Revealed: the U2 man who is a fan of 2fm Dan
They’ve never met, but Larry Mullen relies on mix tapes by late-night DJ
U2’s Larry Mullen has revealed that when he’s away on tour, he listens to mix tapes given to him by his favourite late-night 2fm DJ.
The drummer shares this unique bond with 2fm’s Dan Hegarty – who has just published his first book – despite the fact he and Hegarty have never met.
Hegarty presents The Alternative, a show for night owls that goes out at 1am from Monday to Thursday on 2FM.
His new book, called Buried Treasures, is a collection of essays by Hegarty and various people working in the music industry about underappreciated albums – which is a theme explored exten- sively on his show. It has now emerged that Mullen became a fan of the show after he was tipped off about it more than a decade ago by a friend – and he relates in the foreword of the book that after a long day in the studio, he enjoys tuning in to Hegarty’s show.
He recalls one episode in particular, and writes, ‘Driving home late one night, mortally depressed after listening to the day’s offerings, I turned to the radio for company and stumbled upon Dan Hegarty’s night-time show on 2FM. I kept listening to the show night after night, slightly irked by my musical deficiencies, eagerly getting to know the voice and his beautifully mad choice of music.’ Describing the CDs that Dan makes for him Larry writes: ‘I missed the show when I was away, so Dan started compiling playlists of music from the very edges of glam, to bands that I’d never heard before, helping me to discover and rediscover music lost through the noise of years and years of bad pop songs. He’s still making them for me. Thank you Dan!’
It was this fandom which saw Hegarty, despite having never met the superstar musician, to chance his arm and ask for the helping hand with his book.
Hegarty asked Mullen if he would write a few words for the book and, much to his delight, he said he would do it.
‘I just phoned him up and I asked him if he would write the foreword and he said yes.
‘I would have fully understood if he had said, “No I’m busy” but it was “Yeah, no problem”. So we chatted a bit about what I was writ-
Stumbled upon Dan’s show a decade ago
ing about and he gave me that lovely introduction which was great.
‘I was just gobsmacked when I read it; in fact I had to read it twice!’
Hegarty told the Irish Mail on Sunday that it seems bizarre but he shrugs it off by saying; ‘In this day and age it’s not entirely unusual for people to work together and they haven’t met face to face.’ And he added with a laugh: I’m sure I’ll meet him at some point.’
Hegarty explains how the pair got to know each other, saying: ‘It was a mutual friend who tipped Larry off about the show and he liked it, luckily.
‘It was very much a case of disbelief by me that he did as this was only about a year after I joined RTÉ in 2003 and I was still kind of finding my