As the hottest band of the moment The Script will be unable to make the actual event in October due to prior commitments in Australia. The organisers asked them would they be able to give an interview with Stuart Clark of Hot Press in front of an invited audience of music industry professionals, musicians, music students, fans of the band and other guests. I was lucky enough to be amongst this audience as a winner of a Hot Press competition!
The event due to start at 2.30pm was delayed until 3.15pm as the organisers were hoping that the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Martin Cullen would be present but due to an emergency meeting of the cabinet he was unable to attend.
Hot Press editor, Niall Stokes took the podium and gave us an introduction of what The Music Show would consist of and explained why it was important that The Script should be part of it giving to their massive success over the last year. Their debut self-titled album has recently reclaimed the top position in the Irish charts having being released just over a year ago and has gone 8 times platinum here in Ireland. Having just arrived back for a string of gigs in the US the band are currently in the middle of a five date run in The Olympia.
Niall Stokes then introduced the band and the interviewer Stuart Clark to applause and cheers from the lucky audience. For those who may not know, The Script are a trio consisting of lead singer Danny O'Donoghue, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power all hailing from Dublin. While Danny and Mark have been working together for over a decade, Glen only joined the fold in 2006. In the words of Sheehan at the interview they knew when they met Power that something just clicked & they instantly knew they would work well together.
The interview lasted approximately 40 minutes. It was well organised with excellent questions from Stuart Clark and even better responses from the especially eloquent O'Donoghue and Sheehan. Power for most of the interview sat back and listened! Areas covered included the amazing success of the last year, the years spent in the US, crazy fans and the diverse acts that The Script have being lucky to support in concert.
At first glance it may seem that The Script have come from nowhere to be this massive success story. We discovered quite a bit about their history to know that this isn't exactly accurate. Of course there is a lot of luck involved but what is not widely known is that O'Donoghue and Sheehan spent a decade in the US carving their career in the music production industry. This work leaded them to work with Teddy Riley, an American record producer, one of their childhood hero's. Up until they met Glen, Danny and Mark worked as producers for other peoples demos. This however was all about to change when Sheehan's mother became terminally ill and the band returned to their homeland and set up a studio in Sheehan’s garage. Tragically nine months later his mother died and only four months after that Danny's father also passed away. Danny was quick to point out that having hematoma meant things were also difficult for Glen at this time. During this extremely painful period in their lives the creative juices flowed and out of the emotional pain came the songs that would make up their debut album. Recorded in the garage studio with lyrics that tell stories of heartache and living in Dublin came the highly successful self-titled album. It is in my opinion one of the strongest debut albums I've ever listened to.They spoke extensively about the different acts that they have supported over the last year. The most special of these have being U2 and Paul McCartney. Danny spoke about how when U2 played Croke Park in 80's that his brother took him to listen outside the stadium as they had no money. He said it was a very special moment when he rang his brother to tell him The Script was actually supporting U2 this time! They also mentioned when they were appearing in New York that Bono sent them Guinness and champagne to make black velvet cocktails with a note attached to say New York isn't big enough for U2 and The Script so U2 were going to leave! It was an interesting story when they told us about supporting Paul McCartney at Citi Field. This is the replacement for Shea Stadium which The Beatles played both the first and last concerts at. Paul McCartney was asked would he therefore open the new stadium. The boys were quick to point out that it was them as the support act and not Paul McCartney that actually played the venue first! It was funny when they described how they were discussing what they should address McCartney as when waked into the room! During this section they described how hard it can be for some acts trying to make it in the US as with the likes of Laura Izibor being categorised into one category. They feel due to the acts they have supported including Adele, Take That and the above mentioned has meant that they are enjoying being exposed in many genres.
Stuart Clark posed a question in relation to piracy. He stated that Aslan have announced that they will no longer release new albums due to this problem and asked the lads what was their take on this. Mark Sheehan believes that piracy can actually work in favour of bands as he reckons that while one person may download the music free that the many people the person tells about the music may actually buy the album. He said that while many people will download there are many more who actually like having the album hard copy with album notes. (I'm in that later group!). Sheehan gave the example that while there has being about 300,000 illegal downloads of The Scripts album there has being sales of almost 1,000,000 copies. He believes that the way to go with music is by doing live shows and that a lot of people with piracy copies will get rid of them and buy the legal version after seeing the concert. It made me wonder was there a dig at Aslan in there somewhere!!!
Once Stuart Clark finished his interview he invited questions from the audience. Someone asked the interesting question about what was the highlight of their careers so far. Danny said that his highlight was the album getting to number 1. He said he was emotional all that day & that it was the proudest moment of his life. One of Glen's rare chances to have some input saw him describe that his highlight is touring & playing in front of big audiences. They all agreed that it is actually easier to play in front of the larger crowds because at smaller venues and especially at home there is so many close friends and family members that they feel the pressure more so at these gigs. However on this home leg of their solo tour they feel it is better for the fans to see them at intimate venues, which is why they choose to play five dates at The Olympia rather than one in The O2.
The final question of the day lead to funniest part of the interview. A lady at the rear of the venue asked how they cope with unwanted female attention. Mark spoke about a recent gig in San Francisco where there was some 'larger' women at the front of the crowd when this 'skinny' woman barged her way forward to the front and left a note at his feet asking was he interested. He pointed to his wedding ring. After the gig the woman made more attempts to get close to him. It turns out she is a police officer!! Poor Danny was in Penny's buying underwear one day in disguise when the lady at the checkouts recognised him and called everyone over to see him. He said he was never more embarrassed in his life.
There came the end to a very enjoyable interview as they had to leave in preparation for their gig in The Olympia. I’m a little disappointed now that I didn’t get tickets for these gigs. I have seen them live twice though. The first time was last August just after the album’s release when they supported Lenny Kravitz and Alanis Morissette in Marlay Park. I was also at the Take That concert in Croke Park this year.
I now wait in anticipation for The Music Show in October having already obtained my weekend ticket months ago. Confirmed artists for the live stage include The Coronas who have a single being released the same week as the show, The Republic of Loose and Imelda May. Both Christy Moore and Paul Brady will be giving seminars. Other participants include Jim Sheridan, Gemma Hayes and Vince Power. All this with more acts to be announced is an absolute bargain at €16 for a weekend ticket.
No comments:
Post a Comment