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?
Avril Lavigne has never been the easiest of artists to figure out. Is she a skate-punk princess or a black nail-varnish-wearing Britney? Is she a real songwriter or just a pretender who insists on adding her name to the credits?
Canadian punk-poppet Avril Lavigne, 22, is a married woman but her concerns are very much of the lip-curled adolescent if this, her third album, is anything to go by.
Is she a manufactured pop act made to look like a rock chick? is she a rock chick who sells records like a manufactured pop act? or is she something else entirely? Why’d Avril Lavigne have to go and make things so complicated?
It didn’t take long for Fergs to join the likes of Pink, Gwen Stefani and Avril Lavigne in changing from an edgy, innovative femme to a generic credibility vacuum. Assuming her new role correctly, she’s now writing mid-tempo pop songs about heartbreak with cringeworthy lyrics like “I’m not going miss you/Like a child misses their blanket”. But what’s particularly unforgivable amongst all this tripe is that the second song on the single is the album version, which is all of six seconds longer. Six seconds. Honestly, pop stars these days…
Balbriggan pop rocker Lesley Roy has confirmed the release dates for Unbeautiful, her debut album for Jive Records whose roster also includes Justin ‘n’ Britney.
Fefe Dobson is coming for Avril Lavigne, it seems. She is also Canadian, has the name that no one is sure how to pronounce, lots of backing guitars and lines like: “Tell me whom should I be to make you love me/Tell me what does it mean to be alone”...
Fashioning an Altmanesque daisy-chain around the mucky pathways travelled by Schlosser, Fast Food Nation attempts to ape the multi-layered, global narrative of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic.
Cork singer-songwriter NICOLE MAGUIRE is rapidly making a name for herself with her full-on pop-rock songs, swoonful voice and dogged determination. On the release of her debut album Fight The Score she talks to Jackie Hayden.
Katy Perry's second album offers minimal creativity or originality, but there are several likeable tracks – despite their turgid, juvenile and bordering-on-offensive lyrical content.
If ever a cause needed highlighting, it’s the ongoing tragedy in Darfur, Sudan, which in the recent words of Goal’s John O’Shea "the international community has all but abandoned".
Since their debut single ‘Wired To The Moon’ went gold here The Revs have established themselves as Ireland’s hungriest and most energetic rock combo, with an appetite for gigging and an eye for publicity that has seen them embroiled in a number of amusing controversies. But behind the brash exterior is the fascinating story of three dedicated young musicians who have overcome their status as outsiders to build one of the biggest and most loyal grass roots following of any local act. Now with the release of their debut studio album, Suck, they are ready to go international.
Yet another pop star spawned by a reality TV show – this young Texas-born singer-songwriter (and sister of Jessica) comes courtesy of MTV’s Ashlee show, which tracked her through the whole process of recording this album.
Studt has an agreeable voice and a burdgeoning songwriting talent but, as with Lavigne, the problem is that there are so many hands involved with the album’s writing and production that it’s hard to work out where the Studt ends and the corporate machine begins.
Forget socks and toiletries, the days of truly demented presents are now upon us. Human limbs, bejewelled bikinis, barrels of liquor and whole ungulate quadrupeds, chopped and delivered to your door: It’s all on the net.
The Moondogs were one of the original wave of late ’70s Northern Ireland punk bands. Now reformed, they have no less than two albums slotted for imminent release. Bassist Jackie Hamilton tells all.
The 16,000 fans who attended David Bowie's Point Theatre gigs (pics Roger Woolman) will be able to see themselves on the telly next year.
Yup, the Thin White Duke has decided to immortalise the Dublin leg of his Reality World Tour on DVD.
Barely out of school, Dublin sister duo Heathers are already turning heads with their melodic punk-pop. They talk about what it's like being one of the country's buzzing newcomers.
Long gone are the days when the Donnas were perfect teen-movie soundtrack fodder. As the fair maidens of new hair-metal, they’re a little like the missing link between Angus Young and Courtney Love.
A new year zero, cultural revolution, coup d’etat and night of the long knives all rolled into one. The Pistols' one and only album (let’s forget The Great Rock ‘N’ Roll Swindle shall we?) arrived at a point when the band had gone through two record labels and already announced themselves to the middlebrows as the first bona fide folk devils the UK had seen since The Stones did their Alex and The Droogs routine in ‘65.
What would the old bishop of Down have made of the avowed feminist who made her name singing about blow-jobs in public places? The answer is open to debate, but as Colin Carberry discovers, maybe the bishop and Alanis Morissette have more in common than you might think.
Meath County Council have received a formal licence application from Slane promoters, with the date - confirmed as "the Lord's Day" - drawing protests from the local parish priest and tabloid media
Running a marathon, writing the folk-pop equivalent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, buying a house, releasing the finest record of his career. All in a year’s work for Josh Ritter. John Walshe travelled to Boston to meet the young songwriter.
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.
With their new album, Gotta Go There To Come Back, in the bag, Stereophonics have chosen a very special gig at the Heineken Green Energy extravaganza in Dublin, to make their return to the stage. No wonder the boys are feeling bullish! Chris Martin, Ronnie Wood, Fran Healy, Rod Stewart, Noel Gallagher, U2 and the Rolling Stones – Kelly Jones has opinions on all of them! So who’s feeling the lash of the ‘phonics frontman’s verbal assault, then?
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
From Radiohead to Springsteen, the twelve months ahead are already packed with highlights. But will Led Zeppelin be among the group’s hitting the comeback trail?
As animals-in-jeopardy movies go, Over The Hedge is significantly more entertaining than either Madagascar or The Wild, boasting a smart, stinging screenplay, despite a finger-wagging moral about junk food.
The words “bastards”, “right”, “the” and “serves” sprang to Caught In The Net’s mind this week when it emerged that The Sun, The Daily Mirror and The Daily Mail had been duped into running a totally invented story about Avril Lavigne getting spectacularly gee-faced in an exclusive nightclub.
