A new album, an exclusive gig and opinions on Velvet Goldmine, the Internet and life, love and happiness. STUART CLARK meets the legendary DAVID BOWIE.
Her beautiful lo-fi cover of a David Bowie song has made student Paula Flynn a sensation. Here she talks about her unlikely route to overnight stardom.
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
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
An aristocrat turned rock’n’roll promoter, Lord Henry Mountcharles has been one of the most intriguing figures in Irish public life over the past twenty years. On the eve of Madonna’s hugely anticipated gig at Slane Castle, Mountcharles talks to Hot Press about his priviledged upbringing, studying at Harvard, running for electoral office, experimenting with drugs, meeting U2, Guns n’ Roses and David Bowie, and his encounters with UFO's. Photography Cathal Dawson
Heathen may not be the spectacular return to form that some people are claiming, but it’s certainly a far more cohesive affair than its predecessors, Earthling and …hours, which both buckled under the weight of their experimentation.
Fancy yourself a bit of a space oddity? Like your makeup zigzagged? Don't miss Rock'n'roll Suicide: A Celebration Of The Works Of David Bowie, featuring acoustic homages (by various Dublin bands) to the chameleon of rock
Instead of trying to be self-consciously cutting edge, Bowie spends most of his 26th studio album belting out orthodox rock ‘n’ roll songs with a band that includes long-time friend, producer and vibemaster Tony Visconti.
On the eve of Kraftwerk’s headlining appearance at the Electric Picnic, mainman Ralf Hütter talks with rare candour about David Bowie, U2, hip-hop, cycling and why sometimes even man-machines have to smile.
They may sport one of the most original sounds in rock’n’roll – but along the way they’ve been influenced by some of the greats.
STUART BAILIE identifies the ten (plus!) key influences on the music of U2
She's the red-haired electro-pop debutante of the year. La Roux frontwoman Elly Jackson talks about her love of the 80s and tells us why Blur were the only decent rock band of the past 20 years.
They may be one of the hottest bands of the year, but Las Vegas synth fiends The Killers are planning to cool off this Christmas with some well-earned down-time and a skiing holiday in Utah. But not before they’ve discussed texting Charlize Theron, hanging with Elton John and that David Bowie tribute with Stuart Clark.
Now taking the solo route, Hugh Cornwell talks about his latest album, reminsces about kicking back with David Bowie, squaring off back-stage with U2 and cooling his heels in Pentonville.
Arising from the ashes of aborted supergroup Zwan, onetime Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan returns with a hotly anticipated solo debut. Still brimming with that patented goth angst, he tells Paul Nolan about his collaboration with fellow doom-merchant Robert Smith, his friendship with the two Davids – Lynch and Bowie – and, oh yeah, why he's still sore about the Pumpkins.
I can still hear their taunts – “Clark’s talking through his arse again!”... “It’s not the ’70s anymore, Granddad!”... “I had my suspicions but now I know you’re a wanker!”
As it was my mother saying it, that last one was particularly hurtful.
She’s the post-modern starlet who is stalked by paparazzi wherever she goes but is as comfortable talking about Andy Warhol and John Updike as she is hanging with fashionistas. Say hello to Lady GaGa the good-time pop princess who went to school with Paris Hilton, cultivated a drug habit ‘cos that’s what David Bowie did in the ’70s, but thinks fame is just a game.
He helped invent disco, funk, r 'n' b and hip-hop. And when he wasn’t changing the face of popular music, Chic leader NILE RODGERS found time to chin-wag with pop’s best, bravest and weirdest. Here he talks about hanging with David Bowie, Slash and Madonna and reveals his oft-overlooked hippy leanings.
Having wowed David Bowie into a collaboration, Brooklyn’s TV On The Radio – an idiosyncratic mesh of Spiritualized, The Beach Boys, Radiohead and My Bloody Valentine – have seen their profile spiral skyward.
Canadian songstress Emm Gryner has toured with David Bowie and released a collection of Irish rock covers. Her new album might just be her most ambitious, and mysterious, yet.
