Chris De Burgh

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety eight and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:31

Mike Costaway this week is a singer. No overnight star, he's been in the business for twenty-five years, and it took him half that time, nine albums and about a hundred songs, before popular success was his. He was born in Argentina, brought up in Africa and Ireland, and after university in Dublin, signed up with a record company. Twelve years ago, he recorded a song which was to assure him his place as one of Britain's most successful singer-songwriters and justify all the hard work that had gone before. It was called The Lady in Red. In its wake came more successes with the album Flying Colours, the single Missing You, and more and more. Songs about love, anger, and heartbreak that have won him international acclaim. He is Chris De Berg.

Presenter1:15

You are, Chris, as I said, the complete antithesis of an overnight sensation. Indeed, it was on occasions humiliating by your own confession on the way up. What gave you, you know, the the will to carry it through?

Chris De Burgh1:29

I think the will comes from one's background, primarily, and I always felt that I did not want to be a grandfather looking at my grandchildren at my knees, saying I could have been a great singer. I wanted to give it a shot.

Presenter1:43

But when you say it it's to do with your background I mean uh I I know that you you can trace your ancestors back to William the Conqueror. Is that what you mean? There's a kind of strong sense of determination there.

Chris De Burgh1:54

Well, I think having a a family tree does give you a sense of history. But my my mother's family, uh the De Burgh family, were very much um admirals and generals, and my father's family were pioneers and uh groundbreakers on a worldwide scale. And to wind up as a singer was not exactly written in the stars.

Presenter2:18

But as you say, De Berg was your mother's name, not your father's name. You were born Chris Davison. That's right. Why did you change?

Chris De Burgh2:24

I liked the ring of it, I liked it Burg. It was kind of unusual, and it had a lot of history attached to it.

Presenter2:30

It's the romanticism that attracted you, did it?

Chris De Burgh2:32

The romanticism with the capital R. Yes. Um back in those days, I suppose having been brought up in a Norman castle, I was a bit lost in the swirly mists of time when romance meant a knight in shining armour going off to fight for his love. Um I've kind of grown up a bit from those days.

Presenter2:50

But those are the songs you wrote in the beginning, on a very gothic sort of beautiful fair maidens locked in towers.

Chris De Burgh2:56

Yes, that's right.

Presenter2:58

And that's that's the sort of image that you had of yourself, is it, that you wanted to be roma a romantic balladeer?

Chris De Burgh3:05

I think the romance was tempered with reality as well. Um love is a very complex issue uh because it's something we n all know something about and we have felt to greater and lesser extent. So when I write a love song, I have to make absolutely certain it is believable, because that's what happens when I listen to a piece of music. I say instantly, Do I believe this? And to try and write a believable song is very, very difficult.

Presenter3:33

Tell me about your first record.

Chris De Burgh3:35

I went to um secondary school at Marlborough College in Wiltshire and every Saturday we'd all of us wander down the main street trying to look at this uh phenomenon called girls and I went into a record store there and they had this facility where you could uh stand and listen to the current songs that they play through the headphones. And this next piece of music, my first piece of music, was really the first piece of music, really apart from church music, that moved me to a certain extent, where I knew this is something I wanted to pursue. When I heard the Rickenbacker guitar and this sort of amazing bass line that just went doom

Speaker 34:11

Doo doom.

Chris De Burgh4:12

It really made me excited and I thought, gosh, I'd like to be in this business one day.

Speaker 34:19

I'm not sorry the end There ain't no place I'm going to

Speaker 34:28

Hey Mr. Jambury Man with Sombogan

Speaker 34:35

In the jingle channel, no more than twice.

Presenter4:47

The Birds and Mr Tambourine Man. I suppose every singer songwriter aspires to write the definitive popular song, really, and one thinks of Yesterday and and My Way. When you wrote The Lady in Red, did you realize this was potentially, you know, a big one, a new standard love song?

Chris De Burgh5:04

When I approached that album in 1985, I'd written already maybe seven or eight very strong uh rock songs, and I thought now is the time to concentrate on a ballad. I had this idea about relationships and how relationships are very, very difficult to keep together. I had this image of a boat constantly trying to drift away from the shore and constantly have to read it back in again. And funnily enough, I came across the original recording I did of this, just uh a demo for myself, and it was called The Way You Look Tonight, I think, and it was completely different, but that was the nucleus, the beginning of it.

