A new row has broken out between computer giant Apple and record labels, with IRMA boss Dick Doyle telling Apple’s Steve Jobs to “wake up and smell the coffee”.
Fresh from the news that Vodafone control 18% of the Irish singles market and 3 control 14%, Apple CEO has launched an attack on record companies as to why iTunes music can only be played on an iPod.
By the end of Damien Rice's set, the crowd is clapping wildly, roaring with appreciation. Fiona Apple, for her part, is the closest thing to Janis Joplin we have in 2006.
If the singles released thus far are anything to go by, Declan De Barra’s forthcoming debut Song Of A Thousand Birds should prove a cracker. ‘Apple Tree’, the follow-up to last year’s ‘Blackbird Song’ is another sparse, haunting and piercing piece of work. Again De Barra’s fragile and emotive voice is to the fore, often bringing a spiritual quality to the track.
This particularly shines through in De Barra’s oft bewitching and frequently poignant lyrics. Another gem and another track to whet anticipation for Song Of A Thousand Birds.
San Francisco, California was today the scene of a landmark move in the rapidly evolving music download market. In an announcement two key developments were confirmed by Apple, in the Keynote Address at Macworld, presented on this occasion by Senior Vice President of Marketing, Phil Schiller.
Iain Archer has been unveiled as one of the star participants in the Guitarist And The Mac event that’s taking place in Dublin’s Temple Bar Music Centre on February 27.
The Mac brigade are back – and they’re at it again in style. We’re not talking about Phoenix Park doggers, although iLife 06 does offer an incomparable suite of tools.
Aspiring John Cassavetteses, Sam Mendeses and Martin Scorseses take note: Lights, Camera, Action - a seminar on video editing and production organised by Apple Computers - comes to the Music Centre on January 29
Subtitled The Apple Venus Volume One Home Demos, this is essentially a companion piece to Apple Venus Volume One, XTC’s rather brilliantly conceived record which was released earlier this year.
FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINAL Huey Morgan offers stuart clark a guided tour of the rotten apple, detouring occasionally to take in topics such as California Mist, London gangsters, Tricky, Ian McCulloch and Tony Bennett, as well as his high-profile relationship with Jerry Hall’s daughter. And, let’s see now, there was one thing . . . oh yes “every American’s inalienable right to have nails hammered through their scrotum if they want”.
The Bravery used to sound like their Big Apple compatriots, Interpol. So in case any intrepid rock scribes point out the similarity, they’ve decided to take some influence from across the pond instead. ‘Unconditional’ is yet another new-wave revivalist number, and it’s near impossible to distinguish it from other thumping anthems provided by The Kaiser Chiefs, Futureheads, and Franz Ferdinand. Good or bad thing? Depends on how highly you value the concept of originality.
How The White Stripes turned the bare essentials into an essential noise, insisted that three is indeed a magic number and wound up becoming one of the most phenomenally successful rock acts in the world
In what could prove to be one of the year's biggest marketing coups, Apple Computer Inc. have inked a deal with U2 which sees the band putting their name to a customised iPod. [pics courtesy of Apple]
The latest four-piece from the Big Apple to spark a record company feeding frenzy, The Stills (like their mates Interpol) owe a sizeable debt to early ‘80s British pop acts.
Having finally come to an agreement with the Irish Music Rights Organisation, Apple made the European version of the iTunes Music Store available yesterday in Ireland.
We all know what to expect of the bittersweet folksy blues pursuit; love, like anything else subject to our cruel whim, is to be drawn out and rewrought in a mimetic frenzy of acoustic guitar, plaintive vocals and tear-jerking harmonies. In a Fiona Apple kind of way, the dulcet Buckley is another lady who’s mistaken a paper bag for a dove.
Killarney-born Brendan O’Shea, like his good friend Mark Geary, has spent the majority of his songwriting life in New York, and the sounds of the Big Apple ooze through on his second album, albeit with a slightly Irish flavour.
Ten Silver Drops, Secret Machines' second album, is far from Big Apple parlour games. Rather, theirs is a widescreen vision that could’ve originated on the woolly mammoth plains of the mid-west, or further north of the border.
Following on from the orgy of excess that was the Christmas and New Year period, we’re sure that you’re all trying to undo the damage by cutting down on calories and making regular trips to the gym. Us? Well, we’re planning to spend even more time in 2004 sitting on our big fat wobbly arses.
Music In Mouth is a more unified, distinctive and cohesive record that showcases the band’s multiple directions, adding further conviction to the depths of epic balladeering on ‘Eve, The Apple Of My Eye’, the quirky pop of ‘Next To You’ or the manic rock of ‘White Water Song
If you hate all the other Rocky films, humanity in general, cream-coloured ponies and crisp apple strudle, chances are, you may still find a special place in your heart for Sylvester Stallone’s sixth outing as the loveable Philadelphia lummox.
