Virgin Prunes
VIRGIN PRUNES
Dublin 1977 – 1987
Line Up;
Fionan Hanvey (Gavin Friday) Vocals
Derek Rowen (Guggi) Vocals
David Watson (David ID) Vocals
Dik Evans Guitar
Trevor Rowen (Strongman) Bass
Anthony Murphy (Pod) Drums
Trinity College
Guggi standing in for Larry @ Trinity College. Photo by Patrick Brocklebank
The band consisted of childhood friends from the Cedar Wood Road area of Dublin, Lypton Village was a “youthful gang” created by Bono, Derek Rowan (Guggi) and Fionan Hanvey (Gavin Friday) in the mid 70’s, 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 teen aged Paul Hewson his alter-ego and world-famous moniker “Bono Vox of O’Connell Street.” 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 (elder brother of U2’s The Edge), Dik had originally been a member of U2, 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), who now has an illustrious name as a composer and multimedia producer and curator). With Binttii now on drums, tape loops and keyboards, the band secured a deal with Rough Trade. Bintti was later replaced by Mary D’Nellon.
Guggi stood in for Larry Mullen on U2’s first publicity shoots taken by Patrick Brocklebank at Trinity College. Pictures of Derek & Trevor Rowen’s younger brother Peter were used on U2’s first album “Boy” & first single “Out of Control”. During their early career the Virgin Prunes & U2 would often be on the same bill. Pod was know to have been at the Limerick talent contest in 1978 with U2, when it was announced that U2 had won, Pod jumped on the Edge nearly breaking his leg.
Bring Art And Anarchy to 1980
Gavin Friday Interview State magazine
“The second gig we did was just me & Guggi” he recalls “with U2 as our band when they were The Hype. I worked in a slaughterhouse and I got a load of white coats and mesh which we used to cover them up. We did a 20 minute version of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” slowed right down so that it would take a minute and a half to get one sentence out. It was totally provocative. After that gig, Dik Evans, who was Edge’s older brother, left The Hype and came to work with us.”
“No matter how inauspicious it might sound, that gig led to a third live outing for the Prunes and a slightly more high profile one at that – supporting The Clash at the Top Hat in Dun Laoghaire in October 1978”. For friday, it was a memorable night. “We came on; Guggi was wearing a tiny skirt and I had a plastic suit made out of raincoats, no jocks underneath, and a pair of Doc’s. We’d only played two little gigs before that. Steve Averill from the radiators from Space played synthesizer with us. The crowd went apeshit. They thought Guggi was a chick”.
“The adrenaline of all these people pogoing kicked in and I started jumping around, next thing this plastic suit that my ma had made split completely. I was standing there totally bollock naked, except for a pair of Doc Martins. I turned around an Guggi’s skirt had come off and you could see that he was a bloke. All hell broke loose, there were bottles flying, they were setting the curtains on fire. We were reefed off stage by The Clash’s tour manager and fucked out the door. We had no money and had to walk with all our gear, back from Dun Laoghaire to Ballymun”.
Gig Guide
Backstage @ the Project Arts Centre, photo by Patrick Brocklebank
20/03/1978 Presbyterian Church Hall, Howth with The Hype, Modern Heirs & U2. The Hype play a set complied of cover versions, after the set Dik Evans leaves the band. Adam Clayton return to the stage to play with the Modern Heirs & the Virgin Prunes. U2 finish the concert as a 4 piece, with a set of original numbers.
14/05/1978 St Bridgets, Finglas West, Dublin with U2, Bach Street Kids, The School Kids
Justin McCarthy It was somewhere in Finglas…a community centre as far as I remember…I remember it ’cause I’d never heard of U2 and all these bored teenagers kept on waving their U2 badges at us while we were playing….when we finished Bono walked on and said …’anyone here like the Boomtown Rats and did a Rats cover…can’t remember the song though..
Tom Mathews We proberly only played 10 gigs, a max of 15, and were used to playing in front of about 8 people. This promoter rang Justin & I, wanting 4 bands to play a charity concert for 300 people. The line up was to be the Virgin Prunes, (their first gig), the School Kids, a band that wore school uniforms on stage, and to my amazement U2. I say this because at the time I had never herd of them. We had only played 3 songs and the crowd kept shouting for U2. I said to Justin lets do that song we have been rehearsing (I can’t remember the name of it). I said to the crowd, look we have played 3 songs for you, I won’t you to do something for us. I’m going to count down from 10, when I get to 5, I want you to shout 4, 3, 2, 1, to my amazement they did it. Later as U2 took to the stage, this fabled Bono said to how did you get the crowd to react like that. I said you’ll figure it out man.
