Chris' brand new album "50" was released on the 4th October 2024. The album that encompasses a storied 50 year career is out now at all major retailers. Featuring songs from across the decades, a special film-version of Lady in Red and three brand new tracks.
To celebrate the album Chris has been answering questions submitted by fans. You can submit your own question here: https://www.manontheline.com/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments