You cook them, we serve them up in the Q&A cantina. At the table to answer the questions posed, in our second serving this fortnight, by members of hotpress.com: Ash
Hot Press can exclusively reveal the bill that accompanies the Red Bull X-Fighter Freestyle Motocrosss bash at Slane Castle - the headliner of which is Ash.
Well sort of ...
Not content with priming their Meltdown album for April release, Ash have recorded a cover of the Buzzcocks' 'Everybody's Happy Nowadays' with one C. Martin on backing-vocals.
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
As is often the case when bands have a whole host of new material they're itching to try out, the crowd become slightly restless midway through the evening. The Meltdown material sounds great, but there's no getting around the fact that we've come to hear the old favourites, and the band know it.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: On the eve of the release of their fifth album, Ash talk longevity, writing songs in Bono’s summer house and why Twilight Of The Innocents is not a pipe-and-slippers album.
Are Ash reinventing themselves as some kind of Sparklehorse/Super Furry Animals hybrid? Because, on the strength of this single, you’d swear they’d pulled off just such a transformation. They’ve given free rein to their pop sensibilities with a chorus as wide as an open horizon, while the Beatles plunge that leads into the second verse certainly shivered my timbers. Elsewhere, the guitar solo flickers to a blaze big enough to convince us that the Ash we know and love are still in there somewhere. It’s a belter – the sound of a summer we haven’t yet been given.
It’s a forbidding date – no I’m not talking about Friday the 13th, I’m referring to Ash’s first Belfast date proper since the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley.
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
No, she doesn’t hate Tim Wheeler but yes, she does look up her own chart position first. A solo Charlotte Hatherly on Bowie, Star Wars and life with and without Ash.
To celebrate their tenth birthday, Ash are releasing a Best Of double CD, jammed with their 17 ass-kicking singles and featuring "selected highlights" from the B-sides. The title? "We don't have one at the moment," says Tim, "so if anyone's got a good idea, send them to us"
Muse opened up the Heineken Weekender in Galway with an emotionally charged show. Offerings included the wonderful ‘Uno’, current hit ‘New Born’ and a selection of hard-hitting tunes from 1999’s Showbiz album.
Intergalactic Sonic Seven's (soon to be followed by a B-side compilation) is a collection of absoloutely cracking tunes that might just bring the acclaim that has so far escaped Ash in the US
There’s no getting past the thick layer of grief that cakes Ash Wednesday. Far from plunging down a sinkhole of the soul, however, Perkins has struck a note of quiet defiance.
There was much quaffing of champagne in the Ash camp last week as Sir Paul McCartney presented Tim Wheeler with an honorary companionship at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.
Having been pounding the festival beat since Oxegen (taking in trips to the likes of Hungary & Japan!) Ash have confirmed an Autumnal return to Irish shores.
Of all their undeniable qualities, it is Ash’s bone dry sense of humour and their eye for unnervingly absurd detail that bodes most auspiciously for their long-term future.
Recently revealed to be the last ever Ash album, Twilight Of The Innocents re-announces the group's commitment to melody and proves they have successfully re-ignited their creative spark.
The proceeds from a new CD featuring the cream of Ireland’s musical talent including U2, Sinéad O’Connor and Ash will benefit people living with mental illness
John Walshe travels to Berlin to see Ash in superlative live form on Paddy's night. And no wonder: the band reckon their new album, free all angels could put them in the Michael Jackson league! plus: why they're so down on Louis Walsh, Westlife and Ronan Keating and so up for Bono, John Hume, David Trimble and - wait for it - Darius of Popstars. Flash photography: Mella Travers
EAMON SWEENEY meets RELISH, a northern band just signed to EMI. Up for discussion: Ash, landing a deal, Van Morrison and ghosts in the (studio) machines.
Tim Wheeler from Ash, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol and Radio 1’s Colin Murray are among the active supporters of a project to establish a dedicated music centre for Belfast.
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.
In summer 2003, Ash played their biggest ever shows to date at Knebworth and the Phoenix Park alongside Robbie Willaims. Tim Wheeler chose to sport a Thin Lizzy T-shirt for the occasion, paying homage to a lifelong hero.
He loves Natasha Bedingfield and Charlotte Hatherley, but has no time for Franz Ferdinand, Donnie Darko and hammock-sized bras. Lisa Coen wakes Ian McCulloch from his slumbers and finds the Echo & The Bunnymen legend in wonderfully morose form.
Recorded in sunny California, under the sonic supervision of Nick ‘Foo Fighters’ Raskulinecz, Ash’s fourth studio album is one big-sounding, drums-pounding, amps-to-eleven, NOISY MOTHERFUCKER of a record (as the irate neighbour said to the policeman).
