The Divine Comedy are:
Neil Hannon: Vocals & Guitar. Ivor Talbot: Guitar. Bryan Mills: Bass Guitar. Joby Talbot: Piano & Harpsichord. Stuart "Pinkie" Bates: Organ & Accordion. Miggy Barradas: Drums. Rob Farrer: Percussion.
The Divine Comedy are fronted by Neil Hannon, who writes, and sings, all of the songs. He is the life and soul of The Divine Comedy, and was born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on November 7th 1970.
They were formed in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland in 1989. They recorded a mini-album, Fanfare For The Comic Muse, and then went their separate ways. Neil started writing songs again, changed his image, and kept the name The Divine Comedy. The album Liberation was released in 1993, which Neil considers to be his debut album proper.
The following year saw the release of Promenade, which gained several positive reviews in the music papers. Joby Talbot, voted the BBC's Young Musician Of The Year, joined the band, and since then he has arranged and co-written several Divine Comedy songs.
The release of "Something For the Weekend", gained them mainstream success, with its constant play on Radio One. They performed the song on TFI Friday and Top Of The Pops. The album Casanova was released in August 1996, and two more singles were released from Casanova, "Becoming More Like Alfie", and "The Frog Princess", both gaining chart entries. You can find a track listing and review of it in the Casanova section.
In February 1997, A Short Album About Love was released, a collection of beautiful love songs written by Neil over the years. The Divine Online was also created at this time. The mini-album was recorded at the London Shepherd's Bush Empire, and features six new songs and a re-recording of "Timewatching", which originally appeared on the album Liberation.
A single was released from the album, "Everybody Knows", which again gained a lot of radio airplay and a UK Top 40 chart entry.
Last March, The Divine Comedy released a charity single, a cover of the Noel Coward song "I've Been To A Marvellous Party". The song was recorded for a Noel Coward tribute album supporting the Red Hot Aids Trust.
The new album, Fin de Siecle was released last August, and the first single from the album, "Generation Sex", was released in September.
The second single from the album, "The Certainty Of Chance", was released in November, and failed to reach the top 40.
Setanta are due to release a DC best of album in 1999, and this will be the last DC album on Setanta, as Neil has signed a seven-figure deal with Parlophone, home of The Beatles, Mansun, and Supergrass, amongst others.
"National Express", the third single from the album, was released on the 25th of January, and went straight in at No. 8 in the UK Top 40. This was the band's first Top Ten single! The band performed the song at TFI Friday, The Pepsi Chart, and Top Of The Pops.
This section is to be added to soon, hopefully...
