The bands or artists I've been a fan of and following for a long time
Ultravox
Buzzcocks
Blue Öyster Cult (releasing another album next year since Curse of the Hidden Mirror in 2001)
Hawkwind
Blondie
Neil Young
Billy Childish
Iggy Pop
Def Leppard (yes still touring and releasing some of the best albums of their career)
There's hundreds of bands all over the world who play, tour and releasing albums longer than U2, to this day, some of them legendary, they just play more for fun, less as an obligation pushed by major labels, hence probably why they tend to last so long.
Thanks for the response
Some of your mentions are disqualifed for the list for the following reasons:
Def Leppard does not get included because their debut album was 1980, same as U2. Debut album must be 1979 or earlier.
Iggy Pop - solo artist, does not count
Billy Childish - solo artist, does not count
Neil Young - solo artist, does not count
Ultravox - only one new album since January 2000, does not count
Blue Oyster Cult - only one new album since January 2000, does not count
So out of your list, only the Buzzcocks and Hawkwind meet the criteria I set for being active which is rather loose when compared to U2 which has released 5 new albums since January 2000 and toured for each one.
Thanks for the names, I'll add Buzzcocks and Hawkwind right away.
By the way, I'm not including your uncles or best friends band only known to you and a few other people. It has to be a band or a group with some level notoriety so I can confirm their existence and whether they fit the criteria for this list. They should at least have a wikipedia page about them.