The unforgettable Five are at the gate of Windmill Studios, continuing the year-round vigil they keep, watching and waiting for a sighting of any one of the Unforgettable Four. The September skies are darkening early as I pull into the carpark, and head upstairs to pick up an advance copy of U2's latest, sprawling meisterwork, "Rattle And Hum".

It's late on Friday evening but the Principle Management offices are still abuzz with hyper-activity. Someone from Paramount Pictures is on the phone to see if the package from New York should be sent by special courier. Inside her office, Arm Louise Kelly has just opened the first batch of "Rattle And Hum" sleeves, handing me the by-now familiar gatefold package, along with a couple of inner 'bags', inscribed with lyrical trailers to the last year's labours. Locust wind or no locust wind, even at this initial encounter there's no mistaking the epic nature of the undertaking.

Larry is the only band member on the premises. "I hope you like it," he nods at the tape. "It'll probably take a while. It took me a while (laughs) - but I think it's a good record."

It's certainly the most complicated musical baby U2 have collectively been involved in giving birth to. Originally conceived as a live concert album, it comes with what might have been an albatross around its neck in the shape of the film - "U2: Rattle And Hum". In the context, the obvious strategy would have been to go for a kind of greatest hits live package, getting down in definitive form, both visual and musical, the material which by "The Joshua Tree" tour had elevated U2 to that plateau reserved for the few major, enduring rock'n'roll talents. The band rejected that option before it had even been considered, however, going about the project in hand with their customary and somewhat idiosyncratic unwillingness to be limited by popular expectations.

The word initially was that the album would contain a few new songs, interspersed with familiar live material. Then that it would contain one full album of new material, with a live companion making up the anticipated double. Then that there would be very few of U2's live standards on board, this last piece of intelligence throwing expectations of a monumental "U2: Live And Dangerous "-style offering right out the window...

In a sense the album is inseparable from the film, which is inseparable from the album. Larry explains, however, that at all times the music took priority. Pressure to change the live production set-up to suit the demands of the movie was at all times resisted. "There was one occasion they asked us to shift the monitors," Larry recalls, "and I just said no - there's no way we're going to jeopardise the gig for the people who paid in. That was the basic criterion. They asked me to move the cymbals and I said no. In a situation like that you have to make a decision whether you're going to let the fact that the cameras are following you around affect you or not, and very early on I decided that I wasn't. It was up to them to work around us."

It's a reassuring thought to take home with the tape. Because the history of rock'n'roll has been littered with so many instances where bands have come a cropper on the big screen, any gesture in the direction of Hollywood must inevitably be viewed with that hoary old cocktail, fear and trepidation: the grisly spectre of Led Zeppelin's ,The Song Remains The Same" will dog the concept of celluloid rock for years to come.

It's black outside now but the Unforgettable Five are still hoping for a glimpse. "Will Larry be much longer?", one of them asks. I haven't got a clue.

Pulling out of the gates of Windmill, "Rattle And Hum" snaps into the cassette player and the first notes of "Helter Skelter" cascade from the speakers: "When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide... I'm coming down fast but l’m miles above you... Helter Skelter."

Nobody said this trip would be an easy one.

Rathfarnham, where Adam Clayton has setup home, is at the foot of the Dublin mountains. The band have just gone to No. 1 in the singles charts in Britain for the first time ever with "Desire" when we meet in a quiet hill bar, but having celebrated the night before, Adam is now in a reflective mood. "I love it around here," he says with relish, it's so quiet and the view of the city is beautiful." Later on, night lights will shimmer below like a tantalising treasure trove but for now the scene is one of calm and tranquillity. It's a long way from stadium packed with 60,000 fans hanging on your every note, hungry at least for a piece of musical magic and often for so much more...

"Dublin is brilliant," Adam adds. "I don't want to get philosophical here but for a long time being in a band like U2 and living in Dublin didn't really make sense. In many ways you're an outsider - and it's scary. But what's happened to us now in terms of international success, the fame vibe and all that, is even scarier (laughs). So, like, the only people that really know you and that you feel really comfortable with are the people who've been telling you to fuck off for the last ten years!

