Virgin Prunes

One of the more adventurous and avant-garde acts to rise out of the punk era, the Virgin Prunes formed in Dublin, Ireland in mid-1977. The group was led by the theatrical singer/songwriter Gavin Friday (born Fionan Hanvey in 1959), who as a teen fell in with a group of like-minded individuals who dubbed themselves the Lypton Village. While some of the social club's members, including a pair of youths named Paul Hewson and David Evans -- later known as Bono and the Edge -- went on to form the superstar group U2, the remaining members founded the less-commercial Virgin Prunes, taking their name from the local slang for so-called "outsiders" and "freaks," a recurring lyrical theme.

Originally comprised of Friday, vocalists Guggi (born Derek Rowen) and Dave-id (David Watson), bassist Strongman (Trevor Rowen), drummer Pod (Anthony Murphy), and guitarist Dik (Richard Evans, the Edge's brother), the Virgin Prunes baffled audiences at their outrageous first concerts, which borrowed more from the approach of performance art than the traditions of rock music. After gaining a cult audience, they issued their first single, the independently produced "Twenty Tens," which earned them a deal with the Rough Trade label. After the departure of Pod (replaced by Haa Lacka Binttii), the Virgin Prunes released A Different Kind of Beauty, a sprawling, ambitious project made up of four interlocking chapters, released separately on the 7", 10", 12", and cassette formats.

Mary D'Nellon took over the drumming chores in time to record 1982's ...If I Die, I Die, a difficult work produced by Wire's Colin Newman which was released simultaneously with the box set Heresie, a performance art piece which mixed studio and live recordings. In 1984, both Guggi and Dik, disenchanted with the music business, left the Virgin Prunes, prompting D'Nellon to take up the guitar and allowing Pod to return to the fold. The band then set about recording the album Sons Find Devils, which went unreleased.

When the Virgin Prunes resurfaced with 1986's The Moon Looked Down and Laughed, their music had gone through another stylistic change into melodic, ballad-driven pop, signifying Friday's increased fascination with cabaret music. He ultimately left the group in November; the liner notes of the 1987 live release, The Hidden Lie, contained a short statement confirming the band's breakup.

from Wikipedia:

Virgin Prunes was an Irish gothic rock band formed in 1977. They disbanded in 1986 after the departure of Gavin Friday. The other members continued under the name The Prunes until they split up in 1990.

Career

The band consisted of childhood friends of U2's Bono. Lypton Village was a "youthful gang" created by Bono, Guggi (Derek Rowan) and Gavin Friday (Fionan Hanvey) in the early 1970s, where every member got a new identity and where they could escape from dreary and predictable Dublin life and be anything they wanted to be. It was both lead singers Friday and Guggi who first gave a teenaged Paul Hewson his alter-ego and now-famous moniker taken from"Bono Vox" which was a hearing aid shop on Mary street in Dublin City Centre, later simply "Bono." Known for its outrageous and controversial stage performances, led by the bands' theatrical singer/songwriter Friday, they first began playing small shows in Dublin gaining them a cult audience and ridicule from the culturally conservative community.

Friday and Guggi, along with third vocalist Dave-iD Busaras, guitarist Dik Evans (brother of U2's The Edge), bassist Strongman (Trevor Rowan, brother of Guggi) and drummer Pod (Anthony Murphy), completed the original lineup. Pod left the group and was replaced by Haa-Lacka Binttii (né Daniel Figgis, now a composer and multimedia producer and curator). With Binttii now on drums, tape loops and keyboards, the band secured a deal with Rough Trade Records. They released their first single "Twenty Tens (I've Been Smoking All Night)", through Rough Trade but on their own Baby Records label in late 1980. They released a second single "In The Greylight" in early 1981.

Two other Binttii tracks were released during 1980 before conflicts with other members forced him out of the band. "Red Nettle'" was included on an NME compilation C81 and "Third Secret" was included on the Cherry Red compilation Perspectives And Distortion. Work had already started on the project "A New Form Of Beauty" while Bintti was with the band, but after he was replaced by Mary D'Nellon (Drums), some of his tracks were re-recorded and his name was not included in the credits.

"A New Form of Beauty" was a project that originally contained four chapters and was released in various formats - 7" single, 10" single and 12" single. There was also supposed to be a cassette but this fourth part was never officially released, although all four parts did appear on an Italian version of A New Form Of Beauty which was released as a double album.

