U2 frontman Bono has compared David Bowie to Elvis Presley and said the singer played a pivotal role in making them a success.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bono said the Irish band owed a lot to the musician.

"It's the high singing, beyond your 'man' voice into the feminine. And there's the staging, the attempt to be innovative,” he said.

"Bowie wasn't afraid to use scale, to dramatise things. His setlist was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama."

Bono added: "It's not exaggerating to say what Elvis meant to America, David Bowie meant to the UK and Ireland. It was that radical a shift in consciousness.

"The first time I saw him was singing 'Starman' on television it was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space - with an Irish mother."

Meanwhile, U2 are currently recording a new album with Danger Mouse.

(by Jason Gregory)