The Divine Comedy: Neil Hannon

Hace unos días estuvimos disfrutando del concierto de Neil Hannon, cantante y creador de la banda The Divine Comedy. Seguirle la pista a este señor es bastante complicado ya que obtener sus discos originales es una tarea de chinos.

Por tanto la mejor opción es poder disfrutarle en un concierto y siempre en primera fila. En distancias cortas gana mucho, deja traslucir su vena inglesa, ese corte de elegancia que lo convierte en un auténtico señor. Llega con su gorra y su maletín, se desviste con gracia y comienza su actuación.

Sus composiciones se dividen entre el piano y la guitarra. Majestuoso en ambas y siempre compartiendo con el público cada instante. Sabe como contagiar y capturar la atención del público. Su concierto fue una sucesión de temas nuevos y grandes clásicos.... yo al menos no eché en falta ninguno.

Al final el público le ovacionó ante una clamoroso Tonight We Fly y después desgranó un par de canciones en el bis. Cuando terminó volvió a colocarse el sombrero, cogió su maletín y su cerveza y se fue por donde había venido. Nuestra sonrisa era patente.

Aquí os dejo un par de videos de su actuación.

Y algo de info del artista:

Neil Hannon (born 7 November 1970) 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 as saying, "The Divine Comedy will always be my band because... I thought of it first!"

Discography (of The Divine Comedy)

Fanfare for the Comic Muse – July 1990

Liberation – August 1993

Promenade – March 1994

Casanova – April 1996
A Short Album About Love – February 1997

Fin de Siècle – August 1998

A Secret History... The Best of the Divine Comedy – August 1999

Regeneration – March 2001

Absent Friends – March 2004

Victory for the Comic Muse – June 2006

Bang Goes the Knighthood - May 2010

Minutos Musicales: God Help The Girl

Estimados,
hoy os ofrecemos un projecto personal de Stuart Murdoch.... unos de los líderes de esa banda actualmente escondida denominada 'Belle & Sebastian'. ¿Evolución lógica en la música de B&S? ¿Producto paralelo a lo que fue en su día Camera Obscura?

Seguramente nunca sabremos estas respuestas pero lo que si sabemos es que su música nos gusta, nos entusiasma y así os la ofrecemos.
Aquí un comentario de las canciones ofrecido desde jenesaispop.com:

"Aunque ‘God Help The Girl’ está cantado en su mayoría por Catherine Ireton (con contribuciones de otros vocalistas), el disco interrumpe el giro glam y soul de sus últimos discos para recuperar, en gran medida, la delicadeza de sus tiempos pre-Rough Trade con Isobel Campbell. Aparecen un par de canciones del por otro lado genial ‘The Life Pursuit‘, pero para explorar su vertiente más orquestada y folkie. ‘God Help The Girl’, que nos presenta a una chica bastante desarraigada, es una buena muestra de este sonido, como ‘If You Could Speak’, que podría ser de unos Moldy Peaches hi-fi. Neil Hannon de Divine Comedy está perfecto en el título, a su altura, ‘Perfection As A Hipster’, mientras que ‘Musician, Please Take Heed’, con sus cuerdas spaghetti, tampoco desentona. Hay pistas un poco más bailables, como ‘I’ll Have To Dance With Cassie’, y canciones más de banda sonora, como ‘The Music Room Window’, pero el disco es consistente y está muy lejos de ser una simple anécdota."




"‘God Help The Girl’ is a story set to music, which Stuart Murdoch has been working on intermittently for the last five years, its origin in some songs that were written while Belle and Sebastian were touring ‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’ in 2004. Stuart explains:

"I was out for a run and I got this tune in my head and it occurred to me that it wasn't a Belle & Sebastian song. I could hear female voices and strings, I could hear the whole thing, but I just couldn’t envisage myself singing it with the group.”

As more songs emerged, a shape and theme began to develop, before the music was actually recorded, or the vocalists found to take on the parts.

“All the time I was touring with Belle and Sebastian, I was putting aside songs for certain characters,” he says, “and at one point I realised, that it would make sense to string them together to form the backbone of a musical narrative.”

The hunt was then on to find some great new voices to put to use during the recordings. A competition where singers could add their vocals to the demo recordings of ‘Funny Little Frog’ and ‘The Psychiatrist Is In’ was posted on the iMeem social networking site and attracted around 400 entries. From these, Brittany Stallings (Olympia, Washington) and Dina Bankole (Jackson, Michigan) came to Glasgow in February 2008 to rehearse and record some parts, Brittany making the lead vocal part on ‘Funny Little Frog’ her own.

Among those who auditioned early in the process was Catherine Ireton, who had moved from Limerick to Glasgow, a friend of a friend, who had previously appeared on the sleeve of Belle and Sebastian’s last single, ‘The White Collar Boy.’ She took on the lead vocals for the majority of the songs on the record.

The recording continued during 2008, with a total of nine different singers (including Neil Hannon from the Divine Comedy and Asya from American teen trio, Smoosh) joining the members of Belle and Sebastian over the course of a few months. During this, Mick Cooke’s orchestral arrangements were recorded in London with the orchestra before the finishing touches were applied in Glasgow.

The result is a breathtaking record from one of pop’s most singular voices, combining the strengths and feel of the early Belle and Sebastian records in a broader musical palette, which draws equally on musicals, sixties’ girl groups, eighties’ indie and, most of all, classic pop records. And, in Catherine, Stuart has found a rare talent - her clear, lilting vocals bringing to life the characters in Stuart’s imagination and making for an ambitious and engrossing musical journey"

Grupo: God Help The Girl
Año: 2009
Disco: God Help The Girl
Nota: 9/10
Web oficial: http://godhelpthegirl.com y http://www.myspace.com/pleasegodhelpthegirl
Canciones destacadas: God Help The Girl, Funny Little Frog, Ill Have To Dance With Cassie, Musicians, Please Take Heed y Perfection As A Hipster