Kele Okereke, Gordon Moakes, Russell Lissack and Matt Tong, collectively known as Bloc Party, descend from their heavenly planes to the Electric Picnic.
As it happens, there is a good deal more substance to Kele Okereke and co than the average flash-in-the-pan indie outfit, and throughout 2005 their standing has grown and grown, to the point that they are now able to perform with considerable confidence and poise before a sold-out Olympia audience.
Ahead of their much anticipated Electric Picnic spot, Bloc Party talk about going mad in Westmeath and explain why it’s time for a post-punk concept record.
The stars are aligned tonight: a combination of the clear sound, the cheerful nature of the crowd and the infectious enthusiasm of the band made this one of this year’s live highlights.
“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.
Released on the web fully two months before it hits record stores, Bloc Party’s third album is as gleaming and hermetically sealed as one of Kubrick’s monoliths.
‘Hunting For Witches’ is symptomatic of the problems that have surrounded Bloc Party across their second album. While the aims are admirable – expand the musical and lyrical outlook – it hasn’t quite come together. Here they take a look at the post-7/7 hysteria that engulfed the media, but there is far too much going on in terms of beats and noises to let the message break through.
More than another group of wannabes hoofing together the latest trendy noise, Bloc Party are a ridiculously sophisticated outfit and Silent Alarm is a most gratifying piece of aural amusement.
‘The band most likely to do a Franz Ferdinand in 2005!’ proclaims a UK music weekly. This single tells a different story. Bloc Party go one further than the usual flotsam of Joy Division-inspired noiseniks and combine their angular guitar-based funk/punk with a certain amount of heartfelt sentiment.
In a highly revealing interview, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke talks about the inspiration behind one of the albums of the year, his current listening and the band's plans for the future.
They’ve played with Bloc Party and Muse and shared a studio with Fionn Regan. Now, London garage rockers The Noisettes are set to make a splash of their own.
In which Editors, like Bloc Party before them, abandon urban ennui for the country life, recording that not-very-difficult second album in Grouse Lodge with Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee.
Bloc Party's A Weekend In The City is both less oblique and more understated; initially the album proves harder work than its predecessor – at the same time it's more open about what it has to say.
Recorded in the bucolic splendour of County Westmeath, Bloc Party's second album is a labyrinthine concept album about urban living. Better to take a risk, says frontman Kelé Okereke, than to repeat yourself .
This is Bloc Party’s first show of the year and surely the last time for a while that they’ll be playing somewhere where the stage is so close to the back wall. They know it too, approaching it with an energy and vitality that suggests they can’t wait to get started.
Sorry not to get swept up in it all, but is the second Franz album really that good? To be honest, I’m not convinced and ‘Walk Away’ is not the kind of song to change my mind. It is a fairly dull mid-pacer that sounds positively pedestrian next to Maximo Park, Bloc Party et al.
She's worked with Keane, Razorlight and Bloc Party. But young video-maker Aoife McArdle's true inspiration are the elegantly gloomy movies of '40s Hollywood.
After the totting up of votes – there were thousands of the blighters – the first heat of the Sony Ericsson Raw Sessions was won by Kilkenny’s very fine Rarely Seen Above Ground...
To coincide with a tour supporting Bloc Party (only in Blighty – humph!), Metric, a Canadian quartet who often lend their lead singer Emily Haines to Broken Social Scene, are releasing this little gem of a T.U.N.E. from their 2005 release, Live It Out. ‘Empty’, the album’s opener, is reminiscent of BSS for the first minute or so as it floats along gently and inconspicuously, before raw and rockin’ energy breaks out of nowhere. If you already have the album, give yourself a pat on the back, and then get this for the b-side: a Howie B remix of ‘The Police And The Private’.
Danielle Brigham catches up with new Britrock darlings The Futureheads to discuss their recent gigs in, respectively, a ski resort and the biggest shopping mall in the world, touring with Franz Ferdinand, appearing on The OC soundtrack and their collaboration with Bloc Party.
Loved by the Kaiser Chiefs and bushy moustached Ukrainians alike, The Chalets have partied their way round most of the western world in recent months. Stuart Clark hears about backstage beerathons, ding dongs with Kele from Bloc Party and monkeys in track-suits.
They've ditched the tweed and taken their music in a darker direction. The Young Knives talk about Gilbert and George, the Mercurys and Thom Yorke's seaside hideaway.
The border counties may not exactly be a hotbed of indie rock but that hasn’t stopped Monaghan hopefuls The Flaws from producing one of the year’s most mesmerising debuts.
