It's summer and everybody in U2 is off on holiday. When they return preparations will begin in earnest for the Autumn tour of Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and a clutch of European dates. Unlike Larry Edge and Bono, Adam has decided to stay at home in Dublin for the break, having been away to both the US and Australia in the months since Rattle and Hum was released. It was November '88 when the band were last in the public eye and Adam rehearses his diary as something like this: "Most of November was taken up attending premieres and meeting people; then there was the album release and all that boring stuff like photo sessions and meeting people; in January and February we really got into the B-sides with the intention of coming up with some new songs but in fact we recorded some cover versions; I don't know what happened to the rest of the year. There's always something going on but we haven't been touring have we? ... er, Smile Jamaica ... was that January? ... no, that was October... oh, videos like All I Want Is You - that was another month ... it seems like we've been in the studio or rehearsing every day since..."
When U2 are off the road or not making an album they cannot close down completely. If it's not business as usual, it is business as unusual. Sitting in the board-room of the band's Windmill Lane offices Adam tries -unsuccessfully - to describe a "normal day": "You start the day by opening the mail and then you gradually get into making phone calls; then around two in the afternoon you start rehearsing...er..." His voice trails away. Well, good try but the problem is that U2 is not exactly a 9-5 job and there are few "normal" days. There are constant factors though: "The phone rings every five minutes - 'Do you want to do this ... Do you want to do that?' The requests range from 'Can you meet me for lunch? ' to 'Can you open my supermarket?' and it's incredibly confusing because we're not heads of state, we're not businessmen, we're musicians. None of us wants all that crap but it's there the minute you open your door. Although you just want to be left alone ... to play your guitar in your bedroom the way you used to, suddenly there's all these people demanding bits of you and in the end I just say 'No' to pretty much everything." Unfortunately, he laughs, "Even saying no to everything takes up most of your time ... it's a ridiculous situation to find yourself in."
Which is why the opportunity U2's position now gives them to make music at their leisure and continue their exploration of other kinds of music is so important. At the turn of the year as Edge described in Propaganda 10, the band recorded perhaps ten different cover versions for possible use as b-sides, some of which like Everlasting Love and Unchained Melody have already seen the light of day, others of which may never. "Some just didn't work," explained Adam. "It wasn't right for us to do some of them. Like the old Creedence number Fortunate Son - it was a great idea as it refers to the draft-dodgers in Vietnam, the Senators' sons avoiding the draft. When we looked at it it was in the middle of the Senator Den Quayle controversy but that soon passed and it didn't work when we'd finished it.
"Another song was that Bruce Cockburn song If I Had a Rocket Launcher which again is great when Bruce Cockburn does it but it just doesn't happen for us."
Relaxed and eagerly anticipating his holiday, he says the direction of the next album is completely unpredictable ("Bono will change his mind from one end of the day to the next so it's best to wait until you hear a positive noise on what's happening.") but says that God Part II hints, for him, at "the direction where we're going, it's a fresh sound, not that clichéd rock 'n roll sound." He cites his favourite U2 songs as Love Comes Tumbling ("a great, melancholy tune and very simple') and his favourite memories as filming Under a Blood Red Sky ("pretty hectic, it felt like the end of the world') and "Getting back from America after the October tour when we couldn't pay the crew." He claims to have vivid memories of touring round Europe in the back of a VW van in the early eighties but says that he does not miss it. And with the conveniences of home and familiar surroundings, Adam has also been keeping his ear to the ground and catching up on listening to music, of all kinds.
He's been listening to the new Neneh Cherry record, to Van Morrison's Avalon Sunset -"But I'm always listening to him so it doesn't really count" - to The Pixies and The Triffids, to traditional Irish session music and to African music. "I don't like anyone new at the moment unless they're rap - NWA is something I've just come across - a tape given to me by Chris Blackwell which is the heaviest black New York rap and if there was censorship there'd be bleeps all the way through but it's got a good attitude."

