ShareNeil Hannon, founder member of The Divine Comedy, chats with Kevin Cooper about writing the soundtrack for the movie Wonka, supporting Burt Bacharach on tour fifteen years ago, the release of their latest album Rainy Sunday Afternoon and their 2025 forthcoming UK tour.
Neil Hannon is a singer and songwriter from Northern Ireland. He is the founder and front man of the chamber pop group, The Divine Comedy, and is the band’s only constant member since it formed in 1989.
He also wrote the theme tunes for the television sitcoms Father Ted and The IT Crowd as well as the original songs for the musical fantasy film, Wonka, released in 2023.
The Divine Comedy achieved commercial success in the mid to late 1990’s with the albums Casanova in 1996, A Short Album About Love in 1997 and 1998’s Fin de Siecle. In total he has released twelve albums with the thirteenth, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, being released in September 2025.
In 2004 he performed alongside The Ulster Orchestra for the opening event of The Belfast Festival at Queen’s. The following year he contributed vocal’s to the soundtrack of the movie version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. In 2007 he won The Choice Music Prize for his 2006 album, Victory For The Comic Muse.
In April 2012, Hannon’s first opera commission Sevastopol was performed by The Royal Opera House in London. The piece was part of a programme called OperaShots which invites musicians not typically working within the opera medium to create an opera and was based upon Leo Tolstoy’s Sevastopol Sketches.
Whilst busy promoting the release of their album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, and their forthcoming tour, Neil took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.
Good afternoon Neil, how are you today?
I’m good Kevin, you?
I’m very well thank you, and before we move on let me say thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.
It’s no trouble at all. Thank you for taking the time to get to know exactly what we are up to (laughter).
And just how is life treating you at this moment in time?
It’s alright (laughter). It’s been worse.
We must talk about your latest album Rainy Sunday Afternoon.
Yes, we must so go on, I’m ready (laughter).
I absolutely love it; I can’t put it down.
Crikey, thank you.
I think it’s great, it’s playing in the house, in the car, it’s everywhere.
(Laughter) you need to be careful with that, or else you will find that it will spoil all other music for you (laughter).
Are you happy with it?
Yes, I am, in fact I think that it’s genius (laughter). What you have to remember is that I make records with a vengeance, and I cannot avoid thinking that they are God like afterwards; otherwise I simply wouldn’t bother making them (laughter).
Would you say that it is your best work to date?
Nah, I wouldn’t say that (laughter). For me, it is not possible to rate the albums between each other. I think this album is number thirteen, and I know that I have put the same amount of care, attention and energy into all of the other previous albums. If you treat everything with equal honesty and you do the best that you possibly can at the time, then rating one against the other really is a futile thing to do for the artist. Let me just say that I am very pleased with how this one turned out. Having said that, on their own merits and criteria all the other ones worked out pretty well too (laughter).
On the release of their last album Dark Matters, I asked The Stranglers bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel the same question and he told me that he was still searching for the perfect album. In your opinion does the perfect album really exist?
(Laughter) it is impossible mostly because AI could knock you up the perfect pop album in seconds, and it would be horrible and not worth listening to simply because perfection is not what we are after, well not me anyway. We are actually looking for humanity, and flaws.
From writing to recording how long did it take you?
Well, it is quite hard for me to say because I always have a bunch of stuff lying around that I have been toying with and there are always some songs which didn’t get onto the previous record, so they naturally come into the equation. The oldest song on this album is Achilles which is now some eleven years old. I wrote that song around the centenary of the First World War beginning, hence the poetry involved. So, there were other things that were lying about, together with lots of half written ideas.
I suppose that when I thought to myself ‘right, I could most probably see myself clear to starting a new record now’ (laughter). That would have been around April or May of last year, 2024 and I suppose that for me the time that it takes for me to make a record is really the time from when I say to myself, ‘I’m going to make a record’ to the time when I say, ‘right, I like those mixes’ (laughter) and so that would be about nine months.
Where does your inspiration come from?
It’s all different, it really is for example Achilles is this weird mash up of mortality, war, and mythology, which are just things that interest me really. And then The Old Man is about my old man who died a couple of years ago. Then, The Man Who Turned Into A Chair is about me never getting off my arse (laughter). I’ve been sitting in the same chair watching the test match for days and the wife says, “if you don’t get up you are going to turn into that chair” (laughter). That’s where that comes from. I could go on. So, they are very disparate, all of the reasons.
Well, I have to say that I currently have four go to tracks on the album, they are Rainy Sunday Afternoon, All The Pretty Lights, Down The Rabbit Hole and, of course, The Man Who Turned Into A Chair, which I have to say I think is totally brilliant.
(Laughter) that’s brilliant, thank you. I never know just how these things are going to go down and it’s weird to say but that is not my concern (hysterical laughter). Having said that I think that my Manager would prefer it if I was concerned (laughter). But, I always know that as long as I am amusing myself or entertaining myself or just working through things that I need to think about then I always assume that other people are like me, and will kind of benefit somehow from my meandering thoughts.
