1. Neil Hannon is the founder and frontman of the chamber pop group the Divine Comedy, and is the band's only constant member since its inception in 1989.
20 Facts About Neil Hannon
1. 2.
Neil Hannon was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, the son of Brian Neil Hannon, a Church of Ireland minister in the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe and later Bishop of Clogher.
3.
Neil Hannon spent some of his youth in Fivemiletown before moving with his family to Enniskillen, in County Fermanagh, in 1982.
4.
Neil Hannon has stated that part of the reason he writes the music he does is to escape that past, sharing some of his opinions on the topic in the final song on his 1998 album Fin de Siecle, "Sunrise".
5.
Neil Hannon enjoyed synthesizer-based music as a youngster: he has identified the Human League and OMD as "the first music that really excited [him]".
6.
Neil Hannon is founder and mainstay of the Divine Comedy, a band which achieved their biggest commercial success in the mid- to late-1990s with the albums Casanova, A Short Album About Love, and Fin de Siecle.
7.
Neil Hannon continues to release albums under the Divine Comedy name, the most recent being Office Politics.
8.
Neil Hannon composed the theme music for the sitcoms Father Ted and The IT Crowd, the former theme composed for the show and later reworked into "Songs of Love", a track on the Divine Comedy's breakthrough album Casanova.
9.
In 2004, Neil Hannon performed alongside the Ulster Orchestra for the opening event of the Belfast Festival at Queen's.
10.
Neil Hannon won the 2007 Choice Music Prize for his 2006 album, Victory for the Comic Muse.
11.
In 2009, Neil Hannon collaborated with Thomas Walsh from the Irish band Pugwash to create a cricket-themed pop album, under the name the Duckworth Lewis Method.
12.
Neil Hannon composed the music for a stage adaptation of Arthur Ransome's novel Swallows and Amazons, which premiered in December 2010 at the Bristol Old Vic, with book and lyrics by Helen Edmundson.
13.
In 2015, Neil Hannon won the 2015 Legend Award from the Oh Yeah organisation in Belfast.
14.
Neil Hannon wrote the soundtrack and songs for the Irish sci-fi film LOLA, for which he won an IFTA Award at the 2024 IFTAs.
15.
Neil Hannon wrote the songs for the 2023 musical film Wonka.
16.
On 28 January 2024 Neil Hannon was the guest of Michael Berkeley on the BBC Radio 3 programme Private Passions.
17.
Neil Hannon's choices included Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major, Op 9, No 2, Ravel's String Quartet in F major and "Montague Terrace " by Scott Walker.
18.
Since 2009, Neil Hannon's partner has been Irish musician Cathy Davey.
19.
Neil Hannon was previously married to Orla Little, with whom he has a daughter, born about 2002.
20.
Politically, Neil Hannon describes himself as being "a thoroughly leftie, Guardian-reading chap, but of the champagne socialist variety".