They say every dog has its day – well the time has come for a group of lucky pups who are about to unleash their talents on the big apple. Sundogs, darlings of many a Garage Gig, are heading west for a series of NY dates, stopping off in such prestigious venues as Arlene’s Grocery and the new Sin É to showcase their talents to various industry glitterati…
Funnymen David Mitchell and Robert Webb crown their rise to the comedy top-table with Magicians, a uproarious tale of two entertainers seeking to keep alive the spirit of Paul Daniels.
The biggest ever music exhibition in Ireland will cover all aspects of the entertainment business – with something for every music fan. What’s more, it is happening at the perfect time for Christmas browsing.
You know, Nick Lowe was right when he asked “What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?” Lately, I try to avoid the news as often as not, because it seems that every day there’s another atrocity: more carnage, more blood, more tears, more misery, more grief.
Those upstanding Manic Street Preachers have announced that their upcoming New Year s Eve gig in Cardiff will be their last live show for the best part of a year, as they intend to spend 2000 in the studio working on what they ve indicated could well be their final album.
For the weekend of November 25 and 26, all musical roads will lead to the RDS in Dublin for the Music Ireland ’06 event. Jackie Hayden talks to the show director Ollie Upton about what’s in store for us at this major annual attraction for musician and music fans alike.
IT MAY be hard to explain, but we’ve all witnessed great acting – in our favourite movie, play or television programme (or simply when your lover claims that she, or he didn’t betray you, despite the fact that you caught them in the act).
Anti-folk graduate and New Jersey native Nicole Atkins' debut album Neptune City is a beguiling mix of Roy Orbison, Loretta Lynn and Jenny Lewis's bangs. Just don't mention The Boss.
From sweeping the steps of lauren hill’s manager’s house to teetering on the brink of a massive hit – native american Jason Downs tells his story to John Walshe
He used to be an actor but there's nothing showbizzy about Johnny Flynn's baroque folk-pop. He tells us what it's like to grow up in a thespian household and of his friendship with Kevin Spacey.
Perfect weather has been promised for the next year’s Olympics Games thanks to a man called Zhang Qiang who is in charge of the city’s artificial rainmaking and prevention programme.
He’s one of the best known photographers in the world, yet blogger turned street style phenomenon SCOTT SCHUMAN is not widely recognised outside the fickle fashion bubble. On the evening of his first visit to Ireland, Celina Murphy talks to The Sartorialist about how style in the Big Smoke compares to fashion in the Big Apple.
So what’s it really like to take your band from Dublin to New York in search of that elusive breakthrough? Little Ghetto Boys present their diary of a Paddy’s week mini-tour of the Big Apple with special guest appearances by La Rocca, Mark Geary and others...
It s hardly surprising that the neurotic Monica Geller is widely regarded as the least popular member of the Friends ensemble. Nevertheless, you ll be pleased to hear that Courteney Cox, the 33-year-old Alabama native who plays the Big Apple s tidiest twentysomething, revels in the role. What s more, with her success in Wes Craven s masterful suspense chiller Scream, she remains the only cast member from the smash-hit sitcom to have achieved major box office success. And now there s a sequel on the way . . . Interview: chris donovan.
Not all Irish emigrants spend their time crying into their green pints of Guinness in Biddy Mulligans. HELENA MULKERNS previews STATESIDE, an ambitious new TV series that chronicles the flesh and blood reality of life in the Big Apple for the so-called Greencard Generation.
Dubliner Anita Thoma was arrested in New York city on St Patrick s Day last while protesting against the ban on gays and lesbians taking part in the city s parade. Stephen Robinson reports.
STUART CLARK DISCOVERS HOW IT TAKES 14 YEARS TO BECOME AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION WHEN HE DISCUSSES FAME, FORTUNE AND BELINDA CARLISLE'S SEEDY PUNK PAST WITH REDD KROSS MAINMAN STEVE McDONALD
American Psycho star Christian Bale dropped sixty pounds to play the lead role in the eerie new psychological thriller, The Machinist. Just as well the film has resuscitated his career, then. Interview by Tara Brady.
YOU WON'T GET STRONG ODDS ON THESE
ROMANTIC PAIRINGS HITTING IT OFF IN 1995 BUT THE BOOKIES HAVEN'T RECKONED WITH Hot Press RESIDENT CUPID PROTEGé LIAM FAY DONNING HIS CLERICAL GARB ONCE AGAIN.
Now a provocative solo artist following a spell with the Subtonics, The Mighty Stef (alias Stefan Murphy) invites Jackie Hayden round for some pasta a la Murphy.
0ver the past twelve months, Daniel Kitson has risen to prominence following his Perrier award winning show at the Edinburgh fringe, and his celebrated appearance on Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights but all the bespectacled comic really wants is to be recognised as a stand-up guy.
He’s swapped the American Office for Hollywood, been touched by the hand of George Clooney and scrawled his name all over a house in Kerry. Tara Brady meets awesomely nice Away We Go star John Burke Krasinski.
