''Shag Tobacco'' is the third solo album from

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 attende ...

. Once again, Friday teamed up with musician Maurice "The Man" Seezer.

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 M ...

and

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 ...

contribute backing vocals on "Little Black Dress". "The Last Song I'll Ever Sing" was dedicated "in loving memory" of Scottish-Irish street performer

Thom McGinty Thomas McGinty (1 April 1952 – 20 February 1995), known as The Diceman, was a Scottish-Irish actor, model, and street artist specialising in mime. Born in Scotland of Irish parentage, McGinty spent much of his life and career in Ireland, whe ...

, known as "The Diceman"). This album features a

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

T.Rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

's "The Slider". The second track, "Caruso" is Friday's tribute to

Enrico Caruso Enrico Caruso (, , ; 25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921) was an Italian operatic first lyrical tenor then dramatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles (74) ...

, the Italian

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

singer. The third track, "Angel", was featured on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

of the 1996 film, ''

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

''. Patrick McCabe wrote the album liner notes.

Track listing

# "Shag Tobacco" – 4:33 # "Caruso" – 5:41 # "Angel" – 6:03 # "Little Black Dress" – 4:29 # "The Slider" (

Marc Bolan Marc Bolan ( ; born Mark Feld; 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977) was an English guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a pioneer of the glam rock movement in the early 1970s with his band T. Rex. Bolan was posthumously inducted int ...

) – 3:16 # "Dolls" – 4:10 # "Mr Pussy" – 3:40 # "You Me and World War Three" – 4:39 # "Kitchen Sink Drama" – 5:57 # "My Twentieth Century" – 5:08 # "The Last Song I'll Ever Sing" – 3:48 # "Le Roi d'Amour" – 3:53

Personnel

*Gavin Friday – vocals, megaphone (Friday called a "stronzophone") on "Caruso", "The Slider" and "Dolls" *

Maurice Seezer Maurice Seezer (real name Maurice Roycroft, and previously known as ''The Man Seezer'') is an Irish songwriter, musician, and film music composer. Born in 1960, he grew up in the Dublin suburb of Coolock, in a musical family. Film scores written o ...

– bass, keyboards, accordion, drum programming *Chris Cunningham – guitar, mandolin *

Erik Sanko Erik Sanko (born 27 September 1963) is a bass player from New York who has played in The Lounge Lizards and currently active in Skeleton Key. Biography In the past he also worked with notable musicians including Marc Ribot, John Cale, Yoko Ono, Su ...

– bass *Renaud Pion – synthesizer, bass clarinet, baritone saxophone, flute, Jew's harp *Dave Clayton – keyboards *Danny Cummings – percussion *Loretta Heyward – background vocals *

– background vocals on "Little Black Dress" * Tim Simenon – turntables, drum programming *Don Hozz – synthesizer on "Angel"

References

Gavin Friday albums 1995 albums Albums produced by Tim Simenon {{1990s-alt-rock-album-stub