25/05/1978 Project Arts Centre, Dublin with U2, The Gamblers, The School Kidz
18/09/1978 Project Arts Centre, Dublin with U2
 Berlin on stage photo by Patrick Brocklebank |        |
Ticket supplied by Charlie Hallinan
12/10/1978 Top Hat Ballroom, Dun Laoghaire with The Clash, Berlin
Ross Crowley Hi Jeff! No problem at all. The other one that sticks in my memory, possibly coz I hadn’t quite discovered the demon drink, was The Clash at the Top Hat in Oct ’78. Third on the bill were The Virgin Prunes, whose cross-dressing theatrics provoked a very mixed reaction from the crowd!! Half seemed to love it and the other half wanted them dead! I was among a group of about ten youngsters who found ourselves in The Clash’s dressing room after the gig, shooting the breeze and enjoying some nice coldcuts. Strummer was the last to depart and I have a vivid memory of him jumping into a moving MGB to return to Jurys Hotel. I ended up with a paper plate, signed by all four of The Clash and a huge painted banner proclaiming “Supersonic Sounds welcomes The Clash”. Sadly both were lost when my folks sold the homestead in 1989. Heady days indeed and a wonderful example of the Clash’s punk ethic – taking time to talk and listen to the kids! Musical highlight of the night for me was ‘Tommy Gun’ – Ratatatatat Ratatatatat! Magic!!Sean Hayes Managed to catch The Clash as well at the TH (supported by a very risqué Dublin avant-gardist Virgin Prunes – I’ll never forget the faces of the Clash’s sound mixers as Guggi performed mock fellatio on Friday) Only regret is that I wasn’t into concert photography in those days – would have made for some very iconic shots. Come to think of it – I never spotted any ‘official’ photographers at any of the early punk gigs in Dublin. 02/11/1978 Arts Block, Trinity College, Dublin with New Versions, The Modern Heirs & U2
St Anthony’s “Punk Festival”
Ticket supplied by Johnny Bonnie of the Skank Mooks
22/11/1978 St Anthony’s Hall, Dublin “Punk Festival” with The Citizen, Berlin New Versions, Strange Movements, Skank Mooks.Eamon Delaney “I have a poster for this gig. The full lineup, from the top, is the New Versions, Berlin, the Virgin Prunes, the Strange Movements, the Skank Mooks and the Citizens. It was my first gig, and very memorable ; a wild show, with fires being burned down the front of the stage as people set alight some reams of computer paper thrown around as part of the Prunes typically avant garde shock-art set. A women in a wheelchair was whirling around the moshpit, and kids from nearby Oliver Bond flats snook in to join the show. The Strange Movements had a single, Dancing in the Ghetto with Good Vibrations records and the New Versions had Regine Moylett as a singer, subsequently a long time PR person with U2. She and her sister Susan ran the famous No Romance punk and fashion bondage shop in the Dandelion..”
26/01/1979 Community Centre, Howth with U2
Advert from “In Dublin”
17/02/1979 Project Arts Centre, Dublin “Dark Space Festival” with The Atrix, D.C. Nien, The New Versions, Berlin, Rocky DeValera & The Gravediggers, U2, Revolver.
The Project Arts Centre “Dark Space” festival brings together the biggest ever collection of Irish “New Wave” bands under one roof, from both the north & south. After Public Image pull out, the only non Irish band are The Mekons. Much like many modern festivals “Dark Space” had two stages, one in the main hall & one in a smaller hall. Many of the local Dublin bands play in the smaller hall including D.C. Nien, Zebra, Modern Heirs, The Letters, The Vultures. Revolver kicked off the 24 hour “Dark Space” festival at 11pm on the Friday night. They are the “old men” of the Dublin “New Wave” scene, they and The Vipers were at the first Project “New Wave” festival in 1977. U2 close the festival on the Saturday night. Their set is stopped mid way through due to late scheduling. There is also no time for a “Live Aid” style finale with all the bands on stage together. From reading reviews of this festival, I believe that Rocky DeValera & The Gravediggers & U2 played two sets.
The price of admission was dropped from £6 to £4 after John Lydon’s PIL dropped out.
Irish Times Review by Joe Breen In the wake of the euphoria surrounding Van Morrison’s concerts in Ireland last week the success of the Project’s Art Centre 24 hour “Dark Space” festival may be overlooked.
