The initial rumours were that it was going to be a rock n roll record . Then subsequent whispers hinted at everything from trip-hop to techno to ambient. But U2 s eighth studio album, Pop, is all of these things and more. It s the first album since 1983 that they ve made without the assistance of Brian Eno, it s been a long time in the making roughly a full year, all told and it s selling like the proverbial warm buns. Here, NIALL STOKES talks to BONO and ADAM CLAYTON, as well as co-producers FLOOD, HOWIE B and THE EDGE, about its lengthy genesis and what the band hoped to accomplish in creating it. Pix: STEPHANE SEDNAOUI .

Backstage at some celebrity charity bash, a plum-accented classical conductor is talking at Bono. You re involved in a pop group, he says, one eyebrow arched like an accusation.

It isn t what he says, it s the way that he says it. There s a pause and then it comes out like . . . pop group. His contempt for the very thought of it is palpable. A lower form: pop music.