John Topley's Weblog

The Divine Comedy Live at the London Palladium

Thursday, 29 April 2004

This is the fourth time I've had the pleasure of seeing The Divine Comedy live. The previous performances saw songwriter, singer and occasional live musician Neil Hannon backed by a conventional rock band set up. This time he had an orchestra to support him, as befitted the venue.

For this concert on the 26th April, I was lucky enough to have a front row seat. There was no support act and about ten minutes after the scheduled start time of 19:45, a slightly nervous man came to the microphone and announced that the performance was being filmed for a forthcoming DVD (the group's first). The audience were excited by this announcement when the orchestra walked on stage and began playing the instrumental Laika's Theme. Then a slightly pallid looking—it was probably the lighting—and suited Neil Hannon appeared and launched into the song Absent Friends, from the new album of the same name.

In Search Of Happiness followed, which contains an instrumental passage that British readers may recognise from the BBC television series Tomorrow's World. Neil introduced those on stage with him during this part. The rest of the first half consisted of old favourites such as Becoming More Like Alfie interwoven with tracks from Absent Friends, all performed flawlessly. The songs were punctuated by the occasional comic interlude, including a quip about an annual leaf collecting holiday in Bavaria! Neil confessed to being nervous about telling jokes in London, because there are always professional comedians in the audience—and this night was no exception.

After the intermission, Neil returned to the stage wearing a different suit and a pair of sunglasses, and treated us to an electrifying National Express. There was even audience participation at this point, with Neil jumping down from the stage and getting various embarrased people to sing “National Express” during the song's coda. It was all good fun. For a fairly small guy Mr Hannon can certainly belt out the songs.

Divine Comedy classics Generation Sex and a lovely jazz version of Songs of Love enthralled the audience, as did my personal highlight of the evening, the dark, brooding and hypnotic Mutual Friend. Neil managed to forget some of the words to old song Neptune's Daughter, but the band played on and as he said, seven albums is a lot of material to remember.

This grandiose affair could have been expected to have been a showcase for the new album, but it was also a vehicle for the “shit-load of songs” (Neil's words) in the group's back catalogue. At the end of the show everyone on stage got a richly-deserved standing ovation. This was one of the best gigs I've ever been to and my hands were raw from clapping. I commend you to buy the DVD when it comes out and will say the same even if it turns out that I've been edited out! 5/5.

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