Man On (the) Line

June 14 2003
Elin Aasen (29) from Norway:
Hey kjekkas! Here I sit wondering what question I should ask to maybe get Chris himself interesting. I don’t even have the knowledge of the language but I try anyway. Do you think it’s boring to answer all of these questions or do you get something out of it? I hope so anyway! Elsker deg! Helt sant! Elin.
Chris de Burgh:
A final and very appropriate question from Norway! No, on the contrary! I find it fascinating and very fulfilling, because I am answering questions that others have felt deeply about. And I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of questions coming in. But I enjoy answering them. And also I am very sorry it has taken so long to get around to answering so many questions, but it’s been a busy time for the last two or three months. If you have any more questions out there, please send them through and I’ll do my best to answer them as quickly and as deeply and interestingly as possible.

Editor's note:
Thank you very much, Chris de Burgh, for taking the time to answer so many questions. It's now time to take a break again, but hopefully we will be back with many new questions and answers in a couple of weeks. We would also like to remind our readers that the new Tribute CD Project has just started and we are hoping that many of you will consider participating. Until then, and keep the questions coming!

June 13, 2003
Laurie Kauppila (37) from Northbridge, MA, USA:
Just wondering if you happen to ever listen to Jackson Browne. We think he rates up there with you as being a remarkable songwriter, performer, and peace advocate. Any thoughts?
Chris de Burgh:
Jackson Browne has always been one of my favourite singers/songwriters. In fact, recently he was performing in Dublin, and unfortunately I couldn’t get to see it, I had something else I had to do. But he is a fabulous songwriter. I love his song “Fountain Of Sorrow”. “Running On Empty” is one of my top albums. He has the ability to obviously play the piano and play the guitar. In fact he reminds me a lot of myself, there’s not very many of us around who are not just performers but also entertainers. He is definitely one of my favourites. It’s not somebody I would immediately think of, like Paul Simon would be a really stunning songwriter. Jackson Browne is certainly one of the greats. And also Jackson Browne being a peace advocate, terribly important in these troubled times. I’m certainly happy that I wrote the song “Lebanese Night” and it has such an impact in that part of the world. And the irony of being put to bed at night as a child and hearing guns going off in the distance, now that kind of thing. I may not stand up and say “Stop the war” or “President Bush must be stopped” or this kind of stuff, but I feel that the way I approach my anti war feelings are personal but also broad in their appeal. For example, when I wrote the song “Borderline”, that’s what I had in my mind.

June 12, 2003
Amy (15) from Surrey, UK:
Dear Chris, I know you are very successful, but have you always received a lot of support from your family?
Chris de Burgh:
I’ve always received a lot of support from my family. Of course one of the problems about my job is that I have to travel away from home a lot. And thankfully at this stage at my career, I can choose how long I wish to make that. In fact my Canadian tour was the longest I’ve ever been away from home uninterrupted for quite a long time. Three weeks is about as much as I can stand, because it is uncomfortable for those left at home. I am so involved with family life, I take my children to school every morning, often pick them up at the end of the day and I am around 24 hours a day. It is important for me to be there and to know that they understand what I am doing and why I am doing it. And even though at this stage, I don’t need to go off and tour, it’s because I want to and because I still can. And also I know there are a lot of people in the world who wish to hear what I can do.

June 11, 2003
Steve Bennett (36) from Winsford, England:
Hi Chris, I've heard a recording of a Liverpool Radio City broadcast from 1978 in which you sing a song called 'Don't Leave Me Now'. It starts with the lyrics: "Last night, I had a dream. So sad, so long, so real, that I came running back towards the light and woke to find the tears were in my eyes." Was this one of your own compositions and if so why did you decide never to record it?
Chris de Burgh:
Hi Steve! I know you well, and you are responsible for me recording the song “There’s Room In This Heart Tonight”. Basically the song was already written, but he came up with a copy of it, because I didn’t have one anymore. And I had a listen and I said “god, that sounds pretty good”. I amended it, and I changed a few things round. Anyway, you heard a song called “Don’t Leave Me Now”. I can’t remember this one! So, Steve, if you have a copy of it, please send me a copy. It could easily have been one of my own compositions, and I don’t know why I decided not to record it. Maybe it wasn’t very good. But if you have a copy, Steve, please send it to me.

June 10, 2003
Munroe (31) from Newcastle, UK:
Hello, Chris! I'd like to ask you a question about the song "Last Night". It's a wonderful, provocative song... I love the line "But I can feel there is this new kind of hunger inside to be satisfied", and I was wondering if you could take some time to elaborate on the emotions involved in the song and, specifically, this lyric. Thank you very much, and enjoy the rest of your day!
Chris de Burgh:
One of my personal favourites of all the songs I’ve written is “Last Night”. This is very much a movie in my mind where the song starts off with the camera pending over boats pulled up on a shore, and away in the distance you see a little fishing village, and as you get closer you can hear the noise of dancing and cheering, and there’s people in the streets and all sorts of decorations. And then you realize that some soldiers have come back from the war. Then the camera moves down on a little side alley and there’s a provocative looking young lady waiting for the boys to come and visit her. She’s obviously a prostitute. And then, as the celebrations go on, the camera goes up to a hill. At the top of the hill there’s a small church and a barren tree windblown. And kneeling at a graveside there’s a young woman wearing black and standing beside her is a soldier, obviously a friend, maybe her brother, and she is looking at the grave of her husband or her lover who has been killed. And this is, I suppose, a familiar thing with me. I find it difficult to celebrate war or victory in war. I think you celebrate by saying “well, thank god, that’s finished”. But it’s difficult for me to find the idea of celebrating somebody else’s defeat which has caused so much grief. And indeed also in victory, it has caused havoc. The line “I can feel there’s a new kind of hunger inside” refers to these young men of 17, 18, 19, 20 who have been made into soldiers and sent off to war. And I think certainly everything I’ve read about the first time a young man kills another human being, it has an absolutely catastrophic impact. Some men go on to stay soldiers, and possibly get used to the idea of killing. Maybe it’s addictive. But the new kind of hunger refers to that extraordinary power that a soldier has over another human being with a gun. In the background of my mind was the reference to a poem by one of my favourite war poets Siegfried Sassoon, in the first world war. I have read most of his poetry and I love it but one particular poem referred to young lads in some village or other where the local squire bullied them to go off and fight in the war. It’s the point of view of one of those soldiers who has been killed. He comes back and he watches a church service, where the squire looks up at the wall and he sees the names of all those killed. And most of them are people, young men, that he said you must go and fight in the war. And this poem has a great impact and I think I had that in my head when I was writing the song “Last Night”.

June 9, 2003
Nick Mangiaracina (32) from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
Chris, I became a huge fan only in 2000 after seeing your concert here in Ottawa. In a matter of days I had all your albums and have recently acquired "Live in South Africa". I don't know if you are familiar with Trans Siberian Orchestra, but my question is, have you ever thought of releasing a rock opera? By this I mean, one album dedicated to one story. Who better to do this, than you?
Chris de Burgh:
Well there is a huge amount of work involved in a rock opera, and indeed at the moment I’m working on an idea for a film involving a lot of songs, so I know how much work is involved. But the idea of dedicating an album to one story, I have always been interested in a concept album. These ideas and sorts of records seem to come and go. They were very popular in the seventies, and I remember when I started touring with the English band Supertramp, their album “Crime Of The Century” was often thought of as a concept album. I think when you have a series of songs loosely intertwined, perhaps creating an overall story, would be an appealing idea. It’s something I come back to repeatedly. I think perhaps now that I have more time to concentrate on writing, I’ll get into such an idea.

June 8, 2003
Leslie Baker (53) from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England:
Where did you get the idea for A SPACEMAN CAME TRAVELLING ? I am a student of metaphysics and I was a UFO investigator. As I love all of your music I would like to know ... Leslie.
Chris de Burgh:
The idea for “A Spaceman Came Travelling” came at a time in the early seventies where it seemed that there was a huge interest in UFOs. This tends to go in cycles to be honest. At that time there was discussion about whether the Indians in South America were in one particular area laying down what appeared to be landing strips for UFOs perhaps, laid out in stones in the desert. I think, as I said earlier, that we would be mad not to believe for a moment that there are things beyond our recognition. And I certainly think there is something out there, and perhaps, as I indicated in the song “A Spaceman Came Travelling”, there is a benign power out there keeping an eye on the world and the stupid and foolish things that we do, particularly when it comes to creating weapons of mass destruction. Interesting to see that you were a UFO investigator, I am sure that must be a fascinating hobby, or indeed job. Also, I was thinking, I am very much a “perhaps” or “what if” person, you know allow your imagination to go wild, and maybe the Star of Bethlehem was a spacecraft at one of the most significant turning points in human history.

June 7, 2003
Lore Müller (51) from Lohmar, Germany:
Hi Chris! Please allow me to ask two questions: 1. Why did you let Russell Watson cover "The Best That Love Can Be" even before TIE was released? 2. Do you keep or have you ever kept a private diary? If yes, does it help you to cope with problems or do you write down things just to read them again years later? Thanks for answering!
Chris de Burgh:
Russell Watson’s record was supposed to come out almost exactly at the same time as my last album “Timing Is Everything” and he called my office and said it’s one of the best love songs he has ever heard”, perhaps because he was going through a similar personal problem that is indicated in the lyrics of the song. And as far as release dates are concerned, these are generally on a world-wide basis slightly different. So you can get a release on a certain date in one country, which is different in another. And that will certainly be the case with my next record. And as far as the question about the diary is concerned, it’s a time-consuming thing to write a diary. Unfortunately I very rarely have the time to do such a thing. I have to rely on my memory but I’m fortunate in as much as I have a huge amount of press and publicity to keep and read in later years, and photographs indicating of where I have been and what I have been doing all around the world.

June 6, 2003
Colette Gifford (34) from Whitby, Canada:
Can't resist asking... Boxers or Briefs? (There's at least 5 people on the mailing list who are curious!)
Chris de Burgh:
When I was much younger, the tradition for boys was what we called Y-fronts which were briefs. And they may look interesting on a man, but in fact they are not at all good for your health. Quite a lot of testicular cancer has been narrowed down to coming from wearing tight underwear. And I think the companies that make boxer shorts have recognized this, so men don’t have to be vain anymore and wear tight underwear, they can wear attractive boxers, all sorts of colours and shapes. And yes, for many years now, I have been wearing boxers. It’s nice to have that free feeling, if you know what I mean.

June 5, 2003
Nicole Kriegers (34) from Niederkrüchten, Germany:
Chris, I've read about your plans to create, promote and release all your future recordings for your own label. Can you tell us more about your plans? With Love from Germany, Nicole
Chris de Burgh:
My next record will go out on “Ferryman Productions” and in fact there’s a very good chance that other people who are frustrated with working with record companies might even release their own product through my new label. So it’s going to be an exciting time in the future. Things have changed so much, and record companies have spent so little time or indeed money investing in the future of good music and good musicians. It’s a real shame that this doesn’t happen because there are plenty of good songwriters out there, not only current ones but future ones, who are in my opinion not being given the encouragement they require. So hopefully maybe I’ll be in that situation myself.

