Chris De Burgh Biography
Christopher John Davison, 15 October 1948, Argentina. The son of a UK diplomat, De Burgh began writing pop songs while studying at Trinity College in Dublin. After being signed to A&M Records, he was pushed out as support act for Supertramp, when they were enjoying massive success in 1975. His debut Far Beyond These Castle Walls was inspired by his family home in Ireland, a medieval castle that his father had turned into a hotel. The album had strong shades of the cosmic progressive rock period Moody Blues, although De Burgh's tales of historical fantasy were deemed a little fey by the critics. A single, "Flying", taken from the album, failed to sell in the UK, but became a number 1 hit in Brazil. His follow-up Spanish Train & Other Stories also failed to sell, but one track, the hauntingly catchy "A Spaceman Came Travelling", was picked up by British disc jockeys and became a perennial Christmas radio hit.
While De Burgh could not break through in Britain and the USA, he was highly successful in Canada, South Africa, Europe and South America. His fifth album Eastern Wind outsold the Beatles' Let It Be in Norway, as it topped their charts. After an interminable wait, he finally had a UK success in 1982 with the Rupert Hine-produced The Getaway, containing the infectious minor hit "Don't Pay The Ferryman". The superior Man On The Line, released in 1984, featured another minor hit, "High On Emotion", but it was the same year's compilation on the Telstar label that made De Burgh a big name in the UK. After 11 years of touring and two dozen singles, De Burgh finally made it to the top of the UK charts in 1986 with the irresistibly romantic "The Lady In Red". The record became a worldwide hit and established him as a major artist. His back catalogue began to sell to a new generation of fans and the re-released "A Spaceman Came Travelling" finally made the UK charts in 1987. De Burgh maintained his ability to write a perfect pop song with the infectious "Missing You" in 1988, which narrowly missed the top spot in the UK, while Into The Light was another bestseller. Flying Colours became his biggest-selling album to date when it topped the UK lists in 1988. In 1991, following the Gulf War, De Burgh donated all proceeds from his song "The Simple Truth" to the Kurdish refugees. His 1992 release, Power Of Ten, maintained his standards, with De Burgh sticking to his guns by not changing his musical direction for the sake of commercial gain. In the words of a letter De Burgh sent to the A&M Records chairman: "There is life after the Sex Pistols". Much controversy surrounded the singer in 1995 when he had a brief affair with his children's nanny. A few months later De Burgh was again hitting the headlines when he confessed that "The Lady In Red" was not about his wife after all. At the end of a turbulent year, he released Beautiful Dreams, a live album on which the singer was backed by an orchestra. On this collection, De Burgh revisited his past by covering tracks by Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Roy Orbison. One of the singer's most notable songs in the late 90s was "A New Star In Heaven Tonight", a tribute to the late Diana, Princess Of Wales (allegedly his biggest fan) available on the US-only compilation The Lady In Red. In 2002 De Burgh released Timing Is Everything was the singer's final album with Mercury Records, the label he had moved to in the late 90s. His next album, 2004's The Road To Freedom, was released on his own Ferryman label. As an aside to his recording career, De Burgh's daughter Rosanna Davison was crowned Miss World in December 2003.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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