Whether it's a four-minute love song about a caress that lasts ten seconds, a journey through the universe in a silver plane or a simple escape form war, Air promise that you'll never have a bad trip with their music. Danielle Brigham talks to Jean-Benoit Dunckel, one half of the enigmatic French duo.
"Air’s dreamy atmospherics are lost in the project and Baricco’s monotone dominates the proceedings, because this is, technically, a spoken word album"
Martyn, a Scottish-born folk singer-songwriter, had been absorbing more and more disparate influences as his career had progressed. A lot of blues, rock and jazz touches had begun to appear in his sound, and this sense of musical adventure reached its peak on Solid Air.
A temporary station has been specially created to bring Christmas joy across the air waves with Christmas FM broadcasting holiday tunes non-stop throughout December.
Will U2 play Phoenix Park or not? And what is the future of the rock festival as we have come to know and love it in Ireland? Special Report: STUART CLARK.
A Liveline caller who allegedly libelled a government adviser on air has opened a can of worms for RTE. But can the broadcaster successfully tap the caller for damages?
The hiatus between albums is often an excuse for record companies to recycle and repackage the most outrageous muck imaginable in the interests of exploiting an artist's marketability - particularly when the act in question has produced a twenty-four carat classic of modern times, and there's no indication of a follow-up in the foreseeable future.
Their live shows can be a little erratic, leaving some onlookers in doubt as to the "authenticity" of what they are witnessing: is the guitar playing intentionally bad or is it part of an act?
ALTHOUGH Poe senior was getting severely inebriated he came to the conclusion that he was having a splendid time. Having just finished a large four-course meal in the company of some charming friends, he had managed to play some Elgar on his guitar, had got involved in some riveting discussions on the state of music today and now, with a lopsided paper hat on his head, swayed off down the dark cobbled streets towards the bay for a bit of fresh night air.
IT HAS been suggested that Graham Reid’s plays are pungent with “the thick and acrid air” of Belfast. Any actor performing one of these production in The Lyric Players Theatre in Belfast at this point in time would certainly know if that statement is true.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are floating in space. A few tracks into Air’s stunning show at the Olympia and the redoubtable Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel are already gently elevating us to a higher plane of consciousness.
AIR's latest outing is the kind of thing that gives the soundtrack a good name. JONATHAN O'BRIEN talks to the finest French musical outfit since LITTLE BOB STOREY!
Fresh from the success of ‘Shrooms, in which she has a leading role, Lindsey Haun shoots the breeze about music, film and growing up as the daughter of a soft-rock legend.
Peter Murphy discusses the finer points of prophecy with US writer T.C. Boyle whose latest short story collection includes tales of plague, air rage and terrorism
Presenter of Channel 6's Night Shift, an air hostess and a model, Michelle Doherty is rarely found at home... but that doesn't stop her from showing us around her Drumcondra abode.
Underground heroes for the best part of a decade, French soft-rockers Phoenix look set to break-big with their latest album. They talk about drawing inspiration from the annals, and hanging out with Francis Ford Coppola
He helped invent synth-pop and is famous for his huge open-air shows. Now Jean-Michel Jarre is going back to basics to reprise his landmark Oxygene album.
Ahead of the reformed Pistols' Electric Picnic set, we caught up with the guitarist, Steve Jones, who spoke about kicking heroin, his dislike of Malcolm McLaren, his on-air confrontation with Jerry Lee Lewis, and why he'd love to do an album with Cliff Richard.
Radio Ulster’s Donna Legge ensures there’s no punching below the belt as she and two of the north’s other leading DJs - Maurice Jay and Johnny Hero - come together to discuss the local music scene, on-air rows with James Galway and prank calls to Sellafield.
Everybody Hertz is an album of re-mixes of three selected tracks from the previous album, mixed by luminaries such as Daft Punk's Thomas Banghalter, Mr Oizo, Malibu, Adrian Sherwood, Modjo, The Neptunes and the Hacker
Très formidable. A lush collection of chilled cosmic electronica is just what a weary post-Chrimbo body needs. What’s more, nobody does it better than that duo with those haughty sounding names, JB Duncknel and Nicolas Godin.
ENYA: THE LATEST SCORE
From the Gweedore family that gave the world Clannad, another success story in the making. Enya,whose new album featuring music for the forthcoming TV series The Celts , is already making waves months before the programme itself goes on air, is joined by producer Nicky Ryan for a three-way conversation with Bill Graham. Pix:Colm Henry.
As the station nears the end of its first year on the air and celebrates the two-year extension to its licence, any appraisal of Anna Livia Radio has to be made in the context of the current debate on the ethnic music cleansing at RTE Radio 1, Minister Higgins' plans for the revamping of the Broadcasting Act, and the general despair at the failure of the current Irish radio network to deliver on the promises made to sell us the deal in the first place. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
They are one of the most interesting and enigmatic groups in rock. They are also one of the biggest, with a string of multi-million selling albums to their credit. But they don’t like interviews much, making themselves available for only a handful in Europe to coincide with the release of their new album Around The Sun. Once Peter Buck sits down opposite a microphone, however, a different face of REM reveals itself, as he talks eloquently about life, family, downloads, air rage, Iraq, Bush – and The Thrills.
It s the morning after the night before and BRET EASTON ELLIS feels like he s got Marilyn Manson playing inside his head. A dinner date with fellow penslinger Irvine Welsh has gone seriously pear-shaped and like his most famous literary creation, the Californian is fit to kill. STUART CLARK offers tea and solpadeine, and in return gets the lowdown on American Psycho, trans-Atlantic stalkers and why both Air Supply and the Teletubbies are evil. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
Just in case you were in any doubt as to the nature of the latest Danú CD, they’ve subtitled it “Irish Traditional Music Solos Played by the Members of Danú”.
Some French bird whispers sweet nothings over numerous arpeggiated 303s and hackneyed thudding drums before a hands-in-the-air break kicksitrightrorfmate. Still, not as annoying as it should be, thanks to it being slightly tongue-in-cheek.
With his gangly arms flailing wildly in the air as he opened with 'West Country Girl', Nick Cave was reminiscent of a ringmaster harkening the crowds to his bark.
An air of menace pervades ‘Snauzi Petisch’. The muted, warping bassline, snatches of radio dial samples and unexpected void hint at nothing much, before a simple hypnotic melody and surging bass save the day.
Chopped air-raid sirens and glitchy FX ride a nice flat 4/4 kick, before a phased, buzzing bassline and chord washes with a couple of Mayer-y key changes make this abrasive, malevolent floor-filler territory.
The Jaxx attempt to reclaim Ibiza with the most hands in the air cut from their recent LP. Can they do it? ‘Course they can. The boys provide an identical but longer re-edit of the album track, while Boris D surprises with a tough-but-subtle take on the original. Can’t fault it.
Agoria fancies himself as a pop act, but he’s really still a techno producer. Just check the way the title track’s hard drums and cavernous, epic riff builds to an air punching finale: it’s obvious that it will enjoy the same success as ‘La Onzieme Marche’.
Just when you thought we’d lost Marshall Mathers to the dark side following his Oscar win (for ‘Lose Yourself’), he confounds all expectations by pulling a playful, wonderfully infantile track out of the air.
Many of Dublin's pirate radio stations have been forced off the air by action taken by the national communication regulators, Com Reg.
Mountain sites from which Jazz FM, Freedom FM, Ministry FM, Chill FM, Kiss FM, The Vibe and Hot FM are broadcast were raided by a team from Com Reg, accompanied by the Gardai and the ESB, throughout Tuesday May 20 and Wednesday 21, with transmitters and other broadcast equipment being confiscated. Many other stations, including Phantom FM, Choice FM, XFM and Sun FM have chosen to go off air as a precautionary measure.
With music by Air and lyrics by Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon, ‘The Songs We Sing’ was always set to be a classy affair. In fact, the only weak link is Gainsbourg herself, who doesn’t particularly do it justice, delivering it in semi-bored film-star fashion. The good news is that the Jarvis revival continues at a steady but reassuring pace.
Buoyed by a blast of fresh air, James Yorkston’s new single is a rousing track that evokes the alpine freshness of Nick Drake and his folky ilk. As with the album, Just Beyond The River, ‘Shipwreckers’ packs little sonic punch, yet its comforting, organic strains make for enchantingly emotional stuff. As far as soul-soothing sounds go, Yorkston is on to a true winner here.
The optimistic title of this track almost sets itself up for failure, but in this case ‘Something Beautiful’ is a fitting tribute. This is vintage Sinéad, her distinctive voice still soaring although it sounds more world-weary than before. ‘Something Beautiful’ has a sacred air and the lyrics are laced with religious imagery (befitting of an album named Theology) but it is not so overtly religious that it suffocates the magic.
