Building the band

It's not all bagels 'n' coffee, however. The family recently went out to dinner to celebrate Caroline's birthday Andrea - who turns 28 in May - figures age is catching up, and the band have begun to notice a thing called jet lag. "We're thinking, 'Jesus, we're getting old,' I think it's the early mornings with these TV shows . . . we used to go pretty mental."

The singer talks of 11 years of building the band to where they are now In the early days she was a much less outgoing individual. "There is a temptation to put your life on hold while you do something," she observes. "There was a time when I got really reclusive, I didn't want to go out at night and I kept inviting my best friend around to the house for tea. She used to say, 'what is wrong with you, this will have to stop'. I was just going through a seriously adolescent phase in the limelight."

In March, the Corrs performed at a White House lunch for President Bush, with Bertie Ahern, John Hume, David Trimble and Gerry Adams in attendance, "all sitting there, looking up at you, it was quite surreal".

She has no particular opinions on the Bush presidency "He's in a very powerful position where he could do an awful lot of good," she says. "I'm not so arrogant that I would presume to judge, I'm a musician and a performer.

"Our Taoiseach was there whom we're very proud of, great men were there, huge people in the history of Ireland, sitting there in front of you. Bush isn't just Bush, he's an awful lot of men and women behind Bush. What we were there to do was to perform and to celebrate St. Patrick's Day and celebrate the Irish people in America."

The band did not command a fee for their performance. "It's not just the publicity, it's quite an honour to be asked. In a situation like that it's not exactly at the end of the day leaving the White House going: 'where's me money?'"