Presenter5:37

So, when did you come across this sort of lyrical plug, I think you call it, Lady in Red?

Chris De Burgh5:41

Um

Chris De Burgh5:43

I I had most of the song written, and I had this idea of two people having a quarrel, going out for the evening, and he looks across the room and he sees this woman, and that's when with a shock he realizes this is his wife or his girlfriend that he really hasn't noticed for quite a while noticed her hair, what she's wearing.

Chris De Burgh6:02

And I had a similar experience with my wife. We went out one evening when I was writing the song and I saw her across the room wearing a red outfit.

Chris De Burgh6:11

And I thought, oh, that's it. That's where that's the bit that I'm looking for, the missing.

Presenter6:15

Mm.

Chris De Burgh6:16

Section.

Presenter6:16

And she's never been able to wear red again.

Chris De Burgh6:18

No, she didn't like me for a while.

Presenter6:20

But it was the song, as I've said, that made everybody in this country recognize you, although you were much recognized abroad before that.

Chris De Burgh6:20

What's this so

Presenter6:26

In an ideal world, I think I'm right in saying you would have preferred to have been recognised for more of a an upbeat rock number than for a sentimental ballad, wouldn't you?

Chris De Burgh6:34

Well, I suppose in an ideal world but you can't choose these things.

Presenter6:37

But why, I wonder?

Chris De Burgh6:38

Um

Chris De Burgh6:40

I

Chris De Burgh6:41

for some reason saw this image of a tuxedo crooner.

Chris De Burgh6:45

Coming into my life, and I just didn't want this guy to be there. I kind of wish you

Presenter6:49

But which do you prefer?

Chris De Burgh6:50

Part and parcel really of being a performer is seeing people get excited and getting them dancing up and down. And I think you temper that with the smoochy ballad bit, and then you move on to the exciting stuff again. But then I have to say that

Speaker 37:00

Hmm.

Chris De Burgh7:03

Um having heard down the ears quite a number of writers and performers regretting that they'd written a hit record that made them who they were, then I would never, ever do that.

Presenter7:14

Tell me about your next record.

Chris De Burgh7:17

The songwriting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney was, in my opinion, the single most powerful influence on modern music today. They changed the whole direction of popular music. I can probably sing you every single one of the songs they ever wrote, and uh it was difficult choosing one, uh but I've come to this particular song, Let It Be.

Speaker 37:39

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.

Speaker 37:46

Yeah, there will be an answer, let it be

Speaker 37:53

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.

Speaker 38:00

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

Presenter8:07

The Beatles and Let It Be. So, Christoberg, as we say, not surprising that beautiful maidens and lascivious old men and mediaeval castles f featured in your work, because of course that's where you were brought up in a certain part of your childhood. Tell me about this castle in County Wexford.

Chris De Burgh8:23

In nineteen uh sixty.

Chris De Burgh8:26

My parents had to leave Africa in a hurry because that a lot of whites had been killed.

Presenter8:30

Your father was a diplomat.

Chris De Burgh8:30

Father's

Chris De Burgh8:31

Indeed, and uh this was in in what was the Belgian Congo. And my dad had this uh mad idea of living in an Irish castle. And we bought this crumbly old pile, and it was extremely cold. And as we sort of sat about freezing with no furniture, um we were wondering what to do. I would have been, I guess, about eleven. My brother Richard was uh two years older. And why not turn it into a hotel, sort of guesthouse? Which is what we did. We advertised.

Chris De Burgh8:59

in sort of country life in Tatla and opened about a year and a half later.

Presenter9:03

But apparently your father was a bit of a Basil Faulty.

Chris De Burgh9:07

Well, the funny thing was, when Faulty Towers was shown, the first episode, I remember sitting with my mother and father at um Barghi Castle, and there wasn't anything remotely funny about it because all that stuff happens.

Presenter9:18

We're being new to the guests.

Presenter9:22

What did he say on your father's? What kind of thing?

Chris De Burgh9:25

Well, my father um is uh a wonderful guy, and he did so much for the place to build it to what it was. Um but he used to um be a little eccentric to the guests. I mean sometimes we found his German helmet down at the bottom of the um

Chris De Burgh9:41

The feels I've no idea what it was doing there. And

Chris De Burgh9:44

A couple of times he'd put on this German helmet, get dressed up as Hitler, and do it a stunning impression of Hitler, walk into the living room, and some people who hadn't really got over the thirty nine forty five conflict were fairly stunned by this emergence of a man waving and shouting in German and looking just like Adolph.