Having taken electro pop nihilism some distance past its logical conclusion on their unnecessary Evil Heat album – a bored rehashing of the landmark XTMR, with less tunes and more vowels. – the Scream throw a swerve ball with ‘Country Girl’, a lazy slice of Stone-derived country pop. It’s a tune with the air of something cobbled together from a garage sale yet, all the same, scrubs up a treat. You could bring it home to your mum.
The combined talents of chief songwriter Wayne Murray and Icelandic chanteuse Thorum Magnusdottier makes this a real grower – fans of Air should snap it up!
Touring mates and neighbours of The Go! Team, the Pipettes had been flitting from one small indie label to another, before finding a home with the Team at Memphis. It also marks their move away from the slight air of novelty to proper pop band, much in the manner of The Chalets’s recent transformation. Indeed the two bands share something of a musical template, especially in the classic girl-group vocals. ‘Dirty Mind’ is good yet b-side ‘Because It’s Not Love’ is better and wouldn’t sound out of place on the Grease soundtrack. Yes, that is a complement.
Touring mates and neighbours of The Go! Team, the Pipettes had been flitting from one small indie label to another, before finding a home with the Team at Memphis. It also marks their move away from the slight air of novelty to proper pop band, much in the manner of The Chalets’s recent transformation. Indeed the two bands share something of a musical template, especially in the classic girl-group vocals. ‘Dirty Mind’ is good yet b-side ‘Because It’s Not Love’ is better and wouldn’t sound out of place on the Grease soundtrack. Yes, that is a complement.
Tales of Thomas Walsh’s exquisite, Beatles-esque songwriting bent have already been well-documented on these pages, and this latest single comes up trumps. Walsh is about two degrees of separation (literally) from the likes of Air, Beck, Paul McCartney and Aimee Mann, and boy does it show. Laden with summery strings and plodding with an endearing strain of psychedelia, this single brings to mind the cheerful, sanguine likes of the Beach Boys. It’s nice to be nice alright, but it’s even better to be brilliant.
So here it finally is: the long-awaited return of The Thrills. In their absence, their legendary status has oddly increased. Unfortunately for them, they’ve also returned to a domestic scene where the bigger Irish bands are on the cusp of something amazing, and the smaller acts are creating a real air of excitement. In this context, more of the same just doesn’t cut it. It’s radio-friendly, sunny and memorable, thanks in part to Conor Deasy’s unique singing and Tony Hoffer’s spot-on production, but they certainly didn’t spend their three years working on a new direction. Here’s hoping that Teenager will prove that something – anything – changes around here.
Coldcut have been around since the dawn of dance music and, while they have a propensity to dabble in dull multimedia ‘projects’, this new album resonates on a number of levels.
Sound Mirrors has crossover potential, with the bluesy vocals of ‘Man In A Garage’ and the orchestral ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’ outdoing Air or Zero.
More importantly though, Coldcut are sick of electronic music’s inability to make political statements: Mirrors rails against corrupt international aid agencies on ‘Aid Dealer’, and the senseless destruction of the environment on the old school house-pianos-meets-jungle bass of ‘Island Earth’. They are right-on, tree-hugging hippies, but these days, we need Coldcut more than ever.
The good vibes in the air at Lovebox were enough to get not just the concert security, but also the St. John’s Ambulance paramedics dancing. Yeah, there was something in the air alright.
Dunno if there were too many Red Bulls in the backstage rider this evening, but something has given Thom Yorke wiiings. In fact, along with Thom’s frantic making-shapes-in-the-air dancing, there are many factors to indicate this is not a garden-variety Radiohead experience...
Its title is apt: as O'Connor demonstrates both with popular session tunes like ‘The Yellow Wattle’ and with such rarities as Peadar Ó Dubhda’s lovely slow air ‘Úr-Chnoc Chéin Mhic Cáinte’, he is a player without pretension.
Competent, professional and workmanlike – but inescapably dull, and never especially engaging – Con Air director Simon West’s first “serious”, flick isn’t a bad movie by any means, but it isn’t exactly thrilling stuff either, and while it swallows up a couple of hours effectively enough, it leaves little to remain in the memory.
Phoenix are often mentioned in the same breath as fellow Frenchmen Daft Punk and Air, and they certainly incorporate some shades of electronic pop and disco into their sound. Tonight though, they stand before us primarily as a rock band. They are, in many ways, a perfect rock band, but they still fall short of being a great one.
Bjorn Baille’s elongated frame leans into the mic as his husky tuneful voice tears through the smoky air. From the angelic birthplace of the Super Furry Animals interspersed with the integrity of Paul Weller of old, La Rocca have arisen and created a niche of their own.
The overall air of heat, decadence and general malaise that pervades this double album can best be summed up by a stray line from ‘Tumbling Dice’: “There’s fever in the funkhouse now”.
The Irons are back with an album of overblown air-punchers which, as ever, scavenge the plots of wizards-and-goblin fantasy novels for their lyrical content, . . .
Master craftsmen with nothing to prove, they’re not above turning their capable hands to session chestnuts like ‘The Mountain Road’, but there are some fascinating rarities here, too – notably a beautiful air composed by Shetland fiddler Willie Hunter.
A meeting has been announced at which songwriters are being given the opportunity to air their views on the running of this year’s Euro Song 2006 contest by RTE.
The music of Bodyrockers, a DJ/producer collaboration that wants to see your panty line, is creepy and shudder-inducing. One is put in mind of sweaty, sleazy nightclubs where the air is taut with soured lust and simmering aggression.
Apparently, Diefenbach are named after an incidental character in the Coen Brothers’ flick Fargo, a fact that in its own way elucidates what is both good and bad about this Danish act. Here is a band with mostly impeccable taste (The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkle, Air, and Mogwai are all recognisable influences). Yet, crucially, Diefenbach seem to lack any originality of their own.
10,000 Things' songs have a brutalised air, as though they were bullied into existence. Fitful guitars prowl the mix in search of a melody or, failing that, a purpose, while front-man Sam Riley yelps in a manner that suggests he’s about to have his throat slashed.
For such reasons, their self-titled debut feels less like a statement of intent than an obstacle course through the muck. Opener 'Self Destruct' is as tired and tattered as an old denim jacket; a putatively anthemic 'Titanium Boxer Shorts' suffers delusions of tunefulness.
Devon-based DJ collective Elevator Suite purvey a kitschy blend of loungcore pop that at times recalls the studied retro chic of Air – albeit with much more emphasis on the dance floor than the Gallic duo.
Drive By Truckers can lay claim an unfortunate honour – they were the last band to play the French Quarter before Hurricane Katrina transplanted half of Lake Pontchartrain onto downtown New Orleans. This, their fifth album, was actually recorded before the disaster. Yet its muted, regretful air feels like an appropriate elegy for a ravaged metropolis.
Engineers’ debut mini-album, Folly, indicated a love of all things arcane and prog, and their self-titled LP honours this tradition nicely. Coming across for all the world like a post-apocalyptic Mercury Rev, or a Zen-like Air, Engineers have mastered a wondrous union of adventuresome, obtuse sound-scapes and autumnal calm.
Playing a rare Irish show (the first since their ‘Erase/Rewind’ era pomp) the Malmo outfit had the air of arriving superstars – a necessary deception fans were happy to play along with.
With two of the three main acts up for the Meteor Awards for Hope of 2006, it’s fair to say that the air of excitement about tonight isn’t merely that reserved for an everyday gig in the capital.
His compositions have this remarkable unfinished air, as if he is in possession of painterly instincts telling him exactly when to stop, an interior alarm mechanism warning him that one more stroke might reduce a great piece of work to a failure
Here Dillon brings her warm, natural style to standards like ‘Black Is The Colour’, ‘Lark In The Clear Air’ and ‘I Am A Youth That’s Inclined To Ramble’.
The Dead can be a purposely stifling affair, a chamber piece that leaves you gasping for air. Even the magnetic Anjelica Huston, playing Gretta with no little aplomb, seems unworldly.
The Hearts’ return to the stage was always going to be special and there certainly was magic in the air as Donal Lunny, Davy Spillane, Eoghan O’Neill, Keith Donald, Matt Kellaghan, Noel Eccles, Anto Drennan and Graham Henderson took to the stage for the first of a four night stand.
Sometimes at tribute gigs, the air is heavy with the sound of befuddled musicians hammering out half-learned covers, in an effort to be heard over the cacophony of fans trying to outdo each other with tales about ‘back in the day’...
You have to hand it to Rod. Forty years on the road, and he still draws them in droves – two nights’ open air at the RDS is impressive by any standards.
