3rd October 2024 - Nadine Fliedner (49) from Germany

Hello Chris. I'm interested to know why you never got carried away with your increasing success? How do you manage to stay grounded despite your success?

Well, that's almost impossible for me to answer. Obviously a lot to do with family and upbringing, because when I started in this business I was utterly naive. I suppose I've been famous somewhere for 50 years but maybe it went a little bit to my head in the early days, because finally getting recognition after struggling, it's a very hard business, notoriously possibly one of the most difficult there is. I think it's made more difficult by the fact that I write all the music, all the words, do all the interviews, concerts, television, radio etc. There's only one of me. So I think remaining grounded is terribly important. I don't live a rock 'n' roll lifestyle at all and I always feel that you've got to leave all that stuff behind when you come through your front door, you can't bring the job home. I'm happy enough when I'm out in public to be the "star" but you never bring that person back into the house, because I think that's dangerous. I've seen enough people in my business who want to carry on being rock stars in their house and home. It just doesn't work, just surround yourself with good people, good company, good friends and a strong family ethos.

3rd October 2024 - Mark Pearce (50) from Stockton On Tees, England

If you could be remembered for just one song or one album what would it be? Which album or song is most special to you and why?

That's a tough one after 27 albums. I suppose the one song that in many ways kick-started my song-writing, although it had been pre-seeded by similar kinds of songs which are stories, because I think if you can create a good story it will last.. Spanish Train would be one of those. It was complicated to write, not just because of the game of cards and getting the poker hands correct, but the internal rhyming... "Joker is the name, Poker is the game, we'll play right here on this bed, and then we'll bet for the biggest stakes yet, the souls of the dead." A lot of internal rhyming so it was quite complicated, but it's still a cracking good story and I think for a lot of people it's become iconic. As far as an album is concerned, I'd probably choose "Into The Light" because it's got some great songs, but then again so does "The Road To Freedom"... ah.. who knows!

3rd October 2024 - James Wilson from Salisbury, England

Over the last 50 years of recording and performing, is there one particular memory from your musical career which stands out from everything else, a special moment that you treasure ?

Well, I don't think it's allied to success James, like getting my first number one album in the UK. Again, I have to stress, the UK was just one of many many places where having success, like Canada, Norway, South Africa, these were early days when it was exciting. I think a memory of a concert, performing in Ephesus in Turkey in an arena built 300 years before Christ, and it was pretty well exactly as it was then. I think there were about 20,000 people under a starry sky and it was pretty awesome actually to be in such an historical place. The backstage area was these little rooms or caves, almost untouched for all those years, it was obviously a national heritage site to be respected, but it was a very exciting place to be performing. But you know, after a 50 year career, there are many many moments and I could spend hours talking about some great stuff.

3rd October 2024 - Sheila Gardner (64) from Hounslow, Middlesex

At what age and which was the first instrument you learned and if you were to learn a new instrument which would it be?

I would have picked up a guitar at probably about the age of 13 or 14 and obviously I'm self-taught and I taught myself to play the piano by looking at how the chord structures were on a guitar and transferring them to a piano. I can't read music and I can't write music and I don't think it's hindered me too much, even though I have often been performing with orchestras, I can talk to them in their own terms, not necessarily in musical terms, but certainly about what I'm trying to convey in a song. And if I were to learn a new instrument... the bagpipes! No, I don't think the bagpipes.. what would I like to learn to play.. the church organ. That's a keyboard similar to a piano but I'd like to be able to understand all the stops that you pull out, that would be fun. It makes a great noise, a church organ.

3rd October 2024 - Matt Poulter (40) from Skelmersdale, England

Hi Chris. I'm not sure if you know I created the Chris de Burgh Facebook page with Gail James. It's come so far in ten years we would like to thank you for being on the group with us fans. So my question. Is there any chance of any future releases of full old concerts from the past 50 years. Even on your YouTube chanel they would be amazing to hear. I've been a fan of yours since I was about 5 it's always been the live side of things I've loved. Especially the stuff with Jeff, Al, Danny, Koko & Glenn. It would be amazing. Thanks Matt

Thank you for creating the Chris de Burgh Facebook page with Gail James, it's wonderful what you're doing to keep people connected. As I often say, you cannot have a long career without the love and support of your fans. Whatever I want to do, my voice is in good shape and I enjoy concerts very much. The recent summer tour, 12 completely sold out concerts, indicates that people are still interested in hearing me. But without the fans and people like yourself helping, keeping a profile up is one of the hardest things. It's a bit like a hot-air balloon with a hole in it and you've constantly got to pump it up to keep it up in the air. I don't know about the answer to this, but I would like to see some of these old concerts. There is of course a VHS, or maybe it's even on DVD, of Live in Dublin and Live in Munich, there's been a few of them actually. We've done a few and they are all very interesting for me to watch, if for no other reason than to see myself jumping around like a mad thing on the stage. I was so energetic in those days, I always used to have oxygen backstage which I frequently had to take in because I was so exhausted. And one thing about a lot of modern acts, it's almost impossible to dance and sing at the same time. Almost. I'm not going to cast any aspersions on other performers out there except to say, you try it, you fans, jump around for two hours and sing at the same time. I'm going to suggest that there's full playback going on in some cases. It would be lovely to see the old band featured in old videos. I could mention this to my management.

3rd October 2024 - Karl Reid (46) from Rochester, England

I know that you are aware of the now many musicians in your fan group. You’ve commented a number of times on covers by myself, Frank and others out here who perform. It’s always such a thrill when we see your name pop up and say you’ve enjoyed one of our tributes. It means the world. You inspired me when I was 18 and you pulled me out the audience to sing with you in Hylands park back in the late 90’s. So now you seemingly have put the band on hiatus or resting would you consider choosing a few of the musicians out there in our fandom to put a new band together? I’m sure many of us would love to give it a go?

