JULIANA HATFIELD, best known as (a) Evan Dando's sometime girlfriend (b) bassist on the best Lemonheads' album (c) former Blake Baby (d) anorexic (e) the woman who's earned the questionable accolade 'arch-babe' and (f) coolest of the collection of female musicians dubbed the 'new neurotics', is back!
The docking of the Woman On Waves ship in Dublin has not only highlighted the plight of Irish women who have to go abroad for abortions, but attracted the attention of the world’s press. ADRIENNE MURPHY reports on the furore surrounding its arrival
For a new band, Melophobics show admirable sense and restraint. The lead track ‘Babe (I Ain’t Leavin)’ takes its own sweet time in building to a climax, demonstrating a Republic Of Loose style mix of rock and funk. It’s great, although they do blow it slightly by letting the thing go on for too long, eventually clocking in at nearly seven minutes. If Melophobics can strike the right balance they could be well worth looking into.
From dark age to middle age, Nick Cave is such a far cry from the blood-spilling junkie of rock legend that these days you’re likely to encounter him commuting to his 9 to 5. Except of course that his job is writing and making music, his new album is called Nocturama and there are, he admits, some sizeable blow-outs in the memory banks.
Racing Stripes blends live action and animatronix for a narrative about a zebra who wants to be a racehorse trapped in a movie that wants to be Babe. It’s nowhere near, I’m afraid, belonging instead to a genus that includes Ice Age or Shark’s Tale - you know, family features seemingly designed to help the Pixar people cackle themselves to sleep on mattresses stuffed with thousand dollar bills.
THAT WAS a bad old vibe in the United States recently, when that babe cut off her husband’s pecker with a kitchen knife after he had allegedly raped her. A bad vibe . . .
ANI Di FRANCO has confirmed her position as one of the 90s most compelling performers with her new album Up, Up, Up, Up, Up Up. But there has always been more to Di Franco than her music. Here she talks to SIOBHAN LONG about her hard-won independence, corporate America and the stupidity of conservativism.
On the eve of the Childline benefit gig at which she is one of the hosts, EMMA LEDDEN talks to Stephen Robinson about the rock'n'roll lifestyle, why she'll never model nude, and"loafing" Gary Barlow.
Having survived being Macaulay’s youngest brother, delivered stellar turns in acclaimed movies like You Can Count On Me and Signs, and now in teen murder drama Mean Creek, wunderkind actor Rory Culkin has packed a hell of a lot into his fifteen years – and there’s the still the vexed question of what he’s going to study at college to mull over.
Angeline Ball tells Joe Jackson why she s delighted to get away from her image as that bimbo from The Commitments , with her role in The Plough And The Stars.
ANI DiFRANCO is one of contemporary music's most impressive originals. Without compromising her independence or political radicalism, she has scaled the heights of commercial and
critical success. In this, her only Irish interview, she speaks candidly to NIALL STANAGE about TAFKAP, her battles with the music industry, American 'gun culture' and the troubled family life which lies behind one of her most moving songs.
Sexual Politics and Pixies, P.J. Harvey and the Marquis de Sade, Sexism and self-loathing, Black Sabbath and Doris Day. THE BREEDERS aren't always quite what you'd expect them to be. Interview: ANDY DARLINGTON
When Jackie Hayden was enlisted to interview Sugababe Mutya Buena, little did he suspect that he would be loudly upstaged by another woman as he tries to get the lowdown on the Sugababes’ near break-up, Mutya’s concern over the sexing-up of their recent video, the effects of her pregnancy on her career and who ‘Push The Button’ was really about.
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.
She's the hard-rocking- and by all accounts, hard-drinking- Norwegian indie-babe sensation. Ida Maria tells us about the rare condition that lets her see music as colour and more.
They may be novices in the beer-swilling, coke-snorting and babe-pulling stakes but if it's killer tunes you're after, THE JAYHAWKS leave the competition standing.