In the words of visionary film-maker David Cronenberg, "There are records you listen to when you want diversion, and there are records you go to when you're in spiritual trouble." We asked an array of today's brightest stars to tell us about the artists they feel provide the greatest sustenance in time of turmoil and upheaval.
Ireland beating the mighty Dutch on an enchanted evening at Lansdowne Road. The Frames at Vicar St. Liverpool lifting three trophies in one season. BellX1 at the Music Centre
Last year their Oh Yeah proved to be the star turn of the night, with Neil Hannon guesting on vocals. This year, they ve been nominated in three categories and are looking forward to Awards night with some anticipation. Tim Wheeler of Ash talks to STUART CLARK about that once-in-a-lifetime free CD, the upcoming HEINEKEN HOT PRESS shindig in Belfast and the new album the band are currently in the throes of making.
“A scene that results in Pete Doherty isn’t much to celebrate,” declare Bloc Party as they outline their plan to save UK rock from the heroin chic brigade. Also up for discussion are Elton John, Ash, Thin Lizzy and why they’re nothing like Franz Ferdinand. Honest. Photos by Liam Sweney.
Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley impressed a lot of people here last year with the quirky guitar pop of her debut solo album Grey Will Fade. hotpress catches up with her as she wows the masses at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival.
Back at the turn of the decade there were three mad bands from Downpatrick Vietnam, Lazer Gun Nun and Confusion. The first of these dropped the dodgy heavy metal element and became Ash. The second toned down the Stooges sound to give room for the Backwater experience. Two-thirds of the last act have come back to haunt us in the form of Griswold.
U2 and Ash played Belfast to support the Yes Vote in the Belfast Agreement. Hot Press columnist Stuart Bailie was the compére for the evening. And it rocked, big style.
Sixteen is a state of mind that, like that summer feeling, haunts you the rest of your life. It’s a quickening of stirrings into one overwhelming surge of sense and sensuality: cars, girls, noise, boys, surf, sand and sea breezes.
Peter Murphy catches up with former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley to talk about 'crazy woman's music', writing songs and collaborating with XTC's Andy Partridge.
The Heineken Green Energy Festival takes place in The Munster Showgrounds in Cork and the Castlegar Sportsgrounds in Galway over the June Bank Holiday Weekend
These have been quite some times for Conor Oberst. Until recently working away in his own little world, of late he’s been flirting with the mainstream to such a degree that he even ended up on the same pre-election bill as Springsteen and REM. All of which seems to have led him to try his hand at that great rock star folly – the twin album release.
Stuart Clark – himself a black belt in origami – discovers how The Ramones and kickboxing chinese detectives have helped Ash to overcome their sordid heavy metal past and become Top of the Chops.
With 1993 going down as the year that Irish rock finally emerged from U2’s shadow, HOT PRESS takes an introductory look at four of the rapidly emerging outfits that are poised to make headlines and sell bucket–loads of records in ’94.
Schtum, Ash, Joyrider, Compulsion.
In the instant world of pop music, it would be fair to say that life can be a bit of a rollercoaster – as some of our homegrown teenybop maestros discovered in 2001. But WESTLIFE and SAMANTHA MUMBA are still riding high.
BY STEPHEN ROBINSON
Being dropped by a major has helped THERAPY? relocate their soul. The result is shameless – “a very simple punk rock’n’roll record,” says ANDY CAIRNS proudly.
Interview: PHIL UDELL
When I first started showing a real interest in music, and buying 7'' singles every week in Downpatrick's 'Sounds' for my 99p pocket money, videos weren't as available.
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
Snow Patrol and Ash are just some of the North’s rock ambassadors who have given their backing to the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a state-of-the-art multi-media development which will put Belfast on the international musical map.
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
It’s Christmas, time for some of the leading lights of the Irish musical family to return from far-flung stages and convene for a traditional evening of reflection, revelation, conversation, merriment and, well, gargle. The guests: Glen Hansard and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of The Frames, Gemma Hayes, Mundy and David Kitt.
The opening track of this EP from the ‘Kings is pretty damn good – all chugging guitars, an irresistibly memorable chorus which comes across as sort of Ash-meets-Blue-Oyster-Cult. The rest ain’t half bad either.
The star-spangled story of how Richard Melville Hall learned to relax and love sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. "Don't tell anybody but I'm actually the lead guitarist with Slipknot," he informs Stuart Clark.
SingStar fans can now do karaoke versions of their favourite Delorentos tracks, as three of the band's songs have been made available to download for the game.