SO HOW DOES THE BASS PLAYER IN U2 COPE WITH THE DEMANDS OF OPENING NEW SHOPPING CENTRES? HOW DO YOU TAKE TIME OFF?
I get to enjoy a lot of music. I was down at a session in Galway a couple of weeks ago with Sharon Shannon who is the accordion player in The Waterboys, Philip King a traditional singer here and some others and we were just down in this hotel for three days of music and late nights. People just got on with the music in this small room and that is my idea of fun. A couple of weekends ago I went to the Glastonbury Festival which was good fun and did a number with The Flowers which was great, very, very good.

HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
The Flowers were playing there and just said "Look come over with a bunch of people," and we did. The first night I slept on the floor of one of The Flowers rooms, the second night it was just so much hassle to leave the field that I just slept in the field. A couple of days into Glastonbury they said, "Do you want to do a number?" I couldn't really refuse. There wasn't a lot of new talent around although I enjoyed established acts like Elvis Costello and The Waterboys. It was very relaxed. And I really enjoyed playing the song with The Flowers.

DID YOU ENJOY THE DOMINION GIG?
Loved it, that was fun, that was rock and roll. A great, great night.

WHAT ABOUT TRAVELLING, YOU SEEM TO DO A BIT?
I went to Australia earlier in the year to see a friend. I also shot off to the US for ten days with Bono to drive from LA to New Orleans after the premieres last year - that was great fun except what we didn't realise was that the radio knew where we were going, typical American stuff. We were arriving in these towns wondering how the hell did they know that we were around. We'd check into a hotel on the edge of town and decide to go into town for a quiet drink and there'd be all these people who'd know we were there. After 3/4 days of travelling and the same thing happening someone finally admitted that the radio stations were linking up and transmitting the information because you bump into people and you tell them what you're doing and they were transmitting across the country what we were doing.

SO YOU WERE INCOGNITO, BUT YOU WEREN'T IN FACT?
You can't be incognito with Bono.

CAN YOU BE INCOGNITO ON YOUR OWN?
No problem (laughs).

HOW DO YOU GET AROUND AT HOME IN DUBLIN WITHOUT INTERRUPTION?
Well, you have to be careful, to pick the right time - for example you don't want to go shopping after school's out in the afternoon. It's like rush hour - you avoid it if you can.

WHAT ABOUT AUSTRALIA?
There I stayed with a friend of mine who is building himself a house at the moment but suspended building while I was there. In digging the foundation suddenly he hit rock and he had to get a rock breaker. The rock breaker cost the same amount of money that it was for studio time which really blew my mind - I think studio time is about £I50 an hour and this rock breaker is also £I50 an hour. It took four days to dig through this rock.

YOU'VE BEEN TO AUSTRALIA A FEW TIMES?
Yes, I like it, I like the people, it's a long long way from Europe and America so you get a very very different feeling and it's a very very old land. That spirit of survival and pioneering is still very much here. In America the land has been conquered by the white man, but in Australia it's not really like that. Man exists on the land ... you can go to places and you could be the first person walking there since the Creation or whatever. Also if you build there you literally have to build yourself, there's no such thing as plumbed water, everyone collects rainwater ... just things like that. I like the spirit of the people which is very much about preservation.

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO TOURING AUSTRALIA?
Yes, it was fairly crazy in '84 - but this time around I suppose it will be the same because we're not really playing that many more shows.

ON TOUR IS ONE PLACE VERY MUCH LIKE ANOTHER BECAUSE THERE'S NO TIME TO TAKE THEM IN?
Each place is like a hotel room to a stage to a limo to a hotel room to a stage. We build in time off sometimes but you can't get in and out of a hotel without bodyguards which is stupid ... being in Australia will be nice.

DOES TOURING GET YOU DOWN AFTER A WHILE?
I sort of like touring. I think that the piss-off about it is that you do put a great deal of effort into trying to produce a great show and play good songs and at the end of the day it appears to be so unimportant in terms of the way people perceive it.

SO YOU CAN DO THE GREATEST SHOW YOU'VE EVER DONE AND SOMETIMES PEOPLE DON'T APPRECIATE IT AS MUCH AS SEEING YOU OR TOUCHING YOU?
Yes, it's very much a personal appearance.

