In something of a break from normal service – which will actually resume tomorrow with something pretty cool – I felt compelled to write about something I saw at the weekend. On Sunday, my lovely wife and I made our way to see The Divine Comedy at London’s Royal Festival Hall. It was a genuinely magnificent, moving, and life-affirming thing. It also brought home that Neil Hannon really is a national treasure. Not just one of the United Kingdom’s greatest songwriters, but one of the greatest living songwriters and – well, fuck it – one of the greatest storytellers of all time. The warmth, wit, intelligence, beauty, and humour of his work over a period of 30+ years is kind of unparalleled when you think about it. The band must be protected at all costs.

It still blows my mind that he wrote “Tonight We Fly” in his early twenties. A song so perfect that almost every other songwriter you could name would probably give a kidney for. Being in a room with a couple of thousand people all basking in the glow of the moment as Neil sang those glorious closing lines “…if heaven doesn’t exist, what will we have missed, this life is the best we’ve ever had” felt euphoric. And it’s not even as if that song is an exception either… you could pick up any of his records and find two or three tracks that are of the same quality. Just off the top of my head, “Our Mutual Friend” and “Charmed Life” from Absent Friends, “The Beauty Regime” and “Bad Ambassador” from Regeneration, “A Lady of a Certain Age” from Victory for the Comic Muse, “To the Rescue” from Foreverland, “Norman and Norma” from Office Politics, and don’t even get me started on Fin De Siecle, Casanova, and A Short Album About Love. But what last night really reminded me of was just how great his most recent record, Rainy Sunday Afternoon, is.

My favourite DC records have long been Regeneration and Absent Friends, but Rainy… is in some ways probably the most accessible record of his career. It has a bit of everything really. If you want the tongue-firmly-in-cheek pop, it’s got that. If you want something devastating, it’s got that. If you want to feel love, it’s got that too. Most importantly, if you want the Scott Walker vibes, there are a few moments when the Scott button is not only switched on, but is dialled up to eleven.

As great as it is to see him and his band clearly still on the top of their game playing the ‘hits’, it was the stuff from the last few records that shone brightest, including a spellbinding “Bang Goes the Knighthood” for good measure. If you haven’t seen them of late, Neil also does this incredible turn during “Mar-a-Lago by the Sea” where he introduces the band in the most Hannon-esque way; making cocktails and serving them to each member from a hostess trolley. It’s quite something; dropping ice into glasses in perfect time, wandering around the stage with glasses and somehow keeping the song going. Oh, and I almost forgot to say that we were both totally blown away by the support, George Houston, who was phenomenal too. Like Hannon, his songs are beautifully constructed and the guy is a born performer. His set was funny and moving in equal measure. That’s a big space to fill with just an acoustic guitar, but when you have songs and a voice like that I guess you’re gonna be fine. Well worth looking him up.

Right then, I could keep banging on about stuff, but I’ll wrap it up by saying that if you get a chance to go and see the band live make sure that you do. One day it will be too late, and that will be an absolute fucking tragedy. A divine tragedy, if you will.

(Not sure if that was the best closing sentence I’ve ever written, or the worst).