U2 urges end to suit

IRISH rock group U2 has asked a US judge to dismiss a $6.3 million lawsuit by a British songwriter and guitarist who claimed that the band lifted large parts of one of his works for a song on its 1991 blockbuster album, Achtung Baby.

In a filing with the US District Court in Manhattan, U2 said ordinary listeners would find that its song The Fly and Paul Rose’s 1989 instrumental Nae Slappin sound “nothing alike”.

The band also questioned why Rose waited until February to sue, saying “nothing about The Fly has changed in a quarter of a century’’.