The Federation Of Music Collectives do their bit to commemorate Cork's selection as European Capital of Culture 2005 with the setting-up of an online Music Room featuring acts from the city.
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.
Cork Independent outfit The Waiting Room have just released their debut album Losing Patience, yet they're quite prepared to hold on to the day jobs for a little while yet as Marc O'Sullivan discovers
Throughout the '90s and beyond, The Frank And Walters were effectively a lone beacon for Cork rock. But over the last year all that changed, with the emergence of an exciting new scene in the city, centred around the Cork Rocks phenomenon. If the momentum can be maintained, there's enough outstanding young bands strutting their stuff to ensure that the city by the Lee becomes the focus for unprecedented A&R interest.
John Spillane has remained a stalwart of the traditional scene for close to two decades. With his excellent new album Hey Dreamer having just hit the shops, Spillane sounds off to hotpress about his long and eventful career, his enthusiasm for younger artists such as Damien Dempsey and Juliet Turner, and why the organisers of the European Capital of Culture events in his native Cork have gotten things spectacularly wrong. words Colm O’Hare photos Mick Quinn
With preparations well underway for Cork city’s hosting of the European City Of Culture festivities in 2005, the indigenous music scene is already rising to the challenge
At 21 years of age Roy Keane is potentially Ireland’s most expensive ever footballer. Growing in stature at International and Club level, his increasing profile has also brought media attention of a type that hasn’t always been welcome. Here, he talks of his mistrust of the tabloids, coping with fame, his fairytale breakthrough to the top and his ambition to play in Italy at some stage of his career
You re the frontman with The Stunning, you make an innocent remark about farmers and acid house and you end up creating banner headlines in The Western People. Lorraine Freeney assures Steve Wall that this is the sort of stuff Hot Press never stoop to, and also hears about the new album, Deco in The Commitments and the art of bridging the rural-urban divide.
Like any boom, the benefits of the continuing explosion of the domestic music industry have brought wide reaching effects. Pretty much anyone can put a record out these days, pick up coverage from a fairly benign media and find loads of gigs up and down the country.