"When you're away from home, in the States or wherever, all they know about you is the records or the press, so they come to you with all these false pre -conceptions. You're this image of Bono or Adam Clayton or whatever - and while you can try and make them relaxed, they don't really hear you. Whereas here, you can get pissed - and people have seen you pissed before. You can meet them and they don't have expectations of you being able to cure their blind granny, whereas that's kind of what happens in the States. "

At the same time, the 'healing' power of U2's music has doubtless been central to their appeal.

"It's great if people get comfort from what we do," Adam agrees. "Great. What more could you ask for from a pair of shoes? But that's what we do. It's not what we are.

"I mean we're pretty crazy," he elaborates by way of confirming the point. "The Bono I know is a lot crazier than the Bono people see on stage or whatever. We all have our own demons and his ones are bigger than everyone else's."

Adam has a few little garden gnomes of his own, which have driven him into the odd compromising position in his time. There was one infamous occasion which involved being tired, emotional and somewhat abusive to an officer of the law at three in the morning somewhere in Dublin, as a result of which he landed in court on a charge of driving while under the influence.

"I was an asshole," he says firmly. "I was drunk. But it was pretty embarrassing to see it spread all over the papers."

In this respect, there is a significant downside to celebrity in Ireland. In a small pool, where so-called superstars are relatively rare fish, the media tends to become easily obsessed with their activities - as do the authorities.

"In America they're not interested in going through your underwear, Adam argues. "There isn't this attitude that if he's a musician he must have drugs, which still pervades here a lot. You know, they put you through shite here basically - the customs, coming into the country and all that kind of stuff. And it's rude, basically. You want to be treated reasonably, like anyone else, whereas they tend to - the red light goes up and they think 'We're gonna get promotion‘... "

The continuing rise of the British tabloid papers in Ireland and the scurrilous reporting style which is their trademark represents a further threat to the liberties people have traditionally taken for granted here. The Star's vilification of Christy Dignam, in which the former lead singer with the Dublin band Aslan was crudely accused of dealing heroin, Adam responds to with a combination of anger and contempt.

"I think it's disgraceful," he says. "No one deserves that kind of treatment. Increasingly the press seem to print something and don't care whether it's true or not. They don't seem to realise that they're hitting you hard - and you've got to face your family and friends the next day. And whether it's true or not, people believe what they read, or some of it sticks. It really distorts the public's perception of things."

In this respect, U2 have recently been the focus for a series of vitriolic attacks in print by Sinead O'Connor, in which the band have been depicted as hypocritical and patronising frauds, abusing their position of prestige and power by stifling any possibility of adverse comment or criticism, while maintaining a pretence of helping to cultivate Irish talent.

"I think the people who know us can read between the lines," Adam reflects. "The people who listen to our records - they're not fooled by it. The fact of the matter is that we went to a lot of trouble to help Sinead's career in the early days. And that's what you do, if you can. Now, for some reason, she cannot accept that and has had to lash out. But Bono in particular pioneered Sinead. He went to a lot of trouble encouraging her; the Edge used her on the soundtrack for 'Captive'; there were various negotiations with Ensign Records that Ossie Kilkenny was involved in - so she's talking crap. I don't know why she's doing it - but I don't think people believe it.

'It's stupid. It's immature. She'll learn. But I know damn well that she won't be making records in ten years. I was interested in her because I thought she was a great talent and I thought she had a future. That's why you support people. Now I'm not so sure that she has what it takes to last."

Is there anyone else in Ireland right now who has? "I haven't been back long enough to know what's going on but I've a lot of faith in the Flowers. I know they're moving very fast but I'm sure they can cope with it. And I'm really happy to see them being successful because that is something you miss in Ireland - the companionship of people who are going through the same kind of experiences we are. You need your mates which is one of the reasons why I miss Phil Lynott, a lot. I don't mean to be self-pitying but it can be hard trying to stay on top of what's happening and coming to terms with it all, and in that respect it was great having Phil Lynott around.

'It's ten years since Lizzy released 'Live Arid Dangerous'. I don't want to end up going the way he did, ten years after 'Rattle And Hum'. Or any of the rest of the band either... "

In the event, the album couldn't be further from Lizzy's most compelling vinyl testament. A live collection which ostensibly captured the band at the height of their performing powers, aficionados were later to learn that much doctoring of "Live And Dangerous" had taken place in the studios - what Jim Kerr referred to as 'the fixing and mixing' in relation to Simple Minds' "Live In The City Of Light". In contrast U2 have gone for a sound that's determinedly raw and abrasive.

