Before diving straight in, we wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who picked up a copy of our first record while we were out on tour around Ireland these past couple of months. We mentioned each night on stage that all proceeds would be going to Uisce for Gaza - an initiative helping to provide and transport safe water to the people of Palestine. All in, you raised €900, which we rounded up to €1000 and donated today on your behalf. €1000 will pay for 15,000 litres, enough for 12 days for 50 families of 7. Thank you.
Now that tour is over, we’ve got some one-off shows coming up including a show this Friday at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre with Damien Dempsey in aid of Focus Ireland. Yesterday we were tasked with writing a one-paragraph bio for the event and it was such a difficult thing to do. We found ourselves attempting to summarise almost 8 years into a few sentences, and agonising over what to include and what to omit. In reality, the paragraph will probably be spoken in a matter of seconds over a noisy crowd eager for the performance to start, but still. It’s a heavy task to attempt to sum up our PQ career so far.
We discussed whether or not to include the fact that we performed on US late night TV, and eventually decided to leave it out. ‘We’re always talking about that’. But it left me thinking on it more, and it led me to realise that although we’re always banging on about it, I think it’s one of those things I’ll remember forever and probably relive on my deathbed. So, I decided to write a bit about it. Actually a lot about it.
It all started in October 2020. We’d just released our first album and all was going well (see my In Waiting post for more details on that). We met our manager over Zoom and he asked if we were fans of James Corden. It seemed like such a random question and we thought maybe he’d just watched Cats (2019) or something. Seemingly the Late Late Show… producer had gotten in touch to say James was a fan and wanted to have us on the show to perform in January. As it was covid times, and we were used to disappointment (our debut at SXSW had been cancelled by the first ever lockdowns being implemented in Texas earlier that year), we assumed it either (a) wouldn’t go ahead or (b) was a weird prank. We went along with it anyway and asked our manager to follow the thread. A lot went on behind the scenes and eventually it was decided that we would do a remote pre-recorded performance and followed by a remote interview with James Corden which would be broadcast to approximately 1.4 million Americans. Cool. We hadn’t done much in the States so this was going to be big for us.
Next thing we knew, we were loading our equipment into an artist studio in Dublin City. We’d recruited our friend and filmmaker Bob Gallagher (who had previously directed our Favourite music video) to film us performing our song Liffey. Our talented friend Ber Quinn was recruited to do sound. It was December 30th and it was absolutely freezing. The shoot probably didn’t last that long but because it was so cold, and there was very little light in the sky that day, it felt like it went all day and all night.
A week or so late later, we did the interview. It went well, except for the language barrier (JC didn’t know what togs were, so Pamela had to explain to him in several different ways how she’d left her swimsuit on the roof of the car after a sea swim in Donegal) but they edited that bit out. At the end of the interview, Corden thanked us, said he was a huge fan, and told us to drop by the studio next time we were in town.
When covid died down a bit and it finally came time for us to head over to the US, we wondered if he’d stand by his invite. Our manager got in touch with the producers again, and sure enough they invited us on the show for a second time. This time, in-person. We were told that they’d send a medic out to our hotel the day before and test us each for Covid. If we got the all-clear, we were good to go. That would of course have been an incredibly easy task had we not had two headline shows in Dublin followed by a trans-atlantic flight, and a week at SXSW to contend with beforehand. We were convinced we’d be struck down and forced to leave the LA dream behind. Every hayfever induced sneeze was met with sheer panic by the other members of the band. Somehow we managed to stay healthy and got the go-ahead from the medic.
At around 8am, a celebrity bus charter brought us to the studio. When we arrived to the CBS parking lot, we were dropped off beside a parking space reserved for Lizzo, and led to the studio. It was instantly surreal. I don’t know about any of you, but at no point in my life growing up in Finglas did I ever anticipate being in an American TV studio. I studied film & TV in college so at one point had dreams of maybe getting a behind the scenes look at Fair City or the Irish Late Late Show, but this was something I never could’ve imagined.
There were awards strewn around as far as the eye could see, photos of James Corden with various huge celebs (Paul McCartney, Justin Bieber, Adele, my personal fave Harry Styles), and of course our very own dressing room - kitted out with full blown catering and any snacks or drinks we could dream of.
We went out onto the soundstage, set up the rented amps and drumkit, and had a very quick rehearsal. The crew were seasoned pros so it all moved like clockworks and once we’d picked our lighting preferences, we were free to explore the studio and live like celebs for a day. There was an on-site basketball court which we of course used, and an on-site bar which we also used. 4 margaritas for the nervous PQs please. We had met our label manager for the first time that day too which was great because we were eager to show off, and being on a TV show felt impressive.
A few episodes are filmed in one day, so while we were there, Lizzo was interviewed, Mark Wahlberg was interviewed, and Gabrielle Union was interviewed. Cathy bumped straight into Mark Wahlberg leaving the loos. Seemingly we’d missed Sandra Bullock by one day and we were suitably devastated.
As it got closer to the time we were due to perform, the nerves started to kick in. We were sent to hair and makeup and then the wardrobe dept. brought us our freshly steamed outfits. At the start of the show, the cameras visit each dressing room for a quick chat with the guests. When the camera crew knocked on our door, I opened it and had a brief conversation with James through the lens. I don’t remember what I said, but I do remember feeling incredibly nervous.
We did our vocal warm-ups and out we went. There was a handful of masked up audience members who were kind enough to cheer for us as we entered the stage. James Corden held up our album and introduced us as The phenomenal Pillow Queens, and then we played Hearts & Minds.
After the performance ended, James walked over and shook each of our hands and told us once again how big of a fan he was.
It was over so quickly. We packed up our stuff, raided the dressing room fridge, filled our pockets with snacks, and headed outside to take a photo against the sun setting on an LA skyline. It was amazing.
That night, we went for Mexican food with our label manager and some of the extended PQ team. Then we went to watch Gustaf play in L.A and took a photobooth photo.
And that was that. We went on to do a big tour of the US and Canada, followed by a big UK tour, and then a European tour. We were on the road for a total of about 12 weeks and on cloud 9 throughout.
Ok thanks for reading. If anyone has an in with Jools Holland, give him our number. He’s the real bucket list.
Happy Thursday. Bit of a cold one! Why don’t you consider buying a scarf?
Lots of love,
Sarah (& Cathy & Pam)
What an amazing experience to have had! Thanks for sharing your recollections!
Thanks for sharing the story, Sarah! Sounds like an absolute dream, and here's to hoping Jools' people get their act together asap! Watching surreal, often crowd-less live performance from my favourite bands helped get me through the lockdowns, including both of those.