Adapted by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan from Christopher Priest’s novel about two competing magicians in turn-of-the-20th-century London, The Prestige charts the fortunes of suave Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and working-class runt Alfred Borden (Christian Bale).
His admirers have included Kurt Cobain, Beck and Jack White. But Billy Childish is far from your average cult musician. He’s dabbled in conceptual art, is equally influenced by The Kinks and Joe Strummer and doesn’t listen to music – especially if it has anything to do with Leonard Cohen.
2007 was another vintage year for Iggy. Here, he finds the time to discuss reforming the Stooges, his relationship with Bowie, the Stones and his trailer park upbringing.
As Stereophonics release their sixth abum, frontman Kelly Jones talks about his friendship with Oasis and reveals that he’s buried the hatchet with Muse.
The best electro-rock outfit since KLF or this year's Sigue Sigue Sputnik? The jury's still out, but Fischerspooner's Casey Spooner tells us he's more than just a cheap stunt
The story of how Paul Brady was transformed from a superlative folk artist into a superlative rock artist in a blinding flash of light (well, fifteen years actually). Today's reading is by Niall Stokes.
Astrology. an ancient science or a load of cosmic nonsense?
FERGUS GIBSON is probably ireland's best-known astrologer, a man who gave up a hit-making career in music to concentrate on another kind of stardom. Here her talks about his astrological work with David Bowie, Iina Turner and Garth Brooks, explains why your aura always reveals the truth about your love life, describes his own encounters with strange and inexplicable phenomena and, finally, gives our own STEPHEN ROBINSON a personal palm reading. star gazer: Cathal Dawson
It’s Christmas, time for some of the leading lights of the Irish musical family to return from far-flung stages and convene for a traditional evening of reflection, revelation, conversation, merriment and, well, gargle. The guests: Glen Hansard and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of The Frames, Gemma Hayes, Mundy and David Kitt.
A special exhibition focussing on musical inspirations as been lined up for The Music Show, which takes place at the RDS in Dublin this weekend, Saturday October 4 and Sunday October 5.
Carl Perkins, the rock pioneer who wrote Blue Suede Shoes and no less than four songs for the Beatles, is dead. ANDY DARLINGTON remembers his career from Sun Records and the legendary Million Dollar Quartet , through to Johnny Cash s Live At San Quentin . . . and a movie knife-fight with David Bowie
Tracing Scott Walker’s journey from reluctant 60s teen idol to leftfield dignitary, this award-winning doc should please both neophytes and dedicated champions alike.
Massive Attack explain why they are outspoken opponents of the proposed war in Iraq, give high praise to Sinéad O’Connor and reveal how a porn soundtrack left them gasping for airtime.
what good was rock’n’roll in 2001? No good at all – and yet we couldn’t have got through without it.
Peter Murphy reflects on a year in which some old codgers stood up to be counted and many of us lived “on songs and hope”
Nouveau synth-pop and shoegazer drones mightn’t seem like the wisest bedding for Tom Waits’s compositions, but Scarlett and Sitek know exactly what they’re doing.
As frontman with The Spikes, Tom Dunne likes to makes sure that he stands out from the crowd. Jackie Hayden asks the former model his views on the links between fashion and rock music.
The son of a certain well-known ’70s rock star, DUNCAN JONES is clearly something of a chip off the old block: his new movie is a sweet, low budget space oddity that harks back to the golden age of sci-fi. He talks about growing up in the Bowie household and escaping his father’s shadow.
Unheard of a year ago, the astonishing Cansei de Ser Sexy are one of the hottest indie outfits in the world. With an acclaimed debut album to their credit, the Brazilians bring their twelve legged groove machine to Dublin for BudRising Winter.
Difficult second album syndrome has no place in the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vocabulary. Not that the blogger faves are exactly busting a gut to have a hit.
"Anywhere from Dunnes to designer stuff. Mark O’Neill made me some stuff, Antonia Campbell Hughes gave me a suit. And I’ve always been a hand-me-down person because I’m the youngest of ten kids"
"I used to always take clothes off people as well, like little kids after gigs who would go 'You were brilliant' and I’d go, 'Can I have your jacket?'”