Well, Karl, that's a good idea in theory, but in principle it's actually extremely difficult. To put a band together, to rehearse and then go on tour. The musicians I've been using are top-end studio musicians and players who are very much used to the performing lifestyle and concerts. It's a nice idea, I don't think it's going to happen though. At the moment I'm very happy performing solo and I do keep in touch with the band and various other members, I'm sure we'll perform together again. The music business has changed so utterly, the costs and expenses involved with touring. There's a myth out there to say because record sales have plummeted, that people just go out and tour and make a fortune. No, that doesn't happen, only at the very very top level and even then it's really expensive. I mean, Taylor Swift, I can't imagine how much her shows are costing to run. Touring is expensive, you're thinking of hotels, transportation, every single element of touring with a band as well, it is expensive. Even solo, I've got ten people with me on tour, so you have to keep an eye on those things. We don't do it just for fun, we try to, in my case, break even or maybe make a small profit.

3rd October 2024 - Nicole Kalkowski (54) from Lüdenscheid

Dear Chris ! After so many years of concerts and touring, can you name 3 very special experiences, a special location, a special audience or something else...  all the best, yours Nicole

Well, I've mentioned Ephesus already. There are so many experiences, I've been so fortunate to have gone round the world several times. Just in to my mind, I was in Australia on a boat and I was in the sea and somebody said "Somebody wants to talk to you, a radio station in Taiwan", so I was there in the sea with a mobile phone talking to a radio station in Taiwan. So many little things jump into my mind, performing inside the Kremlin for example, a fairly extraordinary thing, we did three shows there, actually I've been there a few times. The Royal Albert Hall, a spectacular venue, I think I've performed in there about 17 times. There are special audiences all over the world.. Germany, Austria, Switzerland.. they're such loyal fans. And then again, Ireland and Canada, especially the province of Quebec. When I walk on stage in Montreal as I did last year, two shows sold out, it's an overwhelming blizzard of love. It's extraordinary, it's very emotional. Sometimes this applause to say hello and welcome back can go on for two or three minutes and you're standing there thinking "Wow" and you're just drinking it in, this is beautiful. So, those things make my journey through this business so memorable and so beautiful.

3rd October 2024 - Claudia Geelen (44) from The Netherlands

Dear Chris, in your new single "It's Never Too Late", you sing about the Spanish Train and the Ferryman and castle walls. Why just these songs? And castle walls, is from the album "Far Beyond These Castle Walls"? If so, why this album? Love Claudia.

Claudia, thank you for your question. I tried to get in as many references as possible. Ancient halls, that's in there, castle walls of course, Spanish Train, Bal Masque is in there, Lady In Red of course, Ferryman... why just these ? Well, I couldn't get everything in there. In another song called The Storyman I do refer to a lot of other tracks, but that's as many as I could get in.

3rd October 2024 - Jane Friedman from Concord, California, USA

Would you please consider doing a tour in the USA? I have seen you many times in my home town in the UK - it would be nice to see you again in the US.

Jane, I just want you to know how it works. I would love to tour in America again but the way my business works is.. an artist, unless they are at the top top level, does not choose where they're going to go, they get offers. Offers will come in from promoters who think they can make a profit out of an artist, simple as that. They will offer a tour or a one-off concert or a series of concerts in a special location. For example, in America, a few years ago, 6 or 7 years ago, I performed in Los Angeles and further north in Burbank, San Francisco and across in the east coast. But the offer has to come from the promoter first and then you work out the nuts and bolts of getting there. So the answer is yes I'd like to, but I'm not sure when we can do this again.

3rd October 2024 - Beth Haines from Perth, Australia

Hi Chris, who is your favourite actor male or female?

Well, I would say one of the most interesting actors to watch is Matt Damon, who by curiosity, pre-Covid and during some of Covid, he was actually living in the same village as me, Dalkey in South Dublin. He loved it, he would go swimming in the sea, he was often seen in the coffee shops and restaurants. His Jason Bourne series I've seen so many times. He's a fantastic actor and he's done many many other things as well. I would put him at the top of the list. And Nicole Kidman I would put up also as a female actress, amazing.

3rd October 2024 - Marion from Ontario, Canada

You once said you lived in a castle. Is this true and how many rooms are in it? Love you Chris

Yes, absolutely true, I was brought up from the age of 12 in a place called Bargy Castle in Wexford in Ireland. How many rooms... well, big and small, because we did have it as a hotel for many years, 20 or 25 years. I would say there's about 50 rooms including a big banqueting hall, smaller rooms and of course I would not be doing what I'm doing today if I had not been in that situation aged 14/15 performing for guests in the castle. I learned my trade performing to guests in the hotel, there was no TV, there was no internet of course. It was just fun to sing and I learned a lot.

3rd October 2024 - Luís Costa (64) from Porto, Portugal

After such a long and brilliant career, what is the motivational factor that drives you to continue singing and giving concerts so often?

Well, I think it was either Hillary or Tenzing, was asked "Why did he climb Mount Everest?" he said "Because it was there." In my case I will say quite simply, because I still can. And secondly I have an audience, many many people, thousands, hundreds of thousands perhaps, all over the world, who want to hear what I'm doing, they want to hear some of songs that they grew up with, that take them back to childhood. So many people send me stories about when they were driving and their father or mother put on one of my CDs and it brings them back to those times. That's what music does, it takes you into memories. That's the purpose of my next album, which is called 50, with three new songs and a favourite song from all 26 or 27 albums. Very hard to choose mind you, but they mean a lot to me and I hope they also bring back memories for you. And it's not just that, some people will not have heard some of this stuff before, even though it's been out there on record for a long time.

3rd October 2024 - Michael Kleine (61) from Krefeld, Germany

Chris do you have another idea for an album like Moonfleet or an album complete with new songs ?

