LAURYN HILL s debut album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill was the fastest selling album ever by a female artist in the United States. What s more it s just garnered her five Grammy Awards, confirming her status as one of American music s most important new icons. OLAF TYARANSEN went to London to hear the singer talk frankly about success, motherhood, the future of The Fugees and her father-in-law, Bob Marley.
Despite the controversies in which she has recently bee involved, when SINIAD O'CONNOR starts talking music it becomes evident why she ran away to join the rock'n'roll circus in the first place. Citing Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Van Morrison as her ultimate trinity, she discusses the spiritual forces that drive and inspire. Interview: BILL GRAHAM
Marley, Merlin, Christ, coke, the mighty wind and extraterrestrial healing - EAMON SWEENEY hears the gospel according to LEE SCRATCH PERRY, currently starring in the latest cult commercial for Guinness stout
As the founder of Island Records Chris Blackwell can claim a unique role in the evolution of popular music. He pulls up a chair and shoots the breeze about his Jamaican heritage, his relationship with Bob Marley and taking power-lunches with U2.
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.
Sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, George Bush, religion, torture, hangovers and, of course, the smelliest member of the band. The readers leave no stone unturned as they seek the truth
from Kirk Hammett. Your host Olaf Tyaransen
Such is the legacy of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, doomed to be iconic in a tragically hip, meaningless way, while languishing alongside everyone’s favourite knife-wielding peacenik Bob Marley, joint in hand. Thankfully, Walter Salles’ (Behind the Sun, Central Station) excellent film does much to reclaim the man behind the T-shirt myth.
Once something of a child prodigy, Carlow singer-songwriter Joe Cleere now reckons he has the answer to self-promotion in the download age. He speaks to Celina Murphy about supporting The Script and passing out 10,000 free CDs in a month!
Proffering a delicious taste of her forthcoming album, Throw Down Your Arms, due for release this autumn, Sinead O’Connor thrilled punters at the Prime Minister’s 2005 Independence Gala in Jamaica with her impassioned version of Bob Marley’s ‘War’, accompanied on drum and bass by famous riddim twins, Sly and Robbie.
You definitely won’t regret adding A Time & Place to your collection. Julian may not be offering anything particularly new or original here but, standing on the shoulders of a giant, he admirably succeeds in not falling off.
Having conquered Africa, Youssou N’Dour is now turning his attentions to the rest of the world. With Eno, Peter Gabriel and Wyclef Jean all singing his praises, Sam Healy reckons it’s only a matter of time before he has his evil way with us
Her political lyrics and aggressive rapping have made Ms Dynamite a singular presence in hip-hop. In an exclusive interview, she talks about her troubled family background and explains why she took three years out to have a baby.
Matisyahu is a rapper with a difference. As a Hassidic Jew he lives a strictly orthodox lifestyle. Whatever you do, don’t describe his music as ‘heeb-hop’.
Michael Franti is mad and he wants you to know about it. To demonstrate the fraught condition of the world, he’s even gone to the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones to make a movie.
Names like Lord Composer & The Silver Seas Orchestra, Harold Richardson & The Ticklers and Lord Messam & His Calypsonians mightn’t mean much here but in Jamaica they’re the stuff legends are made of
Getting funky reggae grooves heard over the din of the capital’s rock bands is no easy task, but Dublin ska kingpins King Sativa are continuing to fight the good fight.
Having had to pull out of 2004's Electric Picnic, Jamaican legend and dub reggae pioneer Lee 'Scratch' Perry is to make his first Irish appearance in two years.
Tower's Wicklow Street store manager Clive Branagan reflects on how the shop's independent stance enabled them to get progressively stronger, while others floundered.
Damien Dempsey is a soul singer in the truest sense of the word. OK so he's no Al Green, but the 23-year-old from Donaghmede is incapable of being anything other than honest and giving anything less than 100% every time he opens his mouth to sing.
From Chet Baker through Joe Cocker to The Cranberries, the world of music owes the late Denny Cordell an enormous debt. Bill Graham pays tribute to an inspirational craftsman who made Ireland his final home and resting place.
