Chronology
October: Before The Divine Comedy...
For each event, you can click on the date (or the bull •) to get more details (setlist, broadcast infos, ...) or to edit the wiki.
The dates in blue refer to a concert.
The dates in red are either the recording date of a TV or radio session or interview - given that one programme might be broadcast several times - either the broadcast date when the recording date is unknown.
The dates in green refer to a performance of commissioned work (such as theatre) which Neil Hannon may not necessarily have attended.
- 07/11/1970: Birth of Edward Neil Anthony Hannon in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He’s the third son of Rev. Brian Desmond Anthony Hannon MA, then clergyman of the Church of Ireland.
- 11/1977: In spite of a catastrophic try at the age of 5 (at which occasion he broke all the keys with a hammer), Neil start learning the piano. At the end of the first lesson, his teacher tells his parents: “Neil has a great ear but very little motivation.”
- 08/1981: Neil’s father having been promoted Bishop of Enniskillen, the Hannons move for Enniskillen, Fermanagh.
- 10/1981: Neil enters the Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, where two very famous Irish writers have been: Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett.
- 1984: Neil Hannon, until them mainly interested in car design and having given up piano lessons, gets keener on music: he buys a couple of tape-recorders and what he describes as being a ‘really crap guitar’ for £25 from a Goth friend of his brother but without an amp.
- 1984: Neil Hannon becomes closer with his school friend Lawrence Hoy who teaches him a few chords: “I met him through art class because the two of us were very arty people. He was into model making and model soldiers. He asked me back home one day after school to see the models and when I did he started battering the piano. I told him I had an old guitar at home and he said that I should bring it round. He was already recording himself at this stage using old suitcases as drums and two tape recorders. This was 1984. I showed him a few guitar chords but he overtook me very quickly, he was a musical genius.”
- 05/1985: Neil is selected (thanks to his experience as a choir boy) to perform ‘Pie Jesu’ in a short movie produced for the opening ceremony of the historic Marble Arch caves near Enniskillen.
While Neil is miming the performance for the film, the actual audio is recorded at the Cathedral Hall, Enniskillen, a little youth club venue beside Neil’s home the Rectory.
- 1984-1985: Neil Hannon and Lawrence Hoy start rehearsing at the Portora Royal School after class. During those sessions they play with other school mates despite the different influences (Neil Hannon: “Everybody at my school seemed to be into metal and I was the only one who wasn't. I was into ELO, which caused no end of problems” [1]). People involved include Shane Kingston, Maurice Dickson (drums), Ivor Talbot (who was also playing in The Skin Flu (?)) and Martin Harbaum.
[1] NME, 1999
- 1985-1986: Neil and Lawrence pin a note on the school notice board, reading: “Starting a band, anyone with their own instruments, get in touch!” David Graham meets both Neil and Lawrence in the cloakrooms. He introduces himself by saying: “I hear you’re looking for someone to form a band?”, and makes an impression on them for he has his own Kay bass guitar and Kay 50 amp (actually Christmas presents made by his parents and bought at Andrews’ of Enniskillen): “As soon as I said amplifier their eyes lit up. That’s basically where the band started.” A little later, they manage to get a Badger 15watt.
Other candidates, Shane Kingston and Maurice Dickson, take an audition and play The Rolling Stones’ ‘Not Fade Away’, but they change their mind and don’t join the band.
Neil’s still nameless band rehearses in Neil’s room at the Rectory, next to St.Macartin Cathedral, Enniskillen. Sometimes they open the window of Neil’s room and play to the city. They mainly play covers, but also Neil’s first compositions ‘Passion Fruit’ and ‘Lady in Lace’.
- 1986: October - Enniskillen, The Rectory
- 1986: October - Enniskillen, Cathedral Hall
- 1986: After several gig in and about Enniskillen, Darren Flanagan joins October on keyboard: “We rehearsed a couple of days a week in one of the classrooms in Portora and sometimes in Cathedral Hall. When we got a bit better we done all our rehearsing in the spare room next to Neil’s bedroom.”
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Portora headmaster and school teachers, they soon play in the schools of Enniskillen and around.
- 09/1986: October - Dublin, Clongowes Wood College
- 1986 ?: October - Enniskillen, The Rectory
- 09/1986: Neil’s father having been made Bishop of Clogher, the Hannon family moves for Fivemiletown, near Enniskillen. Rehearsals keep going once in a while in the front room.
- 1986: October - Formal - Enniskillen, Portora Royal School
- 21/11/1986 ?: Neil, David and Lawrence go to Belfast to buy their first drum machine at Matchett’s, in York Street. David Graham recalls: “We went to Belfast with Neil’s father and he dropped us off in the city centre. It was the same day as the ‘Children in Need’ appeal. We bought a Boss DR-220A drum machine with a blank cheque Neil’s father had given us, he told us not to spend more than £100. It cost £110.”