June 4, 2003
Becki (36) from Isle of Man, UK:
Hi Chris. I loved the two songs you wrote for your two eldest children, but did you write anything when Hubie was born? Did these songs come from the heart, or were they quite difficult to pen. I ask this because a few years ago, a tragedy occurred on the coast of the isle of man, with the loss of 7 young lives and I couldn't sleep until I had written what I felt. It was like the pen had a mind of its own, and I wondered whether it was like this for you. I hope we will see you perform on the Isle of Man one day. Thank you for your time.
Chris de Burgh:
I wrote a song for Rosanna which was called “For Rosanna” when she was born. The one for my second child Hubie was called “Just A Word Away”. And my third child, Michael, “The Son And The Father”. It’s difficult to articulate the way I feel but I have to go deep into my heart and find the true meanings of what I am trying to say. And as for you writing songs about the tragedy and the loss of life that you mentioned, I can completely understand that. I recently wrote a song for the two little girls in England who were murdered, that was called “Little Angel”. And the song for Princess Diana, these things kind of erupt from inside, that you really have to get out, and you feel more comfortable when you’ve done that. So it’s very important to let your emotions go in that respect.

June 3, 2003
Sarah (15) from England:
Why is your album, Power of Ten, called that?
Chris de Burgh:
It’s quite simple why I called it that. It’s because it was my tenth studio album. And I hope you enjoy it.

June 2, 2003
Jackie Madeley (37) from Manchester, UK:
Will you ever do a karaoke spot on one of your shows again like you did at the outdoor concerts in England? I was at the concert at Hampton Court when someone sang "Spaceman Came Travelling", it was fab!
Chris de Burgh:
Yes, I think the karaoke spot gave a lot of people a chance to see how difficult or perhaps easy it is to stand up and sing live in a big concert hall in front of people. It’s something I’ll probably bring back to my shows in the future.

June 1, 2003
Emilia Galarowicz (20) from Czêstochowa, Poland:
If you were to summarise your life philosophy and give the essence of it, what would you say? Could you articulate the recipe for happiness that you believe to work? I'm very much fascinated by your music and I admire you as a man on the basis of what I can read about you on the Internet because of course I don't know you personally. Thank you for your inspiring influence!
Chris de Burgh:
There is no recipe of success, but I think there is one key factor that I certainly would come back to again and again, which is if you are happy with yourself, if you can stand tall and exude a feeling of joy and happiness and a feeling that you have something to offer other people, this is the stepping stone to giving out happiness to all around you. Obviously things will go wrong in everybody’s life, but it’s funny when you walk into a room there is always those people who give out the feeling of kind of being solid within themselves, of self-sufficient and happy. And that is the chore of bringing happiness into your life on a regular basis.

May 31, 2003
Susan (38) from Madison, Ohio, USA:
I heard it said that, in your chosen profession, you never forget your first public appearance. What do you remember about your first public appearance?
Chris de Burgh:
My first public appearance would have been when I was a boy of about 13 or 14 years old, at my Dad’s castle hotel. And I had written a song called “A Waste Of Love” which was pretty dreadful, but you gotta start somewhere. And some friends came round and I actually was so embarrassed it about singing it that I stood in another room and sang it rather badly with a guitar. But since then I’ve got a bit better and now I can actually be in the same room when I want to sing to some people. :)

May 30, 2003
Brian Hunt (26) from County Wicklow, Ireland:
Hi Chris, Thank you for such wonderful songs. Do you think that your new home and new surroundings will act as a greater source of inspiration for your music, or how do you feel it will impact on your future music.
Chris de Burgh:
I am actually looking out the window at the Sugarloaf Mountain. This place is so beautiful, and I am quite certain that this is a perfect place to be to carry on for the next phase of my career, which for my next album, I think, will be deep and inspired. And certainly the countryside is going to help in that respect.

May 29, 2003
Adrian McGowan (55) from Hayes, Middlesex, UK:
Hi Chris, Early Christmas greetings to you and your family. My wife and I love the new album, which grows and grows the more we play it. As usual the ballads are brilliant!, but I also love "Bal Masque". I would like to know where the idea for this song originated.
Chris de Burgh:
The song “Bal Masqué” originated just from a little idea of perhaps there is a soul mate out there that you will always be attracted to. It starts off in the Court of Versailles where there is a bal masqué (masked ball) and what I am saying in this is there’s somebody, it doesn’t matter what she wears and how she dresses up or whatever mask she has on, I will always know her just from the attraction that we have between us. And then going forward hundreds of years, that same person in a different physical body will always be attracted again to you, because you have this spiritual joining as soul mates.

May 28, 2003
Louis Picotte (40) from Granby, Quebec, Canada:
You have done a lot of tours since the beginning of your singing career ,do you recall what was the largest and the smallest audience that you have played for. Does size matter to you ( size of the audience of course !! )?
Chris de Burgh:
I love playing to any audience, but I get particularly excited when they are big like ten thousand, twelve thousand. The biggest I think I have ever performed in front of was at the Hockenheim Ring and also up near Hamburg in Lüneburg, both times we think it was about 120,000 to 130,000 . And earlier on in my career I’ve often had to play in pubs and bars, even with a band, for thirty or forty people. And it’s very humiliating, but you know that getting up that ladder is a tough, tough ride. So those people who are lucky enough to be spotted in these TV shows and taken to the top of the tree can be sure of one thing, that they will go down as quickly as they came up.

May 27, 2003
Emma Crew (19) from Nottingham, UK:
Hi Chris, i was just wondering which countries you have had the most success in? It’s a shame you have only had one number one single in the UK, you deserve loads more. You truly have a beautiful talent in your musical abilities, i thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing it with us all. Best Wishes for you and your family!
Chris de Burgh:
I’ve had a lot of success in Germany, Canada, Russia, and the smaller countries like Lebanon, South Africa and of course I had a number one record in the United States. I’m just lucky to have an international career. Thank you for your kind words about my talent.

May 26, 2003
Alissa Fraser (13) from Douglas, Canada:
I really love your music and have been listening to it for as long as I can remember, but one thing is puzzling me. In your song The Hurricane, is that actually about a hurricane? Or is it an analogy of some sort?
Chris de Burgh:
I am sure you are referring to “Waiting For The Hurricane” and there is no deeper meaning here, but it was one of those stories that emerged from an idea. What would it be like to be stranded on an island, say, in the Caribbean, and a hurricane is about to hit and everything is closing down, all the telecommunications, the airports, and you just have to sit and wait for the hurricane to hit. It’s just a bit like “Don’t Pay The Ferryman”, you are not quite sure what is going on, but you know something is going on. In the song I am creating some kind of drama.

May 25, 2003
Ian McDonald (38) from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada:
I have a Senegal Parrot, 12 finches and a dog. Do you have any pets? What are their names?
Chris de Burgh:
We have a black Labrador and her name is Milly and she is 7 years old. She is gorgeous and she loves living in the country. And we are planning to get another little puppy for her for company quite shortly.

May 24, 2003
Mike Bird (50) from Toronto, Canada:
Chris, many of your songs have references to spaceships and angels and other off planet concepts like heaven, and "I know where we will be going", etc... Where does this inspiration come from? Just your own creativity or have you seen a UFO?
Chris de Burgh:
No, I have never seen a UFO unfortunately, but I am firmly of the belief that they exist. You see, we are making a very arrogant assumption. Just because human beings in our visual and aural spectrum of what we can see and what we can hear, we assume we can see and hear everything. This is absolute nonsense. We are able to see physical objects, but we have no ability to see the time-space-concept, where for example a slug has no idea we exist until something happens to it, like we stood on it or something, because we are moving in a totally faster world than the slug, although we may be occupied in the same physical world. So I am quite certain that there are some things out there far beyond our knowledge that perhaps will be revealed to us in the future. My inspiration about angels is realistic as well. I am of the opinion that we all have guardian angels, and all we have to do is listen. Can you imagine the frustration of being an angel and trying to communicate with humans, when they are about to make some disastrous choice or mistake and the human is just not listening. The thing is, like a radio, you have to turn on your radio to hear what is being said in that extra dimension.

May 23, 2003
Monica Ganguly (28) from Wuppertal, Germany:
In the newspaper I've read that you played some of your new songs in the Phantasialand in Brühl. Do you have tried some of the attractions and which one is your favourite in those fun parks?
Chris de Burgh:
I never had any time to really have a good look at Phantasialand in Brühl. It looked wonderful. I’ve been to Euro Disney several times with my family and I love Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain. I’m not particularly good at being thrown up and down and round and round, because my balance isn’t the best and I don’t like coming off these rides with wobbly legs and feeling ill. But some people absolutely adore those kinds of things. There’s one seat that goes up several hundred of feet into the air and plummets to the ground. That’s not for me. I love to fly in helicopters and I get that sensation often enough in a helicopter, I don’t need it in one of those theme parks.

May 22, 2003
Chris Williams (50) from Essex, England:
Hi Chris !! I'm going ask a couple of strange questions here..so hope you will answer them!!! I've noticed several times before, and especially when you sit on the edge of the stage while singing 'The Best That Love Can Be'...that your feet are really small......now the first question I wanna ask is , and no it's not that ;-) !! but what size shoes do you actually take? The second question is you never appear to 'sweat' that much on stage.......we in the audience sweat like mad, especially at the end of the show, where you still appear to be as 'dry as a bone'......what deodorant do you use ?.....coz I want some of it !!!! Take care and best wishes to you, and I'm really looking forward to the shows in the Churches and Cathedrals next year. Should be something different !!
Chris de Burgh:
European shoe size, depending if it’s a tight shoe or quite a generous shoe, is 39 or 40, which English would be 6 1/2 or 7. I love to have plenty of room in a shoe because I love walking and also I love running and playing football. And I don’t like clumpy, solid shoes, I much prefer something light. As far as sweating on stage is concerned, well I do sometimes get very very hot, particularly in hot venues. In the past I’ve come off stage just wringing wet and I am sure I will again in the future. Always have to replace all that lost fluid by drinking litres of water, not only during the day I would drink 2 or 3 litres before the concert, during the day and also afterwards certainly another litre of water. And I do sweat a lot on stage, but it all totally depends on the venue. Of course, those of you who are in the crowd, there’s a lot of body heat generated by being so close to other people jumping and down, so that will make you much hotter than me. But for me, on the stage, if the lights are close to my head, they can be burning hot. And we get very very hot on stage sometimes.

May 21, 2003
Muhammad Sabet (21) from Tehran, Iran:
Hi Chris, I'd like to know if except of the "Beatles" and "Eagles" you're interested in any other Hard Rock and Rock n Roll music. ("Pink Floyd" and "Queen" in Particular)?
Chris de Burgh:
Of course I like the Beatles and the Eagles, but I love loads and loads of other kind of music. Particularly good songwriters like Sting and the Police. Queen were such a fantastic band. I remember at the time when the Irish band U2 were being titled as the greatest rock band in the world, I’m afraid Queen were and still are one of the greatest for me. In terms of singing and song writing ability, they are massively ahead of just about any other band out there. I have the ability now through my children who love to listen to Led Zeppelin, Queen, and so on of hearing these songs again. And the skill, the recording technique and the outstanding talent in bands like Queen and Pink Floyd is amazing.

