Twins speak

The high-energy pop-singing siblings reminisce with Dearbhla Acheson about family holidays spent in County Clare… they think.

Want some chicken or grapes? We’ve lots, are the opening words of pop “sensations” John and Edward Grimes – aka Jedward – when I meet them backstage at the University of Limerick Concert Hall.

The two Dubs sit with their backs to the mirrors chatting about how long it took them to get from Dublin to Limerick and how it always seemed longer when they came to visit their grandparents as kids. When they hear I’m from a newspaper in Clare, they burst out, “Oh my God – Clare, that’s mad. Our cousins live down there, or is it our cousin’s granny and granddad”.
“I don’t know their names because they just call them granny and granddad but I guess they must have names but we don’t know. But anyway, that’s so cool – being from Clare – you’re so lucky. Mad,” they exclaim, literally jumping and bouncing around the dressing room. Yikes – where is that Red Bull I meant to have before meeting this pair.
The 18-year-old twins are chilling out before their first Limerick show in UCH last Thursday night, taking the time to munch on Chicken Tikka pieces, crumbed ham and black grapes and supping on smoothies. They even ask if I want a slug myself. ‘No thanks not this time’ before a Mrs Doyle-type exchange ensues – ‘ah go on you will, go on, you know you want to’. ‘No honestly I don’t – well have a grape so’. Finally they cop on, well kind of.
“What’s up? What do you want to know?” John asks.
So I ask have they ever been to Clare? “Yeah, I think we were. I think we were in Ennis, or something like that, or is that in Carlow? Oh no, it is in Clare, isn’t it,” John says. “Yes, of course, Ennis is in Clare; that’s where they have all the cool music, like guys on fiddles and banjos and whistles and stuff. Remember? I think we like Ennis.”
“Oh, it must have been Ennis because we were on holidays. Definitely, I’d say we went through it on the way to Galway. Could we have?” Edward interjects.
“I know we went over some sort of bridge to get there. Then there’s a house. Or maybe that was to get to Limerick. I really don’t know. But we’ve been lots of places, so maybe we’ve been to Clare,” John adds,
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we did go on holiday to Clare and we went to the beach. We used to make sandcastles and have lots of fun on the beach and there was this great shop where we got those big, cool ice creams with cone things and a big stick of chocolate flake in it. That’s what I remember about Clare. We met our cousins there and all,” Edward remarks.
“Yeah, but that was like ages ago when we were like three or four. I can remember it was really windy and we were at some kind of cliff thing,” John recalls.
I suggest perhaps it was the Cliffs of Moher they had visited. “Yeah, you’re right, it was the Cliffs of Moher. We were like little kids. They were kind of scary. But they wouldn’t let us go to have a proper look in case we’d fall off,” Edward answers.
“I think we should come to Clare on holiday again. Maybe we’ll come this year. That would be cool. Yeah, we could get our parents to come. That’s a great idea,” John adds.
Not once during all of this time have the boys sat down or even stopped moving. I’m tired even looking at them and as they talk at such a ferocious pace, I nearly need an interpreter to help me. It does give me the opportunity to spot a few things about them, however. They do actually look different. John has a pointy right ear, a scar above his left eyebrow and one on his nose. Edward has a scar above his lip, a broader frame, is slightly taller and has a baby face. They also have slightly different voices; Edward’s being a little bit higher. More noticably, or for the few minutes I’m with them anyway, John seems to be the more talkative and hyper. Edward stands back and lets John do most of the bouncing around. Edward also tries to think about his answers more carefully.
Edward admits it has been a really crazy period since their appearence on X-Factor but they still like some of the simpler things in life.
“It has been a really mad few months and some days I do wake up and think to myself, what is going on and would sometimes like for things to be a bit calmer. But at the same time, we’re having a really cool time and meeting really nice people and everyone is being so nice, so we’re having such a blast. We are happy what we’re doing. But it’s nice to go home sometimes too and just chill out and play PlayStation and watch a film, you know. And have our mum cook for us and all that.”
“We love doing what we do. Ain’t nothing gonna break our stride, ain’t nothing can slow us down – oh no – we gotta keep on moving,” John adds.
The boys admit they don’t have girlfriends but don’t really want them at the moment, either.
“There wouldn’t be time and that would be really hurtful. Anyway, it wouldn’t be fair to the girls who are our fans.” John says, before Edward elaborates, “It would be kind of weird if we had girlfriends and the fans wouldn’t like that. And it wouldn’t be nice if one of us had and the other didn’t. So I guess when we do, we’ll have to find two girls who are twins, so we can both have one then.”
They claim the criticism and negative comments don’t bother them anymore.
“We’re just doing what we’re doing and having fun. We don’t take ourselves seriously, so other people shouldn’t. It was bad when there was stuff like ‘we hate Jedward’ in the papers but really nobody hates us, they just don’t probably like what we do very much and that’s okay too. Not everybody is going to like stuff and everyone is different and that’s us, we’re different. We’re just going to do what we’ve been doing and once we’re making some people happy, we’ll keep doing it,” Edward notes.
John says they do plan to go back to school but not just yet. “We want to do our tour first. It will happen maybe next year, or if not, probably the year after that. Our parents want us to do the Leaving Cert and we should do it. We mightn’t be doing what we’re doing forever, so we’ve got to have a fall-back too. For the moment, we’ll keep working really hard and hope that people keep liking us. It’s all only meant to be fun.”
Thanking all their Clare fans for the support during and since X-Factor, Edward jokes, “We’d like to give you a hug but we can’t. So we send a virtual hug instead”.
Jedward are playing UCH again on April 21 and 30 but both nights are sold out. For other Jedward dates, log onto www.aikenproductions.com.