Born on October 8: Gavin Friday, the (arguably) craziest Irish artist of his generation

He was born in Dublin in 1959 and his surname is Fionan Martin Hanvey, which sounds more Irish!

A childhood friend of the four U2 thugs, he was in fact born on the same street as Bono. The story, always difficult to verify with certainty, claims that he was the one who came up with the nickname Bono Vox for their singer Paul Hewson. While this was undoubtedly his closest encounter with a form of global fame, he nevertheless committed numerous other artistic escapades in a career unfortunately confined to the second division.

For his band The Virgin Prunes' first concert in 1977 in his hometown, supporting The Clash, he wore slashed trousers that revealed a magnificent pair of testicles, while his bandmate Guggi was dressed as a woman. The art of provocation was already well-oiled, but he still had to develop a repertoire worthy of the name. This would finally be the case with the album "If I Die, I Die," produced by Colin Newman (Wire), featuring the hypnotic single "Baby Turns Blue," their biggest hit.

Later, often supported by Martin Seezer, Gavin Friday opted for calmer orchestrations, even close to a wild, alcoholic folk, paying homage, according to him, to two of his favorite artists, Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf. Although their respective influences are difficult to discern. Also a visual artist and painter, Gavin Frida always returns to his first loves. In 2001, he participated in the soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," covering Marc Bolan's "Children of the Revolution." In 2024, he released the hypnotic EP "Ecce Homo" ("behold the man" in Latin) with four very electro versions of the same track. And he did it again in 2025 with "The Church of Love," accompanied by a strange cover of Desireless's "Voyage, Voyage"!

Gavin Frida hasn't said his last word!

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Following the release of his first solo album, "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves," Gavin Friday performed at the Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium, in October 1989.