By Eileen Murphy
You know what they say about deals that sound too good to be true: they usually are.
Well, someone should have told that to James Maughan. The Dublin man narrowly avoided jail time after he was convicted of buying _6,000 worth of musical instruments for the bargain-basement price of _100. Unfortunately for Maughan, the goods were stolen property. Even more unfortunately for him, they were stolen from U2.
Among the hot items were Larry Mullen Jr.’s American Showboat Pedal Steel drum kit and 80 harmonicas that Bono apparently bedews and then tosses to fans during concerts.
Maughan denied knowing that the goods had been nicked. (Apparently, he’s just a very, very good haggler.) He’s been given an 18-month suspended sentence, during which, we assume, he’ll have to get his music fix the old-fashioned way: by downloading it off the internet like everybody else.
Speaking of U2, we hear that the band’s new single,