Doing it for the kids
FORGET WESTLIFE OR THE SCRIPT. THERE'S THOSE THAT SAY THE CORONAS ARE IRELAND’S NUMBER ONE HEARTHROBS. WITH A HUGELY SUCCESSFUL 12 MONTHS BEHIND THEM, THE STARS OF OUR CHRISTMAS COVER SHOOT TALK ABOUT THE TEMPTATIONS OF GROUPIES, THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMIC COLLAPSE AND THE FRIENDSHIP THAT HAS HELPED SPUR THEM TOWARDS THE BIG TIME.
Olaf Tyaransen, 13 Dec 2010
Mary must have been away touring a lot when you were a youngster?
“She was, yeah,” he affirms. “She always seemed to be away around my birthday, always doing tours around March – I suppose doing Paddy’s Day in America – so I used to make her feel guilty for missing my birthday. So she'd come back and get me a good present! She’d never go away for too long. She’d work it so that she was only gone for a month or six weeks at most, if a tour of Australia or America came up. She’d often bring us over for a couple of gigs as well so we got to see her that way.”
So you got to see quite a bit of the world when you were growing up…
“A little bit, yeah. I was over to America a couple of times and England once or twice. I didn’t really appreciate how good she was until we went back to see a gig of hers recently. When you’re growing up and going to the gigs, I was more impressed with Bill Shanley, her guitar player, and didn't really pay much attention to her or give her much credit. But then going back recently you can sort of say, ‘Jesus she is great: she’s a real legend’.”
Did you and your siblings ever feel resentful towards her for disappearing on you?
“Well, she said we used to be really mean to her when she’d come back after a tour,” he laughs. “After she came back we’d be all great and nice, and then after a few hours we’d be mean. It was obviously a defense mechanism or whatever. I’m sure there’s some Freudian reason. My dad used to have to try and sort that out, and my mum said that made her want to tour less. But as I said, she was never gone for too long.”
Of course, Danny and his Corona cohorts (drummer Conor Egan, bassist Graham Knox, and guitarist Dave McPhilips) are spending a lot of time on the road themselves nowadays.
“It's been pretty much nonstop between February, when we did a big college tour around Ireland, then in May we were in Australia for a month, we did the festival circuit in the summer which was pretty nonstop. We did a couple of gigs in September and then we had pencilled September in for recording and writing. I had a bit of a problem with my vocal chords. So we had a little bit of time off the road in September waiting for the voice to get better. Now we’re back into it and it’s looking like next year is going to be even crazier. But yeah, we love being on the road.”
Page 4/11 <Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Next>
©Hot Press 2012. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | About Us Jobs @ Hot Press