No, she doesn’t hate Tim Wheeler but yes, she does look up her own chart position first. A solo Charlotte Hatherly on Bowie, Star Wars and life with and without Ash.
When punk-funk art rockers The Rapture emerged a couple of years ago, they failed to translate tragic hipness into big sales. Road psychosis aggravated the problem, but they weathered in-fighting to ditch the DFA production and strike out on their own.
Canadian songwriter Emm Gryner has released a covers album of Irish rock classics. But what inspired her to tackle Horslips, The Undertones and Gilbeert O'Sullivan? And why didn't The Pogues make the cut?
Following a potentially fatal bout of auto-immune deficiency, Airborne Toxic Event’s Mikel Jollett gave up a damned promising writing career to play music.
Throughout the pioneering events of Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8, Bob Geldof has repeatedly achieved the impossible, twisting the arms and consciences of self-absorbed rock stars to get them to think beyond their egos and stimulating recalcitrant politicians and a jaded media into doing things that are not really difficult at all but thinking makes them so.
This month, the 2006 RTÉ Living Music Festival, sponsored by IMRO, celebrates Steve Reich, arguably America’s greatest living composer. Jackie Hayden meets the 70-year-old whose influences stretch beyond the contemporary classical world to rock and rap music.
Having broken up Pavement, STEPHEN MALKMUS has had plenty of time to devote to making his eponymous solo album and indulging his obsession with all things Irish from U2 to Thin Lizzy to Planxty. NIALL CRUMLISH cocks an ear and raises an eyebrow
Roisin Dwyer catches up with electropop duo MGMT to discuss their greatest rock 'n' roll moment, Jools Holland and their growing reputation as popular music's new trouble-makers.
Forget The Sunset Grill or Whisky A Go Go, it was Osborne Mushet Tools that gave birth to the only hard rock band capable of giving Madge and Wacko a run for their money. The man who put the steel into Sheffield tells the story
Colm O'Hare meets radio DJ and presenter Ryan Tubridy who has forsaken the hallowed halls of RTE Radio 1 for the rough and tumble that is 2FM's Breakfast Show
A full 17 years after their acclaimed eponymous debut exploded onto the American alt-rock landscape, Milwaukee malcontents The Violent Femmes are back with a new album (Freak MAgnet) and the same old typically off-kilter worldview. Interview: PETER MURPHY.
Taking time out from a hectic schedule of stage, studio and club work the one and only Boy George sets the record straight on Eminem, Graham Norton, Elton John and the new homophobia
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.
Tom Baxter's second album, Skybound, has just topped the Irish album chart. But it was a record that only got made after Baxter personally financed the sessions with his other talent of figurative art painting.
Knock-knock, who’s there? It’s only Jackie Hayden, making another of his house calls. This time the door is opened by Cork’s Red FM presenter Martina O’Donoghue.
Her fans include David Bowie, Bono and The Cardigans’ Nina Persson – and now she’s released possibly her finest record yet. EMM GRYNER talks about raising her game and steering clear of the ‘indie-folk’ vogue.
Superheroes, talking animals, three fingered dressmakers and more populate the weird and wonderful world of the soon to be massive Empire of the sun and Edwin McFee steps inside the mind of main-man Luke Steele for a journey he’ll never forget.
Joe Jackson sneaks a peek at Wayne Studer’s new book Rock On The Wild Side, which gender-bends its way through three decades of gay imagery in rock music from Jimi Hendrix’ first kiss to George Michael’s shuttlecock.
placebo have probably garnered more column inches in the British press for frontman
brian molko s effeminate appearance than for their music.
colm o hare meets the men who want to be a band that parents hate .
Pete Cummins, has just released his first album as a solo performer, from which the single ‘Flowers In Baghdad’ was picked up by Neil Young’s website chart
Well, a trio of humans, to be precise. Confronted with the flesh and blood reality of Phil, Susanne and Joanne munching sandwiches right in front of his eyes, Nicholas G. Kelly accepts that we must come to terms with the fact that The Human League have indeed risen from the grave. But not, repeat not, the ’80s.
