Mark Sheehan obituary | Music

Mark Sheehan obituary

As Mark Sheehan, the guitarist with the Dublin group the Script, saw it, “the untouchable rock star has gone out of fashion … Now people want to connect to normal, humble people. And the one thing about being Irish is that it keeps you grounded. You’re not allowed to get a big head.”

The shocked reactions to Sheehan’s death at the age of 46, after a brief illness, attest to his generous and unpretentious nature. The singer-songwriter Imelda May, who grew up in the same Liberties district of Dublin as Sheehan, said: “Mark was such a gorgeous soul. Always a pleasure to chat to. Often bonding over stories about times in the Liberties.” Ryan Tedder from the American band One Republic described Sheehan as “one of the nicest, most genuine people I’ve ever had the pleasure of touring with and getting to know”.

Proving conclusively that nice guys need not finish last, Sheehan was a gifted songwriter, musician and producer who played a pivotal role in powering the Script to huge international success. The six albums they released between 2008 and 2019, plus the greatest hits package Tales from the Script (2021), racked up a collective total of 20 million sales. All of them topped the Irish chart and only their third album, Number 3, failed to repeat that feat in the UK (it reached No 2). Their second album, Science & Faith (2010), also climbed to No 3 in the US chart. In addition, they scored a dual No 1 hit single in Ireland and the UK with Hall of Fame (2012), one of three of their 11 top 20 hits in Ireland to reach the top spot.

Musically the group had a gift for turning heartache and heartbreak into grand, irresistible anthems that could persuade huge crowds to sing along, as they did at Croke Park in Dublin and Citi Field – formerly Shea Stadium, where the Beatles famously performed – in New York. At the latter show they were supporting Paul McCartney, who gave Sheehan a tip about how to talk to an audience – “I learned that with certain songs we have to take a breather and take a risk and talk about what it means to us.”

The Script’s best songs, with Danny O’Donoghue’s lithe-with-a-hint-of-grittiness vocals leading the way, are likely to prove indestructible. The Man Who Can’t Be Moved is an ingenious and heartrending tale of a man hoping to reconnect with his lost lover by camping out on the street corner where they first met (“I’m not broke, I’m just a broken-hearted man”), while For the First Time describes how hard times might somehow make a love grow stronger. The growing-through-struggle theme resurfaces in Superheroes, powered by its swingbeat-flavoured arrangement.

Sheehan grew up on James’s Street in the Liberties, with his parents, Gerard and Rachel. His father died when Mark was 14. Mark began his career as a dancer, and was teaching hip-hop moves at Dublin’s Digges Lane performing arts centre before he became one of the five members of the boyband Mytown in 1996.

With management provided by Sheehan’s friend and TV studio owner Eamonn Maguire, Mytown secured a lucrative deal with Universal Records following some successful showcase appearances in the US. By now O’Donoghue, another friend of Sheehan, had been hired to replace Tony Dunne. Mytown recorded an album (called Mytown) with most of the material written by Sheehan, O’Donoghue and Terry Daly, but it was doomed to failure due to political infighting at their record company. It was never issued in Ireland or the UK, and the group were released from their contract.

Sheehan later reflected: “What I’ve learned out of that whole experience was to take nothing for granted and to always keep your business head on. We’re in this because we love music, but you have to have an awareness for the commercial side of things as well.”

The Script was formed by Sheehan, O’Donoghue and the drummer Glen Power at a time when Sheehan and O’Donoghue had been in the US working with Pharrell Williams, the Neptunes and Teddy Riley, adding R&B and a hip-hop feel to home-grown influences such as U2 and Van Morrison (they described their music as “Celtic soul”). They returned to Ireland when Sheehan’s mother suffered a stroke, which left her hospitalised for the remaining months of her life. Sheehan had his own small studio behind the house where he grew up, where he worked on material for the Script’s debut album.

“It was right next to the hospital,” he recalled, “so I was able to go in and do night shifts with my mother, write lyrics and then go home and record more … she taught me not to gauge my success in money. In her eyes I was always successful because I was following my dreams.”

The band’s debut album, The Script, materialised in 2008, featuring We Cry, Breakeven and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, and announcing them as a force to be reckoned with. In 2011 they released the concert film Homecoming, shot when they played to a 55,000-strong crowd at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

In 2022 Sheehan stood down from the American leg of the group’s world tour to be with his family. O’Donoghue commented: “It’s his story to tell, but yeah, I guess if I could paraphrase, his children needed a father and his wife needed a husband.”

He is survived by Rina, his Texas-born wife and a former backing singer for Britney Spears, and their children, Cameron, Avery and Lil.

Mark Anthony Sheehan, musician, born 29 October 1976; died 14 April 2023

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