Chris De Burgh10:02

Of course it was a giant joke, but um

Presenter10:04

And according to one of the guests who was David Wynne, the sculptor, which is where you all first met, some guests once asked for some soap, and your father said, What for? You don't look dirty to me.

Chris De Burgh10:15

All that stuff, you see Basil Faulty's thing is.

Chris De Burgh10:19

Um disasters have happened and he's trying to pretend they haven't. And anybody who has run a small hotel will know for sure that these kind of things go on all the time, sort of as it were backstage. And what you're trying to do in the front of house is pretend there's nothing wrong. Meanwhile there's this complete chaos going on back

Presenter10:37

So you create an image and demand that people dress for dinner, but you know, back in the kitchen it's all chaos.

Chris De Burgh10:42

Well, we spoke about David Wynne, and I know that one of his earliest memories was meeting my father, who who announced that this is the oldest inhabited castle in Ireland. And David said, I can see it's the oldest, but I can't tell whether it's been inhabited much or not.

Presenter10:57

And you sometimes used to entertain the guests on your guitar in the evenings, as as time went on. But your parents didn't approve of music as being your future, did they?

Chris De Burgh11:07

Well, you see, at Barghy Castle in the evenings, with a pub a good at least a good mile and a half stumble down the road, it um it sort of fell to me to be the sort of entertainer.

Presenter11:17

You're making excuses now.

Chris De Burgh11:18

Believe me, singing for twelve people is far harder.

Chris De Burgh11:23

Then singing for twelve thousand.

Presenter11:25

But your parents didn't think there was a future in music. Not the sort of future they wanted for you.

Chris De Burgh11:29

Well, after I went I went to Trinity College in Dublin, I was offered a job in the National Westminster Bank, also Barclays Bank. I even interviewed for a job here in the BBC, but I wasn't tall enough, so um I didn't get the job. But I think the idea of making a career in a completely unknown area was not exactly anathema, but they certainly didn't approve, but they encouraged, which is the important part.

Presenter11:51

But you were meant to go into the army or something, weren't it?

Chris De Burgh11:53

Um I think, yes, something like that beckoned business or the army or perhaps even the hotel business, something else apart from music. Um and my mother felt that only hippies um got involved with music.

Presenter12:07

Record number three.

Chris De Burgh12:10

One of the great memories that I have is um growing up in Africa, in Nigeria and the Belgian Congo. So I've chosen a song that uh for me recreates that atmosphere recorded by um a group of Los Angeles session musicians. One of the reasons I've chosen it is because before our concerts we always have a song that we play to get the system equalized, and I used to request this one.

Speaker 312:42

Number one

Speaker 312:43

Yeah.

Speaker 312:46

Rains down in Africa

Speaker 312:51

Gonna take some time to do the

Speaker 312:53

Never day.

Presenter13:06

Toto and Africa.

Presenter13:10

In the first ten years of your life, before the family set up in Ireland, a particularly close relationship with your parents, because they were abroad, father diplomat, as we said, and you were sent to prep schools where um not least you got beaten, I think.

Chris De Burgh13:24

Well, I I've been thinking a lot about this because I recently listened to Roald Dahl's story of his life and um I couldn't listen to it because it upset me too much. It just brought the whole thing back. It was a post-Victorian army style way of bringing up children to fight for their god and country and thank God it's gone. Uh it wasn't

Chris De Burgh13:44

a particularly happy time. My parents were away, and I know that they wished it could have been otherwise, but they were living abroad, and I would only see them with my brother Richard about

Chris De Burgh13:54

once a year, which would be the two months of um summer holidays, and the rest of the time these two small boys would really have to fend for themselves.

Presenter14:03

But your parents nevertheless were were by all accounts a tough pair, I think is the phrase that's been used, who who didn't suffer fools. I mean, you didn't get a lot of sympathy, did you? You were told to kind of get on with it.

Chris De Burgh14:14

Uh yes, it was um be a man, stand up, uh is what we had to do. But uh they were struggling to earn enough money to put two uh boys through school and uh to, I suppose, jolly them along and so not to have to put up with two s crying boys or or writing home all the time saying, I miss my money They said, Well, come on, put a bit of backbone into it, you know, buck up your ideas, lad

Presenter14:36

Yeah.

