Texas

MCD Presents
Texas
The Olympia Theatre
Wednesday 11th November 2015

**Tickets on sale NOW**

It's just been announced that Texas will play a headline show at The Olympia Theatre on the 11th of November!

Tickets priced from €34.50 including booking fee on sale now via Ticketmaster.ie, usual Ticketmaster outlets nationwide (list here) including The Olympia Theatre Box Office, and by calling Ticketmaster at The Olympia Phone Bookings on 0818 719 330.

Under 14's must be accompanied by an adult, Over 18's ID required to gain access to the bars where alcohol is served.

Her friend Peter Kay once offered a brief character analysis of Sharleen Spiteri to the Texas singer. In her recent reconnoitre of the band’s stoically impressive, hit packed 25-years together, she has had pause to think of his words. ‘He said to me that the problem with you and the charm with you is the same thing – in your head, you’re still a hairdresser.’ For biographical detail, it’s worth remembering that when Texas first emerged into a world before mobile phones, Britpop, email accounts and reality TV, Sharleen was a stylist at Glasgow’s elegant salon, Rita Rusk.

Sharleen has learnt to love Kay’s adjudication over the years. ‘I get it,’ she says. ‘Being a hairdresser put me in really good stead for what I do in the band. It gave me a connection with people. You touch them and, even as a stranger you’re changing the way they feel about themselves. That’s not something that happens in many jobs. You’re building their confidence. You become a team.’ In life, in love, in music, in Texas, this ability to connect with immediacy and seeming simplicity has served her well, allowing her to carve out a special place for her band on the national affection grid.

In an artistic twist that is quite literally back to the future, for their 25th anniversary year Texas have given themselves a metaphorical cut and blow, trimmed the loose ends and touched up the roots of their back catalogue. A selection of their toppermost, poppermost hits have been reconfigured from a unique and fresh new angle. Four new songs, defined by Sharleen and writing partner Johnny McElhone’s magical way with an evergreen chorus have been sprinkled through the mix, saving the project from navel-gazing retrospectivism. The Ivor Novello winning duo also brought in some young talent, working with Glasgow based Jack Townes and Brighton based singer-songwriter Karen-Anne on the new tracks. The result is Texas at their vibrant best.

In 2015, Texas will present the findings of their 25 years in pop in a new, intimate arrangement, an evening with… in which Sharleen will talk through her amazing career and the band will play as a four piece skiffle ensemble as punctuation points. ‘It could be a terrible idea,’ she says. It couldn’t. Sharleen can talk for Glasgow.

During the promotion for The Conversation, Texas’s last platinum-starred album, Sharleen noticed a new young audience Tweeting how much they loved it. She wondered why, before working it out. ‘At the height of Texas, when we were all over the radio, the twentysomethings that come to see our shows now were the little kids on the school run hearing us all the time. We are to them what Fleetwood Mac were to me. We’ve never been a cool band, we’ve never been an uncool band. Texas? Aye, we know them. We’re there, we’re always there. Then we have these peaks. You really appreciate them so much.’

25 years of Texas has all been worth it in the end. ‘There has to be moments where you can’t get arrested. It’s good for you. But if you can get to that next bit, which we seem to have got to, then who knows where it might take us? At this stage we’re on a big step and all is good, the music sounds better than it’s ever done so let’s see where we go from here. The plan is that this will lead onto a big Texas, all-singing, all-dancing, get ready to put your hands in the air journey.’ Someone’s pulse is racing.