It’s shaping up to be the mother of all battles of the bands as Dublin heroes Bravado square up against Waterford’s Gorbachov in the Murphy’s Live 2008 final in The Savoy, Cork on May 15.
Given his self-promoted position as the saviour of hip-hop, Afro American culture and the third world’s water supply, you’d have thought that Jay Z would come out of retirement with something of a killer. What we get instead is a very run of the mill effort, weighed down with a ton of busy samples and the usual tired bravado. Kanye won’t be losing any sleep.
The indelible images of September 11th tragedy will be for many, the key memory of these past 12 months. Music may seem lightweight in comparison, yet its healing powers were probably more needed than ever
Gavin Friday’s been a Virgin Prune and a glam cabaret torch singer, he’s done Brecht and Weill, and most recently stole the show at Hal Willner’s Leonard Cohen tribute concert Came So Far For Beauty.
Like the Loch Ness Monster and The Abominable Snowman, doubts have long been cast over the existence of a recording of beat master JACK KEROUAC reading from his classic On The Road. Now, not only have the legendary tapes finally materialised, they also show that the man was no mean crooner and songwriter to boot. PETER MURPHY reports.
Like the Loch Ness Monster and The Abominable Snowman, doubts have long been cast over the existence of a recording of beat master JACK KEROUAC reading from his classic On The Road. Now, not only have the legendary tapes finally materialised, they also show that the man was no mean crooner and songwriter to boot. PETER MURPHY reports.
Sadistic game-show host, master of the clipped one-liner, and haughty public schoolboy with roots in Limerick – Jimmy Carr – this is your unusual life.
DOMINO RECORDS has released some of the most essential music of the 90 s by the likes of Sebadoh, Palace Brothers, and Elliott Smith. NICK KELLY talks to lynchpin Laurence Bell and one member of the label s current roster, Stephen Pastel of The Pastels.
The location is the George Sauna in downtown Dublin. The subject is sex. Matthew Devereux, the impish frontman with The Pale, takes off his clothes and reveals his most intimate secrets, thoughts and fantasies to an equally naked John Farrell.
Photographic observations: Colm Henry.
A new book attempts to shed light on the life and violent death of
ROBERT NAIRAC, one of the northern conflict s most mysterious victims. But, as NIALL STANAGE reports, it is unlikely that the whole story will ever emerge.
ned o'hanlon and maurice linnane, the men behind media company dreamchaser productions, aren't given to false modesty. And why should they be, given that their recent list of clients includes Garth Brooks, U2 and the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame? siobhÁN LONG meets the men who once adopted Gary Oldman for an all-night bender in America.
Moviehouse meets the creative team behind King Arthur, the rollicking action-adventure story shot on location in County Wicklow. just don’t mention the Irish weather.
The Sultans of Ping may have a penchant still for fetishwear and dirty three-minute pop songs but they’re definitely mellowing as Stuart Clark discovers when he meets Niall O’Flaherty and Pat O’Connell for
afternoon tea. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
Cakes: Mr. Kipling
The boys are back in town for Galway s Big Beat and SHAUN RYDER is back in the saddle. I m actually now becoming some sort of poet-film-directing-intelligent-motherfucking-artist-luvvy-darling sort of guy and it s wonderful, he tells PETER MURPHY. Pics: Michael Quinn
Is football hooliganism really the new rock ’n’ roll and should little boys be wearing Boot’s No.7 blusher? Stuart Clark fears for the moral wellbeing of the nation’s youth as Manic Street Preachers wage holy war against MTV, Take That, Kate Moss and poor old Gerry Ryan.
Pix: Cathal Dawson.
When the Be Here Now tour fell apart at the seams in 1997, the end seemed nigh for Britain’s biggest rock’n’roll band. Then Noel Gallagher gave up drugs and moved to the country. With a stunning new album on the way, the Oasis mainman tells Stuart Clark where it all went right.
Sex? Yep. Drugs? Uh-huh. Rock 'n' Roll? Yesireebob! Aerosmith were no strangers to the unholy trinity of debauchery during the '70's and early '80's but find that having cleaned up ten years ago they're now cleaning up with the punters. Not that they're beyond having fun, fun and, er, more fun as our resident boogiemeister Stuart Clark finds out.
Fashion designer, punk Svengali, musical maverick, filmmaker and occasional pervertor of justice. MALCOLM McLAREN has been all of these things – and more – in a rollercoaster career that's seen him become a hero to some and an unscrupulous villain to others. STUART CLARK tools up at Ron & Reggie's Gangland Surplus Store for a showdown with the man who manufactured cash from chaos! Scene-of-the-crime photographer: COLM HENRY.
The winds of change have been blowing through Northern Ireland in 1998, with the endorsement of the Belfast Agreement and the establishment of the Assembly. But that only made it more likely that extreme loyalists would portray the march to Drumcree church near Portadown, and the July 12th parades, as an opportunity for Protestants and Orangemen to make a final stand. It was surely shaping up for a season of discontent – until the Quinn brothers were murdered in a loyalist sectarian petrol bomb attack on their home. By Niall Stanage. Photos: Peter Matthews.
