Chris De Burgh

Christopher John Davison (born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}English: /də ˈbɜːr/ də-BER), is an English singer-songwriter and musician born in Argentina. He started out as an art rock performer and progressed to writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hit singles in the UK and two in the US. He is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil. His 1975 "A Spaceman Came Travelling" became a popular Christmas song and his 1986 love song "The Lady in Red" reached number one in several countries. De Burgh has sold over 45 million albums worldwide.

De Burgh was born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, to Colonel Charles John Davison, a British diplomat, and Maeve Emily (née de Burgh). His maternal grandfather was General Eric de Burgh, a British Army officer who had been Chief of the General Staff in India during the Second World War. He took his mother's maiden name, "de Burgh", as a stage name when he began performing. His legal surname remained "Davison". His father had substantial farming interests and Chris spent much of his early years in Malta, Nigeria and the Belgian Congo, as he and his mother and brother accompanied Colonel Davison on his diplomatic and engineering work.

The Davison family finally settled in Bargy Castle, County Wexford, Ireland, a dilapidated twelfth-century castle which his father had bought in the 1960s. It was converted into a hotel and a young Chris sang for the guests there.

De Burgh attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire, England, where he was in the year below Nick Drake. He wanted to join a jazz band that Drake had formed with four schoolmates, the Perfumed Gardeners, but was rejected because his musical tastes were considered "too poppy". De Burgh went on to study English and French at Trinity College Dublin.

De Burgh signed his first contract with A&M Records in 1974. He supported Supertramp on their Crime of the Century tour and acquired a small fan base. His début album, Far Beyond These Castle Walls, was a folk-tinged stab at fantasy in the tradition of the Moody Blues. It failed to chart upon its release in late 1974. A few months later, he released a single, "Turning Round", from the album. It was released outside the UK and Ireland as "Flying". It failed to make an impression in the UK, but it stayed on top of the Brazilian charts for 17 weeks. This became a familiar pattern for the singer/songwriter, as every one of his 1970s albums failed to chart in the UK or US while they achieved big sales in continental European and South American countries.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.