ireland

The Corrs Return Down Under

/ Paul McBride / Leave a comment

It promises to be a party over 20 years in the making when Irish pop royalty The Corrs return to Australia for the first time since 2001 later this month.

The family quartet and touring band will perform at an exclusive one-night affair at Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley on 26th November, with their only other Australian appearance being a 250-person-capacity Q&A session at Sydney’s Carriageworks the evening prior.

Drummer Caroline Corr speaks of the band’s eagerness to return to one of the first countries outside of its own that took the Dundalk band to its heart from its early days.

“What was brilliant about Australia was it was the first territory where our first record sold and that people actually knew who we were,” she says. “We were still kind of obscure, but, bizarrely, ‘Forgiven, Not Forgotten’ did really well and so when we arrived there, we were wondering how so many people recognised us. Unbeknownst to ourselves, the record had been selling and it was a great feeling, and we had some amazing shows there. It was just so new and great. We’ve always talked about going back to Australia and finally we have an opportunity to go back.”

The multi-platinum selling band has sold over 40 million albums since their 1995 debut but last released an album in 2017, so does the Australian show announcement feel like a comeback?

“I suppose it does,” Corr says. “Although it depends how long we come back for. Maybe there’ll be many comebacks [laughs]. We seem to do a record and a tour, take a long break, then come back together and do something. The pandemic was obviously devastating for the music industry, and we probably postponed about three tours as it was impossible to go anywhere. Once the pandemic was over, we could figure out how to come back together. We’re talking about more touring and it’s just getting the right tour in place. For me, it’s how it feels to do it again. It’s nice to go to places where people haven’t seen us in a long time; it’s new for them and it’s new for us. That’s why Australia feels so nice for us.”

As a family affair the band has a unique musical understanding but that doesn’t mean they don’t still have to work at it.

“When we come back together it clicks, because it has to click,” Corr says. “We all have our own personalities and our little quirks, but we know each other so well. We’ve all obviously grown together and, as family, it wasn’t always easy being on the road together and it wasn’t always easy working together, but we’ve become much better at listening to each other and talking things through. Of course, there’s going to be things that piss you off, but you just move on.”

With 20 years between drinks, the band has set its sights on giving Australian fans – and undoubtedly a multitude of Irish ex-pats – exactly what they want.

“For Australia we are going to play what people really like and what people really know,” Corr says. “Australia has so many Irish ex-pats who have lived there for long periods of time, and it’s nice to connect with your country of origin and hear some Irish music, and we will be playing Irish music, of course. There were also certain songs that were released that did really well in Australia. We’re working on the setlist in our rehearsals in Dublin. Obviously, we’ll be doing ‘Dreams’. We’ll do ‘Breathless’. We’ll do some Irish music. I think it’ll be a good show.”

For Scenestr

Andrew Strong: “Touring with the Rolling Stones was one of the highlights”

/ Paul McBride / Leave a comment

andrew strong

HE may be best known for being the singer in Ireland’s hardest-working semi-fictional soul band, but Andrew Strong has a voice that can belt out the blues with the best of them.

Thrust into the spotlight at the tender age of 16 when The Commitments movie made him an international star, Dubliner Strong has enjoyed a long and varied career in music. His upcoming headlining slot at Blues on Broadbeach on May 24 will see the 41 year-old return to his roots and the songs that made him famous, but with a healthy dollop of blues ladled on top.

“It’s predominantly a Commitments show,” he says. “Probably 70 percent Commitments. I do some Jimi Hendrix, some Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland, some Spencer Davis songs. I went out to Australia about two years ago with this kind of show and it was very popular, so we’ll go out, put on the suits and sing all the Commitments stuff.”

After distancing himself from the Commitments’ music in the years following the 1991 release of the movie, Strong was reunited with the band for their 20-year reunion.

“To be honest with you, I haven’t done this kind of show in 20 years,” he says. “Prior to this I’d been doing my own stuff. Basically what happened was when [the Commitments] got together to do the reunion a couple of years back, there was a strong void there for me to go out and do this kind of show. I enjoyed it, but I thought it’s not the sort of thing I’m going to keep doing, but there are people out there who really wanted to see this kind of show and me sing these songs. So, this will be effectively my last of this kind of show in Australia. This will be my third tour in Australia; I’ve played probably 40 shows doing this ‘Andrew Strong – The Commitments’ show, so when I come back it’ll be more kind of Andrew Strong-themed.”

