We were never selling sex. We knew people would look at us but we wanted to make them listen to the music': Ten years since they split, The Corrs are back By LOUISE GANNON FOR EVENT MAGAZINEPUBLISHED: 22:01 GMT, 31 October 2015 | UPDATED: 23:21 GMT, 31 October 2015 Feted by U2, riding high with Breathless, they were the Irish sensations who simply vanished. Now they’ve emerged from ten years in the wilderness, with tales of burn-out, bickering and blowing millions...'I found the whole celebrity thing difficult to handle. I felt exposed by it all – I was very self-critical,' said Andrea Corr (centre on couch) - the youngest member of The Corrs (also pictured l-r Jim, Sharon and Caroline Corr) Ten years ago, The Corrs had it all. Their irresistible blend of Celtic folk and radio-friendly rock had catapulted the band of three beautiful sisters and their big brother from the back-street bars of Dublin into the stratosphere of the pop world. With five platinum albums and 40 million sales, hugely lucrative world tours and the biggest-selling album of 1997, Talk On Corners, they notched up hit after hit with songs such as Breathless, What Can I Do and Only When I Sleep. The patron saint of Irish bands, U2’s Bono, adored and feted them, joining the group on stage as they conquered America and even dashing back to Dublin for the day mid-tour to attend the lead singer’s wedding. Their undeniable musicianship (they all played their own instruments, a heady Irish stew of fiddles, tin whistles, drums and guitars) was hardly hampered by the fact that they had uncommon beauty on their side. Andrea – the youngest – was named The Most Beautiful Girl In The World by American Vogue in 1998 and was romantically linked to Robbie Williams, Simon Fuller and, yes, Bono. ‘We are passionate. We have Spanish blood running through the Irish in our veins. We would have rows; there would be lots of shouting and screaming. Some families don’t survive working together,' said Sharon ‘And the rest,’ she says today with a wry smile. ‘Often people I’d never met.’ And yet in 2005, after ten years at the top, they walked away from it all. But now they’re back, with a rousing new album and a cautionary tale of band bust-ups, anxiety attacks, financial meltdowns and family tragedies. ‘It was burnout,’ Andrea, now 41, reveals. ‘It happens to bands. You don’t stop working, you don’t stop touring. 'I found the whole celebrity thing difficult to handle. I felt exposed by it all – I was very self-critical.’ Behind the folky image of flowing skirts and floating melodies, however, fiery arguments were frequent. ‘We are passionate’, says Sharon. ‘We have Spanish blood running through the Irish in our veins. 'We would have rows; there would be lots of shouting and screaming. Some families don’t survive working together. Look at The Kinks, look at Oasis. ‘It’s hard enough working with the same group of people day in day out, travelling together, performing together, let alone being a family in that situation. 'Our most remarkable success was ending after ten years and being in a place where we were all still speaking to each other. That was actually a triumph.’ They’re as close-knit again today as a finely woven Aran sweater, but the band’s comeback from the pop wilderness is framed by tragedy. Earlier this year, within three months of returning to the studio, the siblings were on a plane to be at their father Gerry’s bedside. He died, aged 82, in hospital in Dublin. Six months on it is visibly painful for them to talk about. ‘My parents were so proud of the music we made and when we lost my mother, my father had us and he had the music. I think he wanted us to get back together and he was thrilled when we did it,' said Jim ‘I think we all have great faith we’ll see him and my mother again one day – and we feel them in our hearts,’ says Jim, the eldest sibling. In 1999 their mother, Jean, died while waiting for a lung transplant. The band dedicated Home, their last album, to her in 2005. And so it’s fitting that their new album, White Light, is for their father. Sharon fails to hold back tears as she talks about his death. ‘My parents were so proud of the music we made and when we lost my mother, my father had us and he had the music. 'I think he wanted us to get back together and he was thrilled when we did it. He wasn’t ill, none of us expected him to go.’ She adds: ‘They loved each other, they loved music and they loved us. It’s still so raw – we still go from laughing one minute to gut-wrenching tears.’ Jim nods and picks up the story. ‘Dad was the reason we began singing’, he says. ‘My mother was the more sensible one telling us to finish our education. 'My dad just told us to go for it, do what you love. It’s a great thing they both lived to see us do so well and that Dad heard us play together again before he passed.’ The Corrs are Irish music royalty: their parents were musicians, playing in a band called The Sound Affair in the Seventies, and Andrea was just 16 when the fledgling group started performing in Dublin’s bars and pubs. Their career moved up a gear when they auditioned for a part – as musicians – in the movie The Commitments in 1991. Andrea was given a few speaking lines. In 1994, they were asked by the U.S. ambassador to Ireland to play at the World Cup in Boston. The following year they signed a deal and toured the U.S. with Celine Dion, sending them to the top of the U.S. charts. ‘I just don’t want to see any more a** shots or women twerking into cameras. I love Taylor Swift, I love Adele because they are all about the music. We were never selling sex, we were selling our songs,' said Sharon The four siblings (Andrea, 41, vocals and tin whistle, Sharon, 45, violin and vocals, Caroline, 42, drums and vocals, and Jim, 51, guitar, keyboards and vocals) conquered America and in an era of Britney, Christina, Madonna and The Spice Girls helped counter the image of female singers as mere sex objects. Today they roll their eyes when the issue of sexuality in pop is raised. ‘I just don’t want to see any more a** shots or women twerking into cameras,’ says Sharon. ‘I love Taylor Swift, I love Adele because they are all about the music. We were never selling sex, we were selling our songs. ‘We are women, we are musicians. We knew people would look at us but we wanted to make them listen to the music. 'Right now we have the Suffragette movie out, telling us about how women fought for rights, but in our industry we seem to have gone right back.’ Like their looks, the new songs pick up where they left off in 2005. Today the women seem untouched by time; even Jim appears uncannily unchanged. He laughs. ‘Now how would anyone know that? No one ever looked at me. I have three incredibly attractive sisters. The more people look at them and the fewer look at me the happier I am.’ When Sharon was put in front of artists for a Portrait Of The Year competition last year, several painters complained that she was a poor subject because she was ‘frankly too beautiful’. ‘I pretended to be offended but secretly I was thrilled,’ she says. Up close it is clear no surgeon’s knives have been allowed anywhere near these glorious faces.‘Eleanor Rigby’, says Andrea cryptically when asked to explain her timelessness. ‘I keep my face in a jar. I use good products and a lot of how I look is down to very good make-up. ’Caroline chimes in: ‘I think we all look after ourselves. We all eat very well. No junk. ‘People think of us all as being so clean and pristine and maybe we were. I was offered drugs as a teenager but I was never offered drugs in the band. We were three girls with their big brother...’ Despite their butter-wouldn’t-melt image, The Corrs were immediately accepted by the rock legends of their heyday. ‘There were so many moments we couldn’t believe we were part of,’ Jim recalls. ‘One of the most incredible times was being asked by Nelson Mandela to play his 46664 concert in 2003. 'Afterwards we got in a tiny plane with Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel and Brian May to go to a safari ranch. 'We left the ranch in the night to go for a midnight safari and later ended up on the roofs of our Land Rovers staring at the sky with Brian May pointing out all the stars and constellations to us [the Queen guitarist has a PhD in astrophysics].’'No one ever looked at me. I have three incredibly attractive sisters. The more people look at them and the fewer look at me the happier I am,' said Jim Is it partly to recapture some of these memories that they’ve decided to have another crack at the big time? ‘We just felt the time was right’, says Jim. ‘There isn’t anyone else out there like us. We want to be bigger than before.’ Even bigger than their mates U2? He laughs: ‘There’s always room at the top.’ In the decade after they disbanded in 2005, Jim learned to fly helicopters, raised his eight-year-old son, Brandon, and lost a fortune on the Irish property market. He is a vocal critic of the EU and believes much of the Irish financial crash was due to a decision by financiers to deliberately burst the property bubble. ‘A lot of lies and corruption has been pedalled to our country,’ he says. ‘People say the economy is getting better but on the ground you can’t see it. 'More and more soup kitchens are opening up and suicide in Ireland is at an all-time high.’ He will not specify how much money he lost. ‘Shedload covers it,’ he says. ‘I’m lucky enough to be in a position that it hasn’t ruined me but many people’s lives have been wrecked.’ For his sisters, the band break-up was an opportunity to reclaim a life. ‘We are three women and one man,’ says Sharon. ‘Caroline had babies, she wanted to be a mum, do the school run, bake cakes. 'I was married, I wanted to have children [she now has Cathal, nine and seven-year-old Flori]. I wanted reality and I also wanted to face my own fears and do my own music.’ She put out two solo albums. ‘I loved it but I also missed my family. I threw myself at a lot of things. I did The Voice in Ireland, I toured. 'I suffered anxiety attacks because I was so sleep-deprived trying to do everything. But I pushed myself and I grew in confidence.’ Sharon has moved to France, Caroline to Somerset and Andrea to London, where she is married to Brett Desmond, the son of Irish billionaire Dermot Desmond. The couple have two children – Jean, three, and two-year-old Brett Jr. When The Corrs ended, Andrea was single, although inundated with offers. She smiles: ‘I always wanted to get married and I’m glad I didn’t marry someone I loved but knew wasn’t the one forever. 'I met Brett when The Corrs were over. I waited and found the man for life.’ Andrea produced two solo albums but the poor reception made her turn her back on the industry and spend years as an actress working in theatre. She appeared as Christina in Dancing At Lughnasa at The Old Vic in 2009 and as Jane Eyre at The Gate in Dublin the following year. Both roles required her to look plain and dowdy. ‘That was the bit I loved most,’ she says. ‘To remove every trace of vanity.’ She decided she wouldn’t sing again. ‘I loved the solo albums but they weren’t albums the record company wanted. I was deflated. It knocks it out of you. You lose the will to sing. ‘But when we all stood in the studio it was like coming home. We all felt the magic. We felt we were making something special.’ ‘White Light’ is out Nov 27 on East West. The band will tour the UK in January
The Corrs recorded an appearance at The Graham Norton Show (@thegnshow) yesterday! Airdate tba.
The Irish quartet - siblings Andrea, Sharon, Caroline and Jim - are back after a 10-year hiatus and have talked about the "massive focus" on women's looks.The Corr sisters are known for their beauty as well as their music, and Sharon, 45, said that while there is "a lot more equality" now she thinks people may have underestimated the musical abilities of the three sisters.She told the Press Association: "I do think that people tended a little bit to look at the girls and think possibly we weren't writing... and yet that was probably never a question when you look at a guy."Caroline, 42, added: "There is a lot of pressure on women though... the whole ageing process. People are obsessed with it."It's such a compliment to us when people say 'oh you guys look great for your age'. It's lovely."But you do realise that there is a massive focus on that nowadays, and I think it's really difficult, especially for women who would like to just grow old gracefully and not have that focus but it is always there and that's just the way it is."At the same time we take it as a compliment of course."Andrea, 41, said when she looks back the focus on their looks only made them work harder and play live more, adding that she "wouldn't really change a thing".At the height of their fame, the band was the subject of a sketch on Saturday morning show SMTV Live in which hosts Cat Deeley and Ant and Dec joked about "the beautiful Corrs", which Sharon described as "hilarious".Meanwhile the band's latest album White Light - their first major release since 2004 - has received a "very good review" from U2 frontman Bono.Andrea said: "He has heard it all. We're very fortunate to have him as a friend and also in certain ways a bodyguard."I will often go to him with, 'what do you think of this?' He has been so supportive and really loves the record."She added: "I'm really happy when it's positive because also I know he'd tell me the truth if he didn't like it, I'd be hearing all about it, so it's a hell of a compliment."The family from Dundalk, Co Louth, have sold more than 30 million albums since their 1995 debut Forgiven Not Forgotten.Their father died earlier this year and they say they have found it "comforting" to spend lots of time together.Andrea said: "Since January now we've been back with each other, and in a lot of ways it seems almost fated."For us it's been great being together. We were doing the record but then our father passed away. So actually being together, as we have to be now, has been really comforting, because we do have a shared history and the shared loss a nd to put that into our work, and into our music and into our performance together is another blessing."She added: "Thank God that happened when we were together and not when we were more split up in our own individual lives."Sharon said: "It's more than nice. It's way more than nice. It's kind of like coming home in so many ways. And we are an amazing comfort to each other, and especially around the time of Dad."Jim is the only band member to still live in Ireland, and while Sharon said she misses the brown bread, Caroline said she misses "the familiarity of the Irish people".She added: "When I go home to Ireland I'm always amazed that I just have random chats with people, strangers, there's something really beautiful about that."The Corrs will play concerts across the UK and Ireland in January and White Light is out on November 27
Just announced!! The #Corrs are joining us at CarFest North on Saturday 30th July. #runaway tickets! @TheCorrsNews
