Gavin Friday and Crash Ensemble – Wish You Were Here
Month: July 2011
Video: Gavin Friday and Crash Ensemble rehearsal
Team Friday’s down in Cork on the banks of the Lee for a show with Ireland’s Crash Ensemble. It’s part of The Reich Effect, a five-day celebration of Steve Reich’s 75th birthday presented by the Cork Opera House. Gavin will be performing Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together, and Íarla Ó Lionáird will come in to do Donnacha Dennehy’s Grá agus Bás. Crash Ensemble will also play two pieces by Steve Reich himself.
Today the ensemble (which includes Kate Ellis, who you’ll know from playing on Gav’s album ‘catholic’!) and Gavin rehearsed in the Sean O’Riada room of UCC’s School of Music. They went through various parts separately first and then did a complete run through of the 20-minute piece. It sounded pretty great already. ‘Coming Together’ is an emotive, rousing piece of music and Gavin uses his voice (and body) to great effect.
Tickets are still available – so if you’re in the neighbourhood… come see the show!
Full programme:
Reich: 2×5
Dennehy: Grá agus Bás (featuring Íarla Ó Lionáird)
Rzewski: Coming Together (featuring Gavin Friday)
Reich: Double Sextet
Cactus Festival director remembers Gavin Friday show
Patrick Keersebilck, director of the Cactus Festival in Bruges is asked to pick the highlights of his 30-year old festival. One of them was Gavin Friday’s headlining performance in 1996.
One of the most beautiful concerts at Cactus, if you ask me. In a way Gavin Friday’s performance personified the identity of our festival. The possibilities at Cactus are endless: we are a very eclectic festival, and we don’t fear the cabaretesque escapades of Gavin Friday. Maybe it’s not the most obivous coice for a headlining act, but it was the right decision. I remember standing in the audience watching his fragile show – I was afraid some dufus would yell something and kill the atmosphere. But the atmosphere held. Fantastic.
Event: Summer Fridays on Turntable.FM
Gavin will be the featured DJ in the launch event for the Summer Fridays series on Turntable.FM, co-hosted by MB3 Records and Mashable this Friday, July 8.
Join Gavin Friday and friends for the Summer Fridays series from 4:00-6:00PM EST:http://turntable.fm/summer_fridays. Turntable access is currently restricted access to the United States only due to licensing constraints.
Interview (French) : “The child has grown up a lot” – Elegy
Elegy magazine from France asks: “Do you still feel able to see the world with the innocent and primitive eyes of a child?”
Gavin: “I always relate to the child in me. But the child has grown up a lot.”
Elegy: “Are your lyrics always about your personal emotions?”
Gavin: “Yes, they always have been, more or less.”
Elegy: “The best songs on the album talk about love, or the loss of love…”
Gavin: “Up to a certain point, yes. But the loss must be confronted to make it positive. Otherwise we let it turn us into victims.”
Review (German): “An overcast, melancholic sound…” – Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone Germany writes that songs like ‘Perfume’ and ‘Able’ remind them of Barry Adamson and Angelo Badelamenti. Not bad company. But they don’t like it much. Fair enough.
Review (German): “Pop in its rare incarnation: a moving work of art” – Piranha
A review from the German magazine ‘Piranha’:
“Soundscape or fantasy aren’t just empty metaphors here. When a song is titled “A Song that Hurts” you can be sure it’s really painful.”
Programme for Crash Ensemble feat. Gavin Friday at The Reich Effect
(Picture via Crash Ensemble on FB)
If you’re in Cork, Ireland on July 31st, check out Gavin Friday and Iarla Ó Lionáird who will be performing with the Crash Ensemble. Gavin will do Frederic Rzewski‘s “Coming Together” which he previously performed with Crash Ensemble in 2005. Rzewski has said it was his favourite live performance of that piece.
Book your tickets now from the Cork Opera House website.
Gavin Friday Blog 