The Script: success tinged with guilt

Back in 'The Good Ole Days' of 2010, it was good for The Script but was bittersweet as the Irish economy plunged into crisis. (24th Novemeber 2010)

The Script found global fame after a very long struggle – just as Ireland’s crisis began,

Good news is in short supply for Ireland. But as the nation goes down the tubes, its people could perhaps draw some small cheer from the international success of the country’s favourite band. And no, I’m not talking about U2.

The local popularity of Dublin trio the Script saw them beat off the claims of U2’s blockbuster 360 tour to win the Best Live category at Ireland’s Meteor awards this year. They drew a bigger crowd to last year’s Oxegen festival than co-headliners Oasis. Their current album, Science And Faith, spent five weeks at number one in the Irish charts. “The nation is behind us,” says excitable, charismatic singer, Danny O’Donoghue. “I’ve seen things at Script gigs I never thought I’d see, grown men climbing on each other’s shoulders, singing along, tears in their eyes …”

But it’s not just Ireland. Science And Faith entered the UK charts at number one and has notched up over quarter of a million sales. Their 2008 self-titled debut, meanwhile, scored over two million sales worldwide and shifted 2.5 million singles. So the Script are doing rather well. But it wasn’t always thus and they feel for the plight of their countrymen.

“I’m looking at people fighting and nearly rioting on TV and it breaks my heart,” says Mark Sheehan, the Script’s intense, talkative guitarist. “As a bum musician with no job, I’ve had to deal with my own personal recession. I’ve been broke for 15 years, living and leeching off my sisters, sleeping on couches, living in studios, all this shit. All I ever had was music. That’s been my lifeline.”

The Script’s songwriting duo hail from the tough, working-class James Street area of Dublin, where they met as teenagers. “I grew up stealing cars, the usual trouble, but music gave me a way out,” says Sheehan. They were not drawn to typical Irish rock and folk influences, but instead shared an obsession with American hip hop and r’n’b. “At that time, MTV only came on in Dublin after midnight, it was the fuzzy channel, and black culture looked the most fun. It wasn’t about gangs and guns, it was singing and dancing.

Source: The Telegraph / Edited: DannyODonoghue.Net