DID THE LAST TOUR EXHAUST YOU?
Yeah it was a bitch.

IS BEING IN U2 A DIFFERENT LEVEL OF INTENSITY WHEN YOU'RE OFF THE ROAD?
It never goes away, people always want something, it's a bit like being a parent - certainly since the eighties. I'm looking forward to the tour but I always know it's a case of grin and bear it.

DO YOU EVER FEEL SLIGHTLY FRIGHTENED BY GOING OUT IN FRONT OF 25 000 PEOPLE?
I don't mind those big places.

YOU'VE MENTIONED THAT YOU'RE ATTACHED TO PLAYING SMALL CLUBS?
I'd love to play in small clubs, and practically it is possible... Just plug in like we did at the film premieres. It helps if you play places that are off the regular trail. But for the moment it may be that we don't really want to.

ARE THE DALTONS STILL AROUND... HAVE YOU SEEN BETTY LATELY?
Yes, she's still around, she's doing well.

IS SHE GOING TO AUSTRALIA?
I don't know. She'd have awful problems with the heat there. She doesn't like travelling too far north of Atlanta - then it's kind of Philistine territory - and she doesn't like going too far south either. She's a homebird really. I don't think Australians will see her because it's a long trip and it'd really take the stuffing out of her.

WHAT ABOUT WHEN YOU'RE OFF THE ROAD - IF LARRY IS DOING MOTHER FOR EXAMPLE, WHAT DO YOU GET UP TO.
I never particularly like to claim responsibility. I'm willing to do other things, it just seems that U2 takes up an awful lot of energy. I do go off and play sometimes but it's difficult.

IF THERE WAS A LOCAL IRISH TRADITIONAL BAND WHO ASKED YOU TO GO OFF AND PLAY WITH THEM THREE NIGHTS A WEEK WOULD THAT APPEAL?
Yeah, that would.

WHAT DON'T YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR JOB IN U2?
I don't like meetings. You have to be a sort of businessman at this stage and sign cheques and all that sort of stuff and I hate that side of it. Have the meetings round the pub!

IF IT HADN'T COME TOGETHER IN I978 WHAT DO YOU IMAGINE YOU'D BE DOING NOW?
I don't really know, it's so impossible to say. I'm sure I'd have probably dropped out somewhere, I wouldn't particularly have liked to have been a part of any system or society - having a job and each year improving your circumstances or whatever. I'd much rather have fled the country and lived in the middle of the bush or something like that.

SO U2 RESCUED YOU FROM THOSE EARLY DAYS WHERE YOU ARE PICTURED IN AFGHAN COATS?
No, I gave it up, I sold my Afghan coat for a bass guitar. Who knows? I may have gone into a more arty thing - I could just as easily have turned right at Greenland if you like and gone into a real artsy-fartys thing.

ROCK'N ROLL IS MAXIMISE, MAXIMISE?
That's what seems to happen, the challenge is how big can it get. I'd love to go in and do a record in two weeks and put it out like The Cowboy Junkies have just done with Trinity Sessions after one day. But you have to be brave and I don't know if U2 could do it because it would be just so confusing for the public. They wouldn't know what the hell was going on. It would be great in a way - but in another way, Rattle and Hum was meant to be that - in terms of the simplicity of it, and it's irritating that people don't seem to have realised that. They've judged it as a proper studio album which it wasn't. If you view it as a bonus you can't beat it.

DID THE EIGHTIES BELONG TO U2?
Maybe, but what about Prince, Madonna ... it must be Madonna that typifies the eighties. But for bands it may be true of us.

DID THE THOUGHT EVER OCCUR TO YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTIES THAT THIS WOULD BE?
A lot of it was punk and nobody could really see much beyond that. With the first club tours of England it was great but when we got to America and started to spend long periods of time there it became much more a case of getting our heads down and working out that we could go all the way. For me it crystallised gradually but I always thought there was no point doing it unless we could go the whole way - but I didn't know what that was. Also being Irish made us different. What's happened in the Irish music scene since we started out is great. There is an infrastructure and there are Irish bands producing records all the time and it just wasn't so when we started out and it's very satisfying, much more so than maybe a lot of the other stuff people feel we ought to be pleased about. The fact that there's a real industry and people don't have to go away to England - that's exciting.