May 20, 2003
Deborah Madge (34) from St.Helens, Merseyside, England:
Hi Chris, are there any plans to bring out a compilation of the videos to your singles as it's something that I would like to see as, I'm sure, would other fans of yours?
Chris de Burgh:
We have spoken about putting a video collection together on DVD and video of all the videos I’ve done. And hopefully sooner rather than later this will happen.

May 19, 2003
Scott Hartlieb (35) from Ohio, USA:
Back in the infancy of MTV you did a video for Don’t Pay the Ferryman. (studio / concept version with the people in the church). In it during a period of no vocals (right before the YEAEAEAEA! don’t pay the ferryman) there was someone faintly saying something in the background. Sounds like about 3 sentences and something like "?and all the planets?" This was in the early 1980's. I listened for it when I heard the video again during MTV2's A to Z and that background speech is NOT there. I remember playing it again and again on my old reel to reel trying to decipher it. What are those lines?
Chris de Burgh:
In the album version of “Don’t Pay The Ferryman” from the album “The Getaway” (1982) I asked an actor called Anthony Head to read out the lines from a Shakespeare play called “The Tempest”. I think it started “We were all at sea”, it describes part of the tempest. I wanted this vocal rendering to sound sort of odd and in the background, not really sure what’s going on. The reason it’s not on the video is because we tightened up the song for a single. That video was shot in a church on the River Thames on the South bank near Battersea Park. When I stay at the Conrad Hotel in London, Chelsea, I look across and I can see the same church across the other side of the river. I’m afraid you are going to have to go and have a read of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and have another listen to the lyrics that we used in “Don’t Pay The Ferryman” to find out exactly what it was, because I can’t point you at it anymore. I can’t remember which particular act it came from, but it is the description of the storm.

May 18, 2003
Caroline Allen (22) from Henley on Thames, UK:
I recently went to you concert at the Albert Hall, you sang a song about the view of a child in a divorced family - it was fantastic! When will it be released and what is it called?
Chris de Burgh:
The song I sang at the Albert Hall last year was called “Once Upon A Time“ which is quite probably the title of my next album. And it’s the child’s viewpoint of the break-up of a marriage. I am sure I’ll be talking about this song again, but with so many children growing up in separated families, it’s a huge number, I think something like forty percent of marriages break up. I’ve often wondered what it must be like to be the child of such a marriage. And so many children think it’s their fault when their parents get divorced. And of course usually it’s got nothing to do with the children, they are just innocent victims. I’m not sure when this song will be released, but we are looking probably early in 2004.

May 17, 2003
Caleigh Davis (14) from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada:
Do you ever find music theory frustrating? Like {pardon the grammar} do you ever have a tune stuck in your head that you can't get down on paper?
Chris de Burgh:
Let me say right upfront that I am a huge fan of Halifax. I’ve been there many times and I love the town and I am extremely aware of the extraordinary history of Halifax. And recently I read a book called “Burden of desire” which really focuses on the massive explosion that hit Halifax in the beginning of the 1900s. It was a munition ship that blew up in the bay in the harbour of Halifax. It’s a fascinating insight on life back then in the early 1900s. Anyway, back to your question. I have never studied music theory, so I am sure you are quite right, it is very frustrating. I think what I should perhaps have done is what my children have done. They have learned to read and write music and then they have used that ability to help them understand parts of the music they like which is mainly pop music, particular some of the classics that they are interested in. If you have a tune stuck in your head that you can’t get down on paper, simple answer: use a tape recorder! If you’ve got some kind of melody in your head, just get it down onto a tape recorder and then, if you want to write the musical notation, do it that way. But don’t forget, musical theory is not the bible, as far as I am concerned of music. If you feel something emotionally, then you should use that. Many times in my career I have come up with strange and quirky, a lot of devices or changes of key, or rhythmic patterns. And “real musicians”, and I use this word in the way it’s meant, would tell me “You can’t have a 5/6 bar after a 4/4 bar”, and I say “Well, it feels right, and that’s all I care about”. And that for me is the point of music. If it feels right, then it is okay.

May 16, 2003
Danny (33) from Germany:
Dear Chris, if you could live your life again, would you do it the same way?
Chris de Burgh:
I am happy with the person I am today. I feel very fortunate and very blessed to have been able to live the life I have. I have been around the world several times, I’ve had a fantastic time in my chosen career. And we are all made up of the strands of life, of background, of culture of things that have happened to us, to bring us to where we are today. And perhaps there’s the occasional regret, things have gone wrong or perhaps I didn’t do something the right way, but it doesn’t cause too much of a problem. Similar to when I finish making an album, I close the door and say “That’s finished, I’m not going to go back and change anything, I am happy with it this day. In two years from now I might say Oh, why didn’t I do so and so. But it’s not relevant anymore.” So as long as I stay healthy and remain happy and focussed on what I love to do with the people I love to be with then I’m perfectly happy with my life as it has been in the past and hopefully will continue to be in the future.

May 15, 2003
Daniel Imhof (16) from Hannover, Germany:
Hi Chris, I have visited your "Timing is everything"-tour and I'm wondering if the notes will be published in a songbook so I can play them on my guitar too. Greets. Daniel.
Chris de Burgh:
After album releases we always try to put out the songbook, and I have no doubt at some stage there will be a Timing Is Everything songbook. Now a word of caution on these: Sometimes the people who are writing out the chords and the top line musical notes, the melodies, do not get it right. And quite often I’ve looked in songbooks of mine to find that the chords were completely different to what I actually wrote. Unfortunately I can’t read or write music, so I can’t actually check the musical notes that are written. But I can see that the chords are sometimes incorrect. So you should trust your own judgement when it comes to playing some of my songs from a songbook. Always check against the recorded version to see if it sounds right, or indeed even if it’s in the correct key.

May 14, 2003
Dermot Carberry (33) from Wexford, Ireland:
Chris, Congrats on the show in the Wembley arena the other night. Interested to see the move away from A&M. What will you call the new record label? And will you now set up a recording studio in Bargy?
Chris de Burgh:
I think maybe you meant the Albert Hall, or if it was on television, the Birmingham show. My new record label is called “Ferryman Productions” and the recording studio is going to be set up in my home just out of Dublin, in Wicklow.

May 13, 2003
Joan Smith (46) from Exeter, England:
Thank you Chris for the time you gave me in Cardiff, for me it was a really magic moment.. I really like the track 'If you really love her let her go' It was really relevant a while ago. Do you think you will feel the same way when it's you daughter? Your lyrics confirmed that I had to let go if I wanted to hang on to my daughter. It worked!!!!! What was your inspiration for this song????
Chris de Burgh:
I wrote the song “If You Really Love Her Let Her Go” from the viewpoint of a young man, madly in love with a girl. And the parents have not recognized the fact that sooner or later they have to let go of their child. You know, when a child grows into their teen years, they are no longer babies. They are beginning to realize they should fly unaided. And it’s the hardest thing in the world to acknowledge that you have to start stepping back and let them make their own mistakes. It’s tough for a parent. In fact one of the songs on my next album is called “Here For You” and that describes a scene at the airport, when you are saying goodbye to a child who is about to go off, you know, in their late teens, early twenties, they are about to go off to Australia perhaps for two or three years or to America, Canada, somewhere across the other side of the world. And that moment of high emotion when all the friends are there to say good-bye. Many many tears are going to be cried and it’s a tough time for people who love each other so much. They obviously want to hold on but they have to remember that they have to let go as well. I wrote “If You Really Love Her Let Her Go” before I had any children and also I wrote that song in 1982 “I’m Counting On You” which was from the viewpoint of a father observing his child sleeping and imagining what it would be like in future years. And Tom Jones recorded this song, he made a lovely job of it too.

May 12, 2003
Chris Williams (50) from Essex, England:
Hiya Chris, can I ask why you dropped the songs 'If Beds Could Talk' and 'Timing Is Everything' from the latter part of your 'Timing Is Everything' tour ? Did you just want to shorten the concert slightly or was there some other reason ? Thanks!!
Chris de Burgh:
This is from Chris Williams and her husband Stewart, great fans and they come to a lot of my concerts. And they very kindly sent me a formula one book on the new season for the last few years. I am very grateful for that. I dropped the songs “If Beds Could Talk” and “Timing Is Everything” because the concert was getting too long and we had to trim the set a bit. It’s a tremendous amount of effort for me to be up there on stage for nearly three hours a night and it’s tough on my voice. So we chose these two songs, because they were particularly difficult for me to sing and, you know, putting together a concert programme takes a lot of shows and we think we trimmed it right back at the end to what felt right. And also by putting the song “Missing You” towards the end, it gave it a kick that we felt it required.

May 11, 2003
Ian McDonald (38) from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada:
Hi Chris. I'm partial to chicken and caramelized onions with barbecue sauce on a pizza. What do you like on your pizza???
Chris de Burgh:
Well, I like the standard cheese and tomato. I also like salami, particularly if it’s a bit hot and piquant. And artichokes, maybe occasionally an egg up there. You know, I like to try anything, a bit of garlic and spinach. I am not mad about pineapple chunks that we get sometimes. There’s a great pizza place in Düsseldorf, called Don Camillo. They do stunning pizzas. For those who order the four seasons pizza, that comes with just about every excitement that you can imagine.

May 10, 2003
Michael Wischnewski (42) from Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo:
Chris when I was watching "Wetten Dass" a couple of years ago, I heard David Coulthard say that you were a silent partner for Eddie Jordan Racing? Is it true and how did this come about?
Chris de Burgh:
The “Wetten Dass” you are referring to, I think it was not David Coulthard, if I recall, it was Heinz Harald Frentzen who mentioned that I was involved with Eddie Jordan. But that was really purely from a friendship point of view. Eddie is a good friend and I certainly love formula one racing. And I think it’s such a vastly expensive area to get involved with that it would be beyond me. But I am still somebody who enjoys going to the races as often as possible.

May 9, 2003
Deborah Madge (34) from St. Helens, England:
Why was the tribute song to Princess Diana, 'There's a new star in Heaven Tonight' not released in the U.K as it's such a beautiful song?
Chris de Burgh:
The tribute song to Princess Diana was written very much as a personal song, only a hundred CDs were made. And in fact, at the time Elton John or his partner Bernie Taupin had written new words for “Candle In The Wind” and that was a huge selling record at the time. And I had no intention of going head to head with somebody like Elton and his terrific version of “Candle In The Wind”. The song was by request put on a Best Of Chris de Burgh album in America. And I have still a few of the signed and numbered CDs (1 to 100) left and I’d be interested if anybody out there would perhaps like to acquire, get ahold of one of these.

May 8, 2003
Deb Louden (38) from Poole, Dorset, UK:
Great Concert at BIC Bournemouth, Chris. One thing I've always wondered is when you have such a repertoire of songs, and sing so many in one concert, how do you remember which one comes next? Do you have some kind of reminder, or is it all done from memory?
Chris de Burgh:
Every night when I am on stage, I am singing anything up to 34, 36 songs, and yes, there are a lot of words. Sometimes the words come out automatically, sometimes I really have to work out to remember them, and from time to time I forget. As I am sure many people who have been to my concerts have discovered I do make up words occasionally. Because they look at me with great surprise when they are expecting to hear a certain series of words and I just go blank. It does happen, I am sure, to everybody, actors and anybody in daily life. And it certainly happens to me. But if I forget, I just make something up. But in terms of reminders, I use that method of a few seconds before, I have trigger words that bring on the next line or the next verse. And it helps to put those kind of trigger words into your head and you can then remember to come up with the next line. So it’s not often that I forget words. Particularly with the new album when I toured with Timing Is Everything, I did tend to forget some of the words initially, but I think I’ve got them down by now.