Tim Wheeler out of Ash recounts their near-miss in America. Meanwhile, the worst of their injuries - drummer Rick's - may cost them Reading and Leeds slots
Superstars, rock stars, movie stars, sports stars, tv stars, authors, actors, artists, comedians, politicians, broadcasters, astrologers, chefs, outlaws, weirdoes, dingbats and Lee Scratch Perry...
That Charlotte Hatherley managed to produce a solo album as complete and focused as Grey Will Fade while holding down a day job with Ash was no mean feat. Now with that pressure removed, the results so far haven’t suggested that this has been an entirely good thing. Like ‘Behave’ before it, ‘I Want You To Know’ is a jumble of ideas that never quite gel. Somewhere in here is a fine song – you’re just hard pushed to find it amongst the mess. Hatherley has the potential, if not the right, to become a rock icon – she’ll need to make better records than this if she’s to attain such a status.
She may have left Ash, but to us Charlotte Hatherley will always be an honoury Irish woman. The good news for fans of her excellent Grey Will Fade solo debut is that the follow-up is in the can and awaiting early New Year release.
You can’t but hark back to the days when Ash made good punky pop music. But thank goodness for the fantastic Nine Black Alps. The Manchester boys possess the same youthful energy which Tim Wheeler and company used to churn out at the drop of a hat.
A few hours after Bono hoisted up Trimble and Hume s arms at the Yes show, I found myself trying to buy drinks at a city centre bar and having a strange conversation with a well known local politician. A prominent face during the pro-Agreement campaign, I d assumed that he d be delighted with the way that the gig had panned out. But no, he shrugged off the entire occasion as a bubbly inconsequence and said that the Yes camp would be lucky to get 68% of the vote. For someone convinced that his cause was on the cusp of a massive historical defeat, he didn t appear to be overly upset. In fact, he seemed happy enough showing off his Larry Mullan Jr autograph and blaming the Unionists.
‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’ and ‘Heat Dies Down’ emerge as decent enough tracks that benefit greatly from Rick Wilson’s much-lauded onstage charisma.
what good was rock’n’roll in 2001? No good at all – and yet we couldn’t have got through without it.
Peter Murphy reflects on a year in which some old codgers stood up to be counted and many of us lived “on songs and hope”
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.
IT'S BEEN a bit grim up North since Ash became chart regulars. True, The Divine Comedy have made the top 30 a better, more decent place with their pop whimsy, but in terms of cheesegrater riffs there's been little to float one's boat.
Aslan were the unexpected winners of the night at the Meteor Ireland Music awards, beating off competition from the likes of Ash, Delorentos and the Flaws to take the title of Best Irish Band.
The Hot Press Irish Music Awards proved to be as keenly contested as ever with U2, Ash and The Corrs emerging as big winners. But the number of awards acknowledging nascent talent prove there’s more heavy-hitters waiting in the wings
PHIL LYNOTT would have been 50 on 20th August this year. Here, PETER MURPHY profiles the legendary Philo, and talks to other stars about his enduring influence.
Olaf Tyaransen reports from the Birthday JD set in Lynchburg, Tennesse, which featured performances from such acts as Hugh Cornwell, Roisin Murphy and Ash's Tim Wheeler.
Roo are confident, savvy and unflinching in their aim to make remarkable music. There s something about their looks and attitude that remind you of George Best in 68: blessed with handy skills and unfazed by older, less talented rivals. Roo are the best new prospect from these parts. They can be funny, too.
In a year that saw events which will forever change the world in which we live, selected hotpress contributors offer some personal recollections of the past twelve months. We begin by listing the critics’ choice of 2001’s single and album releases
The highlight of the year – and probably the decade – was scamming a trip to Havana to see the Manic Street Preachers do their live thing in front of Fidel Castro
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
MY VITRIOL are young, angsty and ambitious. They talk to NADINE O’REGAN about fame, their debut album, Finelines, and the merits of female bass players
Genital warts, cherry popping, male pattern baldness, archery and kate moss… it's access and, indeed, excess all areas as hotpress readers subject darkness mainman Justin Hawkins to a thorough probing.
Charlotte Hatherley doesn’t do stockings, but she would like to have it off in a thunderstorm. And she wears nothing in bed but a smile. Oh, sweet Jesus.
Kicking off our 2007 coverage of the northern music scene, Hit the North answers all of those questions that have been keeping you awake at night. And a few that haven’t.
The actor, director, novelist and husband of Uma Thurman on the thrill of being a non-specialist and the challenge presented by "the greatest adventure you can have" - being in love
He s so vain, but brian molko is also one of the most astute men in rock n roll. Having put his hedonistic days behind him honest! the placebo mainman talks to stuart clark about martyrdom, maturity and Marilyn Manson.
