Steve Wall of The Stunning took time out from his holiday on Inishbofin to talk to Limerick Post Newspaper this week.
Steve has travelled regularly to this small island off Connemara since the 1990s. His first visit was there was a mission to inspire a follow up album to The Stunning’s debut LP which had spent five weeks at the top of the charts.
“I actually went out there to write songs for the second album. I was packed off there by our manager at the time to go forth and write the next album. I didn’t even know the place existed at the time. But I’ve been going back ever since.”
That second album called ‘Once Around The World’ (1992) yielded hit records such as ‘Heads (Are Gonna Roll)’, ‘Everything That Rises’ and ‘She’s On My Mind’.
The Stunning were on the crest of a wave at this time in Ireland with over 100,000 records sold in the country and a headline slot at the legendary Féile festival at midnight, going on after Bryan Adams to a crowd of over 40,000. Not bad for a band that was deemed unmarketable by several record companies who did not sign them.
This self-funded, independent band played in the UK and the US several times, sharing the bill with Bob Dylan and B52s, but could not make that international breakthrough in record sales and airplay. With the funds running dry, band broke up in 1994.
Several requests from fans to get hold of the band’s debut album brought The Stunning back together in 2003.’ Paradise in the Picturehouse’ was sold mostly in cassette format which does not generally stand the test of time.
“That was the reason we reformed in 2003. When we reissued the debut in 2003 most cassette albums had been chewed or lost. We got loads of emails from people asking where could they get the CDs. That was the tour that got us back together and we have been kinda gigging ever since whenever it suits the band.”
The Stunning will play at the Mungret Music Festival in a few weeks and their current single ‘Brighten Up My Life’ has become something of a summer anthem of Irish radio this year.
“We needed something else out there to give ‘Brewing Up a Storm’ a run for its money!” he laughs. “The years pass and radio stations default to the same track all the time and other tracks tend to get forgotten about.”
‘Brighten Up My Life’ sees The Stunning back with renewed energy belting out this contemporary track that has hints of Arctic Monkeys and Queens of the Stone Age. All the more surprising is that the track was written by Steve Wall over 20 years ago.
“‘Brighten Up My Life’ was written 1995. It is practically the same. I just updated the lyrics a bit.”
It was recorded as a demo in a small studio in Galway where Steve and Joe Wall worked after The Stunning split. ‘Brighten’ was one of their first demos. Then they got signed to Columbia Records and headed to London for a few years.
“We never used the song because we wanted to move away from The Stunning sound. We wanted to experiment more with samplers and beats and loops.”
In 2015 The Stunning went into Grouse Lodge studios, Co. Westmeath for two week-long periods to record. ‘Brighten Up My Life’ is the fruits of that recording. They also re-recorded their second album ‘Once Around The World’ originally released in 1992.
“We re-recorded that because it is an album we could never re-issue because we don’t own the master tapes. We are playing these songs much better. Some are the same. Some are changed for the better. And we are adding a couple of new songs. There were a couple of weak songs on that album that I never liked.”
This as yet unnamed album comes out in October.
In the meantime ‘Always You’ featuring Danielle Harrison on vocals is very likely to be the next single. It is the first female voice on a song by The Stunning in their story so far.
The Stunning and The Hothouse Flowers play the Mungret Music Festival on Saturday August 26. Tickets from
www.mungretmusicfestival.com
