They looked great, played great, wrote great songs and, in PAUL CLEARY had a frontman with bundles of charisma. Yet THE BLADES never followed U2 into the stratosphere. On the occasion of the release of a retrospective set GEORGE BYRNE rewinds the tape
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
THE UNDERTONES have played a series of triumphant gigs since reforming. GEORGE BYRNE met the Derry punk legends, now augmented by Today FM producer Paul McLoone on vocals
Recorded in mono, containing twelve tracks and running for just over half an hour, Platespinner is the latest addition to this year's glittering parade of greatness from one of America's most vibrant underground scenes.
Truly, something special is stirring in the Southern states. Within weeks of Dwight Twilley's immaculate Tulsa taking up residence in the CD bay along comes the debut album by Texas-based Darin, again courtesy of Castle's newly-formed Power Pop outlet When!
Five years after the sublime I'm With Stupid and Aimee acolytes are now having to contend with the shock of Manna from heaven in the shape of her contributions to the Magnolia soundtrack and this more focused, full-length release.
For much of the past decade one of the most common mantras heard was from unreconstructed Rock bands claiming that there'd always been a dance element to their music.
From the ashes of BAWL, a new band, FIXED STARS, has arisen. And they re even better. Frontman MARK CULLEN tells GEORGE BYRNE about posing in bordellos, singing songs about wife-beating at the BBC Radio One Roadshow, and how he got to write a song with Al Green!
Music journalist-turned-publicist KEITH ALTHAM has spent more than 35 years behind the scenes with the likes of The Who, Rolling Stones, Small Faces and Van Morrison. His new book reveals (almost) all. Interview: GEORGE BYRNE.
One of the inherent dangers involved in making comedy/parody records is that the obsolescence factor tends to come into play quicker than you can say 'Weird Al Yankovic'.
With so many of their Power Pop contemporaries in spiritual hock to the Fab Four it makes a refreshing change to find Nashville trio The Shazam owing more to the underrated escapades of that Frantic Five, The Move.
By some bizarre coincidence, the new album from The Smashing Pumpkins hits the shops within a week of Oasis' new offering, as both bands approach their latest outing on the back of line-up unheavals, mounting media opprobrium and a previous release which sold roughly half of the one before that.
On 1998's Electro Shock Blues, Eels frontman E drew on the suicide of his sister and imminent death of his mother to produce a bleak masterpiece worthy of being filed alongside Lou Reed's Berlin and Magic & Loss.
It seems unimaginable today, given how obsessed bands and their corporate paymasters are with exerting complete control over even the tiniest scrap bearing a marketable trademark, but back when British rock bands were dominating the globe
PFM! Tolkien! Tales from Topographic Oceans! Myths and legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table! On ice!!! Yes, what fun we had back in the good old days of Prog Rock. GEORGE BYRNE outs himself as a recovered progster and recalls the glory days in the company of CHRIS SQUIRE from YES.
In the last issue of Hot Press, Noel Gallagher said his piece - this time out it's brother Liam's chance to shoot from the lip, as only he can, on love, life, OASIS and the whole damn thing. Interview: GEORGE BYRNE.
If I ever attempt to write the Irish novel please feel free to kill me . Best-selling thriller writer JOHN CONNOLLY assures GEORGE BYRNE that he only has murder and mayhem on his mind.
With the best part of a decade of excellence behind them, including four outstanding studio albums and a best-selling compilation, it was inevitable that Crowded House would leave behind a clutch of songs which failed to reach the widest possible audience.
Ten albums in and not too much has changed in the musical world of Yo La Tengo. The central husband and wife team of Ira Kaplan and Georgia Huble still work within the placid parameters of the Velvets' eponymous third album and
It took the best part of two years for Cotton Mather's superb second album Kontiki to reach this part of the world but the Texan Power Pop trio more than filled in any holes in their public profile with a series of rapturously received shows in these islands, including a barnstorming gig in HQ.
Over the course of my HP career I've never been slow to volunteer for interviews involving the Heavy Rock community, as invariably they're a whole lot more entertaining to talk to than floppy-fringed Indie mumblers who "make music for themselves and if anyone else likes it that's a bonus".
As one of Britain’s most consistent singles bands ever (in a six-year period between 1979 and 1985 their first twenty releases made the Top 20; spookily enough their twenty-first stalled at No.21), Madness were frequently under-rated by ‘serious’ critics on the rather patronising grounds that they seemed to be enjoying themselves a bit too much and therefore couldn’t be regarded as heavyweight contenders.
Despite the fact that it was his third outing, Matthew Sweet’s 1991 album Girlfriend provided the perfect introduction to his traditional but terrific combination of impeccably crafted songs, hurt vocals and glorious guitars.
GEORGE BYRNE joins the stars of stage turned stars of screen at the CORK FILM FESTIVAL as one band's star-crossed story takes another unexpected turn. Snaps: GEORGE BYRNE.
