The Art of Longevity The Art of Longevity Season 4, Episode 4: The Divine Comedy
When your host purchased The Divine Comedy's Fin De Siècle in 1998, I couldn’t quite penetrate it at the time. Listening again to the record in preparation for this conversation with Neil Hannon I have to say, I missed out. As Hannon describes himself, the album was “a musical hallucinogen". Essentially a sombre affair in which Hannon exercises all his fascinations with troubadour influences, Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, even Charles Aznavour. Oh, and Faith No More. And why not? Despite its rather avant garde nature, the album plays host to The Divine Comedy’s biggest hit and probably best known song, The National Express. Why, I wondered, would a pop star like Neil Hannon possibly be travelling around the country by coach? (you’ll have to listen in for the answer).
The Divine Comedy perhaps never made the ‘A List’ of the 1990s British music boom. Hannon’s journey was not that of Oasis, The Stone Roses or Blur, or even more kindred spirits, Pulp. But, Hannon still had three solid years of full-on fame. As he describes it:
“The heights and the valleys are shallower in my experience than Suede or others. But, I looked through my old diaries recently and the difference between one year and the next - suddenly I didn’t have a day to myself for the next three years. It drove me mad, but I came out the other side”.
With that quote, Neil Hannon captures his very own successful recipe for longevity - namely don’t get too carried away. However, that gentle roller coaster ride has rolled on, largely down to Hannon’s ability to write very good songs. Those songs and Hannon’s independent, self-reliance has seen The Divine Comedy mature very nicely indeed. Despite the industry’s ebbs and flows since his debut album Fanfare for the Comic Muse in 1990, Hannon still gets asked to do interesting projects (writing the music for a Willie Wonka prequel), still goes on successful tours (pandemic permitting) and still gets played on the radio (now & again).
I asked Neil if that really is the secret to longevity in pop music - on top of everything else - to be able to knock out great songs?
“I feel like it might be. You never quite know. I sat in the control room in Abbey Road while the orchestra played their part on Our Mutual Friend. I remember thinking well, that’s the best thing I’ve ever done. “After Regeneration [2001] I knew I had to change things or I’m doomed. I have to make the record that makes me happy. I went back to the source - pure 60s orchestral pop with layers of golden age British pop. It got me back on course. It was easier after that. To know you don’t have to go looking - just do what you do - and an audience will come”.
The amazing thing about bands of longevity is how new audiences keep on coming. No doubt a benefit of the streaming era, always on music, playlists and discovery algorithms. But good songs are the essential ingredient and Hannon has a bounty of them. As a "musical entity, a singer-songwriter", Hannon is a rather distant pop star.
“I’m not sure I was ever really a pop star, though at one point I did read the manual, so I knew what I was doing”.
Sounds like it.
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