The critic who received an aggressive complaint letter from Chris de Burgh after he wrote a scathing gig review has hit back at the Irish singer.
Irish Times reporter, Peter Crawley, told Hot Press magazine: “Obviously, I was surprised that it evidently was so wounding and clearly stuck in his craw. But the alternative is criticism which is nothing but unmitigated praise and I don’t think that’s especially helpful either.”
De Burgh’s attack on Crawley was printed in the Irish Times on Friday, in it he wrote: “I have sympathy for your position, as it must be so poisonous to have to lurk in the shadows, riffling through the garbage bins of despair and avoiding those who think that you are an irrelevance, an irritation to be ignored and laughed about.”
He offered to meet the journalist to discuss their disagreement, but suspected Crawley would be too cowardly, “like a dog that snarls and barks from a distance yet cowers and runs away at the first sight of reaction.”
Crawley claims he replied saying he was available to meet but has yet to hear back from the Lady in Red singer.
The critic remains light-hearted about the affair: “In fairness, he has written this to be amusing and you’ve got to hand it to him – he’s obviously spent a long time and a lot of effort finding out who I am. That’s almost touching really.”
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