Whilst I was listening to the album I wrote in my notes that The Man Who Turned Into A Chair sounded like it belonged in a sixty’s movie soundtrack.
Thank you, that’s not a bad thing to hear at all.
Do you have a favourite track on the album?
From day to day there is always something different that I listen to. I very rarely listen to much of the record after I have made it but I have to for rehearsals and playing live and stuff. The thing that I have found myself putting on and actually enjoying and not turning off is I Want You. It is very kind of slow and empty, and sort of slightly weird and I enjoy it (laughter). I like the fact that the instrumental bit after the second chorus sounds a bit like (Joseph Maurice) Ravel or (Jean-Baptiste) Forqueray. I love all of that French 19th Century classical stuff.
Thinking about the forthcoming tour, how many of the new songs will make it onto the set list?
At this moment in time, I think that we will most probably do about six, maybe seven. I would love to play the whole album but that would mean that I would get about one track from all of the other records in (laughter). Making set lists gets harder and harder every time that we go out. Nobody ever tells you that the more albums you make the harder it gets. So, I literally find myself playing one track from my favourite albums; it’s awful. So, you have to moderate the new album a bit, so that people get to hear some of their favourites, but they will never hear all of their favourites, it’s impossible.
That is unless we do a Bruce Springsteen kind of set list and settle in for a four-hour concert (laughter).
(Laughter) yes, that’s right or I could do just what we did a couple of years ago when we played all of the album in The Barbican (laughter).
I have to ask you, after a good few years in the business, do you still enjoy touring?
I have to say that despite the years, I absolutely love touring. For me, playing live is the only time that I am really energetic in my life (laughter). I regularly come off stage thinking, ‘oh my God, I can move’ (laughter). The comradely is totally amazing. The band is basically all of my best friends, and we don’t get to go out as much as we like; you do what you can and then you do all of the other stuff. So, whenever we go out on tour, it’s like a party for the first three days, then we all realise that we are all in our fifties and so we have to slow down otherwise we won’t get to the end of it (laughter).
Putting you firmly on the spot, what would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
(Hysterical laughter) the really boring answer is sitting here talking to you knowing that I have still got a job at the age of fifty-four (laughter). Having said that, I suppose that the answer that people most probably want to hear is that I fulfilled every ambition that I ever had when Something For The Weekend went into the charts, which meant that we got to do Top Of The Pops. That was back in 1996. So, everything after that has been a bonus (laughter).
You were recently invited to write the soundtrack for the movie Wonka. How was that experience?
I have to say that it was pretty hard work. PauL King the director is a really hard task master, but he knows what he needs, and I was desperate to give it to him (laughter) perhaps I could have phrased that better (laughter). Let’s rephrase that and say that I was desperate to provide him with what he needed (laughter) that doesn’t sound good either (hysterical laughter). Joking aside, I loved doing it, and when Paul suggested it to me, I felt like ‘Ah, this is a dream come true, this is just perfect for me’ simply because I, like many of us have, grew up on Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory together with the original songs. I later found out that they were all written by the late Anthony Newley who I have to say was a hero of mine. For me to get the opportunity to walk in those footsteps and to live out my Lionel Bart dreams, it really was great fun. It really was hard work, but we got there.
Is it something that you would like to do more of?
Yes, it is but I would have to say just give us a few months (laughter). I just need to relax after the last one for a year or two but yes, I would love to do it again (laughter).
What was the first record that you bought?
That would have been the single Vienna by Ultravox.
Who did you first see performing live?
I’m going to skip all of the crap which in my opinion doesn’t count, for example various local Am Drams and choirs and things (laughter). The first show that I went to of a rock n’ roll type was U2 at Croke Park in Dublin back in 1987 on their Joshua Tree tour which is weirdly huge for a first show (laughter).
What was the last song or piece of music that made you cry?
Wow, just where did that come from, it really is such a great question. It would have to be Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte which when translated into English means Pavane For A Dead Princess and is a work for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, which he wrote in 1899 while he was studying at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré. I feel that it is one of the most beautiful things ever written. Every time that I hear it I just feel like, ‘oh here come the waterworks’ (laughter).
I had the privilege and opportunity to chat with the late Burt Bacharach, and I asked him the same question. Without hesitation he replied, “that’s easy young man, it was The Stranglers cover of Dionne Warwick’s Walk On By”. I asked him if the song had moved him so much to which he replied, “no, it was bloody awful” (laughter).
(Hysterical laughter) he’s wrong; Burt was wrong, it’s a fucking great cover. I love Burt Bacharach, and I was so very proud to be able to support him in Lyon some fifteen years ago now. It was like all of my dreams had come true. I got to meet the guy, and it really was fantastic.
On that note Neil, let me once again thank you for taking the time to speak to me today, it really has been delightful.
Thank you, Kevin; I’ve loved speaking to you and thank you so much for getting in touch with me. Come and say hi when we get to Nottingham.
and thank you so much for getting in touch with me. Come and say hi when we get to Nottingham.
