The high cost of loving
There are no saints in love. That’s a lesson The Frames’ mainman Glen Hansard learned the hard way – and which he articulates in the bittersweet love songs that make up much of the band’s new album The Cost. Hot Press hits the road with the band for an extended interview, conducted in radio studios, backstage areas, tour buses – and one very dedicated fan’s house.
Adrienne Murphy, 16 Oct 2006
At the Town Hall Theatre in Galway, I feel slightly sick as I raise my hand to knock on the backstage door. This breaking-the-ice part of an ‘on-the-road-with-a-band’ job never gets any easier.
No worries. The Frames and their entourage are smiley, welcoming folk. They’re sitting round chilling with cups of tea after a particularly brilliant seated Galway gig in The Town Hall, exuberantly received by a standing ovation.
At the gig, frontman Glen Hansard got some good-humoured heckling going with the Galway punters with his ironic, self-deprecating wit. When he told us that he was reading the Bible’s Book of Revelations and described a current theory that George Bush and other Christian fundamentalists are consciously pushing an anti-environmental policy so as to deliberately hasten Armageddon, a piss-taker roared, “Go on ye mad cunt!” “Thank you, that’s exactly what I needed to hear,” the singer declared, before dedicating the next song, ‘People Get Ready’, to him.
Backstage after the gig, I note the lack of post-match analysis amongst the band. No vultures arrive to pick over the scene; instead everyone is basking wordlessly in the satisfying aftermath of a brilliant performance. A longstanding fan offers Hansard a shoulder massage, which he declines, saying that massages tend to make him tense. The same guy gives myself and Hansard a run-down on our personalities by interpreting our dates of birth, and a lively discussion on the merits of numerology, astrology and, bizarrely, hand-ball alleys, ensues.
On the table there’s a copy of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which, by a pleasant synchronicity, I’m currently reading to my six-year-old son...
Next day we’re having breakfast in the hotel. While Glen retired earlier than most, many of the Frames crew – band, roadies, sound guys, manager – had stayed up socialising until the early hours, downing a few drinks in the residents’ bar. There is that distinct atmosphere of a morning after the night before – though in fact it’s lunchtime already. As the conversation unwinds, it’s clear that Glen, drummer Johnny, violinist Colm, bass player Joe and guitarist Rob are open, smart, funny people with a taste for the surreal and fanciful.
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Adrienne Murphy
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The Frames Hotel Curracloe, Wexford Preaching to the choir is for the godless. The Frames, possessors of possibly the largest ‘choir’ in Ireland in the form of a fanbase more devout than most religions, have nevertheless always seemed to prefer to shun the easy option.
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2001-03-15 - REVIEW
The Frames were the envy of the class of 1990, jammy dodgers who had a deal before they were a band, forced to evolve in public at an unmerciful rate. By the time most acts get ready to demo their first batch of songs, Glen Hansard and co. were on their second album and record deal.
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