Strong’s powerful voice and electric live performances have earned him tour slots with Elton John and Lenny Kravitz, as well as an invitation to perform at the Princess of Norway’s wedding.

“There are a lot of things [in my career] I’m very proud of,” he says. “Touring with the Rolling Stones was one of the highlights. It was great to go out on the road for eight shows with them, then come back home and get a call a week later to go out and do a couple more shows; that was a great buzz and a great experience. After I did the movie, for some reason I got a lot of respect from singers across the board. I look at the movie; I did it when I was 16. To be a part of something that, 20 years later, is still kind of relevant is an achievement.”

Strong’s soul and blues credentials were cemented even further when he was asked to perform with the Blues Brothers Band in the nineties; something which came about in a less-than-direct fashion.

“I know Ringo Starr’s kids,” Strong says. “I met them through the guy who wrote the screenplay for The Commitments. Their mother was married to the guy who owned all the Hard Rock Cafes; he sold those and bought all these Houses of Blues. Basically, the Blues Brothers Band were opening all these venues and they asked me would I come over and sing at it, and I thought it would be great. I got the opportunity to sing with Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper and all those guys; we played in L.A. and Boston. It was great, man. It was great to play with those guys. I remember Steve Cropper came up to me in Boston and said ‘Hey man, I was so happy you recorded my songs, because I needed the money.’”

With two Commitments albums, four solo albums and a greatest hits collection under his belt, Strong is looking towards his next release.

“A lot has gone on in my life over the last year or so; I had a son and moved into a new home,” he says. “This year, I really want to focus on new material for a new album. Hopefully by the end of the year or the beginning of next year I’ll have a new record out. When I come back from Australia, I’ll been doing some shows around Europe; some festivals and stuff like that. I also have a side project band, The Bone Yard Boys; we’ve been working together for about eight years, and I’d like to put an album out. I’d be a happy camper if I could come back Down Under and do an Andrew Strong tour next year.”

ANDREW STRONG PLAYS BLUES ON BROADBEACH, MAY 24.

For Scenestr

Record review: Damien Rice – My Favourite Faded Fantasy (2014, LP)

/ Paul McBride / Leave a comment

damien rice

Damien Rice has never seemed like one to chase commercial success, but he found it nevertheless with his 2002 debut O; an album which broke a thousand hearts and made the Irishman a reluctant star. It says a lot that he waited four years to release a follow up, and it’s taken a further nine for this third album to appear, but his lack of commercial ambition remains steadfast, if his inclusion of the letter ‘u’ in ‘favourite’ is anything to go by. The recent disturbing trend of middle-class whiners posing as earthy folkies and finding success is not one Rice could ever be associated with, as he gets straight into showing off his vocal range with the opener and title track. The nine-minute soaring ballad that is second track ‘It Takes A Lot To Know A Man’ could be a mini-album in itself and is worth the price tag alone, whereas ‘The Greatest Bastard’ comes straight from the school of Nick Drake. ‘I Don’t Want To Change You’ will have global audiences singing along while shedding a sea of single tears, and there’s the expected healthy dose of melancholy spread over ‘Long Long Way’ and ‘Trusty And True’. Rice has never sought fame, but when you’re this good a songwriter, it’s going to find you all by itself, and even an album of only eight songs like this seems like an embarrassment of riches. (Atlantic)

For mX

Record review: U2 – Songs of Innocence (2014, LP)

