1959 – 1985
Gavin Friday is born in Dublin, Ireland on October 8, 1959. He survives a Christian Brothers education to become a singer, composer and painter. Ireland’s most avant-garde chanteur founds the legendary Virgin Prunes in 1977. The band’s uncompromising body of work ensures a dedicated fan base in Ireland, the U.K. and mainland Europe in particular.

1986 – 1991
In 1986 Gavin briefly abandones music to paint, which culminates in the 1988 exhibition entitled ‘I didn’t come up the Liffey in a bubble’ at Dublin’s Hendriks Gallery. He returns to the stage in ’87, acting as master of ceremonies in his own weekly cabaret, the ‘Blue Jaysus’ club. Friday’s own unique interpretations of classic burlesque songs feature alongside comedy and drag acts, as well as appearances by special guests from Dublin’s always fertile music scene.

From 1987 to 2005 he composes and performs with pianist Maurice Roycroft (The Man Seezer). Fresh from The Blue Jaysus, they play their first gig together in October 1987 at an AIDS benefit in Dublin. A demo tape of original material attracts the attention of Island Records’ Chris Blackwell, who signs them to the label in November 1987.

‘Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves’ (1989), their compelling moody debut produced by Hal Willner, explores the world of Jacques Brel (whose song ‘Next’ is covered on the album), Edith Piaf, Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill regarded with a healthy punk ethos. Recorded in New York, Friday claims it articulates everything he wasn’t able to say in the Virgin Prunes. Themes of love, death and sex permeate the album, which has a strong musical cast including Michael Blair, Marc Ribot, Fernando Saunders and Bill Frisell.

1992 – 1994
The follow up, 1992′s ‘Adam ‘N’ Eve’ is an eclectic work by an artist who refuses to be pigeonholed. Influenced by Gavin’s adolescent pop past, the album contains shades of T-Rex, Roxy Music, Bowie, Eric Satie and Burt Bacharach and is lighter and more humorous than its predecessor. The first single, ‘I Want to Live’, charts in The Netherlands and Belgium where Friday’s debut album had also been especially well received.

In 1993 Gavin Friday works on the soundtrack of Jim Sheridan’s film ‘In the Name of the Father’ and together with U2′s Bono writes the title track as well as the Sinead O’Connor sung hit ‘You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart’.

1995 – 1998
In 1995 Gavin Friday releases ‘Shag Tobacco’. Produced by Bomb the Bass’ Tim Simenon, this sultry, cinematic album uniquely blends 90′s dance rhythms with more traditional European pop, all set in a world not quite in the future, or in the past. ‘It’s a very sexual album,’ says Friday, ‘if there is a location for this album, it is a place where love is most definitely the drug and everyone is a junkie.’ The Shag Tobacco tours last well into 1996, ending triumphantly with a show at the Olympia Theatre in Friday’s home town, Dublin.

Friday and Seezer contribute the song ‘Angel’ to the 1996 film ‘Romeo + Juliet’ by director Baz Luhrmann and it is included on its hugely popular soundtrack CD. They also write their first piece of score for the Australian film ‘Angel Baby’, directed by Michael Reimer. In 1998 they compose the score for Jim Sheridan’s The Boxer, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

1999 – 2005
In Summer 1999, Gavin travels to Kosovo on behalf of the charity Concern, to film a documentary highlighting to plight of Kosovan refugees. ‘Artists for Kosovo’, a slide-show of work by renowned Irish artists set to Friday/Seezer music opens in Dublin’s Temple Bar. Later that year Gavin completes the video documentary ‘Three Wishes For Kosovo’ and his children’s charity project for Kosovo, ‘Muc the flying piggy bank’ launches. The project encourages kids in schools around Ireland to organise their own collections for the charity.

Friday and Seezer write the score for Kirsten Sheridan’s ‘Disco Pigs’ (2001) and Gavin has a cameo in the film which stars Cilian Murphy. Also that year Gavin creates ‘Ich Liebe Dich’, a twisted and seductive musical theatre tribute to the German composer Kurt Weill. Performed with the Friday-Seezer Ensemble at the Dublin Theatre Festival, the sold out six-show run brings the best of 1920s/30s Berlin and 40s Broadway into the 21st century. The following year Friday and Seezer tackle Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’, recording their own arrangement of the children’s classic with their ensemble. A luxury box set, with artwork by U2′s Bono, raises money and awareness for the Irish Hospice Foundation.

In 2004 Gavin performs the surreal and personal one man show ‘I Didn’t Come up the Liffey in a Bubble’ at the Dublin Fringe Festival. Film director Neil Jordan cast Gavin as the sexually ambiguous rocker Billy Hatchet in the 2005 movie “Breakfast on Pluto”. Starring alongside Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson and Brendan Gleeson, Friday holds his own and receives much praise for his debut screen appearance.

Late 2005, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer team up with legendary producer Quincy Jones to score the Jim Sheridan directed 50 Cent biopic ‘Get Rich or Die Trying.’