Having been available for the past four years as a white label 12”, Tim Wheeler’s collaboration with legendary dance producer Arthur Baker is finally receiving a commercial release.
With a growing reputation for exuberant live shows that has seen them banned from no fewer than four London venues and rumours that they ve turned down a #1 million record deal, symposium are not your orthodox wannabes, as john walshe found out.
co.uk, with their spiky sound and their hearts set on superstardom, are the new great white hopes of the northern rock scene. STUART CLARK met them.
PiX: MICHAEL TAYLOR
STUART BAILIE recalls some of the social and political movements that have occupied U2's hearts and minds down through the years... not least, the Springfield Garbage Dump campaign
He's long been one of the North's most singular songwriting talents. Now ANDY WHITE is returning to Belfast to perform a show that sees him bringing together some of his earliest and most current compositions.
They’re loud, they’re proud and they “endorse” really heavy amplifiers. Also Lafaro are partial to a spot of inter-band shagging. That’s what their website claims anyway. You are right to be intrigued.
BBC 4 & 6, Gardener's Question Time, The Guardian crossword... comedian Colin Murphy's Belfast home is a veritable hub of bacchanalia. Photos by Amberlea Trainor.
Danish This is Your Life specials; Bob Monkhouse game shows and seling petrol to Bobby Robson . . . Nick Kelly hears the untold story of Prefab Sprout from Martin McAloon bassist, founder member and sibling of songwriting genius, Paddy.
This year’s Heineken Green Energy festival has something for every music lover. Whether anthemic stadium rock (Snow Patrol) is your thing or you enjoy boisterous pop (Kaiser Chiefs), it’s a festival packed with sonic treats.
The mother of Philip Lynott has seen her home in Dublin double as a place of pilgrimage for fans of the Irish rock legend – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Loaded vocalist and guitarist DUFF McKAGAN has one complaint, that nobody has yet invented a system that would make soundchecks unnecessary. Jackie Hayden interrupted the former Guns N’ Roses bassist at his band’s rehearsal cabin on the eve of their visit to Ireland.
They were one of the great hopes of the early '90s Northern scene. Now The Minnows have patched up their differences and started making music together again.
A new organisation of musicians has written to Barack Obama protesting against the use of music to torture detainees. Also: a closer look at the individuals behind the recent An Bord Snip report, which recommends systematic fleecing of the poor in order to keep fat-cats in the style to which they’re accustomed.
Hey pal - fancy a record deal? We like your style, we luuuurve the music and we're practically guaranteed to make you a star. So what's the hitch? Absolutely nish, my friend. Just sign the necessaries, and we'll proceed.
Just think of that lovely £500 advance. Sure, you're signing up for a six album deal, but what the hell? Maybe you fancy a management settlement for, say, 12 years? What is there to lose, little guy? In fact we're such an awesome organisation that you should maybe go for a record deal and a management contract, all in the same tidy package. Tell you what, my man, if you really want, we can throw in the publishing rights, also. Wouldn't that take care of all your problems at a stroke?
Editors mainman Tom Smith is pining for his mainsqueeze Edith Bowman. HP advises him on an anniversary gift. Aw, bless. Still, he hasn't gone soft, as is borne out by copious potshots at Keane and Sugababes.
Since 1996 the Heineken Green Energy Festival has lit up the capital city with some of the brightest stars of modern rock. Patrick Hedlund and hotpress assistant editor, Stuart Clark, report
They may be nothing more than a tribute band but if so, they re a damn good one. JACK L and his BLACK ROMANTICS have been unanimously lauded for their Jacques Brel-inspired Wax album: The idea was to bridge the gap between Brel and Scott Walker. Now Jack L himself talks to JOE JA
It’s time for the singer-songwriter fraternity to move over and make room for the new generation of Irish guitar bands. Director, Marshal Stars and The Blizzards are just three of the acts who feature on the debut compilation from Faction Records, the new label which aims to promote and nuture the brightest stars of the Irish underground.
Tanya Sweeney catches up with Ireland’s hardest partying rockers Snow Patrol to discuss on-the-road hi-jinks, the band’s hallowed status in the Scottish and Irish music scenes, and also bears witness to that long-awaited footie showdown with Thomastown under 15s.
No-one knows a city like a local and so we asked Mike Edgar to be our guide to Belfast. Here he chooses ten things for visitors to do in the North s leading city. Only one problem: he forgot to tell us where to get an after-hours drink!
Peter Murphy considers Nirvana’s legacy and wonders will we ever hear their like again. Producer Butch Vig and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age help him with his enquiries
Our annual HP-7 summit brings together some of the pre-eminent movers and shakers in irish music to reflect on everything from backstage catering to the end of war, pestilence and famine. Your host: Stuart Clark.