"We didn't deliberately leave in mistakes," says Edge between sips of beer, "but what we went for above, shall we say, a perfect' performance from each musician was feel. For example, when we went to Sun Studios, during the Joshua Tree tour, that was billed as a demo session yet we ended up with three backing tracks that appear on the album. The same with 'Desire' - that was cut at STS in Dublin, arid it was the first time we'd ever played the song. We then re-cut it at A & M Studios in Los Angeles and it was a much tighter, more accurate performance but it lacked feel. And no one was in any doubt what to do - we just went back to the demo backing tracks. As far as we're concerned the feel is the most important thing, not tightness or accuracy.

It's a preference which runs counter to the prevailing values of international rock'n'roll as the 80's roll to a close and U2 know it.

"Music's become too scientific y'know," Edge elaborates, "it's lost that spunk and energy that it had in the 50s and 60s. When I listen to most modern records I hear a producer, I don't hear musicians inter-acting. And that quality, that missing quality, is something we were trying to get back to in our own music. What I like about 'Desire' is that if there's ever been a cool No. 1 to have in the UK, that's it because it's totally not what people are listening to or what's in the charts at the moment. Instead, it's going in exactly the opposite direction. It's a rock'n'roll record - in no way is it a pop song.

"Like, there's one guy who came up to me last week in a bar and he said (adopts broad Dublin accent) 'See you're No. 3 in England, Edge. Very good. Not much of a bleedin' tune though, izzit? Can't really hum it, can ya?'. There was something he liked about it but, y'know people don't ... rock'n'roll has not been in the charts for years. We all forget because we grew up with great rock'n'roll, but now it hasn't been around. And that song is, I suppose, our statement. It's throwaway, it's instant, it's a vibe, it's got that groove going. Sure, you can draw a lot of comparisons with, say, the Stones. Well, they're all drawing from the same well, the same well we are drawing from for that song, and it all goes back to Bo Diddley..."

In a similar spirit, U2 refused point blank to tart up the live material for the album.

"We had very little to do with the live tracks," Adam says, cos we were up to our eyes working on the studio cuts. Jimmy lovine got the live tracks sorted out, we were working on the studio stuff and then there were film mixes going on in another room. It was quite a tangle to fit it all together but Shelly Yakus did most of the live mixes and we were happy with them."

"I had to do the first thirty seconds of the guitar on 'Watchtower' because it wasn't recorded on the day, but that's it," Edge adds, "Everything else is as it was performed live. Nothing's changed."

The approach, as it happens, is utterly appropriate to a project which gradually transformed itself into an American odyssey, with U2 searching for and exploring both spiritual and musical roots. It's a mighty long way down rock'n'roll...

"The whole Memphis thing is based on the river," Adam says, "If you think about growing up in Dublin, you have the river and the sea and England is over here and America's over there and, it's like there's hope. In a similar way, being in Memphis, sitting by the river, there's so much that goes up and down the Mississippi - it's your hope, it's your dreams, it's your fantasies, so you can understand why rock'n'roll happened there.

"You go into the Sun room and it's a modest room. It's got the old acoustic tiles on the wall and the pictures of Elvis and Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee and Carl Perkins - it's just history. You don't take a lot of technology into a studio like that -just the smallest amount of equipment you can do with. And you try to get back to that feeling of making rock'n'roll without having huge banks of Marshalls, or whatever, just strip it back and play the simplest thing you can.

On "Rattle And Hum" U2 grapple with rock'n'roll, r'n'b, gospel and soul influences before emerging with a wild and sometimes anarchic brew that's entirely their own. One of the albums great moments is Bono's r'n'b soaked tribute to Billie Holliday, "Angel Of Harlem". For good measure, the spiky "God Part II" is dedicated to John Lennon.

"We're not trying to pretend that we're not influenced on this record," Edge says, "but at the same time we don't want it to be perceived as some kind of revivalist thing. It's our music - it just so happens that this is what we're listening to right now so it's obviously going to come out in our songs and our songwriting."

