Fan Fare

(Writing and reporting by Dean Goodman)

Just in case anyone was wondering, U2 have no immediate plans to break up, even if the Irish rockers still find it a struggle to make albums after almost three decades of practice.

The band, making a whistle-stop visit to Los Angeles on Monday to promote its 12th release “No Line on the Horizon,” sat down for questions at a radio broadcast hosted by Scottish singer/actress Shirley Manson.

Perhaps unaware that U2 are mere mortals, the former Garbage frontwoman asked whether U2 was “a finite proposition.”

“One crap album and you’re out,” singer Bono immediately joked, possibly forgetting the unloved 1997 release “Pop.”

“It’d have to be a particularly crap one, though,” added guitarist the Edge, who had earlier delivered a lengthy monologue laying out his corporate vision for the band.

“It’s a mystery how we’ve managed to keep it going,” the Edge said. “We all really wanna keep it going as long as we can. Every time we go into the studio it feels like our first album. We can’t, it seems, rely on songwriting technique or any other forms that would make it easy for us. The struggle has always been the same, since the first album (1980′s “Boy”).

“The fact that it’s never been easy but sometimes we get somewhere really great means that it’s still very rewarding, and a challenge in the best way. I don’t think I would ever find anything else as rewarding as being in U2, so I just want to keep it going as long as I can.”