Stars starting from scratch

They’ve gone from headlining the O2 to playing tiny venues in Britain. Danny O’Reilly of The Coronas tells Ed Power why the band is happy to be back at the bottom

DANNY O’Reilly doesn’t want to talk about his famous ex-girlfriend Laura Whitmore. The Coronas frontman recently split from the Wicklow-born MTV presenter, an event treated by the tabloid press as though it were slightly more significant than the election of a new Pope.

Two months on, his PR people have let it be known that the singer won’t be fielding personal questions. Why ever not Danny? “The best thing you can do is say nothing to anyone,” laughs O’Reilly. “We are quite good at managing the press. It’s about being careful — not talking too much about your personal life. I mean, yeah, it’s strange when people are writing about you. I don’t know how anyone could get used to that. The smartest step you can take is have a really good team around you and to stay grounded. Not that I want to come off as complaining. I think we’ve received pretty decent treatment from the press.”