The Divine Comedy live at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin with support from Ren Harvieu. Photos by Kevin Hennessy
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Neil Hannon has always been, rather consciously, something of an anachronism in contemporary pop – an urbane, arch throwback to suave crooners and irreverent singer-songwriters of the 1960s. In a way, this made sense in the ’90s, when The Divine Comedy were at their commercial height. After all, Britpop juggernauts Oasis and Blur were fetishists of the ’60s, lifting the Beatles’ and Kinks’ aesthetics from the middle part of that decade; Jarvis Cocker, when not drawing inspiration from Serge Gainsbourg, shared Hannon’s obsession with the wry, literary Scott Walker. But while Albarn and Cocker combined those influences with more contemporary sensibilities, Hannon was a purist –…
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It’s a while since Neil Hannon has toured with a full band version of The Divine Comedy, having toured last album Bang Goes The Knighthood solo back in 2010 (including a date in this same faux-starlit CQAF marquee) and having made most appearances since – such as his Mandela Hall performance upon winning 2015’s Oh Yeah Legend Award – with a stripped back trio of acoustic guitar, piano and accordion. The days of endless major label money having long since dried up, a return to the era of bringing along a full orchestra seems unlikely, but the promise of a…
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With the release of their eleventh record Foreverland last year, Neil Hannon’s The Divine Comedy continue to deliver witty, literate pop that still dents the album charts twenty years after their commercial peak. Jonny Currie catches up with Neil Hannon ahead of his show at Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter next month to discuss touring routines, growing old with your audience, and the importance of pop stars keeping their distance from fans. The Divine Comedy play Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival on May 3. Go here to buy tickets. You’re playing at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival next month. When was the last…
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“Don’t stop going to silly rock and roll concerts. Don’t stop enjoying silly rock and roll… if we keep going, they can never win. Now let’s go play some silly rock and roll!” Neil Hannon, The Divine Comedy On a night that not once threatened to descend into a sombre affair, there remained a feeling of solidarity within the Mandela Hall in Belfast on Saturday night. Undoubtedly one of the most important dates in the Northern Irish music calendar, in this third instalment of the NI Music Awards we once again saw performances from some of the best acts this…
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Featuring a cast of homegrown and international talent including The Cast of Cheers, The Hot Sprockets, Enemies, The Divine Comedy, David Gray and more, Owen Humphreys shoots Day One of this year’s Westport Festival at the weekend.
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I’m none too smart, a sumo-intellectual at best, but people often assume I am clever because of my large forehead, glasses and the fact that I talk far too much. My learning is skin-deep and a mile wide but I have a felicitous ability to put random things together in a manner that would answer Lautremont’s dictum: I can’t get any of my dissecting done as the whole place is lousy with sewing machines and umbrellas. But mostly what I like doing is showing off. And this is a record that really shows off. It is, if you like, a…