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.
As a documentary following the American quadriplegic rugby team, there’s obviously plenty of inspirational punch-the-air moments on offer, but directors Shapiro and Rubin wisely ignore opportunities for sentiment.
I’ve always felt that remix albums were a bit of a scam, expecting fans who already bought the album proper to shell out again for a collection of reheats. However, when the album in question is the latest slice of funk, rock and whatever you’re having yourself from musical chameleon Beck and your remixers include the likes of Air, Ad-Rock and Dizzee Rascal, perhaps it’s time to sit up and take notice.
With her rich velvety vocal style, consummate piano playing and – let’s be honest here – her stunning good looks, she came on like a breath of fresh air in the mid-1990’s
While there are air-guitar riffs aplenty – and their rhythm section is one of the more interesting in the country at the moment – there’s just too much bluster and not enough soul.
Al Jourgensen's Ministry are one of those bands - the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sonic Youth are two more - who once, back in the mists of time (eight years ago, in fact), radiated a certain affectation of danger, an air of left-field cool, an indefinable cachet of credibility. These days, though, they are as stale a proposition as last night's lasagne.
If their rapid ascent has left Alex Kapranos & Co. gasping for air it doesn’t show as Franz Ferdinand launch into their Olympia set with a breakneck ‘Michael’. All that having to grab American audiences by the scruff of the neck has toughened them up to the point where on occasions they’re bizarrely redolent of Live & Dangerous-era Thin Lizzy.
Gone are the distorted kaleidoscopes of A Rock In The Weary Land, back are natural fibres, and if Wickham plays a subsidiary role, his high lonesome keenings are integral to the prevailing air of windswept ennui.
Once in a very long while – and only if you’ve been a very obedient, diligent sort of film critic – you find your just reward in a film that lunges off the screen, affects some kind of primal, Come To Daddy howl, slavers all over your face and leaves you stumbling into the daylight gasping for air and several stiff gins. In this manner, along lunges Park’s Tarantino-approved, Cannes conquering OldBoy, a dazzling blast of macabre fuselage from South Korea.
New Dublin station Spin FM (103.8) will soon be wrapping up their first day on the air. How did they do? Well, we'll tell ya. Also: "Dublin is a cosmopolitan city," programme director Liam Thompson tells us in this exclusive interview. "We don't need to play it safe. We can afford to take risks."
New Dublin station Spin FM (103.8) will soon be wrapping up its first day on the air. How did they do? Well, we'll tell ya. Also: "Dublin is a cosmopolitan city," programme director Liam Thompson tells us in this exclusive interview. "We don't need to play it safe. We can afford to take risks"
New Dublin station Spin FM (103.8) will soon be wrapping up their first day on the air. How did they do? Well, we'll tell ya. Also: "Dublin is a cosmopolitan city," programme director Liam Thompson tells us in this exclusive interview. "We don't need to play it safe. We can afford to take risks"
It all went to hell when he started calling himself The King Of Pop. The backroom boys work their usual production juju, but Invincible has the air of everything Prince has done since Diamonds & Pearls: beautifully crafted tracks, top-notch performances, not a blemish in the merchandise (unless of course it was put there on purpose) but still light years from his best work.
At long last, a real debate seems to be beginning in Ireland about our treatment of immigrants. It may get nasty and unpleasant at times over the coming months. Already, the foul stench of prejudice and bigotry is in the air, with the attempted launching of the Immigration Control Platform by the Clonakilty schoolteacher (the mind boggles) Aine Nm Chonaill. This pathetic creature s ideology stinks but, in a perverse way, in launching her campaign she may be doing us all an unintended favour. Because what she espouses is little more than an extreme version of what passes for official policy on immigration in this country.
John Kelly’s Mystery Train is among the surprise exclusions in a major reshuffling of the pack at RTE radio. Both RTE Radio 1 and 2FM are affected by the changes, with long-standing 2FM stalwart Dave Fanning shifting over to Radio 1 for the majority of his on-air hours.
Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrist?
And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?
And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?
Oh they re taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.
A joint Irish Presidency/European Commission Conference on the Future of Tobacco Control in Europe opened today at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Limerick, Ireland. The conference runs over two days, from 17-18 June 2004.
As suede prepare for their headline slot at Dublin Castle next month, their stock has never been higher, thanks mainly to the success of their fantastic third album Coming Up. craig fitzsimons talks to singer brett anderson about it and invites him to take stock of the last few wildly successful months.
The US-led ‘War on Terror’ has officially extended its scope to east African territory. But will this make the world a safer place or merely stoke the flames of Islamic extremism?
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the third of a four-part series, Jackie Hayden breakfasts - as do more Irish radio listeners than ever - with morning-show helmsman Ian Dempsey
Having started out busking on the rainy streets of Dublin, 747s have lately struck up a friendship with Arctic Monkeys and nearly triggered an international terrorist scare.
Leeside took the honours at the recent PPI radio awards with Red FM's Red Rooster winning Best Breakfast Show. Co-host "KC" talks about the challenge of entertaining listeners.
No-one could contemplate using a headline like that in Hot Press unless of course it was to sum up an article about Howard Stern, the New York DJ who credits himself with having invented the concept of penis jokes on radio. Tape: craig fitzsimons.
The release of her second album Blue Planet should prove beyond all reasonable
doubt that DONNA LEWIS is no One Hit Wonder.
Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
That’s the routine for the incredibly busy Galway Bay Fm DJ Jon Richards, who also handles on the spot traffic reports from his spanking new Honda. And he’s up for a Meteor Award this year too!
The twisted dance-punk of Hard-Fi is inspired by the angst of suburbia. But that hasn’t stopped them reaching for the stars – or breaking into an airport.
HELEN SHAW has been RTE s Director of Radio for two years, ultimately charged with bringing the national broadcaster s four stations into a new era. Interview: JACKIE HAYDEN.
...Or at least it does where Halloween is concerned, as the old pagan feast is transformed into an orgy of amateur pyrotechnics, civil disobedience and open-air boozing.
They've been steadily losing ground to a resurgent Sinn Féin - and now there are rumours of a merger with Fianna Fáil. So does the SDLP really have a future? Mark Durkan clears the air.
Jackie Hayden drops in on comedian Carol Tobin hoping to catch her doing some air comedy practice ahead of her forthcoming appearance in Kilkenny at the Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival. Instead he meets a woman who seems to be barred from half of Ranelagh and finds out why there are no goldfish around.
With Oscar hysteria in the air, Tanya Sweeney recalls the night she “gate-crashed”
hollywood a-list party – and survived to tell this tale of beauty and the beasts.
The Dublin-born editor of Marie Claire, one of the world's most successful magazines, answers to charges that her title promotes hypocrisy, air-headedness, sexism and sycophancy. remarkably, she doesn't throw troublesome Hotpress out of her office
NIALL STANAGE identifies the contenders in the race to put a new youth-oriented radio station on air in Dublin and speaks to FIONA McLOUGHLIN and DONAL SCANNELL, CEO and Head of Music respectively at FUSE FM, one of the applicants.
NIALL STANAGE sees GERRY ADAMS and EAMON DUNPHY fight out an honourable draw. Pix: Peter Matthews
They've been talking about it for weeks. Now the moment of truth has finally arrived. The sense of anticipation that has been building up over the past few weeks, around the impending clash of these two old adversaries, has been immense. It's been billed as the clash of the titans, the battle of the giants, the mother of all matches and even, extraordinarily, as the rumble in the mumble. Now the house-full signs have gone up, the touts are out in force and there's an air of
expectancy you could cut with a knife.
NIALL STANAGE sees GERRY ADAMS and EAMON DUNPHY fight out an honourable draw. Pix: Peter Matthews
They've been talking about it for weeks. Now the moment of truth has finally arrived. The sense of anticipation that has been building up over the past few weeks, around the impending clash of these two old adversaries, has been immense. It's been billed as the clash of the titans, the battle of the giants, the mother of all matches and even, extraordinarily, as the rumble in the mumble. Now the house-full signs have gone up, the touts are out in force and there's an air of
Following up one of the biggest dance choons of 2008 couldn’t have been an easy task for cosmically-minded production duo SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO. Maestro primate number one Jas Shaw puts it down to a little bit of crafty collaborating and a lot of vintage *nsync records.
RAYTHEON, the armament-technology firm which manufactured Patriot and Sidewinder missiles, is establishing a plant in Derry and the local politicians couldn t be happier. EAMONN McCANN reports.
The Frames formed Plateau Records to release their For The Birds album which subsequently went platinum in Ireland. The band’s manager, Claire Ledbitter describes the adventure of going the indie route
THE RUC shot a runaway cow in the streets of Ballymena recently. They didn't feel they had a choice, having received no training whatsoever in the control of country animals which get lost in a town.