STUART CLARK gets a crash-course in country living from MARK OLSON.
jasper carrott's days as a director of Birmingham City FC may be long gone, but despite having some 20 successful years in the comedy business behind him, there are still some people out there who haven't forgiven the Brummie for his 1975 single 'Funky Moped'/'Magic Roundabout'.
Interview: Barry Glendenning.
Having learned her moves on RTE with AA Roadwatch, Drive and Live At 3, LORRAINE KEANE moved to TV3 in the role of Entertainment Correspondent. Here she talks about life, love, the media and what it s like to be the daughter of an Indian!
Interview: NIALL STANAGE. Photos: Colm Henry
‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ used to be a pretty good song before it became a fairly awful movie. Now it will be impossible to listen to Percy Sledge’s tremblingly emotive cry from the heart without thinking of Andy Garcia giving moist-eyed Meg Ryan that puppy dog on prozac look.
What has transformed 47-year-old boy Adonis TOM MATHEWS into a realistic simulacrum of that red-nosed little feeb in the Bamforth Comic postcards? Yes, readers, a punishing fortnight at the Galway Arts Festival. Now read on
By popular demand, ULRIKA JONSSON is coming back to Belfast to co-host this year's heineken-hot press awards. olaf tyaransen meets up with television's Golden Girl and hears about the world of the small screen, the men in her life, the poet behind the party animal, tabloid intrusion and the importance of Van Morrison in keeping her head straight.
Ireland has gone mad for sex toys. Blokes, women, married, single, gay, straight and any and every combination of the above – they’re all indulging as though there were no tomorrow. But what are the hottest tickets in the country’s most successful sex emporia? We sent Tanya Sweeney to find out.
“I hate these questions,” cries David Holmes, DJ, re-mixer, producer, free associate, film-scorer and friend to the stars. Yet he gamely faces the pan-ish inquisition that is the hotpress mixed grill
Why ARE Veggies on a demographic roll? Who says THAT by the middle of the next century we could all be Veggie? Who are the radical outer fringes of the Paramilitary Provisional Wing of the Vegetarian Society? And what is the hideous secret behind . . . Jelly Babies ???
Andrew Darlington, who gave up eating meat five years ago, HAS THE ANSWERs.
In an exclusive interview, LARRY SANGER - widely credited as co-founder of Wikipedia - takes issue with a number of comments made by ex-colleague Jimmy Wales in Hot Press recently, and explains why his new online encyclopedia, Citizendium, will eventually conquer cyberspace.
Pat Kenny answers his critics, tackles TV3, bins the
Sunday Times, denies he's Alan Partridge, backs John Kelly, queries Clare McKeon and reveals his best, worst and
scariest moments in television's hottest seat.
Interview: Peter Murphy. Pics: Mick Quinn.
Hamell On Trial will be taking time out from touring with Ani DiFranco to pay a solo visit to Ireland in August, including dates in Cyprus Avenue, Cork and Whelan’s, Dublin.
The first time The Killers played Oxegen they fretted whether anyone would turn up to see them. Now they’re sweeping in to headline the main stage. They talk to us about being chased by papparazi, growing up in Middle America and sharing a bill with Bono and, er, Gary Barlow
With his new album The Mountain, STEVE EARLE has turned his hand to bluegrass. He talks to SIOBHAN LONG about the record, his colourful past and his love of Irish music.
For one day only, ADRIENNE MURPHY’s boyfriend GAVIN HARTE decided to go where Dustin Hoffman had gone before in Tootsie, and metamorphose into a woman – with the help of the staff at a Phibsboro establishment that specialises in such radical makeovers. How did it look? What did it feel like? And – most importantly – was his corset too uncomfortable? Pix and images: MICK QUINN
They are young, smart and full of self-belief. Their ambitions are boundless, their talents rich and varied. For a generation of young Irish women, the world is awash with possibilities.
From actors to musicians, models to politicians, women are redefining what it means to be female and Irish. Their role-models are women who have achieved greatness, who have made us sit up and pay attention. Not content to bask in someone else’s glories, they believe every woman should aspire to be the best at what they do.