He's still wild at heart, but somewhat less weird on top now that he's found his very own version of domestic bliss. James Jewel Osterberg, alias Iggy Pop, talks to Liam Fay, who predicts that the Igster's performance will be the highpoint of Feile '93.
MICHAEL STIPE RECKONS THEY'VE PRODUCED THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR, THEIR SINGER HAS BEEN HAILED AS THE ‘NEW BOB DYLAN’ AND THEY HAVE IMPECCABLE TASTE IN COATS. CAN ANYTHING HALT GRANT LEE BUFFALO'S MAD DASH TO STARDOM? LORRAINE FREENEY INVESTIGATES.
Cast as fictional conjoined twins who start their own punk band Harry and Luke Treadaway have delivered one of the year’s funniest and most moving performances in the mocumentary Brothers Of The Head.
A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
Colm O’Sullivan lives for music, and through his work as a presenter with Red FM is one of the most enthusiastic supporters of Irish music in town. Just as soon as he moved into a new apartment in Cork there was a knock at the door. It was Jackie Hayden.
STUART CLARK DISCOVERS HOW IT TAKES 14 YEARS TO BECOME AN OVERNIGHT SENSATION WHEN HE DISCUSSES FAME, FORTUNE AND BELINDA CARLISLE'S SEEDY PUNK PAST WITH REDD KROSS MAINMAN STEVE McDONALD
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.
Fresh from the success of THE DIVINE COMEDY in the Hot Press Readers Poll, NEIL HANNON drops his guard(s) for some candid talking on love, sex, aesthetics and the whole damn thing. Interview: JOE JACKSON
The pen behind "My Beautiful Launderette" and "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid", HANIF KUREISHI has been treated as an outsider in his home, Britain, and as a traitor by some elements within his own race. But, he maintains, it's the job of the writer to "stir the shit" - and now he's got the fundamentalists in his sights. Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
He may have ranked among the biggest-selling artists in the world in 2002 – but the ambition that has driven Eminem to pop’s dizziest heights shows no sign of abating with the release of his own biopic, 8 Mile. On track to becoming Hollywood’s latest darling, with all the attendant pressures and provocations that entails, will his art survive?
Their debut Hot Fuss sold over 4 million copies and in the process set The Killers up as one of the brightest young hopes of the modern era. On the eve of the release of their second album Sam’s Town, the band look like settling for nothing less than U2-sized supremacy. Now, if only Brandon Flowers would shave off that, ahem, controversial face fuzz.
He’s worked with Van, Dylan, Christy, Sinéad, The Cranberries and many other household names – but now he’s gone centre-stage himself as the composer of The General soundtrack. JOE JACKSON meets RICHIE BUCKLEY. Pix: Mick Quinn
BECK is one of the most eclectically talented musicians of his generation. STUART CLARK sees the man play a stormer at Witnness and hears him talk about fame, musical obsession, heroes like Bowie and Black Sabbath and 'Britney fascism'
He s so vain, but brian molko is also one of the most astute men in rock n roll. Having put his hedonistic days behind him honest! the placebo mainman talks to stuart clark about martyrdom, maturity and Marilyn Manson.
peter murphy meets the multi-faceted pelvis, whose debut album Who Are You Today marks them out as one of the most formidable new Irish
talents in years.
Veteran 2FM DJ Larry Gogan was honoured by IRMA earlier this month, in recognition of the forty years he has spent at the top of his profession. To mark the occasion, Hot Press catches up with the presenter to discuss the beginnings of his career during the showband era, how Irish music has changed down through the years – and the time he earned Larry Mullen's thanks for playing U2 records despite the protestations of station chiefs.
Known for his hyperactive - even threatening - live performances, Iggy Pop is sure to deliver one of Féile '93's most invigorating performances. Here, with an overview of the ex - Stooge's unconventional career, Hot Press prepares you for what's to come.
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
Patrick Wolf’s baroque folk-pop has earned the singer comparisons with artists such as David Bowie and Kate Bush, while The Arcade Fire were sufficiently impressed to offer him a support slot on the first leg of their European tour.
