Gavin Friday

Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes.

Fionan Hanvey was born in Dublin and attended primary and post-primary schools in Ballygall, a neighbourhood on Dublin's Northside, between Finglas and Glasnevin.

When he was fourteen years old and living on Cedarwood Road, between Finglas and Ballymun, he met Bono and Guggi at a party to which he had not been invited.

Bono said: "We caught him trying to steal something of the house. Classic teenage stuff... but we became friends."

Friday was a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes and has recorded several solo albums and soundtracks.

In 1983, Friday appeared on the title track of Dave Ball's In Strict Tempo.

In 1984, he collaborated with cult English post-punk group The Fall, on three tracks: "Copped It" and "Stephen Song" appeared on the album The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, and "Clear Off!"

was a track on the "Call For Escape Route" EP.

On all three tracks, Friday and Fall singer Mark E. Smith alternated vocals, occasionally backing each other up.

In the same year Friday provided vocals for the track "The Tenderness of Wolves" on the album Scatology by Coil.

The reunion of Friday, Guggi and Dave-id was the first time they had recorded together since the Virgin Prunes broke up in 1985.

In 1986, after the demise of the Virgin Prunes, Friday devoted himself to painting for a while, sharing a studio with Bono, Guggi and Charlie Whisker.

His main collaborator between 1987 and 2005 was multi-instrumentalist, Maurice Seezer.

This resulted in the exhibition Four Artists – Many Wednesdays (1988) at Dublin's Hendricks Gallery.

He, Guggi and Whisker showed paintings, while Bono opted to exhibit photos taken in Ethiopia.

Friday's part of the show was entitled I didn't come up the Liffey in a bubble, an expression often used by his father.

They signed to Island Records in 1988 and released three albums together, before parting with the company in 1996.

In 1995 he performed "Look What You've Done (To My Skin)," one of two songs (the other sung by P.J. Harvey) written by Philip Ridley and Nick Bicat for Ridley's second feature film as writer and director, The Passion of Darkly Noon.

After contributing to the documentary Aidan Walsh: Master of the Universe (2000), Friday's first acting experience was in the Kirsten Sheridan film Disco Pigs (2001), in which he had a bit part.

In 2001 they scored the film Disco Pigs by Kirsten Sheridan.

Two years later Friday and Seezer and their ensemble also collaborated with Bono on Peter & the Wolf in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation.

In 2003 they wrote "Time Enough for Tears", the original theme tune for Sheridan's film In America, as sung by Andrea Corr.

The song was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

Later, Friday and Seezer composed the score for the Jim Sheridan films The Boxer and In America which was nominated for Best Original Film Score in the 2004 Ivor Novello Awards.

He has maintained a close friendship with U2's Bono since both were children, and they collaborated on the soundtrack for the Jim Sheridan film In the Name of the Father, including the title track, "Billy Boola" and "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart", which was sung by Sinéad O'Connor and nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

In 2005 Friday and Seezer collaborated with Quincy Jones on incidental music for the 50 Cent biopic Get Rich or Die Tryin'.

In 2005 Gavin Friday played Billy Hatchett in the Neil Jordan film Breakfast on Pluto based on Irish author Patrick McCabe's book, which had been influenced by Friday's album Shag Tobacco.

On the soundtrack he sings "Wig Wam Bam" and "Sand", a duet with Cillian Murphy.

In September 2006 a 2-CD collection of sea shanties called Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, produced by Hal Willner, was released on the ANTI- label.

Friday contributes to two tracks including the lewd "Baltimore Whores" and "Bully in the Alley" with ex-Virgin Prunes bandmates Guggi and Dave-id.

Friday worked again with Hal Willner in June 2007, appearing in the concert "Forest of No Return – the Vintage Disney Songbook" as part of the Meltdown Festival presented at London's newly reopened Royal Festival Hall.

Sharing a stage with artists such as Grace Jones, Nick Cave, Pete Doherty and curator Jarvis Cocker, Friday performed the Disney songs "The Siamese Cat Song" and "Castle in Spain".

Taking time out from work on his fourth solo album with Herb Macken, Friday teamed up with English composer, Gavin Bryars, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Opera North for a new interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnets touring as part of the 2007 Complete Works Festival.

Opening in Stratford-Upon-Avon, Friday presented his take on Sonnet 40 ('Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all') and narrated Bryars' 40-minute piece 'Nothing Like The Sun'.

Friday and Macken composed the music for the Patrick McCabe play, The Revenant.

The Revenant opened as part of the 2007 Galway Arts Festival.

The play's main theme is entitled 'Dreamland'.

In 2009, Friday and Macken worked on Friday's fourth studio album, set for release in 2010.

On 6 April 2010 Record company Rubyworks announced they signed Gavin Friday and that a new album was on its way.

The new CD was titled catholic and was released in Ireland on Good Friday: 22 April 2011.