We see the reports on television and hear the voices on the radio but the brutal adrenaline-charged reality of the rioting in North Belfast can only be fully understood if you're in the thick of it. Gerry Ryan Show reporter Brenda O' Donoghue briefly was.
Celebrating its 21st anniversary this summer, 1998's Galway Arts Festival promises to be the best ever. Hot Press' honorary Tribes-man, COLM O'HARE, previews the main attractions and offers a comprehensive guide
to the best places to eat, drink and make merry.
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the final of a four part series, Jackie Hayden meets No Disco founding-presenter, new-music savant and legendary nighttime DJ Donal Dineen
I’d always have said that Irish people were good at huddling. Our history and our climate, not to mention the controlling influence of the Roman Catholic Church, had tended to give us an inward-looking aspect. We had a thing about bars, matter a damn how dark or gloomy they might be. What we wanted, it seemed, was good place to whisper and to hide.
Based in Glasnevin and founded by producer Mark Hadfield, businessman Chris Hehir and Brian McFadden, Chilli Studios proves that home digital recording hasn't yet usurped state of the art commercial studios.
ON YET another wet and brisk February morning, Professor Poe was to be found in his kitchen, a cup of coffee in one hand and his definitive books on speakers in the other.
Having made the headlines recently with their attention-grabbing impromptu gig at the You’re A Star auditions in Portlaoise, Longford rockers The Rubens are now out to put the life and soul back into Irish pop.
Hannah Hamilton reports on the recent Nokia Totally Board event in Seville – a heavy three-day carnival of extreme sports and down’n’dirty hard rock action
Operating in the interstice where Sonic Youth meet the Jackson 5, Brighton dance-rock outfit The Go! Team are deservedly brewing up a storm with their debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike.
These days you're more likely to meet a witch at the frontlines of mass anti-globalisation rallies than on the mountain tops under a full moon. Renowned American witch and author Starhawk tells Adrienne Murphy why.
After an early string of synth-pop classics (‘Are Friends Electric’, ‘Cars’, ‘She’s Got Claws’) Gary Numan survived a two-decade slump and became a cult icon. Now he’s back in road-warrior mode.
House heroes Faithless are back and this time they’ve got some words of wisdom for young bands. Such as: don’t sign to a major until you’ve already got millions of adoring fans.
A new compilation album charts DONAL LUNNY s extraordinary musical journey to date but Colm O'Hare finds that the COOLFIN founder still has his eye fixed firmly on challenges to come
Never ones to be left behind the times, Bono and chums have gone 3D with the release of U2 3D. Director Catherine Owens gives us the inside track on the historic project.
Not only do the FAI's own figures show that they do not need the Sky TV money but relying on television revenue to develop football in the current climate is a risky strategy
Unpalatable truths about the 'war against terror' - and Ireland's involvement – will be revealed during the trial of Eoin Dubsky, the young Wexford man who spraypainted a US war plane refuelling in Shannon
BARRY GLENDENNING visited the Leeds Town and Country to witness the BRUTUS GOLD LOVE TRAIN, an unfeasibly
popular 70s disco extravaganza that will soon be winging its way to Dublin.
BARRY GLENDENNING visited the Leeds Town and Country to witness the BRUTUS GOLD LOVE TRAIN, an unfeasibly
popular 70s disco extravaganza that will soon be winging its way to Dublin.
Magician to the stars Keith Barry reveals all about succeeding in Hollywood, performing for Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton and Jack Osbourne, being given his own MTV show, and the perils of his orthodontically hazardous work with bullets. Interview by Tanya Sweeney. Photos by Graham Keogh.
From piano-plonking crooners to nihilistic electro-pop duos, the UK and US are bursting at the seams with fresh talent in 2007. Could there be a new Arctic Monkeys out there somewhere?
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the second of a three-part series, Jackie Hayden meets IRMA winner, Hot Press Readers' Poll champion and Pet Sounds-smith Tom Dunne
Marley, Merlin, Christ, coke, the mighty wind and extraterrestrial healing - EAMON SWEENEY hears the gospel according to LEE SCRATCH PERRY, currently starring in the latest cult commercial for Guinness stout
Modesty doesn't forbid us drawing your attention to a new book on Irish comedy, in which this here organ plays a small but, dare we say it (and yes we do),
significant role. By our special correspondent E. Gomaniac.
Despite its good intentions, Channel 4’s recent After Dark special on the Church and sex in Ireland didn’t shed much light on the issues raised. Night owl: LIAM FAY
Kristen Hersh’s new solo effort The Grotto is being released on the same day as her first album in seven years with her former band, Throwing Muses. she explains this curious coincidence – and lots more – to Eamon Sweeney
As well as being a rising actress and Playboy cover girl, Dumplings starlet Bai Ling has at least eight spirits currently inhabiting her body, one of whom is so shy it insists she has sex with the lights off. Alrighty then.
ME AND the boys are heading down to Central America for a couple of weeks. Nothing too taxing overthrow a democratically-elected President and replace him with this right-wing dictator bloke who s bunging us $500,000. If you want to come along for the ride, give us a shout.
Award-winning singer-songwriter Julie Feeney puts pen to paper for Hot Press as she arrives in the Dutch city of Groningen for the annual Eurosonic pop festival.
Behind the strange stage name, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly’s Sam Duckworth is an old-fashioned dreamer who thinks music should say something and has little truck with blink-and-they’re-gone scenes.
It may well be wall to wall war on our tv screens but for all the
spectacular images and crazed punditry, we’re getting very little sense of
the truly brutal reality of violent conflict. Jonathan O’Brien found it
elsewhere
The Adidas Wellness Centre in Stockport is a state of the art facility, in which your entire physical condition is tested and assessed. So how would Hotpress’ Carol O’Hanlon stand up to the scrutiny – not to mention the endurance test through which she would be put?
A the Zutons prepare another visit to these shores, saxophonist Abi Harding talks to Ed Power about their hugely successful debut album, the not very difficult follow up and how she can spot a creep at a distance.
Are they genuine punks or just an amped-up, radio-friendly version of the real thing? Good Charlotte‘s twin frontmen Benji and Joel wouldn’t like to say for certain.
Clann Zu have taken their blend of rock, trad and classical strings halfway around the world from their native Australia to settle in Dublin. Why? Because "Ireland is very open to different styles" insists token mick, Declan de Barra
On the face of it, the Fleadh Mor in Tramore had it all: blistering sunshine, hairy hippies, a stall selling glow in the dark condoms and a line up of rock 'n' roll legends that would be hard to match.
The tragic death of Mic Christopher before Christmas came as a terrible blow to his many friends and fans (see letters page). Here our own Kim Porcelli recalls her memorable encounters with "an exceedingly generous soul".
An Irish band who don’t entirely fit in at home, Relish can console themslves with a great new album Karma Calling, and an international fanbase that stretches from the U.S. to Japan.
An Irish band who don’t entirely fit in at home, Relish can console themslves with a great new album Karma Calling, and an international fanbase that stretches from the U.S. to Japan.
As popular with the Europeans as with their home crowd, Therapy? return to Lund for the first time in ten years. Shilpa Ganatra catches up with the lads to find out how their tour is going and what the rest of the year holds in store.
Arts Council director PATRICIA QUINN talks to SIOBHAN LONG about internal strife, Ireland s changing attitude to art, and the necessity of taking risks. Picture: Myles Claffey
Joe Jackson talks to Christopher Adlington, star of Enlightenment, the new play from Shelagh Stephenson which examines British attitudes towards the Middle East.
A white man inducted into aboriginal culture, 29-year old Australian singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd eschews western-obsessed pop for more indigenous spirits.
TB, malaria, AIDS and infections of every sort flourish in the mud-huts of Kenya and Tanzanis. John Donnellan travelled to witness the appalling conditions.
He may have been beaten out of sight by Robson & Jerome, Wet Wet Wet, Lionel Richie and Unchained Melody , but Chris De Burgh was the undisputed star of Channel 4 s Top 10 Hits: Love Songs. BARRY GLENDENNING reports.
Despite having Kevin Shields stolen away from them by Gemma Hayes, Primal Scream are in the best shape of their careers. So says Bobby Gillespie in a no punches pulled interview.
It’s a rags to riches fairytale of Disney proportions, but winning the overall prize in the Global Battle of the Bands contest, a world tour and E85,000 is just part of Kopek’s story.
The pressure’s on for Roisin Murphy. She’s no longer shielded from public scrutiny as a member of Moloko and Electric Picnic is her first outing as a solo star in her native Ireland.
