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Graham Clark
Music Features Writer
@Maxximum23Clark
9:00 AM 28th January 2016
arts

The Corrs Supported By The Shires - Manchester Arena

 
The Corrs
The Corrs
The Shires were a suitable act to open up for The Corrs, this British country band was appreciated immensely by the audience. "We grew up listening to The Corrs and we never ever dreamed we would be supporting them" offer lead vocalist Crissie Rhodes. With strong tracks such as Friday Night and All Over Again they sound like they are a long term prospect.

The Shires
The Shires
It is over 10 years since The Corrs last toured. Having released a comeback album last November it was perhaps a little over ambitious to try to fill the 20,000 capacity Manchester Arena, however, the 7,000 fans present tonight had apparently come from Australia, America, Mexico, Italy, Ireland, Yorkshire and of course Manchester.

Not many gigs commence with a drum solo, Caroline Corr is projected as a silhouette against a big white backdrop, it worked well and set the gig up nicely. The white curtain drops and the band is right there before your eyes, complete with two extra musicians. The set opens up with one of the best tracks off their new album, White Light. What I Like shows the band in a new light, if you will pardon the pun. Dressed in black as they always seem to do it was like they have never been away.

The four Corrs do not look much older than they did 10 years ago, the 3 girls though look remarkably thin. Andrea Corr skips around the stage like a pixie, her vocals shining through. It wasn't long before they revisit their past with Give Me A Reason. The set continued with a mix of old and new tracks whilst images of Ireland were projected on a huge video screen behind them.

The light show allowed the fans to see the band, it was refreshing not to see any blinding spotlights being shone into the audience as seems to be the fashion these days. The light baubles that come up and down from the lighting rig were impressive but they were also used by Mumford and Sons on their tour in the UK last December.

What Can I Do is brought back to life in a new version with Jim Corr's guitar underpinning the track whilst Sharon Corr's violin playing brought a romantic twist to the tracks.

Predictably mid set there is a traditional Irish set where Runaway and Ellis Islsnd off the new album work well in this context.

A little bit more of a connection with the audience wouldn't have gone amiss. An Italian Fan gives Andrea a pink love heart shaped cushion as a gift, you would have thought that there would have been some interaction at that point but it seemed to fall flat.

Better perhaps to let the music do the talking which is just as well as the audience were now up on their feet for the Fleetwood Mac cover of Dreams, a track which they have again reworked for this tour.

White Light followed by Breathless were the perfect tracks to encore with before leaving us with the traditional Irish cover of Toss the Feathers. Let's just hope it's not another 10 years before they return.