Could Bono be the planet's most ubiquitous celebrity? It would certainly appear thus. Open any newspaper on any given day, and chances are there'll be a picture of the instantly recognisable U2 singer in one of his various guises. Bono meeting Barack Obama in Washington... Bono and Bob Geldof with Gordon Brown in Davos... Bono and Bill Gates in Africa... Bono and Brad Pitt chilling out in the South of France... Bono and U2 playing at the Grammys in Los Angeles... Phew! He certainly gets around. But how on earth does the man do it?

"There's a Bono factory," the 48-year-old Irishman laughs. "The band, when they saw me getting busy, opened a factory. It's just there at the back of [Dublin suburb] Tallaght. And there's various different ones, and they're being used for different occasions."

The Bono factory will be working overtime in the coming months as the band gear up to release and tour their 12th studio album 'No Line On The Horizon' (the title apparently inspired by the sea view from the window of the study of the singer's Dublin home). Recorded over two years in Morocco, France, New York, Dublin and London, and produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the album has already received rave reviews from some of the world's most influential music critics, many of whom consider it to be U2's finest album to date. High praise indeed when you consider that their back catalogue includes such classics as 'The Joshua Tree' and 'Achtung Baby'!

Although the band had originally drafted Rick Rubin in to produce, the plan changed after an inspiring song-writing session with Eno and Lanois in the Moroccan city of Fez.

What attracted U2 to North Africa in the first place?

"There was a religious music festival on, which was the original reason to be there," explains guitarist and band engine The Edge. "I think Bono had been invited a few years running, and he was going through his schedule and he saw this invitation and said: 'You know, maybe I should go and maybe I should see if the others would like to come.' So that was one of the original reasons why we considered it.

"And then to our surprise, Adam and Larry showed huge enthusiasm for the idea. I wouldn't have assumed that at the time, but they were well up for it. So we went for different reasons, but mostly a kind of instinctive sense that going somewhere different was going to be important and inspiring for us. And I think that turned out to be very much the case."

How long did U2 stay in Fez?

"It was just two weeks, but it was great," says Edge. "I remember clearly at least two or three songs being born in that location. And very quick. Like, maybe three or four hours. We'd start with one little idea ? it might be a rhythm or a chord progression or a guitar or a keyboard sound ? and then very quickly through a series of ideas thrown in a song would come together.

"'Unknown Caller' came together there. It was a live performance and once we had hit that arrangement, we only ever played it once. So that song, there were a couple of iterations that were different leading up to that version, but that definitive version was only ever played once. That is also true of 'No Line On The Horizon' and 'Moment Of Surrender' and 'White As Snow'. Although on 'White As Snow' we had to do a little bit of editing afterwards, but basically there's four songs that were only ever performed once in their final version. Because it was that kind of a free-flowing song-writing workshop atmosphere."

Birds of Fez

Although U2 have millions of fans all over the world, the birds of Fez apparently weren't overly impressed by the Irish rockers. And somewhat unfortunately for drummer Larry Mullen, Jr, the recording sessions took place in an open air courtyard.

"They wrecked my new electronic drumkit," the youngest U2 member laughs. "It was just one of those great moments, you know. This idyllic place, everything is just perfect ? or not perfect, but it's pretty close. From a musician's perspective, anyway. Brian Eno's on one side, you've got the rest of U2, you've got Daniel Lanois doing his thing on his guitar. The roof is open, the sun is shining. And suddenly the birds are shitting on you! So that brought us back to reality!"

Some footage of those Fez sessions can be viewed on the band?s website, U2.com. Bass player Adam Clayton was the filmmaker but, by his own admission, he?s no budding director.

"We've had this website for ages and we didn't really do much with it in terms of doing interviews or whatever," Clayton explains. "And I just saw these great cameras, these flip cameras, and I thought we should just film stuff, but not film it in an 'I'm trying to make a film' kind of way. Like the camera might be stuck under a table or whatever. So they're rough and ready.

"I mean, I hope that it says as much about the person behind the camera as it does about the person in front of it," he continues. "And they're edited a little bit when we put them out, they're like maybe a couple of minutes at a time. I'd prefer it to run for 20 minutes, but I think people would be bored by that. They'd realise how boring making a record can be!"