Akron singer-songwriter Tim Easton has just settled in Alaska, a place where people “go mad or die”. Thankfully, he’s still alive and sane enough to tell the tale.
Irish peace-keepers in Chad will find themselves on the frontline of a vicious internecine conflict. Can they succeed where countless others have failed and bring calm?
Tom Foote came to writing late in life but in Undertow he s produced a fast-moving maritime thriller which reflects his own personal obsessions.
Interview:
Olaf Tyaransen.
PIX:
AONGUS McMAHON
Tom Foote came to writing late in life but in Undertow he s produced a fast-moving maritime thriller which reflects his own personal obsessions.
Interview:
Olaf Tyaransen.
PIX:
AONGUS McMAHON
Tara Brady talks to Catalina Sandino Moreno, star of Maria Full Of Grace, the gritty Colombian drama which tells the story of a seventeen year-old girl attempting to escape the dead-end environs of backstreet Bogota.
The end of the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifying campaign was deeply unimpressive, not so much for the poverty of the results as for the manner in which they were achieved. And just when everyone was breathing a collective sigh of relief at the whisker-fine nature of our qualification, worse was to follow with the news of Niall Quinn’s critical knee injury. So what is the best way forward for Jack Charlton’s embattled troops? Analysis: Niall Stokes
Bomb materials made in Northern Ireland are killing people in the Middle East while the PSNI arrest protesters against the manufacturers, including this HotPress columnist.
Love, relationships, dating – and the first Diana song since the reworked ‘Candle In The Wind’. Sarah Nixey takes Paul Nolan on a guided tour of Black Box Recorder’s new album Passionoia.
Adrienne Murphy speaks to ASLAN, in the midst of recording their live album. Under discussion: the dangers of chasing fame, and the importance of self-belief.
The new installment in the Narnia franchise, Prince Caspian, is burdened by huge commercial expectations. But the film's director, Andrew Adamson, is not letting the pressure get to him.
Canadian songwriter Emm Gryner has released a covers album of Irish rock classics. But what inspired her to tackle Horslips, The Undertones and Gilbeert O'Sullivan? And why didn't The Pogues make the cut?
Self-confessed musos and manic Hall & Oates devotees, The Feeling might be the most exciting band you’ve heard all year. Just don’t call them a ‘guilty pleasure’.
The inaugural Thirst event in Cork featured Paul Oakenfold, a DJ competition for some of Ireland’s best emerging spindoctors and 1,200 up-for-it clubbers determined to have the night of their lives
Fossil fuels are running out and few countries are so vulnerable to an oil shock as Ireland. With an unprecedented energy crisis on the horizon, a conference in Dublin will explore possible solutions. But is it too late?
Europe will be hardest hit by imminent climate change which will have a drastic effect on many parts of the world. we’re talking the next ten to twenty years, folks – even the Pentagon says so. Words: The Whole Hog
Having lived a peripatetic existence for several years, Katell Keineg has now settled in Dublin and is earning deserved kudos for her moody brand of arty acoustica.
They were Ireland’s original of the punk species, and thirty years on from their debut, Paranoid visions are still fizzling with anti-establishment fury. The difference, they say, is that nowadays they are more likely to channel their rage through music rather than chuck a bottle through a shop window
As the world gears up for a war in which US president George Bush has said the use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out in the event of Iraqi chemical attacks, Aideen Sheehan speaks to a survivor of the world’s first a-bomb attack in Hiroshima.
A graduate of art-house cinema and experimental theatre, Cork actor Cillian Murphy is set for the a-list following his chilling turn as Scarecrow in Batman Begins. Interview by Tara Brady.
They may have been overshadowed by the activities of their musical mastermind The Rza with his day job in the Wu-Tang Clan, but GRAVEDIGGAZ prime exponents of New York horrorcore hip-hop still produced one of 1997 s best albums, The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel. Interview: PETER MURPHY.
Country music’s stock has never been higher. First Johnny Cash gained an entire new generation of fans, then Hollywood began to pepper its films with bluegrass and roots music. Now, everyone from Jack White to Van Morrison is waking up to the magic of country. Ireland's getting in on the act too, with the launch of the Midlands Music Festival, a two-day celebration of all things hatted and booted. Colm O’Hare traces the rebirth of a genre.
In between starting a family and touring the globe with Bell X1, David Geraghty has managed to find the time to squeeze out a second solo record, The Victory Dance. He talks about dealing with bat infestations, bestriding U2’s ‘Claw’ stage and tackling the fraught subject of 9/11 in song.
The hype parade doesn't interest Carlow's finest, 79 Cortinaz. Whether it's cold-calling record stores or hand delivering CDs, they'd rather take a grassroots journey to the top.
Unofficial curator of the New York club scene and head of a creative emporium many have described as a contemporary version of Warhol’s factory, LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy is rapidly emerging as one of the biggest players in the U.S. underground. He tells Barry O’Donoghue how it happened
Earlier this year, the dance music community was shocked by the sudden departure of Darren Emerson from Underworld. However, the band continues to blossom, embracing new technologies and ideas to remain at the forefront of electronic music. Richard Brophy catches up with Rick Smith to find out more.
Gloria Steinem was 65 last month; Germaine Greer was 60; Jill Johnston was 70. There are some who will not understand the resonance of this roll-call of veterans they are doubtless too busy poring over the latest edict of the Catholic Church, which holds that maturbation is not always a sin. Ho-hum. Listen up wankers, while I tell you how it was when real women strode the earth.
When she learned that she had a fatal illness, the British feminist writer Jill Tweedie was much comforted by her friend Jon Snow, the Channel Four television news presenter.
Which is a rather cryptic way of introducing an interview by Joe Jackson with Brian Kennedy on his distaste for the macho ethos of rock and his admiration for fellow Belfast troubadour Mr. Morrison.
Occasionally, music from Derry effects the wider scheme of things with spectacular results. This year, the fun centred on the use of D:Ream?s ?Things Can Only Get Better? as a Labour Party anthem. The touchy-feely, get-off-your-arse-and-participate message of the song was just what Tony Blair wanted for his born-again campaign theme.
Spiritualized are back with a new album which confirms Jason Pierce’s theory that “the best music is made by people who are out of control.” Loving the alien:
No, The Strokes aren’t splitting up, insists guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. Still, he’s enjoying a rare taste of artistic freedom with his debut solo album.
While the word pop currently raises the hackles of anyone who considers themselves a music fan, Pugwash’s Thomas Walsh, whose music is influenced by the move, XTC and the Kinks, is attempting to set the record straight
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.
He's still wild at heart, but somewhat less weird on top now that he's found his very own version of domestic bliss. James Jewel Osterberg, alias Iggy Pop, talks to Liam Fay, who predicts that the Igster's performance will be the highpoint of Feile '93.
By releasing an album in association with Phantom FM, EMI/Virgin records have placed a question mark over radio play for their artists – and have risked a clash with the ODTR
Cat Malojian may be one of the most promising acts to have emerged from the north in recent times, but why are they obsessed with food? It is, they say, a metaphor for loneliness. Wow.
Since opening its doors five years ago, Galway's Róisín dubh has established itself as a superb live music venue that's a firm favourite with performers and punters alike. colm o'hare reports.
Speaking as a holder of the Sam Maguire Cup, I can only concur in one GAA correspondent's description of the triumph by Henry Downey's heroes at Croke Park on September 19th as "the dawn of a new era".
Their music may incorporate snatches of jazz, folk and classical music. But whatever you do, make sure you don’t call Albrecht's Pencil a ‘fusion’ act.
You know her as the songstress from Stars and Broken Social Scene. Doing her own thing AMY MILLAN reveals herself to be, of all things, a country chanteuse, her heart heavy with woe.
During the days of protest at last month's G8 summit in Italy, police raided the Independent Media Centre in Genoa and tried to seize video footage. Journalist and documentary-maker Eamonn Crudden was among a group of twelve who travelled from Ireland to Genoa for the protests. He told ADRIENNE MURPHY about the experience.
Slash can go boil his silly hat, but Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones and Kraftwerk are welcome to come and stay in Fagersta any time they want. Howlin’ Pelle and the boys talk heroes and zeros with Stuart Clark
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.
They've earned a reputation as catfighting divas. But in person Sugababes turn out to be absolute sweethearts. New 'bab' Amelle Berraba talks about fame and dodging the papparazi.
There s not a Keith Chegwin in sight as STUART CLARK visits L!VE TV, the station that could soon be introducing Ireland to the delights of Rusty the bouncing dwarf weatherman and the rabbit who wants to present Newsnight.
Mike Mormecha, frontman of Mojo Fury, is now making a stab at singer-songwriter glory with his debut solo EP as Clown Parlour, wherein he references his Eastern European roots.
