Irish rock band ‘The Coronas’ have spoken about the ‘surreal’ fact that the global pandemic shares their name.
The deadly COVID-19 virus has caused huge panic and disruption around the world.
Thousands of people have died and several countries have gone into lockdown to try and limit the spread any further.
The virus has been known commonly as the coronavirus since its outbreak.
That has proven to be an unfortunate coincidence for the Irish rock band of the same name, who are currently on tour in Dubai. However, they are philosophical and realise the issue is much bigger than the name.
Frontman Danny O’Reilly told NME: “Dubai are taking a lot of different precautions in the airport and even in our hotel.
“It’s just got to a whole new level in Ireland. We’re thinking that they may do a full lockdown and there’s concern that we might not get home, but we’re aiming to get back on Monday.
“No one really knows or can predict what’s happening. Everyone’s living day by day. It’s unfortunate for us that we have such an unfortunate band name.
“That throws another weirdness into the mix.
“We’re the same as any other band.
“We’ve had concerns about what’s going on and we’re 99% sure we have to cancel our upcoming American tour. We also might have to postpone our upcoming show at Shepherds Bush Empire in May. A lot of people have it worse than us.
“We were chatting to some other bands out here in the same boat and I was like, ‘Yeah, but at least you’re not named after the virus’.”
However, the Irish rockers have not made plans to change the name of their band, at least not yet.
O’Reilly said: “We haven’t even thought about it. We’ve been around for five albums and this is a new disease. It’s having a big effect on everything and it’s a hard one to judge.
“If we were a brand-new band I’d say, ‘Absolutely, of course’. We haven’t considered re-branding. Who knows what affect this will have?
“Someone mentioned that maybe we should do a co-headline tour with The Vaccines.”
The band have managed to see the funny side of the situation, and sent a message to Mexican beer company Corona for advice.
They posted on Twitter: “Hey @corona beer! So what’s your plan? Asking for a friend.”
If you are not familiar with the Coronas, here is a YouTube video of their hit Give Me A Minute.
