While live concert touring is on hold indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, THE CORONAS, Ireland’s hardest-working band, are still hitting the road. Well, sort of....
The release of their sixth album, TRUE LOVE WAITS, out now, and, eager to engage their army of loyal fans in some direct way, The Coronas will celebrate the album’s release by commandeering an ice cream freezer van and driving around Ireland dispensing ice cream while blasting their new album. And with their first U.S. single from the album called “Cold,” and this being National Ice Cream Month, The Coronas and ice cream make a perfect combination for a refreshing summer treat.
Listen to “Cold” here:
https://soundcloud.com/blix-street/the-coronas-cold-edit/s-dVIPoQG3hro
The band have teamed with their friends at Murphy’s Ice Cream, a favorite Irish frozen confection handmade in the idyllic fishing village of Dingle in southwest Ireland where Coronas’ frontman Danny O’Reilly has been self-isolating during the pandemic-imposed shutdown.
The Coronas will tour Ireland in a Super Sprinkles ice cream van painted with the TRUE LOVE WAITS album artwork, signing copies of the new album and giving away free cups of Murphy’s most popular flavor, Dingle Sea Salt. Murphy’s is known for its all-natural ingredients, among them farm-fresh milk from local County Kerry cows and salt derived from Dingle sea water for their signature flavor.
The Coronas’ Ice Cream Van Tour kicks off today, Thursday, July 30 with a special afternoon event at Golden Discs record shop in Cork. The next day they will begin at the Town Square in Mitchelstown in Cork, followed by stops at the famed music venue Dolan’s Warehouse in Limerick and finishing up that evening at the Murphy’s Ice Cream shop on High Street in Galway.
Saturday, August 1 will begin at Murphy’s Ice Cream on Wicklow Street in Dublin’s main shopping area, followed by a stop at the Millpond in Dundrum Town Centre and finishing that evening outside Starbucks in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in conjunction with Golden Discs. The tour ends on Monday, August 3 in Waterford where they will visit City Square Shopping Centre and end up at Dunmore East.
The band will be encouraging social distancing and the wearing of masks at all events and will be updating their social media channels during the weekend with the latest information on their tour routing.
Normally, the summer months would have been filled with large festival events all over Ireland and in Europe for The Coronas, but the coronavirus pandemic has furloughed live concerts. In addition to this major change of plans, The Coronas themselves have had to—good-naturedly--cope with sharing a name with the virus that has altered so many lives.
Coronas lead singer Danny says, “When we realized that we weren’t going to be able to promote the album like we have before, we started thinking about different ideas to mark the launch. With no gigs, in-store signings or radio performances permitted, our manager had the idea that we get in an ice cream van and travel the country giving out free ice cream and selling and personally signing the album! With everything that’s going on at the moment, we thought it might add a tiny bit of positivity into the world, and we can’t wait to get out and see some of our fans and friends around the country that we haven’t seen since before lockdown. There’s a long way to go before we beat this unfortunately named virus, but, remember, ‘True Love Waits.’”
The Coronas actually performed “Light Me Up” from the new album during the Songs From An Empty Room nationally televised fundraising event last weekend from the empty Olympia Theatre in Dublin to raise money to support the crews of live entertainment entities affected by the Covid-19 work stoppage. It was the first time the band had performed together, albeit socially distantly, in the same room since early March.