May 7, 2003
Gill Howlett (42) from Horsham, West Sussex, England:
Just seen you in concert at Brighton excellent as usual. Thanks! You said the reason you wrote The Tower was because you dislike killing animals and birds for no reason. Are you or would you ever consider being a vegetarian? Look forward to next tour. X
Chris de Burgh:
I wrote the song “The Tower” because I was brought up on a farm and in the summertime, particularly around the harvest, the birds like the crows and pigeons tend to flatten the corn. They arrive in flocks and flatten the corn. And certainly, when I was growing up, there was no way of lifting the corn to harvest it with a combined harvester. So what farmers did was to shoot a couple of birds and hang them in the fields which would put off the rest. And I went out to do this one day, but I shot far too many birds. And I have to say I felt disgusted at myself. So some time later, remembering this, I wrote the song “The Tower” about a great Lord who really had everything he needed, but he enjoyed killing. And I think those two words “killing” and “sport” do not fit together, and I feel very uncomfortable about blood sports of any kind. And particularly involving guns, shooting just for fun. It doesn’t seem right to me. I am not a vegetarian because I believe human beings are in fact carnivores. People can make the choice obviously, but I don’t eat a lot of meat. My preference would be either a pasta or chicken. Unfortunately I don’t like fish at all, as I said earlier. But red meat not very often.

May 6, 2003
Babak (16) from Rasht, Iran:
Hi Chris!! I love you and your songs. I have a lot of questions, but I'll ask just one. In the song "Don't look back" you say "Jimmy Pellin was a friend of mine, but he went out there one too many times" - who is Jimmy Pellin, and where is "there"??? Thanks a lot.
Chris de Burgh:
In the song “Don’t Look Back” I tried to come up with a name that sounded like it actually meant something, but it isn’t anybody I’ve ever met, the name Jimmy Pellin. It just felt like a good name to throw in at that particular point. And often words that sound good don’t necessarily mean too much in terms of, I suppose, making sense. The place that he went to too many times is probably like a lap dancing club or a brothel or something like that on the outskirts of town. But it’s a bit like the ships of old in Greek mythology, where if you went too close to the sirens, they sang so beautifully that you crashed on the rocks. And these women are kind of similar, they are very tempting. And indeed many women are very tempting for an awful lot of people.

May 5, 2003
Kathryn Hayward (32) from Cheshire, England:
Hi Chris! Thank you for such a wonderful concert in Manchester - my 7yr-old daughter and I both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! I was intrigued to hear you say that Russell Watson is going to be recording 'The Best That Love Can Be', and just wondered if there are any plans for the two of you to record something together? Thanks, again, for such a wonderful show and we're both very much looking forward to seeing you again in your next tour! Hugs, Kathryn & Carol PS Very glad you ignored your doctor’s advice!
Chris de Burgh:
Russell Watson is a fine singer and he recorded “The Best That Love Can Be” as a duet. I enjoyed hearing that and, you know, he’s a fantastic opera singer and perhaps his voice and mine might blend together in the future, because I know he is a bit of a fan of my music and I am certainly a fan of his.

May 4, 2003
Claudia Gerike (35) from Marburg, Germany:
Hi Chris, you know about the tribute CD project of the Mailing List. Fans sing your songs on a CD. The 3rd one just came out, and I am proud to say I am a part of it. I know you received the CD's and I would like to know what you think of the latest one and if you are sometimes listening to the tribute CD's?
Chris de Burgh:
Yes, I’ve listened to all three and I am absolutely amazed at how professional they are sounding. They are better and better, each one is better than the one before. And I am also delighted about the amount of time people spend on recording their particular songs from all over the world. I have enjoyed listening to them, and I enjoy listening to the next one hopefully, so you out there on the mailing list involved in the tribute CD, make sure you go out and record another one, because I really like them!

Editor’s Note:
The Chris de Burgh Tribute CD is an online project that allows singers and musicians worldwide to share their common love for one of the world's most extraordinary songwriters. The project is designed for all Chris de Burgh fans, who love to sing and play the songs of their favourite artist. It is a non-profit project, by Chris de Burgh fans for Chris de Burgh fans. The fourth project is going to start soon, you can find all information (including links to the first three projects) on the Chris de Burgh Tribute CD 2003 website.

May 3, 2003
George (35) from Newfoundland, Canada:
I was just wondering how your big hit "The Lady In Red" ended up being featured in a TV commercial for low calorie frozen foods here in North America?
Chris de Burgh:
I am looking forward to visiting Newfoundland on my Canadian tour, having been there a few times before and really loved it. After a song is released, having been recorded, the publishers then have the right to obviously earn an income with the song. And as long as it is not involved with something that is demeaning or makes fun of the song or of the lyrics, they go ahead and do it. And I don’t often hear much about it.

May 2, 2003
Geir Jaegersen (28) from Boston, MA, USA:
Chris - Where were you on September 11, 2001 when you heard of the terrorist attacks on New York? And in the aftermath, did you speak to your children at all about it? If so, what did you say to them?
Chris de Burgh:
On September 11, 2001 in the late morning I was driving in my car, listening to one of my favourite radio stations called Radio Five Live, which is sport and news and current affairs from England. And I was in Ireland driving. And I heard that an aeroplane had smashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. And I was absolutely appalled, but I remember a few moments later hearing a second one had gone in. And I immediately turned back from where I was driving into the city, I turned back and went home, because I wanted to be near the family, near a television. I knew that something absolutely catastrophic had happened. And my children were as appalled as the rest of the world. And I remember, earlier that afternoon, I was doing a press conference by telephone to announce my night on the proms visit. And I was asked about it, and I just said “I cannot believe that I can call myself a human being in the same breath as the people who actually did that appalling massacre to other human beings”. And I am still disgusted that I belong to a race of people that can actually do that kind of thing. To cause such pain and grief and misery to thousands, if not millions of people. And in particular my younger boy, Michael, he would have been ten at the time, he was really shook and very very shocked by what happened and couldn’t sleep for weeks. None of us could, I think we all had nightmares. It was like being in a fog, an absolutely horrible thing to have happened. What we talked about subsequently was the reality of why, with the knowledge that we had of why this happened, of why people did that, and why, as I said earlier, it is absolutely crazy to wage at war about something that none of us really have much clue about, what happens in the next world, whether there is more than one God, or whether there is a God at all, you know. That’s something that we talked about. And then the reality of flying and the other dangerous things there are in the world, I think it woke people up in a way that I wish that the innocence had not been shattered.

May 1, 2003
Ursula Fankhauser (25) from Niederrohrdorf, Switzerland:
Dear Mr de Burgh. Even I know, you must hear this all the time, as a big fan of your songs I'd like to thank you for your terrific music. But let’s come to my question. You must know, that in my occupation I have the opportunity to join people in marriage. Not in church but in front of the law. So as you might know, I need to give a little speech to the couple and I try to make every speech individual like the people are. So at this occasion I tried something new the last time: I took your song "In a country churchyard" as theme. It was a very special atmosphere when your song was playing. So you see, there are many different ways how you make people happy. At the end the couple was very excited and I thought, I might do that again. So for my speech it might be helpful if you can tell me a few things about this song. What was your inspiration to write it? Thanks a lot for your answer and all the best to you. Yours Ursula
Chris de Burgh:
I wrote the song “In A Country Churchyard” having a visited an old churchyard in the West of England. And I was looking at the gravestones and reflecting, as I do in my imagination, on a time say three or four hundred years ago when a young couple got married and perhaps in that churchyard, in that church, they got married in spring. And that’s me visiting the churchyard in November, when it is very cold and all the leaves have fallen from the trees. And the church is in ruins, the roof has fallen in. And it’s just me walking around. A lot of the gravestones have fallen over as they tend to do over the years. And maybe I find just one standing and it refers to the couple who got married. Of course we all know those who were born, they have hopefully a happy life and then we pass away to the next world and it’s just an imagination about how love endures, in my opinion, forever. It is the bond that keeps us together as human beings and as individuals. And it is a kind of sad and happy song about enduring love. It is almost again in my head like a film. And it is very appropriate that you are using it when people get married. A lot of people get married to that song.

April 30, 2003
Negin (18) from Iran, living in the USA:
I heard that you have played in a film and I was wondering if I could have the name of it..your fan forever..
Chris de Burgh:
There were a group of students in Dublin at college, who were making a film called “How to cheat in the leaving certificate”. The leaving certificate is an exam that all 17 and 18 year olds sit when they leave their secondary school. It’s like in France the baccalaureat. It covers usually about seven or eight subjects. And I funded this film, I paid for it, most of it anyway. They used a bit of my music in it and I played a petrol pump attendant in a garage. “How to cheat in the leaving certificate” is what it was called.

April 29, 2003
Elke Klapdohr (44) from Ratingen, Germany:
Dear Chris, I’ve been enthusiastic about your concert in Cologne, especially as you sang "Borderline" and "Revolution" again. But I got a little panic when a lot of people jumped over the seats and ran to the stage. Does "Revolution" always produce such a response? Did you expect this reaction, because after that you continued with very appeasing songs? P.S.: I love "Quiet Revolution" as well as you do and I am looking forward to your new album next year.
Chris de Burgh:
That happens when, I think, usually there is a crowd of people who have been before to the concerts and know the point of which they can come to the front without being told to go back by the security. So it tends to be a bit of a mad rush at a point of the concert which they are familiar with. The concert tends to produce a response like that. I love to see people jumping to their feet and dancing. And I have been known in the past to actually jump off the stage and encourage people to get up if they are being told to sit down by the security.

April 28, 2003
Gillianne (28) from Rouen, France:
First of all, your concert at the Paris Olympia was great, you were wonderful. My question is what do you do with all the present you fans give you on tour (teddy bears and flowers) ?
Chris de Burgh:
Most of the gifts I take with me. The flowers, depends on where I am going the next day. Quite often, if there are a lot of flowers, we give them to the promoter or representative of the concert promoter to take to the local hospital. And that same thing applies to teddy bears and so on. If I can’t bring all those gifts home, I promise you they do go to very happy people who are delighted to receive them. But I have what is called a flight case with all my clothes and stuff in it, and all the really nice ones like chocolate etc I keep in there. And thank you very much everybody for the gifts. It means a lot.