It adds somewhat to the ambience, no doubt, when you're surrounded by luminaries like Bob Dylan, B.B. King and the Memphis Horns. Dylan contributes a suitably contrary Hammond organ intro to the oceanically epic "Hawkmoon 269".

"Hawkmoon is a place in Rapid City, North Dakota," Edge explains, "we passed by it on the Amnesty tour and Bono, ever a man with a notebook handy, thought 'that sounds good.' So he used that as a point of departure for the song."

"Hawkmoon 269" is a powerful, poetic cry of unbridled need that digs deep into the listener's emotional reserves; one of the band's finest achievements to date.

"Bono's writing is, for me, startlingly good at the moment," Edge affirms. "He's blowing my mind all the time. I think he's still very much caught up, not just in where America is now, but also where it's come from since the 50's, that whole journey which Elvis' demise is some kind of metaphor for. So things like "Hawkmoon" and even "Heartland", that's the kind of writing Bono's really turned onto at the moment."

"It comes back to rock'n'roll," Adam adds. "It's an American form, it started there. And if your thing is rock'n'roll, you do end up having to go there and do it because it's not a European form of expression. European music is different and we feel much more a part of the craziness that there is in America. Europe is very ordered and civilised, but America is just this weird fucking jungle."

And to discover what makes the jungle tick, it's necessary to swing from a few trees. You have to crawl before you can run before you can soar. That's what this epic voyage was about.

"The best American music is unrecorded and is to be found in obscure little bars around New Orleans ", Edge reflects. "Rock'n'roll, real rock'n’roll, ended when EIvis Presley left Sun Records, then it became a mass-media thing. But the real spirit of rock'n'roll is still occasionally found in little obscure places. And it's so hard to find, and so hard to keep that innocence or whatever it is that The Real Thing is about. And people like Dylan and Robbie Robertson have spent their whole lives trying to maintain that spark, that thing, which is so different to commercialism, so different to selling millions of records. And that is the strange paradox and contradiction of U2 - that we were a very successful band, selling millions of records across the world, but what always turned us on was the music. We have, as Robbie calls it, 'the fever'. We've caught the fever and now we're looking, trying to put our finger on that thing."

Was Dylan overawed at the prospect of working with U2 (he jested)?

"He seems to be into what we do, I don't know why. I think maybe he sees something in Bono which he identifies with himself when he was younger. But I've met him three or four times now and he's a man of few words in the studio, I'll say that much. The great thing about Dylan is that whenever he does talk, it's about music, y'know. That's really his heart and soul still. He just said (adopts nasal whine) 'hey, do you mind if I play some organ?' and we said sure, no problem."

"But it's interesting," Adam adds, "we have felt that, because we've become a big band, you can actually lose touch with the one thing that makes you feel alive, which is music ... because you get caught up in the whole celebrity thing, the business trip and all that stuff. And we need people around us who keep us grounded to music, and we go after those people and Dylan is one of them. Robbie Robertson, Keith Richards, T-Bone Burnett -there's a gang of people that you feel comfortable with and that keep it all in perspective. It is the music that you keep getting up in the morning for. If it was doing a photo-session for Smash Hits or something, you wouldn't bother. That's not where we're at (laughs). "

Luckily. Because in the context of "Rattle And Hum", the movie, that would have been a recipe for a self-regarding, insufferable bore. Far from being infatuated with the process, indeed, U2 give the impression of having got a necessary, if unpleasant, chore out of the way. Was it an intimidating experience, seeing your every wrinkle magnified to five or maybe ten times its natural size?

"Well, when we first met Phil Joanou, he promised faithfully that he'd make us all look like Montgomery Clift in his hey-day, " Edge jokes. "He turned out to be an absolute lying bastard (laughter), so we were all very shocked when we saw we looked like Bono, Larry, Adam and Edge, and we were very, very upset. What I'm really trying to say is that we could have gone like Hollywood and got all the real expensive lights and made ourselves look amazing, but this film was being shot to try and capture the way it really is. Warts and all."

So what's the most embarrassing moment in the movie as far as the band are concerned?

"I would say the entire film," Edge says to the accompaniment of raucous laughter from Adam, "from beginning to end. No, but I like the fact that he captured U2 in a way I was doubtful could be done, both live and in the studio. He's a great director, but not only is he a great director, he actually understands the band, so that combination - we just fell on our feet with him...

