from=June 15th, 1998
By Tom Henry (attended with NetPal Julie Heiry and her friend Suzanne)
e-mail: thenry@thecorrs.org
written June 14th , 1998
Finally after months and months of eager anticipation we were about to see The Corrs live for the first time. I was sure that this experience was going to be etched into my mind forever. However, things looked a little iffy as the weather forecast had this event looking like it may be renamed the "Mud Fleadh". Severe weather had been forecast for the entire day.
Anyway, our Corrs adventure started with a meet up in New Jersey and a subsequent drive to Randall’s Island. Hopefully, the weather would not be too bad and besides….we needed a little luck of the Irish as Julie’s original flight from North Carolina was canceled and she had left her concert tickets at home.
We arrived at the Fleadh before 9:00 a.m. and very few people had gathered at the stadium, except 100 to 200 cops (of New York’s finest) were outside the stadium getting prepped for their concert security duties. We asked several event people for directions to ticket sales as Julie and Suzanne needed to get tickets. No one seemed to know where the ticket sales area was….so we found an entrance in the stadium and simply walked in without the cops or security people saying anything to us. Seemed a little odd to me that no one challenged us. We must have looked like we belonged there. We were not crashing the gate, we just simply wanted to find the ticketing area. Well once inside we said, "What the Hey" lets just hang out…what’s the worst that they could do…kick us out? No one ever approached us; in fact we were even bold enough to initiate conversations with both the Cops and other Security personnel in the 2 hours before the entrance gates opened. Everyone else in the area, it seemed, had special security badges and credentials. Us? NOT.
So we had fun walking around to the Irish shopping village checking out all the Irish merchandise for sale. To our dismay….no Corrs shirt were available at the Fleadh, mostly T-shirts for the Saw Doctors, Sinéad O’Connor, The Chieftains and several others. The record store carried most of the Corr’s imports CDs that I’ve read about on the corrs-list. I picked up the U.K. release of the "Dreams" and the Japanese Live version containing songs mostly off of FNF. This live CD is one of the CD’s included in the hard to find Australian Tour pack. Of course, the current TOC CD was available and prominently displayed with posters. Other than the CD’s, there were no other Corrs items available for sell. Bummer! The other shops in the village carried mostly a variety of nice clothing and jewelry items. I was tempted to buy a Bodhrán for $100US but I didn’t want to have to carry it around all day and risk breaking it.
About 11:20 a.m. the 3 gate crashers (Remember, Julie had already paid for her tickets and I actually had my ticket with me….we did pay!) watched as the masses at the entrance to the Fleadh huddled bleakly under ponchos, plastic trash bags, umbrellas, etc as a deluge of rain with monsoon like proportions started to fall. The gates finally opened and like drowned rats the people filed into the Fleadh. The entrance gate area was actually covered by a tent. As some of the people entered they couldn’t avoid being completely drenched by the rain running off the tent. We stood by laughing (bad form) as we were more or less dry under one end of the tent where the security folks were gathered.
The rain continued for about another 40 minutes with severe lightning striking close to the event grounds. The place turned into a swamp during this time. The rest of day would turn out to be mostly overcast and we had commented that one of the performers from Ireland would probably make a comment about the weather making them feel like they were at home. A certain performer would indeed validate our prediction before the night was out!
Next we purchased the official program and discovered that The Corrs were being rescheduled. They were now set to be the closing act for the night on the Main Stage at 10:00 p.m. Wow, the day was gonna be a long one. They were originally scheduled to on at 4:05 p.m. There was no real reason as to why the schedule was changed, just a note in the program indicating that "due to circumstances beyond the promoters of this events control the…… changes have been put into effect". BTW, there were a total of three stages at this Fleadh. The Main stage obviously was for the headline performers which included The Chieftains, Chumbawamba, The Saw Doctors, Mary Black, Squeeze, Maura O’Donnell, Davy Spillane, Jimmy Macarthy, Dar Williams, Sinéad O’Connor and of course, THE CORRS.
We spent most of our time at the Main stage. I enjoyed a lot of the music played by headline performers. The performances that stood out the most IMHO were The Chieftains, Maura O’Donnell, Mary Black, and Dar Williams. Under the influence of alcohol (notably several Guinness beers) I actually attempted some Irish dancing and probably looked like a complete idiot dancing to Chumbawamba’s drinking song. I’ll blame the alcohol!!!
Principle Dancers from the Riverdance troupe danced during the Chieftains’ performance. This was a real treat to watch. Also a choir from Harlem (part of New York City) performed with the Chieftains. Oh yeah, the Corrs were pretty good!!! OK, INCREDIBLE.
