November 10th, 2006
The Divine Comedy at the Olympia
… in bullet points (I’m time poor, honest)
*Neil hannon is a genius - why don’t more people like him? Ok, lots of people do, but very few people I know do. Ah fickle youth; too busy off listening to CSS and Spankrock…
*I went with my bro who tells me that Neil Hannon seems to mix up the setlist a lot when he plays so there was a good mix of new and old, including a handful of tracks from Regeneration, my favourite ‘Something For the Weekend’, a brilliant version of ‘Our Mutual Friend’ and even - after it was requested - ‘My Lovely Horse’. He admitted he only wrote the music and that credit for “I want to shower you with sugar lumps, and ride you over fences/Polish your hooves every single day, and bring you to the horse dentist” goes to Arthur Matthews and Graham Linehan.
*How can one cellist and one violinist sound like half an orchestra’s entire string section?
*I was holding out for that amazing Associates cover, but was happy enough when he belted out a funky version of Prince’s ‘Raspberry Beret’.
*Go out and buy Victory for the Comic Muse. Even if you don’t like him, buy it for someone else for Christmas. It’s easily one of best Irish albums of the year and one I keep returning to. A scary amount of good homegrown stuff has been released this year, which reminds me just how much I have to go back over for something I’ll be helping out with. More on that later.
*My xylophone obsession was temporarily sated by a rather nice vibraphone (the percussion guy was amazing).
*During the encore of ‘National Express’, Neil demanded the people on the balcony “get the fuck up” and dance. Which we duly did, until the SWAT team of bouncers ran down along the front row (where we were) and shouted at us to sit down. What were we going to do? Dance ourselves over the balcony with that big metal barrier there? Jeez…
Links:
The Divine Comedy
‘When The Light Goes Out’ in Paris last month.
Listen to two songs from VFTCM - ‘A Lady of A Certain Age’ and ‘To Die A Virgin’ - on his myspace page.
November 10th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Agreed. It was bloody fantastic…
November 10th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Lucky Ducks!
Missed them last night but I agree that Hannon and Co. are much underrated. I think there’s a perception among the uninitiated that he’s this smart-arsed dandy and indeed, he’s intimated in the past that he might have gone too far with the clever trevory e.g. “The Booklovers” and “Morrissey gets away with it, why cant I?” etc. but this diminutive divinyl gets my seal of approval any day.
How can we dismiss someone who penned the lines…
Pale, pubescent beasts, Roam through the streets, And coffee-shops
Their prey gather in herds, Of stiff knee-length skirts, And white ankle-socks
November 10th, 2006 at 11:48 am
Maybe the dip in popularity could be because of national express and my lovely horse? They missed their chance to put the right foot forward.. possibly? It happened to the Boo Radleys, a great band, but that ‘wake up boo’ song really pissed people off…
oh and lay off css and spankrock. i’m not fickle, my ass likes shaking, and they shake it.
November 10th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Duckie, I think you’re right, the dandy thing might put some people off, but he’s a fantastic songwriter. Wonder if Russell Brand wrote songs, would people like him?
Co, wow, I wouldn’t write someone off for two songs out of a huge and largely brilliant back catalogue. What’s the right foot forward?
You won’t find me slagging off CSS and Spankrock - they’ve been mentioned a lot on this blog - but my bigger point was probably lost in there somewhere. And now you’ve reminded of that awful Wake Up song and I’ll probably have it stuck in my head because it’s still AM. Curses.
November 10th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Sounds like a full band really suits him. I saw him a few years ago on his own and he was still pretty good. He knows a thing or two about writing a good line.
November 10th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
sorry, what i mean by ‘not putting the right foot forward’ is that those pop songs like ‘wake up boo’ and ‘national express’ do good bands no favours at all in terms of arousing peoples curiosity in their music. any they don’t really reflect the quality of a band.
Super furries are a band i reckon have done it perfectly.
sorry i got that poxy song stuck in your head… ‘if it hadn’t been for cotton eye’d joe, i’d be married long time ago’
‘no no limits, we reach for the sky, no valley too deep, no mountain too high’
November 10th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Yes indeed, the Super Furries do it rather well. Was raging I missed their bingo session at the Electric Picnic.
You’re a cruel man. Whatever happend to 2Unlimited?
November 10th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
last time i checked you could hire them for €300. hmmmmm… i think i have an idea.
November 10th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
What’s a raspberry berry? Sounds berrilicious.
November 10th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
Apparently Anita is about to “rebirth” with or without her pipecleaner donned sidekick.
“Techno” (repeat x 4)
http://www.the2unlimited.com/petition/petition_2_unlimited_resultat.php?pageNum_Recordset1=521&totalRows_Recordset1=7822
November 15th, 2006 at 9:48 am
‘when the light goes’ out’….thanks for that, haven’t heard it in ages, gorgeous
i could listen to ‘promenade’ and ‘liberation’ forever…
November 17th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
I agree with you about Neil Hannon - he doesn’t get half the recognition he deserves in Ireland. Even fans of the group are often surprised to hear that they’ve released 10 albums.
November 22nd, 2006 at 7:21 pm
God damn! Why do I only read about this now? I would of been there if I knew they were playing that night.