In November 1982, the Virgin Prunes released their debut album ...If I Die, I Die (produced by Colin Newman of Wire) and Heresie, a French boxset. Heresie was commissioned by Yann Farcy after seeing them perform at the Rex Club in Paris and was based on a loose examination of insanity. In 1984 both Guggi and Dik Evans, unhappy with the music business, left the band. This forced drummer Mary D'Nellon to take up the guitar and allowed Pod to return as the band's drummer. The Virgin Prunes started to record the album Sons Find Devils, which has never been released.

A retrospective video titled Sons Find Devils was released In 1985; this video had nothing to do with the unreleased album of the same name. During May 1985, Over the Rainbow, a compilation of rarities, was also released.

In July 1986 the band, now a four-piece recording music written for 'Sons Find Devils', finally released a new album, The Moon Looked Down and Laughed. Also that year frontman Gavin Friday left the group. His departure was confirmed in the liner notes of the band's 1987 live album The Hidden Lie which contained a short statement confirming the band's break-up.

After disbanding as The Virgin Prunes, D'Nellon, Strongman and Busaras formed an offshoot group called The Prunes, which released three albums between 1988 and 1990 (Lite Fantastik, 1988; Nada, 1989; and Blossoms & Blood, 1990). Dik Evans played on The Prunes' album Lite Fantastik and a seventeen year old, Justin Kavanagh (a.k.a. Valley Limberg) from the Dublin hardcore band Mutant Asylum (with his cousin Cormac Figgis a.k.a. The Master Switch, now with Paranoid Visions) took the helm as guitarist for "Blossoms & Blood". In 1993, Justin Kavanagh went on to form Gormenghast with childhood friend Ray Brock, Robert 'Gilly' Gilbert and Dave Walsh. After Ray's departure they were joined by Padraig O'Toole of "The Gods". Justin Kavanagh also formed Snifferdog with Gerard Griffin. The Band was hotly tipped for the top by Hot Press Magazine and courted much record company interest But was plagued by line up problems, eventually fizzling out in 2007. Griffin is working on new material with The T.N.C.at the helm. Gormenghast reformed in late 2008 after 13 years and are currently working on a new album. Binttii's youngest brother Jonathan Figgis is the boy who appears on the cover of the second Virgin Prunes single 'In The Greylight'. Jonathan now runs the award-winning film production company October Eleven Pictures with his other brother Jason Figgis

In 1998, Cleopatra Records re-released the Sons Find Devils video, along with a soundtrack album on CD. This was the first commercially-available Virgin Prunes material to be released since 1993 and, for a few years, the only commercially available full-length Virgin Prunes album on compact disc (though studio recordings of the songs "Baby Turns Blue," "Pagan Lovesong," and "Caucasian Walk" had cropped up on CD compilations of various Goth and other dark/avant-garde post-punk bands).

Gavin Friday has since had a reasonably successful solo career in both music and film. Guggi remains an influential artist in Dublin. Dave-id still records as a solo artist in Ireland. After 20 years of self-imposed seclusion from the rock world, Dik Evans recently gave an overview of his and brother Edge's early years in U2 for the December 2005 issue of 'Word Magazine'. Trevor, Mary and Anthony Murphy live quietly throughout Europe.

As of 2004, Daniel Figgis is currently composer in residence with Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, Dublin. One of his more recent compositions, Post Production, a 23 section suite for four musicians was performed at the Winter Garden, New York City, in December 2006. In 2008, Arts>World financial centre commissioned Figgis to compose and perform the sole European commission to celebrate their 20th anniversary of arts programming. His multi-disciplinary festival, Snakes & Ladders, will be appearing on Broadway on 8 January 2010 at Peter Norton Symphony Space.

After much talk, years of anticipation from fans, and with much input from the band, The Virgin Prunes' discography was remastered and reissued on Mute Records, which included ...If I Die, I Die, The Moon Looked Down and Laughed, Over the Rainbow, Heresie and an album of selections from the A New Form of Beauty series. In 2006 Dave ID-Busaras, Guggi and Gavin Friday contributed a track to the sea shanty collection Rogue's Gallery, appearing in the track listing as Three Pruned Men.

On 4 October 2009, three original members of the band, Gavin Friday, Guggi and Dik Evans, performed two classic Virgin Prunes songs, Sweethomeunderwhiteclouds and Caucasian Walk at Carnegie Hall as part of "An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends", to celebrate Friday's 50th birthday. J.G. Thirlwell appeared with them as backing vocalist.

Literature

Rolf Vasellari: The Faculties of a Broken Heart, Black Sheep Press, 1985.