Sorry? Did someone say they’d found ice on Mars? And all these years we thought that David Bowie had been getting excited about something else. There, indeed, is the rub. After all this time and all that money, we might have hoped for a discovery that was a little more, well, let’s say...unpredictable.
Watching David Bowie on television recently one couldn't help but think of Neil Hannon. Not that he is a musical "chameleon"—to use the phrase most often applied to Bowie—but he does seem to be a person more comfortable presenting to the world a series of ever-changing poses designed to conceal rather than reveal his "real self", as in vocally situating himself somewhere between Barry White and Prince on the magnificent Charge, or satirising—while still relishing—his role as the eponymous sexist hero in Becoming More Like Alfie. Strangely enough, Neil confesses that he was thinking something similar while watching Bowie being interviewed
Sharp suits, a global fan base, his own luxury recording studio - David Gray has certainly come a long way. On the eve of the release of his latest album, he talks about the dark side of success and explains why he wants to leave the singer-songwriter tag behind
John Walshe chats to verbose Auteurs mainman, Luke Haines, and discovers why it s been three years since their last release, why all pop stars are scum and how he wants to become a famous TV presenter.
With Paul McGuinness now taking care of business, The Rapture can’t be entirely kidding when they tell Stuart Clark that they have no problem with becoming the biggest band in the world.
Having released his debut album to little recognition at home in Ireland. Perry Blake's career unexpectedly gathered momentum in continental Europe. Whilst he remains little more than a cult figure in his native land. These days in France it's all deification by La Monde, movie soundtracks and policy debate with the Culture Minister. "Part of me is thinking, oh fuck I hope it doesn't do a David Gray" Perry Blake.
You're right, that's the not so original headline that we used when Jackie Hayden - who signed U2 to CBS Records in Ireland in 1978 and is now General Manager with Hot Press - spoke to the bearded one about further adventures at the Fab Four's mixing desk, and his growing involvement in
Súlán Studios in Cork.
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
The old fashioned virtues of talent and charisma, combined with the latest innovations in media technology, look set to make JACK L Ireland's first superstar of the new millennium. JOHN WALSHE has the inside story on a man who is about to get to The Point.
The old fashioned virtues of talent and charisma, combined with the latest innovations in media technology, look set to make JACK L Ireland s first superstar of the new millennium. JOHN WALSHE has the inside story on a man who is about to get to The Point.
30th Birthday Retrospective: He was the original art-rocker and the quintessential ladies’ man. Bryan Ferry looks back at three decades spent at the frontline of pop.
Astronomical record sales, sell-out tours and critical plaudits have not dimmed Coldplay's reputation as the worried men of pop. Bassist Guy Berryman gives us the lowdown.
Peter Murphy catches up with former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley to talk about 'crazy woman's music', writing songs and collaborating with XTC's Andy Partridge.
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 .
Court cases! Vintage wines! Smack! Bad craziness! A burst pancreas! And a chart-topping album! It can only be the posthumous but never-ending saga of the defining rock band of the ’80s and ’90s. Stuart Clark gets the latest from Duff McKagan
To mark the 10th anniversary of the launch of the G. Ryan Show on 2FM, JACKIE HAYDEN talks to the mainman himself while various team members and seasoned observers select the best, worst and weirdest moments of the show that's grabbed the nation by its ears.
Ian Hunter, the former voice of MOTT THE HOOPLE, is back with a 38-track Greatest Hits & Rarities double-CD, plus an all-new album, From The Knees Of My Heart, to follow later this year. Now, from where past and present collide, he explains how he once broke into Elvis Presley s Gracelands, how he produced hits for Billy Idol and what it was like to tour with Queen as your support act. He even finds time to tell tales about Marc Bolan, Mick Ronson, and, incidentally, Mott The Hoople too Andy Darlington listens in.
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.
A flyover near the old Harland & Wolff shipyard was the starting point for a remarkable three months that has seen Franz Ferdinand challenging U2 and Coldplay for the title of ‘Biggest Band In The World'. Daredevil photographic exploits completed, Hot Press jumped on their tour bus and got the lowdown on Snoop, Bono, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield and nights of debauchery with the Scissor Sisters.