WHAT AMBITIONS DO YOU HAVE IN THE GROUP AT THIS STAGE?
To grow old gracefully is the only option left. It's important that we don't get into the old rock star syndrome.

DO YOU HAVE ANY REGRETS FROM THE SUCCESS OF U2 TO DATE, LIKE EAMONN DUNPHY'S BOOK FOR EXAMPLE?
Well, not really because whoever writes your book you're not going to agree completely because it's not your story. Everybody knew we didn't write the book, everybody knew they were buying Eamonn Dunphy's version of it.

IS THIS WHY THE BAND HAVEN'T GIVEN PERMISSION FOR SOUNDTRACKS TO ADVERTS OR ACCEPTED SPONSORSHIP UNLIKE MANY OTHER GROUPS?
We just ignore most requests because fortunately we don't need the money which means we can stick with the principal. Having been successful you don't have to prostitute yourself like that. This commercialisation's the changing face of the music business and it will become harder and harder for new talent to breakthrough.

VAN MORRISON IS ONE WHO HAS GRADUATED GRACEFULLY - HE'S JUST A MUSICIAN. His interview in the NME recently was interesting because he was saying at one period he was getting so much hype and expectations from the papers that he suddenly lost contact with the music and there was all these bigger responsibilities being placed on him that he didn't want and that really got in the way of his creativity. That was when he dropped out for a while, that's an interesting point. I think the same thing is happening these days: I find it quite shocking the level of commercialisation that happens to music - every advert is music, the glossy magazines, the clothes that people wear on Top of the Pops - it's all directed at youth culture and an exploitation of it. I think that Smash Hits and Number One are as much a part of it as record companies. It's a blatant exploitation.

YOU HAVE MORE TIME FOR THE BEST FANZINES, YOU BUMPED INTO THE PRATTLE AND FUN EDITORIAL TEAM RECENTLY?
I met them outside here. I really like Prattle and Fun, it's really a bit of a laugh. It's not the "irreverence" that's amusing but that they obviously seem to understand the people in the band which I like. I like it when people understand where you're at and they do and they're giving back something which is really nice.

GENERALLY FANZINES CAN TEND TO BE SLIGHTLY DEVOTIONAL.
Yes, they can be horrible in that sense. I read them if they have insights and if they're fun which is what Prattle and Fun is - A.D.A.M. too. The more sycophantic ones I don't really bother with. They don't interest me but I'm sure some people enjoy them. But as for the music press themselves in many ways they have destroyed the mystique and power of music and made it into something that seems to go quite naturally into this tabloid format - MM and NME are grooming acts who will then go in the glossies and then into the popular press. And what they have managed to destroy is any rootsy cult bands after the first couple of features they have done. I read less and less of the press about the band unless we've just released a record. What I call music and musicians I see getting so separate from the entertainment business now. The entertainment business is videos and TV and all that glitz and glamour but musicians are about something else, about communications, about feelings, emotions ... not about entertainment only.

WAS IT A DISAPPOINTMENT THAT THE FILM DIDN'T ATTRACT THAT GREAT AUDIENCES AFTER THE INITIAL RUSH?
Again a funny thing because we deliberately tried to put the brake on the hyping of that film. Once you get into the world of movies you can spend weeks just promoting a film going to interviews/TV shows and premieres for its release to give it a big build up but we said that we're not doing public appearances, we're going to the premieres and that's it - any other hype you can sort out yourselves. This is because it was a musical film and people could go and see it for the music and that was it - we didn't care whether it grossed £30m or whatever the figures were -and we got out of that reasonably intact. We just wanted to make a great film that we could be proud of in ten or twenty years' time and that's what we did and we made a record as well. But we weren't going to hype it up as the greatest rock 'n roll film ever.

SO WHAT'S YOUR PERSONAL AMBITION NOW?
I just want to be able to walk into a pub, somebody buy me a drink and sit down and have a chat - because that's the hardest thing in the world to achieve. It's really that simple.