David Bowie showed Bono how to sing beyond his "man" voice, and add a feminine touch to his vocals.

The U2 frontman has spoken about his love of the 'Life on Mars' hitmaker, and how indebted his band are to him for the things he introduced them to.

He told Rolling Stone magazine: "U2 owe him a lot. He introduced us to Berlin and Hansa Studios, to collaborating with Brian Eno.

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

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

The Irish 'Beautiful Day' singer also compared the singer to a UK version of Elvis.

He 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."

He also picked his top 15 songs by David, including 'Space Oddity', 'Changes' and lesser known tracks including 'Five Years' and 'Lady Grinning Soul'.