The making of Phantom Power, bringing it all back home to Wales and (sigh) why the Irish are great – the Super Furry Animals share a jar with Eamon Sweeney
She’s one of the chief movers in the Cork music scene. But what does Cork Rocks’ founder Francesca Brown get up to when she’s back at base? Photos by David O'Mahony.
Africa’s “reggae rebel” Tiken Jah has been unveiled as the headline attraction at the 2008 Festival of World Cultures, which takes place in Dun Laoghaire from August 22 to 24.
Unless my memory deceives me, didn’t Christopher Wallace die around the same time as Diana? I know this because I remember Sting performing with Puff Diddy Daddy wearing a mourning suit. Anyway, while Diana has kept her public appearances to something of a minimum since, Biggie’s recording career has seemingly been unaffected.
Teen prodigy George Murphy followed in the footsteps of some of the biggest names in Irish music when he recently performed for the inmates of Wheatfield prison in Clondalkin. Danielle Brigham reports. Photos: Cathal Dawson
It?s real, it?s now and it goes all the way back to the source ? roots music is taking the world by storm and Ireland is very definitely on the map.
By siobhan long.
A fresh generation of bands is tearing up the rule book and redefining what it means to be Irish. To celebrate this new wave of talent, we catch up with the best of them.
Such is the all-pervading influence of Hendrix, Marley, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder et al, that you wonder why he doesn’t abandon these pastiches and opt for a covers album instead.
Manu Chao may not be able to change the world, but he’s certainly conquered it with his unique fusion of musical styles. Fresh from a sell-out show in The Point, he talks to Danielle Brigham about journeying to the North Pole, trashing Argentinian TV studios and “Mr. Bush, the number one terrorist.” Photographs: Cathal Dawson.
Jill Furmanovsky will add significantly more culture into Dublin's 'cultural quarter' when she opens the Rockarchive photo gallery in Temple Lane South
So what does the arab world really make of Saddam Hussein and the threat of war? En route to Baghdad, Peter Matthews stops off in Amman, Jordan and hears the word on the street.
Killarney-based instrumental foursome HELIOPAUSE say they’re keen to keep rock ‘n’ roll alive in the Kingdom. We caught up with drummer Jamie O’Donoghue to talk mountains, his instrumental icons and supporting fellow sticks man R.S.A.G.Punk, Mark Morrison with Muse and Bob Marley with TLC, they show real production potential.
Hot Press crime correspondent STUART CLARK
preaches zero tolerance to MASSIVE ATTACK and in return gets the
lowdown on their new album, Bruce n Tarby-style hobnobbing with Radiohead, and why Bristol City piss all over Bristol Rovers
Long before boomtime Ireland there was boomtown Ireland, a country where the national symbol was not a tiger but a rat. to coincide with the release of the best of the boomtown rats, Bob Geldof looks back to the tepid Irish scene of the mid-’70s from which the rats emerged, biting, snarling and laughing, to take on the establishment, Britain and, almost, the world.
In Meitheal, the duo of STEVE COONEY AND SEAMUS BEGLEY released one of the finest albums of the year. Here they talk about their spin on the tradition, the connection between Gaeltacht people and the Aborigines – oh and the logic of playing the accordion with a pen-knife. Interview: SIOBHÁN LONG
In Meitheal, the duo of STEVE COONEY AND SEAMUS BEGLEY released one of the finest albums of the year. Here they talk about their spin on the tradition, the connection between Gaeltacht people and the Aborigines – oh and the logic of playing the accordion with a pen-knife. Interview: SIOBHÁN LONG
To celebrate hotpress’s thirtieth anniversary issue, we thought we’d break out the bubbly (and the tea!) and invite round a collection of Ireland’s biggest stars.
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.
...or was it? U2's recent Irish dates were greeted with everything from wide-eyed adoration to open hostility. BILL GRAHAM was in the crowd at Pairc Uí Caoimh and the RDS and puts the Zoo TV experience into perspective. Pix: COLM HENRY
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”.
