Having been lucky enough to have witnessed Mr. Zimmerman’s legendary gig in Vicar St. a few years back, it seemed almost inevitable that a trip to this East Wall arena would prove anti-climactic. And so it proved to be.
The third heat in the Bacardi/Hotpress 'Plugged' Band Of The Year showcased a pleasingly diverse bill of young guns intent on making their mark and hoping to emulate last year's winners, Woodstar, in securing a major label deal
Baz Luhrmann’s forthcoming musical is set in the 19th century, features classic songs from the 20th and was made in the 21st. A lot of big names – Bowie, Beck, Bono – have been co-opted to make this soundtrack more interesting than your average movie tie-in.
MAZZY STAR are still going strong, but HOPE SANDOVAL has also got a side project up and running. She tells NICK KELLY all about
HOPE SANDOVAL AND THE WARM INVENTIONS and her collaborations with everyone from The Chemical Brothers to Bert Jansch
Rats the star of RTE s new comic documentary, Paths To Freedom, and the alter ego of actor Michael McElhatton tells Nick Kelly about his life and crimes
Matthew Sweet belongs to an honourable power-pop tradition in the US that is lauded in certain quarters but exists largely away from the gaze of the public at large.
Galwegian comedy writer and sometime stand-up Karl MacDermott is the man behind Straight To Video, currently running on Network 2. He spoke to Nick Kelly
The Magnetic Fields' Stephin (sic) Merritt was of course simply havin' a larf when he wrote those lines but he put his finger on something here all the same.
Most artists who do the 360 degrees re-invention thing just get laughed at - but Luke Haines's vicarious volte face has the Bowie-esque stamp of genius about it.
NICK KELLY catches up with DARA O BRIAIN in the midst of his Australian tour. On the agenda: scubadiving, zen massage and the warm waters of mainstream
The flowering of post-rockers like Mogwai and Godspeed . . . may also bear fruit for the three-leafed Australian clover that is Warren Ellis's gang but in terns of trends and fashions, Dirty Three have always stood on their own six fee
Danish This is Your Life specials; Bob Monkhouse game shows and seling petrol to Bobby Robson . . . Nick Kelly hears the untold story of Prefab Sprout from Martin McAloon bassist, founder member and sibling of songwriting genius, Paddy.
Louth comic Patrick McDonnell has seen his profile rise of late, courtesy of TV appearances. But he d be quite happy to scratch my arse and watch Countdown , he tells NICK KELLY.
What's this, Bill Callahan's comedy hour? Not exactly. The flippancy of the whimsical title is just there to lull you into a state of joviality before the punches come raining down.
You thought St. Patrick s Day was all about fireworks, celebration and cultural diversity. Wrong!
NICK KELLY experiences the real deal in the company of Ding Dong Denny O Reilly. ON THE Pics: CATHAL DAWSON
I know what you're thinking. How can Joe Pernice possibly follow up the lush, tear-stained masterpiece that was the Pernice Brother's Overcome By Happiness, an album that boasted one of the most ironic album titles in rock history.
OPPORTUNISTIC DUBLIN comedy impressario Buzz O Neill hasn t been letting the grass grow under his feet since pulling down the shutters on the Corduroy Comedy Club at Dublin s Norseman just before Christmas.
Corkonian hip-hop homeboy, sometime music-biz mogul and supremo of the International Bar s International Comedy Club New Yorker DES BISHOP is all these things and more. NICK KELLY collared him for a quick chinwag.
The latest instalment in Nashville floor-layer Kurt Wagner's project of fusing soul and country music is a disappointing affair that never quite lives up to its promise and only fleetingly recalls earlier triumphs.
It's a little disconcerting reviewing the new album by an artist who died over six months previously, but this album stands as the last will and testament of Mark Sandman, Morphine's singer, songwriter and bassist, who collapsed and died on stage last summer.
We'd like to point out that comedian and author ian macpherson chose the headline himself. Still, what did happen to the great bright hope of Irish comedy? NICK KELLY finds out.
NICK KELLY talks to BRENDAN DEMPSEY and PADDY COURTNEY, the respective outgoing and incoming MCs of Dublin's COMEDY CELLAR, the most important comedy club in Ireland. Pics: CATHAL DAWSON.
When the words ‘drummer’ and ‘solo project’ are mentioned in the same sentence, it’s usually time to cut and run to the hills, leaving all your worldly possessions behind except for a pair of ear muffs and a box of cyanide tablets.
ARDAL O'HANLON is back in anti-hero mode in a new BBC sit-com. But before that, there's more stand-up, a movie, another book and the small matter of football, football. NICK KELLY hears all about a busy life after Ted. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
ARDAL O'HANLON is back in anti-hero mode in a new BBC sit-com. But before that, there's more stand-up, a movie, another book and the small matter of football, football. NICK KELLY hears all about a busy life after Ted. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
Rarely has anyone taken pop so seriously as Sean O'Hagan. Like a rocket scientist who hasn't left the lab in 20 years, O'Hagan has spent a beach's worth of hourglasses in recording studios trying to find the formula that will lead him to make the Pet Sounds of today. Snowbug is probably the closest he's come yet.
