Virgin Prunes were an Irish

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

band formed in 1977 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland. They disbanded in 1986 after the departure of singer

Gavin Friday Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes. Early life Friday was born in Dublin and attend ...

. The other members continued under the name The Prunes until they split up in 1991.

History

The Virgin Prunes were founded by members of Lypton Village, a "youthful gang" in Ireland created by Guggi (né Derek Rowen),

(né Fionan Hanvey), and

Bono Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by his stage name Bono (), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised in Dublin, he attended ...

(né Paul Hewson) in the early 1970s. Known for their outrageous and controversial stage performances, led by theatrical singer/songwriter Friday, the band began playing small shows in Dublin, gaining them a cult audience. Friday and fellow vocalist Guggi, along with third vocalist Dave-iD Busaras, guitarist Dik Evans (brother of U2's

The Edge David Howell Evans (born 8 August 1961), better known as the Edge or simply Edge,McCormick (2006), pp. 21, 23–24 is an English-born Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist, keyboardist, and backing voca ...

), bassist Strongman (Trevor Rowen, 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). With Binttii on drums, tape loops and keyboards, the band secured a deal with

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pu ...

. They released their first single, " Twenty Tens" on their own Baby Records label (distributed by Rough Trade) on 8 January 1981, followed by a second single, " Moments and Mine (Despite Straight Lines)", on 27 June 1981. Two other tracks recorded with Binttii were released during 1981 before conflicts with other members forced him out of the band. "Red Nettle" was included on '' NME'' compilation '' C81'' and "Third Secret" appeared on Cherry Red compilation ''Perspectives and Distortion''. Work had already started on the "A New Form of Beauty" project while Bintti was with the band, but after he was replaced by Mary D'Nellon (né David Kelly) on drums, some of his tracks were rerecorded and his name was not included in the credits. He later formed the project Princess Tinymeat. "A New Form of Beauty" was a project that originally contained four chapters and was released in various formats: a 7" single, 10" single and 12" EP released in 1981, and a cassette issued in 1982. All four parts were later collected as the '' A New Form of Beauty Parts 1-4'' compilation album. The project also included two additional pieces, the unpublished book ''A New Form of Beauty 6'' and the unreleased film ''A New Form of Beauty 7''. In November 1982, the Virgin Prunes released their debut studio album, '' ...If I Die, I Die'' (produced by

Colin Newman Colin John Newman (born 16 September 1954) is an English musician, record producer and record label owner. He is best known as the primary vocalist and songwriter for the post-punk band Wire. Early life Newman was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire ...

Wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is co ...

), as well as the double 10" EP '' Hérésie'', a French box set. Commissioned by Yann Farcy after seeing them perform at the Rex Club in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, ''Hérésie'' 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 D'Nellon to switch to guitar and allowed Pod to return as the band's drummer. The Virgin Prunes started to record but abandoned the unreleased album ''Sons Find Devils''. A retrospective video titled ''Sons Find Devils - A Live Retrospective 1981-1983'' was released in 1986 by Ikon; this video had nothing to do with the unreleased album of the same name. In April 1985, rarities compilation '' Over the Rainbow'' was released. In July 1986, the band, now a four-piece, finally released a second studio album, ''

The Moon Looked Down and Laughed ''The Moon Looked Down and Laughed'' is the second and final studio album by the Irish rock band Virgin Prunes. It was released in July 1986 by Baby Records in Europe, and on Touch and Go Records in the U.S. Track listing Personnel ; ...