April 27, 2003
Jos de Wilde (17) from Heinkenszand, Zeeland, The Netherlands:
Dear Chris, I've been to your concert in Ahoy Rotterdam recently and want to ask you this: When you came from the stage, didn't you become nervous of the crowd? It is somehow a risk to come down from the stage and shake peoples' hands, and what was the funniest thing a fan ever did to you during a concert like this one?
Chris de Burgh:
Coming down into the crowd can be a bit hair-raising sometimes because I have been known to run through the audience as well as just walk along the front. And sometimes people are so astonished that they give you a hug that is a very powerful hug. I always have somebody close by, somebody like Chris Andrews, my assistant, or one or two of the security people close by. I have never felt nervous about it, I’ve always felt very good about it. Because it’s again creating that contact with the audience, that is very important to break down the bridge and the barriers to make the whole event involving all of us, not just the performers on stage. I don’t know about the funniest thing fans did, but they certainly give you kisses and hugs. And I arrive back on stage covered in lipstick, not necessarily on my lips, but on my cheeks.

April 26, 2003
Huw Ewans (32) from Aberystwyth, Wales, UK:
Having seen you perform at various locations around the world including Ephesus - Turkey, Cologne - Germany, Dublin - Ireland as well as in the UK, am I right in saying that you performed a version of Billy Joel's song 'Pianoman' at the Manchester G-Mex in 1992, or is my memory playing tricks with me and it was a support artist????
Chris de Burgh:
Congratulations for having been at the concert in Ephesus, Turkey. It was one of my most outstanding memories of my entire career. I know the song by Billy Joel “Pianoman”, but I have never played it. It must have been a support act.

April 25, 2003
Coleen Palmisano (37) from Blue Mountains, Sydney, NSW, Australia:
The designs and concepts for album or CD covers, play an integral part in attracting an audience. Do you ever design any covers for your CD's or do you completely leave the design concept to marketing people? Thank you for the music Chris!
Chris de Burgh:
The cover designs on all my albums have been partly or completely from my own idea. It’s really important to know that if it’s got my name on it that I am involved. To the point where I check my lyrics to make sure there is not even one spelling mistake. If it gets printed that way it’s not because I made a mistake. It’s happened subsequently for me to check everything. It’s painstaking work. Coming up with a title is always a very tricky thing as well. But the cover, for example for Timing Is Everything, I described what I felt that the mood of the record was. Walking out on the beach, you’ve just made a long journey, and you’ve left somewhere really cold and the weather was filthy. And just before the storm has hit and the airports close down, you got out on the last flight out, that kind of thing. And that’s where the expression “Timing Is Everything” comes from. It does take a lot of work, but on the other hand I am always very interested to be involved.

April 24, 2003
Steve Fitton (38) from Surrey, England:
On "Timing is Everything" the female backing vocalists really add depth to the songs. Is there any reason why you didn't have them touring with you? (I thought Shelley was great when she joined you at Knebworth)
Chris de Burgh:
You know, on records, it’s great to have female backing vocalists, because it adds tremendous depth and changes the sounds of songs. I started using them a lot more on Quiet Revolution and Timing Is Everything. But touring is a different problem completely. Certainly we’ve never felt the need or indeed the desire to take extra backing singers on the road. We’re pretty happy with the crew that we have. It’s the old saying “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. And of course Shelley Nelson was great on stage, but I am not sure she would want to come on tour with us, a bunch of guys. Maybe she would!

April 23, 2003
Sabrina Schmidt (27) from Lüneburg, Germany:
Hi Chris! First of all, the concert in Hamburg was just grand. I enjoyed it very much. "Sailor" was my "personal highlight" of the show. It is great that you play old songs in a new style, please go on. And the band did a great job, playing your songs in a "rocky" way. And to cheer you up: I really like the new CD. My question: My aupair-mother Fiona gave me a recipe book from the Rotunda hospital. And there is a recipe from you "spaghetti with spicy meat balls". It's very delicious. Is it from you or from your wife? Do you like cooking? I'm the girl, who stood the first line with the painted cloth: A woman's heart is High on emotion and you are the reason! The girl with April in her eyes (Maybe you remember?)
Chris de Burgh:
The concert in Hamburg was great, I always love playing concerts up in Hamburg because the audience is very giving and it’s always very exciting to be there. This recipe “Spaghetti with spicy meat balls”, yes that’s my recipe. I don’t cook so often. I suppose I should cook more often. I just seem to be busy a lot. My wife is an extremely good cook. But that particular recipe was put into the Rotunda hospital cook book as a charity raising idea. If you try my spicy meat balls with spaghetti, you’ll probably realize just how fantastically good they are. Ha-ha! And yes, I remember the girl who held up the cloth that said “A woman’s heart is high one emotion and you are the reason”. That was great, thank you very much for that.

April 22, 2003
Chris Raymond (51) from Whitton, Twickenham, UK:
Hi Chris, I'd like to know please if you check out this website yourself very often? For example do you read the guestbook, visit related sites that your fans have set up etc? P.S. Congratulations to all involved in this great website!
Chris de Burgh:
Hi to Chris Raymond, somebody I have met frequently. Yes, I check out the website almost on a daily basis and I enjoy what people have said. And in particular I like the fact that there are people logging in and sending messages from all over the world. It is a real eye-opener for me to realize and understand how I have touched so many people musically in so many parts of the world. I do visit the related sites and I also check into the chatroom. I haven’t left any messages yet, but it is fascinating to read what people say about me. It doesn’t all have to be wonderful and flattering because that’s not the way of the world, but it’s nevertheless most interesting. And yes, I am keeping a good eye on everything that’s going on.

April 21, 2003
Helen (26) from Perth, Western Australia:
Hi Chris, I am learning the drums and recently jammed for the very first time! What a buzz - it was amazing! Do you remember having a 'moment' like that when you first started playing and singing?
Chris de Burgh:
You know, when you jam along with other musicians it’s very exciting. I think it started for me when I was in school. I would have been about 13 or 14 and there were guitars around and people played the guitars. Sitting in and playing some of your favourite songs, even playing pretty badly, before I had learned how to play the instrument, that’s terrific fun. In fact all my children play instruments and my elder boy Hubie, he has got very good on the electric guitar. That’s only after six months too! He will be a lot better than his Dad, because in the short time he has been playing, he has got really exceptionally good.

April 20, 2003
Christiane Pilz (33) from Regensburg, Germany:
Concerning your concert in Regensburg on October 4th (thank you for that wonderful evening), I want to say that I loved the version of "Sailor" very much. Did you ever think of doing an "unplugged" record?
Chris de Burgh:
Yes, we were in Beirut rehearsing a few years ago and one of the songs I wanted to try out was “Sailor”. Actually it was a young lady down there and some of her friends who came in to listen to our rehearsal, I think she said “Sailor is one of my favourite songs”. And we didn’t feel like doing it in the way it was on the record, I didn’t even have a copy of it. So I said “well let’s do it this way, unplugged” as it were. And I am hoping that quite a lot of my next record, which I believe should be coming out either later this year or early next year will be along that particular avenue of more acoustic as well as orchestral, probably less electric and more acoustic.

April 19, 2003
Chris High (36) from Wirral, Merseyside, UK:
Do you have any plans to write an autobiography or to have an 'official' biography written?
Chris de Burgh:
Well, this is a question from Chris High, who incidentally has been writing stories about some of my songs. He has expanded the stories in a way that he felt that they were written or what I had in my mind when I wrote these songs. For example “Don’t Pay The Ferryman”, he has written a terrific story and quite a number of other ones. I know you, Chris! Thanks for writing these stories because I enjoy reading them. I’ve had two books written about me. I have a feeling that the real and proper one is yet to be written because thankfully I’m still on the planet and I’ve got still an awful lot more to say. So I might leave it for a little while, but I think an official biography should be coming at some stage. In fact the last one was about 1995/96, I believe. A lot has changed since then. So we move on, maybe someday soon hopefully.

April 18, 2003
Brigga Kazmierczak (32) from Germany:
Thank you for a great show in Dortmund! A friend told me about one concert (Unfortunately I have missed it-darn!) where you have played not with the usual band but only with an orchestra. Having in mind your fantastic performance on the "Nokia Night of the Proms" I’d like to know if you are planning some sort of classical concert again. That would be more than great...Thank you!
Chris de Burgh:
I’ve had the opportunity to do something like 80 shows with orchestra and I absolutely love it. And of course, given the opportunity, I will perform with an orchestra again.

April 17, 2003
Ilka Göpfert (32) from Allmersbach, Germany:
Hello Chris, in your song "She must have known" you sing about a person named Shirley Valentine - who is this?
Chris de Burgh:
Shirley Valentine was the name of a movie involving a housewife from Liverpool who found her life to be incredibly dull and boring. And she went off to a Greek island and fell in love with a fisherman, played by Tom Conti. And I think the actress was Pauline Collins, a sensational British actress, as it is an English film. And of course this Greek fisherman is just there for the sort of beautiful girls coming every year. But anyway she just feels like throwing up her life back in Liverpool and moving out and running a restaurant or a cafe in the Greek Islands. Her husband follows her down there finally, and we are not quite sure what happens at the end, but she just finds what she has been looking for which is a different life away from the drudgery and boredom of her own life at home. And it is, as far as I can tell, a dream of an awful lot of people.

April 16, 2003
Adriaan van den Berg (33) from Johannesburg, South Africa:
Dear Chris. One of your songs on an album I've had for many years is called “Classical dilemma”. I have listened to it a thousand or more times and it is beautiful. What is the background or inspiration to this song?
Chris de Burgh:
The song you are referring to is “The Head And The Heart”. And this is a situation that I am sure we have all found ourselves in. In my case it didn’t happen to me, but I imagined that it did. When two people go away for the weekend and they try to solve out their differences. And it’s almost like there’s a courtroom scene going on in the man’s head about how he should take this problem forward and on the one hand we have the lawyer speaking on behalf of love and the heart and we have the other lawyer who is speaking on behalf of the head and good sense. And because I am an incurable romantic, thankfully, I chose for the heart. This actually was inspired by some friends of mine who were going through a similar situation. I don’t know really whether they thought in the way that I did, but it certainly got me to use my imagination as if it was actually happening to me, which is something I do a lot.

April 15, 2003
Kim Hesbon (48) from Windsor, Ontario, Canada:
Chris, I was curious as to when and why you decided to use your mother's maiden name as a performer? I certainly do like the sound of it, to me , it sounds rather grand and historical.
Chris de Burgh:
The name de Burgh comes from my mother’s side of the family. It is one that is full of history, rich in tradition and I liked it. I lived with my grandfather for many years, when my parents were in Africa, General Sir Eric de Burgh, and I was surrounded by de Burghs and I liked the whole historical feel of the name. Not that I didn’t like my given name, my christian name Christopher Davison, but I liked the name Chris de Burgh because it had a certain ring to it.