Spraycan and scaffolding at the ready, the culture jammers are going to work on a billboard near you. james kelleher (words and pictures) investigates the world of ad busting
They say he s a Man Of The World it s just that for two decades the world in question happened to be Saturn. andy darlington meets peter green, the man who created fleetwood mac, then wrote the longest suicide note in rock n roll history.
As the countdown to the 4th Hot Press Bacardi Unplugged final continues,
JACKIE HAYDEN speaks out against those who would protray band competitions as irrelevant anachronisms.
Exclusive: The new Coldplay album, X & Y, is set to finally hit the stores next month, and Hot Press has been granted a special sneak preview. Ed Power here gives a track-by-track guide to one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
She's swapped her Cardigans for a blanket of mid-life melancholia. From her new home in Harlem, Swedish indie-babe Nina Persson talks about her downbeat new album as A Camp,
hooking up with a former Smashing Pumpkin and why life in a band can be like a prison sentence.
It was the hottest ticket in Manhattan – and no wonder. With Goldfrapp, The Strokes, Carl Cox and Kanye West on the bill, this was a gig for people of impeccable taste – all the more so since it was brought together by Hennessy cognac.
There is no doubting that politics is a dirty game. Everywhere. People here may sniff their superiority over the sleazebags in England and America, and how we don’t dump on a cabinet minister for bonking five secretaries and getting caught. But in truth it’s just as dirty on this island as anywhere else.
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.
Between recording the theme music for The Saint and fending off accusations of satanism, Orbital mainman PHILIP HARTNOLL barely has time to do the washing up. STUART CLARK stands by with the tea-towel.
He's gone from bashing out Brel covers in pokey Dublin clubs to crooning 'New York, New York' while gazing at the Manhattan skyline.For his latest project, the wonderful story so far. Jack L has pushed the boundaries yet again by collaborating with up and coming Irish Novelist Anna McPartlin. Here they talk to Hot Press about their intriguing hook-up and explain how your career can lead you to some very strange places...
And why is young America going overboard about over-weight, over-30 jazzers? john walshe forgoes the pleasures of Dublin versus Kildare to pop across the Atlantic and investigate one of the most unlikely success stories of recent years.
Funky Ceili, non-conformist politics and the approval of Bob Dylan, Robin Williams and Johnny Cash to name but a few. Larry Kirwan tells Liam Fay how Black 47 have become the hottest band in New York and one of 'The Ten Most Hated Things About America
A breathtaking variety of acts have come together - as Lennon might have put it - to focus attention on the ongoing genocide in Darfur, under the auspices of Amnesty International.
Bono, Adam and Larry. Not to mention the self-styled King Boogaloo himself, Mr B. P. Fallon, whose new book U2: Faraway So Close offers an intimate visual and verbal diary of the band’s world-record shattering ZOO TV tour. For good measure the, um, also self-styled Mr Ramalama talks about Jimi Hendrix and the Mafia connection, toting guns with Tone Loc, giving Little Richard a hard-on, and other little, um, side voyages into other territories, man. Er, tape recorder thingy: Joe Jackson.
In a recent issue of Hot Press, John Farrell wrote critically of the Irish Museum of Modern Art exhibition, ‘Beyond The Pale’. Here, artist Nigel Rolfe answers back.
Live on your TV and your wireless, 2TV will be broadcasting all summer long. JACKIE HAYDEN goes behind the scenes on the show that shakes up Sunday mornings.
Summer time, and the record stores are going to be full to bursting with some cracking albums across all genres. John Walshe examines the hottest album releases set to hit the shelves
On the eve of the release of Tour De Flock, BellX1’s live album and DVD from Dublin’s Point Theatre, Paul Noonan, Brian Crosby and Dominic Phillips answer the weird and wonderful questions of hotpress readers, from the swimming habits of monkeys to ripping the gusset of your pants on stage.
Albums such as Streetcleaner and Pure have established Brummie noise terrorists godflesh as one of the most exciting alternative bands on the planet. Their latest effort, Love And Hate In Dub, is a radically overhauled remix version of its predecessor, Songs Of Love And Hate. The band s
talkative mainman justin broadrick explains all to jonathan o Brien.
Computer games have been one of the remarkable growth areas of recent years in home entertainment. Colm O'Hare looks at developments in this intensely competitive field and predicts that – with so much mazooma at stake – it could become a veritable battle zone over the coming twelve months.
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
American writer john horgan has earned the wrath of the scientific community and the unwelcome support of the fundamentalist Right for his provocative theories aimed at separating science fact from science fiction.
Interview: liam fay. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
Tom Baxter's second album, Skybound, has just topped the Irish album chart. But it was a record that only got made after Baxter personally financed the sessions with his other talent of figurative art painting.