In fact, it was was a 26 hour event as the music continued until midnight last Saturday week. Aside from the more controversial aspects of the festival, such as the strip tease act, the music, played entirely by leading young Irish bands (with the exception of The Mekons from Britain), was of an unexpectedly high standard. maybe it was the appearance of Britain’s leading rock DJ, John Peel, which prompted the energetic performances & it is reasonable to assume he was accordingly impressed.
Prior to the venture, many people feared the worst. The festival idea has strong hippy connotations & it was felt that possibly the New Wave fans & bands would find it all too boring. Allied to that the disappointment over the non appearance of Johnny Lydon & his PIL band & the confusion over whether some Irish bands would play added to the pessimistic view.
However, as events showed, it was probably better that Lydon did not appear as Public Image’s star appeal might have detracted from the impact of the local bands. I caught The Atrix, The Mekons, The Virgin Prunes, U2 & many more. They were all enjoyable but I was particularly impressed by U2, who have made great progress in the last few months, & the very promising, The Atrix. The Virgin Prunes very theatrical act was highly entertaining, but the limitations of the music & playing are too severe.
The crowd, John Stephenson of the Project told me, totaled about 800 over the 26 hours, but at the reduced price of £4 a head (owing to the non appearance of John Lydon & Throbbing Gristle) he said that the festival would lose a lot of money. Invariably, there were many small problems, such as the sound not always being correct or the music drowning out the soundtracks of the films which were shown throughout the festival. But these minor cribs amount to little when compared to the peace, the good music & the general good atmosphere which permeated the East Essex Street building. Even the Project workers remained in good spirits at the snacks counter though they were there for 12 hour shifts.
Unfortunately, along with the many unusually dressed people there were (including one fan with a Mohican hair style) I noticed two people wearing Nazi insignia, a despicable trait that I thought the New Wave had dispensed with. They is nothing funny about fascism, as many people of different races & colours have found out, & are still finding out to day.
Incidentally, I tried to find out the meaning of the title, “Dark Space”, but nobody seemed able solve the mystery. However at 7am on a Saturday morning “Dark Space”, adequately summed up the the state of my head, so maybe that’s what the organisers meant.
Bill Graham Hot Press It may have been the most significant Dublin rock event since the Rats left town. Certainly Project’s “Dark Space” momentarily took capital rock out of the doldrums it’s been fighting for the last two years. Van Morrison can provide the motto – it surely is too late to stop now.
In fact, the non appearance of Public Image was a boon. Bereft of their presence and the weekend punks they would have attracted, the flow wasn’t distorted nor energies distracted by that overriding event, instead, but for the presence of The Mekons. “Dark Space” was a completely local event, allowing the bands to sow the seeds of self-conscious community.
It wasn’t just Dublin. The Belfast contingent in their denims & black leather jackets were just as important with Rudi possibly the band who gained the greatest advantage out of the event. The two scenes mixed as they never had the opportunity to previously “Dark Space” significance must include the cross border detents it achieved.
Admittedly Project lost money. But the spirit of the affair appears to have convinced them of the necessity to repeat the experiment & if there were faults in the organization, the lessons have surely been learnt.
The event had to be over-the-top to make the desired impact & the scope of the occasion at least allowed every band to democratically show their wares. None the less few had the stamina to make it through the full twenty four hours. It may be wiser to concentrate the next into an all nighter.
It was the less estimated bands who provided the surprises, D.C. Nien, The Letters, Zebra, The Modern Heirs and, so this non-witness gathers, The Vultures all proving themselves as fully capable as the groups in the lager hall. As for the bigger names, they all performed close to or at the peak of their abilities.
Except for early gobbing & numbskulls at the finale who ripped off the reception desk, the event was never petty. The organization wasn’t always perfect but it invariably coped & was never the shambles some pessimists had previously predicted. If I’ve one grip, it was the closing scene, U2 being cut off in mid set due to late scheduling. Whatever about them, it really should have climaxed with every band or at least a representative on stage. That celebration didn’t come.
No matter, an orphan scene finally found a home where it didn’t have to deal with Fagins, publicans, gangsters, hucksters, and failed star trippers. Those who were there know its importance, in five years time, those who weren’t will be clamouring to pretend they were there and Project will discover they’d had as large audience as filled the G.P.O. “Dark Space” was the first Irish rock gig for the eighties. Jump aboard.
29/03/1979 JCR, Trinity College, Dublin with Patrick Fitzgerald
@ McGonagle’s, photo by Patrick Brocklebank.
00/04/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin with Rocky DeValera & The Gravediggers.
