GAVIN FRIDAY (of Virgin Prunes) - Lisboa

On March 21, at the Hard Club, Porto and March 22, at the Republic of Music, Lisbon, Promoter at The
Rollercoaster has the honor of presenting for the first time in Portugal, Gavin Friday, in two absolutely unique concerts. /> At the Red Wall Library of Gavin Friday's house in downtown Dublin, a sacred heart is hanging on the white ceiling. The glass totem was a welcome gift when Friday returned to the city center about two years ago; He presides over there as a remembrance of his past and a gimmick for his future.Friday, now 64, began to question Catholicism over half a century ago when he wondered why the teachers of his rigid Catholic school, said servants of God, hit him and his colleagues. This was even before watching the rise of Glam and Punk, before seeing Joy Division for the first time or crossing the sea of ​​Ireland to catch David Bowie in London. This was also just before the Virgin Prunes began, its Post-Post Punctional Transgressor Band that broke gender perceptions. And this was even before the acts of
rebellion and interrogation that created their singular career as singer, songwriter, visual artist and actor merged into an amazingly creative life. But there are some symbols and some stories that cannot be exceeded - or that you don't really want to overcome. “Maybe I didn't grow up,” he says under his sacred heart, flashing his eye. “Or perhaps it is growing.”
This alternation and tension animates Ecce Homo, Friday's first album in 13 years and a captivating culmination of life he has lived and the life that is now determined to build for himself. Alternately conducted by a booming electronics that resembles the power of the Prunes and an exquisite acoustics that reflects the beauty of their latest solo work and sound bands, Ecce Homo is an ecstatic and boundless expression of anger and independence, to separate from stereotypes from what we are supposed to be, while we recognize that our most difficult battles are often the collective. There are love songs and fighting songs, reflections on the loss and daydreams of nostalgia, hymns to solidarity and abrasions to the powerful. Friday considers that this is the most honest album you ever did; It's also the most fascinating. They wrote most of Ecce Homo's music together, their interpersonal dynamics resulted in tracks that moved freely among disparate emotional extremes. Friday, however, wanted to make everything bigger, coat the songs with the refinement and the grandeur to which he had given himself with his work on soundtracks. Throws Pontius Pilate's words back to our persecutors, promising “fight fire with fire / We can walk over the water” on distorted gospel harmonies. “I am sorry” evokes a similar betrayal, more from a personal than political point of view, with Friday's voice to raise themselves to meet the small symphony that slowly circulates under the distant sequencers and the acoustic guitars of the track. He sings here the name of his late mother (who struggled with Alzheimer's disease), Anne Storey, and makes a sample of her voice during "Amaranthus (Love Lies Bleeding)," a hardcore electro that intends to dance to ward off difficulties. Here, the pain comes from all sides, in every possible way.
But the true core of Ecce Homo is a reaction rooted in hope and love, seeing the struggles of the past and the possibilities of the future through the same unified look. Dedicated to longtime friends Bono and Guggi, and his group of young Lypton Village, the stunning, melancholy “When the World Was Young” seems as much a sad goodbye and a happy Hello to the kids who can redo the world now. “Lady Esquire” celebrates teenage indiscretion, seeing buildings dancing after drugs with shoe grease. "The Church of Love" moves away from the conservative and Catholic customs of the old Ireland, savoring the rejection of hierarchies and sexual restrictions. “Happiness is Heaven,” sings Friday, his personal bacchus “and heaven is at our feet.” The two most touching songs may be about the love of his present life. The first theme, "Lovesubzero", slowly moves from a colorful symphonic splendor to an electronic ode without remorse to the partner who helped him break free and find himself. It is a hymn to love, a black disc tribute to the brilliance of romance and partnership. And then there is "The Best Boys in Dublin," a hymn without disguise to his dogs, Ralfie and Stan The Man, who accompanied him in many of these sessions. It is a short song, with acoustic and piano guitar wrapped in lush ropes. Still, it is a moving testimony to find comfort and strength wherever we may, to resist the way we need it.
When Friday was a teenager, alienated from the Catholic Church and looking for meaning, music became his gift from God, his saving table, his revelation. Or, as he calls him, "The Release Where I Could Bleed Publicly." Despite being rooted in such loss, Ecce Homo tells this story of survival, how we are always looking for what can lead us to the next phase of our lives. It is not a happy or tragic album; It is, instead, a courageously honest thing, looking at both sides of a lifetime and witnessing how it was and how it can still be.
Tickets for this concert cost 22 €, pre-sale value until December 31, and from January 1,
2025 will have a cost of 25 €, and will be available from 10:00 am N and MASQUETICKET ONLINE