The fascinating story of how four Tallaght schoolfriends – and unofficial fifth member Shuggy – made a new home and a career playing music in the USA. All with a little help from their many friends.
Hailed as one of the UK s hottest young talents, and having appeared in such successes as Michael Collins, The Magnificent Abersons, and Velvet Goldmine, Jonathan Rhys-Myers is in fact Dublin-born and raised in Cork. OLAF TYARANSEN met the rising star. Thesp Behaviour: Peter Matthews
Saturday, July 13th, 1985 will go down in history as Live Aid Day, the extraordinary culmination of Bob Geldof's attempts to mobilise the international music industry behind urgently-needed famine relief in Africa. Among the stellar cast performing for 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium, London are U2, a band determined to rise to the occasion. Report: Neil McCormick
He wasn’t going to sing and then he sang. He wasn’t going to talk to the press and then he talked. And, finally, when he was good and ready, Paul McCartney wowed an audience with his greatest hits. Stuart Clark sees Macca in Manchester warming up for Dublin
Baz Luhrmann’s forthcoming musical is set in the 19th century, features classic songs from the 20th and was made in the 21st. A lot of big names – Bowie, Beck, Bono – have been co-opted to make this soundtrack more interesting than your average movie tie-in.
The first time The Killers played Oxegen they fretted whether anyone would turn up to see them. Now they’re sweeping in to headline the main stage. They talk to us about being chased by papparazi, growing up in Middle America and sharing a bill with Bono and, er, Gary Barlow
How did Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vannucci, Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer go from the Las Vegas dive bar circuit to selling four million copies of their debut album, Hot Fuss? On the eve of the band's highly-anticipated Oxegen 2005 appearance, Stuart Clark talks to the people involved in the making of The Killers.
SIMON FOWLER of OCEAN COLOUR SCENE speaks to Colm O'Hare about the band s new album, his outing at the hands of the tabloid press, and hanging out with Noel Gallagher.
In 1991, five years after the death of Phil Lynott, the late Bill Graham wrote in Hot Press of Philo's enduring legacy. Over ten years later his words are as relevant as ever
Can you see the Forrest for the Gump? Can you explain the cultural phenomenon of Steven Seagal in English plain enough for Seagal himself to understand? Did you recognise any of the actors hiding beneath moustaches in Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and Gettysburg? Are you ready for the fourth annual X-mas rated Blow Up Movie Quiz?
Oh, well, give it a go anyway. Now we separate the movie buffs from the people who have got something more interesting to do than spend all day hanging around cinemas and reading Hot Press. Answers can be found on page 99 but anyone caught peeking will have to live with the knowledge that they are a dirty, rotten, good for nothing, low down cheat. Good luck. And remember, this quiz is just like a box of chocolates . . . you’ll feel sick when you’ve finished.
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
Three-minute love songs simply can't cope with all the intricacies of a complex relationship, and inevitably veer off into angst-ridden cliché or syrupy feelgood banality. Dr. Millar, however, attempts to tell it like it is, and explains how and why to John Farrell.
The last 18 months have been a hell of a ride for The Thrills, catapulted from the relative obscurity of the south dublin suburbs to the top of the uk charts, rubbing shoulders with Van Dyke Parks and Peter Buck along the way. But are the band suffering from diver’s bends? is that laid-back california-in-my-mind facade starting to crumble? We put on our therapist’s hats and endeavour to find out, if something’s gotta give, what gives?
With a herd of their fellow Bostonians stampeding the charts and a fine new album Big Red Letter Day to their credit, BUFFALO TOM seem especially primed to cash in on the commercial success that has been dangled teasingly in front of their faces for years. But are they too normal to be
rock 'n' roll stars? LORRAINE FREENEY tracked the band in London with that very question in mind.
