The Script talk ahead of Birmingham show

And they followed that success with the announcement of a 2018 UK and Ireland Arena tour, which hits the Genting Arena, in Birmingham, on Thursday.

The Script has described themselves as the Manchester United of bands and they enjoyed some much-needed time out before returning last summer with Freedom Child, their fifth album and first in three years.

Frontman Danny O’Donoghue says the band needed to get off the treadmill of album-tour-album-tour.

“We’ve been going hard out for 10 years now. Four albums, five world tours . . . we needed some time off to chill. We did that for about a year, and then we spent the last year recording the fifth album. We started recording in the UK, then America, then back in the UK for the finishing touches.

“We’ve tried a few different things – we wanted to change the sound a bit. The songwriting is still the same, but we tried to update the production and bring it into 2017. We wanted to step things forward, as opposed to a small shuffle.”

The band introduced electronic elements to the record, making a break from the past and updating their signature sound.

Lead guitarist Mark Sheehan says change was essential; The Script didn’t want to be a band that was left behind and failed to keep up with their contemporaries.

“They’re favouring EDM and electronic on radio, so how as a band, do we fit in? It really a case of adapt and change or die. Look at people like Royal Blood – they’re a great example of the change. They’ve made their heavy sound more edible on their new album. Even The Killers and Imagine Dragons.”

Taking a break and finding new ways of making music has given the band a renewed appetite. And they’re happy to adapt to the new demands placed on pop stars, including the 24/7 demands of Snapchat, Insta stories and constant interaction with fans on Twitter.

Danny adds: “Absolutely! This whole industry – music and the media – has turned around. It’s very easy to get disheartened, but we’re still in the mix and ready to elbow people out the way to get our spot. We feel as relevant as ever and we’ve got the wind in our sails. Our time off has given us fresh love for the industry again.”

With hits such as Breakeven and Hall of Fame. how have they managed to craft so many catchy, memorable songs? Simply by observing the world around them, says Danny.

The Script formed in 2001 and then moved to London after signing a deal and recording an eponymous debut album, which peaked at number one in the UK and Ireland. A series of hit singles have followed including For the First Time, Nothing, Hall of Fame and Superheroes, among others. The band’s music has also featured regularly in such TV programmes as 90210, Ghost Whisperer, The Hills, Waterloo Road, EastEnders, Made in Chelsea and The Vampire Diaries while Danny enjoyed a two-season sting as a coach on The Voice UK before leaving to focus on the band.

The band has been honoured at a series of awards ceremonies, winning three Meteor Ireland Music Awards and two World Music Awards and receiving two Brit Award nominations.

Lead guitarist Mark Sheehan says The Script has remained true to themselves since the off.

““It’s always about just listening to what’s going on – to yourself, because a lot of our music in the past has been quite introverted.

“I think the new record is quite extroverted. A lot of these stories have impacted us: the news penetrating the studio, people penetrating our lives and it was kinda time to talk about those things. Stories while sitting and pounding a few whiskeys, and that’s what you get, you know?”

The band broke through in 2008 with Breakeven, which received a platinum disc and was a hit around the world, including in the UK and USA.

Mark adds: “We’d all been through massive breakups at that time. Massive, catastrophic ones. We realised there wasn’t a song out there that kinda spoke from the guy’s perspective on an actual breakup. There’s a lot of songs that do talk about it, but none that really give you the guy’s side and talk about when that person has the best days of her life, it’s your worst days of your life -- it absolutely destroys you as a person.

“We came up with the idea of ‘when our heart breaks it doesn’t break even’. Someone’s always left with the lesser piece of the half and someone always gets the most. And we thought that was a cool concept, but we weren’t trying to write the best pop song in the world. But suddenly, we now get calls from folks at Berklee College of Music in Chicago who teach this as a song to people about how to write songs.

“So Breakeven just ended up being one of those songs that kinda grew legs and started running away from us. We knew we had a great song, we knew we really liked the song, we love playing it as a band, but we didn’t really know if it was gonna be as big of a song as it was, of course. Now and then, a song connects with the audience. I think that was the first lesson for us, where a song really resonates with an audience and becomes their song, not your song. A lot of people say they didn’t know the Script until they broke up with somebody – we’re like the soundtrack to people’s bad times.”