Des de Moor (born 20 April 1961 in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, England) is a writer, singer, musician and songwriter. His first performance in front of a paying audience was in

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England in June 1976. He worked with local bands and performed in folk clubs in the Hertford area during the late 1970s and 1980s before moving to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1985. In 1987 he formed The Irresistible Force with Morris Gould aka

Mixmaster Morris Mixmaster Morris (born Morris Gould, 30 December 1965) is an English electronica DJ and underground musician who has also recorded as The Irresistible Force. His work in the 1990s blended ambient music and chill-out influences with UK dance ...

, releasing two singles and several remixes and performing in Britain and the Netherlands. After dissolving his partnership with Gould late in 1989, de Moor re-emerged in 1993 as an acoustic performer specialising in European-influenced

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

, theatre song and musical

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

. In December 1995 he launched

Pirate Jenny "Pirate Jenny" (German: "") is a well-known song from ''The Threepenny Opera'' by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht. The English lyrics are by Marc Blitzstein. It is probably the second most famous song in the opera, after "Mack the Knife". ...

's club at the

Vortex Jazz Club The Vortex Jazz Club is a music venue in London, England. It was founded by David Mossman in the 1988. Background The Vortex started as a jazz club in 1988 and was located in Stoke Newington Church Street, north London. But after the acquisi ...

in London, presenting other artists specialising in this style of music. The club transferred to

The Drill Hall RADA Studios (formerly The Drill Hall) is a theatrical venue in Chenies Street in Bloomsbury, just to the east of Tottenham Court Road in the West End of London. Owned by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), the building contains rehearsal ...

, London, in 2004. Apart from Pirate Jenny's, de Moor's best known work to date is Darkness and Disgrace, an adaptation of

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

songs in cabaret/chanson style created in collaboration with pianist

Russell Churney Russell Churney (10 September 1964 – 27 February 2007) was an English composer, pianist, arranger and musical director. He was also a member of the comedy/cabaret group, Fascinating Aïda. His sister is Ooberman keyboardist and vocalist S ...

, originally performed in 2001 and recorded in 2003 (see Darkness and Disgrace: Des de Moor and Russell Churney Perform the Songs of David Bowie. De Moor has worked with chansonniers

Barb Jungr Barb Jungr (born 9 May 1954) is an English singer, songwriter and theatre writer, who has recorded versions of songs by Bob Dylan, Sting, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen. Career Barb Jungr was born in Rochdale, Lancashire ...

Robb Johnson Robb Jenner Johnson (born 25 December 1955) is a British musician and songwriter who has been called "one of the last genuinely political songwriters". He is known for his mix of political satire and wit. He has his own record label, Irregular ...

Leon Rosselson Leon Rosselson (born 22 June 1934, Harrow, Middlesex, England) is an English songwriter and writer of children's books. After his early involvement in the folk music revival in Britain, he came to prominence, singing his own satirical songs, i ...

, pianist David Harrod and double bass player Julia Doyle. He is also a translator who has written accurate English translations of songs by

Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (, ; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, l ...

Léo Ferré Léo Ferré (24 August 1916 – 14 July 1993) was a French-born Monégasque poet and composer, and a dynamic and controversial live performer, whose career in France dominated the years after the Second World War until his death. He released s ...

Claude Nougaro Claude Nougaro (, oc, Claudi Nogaròu; 9 September 1929 – 4 March 2004) was a French songwriter and singer. Life and career Claude Nougaro was born in Toulouse to a respected French opera singer, Pierre Nougaro, and a piano teacher, Liette ...

, Barbara (

Monique Serf Monique Andrée Serf (9 June 1930 – 24 November 1997), known as Barbara, was a French singer. She took her stage name from her grandmother, Varvara Brodsky, a native of Odessa, Russian Empire (now Ukraine). Barbara became a famous cabareti� ...

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

and

Wannes Van de Velde Wannes Van de Velde (29 April 1937 – 10 November 2008), born Willy Cecile Johannes Van de Velde, in Antwerp, was a Flemish folk singer, guitarist, musician, poet, puppeteer and artist. He is most famous for his songs ''Ik Wil deze Nacht in de ...

