Chris de Burgh’s 17th studio album ‘Footsteps’ will be released in the UK by Universal Music on 6th April 2009.

Chris de Burgh on amazon.co.uk

Chris de Burgh on amazon.com

Having already sold over 45 million albums worldwide, ‘Footsteps’ is his first ever collection of covers and also features 2 brand new tracks.

The 13 ‘covers’ on ‘Footsteps’ represent a personal and candid appraisal by Chris of songs which have influenced and affected the way he has crafted his musical imprint. Chris selected the songs by applying three critical principles: he had to love them, have sung them many times before – and, perhaps most relevantly, they had to have inspired him.

“Listening to the great songwriters was the inspiration for me to try and become a good songwriter myself,” he says. “I’m talking about the likes of Lennon & McCartney and Bob Dylan; people as good as that just don’t seem to exist any more. I learned my trade, my craft, almost at the feet of the Great Masters. And that is my musical journey. Those songs are my footsteps.”

Two new pieces, “First Steps” and “Footsteps”, explain in greater depth his musical journey, his dreams and aspirations, and his sense of achievement from hopeful beginnings to the success of today.

Chris says the process of short-listing the songs for inclusion on the album was an involved one. “There were hundreds and hundreds of titles, which all got narrowed down to the ones I recorded. They are all, in my opinion, great songs – and each one has a resonance with me for a very particular reason.

“When I was growing up in my father’s castle/hotel, I would sing a lot of these songs, to the guests including “The Long And Winding Road”, “Sealed With A Kiss”, “Where Have All The Flowes Gone?”, “All Along The Watchtower”… and “American Pie”.

“Corinna, Corinna” is a song I frequently sing at my soundcheck, as is “The Last Thing On My Mind”. “Polly Von”, the song by Peter, Paul and Mary, is one that, probably, gave me some indications about writing story songs. “Spanish Train”, “The Tower”…many of those songs from my early days owe something to “Polly Von’.”

“I like to wear a song like I’m wearing a coat and wanted to fit into each one of these songs,” Chris explains, “and a lot of them are singer’s songs – they really stretch the singer – but we made the album very quickly. It was all recorded live in the studio, with me singing together with the orchestra or the band. It took us eight days – and that’s including all of the vocals and all of the backing vocals. All in all, it was a real pleasure, a complete thrill.”

Track Listings:
(Information subject to change.)
First Steps *
Turn, Turn, Turn
The Long And Winding Road
Africa
Without You
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
Sealed With A Kiss
Blackbird
We Can Work It Out
All Along The Watchtower
Corrina Corrina
Rhythm Of The Rain / Crying In The Rain **
Polly Von
American Pie
The Last Thing On My Mind
Footsteps *

* Brand New Original Track /
** Bonus track for UK release (never before released)

Chris’s hordes of fans will be pleased to know that he will be performing 6 UK dates this year, as follows.

Chris de Burgh April/May 2009 UK tour dates:

(Dates and information subject to change.)

Mon 27 Apr Liverpool Philharmonic £47.50 (boxes) / 0151 709 3789 £42.50 / £37.50 cc 0151 256 5555

Tue 28 Apr Manchester Bridgewater Hall £45.00 / £40.00 / 0161 907 9000 £35.00 cc 0161 832 1111

Wed 30 Apr Gateshead Sage £42.50 / £37.50 0191 443 4661

Sat 2 May Birmingham Symphony Hall £45.00 / £40.00 / 0121 780 3333

Sun 3 May Birmingham Symphony Hall £35.00

Tue 5 May London Royal Albert Hall £50.00 (boxes) / £45.00 020 7589 8212 £40.00 / £37.50 / £30.00 cc 020 7434 2222

Wed 6 May Bournemouth BIC £42.50 / £37.50 0844 576 3000

National Credit Card Hotline 0871 424 4444. Or book online at www.ticketline.co.uk.
All tickets are subject to a booking fee.

Chris de Burgh Official Website

Chris de Burgh is set to release his new album, ‘Now and Then’ in the UK on 21st April, 2008 through Universal Music, which will be TV-advertised.

‘Now and Then’ is the finest collection of Chris de Burgh’s greatest hits and also features one brand new track “Live For the Day” featuring Tina Yamout, a young Lebanese singer.

Chris met Tina in Beirut last year when he performed on Star Academy, the most popular pan-Arab talent show, on which Tina was a finalist. Chris will perform the track with Tina at this year’s Star Academy show on 4th April, 2008.

‘Now and Then’ features classic tracks from his entire career. They include the hit song “Don’t Pay The Ferryman”, his #1 single “Lady in Red”, which has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide; “Missing You”, “High On Emotion”, “When I Think Of You”, “The Words ‘I Love You’”, “A Spaceman Came Travelling” and many more of his best-known songs.

