Album number three from The Walls

THE Walls are back with album number three, Stop The Lights, and make a welcome return to Galway on Saturday, March 31 when they play Monroe's Live Venue with their always captivating and unpredictable live show. It's been six long years since the release of their last album, New Dawn Breaking. Six years of starts, re-starts, re-writes, scraps, scrapes, walk-outs, walk-ins, changes of direction, crèche runs, school runs, the death of the Celtic Tiger, the collapse of a country, a change of government and a new President. Formed in 1998 by brothers Steve and Joe Wall, previously of multi-platinum selling Galway band The Stunning, the band now also includes Rory Doyle, Jon O'Connell and Marc Aubele. The Walls set up their own label in 1998, Earshot Records (later changing it to Dirtbird Records), and self-released their debut album Hi-Lo in 2000 to brilliant reviews, earning them extensive airplay and the use of many of their tracks on TV programmes. Released in June 2005, New Dawn Breaking was the record that put the Wall brothers firmly back on the map, entering the Irish charts at No.5 and since reaching gold status in Ireland. Passing Through, the second single taken from the album, was one of the most played tracks on radio that summer. The album also featured the band's biggest song, To the Bright and Shining Sun, with that infectious guitar riff which helped The Walls become a household name when it was used on a major TV commercial two years previous. Album three is finally finished and Stop the Lights gets its official release on March 9. In the face of a rapidly-changing music industry, diminishing sales and fewer music retail outlets, The Walls started a Fund It campaign in order to engage directly with their fans and to enable the fans to get involved in the project. The new single, also entitled Stop The Lights has already hit the airwaves and is available to download. The album also includes Bird in a Cage, which was a big hit with radio in the north and south of Ireland over the past six months. Involved in the recording of the latest album is Dubliner Rob Kirwan, who recorded PJ Harvey's recent Mercury Award-winning album, making Stop The Lights a highly anticipated and intriguing record. There have also been extra-curricular activities going on in The Walls camp. Steve has started an acting career and was recently cast in Moone Boy, the new series for Sky TV created by Chris O'Dowd and Joe is lecturing in BIMM, the new Dublin College for Modern Music. So it's a busy time as ever for the brothers Wall. â€â€œ Darragh O'Dea.