"Although it is frightening seeing yourself up there," Adam adds, "there's also a lovely feeling of distance. I don't actually feel like the person that's up there, but I feel like the person up there can go around the world and get through to people. So it sort of takes the pressure off you as an individual. It's quite liberating to have a representation of yourself' that can stand up on its own."

Are they apprehensive about how the film might be received?

"I really couldn't give a shit," Edge says definitively. "We're not movie stars, we're a rock'n'roll band and it doesn't really bother me. I mean, I didn't even want to do it at the beginning. I felt it was just one headache we didn't need. Y'now, I've no doubt about what we do, what we're best at. As it turns out, I think it's a very good film but I didn't lose no sleep over the movie...

"I was concerned that the band would be portrayed accurately, that the film didn't paint a different picture to the one that was real. I think that hasn't happened. This movie hinges on music, and that's the most interesting thing about U2. There's no backstage scenes, there's no climbing into limousines, that's not what we're about. That would really be extremely uninteresting. It's also been done before. But what is interesting at the moment about U2 is where we're going musically and that's really what it is. That's the core of' what this, film says and is about."

"Besides," Adam laughs, "We can always go back to our day jobs."

While the film was intended to avoid the trap of glamourisation, it was made in the centre of the glamour illusion, Hollywood. It's a reflection of the kind of irony and contradiction which still fascinates U2 about America.

"It's a very very strange place," Edge comments, "that's why I'm into it, 'cos it's so fucking weird. There's no heart to that city. I've been there 10 times but it was only on this trip that I actually found Hollywood, I kept looking for it! We found the down-town area which was originally the centre of L.A. and, right now, it's like walking into "Blade Runner". It's a total no-go area after dark; the only was, you go through there is in a car and quite fast!

"But during the day, it has this very interesting atmosphere. It's all, like, Mexicans, blacks, and it's a wonderful cocktail of influences - the things you see down there you just never see anywhere else. That's where we filmed a lot of the "Desire" video. We weren't trying to make any statement, we thought: we're here, let's show L.A. as it is. With all the confusing angles to the place, it seemed to he the perfect visual metaphor for the song "Desire". All the different colours, the lights, the whole thing."

"It's a very, very heavy place," Adam adds. "You have the people who live on the Hill, the stars. There's this humongous wealth - y'know every convertible is red and it's driven by a blonde-haired woman. And you have this street-life of massive homelessness. For a start, the mental patients they don't keep, you have this serious problem where if people are mentally sick and poor, there's no welfare, there's no nothing. So they live in these cheap hotels, they rent a room.

Edge: "In certain areas, it's like Beirut. There's probably 2 to 3 killings in L.A. every day, where the different districts of the ghetto areas are divided and controlled by the different gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, and so on."

Adam: "And poverty is rife, so they're running crack. They're making money - why wouldn't you? I think fear is running America at the moment, which leads to the whole arms issue. Everyone is carrying guns - you have ghettos where the gangs have superior fire-power to the police. There's so much money coming in from drugs, and that's what they're all afraid of. There just doesn't seem to be any way they can close that door, because if you're poor in America you don't have anything."

With the result that those 'smart' enough to vote are going to put George Bush in the driving scat for the next four years, despite his appalling record on the Iran-Contra Arms Deal, among other thorny issues... "in a way, that's what makes America so interesting for a writer. You get an insight when a country is in descent, when things are falling apart."

That said, Edge is anxious that people shouldn't always expect the Big Statement from U2. Sure, all U2 have is "a red guitar, three chords and the truth." And yes "Rattle And Hum" does set about demolishing the myth of the No. 1 rock'n'roll band in the world by setting their achievements alongside the inspiration of the greats of rock'n'roll. But even that myth needs to be punctured before it gets out of hand. "We didn't sit down and say I what big message are we going to convey in this?' We just write songs about what we're feeling at the time. Obviously we're trying to do something that's got a bit of bite and relevance but it's much less conscious than people think. It's much more emotional than political in that sense. We're not social workers. We're a fucking rock'n'roll band." (laughter)

The number one rock band in the world? "I find that hilarious," Adam responds, "it's, a joke."

A MIGHTY LONG WAY DOWN

October 1988