Annual article: The Electric Picnic wasn’t just one of the musical events of the year; it also let us chow down and have a natter with some of the top pop combos of the day, including Bloc Party, Gang Of Four and New Order.
The Heineken Green Spheres gig, featuring Crystal Castles, which was due to take place next Tuesday, September 30, has been moved to the following Thursday.
Track after track comes out of the speakers, nipping at your ankles like some overexcited dog that you can’t shake off no matter how hard you try. The production from Bloc Party/Futureheads man Paul Epworth is sparkling and the songs wed pop and punk in perfect manner, all delivered in the deliciously broad Newcastle tones of singer Paul Smith. It reaches a crescendo with the glorious ‘Going Missing’, at which point it seems that Maximo Park can do no wrong. Unfortunately, from then in they start to struggle a tad.
The Killers wrapped up Oxegen for another year but not before the 80,000 music fans in attendance saw the likes of Arcade Fire (pictured), Kings Of Leon, The Gossip, Klaxons and Brian Wilson.
The Dublin venue – which has hosted acts like Arctic Monkeys, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and Bloc Party over the years – will celebrate 20 years in business this month with a special series of gigs.
You didn’t know that we had a financial guru in the house – well, we have! Here’s a handy guide to saving €50 a week – just so you can squander it elsewhere!
There's good news for Arcade Fire fans who failed to get tickets for their Olympia Theatre shows, with the Canadians appearing at Oxegen in a bill that's taking shape nicely.
Every hip indie musician is namechecking (and soundchecking) Gang Of Four these days. But there’s more to the band than scratchy guitars and funky rhythms – as guitarist Andy Gill tells us, their unique sound was forged during a time of musical innovation and political radicalism.
Doubtless buoyed by their success in the Hot Press Readers' Poll, The Killers have confirmed a Main Stage appearance at Oxegen, which takes place on July 9 and 10 in Punchestown.
They inhabit a musical no-man’s land between indie and metal. But that hasn’t stopped Boss Volenti building an impressive following. Now their sights are set on international fame words.
He used to be the ultimate indie no-hoper. But now JACK PEÑATE has discovered Krautrock, nu-rave and world music and released one of the year’s most engaging, and surprisingly accomplished, records. He talks about cultivating his eclectic side and discovering an outsider sensibility he describes as ‘joyous melancholy’.
They're one of the biggest names in indie-dom but, with album number three about to be unleashed, Kaiser Chiefs can still go out on the town without being pestered by paparazzi.
Presenter of Channel 6's Night Shift, an air hostess and a model, Michelle Doherty is rarely found at home... but that doesn't stop her from showing us around her Drumcondra abode.
In Jon Ronson’s new collection of his newspaper columns, this most provocative of commentators turns the spotlight on his own life and family, where things are not quite as normal as you might think.
Although there's been no official confirmation, the word on the industry grapevine is that this year's Electric Picnic headliners will include Bjork, the Beastie Boys, Primal Scream and Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon's new outfit, The Good, The Bad & The Queen.
Kaiser Chiefs and Hard-Fi may have sold more records, but they’re mere also-rans in the tabloid fame game compared to Sam Preston. Ed Power finds out how the Ordinary Boys frontman is coping with life post-Big Brother.
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.
With bands like New Order, Nine Inch Nails, Bauhaus and Snow Parol announced for the bill, this year's Coachella looks set to blast the Californian desert
On the eve of the release of their highly anticipated debut album, Dublin quartet Delorentos take five from their latest video shoot to discuss playing with Gang of Four, hanging with Steve Albini and playing football in Texas.
TV presenter, stand-up and all-round gifted wit and raconteur Dara O'Briain has quietly become one of the major Irish success stories in Britain over the past few years. In a rare in-depth interview, The Panel presenter here discusses stardom in the UK, The Killers, Colin Farrell, Michael Parkinson, RTE, Sinn Féin and that ringing endorsement from a certain Samuel L. Jackson. interview Tanya Sweeney photos Liam Sweeney
30th Anniversary Retrospective: In a special interview, The Edge reminisces about the early days of Hotpress, explains Bill Graham’s role in U2’s development, and comes clean about what the band have been up to recently in Morocco.
Michael Stipe talks about REM's new album Accelerate, looks back at their 'working rehearsals' in Dublin and explains how their Irish-born producer helped them through their mid-life crisis.
Champagne corks were popped last week as Snow Patrol joined that elite group of bands who’ve simultaneously topped the charts in Ireland and the UK. It’s all a far cry from the days when their fame was confined to the University of Dundee Students Union bar. Gary Lightbody takes time out from wowing the masses in Dublin and Belfast to tell Stuart Clark about their twisty and turny route to the top.
