CORONAS VISIT
IRISH BAND ‘THE CORONAS’ VISIT SLIGO AS THEY LAUNCH NEW ALBUM
THE Coronas took to the road last week to promote their new album ‘ True Love Waits’ and paid a visit to Sligo on Thursday from their ice-cream van.
The band commandeered an album artwork bedecked ice cream freezer truck, and they decided to drive around Ireland selling and signing the new album while dispensing Murphy’s of Dingle ice cream cups.
They pleaded with fans on social media in advance of the event at Johnston Court last Thursday to respect social distancing, wear masks and to use hand sanitizer stations ns provided, and the crowd adhered to the rules as can be seen from our photographs of the event.
No strangers to the town of Sligo, the band headlined Sligo Live in 2019. Other towns on their ice-cream van trip included Athlone, Newbridge and Killarney.
They were just about to embark on a planned six-month world tour in support of their long-awaited sixth album when a certain unfortunately named virus spoiled the party.
Looking back on the last several surreal months, Coronas’ frontman Danny O’Reilly said: “The first thing we did, as the crisis unfolded, was tweet Corona Beer, asking them what their plan was.”
Their outreach remains unanswered. “Now when we chat to our mates in bands who have also had to postpone gigs and tours, I just remind them things could be worse - you could share a name with the virus!”
A quartet for its first 13 years, last summer The Coronas became a trio when guitarist Dave
McPhillips unexpectedly left the bandband.
Briefly, they questioned whether to continue but, once the shock had subsided, something dawned on the Dubliners.
If they weren’t the band they used to be, why make music as they always had?
“In retrospect, the shock of Dave leaving the band helped us get a clearer picture of what we wanted the new album to be,” explained O’Reilly. “When we accepted that we weren’t going to be the same band without him, it was easier to let the new songs lead us in ways we wouldn’t have thought of before.”
“Rather than replace Dave,” O’Reilly continued, “we actually contemplated ditching guitars entirely. But instead, we opened ourselves up to work with loads of our talented friends, mainly because the songs warranted it, and we had an amazing young producer in George Murphy, who knew exactly the kind of album we wanted to make.”
‘ True Love Waits’ is available to buy now.