Spinner

Bono Makes Pal Gavin Friday's Rock Fantasies Come True With Surprise Guests Lady Gaga, Lou Reed

Bono took his best pal's teenage dream and made it a reality on Sunday night at New York's Carnegie Hall. Gavin Friday and Friends was essentially a 50th birthday party for singer-songwriter and former Virgin Prunes frontman Friday, but the three-hour-plus concert, benefiting (RED), was also a dream for fans as the hallowed hall saw incredible pairings, performances and different sides of well-known artists.

Early in the night, after Friday and Courtney Love rocked their way through a steamy cover of Magazine's 'The Light Pours Out of Me,' Friday said, "Only one thing can follow that," and brought out Scarlett Johansson and Rufus Wainwright. That one-upmanship kept going until the end of the night, when after a magnificent solo turn by Bono, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed came out to join Friday, the Edge and Bono for a raucous post-modern 'Sweet Jane.' How do you improve on that?

How about Bono, Love, Friday, Johansson, Wainwright and many more tearing up the Carnegie stage with David Bowie's 'Jean Genie'?

The night began appropriately enough with Friday, a gifted singer in his own right with the Virgin Prunes and several critically-acclaimed solo albums, crooning the beautiful 'Apologia.' Rather than saving the biggest names for last, Bono immediately came out to say a few words about his childhood pal. "When we were kids, we grew up in the same streets. We had these grandiose ideas, lived surreal lives in our imagination," he said before bringing a bit of grandiosity to the Carnegie stage. "It's time for the U2ers," he added. While seeing the band in this setting was surreal, they were perfectly reserved, delivering a beautiful rendition of Friday's 'I Want to Live.'

That was followed by a witty moment as Friday introduced Antony Hegarty to sing "the first song Man Seezer and I ever wrote," according to Friday. After Friday said, "Now this beautiful man is gonna sing it," Hegarty quipped, "I'm not a man." Friday didn't miss a beat, calling Hegarty "a beautiful person," to some laughs. That laughter turned to awe as the two voices merged on 'He Got What He Wanted.'

When Spinner spoke to Friday last week, he discounted the possibility of a Prunes reunion, saying, "I don't believe in going back." Apparently, taking the Carnegie Hall stage changed that. After a sweetly nervous intro by Love, who recalled seeing the Prunes in their heyday and how they had "so much sex, snarl, and raw power" that she had her "ass handed to [her] that night by the Prunes," Friday and his former bandmate Guggi joined guest JG Thirwell to display all of those attributes with a sultry 'Caucasian Walk' that turned Carnegie Hall into a gilded CBGB's.

Among the many other highlights were master of 'Caberet' Joel Gray performing 'Willkomen,' and Friday and Maria McKee showing off their own cabaret skills with some Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, as well as their own collaboration, 'Falling Off the Edge of the World.'

Bono introduced suprise guest Lady Gaga, who explained to the stunned crowd that she'd written a new song for the evening, inspired by (RED), about falling in love with a man with red hair. As she segued into a her piano-only version of 'Poker Face,' she paused to tell the crowd how she ended up onstage for the show. "When I spoke to Bono, he said, 'We're doing a little downtown thing,'" Gaga explained. "When I arrived, I'm thinking to myself, 'This isn't downtown for me!' But I guess when you regularly play for 90,000 screaming fans, this might seem like downtown."

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Jim McCaul

I too saw the show.What a great musical evening!Yet I couldn't help notice that you didn't mention the musical performance of Eric Mingus w/Gavin Friday.Truely a highlight of the show.Must all you reviewers become like starry-eyed groupies when it comes to celebrity?No mention of the novelist Patrick McCabe,nor the brilliant Eric on vocals.Mr.Mingus is the son of the Great Jazz bassist&composer who once headlined Carnegie Hall back in '64.Show some respect & mention that his talented son was asked by Mr.Friday to perform!Enough said.........

October 06 2009 at 6:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bob Levesque

My friend told me about the benefit and I was scowling since I would have gone but Rock on and I heard was awesome . nice Job well done and I think I am in Love goofy over Scarlett . Never have beeen a fan or even remotely a groupy but she just does it for me sinve A Love song for Bobby Long. Girl has Skills and beauty inside and out. As for the rest of the musicians I really enjoyed listening to what of it i heard.

October 06 2009 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aram

don't know who wrote that for spinner, but they were clearly at another concert. the show was just dreadful, went on for almost four hours. with the exception of a few good performances (virgin prunes, bono and u2, and lady gaga), the rest of it just plain stunk.

October 05 2009 at 1:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kurt Moeller

go bono

October 05 2009 at 12:04 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply