I have been talking to the Corrs for less than five minutes when Andrea gets her first fit of the giggles. Actually, giggles is too polite a way to put it. The sex symbol singer starts shrieking like a toddler having its toes tickled. Within seconds, her sister Sharon is at it too, though, to be fair, the equally striking violinist has a slightly more ladylike laugh. And the object of the pair’s amusement? Their brother and bandmate, Jim. Or rather, Jim’s somewhat sheepish admission that he has bought himself a helicopter.
“OK, it’s crazy,” he says, in a tone that suggests that this is not the first time his family have teased him about the typically pop star purchase. “I know how it sounds, but honestly, I’m not an extravagant guy. Well, not normally.”
So where does Jim park his boy’s toy?
“A very nice friend lets me land it at his house, which is about 15 minutes from where I live. And, er, I’ve just bought a place in Belfast which happens to have a helicopter pad.”
Cue more giggles from the girls and a sigh from Jim.
Meeting the Corrs — or meeting three quarters of the band, as the pregnant drummer Caroline is at home in Ireland — is a lot more fun than you might imagine. The siblings from Dundalk may make music that could be described as a bit bland, if always tuneful and at least a tad unusual for its traditional Irish influences, but in person they bear little relation to their wholesome image. Just ask Bono, a close friend who once claimed that the Corrs could drink Oasis under the table.
Today, the Corrs are in a particularly playful mood and it doesn’t take long to work out why. As cheesy as it sounds, the band are just happy to be back making music. The summer release of their latest album, Borrowed Heaven, followed a two-year break from the business, during which they considered calling it a day.
“When we finished touring the last album, we were physically wrecked and mentally jaded,” Andrea admits. “That was autumn 2001 and we just went home and made no plans at all. In ten years, we hadn’t taken any time off — maybe two days here and there, but that was it. I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally, I didn’t even know if I would ever record again. I was so tired I just wanted to close the curtains, lie down and not have a time when I had to get up.”
Of course, when you have sold more than 30 million albums, you can afford to lie in. Not that the band didn’t find ways to stay busy, albeit on more personal projects. While a Best Of collection kept the Corrs in the charts, the siblings seem to have spent most of their time off apart. Sharon married her longterm barrister boyfriend, while Caroline not only married, but produced the first baby Corr, Jake, now 18 months old. Jim got his pilot’s licence and Andrea returned to acting — she began her career as a teenager in Alan Parker’s The Commitments in 1990 — with the lead role in an Irish film called The Boys from County Clare, due out next March.
“I play a naive but curious girl from a remote part of Ireland who is desperate to see the rest of the world,” explains Andrea. “I have turned down a lot of films in the past, but this one came along at just the right time and it had a great script — it makes you cry one minute and laugh the next. It was good to act again, but at the moment, it’s not my career. I prefer to make music.”
Indeed, Andrea was first back in to the studio, not with the Corrs, but with Bono and Gavin Friday, with whom she recorded a song for the soundtrack of Jim Sheridan’s hit film In America. Titled Time Enough for Tears, the Celtic-tinged ballad would later find its way on to Borrowed Heaven.
In their time off, however, the Corrs did play together occasionally, mostly it seems, for Nelson Mandela.
“We played an Irish jig for him at a party in Dublin,” says Jim. “He was receiving an honorary doctorate from University College and we were invited along. When we started playing, he got up on the dancefloor all on his own and started shuffling around. Everyone was so shocked they didn’t even join in. They just sat there staring.”
So is Mandela a good dancer? “Er, he’s a great orator,” says Jim. “I’m not so sure about his dancing.”
Nevertheless, a friendship was formed and the Corrs played for Mandela twice in South Africa. By the second time, the band had begun work on Borrowed Heaven, with all four writing, separately at first, then in pairs. They knuckled down to recording sessions with the Swedish producer Olle Romo and the result was another catchy collection of pop-rock songs. Borrowed Heaven is a huge improvement on its predecessor, In Blue, which many regard as a misguided bid to appeal to more Americans. The album’s first single, Summer Sunshine, was the Corrs’ most upbeat-sounding song to date and became their umpteenth Top 10 hit. Some fans, however, were disappointed that Borrowed Heaven wasn’t a return to the more traditionally Irish sound of the Corrs’ early albums.
“We always try to make music with an Irish influence,” says Jim, “but sometimes, it just doesn’t work. This time, we used classical lines, Middle Eastern sounds and African singers. We piece the songs together the way we think works best, but you can never please everyone. The best you can hope for is to keep most of the fans with you while you change and pick up a few more in the process.”
The Corrs claim they have never made music for money or fame and, unusually for a band who can buy helicopters, it’s easy to believe them. And, despite the sisters’ stunning looks, they have never courted the cameras. Andrea still laughs about the time she was romantically linked to the Spice Girls’ inventor, Simon Fuller, whom she had met only briefly at the Brits. And Sharon giggles at the suggestion that she and Caroline have had plastic surgery — “That was Caroline’s fault,” she says. “We went to a fashion show together and she had really overlined her lips. She can’t have been looking in the mirror when she put on her make-up.”
“We all believe you dictate the personal life you lead,” adds Andrea. “If you go out with a couple of big bodyguards, of course people are going to stare. We go to the supermarket looking really rough and the only person who’ll notice is a fan who catches you in the tampon section and asks for an autograph. That’s always embarrassing, but hey, it’s a small price to pay for doing what you love.”
The Corrs’ tour starts Nov 1.
