I had a lot of input into the band, insists U2’s former stylist

FORMER U2 stylist Lola Cashman claimed that she was “frozen out” of her job as a freelance fashion stylist when letters were sent to British auction house Christies saying that items belonged to the band, and were not hers to sell.

Under cross examination from Counsel for U2 Paul Sreenan SC, Ms Cashman said that her professional reputation, which in documents submitted to the London High Court gave her an annual income of €74,000, suffered after she tried to sell the items.

She put the items up for sale, while she was taking a sabbatical in a remote part of Australia, but the letters had she said “made it impossible to work in my industry”.

She said that the items were gifts, and were taken with Bono’s consent.

“I clearly know what belongs to me and what does not,” she said.

Ms Cashman strongly denied a suggestion by Mr Sreenan that she had reinvented in her mind that the items were gifts, and kept them because of a sense of grievance.

She said there were a lot of things she decided to leave out of her book Inside the Zoo-U2, “like who was sleeping with who.

“I wanted to keep it simple and concentrate on my work with the band.”

Ms Cashman also denied that she had exaggerated her role with the band.

“I had a lot of input into the band,” she said.

Ms Cashman was giving evidence in the third day of her appeal against a Circuit Court order that she hand back items including trousers, a stetson hat and earrings to U2.

Referring to 200 photographs of the tour and band in her possession, Ms Cashman’s Counsel John Rogers SC asked if there was “anything sensitive or compromising” for anybody in them.

Ms Cashman replied “not in a general sense” but the band would not like somebody outside to see them.

She said there were photos of Bono getting changed and on the tour bus, “pictures like that”.

She said she was allowed to take the pictures. “We are all frolicking about in party scenes.” The photos were of social occasions during the tour and after gigs.

She said she had the photos for 20 years and had never put them up for sale and had not put them in her book about the band.

“It is not what I wanted to do,” she commented.

Ms Cashman said she was upset at the suggestion that she had obtained things dishonestly and she found it “incredibly hurtful”.

She said she had put items up for sale at Christies because she was “financially challenged”.

“I was trying to realise a bit of cash,” she said.

Asked what she thought of U2 manager Paul McGuinness’s evidence that she was a traitor, Ms Cashman replied: “I just think it is absolutely and incredibly hurtful and absolutely ridiculous. I am trying to be candid in not revealing what went on in a tour. I am not a traitor, I am trying to defend myself against the allegations that I have an Aladdin’s cave of goods”.

She said when she went to work with U2 in the late 80s she “did not know who they were back then”.

“I was flown to Sante Fe then California and booked in to hotels. It was seven days before they met me. I thought they were rude. I was not going ‘yippee, I can get a suntan’. I was thinking where are my employers. I thought it was incredibly rude.” She agreed that she had been met by chauffeur driven cars and had been booked in to the Four Seasons hotel.

Counsel for U2 Mr Sreenan asked why Ms Cashman took umbrage.

“It was a serious matter for them and I thought somebody would be sensible enough to ring me. I wanted somebody to introduce themselves,” she said.

Asked by counsel if she was easily offended, Ms Cashman said she was sensitive. She agreed at the end of the Joshua Tree tour she was resentful that she was the only one who did not get a bonus and said it was upsetting. She said she had no recollection that it was part of her deal because of her very high salary.

Mr Sreenan read several pages from Ms Cashman’s book Inside the Zoo-U2 and suggested that Ms Cashman was drawing on the private detail of the band and exploited her privileged access to the U2 inner sanctum in return for money.

“I did not take a vow of silence for life,” she replied.

Counsel said Ms Cashman in the book said she became a confidante and counsellor for the band and then proceeded to refer to private matters such as the Edge’s thinning hair.

The hearing has now ended and Mr Justice Michael Peart has reserved his decision.