With a U2 Australian tour locked in for December, attention turns to the possible setlists for the shows and the possibility of hearing new songs from the band.

Bono has revealed to Rolling Stone that the band has four records of new material: “We have Songs of Ascent, which is the meditative work that was meant to complement No Line on the Horizon. We’ve got a rock album. We also have a club-sounding album. And then we have the Spider-Man [musical] stuff.”

“Across those four, there are 25-30 songs. Now we have to decide how we go about releasing them… we’re not as 21st Century as we think we are, because we’d be putting out more new songs online, involving our audience in the choice – if we were really modern. We’re just sitting here arguing about them, except no one else knows about them.”

Bono also announced that he thinks that U2 will “probably” release a new record before touring America from May 2011 “Those people are going to have tickets to a whole new show with new songs. It’s going to be very exciting next year.”

Recent shows have included the new songs Return of the Sting Ray Guitar, Glastonbury and North Star, but how many new songs will Australian punters hear in December?