2006 – 2008
Gavin Friday returns to the stage with his tribute to German culture, ‘Tomorrow Belongs To Me’, and again collaborates with producer Hal Willner on a boisterous collection of pirate ballads, sea songs and chanteys, entitled ‘Rogue’s Gallery’. Later that year, Gavin narrates The Fortune Teller, a marionette play by Erik Sanko. It premieres in New York to great acclaim. Early 2007, Gavin Friday starts writing songs together with Cork-based musician Herbie Macken.

Taking time out from work on his fourth solo album with new writing partner Herb Macken, Gavin participates in the Shakespeare Sonnet Project, jointly commissioned by Opera North Projects and the Royal Shakespeare Company. The project, curated by the English composer Gavin Bryars, premieres in Stratford-Upon-Avon in February and tours around the U.K. through March 2007. Gavin performs his take on ‘Sonnet 40′ and narrates the eight sonnets that make up Bryars’ 40-minute composition ‘Nothing Like the Sun’.

In Summer 2007 Gavin Friday and Herb Macken compose the music and main theme ‘Dreamland’ for Patrick McCabe’s play ‘The Revenant’, which opens at the Galway Arts Festival in July. Gavin also takes part in Hal Willner’s Disney tribute ‘Stay Awake’ at the Royal Festival Hall in London and records the classic ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ for Lemon magazine. He teams up with members of Ireland’s Crash Ensemble to narrate composer Ian Wilson’s ‘Handsomest Drowned Man in the World’ in Dublin and Brighton.

When Hal Willner takes the ‘Rogue’s Gallery’ album to the stage for a UK/Ireland tour, Gavin joins him again, performing the pirate songs alongside an eclectic troupe of musicians including Shane McGowan, Martha Wainwright, Rachel Unthank, Lou Reed and actor Tim Robbins.

2009 – 2010

In October 2009 Gavin celebrates his 50th birthday with friends and colleagues at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Backed by an all star band, Gavin plays a selection of his own work and covers, duetting with Antony, Rufus Wainwright, Courtney Love, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Lydia Lunch, Maria McKee, Shane MacGowan, U2 among others. Proceeds of the show go to the (RED) charity.

Hal Willner’s Rogue’s Gallery show travels to Sydney early 2010. Gavin performs at the Opera House alongside Marianne Faithfull, David Johansen, Baby Gramps, David Thomas and Norma Waterson.

In April 2010 Gavin finishes recording his fourth solo album in Dublin with producer Ken Thomas.

A cover of the Suicide classic Ghostrider is released on Blast First Petite in collaboration with Dave Ball (Soft Cell) in June and Gavin takes part the in Ireland’s National Library’s Yeats Festival Summer’s Wreath, reading a selection of Yeats’ poetry, accompanied by fiddle player Martin Hayes and guitarist Dennis Cahill.

2011
Gavin Friday’s fourth solo album is released in Ireland on Good Friday, April 22. The first single is the song Able. Kevin Godley (10cc) directs the Able video. Gavin Friday and his band play the Electric Picnic festival in September 2011.

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Gavin’s first solo album with Seezer was Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves, released in 1989. It was followed in 1992 by Adam ‘n’ Eve, and three years later by Shag Tobacco (which the singer called “a very sexual album’). The decade was also the beginning of his career in film as both a vocalist and composer. He wrote the soundtrack to Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, which including Sinéad O’Connor’s hit, ‘You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart’. In 1996 Friday and Seezer contributed the song ‘Angel’ to the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack and wrote their first score for the Australian film Angel Baby. Subsequent film scores have included The Boxer (1998), Disco Pigs (2001) and In America (2002) and the 50 Cent biopic Get Rich or Die Trying with Quincy Jones.

His 2001 show Ich Liebe Dich, juxtaposed 1920s/30s Berlin and 1940s Broadway and had a sell-out run at the Dublin Theatre Festival. It was only a matter of time before Gavin made his film debut, in 2005. Director Neil Jordan cast him as sexually ambiguous rocker Billy Hatchet in Breakfast on Pluto, which won him much acclaim. He returned to the stage in Germanophile mode in Tomorrow Belongs To Me. Since 2007, he has been playing live with the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, on performances such as This Shakespeare Sonnet Project and The Sinking of the Titanic.

More theatrical and collaborative work followed in 2007, including music for The Revenant, a play by Patrick McCabe’s and Ian Wilson’s The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World. In Summer 2008, Scott Walker invited Gavin to perform in Drifting and Tilting – The Songs of Scott Walker and in 2009 Gavin turned 50 and celebrated with a gig at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Guests included Antony, Rufus Wainwright, Courtney Love, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and U2.

Last year he covered Suicide’s ‘Ghostrider’ with Dave Ball. Gavin also performed a full-length show with traditional musicians Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill at the National Library’s Summer Wreath. As part of the show, they performed a selection of WB Yeats’ poetry, which they plan to record at a later date. catholic is Friday’s fourth studio album and his first solo project in 16 years. The singer likens catholic to “waking from a deep sleep, of letting go and coming to terms with loss”. It’s also about mortality, promiscuity, romance, art and hope. Legendary producer Ken Thomas helmed a broad cast of musicians who helped shape the songs, but Friday’s own experience with film scores and composition looms large over the tracks, creating a complex, layered work that veers between minimalist and reflective to epic and lush.

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