The U2 frontman hates looking himself up on the internet but in the wake of criticism of his group's new album 'Songs of Innocence' - which was given away free to Apple iTunes users - he was pleasantly surprised by what many social media users had to say.

He said: "Somebody said to me the other day, he said 'You'll have to check out some of these U2 sites,' and I'm normally afraid to go there because rarely anything we do pleases them [but] they're really on fire with this."

The 54-year-old rocker - who has daughters Jordan, 25, and Memphis, 23, and sons Elijah, 15, and John, 13, with wife Ali - admitted his eldest child has warned him about the "upset" the LP has caused online, but he has dealt with her informative emails by feigning ignorance.

During an appearance on the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio, he revealed: "I've got an elder girl, who's like a music Nazi; nothing is cool enough for her and she was just thrilled with Brian Burton being involved with us and she's been writing me these beautiful long emails telling me about the songs and she's says apparently some people on the internet are upset, but I said 'What is the internet darling?' She's going to explain that to me soon."

And one person who is impressed by the new album is Bono's eldest son Elijah. He explained: "I've got one boy who's 15, he's a pretty amazing guitar player, and he's a big Oasis fan, big Nirvana fan, so he's down with the rock songs on the album."