Neil’s divinely disparate musical career

This month’s Harrogate festival features a true mix of events. Nick Ahad spoke to Neil Hannon, who is appearing next weekend.

It all sounds rather... “eclectic?”, suggests Neil Hannon, with a chuckle.

He’s laughing because, yes, it’s a word the musician has heard all through his career, but it is also appropriate to describe both his work and this month’s Harrogate Festival, at which he is appearing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Plus, when you write operas, music for a theatre show, movie soundtracks, the theme tune to Father Ted – oh and several maor hit pop albums, how do you expect people to describe your work?

“I’ve just finished an opera and it’s true, particularly over the past few years my work has been alarmingly disparate. The problem was, for a long time, I said yes to everything, so for about a year I decided to say no and now, finally, I have a bit of time off and am just bumming around,” he says.

“Well, I say bumming around, I’m doing normal, boring domestic stuff. This afternoon I’m going to the dentist.”

You wouldn’t bet against Hannon turning a trip to the dentist into a catchy, witty pop song. This is the man who had a major hit, as the Divine Comedy, with a song about travelling on a National Express coach.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The singer-songwriter and composer is coming to Harrogate to play the Royal Hall on July 14 at the town’s festival, which opened last night with a performance by the Manchester Camerata.

Hannon’s appearance is billed as The Divine Comedy: An Evening with Neil Hannon. Which, I suggest, might be a little confusing – Neil Hannon is The Divine Comedy.

“Oh is it? I thought it made it more simple to call it that, but I guess people might not realise that I am the Divine Comedy. We added the subtitle so that people would know it was just me and a piano – or, at some points, a guitar,” he says.

Hannon is famed for his often rambling, always entertaining, segues between the songs he performs when on stage, so perhaps that gives a clue as to what the show at the Harrogate Festival will be like? Again, there’s laughter from the man with the lilting brogue. “Raconteuring? The problem with that is that I don’t really have a head for learning lines and all that sort of structure – plus, it’s more fun when you just do it off the top of your head.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It’s me doing some funny little songs, some new, some old, and having a bit of a chat. It seems to work and even though it’s a big venue, I can’t really see all the way out in the dark, so it will be like one of my smaller, intimate gigs.”

Although his visit to the festival is only fleeting, dropping in for his performance and then leaving almost immediately, Hannon is right behind the event.

“I love festivals and I particularly love them when they aren’t in a muddy field, but in lovely venues like this,” he says.

The Harrogate Festival certainly is one of the lovelier in the UK.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This year, instead of running over a concentrated ten-day period, the festival is running throughout the whole of July, with music, comedy, literature and arts events running from this weekend until the festival finale on July 28.

Festival chief executive Sharon Canavar agrees with the “eclectic” assessment of the summer festival she runs.

“When the festival ran over ten days, we had much clearer, much more obvious, themes,” she says.

“With the festival running over four weekends, it means those themes might not be as apparent, but they are a lot more spread around – so a music event might relate to a film event, or a literature event. For example, people can watch MGM musical classics on the big screen and then hear the music live with the John Wilson Orchestra.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Tonight the festival sees a performance by Curtis Stigers at the same Royal Hall venue where Neil Hannon plays next week.

“People know Curtis Stigers from his days of big hits in the 1990s, but he is an absolute jazz legend and a great example of the sort of thing we do with the festival – we bring to Harrogate acts that audiences might not see on the regular touring circuit,” she says.

“We don’t want the festival to be somewhere that artists who are touring anyway simply add to their schedules, we want to hold special events for our audiences.”

Musical highlights of Harrogate’s month-long festival

Weekend One: July 7, An Evening with Clare Teal and Friends, Royal Hall.

July 9, Finzi Quartet, Wesley Chapel.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Weekend Two: July 13, Ex Cathedra: Concert by Candlelight, St Wilfrid’s Church.

July 13, Ellen and the Escapades: Spiegeltent.

Weekend Three: July 22, Claudio Kron Drumming Workshop.

Weekend Four: July 27, Nile Rodgers in conversation.

July 28: John Wilson Orchestra.

Details and tickets on 01423 502116.