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Ex U2 stylist: I kicked Bono in the privates
Battle over band items continues

By Brian Hutton

20 October 2006
Rock band U2's former stylist told a court yesterday she was assured of her special relationship with Bono after kicking "his manhood" in front of 80,000 fans.


Lola Cashman was being cross-examined during the third day of her High Court battle with the band over a Stetson hat, a pair of metal hooped earrings, a green sweatshirt and a pair of black trousers, which they claim she took without permission.

Ms Cashman claims she was given the items, estimated to be worth £3,500, as gifts during U2's Joshua Tree tour in 1987.

Bono had become "completely paranoid" about the way he looked in the late 1980s and she took control of the band's entire image, she said.

A lighting man on the tour entourage was instructed to video every appearance and performance the band gave to be reviewed afterwards.

During one concert, Ms Cashman said she was duped into going onstage during the song Party Girl to toast the lead singer with a bottle of champagne.

She said she was embarrassed in front of the massive audience and "ran onstage and kicked him in his manhood".

She said: "The (video) footage shows Bono saying 'Lola, I love you, come back'.

"I think it's a demonstration of the special relationship Bono and I had," she added.

Under questioning from senior counsel for U2, Paul Sreenan, she admitted approaching publicist Max Clifford to represent her. The barrister said: "That's the agency you would go to if you wanted to dish the dirt on somebody."

But Ms Cashman replied she needed somebody who was used to dealing with people as powerful as Bono to defend her side of the story.