The Divine Comedy are a chamber pop band from Northern Ireland formed in 1989 and
fronted by Neil Hannon. Hannon has been the only constant member of the group,
playing, in some instances, all of the non-orchestral instrumentation besides
drums. To date, ten studio albums have been released under the Divine Comedy
name. The group achieved their greatest commercial success in the years 1996–99,
during which they had nine singles that made the UK Top 40, including the top
ten hit "National Express". The tenth Divine Comedy album, Bang Goes the
Knighthood, was released on 31 May 2010. History
= The beginning and early success = Neil Hannon has been the only
ever-present member of the band, being its founder in 1989 when he was joined
by John McCullagh and Kevin Traynor. Their first album, the heavily
R.E.M.-influenced and now-deleted Fanfare for the Comic Muse, enjoyed
little success. A couple of equally unsuccessful EPs – Timewatch; Europop –
were to follow, with newly recruited member John Allen handling lead vocals
on some tracks. After the commercial failure of the Europop EP, this line-up
soon fell apart. Hannon, however, was not deterred in his
efforts and re-appeared in 1993 with Liberation. Featuring a fairly diverse
musical outlook that goes from the tongue-in-cheek synth pop of 'Europop'
to the classical stylings of 'Timewatching', it is also characterised
by a plethora of literary references: 'Bernice Bobs Her Hair' recalls a short
story by F. Scott Fitzgerald; 'Three Sisters' draws upon the play by Anton
Chekhov; and 'Lucy' is essentially three William Wordsworth poems abridged to
music. This led to a degree of critical acclaim, but commercial success still
proved elusive. Indeed, it was only some minor success
in France that really enabled Hannon to proceed to his second effort Promenade.
Released in 1994, this was heavily driven by classical influences, with
Michael Nyman's stylings clearly an inspiration. Hannon himself acknowledged
this when he apparently sent a copy of his new album to the composer, jokingly
asking him not to sue. Essentially, a concept album about a day spent by two
lovers, it also received similar critical acclaim to that which
Liberation was afforded. Commercial success, though, was not forthcoming
despite some of Hannon's best songwriting to date, including "Don't
Look Down", "The Summerhouse" and subsequent live favourite "Tonight We
Fly". Soon after the release of the album the Divine Comedy went on tour
with Tori Amos, supporting her during her European dates.
At around the same time, Hannon also wrote and performed the theme music for
the sitcom Father Ted, and later wrote the music for the deliberately bad
mock-Eurovision song "My Lovely Horse" for one episode. Hannon resisted
widespread requests from fans to release the track as a single for the Christmas
market, but it was eventually released in 1999 as the third track on the
CD-single "Gin Soaked Boy". This would not be the only time they would be
responsible for a TV theme, as "In Pursuit of Happiness" was also used by
the BBC science and technology show, Tomorrow's World. Hannon also composed
the music for the comedy series The IT Crowd, written by Father Ted co-writer
Graham Linehan. = The road to fame =
The album Casanova, and in particular the single "Something for the Weekend",
championed by Chris Evans, then BBC Radio 1 breakfast show DJ and presenter
of TFI Friday, led to the band's first major success, with Neil Hannon becoming
a distinctive, albeit unlikely, popstar in an immaculate suit, and always
appearing the elegant dandy. At the height of their commercial success, the
band released A Short Album About Love, recorded live at soundcheck with the
Brunel Ensemble in preparation for a concert at the Shepherd's Bush Empire,
from which several songs were released as b-sides. It was aptly released on
Valentine's Day in 1997. Subsequently, the band contributed a reworking of Noël
Coward's "I've Been to a Marvellous Party" to Twentieth-Century Blues: The
Songs of Noël Coward, a compilation of covers of the writer's songs, with
Hannon affecting a Cowardesque lilt. The foppish image, but not the suit, was
ditched for the more sombre album Fin De Siècle in 1998, although its biggest
hit, the jaunty "National Express", belied its more intimate, soul-searching
tone. Maintaining the balance between these poles, 1999's Secret History – the
Best of The Divine Comedy included rerecordings of Liberation tracks and
two new songs alongside the band's main hits. In the same year, the band also
collaborated with Tom Jones on a cover-version of Portishead's 'All
Mine', featured on his album Reload. A serious side to the band was also in
evidence in 2000's collaboration with Ute Lemper on her album Punishing Kiss,
most of which featured The Divine Comedy as Lemper's backing band. Neil Hannon
and Joby Talbot also contributed two original songs and an arrangement of
Brecht and Weill's "Tango Ballad", whilst Neil Hannon sang two songs as
duets with Lemper. = Post-Setanta & recent activity =
The 2001 album Regeneration attempted to remove the band still further from its
association with comedy. Hannon hired famous producer Nigel Godrich to
"remake" the band. Neil ditched the suit and donned a Britrock band image. The
album was a greater critical than commercial success, and soon after its
release it was announced that The Divine Comedy were splitting up. However,
within a year Hannon was touring again with a revised band line-up, playing a
series of joint-headline gigs in the United States, United Kingdom and
Ireland featuring both The Divine Comedy and Ben Folds, who would cover The
Divine Comedy's "Songs of Love" on his Sunny 16 EP.
