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Neil Hannon

Neil Hannon IS The Divine Comedy: he writes the lyrics and the music, he sings, he plays the piano - and other types of keyboards - and the guitar - mainly the guitar. On early Divine Comedy releases, he even produced them by himself. 

A gift is always something we become aware of early. As for Neil, he starts learning the piano at the age of 7 because he was attracted to the piano which was in his parents' house. At the end of the first lesson, his teacher said: "Neil has a great ear but very little motivation."

 

 

In 1981, the Hannons left Londonderry to settle in Enniskillen.

In June 1988, Neil passed his A-Levels. The day before, he went to Dublin to see REM in concert. Of course, he failed at his exams and definitely left school. By the way, his school was Portora Royal School, a place where not only Bryan Mills and Ivor Talbot went, but also, when it was still in Dublin, Oscar Wilde...

In 1993, Neil Hannon was signed to Setanta Records. He adopted a sober style, had his hair cut, put on a suit and bought a pair of dark glasses. At that time, The Divine Comedy was a shy, romantic, learned and posh young man. He appeared as a non-smoking refined gentleman. Actually, Neil opted for this look because it suited his music. His pseudonym, which evokes Dante, Florence - one of the most artistic towns in the world -, the Middle-Ages, corresponded to this image. This style was mainly inspired by A Room With A View, a film by James Ivory, based on the novel by E. M. Forster. Neil says: "When I saw the Merchant Ivory movie A Room With A View, E. M. Forster changed my life beyond all recognition, really. Without A Room With A View I'd probably never have written anything I've written. After seeing the film I read everything by Forster. I threw off the shackles of indie-pop and I was able to write music. It was a  "Liberation" by name and nature."

 

Neil Hannon was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on November 7th, in 1970. His father is an Anglican clergyman - he is the bishop of Clogher - and, as a consequence, Neil grew up in a Protestant atmosphere in a place where religious dissentions are very strong. All we know about his mother is that she transmitted him her love for horses - and maybe for dogs too. The last thing we can say about his family background is that Neil has two brothers.
In September 1993, The Divine Comedy released his début album, Liberation. A few months later, in February 1994, Promenade was released. During the recording, Neil met Joby Talbot, a young musician who was then 22. Neil remembers this first meeting: "I thought, who is this strange, hulking fellow whose repartee is so astonishingly diverse? He was 22 when I met him, but he could hold a table of eight enthralled with these strange stories." Joby Talbot was born in London, on August 25th, 1971, and studied at Royal Holloway, at the Guildhall School of Music and at Dartington, all in London. Even though he plays the piano and several wind instruments, he is mainly a composer. Time Out described him as the "orchestral alchemist" of the Divine Comedy. Indeed, not only did he arrange some of The Divine Comedy's songs, but he also conducted the brass section in some songs.

Then, in 1994, as he was supporting Tori Amos, Neil bumped into Bryan Mills and Ivor Talbot, two old school friends. Bryan joined as a bassist and Ivor was hired as a guitarist in 1996, after having played only two songs. Both are from Enniskillen and attended Portora Royal School with Neil. Bryan was born on March 6th, 1972 and Ivor on June 19th, 1972. They also are playing together with Brian, Ken Sweeney's band. If you are wondering whether Joby and Ivor are relatives or not, the answer is no. Joby being a Londoner and Ivor being from Northern Ireland, it is a mere coincidence that they have the same surname.

At that time, Joby also introduced Neil his flatmate, Stuart "Pinkie" Bates who entered the "band" as an organist. He was born in Orpington on September 19th, 1967. By the way, you may wonder where his nickname comes from. Actually, according to one of his family members, "he got this name at a gig. He was wearing a bright red t-shirt and everyone else was wearing pale colours. With the stage lights the shirt looked pink. They had a new manager at that time and when they came off stage he called out to Stuart "Oh Pinkie"."

In February 1996, after having sought for a drummer, Neil eventually found the ideal one in the person of Miguel Barradas. Miggy Barradas is of Venezuelan origins and used to play for a Latino band before Neil "opened his eyes".

The Divine Comedy entered his golden age in April 1996, when Casanova was released. Neil Hannon decided to transform into the eponymous character of the album. He became less polished, although still very romantic. He appeared more like a man than like an object. In fact, he was a little more accessible. And, as a result, success was lavished on to Neil when "Something for the weekend", the first single taken from Casanova, was played by DJ Chris Evans as a Breakfast Biggie in his Radio One broadcast. Then, Evans invited him to his TFI Friday show, making it the first of The Divine Comedy's TV appearances. Step by step, Neil got more and more famous.
That same year, he also records the music for a sitcom, Father Ted.
In November 1996, Neil decided to conquer the United States of America. For the occasion, he gave a lot of interviews, a few gigs and his photograph was taken more than once. He even decided to grow a beard. Maybe, was it part of his plan? At the same period, the "band" also toured in Europe with a 30 piece orchestra: Neil's dream was fulfilled.

In 1997, The Divine Comedy released A Short Album About Love and in 1998, he released Fin De Siècle. In April 1998, Robert Farrer, who had already worked for Neil several times, definitely joined the Divine Comedy as a percussionist. Rob went to the same music school as Joby and joined the Divine Comedy thanks to him.

Fate and talent making him more and more famous, Neil collaborated with a lot of artists, among whom we can find some of the greatest, like Tom Jones, Ute Lemper and others.

In 1999, after having worked for Setanta records for ten years, The Divine Comedy shifted to another label, Parlophone. But before that, he celebrated his "birthday" by releasing a best of, A Secret History.

That same year, Neil married Órla Little, a Catholic young woman from the Republic of Ireland. He then bought his first car and his first house in Couch End. The family circle was quickly expanded with the arrival of Leia, a black setter.
In 2000, once signed to Parlophone, Neil changed his look and adopted his natural style. In 2001, The Divine comedy released Regeneration, a pop rock album produced by Nigel Godrich. On its cover, we can see sculptures made by Joby's wife, Claire Burbridge. In October 2001, the musicians announced their separation. However, Neil decided to continue with Parlophone. In November, they play their last gig together in Belfast.

On December 19th 2001, Neil Hannon becomes father of a little girl named Willow Mary Erin.