Critical brickbats aside, the success of TRAVIS seems to know no bounds. Here FRAN HEALY and co talk to STUART CLARK about drugs, Oasis, Paul McCartney, Ali G, and drunkenly dancing on computers! The man who took the photos: STEVEN FISHER
After two decades of electro-pop hits, the PET SHOP BOYS have gone back to basics with their new album Fundamental – and thrown some timely political digs into the mix while they’re at it. But the real battle is getting people to take them seriously.
In a rare interview, DJ, Sabres Of Paradise mainman and all-round geezer andrew weatherall tells stuart clark about why he won t be working with Primal Scream again, comes clean about his Van Morrison obsession, and does his best not to slag off Kula Shaker and Mansun.
First there was the bad shit then the mad shit – the biggest-selling album in Irish history, an international hit and a record you hear “in every shoe shop”. So, having climbed the white ladder to phenomenal success, how does David Gray follow that?
Every Picture Tells A Story
You don’t have to hire the services of a professional photographer or the PR agency to help your band achieve world domination. But it certainly helps! Colm O’Hare offers some valuable advice to the would-be stars of tomorrow and talks to some music biz insiders who can point you in the right direction.
Their debut album Hopes And Fears launched a host of hit singles, going on to become one of the most successful British records of the past five years. But, their indie background notwithstanding, Keane have still been dismissed by some self-styled aficionados as just too nice to be considered real rock'n'rollers. "If only people knew," says lead singer Tom Chaplin.
In a Hot Press exclusive brian kennedy is interviewed by his friend Pat McCABE. On the agenda: Belfast, religion, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles and the current state of popular music. Pics: Cathal Dawson
After more than 15 years in the business, Aslan are still able to command massive, devoted audiences in music venue and record shop alike. John Walshe joins the Lions' club on the road
...IS COMING TO TAKE YOU AWAY! WHEN JOE JACKSON WENT TO INTERVIEW BONO AT U2'S SECRET DUBLIN RECORDING BASE, HE HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO EXPECT. WHAT HE GOT WAS A CRAZY ROLLERCOASTER RIDE THROUGH THE EXTRAORDINARY WORK-IN-PROGRESS WHICH WILL BECOME U2'S FOLLOW-UP TO THE ACCLAIMED "ACHTUNG BABY!", WITH BONO AT THE WHEEL AND AN UNSEEN PRESENCE WORKING THE ACCELERATOR LIKE A DEMON. "RECORDS SHOULD BE MORE OF A TRIP," SAYS THE MAN IN THE WRAPAROUND SHADES. FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS THEN. THIS WILL BE NO ORDINARY RECORD. AND THIS IS NO ORDINARY INTERVIEW.
As founder and director of the acclaimed choral group, Anuna, MICHAEL McGLYNN has established himself as one of the country's most gifted and innovated composers. However, he has also become a figure by some elements in the Irish Music Industry and been dismissed by others as a "pig ignorant arrogant bastard" Inetrview: LIAM FAY
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.
With their new album, Gotta Go There To Come Back, in the bag, Stereophonics have chosen a very special gig at the Heineken Green Energy extravaganza in Dublin, to make their return to the stage. No wonder the boys are feeling bullish! Chris Martin, Ronnie Wood, Fran Healy, Rod Stewart, Noel Gallagher, U2 and the Rolling Stones – Kelly Jones has opinions on all of them! So who’s feeling the lash of the ‘phonics frontman’s verbal assault, then?
Don't write the singular Maria McKee; write the plural Maria McKee instead. Bill Graham encounters a mercurial talent in a variety of moods, musics and memories.
MARILYN MANSON may be the epitome of Middle America's worst nightmare but, as STUART CLARK discovers, he's not that bad, really. On the agenda: Bono, Eminem, Moby, George W. Bush and the Columbine shootings
RADIOHEAD are just about to release one of the most uncompromising and controversial records of the year in Kid A. As the band prepare for their upcoming Irish dates, mainman THOM YORKE talks about the genesis of a record that seems destined to divide rock fans for years. Not to mention Bono, Britney and Alicia Silverstone! Interview: DAVE FANNING
Hard house is this year s biggest dance craze, and it was born at the most renowned
after-hours gay club in the world, Trade. MARK KAVANAGH talks to LAURENCE MALICE,
the Caligula of clubland , about excess, success and his Irish roots. Photographs: Myles Claffey
On a fleeting visit to Dublin the legendary Jack White sat down with Hot Press' Stuart Clark to discuss his past life as an upholsterer, jamming with Bob Dylan. Jimmy Page and The Edge and going for dinner with Loretta Lynne.