Presenter14:38

But uh well, I suppose it's where you get your determination from. I mean it it taught you to stand up for yourself, if you like.

Chris De Burgh14:42

Well one thing about the music business is that uh the failure rate is massive. Um I I've been told it's about ninety nine point nine percent, of which the point one does actually survive and succeed on a worldwide basis. I have been dumped in it more times than really I can remember. It's still even now at the the height I'm at, um things disappoint enormously and things hurt, uh which I wish could have happened but don't. So to survive to come from literally a very small little village in the south east of Ireland called Tom Haggard to become known all over the world for me is a source of enormous pride, but also I I'm aware of the the blows and the bruises and the pain that I've been through.

Presenter15:23

Indeed, I said at the beginning that you you've confessed before now that you had to put up with a lot of humiliation. What kind of form did that take?

Chris De Burgh15:29

I'll give you one indication. I remember I was on tour in in the UK. Um we decided since I couldn't get on the BBC Radio One playlist, the only other way was to perform. And uh I think we did something like thirty shows around the UK in in concert halls. And I re regularly had to give away tickets for my own concerts on street corners.

Presenter15:51

But also I presume as a support artist when you're on tour, I mean, you know, you're not you're not the guy or the group they've come to see. I mean, presumably you have to play a lot while they talk.

Chris De Burgh16:01

There's only one advantage to being a support act apart from attempting to make your career move forward and that's you can get back to the bar quicker.

Chris De Burgh16:08

So when you are a support act, unless you're very fortunate, most of the time you are treated like complete dirt and you're not actually there for any other reason except quite often the record company is paid to have you on the bill, and you are a bit of an annoyance to the road crew of the main act. I was lucky, I toured a lot with Supertramp.

Chris De Burgh16:27

who became very firm friends and uh nowadays I've known

Presenter16:30

They were pretty rough on you in the early days, though, and they played some pretty horrible jokes on you.

Chris De Burgh16:35

Well, I was I suppose I was pretty obnoxious myself because I I'd kind of gone to the effort of getting as far as that and I wasn't about to be turfed off um the stage. You know, if you're going to drive three hours to get to Plymouth you're not going to have some goon who hasn't as far as you're concerned got a a modicum of of talent himself telling you to get off the stage. You know, I'm no, I'm here and I'm doing my job and I'm not leaving until I've done it.

Presenter16:56

So you were quite bushy.

Chris De Burgh16:58

Oh yeah.

Presenter16:59

Record number four.

Chris De Burgh17:00

I've chosen a song which

Chris De Burgh17:02

Quite honestly, I wish I'd written myself. Occasionally I hear something that goes to the dead centre, the core of an idea, and this song does. It it was a huge hit all over the world.

Chris De Burgh17:13

Uh the writers were Mike Rutherford from Genesis and B. A. Robertson, a very respected songwriter who I see regularly on school runs in Ireland. And it is about relationship with your father. I had a tricky relationship with my own father and I'm sure I'm no different from anybody else. Now we're the firmest of friends, but uh this particular song, when I heard it first, I'm not ashamed to say uh it brought me to tears. I had to stop the car actually. It's uh Mike and the Mechanics, The Living Years.

Speaker 317:44

As you hear.

Speaker 317:49

It's to the brain.

Speaker 317:52

Yes, do

Speaker 317:54

When we die Oh, when we die to and be we don't see I do

Presenter18:01

We don't see eye

Presenter18:07

Mike and the Mechanics and the Living Years, um a record which helped you heal a difficult relationship, you say, with your father. But as a young man um you were befriended by somebody we mentioned earlier, David Wynne, the sculptor. How important a part did he play in your life?

Chris De Burgh18:22

David Wynne became

Chris De Burgh18:24

A second father to me and his wife Julie.

Chris De Burgh18:28

And they

Chris De Burgh18:29

offered me an extraordinary new view on life. I often went up to their home in Wimbledon and it was full of music and light and sculpture and extraordinary people, tennis players, musicians, like people like Jimi Hendrix, Donovan and they gave me this feeling that I was somebody special with something important artistically to offer.

Presenter18:55

It does sound as if David Wynne was the antithesis, if you like, of your parents. I mean very, very warm, very liberal minded, very encouraging in anything that you wanted to do.

