Has anyone ever done what we have just witnessed? An entire career laid out in a series of continuous concerts? Not thinking of acts with two or three albums of course.
Apologies for not making it to any forum meet ups. Due to high value lost property on the train (zero help from Avanti west coast) and cancelled trains (hello again Avanti; you aspire to being useless and still fall short), most hours not spent at the Barbican were spent on phones and trying to find people to speak to in Euston. Winge over. Well, that really was quite something wasn’t it? Attended all 5 nights in the circle, with my wife abandoning me for the last night as she scored a seat in the stalls with a number of other WhatApp group fans. Where to even start? Hearing tracks I’ve not heard live since 1994/1996 was fantastic; Queen of the South, When The Lights Go Out All Over Europe, Theme from Casanova and The Dogs And The Horses were all joyously received, and the strings, woodwind and brass really brought the live versions closer to the ‘chamber pop’ of the originals. We did do the orchestra backed TDC concerts in 1997 and at the RAH in 2004. The same goes for the orchestral lead outs from Certainty Of Chance and Our Mutual Friend. And only have heard Neil play My Lovely Horse a couple of times in the 20+ times we’ve seen TDC over the years, to hear him embrace the song with such an awesome arrangement (kudos Andrew Skeet for arranging 113(?) songs!) was fantastic and such a surprise when the audience twigged to the opening instrumental melody. Even some of the heckles throughout the week were amusing (What are you drinking? Neil: Gin & tonic. You? Beeyuh!). Neil’s comment on the last night of seeing some of his songs in a new light as a result of the residency and that future ‘regular’ set lists might well see something of a shake up was most welcome. We did chat a bit with some of our seat neighbours, people having from afar as Tulsa, New York and even New Zealand for the residency. Quite humbling to think of the sheer expense and travel inconvenience some have gone to to have been there. Quite possibly. Tall, balding, glasses, goatee, Disney t-shirts, propensity to tear up at favourite songs being played. That said, barring the Disney t-shirts, I don’t think any of that narrows me down!
Yes! Brilliant job. We went to the first night only and it exceeded my (high) expectations! When it was first advertised in spring 2020 (who knew...!) I sort of really wanted to go to the first night, but a combination of not wanting to be disappointed, not being that into TDC at the time, and having a 2-year old meant I didn't book. However, lockdown, the box set, this thread, another TDC gig and 2 years have happened in the meantime, and our son is now 4 and loves staying with his grandparents (and I managed to work out that Neil can still put on a good show!), so in the end I was even able to take my wonderful husband along! Highlights from Liberation for me were Festive Road, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, Europop and Timewatching. I had been looking forward most to hearing Death Of A Supernaturalist but although I did enjoy that, the others surprised me! From Promenade, Bath, A Seafood Song, The Booklovers and Geronimo have stuck with me, but it was all very good, and the atmosphere of the whole thing was great - felt super-friendly and relaxed and we certainly smiled a lot!
I've really grown to love "Regeneration" over the last two years so hearing that whole album live was a particular highlight. I have to commend the sound mix as well for all nights. So to summarise - that Neil Hannon's a bit of a songwriting genius, isn't he?
The fact that you only went to the first one makes me feel better about only going to the first two; I get the impression from the FB group that most people went to all five. The last two nights held zero interest for me since those albums are very patchy for me and most of the stand out songs on them are live regulars by now anyway. But I could have made more of an effort and gone to the third one too (and yes I do regret it now...) I feel like then I would've seen everything I wanted to. But the first two nights were great and there were plenty of people who couldn't make any so I shouldn't complain
Graham L has been having a bit of a rant at Neil (and Father Ted co-creator Arthur) https://twitter.com/MockWooloo/status/1576961717476605953?s=20&t=6-ZBG5Efe5leuiGa3Y4ynQ Am pretty happy that Neil thankfully hasn't gotten dragged down with what has been happening with Graham (it probably helps with Neil not being online all/any of his waking hours!), but it's not looking likely for a Father Ted musical any time soon...
Well I rarely get on here anymore as it's quite an annoying place for normal people like me but I must congratulate the lovely job on tbe DLM stuff. Not universally loved of course which is fine and I'm tempted to chop off my nose now because of my nasalisicityyiusness vocals that "annoy" people. Anyway I had a nice hour or so flicking through. Some right miserable gits amongst the love (a paul and that turny year guy - I can smell the exhaust fumes through me phone!! Cheer up eh? We'll all pop our clogs soon enough). And it's fun reading so much innocent inaccuracies about songs that people thought Neil wrote or I wrote (and there are a few that think Neil wrote everything!! ) Anyway, as I said, thank you. Lovely work. And honestly if you post say 10 questions about queries that were raised during the discussions I'll get around to answering them for you if you like. But I thought I would share myself and Neil's first collaboration since DLM which will be on the new Pugwash album out in Spring 2023. I hope you like it. Duckworth (Lewis is asleep)..x
Really enjoyed that having listened to it a couple of times now There are probably a bunch of questions I asked previously, or at least assumptions / suppositions I made at the time that it would be interesting to have confirmed (or maybe just mocked!) but I'd have to go through the whole thing again myself now and not sure I have the patience to dive into it right now. If I could ask any question then it would be the obvious one; will there ever be a third DLM album? Also I'm curious if you see DLM as being purely a cricket-specific thing? It always felt to me that the two of you could knock off a concept album about any subject if you wanted to, the more unlikely the subject matter the better possibly. I know cricket is in the band name, but that doesn't mean every song has to be about it... But possibly you don't see it that way.
