Adam Clayton

No, thank you, Adam Clayton. I would not like a lap dance. That thought occurred to me just as it might to any yellow glasses-wearing rock fan uninterested in intimate contact with the Irish bass player three songs into U2 3D, the Imax concert movie starring Bono, the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and Clayton. Billed as "the first ever live action digital 3-D film," U2 3D, which opens at the UA Stadium 16 Theater in King of Prussia today, is a straight-up concert movie, with no backstage interviews or band history included.

The Man Who Would Save the World brought a long to-do list to the sold-out Wachovia Center on Saturday: Educate date-night U2 fans about the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Don a white headband that uses the Muslim crescent, the Star of David and a crucifix to spell out "CoeXisT. " Discuss how the July '85 Live Aid concert "changed [U2's] life, and set us on a course" leading to One, the organization that intends to "make poverty history. " And - lest even ardent fans get tired of the messianic preaching from a band built around the notion that rock-and-roll is not about rebellion so much as duty ("One life," the song goes, "you got to do what you should")

"Let me in the sound, meet me in the sound, let me in the sound!" Bono repeats, insists, and implores over chugging guitars on U2's "Get on Your Boots," the first single from No Line on the Horizon (Interscope . ), due in stores Tuesday. Four years after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the biggest band in the world has returned with an album recorded in New York, London, and Morocco. Two cuts after "Boots," on "FEZ - Being Born," the indefatigable Irishman is at it again, this time with the same words echoing out from a textured organic-electronic mix. It's as if the owner of the most fulsome foghorn in rock - who said to me in 2007, "I'm sick of the sound of my own voice" - is being forced to fight for room in the sonic space being created by the other boys in the band.

To call the sellout crowd at U2's Saturday-night concert at the Spectrum enthusiastic would be a gross understatement: Borrowing Otis Redding's description of the folks at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival, they were "the Love Crowd. " They danced to songs by the Beatles, mounted human waves around the arena and knowingly anticipated that the end of John Lennon's version of "Stand By Me" would signal the entrance of the idealistic Irish quartet. By then, the fans were on their feet and cheering, but even that didn't prevent the crowd from emitting a collective sigh when the spotlights finally caught the object of its affection.

Dan Donoghue wasn't going to let a little tornado keep him from seeing Bono. So as a tornado ripped through this Central Florida town on Tuesday, causing more than $400,000 in damage but injuring no one, you'd have found ol' Dan outside the Lakeland Civic Center, hunkered down in his doorless red Jeep. The arena is where U2 has rehearsed since Feb. 20 in preparation for tonight's launch of the Zoo TV Tour, the Irish band's first American foray since 1987. "It was raining really hard," said Donoghue, 22, of Clearwater.

Naomi Campbell's recent announcement that she will wed rocker Adam Clayton of U2 is confirmation that the 22-year-old supermodel's days at the top are numbered. Why? Because whenever a major model nears the end of her career, she inevitably ends up marrying a music man. Old solders may just fade away, but old models hitch their wagons to a rock star - even if he is ugly and/or geeky. Check out these couplings. Mick Jagger dropped Bianca to wed the long-haired Jerry Hall.

TODAY AND Sunday, May 22, will be Beautiful Days for Philly fans of the Irish rock group U2, which will play at the Wachovia Center as part of the Vertigo Tour. In March, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. Deservedly so. As far as rock bands go, U2 deserves to be on Mount Rushmore, along with the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles were the musical equivalent of Baseball's Sandy Koufax - six or seven dominant years of musical genius. U2 is more like Steve Carlton or Warren Spahn - consistent excellence over 22 years.

Great art, it's said, is made in times of desperation. For U2, the young Irish superstars performing at the Spectrum tomorrow, the process of music making has always been imbued with a sense of struggle. Bass player Adam Clayton relates that when the group first gave music a crack as Dublin teenagers in the late 1970s, they attempted to mimic the Rolling Stones catalogue. "But we weren't good enough to get through even a single song. Since we couldn't play others' material, we had to make up our own. " The group's drummer Larry Mullen Jr. was the only qualified musician at the outset, so U2 built their material around the beat, often with a riveting marching cadence that drew listeners to attention and alluded to Ireland's civil unrest.

The U2 discography is filled with impulsive flings followed by acts of contrition. After the thundering The Joshua Tree brought its "righteous" rock into the global spotlight in 1987, U2 worked to modulate the fury and bring its songs back down to earth. That led to more compact, traditional compositions, such as "Angel of Harlem," written for the partly live Rattle and Hum, released the next year. Now, after the zany, zoned-out electronic explorations of 1993's Zooropa and 1997's Pop, considered by many loyalists to be a particularly bad creative patch, the Irish foursome returns with an odd assortment of mealymouthed equivocations and dim homilies it calls All That You Can't Leave Behind (Interscope . 1/2)

Oh, the dangers of trying to splice the family genes. Paul Warhola, who used to give his youngest brother, Andy Warhol, tips on art, now is trying his own hand at painting. So what are his images of choice? A can of Heinz vegetarian baked beans and two nearly identical versions of a Heinz ketchup bottle. "I'm starting from scratch on art," said Warhola, 67, who lives on a 38 1/2-acre farm in Smock, Pa., where he grows flowers and vegetables and keeps chickens, ducks and geese. "It will take me awhile to get into stride.

