U2 have always surrounded themselves with a loyal, tightly-knit crew, a team of production and stage managers, set designers and visual dynamos who Bono & co. trust implicitly. Once they bring you in, it seems, you’re in for life.
One man who can attest to that is Gavin Friday. A former member of The Virgin Prunes and then a successful solo artist and collaborator for artists such as Sinead O’Connor, Friday has been friends with U2 since they were teenagers, growing up together in the Northside of Dublin. Friday has been on U2’s books as their official Creative Director since the mid-80s and speaking to the music Substack publication The New Cue about his latest record Ecce Homo recently, he explained exactly what being U2’s Creative Director entails.
“It’s as simple as this,” he said. “When we were 15 and starting to write songs, they’d play something and I’d go, ‘That’s great, but where’s the hook? What are you saying in that chorus?’ Fifty years later, I still do it. When Joshua Tree went off, I got a call from Bono saying, ‘We’re playing to eighty thousand a night, but everyone is blowing smoke up our arse: will you come watch a few shows and help us make it better?’ And that that was the start of it, a more sophisticated version of what we were doing at 15. Mates say it as it is.”
Being a core member of their inner-circle has undoubtedly led to some pretty spectacular moments, and Friday remembered being starstruck one night when working with the band on their bombastic 360° tour. “I was furiously writing my notes in front of the mixing desk and someone tapped me on the shoulder,” he recalled. “‘Gav?’ Yeah, yeah! ‘Gav!’ I’m working. ‘Gav!’ I spun around and there was this small man just standing there: it was Leonard Cohen. ‘Hello Gavin, I was told to introduce myself.’ I actually went, ‘I’ve got all your albums!’ Like a ten-year-old. He just smiled. Later that evening we did sit and talk, and I met him subsequently, but he made me starstruck.”
And so if you didn’t know what U2’s Creative Director does, then now you do. You say it as it is. You take notes, furiously, and you gush at Leonard Cohen when he’s been trying to get your attention for a few minutes.