Most of us agree that the Eurovision Song Contest is a load of arse, but at least we can switch to another channel. The Irish Times' KEVIN COURTNEY, however, attended this year’s contest in Copenhagen - and got sucked into the black hole of rock 'n' roll
He s the Godfather of TV-Astronomy. He s not only the size of a minor planet, he even has one named after him. He knows all the secrets of Life, the Universe and Everything. He is Patrick Moore. And now he tells Andy Darlington about his Flying Saucer Close Encounter , his musical input into 2001: A Space Odyssey, why there are no Skating Rinks on the Moon and much more groovy cosmic stuff
The drink, the drugs, the fights, the sex, the loves, the hates, the hits and the Taoiseach's daughter - here are Ireland's most successful boy band as you've never heard them before.
Hearing their confessions: Joe Jackson
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
On the eve of the release of the group’s new album Winning Days, The Vines’ bassist Patrick Mathews gives hannah Hamilton the inside story on the tensions that threatened to split the band, hanging with Steve-o and the Jackass crew, and the group’s heretofore undeclared love of the Clancy Brothers.
Known from the TV sitcom as the Man who Behaves Badly, actor Neil Morrissey is confounding the laddish caricature with his work for an anti-landmine charity. In this candid interview with Paul Nolan, he also reflects on childhood trauma, death in the family, that affair with Amanda Holden and his encounters with Olivier, Burton and Mel Gibson. main photography Cathal Dawson
Known from the TV sitcom as the man who behaves badly, actor Neil Morrissey is confounding the laddish caricature with his work for an anti-landmine charity. In this candid interview with Paul Nolan, he also reflects on childhood trauma, death in the family, that affair with Amanda Holden and his encounters with Olivier, Burton and Mel Gibson.
Seven years after his last solo LP, David Holmes lost his father. That trauma, and working on the Bobby Sands-era drama Hunger, seem to have brought a new humanity to his work.
With preparations well underway for Cork city’s hosting of the European City Of Culture festivities in 2005, the indigenous music scene is already rising to the challenge
You'd have thought that 12 consecutive top 40 hits would have earned them the key to the executive bathroom but, nope, before the ink was even dry on their Guinness Book Of Records entry, THE WEDDING PRESENT were shown the door by their record company. Unperturbed, everyone's favourite indie popsters found a new label, a new bass player and a new studio accomplice who's helped them produce their best album since the classic George Best. A slightly battered and bruised DAVE GEDGE gives a blow-by-blow account of the events to our ringside reporter STUART CLARK.
Irish teen popsters B*WITCHED last month became only the seventh act in chart history to see their debut single go straight in at Number One in the UK Top 40. Are they the latest great white hope for pop music, or simply a troupe of over-hyped cod-ceili dancers? And what does all this signify for the Irish music industry as a whole? peter murphy reports.
Boyzone are, irrefutably, Ireland s first ever bona fide Pop gods. Reviled by many but dreamed about, screamed at and lusted after by far, far more, they are the men boys of the moment. Joe Jackson meets Louis Walsh and John Reynolds, the Svengalis behind Boyzone, and asks Steve, Shane, Ronan, Mikey and Keith what it s like when every female alive wants to shag you senseless. As if he doesn t know.
The Black Crowes! Blowjobs! Journey! Drink! Bob Seger! Vick’s inhaler! and why Keith Duffy is more fun than the Manic Street Preachers! Stereophonics let their hair down in the company of Stuart Clark
Having steamrolled its way across America, and through most of Europe, it seemed as if U2 s PopMart extravaganza might come to grief in the most unlikely of places their homeland of Ireland. Now however, one Supreme Court case on, U2 are scheduled to play not just two Dublin dates but a newly-added Belfast homecoming as well. Interview: MIKE EDGAR
It’s been a hell of a year for The Thrills, propelled from rehearsal rooms in rainy Dublin to a number one album, sell-out shows and limo-driven tours of L.A. at night. Hotpress catches up with the band as they kick off an irish homecoming trek with an exclusive Dublin fan club gig.
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.
The last 18 months have been a hell of a ride for The Thrills, catapulted from the relative obscurity of the south dublin suburbs to the top of the uk charts, rubbing shoulders with Van Dyke Parks and Peter Buck along the way. But are the band suffering from diver’s bends? is that laid-back california-in-my-mind facade starting to crumble? We put on our therapist’s hats and endeavour to find out, if something’s gotta give, what gives?