I managed to work my way up to within 50 feet of the main stage just before Sinéad’s was scheduled to go on since the Corrs would be playing after Sinéad. The crowd was very large for Sinéad’s performance and she was the only performer that the Fleadh Organizers (I’m guessing they allowed it) let come back for an encore. This delayed the Corrs taking the Stage until about 10:35 p.m. Unfortunately, a large number of people left the area after Sinéad’s performance. I now wished that they had put Sinéad on as the closing act so that The Corrs would have had a potentially larger audience. Actually, there was still a respectable crowd that stayed on to see The Corrs.
The big moment had finally arrived. The Corrs entered the stage and the 13 preceding hours of waiting at the Fleadh were all worth it. Besides, it gave us the chance to listen to some new bands. At this point I think we were all running on adrenaline. So here it is:
Andrea: Dressed in long black skirt and wearing a white lacy blouse.
Sharon: Dressed in black slacks and black top.
Caroline: Dressed all in black.
Jim: Leather coat, and mostly in black
Playlist (about 45 minutes on-stage time):
1) When He’s Not Around
RAH repeat here folks, the sound crew were not quite tuned up for this number.
We could hardly hear Sharon’s singing and the sound was not quite balanced. By
the end of the song they had seemed to work out the balance, mixing and volume
problems. No fault of the Corrs.
2) OWIS - exceptionally well done. The crowd was getting into it pretty well.
3) Carroroe Jig - long version. Excellent, perfection. The crowd fervor is building more.
4) Hopelessly Addicted - By this time you realize that the crowd is recognizing that this sibling family group that we love so much are truly exceptional musicians and performers.
5) Toss the Feathers - long version with band introductions. Superbly executed. Fantastic crowd reaction. I didn’t catch the name of the lead guitarist but the bass guitarist was (Keith?) Duffy, I believe that’s what I heard. Andrea introduced them all then Jim gave Andrea a big introduction.
6) Dreams - I haven’t heard it performed better. A little more pace then the ‘Legacy’ version. Andrea was simply perfection on the vocals. The crowd went wild.
7) I Never Love You Anyway - Andrea (could have been Sharon, not sure) announced that this was going to be their next (American) singles release. BTW, need I say more. Most excellent.
8) So Young - ditto!
9) Haste To The Wedding - One of my favorites and final song.
The crowd was extremely enthusiastic and tried very hard to get an encore. But it
was now 11:20 p.m. and the it had started raining during So Young. NOTHING
DOING. Dag Nabbit!
Final Thoughts and Impressions:
Andrea’s voice was excellent. She really belted them out and hit some notes that I didn’t think she had in her. Andrea mentioned that the weather reminded her of home.
Caroline did come to the front of the stage for one number (I think Carroroe Jig) to play the Bodhrán. It was great. I love it when she smiles. What a gorgeous smile. Caroline seems to really concentrate when she plays the drums. I was impressed with her playing ability, especially on Toss the Feathers. All three ladies looked marvelous.
Jim was singing on dreams but I don’t think I actually heard his voice coming through. That man can definitely play the guitar and keyboards. His guitar work on Hopelessly Addicted was excellent. Since, I’m a guitarist…I noticed that Jim was playing a Takamine acoustic guitar for one of his numbers.
Sharon’s violin playing was by far the bests that I heard that night (the Chieftains were also great in this department). OK, maybe I’m a bit biased here. Sharon’s hair looked great. She frequently looked out into the crowd and made eye contact with the fans.
This performance by The Corrs met and exceeding my expectations. Believe me, you would-be-fans …..see this band if you get the chance….. you won’t be disappointed. A live performance by The Corrs is an experience to be cherished. The other concert reports that I’ve read on The Corrs by others have not been exaggerated. The Corrs are truly exceptional musicians.
The band seemed to be very relaxed and I think they enjoyed themselves. I just wish that the audience was larger. No doubt, I would have to say that THE CORRS were the best of the main stage band at the Fleadh.
Best thing for me. I get to see The Corrs again in just 3 more days at the Birchmere in Virginia with Julie and another NetPal. Look for my next concert report. Hopefully they’ll play for an hour and a half and maybe I’ll get a chance to meet them. I might even find some T-shirts or other promotional items there.
It was great to finally meet up with Julie and her friend Suzanne to experience The Corrs together. I can’t think of too many other things that I would rather do then to see the Corrs perform live with other Corrs fans. I know they really enjoyed the performance as much as I did. I hope to meet other Corrs fan (NetPals) in the future.
We loaded the CD changer in the car with several Corrs discs and headed back to New Jersey. To the delight of the ladies I had lost my voice screaming at the concert so I couldn’t sing along with CDs. I guess a guys voice just can’t do a Corrs song justice.
I hope you enjoyed my long report. I had fun writing it.
Tom Henry (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)
If you would like to add your personal review of a Corrs concert, simply send it to: Peter Shevlin