Danny O’Reilly from The Coronas buzzing to gig in Derry again as he gears up for Live at the Square

The group are top of a bill that includes Ryan McMullan, Odhrán Murphy and Rue, all of whom will be appearing at St. Columb’s Park on May 28.

“We’re really excited...this is the first promo where it feels like we are back to a bit of normality and promoting big gigs. We have a really busy summer ahead - lots of festivals, lots of gigs...it’s great for us. We haven’t played in Derry in too long. We just walked by the Nerve Centre there and that was our last show in 2012,” said Danny, during a visit to the city on Tuesday.

A scion of the famous Black family of Raithlin island - Danny is the son of Mary and nephew of Frances - the Dublin rocker is no stranger to the north. He told the ‘Journal’ he has an affinity with the audiences and people here.

“I was back here for the Fleadh and had a great time. I wasn’t playing, just having the crack. We’ve always been welcomed up north. It’s one of those things we are really grateful for. You just never know being a Dublin band but I think people are aware of the family background and that stands to us.

“I remember even coming up to the Fleadh and strangers in the street were coming up and saying, ‘Oh, I know your auntie and I know your mother’ and it’s great. They are great people in Derry so we are buzzing to get back gigging here,” he said.

With six records to their name and a further album due for release this year The Coronas are keen to get back on the road proper. The Derry gig will be an opportunity for fans to hear songs old and new - including current single ‘Write Our Own Soundtrack’ - which will be among a new suite of tracks published in September.

Danny acknowledges the past few years have been trying ones for musicians due to the vagaries of the pandemic. As luck would have it their last record ‘True Love Waits’ hit the shops in July 2020 - the height of the lockdown in Ireland. The band made the correct decision to release the album and were rewarded with a chart-topping position.

“It was really tough going. We had already released four or five songs from it so it just felt wrong to wait. I’m glad we didn’t now because we wouldn’t have waited another two years. It felt right just to put it out there and we’re delighted we did. Now we are getting to play it live and it’s great to be back. We did a couple of shows in February and it’s great to be able to play the songs live. That’s what they were written for. We’ve some brand new songs as well. We’ll be playing them. It’s an exciting time.”

The group did find themselves in the bizarre situation of sharing a name with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and joked at one stage of considering a rebrand.

“There was so much uncertainty. Then you throw in our stupid, unfortunate band name as well which was on a whole other level of weirdness on an already weird situation!

“The first thing we did was tweet ‘Corona’ - the beer - asking them what was their plan? Did they have a plan to rebrand or whatever? Yeah listen it’s fine now. It is what it is. By all accounts our Spotify numbers have gone up. I’d like to think it’s because we have good music but who knows!”

Danny says he initially struggled to write songs amid the surreality of the pandemic.

“It’s hard to write about what you are going through when the whole world is going through this mad pandemic but eventually I got this burst of creativity and before we knew it last summer I had a big bunch of songs that I sent to the rest of the band and we were like, ‘That’s it. We are ready to go with the next album’.”

Live at the Square runs over two days, Friday, May 27, and Saturday, May 28. The Friday will feature Dutch house DJs Blasterjaxx, Laidback Luke, Sander Van Doorn and Tim Hox. The Coronas headline the Saturday gig. Tickets are priced at £40 and are available at https://www.glistrr.com/events/e/the-coronas-3265-2?ref=s2&fbclid=IwAR3dlU1SrynBKIXrxOgvgTnMtfpOayC6E3DYQzQ3XDNlsl8_6gfC8tEA5rw

“We’re just ready to go and really excited about getting back into gigging,” says Danny, as Derry gets set for the first full-blown summer of gigs in three years.

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