Red Carpet Roll Call

*Health and safety warning: be careful not to trip over the amount of names I drop in this column

They say the bigger the celebrity, the nicer the person. I don’t know, I hear Irish glove puppet Bosco is a right wee diva. They also say you should never meet your heroes because they’ll more than likely fail to live up to your expectations.

Well this weekend I decided to take that risk and head to Dublin to interview some of the biggest names in pop and rock.

The Stereophonics, Scissor Sisters, The Saturdays, Joshua Radin, Paolo Nutini, Labyrinth, Aloe Blacc and my old gal pal Paloma Faith were just some of the acts who performed at the 2011 Arthur’s day celebrations. And I managed to get up close and personal with them all to talk everything from number one albums to fruit and veg stalls.

After arriving in Dublin my first port of call was a plush hotel in the city centre where all the bands and musicians were holed up in hotel rooms ready to face a barrage of questions from interviewers from NME to National Geographic. It seems everyone was willing to take the ‘meet your heroes risk’ I was.

My first interview of the day was in the perfectly formed shape of The Saturdays. And yes they are every bit as immaculate and lovely in the flesh.

We talked music, fashion, babies, icons, first jobs and their upcoming tour. Apparently Mollie takes the longest to get ready and they’d most like to work with Stevie Wonder.

First interview done and I was ushered into another hotel room and there before me were The Scissor Sisters. Ana Matronic’s surname is Lynch would you believe and her family are from Cork. We bonded over matching names and the guys revealed that it was a double celebration for them not only was it Arthur’s day but also the tenth anniversary that the group first got together.

Next it was time to take up our spot on the red carpet where I interviewed the lovely Ed Sheeran of ‘A team’ fame, the song that is, not the crime fighting TV stars. He told me just before his career took off he was spotted in a LA club by Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx who then invited him to stay with him.

The red carpet was also a good opportunity to get photos and sound bites from famous folk. It was fun because you stand in one place and the lovely PR folk bring them to you, so it’s almost a conveyor belt of celebrities.

Aloe Blacc is inspired by Ray Charles. A set of matching towels. Joshua Radin was a painter before he was a singer. A cuddly toy.

 My favourite interview of the day however was saved for last. Just as the last of the stars had sashayed down the carpet the Stereophonics appeared in all their pint sized prettiness. I had interviewed lead singer Kelly Jones before, but that was on the phone, so this time I had to work overtime suppress the major fan within and channel all my excitable giggles into being a reporter and actually getting a few questions out.

They’re currently putting the finishing touches to their new album, the most obscure place they’ve ever played a gig was a public toilet in shepherds bush and Kelly Jones used to work on a fruit and veg stall.

Arthur’s day takes place every year to mark the anniversary of when Arthur Guinness signed on the 9000 year lease for the now world famous brewery.

So there's still around 8749 years  of  celebrations, I should have the whole celeb interview thing down to a tee by then.