Hello! Lovely to hear from you in this strange corner of the internet, and I hope that you're well. I was one of the miserable gits. I really did have great fun listening to the DLM albums and found some songs that I really enjoyed as well as leaving curmudgeonly comments about others. I definitely got a bit carried away with that side of it though, so I'm sorry. Going through an album in this way is a bit of a weird activity, and is certainly not something I normally spend time doing (only joined this forum in lockdown and don't look at it now!). Somehow the whole thing brought out a rather critical and scathing side I didn't know I had (you should see some of the things I wrote about Divine Comedy songs... who knows what I was thinking ). Anyway, I do like the sound of your new song and wish you every success with your album next year. (And I'm so grumpy and full of exhaust fumes that I sent you a few Euros towards it a couple of months back ). Please don't chop your nose off, your voice is lovely the way it is
What a bizarre coincidence that I should find myself reading through the last 50-odd pages of this thread again over the last few days, coming to an end exactly a year to the day since we finished! Hope everyone is well and that Neil has some more music for us to discuss soon
I hope so too, I miss this thread so much. No other thread on here, or anywhere else, has been quite like it for me.
I must admit that when Thomas had a go at the more negative posters on here I smugly assumed it couldn't possibly refer to me because I probably had the most positive take on the DLM albums of anyone here (especially the first one.) But having thought about it again I had very little positive to say about Neil's later solo albums - and wasn't around for the discussion of the earlier ones where I no doubt would have been lavish in my praise - so maybe I'm kidding myself in that regard. Oh well, be true to thyself and all that... On the subject of the last point - or last-but-one maybe - it does keep bugging me that I never had a proper say on the albums pre-DLM due to not being around back then. And that maybe it's not too late to address that by reading the thread from the beginning and reviewing / commenting as I go along. Even if it would amount to little more than playing Divine Comedy Pokemon at this point ("Gotta Review 'Em All!") On the downside this would most likely involve engaging in the message board equivalent of talking to myself for months (and in public too), which is never a good look. On the positive side though, the advantage of being the last to do it means I can read the discussion of every song in full first and I'm only likely to feel the need to add anything if it hasn't already been said. And it most likely already will have been said. So I guess I'll probably do it although I'm not sure exactly when I'll start. Definitely not during the World Cup though! But anyway you've been warned
Sorry about those comments, but I heart that you didn't call it "nasally". To atone, I've recently bought your last two albums and enjoyed the first one quite a bit. (Haven't gotten around to listening to the second one yet, but am looking forward to it.) I like the new Walsh/Hannon track. I'll be seeking it out when it's released for "reals".
Awww, shucks. I’d happily read what @drykid has to say about the songs he hasn’t yet rated… if anyone’s still here, they can pitch in too if they’ve got anything to add!
OK will probably start in the new year. If I can't find a good enough excuse to get out of it, that is. On a complete sidetrack, I was listening to a song from an old seventies episode of Top of the Pops by a band called Contempt whose chief claim to fame is their complete obscurity. They played their debut single on the show ahead of its actual release, the single then vanished without a trace and the band split up very soon after without releasing anything else. So more of a no-hit wonder than a one-hit wonder, basically. Anyway I ended up going down an internet rabbit hole trying to find out more about them and came across an unreleased Visconti-produced single from 1975 by the singer's previous - and even more obscure band - Asylum. It seems it was only uploaded by the band's old keyboard player in the last year or so. There's nothing on the internet about it other than this one Soundcloud page really: ASYLUM - the lost single - two tracks Produced by Tony Visconti Anyway the reason I'm waffling on about some hopelessly obscure seventies (non-)single here is that there's something about the A-side ("Independent Means") at least that reminds me oddly of Neil's nineties Lothario phase. Maybe not the melody / arrangement (which is more Queen / Sparks if anything) but just the lyrical themes and the slightly-overwrought vocal style. Someone tell me it's not all my overactive imagination! One of you will be enough
Happy new year! I was going to listen to the tracks, but the Soundcloud link says the collection is not available anymore... The plot thickens! (Or is it all your overactive imagination? )
Hah no, any resemblance to Neil may well be in my imagination, but not the fact that the songs exist and are on Soundcloud Hmm I just clicked on that link again and it takes me straight to the songs, so not sure why you got a different outcome. I do have a soundcloud account but I don't think that's a requirement just to play something back. Oh, well thanks for trying Happy New Year too!
In case they're of any use to any long-term followers of this thread, I've added some more guitar chords and tablature to my website - the first half (ish) of the new stuff on Charmed Life. jons-tabs - The Divine Comedy tabs As with all the other songs on the site, I can't vouch for their accuracy, but they're close enough to jam along with!
