GAVIN FRIDAY

When we got a call asking if we fancied booking yet another living legend for our synth/wave day, we had to lie down for a bit. When we then found out it was GAVIN FRIDAY, we asked for a wet flannel for our foreheads and some Temesta to help us relax. If only all our dreams came true like that, we’d be writing this little piece from our hammock on a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea, right next to Epstein’s. And we’d be getting ready to pelt the last remaining inhabitants there with coconuts filled with black paint.  But we digress – Gavin Friday, then! After all, those evenings in 2025 were blissful, as we took in his final album ‘Ecce Homo’, whilst enjoying a glass of red wine and a few scampi on a skewer. Before we forget: we have something bittersweet to celebrate on Sunday 2 August, because do you know who produced ‘Ecce Homo’?  Dave Ball, the exceptionally inventive but deeply missed sound engineer of Soft Cell. So that evening we’ll be treated to at least two tributes to Ball. You can hear it in the album too; the synths sometimes seem to have flown in from 1990, when we all stopped being dark and gloomy and went raving every weekend. People who saw the concerts Friday gave in Leuven, Amsterdam, Ghent or Antwerp earlier this year just can’t stop talking about them. What’s great is that it’s not just the tracks from “Ecce Homo” that are served up; when the man then draws on “Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves” (1989), his legendary Virgin Prunes (‘Caucasian Walk’) or even Jacques Brel (‘Port of Amsterdam’), the magic flies through the venue in true Peter Pan fashion.  In the space of an hour, you get it all: modern versus old (bassoon, alto oboe, cello, clarinet…), post-punk clatter versus kitsch versus so much theatrics that Herman Teirlinck himself seems to have had a hand in it. A live show by Gavin Friday therefore always sticks in your ribs, whatever he does. Don’t worry, the day after Sunday—Monday, that is—you can wash it right off your bare back, with a flannel, brown soap and some lukewarm water.