Sharon Corr will be touring in January with her brother, Jim and sisters Andrea and Caroline, who make up The Corrs. They hadn't performed together in ten years until Hyde Park in September but they have certainly come back with a bang with their new album White Light. We talked to Sharon about the transition from solo artist back to being in a band and what we can look forward to from their tour dates.What can fans expect from your new album White Light?It's a pretty great album as far as we're concerned! It's a real journey; the songs are very beautiful and very heartfelt. They're inspired by life experience and there's a lot of honesty in there. Some of the songs are very uplifting and there's a determination to live and to enjoy in the lyrics.There's also sadness during this record after losing our father- he is very much reflected in there as well. It shows our determination and our resolve to fight and to be positive. To do what we love and love what we do.It's a real musical journey and the people who have been fans over the years will love it but also anyone new will also love it too because it is very musical.We are a very organic band- we write all our own music, play and sing, so it has an organic feel to it and a modern feel too. There are a lot of new sounds in there so we are happy with it.Why did you settle on calling it after the third track on your album?In many ways it represented so many different feelings on the album. Andrea wrote the lyrics after watching the Amy Winehouse documentary. There's a great line from Tony Bennett 'You have got to live long enough to learn how to live'. It's such a good line because there have been so many artists under that White Light who just couldn't cope with it and couldn't handle it.I think as you get a little bit older; the things that once seemed so stressful, you come to realise that they weren't worth worrying about. Sometimes you just need a little bit more time and a little bit more living to be able to live better.White Light refers to being on stage and being at the centre of something and having that White Light and having to perform.Then there is a White Light in the sense of an afterlife and the White Light that people speak about.It encapsulated the album in so many ways in what we do for a living. You are constantly exposed under the White Light. Some of us survive it, some of us live it and love it and how some of us don't survive it.Please tell us when you decided to reform as a group- why was the time right for you all?It was Caroline who brought it up. She called us last September and asked us if we would be open to doing this. We all said 'yes.'For us we never broke up, we just stopped doing what we were doing for a while- 10 years! We've also had solo careers in that time so it wasn't like we just walked away from music. It just felt right.For myself, I felt that there was an unfinished journey there- there was more to happen. We did it in a very beautiful way- we did it under the radar- we just felt it out to see if it would work. We got into the studio and we decided that everybody should come up with song ideas and bring them together and see if we had something that was good.The music was just magical from the start and that kind of set it in stone. It was just all there- we have all lived more and probably are all a bit more understanding, world wise, accommodating and open. We could see ourselves looking in from the outside and said 'wow isn't it great- the magic of four people together. Isn't it great what we can produce together'.We have this amazing appreciation of the fact that the four is the magic and without one of us- it's not there.It has been an incredibly collaborative record and the joy to work on. If any of us got stuck on an idea and thought it was the wrong way to do it- we would usually just go 'let's just sit with that for a while', and the person would say 'let's try your idea'. So we were a bit more open and slowly but surely we had this great amount of songs, we knew we were good. We played them to the record company and they were like, 'Great a new Corrs album!' We have probably been one of their biggest sellers ever. They have been trying to get us back for years.It was important that we took time out. We are a family, we grew up in the same house, it was very important that we had our own family and independent lives on track.When we did stop, we stopped at the height of our success and really thought we had achieved beyond our wildest dreams.We never stopped making music, we never thought this is the end we thought -this is just a new chapter.How have the fans been since the announcement of your new tour?Ecstatic! They have been going nuts on social media. The minute you put up a gig, a tour, a new song, the album or photos they are really happy. We have got a global fan base so the great thing about social media is that you can reach people in Brazil in seconds. We get this really great feedback and we say 'we really need to go there- we need to tour there'. It's been a super positive response- it feels like a big hug- it's really good!You have 8 performances coming up in January up and down the country- where is your favourite place to gig and where do you get