What with one thing and another you can’t move for reissues, remasters and re-recordings these days. The latest act to join this list is Chris De Burgh, whose 1983 song “Don’t Pay The Ferryman” has just had a re-recording announced.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr De Burgh made the following announcement:
“A lot of artists have re-recorded their old hits in the last decade, but without making any fundamental changes to them, which is a bit pointless really. If you’re going to re-record a song, make it different enough that the listeners will see a point in parting with their hard-earned cash. So I’m doing an acoustic version of this and a few others that would benefit from the different arrangement.”
The new album is entitled Christopher John Davison, his birth name, to reflect the stripped-down nature of the songs.
In response to the question of timing, he added:
“This has absolutely nothing to do with Chris Grayling awarding that ferry contract to a firm with no boats.”
It was hard to tell from where I was sitting, but it looked like his eyes were sparkling with laughter as he said that. Certainly he was having trouble keeping a straight face. He also added that the acoustic nature of the re-recordings was not a protest against austerity and people being unable to pay their electricity bills.
The compilation also features a re-recording of his best known hit, “Lady In Red” but changed to “Lady In Blue” and with several lyrical changes. The first line in the new version is “never seen you talking so evil as you do tonight”.
Mr De Burgh has denied that this is a dig at Theresa May, although again his face was struggling against a guffaw.
Christopher John Davison is due to be released in the shops this week.