The Sultans of Ping may have a penchant still for fetishwear and dirty three-minute pop songs but they’re definitely mellowing as Stuart Clark discovers when he meets Niall O’Flaherty and Pat O’Connell for
afternoon tea. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
Cakes: Mr. Kipling
They re calling it Little Africa, this area close to Dublin s city centre where the country s first real ethnic quarter is slowly taking shape. Peter Murphy reports on the birth pangs of a new kind of Irish nation. Photography: Peter Mathews
Older and wiser but still mad for it, Oasis have delivered their best album in years. In an exclusive – and expletive-filled – interview Liam Gallagher holds forth on fatherhood, brotherly love and explains why Coldplay and The Killers are limp-wristed also-rans.
In 1992, following seventeen years of dedicated research and having overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, George Smoot made what Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History Of Time, described as “the scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time“ – ripples in the fabric of space-time that validate the theory of The Big Bang. GERRY McGOVERN meets GEORGE SMOOT on the publication of his new book, Wrinkles In Time
He pioneered the art of glam-punk excess with the New York Dolls and now he's learned to grow old gracefully. Peter Murphy meets the boy from New York City, the ever cool David Johansen. Photos: MYLES CLAFFEY
After 12 months which saw the group go from the indie B-division to rock’s premier league, Snow Patrol have had a more dramatic 2004 than most. In an in-depth interview, Gary Lightbody discusses a life-changing year, the Irish and British music scenes, friendships, relationships and where the band go to next.
U2 are about to unleash their new album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. The world’s media are descending on Dublin. And Bono is back at the punch-bag, getting into fighting shape before the shit storm really explodes. The gloves are off. He’s got work to do. And he’s going to do it. Words Stuart Clark, additional reporting by Niall Stokes.
1 guitar + 1 drum kit + 1 boy + 1 girl = The White Stripes. In other words, sweet, sweet noise meets the best brother and sister penned pop since The Carpenters. Eamon Sweeney meets Detroit's finest, who play Dublin Castle on Saturday, May 4th as part of the Heineken Green Energy Festival
Blow me down, it’s that chirpy Counting Crow adam duritz again, flapping his vocal chords on everything from bunking off the MTV awards, why the Rolling Stones are still “fucking great” and why he won’t be emigrating to Utah just yet. Witness for the defence: Niall Crumlish.
A Tinsel Town director of the old school, Michael Mann goes back to his ‘80s roots in his new movie, Miami Vice. In a forthright interview he talks about working with Colin Farrell, why he insisted on shooting in Paraguay and explains he’s not as tough as Hollywood gossip would have you believe.
Hard house is this year s biggest dance craze, and it was born at the most renowned
after-hours gay club in the world, Trade. MARK KAVANAGH talks to LAURENCE MALICE,
the Caligula of clubland , about excess, success and his Irish roots. Photographs: Myles Claffey
Mooks, homies, rat bastards and why Quentin Tarantino is in danger of catching a slap
nope, it s definitely not the Phish interview. jonathan o brien raps with
HUEY MORGAN of the FUN LOVIN CRIMINALS.
With a little help from Timbaland and The Neptunes, Justin Timberlake’s debut solo album justified propelled him from N’Sync baby food salesman to purveyor of the slickest dancefloor pop since the days when Michael Jackson was black. here, via the wonders of modern technology, HP eavesdrops as the boy wonder receives a Woodward & Bernstein-style investigative enema from the Euro-press.
inishing off a year in which his immersion in the craziness of orthodox religion won him a top journalism award, Liam Fay finds himself standing atop a windswept Hill of Tara in the dead of night in the depths of winter all the better to survey the diverse landscape of paganism and witchcraft in 90s Ireland.
Johnny Ray invented rock ’n’ roll. Elvis Presley marked the beginning of the downfall of popular music. The Beatles only ever wrote one great song. Cranky stuff maybe, but when the speaker is Tony Bennett – the man Sinatra called “The best singer in the business” – you have to listen. Joe Jackson does and, in this exclusive interview, hears how a Jewish-Italian New York kid grew up to be a musical legend, a respected painter and a man who, at 67, can still kick ’90s rock off MTV.
Heard the one about the Irishman, the Bronx and the tab of industrial-strength acid? Stuart Clark hadn t either until that most eligible of bachelors, David Holmes, talked him through the mad month in New York that inspired his Let s Get Killed album.
If you want to make a demo that won't be used to blackmail you a few years down the road to fame and fortune, there are a few things you should know. Here, the experts tell Niall Crumlish what they are.
With The Story Of O, poet and journalist OLAF TYARANSEN has written an Irish memoir like no other before, a remarkable, powerful, controversial and outrageously funny book that s set to catapult him into the literary
limelight and to the top of the best-sellers lists over the coming weeks. If you think that the accompanying pix tell the naked truth, just wait till you read the book. Ireland s first outlaw autobiography, it s an uncompromisingly confessional tale of literature, sex, drugs, rock n roll and rebellion. But it is also a beautifully-written tour-de-force, a love story that will entertain, shock and move readers. In this short extract, the author battered by the rigours of his pro-cannabis election campaign and broken-hearted by the apparent collapse of a long-term relationship goes completely off the rails. Nude portraits: MICK QUINN
As The White Stripes prepare to unleash another work of scuzz-bucket genius, frontman Jack White talks about his Catholic upbringing and explains why, as a teenager in blue collar Detroit, he fell hopelessly in love with the blues.
