Neil Hannon
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Neil Hannon (born 7 November 1970[1]) is a singer and songwriter, best known as the creator (in 1989) and frontman of the orchestral pop group, The Divine Comedy. The band's official website even goes so far as to say, "The Divine Comedy is Neil Hannon," and Hannon is quoted in an interview[2] as saying, "The Divine Comedy will always be my band because... I thought of it first!"
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[edit] Career
Hannon was born in Derry in Northern Ireland, the son of Brian Hannon (born 1936), a Church of Ireland clergyman who was Bishop of Clogher from 1986 to 2001. He moved with his family to Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, in 1982.[3] While there he attended Portora Royal School.
In 2004, he played alongside the Ulster Orchestra for the opening event of the Belfast Festival at Queen's. In 2005 he contributed vocals to his long-time collaborator, Joby Talbot's, soundtrack for the movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
In 2006, it was announced that Hannon was to lend his vocal ability to the Doctor Who soundtrack CD release, recording two songs — "Love Don't Roam" for the 2006 Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride", and a new version of "Song For Ten", originally used in 2005's "The Christmas Invasion". On January 12, 2007, the MediaGuardian.co.uk website's "Media Monkey" diary column reported that Doctor Who fans from the discussion forum on the fan website Outpost Gallifrey were attempting to organise mass downloads of the Hannon-sung "Love Don't Roam", which was available as a single release on the UK iTunes store. This was in order to attempt to exploit the new UK singles chart download rules, and get the song featured in the Top 40 releases.[4]
The same year, Neil added his writing and vocal talents to the Air album Pocket Symphony, released in the United States on March 6, 2007. He is featured on the track Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping, for which he wrote the lyrics. This song had been originally written for and sung by Charlotte Gainsbourg on her album, 5:55. Though it was not included in its 2006 European release, it was added as a bonus track for its American release on April 24, 2007. Consequently, two versions of the same song on two different albums were released within two months.
Neil won the 2007 Choice music award for his 2006 album, 'Victory for the Comic Muse'. Ironically, it was announced the next day that he left EMI by 'mutual consent'.
When the band Keane played at the O2 Arena in London in July, A Bad Dream was introduced by Hannon. He introduced it by reading the poem by W.B. Yeats upon which the song is based.
He is credited with composing the theme music for the comedy shows The IT Crowd, and Father Ted, the latter being a reworking of the instrumental break of The Divine Comedy's Songs Of Love. Both shows were created or co-created by Graham Linehan. For the Father Ted episode A Song For Europe, Hannon co-wrote and sang My Lovely Horse, a deliberately bad song that Fathers Ted and Dougal enter into Eurosong (a parody of the Eurovision Song Contest). A dream sequence shows Ted and Dougal in the song's pop video, with Hannon singing. As well as this, 'Eoin McLove' sings "My Lovely Mayo Mammy", but his voice and the song were both contributed by Hannon. When a raffle is being held in order to raise funds to repair the roof of the parochial house? The Kraftwerk-esque quadrio of priests enlisted to perform play an electronic piece of music composed by him. Both of the advertisements for telephone numbers; in The IT Crowd (the new emergency number) and Father Ted (Priest Chatback) have jingles composed by Hannon.
[edit] Discography
- Fanfare for the Comic Muse - July 1990
- Liberation - August 1993
- Promenade - March 1994
- Casanova - April 1996
- A Short Album About Love - February 1997
- Fin de Siècle - August 1998
- A Secret History... The Best of the Divine Comedy - August 1999
- Regeneration - March 2001
- Absent Friends (The Divine Comedy album) - March 2004
- Victory for the Comic Muse - June 2006
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Neil Hannon at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ The Divine Comedy - Neil Hannon, locked in a room (1999).
- ^ The Church of Ireland Diocesan Press Release (29 October 2003).
- ^ Who's in the pop charts?. Guardian Unlimited (2007-01-12). Retrieved on 2007-01-13.