After a lengthy silence, TRICKY is back with an impressively upbeat new album. But the man himself still insists on going against the grain. Here he talks about his aversion to celebrityhood, his dislike of the music biz, his fondness for Bryan Adams and Bono, and how he copes with the terrible burden of having hundreds of women who want to have sex with him. Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
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.
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
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.
Are Bono and the boys just a really good rock band or have they succeeded where the priests and politicians have failed and unlocked the neuroses of our colonial past? Joe Jackson indulges in a spot of cultural sparring with John Waters and finds the author of Race of Angels: Ireland and the Genesis of U2 well able to maintain his guard.
JOHN WHELAN journeys through the former Yugoslavia with New Age travellers, the Rainbow tribe, on the occasion of the 12th European Rainbow gathering which, this year, was held in Slovenia. The event encapsulated the very essence of international socialism; and the earthy conditions in which it was held only served to underline its lineage with the true spirit of Woodstock.
An overnight success story that was years in the making, The Strokes have been dismissed as flagrant hype and lauded as the saviours of rock 'n' roll. Eamon Sweeney, a journalist who has spent more time in their company than most, gets the fullest account yet of the rise and rise of New York's band of brothers. "Whatever happens, we'll be there together," they tell him. "we won’t let each other fall."
It s re-introductions all round, as the Starman embarks on a hazardous solo mission. Stuart Bailie records him taking one giant leap for a man.
The Starman walks into a public bar in Chorlton and looks for a quiet spot. The old regulars at the back are nudging each other. They re sure that they recognise the face
and the style of a traveller who s been all the way up there and back.
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.
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.
Shane MacGowan interviews Sinead O’Connor for hotpress, with Olaf Tyaransen acting as referee. On the day, Victoria Clark also sat in. What followed turned into a wide-ranging and often hilarious exchange of almost Beckettian dimensions.
IN THE cold light of 1999, it's easy to forget that reggae was once the hip-hop of its time, a well of indigenous black music used by every other mainstream act as a source of rejuvenation and inspiration.
How Wallis Bird's search for a bicycle led her to "the best house in the universe," a three-storey hippy-style Victorian residence in multicultural Brixton, London.
This listener always got the impression that Kíla frontman Rónán Ó Snodaigh could have been born at any time in the last 1000 years or so and he’d still be doing exactly what he does today.
There's this idea abroad that Van Morrison has been working the same groove too often over the past few years. The purpose of this paragraph is simply to state that this is a misapprehension.
The official opening of The Music Show will take place in Trinity College, with an interview with Island records founder Chris Blackwell conducted by our very own Stuart Clark.
Indecent XPosure are a four piece, hard core punk band. They formed in 1992 and have played around Dublin and London. Pissin’ in the Liffey is the title of this, their second tape.
‘Introduction’ opens the proceedings in a totally uncompromising way.
There is no question about it. He may look as if he's been dipped in a bottle of red ink but it is Adam who stands there bollock naked before the camera and the world on the back sleeve of the latest, long playing opus from the band whose name begins with U and ends with 2. And is that Eve who hovers topless behind Bono on the front?
Since records began, popular music has maintained a healthy and unstinting preoccupation with political issues. GERRY McGOVERN namechecks some of the artists who have nurtured such links and argues that even music which ostensibly extricates itself from the issues of the day, is itself inherently political.
Gil Scott-Heron has been making albums for years, combining radical rap with fearless funk and jive-ass jazz. So why does an album released late last year take so long to reach either the music papers or the retail outlets?
Have a gander at the 15 weird and wonderful covers from Hot Press in 1980. Featured are Siouxie and the Banshees, Bob Marley, U2, Sting, Blondie and an amazingly multi-coloured Christmas issue.
Some of the country's leading music industry figures joined thousands of people for the Music Show, a two-day celebration of all that's good about the recording arts in Ireland.
While the rest of you were off stuffing your faces with turkey, here at HotPress we were busily polishing our crystal balls in readiness for our annual gaze into the future. S
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 . . .