These are the women for whom second best is an anathema. They are the future. To introduce the Hot Press-selected crew: Tanya Sweeney and Louise Hodgson.
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 . . .
After years when her triumphs were in danger of being masked by her tribulations, DOLORES O RIORDAN is back in defiantly upbeat form. She talks to STUART CLARK about confidence, critics, Calvin Klein and her confirmation-size breasts ! Pics: MICK QUINN.
Its action all areas as a musically beefed- up David Gray leaps back into the fray. Inviting Hot Press to an exclusive tour of his London studio, he talks about early success in Ireland, his break with loyal drummer Clune and a recent get-together with uber-diva Annie Lennox
“All men are bastards” Country star trisha yearwood firmly believed – until she met the one who would become her husband. Here, she talks to Joe Jackson about how her marriage to Robert Reynolds of The Mavericks has changed the way she looks at the opposite sex. She also discusses her rivalry with LeAnn Rimes, and the darker side of the Nashville country ’n’ western scene.
Pix: Cathal Dawson
Trailing a new album and a new contentment, Dolores O Riordan tells Stuart Clark about how she got rid of her hang-ups and learned to love being a pop star.
JEAN BUTLER was at the very heart of the Riverdance phenomenon, as the original Eurovision interval set-piece was transformed into the most successful dance stage-show ever. Now, for the first time, she tells her side of that extraordinary saga. In a blistering broadside, she accuses her co-star MICHAEL FLATLEY of rampant egotism and argues that she's never been given the credit she deserves for the show's sensational impact. And then there's the question of money...
Interview: JOE JACKSON
"To tell you the truth, I don’t see myself as being all that interesting or attractive." that being so, Colin Farrell must be one of a very few who doesn’t. Dublin’s latest superstar, famous for cussing, bedding women and (lest we forget) acting, has been inescapable in the gossip columns in recent months. But how much is truth and how much fiction? In this candid interview with Tara Brady, he talks about drink, drugs, football, fame, hype, luck, romance and – in his latest box office winner The Recruit – working with Al Pacino
Hot Press persuaded NIALL STANAGE to become a busker for a day on the streets of Dublin. Here's his account of what happened. Cameo appearances: ALBERT REYNOLDS, TOM DUNNE, LORRAINE KEANE, LIAM MACKEY, 9-month-old EOIN BLAKELY, the GARDA SIOCHANA and a bunch of self-confessed "REBELS". Pics of the bunch: PETER MATTHEWS.
From strange days coming second in a yoghurt-sponsored competition and playing awful gigs sandwiched between boy bands, Damien Dempsey, with a little help from Shane, Sinéad and Christy, has survived and thrived. Eamon Sweeney meets a rap balladeer with a hit album, a social conscience and more than a few stories to tell.
Though he was busking in Grafton Street at 14, it s taken Glen Hansard more than a few shakes of the lamb s tail to reach the plateau of success which his songwriting talents have, for so long, threatened to take him but after the colossal success of Revelate , The Frames are, finally, set fair to enjoy their day in the sun. Here, Glen and guitarist, Dave Odlum, put Niall Crumlish in the picture.
Though he was busking in Grafton Street at 14, it s taken Glen Hansard more than a few shakes of the lamb s tail to reach the plateau of success which his songwriting talents have, for so long, threatened to take him but after the colossal success of Revelate , The Frames are, finally, set fair to enjoy their day in the sun. Here, Glen and guitarist, Dave Odlum, put Niall Crumlish in the picture.
Did you ever find yourself wondering ‘Where have I heard that song before?’ Well, Andy Darlington may be able to help as he trawls through the tangled undergrowth of that increasingly common phenomenon: The Cover Version
Moby Comes Out To Play
IT S NOT often a Grammy nominee saunters into the Hot Press offices in the midst of the controlled explosion that is production weekend. But then, Moby s one of those freaks of nature a pop star who seems interested in what goes on around him rather than employing people to block it out.