You wanted the best, you got GENE SIMMONS. Here, the motormouth frontman of KISS, the world s greatest showband, talks about sex and women at length (quelle surprise), discusses his Jewish heritage, explains why Kierkegaard and Nietzsche obviously never got laid, and announces to an increasingly bemused JOE JACKSON that he Gene, that is possesses the world s smallest penis.
You’ve grown your hair and want to make a bitching rock record. Who do you call? Arctic Monkeys tell Stuart Clark about their remarkable journey from Sheffield to the Mojave.
As founder and director of the acclaimed choral group, Anuna, MICHAEL McGLYNN has established himself as one of the country's most gifted and innovated composers. However, he has also become a figure by some elements in the Irish Music Industry and been dismissed by others as a "pig ignorant arrogant bastard" Inetrview: LIAM FAY
In 1993 she was broke, broken-hearted and reaching for a gun. Ten years on she’s a rich, famous, happily married author, celebrated worldwide as the creator of Sex And The City. Candace Bushnell tells Olaf Tyaransen how she got from there to here – even if she claims she still can’t write good sex!
Giant lemons, 100ft toothpicks and enough lights to put Las Vegas on full-scale UFO alert. Helena Mulkerns watches with gob well and truly smacked as U2's PopMart extravaganza opens for business at the Sam Boyd Stadium.
Pix: All Action
Fermanagh is a county that s accommodated a rake of musical traditions both past and present. Split by the sibling lakes of Upper and Lower Lough Erin, Fermanagh s musical identity is as diverse as her geography, to the extent that at times there s little or no crossover in musical style from north to south of the county and vice versa.
Director Morgan Spurlock has caused quite a stir with Super Size Me, the McDonald’s-baiting documentary that highlights the perils of a fast-food diet. With McDonald’s currently on the counter-offensive in an attempt to soften the impact of the movie, Spurlock discusses corporate subterfuge, media stardom, losing his libido, and the near fatal toll his super-size diet exerted on his health.
Irish fans will be able to catch a live earful of the new Rapture album when the New Yorkers jet in for the Electric Picnic, who lead the new set of acts on the bill.
No one has their ears sadistically sliced off with a cut-throat razor but there's savage revelry aplenty as Siobhan Long sets her watch to Hiney time and spends 24 hours in the dangerously
danceable company of Speranza.
WILLIAM GIBSON is no ordinary science-fiction writer. Aside from coining such essential nineties' terms as Cyberspace and Cyberpunk, his work has also influenced everyone from computer hackers to scientists developing virtual reality technology. In the rock world, he's regarded as a visionary and artists as diverse as U2, Billy Idol and The Rolling Stones have all claimed inspiration from his novels. Interview: Liam Fay. Cyberpics: Cathal Dawson.
From Dickie Valentine to The Darkness: Andy Darlington dusts the five decades of Christmas records and chats to Slade's Noddy Holder about his haunting ghost of Chris- singles Past.
The renowned Irish language poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh was the subject of an extraordinary documentary, broadcast on RTÉ last year, entitled Fairytale Of Kathmandu. Accused in it of the sexual exploitation of Nepalese teenage boys, defiantly asserts his innocence in this, his first in-depth interview.
The fabled lead singer, frontman and secret weapon of late lamented New York legends, The Dictators, the whereabouts and even the very existence of Handsome Dick Manitoba has been a mystery for many years. Liam Mackey has devoted his life to a quest for the great man which has made the search for The Abominable Snowman look like a wet weekend in Butlins. Now, after 15 years of false alarms and dead-ends, he has finally tracked him down. And the true, unexpurgated story of ‘The Handsomest Man In Rock ’n’ Roll'? Wilder, stranger and even more sobering than fiction . . .
Full profiles on Faithless, Antony & The Johnsons, Slayer, The Who, Bell X1, Status Quo, The Flaming Lips, 50 Cent, Madness, Christy Moore, Elton John and Lionel Richie.
With their biggest dates ever in Ireland looming, LIAM MACKEY dips into voluminous hotpress archives and selects a small sample of what the paper said about U2 over the years
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the dissection of the rock ‘n’ roll year that is the Hot Press Summit. Gathering round the table are the good and great of Irish music, but who let Podge & Rodge in?
There are many who must have thought it was pie in the sky when Jimmy Wales set about creating Wikipedia. Less than a decade later, the forum he created boasts over 12 million entries and has become the fourth most used website in the world. No wonder so many people want to interview him, but so few do...
Teach Shinanna, in Shanraw, County Leitrim is the place where pagans go on their
holidays, an adventure
playground for all manner of
earth-worshipper and Celtophile. Liam Fay hears all about it from its founder
Chris Thompson and an
imposing gentleman known as The Fluid Druid.
Pix: Michael Quinn
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
Sex and sanctity, grit and glitter, penthouse and pavement, God and the Devil, and all conical points in between!