- 27/06/1987: Neil, Lawrence, Darren and David, as well as several friends of theirs, go and see U2 live at Croke Park, Dublin. During the concert, Neil is sitting on Lawrence’s shoulders to get a better view. Leaving, he tells him: “That’ll be us next year!“. The boys can be spotted in the World In Action TV documentary.
- 1987: The band record their first demo on tape at Splash studios, a small studio set up in Belfast by Terry Taylor. It is entitled October 1st. They pay the recording fees with money borrowed from their parents. The tape is sold £3 around Enniskillen to pay them back. David Graham recalls: “We recorded October 1st on the Saturday and mixed on Sunday. We paid £125 for the studio, it was a lot of money for four guys still at school, and we sold it for £3 around Enniskillen to repay the money we had borrowed.” The sleeve photos are taken by Neil then-girlfriend Diane Moore, who develops them in the blackroom of the Collegiate Grammar School in Enniskillen.
- 09/1987: October - Enniskillen, High School
- 1987 ?: The band buy a valve driven PA amp in Matchett’s which they have to carry through Belfast town-center to get their bus back. Before that point they only had a simple guitar amplifier and lot of help from Matthew Brookes: “an electronic genius” according to Lawrence. Indeed Matthew Brookes made them their first PA system and a mixer which will enable them to plug more than one instrument per amp. “Neil was a great musician but he couldn’t wire a plug. He was almost electrocuted several times, once in particular when he touched the live prongs of a light bulb socket.”
- 08/11/1987: Just before 11am, during the annual Remembrance Day ceremony in Enniskillen, a bomb planted by the Provisional IRA explodes at the War Memorial. People have gathered there and, when the three-story wall of St Michael’s Reading Rooms crashes down, the victims are buried in several feet of rubble. 11 people are killed, 63 injured, 9 of them seriously.
The archbishop Dr Robin Eames was to have preached at St MacCartan’s Cathedral [Clougher]; instead, he goes to visit the injured and dying in Erne Hospital.
Learning the sad news, many people react, among whom President Reagan, the Pope, and even Bono. U2 are on tour in the States, but they add ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ to their setlist in memory of the victims. It features their Rattle And Hum video.
On the following Sunday, “after delivering a heart-touching sermon, the reverend Brian Hannon, the Church of Ireland bishop of Clogher, walk[s] back from the pulpit in tears.” [1, 2]
Neil Hannon, of course, is shocked by the tragic event and writes ‘Remembrance Day’. The song will be recorded for Exposition in the following year.
[1] Bardon Jonathan, A History of Ulster, Belfast: the Blackstaff press, 1997
[2] Wilson, Gordon Alf, and McCreary, Marie: A Story From Enniskillen, London, 1990, p.63
- 12/1987: Darren Flanagan leaves the band: “at the start it was great to be in a band, but the novelty soon wore off.”
- 1988 ?: October - Enniskillen, The Vintage
- 08/1988: Having to go to university, David Graham must leave Enniskillen and the band behind: “I had to decide whether to go to university or to stick it out in the band. Any young lad at that age would have given anything to be in a big band. So I decided to go to university. After the ‘Band of ’89’ gig in Cork, I was asked to leave.”
Lawrence asks Cathal Magee the bassist of Irvinestown band Into the Exit, to replace David and he accepts. The band rehearse in his garage, which lodges the family business Magee Coachworks, but, after only a few rehearsals, Cathal gets the feeling that they are actually more interested in his father’s garage than in his bass playing and leaves them.
- 12/1988: The band, reduced to two members, keep writing and rehearsing tracks. They are mainly written by Neil, on the piano, while Lawrence plays the guitar on an amp turned quite low and a drum machine marks the beat.
- 01/1989: October record in Splash studios a tape album untitled Exposition. The band is made of Neil and Lawrence. The latter has been given a hand by Neil to re-write on guitar songs that Neil had recorded on the piano on the demo: “Neil could write a song from anything; I remember in particular ‘Ridgeway Street’. He was on a bus in Belfast and spotted a red-headed girl walking along the pavement. He got off the bus and followed her up Ridgeway street until she disappeared behind the closed door of her flat. He wrote ‘Remembrance Day’ after the Enniskillen bomb in 1987. We played both songs at the Carling/Hot Press Band Of ’89 finals in Cork. For myself, ‘Stream Of Unconsciousness’ was the best song we ever did.”
A making of, The Making of Exposition, filmed by their friend John Allen, is available by filling in a note in the sleeve of the album. The sleeve pictures showing Neil and Lawrence in Enniskillen streets were taken by David Graham on a Sunday morning at 8am so as to avoid traffic.
