'We've been It before and we're It again,' explains Bono in an interview for the cover of London listings magazine Time Out this week.



All four members of U2 spoke to Time Out about the Elevation Tour and the success of All That You Can't Leave Behind. This weekend sees the start of U2's eight shows in England. Evidently no-one in the band is feeling complacent.



'The challenge is to make it happen,' says Larry. 'There's that, 'They're getting a little older, can they still do it ?'. So we're playing for our lives, and U2 is always best when that's the case.'



Edge adds: 'A couple of times I've allowed myself to think this is as good as it gets. But the challenge is to push harder on the next album. we've always been greedy as a band. We don't do a lot of patting ourselves on the back. We're not turned on by anything easy, we thrive on being out of our depth.'



Can Adam imagine doing this kind of thing for another 20 years ? 'The '60-year olds On Motorbikes Tour', maybe ?' he laughs. 'I don't know if that would be an ambition. I look at every album after Boy as unexpected. But if the question is whether we could still be playing Where The Streets Have No Name or I Will Follow when we're 60, then yes, if we're still committed as a band, which we probably would be.'



'The scary thing about this tour,' explains Bono, 'Is that it feels like the completion of what we are as a group. I always hoped that when we grew up we'd be this good, it just seemed like we weren't growing up. It's like our adolescence continued and then one day we were boss. 'I stopped bellowing and started singing. The band has a mannish quality that you just wouldn't f*** with, you know.'



In fact, U2 might not even be cool for another couple of decades. 'It's gonna take till we're in our sixties till we're cool.' says Bono. 'And we're gonna be extraordinarily cool. I'm gonna have a wooden stick and be chasing kids across the road.



'All my heroes are over 60. I don't have any dead heroes,' he adds with a chuckle, 'Cos even Jesus isn't dead right?'