Decisions, decisions. When you’re an upcoming songwriter, faced with a ‘foreign’ crowd, you want to make a good impression.
So, do you start with the bang? Jealous of the Birds aka Ulster singer-songwriter Naomi Hamilton has in her armoury one bonafide ‘hit’, the infuriatingly catchy whistleathon ‘Goji Berry Sunset’. So that’s how she kicks off her support for countryman Neil Hannon’s Divine Comedy.
And what a start it is. Set up with looped guitar and vocal backing, the Armagh native charms the busy Edinburgh crowd with a tune so perfect it could soundtrack next year’s Christmas ad schedule, no insult intended.
Of course, where to go from such a high? Fortunately with the audience suitably charmed, the title track from the ‘Parma Violets’ EP and some newer material suffices, before a cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’ is a suitable crowd-pleaser to leave us with.
What would Neil Hannon have done in the same situation? It’s quite possible that some of the crowd present could answer this question, given the number of Northern Irish brogues in the audience, the owners of most seemingly au fait with every word that will come from the Divine Comedy frontman’s mouth.
As it happens, the singer bounds onstage as his virtuoso five-piece band lay down the opening to ‘National Express’. Hannon is in cheery mood – like his band immaculately besuited and clearly out to have some fun, immediately joining the audience and offering the mic to the front row. The casual dispensing of their best-known hit is swiftly followed by ‘Alfie’ and ‘Absent Friends’.
Fortunately, despite massive hit singles being a relative rarity, tonight is one for the fans and for Hannon. With a back catalogue stretching over 20 years the term ‘crowd-pleaser’ certainly can be used, but there’s an element of self-indulgence at play too – one that the audience are perfectly happy to go along with.
So we’re immediately transported back to 1994’s ‘Promenade’ as Hannon unfolds a travel rug at the stage edge, produces a travel flask and gives us early album track ‘The Summerhouse’ while lying flat on his back. It’s going to be a fun night for sure.
(An aside – sophomore release ‘Liberation’ is ignored tonight, despite containing ‘The Pop Singer’s Fear of The Pollen Count’ – hopefully this album hasn’t been disowned like the debut album…)
From then on, the show is filled with pop hits for the casual observer, a fair smattering of oldies for the hardcore fans, and highly entertaining set pieces. ‘A Lady Of A Certain Age’s’s tale of the jet set is followed by a surprise cover of Peter Sarstedt’s ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely’ – which the singer insists are “two completely different songs”.
There’s a decidedly downbeat middle section “about God” with a dramatic celestial encounter in ‘Don’t Look Down’ followed by Hannon sitting at a candlelit table for a morose ‘Eye of the Needle’. And there’s more high-drama misery in ‘Our Mutual Friend’, a uplifting tale of drunken lust and betrayal which sees the singer again, flat on his back in the front aisle.
Of course, adding to the sense of theatre is a costume change – into the garb of one Napoleon Bonaparte, the theme for most recent album ‘Foreverland’. A perhaps patchy release, Hannon again cherry-picks from it for ‘Napoleon Complex’ and the rousing ‘To The Rescue’ before informing us of the “little known fact” that Napoleon played guitar, and then it’s all down the front for ‘Indie Disco’, which segues into a version of ‘Blue Monday’ – which stops just before the vocal.
Again stepping back in time, we finish with set closer ‘Tonight We Fly’, but there’s still unfinished business. ‘Songs of Love’ – aka the Father Ted theme – and then ‘Sunrise’ – about his childhood in NI – is a real crowdpleaser particularly for any ex-pats and travellers.
But there’s still one missing piece – ‘Something For The Weekend’. Salient advice for any upcoming songwriters, have that one killer tune up your sleeve. Easier said than done, as possessing Neil Hannon’s songwriting genius is the first step.