Briana Corrigan

Return visit to the intimate Sun Inn where Briana played to a sell out crowd in the summer. In 1990 when Briana Corrigan sang A Little Time with The Beautiful South, the single topped the UK chart and the video, memorably featuring a wrecked kitchen and a marriage breakdown, won the 1991 Brit Award for Best Video. ?I found a little courage to call it off? spits out Briana, flame-haired yet fragile, with a face of ethereal beauty and in a ?stupendous vocal? (NME), that you will remember if you heard the band?s only No1 single. And many people did: ?Carry On Up The Charts ? The Best Of The Beautiful South? entered the British album chart at No1 in early December 1994 and stayed at the top until the end of January, 1995, becoming one of the fastest-selling British albums in history. Briana had already moved on, leaving the band in September 1994 to forge a solo career and explore her other interests in writing and theatre. The phenomenal success of ?The Best Of? album, marking the band?s first six years and featuring Briana on many of the tracks, was unexpected. She had signed a deal with East West Records in 1995 to write and record a solo album and Briana now felt a weight of expectation from her record company to deliver a commercial tour de force. Briana?s first solo album, ?When My Arms Wrap You Round? was released in 1996, the title taken from a WB Yeats Poem: ?When my arms wrap you round, I press my heart upon the loveliness/That has long faded from the world.? The album enjoyed an excellent critical reception ? from Q Magazine awarding it four stars to Melody Maker?s captivatingly poetic critique and The London Evening Standard describing it as- ?Among the finest debuts of the year? In late summer of 1996 she and her record company parted due to irreconcilable differences and Briana returned to her native Ireland, setting up home in the cultural explosion of Dublin and writing and recording with various artists on different independent projects. After graduating from Queens University, Belfast, with a distinction in Creative Writing (MA) she took to the cinema screen and to the stage performing in, among others, the first Irish tour of ?Mum?s The Word? ? a West End hit described by the Stage as ?a wickedly funny account of motherhood that nobody should miss?. She also turned her writing skills towards theatre which would lead to her being commissioned to write her first play. In 2006 Briana returned to the studio to record a new album. The result was Redbird released on her own label, a collection described as ?an album of quality and exuberance..? and where ?she emerges as a songwriter of wit, elegance and style.? (Hot Press) An album with which Corrigan ??deftly blindsides expectations and raises the ante..? (Irish Times) and where her ?vocals still sparkle with gold dust? (Irish Independent). Alongside her song writing Briana writes for the stage, poetry and short stories. Briana?s most recent project is a collection of Irish Folk songs which she will be recording in Ireland over this coming summer.