Coronas frontman Danny O'Reilly opens up about his…

Coronas frontman Danny O'Reilly opens up about his pride for his famous mother Mary Black

The Coronas frontman Danny O’Reilly has told of his pride for his famous mother Mary Black.

Danny recently invited his singing mother on stage at Electric Picnic where she serenaded fans with her hit, A Woman’s Heart. The Dubliner told us of his joy and pride at seeing fans react to Mary – saying he is trying to make up for lost time with her.

He said: “We got Mary up for a song. A couple of weeks before it she was like ‘I want to go to that Electric Picnic thing’. I was like ‘okay we’ll get you a pass’ and then I was like ‘actually you wouldn’t mind doing a song with us would you?’

“We did A Woman’s Heart, and the place went mental for it. I couldn’t get over it. In a way I wasn’t surprised because everywhere I go, I still get people saying it to me how they love my mam… I actually grew up listening to her saying ‘get up out of bed and clean your room’.

“It was great to do that. We had my sister Roisin (Roisin O) playing in the band as well. My brother was watching from the side stage with my dad, so it was nice to have the family there.

“I love it. I’m very proud of her. I’m trying to make up for lost time. When the band started out, I was probably less inclined to talk about her but now we have our own thing going on and I can make up for it and tell her how deadly she is.

“In the early days I think even before the band started, I was that awkward teenager…”

Danny told how he understands where Bono’s son Elijah Hewson may always shy away from talking about his famous U2 father in interviews

“He put it very well in that he is never going to get away… he does understand that it is probably a help to the band in getting him out there but it also puts more pressure on him to actually follow up and write good music as well. I thought he spoke really well about it now.

“It’s funny. Not really with us, it is not really comparable with Bono obviously because my mam was a different genre with music, obviously she is a legend in her own right, but our genre is different to what she did and does, whereas U2 are more of a rock and roll band at the end of the day like Inhaler in the grander scheme of things.

“And obviously U2 are much bigger than even Mary so that is probably harder for Elijah. But they are a great band,” he added.

Danny was speaking as The Coronas release their seventh studio album, Time Stopped, on October 7, after which they will be embarking on a world tour with UK, EU, North American and Australian dates all in the calendar before Christmas.

They then make a triumphant return to Dublin to do their now legendary series of Christmas gigs in the Olympia. All five nights are sold out from December 14-18.