There's a veritable treasure chest of musical swag up for grabs in the RTE/People In Need Telethon auctions on eBay.ie right now - and it's all for a good cause!
In a world exclusive interview, Morrissey sets the record straight on sex, religion, politics, David Bowie and his Irish heritage, and casts a Trinny & Susannah-esque eye over Brian Cowen
Garrett ‘Jacknife’ Lee’s management company, Big Life, have confirmed that the producer is about to start work on the follow-up to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb with U2.
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?
On the eve of the release of Snow Patrol's epic fifth album A Hundred Million Suns, Hot Press finds out how singer Gary Lightbody gets inspiration for his songs.
It may have bucketed rain, but both bands and fans kept the faith for a full-on day of muddy rock mayhem! Check out our selection of the best shots from Saturday.
As social phenomena – teenage pregnancy, counterfeit designer clothes, weekend binge-drinking – rip through small towns like a cultural wildfire, it’s only fitting that there’s some comeback to the suburban suffocation.
Ghostly, synthetic and smeared, possibly, in charcoal eye-liner, Billy Corgan’s first solo record throws a bleakly affectionate glance towards the ‘80s and the decade’s parade of sombre new-wave groups.
They say that you play venues like Whelan’s twice in your career – once on the way up, once in the other direction. The Stereophonics are somewhere between the two at the moment so their appearance at the Wexford St. venue has to be an unusual state of affairs. Indeed it is, part of a series of club dates designed to introduce new album Language, Sex, Violence, Other? and make the daily chore of talking to the press more bearable.
As social phenomena – teenage pregnancy, counterfeit designer clothes, weekend binge-drinking – rip through small towns like a cultural wildfire, it’s only fitting that there’s some comeback to the suburban suffocation.
Damien Rice and Snow Patrol have both been confirmed for the London leg of Al Gore’s Live Earth extravaganza, which takes place in multiple locations on July 7.
This is the second album from The Rakes, their debut Capture/Release having reaped considerable critical acclaim, and even some modest chart success, in their native UK.
Hot Press is again among the big winners in the latest JNRS results, with an increase of over 50% in readers over the past twelve months making it the best performing magazine in the survey for the second period in a row. This is the sixth six-month period running that Hot Press has increased its reach.
More eclectic than even an above-average radio show, the Dublin quartet have a veritable orchestra's worth of talent at their disposal, which goes some way towards explaining their versatility.
The sun shone on our Sunday Chatroom, with talkative adventures aplenty and guests The Flaws, Gemma Hayes, Mark Geary, Hadouken, Foals, The Roots, Michael Franti and more!
Recorded in a day across various locations by a cast of 22, Help! A Day In The Life is the second WarChild album, the objective being to raise funds for child victims of global conflict.
New York and LA are fine, but nobody throws frilly knickers at you quite like they do in Dublin. Futureheads guitarist Ross Millard talks music and underwear with Phil Udell
In the first installment of Hot Press' Oxegen coverage, Phil Udell, Steve Cummins and John Walshe pick out their personal favourites of the weekend. This Thursday's Hot Press will feature extended coverage from Kim Porcelli & Ed Power as well as more exclusive photos from Liam Sweeney, Graham Keogh & Andrew Duffy - PLUS the Phantom reports from backstage!
Online Gallery Of Live Shots Here
It’s too early to write Maxïmo Park off, or to turf them into the ever-growing pile of indie also-rans. But they’ll need to pull out all the stops to recover their poise after this worrying misstep.
The Sex Pistols are back! In what has the look of a major coup for the event, punk’s great trailblazers are among this year’s headliners at Electric Picnic 2008, which takes place in Stradbally over the final weekend in August.
We've rounded up even more of our top live pictures from the second day of musical festivities, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kings of Leon, Bloc Party, TV On The Radio, Passion Pit and The Saturdays.
Declan O’Rourke has confirmed the September release of his second album, Big Bad Beautiful World, which was recorded in the same Westmeath studio used recently by Bloc Party, Editors and Michael Jackson, Grouse Lodge.
Have a listen to our exclusive playlist of some of our favourite Northern acts who are appearing on July 25 at the small but massive Glasgowbury festival in Draperstown, County Derry.
They said it couldn’t be done, but this year’s Electric Picnic achieved the impossible by being even more joyous, vibey and action-packed than its predecessors. Hot Press was in the thick of things as 200 acts and 30,000 music lovers descended on one very big house in the country.
12 steps to help you take on the Portuguese city of Porto, with all the best hotels, restaurants, and hot spots. Plus, top travel news from around the world