Chris De Burgh19:05

Well, David um, I suppose, offered almost uh a a glimpse of the sort of hippie lifestyle that my mother was scared of uh me getting into. Um I mean my first memory of David is

Chris De Burgh19:19

He played the mouth organ and still does extremely well. And we decided we'd do a little gig together. So we went to a local pub, which had a lounge bar, as they do in Ireland, and a bar bar, you know. And the lounge bar is supposed to be slightly superior to the bar. So we started off in the lounge, and I had the guitar and he had the mouth organ. And the place was full of people, and we hammered away at Yellow Rosa, Texas, and a few other mighty numbers. And soon to our dismay, the lounge bar started empty as everybody went into the bar. And our final appreciative customer was this guy completely drunk, slumped on a chair, and holding a a pint of Guinness, which soon slipped from his nerveless fingers with a crash onto the floor, and he fell on the floor after it. And that was our first gig together.

Presenter20:09

But so did meeting people like this Jimi Hendrix Donovan you mention

Chris De Burgh20:12

Mm.

Presenter20:13

Joan Byers, I think you met there too, didn't you? I mean, did you think, that's it, this is what I want to do?

Chris De Burgh20:15

Indeed.

Chris De Burgh20:19

Absolutely. I thought this was a future where I could.

Chris De Burgh20:24

find out where my talent could lead me and who

Presenter20:26

Who had told you you had talent?

Chris De Burgh20:29

A few people said, um, oh, we love the way you sing, and it was perfectly obvious to me as I used to sing.

Chris De Burgh20:36

that there was something happening when when people would react in a certain way.

Chris De Burgh20:40

Of course, when you're a teenager, just a youngster, as I was, picking up a guitar for the first time is a great way to meet girls. And that was the initial objective. My brother bought the guitar, I nicked it off him, and off we went. But also, I think if one were to look into the complexity of one's life and and figure out why you do certain things, I would say that um my desire to be an entertainer came from having the background that I had.

Presenter21:05

Why? Can't explain that.

Chris De Burgh21:08

I think an entertainer is looking for approval somehow or other.

Chris De Burgh21:13

Looking to have people say, Yes, you do actually exist, we are sending back our affection through our applause.

Speaker 321:21

Mm.

Chris De Burgh21:22

It took a while to sort of work that all out. But being with David um and his family meant that I became somebody else, and I felt that I was expressing something that I always wanted to express in a in a very emotional way through music.

Presenter21:41

Next piece of music.

Chris De Burgh21:43

I've always very much admired the talent of Eric Clapton. I wish I could play guitar like this guy can play guitar, but I've chosen a piece of music which is as I um sit on my desert island ruminating about the past and contemplating the future, I want to be able to get up and dance from time to time. So this piece of music is is Eric Clapton in one of his many disguises as Derek and the Domino's one of the greatest guitar intros of all time. This is Layla.

Speaker 322:32

What'll you do when you get home?

Presenter22:36

Derek and the Dominoes, alias Eric Clapton, and Layla.

Presenter22:40

Um, Christerberg, nineteen seventy five. There you stood. You'd been signed up by AM Records and you made your first album, Far Beyond These Castle Walls. You held it in your hand. How did you feel?

Chris De Burgh22:52

I thought I was going to be an overnight star. The whole world would crumble at my feet and then it would be uh happiness and sunlight and uh everything else evermore.

Chris De Burgh23:02

Of course that wasn't the case.

Presenter23:03

It was a blur of apathy, as you said.

Chris De Burgh23:04

Yes, a blur of apathy.

Presenter23:07

But it was a big hit in Brazil.

Chris De Burgh23:09

Well the funny thing was I received this um

Chris De Burgh23:12

Telegram back in the days of Telegrams to say congratulations Chris, you're number one in Brazil. I actually thought it was somebody having a joke and I went there. In fact, I took Diane there, my future wife, cashed in the first class ticket, went two economies. Arrived in Brazil to find banners at the airport saying welcome back to South America, Chris. Quite bizarre. And I have to say, it was very interesting to be treated like a major star for ten days and then go home to this complete apathy. It shaped my ego, I think, just about completely as far as I can get.

Presenter23:47

Squashed it completely, I think.

Chris De Burgh23:49

Completely well, it it put things in very much into perspective.

