Corrs deliver infectious pop

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

NORTH HARBOUR STADIUM, Auckland - It was the return of the Corrs, a band that have got bigger by the year since their emergence from Ireland in the mid-90s as photogenic exponents of a kind of jig-pop - Irish music from County California.

This visit had been delayed from early in the year when singer Andrea Corr came down with an ear bug.

That's the trouble, I guess, with dabbling in infectious pop - and the Corrs' brand of West Coast harmony sheen meeting fiddly-dee excursions is certainly that.

And so it proved again last night in front of a crowd of 15,000 in what was an enjoyable but frequently staid show.

The set was very much a rendering of the band's three studio albums with only a few optional extras.

Those jig-rock flyaways - led by Sharon Corr on fiddle - seemed to engage the audience more than many of the hits.

But those hits kept rolling out - right from the opening Only When I Sleep, through to their early hit Forgiven, Not Forgotten with its sub-U2 arrangements, and a lush rendition of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, which proved an early highpoint.

Some of the most satisfying parts came during a middle section where the family four were left to their own acoustic devices - even if the sight of Irish folk on stools brought on Val Doonican flashbacks.

Devoid of backing musicians, the sisterly harmonies shone brighter than they could in the big geetar FM-rock arrangements that dominated the rest of the set.

Most valuable player among the line-up was not Sharon, Andrea (who has mastered the art of pouting while playing the tin whistle) or poor Jim (forever the odd man out and resplendent in Bono's old glasses and the Edge's old goatee). No, we vote for Caroline the drummer.

She not only perspired the most but proved a neatly adept pop percussionist and quite a mistress of the bodhran.

And rather than letting their hair down on the final lap, Andrea took on a whole new look, care of an afro wig to accompany the video-assisted final encore of their new single.

But even that bit of levity seemed scripted and in the end the Corrs proved professional, attractive and toe-tapping.

But as a live experience they were only slightly better than watching them on telly.