This was the “In Dublin” “I Like It Bigger” party. The “In Dublin” magazine had changed it’s format from A5 to A4. The publication started life in 1976, as a what’s on guide in Dublin, featuring reviews of concerts & films etc. One of the early contributors was the Boomtown Rats manager Fachtna O’Kelly. Early copies were in black & white and type written. Badges were given away to the party goers with the slogan “In Dublin, I Like It Bigger”.
12/04/1979 Arts Block, Trinity College, Dublin
09/05/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin with D.C. Nien
26/05/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin afternoon with New Versions
27/05/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin Stac Coll (U2 sound engineer) I got the train fare & a drive to cork station. I never got paid for my work so I could always keep the train fare & walk back to Dublin. First train Sunday morning was after 10:00 so I had a long sit. I got back to Dublin with enough time to grab a bite in The Coffee Inn, across the street from Gonagle’s, the gig venue. The Virgin Prunes were brilliant. I can not overstate that. It was like Greek Theatre to rock music & it worked. Fkkng brilliant. I offered my services immediately after the gig anytime you want sound……… a waste of time. It was a waste of time for many reasons, the main one being not one of us (again), & they were not a band. Not a band, more a theatrical idea. Gigs were just public appearances to promote a bigger picture. Finan Hanvey (a.k.a Gavin Friday) & Guggi were near neighbours of Bono & me, but that was as far as the connection went, never mind I was one of the ABBA dream desk team.
02/06/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin afternoon
10/06/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin
24/06/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin
11/08/1979 Arts Festival, Gorey with Roach Band. A year later U2 would play this same festival.
Photo’s by Patrick Brocklebank, The Prunes on stage @ the Dark Space festival
01/08/1980 Project Arts Centre, Dublin “The One Show”
To the Project for the Prunes. A packed inquisitive and tidily attired audience – this is an event, a Virgin Prunes four piece from their precious and precocious imagination. Marks for music and style but less for content and communication. We wuz all intrigued.
Staring with chamber theatre, Gavin and Guggi clamber around the stage to the decidedly mature music of Dik’s guitar and their new drummer cum synthesizer player, Danny. I was not so certain what to think about this performance art – I took it as an overture and waited for themes to be resolved.
Dave Id unstraps and straps on his guitar, dashes across to finger the piano and follows with primitive charm. What a cheeky chappie! Except that cheeky chappies, including even the most dim witted busker don’t stick to the same routine or they outstay their welcome. Dave draws some twitters of laughter from the audience but it’s not immediately ascertainable what anyone is gaining from this complicity. The joke was just too long in the telling.
Then poetry corner with The Bottle of Mik. I apprehend it will be some while yet before these languid metrics enter the collections of Mr Peter Fallon, imitate a heckler to see if this Bottle is capable of any call and response routine, wait five minutes before I get my priorities right and desert in search of a Bottle of Whiskey. Come back Brendan Kennelly, all is forgiven!
And, sir, begging the generosity of your columns for the memoirs of a verable campaigner sir, is this the Trinity Art Soc revival? The audience is so damn reverent in its worshipful pursuit of art that they, The Prunes and their associates, have passed into the dangerous and intellectually debilitating area of self congratulation and mutal corruption. There has been no shock nor much substance yet. Student hippies in search of significance, only the clothes have changed to protect the insecure.
Return to find the full retinue of Prunes on stage and it is worth the wait through the garbage ceremonies. Prunes music now passes far beyond their first antic thrashabouts. There are moments when it sounds like a hybrid between the Pink Floyd and The Gang of Four but really that’s just and indicator to emphasize it possesses greater warmth and colour than the usual modern stactto manifestos. Their music won’t allow them membership of The Cold War.
As for the double headed hydra, Gavin and Guggi are decorated in male dress. Not drag – that’s part of the Trash Aesthetic the Prunes apparently disdain – these are uniforms for ritual not camping. A girl in virginal white is garlanded and honoured as beauty. The Prunes motifs are ancient, perphas Egyptian or obscure Asian or even Teen Masonic.
And the Prunes offer contradictions to those with preconceptions, concluding with an anti abortion song, a plastic packet of blood being ripped open and splashed on stage. The Prunes have not signed on for the full teen ticket.
Their sound bright, their vision opaque, the Prunes untutoredly encounter this thing called ‘art’ and often believe provactive and singular self expression is it alone. Eccentricity and experiment are essential virtues but the Prunes must beware of sealing them selves in an exclusive ghetto. They can’t yet distinguish between sense and silliness and a culturally hungry and intimidated audience don’t help.