Although it technically came out earlier this year, it's only since Independent got their hands on the album that Road Music can now be deemed to have a proper release in this country, and with a distinct chill entering the air, Grand Drive's warmth is definitely welcome.
A mere decade after his first post-Clash solo effort, Earthquake Weather, Joe Strummer comes bounding back into the ring just as his previous band's legacy is revisited via a superb video documentary Westway To The World, an incendiary live collection From Here To Eternity and the remastered reissue of their entire back catalogue.
Those upstanding Manic Street Preachers have announced that their upcoming New Year s Eve gig in Cardiff will be their last live show for the best part of a year, as they intend to spend 2000 in the studio working on what they ve indicated could well be their final album.
However hard it might have been for mar dhea credible bands like Nirvana, The Stone Roses, The Verve and Kula Shaker to follow-up successful breakthrough or debut albums, it must be ten times harder for a ‘mere’ Pop act supposedly created out of nothing by a combination of faceless stylists and studio technicians.
With A debut solo album entitled People Move On, there was little doubt that Bernard Butler was determinedly distancing himself from his past as the sonic architect of the first two Suede albums.
RICHARD THOMPSON s new album Mock Tudor consolidates his position as one
of the most articulate and influential songwriters around. GEORGE BYRNE met him.
There are times when you develop a bond with a band which goes beyond the merely musical, and the very mention of The Rubinoos always brings a nostalgic smile to my face.
STEREOPHONICS are on the up-and-up, their popularity growing without the band making concessions to the London-based music media. GEORGE BYRNE met them to talk about drink, drugs, writer s block and their upcoming Slane support slot.
Mini Pics: MICK QUINN.
GEORGE MARTIN was intrinsic to much of The Beatles brilliance. Now he s coming to Dublin for a series of special concerts. GEORGE BYRNE sets the scene.
This 1996 debut from the enigmatic Glaswegian sextet was recorded as part of a college music business course and with copies of the original, vinyl-only, limited edition reputedly changing hands for sums over £200, this re-issue gives the world at large the opportunity to see what caused all the fuss in the first place.
Minneapolis trio Semisonic were one of the bands who suffered due to the British chart cock-up a couple of weeks ago when the returns from Virgin Megastores and the Our Price chain weren't logged, with the result that 'Secret Smile' failed to dent the Top 20. A decent enough song, it's one of the few real highlights on an album which rarely rises above College Rock competence.
When Boyzone pranced awkardly around the Phoenix Park stage in their orange jumpsuits at the ill-advised and worse-attended homecoming for the Republic's USA 94 squad (which could have been a subtle reference to the fact that we'd been sent packing by Holland, but I doubt it), …
Quite how Texas found themselves transformed from worthy but dull, blues-obsessed write-offs to fashionable multi-platinum pop merchants is one of the more remarkable career spins of recent years.
Whether with THE SMITHS, ELECTRONIC, THE PRETENDERS or in brown trouser mode sharing a stage with PAUL McCARTNEY, GEORGE MICHAEL and NEIL FINN, he remains, by his own admission, the best JOHNNY MARR-style guitar player around. GEORGE BYRNE meets the cat others like to copy.
In an ideal world where people of consummate good taste (Er, anyone we know,George? - Ed) ruled the radio waves, the much-maligned genre of power pop would - by rights - be an airplay staple and practitioners of this noble art such as Fountains Of Wayne …
On their last album Slang, Def Leppard moved away from the stomping, Glam-influenced anthems with which they'd earned their fame and fortune and slipped into experimental mode but that album's looser, funkier structures were met with a distinct lack of interest from their fanbase and so, for Euphoria, they're back on more familiar ground.
To mark the occasion of the release of a near definitive punk compilation, GEORGE BYRNE fondly recalls the days when pogo was go-go and gabba gabba was hey.
Since 1977 it's been a litany of bad business decisions, dodgy labels and the odd tantalising near-miss for Dwight Twilley, a pop classicist, who not only boasted outstanding writing skill and the kind of voice echo chambers were designed for, but also took a mean'n'moody photograph.
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
With 1993 going down as the year that Irish rock finally emerged from U2’s shadow, HOT PRESS takes an introductory look at four of the rapidly emerging outfits that are poised to make headlines and sell bucket–loads of records in ’94.
Schtum, Ash, Joyrider, Compulsion.
Martin McCann, lead singer of Sack has been ‘out’ for a number of years now. Here he talks about his homosexuality and its impact on his music. Interview: George Byrne.
When Alan McLoughlin scored in Belfast on November 17th he not only set the entire country off on an orgiastic rampage but allayed the fears of a pair of filmmakers who’d gambled heavily on Ireland’s qualification of USA ’94. So, it’s happy endings all round as Robert Walpole and Paddy Breathnach of Treasure Films release our official World Cup video The Road To America and detail the trials, tribulations and traumas of the venture to a suitably impressed George Byrne.