Presenter23:53

So on we go with this life in the second half of the seventies, m more albums, more apathy, on it went into the eighties. Well, here apathy, yes, but abroad it's all happening.

Chris De Burgh24:06

It it was the most astonishing thing happened. Um in nineteen seventy six I put out a record called Spanish Train and Other Stories. And again the old telegram arrives on the doormat. Congratulations, your record is multiple platinum in Canada. It was like watching lights going on all over a globe of the world.

Presenter24:22

But not here.

Chris De Burgh24:23

As we say.

Presenter24:24

Uh Well that's really what I want to come to, because you were obviously very big. I mean, fifteen million albums I think you sold worldwide during this period, fifty gold and platinum discs and so on. How much did the lack of recognition here at home rankle?

Chris De Burgh24:24

Uh

Chris De Burgh24:37

It hurt, it stung. But you have to remember, Sue, that in those days, unless you had a single on top of the pops, you were nothing. And I never forget in eighty six when I sold out five Wembley Arenas

Chris De Burgh24:49

In the earlier part of'86, um for a concert tour to coincide with my new album, Into the Light. The Lady in Red was number one uh in July. I'd solo out those concerts way before that happened. And so that really was uh interesting to to observe, because the fan base was there.

Chris De Burgh25:07

All was missing was the actual

Presenter25:09

was the one, was the single.

Chris De Burgh25:11

Flag waving recognition, yeah.

Presenter25:12

And after that your back albums sell and everything happens.

Chris De Burgh25:15

Was it overnight?

Presenter25:15

Was it overnight wealth as well as stardom?

Chris De Burgh25:18

I never forget an incident in in the early eighties when.

Chris De Burgh25:21

You see, I was very fortunate. I was supported by great people in the record company, Derek Green and Dave McGerrison, my manager, and Kenny Thompson. And a check came in, a good check, in about 83, 84, probably around half a million pounds. And my eyes fell out because I'd been broke for 12 years. And somebody called up, said, Congratulations, big check. This is to pay back the management fee of $1.7 million. Thank you very much. And I was just stunned. Record number six.

Chris De Burgh25:51

After I left uh university I took a job in a second hand record store in Goldhawk Road, and my job there was to identify good records, buy them, and also it gave me the opportunity to listen to a lot of music, and I found this record amongst them. I love

Chris De Burgh26:06

religious music, um particularly vocal chanting music, and it wasn't until quite a long time afterwards that I realized this is made by an Argentine folk group, somewhere from my birth and upbringing, and uh it's the Missa Criolla with the Los Frontarithos ensemble and the choir, a local choir with local musicians, the Basilique Cocoro.

Speaker 326:52

Then we got that

Speaker 327:17

Please don't live here, then no soul.

Presenter27:27

The opening of the Kyrie from the Missa Criollia with the Los Fronterisos Ensemble and the Choir of the Basilique de Cocoro, conducted and composed by Ariel Ramirez.

Presenter27:37

The price you pay for fame, of course, Christaberg, is that you're considered fair game, and you know, you were mister Nice Guy for a long time, and then the press came down on you like a ton of bricks when your infidelities were discovered.

Presenter27:50

How painful is that, and do you consider that you are fair game?

Chris De Burgh27:55

Well, I mean it's it's one of those things, I think, being famous in a situation where newspapers require um stories, it's one of the hazards, I guess.

Presenter28:08

Do you feel you tempted fate, in a sense, because you wrote love songs about, you know, your wife and your family, and you've talked about how important that was to you? It was kind of almost bound to happen, perhaps.

Chris De Burgh28:20

No, I wouldn't take that view. I would say that um the person represented as this media, Mr Nice Guy, or Mr. Goody Goody, just didn't exist. I think having had such a big hit record with such a romantic song um made it quite obvious that uh the media liked to make things black and white, that I was Mr White, and nobody's like that, and uh I'd certainly be the first to stand up and say Maya Culpe, I'm to blame.

Speaker 328:50

Hmm.

Chris De Burgh28:50

We are living in interesting times where

Chris De Burgh28:55

To sell

Chris De Burgh28:57

um stories, the media need the more and more sensational and as usual the truth is the first um to suffer. And it's the old line, you know, why let the truth get in the way of good story?

Presenter29:10

Did you get any songs out of it? I mean, in the sense that you write about your experience?

Chris De Burgh29:16

I never write directly about anything that's happened to me, curiously enough, because I never feel it's of much interest to anybody else what I do.

Presenter29:26

But you've recently republished one that you wrote, I think, some years earlier than all of your problems, which was called More Than This, which is all about, you know, sometimes a man the man in me gets lonely and but

Presenter29:36

Our relationship is big enough to overcome. And you republished that. I wondered if there was something in there that that.

Chris De Burgh29:42

The reason much more than this wound up on a new record was because it became a perennial favourite in a lot of people's minds.

Presenter29:49

It does say it all, though, doesn't it?

Chris De Burgh29:51

I think when you are away from home and you can get lonely, temptation is ever-present.

Chris De Burgh29:57

And if your relationship is built on a strong foundation, it should s really survive anything.

Presenter30:04

And it has no f

Chris De Burgh30:05

Of course, yeah.

Presenter30:06

How low did it bring you, all of that trouble?

Chris De Burgh30:09

The trouble?

Presenter30:09

Hmm.

Chris De Burgh30:10

Well, it's been it's like being in a storm, and uh I've certainly come across an awful lot of other storms of other people's lives which are far worse than what happened to me.

Presenter30:21

Number seven.

Chris De Burgh30:24

I hope I'm allowed to choose one of my own songs here. And the one I've chosen is important to me because in all the um records that I've made I've always been the co producer, very much hands on, literally even in mixing and stuff. But this song was my first full production, and it's called The Simple Truth.

Speaker 331:02

For my sake of

Presenter31:09

My castaway Chris de Berg singing his composition The Simple Truth. So Chris, you're fifty later this year, don't mind me mentioning it, do you?

Chris De Burgh31:16

I was told to look fifty?

Presenter31:18

Yeah.

Chris De Burgh31:19

Look at all my hair.

Presenter31:20

Um you've got enough wealth to keep you comfortable. You you could stop now, couldn't you? You could pack it all in, are you tempted?

Chris De Burgh31:27

No, I'll tell you why, I've thought about it quite a bit. Um the motivation to write is a little less than it used to be, but I have spent so many years getting good at what I do, and I still think I do it pretty well. Why stop?

Presenter31:39

And strip it all away, cast you as Robinson Crusoe. What happens? Do you survive?

Chris De Burgh31:45

I think I would do pretty well on a desert island actually. Um

Chris De Burgh31:49

Since I was a youngster I've always felt very independent. I've got a logical mind, and um I don't mind discomfort if it's thrust upon me,'cause I've been there before, and I think I look after myself pretty well.

Presenter32:02

You do sound pretty indomitable. Is there nothing that can defeat you in this life?

Chris De Burgh32:06

Um

Chris De Burgh32:08

Mosquitoes.

Presenter32:11

Last record.

Chris De Burgh32:13

This piece of music has always been a favourite piece of music for me, but it was something that happened to me earlier this spring that made me choose it. I was driving my children to school to a beautiful place called Aravan School in Bray County, Wicklow, and as we were going up the drive on a spring morning, the sun was shining,

Chris De Burgh32:31

The as you go up the drive the playing fields emerge on your left, and then beyond is the sea and the mountains and Ireland at its prettiest. And in the car was playing this piece of music. So every time I play it it will remind me of this particular moment.

Presenter33:48

Part of Handel's Largo, played by Reginald Kilby and his strings. And um If you could only take one of those records to your desert island, which one would you take?

Chris De Burgh33:56

I would take thee missa criolla.

Presenter33:59

And what about your book?

Chris De Burgh34:01

I came across this book when I was just a youngster. It's called Moonfleet.

Chris De Burgh34:05

By J. Mead Faulkner. It's the story of a young boy who lives in Cornwall, it's a smuggling story.

Presenter34:13

It's a good romantic yarn.

Chris De Burgh34:14

I've read it dozens of times and I would read it dozen more times.

Presenter34:18

And what about your luxury?

Chris De Burgh34:20

I love swimming.

Chris De Burgh34:21

And whatever happens on the um on the land, I'm going to take a pair of goggles.

Chris De Burgh34:27

And a snorkel and a pair of fins, so I can spend my days investigating the underwater life.

Presenter34:33

Christoberg, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your desert island discs.

Chris De Burgh34:37

Thank you.

Speaker 234:44

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co. uk slash radio four.