Minimalist practitioner, aficionado of asceticism and producer of note – Germanic groove technician Steve Bug is shaking up the continental dance scene in idiosyncratic and dynamic fashion.
Returning for a second big screen helping of stunt show Jackass, Johnny Knoxville lovingly recalls the time he was strapped to a rocket –and nearly died.
Italian-born multi-instrumentalist antoni o'breskey considers Ireland to be his spiritual home, so much so that he changed the spelling of his name just for us. siobhán long finds out more.
RTÉ is doing its bit for Irish music with the 2FM 2moro 2our. Patrick Freyne went along to the live launch to catch a glimpse of the hit bands of the future.
Stuart Clark talks to Everton star-turned-analyst Andy Gray about Ireland’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup, why HOtpress is his favourite music publication, and his remarkable lack of bitterness over Archie Gemmel’s goal being used in the shagging scene in Trainspotting.
PETER MURPHY previews SWEET DREAMS, a new series beginning this Wednesday on RTE1 at 8.30pm, which tells the real-life stories of performers yearning to realise their career aspirations in the entertainment industry.
Kele Le Roc is poised for major pop success. Adrienne Murphy met her at Childline 99, and talked to her about the music buisness, finding her own voice and, er, the Kids from Fame. Pics: Cathal Dawson
With Ronaldo and Torres the toast of the Premier League, what better time to run the rule over some of the overseas stars who could soon be lighting up English soccer?
Starting at Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and ending seven days later at BBC WM in Birmingham, ASTERIX are on a mission to conquer England s airwaves. Joining the tour in Nottingham,
SUSAN DARLINGTON witnesses three days of maps, mobiles and milkshakes.
Having once chomped on a corgi and crawled on his knees across London, performance artist Mark McGowan is now planning to drag 300 kilos of potatoes through Dublin while dressed as Bertie Ahern.
Tanya Sweeney meets You’re A Star judge, DIY practitioner and Thai food enthusiast Hazel Kaneswaren in her laidback Co. Cavan abode. Photography by Cathal Dawson.
If you’re gonna be a one hit wonder, you might as well invent the dominant form of music for the ensuing decades. Released in 1979, The Sugarhill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ was the first hip-hop single to go gold, putting the group on American Bandstand and Soul Train long before Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC.
It’s a long time since they graced the stadium circuit, but Simple Minds are still thinking big. Jim Kerr takes time out from sunning himself in Sicily to tell Ed Power their plans.
Despite huge record sales, high-profile support slots and endless MTV rotation,
Good Charlotte are still good boys who choose early nights over conspicuous consumption. Stuart Clark finds out how, and why
The death of John Entwistle and Pete Townshend’s troubles haven’t stopped The Who reconvening for another tour. Colm O’Hare got to see the warm-up show ..
Though a renowned singer-songwriter in her own right, SHAWN COLVIN’S current album is a collection of cover versions. MELISSA KNIGHT hears why the songs on Cover Girl are so special to her.
There may be growing opposition to the impending war in Iraq, but the British and American governments seem unwilling to learn from their predecessors’ mistakes.
Given the chilly atmospheres which adorn his songwriting, it comes as no surprise to learn that Adrian Crowley composes it in his sleep. Thankfully, though, Niall Crumlish found him to be a thoroughly lucid and compelling interviewee.
With his first film The Station Agent, Tom McCarthy has fashioned a magnetic fable of Fin, the new-dwarf-in-town, which has invited comparison with Ford and Cassavetes.
Hunter S. Thompson gets the biopic treatment he deserves courtesy of Oscar-winning director Alex Gibny who wants to remind the world just how important a social commentator the Great Gonzo was.
COLM O HARE catches up with MARY BLACK, as the singer helicopters her way around the country and talks about her new album, the song writing of Ron Sexsmith and unfair criticism. Pics: PETER MATHEWS.
We’ve tipped them for success in the past, and now, with a New Year upon us, Laura Izibor, Dirty Epic’s SJ Wai and Fight Like Apes’ MayKay are set to sweep all before them.
Billy Scanlan takes a long day’s journey into night at the celebrated new york hotel, which has been a home from home for Bob Dylan, Brendan Behan, Sid Vicious and Mark Twain.
Shot to fame by The White Stripes, the aptly-named Holly Golightly has confirmed her status as the new ace face du jour with a sparkling female take on old male music.
The MILLENNIUM BUG is lurking and technological Armageddon seems imminent. However, the Evening Herald seems surprisingly unconcerned. BARRY GLENDENNING wonders why.
One of the failings of Irish governments is that so little provision has been made for the development of youth facilities. The result is that many teens face the prospect of a prolonged holiday with little to do and nowhere to go.
She’s worked with film makers as diverse as Alan Parker and Quentin Tarantino. For her latest role Bronagh Gallagher found herself in a Middle Ages love triangle. No wonder she kept breaking out in giggles.
CHRIS BARRY's attempts to free himself from his FM104 contract have resulted in one of the messiest and most ill-tempered court battles seen in Ireland for a long time. STUART CLARK analyses the proceedings so far and profiles some of Barry's shock-jock contemporaries across the water.
Any self-consciousness was quickly dispelled by the notion of how ridiculous I d look with my head and shoulders buried a few feet in the earth. A frankly terrified olaf tyaransen embarks on his first ever parachute jump and lives to tell the tale.
The future of house music is in the hands of a trainee teacher from Frankfurt. Sounds strange? Let Richard Brophy introduce you to the weird and wonderful world of Isolee.
Sigur Rss are the latest highly-rated Icelandic export. They talk to PETER MURPHY about ambition, inventing their own language and the showband circuit
Talk was not in short supply at the recent World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong. But did the gathering of 150 world leaders achieve anything concrete for the world’s under-privileged?
There's been too much bullshit about the state of the economy. But pissing on the shoes of our friends or moving closer to the anglosphere isn't the best way out of recession.
New York house DJ/producer Junior Sanchez has joined forces with Dutch techno prodigy Laidback Luke to create Riot Society’s impressive ‘Understand Me’.
TV celebrity chef Richard Corrigan's latest project is his new Bentley's Oyster Bar and Grill in Dublin. He talks to Jackie Hayden about his passion for food, tricky customers and more.
Mary Bannoti, Ireland's goodwill ambassador for the United Nations population fund, visited Afghanistan in March. Here, she records some lasting impressions of a place at once brutal and beguiling, and describes her often moving encounters with men, women and children, many still in refugee camps in Pakistan, who are struggling to return home and rebuild their lives.
For a city so often celebrated in song, it was inevitable that the horrific events in new york would be felt as keenly in the music world as in any other section of society. STUART CLARK reports on the industry response and compiles a broad selection of individual reactions to the attack
Having been shot five times and survived a coma in his previous life as an LA gang member, hip hop sensation The Game has been offered a reprieve courtesy of Dr Dre's patronage and a deal with Interscope Records. But is the 25-year-old star already succumbing to his own hype?
Comedy genius Will Ferrell turns out to be just as funny in the flesh as he is on screen, albeit far droller. Let's hear it for the world's greatest living Longford man.
Having bagged an Oscar for the angst-ridden Brokeback Mountain, director ANG LEE lightens the tone with his new movie, a paean to the Woodstock festival. He explains why he chose to honour the high-point of hippy culture
The furies have been unleashed over the small matter of a wash and blow-dry for Mary Harney. In the spirit of Christmas, it might be wiser to think: let he who is without sin cast the first stone...
STUART CLARK checks out the inside story of L!VE TV, perhaps the daftest tabloid telly station in the world (ever), and wonders how Irish television might follow suit.
The Republic of Ireland's pallid 2-0 defeat by Argentina in last week's international friendly showed that
MICK McCARTHY's time and resources are becoming increasingly limited, as Yugoslavia and Croatia loom
over the horizon in the Euro 2000 qualifiers. NIALL STOKES asks: "What is to be done?"
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.
He’s just knocked Lady GaGa off the top of the UK charts with his banging new single ‘I’m Not Alone’. So why is CALVIN HARRIS so worried about sounding like an oldie chasing after his fading youth?
Kevin Rowland, whose Dexy's Midnight Runner's album Don't Stand Me Down has just been re-released in a radically new version tells Stephen Robinson "Never say never" when asked about a possible Dexy's reunion
Folk doyen Richard Thompson remains a singular presence in the roots music scene after four decades. Here he talks about “exile” on the US West Coast and his recent return to his electric rock roots.
East Glasgow quartet Glasvegas have nothing to do with the TG4 show. They're the anthemic band discovered by Alan McGee in the same venue he found Oasis.
