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Adam Charles Clayton is a musician best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. He has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965. Clayton is well known for his bass playing on songs such as "New Year's Day", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "With or Without You", "Mysterious Ways", "Get on Your Boots", and "Magnificent". His work on No Line on the Horizon has been cited as his best bass playing. He has worked on several solo projects throughout his career, such as his work with fellow band member Larry Mullen Jr. on the theme of 1996's Mission: Impossible. Clayton, as a part of U2, has won 22 Grammy awards
dam Clayton is the elder child of Brian and Jo Clayton, born on 13 March 1960 in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, England. His father was an RAF pilot and then he moved into civil aviation; his mother did moonlighting as a stewardess. When Clayton was four years old, his father found work in Kenya flying for East African Airways. The entire family were based in Nairobi—Clayton recalls this as the happiest period from his childhood years. In 1965, the family moved to Malahide, County Dublin in Ireland, where Clayton's brother Sebastian was born. The Clayton family became friends with the Evans family, with their sons Dik and Dave ("The Edge") who, along with Clayton, would later form the band Feedback, which eventually became U2.
At the age of eight, Clayton was sent to a boarding school called Castle Park, in Dalkey. Clayton did not respond well to boarding school. He was not sports orientated or social, and although he was keen on music, the students were not allowed to listen pop music or watch television. As a result, Clayton joined the Gramphone Society, which met to listen to classical music. He also took piano lessons for a short time before quitting. Clayton's early introduction to music was at the age of ten, listening to rock operas like Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, and things that were midway between classical and popular music.
Clayton changed schools when he was thirteen, joining St. Columba's College in Rathfarnham. He befriended people who used to listen the music that was popular at that time: The Who, The Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Carole King and others. Clayton bought a £5 acoustic guitar from a junk-shop near the Dublin quays that he used to start learning chords and songs. One of his friends persuaded him to form a band in which he would play the electric guitar and Clayton would play bass guitar.
His parents bought him a bass guitar at the age of fifteen with the promise that he would commit himself to the instruments. He later changed school to Mount Temple Comprehensive School in Dublin, where he met bandmates Paul "Bono" Hewson and Larry Mullen, Jr., and was reunited with his boyhood friend Dave "The Edge" Evans. Mullen had posted an advertisement on the school bulletin board for musicians to form a band with him; Clayton showed up at the first practice, which also included the Evans brothers, Bono, Ivan McCormick, and Peter Martin, who were two of Mullen's friends. McCormick and Martin left the band soon after its conception. While the band was a five-piece (consisting of Bono, The Edge, Mullen, Dik Evans, and Clayton), it was known as Feedback. The name was subsequently changed to The Hype, but changed to "U2" soon after Dik left the band. Clayton also served as the band's first manager before Paul McGuinness, a more experienced manager, was hired after Clayton had left school.
In 1981, around the time of U2's second, spiritually charged album, October, a rift was created in the band between Clayton and McGuinness, and the three other band members. Bono, The Edge, and Mullen had joined a Christian group, and were questioning the compatibility of rock music with their spirituality. However, Clayton, with his more ambiguous religious views, was less concerned, and so was more of an outsider, until Bono's wedding to Alison Hewson (Née Stewart), in which Clayton was the best man.
Clayton made international headlines in August 1989 when he was arrested in Dublin carrying a small amount of marijuana. However, he avoided conviction by making a large donation to charity, and has later been regretful, saying "It was my own fault. And I'm sure I was out of my head – emotionally apart from anything else. But it is serious because it is illegal." Clayton has also had alcohol problems, which came to a head on 26 November 1993 when he was so hung over that he was unable to play that night's show in Sydney, the dress rehearsal for their Zoo TV concert film. After that incident, however, he gave up alcohol.
In 1995, after the Zoo TV Tour and Zooropa album, Clayton headed to New York with bandmate Mullen to receive formal training in the bass; until then Clayton had been entirely self-taught. During that period, he worked on U2's experimental album, released under the pseudonym "Passengers", entitled Original Soundtracks 1. That album features one of the few instances where Clayton has appeared as a vocalist; he spoke the last verse of "Your Blue Room", the album's second single. Prior to this Clayton had only provided live backing vocals to tracks such as "Out of Control", "I Will Follow", "Twilight" and "Bullet the Blue Sky". Since 1998's Popmart tour Clayton has not sung live in any capacity for the band. In 1996, while still in New York, Clayton collaborated with Mullen to re-record the Mission: Impossible theme.
Clayton has remained a bachelor through his time with U2. During the early 1990s, he dated and was engaged to British supermodel Naomi Campbell. He also had a long-standing relationship with Suzanne "Susie" Smith, a former assistant to Paul McGuinness; they were engaged in 2006, but the pair broke up in February 2007. According to the Sunday Independent, he fathered a son in 2010. This has been confirmed by Bono while introducing his bandmate during their 360 tour. On 4 September 2013, Clayton married Mariana Teixeira de Carvalho, a Brazilian supermodel, in a ceremony in Dublin.
In 2009 the High Court ordered the assets of Clayton's former housekeeper and PA be frozen after it was reported that she misappropriated funds of €1.8 million. At the subsequent trial that figure was stated to be €2.8 million. The PA denied the charges but in 2012 was convicted by a jury of 181 counts of theft and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.
As a bass player, Adam Clayton's most recognizable basslines include "New Year's Day", which evolved out of an attempt to play Visage's song "Fade to Grey", and "With or Without You". His style includes Motown and reggae influences, and cites artists such as Paul Simonon of The Clash as influences on his musical style. When Clayton first joined the fledgling U2, he did not have formal training in the bass. In the band's early years, he generally played simple parts in 4/4 time. Bono said of Clayton's early bass playing, "Adam used to pretend he could play bass. He came round and started using words like 'action' and 'fret' and he had us baffled. He had the only amplifier, so we never argued with him. We thought this guy must be a musician; he knows what he's talking about. And then one day, we discovered he wasn't playing the right notes. That's what's wrong, y'know?"
Clayton has sung on several occasion, including on the song "Endless Deep", the B-side to the single "Two Hearts Beat As One" from 1983. Clayton also sung backup vocals on "I Will Follow" during live performances in 1983 and 1984. He also spoke the last verse of "Your Blue Room". Clayton can be heard speaking on "Tomorrow ('96 Version)" (a rerecording of "Tomorrow" that he arranged) a song from U2's 1981 album October. He plays the guitar on a few occasions, most notably the song "40", where he and guitarist The Edge switch instruments. He also plays the keyboard introduction to "City of Blinding Lights".
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