus one plus two.
Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin filled in for Bono when U2 played Times Square Monday night — with ESPN airing part of the concert ahead of the Jets clash with the Dolphins.
The surprise announcement came just hours before U2 was to play a benefit concert for World AIDS Day (see the full concert video below).
Carrie Underwood and Kanye West also performed during the show that was dubbed “U2 Minus 1 — Live in New York Tonight.”
Bono, 54, underwent surgery after fracturing his eye socket, shoulder and elbow in a bicycle accident in Central Park last month and was not cleared by doctors to take the stage.
Springsteen, who sang “Where the Streets Have No Name” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and Martin (“Beautiful Day” and “With Or Without You”) “graciously donated their time and talents to save the World AIDS Day event from cancellation,” U2 wrote on their website.
“The world reached a tipping point in the fight against AIDS,” Bono said in a statement. “More people were newly added to life-saving treatment than were newly infected with the virus. A lot of people are calling it the beginning of the end of AIDS.”
The unique concert in The Crossroads of the World aired live on YouTube, on several radio stations with parts being televised as part of Monday Night Countdown.
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