Corrs manager releases New Age album

In a classic case of gamekeeper turning poacher, Corrs manager John Hughes goes for chart glory this week with the release of his own album, Wild Ocean.

Featuring contributions from Finbar Furey, The Chieftains and a certain Dundalk sister and brother act, the record has been five years in the making and is already causing a major stir in New Age circles

"The name Wild Ocean was supplied by Andrea Corr," Hughes reveals. "She listened to it and said, 'It's very big and vast and deep. It reminds me of the sea, it's a wild ocean.' She nailed it. It's all about air, light, water, the horizon. It's an elemental album."

Also appearing on the 11-track opus are the 60-piece Irish Film Orchestra, celebrated session man Anto Drennan and Hughes' latest protégé, Tara Blaze, who in a previous life was known as Tara Egan-Langley and fronted Dublin popsters Kaydee.

"I wanted a voice not so much for songs and lyrics, but because it's one of the great instruments," continues Hughes who dented the US Top 100 during the '80s as one half of Minor Detail. "Tara knows how to use her voice without words, but she also sings a couple of lyrics I based on W.B. Yeats."

The lyrics in question grace 'Deo', the album's lead single which is previewed on "the digital refuge away from the stresses of everyday life" that is www.wildocean.com

Meanwhile, last week saw Jim Corr going to sea as part of the anti-nuclear flotilla which was protesting at weapons grade plutonium being transported through Irish and Welsh waters.