April 14, 2003
Nick Abish (33) from Rehoboth, Delaware, USA:
What inspired you to write a song about the Iranian revolution (Eastern Wind) ? I was a teenager in Iran back in 1980 when you wrote this song. A few years later after I fled Iran and was living in Norway I revisited the album and was amazed at how accurately you were describing the chain of events of that time from an Iranian's point of view. I'm still amazed. I also think that it is not a coincidence that such a large percentage of your "Fan Corner" is occupied by Iranians and Iranian immigrants. We love your work. Please don't ever stop making music.
Chris de Burgh:
Well, firstly I’d like to say “hi” again to all my friends and fans in Iran and believe me when I say that you are sending me so much love on the website, and indeed from everybody who sends me messages, I read every one of them and I love to read them, thank you very much. And it makes me think about how important my music is to so many people. And I would of course very very strongly wish to visit Iran and perform there, even a solo concert I would be very happy to do that. The song “Eastern Wind” really came out of all that stuff that was happening in the early eighties. And you know, you talk about a wind blowing from the East, well this one was full of menace and threat. And I was writing this from the point of view of a farmer in the Midwest of America, who doesn’t understand too much of what’s going on. But he puts his own feeling to it and his own thoughts and he doesn’t like what’s happening. And he knows that this is something that should it come anywhere closer to him like a bad storm to a farmer, he will have to react and protect himself and his family and indeed his country from further threat. And I am obviously delighted that you in Iran understood it the way that I meant it to be understood.

April 13, 2003
Kathy Hanney (36) from Camberley, Surrey, UK:
Hi Chris, Thanks for writing fantastic songs. The words evoke such strong images and emotions, especially Moonlight & Vodka. What inspired that one pls? Lots of Love, Kathy
Chris de Burgh:
The song "Moonlight And Vodka" was just accidental. I just came out with this expression “Moonlight and Vodka” and as a songwriter I often come up with phrases and go “oh, I like the sound of that, let me expand that”. Just a few days ago I came up with this expression “Kiss me from a distance”. And of course you can’t kiss somebody from the distance and therefore I find that interesting. How do you work that one out? So I’m currently working on a song “Kiss Me From A Distance”. “Moonlight And Vodka” obviously, this has something to do with Russia or the Eastern part of Europe and moonlight. Moonlight of course is a romantic thing. So what are these two things moonlight and vodka? And then I got this idea of a spy in the cold war, an American spy in Russia. And he is miserable. It was before things got better. And now that I am about to go there for two weeks, in fact by the time you read this question I have already gone back, I enjoy going there a lot, and things have changed there so dramatically. It’s a very comfortable place to visit, but I am sure twenty, thirty years ago it wasn’t so great. So that song was just my imagination working full time.

April 12, 2003
Gabi Liddell (43) from Hamburg, Germany:
Hi Chris, I finally found the courage to put my question on the website. I know that you love to tell stories in your songs and I am wondering whether you could write a real continuation of one story in a second song. I mean particularly the story in "Love of the heart divine". I personally love that song and when I heard it the first , let's say 20 times, I always had tears in my eyes at the end. You described the situation so beautifully that I felt so much sadness when he had to leave. Could you, please, please, please, write another song and let him return safely? This story, to me, needs a happy-end.
Chris de Burgh:
I think I have probably spoken about this song before, but what I had in my head was how the music, when I started writing this song, made me feel that it was set in the early part of the 1900s, probably around 1910/11. About two youngsters growing up in the same village, and for me it felt like the Southwest of England. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know much about that area, but it felt like that sort of area. And growing up in a very rural community, farming people, they probably attended the same primary school as children. And then as they grew into teenagers, they got involved in the local sports and probably didn’t like each other much. And then in their 16th or 17th year, one summer they fell in love. And this is their story about how then in 1914, after they got married, he decided to join up because everybody was joining the army then. It was a big thing, you know, they said the war would be over by Christmas, little knowing that the technology of death and the weapons that had been developed would ensure that an entire generation both in Germany and in England would be wiped out. And so when he joins up, for me it’s a very vivid film in my head about how he comes in wearing his uniform into the front parlour and she is very excited at one point and terribly unhappy and full of foreboding about what will happen to him. And then it’s the scene at the train, as the train leaves the station, I am sure you have seen these kinds of things in films before, there’s mothers and fathers and lovers all kissing good-bye and then the train pulls out of the station. And as she calls to him “I love you” and waves a handkerchief, she suddenly feels for the first time the baby kicking in her stomach. And she probably calls to him, saying “We’re going to have a baby, I’m gonna have a baby!”, and he doesn’t hear. So the idea of writing a sequel has appealed to me. I want to make sure it’s a happy ending, although that may not be so possible, but who knows. It’s a good idea, Gabi, and maybe I’ll work on that.

April 11, 2003
Jason P. Goodman (30) from Westport, Connecticut, USA:
I really like one of your early songs entitled "The Key". What inspired this song?
Chris de Burgh:
I wrote this song many many years ago. It was about a girl I knew at that time, who seemed to have absolutely everything, except the understanding of when she had what she was looking for, that she should hold on to it and not throw it away. And I wasn’t referring to myself in particular, but she was an unusual case, this girl, and I just felt that she was running helter skelter to a situation where in her later years she wouldn’t have anybody to love or to be loved by. Because the moment she found something she threw it away.

April 10, 2003
Manon Comtois (38) from Montreal, Quebec, Canada:
Hi... I have been an unconditional fan of yours since your first visit way back in the 70’s. I have even postponed my honeymoon to be able to attend your show in 1996. I think your voice is one of the greatest musical instruments ever heard. You have been an inspiration for me for all these years. If you had one wish that could be granted for humanity, what would it be ?
Chris de Burgh:
You’re very kind. I have heard from my manager that in one hour when the tickets for the Montreal concert went on sale we sold one thousand tickets which is a fantastic response from a fantastic city and a place that I love so much. If I had one wish that could be granted for humanity, what would it be? Well, I think I’ve answered this question in the past, so I’ll probably respond to it again but in a slightly different way. I think we all understand love usually as meaning as something that goes on between two people. But if you expand that to loving your neighbours, and even greater loving everybody on the planet in a different kind of a way, for example if this planet was threatened by something from the exterior, we would find that the guy in China is just as keen on staying alive and finding one way or other of doing it that involved everybody in some kind of loving way. That would be an important step and ally to that would be a greater more enlightened understanding of the importance of music, of art, of things to soften life a bit, because it’s a hard life and it’s becoming harder by the day. A lot of people are finding that the more things are created like computers, the internet, mobile phones, the more they are designed to make life easier, in fact they are having the opposite effect. We are becoming a very stressed out civilization. If you know somebody has got a mobile phone, and they haven’t rung you in the last hour, you think the worst. And I think people are getting nervous, they are more nervous than our forefathers were a hundred years ago. You had far less to worry about, you didn’t have phones, you had letters. Somebody went away for six months and you got letters, you were happy with that. You didn’t spend every minute of the day wondering ‘Are they still alive?’. Whereas when you know you can keep in touch with somebody and they are not keeping in touch with you, you think ‘Oh my god, something awful has happened’. And I think that is a terrible thing. So anything to reduce that kind of stress would be a very valuable discovery. Allied again to that it would be wonderful for the genetic structure that makes particularly boys growing to men to want to fight, to be physical, just reduce that a few notches, that would be great.

April 9, 2003
Ed Campbell (27) from Caithness, Scotland:
I think you can tell a lot about a person from what he creates. Art including music has often been called a window to the soul. With this in mind, people who listen to your music get a picture of the type of person you are. What stands out to me most is your spirituality. (Don't worry I'll get to the point soon!) I am in total agreement with you that organized religion causes most if not all the problems in the world. You do, however, say at the start of "Carry Me" that, "There is an answer...." My question is, do you know "the answer"? I personally do know the answer and often wish more people like yourself could come to a knowledge of why we're here, why the world is as it is etc.
Chris de Burgh:
Well, this is a very interesting question. The quick answer is no, of course I do not know the answer. I am as mortal and as foolish as any other human on the planet when it comes to the deep questions and the deep answers. I think what I can do is look deeply into myself and in me find things that do apply to other people. I’ve always had this very strong ability to see another person’s point of view, whether I agree with it or not, but put myself into somebody else’s shoes. And that is why I think I have such sensitivity to other people’s difficulties and situations and I can express this in words and in music. I’m thrilled that Ed Campbell says he does know the answer. As far as I can tell the reason we’re here is, because the human race requires a reason for everything, to justify things and the fact that we are so predisposed to clinging on to life creating more life. Maybe there is an answer or maybe just like any other living creature, we have devised methods and means of staying alive and keeping our genetic structure alive through other people, through children for example.

April 8, 2003
Gunter Kohl (29) from Trier, Germany:
Hi Chris, I'm thinking about the role of a producer in the making of a song. Would the same song produced one time e.g. with Chris Porter and another time produced by Paul Hardiman sound different? And what would be the difference? Maybe some day you could take the time to produce a song two times with different people - just to find out what happens... Thanks very much, Gunter.
Chris de Burgh:
Producers are very much people who put their own stamp and sound onto a record. And I’m quite certain, if I had recorded “Don’t Pay The Ferryman” with Paul Hardiman, or “Lady In Red” with Chris Porter, they would have sounded different. The core of the song would have been the same, but a good producer brings to a record a fabulous sound, and also his vision along with the artist of course. And I have been coproducer or producer on all my records. His vision of where this particular song sits in modern music, and how it should sound in terms of the spectrum. You know, you think about a lot of things, what radio like to play for example. If you get a producer of a pop act, they have to be very tuned in to what radios are currently playing. For me I’m less interested in that, and I am much more interested, as I said earlier, in creating music that endures. So I’m looking for a very strong and classic style of production that is not full of quirky little sounds that make it sound modern today, but real passé in a year or two from now. But I’ve also had a very interesting idea of what I’d love to do one day. I’d get together three or four songwriters, give them all the same phrase or line to start a song and just see what they come up with at the end of it.

April 7, 2003
Rebecca (13) from Calgary, Canada:
Where did you get the fantastic idea for the song 'Patricia the Stripper'?
Chris de Burgh:
Patricia The Stripper came from a weekend that I’d had away in the Eastern part of England. And it was very much, you know, everybody wears tuxedos and dinner jackets for dinner and goes fishing. And, although I’ve enjoyed the weekend, I found it very false and ho-ho-ho and “Anyone for tennis?” and all that stuff. And as I returned to my home in Ireland, I have a fairly wicked streak in me, as I referred to earlier, I’ve had a very wicked streak. And I would be the person at such an event who would be looking to do something far more interesting and unusual. And in my particular story here, it would have been me going downtown to meet up with a stripper. I know it doesn’t read like I’m a wild man, but I think we all have wildness inside, and that’s what I would have been doing back in 1924.

April 6, 2003
Babak (15) from Iran:
Hi Chris, I'm one of your song lovers from Iran. May I know who is your favorite actor or actress?
Chris de Burgh:
Well, I’m a huge fan of Sean Connery. Not only as the James Bond, he was the best of all in my opinion, but also he has become a friend of mine and I have a lot of time for him and I think he is a fantastic actor and a superb human being. As far as actresses are concerned, of the more recent ones I would rate Nicole Kidman very highly. I’ve also had the opportunity to have dinner with her and Tom Cruise, when they were married.

April 5, 2003
Peter (39) from Calgary, Canada:
What is Separate Tables about (which I think is a particularly terrific song, by the way)? I used to think it was about 2 people separated for no particular reason who missed each other. But now I think (because of a personal experience) it is about 2 people involved in an affair who are separated for reasons not of their own choosing, but miss each other and want to be together. Or am I missing the point entirely?
Chris de Burgh:
Separate Tables is a song about two people who are apart and wish they were together. Now the thing about it is, you can put your own idea on it and you can decide for yourself whether it is about two people who have split up, or two people who are for some reason separated for a time. In my opinion, when I wrote it, particular the second verse “At separate tables we sit down to write the separate letters that never see the light”, this is people who have probably had some kind of disagreement. And if only one of them or both of them would say sorry, then things would be a lot easier. But people aren’t that good at being the first to say sorry.

