the Corrs and St.Patrick's Day Week
in the U.K.

Exclusive review by Steve Jones

Once upon a time, I was spending some time in India, working hard for several weeks (nice hotel though ... champagne and MTV can't be bad). When I called back to check on the state of my house. Karl was blathering on with references to a band I'd never heard of. I flew back, at the end of a 20-hour travel day, to arrive back in Chester, full of luggage. Karl was sitting, comfortably, enjoying a beer, listening to the Corrs, and reading a Dilbert book. He tried to switch me on to the CD, but I was suffering from jet lag. Page forward about six months and Talk on Corners appears. I'm in Karl's house , getting a track by track of the new CD (he'd taken time off work to get it on the release day). Hmmm.....interesting, but I still thought he liked the girls more than the music.
THEN....

The Corrs 1998 UK tour starts with an appearance on Granada TV, live. Karl hands me the tape, quietly smiling. The next 45 minutes are a blur, and consisted of lots of rewinds back to the beginning. I was hooked and finally realised what he had been telling me for sooo long. The Corrs are incredible live. They have a 'thing' - a natural approach, which seems to allow the 4 individual personalities to shine through and bring the audience in.

The song was 'I Never Loved you Anyway' and we laughed with Sharon as she messed up one of the lines. We laughed even more as Andrea gave a hard stare over her right shoulder. We felt like we were right there in the studio. Entrancing !!!

Did I mention I was hooked ?
So, I grabbed the phone and the nearest Credit Card, and tried ringing round for Tickets.
I had tried to get tickets for Manchester Apollo several weeks previously, on Karl's say so. He was in Ireland at the time, chilling out on the black stuff in Dunmore East. SOLD OUT was the answer. Karl has a Bad Work Day when he got the news.

So here we are, the tour is starting, and we have no tickets. We sent out some prayers to the little people, and struck lucky. Nottingham here we go.
This was at 10.30 on a Saturday morning, so what do we do?......get into Chester for some CD shopping! I don't need to describe my first two purchases. I gotto admit I bought the Jeff Buckley CD as well, and it is incredible. I have been missing out !!
Karl also bought a bagful of chickens, but I guess he can explain that one.
(Chicken is full of protein - I eat 250g protein a day; and a lot of chickens - Karl.)
So the afternoon was full of Corrs. Magic !!
A family affair followed, a meal in fact. I skipped out early. Karl then came over for a late night of fine drinking of the black stuff, some Corrs, more Corrs, and even more Corrs (Just to be on the safe side.)

Tuesday was St. Patrick's for real. Had to work, but great mother of mine took possession of my VCR and taped ITV and VH1 appearances for later evening viewing. Strangely, Karl's video was on timer doing exactly the same about 10 miles away whilst he was in the pub. Now I was really getting into the right frame of mind. Hey, these guys like the Undertones ! This was the first time I had ever seen the videos for 'Wednesday Week' and 'It's Gonna Happen'. Excellent !

Roll forward 1 more day, head out of the office early, and drive out to Nottingham. Two and a half hours later we are parked and ready to party. We wander inside, pick up the tickets, a head for Merchandising #1. The tour program and the white Ballygowan shirt of course.....same for Karl too.

Seats at the back, but its a small hall....anticipation
Picture House .... Karl has the full review .... I loved the Irish attitude, and laughed out loud at the Charlie Manson song. Nice appetiser boys. Karl queues for intervallic CDs while I scoff Ice Cream (why am I not fat ?).

Then the real show.
You remember that chill that takes a hold of your spine the first time you see that fave band/film...well let me tell ya !...it kind of dies off as you see more and more live bands. Not this time. The sound was incredible. I have only ever heard a couple of concerts with a better mix. I was surprised and delighted at once. I turned and Karl was hypnotised, so I focused in myself on the whole show.

Andrea sounded unearthly - how can one voice have such an impact. The people around me were obviously of the same opinion.
The highlights were many and varied. Quite honestly one of the best sets I have ever heard from any group of musicians. Caroline was inspiring. I wondered why the likes of Simon Phillips have ever been required to play on the studio tracks. Especially good was the hi-hat part on the Celtic instrumental following The Minstrel Boy.
Sharon is so self assured, and lyrical in her playing. Does she listen To Mark O'Connor and Ally Bain I wonder?
I just wished Jim would jump around a tad more, and join in Andrea's obvious celebration of fun on tour. Keith Duffy should be adopted by the family! He suits the music so well. A little funk and a little folk. Perfect !
Unfortunately Conor seemed out of place. Obviously a capable player, but to my ears not the right one. Here I must digress.
Karl may have introduced me to the Corrs, but he owed me one. I switched him onto Steve Morse. You should today, without fail track down a copy of 'High Tension Wires' by this man. It is one of many, but contains the most wonderful 'Highland Wedding'. That a guy from Alabama has such a grasp of Celtic music is a wonder in itself. The song is something else entirely. I hear the same type of beautiful guitar phrasing suiting the Corrs live show. Conor....go buy it, or I'll fly out and show ya the lines myself. I've got to admit, I may chop off Conor's fingers, shave my head and infiltrate the band in the process.
Andrea's dancing !!!!!!
Karl and I have a breakdown attached. So ya wanna dance like Andrea?
No chance ! However, you could attempt the following, in a bid to emulate the girl with the electric stage presence.

