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The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, Ian Wilson's work for narrator, clarinet, piano, violin and cello, based on a text by Gabriel García Márquez, which was first performed in Dublin (2007) and Brighton (2008) will see its European premiere at the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris on December 9.

Narrator Gavin Friday will reprise his role alongside pianist Finghin Collins, clarinettist Carol McGonnell and will be joined by Catherine Leonard on violin and Richard Harwood on cello.

With the 'Drifting and Tilting' shows at the Barbican in sight, Gavin answers a few questions about Scott Walker:

When did you first become aware of Scott Walker?

"Away from some of the Walker Brothers hits.. I'd say i first became aware of Scott Walker via Bowie in the early to mid seventies... it wasnt until early 8o's when his music truly kicked in for me..." Continue reading "Q&A: Gavin Friday on Scott Walker"

Drifting and Tilting - The Songs of Scott Walker is on at the Barbican in London on November 13, 14 and 15. Tickets available through the Barbican website.

Gavin Friday and Dave Ball (Soft Cell) have recorded a version of the Suicide song 'Ghost Rider' as part of a 70th Birthday Limited Edition EP tribute series to the Suicide vocalist Alan Vega. The song will be released early 2009 on Blast First Petite. Artists taking part in the tribute are Bruce Springsteen, Grinderman (Nick Cave), Primal Scream and Peaches among others.

Read more about the project on Blast First's website and alanvega.com.

Gavin Friday will perform as guest vocalist at the world premiere of 'Drifting and Tilting - The Songs of Scott Walker', live performances of songs from Scott Walker's albums including Tilt and The Drift.

These special concerts, produced by Scott Walker himself, will be set and designed for the Barbican Theatre stage. They include orchestra, Scott's band, and feature special guest vocalists performing his songs such as Damon Albarn, Dot Allison, Jarvis Cocker, the Australian baritone Grant Doyle, actor Nigel Richards (The Black Rider) and the baritone Michael Henry. Walker himself will not be performing.

Also working on the show are director Ann-Christen Rommem (Black Rider, Il Tempo di Postino), designer AJ Weissbard and conductor Philip Sheppard, and a cast including dancers Philip Herbert and Lorena Randi and puppeteers Johnny Storey and Andy Jones.

The concerts take place on November 13, 14 and 15 at 7.45pm the Barbican Theatre in London.

Tickets: £20 / 25 / 30 / 35
Subject to availability, from the Barbican website.

• The Barbican: press release
• The Guardian: A Scott Walker gig, sans Scott Walker
• IndieLondon: A heavyweight cast of vocalists, musicians and dancers

Irish music magazine State.ie interviewed Gavin about the Virgin Prunes for their most recent issue. If you're in Ireland you can pick up the free magazine from Irish stockists, or order your copy through the State.ie's website. You can also read the article 'When art and anarchy collide' online.

Gavin will be taking part in the 'Music in film - the new key to succes?' seminar at The Music Show, a music event organised by Hot Press, Ireland's music magazine.

He will be joining John Carney (writer and director of 'Once') and Ken McHugh (Autamata) to talk about films, television and advertising as an additional outlet for songwriters' work.

'Music and film - the new key to succes?' takes place at the RDS on Saturday October 4th at 4pm.

Tickets are available from Ticketmaster.
More info at dublinks.com.

Back in May, producer Howie B presented a podcast for Fabric. During the second part he played his remix of Gavin's version of Singin' in the Rain, originally recorded for Lemon Magazine.

Listen to Gavin Friday - Singin' In The Rain (Mixed by Howie B) - Dub Plate and the entire podcast. Or download the full podcast mp3 from Odeo.

Gavin Friday will be joining Duke Special on stage in Dublin tomorrow evening (10th Sep) at 21:30pm in the 'Hennesy Spiegeltent'.

The show is called 'The Silhouette Old Time Mystery Radio Show' by Duke Special and friends and is part of Dublin's Fringe Festival. Duke and friends will 'explore the murky world of deception, crime and reluctant heroism in a night only made less noir by the stellar quality of his guests.'

Tickets are 20 euro and are available from the festival website.

Watch a video of this show.

Gavin Friday will be a guest at Duke Special's show at the National Concert Hall in Dublin this Friday. The Northern Irish singer (bio) is performing with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and has invited Gavin to join him on stage for the Kurt Weill song Apple Jack.

National Concert Hall, Friday 22 August, 8pm.
The show has already sold out, but perhaps you can get lucky at:

- Box office: +353 (0)1 417 0000
- NCH website
- RTE Website

Gavin talks with Vincent Woods of RTE's The Arts Show about the Rogue's Gallery shows and his 20-year working relationship with show director Hal Willner. It's a nice little interview interspersed with songs from the Rogue's Gallery CDs and the Hal Willner produced Apologia from the album Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves, which Gavin recorded with Maurice Seezer in New York in July 1988.

Listen to the interview with Gavin on the RTE website.

(Ed Harcourt, Baby Gramps, Sandy Dillon and Gavin)

A capacity crowd enjoyed Hal Willner's epic 4-hour Rogue's Gallery at the Barbican in London on Monday night. Gavin sang 'Baltimore Whores' and 'Pinery Boy' and provided backing vocals on 'Bully in the Alley', 'Boney was a Warrior' and an improvised 'What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor' together with David Thomas (Pere Ubu), Keith Moline and Shane McGowan. Read on for reviews, video and pictures.

JournalOnline.co.uk reviews Rogue's Gallery in Gateshead:

"A smattering of highlights (there were too many to mention) would be the aforementioned Oscar winner, Mr Robbins taking the lead mic for My Son John, Sandy Dillon (whose voice suggests a Macy Gray/Steve Tyler parentage) pleading Leave Her Johnny and Gavin Friday giving the Baltimore Whores food for thought."

Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys
Mon 28 Jul, 7.30pm at the Barbican in London

Baby Gramps, Martha Wainwright, David Thomas, Gavin Friday, Ralph Steadman, Robyn Hitchcock, Norma Waterston, Teddy Thompson, Martin Carthy, Julie Fowlis, Eliza Carthy, Tim Robbins, Ed Harcourt, Neil Hannon, Pete Doherty & more

Based on the extraordinary recent CD release produced by legendary Hal Willner, this concert features contemporary re-workings of traditional sea-songs and chanteys. A stellar line-up of artists take us on a trip like no other, exploring the hardships, the horrors, the lusts and lurid depths, and the crystal beauty that led men to the sea in ships for hundreds of years.

Expect songs about drinking, death, nasty crimes on the water and of course pirates...

Tickets from £15. Book now.

Location: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London

Guggi and Dave-id Busarus will join Gavin Friday to perform at the Rogue's Gallery Dublin concert as 'Three Pruned Men'.

'Three Pruned Men' recorded the song 'Bully In The Alley' on disc one of the Rogue's Gallery double album.

It is first time in 25 years the three ex-Virgin Prunes will perform together 'live'.

Rogue's Gallery Dublin is part of the Analog festival and will take place on Grand Canal Square on July 18. Tickets are available from the festival website.

Via HotPress.com we learn that Hal Willner has confirmed the preliminary line-up for the July 18th Rogue's Gallery concert in Dublin.

Performing songs from the Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys album are Teddy Thompson, Waterson: Carthy, David Thomas of Pere Ubu fame, Julie Fowlis, Baby Grapms, Ed Harcourt, Rachel Unthank, The Winterset and of course, Gavin Friday.

Update (June 12): Lou Reed has been confirmed for the Dublin show.

The Times reviews The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World:

"The night before, more mysticism at a Messiaen Anniversary Concert. The French composer was honoured in a performance of his Quatuor pour la fin du temps, played with robust commitment by Finghin Collins (piano), Elizabeth Cooney (violin), Richard Harwood (cello) and Carol McGonnell (clarinet). And for those players, the Belfast-born composer Ian Wilson had written a "setting" of the Gabriel Garcia Márquez short story, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.

With Gavin Friday as narrator, it received its UK premiere in a packed Corn Exchange: sand-ripples of meandering lines and sea-sprays of song and tremolo, in a cunning score that never upstaged, but was as impassioned as the words themselves."

Elsewhere, Gavin Burrows says on his blog: 'Friday read ebulliently.'

Gavin Friday will be in Brighton, England on Monday 19th, to narrate Ian Wilson's The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World at the Brighton Festival.

He will be joined by a new ensemble featuring three highly talented young Irish artists and the cellist of the Belcea Quartet. The piece was originally commissioned by the IIB Bank Music in Great Irish Houses Festival with support from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Wilson's The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World will be performed alongside Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Together they form the Messiaen Anniversary Concert to mark the centenary of his birth.

• Buy tickets from the Festival website

As you can see, gavinfriday.com has a different look. The new design should make it easier for you to explore the site, and our new backend will make it easier for us to update it and keep you informed of all things Friday.

We're still in the process of copying all the old information to the new database as well as writing new content to cover Gavin's career. This includes some of the larger sections of the old site, such as the discography. Rest assured, these will return.

Hal Willner is taking Rogue's Gallery - Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys on the road this summer. The concerts will take place Dublin, London and Gateshead and we can confirm that Gavin will be taking part in all three shows.

Tickets are available from the venues' websites.

18 July 2008 - Grand Canal Square, Dublin
24 July 2008 - The Sage, Gateshead
28 July 2008 - Barbican Hall, London

The Rogue's Gallery album is available from Amazon.com.

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.

Gavin sang the Disney songs 'Chim Chim Che-ree' and the 'Siamese Cat Song' at the Stay Awake Live concert at St Ann's in New York on Wednesday.

The New York Sun writes: "Gavin Friday gave a mournful, beautiful rendition of "Chim Chim Cheree" from Mary Poppins." (Read the full review)

Babette R's got some lovely pictures of Gavin and all the other artists.

Gavin Friday will narrate Ian Wilson's The Handsomest Drowned man in the World at the Brighton Festival (UK) as part of the Messiaen Anniversary Concert on May 19th

Gavin has contributed to a charity single, "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" in honour of The Dubliner's singer Ronnie Drew. The proceeds will benefit the Irish Cancer Society at Ronnie Drew's request. The track will be available in Ireland only as a download on Friday, February 22 and week later on CD.

The song was written by Bono, The Edge, Simon Carmody and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and features appearances by Kila, the Pogues' Shane MacGowan, the Frames' Glen Hansard, Sinead O'Connor, Andrea Corr, Damien Dempsey, Ronan Keating, Chris de Burgh, members of the Dubliners, and Gavin Friday.

Gavin's been added to the bill of Hal Willner's Stay Awake 20th anniversary Gala Benefit in New York. The event during which a large cast of musicians will be performing Disney songs will take place at St Ann's at Dumbo, on April 2nd. Please note, tickets are between $300-1000, available from St Ann's website.

Breakfast on Pluto will be screened at the Berlin film festival on February 11th.

Complete list of screenings:
Sat, Feb 11 21:30 Zoo Palast 1
Sun, Feb 12 10:30 CinemaxX 7
Sun, Feb 19 17:00 International

You can download a nice pdf flyer about the film on the festival website.