Most cities and towns have their trouble spots and their danger zones, but Limerick's have been given more than their unfair share of publicity. Such a focus on the negative has tended to detract attention from the positive aspects of this resurgent city, with its vibrant music scene, its buzzing university, the warmth and friendliness of the people, its obsession with rugby, and er, Ryan Turbidy.
Snow Patrol‘s Gary Lightbody may be the thinking woman’s indie sexpot, but with their new album Eyes Open going supernova all over the shop, the poor fella has no time to capitalise on his status, given that the only people he sees on a regular basis are his band and crewmates. With whom, he assures us, “penetrative sex is out of the question.” Also on the agenda: break-ups, infidelity, the Northern body politic, U2 and, of course, underpants.
In 1991, five years after the death of Phil Lynott, the late Bill Graham wrote in Hot Press of Philo's enduring legacy. Over ten years later his words are as relevant as ever
The Heineken Rollercoaster Tour is taking to the road again and this time the capital is nobody’s hometown gig. From Kells come Turn, from Limerick Woodstar and from Cork The Frank and Walters. Next stop: a venue near you.
Elstree, remember me, went the old Boggles tune. The location is a far-flung suburb of north London, former nerve centre of an entire B-movie industry, now home to television shows like East Enders, Holby City (wandering through the corridors, your correspondent comes across a room identified by the rather ominous notice: Make-up - GUTS), and of course Top Of The Pops.
They ve been gigging for 27 years and they were doing Words when Boyzone were still in the balls zone. They are Big Chief Flaming Star, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Little Thunder, Wild Hawk and Dull Knife (not their real names). They are
THE INDIANS
and they hope to still be on the warpath in the next millennium.
LIAM FAY
pow-wows with an authentic showband phenomenon.
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
Christmas is the time of the year when thousands of Irish emigrants return home to link up again with families and friends. All over the country, for a brief interlude, towns and villages will come alive with stories, songs, drink and craic. And then all will be quiet again. Gerry McGovern examines the impact of emigration on Irish society – and the sense of alienation which many emigrants feel about their treatment by the authorities here.
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.
Back in their terrifying heyday, they threw pigs’ heads around on stage, covered themselves in muck, provided Marilyn Manson with a career and wrote ‘Community Games’ for Aidan Walsh. Having escaped the clutches of a sinister born-again Christian turned transvestite, they’re now making movies with Neil Jordan, dining with Damien Hirst and consorting with Tony Blair. All in all, it’s been a long, strange trip for The Virgin Prunes
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice, amongst others, has inspired a new do-it-yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here, Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice – amongst others has inspired a new do it yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate. Words: Tanya Sweeney. Additional reporting: Jackie Hayden
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice – amongst others has inspired a new do it yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate. Words: Tanya Sweeney. Additional reporting: Jackie Hayden
A special report on the arts in Northern Ireland which is alive and rocking with the whole gamut of cultural activity. Here James Elliott and Margaret F. Grundy give the lowdown on the province’s artistic and creative hub.
Boyzone are, irrefutably, Ireland s first ever bona fide Pop gods. Reviled by many but dreamed about, screamed at and lusted after by far, far more, they are the men boys of the moment. Joe Jackson meets Louis Walsh and John Reynolds, the Svengalis behind Boyzone, and asks Steve, Shane, Ronan, Mikey and Keith what it s like when every female alive wants to shag you senseless. As if he doesn t know.
Boyzone are, irrefutably, Ireland’s first ever bona fide Pop gods. Reviled by many but dreamed about, screamed at and lusted after by far, far more, they are the men – boys – of the moment. Joe Jackson meets Louis Walsh and John Reynolds, the svengalis behind Boyzone, and asks Steve, Shane, Ronan, Mikey and Keith what it’s like when every female alive wants to shag you senseless. As if he doesn’t know.
Don’t let her steal your heart away!
sheryl crow: Hot Press Readers’ Love Of The Year and Bob Dylan’s favourite singer-songwriter is the hottest new star in rock'n'roll. Helena Mulkerns charts the singular rise of Kennet, Missouri’s most celebrated slacker country queen.
Basking in the warm glow of that first day's successful recording may tempt you to imagine that it's all over but for the fame and fortune. Wrong, and double wrong. JACKIE HAYDEN considers music marketing and PR.
Ahead of their return to Ireland, Muse reveal they’re about to go through their U2 phase, talk about magic mushrooms and explain why, when it comes to conspiracy, they’re on Jim Corr's side.
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?
Falling in love not only altered David Kitt’s heart but helped reshape his musical vision. Olaf Tyaransen visits his home cum studio and hears about the family affair that is his new album and how meeting Poppy reawakened his love of pop. all this and why the son of a Minister opposes the smoking ban! Photography Roger Woolman.