Yeah, Moonfleet was great fun. I really enjoyed that because I love the book and then of course I did the Legend of Robin Hood album and in conjunction co-wrote this musical with Dennis Martin in Germany called Robin Hood, which is just amazingly successful. So far it's been premiered in Fulda. The first session was 177 shows, more than 200,000 people saw it in that town alone. It's been in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Linz in Austria, and Zurich. Quite possibly we take it elsewhere next year, maybe even to China. So, I haven't got any plan as such, but something may crop up that really attracts my attention.

3rd October 2024 - Corinna Strick (54) from Near Cologne, Germany

What a wonderful opportunity in this year of jubilee - thanks so much! Dear Chris, after the enormous succes of the musical Robin Hood in Germany, wouldn't it be great to have a Moonfleet Musical on stage, too?

Well I would love to. At the time there was a fair amount of interest. But you know once an idea is out there I leave it up to empresarios, people who put on musicals, to take it on and maybe make a musical out of it. But I would love that, because it's such an amazing story.

3rd October 2024 - Brian Morton (58) from Hamilton, Ontario Canada

I've always said that your greatest gift was the ability to express your emotions through your songwriting. A number of your songs, such as LAST TIME I CRIED, HERE FOR YOU, reveal a great deal about your life, and can go to dark places.  Which song is most personal to you?

Brian, interesting question. It's not only expressing emotions, it's actually conveying them and that is the key. The Last Time I Cried.. I wrote that because I was doing a press conference shortly before I was performing in Germany and a journalist asked me a question which I thought was a bit smart-assed to be honest but he said "When was the last time you cried?" and I instantly said "Last night.. I was watching television and I saw a documentary about the first people into Buchenwald and the concentration camps and it was so terrible, what I was watching, I was crying." and I left it at that. But then I came back to the idea and thought about me watching television with a child, my own child, asleep on my lap and watching one of these films and to my horror, I see a soldier who looks identical to me, pointing his gun at a child who looked indentical to my child. And that gave me the feeling that we're all human, capable of terrible dark things. The song Here For You, I've had numerous letters and correspondence from people who, their child has left them and gone away on a long journey to Australia or America and it's the scene in the airport. I can visualise it so well, a group of youngsters, teenagers, early twenties, all grouping around the person who is leaving. There's lot of tears and hugs and the parents are standing slightly apart and holding hands. Then the child, the youngster, goes through security and waves with a tear-stained face. As you know, I write so strongly from films in my head and I see that one very strongly. Trying to convey that.. it actually works and I've had letters from people who've said yes, we know exactly what happened and it really brought us together, parents and their child, particularly from a distance and then when they returned. Isn't that wonderful to be able to affect people that way. But I would say it's not a personal song, it's one that emerged from nowhere. A personal song would be Snow Is Falling from the album Road To Freedom. Snow Is Falling is a film which started in my head and I can see it so clearly, very powerful in my mind.

3rd October 2024 - Beth Haines (49) from Perth, Australia

Hi Chris, is there any chance at all that you might return to Australia at some point it'd be awesome to see you play over here again.

I'd love to perform in Australia. Infact, I believe there is the possibility next year of doing this, but I'm not sure. But I would love to go there, I've been there I think three times and enjoyed it very much.

3rd October 2024 - Chris Tetreault-Blay (40) from Newton Abbot, Devon, UK

Firstly, can I just take the opportunity to say thank you for all of the music and memories you've given us all over the years! You're an idol of mine and have been since my Dad introduced me to your music when I was 5 years old, and a couple of your songs have even inspired novels I've written myself in later years. My question is: If someone was to ask you to play one song you've recorded that you feel represents you most as an artist, what would it be?

Firstly, thank you for your lovely words and isn't that great that your father introduced you at an early age. Well, I suppose I'd have to go back to Spanish Train again, or Spaceman Came Travelling. A Spaceman Came Travelling I wrote on a hot August day in the mindset of what if.. what if the star of Bethlehem was infact a spacecraft from another world bringing good tidings about the birth of Christ but also to keep an eye on the follies and stupidities of humanity. At the time a writer called Erich von Däniken was talking about people coming from other worlds and leaving messages for the Nazca Indians with these spacecraft. What if.. that's where that one came from. And again it's another story based on reality, well, actually we don't know if it's reality but the biblical story of the birth of Christ and the shepherds and the three wise men and so on. Those two probably would be very close to the top of my personal list.

3rd October 2024 - Yvonne (53) from Switzerland

The song Carry Me which starts "There is an answer...", for which reason did you write it? My 8 year old son in 2008 picked that song to play at his godmothers funeral, as he then could not understand why she left him, she was a big fan of yours.

A friend of mine, a very high profile business man, at the time when there were lots of kidnappings going on in Ireland by the IRA.. his wife and their nanny went riding one day in County Wicklow, quite close to where I lived until quite recently. They were used to crossing a particular stream or river, the horses were familiar with it, but there had been a lot of rainfall and obviously the horses when they went across, stumbled, and both ladies were thrown off. When you're riding you're wearing boots and jodhpurs and all sorts of heavy clothing. If you're in the water and you can't find your footing, you can be in terrible trouble. And so it happened, both ladies drowned. Linda, my friends wife, her body was found some time later. In the interim before she was found I went to visit my friend and I gave him a hug and he was trying to coordinate searches and he wasn't giving enough time for himself to grieve, because it was quite clear something horrible had happened. And when they did find her, it was the same thing, he was still trying to make all the arrangements. It took a while and then he told me that after I'd recorded the song, which incidentally I sang at the funeral and he and I were the only dry-eyed people in the place, a lot of people were upset emotionally. A while later when I'd recorded the song on my album Flying Colours, he told me that he and his children listened to it a lot and it really helped them to get through the grieving process. And people are still using it a great deal for funerals and so on. That's why I wrote it.