Full track listing:

Don’t Pay The Ferryman
Missing You
The Lady In Red
Live For The Day (with Tina Yamout)
When I Think Of You
A Spaceman Came Travelling
The Words “I Love You”
Fatal Hesitation
Much More Than This
One World
The Simple Truth
Suddenly Love
Sailing Away
Two Sides To Every Story (with Shelley Nelson)
There’s A New Star Up In Heaven Tonight
This Waiting Heart
Borderline
The Snows Of New York
Say Goodbye To It All
High On Emotion

Born in Argentina, Chris has sold over 45 million albums worldwide, has more than 50 awards from around the world and has released 18 Studio albums to date. He’s performed over 3000 live concerts since 1975.

In 2007 Chris was made an ambassador for United Nations. He supports Liverpool FC and lives in Ireland with his wife Diane, his 2 sons and daughter Rosanna Davison, who was crowned Miss World in 2003.

Chris de Burgh – Now and Then on amazon.co.uk

Chris de Burgh Official Website

But anyway…Band Weblogs isn’t a sports blog it’s a music blog but I can find ways to tie-in sports with music as in the past when writing about Red Nose Day and Mitchell and Webb’s snooker commentator sketch and their song “Table of Reds”.

The sports/music tie-in today are videos for “Snooker Loopy” and “Table of Reds”.

I shouldn’t say everyone, but most people in Britain are familiar with the Snooker Loopy theme. I wasn’t aware of it until I came to England a few years ago and then got into snooker. Snooker Loopy was most popular in the 80’s, and I’ve heard it sung usually by people that I know rather than played on the radio or TV.

Snooker Loopy was originally written and performed by Chas n Dave and was released as a single in 1986. The song featured snooker legends Steve Davis, Willie Thorne, Dennis Taylor, Terry Griffiths and Tony Meo as backup singers. There’s a more descriptive article about Snooker Loopy on the BBC website from 2000.

So it’s snooker crazy at the Crucible and the gang’s all there: Dennis Taylor, Clive Everton, Willie Thorne, John Virgo, Terry Griffiths and Neal Foulds have been commentating for the BBC with their Hawk-eye technology, Jan Verhaas has been reffing for Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stephen Hendry’s matches so far and there’s still plenty of snooker to watch. The World Championship will be going on until May 7th. Excellent.

In the meantime, here are a couple videos:

A short Chas n Dave Snooker Loopy video (best version of Snooker Loopy on YouTube that I could find).

Mitchell and Webb’s commentator sketch with their song “Table of Reds” to the tune of Chris de Burgh’s “Lady in Red” – with their special secret snooker words.

Ted and Peter, also known as The Snooker Commentators are played by David Mitchell and Robert Webb and first appeared on the BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound and the TV version, That Mitchell and Webb Look on BBC Two.

Over the last couple of years I have grown to become a HUGE snooker fan. It didn’t happen over night, but once I began to understand how the game is played I slowly became hooked. The players are household names now, and I like to keep a close eye on my favorite snooker players Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty.

Jan Verhas is my favorite snooker ref who I saw give Ronnie O’Sullivan a yellow card last year – which I thought was pretty hilarious. A yellow card in snooker?! Who would have thought! He’s great at controlling the crowd if a mobile phone goes off or people are too loud. Don’t mess with JanVer or else!

Then there’s the snooker commentators. John Vergo, Willie Thorne, Terry Griffiths, Dennis Taylor and Clive Everton are always fun to listen to. They do great commentating on the game of course, but then there’s always the quirky comments that they make.

The snooker commentators have been known to point out familiar faces in the audiences from tournament to tournament, mentioning how many years a particular person has been attending. Usually older ladies! Also last October during the 2006 Grand Prix final in Aberdeen, I think it might have been Vergo who made quite a big deal about a butterfly that landed on the carpet by the table. I like to think that the butterfly might have had something to do with Paul Hunter who sadly passed away in 2006 right before the Aberdeen tournament. The commentators also like to include many statistical facts about the players as well as personal information.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb have captured all of that when they play commentators Ted and Peter on their sketch show. I was so happy to see them on Red Nose Day for Comic Relief in character and what cracks me up the most is their “Table of Reds” snooker theme song sung to the Chris de Burgh hit “Lady In Red”. The lyrics are hilarious and it was great to see them perform “Table of Reds” with none other than Chris de Burgh singing, ” … table of reds is dancing with me, Cush to Cush …”!

BBC sports personality and commentator Hazel Irvine made an appearance dressed up as a snooker table. Yes, you read that right – and the Snooker Chorus included snooker players Shaun Murphy and Dominic Dale amongst others.

That was by far the best sketch of the evening as far as I’m concerned!

Now I’m looking forward to the upcoming snooker tournament at The Crucible in Sheffield. Some day I’ll have to go to a tournament, but until then, I’ll just have to continue watching them on the Telly!

Comic Relief
BBC Sport: Snooker

By: Jenny May