April 4, 2003
Petra (30) from Vienna, Austria:
In a recent reply you mentioned that you have different beliefs than an "organized religion". So many of your songs mention "the Lord" or words to that effect so one has to wonder what ARE your beliefs then? Many thanks for a GREAT concert here in Vienna during your "TIMING IS EVERYTHING"-Tour, what a fantastic show!!!! Lots of luv from Vienna, Petra:))
Chris de Burgh:
Let’s get back to one basic understanding. As far as I know, apart from where people have come back with for example near-death-experiences and so on, there is no absolute incontrovertible proof of what happens after we die. There’s a lot of surmise, supposition, expectation, faith, belief in what happens after death and certainly the millions of stories of ghosts, of spirits in the spiritual world, in which I believe very strongly that it does exist, it tells that something is there, another dimension. But what it is, nobody knows. So to base a religion on it, I think is like building on sand, because there is no foundation to it that can really stand up, in my opinion, to intense scrutiny. The world, in particular in the West but also in the East, is full of those who wish to fight on behalf of their faith. And I suppose if that’s how they feel about it, there’s not much we can do. Thinking about the principle of going to war for something that actually can’t be proved, I find a very strange thing indeed. Organized religion has been with us for centuries. As a Christian I do believe in the former existence of Jesus Christ, and certainly that he was an outstanding person in many many ways. And the fact that people 2000 years after his death still believe in him, speaks volumes. But some of the churches that have come subsequent to his death seem to have been arranged more to keep the poor people down, to keep power in the hands of a small number. I’m not going to name the churches here, but some of them have built up immense wealth, immense power. And they are keen to hold on to that at all cost. Now that’s what I am talking about organized religion. I had the misfortune recently, for example, to go to the funeral of a friend. And listening to just the way it was conducted, which unfortunately seemed very little about my friend but more about the church to which he belonged, it missed the point. When you go to a funeral service, you really should be celebrating the life of somebody who has passed away and not keep on harking back to the power of the church in which he had faith. So it’s a very lengthy response, and it’s a very tricky question. But my beliefs are far more spiritual. Don’t forget that religion, in particular organized religion, was created by men and women like you and I who are reading this right now. And what is to say that if for example any of us created a new religion, as the centuries go by, it’s suddenly taken as gospel truth. Well, that’s incorrect, we are as fallible and we make mistakes as anybody else. So that’s the same people who created some of these powerful religions that people believe in today. But I must finish by saying that if we had more tolerance for everybody’s belief, whatever it is. If you believe that mice were on the moon before men and we must worship at the feet of cats and dogs, well that’s your belief, that’s fine with me. I have my own feelings about that, but I am certainly not going to fight you about it. And I think if there was more tolerance for everybody’s religion, all over the world, there would be a lot less warfare and misery and unhappiness.

April 3, 2003
Verena Fuchs (24) from Montijo, Portugal:
Boa tarde Chris! I've read in one of the answers you gave here that recently you've been in Portugal. Did you spend your vacations here? Well, I'm curious about what you liked and disliked.
Chris de Burgh:
Boa tarde! I absolutely adore Portugal. I have been there a lot. There is a style of life in Portugal, particular I suppose not just of course on the Algarve, but inland that I very much like. I find the Portuguese quite a serious people. And the fact that their famous music, the Fado, is quite melancholy, speaks for itself. But they are also capable of extreme joy and every time I have performed there, I have been amazed by the powerful reaction and the spirited and excitable crowds that have come to the concerts in Lisbon, Estoril and up in the North, Porto. So it’s been fun when I’ve been there. And yes, I did go on holiday last summer to the Vila Vita Parc Hotel in the Algarve. I enjoyed that a lot, and so did my family.

April 2, 2003
Colette Gifford (34) from Whitby, Canada:
Can't resist asking this. You seem to have a bit of a 'devilish side to you from some of the questions you've answered here. Have you ever cheated at poker then?
Chris de Burgh:
No, I’ve never cheated at poker. But I remember when I was in University, there was a poker school going on. And this is quite early in my University career, and I didn’t realize until a bit late, that the reason I was asked to join this poker school is that they could take all my money! Which I didn’t have much, but anyway. So the first week I went, I lost my money. Second week I went, I lost my money. And the third week I thought ‘I can’t afford to lose any more money, I’ve got so little anyway to support myself that I’m gonna have to bluff this.’ So the guys I was playing with had seen me losing so much that when I finally said that I have really good cards by raising the stakes, they all folded. It happened three times in a row and I completely bluffed and I got a lot of money and I said “Thank you very much, that’s it, I’m leaving now”. When I say a lot of money, it was a lot for a student. And they were horrified, they said “You’re not gonna come back?” I said “No. That’s it. I’m not gonna play any more poker. Thank you.” So there is a devilish side. It’s not just poker, I can tell you.

April 1, 2003
Kathryn Hayward (32) from Essex, UK:
During your travels around the world, you must taste some pretty fantastic exotic foods. What sort of food do you look for when you are touring the UK and Ireland?!
Chris de Burgh:
Well I mentioned the food in Lebanon. And certainly me and my band and friends on tour, we do enjoy food, although we obviously have to look after our health and not get too fat. But food I really enjoy, although I have to say I have a problem with fish, I really do not enjoy fish. Apart from caviar, which I enjoyed in the Grand Hotel in St. Petersburg, beluga caviar, sevruga, that was amazing, I loved that. And oysters, again I like oysters. Now I wish somebody could tell me why I can eat those two things but I hate just about every other kind of fish. I like Japanese food, I love Chinese food, and I have a real love of spicy foods. Although Indian food, when it’s very very hot, my head begins to steam and my eyes begin to water, my nose runs, my head erupts like the Vesuvius, so I tend to avoid foods like that. When I’m in UK and Ireland? Well, certainly in the UK there’s a pretty wide choice of ethnic foods. French food of course is absolutely stunning and I would probably choose a great French restaurant first of all, if I had the chance. And good English food, yes, I like that, well cooked. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge meat eater, but I do like the occasional piece of lamb or beef and chicken. I love Italian food, for example, or Spanish food, if I can get them in the UK. In Ireland we’re a bit more limited. The problem here in this country is that the restaurants are expensive. And now that the Euro has come in, I think a lot of people have realized that they are too expensive. There’s nothing kind of in the middle. You either get your hamburger joints or you get your expensive restaurants and your super-expensive restaurants. There’s really little area that we would find in Europe, like a Brasserie. Or even on some motorways in France and Germany you would find an absolutely superb meal, but you can’t really get that kind of thing here in Ireland. It’s one of the reasons tourism is falling away because people have become very knowledgeable about the cost of things. Because in their own countries where the Euro is the currency, they realize that they are not getting value for money. If I tour in Ireland, I would just eat what is local and available. I think the key to it, if you’re onto it, is have a good breakfast, if you’re up early enough for breakfast. Which I am often not, so I just eat bananas then.

March 31, 2003
Bonnie Horvath (25) from Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada:
I don't remember a time when I didn't listen to your music, my mother has always loved your songs and passed them on to me and my brother. How do you feel when you see that your music has touched another generation of listeners and fans?
Chris de Burgh:
Well, I think it’s amazing and wonderful to hear that the music I have made appeals across the generations. In a way that’s always been my intention to write music that is regarded more as a book than a magazine or a newspaper that you throw away, that’s sort of finished with the moment you have heard it a couple of times. A lot of modern music is designed that way. It’s designed for dancing to. But the creators of this kind of music know that. And quite certain they wouldn’t expect to be hearing their music around twenty years from now. But I would like to think, because I write songs in the classical way, I think I have referred to this before, of pop song writing, it’s like architecture. People refer back to Greek and Roman architecture a lot, because it’s the classic stuff. In a way I’m sort of similar in as much as I have learned my craft at the feet of some of the great songwriters of modern times, not the ones of the 30s and 40s, but more the ones of the 60s and 70s. And that way I like to think that the style of that music will be fairly long lived.

March 30, 2003
Matthew (17) from New Jersey, USA:
Do you think that some people get too caught up in trying to find the meaning of songs that they lose their appreciation for the songs in themselves?
Chris de Burgh:
Well, to a certain extent, yes. I remember in the early days the Beatles used to find it hilarious that other people would read so much into their lyrics. They created situations of complete nonsense and they just found that very funny. With me I do find that people have read far more into lyrics than should have been read into them. For example in Crusader. I have been accused of being anti this race or anti that race. That’s just a lot of rubbish. I was just telling a story, and it’s a historical story as well. If I do have deeper meanings in songs, it’s for other people to have a look at and strip away the top and find the lower meanings. And they may find different things than what I put in there for myself. But I would agree. When you hear a song, enjoy it for what it is, certainly initially without looking for deep meanings. Because with respect to virtually all modern songwriters, very few of them in my opinion are of the intellectual calibre of some of the great thinkers and writers of our time. We’re just entertainers and no more.

March 29, 2003
Marco (26) from Amsterdam, The Netherlands:
When you write a song for one person you love or have loved, and you fall in love with another, are you still able to sing the song wholeheartedly?
Chris de Burgh:
Well, this obviously needs a very personal response, but I can’t really offer such a personal response because I am not really sure of the answer. But if I look at myself as a singer, when I sing I have to utterly believe what I’m singing. I have to absolutely believe every word of what it is. Even if it means creating a persona, somebody else in my imagination to sing those words. When I sing, for example, that new song on the Timing Is Everything album “The Best That Love Can Be”, I sing it with passion, because I have in my imagination created a situation where I actually feel I am that person in the song. So it’s a bit like being a chameleon, which can change colour. And similarly I think you’ll find that, you know, singers that I admire enormously are able to make a song sound like their own, even if you suspect that they are singing about something maybe they haven’t had the experience of.

March 28, 2003
Dennis Muise (47) from Fort Nelson, Canada:
After listening to Timing Is Everything I have to say I enjoy it very much. I agree it's a fun CD, lots of toe tapping along with most of the songs. My question is this, in the song "There's Room In This Heart Tonight" why did you change the line "Turn to me friend" to "Turn to me now"? I thought the original gave it a more personal note to the message.
Chris de Burgh:
I felt initially that this song was specifically aimed at a television audience who we were trying to raise money from for a specific reason. You know, I think it was for children in need. And it felt more appropriate to use the expression “Turn to me friend”. I felt after a while that even the word “friend” it just didn’t sit comfortably in the song for me anymore. And so I changed it. These things do happen from time to time.

March 27, 2003
Jon-Michael (27) from Georgia, USA:
If you look out your window, do you have a favorite view? Like an ocean view or a meadow?
Chris de Burgh:
Well, I am looking out at the moment at an absolutely beautiful scene of hills and trees and fields with animals in them. They are not my animals, they belong to a local farmer. It’s a beautiful sunny evening in Ireland. It’s where I have moved to and it’s gorgeous, whereas before I had much more of a sea view that wasn’t an uninterrupted sea view. I like to look out and reflect. And also looking out the view helps me to reflect inwardly as well and that’s where hopefully I get some of my ideas.