3rd October 2024 - Deborah Elliott from Buckinghamshire

Was it more fun for you being a Dad in the 80s or now, being a Grandad in 2024?

Oh, being a dad is incredible. Yep. But being a grandfather is great fun too, as every grandparent will tell you, yes, you can give them back at the end of the day, the little children. But it's wonderful to see the new generation coming through. In my case I've got three little ones, Sophia is 4, just about to be 5 in November, and the little boys Hugo and Oscar are 3, and full of life, full of energy. It's awesome, I can't remember my children being so full of energy, or me indeed, but I'm sure we were all like that, just energy energy energy all day and night.

3rd October 2024 - Martina from Germany

You must be so proud of your success. But does it sometimes bother you that you are often reduced to the success of Lady in Red? We fans know that there are so many more great songs. I love your storytelling and your voice!

Thank you Martina, good question. At the moment there's a film out called Deadpool & Wolverine. Lady In Red features in that, it's also featured in a lot of other films, mainly Hollywood films. This is a global song and it's the kind of go-to love song. In America it's on chat shows, it's been on America's Got Talent, it's like everybody knows the Lady In Red, but they don't necessarily know who did it. In one way, it's charming and it's quite a compliment, but when you've written and recorded more than 330 songs, it does start to get to you. You start to think, for God's sake, I'm not a balladeer. If you listen to High On Emotion or on the next album, 50, one of my songs I chose from Into The Light, which is The Leader, The Vision and What About Me, this is powerful stuff. I am looking right now at a poster in my studio where I'm the headliner at Rock in Stuttgart, Chris de Burgh, U2, Joe Cocker, Rick Springfield, REO Speedwagon. I was the headliner, we were rockers, we could do that stuff. The thing is, people love to pigeon-hole you and think that that's all you do. But I think the depth of songwriting that I cover, the range of things I write about, there's not many people that can do that or have done that. A really wide spectrum of topics. On the one hand it is wonderful to have Lady In Red out there, it's a calling card, but please if you're going to listen to that, go and listen to the other stuff, that's what I feel should happen.

3rd October 2024 - David Potter (59) from Cumbria, England

As a lover of history I have enjoyed your story telling in songs. I'd like to know how you choose the subjects to write about and what research you do before hand? For example the Leader trilogy. Thank you.  

Talking about the trilogy of The Leader, well I did some research obviously on Crusader and I studied history in Trinity College in Dublin, amongst other things, and I do like historical stories, I love historical novels for example. Takes you into the past.. my Robin Hood experience was interesting, although he may not have existed, but nevertheless it's an interesting era. Quite often the subject chooses me actually. Quite often, as in The Snows of New York for example, the melody that I'd come up with gave me the idea for the words. And in Snow Is Falling, I just had this melody on the piano, I don't know where it came from.. and that immediately took me into the east somewhere. As it turned out, somewhere possibly in Russia. When I performed that song in Russia, with an interpreter telling the audience in Russian what the song was about, half the audience was in tears, they could see it the way I saw it. The trilogy of The Leader.. of course I read the Bible, I read Revelations to make sure I got the four horsemen and the apocalypse correct and that kind of thing. But mostly it comes from imagination. Infact, I know very strongly how that song began. I was in a very small restaurant in a very small village somewhere in Normandy I think it was, and there was this extraordinary big big picture, painting, on the wall. And it was a group of warriors from a long time ago, just in their bearskins, about 5 or 6 of them with spears, standing on a beach looking out to sea, that's all. I was so struck by this, what are they doing, what are they waiting for, and then the whole song emerged from that, so these things can happen.

3rd October 2024 - Chris Williams from Essex, England

Hi Chris, what are your views on Dynamic Pricing for concert tickets please? Personally I don’t agree with it. x

Hi Chris, good question, dynamic pricing. Right, well, the answer is that dynamic pricing has been going on for a long time, in airlines, in hotels, it's supply and demand. This is part of the society that we live in, but when it comes to concerts and going to see people that you admire it sticks in my throat big time. I know recently there's been a lot of discussion about Oasis. I'll just backtrack for a little while.. you may remember Chris, being in the Albert Hall, oh gosh, about 15 years ago for one of my concerts. The first three rows were empty, the rest of it was sold out. The first three rows, nobody had bought tickets for because they were so expensive. They were originally put on sale, I don't know, a guess, 75 pounds for a front-row ticket, but when they became available they were double the price. Now, what that was all about was that the ticket agency at the time, they had their own company that they creamed off the best tickets and stuck them in their own company and sold at twice the price. I believe that has now finally been shown to be illegal, so now what they have is dynamic pricing where it's supply and demand. If people are prepared to pay for tickets, whatever the price, even if it's advertised at a certain price and it then comes in at five times the price, it's really up to the person to pay or not. But I find it absolutely disgusting. If I sell tickets for a concert, that's the ticket price. There might be variations on that, there might be a platinum thing, or a meet and greet, or a meal before hand, whatever the promoter might come up with, but I can absolutely assure you that I do not agree with making the fans pay way above the advertised price for a ticket, that's my opinion.

9th December 2024 - Jim Clayton (56) from Toronto, Canada

Do you know of any jazz artists who’ve recorded your songs? If not, which of your songs do you think would be best for a jazz arrangement? I ask because some of my own recordings are jazz arrangements/reinventions of popular hits from my youth, and although your music was a big part of it, I’ve never attempted one of your songs, and would like to.

I don't know anybody who has done jazz versions of any of my songs. I've heard various unusual versions of "Lady in Red" and "Missing You", on tin drums and kettle drums, one in Barbados and one in Cape Town, South Africa. Jazz, what would do well.. something like "So Beautiful" or "Five Past Dreams"? Something kind of slow with a bit of mood to it, maybe they would do well. I wouldn't think the fast ones would be particularly good for jazz. I might be wrong, I don't know too much about jazz music actually.

