U2 join the protest brigade to rush-release a new tune expressing the worldwide anger at what’s going on in Trump’s Amerikkka.

I know nearly everybody hates U2, especially music writers. But I don’t, and I think they are unfairly maligned. I loved them at the beginning and I stayed with them for the first eight or nine albums, at least as far as Pop.

I’ve never been bothered by Bono’s sanctimony because ending world poverty, disease and hunger seems to me a noble aspiration compared to… well, everything else. As does taking a stand against Trump.

Over the past 25 years, I haven’t been so much of a fan as in those early days, especially that run from Boy and October to Joshua Tree and The Unforgettable Fire, but also Zooropa and Achtung Baby.

I’ll be first to admit that most of what they put out this century was rubbish compared to what they’d put out before, but that should not be reason to erase their past. And now they’ve rediscovered some of theitlr unforgettable fire with a protest song.

“You have the right to remain silent,” Bono intones meaningfully over the kind of aggressive riff that drives their best songs. “Or not…”

Released with no fanfare at all, much like parallel efforts by fellow old-timers Springsteen and Bragg, their Days Of Ash EP is of course prompted (if not exactly inspired) by events in the US of A in general, and Minneapolis in particular.

The opening song is called American Obituary, which is equally self-explanatory. “America will rise against the people of the lie,” predicts Bono, and we can only hope he is right.

Then he gets specific: “Renée Good born to die free / American mother of three… 930 Minneapolis, To desecrate domestic bliss / Three bullets blast, three babies kissed / Renee the domestic terrorist???”

Many accuse Bono of being the king of anthemic and occasionally pretentious platitudes and they have a point – the last track, Yours Eternally, is a hideous Sheeran-assisted singalong with a blandly “uplifting” message of peace, love and understanding.

But lord knows his heart is in the right place and there are far too many people in the world today whose hearts cannot even be located. So bless him.