The Coronas want to collaborate with Prince.
The indie rock band – comprised of lead singer Danny O’Reilly, drummer Conor Egan, bassist Graham Knox and guitarist Dave McPhillips – have already opened for Sir Paul McCartney and supported The Script on tour and now have their sights set on working with the ‘Purple Rain’ hitmaker.
Frontman Danny exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "I’d love to work with Prince, he’s just a musician that blows me away. I remember watching the Super Bowl when he did the half-time performance [in 2007] and he was phenomenal. I’ve never seen him live but he’s just one of those musicians who is an icon and can play any instrument. To work with him would be amazing."
While the group have had huge success in their native Ireland since releasing debut record ‘Heroes or Ghosts’ in 2007, including beating U2 and Snow Patrol to Best Album at the 2010 Meteor Awards for their second record ‘Tony Was An Ex-Con’, they are happy to start all over again in the UK, Europe and further afield, because it gives them a chance to play more live shows.
Danny explained: "The stage we’re at now in the UK, we were at that stage in Ireland about four or five years ago, where we’re getting one or two hundred people at gigs and getting some regional play on radio and just trying to build on that so it’s just like starting again. At the stage where we are back home doing bigger gigs, we can afford to come over here and work our way up.
"We quite like the smaller gigs because in a way the more successful you are in a smaller territory like Ireland the less gigging you can do. We’re only doing the 02 at Christmas and a few gigs in the summer and you’re trying to sell out those bigger gigs so you don’t do any touring really.
"We’ve just finished our first UK tour and we were really happy with the numbers that we’ve had at the gigs. It was our first UK tour we didn’t really know what to expect, the crowds were really receptive and it was great for us to get out on the road too. When we’ve had a bit of time off we miss performing live."
The Coronas’ album ‘Closer To You’ is released in the UK today (14.05.12).