March 26, 2003
Ralph Mayyar (19) from Beirut, Lebanon:
Your new single, Lebanese Night, is such a beautiful song and it portrays the real feeling of what it's like to be in Lebanon. I would just like to know the kind of relationship you have with Elissa, the Lebanese artist who is featured on this single, and how you two met. Was it during your concert visits here or later on? Keep on adding glow in people's lives .Thanks for answering.
Chris de Burgh:
I am sure everybody knows the story behind it by now, because I speak about it on stage quite a bit. About the restaurant I visited in Lebanon, two nights running and it was full of beautiful young men and gorgeous young women and I started reflecting what it must have been like to grow up in the place that had been at war for 20 years. That is how old you are, you know, you are almost 20 years old as well. And I was very impressed by the dignity and the spark, the life in these people that I met and the love that they had for life. You know, there was a real joie de vivre there and a real attempt to get over the catastrophe that they had been going through. That was my impression of Lebanon and Beirut and I know that I have a lot of fans there. It is a place that I really look forward to going back to, not only for those reasons but also for the wonderful foods and of course the terrific wines of Lebanon. Elissa Al-Khoury came as a recommendation through my promoter in Lebanon. She came over with my manager, and we got on extremely well. She is a very attractive young lady and I hope that she has an even more and continuing success and not just in her part of the world, but hopefully in our part as well.

March 25, 2003
Sharon Ruderham (39) from Edinburgh, Scotland:
Have you ever written songs for other people to perform, and if not why not? And if you have, what were they?
Chris de Burgh:
I have written songs for other people to greater or lesser success. Generally what happens though is people, who want to record my songs, listen to my catalogue of material. And I have had a lot of what we call cover versions, where people record my songs.

March 24, 2003
Andrea Lucas (37) from Ludwigsburg, Germany:
Hi Chris, is there a special reason why you don't play "Where peaceful waters flow" at the end of your concerts anymore? It was so nice to go home with the melody and the "lalala" still in mind. I really enjoyed the new shows, thanks for those memorable evenings, Andrea
Chris de Burgh:
I felt like a change. I’ve been doing Peaceful Waters for so many years, and then Hey Jude. I thought, well, we change to Snows Of New York. And I thought that went down extremely well. I was very pleased with the way we ended our concerts.

March 23, 2003
Sebastian Alt (21) from Regensburg, Germany:
Hello Chris! Having been to your concert in Regensburg I was really happy you played Ship To Shore. Now, I wanted to know what inspired you to write this song. It’s about being lost calling, for help, still, it’s a very upbeat song. Why?
Chris de Burgh:
I remember years ago a band that I liked very much supported me, called the “Little River Band”. And they started quite a few of their songs a cappella, very punchy, very powerful. And I thought I’d like to try that one day. So I was playing my guitar and I came up with this idea “Ship To Shore”, which is a good expression, the “ship to shore radio”. And the ship is adrift and the shore is obviously a person that you are trying to get back to. It is upbeat, certainly the tempo is very strong and powerful. The lyric really is about somebody trying to find their way back to somebody they love. And again at the end, if you listen carefully, you find “I cannot believe my eyes, but I think I see a light”. He has actually found his way back. And then he says “You are everything that I’ve always wanted in my life.” So that’s the story of that.

March 22, 2003
Anja (32) from Wiesbaden, Germany:
Since I first heard "Lonely Sky" about 18 years ago, I stayed close to your music. Maybe your Albums and your live performing are some kind of guilty for my decision to become an audio engineer. Of course you are the one who's performing on the stage, but most of your concerts I spent close to the FOH-Place (and I've learned much). One question I always had in my mind was: How do you find this great staff and the sound-mixing people who are even able to get a great sound out of the lousy Alsterdorfer Sporthalle in Hamburg? Do you (or your management) really choose them, or just the company? By the way: Why can't I find any information about the people behind the scenes?
Chris de Burgh:
The key factor in the great sound that we get at our concerts is really attributable to Kenny Thomson because he used to be, before I even met him, one of the sound engineers with Supertramp who were acknowledged to be one of the finest bands in the world and certainly one of the greatest sounding bands in the world. So Kenny now chooses the sound engineers and usually the backline people who look after the guitars, keyboards, drums, the sound equipment at the back, our monitor systems, because he obviously has a very good knowledge of the technology involved. Management really chooses these people. And the Alsterdorfer Sporthalle in Hamburg is a difficult place to perform. But there are important parameters when it comes to good sound. And one of them is you cannot bring cheap sound equipment into a difficult hall. You’ve got to spend the money, as I do, on good sound and good lights and somebody who knows exactly what they are doing. We’ve had for example light technicians from America, from England, we’ve head sound engineers from South Africa, from Germany. We just look for the best, and hopefully it comes out that way.

March 21, 2003
John Duvall (35) from Lawton, Oklahoma, USA:
One of my favorite songs is Transmission Ends. Would you mind explaining the story behind the song? Thanks and keep up the great work.
Chris de Burgh:
This is what the great Irish writer James Joyce once referred to as stream of consciousness, where one idea leads to another. And in this song I’m sitting on a beach somewhere or maybe high up on the cliffs overlooking the beach with the one I love. And it’s dusk and we’re watching the stars and then wondering what’s out there, listening to the radio. “Brother lead and sister steel” - that refers to a war going on somewhere in the world. And then jumping from that to, for me it's a powerful image of moving away, as a camera would, away from the planet earth and the streams of information coming out as we transmit signals, not just all over the world but all over the universe. And then I suddenly imagine there’s a spacecraft sent from mother earth in many years to come. And far far away, you see, hundreds of millions of miles away, they’ve left the planet unaware that a nuclear holocaust is about to happen. The stupidity of mankind of creating weapons of mass destruction, creating weapons that can kill everybody a thousand times over has finally caught up. And I hope that scenario never happens. But as you hear at the end, when I am almost crying the words “I’m always going to love you until the day comes down and the man is on the radio. This is station planet earth, we’re closing down.”, what has happened is, there has been a desperate, dreadful war and there’s a flash of light in the far far distance, and the people in the spacecraft can see it. And an hour later the transmission comes in, after the planet has exploded, at “this is station planet earth, we’re closing down”. And it’s always with me and war, it’s about individuals, the same with Borderline for example or Say Goodbye To It All. This is about a man saying "whatever happens, I’m always going to love you". It’s kind of a sad song, but it does offer hope, because if you listen to the beeping in the end, it’s indicative of the heartbeat that you get on a heart monitor in a hospital. And when it goes to flat line, which means that the heart has stopped, it stops for quite a long time, if you listen to the record. And then it comes on again, it comes back. The patient has revived, the life is still there. And that is my hope for the future that life will continue.

March 20, 2003
Karen Kebby (33) from Wimborne, Dorset, UK:
Hi Chris, Having seen you perform in Bournemouth with your new band - you were all fantastic I just would like to ask how you go about choosing the band members? You seem to have a very good relationship with them and they are very much on your wave length. How did you all meet up and do you make the final decision of who is in the band?
Chris de Burgh:
The first band I had came together kind of accidentally. Glenn Morrow, who is now unfortunately dead, and I met up in Toronto years ago when I was out on the road with Supertramp. I was just a little guy with a guitar, and funnily enough I’m still just a little guy with a guitar. But he was able to play keyboards and he played base as well with his feet on a keyboard base. And that sounded good. And then we got a base player. And then he brought another friend of his who played a bit of guitar. And I knew Jeff Phillips who was the drum roadie with Supertramp and he turned to the drums. So we put a band together almost by accident. Similarly with the new band. That started with various people that I had heard about. And of course Peter Oxendale knew some people. We put it together bit by bit. And there are two key things about having a good band. Firstly in my opinion most importantly you have to be able to get on with these people socially, because you are going to spend weeks if not months of your life with them, travelling in close proximity. So people who enjoy good fun, good food, good wine, they are very important to have with you. Somebody who whinges a lot and moans and says “oh, I wanna go home”, there’s no room for anybody like that. And down the years I’ve had a few people like that before I settled on the Canadian band and of course the most recent band. And secondly they also have to be extremely good musicians, which they are.

March 19, 2003
Helen (22) from St. Petersburg, Russia:
Hello, Chris! Your new album is really nice! My question is about CD's booklet. The first pictures look as if they were taken on Hawaii. But the next I suppose are taken in Russia on the 8th or 9th of March. Summer and winter at the same time? Why? Thanks a lot.
Chris de Burgh:
St. Petersburg is part of the world I will be returning to in April as you may have heard. I’ve got this Russian tour coming up and one of the venues is in St. Petersburg. And I was there last year. What a beautiful city, it is absolutely stunning. Anyway, the question is about CD booklets. The pictures are supposed to be summer and winter, very cold places and very warm places to illustrate the cover of Timing Is Everything. Because if you look on the back you see there is a newspaper saying “Blizzards close all airports – below -50 in Moscow”. It’s suggesting that whoever this is has arrived on a beach, perhaps in Hawaii, perhaps in Barbados or Mauritius, which I love in particular. They’ve got out just in time before that really dreadful weather has settled in. And the photographs were taken in different places in the world, but the ones with me in them do include Moscow. And the one in the middle is taken inside the Kremlin. We took quite a few photographs in there and that again is an absolutely beautiful part of the world.

March 18, 2003
Chris de Burgh:
First off, I want to say sorry it’s been so long. Christmas was a very busy period for me. After Christmas I went away on holiday for a couple of weeks. And I’ve been doing odd shows in Europe, for example in Germany in Hamburg. And one in Liverpool, the 9th of February, a private party for the players and the wives and girlfriends of the Liverpool football club, which was wonderful fun.
I also went to Holland, as you know. I enjoyed it very much and of course it was to pick up for all those people who were unable to make the sold out show at the Ahoy at the end of October because the weather was so atrocious right across Europe. And it’s a beautiful theatre. I think, because it was quite a serious theatre, the event was perhaps not the celebration that some fans who had been before to some of the shows were expecting. I think they thought it was going to be a lot more of jumping up and dancing. But the Dutch people at that show, I think they were expecting in fact a fairly serious concert. And I’m always very sensitive to the moods of the audience and how to deal with them. That night I felt that what they wanted to hear was some of the old classics and of course some of the newer ones. It was a two hour show, and I think it went down very well and I enjoyed it.
Again, as I have said before, it is very exciting for me to read the guestbook and messages from this section in particular from all over the world. And it’s not just places that I have brought attention to in the past like Iran, but I also read a very moving message from Iraq about how difficult it is to grow up and be a young person in Iraq. And how some of the people disagree with the political situation there, but they are basically a hostage to somebody like Saddam Hussein who is just running the country the way he wants to. It is creating a huge amount of international difficulties.
And it’s also great to know the age group of so many of the people who not only go onto the guestbook but also ask me questions. It really gives me a great spiritual uplift to know that so many people are interested in what I do.

March 11, 2003
Editor's note:
Good news! The Man On (the) Line section will be back with new questions and answers soon. Chris de Burgh has answered many new questions from his fans and they will be published again on a daily basis here starting next week. Check back soon!