Steve Wall in County Clare, Ireland, April 2021 while recording the "Rise with the Sun" single with composer and video artist Simon O'Reilly.[1][2][3]
Born
Stephen Patrick Wall
Occupations
Actor
musician
Years active
1984–present
Children
1
Steve Wall is a musician, singer, songwriter and actor. He is a founder member of the multi-platinum selling Irish band The Stunning and also The Walls.
Stephen Patrick Wall was born in Kingsbury Hospital, Honeypot Lane,[4] the first of five children of Patricia (née Keogh) of the Liberties, Dublin and Vincent Wall of Ennistymon, County Clare.[5] Four of the children were born in London and while still young, the family moved back to Ireland, living first with the Keogh family in Harolds Cross.[6][7] He has two brothers Joseph and Vincent (born in County Clare) and two sisters Anna and Helen. His mother's family home was full of records and sing-songs were regular, with uncles and aunts singing everything from Cole Porter to The Beatles and Ella Fitzgerald. This is where Wall says he discovered his love of music.[7][8][9]
Education
Wall attended several schools in Dublin - St. Louis Junior School, Rathmines, St. Joseph's National School Terenure and Templeogue College Secondary School, where he left after the first year as the family moved to Ennistymon, County Clare when he was thirteen.[7][8] He spent his teenage years in Ennistymon and attended the Christian Brothers school there.[10] Following that he went to the Galway Regional Technical College,[7] where he joined a new wave band called New Testament as guitarist.[7]
Career
Steve Wall as Chet Baker on the set of My Foolish Heart.
Acting
While still at school in the west of Ireland Wall developed an interest in acting and applied unsuccessfully to the main London drama schools.[9][11] When college band New Testament went their separate ways in 1984[12] Wall approached the Druid Theatre Company, Galway for work.[13] He had a small walk-on part in the 1984 production of Tom Murphy's On the Outside directed by Paul Brennan.[14] He spent two years at Druid working as a trainee actor, stage assistant and sound operator, working on shows Conversations on a Homecoming and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore[15][16][17] He then moved to Dublin to pursue an acting career but after an unsuccessful year of finding work he decided to turn back to music and formed The Stunning in 1987.[13][17][11] He still performs today with The Stunning and The Walls.[9][16]
Steve was offered the role of Pats Bocock in the Gaiety Theatre's production of the John B. Keane play Sive. It was his first stage performance. It opened on 27 January 2024 and ran until 16 March 2024. [22]
Wall formed The Stunning in Galway in 1987.[24] The band was hugely successful in Ireland with number one albums and top ten singles.[24][25][26] Frustrated at not getting their music released internationally despite success at home, the band broke up in 1994.[7][26][25] The following year, Wall and his brother Joe formed The Walls. They signed to Columbia Records in 1996 and relocated to London,[27] spending two years there before moving to Dublin in 1998 and starting their own label Earshot Records later changing it to Dirtbird Records.[28][29] They released three albums on their own label - Hi-Lo (2000),[29]New Dawn Breaking (2005), Stop the Lights (2012) as well as EP's and singles including the top ten hit "To the Bright and Shining Sun" and "Drowning Pool",[30][25] which featured in the movie Begin Again.[31] The band toured extensively and opened for acts such as U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bob Dylan, Crowded House.[28][25]
In 2003 The Stunning reformed in order to promote the re-issue of the band's debut album Paradise in the Picturehouse on their own Dirtbird Records label. The resulting tour was a huge success, sending the album to the top of the charts again almost ten years later.[24][25] In 2017 they released "Brighten up my Life", their first new single in 24 years.[27][32] This was followed by the album Twice Around the World which peaked at number ten in the Irish mainstream album charts [33][27] and number one in the independent charts on 23 March 2018.[34] The Stunning continue to play live today, while Steve and Joe sometimes perform as a two-piece as The Walls.[25]
In April 2021 Wall collaborated with Clare-based musician Simon O’Reilly on a song called "Rise with the Sun". During the pandemic, the two collaborated on the song by sharing files online, with O'Reilly recording the music and mixing the song in his studio near Lahinch, County Clare and Steve recording vocals and some extra instrumentation in Dublin.[35][2]