He was a literary sensation, a writer with the outlaw charm of a rock star. But when rumours began to circulate that JT LeRoy was nothing more than a post-modern media prank, Peter Murphy, a friend and confidante, found himself caught up in an extraordinary story.
After being a magnet for A&R men during the 80s, Dublin has recently developed into something of an underachiever. The city may have the second biggest growth-rate in Europe but there are a hell of a lot of gigs and records that simply aren t selling. peter murphy casts a critical ear over the capital s music scene and decides that what s required is a full-scale artistic enema.
IAN STRACHAN was jailed for blackmailing a member of the Royal Family over allegations of a sex and drugs ‘scandal’. But a media blackout ensured that little of the substance of the case was reported.
Dublin’s newly-opened Gallery Number One was the venue last Sunday as The Frames played an acoustic gig to celebrate the publication of Zoran Orlic and Janine Schaults’ photo-book on them, Behind The Glass. View the photo gallery here!
Meeting the Pope, marriage to the Taoiseach’s daughter, the trouble with relationships, why they couldn’t have a hit with Bono, bad language on kids’ telly, golf in drugs out, Louis’ biggest lie and other tales from the lives of Westlife.
...here's the Hot Press Irish Music Awards, and a massive bash avec much live music is pencilled in for Belfast in April. Read on for the categories and nominees in full
Like what you see in Hot Press? Ace HP snapper Roger Woolman's set up his own website, so you can check out the finest in pop photography - and buy stuff for your very ownio - at the click of a mouse
Alphastates’ ‘Sometimes’ is still a supremely elegant electro-acoustic number that convincingly explains their esteemed status in the Dublin independent scene.
Subtitled The Medieval Dead, Army of Darkness represents the third part of perhaps the oddest movie trilogy ever. Evil Dead was the source of the original video nasty controversy, an extremely low budget, deeply nasty and frankly scary haunted house movie that introduced not only director Raimi bu the even more talented collaborators the Coen brothers.
The all-day extravaganza that's taking place at Marlay Park on 22 August may have Kaiser Chiefs headlining, but the supporting bill alone is worth the ticket price.
Word has reached us that our current '100 GREATEST IRISH ALBUMS' issue is flying off the shelves. We've had to restock several newsagents already - and while we'll endeavour to manage supply as best we can, it's clear that it's going to become tough to track down!
Awards by the dozen, celebrities wall-to-wall, gobsmacking world exclusives and of course, great music: it can only be the Hot Press Irish Music Awards. Only 24 hours to go - here's how it's all shaping up
It goes without saying that at this stage SNOW PATROL are an incredibly polished live act, with the likes of ‘Spitting Games’ and ‘Chocolate’ electrifying the venue early on.
In time for our birthday issue, The Edge talks exclusively to Peter Murphy about 30 years of Ireland's premier music mag, and reveals that they're working on a "project" rather than a new album.
If youth was once wasted on the young, what about record contracts? My Vitriol are yet another set of early twenty-somethings touting guitars and being thrust into the limelight at a ridiculously early stage - their tenth ever gig was part of the NME awards- week at London-s Astoria.
This heartfelt love-poem to the strumpet city, and to those who wander its streets looking for connection, compassion, a home, should be required listening for anyone who has ever been anywhere near Dublin.
The Frames and David Kitt are the latest additions to the Hot Press Irish Music Awards bill. And with TV3 as well as BBC NI broadcasting it & a potential audience of 20 million, it's a good job we've no less than ex-Live Aid director David Croft at the helm
It’s not revolutionary or groundbreaking stuff by garage standards, but it’s an impressive enough statement of intent from potentially Peckham’s finest export since the family Trotter.
Laurence Nugent, Chicago-born flute and whistle player is a man not given to stray notes or empty promises. The Windy Gap is the work of a musician who doesn’t need to prove anything, who tracks his route with the confidence of a traveller well used to the road, but still excited by the discoveries around every bend.
A new era begins for Irish record distribution as showband svengali Mick Clerkin, Noel Cusack of Chart Records, and RMG's Peter Kenny join forces to form RMG Chart Entertainment Ltd
April 26 sees radio duo Donna Legge and David O’Reilly enter the realm of the audio-visual in Across The Line TV, with Snow Patrol playing a starring role in the warm-up special
With something of a renaissance having taken place in the Dublin independent scene over the past few years, now seems as good a time as any to bring ourselves fully up to speed with the sounds emanating from the Belfast underground.