Positivity is their mantra, classy is their byword and their mission is to become the biggest and best pop group on the plant. With their jam in the point date looming SYLVIA PATTERSON goes on the road with DESTINY'S CHILD and hears a tale of self-empowerment, vision and that collision between cleavage and christianity
THE CORRS' public image is one of unblemished beauty and soaraway success. But beneath the pop sheen lurk the darker lyrical themes of Andrea
Corr.
JOE JACKSON talks to her about the inspiration behind some of the Corrs' biggest hits, hears her anger at recent critical reaction and finds out what "Ireland's sexiest woman" really thinks about love, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and the whole damn thing.
It was one of rock's most bizarre and impressive spectacles - the MANIC STREET PREACHERS live in Cuba, in front of an audience including Fidel Castro! STUART CLARK was there, and spoke to JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD about Bill Clinton, Top Of The Pops, Bono, Elian Gonzales and the band's new album
No, it's not the overworked Hot Press subs finally snapping beneath the strain of a hectic production schedule but a finely argued debate by our finest writers on the phenomenon of naff. What is naff? Are you naff and if so how do you go about rectifying matters? Read on and be saved . . .
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.
Twelve months ago The Cranberries were unknown outside of the hippest rock circles, now with the platinum success of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? they stand as the first Irish band to genuinely crack America since U2.
Much of the media attention given to them has focussed on Dolores O'Riordan, a singer whose unique approach to her craft underlines the defiantly independent path the group has trodden all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Here she talks to JOE JACKSON about what by any standards has been a perfect year. .
Love, sex, filth, money, sex, abortion, politics, sex, family, marriage, sex – and the whole damn thing. The BRENDAN O’CARROLL interview by JOE JACKSON. Pix: Michael Quinn.
...IS COMING TO TAKE YOU AWAY! WHEN JOE JACKSON WENT TO INTERVIEW BONO AT U2'S SECRET DUBLIN RECORDING BASE, HE HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO EXPECT. WHAT HE GOT WAS A CRAZY ROLLERCOASTER RIDE THROUGH THE EXTRAORDINARY WORK-IN-PROGRESS WHICH WILL BECOME U2'S FOLLOW-UP TO THE ACCLAIMED "ACHTUNG BABY!", WITH BONO AT THE WHEEL AND AN UNSEEN PRESENCE WORKING THE ACCELERATOR LIKE A DEMON. "RECORDS SHOULD BE MORE OF A TRIP," SAYS THE MAN IN THE WRAPAROUND SHADES. FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS THEN. THIS WILL BE NO ORDINARY RECORD. AND THIS IS NO ORDINARY INTERVIEW.
Dig out those Take That T-shirts, scarves, badges, window stickers, patches, lever arch files, pencils, records, posters and coffee mugs: Take That are relighting their fire with a 2006 tour, and it's coming to Dublin and Belfast!
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
24-inch, 'raging hard', double-ended dildos ahoy - this is the full, behind the counter account of the shelf gratificaton to be found in your friendly, local Dublin sex emporium
For close to twenty years, MARTIN CAHILL led the forces of law and order a merry dance. Known as the General, he was suspected of masterminding virtually every major crime committed in Ireland – but for as long as matters, the Gardai had been unable to pin anything on him. And when he was brought to court on petty charges, he posed outside for press photographers, dropping his trousers to reveal a pair of Mickey Mouse boxer shorts. Last week, however, the game was cut brutally short when Cahill was blown away within 100 yards of his South Dublin home by an IRA hit squad. Report: NEIL McCORMICK.
Cats And Dogs is a highly appealing and well-executed slice of comedy which should ensure the film has crossover appeal beyond the built-in kiddie market.
I’d caution the casuals, but if you are a fan then dive straight in. You’ll love this rich stew of subtle pleasures and nocturnes that’ll ferment and season with each listening.
AS YOU all know by now, the fucking Queen of England and her desperately sad family are experiencing difficult times, due to being completely out to lunch since the 17th century or thereabouts. As you will no doubt see in a minute, this can create particular problems around Christmas time.
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.