Aslan’s Christy Dignam lives not too far from where he grew up in Dublin. He talks to Hot Press about birdwatching, how he stays away from drugs and his disdain for celebrities who complain about fame.
Après Match member Gary Cooke on Joe Duffy, body piercings, and the perils of impersonating Ireland’s most belligerent broadcaster. Playing intermediary Paul Nolan
To mark the release of her new album And Winter Came, Enya talks about quietly becoming a phenomenon and explains why it may at last be time to head out on the road.
Many Irish radio fans reckon that the 2fm evening schedule is at its most exciting for years – from 6 pm, when a revitalised Dave Fanning comes on, right through to Hotpress columnist Cormac Battle signing off at 2am. One of the linchpins of that stretch is Dubliner Rick O’Shea. To celebrate his tenth year in radio we sent Jackie Hayden to ask O’Shea a few leading questions and to check out the great man’s credentials with his colleagues.
The Israeli army has deliberately targeted civilians in Lebanon and behaved like a terrorist gang. Their excuses will only convince the terminally gullible.
From playing tiny club gigs to serenading Wembley, songstress Tara Blaise has travelled a great distance in a short time. And the journey is only just beginning.
From Sister Sledge to The Spikes, plus non musical attractions such as massage, fortune-telling and art exhibitions, Castle Palooza promises a festival in the conventional sense of the word.
Or that's what the proponents of the phenomenon of Virtual Reality might want us to believe. GERRY McGOVERN enters this brave new world and discovers that its capacity to transform our lives - at work, rest and foreplay - is truly mindblowing. Now, put on your headset and start reading!
He may have just re-launched his stuttering acting career with a charming Ken Loach rom-com but that’s not to say Eric Cantona has lost any of his zen instructability.
Steve Cummins meets Philip King, the man behind Other Voices: Songs From A Room, the acclaimed music show which has provided an invaluable platform for Irish musicians – and which has now expanded its remit to include international artists as well.
THE FOUR Marys, Mary Field, Mary Cotter, Mary Simpson and Mary Goebbels, shared a dormitory in St Elmos. Mary Goebbels, new to the fifth form, was sleeping in the bed formally occupied by Mary Radleigh, who had recently been found shot in the back of the head on a piece of wasteland.
Steve Cummins meets Philip King, the man behind Other Voices: Songs From A Room, the acclaimed music show which has provided an invaluable platform for Irish musicians – and which has now expanded its remit to include international artists as well.
Sinister psychological experimnets and political subterfuge are at the centre of Jonathan Demme’s intriguing new remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Luckily for us however, the film’s star Liev Schreiber happens to be an amiable, erudite ex-New Yorker with a degree in semiotics. Oh, and some nice cheekbones.
As evenings lengthen and winds shift, as light becomes harder and higher and as summer edgily advances, Ireland blinks and shakes its head. A strange year entirely so far. And no story has preoccupied attention like the Catherine Nevin murder trial.
A long way from there to here
With 35 years on the road behind them, THE DUBLINERS are the roots of Irish music. Interview: Colm
O'Hare. The Rolling Stones aren't the only ones celebrating 35 years on the road this year.
East Timor is a small island close to Indonesia. Invaded in 1975 by its much larger neighbour, in the intervening years almost one third of its population has been wiped out in an ongoing campaign of international terrorism and genocide. The arms being used to terrorise this small island are being supplied by Britain. Report: LIAM FAY
Matisyahu is a rapper with a difference. As a Hassidic Jew he lives a strictly orthodox lifestyle. Whatever you do, don’t describe his music as ‘heeb-hop’.
MIKE DID not know what he was getting himself into. I didn’t know who Mike was at the time, only that I was sitting in my favourite cocktail bar, Footlights, during the all-day Sunday happy hour and these two very colourful, very loud black guys came in, full of laughter and big gestures.
“Come up and see my snails sometime,” is hardly the best chat-up line ever coined, but an undaunted Jackie Hayden decides to brave all and call on Today FM jockette Ann-Marie Kelly.
Steve Cummins undergoes a poker masterclass courtesy of two of the game's most renowned tutors, Al Alvarez and Roy Houghton. Photography by Cathal Dawson.
That a week is a long time in politics is a truism. So what does that make of a fortnight? Truly, the landscape has changed utterly. The end of an era has sprung upon us. Ye know not the day nor the hour.
Irish fiction continues to grow in both popularity and hipness. In this special feature we talk to three of its most prominent young exponents: John Connolly, Conal Creedon and Julie Parsons.
Fun Lovin' Criminal, pizza joint owner and garbage mogul – Huey Morgan is a man of many talents. To that you can add a film stealing cameo as a psycho-tranny in Shimmy Marcus' beleagured but proud drug mule caper Headrush.
THE THEME of this year’s World AIDS Day, on December 1st, is ‘A Time To ACT’. When I first heard this I wondered if I was dreaming – twelve years into the epidemic, and we’re being told it’s time to act!
Jackie Hayden calls round to visit Miriam Ingram’s current abode at the foot of the Dublin Mountains and gets to hear his first Christmas carol of the season.
Their friends warned them against it and the textbooks were hardly more encouraging, but when ADRIENNE MURPHY gave birth to Fiach, herself and partner Dara were not to be dissuaded from travelling en famille for three months in the "hot thin waist" of Central America. This is their remarkable story
In her latest movie, the supernatural gothic thriller Underworld, Kate Beckinsale plays a slick vampire warrior entrusted with fending off maurading lycanthropes. with love entanglements, engagements and sniping press coverage to deal with off-screen, her personal life has been no less eventful recently.
Klaxons have got glowstick-waving fans, yes, but really, there’s so much more to this band than retro-beats, explains frontman Jamie Reynolds. For instance, have you heard the one about his spiritual healer grandfather.
End of the millennium psychosis techno? Political partying house? Dance music with a social conscience and a sense of humour ? If you re looking for all of the above, then look no further than Green Velvet s new LP, Constant Chaos . On the soapbox: Richard Brophy.
From swallowing canaries to rubbing lemon in your armpits, Alison Bourke presents the wisdom of the ages on the subject of that most elusive of holy grails – the instant hangover cure.
After five years of hard graft and dedicated shoegazing, The Boo Radleys came up with Giant Steps, an album so ambitious in scope that it’s been perched at the top spot of many end-of-year polls and has seen them heralded as the new Best Band In Britain.
Interview: LORRAINE FREENEY
Rory Gallagher’s posthumous Wheels Within Wheels is a remarkable collection of previously unreleased acoustic material by Ireland’s guitar legend. It comes complete with a cover by the celebrated painter, David Oxtoby, that is certain to make a lasting impression.
When Jackie Hayden popped in on Channel 6 presenter Jenny Buckley, he hadn’t been warned that her inappropriately-named dog Snuggles was actually a guard dog who had a slight aversion to strangers.
Trinity College Dublin Student Union President Rory Hearne was arrested, detained and brutalised by Czech police at the World Bank
and IMF protest march in Prague on September 26th. He relates his experience to Stephen Robinson. Pictures: PETER MATTHEWS
US chart-topping rockers tool like nothing better than hob-nobs, baiting journos and calling their children after prog rock bands. stuart clark shares the chocolate biccies
. . . or overlooking Fountainstown beach in Co. Cork, anyway. METISSE have everyone talking, owing to the sheer unique nature of their music. KEVIN BARRY met them.
Somebody up there likes us -that's for sure! Slane Castle 4pm on Saturday 25th August 2001 and the sun is shining down through deep blue skies like it hasn’t done all summer.
Dark circumstances surrounding the making of her new album and the everyday hassles of fame notwithstanding, Macy Gray assures Paul Nolan that, for her, the thrill has definitely not gone
There is nothing wrong with a holiday fling – and it doesn’t have to be about romance. Especially if one of your idols starts chatting you up over cocktails…
Hot Press favourite prelate, bishop michael cox of Cree, Co. Offaly, would dearly love to stand for election and if he succeeds in breaching the gates of Leinster House, he promises to banish the Rainbow like St. Patrick banished the snake . The one big obstacle in his way is a lack of funds. Ben Dunne never threw me any money, he tells liam faY, but I wouldn t say no.
It s taken ten years, but AGNELLI & NELSON have finally made it to the top of the DJ pile with their Hudson St. album. COLIN CARBERRY meets the Ulster dance merchants whose superstar fans include U2
There’s more to Electric Picnic than rock and roll. One of the non-musical highlights this year will be a political gabfest, hosted by none other than RTÉ presenter of the moment Ryan Tubridy...
There was a time when the associations of Irish culture were such that those of a radical, progressive outlook automatically turned the other way. Not any more. Irish culture is alive and kicking. Report: Chris Donovan.