the best reception?Wow- every country has its own thing. The UK is like family to us- we are so embraced here. At one stage we were number one and number two in the album charts and that was going on 10/12/14 weeks at a time. The British people really took us to their hearts and we do feel like family here so this is going to be super special.The last time we were playing in the UK we were playing six Wembleys. We are back in the O2 this time. It's going to be gorgeous- I look forward to going back to Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. Everywhere has its own different culture with lots of great food and wine to taste while you're out on the road so it's all very diverse.Can we expect a few of the old favourites as well as your new material?Of course! I have been so annoyed when I have gone to gigs of people that I've loved and they done nothing I've ever heard before. That really irritates me- so fans will hear the greatest hits and then some new stuff and we have reinterpreted some old stuff. There will be some of the hits that have been done in a completely different way because we just enjoy making music. Music is just like a river, it's constantly flowing and changing and it's important to inject life into old material.Did having that gap mean that you had a lot of material to work with for song writing?I think we had a lot of experience. I have been on the road now as a solo artist for a number of years and I have grown in confidence a lot.We all write- we all bring very different sides to the song. I think time apart maybe gave us an appetite as well for being together. If you're fifteen years on the road together on a couch every single day answering questions- you get a little jaded! I'm not saying we didn't appreciate it but we certainly couldn't appreciate it as much with the work level.I think now we are less anxious in situations and more open. We have a big laugh together when we're doing an interview- being a bit silly and going 'wow this is a great job!'How did it feel for you moving from a solo artist back to being in a band?It's been an absolute privilege- I get to do both. I'm amazed- I'm really happy in life. I had this amazing journey with The Corrs which was absolutely incredible. It was the foundation to anything I could do on my own. Then I had this totally different journey on my own which was a lovely success for me and I have loved it. Now I'm back doing this and I feel very lucky.Please tell us about Hyde Park- were you nervous before going out together for the first time in so long?There were a few nerves- I think it was more excitement than anything else and going 'wow I can't believe we're doing this!' We went out to 60,000 people and that was the first gig back. That is very typical of The Corrs- we only ever jump in at the deep end. In Hyde Park it's our audience really- when we were doing Runaway- the whole audience sang it! You could get much more love than that. I was fighting back the tears at that point. I can feel it now- it was an incredibly special moment. It feels really great- we were super happy after it.You mentioned in your last interview with us that you are thinking about a solo third album- is that still the plan?I don't know, I think maybe down the line. I'm not making plans like that at the moment because I don't believe that you should ever be involved in one thing and thinking about another. I'm fully engaged in this and this is a beautiful project and a real privilege for me to work with my family. The work is shared between four so it's easier and it's fun.I won't say never- I will sometime in the future but I'm not at all planning that right now. I'm completely focused on this and I would say The Corrs will do another album and maybe more. You have to give something that you're into your all.The album is so beautiful- congratulations. Your songs always give me goosebumps and I wondered if you still feel like that when you're performing them?They do sometimes, it's a little bit different for the artist. Sometimes when you're performing a song that you've written you really get shivers and it's amazing because it really touches you. You wouldn't write it if it didn't touch you- you are writing because you are touched by something. That's what fuels the music out of you.I do very often get goosebumps during Runaway and I always have. It really doesn't matter how long we've been playing the song for- I always get them.I also love Only When I Sleep. I love the feeling of that song and it was an opener on the gigs we used to do.A lot of the new stuff is quite vulnerable and sometimes makes me feel tearful and also really joyful. We have done an awful lot of exposed harmonies on the record of us three girls singing together. There is something very raw and truthful about it that I find quite emotional.White Light is out on the 27th November and is available for pre order on Amazon.Read more: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/interviews/sharon-corr-interview-the-corrs-white-light-891971.html#ixzz3qdrWVHl2
Interview filming...
