From Lipton Village to Carnegie Hall Gavin Friday | Big Think

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Irish musician Gavin Friday has come a long way since inventing an imaginary world, Lipton Village, as a child with a few artistic friends. He tells Big Think how he got to where he is today.

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Gavin Friday:

Gavin Friday was born in Dublin on October 8, 1959 and founded the band Virgin Prunes in 1977. In 1986 Gavin briefly abandoned music to paint, which culminated in the 1988 exhibition entitled ‘I didn’t come up the Liffey in a bubble’ at Dublin’s Hendriks Gallery. From 1987 to 2005 Friday composed and performed with pianist Maurice Roycroft (The Man Seezer). ‘Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves’ (1989), their compelling moody debut produced by Hal Willner, explored the world of Brel (whose song ‘Next’ is covered on the album), Piaf, Brecht and Weill. The follow up was 1992’s ‘Adam ‘N’ Eve.’

In Summer 1999, Gavin travelled 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 opened in Dublin’s Temple Bar. Later that year the video documentary ‘Three Wishes For Kosovo’ was completed and Gavin’s children’s charity project for Kosovo, ‘Muc the flying piggy bank’ was launched. The project encouraged kids in schools around Ireland to set up their own collections for the charity.

Gavin Friday's film work includes the songs written with Bono for the popular 1993 film ‘In the Name of the Father’. They recorded the title track as well as the Sinead O’Connor sung 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 piece of score for the Australian film ‘Angel Baby’. His subsequent film scores have included ‘The Boxer’ (1998), ‘Disco Pigs’ (2001) and ‘In America’ (2002). In late 2005, Friday and Seezer teamed up with legendary producer Quincy Jones to score the Jim Sheridan directed 50 Cent biopic ‘Get Rich or Die Trying.’ Gavin also performed the surreal and personal one man show ‘I Didn’t Come up the Liffey in a Bubble’ at the Dublin Fringe Festival.

Gavin Friday is currently working on his fourth solo album with writing partner Herb Macken

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: What was it like growing up in Ireland?

Gavin Friday: Well I grew up basically I was born nearly 50 years ago, so I was a child of the '60s basically, which sort of is a real blank. I really started growing up I think in the '70s. I'm a glam-rock kid. But Dublin, Ireland in them days, was a very dark place, as in it was a very poor, almost third world. We are going through economically the whole world is going through a recession at the moment. While maybe the '60s, '70s, and the '80s in Ireland was a real recession. It wasn't a pleasant place. It was massive unemployment, we had huge political problems with the north and it was dull and gray. So I formed a band and tried to escape it all.

So it's a great country; a really beautiful, great country, but it's had its troubles. The last 15 years we had one of the biggest economic booms. Overnight, we became almost the wealthiest country in Europe. And last year [2008], the bubble burst. But I think a few bubbles have burst in a few countries. So we are all going through the same things. But let's say Ireland, in the '70s and the '80s was tough, but if you grow up with a tough background it makes you strong.

How has Irish Catholicism influenced you and your work?

Gavin Friday: One of the biggest problems I found with Irish politics and the economic thing was after World War II, most of the European countries started to develop economically and socially, but whatever way the Catholic church they took a grip and they almost governed the country. I mean, we were almost like a dictatorship. There is good and bad, but we experienced an awful lot of bad, especially from the institutions that taught children the Christian brothers, etc.

All those stories are all coming out now; not just in Ireland, in Canada, and all over the world. So it was pretty intense. The Catholic church were almost -- they were like our Edgar J. Hoover, if you know what I mean. They ruled the roost.

But it had a huge profound influence on me in that as you get older you realize that you can't blame everything; that there is good and bad, and things get misdirected.

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