Corrs Company

Ever wonder what it's like behind the scenes of a photo session with the honest-to-goodness rock stars? meg gives you the exclusive lowdown!

by Karen Vera

    Jim Corr, the Corrs' guitarist and lone brother, has standard answer each time he gets asked about what it's like to be the lone male  Corr. Even when Time magazine made him kulit about it, he claimed, "I'm going to have to start charging every time I get asked this question. I'm going to say 'OK, $10 in the kitty,' and give it to charity!"

    But given the huge success of a band like the Corrs, Jim will be raking in a lot for charities a while longer. He isn't really full-blown annoyed of course, because if there's one band that wears its success well, it's got to be these four siblings from a working-class section of Dublin. The entire meg/MEGA/fwd group found this out for ourselves during the exclusive fwd cover shoot with the Corrs last September. No matter how you cut it, meeting super famous musicians is very intimidating. Will they be nice to us? Will they be taray and diva-like? Especially when you want them to pose with Filipino desserts (that was fwd's concept) they could find it weird? And that we would have ONLY 30 MINUTES to take four solo pics, a group shot and have a brief chat with them? Aaack!

CORRS ENCOUNTER OF THE FIRST KIND

    The first Corr I met was by accident. I was getting off the elevator on the 22nd floor of the Discovery Suites. The doors open, and right there getting on was Andrea with damp hair (I think she had damp hair). Wow, it's her, I thought. She's more petite than you think. That encounter lasted all of a second -- before I even realized there was a musical superstar right in front of me, she was in the elevator going back to her suite. I felt buzzed just the same. I was now at the Serendipity Lounge, waiting to rendezvous with the rest of the team. And hang on a minute -- there's Jim right in the corner having coffee and reading the paper! Like he was just some regular dude enjoying his morning caffeine and news! You felt kind of silly and awestruck at the same time. I hope they're nice when we get to the shoot.

THE RULES

    Situations like this always come with instructions. It was a matter of security of course, and like any mega-famous person, the Corrs want to protect their image and not end up doing something stupid that would be eventually be seen by tons of fans. We were shooting the band at Discovery Suite's Admiral Suite. Warner music and the concert organizer had to limit the team to the barest essential people only. They needed to know what our concept was. They told us several times not to exceed the allotted time assigned to us. Once the shoot portion was over, any person who was not interviewing them (that was practically everyone) had to leave the premises. The Corrs preferred not to be gulo-ed by lots of people hanging around. At this point, the manager comes in to scout the joint. He asks if we know about the instructions. we explain to him that we do. Jim pops up, and starts walking around the suite. He seems friendly enough to hang with, but do we dare? The girls will be down soon, we learn, They're just finishing up their makeup.

TIME FOR SOME ACTION

    Room service brings in a cart of breakfast goodies (tea, fruit, rolls, jam) for the band and brings it to one of the suite's bedrooms. Jim follows it to the room (he's having more breakfast?). Then the girls arrived one by one and go to the room too. All of them came in with a sweet smile on their face, but in some odd way, I sense they're kind of scared of us, too. (Huh?) The pressure starts because our clock has begun ticking, and we want to get started as soon as possible. We don't want to disobey the rules and look bad in front of them. After some confusion on whether to do the solos or the group shots first, Jim steps into the camera spotlight for his pic. We were all nervous, but Jim was very game. Can we put this Philippine flag pin on your shoulder? "Sure. I can even put it in my collar if you want," he offers. Yes, we want, thanks! TJ Manotoc (fwd's ed in chief, but you knew that already!) brings in the balut that Jim will get to hold. We ask him if this idea is OK, and he says with a smile, "Give it to me." We tell him what balut is. He's amused, and mugs it up for the shot by pretending to bite. Care to try it, perhaps? "Well, it's a little early," he explains. After a few more shots, he's done. Thanks Jim! He gives a friendly wave and thanks us too. Whew! Sharon comes in next, and dare we say it, she looks the best in person. Actually, all the Corrs are without a doubt gorgeous, and Sharon was very pleasant on the eyes and to us. She greets us first, then asks, "Where do you want me to stand?" She gets to hold the sapin-sapin for her shot. "Can I see the test shot?" she requests. We comply and she tells us she's pleased. "I'll call in the next one for you," offers Sharon.

    Andrea is still kind of sleepy when she comes in. You definitely sense a "youngest sib"  vibe from her, like she's a little bit more pilyo. For the Corrs' lead vocalist, we hand her some halo-halo. After explaining to her what it is, we ask if she's wondering why the ice cream is purple. "Yes, I AM wondering why the ice cream is purple!" She ends up laughing for the rest of the session.

    Caroline comes in. She's the one who knocked the guys off their feet. (Drummers -- male and female -- have a way of doing that.) she can't believe that the banana cue we've just handed her are, indeed, bananas. She looks it over, and tells us it's too early in the day for dessert.

ROCKIN' THE CLOCK

    It's thisclose to the end of our allotted time, so we rush up the group pic. Poor Xander -- he's in worse pressure than us! At this point, we were no longer worried if the Corrs were going to be nice, because they were really kind and friendly. Our work wasn't done yet, though. As soon as all the shots were taken, everyone but his writer and the band members leave the room so the interview session can begin. We only got to ask a few questions, with their Irish lilts hanging pleasantly in the air. After us, they immediately had to do the press conference, The Corrs must have had hundreds of photo sessions and worried writers in front of them, but thankfully they've remained genuine people throughout. We even found out that they enjoyed their Philippine stay so much, they stayed an extra day just to hang out! The Monday after the concerts, the girls actually walked the one block between Discovery suites to Le Soufflé for a late, six-hour lunch, just making kuwento. they even went to Strumm's at El Pueblo to listen to some live music. Isn't it cool to know they seem to be like nice, regular people to you?