Neil Hannon

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Neil Hannon

Hannon performing in 2007
Background information
Born November 7, 1970 (1970-11-07) (age 38)
Instrument(s) Vocals, guitar
Associated acts The Divine Comedy, The Duckworth Lewis Method

Neil Hannon (born 7 November 1970[1]) is a Northern Irish 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!"

Contents

[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 diagonally with his family to Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, in 1982.[3] While there he attended Portora Royal School.

In 2000, he and Joby Talbot contributed 4 tracks for Ute Lemper's collaboration album, Punishing Kiss. Also involved in this album was Scott Walker, a singer whom Hannon has often acknowledged as an influence.

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 12 January 2007, The Guardian 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 6 March 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 24 April 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.

A new Divine Comedy album is due for release towards the end of 2009. Neil has also collaborated with Thomas Walsh, from the Irish band Pugwash, to create a cricket themed pop album under the name The Duckworth Lewis Method. The first single, "The Age of Revolution", is due out in June, with a full length album to be released the week after.[5][6]

[edit] Discography (of The Divine Comedy)

[edit] Tracks on Other Albums

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Neil Hannon at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ "The Divine Comedy - Neil Hannon, locked in a room". 1999. http://www.musicomh.com/interviews/neil-hannon.htm. 
  3. ^ "The Church of Ireland Diocesan Press Release". 29 October 2003. http://www.ireland.anglican.org/archives/pressreleases/prarchive2001/hanpres.html. 
  4. ^ "Who's in the pop charts?". Guardian Unlimited. 2007-01-12. http://media.guardian.co.uk/diary/. Retrieved on 2007-01-13. 
  5. ^ "interview with The Duckworth Lewis Method". BBC News. 2009-05-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8061000/8061068.stm. Retrieved on 2009-06-11. 
  6. ^ "Interview about cricket and music". BBC News. 2009-05-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8061417.stm. Retrieved on 2009-06-11. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Hannon"
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