PETER MURPHY dials M for ADONNA, the pre-eminent pop icon of this and every other year
At the end of an exciting, painful and earthshaking year, Bono reflects on the political and the personal – from drop the debt, September 11, Afghanistan and Genoa to the death of his father Bob, the birth of his son John and the enduring friendship which underpins U2’s music and career. Interview: Niall Stokes
[this interview originally appeared in the spectacular Hot Press Annual 2002 - used in the pictures below - a very limited number of this unique collectors item will shortly be on sale - email u2@hotpress.ie to reserve a copy]
And so, unbelievably another year has bitten the dust. Here, continuing a tradition as Christmassy as the eating of turkey and the consumption of way too much alcohol, The Hog reflects on a turbulent year, when we all grew older and much, much wiser.
The future is here. Well, somehow it always is. And, as usual, it is both familiar and strange. Nothing seems to change, but one day you turn around, it is 1995, and you are cybersurfing on the internet, summer seems to last all winter, ambient-acid-techno is bubbling away on the radio, your fax machine shows up on the Antiques Roadshow and papa’s got a brand new drug.
hotpress.com reveals the tracklisting of the complete U2 digital download which, since going on sale last week, has been exceeding predicted sales figures
‘Apple’ is the product of a youth spent listening to obscure ‘80s Italo: the doomy, Gothic sound of ‘The Fog’, delivered amid grandiose piano sweeps, and the uplifting, quasi-Jean Michel Jarre synths of the title track make this release a real guilty pleasure.
Want to make a music video for free in New York? Well Hotpress is pleased to announce that the Tisch School of Performing Arts at NYU is offering Irish musicians the chance to do just that.
Bell X1’s transformation into one of the big bands is already in process, with only an all-conquering run of festival appearances left to complete the picture..
STUART CLARK travels to New York to see and hear ONEIDA - the best American band you haven't heard of, yet - and to take the eve of the millennium pulse of the city that never sleeps. Pics: PETER MATTHEWS.
Jodavino have confirmed the September 6 release of Deep End, their debut album which has already been given the ‘thumbs up’ by Bryan Ferry who invited them to support Roxy Music in Cork recently.
Some offbeat and delinquent music from two weirdos from Sydney and a Canadian exchange student: in the world of Gerling, all is permitted, nothing is taken seriously. This debut album sees them unleash their wilful experimentation, executed under the scrawled motto of 'D-construct popular culture.'
And then there were two
Only Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding remain from one of the most appealing bands to emerge from Britain's post-punk boom, . . .
Welcome To Poppy’s has its moments, but now, we’ve seen and heard all their streetwise schtick before, things are starting to seem a little stale and predictable.
Choice Music Prize winners Super Extra Bonus Party are among the acts that will have free videos made for them as part of the latest Hot Press/NYU Tisch School Of Arts initiative.
SPARKLEHORSE TAKE CARE of headline duties when the Witnness Rising tour swings by the Empire, Belfast (June 27th); Warwick, Galway (28th); Savoy Theatre, Cork (29th); and Whelan’s, Dublin (30th @ 2 and 7.30pm).
To interpret the work of a composer such as Duke Ellington is a difficult task by any yardstick; the music is very complex and transcends much of the construct of jazz, into which genre it is usually placed.
A wide variety of trade exhibitors will be there over the weekend to show you what they've got - from music instruments to recording equipment and software.
It was obvious that the group would have to rely more on boiled-down shreddery than quirky programming tweaks – which is precisely what came to pass in their energetic 50 minute set.
No matter which divide of the Poor Ole Britters debate you are on, this album is a highly anticipated offering, and no matter which way the wind blows, is on a fast track to the firing line.
The sound of a band that has nothing left to prove and the freedom to explore new territory, which they do with much aplomb, displaying impressive versatility.
What’s most striking about Tour De Flock is how unpopulist Bell X1 are. This is not a live album filled with huge, chest-beating anthems, but it works instead on a more intimate scale.
The Neon Handshake sounds like a record made of bits cherry-picked from the rock radio airwaves of the last ten years: some tried and tested Pumpkins bellyaching, a few attempts at the clenched angst of the mighty At The Drive-In, a slice or two of prime Soundgarden
Gavin Moore’s voice may yet have to find the maturity, individuality and authority we have come to expect from his clansmen, but this is a move in the right direction.
He may well go on to produce better work, but Live At The Olympia captures a wonderful hour or so of music, during which Damien Dempsey is king of all he surveys.
Over the course of THE LETTING GO (recorded in Iceland last winter with Björk producer Valgeir Sigurdsson) one stumbles hither and thither on a characteristically savage poeticism.
I previously couldn’t stand Marilyn Manson. This album has changed my mind.
My preview copy came complete with a letter from Mr Manson himself, articulately explaining his attitude to his art, and rightly castigating the US media for demonising him in the wake of the Littleton, Colorado, high-school killings.
