U2 4U

Biography: Adam Clayton
by David Lineage

"Flashback: Dublin Christmas '78 and you're at this party thrown by Charles O'Connor, the guitarist in Horslips. A young chap comes up to you, thrusting the demo tape by his group into your hands. Another bloody demo tape. And then this guy, glasses, permed frizzy blond hair like a bleached Jimi Hendrix, he starts pumping you, asking you all these questions about the music business. Really good incise precise questions. This guy is brimming intent. In rock'n'roll, attitude is as important as musical skill, the sense of going for it."

- BP Fallon, "U2 Faraway So Close", 1992

Having been eased out of high school earlier in the year, Adam Clayton found himself free to spend the following months acting as manager for the fledgling U2, for whom he also served as bassist. Music had been a passion for Adam since discovering rock'n'roll in the mid-seventies, and he was whole-heartedly and optimistically committed to his band and his vision, an "undeniable belief" as The Edge later remembered. Although Paul McGuinness had assumed official managerial duties back in May, here was Adam hawking U2's second demo tape to anyone who would listen. Adam's defiant acts and attitudes in his schoolboy days are legendary, and serve preparatory notice of his extreme sense of bluff -- if you can talk the talk, you can arrange to walk the walk at the first available opportunity.

This adolescent bluff translated to adult confidence, a characteristic well-needed when Adam found himself the band's outsider in the early eighties, while the other members contemplated the fate of the band from a spiritually troubled perspective. However, Adam's position was never seriously in jeopardy, as illustrated by his attendance as best man at Bono's 1982 wedding.

Band crises pushed out of the way for the time being, U2 continued their journey further up and further into the hearts of people the world over. Adam's inventive and memorable basslines defined such classics as "New Year's Day" and "With Or Without You"; meanwhile with Larry on drums he gradually consolidated the backbone of the 'U2 sound'. His relaxed riffs presented a pleasant contrast to the precise drumming, the two aspects filling the background of each U2 song in a way that allowed Bono and The Edge the freedom to move around unhindered with their respective instruments.

In August 1989, Adam's name made the headlines when he was arrested in Dublin and charged with possession of a small amount of cannabis, with the intent to supply the drug to others. He avoided a conviction (which would have had serious repurcussions on his international touring schedule with U2) by making a sizable donation to charity. His regret, even years later, was not of the nature of the crime, but the fact that it was a crime: "It was my own fault. And I'm sure I was out of my head -- emotionally apart from anything else. But it is serious because it is illegal."