Dublin band The Thrills make their much anticipated return to Belfast next week, when they will be playing Belfast’s Spring & Airbrake.

They will be showcasing music from their latest album ‘Teenager’ as well as playing all their big hits like ‘Big Sur’, ‘One Horse Town’ and ‘Whatever Happened to Corey Haim’ on Friday 27 July.

The Thrills had put out two outstanding albums in two years – ‘So Much For The City’ in 2003 and ‘Let’s Bottle Bohemia’ in 2004 – racking up sales well in excess of a million copies.

They had toured almost non-stop for four-and-a-half years, establishing their credentials as one of the key acts of the decade, and getting a taste of what it is like to perform at some of the biggest venues in the world, in the company of the likes of U2 and Oasis.

They had plenty of new songs ready to record, and the group duly assembled to begin work on the new album the day after the last gig in Dublin of the last tour to promote ‘Bohemia’. That was when they realised that they had reached a turning point.

“It’s easy to go through the motions and churn out something of a certain standard,” says the band’s singer/songwriter Conor Deasy. “But go beyond that, you really have to give it everything you’ve got.”

Aware of how easy it would have been to slip into production-line mode, and simply keep on repeating the same basic formula with diminishing returns, the band were determined instead to take a new direction and raise the bar while they were about it.

“We were still the same five people in the same band, but we felt it was time to move up a gear,” says guitarist/bassist Daniel Ryan.

The Thrills play in The Spring and Airbrake on Friday 27 July. Doors open at 9pm and tickets, costing £12, are available at Katy Daly’s, Virgin and all other Ticketmaster outlets.

(JM/KMcA)