A sort of homecoming
Making no secret of their ambition to follow in the footsteps of U2, The Script have been sweeping all before them in America. But now they're about to return to Ireland, for two of the biggest shows of their career. Ahead of their Oxegen and Aviva Stadium dates they talk about striking gold in the US, the sacrifices that come with success, hanging with hip-hop superstars – and the perils of being a gossip industry target.
Stuart Clark, 29 Jun 2011
It’s two o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon and Danny O’Donoghue sounds like he might have had a few too many pints of foamy last night.
“Was I on the piss?” he croaks down the trans-Atlantic blower from Boston. “I wish! We did such an energetic gig in Central Park – there was something like 7,500 people there – that I ended up doing damage to my voice. When you’re playing somewhere like that you have to go hell for leather – and damn the consequences!
“We’ve had to cancel a couple of gigs and chill out a bit, which is weird after all the frantic racing around the place we’ve been doing.”
The last time I got to indulge in social intercourse with The Script’s 30-year-old lead singer was last October when he was worrying about how the band’s then soon-to-be-released second album, Science & Faith, would be received.
“There are a lot of bands who’ve had big-ish first albums and then disappeared,” Danny says, mindful of the ‘now you see them/now you don’t’ fate that’s befallen the likes of Duffy, Toploader and fellow Dubs The Thrills, all of whom received unwelcome crash-courses in the fickleness of the record-buying public.
His concerns proved to be unwarranted, with Science & Faith debuting at No. 1 in Ireland, 4 in the UK and, perhaps even more importantly in terms of their globe-conquering ambitions, No. 5 in America where they’ve been touring their pert asses off this year.
“We’ve been doing as much promo as possible in support of the album and ‘For The First Time’, which has been on the pop chart for 19 weeks. As well as an hour-and-forty minutes pretty much every night, we’ve being doing lounge gigs during the day where you head off to a local bar and play a few songs acoustically, radio sessions, soundcheck parties, meet ‘n’ greets and pretty much anything that helps get the word out there. When you’re spinning plates over here, you want to make sure they’re all still up in the air!”
While some bands take degree courses in false modesty, Danny seems genuinely gobsmacked that they’re currently rubbing radio station playlists with the likes of Lady Gaga, Adele, Rihanna and Beyoncé.
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