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What is this thing that has appeared in my iTunes account without my permission? I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t want it. The other tracks in there were doing just fine before these 11 barged their way in and caused a disturbance in the force. The manner in which the Irishmen’s lucky 13th album has basically been forced on millions of people won’t help curb the growing trend of U2-bashing, but the marketing side of things can of course be forgiven if the music is quality. But therein lies the problem; it’s mostly not. Supposedly one of the band’s most personal albums to date, the once-I-was-a-young-lad lyrical platitudes and general emotional emptiness add up to an album filled with the most bloated sides of U2’s music and scarcely few of the better elements of their earlier career. Only Bono could write a tribute to a punk legend and make it entirely about himself, as on ‘The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)’, while the Beach Boys-tinged ‘California (There Is No End To Love)’ and ‘Sleep Like A Baby Tonight’ suggest that the song pool for this album can’t have been a rich one. They’ve had a career most other bands can only dream of, but it’s hard to listen to this album and think that U2 were once trend-setters; it’s all too vague and formulaic to make any kind of impact other than disinterest. Right clicking and hitting the delete button seems like an attractive method of restoring iTunes harmony. (Island)

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James Vincent McMorrow: “It definitely took me by surprise in the most wonderful way possible”

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james vincent mcmorrow

JAMES Vincent McMorrow’s music is tailor-made to fill big spaces, metaphorically and literally. Luckily for him – and us – an upcoming show at QPAC and two nights at the Sydney Opera House will allow it to do just that.

“I want [the show] to be something that’s not just song, gap, song, gap,” he says. “I want it to be something that flows and gets bigger as the set goes along. We’ve got this really expansive lighting rig that we’re bringing; it’s kind of the fifth person on-stage. Hopefully we’ll bring a booming big set.”

The 31 year-old Irishman is no stranger to Australia, having been here as recently as five months ago, but he admits the sudden demand for tickets caught him off guard, in a good way.

“I don’t really pay attention to what’s going on in particular countries unless I’m there,” he says. “We were [in Australia] in January and the reaction was brilliant. When we talked about doing these shows, the idea was to do them way later, then all of a sudden I was told things are really good here. About a week after they put them on sale, I got a call saying that the Sydney Opera House was sold out and they were adding second dates. It definitely took me by surprise in the most wonderful way possible. I mean, I’m pretty ambitious and I want to play places like that, but I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly in somewhere as far away as Australia. But then, you can’t predict everything; sometimes things just work. We just finished the US tour, and it was very much big venue to small venue to big venue, depending on which city we were in. I don’t feel any different if we go from 1600 people one night to 600 people the following; I still feel the same. Obviously Sydney Opera House is a special place; it’s like the Royal Albert Hall or Carnegie Hall or somewhere like that. There’s a resonance that goes beyond it being just another show, perhaps. I’ve looked at all the other Australian venues and they are all stunning and look amazing, so I won’t think about them any differently, and they’re all equally important.”

Released in January, Post Tropical is McMorrow’s second album, and sees his sound moving further away from his folk roots in a more soulful direction.

“This record was made for people to live with for a while,” he says. “I didn’t expect it to give itself away to people incredibly quickly. It’s been interesting going from territory to territory and seeing people’s reactions. The first record did very well in Europe, and when we played shows there we could see people starting to wrap their heads around the new sounds and new ideas. By the end of the shows we could really see people understanding it. When we went to the US, people were really into it intensely, and we could hear people singing every word. It was very soon for that for me; with the first record I spent two years working away before people really heard anything. The response to the new record was really quite compelling and drove me onwards to play the songs better and better every night. The response has been how I hoped. I never expect it; I just hope for it when I do these things.”

The first single is ‘Cavalier’, which McMorrow explains is the most accurate representation of what Post Tropical has to offer.

“I chose it because I thought it was the best song on the record, in the sense of letting people know what’s coming,” he says. “I wanted it to be a song that draws a line in the sand, or plants my flag in the ground or whatever you want to call it. It’s a definitive sound; there could have been songs that show where the last record was and where the next one is going, before we deliver something like ‘Cavalier’ further down the line, but I didn’t want to do that. I think people are smart, and I’m not in the business of trying to convince people; you either like it or you don’t, and that’s totally fine. With ‘Cavalier’, I thought people will hear it and either be in or be out. If they hear it and understand what I’m doing and what I’m going for, musically and stylistically, then they’ll like it. I don’t want to waste people’s time putting out songs that might be a little bit like something they might’ve heard before, then when they go to the record it’s different.”

JAMES VINCENT McMORROW PLAYS QPAC FRI 23 MAY. POST TROPICAL IS OUT NOW.