Published: Wednesday, 16th December, 2009 7:00pm

'It's a break - not a break-up' say Blizzards

by Olga Aughey

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After five years, Mullingar's favourite band The Blizzards have announced they are taking a break and will play their last gig of the year, and indeed the foreseeable future, on New Year's Eve in Mullingar's Greville Arms Hotel.

Stating family and personal commitments, the much loved home grown band will be taking a break before starting the recording of their third album, and expect to return to the music scene in Autumn 2010.

With two Meteor Awards under their belts for Best Irish Live Act, two high profile support slots with Oasis and AC/DC last summer, and both of their albums receiving platinum status, the announcement that the band are taking a break may have come as a shock to their massive fan base, but is it a "break", or a break-up?

Direct from playing a sold out show in Dublin's Olympia Theatre, their biggest headline show to date, drummer Dec Murphy told the Westmeath Examiner about the decision to take a sabbatical so early in the band's flourishing music career.

"It's a break to give us a chance to get back to the right place creatively, it might be four months, it might be six months, we can't rush it but we will be back within the year," commented Dec.

"We all have different things going on personally, like I have a baby on the way so it's right to take a little bit of time out. We will miss it, especially the gigging and we get on so well it's just amazing, we've had our rows over the years but we still enjoy each others' company," he continued.

"There's no point and making a mediocre album just for the sake of it and I think in stepping back we will be able to appreciate how special a thing we've got going on here," he added.

This year was The Blizzards' first attempt at breaking into the British market, could it have been the pressure of this that influenced the decision to take a few months off?

"England will always been top of any Irish band's list and everybody wants to break that market, but so much of it is out of your own control," says Dec.

"The thing that's brilliant about the Irish music industry is that it's very open to different music genres, if you're good you are appreciated, but in England it is a very niche market, so personally I given up the obsession with the whole England thing, at the end of the day you need to be true to yourself and that's what it's about.

"Yes we'd love after we record our third album to release it in England and for it to go very well over there, but it is definitely not the way we are going to approach it."

However, realistically speaking, The Blizzards realise they do need to make a go of it across the water:

"The market is too small here to make a decent living out of it, but money is not a big deal for us, as long as you have money to get by and you love what you're doing, then that's all that matters."

So what have the boys lined up for the months ahead? Well frontman Niall Breslin is starting 2010 afresh in London as a songwriter/producer for 19 Entertainment, whose main man - Simon Fuller, is the multimillionaire behind the Spice Girls and American Idol, and who also discovered Amy Winehouse.

Breslin says he's determined to return from London a much better songwriter and learn all he can about pop production:

"I want to know everything before I sit down and write The Blizzards' third album," said Breslin.

"I want people to get the right message here, that why we're doing this is definitely for the greater cause of The Blizzards."

"It's a total break, it's not a break-up," he insisted.