Corrs Without A Rebel

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There will be no cursing, no insiduous bitching nor tales of drunken debauchery.
There's is the squeakiest clean image in the business despite sporting good looks that make the Spice Girls look like drag queens. Ranging in ages from 23 (Andrea, lead singer) to 33 (Jim), The Corrs are the family next door with none of the superstar stuff. They stoically accept the intrusions and adulation as part of show business but don't neccessarily welcome it. So what keeps them motivated? "Getting a kick out of being on stage."
In a drab dressing room in the State Theatre in Sydney, the Irish Echo had the audience of Andrea and violinist, Sharon Corr. Looking tired but gorgeous (and unfathomably slight in the flesh), we asked the girls how they feel about all the attention on image. "It's not annoying because we don't really care what they focus on, to be honest," muses Andrea, who was described in an Irish paper as the "sexiest woman in Ireland." "It's the last thing we see of ourselves," she adds. "The last head you want to look at is your own...rather than make your head big, it makes you feel kind of ugghh (shudders)."
The family group, from Dundalk in County Louth, has come a long way since writing songs while Andrea was still at school. After doing a gig until 3.00am she would revert to the life of a schoolgirl by day. As for how fame has changed their lives, "it's not how you would imagine," says Sharon.
"Besotted guys and fans, that doesn't really happen...the only time we come in contact with guys our own age is in our own social circles or when we're signing autographs." In a recent interview in Hot Press, Andrea claimed not to have been involved with anyone for years. Read and weep boys.
Undeniably, Andrea and Sharon are extremely affable people - never a bad word for anyone. When asked what Madonna was like when she worked with her in Alan Parker's "Evita", Andrea is super-diplomatic: "Mmm, I don't know because I wouldn't like anyone to judge me on a day or to print what they could take as a judgement."
On the difficulties of working with family, Sharon is equally cautious: "We're lucky. I don't think many people would be able to do it. We've all had stages when we've said 'I don't know if I can do this anymore'. In the last year I mean it...", she trails off.
One recent article however earned the group's collective ire. Michael Ross in The Sunday Tribune claimed that session musicians did most of the work on their recent Talk On Corners album and that drummer Caroline featured on none of the tracks.
Exclaims Andrea earnestly: "That was the only bad article. And it was so blatantly untrue and bad that it kind of made it okay...this was one bad man who wrote that article."
No such begrudgery in these parts.
Sell-out shows around the country for their Talk On Corners '98 tour and sales in excess of 550,000 of eight-times-platinum Forgiven, Not Forgotten (Warner's third biggest seller of last year) are testament to their unprecedented appeal in Australia. Just why Aussies have fallen for the Corrs is due to a combination of reasons they believe - the number of Irish here, good support from Australian radio and a local affinity with the melodic pop tunes. It's a reciprocal relationship, however. The weather and the people top the list of attributes that continue to draw them back - this time with their parents.
"We're not going to be able to get them to go home," laughs Sharon.
By the way, anyone hoping to catch the girls on the town during the tour will be disappointed.
"You can't work with a hangover," they both retort.