U2 is back in a Dublin, Ireland studio recording a new album being produced by long-time producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with a proposed fall release date. With that news there is speculation that the band will tour in 2009 following their trend of touring after the release of a new album.

Live Nation, U2's long-time concert promoter would not confirm a tour when contacted by TicketNews, only saying that U2's manager Paul McGuinness hoped the band would tour, a story reported in Billboard. On March 31, Live Nation and U2 reached an agreement in principle to enter into a 12-year global contractual relationship without spelling out any details. Thus, Live nation's non-committal was understandable.

Universal Records has set a July 22 release for remastered, expanded editions of the band's first three albums: "Boy" (1980), "October" (1981) and "War" (1983) with The Edge, U2's guitarist, overseeing the CDs which will include the original album on a single-disc, 180-gram vinyl and in a two-CD package featuring B-sides, rare tracks and live material. This follows the 2007 reissue release of "Joshua Tree."

(The image accompanying this story is from 8Notes.com)