Irish musicians, including The Kinetiks, Codes, John Spillane and The Distractors, have organised a charity fundraiser to help the victims of the recent cyclone in Burma.
The first half-hour practically peels the paint off the walls; Conley and Prescott provide a relentless surge of thumping rhythmic pandemonium, whilst Miller coaxes wave after wave of skull-shattering distortion from his guitar.
They’re the hottest thing to have come out of Belfast in years. Ahead of the release of their hugely anticipated long-play debut, guitar-abusing noiseniks and so I watched you from afar, give us a track-by-track lowdown on the album.
Much to the dismay of his accountant, Damien Rice follows up last year's non-profit single, ‘Lonely Soldier’ with another charity release. This time, the Kildare man is supporting the Free Aung Suu Kyi 60th birthday campaign, a global initiative aimed at freeing the Burmese Nobel peace price recipient who continues to remain under house arrest in military ruled Burma.
The Coalition blitzkrieg on Iraq is part of a wider “war on terror.” says George Bush. To justify this claim, he and Tony Blair made one feeble attempt at being as hard on the causes of terror as on terror itself, when they collaborated with the UN, the EU and Russia to publish what they called the Middle East ‘road map’.
Dublin art-rockers Rollers/Sparkers are currently earning critical garlands for their debut EP, Geography For The Leaving erudite band member, John McMahon, here holds forth on the local music scene and forsaking academia for rock’n’roll.
Damien Rice has emerged as one of the most distinctive and independent voices of recent years, achieving a remarkable level of success and artistic respect with O – the debut album that was recorded on a shoestring in his own bedroom. Famously media shy, he agreed to talk to Hot Press about the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign, and the beautiful tribute single ‘Unplayed Piano’, recorded with Lisa Hannigan. But, tape rolling, he talked about a whole lot more, giving the most candid and complete insight yet into the real Damien Rice.
John Seymour, who died on September 14th in Pembrokeshire, was one of the foremost figures in the self-sufficiency movement. Here his friend and fellow activist Adrienne Murphy pays her respects.
Law enforcement agencies are worried it could be the new ecstasy. In the fourth part of Hot Press investigation into drugs STUART CLARK reports on the new breed of super-amphetamines
This fortnight, Olaf Tyaransen bravely overcomes his homesickness and takes a trip to the mainland – only to have two Thai hoodlums break into this hotel room and a tatooed Welshman offer him some opium. Oh dear…
You’ve grown your hair and want to make a bitching rock record. Who do you call? Arctic Monkeys tell Stuart Clark about their remarkable journey from Sheffield to the Mojave.
The star-spangled story of how Richard Melville Hall learned to relax and love sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. "Don't tell anybody but I'm actually the lead guitarist with Slipknot," he informs Stuart Clark.
Niall Stokes draws on his best-selling book Into The Heart: The Stories Behind The Songs Of U2 to offer a unique insight into the way in which some of the greatest songs in the history of popular music came into being.
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
IN HIS intro to the rather splendid anthology Poetry With An Edge, Bloodaxe Books mainman Neil Astley maintained that it's not tried and trusted forms of poetry such as the sonnet which get tired, but the practitioners of those very forms.
IN HIS intro to the rather splendid anthology Poetry With An Edge, Bloodaxe Books mainman Neil Astley maintained that it's not tried and trusted forms of poetry such as the sonnet which get tired, but the practitioners of those very forms.
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