Some bands graft and grind and eventually come up with something that cuts the mustard; others produce music of wondrous, lilting beauty without seeming to break sweat. Wheat, the pride of Massachusetts, belong quite emphatically in the latter camp.
In Auckland, it was punk rock, gang wars, heroin and prostitution. In Cavan, it s rolling countryside, a recording studio in a church and more dogs than you could throw a stick for. It s been a long way from there to here for BRENDAN PERRY, the former partner in Dead Can Dance who now has a solo album on release.
Interview: NICK KELLY. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
Beatles-fixated guitar bands may not be exactly what the world is waiting for right now but local lads, Pugwash, carry it off with such aplomb that it’s hard not to succumb to their charms.
Rock ’n’ roll has also long been obsessed with the dual totems of cars ’n’ girls, and of contemporary bands the likes of Mercury Rev and the Vulgar Boatmen have made sure the Americana idyll doesn’t run out of gas.
As he prepares for the Murphy s Ungagged Festival in Killarney this weekend, the compire s compire, JOHN HENDERSON, tells NICK KELLY why rumours of stand-up comedy s death have been greatly exaggerated.
dEUS are winning over more and more fans with their idiosyncratic, guitar-based songs. NICK KELLY met lynchpin TOM BARMAN to talk about love, loss and famous Belgians. Pics: CATHAL DAWSON.
Nick Kelly talks to the king of camp, Dublin-bound comedian and actor, Harvey Fierstein, about homosexuality, Woody Allen, The Simpsons and life in general.
STEPHEN RYAN has made his songwriting reputation on the byways rather than the highways. Now, with a new REVENANTS album finally on release, he takes NICK KELLY on a trip off the beaten track. Pics: Bernard Walsh.
LA, Joshua Tree, Alabama, New Orleans . . . Kristin Hersh verbally back-packs her way around the most significant places in her life and career thus far.
Interview: Nick Kelly.
In the kingdom of the bards, Kristin Hersh is queen. Taken as a whole, her back catalogue represents one of the most individual bodies of work of the past 20 years. From the crazed manic-depressive clouds which stalked the early Throwing Muses records to the relative serenity of the acoustic solo outings, Hips And Makers and Strange Angels, Hersh's work is stamped with her own idiosyncratic imprimatur.
They are, of course, the last band in the world you would allow your daughter to associate with. Because you know that one of them will get drunk and end up in the sack with her after a night on the tear and then write a long, meandering, shag-and-tell song about it, warts and all.
Once he cleaned up in the charts, now he s cleaned up himself. Bruised but unbroken, MARC ALMOND is back and busy on all fronts. And, whisper it, there s even talk of SOFT CELL reforming. Interview: NICK KELLY.
Rain-soaked lovers; galaxy-straddling astronauts; the dawn's early light; the late night taxi; the broken hearted people; the reawakened dreams; and through it all, casting a warm, twinkling eye from above, the stars. This is Ken Sweeney's world. And it's a wonderful place to be.
Every so often an album comes along that just leaves you with a big, gob-dawed smile on your face. Keep It Like A Secret is one such record. The third opus to seep out of the heart and mind of Boise, Idaho's Doug Martsch, this is a joy to behold.
With Siouxsie ... The Banshees having gone gently into that Good Night, The Creatures is now a permanent set-up, rather than just a side-project for Ms. Sioux and Budgie to indulge the wayward side of their muse.
SEBADOH, for so long the epitome of the slacker rock band,
seem poised to finally make the breakthrough.
NICK KELLY met them in Dublin only to be asked for cocaine,
and told that Kurt Cobain was so lame he killed himself .
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY is the new moniker of cult hero WILL OLDHAM. NICK KELLY spoke to him about his album I See A Darkness. And received a lot of curt replies.
DOMINO RECORDS has released some of the most essential music of the 90 s by the likes of Sebadoh, Palace Brothers, and Elliott Smith. NICK KELLY talks to lynchpin Laurence Bell and one member of the label s current roster, Stephen Pastel of The Pastels.
UFOs, sunken Civil War forts and songs about Van Gogh’s severed ear are all subjects liable to come up when in conversation with WARREN DEFEVER from Michigan-based eclecticists his naME IS ALIVE. Interview: Nick Kelly.
It was hardly the perfect start to guitar-based London outfit Rialto’s career when, after scoring three hit singles and recording their debut album, they were unceremoniously discarded by their record label. Interview: Nick Kelly.
Or should that be Pub Stars? Either way, their debut album is soaked in the strong spirit - and stronger spirits - of their native city. Nick Kelly meets Dublin's JUBILEE ALLSTARS.
melys are more than just the latest Gorky's soundalikes or Super Furry Animals copyists to emerge from the wilds of Wales, according to an enthusiastic nick kelly.