9th December 2024 - Julia (35) from Lüneburg, Germany

Hi Chris, Thank you so much for bringing MotL back to life! I watched the musical Robin Hood twice in Fulda and absolutely loved it! To me, you have always been the ultimate story teller aka The Storyman. Have you thought about writing another musical? So looking forward to your upcoming concerts! Much love, Julia

Hi Julia from Lüneburg. Lüneburg was actually one of the biggest shows I did, it was about 120,000 people with my Canadian band and it was really exciting. Thank you for your comments about Robin Hood, it's done extremely well, it's had premieres in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Linz and of course in Fulda, where we plan another summer event next year starting on August 1st, a complete summer run again in the beautiful theatre there. And yes, I would very much like to co-write another musical because I worked with Dennis Martin from Spotlight Musicals before, we get on very well and we've already discussed this. So hopefully there'll be something, but writing musicals takes years, two or three years. But we'll do it, hopefully.

9th December 2024 - Martine Richard (Hecquet) (72) from Annecy, France

How do you manage to keep in this incredible but essential shape to be able to do these exhausting world tours? Having lived all my youth in this same environment, I know how physically demanding it is! “Hats off to the Artist” as we say at home! All the best Chris.

It is physically demanding but I think the most important part of being on tour is mental, because your day is upside-down. My day starts late mainly because I go to bed late, I have a very light lunch and nothing else for the rest of the day because having food in your stomach when you're trying to sing is awful, it's very difficult, and I have a light meal afterwards. Keeping mentally fit and not letting things get you down is important. The travel is tough, I think on the recent four and a half week tour we must have travelled something like 8,000km, so there's a lot of travel involved.

9th December 2024 - Cristina (55) from Barcelona, Spain

Thank you for taking fans’ questions! I have been listening to you since I was a teenager. One of my favourite songs is the last song in Man On The Line, Transmission Ends. I would love to know more about what inspired you to write that song. I listened the first time when I was 19. I felt such passion in the way you sang the words “Darling yeah, I am always going to love, yes I’m always going to love you…” that I made a promise to myself I would not accept anything less in my life. True story. Words to live by. I had the privilege to see you in concert twice, at the Royal Albert Hall in London and in Antwerp. Thank you for 50 years of beautiful music and lyrics.

What a lovely message. As you probably know, a lot of my songs tend to be stories or visuals, like movies. This one starts off sitting on a cliff top on a summers day, watching the sea-birds moving around with the one you love. I can hear the waving of the grass, it's a beautiful warm summers day and the sea is very slowly coming in, small little waves. Then it's like a stream of consciousness.. "Brother lead and sister steel are playing out their final scene on the radio", that's about what's happening today actually all over the world.. warfare somewhere. Ukraine, Gaza, Aleppo in Syria.. unfortunately man will always want to kill each other, particularly if they give them amazing weapons, the people who make the most out of it are the people who create the weapons! Then about listening to ones loved ones heart beat, the day that transmission ends, that's the first part. The second part is about waiting up for a show tonight, coming in via satellite, you're drifting through the idea of satellite transmissions, are they being picked up in space. The final part is very powerful, I always get very emotional when I think about it. A spacecraft from our planet Earth, left maybe two or three years ago on a mission to Mars, and way way in the distance they see a flash and then many many minutes later they hear the final transmission "This is station planet Earth, we're closing down" because mankind has these incredibly powerful weapons, nuclear weapons, and there is every chance we will mutually destroy each other. And that's what it's about, it's about peace.

9th December 2024 - Simon Mathieson (45) from Leicestershire, UK

Hi Chris. Where do you feel your music belongs now, as you look back on 50 years? Perhaps what started out as folk (maybe) has evolved into rock/pop, or do you not see it like that?

Funnily enough, I never identified with folk music. I wouldn't be mad about folk music, some of it is amazing and the melodies are very strong, but a lot of it in my opinion is very predictable, the chord sequences, the melodies, and I was never into that kind of area of music. I was always veering towards.. not pop or rock music, it's somewhere in between. I'd like to think that particularly when stuff came out like "Spanish Train", it was pretty unique kind of music. That's where I sort of started and I don't think I've deviated much from that. Although starting with one guy with a guitar and then moving onto a strong band and playing big venues like football stadiums, that was the rock act. When I was starting I wanted to write songs that were more like books, movies, not like newspapers because yesterdays newspapers you discard. A lot of music is made to be enjoyed once and then discarded, but I'm not into that, I'm into the long-term.

9th December 2024 - John Turnbull (75) from Gerringong, NSW Australia

I saw that the tunnels under Dover Castle were built by one your distant relatives, Hubert de Burgh in the 1200's. Have you considered a song about the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk and the tunnels used for this in WW2? It would sit alongside 'Say Goodbye To It All'.

Yes, Hubert de Burgh was the chief justicier, the chief law maker, to King Richard I of England (Coeur de Lion) and also King John. He features in the play by Shakespeare, King John, and he was the second most powerful man in England. I think actually he built Dover Castle as well, not just the tunnels. No, I haven't actually considered a song about the evacuation of the troops, but it's an interesting question. I tend to avoid the specific as you may have noticed. "Say Goodbye To It All", the second part of "Borderline", is very much open. I'm referring to the beaches of Normandy, so obviously we're coming to the end of the Second World War, but I like to leave things slightly more open so people can have their own opinions about it.

9th December 2024 - Elly Van Zetten (62) from The Netherlands

Have you ever written or sung a song about the Netherlands and the struggle against the water and the floods?