- 21/02/1989: Copies of Exposition are sent to the musical press for reviews. They receive a letter by Jackie Hayden from Hot Press: “Having only heard it all the way through once, I was very impressed with it.”
- 18/04/1989: Neil receives a letter from Hot Press telling the band they have been selected to participate in the Hot Press Band of 89 show at Sir Henry, Cork.
- 03/05/1989: October - Hot Press Band of 89 - Cork, Sir Henry's
- 24/06/1989: The day before his A-levels, Neil goes and sees REM play in Dublin, at RDS Simmons Court, with some friends. Neil is then following his history teacher’s advice: “You’ve got to choose between music and academic study.” [1] He won’t get his A-levels.
[1] Emporium 3
- 06/1989: After his A-level failure, Neil has no other choice than to concentrate on his band. Therefore he brings up some changes in his band and – influenced by REM’s performance – goes to a more heavy sound by declaring “I’ll never sell my soul to pop”.
He changes the name to The Cherry Orchard (most probably after Chakov’s play) and looks for a drummer and a bass player as David must go to the University. His brother Brendan introduces him two new musicians: Kevin Traynor, who plays drums, and his friend John ‘Georgie’ McCullagh, bassist. John McCullagh recalls: “Kevin was learning to play the drums and I was playing bass guitar. We practiced together almost every day after school. We heard that Neil Hannon was looking for musicians, we introduced ourselves.” Before Kevin’s arrival, the band used drum machines programmed by Neil ; with two additional members, they need a new place where to stock their equipment and rehearse, and they move from the Hannon’s front room in Fivemiletown into the Riding for the Disabled stables, near St Angelo airport, outside Enniskillen: “We rehearsed at the RDA (Riding for the Disabled) Stables a couple of days a week, Kevin and I were still at school, Neil had his A-levels out of the way at this stage. When we joined, the band was called The Cherry Orchard.”
Shortly after that, David comes back from university to find his place as a bassist taken by John McCullagh. He remembers his last rehearsal: “I moved to guitar and after only one practice I got a phone call from Neil to say I was out of the band. When I got kicked out of the band, I demanded my investment in the drum machine back, £35!”
- 1989: The Cherry Orchard play a couple of gigs at The Vintage, Enniskillen. They play as a cover band to be accepted in the place.
- 06/1989 ?: The Cherry Orchard - Enniskillen, The Vintage
- 08/1989 ?: The Cherry Orchard - Enniskillen, The Vintage
- 09/1989 ?: Gary McGrade, son of a music promoter, is made manager.
- 10/1989: Four months after their creation, The Cherry Orchard go to Active Studios, in Banbridge, Co. Down, to record a five track demo. It’s Kevin and John’s first studio experience: “We were keen to hear what the band sounded like. We recorded ‘Ignorance is Bliss’, ‘Tailspin’, ‘Soul Destroyer’, ‘Secret Garden’ and ‘Irrelevant’.”
- 10/1989 ?: The Cherry Orchard - Concert for the Youth Club - Enniskillen, Cathedral Hall
- 1989: Lawrence Hoy decides to leave the band: “When Traynor and McCullagh joined, I didn’t exist. Suddenly all of Neil’s attention began to focus on them. Neil was so excited about having a drummer in the band. I remember waiting at home one night for Neil to call. It was a really bad night. I have been driving from Fivemiletown to the place where we were practicing. And I’ve waited, waited, I’ve waited, waited and he hadn’t turned up. So I drove back home and phone to Neil’s parents to make sure that he left his house. When he didn’t arrive I set off towards the stables. When I arrived Neil, Kevin and John were rehearsing without me. I just grabbed my guitar and walked out. In the days that followed there were a few phone-calls, but no personal contact at all.”
- • It is unsure if before or after Lawrence’s departure Neil had already decided again to change the name of the band. He then adopts the name The Divine Comedy after seeing a book of that name in his father’s bookcase and hesitating over naming it The Passion. [1]
[1] The Musical Side Of My Family, BBC, 1999
- 10/1989: Gary McGrade sends copies of the Active Studio demo to several labels, but not to Setanta Records. He also organises The Divine Comedy a tour. The band start then playing bigger gigs:
- 10/1989: Dublin
- 10/1989: Londonderry, Gweedore Bar
- 10/1989: Londonderry, Gweedore Bar
- 10/1989: Stage Fright - Belfast, The Limelight (with This Gigantic World ?)
- 10/1989: Downtown Radio - Monday night rock programme
- 10/1989: RTÉ 2FM - Dave Fanning
- 11/1989: Setanta Records receives through the post a copy of the demo recorded at Active Studios. Despite it wasn’t sent directly to them by the band, the cassette was actually transmitted by Rough Trade.