How does it feel to have two years of touring laid out in front of you?

We're very excited to go on the road with this album. It's an album that I think is going to translate so well to the live context. The songs we've tried in rehearsal are sounding fantastic, so that's got everyone really fired up.

Going on a long tour is always difficult at first to say goodbye to the family and get on the tour bus, so to speak. But the shows themselves are always what really makes it worthwhile. There's such a special thing that goes on between the band and the audience at a U2 show, and we never get tired of that. It's always unique; it's always really uplifting. It's like a kind of semi-religious experience for the band and I think for the audience, too. I couldn't begin to explain why; it's just always been that way.

I think it's all to do with the music, and we kind of go there ourselves to serve the music and people's connection with it. For a lot of people it's the soundtrack of their lives. It's not just the band they're applauding, it's themselves and their own history and their connection with the music.

It's a very personal thing.

On the last several tours you played stadiums in Europe and around the world and arenas in North America. Does it sometimes feel like two different tours?

It's hard to say what constitutes a new tour. In some ways it's to do with the album and the new material. Every time we produce a new record it just throws up all these new possibilities for how we can stage the band and where we can take the show.

This [the U2360º tour] is going to be very different and that's what makes it exciting; finding something new to do, finding something new to bring to the touring culture really. It's hard to come up with something that's fundamentally different, but we have, I think, on this tour. Where we're taking our production will never have been seen before by anybody and that's an amazing thing to be able to say. For a band like U2 that really thrive on breaking new ground it's a real thrill.

This is an interesting, even historic, time to be touring the world. People are going through a lot. Does that have an effect on the way you will play?

We respond very much to the mood in the house. I think there will be a very particular mood at these concerts and we'll be very sensitive to that. We hope that it will be not all doom and gloom but will also be a lot of fun and a chance to have a really great time. We're doing what we can with the ticket prices to make it affordable in this difficult time. I think people know we always offer great value for money and that's an important thing for us, to give back in whatever way we can. I'm looking forward to it. We won't know until we get out there exactly how things are going to work out but I'm very positive, and we all are, about this tour and we think it's going to be just a great experience for everybody.