LISTEN: A St. Patrick’s Day Salute To Gavin Friday

This St. Patrick’s Day, the Rock & Roll Globe honors a most underrated talent in Irish rock, Mr. Gavin Friday.

He first came across my radar in 1994 when I picked up the soundtrack to the film In The Name Of The Father, which saw him in collaboration with his childhood friend Bono on three cuts for the Jim Sheridan film, including the title track, “Billy Boola” and “You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart”, sung by Sinéad O’Connor and nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

AUDIO: Bono and Gavin Friday “In The Name Of The Father”

From there, it was onto his work as a solo act, starting with Shag Tobacco, his third LP with longtime collaborator Maurice Seezer from 1995 featuring contributions from Skeleton Key/Lounge Lizards bassist Erik Sanko, Bomb The Bass, Bono and The Edge. If you haven’t picked up this album yet, it needs to be on your shortlist straightaway. It remains to this day his finest work yet, a record the esteemed Ned Raggett proclaimed in his review for AMG had foreshadowed Depeche Mode’s 1997 LP Ultra and Mezzanine from Massive Attack in its hypnotic hybrid of beats and songcraft. 

I must admit I’m pretty late to the dance in getting hip to The Virgin Prunes, the celebrated post-punk band Friday had co-founded with Edge’s older brother Dik Evans in 1977.

AUDIO: Virgin Prunes at Pukkelpop Festival ’86

I truly hope some record label will do us a favour and reissue their crucial catalog soon, because more people need to check out the way these lads planted a stake in the center of the line separating Rocky Horror and PiL. 

There’s clearly not enough Prunes on Spotify, but most of Friday’s solo works (with the strange exception of the In The Name Of The Father soundtrack) are available to stream. And from those sonic rations the Rock & Roll Globe has put together this exclusive Gavin mixtape for your St. Patty’s Day pleasure.

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Ron Hart

Ron Hart is the Editor-in-Chief of Rock and Roll Globe. Reach him on Twitter @MisterTribune.

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