Eventually a new album surfaced in the form of 2004's Absent Friends. Striking
a balance between the occasionally earnest sound of the band's later
material and the lighter tone of the more popular releases, it encapsulated
the essence of The Divine Comedy. 2004 saw two dates of particularly acclaimed
performances featuring The Millenia Ensemble orchestra, one at the London
Palladium and one at the Royal Albert Hall.
In January 2005, Hannon announced that he had acquired the worldwide copyrights
to all of his recorded output with his former record label, Setanta Records. He
declared on the band's official website that he would be launching his own
record label Divine Comedy Records in order to re-release his 1990s output.
Hannon's ninth album under the Divine Comedy moniker, Victory for the Comic
Muse, was released in June 2006. The bulk of the record was recorded in just
two weeks, much of it live rather than multi-tracked, hence the more
spontaneous sound, and features appearances from Travis bass player
Dougie Payne. Neil Hannon also provided vocals for
songs on the soundtrack for the film of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
released in 2005, working with Joby Talbot, the composer for the film and
former Divine Comedy band member. This sci-fi connection continued in late
2006, when he contributed vocals to two tracks – "Song For Ten" and "Love Don't
Roam" – on the Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack album. In an
interview with Bullz-Eye.com, Hannon explained that, "literally, I was asked
to add my vocal by the composer of the songs, who writes for the show. And I
didn’t feel that I could say no, simply because I spent my childhood watching
this programme. It would be just plain wrong to not do it."
Hannon also lent his vocals to "Aliens", the last track on the Irish charity
album The Cake Sale in 2006, organised by Brian Crosby of Bell X1 and featuring
a variety of mainly Irish musicians. In 2006, whilst on tour, the band did a
Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon. Most recently, the first
ten or so seconds of "Tonight We Fly" was used as the ending tune to BBC7's
Digi Radio. The song was also used for an advertisement for the Airbus A340
airliner. Meanwhile, Neil took part in various
projects: he recorded "Perfection As a Hipster", included in the God Help the
Girl soundtrack, a soon-to-be-released musical film by Belle & Sebastian
frontman Stuart Murdoch as well as the LP The Duckworth Lewis Method, together
with Thomas Walsh of Pugwash. In March 2007 Neil Hannon's relationship
with Parlophone came to an end. On 31 May 2010 The Divine Comedy
released their tenth album entitled Bang Goes the Knighthood on DC Records. As
with Victory for the Comic Muse it was recorded in RAK studios in St John's
Wood by Guy Massey and the orchestra was conducted by Andrew Skeet who was the
arranger on this album. The album charted at 20 in the first week of
release, making it their highest charting album since Regeneration in
2001. The album itself was preceded by the download-only single "At The Indie
Disco" which gained airplay, but failed to chart.
In September 2015, it was announced that the band had started recording their
eleventh album, documenting the process on social networking sites and set for a
release in early 2016. Band members
The line-up of the band has at times consisted only of Neil Hannon, but has
also included: Bryan Mills
Chris Worsey Charlotte Glasson
Darren Allison Grant Gordon
Ivor Talbot Joby Talbot
John Allen Tom Hallawell
John McCullagh Kevin Traynor
Miggy Barradas Stewart Bartlett
Natalie Box Rob Farrer
Simon Little Stuart 'Pinkie' Bates
Andrew Skeet Lucy Wilkins
John Evans Discography
= Studio albums = = Live albums =
= Compilation albums = = Extended Plays =
= Singles = = DVDs =
Live at the Palladium - with The Millennia Ensemble
= Contributions = (appearing as either The Divine Comedy
or Neil Hannon) "The Good Life"; "The Good Life" on
Gangster No. 1 soundtrack 1993 "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out";
on The Smiths is dead tribute album, marking 10 years since the release of
The Smiths album The Queen Is Dead – November 1996
"Life's What You Make It" on Volume 9 "All Mine" duet with Tom Jones from the
album Reload "I've Been to a Marvelous Party" from
the album Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noel Coward 1998
"No Regrets", backing vocals on Robbie Williams song from the album I've Been
Expecting You – 1998 "The Dead Only Quickly Decay"; on The
6ths album Hyacinths and Thistles – 1999.
"Jacky''" on Next- A Tribute To Jacques Brel 2004
"October" on U2 tribute album Even Better Than the Real Thing Vol. 3
"So Long And Thanks For All The Fish"; "Vote Beeblebrox" on The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy soundtrack "Home" on Jane Birkin's album Fictions –
2006 "Three Cheers For Pooh, Cottleston Pie,
Piglet Ho"; on the charity album Colours Are Brighter – October 2006
"Aliens" on The Cake Sale "Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping"
on Air's album Pocket Symphony "Love Don't Roam", "Song For Ten"; on
the official Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack – December 2006
"Take Me Away" on Pugwash's album Eleven Modern Antiquities
"Our Love Goes Deeper Than This" on the Duke Special special 2 cd version of
Songs from the Deep Forest "Perfection as a Hipster"; on the
soundtrack album God Help The Girl by God Help The Girl – June 2009
"Les Jours Tristes" on Yann Tiersen's album L'Absente – 2001
References External links
The Divine Comedy Official Homepage a short site about The Divine Comedy
Interview On Subculture Magazine – November 2006