Info: On Saturday afternoon in Whelans on Wexford Street, Kodaline played a full set for their fans to celebrate the release of their second album, Coming Up For Air. The gig was the result of a new partnership between pureHMV and Whelanslive which entails the first 400 fans who purchase an artist's new album in certain HMV stores receiving special access to a live performance at the Dublin venue. I should point out that it is selected artists, bulk-buying 400 copies of Bruce Springsteen's next album will not lead you to a private performance with The Boss.
Before the show I joined a small group of journalists upstairs in the legendary venue, and as time was of the essence, the questions began promptly. Most of the discussion surrounded the recording of the new album and how the band were coping with their ever increasing presence in the limelight. I only managed to squeeze one question in, but in fairness overall we were given more time than expected. Anyway, if only all 'interviews' were this quick and easy! Almost exactly this time last year I found myself in the rather bizarre position of watching The Nolan Show at home, and I couldn't stop, it was intriguing, the level of tension and anger between nationalists and loyalists in the audience and the political factions on the panel was quite unnerving. Everybody was bloody miserable, and angry, Vincent Browne eat your heart out. Before our poor host brought the curtain down on the programme the lights dimmed and out came Kodaline, from Dublin, and they played a great acoustic version of well-known hit 'High Hopes', the audience became sedated and by the end of the performance everyone was happy and clapping (check out the punters beforehand in the video below, yikes!). So I took a little diversion in the line of questioning and asked the band what it was like waiting back stage knowing what awaited?
There was a collective sigh of 'yeah' before frontman Steve recalled them watching most of the show on the telescreen backstage; 'It was bizarre, we were sitting there just waiting in silence for the producer to give us our cue and there was this massively heated political debate going on, and we were just sitting there on the couch going, 'right'.'
Guitarist Mark recalled another encounter as they started to notice a pattern of being in sticky situations;
'But it's not the first time it's happened, we were on the Andrew Marr Show and they had economist Ed Balls on who was blaming the collapse of the English economy on Ireland and shouting 'You destroyed the economy, the Irish destroyed the economy!' Then it was like, ''and now it's time for these four Irish guys!'' Too awkward, we seem to keep ending up in that situation!'
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