Beautiful day for U2; WE GO BACKSTAGE AT THEIR WEMBLEY GIG.

Byline: Clemmie Moodie; Danielle Lawler

U2 looked ready to take London by storm last night as they prepared to play in front of a huge crowd at Wembley Stadium... as long as they don't split up first.

Drummer Larry Mullen Jr told us beforehand: "We split up all the time, in fact we did just 15 minutes ago. But the best thing about breaking up, is the making up." Oooh-er!

Bono invited us to be their guests at the gig and the singer claimed the band - who've been going for an astonishing 33 years - thrive on arguments.

"Males like to be around people who think they are great," he said.

"We have friction which is very serious and profound at times, but you're made better for it.

"You are as good as the arguments you get - and we have a lot. We tell each other how it is. Marriages don't last as long as we have and families break up and so do businesses. But when we walk on stage, people see that defiance, that we are stuck together."

Still, it could all have been so very different for the band - starting with their name. Bono laughed: "If it had been down to Larry, we would have been called The Larry Mullen Band. The name gives you an indication of the direction we'd have gone in if we'd surrendered. Thankfully there was a Fat Larry's Band around at the time so we had to change - it probably saved us."

Bono's almost as famous for his round-the-world campaign work as he is for his music these days and he admitted that he's rubbed bandmates Larry, The Edge and Adam Clayton up the wrong way every now and again.

He has posed with the likes of George Bush but said: "I've been used by politicians definitely, but at a price - and a very high price to them. Does it embarrass the band to see me in a hug with someone that they don't like or don't respect? Yes, but they are prepared to allow me to do it as long as we get results."

Suddenly it's show time and the boys get ready to perform.

So after all these years, does Bono ever get nervous? "When everything is working it's great fun," he says. "If my voice is in good nick, the technology is working, the crowd are with you, there is no feeling like it on earth.

"But if it's not and you become self-conscious it's absolute hell on earth and you feel like running home to your mother." Bless his little bio-degradable socks...

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