The Stropp - you need both hands free for this one. Stand up straight, throw down your arms, palms out , and bend your knees into a quick dip. Do that Stropp ! (Term from the English, 'to appear un-amused, stroppy')

The Lie Back - this involves one foot forward, one foot back, and leeeeean back. Don't fall over now !

The SchoolGirl - run nimbly across the stage, with tiny hoppy skippy steps. This ones easy, but move the cat out of the way first.

The Sneak - l..o..n..g steps, bend zee knees and stride out sneakily across the stage, pavement or car roof.

The Spinning Aeroplane - C'mon, you can guess this one yourselves, surely ! We know there are more, so perhaps the guestbook can receive more studious descriptions of Andrea's other impulsive stage moves. All I can say to Andrea is.....wear trousers, then you can jump around and protect your modesty at the same time. I get the impression that even Prince would be hard pressed to match Andrea's on-stage enthusiasm.

We waited outside, at the spot marked Stage Door, but a little pessimistic at the chance of meeting the band. Turns out they had left anyway (I think it was Emma Hill who mentioned this fact). We were no less happy, and headed back to the nearest source of Corrs music.... The drive back home was a blur , partially due to the amazing gig, and partially due to the speed I was doing. Karl (he of the Honda CBR600) was healthily impressed by my squealing four wheels sliding around corners. Never underestimate Japanese engineering, regardless of how many wheels underpin it. Betcha guess which CDs were moving the air molecules for the 150 miles back home.

The following day was a blur, punctuated by my work colleagues asking me (nicely at first) to stop talking about The Corrs. Needless to say, the first call of the day was to obtain more tickets . Second call was to Karl - "We have tickets for Sheffield". He has a Good Work Day, as did I).

I got home and commenced to picking up the lead line to "Toss The Feathers" on the guitar. Not difficult at slower speeds, but a little tricky at full pelt. Out came the Guinness (hey, I was eating too.....I think), and it all went a little downhill.
Moral - if ya want to play fast lead lines, leave the black stuff lying gracefully in the cool air, for another time.
If anyone wants a transcription of this, let me know, and I may find time to post it up on the Web.

So that was show #1. I don't believe in missing an excuse for a celebration, so we called it St. Patrick's Day Week, and headed up to the Sheffield City Hall the following Sunday evening. Due to incredible traffic and great diffculty in parking (yes, the air was blue), we missed most of Picturehouse. Luckily we were there for the pyscho song.
We were up in the gods this time. A different viewpoint. The set was the same (no surprises there), but the sound was still good, even through the flying P.A. Impressed? ... me ? ....oh yes ! Sharon was hidden from view, but Caroline was below us, allowing the full import of her drum technique to be studied. The lady has real talent as a player. Can't wait for the next CD !! The show went past all too quickly, with a side show next to us. Girl and boy together, boy likes to look at The Corrs but doesn't seem to know the songs, girl is snubbed, argument ensues, boy turns back and watches the stage while girl sulks.
Memorable Andrea moments included a particularly vivid 'Double Stropp' move (see before). Also the line "AND IN A FUNNY WAY I'M .... calm" (What Can I Do?) was given added stress - Andrea is certainly having a great time, re-interpreting the lyrics whenever chance allows. Funniest part was the mad 'run up the steps , down the ramp and back across the stage for no apparent reason'. The band entrall you live.
The night got better - oh yes, we waited around outside, watching as Jim waved from inside the stage door. We got to meet the gals, had our CD sleeves autographed and chatted briefly about a few things. Caroline was mightily impressed by Karl's compliment about her drum performance. Such modesty ! I quickly hatted with Andrea about the Spinal Tap-esque Albert Hall show (not just a poor VTR sound by the BBC, but also the back-projected Corrs logo that came on upside down.) Andrea admitted that the crowd cheered hen it was moved round mid-song, and she thought the cheers were for the band. Next time perhaps we'll have a miniature Stonehenge or some dancing leprechauns?
A great show, and a great night.
I have to sign off now, as I have keep playing the Corrs to my friends. I can claim one convert already.

To the band - keep up the good work, good luck with the upcoming tours. Can't wait to see you play live again, hopefully in Cork in August, if not before.

Steve Jones, April 1998

(written on my sofa, laptop in hand (IBM), next to Karl, his laptop in hand (Dell), with various audio and visual Corr delights on the A/V system up front. Oh !, and a few tinnies of draught G fuelling the creative process) (This was conducted without the use of a safety net but with scientifically controlled & calculated data. Don't try this at home kids.....)

If you would like to add your personal review of a Corrs concert, simply send it to: Peter Shevlin