Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes.
Fionan Hanvey was born in Dublin and attended primary and post-primary schools in Ballygall, a neighbourhood on Dublin's Northside, between Finglas and Glasnevin.[1] When he was fourteen years old and living on Cedarwood Road, between Finglas and Ballymun, he met Bono and Guggi at a party to which he had not been invited. Bono said: "We caught him trying to steal something of the house. Classic teenage stuff... but we became friends."[2]
In 1986, after the demise of the Virgin Prunes, Friday devoted himself to painting for a while, sharing a studio with Bono, Guggi and Charlie Whisker. This resulted in the exhibition Four Artists – Many Wednesdays (1988) at Dublin's Hendricks Gallery. He, Guggi and Whisker showed paintings, while Bono opted to exhibit photos taken in Ethiopia. Friday's part of the show was entitled I didn't come up the Liffey in a bubble, an expression often used by his father.[4][5]
His main collaborator between 1987 and 2005 was multi-instrumentalist, Maurice Seezer. They signed to Island Records in 1988 and released three albums together, before parting with the company in 1996.[6] Later, Friday and Seezer composed the score for the Jim Sheridan films The Boxer and In America which was nominated for Best Original Film Score in the 2004 Ivor Novello Awards.[7]
He has maintained a close friendship with U2's Bono[8] since both were children, and they collaborated on the soundtrack for the Jim Sheridan film In the Name of the Father, including the title track, "Billy Boola" and "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart", which was sung by Sinéad O'Connor and nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.[9] In 2003 they wrote "Time Enough for Tears", the original theme tune for Sheridan's film In America, as sung by Andrea Corr.[10] The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.[11]
In 1995 he performed "Look What You've Done (To My Skin)," one of two songs (the other sung by P.J. Harvey) written by Philip Ridley and Nick Bicat for Ridley's second feature film as writer and director, The Passion of Darkly Noon.[12]
Taking time out from work on his fourth solo album with Herb Macken, Friday teamed up with English composer, Gavin Bryars, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Opera North for a new interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnets touring as part of the 2007 Complete Works Festival. Opening in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Friday presented his take on Sonnet 40 ('Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all') and narrated Bryars' 40-minute piece 'Nothing Like The Sun'.[19] Friday and Macken composed the music for the Patrick McCabe play, The Revenant.[20]The Revenant opened as part of the 2007 Galway Arts Festival. The play's main theme is entitled 'Dreamland'.[21]
In 2009, Friday and Macken worked on Friday's fourth studio album, set for release in 2010.[22] On 6 April 2010 Record company Rubyworks announced they signed Gavin Friday and that a new album was on its way.[23] The new CD was titled catholic and was released in Ireland on Good Friday: 22 April 2011.[24]
In 1983, Friday appeared on the title track of Dave Ball's In Strict Tempo. In 1984, he collaborated with cult English post-punk group The Fall, on three tracks: "Copped It" and "Stephen Song" appeared on the album The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, and "Clear Off!" was a track on the "Call For Escape Route" EP. On all three tracks, Friday and Fall singer Mark E. Smith alternated vocals, occasionally backing each other up. In the same year Friday provided vocals for the track "The Tenderness of Wolves" on the album ScatologybyCoil.[29] Twelve years later, Friday collaborated with the Heads (former members of Talking Heads minus David Byrne) on a song called "Blue Blue Moon." This was included as the last of 12 tracks on the Heads' 1996 album No Talking, Just Head. The song is credited to Gavin Friday, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, T. "Blast" Murray and Tina Weymouth.
[edit]Entrance to Friday's property on Vico Road, Killiney, County Dublin
Friday lives in a house on Vico Road, Killiney, a southern suburb of Dublin, next door to Bono and his wife Ali Hewson.[32][33] He is godfather to their daughter, actress Eve Hewson.[34]
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