It’s Christmas time and, as far as the hotpress journalistic elite are concerned, there’s not a turkey in sight. JOHN WALSHE, COLIN CARBERRY, CHRIS DONOVAN, EAMON SWEENEY and BARRY O'DONOGHUE report on the Irish acts who are going to be huuuuuuuuge!
over the next 12 months.
Maggie Gyllenhaal has ridden out controversy and kept her private life to herself while carving out an impeccably cool career in Hollywood. No wonder all the girls fancy her.
At the last count he’s earned the ire of Republicans, Democrats, equality lobbies and
Ed Sullivan, whilst garnering admiring notices from Woody Allen, Steve Martin and
Nelson Mandela. meet former rabbi and czar of un-pc comedy, Jackie Mason.
Incendiary Irish-American rabble rousers black 47 are coming to town for a couple of Irish shows later this month. liam fay talks to band mainman larry kirwan about those two eagerly-awaited dates, as well as their new album, Green Suede Shoes.
I can't say I'm exactly in the Ester Rantzen-league when it comes to caring for other people but something I've just said to Ed O'Brien hasn't so much pricked my conscience as stuck a dirty great big hole in it.
MARTIN HAYES fiddles while dennis cahill burns on The Lonesome Touch, an exercise in purity that is not exclusive to the purists. Joining them on the road, siobhan long learns the finer points of a good reel, and discovers that in Irish traditional music there s no place for conflict between continuity and change.
Áine Tubridy and Michael Corry are medical doctors, writers and healers, known for their holistic approach to mental health. Here are their thoughts on personal change in 2008.
Super Furry Animals are yet another Welsh band poised for huge success on the back of their new album. They talk to STUART CLARK about their rejection of Brit Pop, strange Japanese fans and the glory days of The Free Wales Army. Pics of Super Furry Animals with super furry animals: Mick Quinn.
From Sting to Frank Zappa, Derek Bell has been literally instrumental in establishing The Chieftains as your average rock legend’s favourite group. Liam Fay hears the full story about his ice cream binges with Van Morrison and his special liking for rosewood oboes!
Having scored critical and commercial success – not to mention putting Irish cinema on the map with the likes of My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father – Jim Sheridan has now mined his own past for in America, a haunting remembrance of the film-maker’s time as a struggling immigrant on the streets of New York.
Razorlight are one of the best bands in the world, or so reckons their dapper frontman Johnny Borrell. In an exclusive interview, he talks about heroin addiction, his troubled friendship with Pete Doherty and explains why Arctic Monkeys are also-rans.
GREG BAKER on the rise of neo-fascism and the disturbing - and violent - implications of the election of a British National Party councillor in the East End of London.
Everyone's favourite punk-pop pranksters Fight Like Apes report exclusively from their recent trips to Canadian Music Week and the South By South West indie festival in Austin, Texas.
Compositional genius, musical visionary, tormented genius – Brian Wilson is many things, but a garrulous interviewee is not one of them. Peter Murphy undergoes strenuous discourse with one of the true icons of ‘60s culture.
Rregarded as the original, manufactured boy band, once upon a time The Monkees ruled the world. Now, half of television's fab four are back and, as you might expect, they have quite a tale to tell. Joe Jackson talks to Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz
Having sent up the zombie flick on Shaun Of The Dead comic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have trained their sights on the cop movie with their new feature, Hot Fuzz.
Hand-picked, coddled and manufactured: mainstream pop stars have the life. Don t they? KIM PORCELLI gets up about twelve hours earlier than usual and spends the day with SAMANTHA MUMBA. Hot shots: PETER MATTHEWS
The emergence of The Boomtown Rats inspired a new generation of in-your-face Irish bands who re-energised an Irish music scene that has become moribund and predictable.
A surprisingly mellow Tom Ayara of Slayer thinks that calling God Hates Us All “ugly” is unaccurate. “It’s more angry and hateful,” he tells Phil Udell
The songs of Laura Cantrell are steeped in the timeless values of American country rock. But Cantrell, a former Wall Street banker, is a thoroughly modern artist.
Since swapping Dublin for Los Angeles, hotly-tipped indie rockers La Rocca have experienced all the ludicrous pleasures and extremes of the City of Angels. Here, they regale us with tales from their California exile.
The evidence of two British soldiers about the shooting of unarmed civilians, heard in public for the first time, but largely overlooked in coverage of the Saville inquiry, is a direct challenge to the “official” line on bloody sunday which has held for more than 30 years.
One of the biggest teen rock sensations of the early noughties, Avril Lavigne continues to draw the black-clad adolescent hordes in record numbers. But can Canada’s most famous skater girl make the transition to adulthood without losing the affection of her notoriously capricious audience?
The National Ploughing Championships are an Irish Institution. mud, beer, wellies, farmerettes, mud, singing priests, yodelling farmhands, mud, tractors and more mud - all human life is here. Lucky sod Jimmy Lacey spent a day amid the furrows. Pix: Cathal Dawson
It was the day the world stood still to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office and start his historic Presidency. Millions gathered on Washington’s mall to see him sworn in – including campaign staffer Patrick Reilly, who'd travelled all the way from Ireland to bear witness.
Niall Stanage pays tribute to a remarkable young woman whose passion for music made her one of the most widely respected and genuinely loved people in the history of Irish music
The recent burst of good weather may have misled us all as to where we are on the great wheel of life. We're in September. Schools are back. Apples are ripening. Night comes earlier. Often the most settled time of year, and certainly very pleasant now.
He’s played with The Corrs and was a member of the real-life Commitments. CONOR BRADY talks about life as one of the great unsung mainstays of Irish rock and roll. photos Ruth Medjber
As Duke Special set off for a jaunt around Europe with the Divine Comedy, our correspondent hitched a ride on the tour bus. In between the sound-checks and the motor-way pitstops, he received a unique insight into the life of the touring musician.
Every now and then a record emerges that announces the arrival of a major new talent. So it is with Anjani and her remarkable collaboration with Leonard Cohen, Blue Alert.
Buffy creator Joss Whedon was devastated when his follow-up project, a Western-tinged space-opera, was cancelled without warning. Rather than sulking, Whedon brought the show back to life in movie forkm, as the sci-fi pulp extravaganza Serenity.
Well, it all goes to show that you can’t predict anything. There I was, like all distant observers, predicting an apocalypse in Mid-Africa, and what happens?
25 years into his
career and with a
new album set to be
followed by a video
documentary of his life
and times, liam o'flynn
is the acknowledged living
master of the uileann pipes.
Interview: Sarah McQUAID.
Pics: Colm Henry
The man behind the Mystery Train is a bit of a mystery himself but, at Peter Murphy's request, writer and broadcaster JOHN KELLY steps forward to talk about Enniskillen, friends in high places, the fall and rise of his broadcasting career, his lack of intercourse with Dave Trimble, "taking the soup", desert island music and Uaneen.
Broadcast Views: Cathal Dawson
GERRY MALLON is the brains behind The Murphy's Comedy Club which has been running weekly in Galway's GPO for the last three years, despite one Englishman's determined attempt to incinerate the joint. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
It's a double home-coming as U2 return from their odyssey 'round the globe to bring "The Joshua Tree" tour to their fanatical Irish supporters in Dublin and Cork. Bill Graham reports.
TRACY CHAPMAN S eponymous debut album was one of the biggest sellers of last year more than ten years after its release.
She spoke to PETER MURPHY about her life before and after fame, that album and the race issue.
I’ve been driving in the west. Out there beyond the water margins of Yang Shang-Po, aka Oughterard, after which the landscape shifts into something quite different from that which has gone before.
There is nothing more odious, to paraphrase a famous quip, than the British press in one of its fits of moral outrage. And it’s true. Nothing can compare. And I’m not just referring to the tabloids . . .
ADRIENNE MURPHY lived with the ecological vigil-keepers in the Glen O The Downs for two weeks leading up to the dreaded day when the chainsaws finally arrived. This is her report from the frontline of Ireland s latest environmental battle. Pix: Colm Henry
His tearful acoustic ballads have become a phenomenon. In a forthright interview José González discusses his terror of writing lyrics and meeting Craig David and tells of his parents’ flight from oppression.
CRAIG FITZSIMONS speaks to young Irish director DAMIEN O'DONNELL, whose debut feature East Is East takes a controversial look at Pakistani immigrant culture.
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.
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
Over the hills and far away, Chumbawamba come out to play! They get knocked down. But they get up again. They get dropped by Indie One Little Indian, and then get signed up by Capitalist major EMI. Then the Tub-Thumpers Anonymous go on to score the most unlikely hit single of 1997. So what now for Alice Nutter and her chums? ANDY DARLINGTON reports.
