NEIL Hannon has every right to worry about being stereotyped his image as rock's wry, roguish Casanova is starting to run wild, and the audience who crowded into the Olympia on Sunday night were only too willing to be ravished by Hannon's libidinous tunes. The Divine Comedy were playing an eagerly awaited Dublin date, and it looks like Hannon's love light can no longer be concealed under a bushel - the new single, Everybody Knows (Except You) has just gone in at Number 14 - in the UK, and its parent ensemble, A Short Album About Love, debuted at 13, unlucky for some, abut a love struck jackpot for Hannon.
Sunday's gig was conducted without the 32 piece orchestra which Hannon took on the road for the band's UK dates, but Hannon still managed to inject a classical feel into his songs, along with some jazz, easy listening and even a bit of tango. Becoming More Like Alfie was Hannon's ode to Michael Caine, the man who defined nerd cool in the Sixties, but Johnny Mathis's Feet was a tribute to a contemporary hero, unsung songwriting genius Mark Eitzel. In between was the tongue in cheek Songs Of Love, better known as the title tune for Father Ted.
Hannon's plummy, upper crust style of songwriting can sometimes seem too clever for its own riding boots, and often the songs descend into whimsical music hall farce, but when the band strikes into The Frog Princess, they raise the tune way above mere pantomime.
As the band swells into the final, climactic refrain, you can almost feel an invisible wire lifting your spirit and dangling it in the vicinity of the gods. A mighty song, indeed.
Woman Of The World, however, fell back into footlights territory, and one almost expected to hear Stephen Fry shouting bravo from one of the boxes. Two more recent songs, however, If I Were You (I'd Be Through With Me) and I'm All You Need, have toned down the affectations while retaining their cool, classy enigma, and the final song, Through A Long And Sleepless Night, puts on a dramatic show of sexual confusion without sinking into self abuse. It only needs an encore which includes Something For The Weekend, and a sunburst finish of Electric Light Orchestra's Mr Blue Sky to secure Neil Hannon's rightful place as our own lounge poet laureate.