What means “Art Fuck” now? Hot Press Review Bill Graham
02/08/1980 project Arts Centre, Dublin
The stage is set like psychedelic Beckett. Candles flicker and corrugated plastic obscures the implements of rock. The P.A. and microphones are covered, and a curtain hides the drums.
Enter the musicians. Enter Gavin and Guggi, ruler and ruled, oppressor and oppressed. Gavin wears a wealthy black mock Arabic grab with a red sash, and drags a ragged Guggi, covered in scabs, by a chain. “There is no solution to man and his hate”. The bleak message is screamed into the microphone. Is there really no way out? People didn’t know whether they were supposed to clap or not.
Next comes Davey, the greatest “rock ‘n’ roll” star ever. He alternates between drums, piano and bass, and sings like a true star. “This is a song with no words. It’s called….” Davey kicks Rock ‘n’ Roll to see if it’s dead, and then drags it over the coals to make sure. “Well they wouldn’t let me join the beautiful people fan club, cos I wasn’t beautiful enough. But I’m much cooler than them”. Davey don’t ever grow up. Truly you must be like little children.
“And now the good news/And now the good news”, The answer to man and his hate, for those who see it. Guggi and Gavin dance on and fill the stage. “Heaven holds a place for you”. Enter a young girl, The Saviour in a virginal white dress. Mary and Martha smear the feet of the Saviour womanhood is blemished and demeaned. The music is fresh and menacing. Repetitive music is the hardest to play effectively, but everything here happens spot on.
The final song is an anti abortion tirade. Guggi stalks the stage in a horrific clinical mask, holding a blood covered foetus in a womb, (a doll in a plastic bag full of red water inside a plastic stomach). “No one has the right to take away life”. Then the bag is burst. “Murderer, Murderer”, screams Gavin from the floor, while Guggi exits.
Saturday
A vague disappointment, following the excellence of the first night. You enter to find a greedy family of pythonesque aspect sitting around, stuffing their faces in their Da Da sitting room. All the props are excellent and the pizza looks good. Loaves and fishes, milk and beans, in their mouths and on the floor. The telly doesn’t work and the Times is torn in two. Spontaneous humour prevails.
Davey follows and is his usal effervescent self, although it doesn’t come together as well as last night. He did “Uncle Arthur”, and people smiled in recognition.
The Bottle Of Mik does the same thing as last night, also (different poems of course) and is slagged more because, well, this is a “Saturday night” crowd. He is so nervous under his anonymous cool and not a little contrived.
Then the band returned to run through a short, straight set. They did “Caucasian Walk” and a few newies. Good, but no cigar. I couldn’t see The Hidden Lie. They were tried and it showed a little. Still apathy is a bad thing, and they must give even when there is nothing left to give.
But Friday night made the whole event worthwhile. The Prunes accuse an audience, and make them think. Tags like socialist, fascist, communist, capitalist, hippie, punk etc, all become meaningless. The implication is clear; think for yourself.
Last Saturday you could go to The One Shows with The Virgin Prunes, you could go to the Blades farewell gig, or you could stay at home. Where’s your reality? Des Traynor
Advert from Hot Press
01/09/1979 Downtown Kampus, Cork with U2, D.C. Nien, Z About 2,000 people turn up to see the 4 bands from Dublin.
26/10/1979 McGonagle’s, Dublin with The Blades, U2
27/12/1980 Downtown Kampus, Cork with Nun Attax
Ticket supplied by Sean O;Neill
Down in the slightly populated McMordie Hall, 2 prunes and a pal were on stage, wallowing in an exercise of self indulgence, their obvious enjoyment showing that it was better to give than receive. Wandering out I overheard a bouncer saying “every pervert in Northern Ireland must be here tonight. Lucky old bouncers, we all know how much they like perverts. Those he was referring to were the mass of trendies, foregoing the hip discos for a night of posing and who easily outnumbered punks, skins and curious passersby.
Tonight there were five, two singers, one razor head, one Bowie, performing deep and meaningful dancing which would probably have enhanced the songs had I been arty or pretentious enough to feign understanding – I couldn’t even make out the words. Ignoring the quick changes and silly dancing, however, it became apparent that none of this really mattered. Underneath a thick layer of “art”, fashion and make up you can dance to them. Yes my dears the Prunes are a dance band. They might aspire to greater things, but it would probably take a close friend or an art student to understand them.
In short, if you like wearing your Mummy’s old clothes, lipstick and rouge or if you’re a girl looking like Nina Hagen, or if you just like dancin’, pop along and see the Prunes if they play again in living memory. (See I got through the whole review without once mentioning the ridiculous. Round of applause please!) Peter Todd Hot Press