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
Stylish purveyors of streamlined, controlled Pop, 'Til Tuesday were one of the late eighties most critically acclaimed acts. But for frontwoman, AIMEE MANN, life in that band was often a frustrating and demoralising experience. Now, however, having languished in record company limbo for far too long, AIMEE has re-emerged blinking into the daylight with an album which Elvis Costello says will have male songwriters blushing with envy. GEORGE BYRNE meets the Mann woman herself.
It has to be said that the new album from founder of the late great Split Enz Tim Finn doesn't deviate to any great degree from what you'd expect of someone with his background in controlled, melodic Pop.
With 'Green' and its attendant world tour finally thrusting R.E.M. into the mainstream after seven years as the worst-kept secret in the Western hemisphere, it was odds-on that, given the band's predilection for avoiding the obvious, the follow-up would bear little relation to its illustrious predecessor, bar the songwriting credits.
As a mainstay of The Waterboys when they were a proper band, Karl Wallinger's skills as an arranger contributed vastly to the panoramic sweep of their music. However he's surpassed himself completely on 'Goodbye Jumbo' the second offering from his World Party vehicle.
Glasgow on the morning of the release of Deacon Blue's second album, "When The World Knows Your Name", is bathed in sunshine boasting a skyline view of the drive from the airport that is in sharp contrast to the image entrenched on the cover of the band's debut album "Raintown". Bright and sharp, the morning reflects the initial impressions of the new record, the bustle of the first rush-hour of the day reflecting the urgency of the opening tracks, "Queen Of The New Year'', "Wages Day" and "Real Gone Kid".
Now that 'Back To Life' has been firmly etched into everyone's brain (and a lot of hearts, too) the time seems right to delve further into the heart and soul of Jazzie B. and his cohorts.
On the surface 1988 was a promising year for Irish music with memorable vinyl provided by The Stars Of Heaven, Something Happens!, A House, Cypress Mine! and the sadly defunct Microdisney – but beneath that veneer, all is not as well as it might seem.
In the lucrative lottery which 80s Pop has become, the concept of a hermetically sealed sound and visual from a group has reached an obsessive level. Seemingly gone are the days when a band could through a few sideways shapes to cause a mild panic in the Marketing Department or head off at an aural tangent to befuddle radio programmers.
In many ways Microdisney exemplify the difficulties facing any band who feel that they have something valid and non-conformist to say but are also driven by a desire to bring that vision to as wide and diverse an audience as possible. Within those terms of reference, 39 Minutes may be a definitive offering.
Aside from “boosts for the whole country”, “taking our place among the greats” and all the other woolly notions which surrounded the Republic qualifying for germany, Stephen Roche winning the Tour de France and U2 finally cracking America, 1987 will hardly go down as one of the most memorable of rock’n’roll years …
Almost unheralded, in "Raintown" Scotland's Deacon Blue have made one of the year's outstanding albums. Despite extensive critical kudos, however, the first two singles from the album - "Dignity" and "Loaded" - failed to make any inroads into the charts. A third single, the excellent "When Will You (Make My Telephone Ring)" looks as if it might enable Deacon Blue to prise open the door. Nevertheless the band must be perturbed at their relative lack of success to date.
All things considered, the past twelve months are unlikely to be considered essential in the rock’n’roll scheme of things. It was a year when few new acts came to the public eye and those that did weren’t breaking any particularly new ground.
Two weeks ago, Life’s Rich Pageant sounded to these ears like a formulated cop-out, an undignified retreat where previously REM had charged remorselessly forward.
There are times when it can be very dangerous having a past. Having every move measured against previous achievements can try the patience of even the most resilient artist.
“I’ll bet it sounds like Simon and Garfunkel meets The Smiths,” sneered a friend as I headed deckwards with the cheap looking monochrome sleeve tucked safely under my arm.
The first part of the year undoubtedly belonged to the Americans. Week after week the albums drifted through signalling a shift back to a more orientated form of music – no bad thing from my point of view as I’ve had it up to here with Fairlights and bloody drum machines.
I knew he wouldn't let me down. When Waterboys mainman Mike Scott enthused about this, the crucial third album, there was an inevitable underlying fear: everybody says that the new album is the best thing they've ever done - Barry Devlin once went into print claiming that 'The Unfortunate Cup Of Tea' was Horslips' masterpiece but we're not here to dig up the dirt... we're here to talk about *This Is The Sea*.
With Fables of The Reconstruction R.E.M. find themselves thrust into the 'third album' dilemma - whether to persist with a distinctive sound, thereby risking being pigeonholed, or to make such a radical departure as to lose their initial following and gamble on finding a completely new audience.
Oh, to live in an ideal world! In an ideal world The Blades would be on their third album, at least, and we wouldn't have had to wait until now, five years after their debut single 'Hot For You'.
With last year's Swoon Prefab Sprout managed to divide critical opinion into two distinct camps: those who regarded Paddy McAloon as a modern-day Al Stewart, self-consciously sensitive, a wimp, and others who felt that 'Swoon' was the glittering emergence of a major new songwriter. I'm firmly in the latter category.