Where Hostel delivered its warning with a degree of subtlety – or as much as you can get when characters are hacked to pieces with drills – Paradise Lost puts its message in giant neon letters.
WHAT KIND of a fucking country are we living in when a publican will offer up to £600 to babes who dance topless on the premises, only to be assailed by a cacophony of dog's abuse?
AMID ALL the brouhaha – and indeed the brouhoho – about the IRA cease-fire and the promise of peace in our time, it seems to have escaped the attention of many commentators that the agenda being pursued was fully outlined in these very pages last year. By me, Samuel J. Snort, of course.
Since the world is clearly in desperately burning need of another Heartwarming Feelgood It’s-Grim-Oop-North triumph-over-adversity crowdpleaser, it is about to be treated to one. Calendar Girls is already racking up comparisons to 1997’s astonishingly over-rated The Full Monty
ALL HAIL Nick Leeson, high roller extraordinaire, the man who gave a whole new meaning to the notion of losing your Barings.
Sam Snort loses his Barings from time to time, often in a place called Leeson Street.
THOUGH directed by Robert Rodriguez - the maverick Texan semi-genius responsible for El Mariachi and Desperado - The Faculty is, in essence, a Scream 3 in all but name, with a bonus blitz of sci-fi special effects.
THE FUCKING Pope is at it again! The man in the ornate dress is shortly to release his latest bulletin on the state of bonking in the late 20th century, entitled Veritatis Splendor.
Dreamworks’ eagerly-anticipated subversion of both fairy-tales and Disney animation has both dazzling use of CGI technology and a savvy script to recommend it
Look, like most blokes - and not a few women - of my acquaintance, I have absolutely no problem with Jennifer Lopez taking her clothes off in her videos. To invoke John B. Keane, there's no greater vista in all creation than that of a woman's posterior, and forsooth, the last year has been a decidedly ripe time for connoisseurs of derriere dicolletage.
IN WHICH Liam Howlett, in the wake of the half-great but ultimately overblown shitstorm that was The Prodigy's Fat Of The Land album and panzer-campaign, holes up in the culture bunker, getting back to his B-boy bleach bum roots.
Those more familiar with Dylan’s modus operandi know that he has latterly treated the recorded versions of his songs as mere rough demos and starting points from which he walks a tightrope of adventurous reinvention from which he sometimes topples off.
WHAT AN excellent idea it was for the Tory Party to introduce its Back To Basics policy! Certain commentators, and quite a few of the pillocks in their own Party, seem to have misunderstood certain aspects of this gloriously conceived and beautifully executed campaign.
ADAPTED FROM Alex Garland's phenomenally successful novel of the same name, The Beach is by some distance Danny Boyle and company's most ambitious and expensive project yet, and the presence of Leo diCaprio in the central role will certainly boost its box-office prospects no end.
His appointment may have surprised some observers but there s a simple explanation why, for the first time, a rock journalist has been appointed manager of the England football team
IT IS heartening to note that Mr. John Major has recently joined the Bad Language Revival Movement, founded by the former Irish Prime Minister, Charles Haughey.
Born on 26th February 1932 in Arkansas, the guitarist, singer and songwriter Johnny Cash is one of the true legends of country music, a performer whose popularity transcends the boundaries of that art-form.
Liverpool club Cream has, as expected, announced a major change in their DJ booking policy for 1997. From January the club will be concentrating on resident DJs in its main rooms, and guests will now only occasionally appear in the club’s Courtyard area.
Twelve months ago The Cranberries were unknown outside of the hippest rock circles, now with the platinum success of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? they stand as the first Irish band to genuinely crack America since U2.-Much of the media attention given to them has focussed on Dolores O’Riordan, a singer whose unique approach to her craft underlines the defiantly independent path the group has trodden all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Here she talks to JOE JACKSON about what by any standards has been a perfect year. Pix: Michael Quinn.
In an operation so closely co-ordinated it’d put a SWAT team to shame, Hot Press deployed a team of crack writers to attend selected temples of worship around the country.