Journalist NEIL McCORMICK was a schoolmate of BONO when U2 were taking baby steps. Over the past 25 years their paths have frequently crossed, inevitably in rather more exotic circumstances than a classroom. As another year draws to a close, they meet up again: the result is an unusually intimate portrait of a man who came not to save the world but to serenade it. Plus: a close-up look at some of the most striking songs on All That You Can t Leave Behind
It's Christmas, 1997 is drawing to a close and Noel Gallagher is in suitably reflective mood. "I can't be bothered writing music anymore", says the Oasis mainman before telling Stuart Clark precisely what he thinks of Liam, Meg, Sinéad O'Connor, that cunt Mick Jagger and England's chances of lifting the World Cup.
In the first of a new series about life at the rock n roll coalface, musician and writer Peter Murphy recalls the night the devil wrecked all his best tunes. Confessions Of A
Rock n Roll
Survivor
It's time to lock up your sons, daughters, pet poodle and drinks cabinet, as eight of Ireland's top bands descend on the venue, london, for the first major Hot Press-sponsored musical event of the year.
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 . . .
Ahead of his 50th birthday, Morrissey talks exclusively to Hot Press about the sexual nature of singing, letting go in the studio, being blacklisted by the UK's Radio One and how he approaches songwriting.
Triumph Of The Will meets Spinal Tap and Bach meets Sabbath as METALLICA join
forces with 101 dinner jackets. Peter Murphy travels to Berlin to sample the results.
And so, unbelievably another year has bitten the dust. Here, continuing a tradition as Christmassy as the eating of turkey and the consumption of way too much alcohol, The Hog reflects on a turbulent year, when we all grew older and much, much wiser.
Waterford's Floyd Soul & The Wolf, winners of this year's National Student Music Awards, embark on a seven-date Irish tour in the coming months to promote their new single.
In music, as in journalism, one should always be wary of the exclamation mark. Too often it serves as a warning that the artist is trying a little too hard. The Cribs’ debut record features the dreaded punctuation point only once. However, it might as well be strewn everywhere, such is the project's eagerness to impress.
Try not to let their awful name put you off this debut from Leeds band Duels. The Bright Lights sees the band trading in the same kind of kitchen-sink estate tales espoused by the Arctic Monkeys and fellow Yorkshire outfit the Kaiser Chiefs but without the humour of Alex’s crowd and the instant catchiness of Ricky’s mob. This, however, doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
A talent as refined as Kate Walsh is a true rarity. This is a record devoid of cynicism, beautifully naïve in many respects and all the more engaging for it.
Catherine Hardwicke’s award winning film is an ‘issue’ film so if you find the work of Ken Loach too preachy by half, then this probably won’t float your boat.
There is nothing particularly new, different or innovative about the way they grind their axe, but they do it with such old-fashioned gusto and consistency that it's easy to get caught up in the sheer exuberance of it all
Dave Pennefather, the prominent Managing Director of Universal Music Ireland, is to step back from the day-to-day running of the company after 24 years.
Northern hopefuls Fighting With Wire and rising Dublin electro act Robotnik are among those set to play this year's HWCH festival, with the full line-up just announced.
The most breathlessly exhilarating cinematic joyride of its kind since Pulp Fiction, Doug Liman's follow-up to the much-loved Swingers is an instant cult classic which could be hailed in many quarters as a generation-defining masterpiece.
Drunk teenage girls aside, is there anything quite more unappealing than a whinging pop star? Their logic is unfathomable - they make a record, we buy it and make them famous and wealthy, then they make another record telling us how crap their lives are now and try and sell it to us all over again so they can make more money and wallow in more misery.
West crosses genres with wilful and speedy abandon, taking the listener on an epic quest where the journey is just as enjoyable and unpredictable as the destination.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: An eventful encounter with reggae singer Dennis Brown resulted in young Hot Press reporter Declan Lynch having to take decisive action to save the life of a media colleague.
There could be no better illustration of how U2 have become global icons. Kick-starting the European leg of their Vertigo tour in Brussels’ King Baudouin Stadium on June 10, the old anti-sectarian favourite ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ electrified the crowd like no other. Here, however, it had been transformed from its original intent as a plea to end bloodshed in Northern Ireland into a hymn for religious harmony among the ‘sons of Abraham’ – Christians, Jews and Muslims.
They may have recorded the guitars on their new EP down the barrel of a shotgun in a bid to achieve the perfect metallic sound, but Belfast rockers Panda Kopanda are really all about melodic ingenuity and songwriting nous.
From the sophisticated noise rock of Fighting With Wire to the joyous indie pop of Clone Quartet, the 12 months ahead are shaping to be a bumper year for music north of the border.
TO LEARN about human behaviour, I urge you to forego the rigours of a degree in sociology or psychology. Avoid academic anthropology like the plague, treat philosophical treatises on human sexuality with disdain. Become a barman, and really educate yourself.
Reading a controversial article on “bug chasing” – gay men who deliberately have bareback sex with HIV positive men – inspired our columnist to go public for the first time about a traumatic episode in his own love life.
They’ve embraced the big sound of America but The Killers still aren’t fully comfortable with the burdens of stardom, reveals frontman Brandon Flowers.
Independent Irish acts have been enjoying unparalleled success recently both at home and abroad. We talk to some of the key bands, DJs, bedroom boffins, labels, fanzines, record shops and blogs who've decided to follow the DIY path to glory.
Jesus Christ And The Church Of Gnostic Rock. Peter Murphy on the good, clean, but mostly dirty, fight for the soul of the Devil s Music. Part One: The Old Testament.
