Neil Hannon was born on November 7th, 1970 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. At the age of 19, Neil formed the first version of The Divine Comedy for which he played guitar. The group were quickly signed to Setanta Records.
They released Fanfare For The Comic Muse in 1990, and then went through a complete line up change. When the other members returned to Ireland, Neil retained the name of The Divine Comedy, stepped into the solo spotlight and in 1993 released Liberation, which he now considers his début album. Later, other band members were to join for Casanova.