Well, if I were to write a song about water and floods.. not necessarily just about the Netherlands because I've been there so many times and seen the endless struggle of nature trying to take over the land in that part of the world. If I were to write a song it would be much wider, about mankind, global warming and how so many places are threatened. If you look at somewhere like the Maldives, they may not even exist if sea levels start rising. Yeah, it's an interesting question but I wouldn't specifically say it about the Netherlands but generally about human beings and what we're doing to our planet.

9th December 2024 - Paraic Elliott (50+) from Dublin

Hi Chris, people often think of you as a writer of romantic lyrics. However, I wonder if you feel that some of your more political songs such as Borderline, Transmission Ends and The Getaway are as relevant today as when you wrote them? I certainly do.

Yes, I'm very well known for the stuff like "Missing You" and "Lady In Red", but there's powerful stuff out there. I wouldn't call "Patricia the Stripper", "Spanish Train", "Don't Pay The Ferryman" romantic, those kind of things, they're a completely different area. I like to think I'm a songwriter who covers a huge area of interest. "Borderline" gets an astonishing reaction everything, always at the end of "Borderline" the whole place stands up and applauds. They're not applauding me, they're applauding the idea that 99.9% of human beings do not want war, they want peace. They want to be able to bring up their families in peace, get on with life, get on with living. The war makers are such a tiny number, but we're all caught up in it when it happens. As you know, I've been going to Lebanon a lot down the years. I did two concerts there in the early summer, two big sold out shows, and it just breaks my heart to see what those people have to go through, just because a minority are creating problems for them. "The Getaway", yes, about leaders. Leaders who are voted in, but at a certain point they have to stop warfare. I agree with you.

9th December 2024 - Jonathan Waltho from Oxford, England

Hi Chris - do you have a vault with any unreleased material that you might make available in some form at some point? For example, are there any gigs that have been recorded but not yet released?

I don't know about unreleased material. Many years ago I did a concert in Dortmund in the Westfalehalle Stadium, a place I've performed many times before. On this particular occasion I think it was the 20th anniversary of the first time I'd performed there. It was 7,000 At the end of it, my monitor man Chris Heck said to me "Oh, by the way, I recorded that." and I had no idea. And we put it out as an album because it sounded great. If I'd been told before hand I would have been far more aware, so it's much better not to know. The answer is "I don't know", we may come up with something, I'm not sure. I don't have lots of songs hidden in my back pocket. I tend to discard them if they're not particularly good and not go any further with them, or use them for recording purposes.

9th December 2024 - Lisa Booth (59) from Lancashire, UK

Please don’t retire! Would you ever do another album like Moonfleet?

That's a tough one because this is a reality world, in our business we have to weigh financial gain or cost against all the other things that you do. Moonfleet took me 6-8 months to write and then record and it was a very expensive recording and I'm not sure if it's actually recouped the cost. Every since I started Ferryman Productions I pay for all the recordings, all that effort, all that investment.. nowadays record sales have slumped so the answer is I don't know.. maybe.

9th December 2024 - David Herrick (49) from Chipping Sodbury, UK

I recently heard someone say that Tom Baker was in the video for Don't Pay the Ferryman. Is this true?

No David, Tom Baker was not in the video for "Don't Pay The Ferryman". Actually, wait a second, he might have been, I have no idea! There was certainly a horse and a child and me, a very strange video. Good question, I must look that one up, I don't think so. Sorry David, I can't answer your question properly.

9th December 2024 - Marc Stynen (50) from Belgium

Hi Chris, maybe an odd question, but as we are all getting older, I wonder if you do anything special to keep your voice intact. I can imagine - and it's only logical - that it is possibly getting harder for your voice to sing for two hours in a concert. Does that bother you a lot or do you sometimes sing songs in another way now than before? Thanks for keeping those concerts going !

Well, it's not an odd question. I've just completed this 20 concert date tour and every night I was on stage for a minimum of two and a quarter hours without a break, the longest one I think came in at 2:35. There's nothing special but you've got to remember things to avoid like talking in loud areas. People tend to lose their voices because they're not breathing correctly. Breathing is an important part of it. The same thing with singing, you've got to do it with your lungs, inhale and exhale through the nose sometimes, and a lot of water. On the day of a show I've got to keep drinking water, it's rehydration. If I start a concert and my voice isn't in great shape and I feel a bit dry then I drink water on stage, between every song, but then I realise I haven't drunk enough during the day. Does it bother me a lot, no, not really. The fact remains though, the older you get the harder it is to sing the high notes. I'm fortunate because not only can I still sing very high but I can slip from full voice to falsetto very simply and the falsetto can take me to very high notes. I don't really sing songs in another way, I like to stick quite close to the original.

9th December 2024 - Michele from Canada

Hello Chris, a hug and a question.. if and when did you ever feel like giving up.. what was it that made you persevere?

Hi Michele from Canada, thanks for the hug. Well, this is a business built on disappointment, things going wrong. You have to be tough and I've told people many times that if you want to appreciate success you have to appreciate failure as well, what it's like to fail, when things go wrong, how do you come out of that. Because it's happened to me so many times in this business I just get over it, I get upset for an hour or two and then I move on. There's no point wasting your life being upset about things. In the early days I used to listen to my songs and then listen to other people's songs, successful people, and think I'm not that far off. Having self-belief, people around you that believe in you as well, very important.

9th December 2024 - Oliver Zimmermann (50) from Germany

Dear Chris, after 50 years of creative work, is there a moment that you regret? For example: changing record company or releasing an album too early/late? Olli

As Edith Piaf said, "Je ne regrette rien". I think you must not have regrets. In a private moment I might say I wish I'd done a little bit more on that song, or I wish I hadn't put that in, or wish I'd changed that, or wish I'd stood up to the producer when he wanted to put a drum here.. but that doesn't really work. I've got to where I am today with very few regrets. I think they gnaw away at you and make you uncomfortable, like little drips of poison thinking I could have done that better. Like I say in my song "Live Life, Live Well" the only way to get there is to start by loving yourself. If you like who you are, even if nobody else does, then you've come a long way through your life even through the good times and the bad times.