. De Moor is also known for several other activities. Between 1996 and 2006 he was a regular DJ at the

100 Club The 100 Club is a music venue located at 100 Oxford Street, London, England, where it has been hosting live music since 24 October 1942. It was originally called the Feldman Swing Club, but changed its name when the father of the current owner ...

, London, though playing vintage swing, R&B, soul and ska rather than chanson or cabaret. He is a beer writer, writing regularly for

Campaign for Real Ale The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is th ...

publications and others. In 2010 he contributed to the book 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die (edited by Adrian Tierney-Jones, Quintessence) and in 2011 published his own first book, The CAMRA Guide to London's Best Beer, Pubs and Bars (CAMRA Books). A second edition of this appeared in 2015 and a third in 2022. He has also written on walking for the

Ramblers' Association The Ramblers is the trading name of the Ramblers Association, Great Britain's leading walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path ...

, among other work compiling evidence on walking and health. de Moor has a degree in the Humanities, having taken honours in Philosophy,

Hegelian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

Dialectics Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to ...

Semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

Discourse Analysis Discourse analysis (DA), or discourse studies, is an approach to the analysis of written, vocal, or sign language use, or any significant semiotic event. The objects of discourse Analysis ( discourse, writing, conversation, communicative event ...

and

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

Politics

de Moor has a history of

radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

political engagement both around specific causes and in general politics. He was involved in Lesbian and Gay Rights campaigns through the 1980s and 1990s. He was active in the Lesbian and Gay Youth Movement and for a period was a supporter of what would later be characterised as

platformist Platformism is a form of anarchist organization that seeks unity from its participants, having as a defining characteristic the idea that each platformist organization should include only people that are fully in agreement with core group ideas, r ...

anarcho-communist Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains resp ...

groups. Partly under the influence of veteran Gay political activist Don Milligan, de Moor became a supporter of the Revolutionary Communist Party in the mid-1980s but left the party before its dissolution. His early work ( ''A Bloody Row''),much influenced by

Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has work ...

, and

industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...

, features songs and

J. G. Ballard James Graham Ballard (15 November 193019 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, satirist, and essayist known for provocative works of fiction which explored the relations between human psychology, technology, sex, and mass medi ...

ian ,

dystopian A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...

lyrics dedicated to

Anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

Nestor Makhno Nestor Ivanovych Makhno, The surname "Makhno" ( uk, Махно́) was itself a corruption of Nestor's father's surname "Mikhnenko" ( uk, Міхненко). ( 1888 – 25 July 1934), also known as Bat'ko Makhno ("Father Makhno"),; According to ...

and the

Makhnovshchina The Makhnovshchina () was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society in parts of Ukraine during the Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which time free soviets and libertarian communes operated under t ...

Discography

Albums

Solo albums

*''A Bloody Row'' (1982) *''Photographs in Empty Houses'' (1992) *''Margins'' (1994) *''Water of Europe'' (1999) *''Testing Times'' (forthcoming)

Other albums

*Various artists *:''The Tempest 2'' (1982) *Various artists *:''Hartforde Poets 10th Birthday Party'' (1982) *Various artists *:'' Ne Me Quitte Pas: Brel Songs by...'' (1998) *Various artists *:''Nine Times Two'' (2002) *Des de Moor and

*:'' Darkness and Disgrace: Des de Moor and Russell Churney Perform the Songs of David Bowie'' (2003)

Singles

*Lloyd Cole and the Commotions *:'' My Bag'' (1987) *The Irresistible Force *:''I Want To'' (1988) *Stump *:''Charlton Heston'' (1988) *Edward II and the Red Hot Polkas *:''Edward II and the Mad Professor Take a Trip to Sweden to Polka Steady with the Irresistible Force in a Rub-a-Dub Stylee at 90bpm'' (1989) *The Irresistible Force *:''Freestyle'' (1989) *Sofrito *:''The Spice of Life'' (1990) *Edward II *:''Dashing Away'' (1992)

References

External links

Official website

Beer Culture website

Entry on British Guild of Beer Writers website
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Moor, Des English male singers 1961 births Living people Musicians from Ipswich English male songwriters Singers from London