On their fourth studio album, the cringemakingly titled, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, Blink-182 wield their instruments with consummate chutzpah and no little skill
Bigotry is alive and kicking in 21st-century Ireland – in the form of anti-traveller discrimination. Plus: why croquet is more genuinely Irish than Gaelic football.
Keyboards at the ready, modems on standby: here it is, a quick-fire tour of some of the entertainment websites from the north that matter. In theory, we were going to give you the definitive A-Z guide, but we couldn't find anything beginning with a Q or an X . Neverthless, here we go . .
The Critics Panel who voted for the Top 30 Albums and Singles of the Year are as follows: Bill Graham, Liam Fay, George Byrne, Stuart Clark, Lorraine Freeney, Tara McCarthy, Gerry McGovern, Neil McCormick, Dermot Stokes, Oliver P. Sweeney, Siobhan Long, Steve Averill, Andy Darlington, Colm O’Hare, Joe Jackson, Niall Crumlish, Olaf Tyaransen, Patrick Brennan, Nicholas G. Kelly, Jackie Hayden and Niall Stokes.
Saturday was chatterday here in the Hot Press Chatroom, with appearances from Josh Ritter, The Stunning, Elbow, Oppenheimer, Cathy Davey and That Petrol Emotion.
Two CDs here, one a 'best of' and the other comprised of a dozen brand new outpourings from one of the legendary Northern bands of the punk era, paint a graphic sonic picture of Belfast's social eruptions.
THESE TWO compilations have been released to commemorate the tenth anniversary of promoter Vince Power's hugely successful annual celebration of Irish music.
You will cheer, You will scowl, You will stare in disbelief - but don't blame us...
'cos it's all your fault! Yep, it's the Hot Press Reader's poll Results.
Body Language is a fair to middling dance pop record that might go down easier if the listener wasn’t aware of how innovative and imaginative Kylie Minogue can be. Right now, she’s stuck halfway between Erotica and Evita, peddling PVC when we need fake leopardskin and warm leatherette.
aught In The Net is much enamoured of the video for the new Charlotte Hatherley single, ‘White’, which finds the former Ash and current Bat For Lashes guitarslinger splattered with paint. Before you make any unbecoming comments, it’s the clip’s Pollock-esque qualities we admire rather than the fact that Chaz is all covered in gunk.
In '96 we talked sex, drugs and murder with Nick Cave, while other cover stars include Lou Reed, Ash, Blur, Bjork and the Cranberries... Plus, we remember the sad passing of HP scribe Bill Graham.
He may have been a mere whippersnapper when the punk wars erupted in London- but Stuart Clark hustled his way into the Roxy when it was all happening, and survived. At least, we think he did!
The world economy is crumbling, but while other countries are overturning inept governments, we’re doing what we’re best at: moaning to anyone who will listen.
It’s amazing what you can get these days for the price of a pint of stella! A freeloading Barry Glendenning celebrates the arrival of his dinky new computer.
It’s amazing what you can get these days for the price of a pint of stella! A freeloading Barry Glendenning celebrates the arrival of his dinky new computer.
As the Summer festival season kicks in, our Nostalgia Correspondent recalls the heady, pioneering days of rock in the great Irish outdoors. Keep a hose handy.
After more than 15 years BBC Radio Ulster's Across The Line is undergoing something of a re-vamp. Colin Carberry reports on why this is good news for fans, and bands, on both sides of the border
SNORRRRTTTTT whewwww SNORRRTTT whewww SNORRRTTT whewww Ah, it s yourselves. Excuse me while I remove this mask and put the cylinder to one side. Yes, folks, it s that time of year again. Esteemed Ed is off on his annual hols leaving me, Samuel J. Snort Esq world s leading rock journalist, porn movie stuntman and brain chemist in charge.
From the nun on the bun to Allah on a training shoe, blessed eamonn mccann says 'Amen' to the unholy year of 1997 with all the news that fits through the eye of a needle.
Annual article: From the strange to the mundane, from poetic champions to pornographic novels, from maverick auteurs to great lost crime novels: it was a hell of a year to be a reader.
Think you've got them all right? Or maybe you fancy a sneaky peak (you're only cheating yourself you know!). Either way, you've got the questions – we've got the answers....
REMEMBER the Beef Tribunal? Forget it. There were other issues, too, which might have brought Reynolds to grief before now, and didn’t. But he could well come a cropper even yet, over Parkingate.
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
To suggest that music is thriving in Sligo is akin to declaring that there s been a bit of an upturn in the economy lately. Music of all breeds, creeds and colour can be found in abundance around the county.
With the death of Kurt Cobain in April casting a shadow over the following months 1994 will hardly go down as one of the most joyous in Rock history. Your guide to a month-by-month account of the names and events of the past year. Stuart Clark.