9th December 2024 - Robert (45) from London

What are your spiritual believes/practices? Songs like A Spaceman came Travelling, Crusader and Spanish Train have had a huge impact on me since I was very young. Thanks, Robert.

Well, how do I answer that. I think the older I've become the less impressed I have become with organised religion, for a number of reasons. Not in any particular order, but the way that clerics have behaved, child molestation, all the horror stories we're hearing almost on a daily basis, it's beyond disgusting, there's nothing christian about that. I know that religion brings a lot of comfort and relief to millions of people and has done for centuries. But if you look at it with a cold eye, you begin to suspect it could be one of the biggest confidence tricks of all time, some people would suggest that. For me, I'll stick with what I said earlier, it has brought enormous comfort to millions of people, but it's not for me. I don't see why a man in a white robe standing in a church by the altar knows any more about christianity or life or life after death than anybody else in the room or in the world. Reading about it doesn't necessarily mean that you know more about it, nobody knows, we don't know, we all will find out one day, that's for sure. "Crusader".. that was not really about religion, it was more about all those countries who, at war with each other, decided to come together because they heard that Saladin had taken Jerusalem and they all decided to go and fight together. "Spanish Train" based in some ways on the poem by John Milton, "Paradise Lost", and Satan who was once an archangel is now in hell, plotting his way how to get back into heaven. It's all about the endless fight between good and evil, not just in the universe, but the fight inside all of us, the struggle between good and evil. "A Spaceman Came Travelling".. that was a what if.. what if the star of Bethlehem had been a spaceship come from another galaxy to keep an eye on the foolishness of our planet and the people on it and of course bring good wishes to the birth of Christ.

9th December 2024 - Rita (65) from Frankfurt, Germany

What do you have first with a new song: the lyrics or the melodies or do you already have the music in your mind while you're writing the lyrics so that you know how it should sound at the end?

Rita, the most important thing is an idea for me. Once you get an idea then a melody or a lyric can begin to flow. Sometimes I'm fooling around on the piano or the guitar and I get a melody and I say I like that, what is the melody telling me, what is the lyric going with this. It's a development, an evolution, unless I have a very strong idea immediately. On the 50 album I've got this song "The Keeper of the Keys", I feel very strongly about women's rights particularly in places like Iran where men tell women what to do, what to wear, forbidding them having any education, I get really annoyed about that. These men could have been women, at the moment of conception, you're a Y chromosome or an X chromosome, they could have been one of those women that have been subjugated by the people around them, the other men.

9th December 2024 - Holger (51) from Germany

When you record songs for an album, do all the recorded songs usually end up on the album? Or do you have a lot of unreleased recordings from the album sessions in your vault?

I tend to turn up in the recording studio with virtually everything I want to record. Sometimes things slip out.. like for example I've got a song on my new album 50 called "On This Day" which was going to go on "The Legend of Robin Hood" but it didn't work, so I just kept it in the back pocket there for a while. It's turned out absolutely fantastic, I love this song, I love the way we did it with the Swiss Gospel Singers, with whom I've performed many times before and will do again in December, in Zurich and in Basel in Switzerland. So I don't have lots of unreleased recordings from the vault.. the vault is bare I'm afraid to say! I'm glad to say actually, it means I've used everything I want to.

9th December 2024 - Wolfgang Schmid (51) from Bad Tölz, Germany

Chris, your music and your lyrics give me and certainly many millions of people from all over the world a sense of stability in life, they comfort, make us happy and cheerful, give us strength and courage. Do you know that as a musician and what does it mean to you?

Thank you. Sometimes I feel as if I'm living in a bit of a bubble. Certainly until things like Facebook appeared and I could actually read messages (although I used to get a lot of letters as well that I responded to) from people who the music has touched or moved, helped through a difficult time of life, through grief for example, happy times as well.. now I can see that almost instantaneously online. That's a very kind thing you've said there about stability and comfort. I'm a very positive person, strong willed, strong minded, but most of all positive. I am an entertainer and proud to be one. If it makes people happy that makes me happy. People sometimes say to me "Are you not sick of singing Lady In Red?" but why would I be.. it's become a calling card, people have come to my music through that song and appreciated all the other albums I have made. What does it mean to me.. in some ways it's a responsibility and in some ways it's a blessing and a gift.

9th December 2024 - Linda Gibson (59) from Scotland

Where is your favourite place to relax and unwind?

Well, Linda, for somebody who travels as much as I do... home, that's a pretty quick answer. Home is my favourite place to relax and unwind, being with my friends, with my family. And sometimes people say "Are you not going to go on holiday somewhere?" and I say "No, no more travel please, I've done quite enough!"

9th December 2024 - Steve Bennett (58) from Winsford, Cheshire, UK

Hi Chris, While I find "Empty Rooms" from "The Hands of Man" to be a beautiful composition, its poignant lyrics evoke a profound melancholy that makes it difficult to listen to at present. As our daughter Niamh approaches her university years, the song's themes of transition and separation resonate deeply with me. I'm curious to know if there are any songs, published or unpublished, that you have created which you find particularly challenging to revisit due to their emotional weight or personal significance.

