Gavin Friday has teamed up with producer Hal Willner to create the score for ‘Chelsea on the Rocks‘, a new movie by director Abel Ferrera (Bad Lieutenant, King of New York).
Willner and Friday recorded the score as a live improvisation to the picture over two days in Manhattan earlier this month. Musicians included Tony Garnier and guitarist G.E. Smith (from Bob Dylan’s backing band) as well as drummer Jim White from The Dirty Three.
The film, starring Ethan Hawke, Dennis Hopper, Milos Forman and Grace Jones, is set in New York’s Chelsea Hotel and is currently in post-production. ‘Chelsea on the Rocks’ is expected to premiere at this year’s Cannes Festival.
Stills from the movie.

The Breakfast on Pluto director talks to GreenCine about his work and mentions Gavin:
“I knew Gavin was a great singer but I didn’t know that he could act. I brought him in. I did my little video test. I got right in my video camera, ‘Act, okay, let’s try it this way.’ In a little room like this [where we were sitting], he was floating. I thought it was great. I love that kind of acting where they don’t know they can act and they don’t know the rules of acting. They can never repeat what they’re doing. ”

Cillian Murphy was interviewed on the Ian Dempsey show:
Ian: And they’re all completely different, and they’re powerful performances… and Gavin Friday as well… I didn’t know he could act.
Cillian: He certainly can.
Ian: He’s a man for the future, I think.
Cillian: Big time. He was in Disco Pigs, actually, had a small part and I remember saying ‘God, this guy is fantastic’ and then Neil thought of casting him in that role and he just… eats it up, you know, he’s wonderful.
Ian: Ah, he’s out of this world, brilliant.

‘Gavin Friday gives an impressive and convincing performance as the tragi-comic singer Billy Hatchett.’
From the Irish Independent review of Breakfast on Pluto.