Welcome to the happy end! Just a reminder that Gavin and Maurice will be presenting ‘The Kurt Weill Jukebox’ this Friday, 9pm GMT on RTE Radio 1:
“Presenters Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer delve into the world of music over the 50 years since Kurt Weill‘s death to highlight his far-reaching influence on musicians as diverse as Nina Simone and Nick Cave.”
Gavin and Maurice have recorded music for the film Disco Pigs, directed by Kirsten Sheridan. Gavin also has a cameo in the film. You can spot him MC-ing in the karaoke scene.
Gavinfriday.com says ‘merci, goodbye, auf wiedersehen’ to Anne Louise Kelly and Liz Devlin, (Gavin and Maurice’s management up and until today). We wish them all the best for the future, and for now a very happy Christmas. Thank you!
by Gavin Friday
“People stared at the make up on his face
laughed at his long black hair, his animal grace
the boy in the bright blue jeans jumped up on the stage,
Lady Stardust sang his songs of darkness and dismay”
David Bowie
As a teenager it was David Bowie who turned me onto music and Oscar Wilde to literature, “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” from the seductive and ruthless charms of Dorian Gray’s Faustian pact to the tragic romantic chaos of Ziggy Stardust selling his soul to rock and roll. To be totally honest I hadn’t a clue at the time what Bowie and Wilde were going on about but deep down in the subliminal I understood everything, and with all the typical teenage angst in the world I was hooked. It was all or nothing! From then on my whole world revolved around three things, Music-Books-Art.
When we suggest Gavin do his ‘Vincent Price’ on Prokoviev’s Peter and the Wolf he says: “The Shag Tobacco man? I can’t do that, it’s for children.”
Kids there are plenty, mainly on the ‘friends, family and fans’ side. They’ve come to support Mr. G., or Uncle Gav. The non partisan part of the divided audience wonder who this Friday feller is. Although introduced as the ‘star of the night’, they ask each other: “We never see him in the charts?”
Put the man behind a lectern and the wolf confined tries to escape. Beneath the stately chandeliers and county banners of St Patrick’s Hall, Friday radiates rock chic in stark contrast with these ‘evening dress’ surroundings. The boy from Ballymun’s given permission to use the Taoiseoch’s playground… As with anything he does, the evening’s slightly surreal.
The orchestra has the floor, which means Gavin’s at the back, nonetheless demanding all attention. The story unfolds, he relaxes, finding his cues. Kids and adults alike are enchanted. He thrives, not on his diction — which could be better, nor rehearsal — there was little or none.
It’s a lifetime of experience in playing an audience for guts and glory that overcomes the shyness, the nervousness in this new setting. Always the physical performer, the drop of a shoulder and sleight of hand turn the story slightly less than kiddie proof. Who’d have thought a wolf eating a duck could be big time sensuality?
There are little Friday twists to the words: the birdies scarper up the tree, no love lost between them. The wolf, caught in Peter’s trap, goes ‘mental’. Then he ends the evening with a quick ‘quack quack’.
Laughter and applause fill the room, while old pal Guggi turns to Mother Friday: ‘That was brilliant!’. And the kids who’ve found their way to the off limits balcony cheer the loudest.
This Peter and the Wolf performance was part of the Con Anima musical evening in support of The Irish Hospice Foundation, State Apartments, Dublin Castle, November 21, 2000
Gavin has been approached by the Irish Hospice Foundation and has agreed to do the narration of ‘Peter And The Wolf’ which is being performed by a full orchestra and guest artists at Dublin Castle on November 21st.
Tickets for the event are between £20-£26 and they can be purchased by sending a cheque, or use a visa card:
the address is :
The Irish Hospice Foundation
9 Fitzwilliam Place
Dublin 2.
Make cheques payable to the ‘Royal Irish Academy of Music’ who are hosting the event.
‘K’ in Dublin reports:
“Met Gav last night after the Lou Reed show in the Olympia in the company of Guggi, Adam, Bono & the Edge. Confirming that the new album “is nearly ready to go” he said that himself and Maurice would be playing a number of low key gigs in Dublin in October and November.”
The radio plays Emerald Germs of Ireland by Pat McCabe, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer are going to be repeated on RTE radio 1 at 7pm on Thursday starting 7th Sept, 2000.
Gavin alongside other Irish prominents such as Guggi, Gerry Ryan, Dave Fanning and Simon Carmody appears in a new documentary: Aidan Walsh: Master of the Universe, directed by Shimmy Marcus.
Gavin and Maurice perform ‘Angel’ on the Gay Byrne Music Show, at 9:20pm on RTE 1.