Neil Hannon talks ahead of My Lovely EP launch

Tonight sees the launch of a mini-album in aid of My Lovely Horse Rescue.
My Lovely EP a star-studded affair looking to raise buckets of cash for a good cause. Leading the charge are Neil Hannon and Duke Special, whose previously unreleased 'It’s Never Too Late' sits alongside suitably equine themed contributions from We Cut Corners, Paddy Hanna, The Late David Turpin, No Monster Club, Sissy and Gar Cox.
We'd use any excuse to get the wonderful Mr Hannon on the blower, so ahead of the launch show we talked to the Divine Comedy man about how he came to be involved...

Given that you wrote 'My Lovely Horse' for Father Ted, you're not half the perfect fit for this. How did you become involved?
My relationship with the charity is my girlfriend's relationship! Cathy [Davey] has been rescuing animals with her friends for six years. A while ago, they said 'Wouldn't it be cool if we called it My Lovely Horse Rescue, and I said 'OK'! Graham and Arthur, who wrote Father Ted, were on board as well. Everyone involved has been doing very fine work, and very hard work – this is just my way of doing my bit.

So when did the idea of this release arrive?
It was, wonderfully enough, entirely down to the Sound Training College, who record and put out an EP every year as a training exercise of sorts. They heard about My Lovely Horse Rescue, and decided to do it for us, which was absolutely fantastic. I said I'd chip in a song.
The only problem is that I've got an album coming out shortly, and I didn't want to, er, blow my wad, so to speak. So I got Duke Special to sing on it! He owed me several, 'cos he's forever getting me to do stuff.

You've contributed a song about an elderly woman discovering her sexuality later in life – is it fair to say the events 12 months ago were an inspiration?
It's a funny one, actually – I wrote it last year, apropos of nothing, and knew it wouldn't work on my album, so I just put it to one side.
It that never really occurred to me until I listened back to it this year and thought 'Oh yeah, that's what was going on last year; it must have filtered in'. The best way to write songs is not to process anything, and let it all blurt out and see what you've got afterwards. That's what I do, and that's certainly what I did with this.
It's an odd one, a song about a septugenarian lesbian relationship, but… you know me! I enjoy the Alan Bennett-esque vignette, and also it being set against a blatantly Bacharach-esque background.

You brought up your album, so we can't not ask...
There'll be lots of songs, more than you could ever need... You know, I'm not meant to actually talk about it, because we'll be announcing it in a few weeks time. We'll talk about it then!

Paddy Hanna, No Monster Club & Meg LaGrande, Gar Cox and The Late David Turpin join Neil Hannon and Duke Special on the bill for the launch of My Lovely EP tonight at The Button Factory. Tickets for the, ahem, Mane Event are €7; the mini-album can be downloaded now.