CHRIS DE BURGH - WHEN WINTER COMES

WHEN WINTER COMES

CHRIS DE BURGH/INSTRUMENTAL

SONGWRITER: CHRIS THE BURGH

COUNTRY: IRELAND

ALBUM: THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

LABEL: A & M RECORDS

GENRE: ART ROCK

YEAR: 2004

 

     Christopher John Davison(born 15 October 1948), known professionally as Chris de Burgh(English:/dˈbɜːr/;d'-BER), is a British-Irish singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He started out as an art rock performer but subsequently started writing more pop-oriented material. He has had several top 40 hits in the UK and two in the US, but he is more popular in other countries, particularly Norway and Brazil. 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 Sir 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, while his legal surname remains "Davison". His father had substantial farming interests, and Chris spent much of his early years in Malta, Nigeria and Belgian Congo, as he, his mother and brother accompanied Colonel Davison on his diplomatic and engineering work.

     The Davisons finally settled in Bargy Castle, County Wexford, Ireland, which was somewhat dilapidated at the time. It was a twelfth-century castle which Eric de Burgh bought in the 1960s. He converted it into a hotel, and young Chris sang for the guests there.

   De Burgh attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire, England, where he was in the year below Nick Drake; de Burgh asked to join a jazz band Drake had formed with four schoolmates, the Perfumed Gardeners, but was rejected as his taste was "too poppy". De Burgh went on to graduate from Trinity College Dublin, with a Master of Arts degree in French, English and History.

       This is the first time I've ever put a track that is completely instrumental on a record. It's very evocative, and very 18th Century, which leads then into the title track..."