Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Singer-songwriter best known for the 1986 hit 'The Lady in Red'.
On the island
Eight records
When I heard the Rickenbacker guitar and this sort of amazing bass line that just went doom doo doom. It really made me excited and I thought, gosh, I'd like to be in this business one day.
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.
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
Mike Rutherford and B. A. Robertson
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 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.
I love 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
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... But this song was my first full production
Reginald Kilby and his Strings
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... So every time I play it it will remind me of this particular moment.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:15What gave you the will to carry it through [on the way up]?
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.
Presenter asks
2:18Why did you change [your name from Chris Davison to Chris De Burgh]?
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.
Presenter asks
24:24How much did the lack of recognition here at home rankle?
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.
Presenter asks
27:50How painful is [the press attention on your infidelities], and do you consider that you are fair game?
The keepsakes
The book
J. Meade Falkner
It's a good romantic yarn. I've read it dozens of times and I would read it dozen more times.
The luxury
I love swimming. And whatever happens on the um on the land, I'm going to take a pair of goggles. And a snorkel and a pair of fins, so I can spend my days investigating the underwater life.
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.
Presenter asks
31:20You've got enough wealth to keep you comfortable. You could stop now, couldn't you? Are you tempted?
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?
“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.”
“I think an entertainer is looking for approval somehow or other. Looking to have people say, Yes, you do actually exist, we are sending back our affection through our applause.”
“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.”