Well, I know Steve Bennett very well. Steve has put together some of the greatest videos that have accompanied my songs of all time and we've used them on stage. If you ever saw a concert with "The Leader", "The Vision" & "What About Me?", that's Steve Bennett, he's done many of them, he's a very gifted videographer and I'm proud to know him. "Empty Rooms"... I remember starting this song "Empty rooms, childhood's end, forgotten toys upon the bed"... that got me because I was thinking of my own children. Much loved toys and they've moved out, the toys are on the bed still, the bed is made up, the room is as it was waiting for them to come home. It's very emotional and I know exactly what you're going through on this one. That was a difficult one to sing because I always have a very very strong picture in my mind when I'm recording. I close my eyes and I'm in the moment, in the room, in the video. That was a particularly difficult song to do. "Snow is Falling" because I could see that video so strongly, the snow covered forest, the broken ground, the bodies of young people inside who had been murdered and shot, then the old woman sitting by the fire and on the mantelpiece are the pictures of her husband and her sons who have disappeared and their spirits are calling out to be found. On a more personal basis, another song I had a real problem singing, not one of mine, "The Living Years"... a lot of people have had difficulties with their fathers and I'm no different. Singing "The Living Years", I tried it once in the studio in London and couldn't do it, my throat just closed up. I could see my father who died in 2001, I could see him in his favourite chair sitting outside in the sunshine and I just broke up. Even now I get emotional thinking about it. I managed to get through that when I recorded it when I got back home.

9th December 2024 - Bree T Donovan from USA

Hey Chris! I saw you in Philadelphia when you opened for Asia in 1984. Could you possibly consider holding a one-night concert event for US fans? Maybe in New York City? I can guarantee you'd have an appreciative audience. Congrats on 50 years!!

I would love to do a one-night concert for US fans, maybe in New York City. Thank you for your congratulations. We've done quite a few shows, I think it was 2017 or 2018 we did some in the East Coast and West Coast of America, but unfortunately our business does not work that way. An artist cannot just say "I want to perform there". What happens is a promoter will contact the management and say "We would like Chris de Burgh to do a concert in Philadelphia.. New York City..", then we look at the numbers, we look at the economics of it, we look at what they're looking for. It's an economy based business like any other. I would love to one day, let's hope we do it again Bree.

9th December 2024 - James Watson (33) from Folkestone, Kent, England

Hi Chris, would you ever do a fan request set list for a show, where fans get to vote, then say the best 20 tracks you perform? thanks James

Actually, I did this a few years ago when I did a solo tour, 10, 12 years ago. Some of the people reading this could maybe remember what I put in. I put out requests before I started the concert tour and wrote down loads and loads of titles and all the ones which people preferred more were put to one side, so the favourites came out eventually.

9th December 2024 - Edward Rawlings (53) from Bristol

I love all of your albums.. do you have a favourite one that you have made?

Let me think about that.. I'm very fond of "Moonfleet", I just think that turned out really well. I love the story because it was a childhood favourite. "Into The Light" I liked a lot, I think one of the reasons why is that it was a very powerful album. It had "Lady in Red" on it and people came to it because they thought it was going to be an album full of love songs, suddenly bang, it's big big songs. On the album "50" I actually chose "The Leader", "The Vision" & "What About Me?" as my choice for one song from each album, that trilogy. I didn't choose "Lady in Red" but was persuaded to put it on as a bonus track.

9th December 2024 - Derek Kirk (63) from Sydney, Australia

Hi Chris, I was introduced to your music as a young 18 year old and still consider "Spanish Train" as the best album ever. When will we see you in Australia?

I loved making "Spanish Train" because I was working on my second album with Robin Cable. We were having such fun with it, we were illustrating things in the music. In "Lonely Sky", sitting in a french cafe, you had to put in a bit of a squeeze box, an accordion in there somewhere, that kind of thing. I have news for you, I'm sure you know already. I'm performing in Australia starting May 1st in Melbourne and we have concerts in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Perth and Sydney. The Sydney Opera House show is already sold out and we've added a second show in Sydney. I hope that you'll be able to hear songs like "Spanish Train" in Australia.

9th December 2024 - Barbara Murrell (56) from Hampshire, UK

Hi Chris, will you be touring with a full band again anytime soon? Those shows were so fantastic, it would be great to see again.

They were fantastic, I really enjoyed performing with the band. They are good friends when you're on tour, as I've done for nearly 50 years. I've toured with bands, the Canadian band, the English band. They make a fine sound, it's exciting musically to perform with great musicians but over the last year or two I've been doing solo shows. I think the last time I did a band tour was Canada in April 2023, we're great friends with these guys but I've been doing solo shows which have been selling out, so there's no point putting a band together because the reality is economics and it's incredibly expensive to tour. People now say "You're not selling as many records in this business... you make it all in touring". Wrong, touring is incredibly expensive, putting a band together, you've got 4 more people, plus back-line crew, possibly 3 more people, then you have the wages, the transportation, hotels, flights, everything. It becomes really really tough. My quick answer is "I'd love to", but things have to change out there in the business world and we have to look at the economics of this business just like any other business.

9th December 2024 - Pedram (56) from Tehran

Could you please explain "Since yesterday, nothing has changed" in Last Night? Who says the line in the lyrics? The homecoming soldiers, the celebrating townsfolk, or the protagonist?

This song "Last Night" was very loosely based on a poem by Siegfried Sassoon, the British war poet. It's called "They", if you read the two stanzas "We’re none of us the same! the boys reply. For George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind; Poor Jim’s shot through the lungs and like to die .. And the Bishop said: The ways of God are strange!". It's worth reading actually, it's just shocking, and that's what I had in my mind. What I did want to put across was that soldiers coming back from the war, young men traumatised from the horrors that they've seen and done, don't forget that they've also learned to kill. "Since yesterday, nothing has changed, there's a new kind of hunger inside, to be satisfied." That's the hunger for redemption, the hunger to find their old person again, as well as the hunger to kill again because some of them enjoyed doing it, but most of them hated it and were in horror from what they saw and did. It's the homecoming soldiers who say it, they're saying "We're just the same" but of course they're not as you see in that poem. I feel this is me observing them, looking at these young soldiers thinking they have utterly changed, that's what I had in mind.