"Let me in the sound, meet me in the sound, let me in the sound!" Bono repeats, insists, and implores over chugging guitars on U2's "Get on Your Boots," the first single from No Line on the Horizon (Interscope . ), due in stores Tuesday. Four years after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the biggest band in the world has returned with an album recorded in New York, London, and Morocco. Two cuts after "Boots," on "FEZ - Being Born," the indefatigable Irishman is at it again, this time with the same words echoing out from a textured organic-electronic mix. It's as if the owner of the most fulsome foghorn in rock - who said to me in 2007, "I'm sick of the sound of my own voice" - is being forced to fight for room in the sonic space being created by the other boys in the band.

No, thank you, Adam Clayton. I would not like a lap dance. That thought occurred to me just as it might to any yellow glasses-wearing rock fan uninterested in intimate contact with the Irish bass player three songs into U2 3D, the Imax concert movie starring Bono, the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and Clayton. Billed as "the first ever live action digital 3-D film," U2 3D, which opens at the UA Stadium 16 Theater in King of Prussia today, is a straight-up concert movie, with no backstage interviews or band history included.

The Man Who Would Save the World brought a long to-do list to the sold-out Wachovia Center on Saturday: Educate date-night U2 fans about the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Don a white headband that uses the Muslim crescent, the Star of David and a crucifix to spell out "CoeXisT. " Discuss how the July '85 Live Aid concert "changed [U2's] life, and set us on a course" leading to One, the organization that intends to "make poverty history. " And - lest even ardent fans get tired of the messianic preaching from a band built around the notion that rock-and-roll is not about rebellion so much as duty ("One life," the song goes, "you got to do what you should")

TODAY AND Sunday, May 22, will be Beautiful Days for Philly fans of the Irish rock group U2, which will play at the Wachovia Center as part of the Vertigo Tour. In March, U2 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Fame. Deservedly so. As far as rock bands go, U2 deserves to be on Mount Rushmore, along with the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. The Beatles were the musical equivalent of Baseball's Sandy Koufax - six or seven dominant years of musical genius. U2 is more like Steve Carlton or Warren Spahn - consistent excellence over 22 years.

The U2 discography is filled with impulsive flings followed by acts of contrition. After the thundering The Joshua Tree brought its "righteous" rock into the global spotlight in 1987, U2 worked to modulate the fury and bring its songs back down to earth. That led to more compact, traditional compositions, such as "Angel of Harlem," written for the partly live Rattle and Hum, released the next year. Now, after the zany, zoned-out electronic explorations of 1993's Zooropa and 1997's Pop, considered by many loyalists to be a particularly bad creative patch, the Irish foursome returns with an odd assortment of mealymouthed equivocations and dim homilies it calls All That You Can't Leave Behind (Interscope . 1/2)

Again and again, U.S. Rep Chaka Fattah has tried, and failed, topersuade his fellow members of Congress to pass a bill pressuring states toensure that their poorest school districts spend as much on students as do thewealthiest. But the Philadelphia Democrat isn't giving up. Inspired by a congressmanfrom another era, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Fattah plans to offer his billevery chance he gets until it passes. "This is the most important legislative work that I will do as a lawmaker,and it will pass," he said.

Naomi Campbell's recent announcement that she will wed rocker Adam Clayton of U2 is confirmation that the 22-year-old supermodel's days at the top are numbered. Why? Because whenever a major model nears the end of her career, she inevitably ends up marrying a music man. Old solders may just fade away, but old models hitch their wagons to a rock star - even if he is ugly and/or geeky. Check out these couplings. Mick Jagger dropped Bianca to wed the long-haired Jerry Hall.

Dan Donoghue wasn't going to let a little tornado keep him from seeing Bono. So as a tornado ripped through this Central Florida town on Tuesday, causing more than $400,000 in damage but injuring no one, you'd have found ol' Dan outside the Lakeland Civic Center, hunkered down in his doorless red Jeep. The arena is where U2 has rehearsed since Feb. 20 in preparation for tonight's launch of the Zoo TV Tour, the Irish band's first American foray since 1987. "It was raining really hard," said Donoghue, 22, of Clearwater.

Oh, the dangers of trying to splice the family genes. Paul Warhola, who used to give his youngest brother, Andy Warhol, tips on art, now is trying his own hand at painting. So what are his images of choice? A can of Heinz vegetarian baked beans and two nearly identical versions of a Heinz ketchup bottle. "I'm starting from scratch on art," said Warhola, 67, who lives on a 38 1/2-acre farm in Smock, Pa., where he grows flowers and vegetables and keeps chickens, ducks and geese. "It will take me awhile to get into stride.

To call the sellout crowd at U2's Saturday-night concert at the Spectrum enthusiastic would be a gross understatement: Borrowing Otis Redding's description of the folks at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival, they were "the Love Crowd. " They danced to songs by the Beatles, mounted human waves around the arena and knowingly anticipated that the end of John Lennon's version of "Stand By Me" would signal the entrance of the idealistic Irish quartet. By then, the fans were on their feet and cheering, but even that didn't prevent the crowd from emitting a collective sigh when the spotlights finally caught the object of its affection.