Montreal still in love with de Burgh
Montrealers’ love affair with Irish musician Chris de Burgh stays strong four decades on
It all began in a castle in the south of Ireland for Montreal’s favourite Irish troubadour.
Chris de Burgh was born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, and spent his early years in Argentina, Malta, Zaire, Nigeria and England, before his family settled in Ireland when he was 12. His father was a British diplomat, and the Irish connection came from his mother, Maeve Emily de Burgh. (He took her surname when he started performing.)
His maternal grandfather bought an old castle in the south of Ireland and the family turned it into a private hotel. That’s where things kicked off for a teenager who would grow up to write and sing a bunch of ultrafamous songs — notably The Lady in Red, Spanish Train and Patricia the Stripper.
“A young boy in his early teens would discover that he could entertain the guests by playing his guitar in the evenings, and that’s where it all started for me,” de Burgh said in a recent phone interview from his home in County Wicklow, just south of Dublin. “I was 14 or 15 and just discovering girls for the first time, and all was looking good,” he said. “In the evenings there wasn’t a lot to do in those days. I used to sing to the guests night after night, and I did hundreds and hundreds of these concerts before I even stood on a professional stage.”
Then, after studying English, French and European history at Trinity College in Dublin, de Burgh decided to give this music thing a more serious try. After knocking on a bunch of doors in London, he found an interested record label and put out his debut album, Far Beyond These Castle Walls, in 1974.
Then the next year came Spanish Train and Other Stories. If you were living in Montreal at the time, you don’t need to be reminded of this fact, whether you love or loathe the collection of short-story-like songs. De Burgh may live far from Montreal, but he is well aware of our city’s fanatical love for him and his music.
Montrealers’ enthusiasm hasn’t waned in the years since Spanish Train: de Burgh’s Sept. 27 show at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts sold out quickly, and a second show was added for the following night.
“You know what happens if I walk out on the stage in Montreal?” de Burgh asked. “They stand up and they cheer for three or four minutes. It just brings tears to your eyes, because it’s a love affair. “I have absolutely no idea (why this happened). It’s so difficult for me to put a finger on it. It just struck a nerve.”
He knows CHOM-FM was the place that first got that love affair going. “I still go to CHOM, and I was there earlier this year with (morning man) Terry DiMonte,” he said. “What a guy! I turned up at 7 in the morning and I sang with him until just before 9, live with a guitar.”
While a lot of folks ici love him, there’s no shortage of haters. De Burgh has been plagued by some pretty savage reviews throughout his career. He has responded on occasion to his critics, and sometimes a defensiveness creeps into his answers in conversation, as if he’s trying to justify the worth of his craft. He talked of how he had just wrapped a European tour, going across 10 countries to play 44 shows in front of more than half a million people.
“And a lot of those people were young people,” said de Burgh. “I would hate to go out as a legend on tour just playing all the back hits. I could not do that, and that’s why I have a new album out at the moment.”
That album is A Better World, which came out last year.
His biggest hit, by far, was The Lady in Red, which became a big success around the world in 1986 and has been a staple at weddings ever since. You get the sense he’s almost a little unhappy that the song overshadows practically everything else he’s done.
“(What I do) is not pap pop,” said de Burgh. “It’s stuff with a bit of meaning in it. Whatever people think of Lady in Red, it just became one of those monster songs. In America, if you say ‘Chris de Burgh,’ they won’t have a clue, but they all know Lady in Red. That’s a hit that … I’m never going to say the word ‘regret,’ but the fact is I’m a much, much bigger artist (than that one song). If you look at the big rock hits I’ve had — High on Emotion, for example — the songs I write have to have a real meaning. There has to be depth.”
Whatever people think of Lady in Red, it just became one of those monster songs. That’s a hit that … I’m never going to say the word ‘regret,’ but the fact is I’m a much, much bigger artist (than that one song). Chris de Burgh, singer-songwriter