'' (including recordings of music written for ''Sons Find Devils''). Later that year, 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 breakup. After disbanding as Virgin Prunes, D'Nellon, Strongman and Busaras formed an offshoot group called The Prunes, which released three albums between 1988 and 1991 (1988's ''Lite Fantastik'', 1989's ''Nada'', and 1991's ''Blossoms & Blood'' ). Dik Evans played on ”Lite Fantastik" while 17-year-old Justin Kavanagh (aka Valley Limberg) from the Dublin hardcore band Mutant Asylumtook the helm as guitarist for "Blossoms & Blood". In 1993, Kavanagh went on to form Gormenghast and Snifferdog with Ger Griffin. Binttii's youngest brother,

Jonathan Figgis Jonathan Figgis is an Irish film director and producer. He was a co-founder and director of award-winning film production company October Eleven Pictures. Having left October Eleven Pictures in 2012, he now heads Figgis Visuals. Early life, fam ...

, was the boy who appeared on the cover of the second Virgin Prunes single, "Moments and Mine". In 1998,

Cleopatra Records Cleopatra Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1992 by Brian Perera. The record label has since grown into a family of labels, including Hypnotic Records, Purple Pyramid Records, ...

rereleased 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 various goth and post-punk CD compilations). Friday went on to have a reasonably successful solo career in both music and film, releasing five solo albums and several scores, while Guggi remained an influential artist in Dublin and Busaras continued to record as a solo artist in Ireland. After 20 years of self-imposed seclusion from the rock world, Dik Evans gave an overview of he and his brother The Edge's early years in U2 for the December 2005 issue of ''

Word Magazine Word Magazine was an online magazine active from 1995 to 2000. History Launched in 1995 by Carey Earle, Tom Livaccari and Dan Pelson, Word Magazine created original stories, interviews, games, applications, music, interactive objects and art, an ...

''. Daniel Figgis later became a composer and multimedia producer and curator, becoming composer in residence with Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, Dublin. One of his compositions, "Post Production", a 23-section suite for four musicians, was performed at the

Winter Garden Theatre The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It opened in 1911 under designs by architect William Albert Swasey. The Winter Garden's current design dates to 1922, when ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in December 2006. In 2008, the 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", appeared on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

on 8 January 2010 at

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

. The Virgin Prunes discography was remastered and reissued on

Mute Records Mute Records is a British independent record label owned and founded in 1978 by Daniel Miller. It has featured several prominent musical acts on its roster such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Einstürzende Neubauten, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, Grin ...

in 2004. The set of reissues included ''...If I Die, I Die'', ''The Moon Looked Down and Laughed'', ''Over the Rainbow'', ''Hérésie'' and an album of selections from the ''A New Form of Beauty'' series. In 2006, Busaras, Guggi and Friday contributed a track to the

sea shanty A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...

collection ''

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'', appearing in the track listing as ''Three Pruned Men''. On 4 October 2009, three original members of the band (Friday, Guggi and Dik Evans) performed two classic Virgin Prunes songs, "Sweethome Under White Clouds" and "Caucasian Walk", at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

as part of "An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends", to celebrate Friday's 50th birthday.

J.G. Thirlwell James George Thirlwell (born 29 January 1960), also known as Clint Ruin, Frank Want, and Foetus, among other names, is an Australian musician, composer, and record producer. He is known for juxtaposing a variety of different musical styles. ...

appeared with them as backing vocalist.

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Video albums

EPs

Singles

Selected compilation appearances

* "Red Nettle" on '' C81'' (1981, Rough Trade/ NME) * "Third Secret" on ''Perspectives and Distortion'' (1981, Cherry Red) * "Jigsaw Mentallama" on ''Vinyl Magazine #9''

flexi disc The flexi disc (also known as a phonosheet, Sonosheet or Soundsheet, a trademark) is a phonograph record made of a thin, flexible vinyl sheet with a molded-in spiral stylus groove, and is designed to be playable on a normal phonograph turntable. ...

(1981, Vinyl Magazine) * "Mad Bird in the Wood" on ''Dokument: Ten Highlights in the History of Popular Music 1981>1982'' (1982,

Roadrunner The roadrunners (genus ''Geococcyx''), also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, us ...

)

Literature

* Rolf Vasellari: ''The Faculties of a Broken Heart'' (1985, Black Sheep Press)