KODALINE HEADLINE the Galway International Arts Festival Big Top in the Fisheries Field on Saturday July 18, in what is sure to be one of the hottest tickets of the Galway summer.
The Dublin quartet - Steve Garrigan (vocals ), Mark Prendergast (guitar ), Vinny May, and Jason Boland enjoyed massive success in 2012 with their multi-platinum selling debut album In A Perfect World. The album went Top 3 in Britain, spent nine weeks at No 1 in Ireland, and opened doors for the band in the European continent and US. Meanwhile tracks like ‘All I Want’ appeared on Grey’s Anatomy and The Fault In Our Stars. ‘Pray’ features on the trailer for the new Daniel Radcliffe film Horns, while ‘Brand New Day’ has become a theme song for Gogglebox.
February saw Kodaline release their second album, Coming Up For Air. It was recorded in Los Angeles with noted producer Jacknife Lee. It was preceded by the single ‘Honest’, while this month sees the release of the latest single ‘The One’.
The song was originally written for the wedding of Kodaline’s engineer Phil Magee, who hails from Swords, the same Dublin suburb as the band.
“Like an idiot, I left writing it until the night before,” says Steve. “Singing it the next day was the scariest thing I’ve ever done, much more nerve-wracking than standing in front a festival crowd. We all had a few beers before we played it, to ease the tension, obviously.”
‘The One’ was not intended to be heard again, but during a show in Toronto, the band agreed to let a fan on stage to propose to his girlfriend and decided to dust down the song. When footage of the performance started spreading on YouTube, they decided to record it for Coming Up For Air.
Following the album’s release, Kodaline announced a string of international shows, many of which are already sold out. The arts festival concert is likely to do the same, so early booking is advised.
Kodaline at the Big Top is a ‘Róisín Dubh and Galway International Arts Festival presents...’ show. Doors open at 7pm. Tickets are €45 and are on sale at giaf.ie and roisindubh.net from Friday April 3.
