After Dinner Speakers: Divine Comedy, Mikhail Gorbachev, Greg Rusedski

The Divine Comedy have walked the halls of cult fame for eight years. However, August 1998 the album “Fin De Siecle” was released and went straight into the Top Ten. Most people would probably recognise The Divine Comedy’s music as being the theme from ‘Father Ted’ or the music from ‘Tomorrow’s World’ or even just ‘that woodshed song’ but Neil Hannon & his band have been responsible for seven albums and eight top twenty singles. The Divine Comedy are Neil Hannon; Bryan Mills (bass); Ivor Talbot (guitar); Joby Talbot (piano); Stuart Bates (keyboards / accordion); Rob Farrer (percussion) and Miggy Barradas (drums). Neil Hannon – the son of a preacher man – was born and raised in Northern Ireland. He signed his first independent record deal with Setanta Records when he was 19. His first album “Liberation” was released in 1993 and was described as “…. one of the most bountiful, overflowing joys of the year. Any year” Select The album “Casanova” was released in 1996 and spawned The Divine Comedy’s first ever single. “Something For The Weekend” charted at thirteen after Chris Evans sang its praises on radio and television, resulting in more hits; ‘Becoming More Like Alfie’ and ‘The Frog Princess.’ “A Short Album About Love” was recorded live in 1997 and gave Neil the opportunity to fulfil the dream of a lifetime – to perform with a 30 piece orchestra in Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The album charted at number thirteen and Neil took the Brunel Ensemble orchestra on tour culminating in two sell out nights at The Royal Festival Hall. The single from the album “Everybody Knows (Except You)” charted at Number 14. The Divine Comedy’s fifth album, “Fin De Siecle” was released to critical acclaim in August 1998 and delivered the singles “Generation Sex”, “The Certainty Of Chance” and Neil’s first Top Ten Hit, “National Express.” The Divine Comedy supported Robbie Williams throughout his UK tour and also headlined a sold out Brixton Academy in January 1999. The sixith album “A Secret History…the best of” featured new tracks alongside the old classics and went straight in the chart at number 3. Since then the band has moved to Parlophone and recently released their new album “Regeneration” with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead/Travis) producing. The album has been released throughout much of Europe, Japan and is set to stay in the UK charts for a while with three singles being taken from it.