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Happy Birthday Bono: The pop stars who are now sexagenarians

Bono turns 62 today
Bono turns 62 today

HAPPY birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Bono, happy birthday to you. Bono Vox, frontman with U2 turns 62 today. The same week as a couple of other famous 1980s musicians became sexagenarians.

Bono is 62. Wow. What’s he doing these days?

He’s still a member of U2. You might have seen him the other day in a downtown metro station in Kyiv in Ukraine giving a “freedom” concert for passing commuters. U2 guitarist The Edge (who turned 60 last year) accompanied him.

Doesn’t seem like yesterday that they were fresh-faced youths hollering “I Will Follow.”

I hate to tell you that was 42 years ago. And, yes, that makes me feel rather old too.

Who else has reached the magic number 60 then?

Well, Paul Heaton, once of The Housemartins and then The Beautiful South, turned 60 on Monday. He had planned to celebrate the occasion by doing a tour around the country, but the pandemic put paid to that idea.

Instead, he put money behind the bar in 60 pubs around the British Isles, including the Old Toll Bar and Nice n Sleazy in Glasgow and the Sheep Heid Inn and Kay’s Bar in Edinburgh, and invited customers to “enjoy a drink on me”.

How much did he put in the kitty?

Heaton gave each pub £1000. He said on his Facebook page: “The hope is to bring people together on the day, whilst recognising that many folk who bought my records or showed me support over the years could do with a wee party as we come out of Covid and hit potential financial struggles.”

Fair play to him. Who else was due a birthday cake?

Dave Gahan, lead singer of Depeche Mode, turned 60 on the same day as Heaton. So, it’s official. If you were a pop fan in the 1980s your favourite stars are pretty old now. And, let’s face it, you’re probably not far behind.

Don’t rub it in. I’m old enough to remember Depeche Mode before they’d started shaving.

Well, exactly. And just to make you feel even worse, Clare Grogan, the star of Gregory’s Girl and front woman of Altered Images turned 60 in March. How can that be possible?

The good news is that all of these new sexagenarians are still active and performing. Altered Images are doing the festival circuit this summer and will be playing the Kelvin Bandstand in August on the same bill as Edwyn Collins (who, like Bono, is 62 by the way).

If 1980s pop stars are now in their sixties what age are 1960s pop stars?

Mick Jagger will be 79 in July and Paul McCartney will be 80 in June. But Eric Burdon of The Animals is older than both. He turns 80 tomorrow.