Man on the line

>> Gettin' all post-Christian with Chris de Burgh

By RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Yeah, sure, every outsider says they love Montreal -- the potent beer, the old buildings, the pseudo-Euro je-ne-sais-quoi. But when tunesmith Chris de Burgh says it, it's from the heart. Then again, he owes us--we basically broke him on these shores, back in the mid-'70s.

"There was a station in Montreal called CHOM," he recalls, on the horn from his home in Ireland, "and they played the hell out of my second album, Spanish Train and Other Stories. They were renowned for breaking new, unusual acts

--Supertramp, the Police. I was among them, and 'Spanish Train' became just a monster song. The first place I performed in North America was Montreal, with Supertramp. I went on stage and said, "Bonsoir, les Quebecois," and everybody went wild. I had a real interest in what was happening, the Quebec Libre thing, and particularly the town of Montreal treated me like a favourite son. It was just beautiful."

He's returned the compliment on his latest disc. Not only is the title Quiet Revolution, but it features a tune en francais, "Quand Je pense a toi." Ironically, while Quebec's quiet revolution of the '60s had everything to do with throwing off the shackles of Catholicism, the album's title track has a clearly religious tone. Not surprising, given de Burgh's track record of tunes with a

Biblical touch (the aforementioned "Spanish Train," and "Don't Pay the Ferryman" both come to mind). What's surprising is de Burgh's brand of theology.

"Personally, I don't like organized religion.

I believe quite firmly, though, in the existence of another dimension. What 'Quiet Revolution' is about is, as people fall away from traditional religion, there's an upsurge in interest in the sixth dimension, the extra dimension that is the beyond. I think it's far more controlled than it was in previous years, like the UFO madness. The reason it's a quiet revolution is that people are now scared, because of the power of the media, the most powerful force in the history of the world

--to elevate something can crush it just as quickly. So people are not talking about it."

The truth is out there, though. De Burgh explains further the groundwork of that song.

"It came from a comment made to me by an ordinary housewife who woke up after a minor oper-

ation and said, 'Who are all those people?' The doctors said, 'What people?' She sees the dead. You can either believe she's totally mad, which I don't believe, or actually trying to control this ability, which we all have. It's just been crushed out of us--kids under five have it.

"She mentioned to me that, if you go into someone's house, someone you've known for years, and you suddenly see all this literature around about this stuff, and then you go to another house and there's more, it is like a quiet revolution going on. I love the idea of people sitting by their firesides, saying, 'Yeah, I had this extraordinary experience last year. I saw this vision...' And people are not laughing anymore." :

At the Molson Centre on Friday, April 7, 8pm, $29.50-49.50