We arrived just in time for Ham Sandwich – soft vibes, floating vocals, bass-player with the best rhythmic leg scratch in Ireland. It might have been the midges.
On this, the occasion of my last Demo Parade (yes, readers, the sad truth is that by the time you read this I will be back home in the United States) I thought it would be appropriate to look back on my reviews and pick out the ten best demo tracks of my year at Hot Press.
Its real beauty comes when the effort is made to tunnel further down. The songs you were tempted to skip first become familiar, then recognisable, then at a point only hindsight will reveal, become shining examples of subtle magnificence, however much you’re loath to admit a change of heart.
The annual Eurosonic Festival kicked off on Thursday, January 8th, in Groningen, Holland. The Northern European university city came alive as acts from all over the continent took to the stages of the city for what has become the finest showcase for new music in Europe, as part of the European Talent Exchange Programme. Think the Eurovision, except with top quality music and without the voting.
The Boy With No Name has a handful of absolute crackers, proving that Travis are still capable of penning a tune that wraps its tendrils around your ears and won’t let go until at least four minutes have passed.
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith had harsh words for both U2 and Black Eyed Peas as the American funk rockers arrived in last weekend for their Oxegen and T In The Park festival headliners.
Having given rave reviews in the past to The Onion, TV Go Home, The Portadown News and Landover Baptist Ministries – Google them, kids! – Caught In The Net is pleased to bring you details of another superior spoof..
A SPRAWLING, uneven, lengthy and massively entertaining scuzz-cruise through Seventies New York, Summer Of Sam might well be Spike Lee's most broadly accessible film yet, and if it sinks without trace (as I suspect it might) it will be little short of a tragedy.
ANYONE familiar with the concept of a 'production weekend' will understand why Hot Pressers attending last Saturday's Support JIM Gig made a graceful exit at around midnight.
A surprisingly gentle, Preston Sturges-inspired satire on Hollywood from the blessed pen of David Mamet, State And Main is almost scarily good-natured coming from the man behind such far-from-gentle classics as the scalpel-sharp Speed The Plow.
By holding the general election on a Thursday, the Government parties have – one assumes knowingly – made it more difficult for young people in general, and students in particular, to vote.
A look at some of the web craze after the election, including a newspaper hoax and Obama photos and- not related to the election- what's the latest with some bands.
Thirty lucky fans were treated to a special acoustic Bell X1 show in the intimate surroundings of Bewley's Cafe Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. **NOW UPDATED with photos!
Icky Thump fizzes with ideas. Nevertheless, you wonder whether The White Stripes are trying too hard to prod a simple formula – guitar, drums, inscrutable irony – into a new direction.
A relentless, blood-soaked grand-guignol bombardment of cheapo SFX-on-genocidal-rampage destruction, Final Destination boasts one of the worst scripts of all time, but it's an inordinate amount of fun, shining from start to finish with an idiotic magnificence reminiscent of Ed Wood (almost).
IN FRONT of Poe stood (or seemed to stand) two large jellyfish type people in nicely cut black French designer suits and dark glasses. Their skin which was almost translucent, shone with a myriad of small see-through veins and glossy bones.
Every bit as haunting and entrancing as the Big O's ballad of the same name, but nowhere near as enjoyable, the truly terrifying In Dreams seems to finally mark the end of Neil Jordan's flirtations with anything resembling commercial mainstream cinema.
Gothic, brooding, malicious and deeply disturbing, the film is a dark-beyond-description thriller-chiller which heralds an apparent return to the more fevered style of Angel and Company of Wolves.
With the Cranberries no more (or at least on an extended sabbatical) it was only a matter of time before their crystal-voiced singer struck out on her own.
Sumptious strings herald the opening of Catatonia’s latest aural adventure, and you’re starting to think that maybe you’re being taken in a new direction, a pop towards high art. But then Cerys Matthews’ familiar tones enter the fray and you realise that no matter what Catatonia do music-wise, they are still going to sound like Catatonia.
We may never know what percentage of Troy’s substantial 175 million-dollar budget went on baby-oil, but I’m willing to bet it was a lot. Indeed, Brad Pitt’s Achilles is so greased and buffed up that you wonder how he can keep hold of his sword, let alone slay Hector (Bana) with it. He’s less a tragic Greek hero, more a slick, petulant surfer-boy.
Exploring the mystery of how one human being can survive being thrown from a horse with barely a scratch while another is near death after a quiet drink in a country pub
It’s only February and already we can hear the hissing of summer lawns. Or maybe it’s applause. Comfort Of Strangers is not Beth Orton’s most radical statement, but it is her most reactionary.
He’s an odd fish is Todd Solondz, and Palindromes – his most politically charged and controversially comic horror to date – will surely and calculatedly polarize folks even more than the cruel soap-opera of Happiness and Storytelling. Some punters will undoubtedly find Palindromes’ brilliantly caustic treatment of abortion and paedophilia to be funny ha-ha, while more sensitive (and possibly humourless) others will deem Mr. Solondz’s efforts as funny-get-the-mace-spray-out-peculiar.
