Latest news with #SummerSon
Irish Examiner
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Kaleidoscope review: Texas among the highlights of family-focused festival in Wicklow
'I see a lot of children on shoulders,' Sharleen Spiteri shouts to the crowd. And she's right. From the first strain of I Don't Want A Lover, the main field at Kaleidoscope is wild for Texas. 'Irish children are just like Scottish children,' she says, arms outstretched, feeling the momentum from an adoring audience. Kaleidoscope, the country's family version of Electric Picnic, is celebrating five years and they have struck gold with this main act to mark the milestone. It's just two years since Texas played the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and Spiteri's stage presence is every bit as electric at Wicklow's Russborough House. There's chat, banter and pure divilment between each song, every interaction peppered with a good natured expletive from the Scottish singer. She throws plectrums to the kids on the field, they in return cast balloons on to the stage. The crowd can't get enough. Sharleen Spiteri and Texas on stage at Kaleidoscope at Russborough House, Co Wicklow. Her voice is as powerful and pitch perfect as it was over three decades ago when they first found fame with the bluesy anthem I Don't Want A Lover. The hits keep coming - Summer Son, Say What You Want - and a floor raising finale: Elvis Presley's Caught In A Trap. With a vibrant green guitar in hand, matching her personality, Spiteri is a dynamic stage presence, and a Kaleidoscope highlight. Other acts over the three-day festival included Ocean Colour Scene, headlining on Friday night, belting out classics The Riverboat Song and The Day We Caught The Train, while The Coronas were the final band to take to the main stage on Sunday night. Day time performances included Jerry Fish's rousing set, The Riptide Movement and an appearance by Cork's Allie Sherlock. The RSA's Seatbelt Sheriff at Kaleidoscope with Cillian Murphy, Luca Murphy and dad Con Murphy. Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke The Zozimus music stage became the festival's dancefloor all weekend long, with ABBAesque, Daft Punk Tribute, These Charming Men and DJ sets. Beyond the music, families immersed themselves in family areas and stages, from treehouse building workshops from Dermot Bannon, science experiments with Mark The Science Guy, fire acts by Fierce Fire Show, illustration workshops with Steve Simpson, and baby rave parties with Move with Carla. Budding chefs rolled up their sleeves at the Scrumdiddlyumptious Festival of Food, while the National Reptile Zoo brought along lizards to hold. Strolling through the festival fields, there's storytelling, face painting, big wheels, bumper cars and marching bands. A festival like no other, this is Electric Picnic cool - created with children centrestage.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Texas star Spiteri 'still living the dream' ahead of Belladrum
Texas' Sharleen Spiteri says her love of performing live has not diminished - almost 40 years after the Glasgow band was for hits including Say What You Want and Black Eyed Boy, Texas completed an arena tour last year and are about to play a series of dates across Europe."I never walk out on stage thinking 'I'm not really in the mood tonight'," says Spiteri."In that moment I'm thinking about the people dragged along by their partners, who are kind of like 'I don't really like Texas' - I'm thinking about making sure they leave the gig thinking 'Texas are the greatest band I've ever seen'." Texas enjoyed chart success through the 1990s and 2000s, with Summer Son in 1999 and 2006-released single Sleep among their other hits. The rock pop band have played the Glastonbury music festival twice, and will close the 21st anniversary Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in the Highlands this Bellshill-born Spiteri juggles the demands of touring with family says: "When you're free and single you're going on the road for years at a time. You don't care, you're away, you're living the dream."I'm still living the dream to be honest."I get to do what I love more than anything - standing on those stages and playing the songs I love so much."We're doing festivals this summer, working four-day weeks in June, July and August, and then I get to be home the rest of the week to recover. It's perfect." 'Very lucky' Spiteri admits to still having the occasional "pinch herself" moment."I do feel very lucky and very privileged," she says. "I do have those moments when I go 'wow'. It can be surreal sometimes."A couple of years ago, I was standing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury and punching the air and then suddenly looking out and it was just a sea of people."She says a performance at Glasgow's OVO Hydro last year was particularly memorable."The first night we walked on we couldn't hear ourselves, the audience was that loud."We stood on the stage looking at each other thinking 'Oh my god'."I thought 'Don't start the songs, I need a moment to get my breath'. It was so emotional."She adds: "We've been doing this for a long time. We're an old band and we're still playing to all these people. That's nuts." Texas previously played Belladrum in 2011 and Spiteri says the challenge of keeping a festival going should not go singer adds: "The music industry is really hard. We've seen how many venues and studios have closed."It's really hard work making a festival, and so many people think they can do it and it's just about putting a load of bands on and that's that."A great amount of thought goes into the acts that play. "We're proud to have been invited back to Bella for its 21st. We must have done something right."Spiteri says the Highlands as a whole is a special place, with Texas having also played gigs in Inverness, a few miles down the road from the Belladrum site."The air up there is better than anywhere else in the world," she says."When you're a singer that's pretty important when you're taking in big gulps of air."Breathing that Highland air you feel ready."And to walk out into that beautiful landscape, to play amongst that, that is something pretty damn special."