Discovered that there is life after Brett-pop, that is. nick kelly gets the lowdown from "the bloke who left Suede", Bernard Butler, whose mightily impressive solo debut People Move On, has just been released.
GREAT WESTERN SQUARES frontman gary fitzpatrick has built a career out of crafting beautifully heartfelt C'n'W vignettes, prowling around ancient pubs and being "a sad bastard who drinks too much". nick kelly says: "Cheers!"
They say that there are no
characters in snooker any more, but ronnie o sullivan is an exception. A true people s champion and natural talent in the mould of Alex Higgins and Jimmy White, he s made determined efforts to curb his own excessive tendencies and is now being tipped by many to claim the world title in Sheffield this month. Interview: Nick Kelly.
Who needs Abbey Road or The Power Station when you ve got Connolly s Of Leap? Failed Keith Richards impersonator martin stephenson tells nick kelly about a wild week in County Cork.
Neil Young, the Pixies and the Beach Boys are just some of the influences that Californian quintet grandaddy include in their own particular brew. Tape: nick kelly.
Glaswegian quartet TRAVIS may have spent much of the last year playing
support to Manc legends Oasis, but deep down, all they want to do is rock. Interview: NICK KELLY
As he prepares for the release of his band s third album, Cold And Bouncy, high llamas mainman
sean o hagan tells an awestruck
nick kelly exactly why there s always been a Beach Boys element to his music.
As soul-pop heavyweights M People gear up for another assault on the charts and a brief Irish tour, Nick Kelly shoots the breeze with their well-travelled Mancunian music maestro, Mike Pickering.
Frazer Guided Melodies
TARNATION may make soundtracks to cinematic desert scenes but there s more to Paula Frazer s beautiful songs than a fistful of spaghetti western themes. Interview: Nick Kelly.
As pristine popsters ABC gear up for their appearance at the Heineken Weekender in Cork, NICK KELLY grills band mainman MARTIN FRY about his new album Skyscraping, his love of all things Elvis, his battle with illness and why it felt right to wear that gold lami suit in 1982. Below, meanwhile, we preview the rest of the Weekender s goings-on down in Cork.
Droll blue-hearted seamsters The Sewing Room are back with a new album, Sympathy For The Dishevelled, which will make us laugh and cry simultaneously. Interview: Nick Kelly.
The most momentous journalistic event of the decade nay, the millennium has come to pass. They said it could never happen, but after months of careful pre-planning and tense negotiation, nick kelly has finally interviewed NICK KELLY. Here, the Stars Of Heaven fan remorselessly grills the former Fat Lady Sings mainman about his long sabbatical from the music industry, his perception of modern culture, and his cracking new album Between Trapezes. Pix, gimmicky t-shirts and
unfeasibly large trousers: mick RAGING PUFF QUInn.
tim rogers, frontman of Australian popsters you am i, talks to nick kelly about the primeval forces that made him want to get into the rock n roll business.
It s sink-or-swim time for UK guitar aesthetes gene as they unveil their second album, Drawn To The Deep End. But, two years down the line, the quartet are still insisting they don t sound like The Smiths. Interview: Nick Kelly.
A suitably awestruck nick kelly shares a chinwag with jake shillingford, ringmaster of perfect pop merchants my life story and unashamed wearer of gold lami suits in public.
What does Peter Buck have in his bathroom? What does Justine Frischmann do all day? stephen j. malkmus and spiral stairs of the decidedly non-lo-fi and non-slacker indie rock gods pavement spill the beans to nick kelly.
Billy Bragg's larynx, sexual politics, and Jilly Cooper paperbacks. What's it all about? NICK KELLY finds out when he beams himself up to the planet DUBSTAR.
Billy Bragg’s larynx, sexual politics, and Jilly Cooper paperbacks. What’s it all about? NICK KELLY finds out when he beams himself up to the planet DUBSTAR.
IT WAS straight out of Reservoir Dogs. Six men, all in black, most in suits, lope onto the stage, a cigarette nestling between fingers or dangling from
the side of the mouth. You half-expect them to open with 'Stuck In the Middle With You' and drag out a member of the Garda Siochana from the side
of the stage with a gag in his mouth and the contents of an extra-large can of Castrol GTX dripping from his fettered uniform.
Well, a trio of humans, to be precise. Confronted with the flesh and blood reality of Phil, Susanne and Joanne munching sandwiches right in front of his eyes, Nicholas G. Kelly accepts that we must come to terms with the fact that The Human League have indeed risen from the grave. But not, repeat not, the ’80s.
Whether we're talking image or (does it exist?) artistic integrity, the ideal moment for a greatest hits compilation is not 8 months after your debut LP. Especially when said compilation contains, in largely similar form, 5/10th of said debut LP's contents.
Whether we're talking image or (does it exist?) artistic integrity, the ideal moment for a greatest hits compilation is not 8 months after your debut LP. Especially when said compilation contains, in largely similar form, 5/10th of said debut LP's contents.
