Finding out about The Chapters and their Arthurs Day plans

One of the many great acts for Arthur’s Day, coming on Thursday, September 24 as part of the Guinness 250 celebrations is up and coming Dublin band The Chapters.

The Chapters are a five piece band comprising of singer Ross McNally, guitar player Simon Eustace, keyboard player Turlough Gunawardhana, drummer Ciaran Fortune and Offaly base player Michael Murphy. Among the many people they’ve played support for are Neil Young, Chuck Berry, the Coronas and Cathy Davey.

I first saw them at the launch of Arthur’s Day and was really impressed by the melodic sounds, the enthusiasm of the group and their understanding of what it takes to get a crowd going. They also played the recent Horse Show Hustle for Brainwave, Castlepalooza and Oxegen 2009 as well as a rake of other gigs. Certainly a band I want to know more about.

Their debut album, Perfect Stranger is out now and garnering great praise from critics and audiences alike. Perfect Stranger battled with Bruce Springsteen at the top of the iTunes rock chart on the week of release, before eventually being pipped to the top spot by The Boss.

I sat down with Simon on Monday to talk about them, their origins, their plans and what they’ll be up to for Arthur’s Day:

The Chapters can be found on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/thechaptersofficial. They’re on twitter at @thechapters. Their new single “Trying to get ahead” is out now.

They’re playing a gig tonight in the Odessa Club - only a fiver in. Great opportunity to hear them live and up close.

Big thanks to Ruth and Rebecca for helping arrange the interview, to Simon for his time and to Niamh for editing the video. You all rock. Like The Chapters do.