No sooner had the smoke cleared from a recent issue of this column than I had a phone-call from a band called Bungalow, whom I d just written about, revealing that a fan/friend had just discovered a Kentucky band using the same name. A couple of days later they read in a fanzine that a Scottish band called Bungalow had issued two singles on an Indie label.
Thus far reviewers have been foaming at the mouth trying to describe what an ungainly and unprecedented enterprise is The Raven, but Reed has always been at his best when there’s a thread to his threnodies, from New York to Berlin.
Dividing her time between the States and her native Cork, energetic alt-rocker Aine Duffy has picked up a fashion trick or two from her time in the Big Apple.
Along with thousands of other ex-pats, Ash singer/guitarist Tim Wheeler has made the Big Apple his home. He explains why he fell in love with the city.
Just what the hell are Wu-Tang Clan these days anyway? A finishing school for loony-tunesters like ODB, Raekwon, Redman and Method Man? A clothing label/video game franchise? A hip-hop Freemasonry who’ve ceased to exist as a unit per se, but whose name and trademark represent a code of ethics by which the new breed must be measured?
it goes without saying that the 78 mins 53 secs you will spend in the company of Love will contain more instances of genius than the combined efforts of the class of ‘06 put together.
I bought a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans today. I had to search for them, they’re not easy to find these days. I eventually found a dedicated Levi’s shop that had them in stock, in the back, behind sliding panels.
I bought a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans today. I had to search for them, they’re not easy to find these days. I eventually found a dedicated Levi’s shop that had them in stock, in the back, behind sliding panels.
ABBA have seldom been acknowledged by those who arbitrate or presume to arbitrate on matters of rock taste. Apart from a brief flirtation about five years ago, rock culture – in as much as the phrase actually signifies anything concrete – has continued to stick them with the legacy of their Eurovision success.
I am going to share a really intimate piece of information about my bodily functions. I am cursed with narrow Eustachian tubes. Eustachian tubes, for the uninitiated, are tiny pressure-release tubes that go from somewhere in your nasal cavity to the inside of your ear.
Have you ever been engaged in an industrial dispute? It would frighten the life out of you, and our great revolutionary leaders hardly ever acknowledge this.
Sex terrorist and cultural magus Mark Simpson dives lad-first into the world of sex through a lends in his uncompromisingly candid new collection of essays, sex terror - erotic misadventures in pop culture
Ireland s recording studios are busy creating the masterpieces that will dominate the charts over the coming year but there are still good deals on offer from some of our most respected establishments.
colm o hare reports.
From child actress to Rilo Kiley frontwoman to hanging out with Elvis Costello: every day is Groundhog Day, but when you're Jenny Lewis that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The debut album you’ve been planning for ages is finally in the can. But what happens next? Colm O’Hare accompanied Derry band Scheer to Trend Studios to find out . . .
The time has come when we can no longer pretend that we’re in control. An incipient sense of cosmic disorder, for the past year gnawing away at the fringes of our collective consciousness, has suddenly become devastatingly palpable.
Why the musical legacy bequeathed by Michael Jackson will ultimately outlive and overshadow the huge morass of questions surrounding his life and death...
How accurate is online encyclopedia Wikipedia? Controversial lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano says the website hasn't moved fast enough to deal with the gross lies and distortions that litter his Wikipedia entry. Now Di Stefano has launched a legal action that, if successful, could fatally damage the Wikipedia Foundation.
How accurate is online encyclopedia Wikipedia? Controversial lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano says the website hasn't moved fast enough to deal with the gross lies that litter his entry.
Here at Hot Press we like to bring you interviews with the most influential figures of our times. And in Ireland 1999 who is more influential than Ballydung bachelors PODGE and RODGE?
STUART CLARK spoke to the zeitgeist-defining duo about the crucial issues: religion, sex, Mary Black and Jean Butler s minge . Also an entirely unfounded revelation about our esteemed editor. Pics: MICK QUINN.
As St Patrick’s Day approaches, what better time to celebrate all that’s great about Irish culture. From music and film to food and literature, Ireland has always punched far above its weight.
According to the latest Durex Sex Survey, most normal Irish people are perverts at heart. And at Christmas they get an unrivalled opportunity to indulge themselves.
To make it in the rock 'n' roll business you need a dream, a vision, a sparkle in your eye . . . and tons and tons of equipment. STUART CAROLAN guides you to the best bargains and damnedest deals in this Hot Press Equipment Special.
Your live set's honed to perfection, you're tighter than the proverbial duck's posterior in rehearsal but how are you going to persuade that hotshot record company exec that it's more than his or her job's worth not to sign you? Colm O'Hare gets the lowdown from the experts on how to make the perfect demo.
Colm O'Hare turns over a new leaf or two from the huge variety of publications on the shelves this Christmas, from rock biographies to more general Irish published works. So, for those of you who like your entertainment between the covers, read on . . .