They ve been gigging for 27 years and they were doing Words when Boyzone were still in the balls zone. They are Big Chief Flaming Star, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Little Thunder, Wild Hawk and Dull Knife (not their real names). They are
THE INDIANS
and they hope to still be on the warpath in the next millennium.
LIAM FAY
pow-wows with an authentic showband phenomenon.
If you want to make a demo that won't be used to blackmail you a few years down the road to fame and fortune, there are a few things you should know. Here, the experts tell Niall Crumlish what they are.
In Auckland, it was punk rock, gang wars, heroin and prostitution. In Cavan, it s rolling countryside, a recording studio in a church and more dogs than you could throw a stick for. It s been a long way from there to here for BRENDAN PERRY, the former partner in Dead Can Dance who now has a solo album on release.
Interview: NICK KELLY. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
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.
Sometimes it's hard to be a woman, especially when it involves piling on layers of latex, strapping on corsets, and getting to grips with false eyelashes. And yet, whether it's Kurt Cobain donning a scruffy frock, Robin Williams in full matronly guise for Mrs Doubtfire, or the 6'7 Ru Paul co-presenting The Brits, transvestism seems to have acquired a stronger multi-media allure than ever before. Andy Darlington examines the portrayal of TVs in cinema and the arts, and considers the sexual and social implications of the ancient art of cross-dressing.
Promoter Jim Aiken, who passed away recently, was a hugely important and universally admired figure in the Irish music scene. Here, leading industry representatives pay tribute. (free content)
He’s jammed with Bob Dylan, partied with Keith Moon, sued The Byrds, traded spiky tops with Rod Stewart, had close encounters with Presleys Reg and Elvis and played "name that key" with John Lee Hooker, but arguably the best moment in his life was when he was named small breeder of the year. RON WOOD, the man who would be the queen mum of rock 'n' roll, tells a mean tale.
Words: STUART CLARK. Pictures ROGER WOOLMAN
They love Ireland and Ireland loves them. As the Arcade Fire ramp up for world domination, the band talk about love, death, war and making music in churches.
Prince may be content just to party but in a four-page special the Hot Press journalistic elite takes a look at everything 1999 has to offer. And then some.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers visited Lansdowne Road, Dublin on July 8 but we caught up with the band in Paris recently and heard why the west coast warriors of funk-rock have never been hotter
One of the world’s leading contemporary composers, Philip Glass, will perform a selection of his solo piano music in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dundalk this week.
The rise and fall of chef CONRAD GALLAGHER was Icarus-like – one moment the toast of Dublin’s glitterati, the next a virtual pariah.
but unlike Icarus, Gallagher has fought his way back, bloodied but unbowed and determined to pay off all his debts
Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
After the huge success of the signing tent last year, Hot Press will be returning to Punchestown to bring you closer to the stars. You can drop by to meet the performers, have anything signable signed and take a snap for the family album.
With the tragedy which disfigured their last Irish appearance still fresh in people's minds, SMASHING PUMPKINS' return to a Dublin stage was never going to be an ordinary affair. As it turned out, PETER MURPHY witnessed an act of redemption and spoke to BILLY CORGAN about surviving troubled times.
Returning from an extended hiatus, Manic Street Preachers are in stridently upbeat form. In a revealing interview, they reflect on their enduring cultural imprint and talk about long lost Manic Richey Edwards.
It’s a rare thing indeed to hear an Irish lesbian speak openly and frankly about her life, lusts and loves. Gay writer, EMMA DONOGHUE, however, is one of the first of a new and more confident generation. At twenty-four, she has already produced a prodigious body of work ranging from drama to cultural history to her just-published first novel, Stir Fry. In the process, she has emerged as a proud and powerful voice for hundreds of young lesbians in this country. Interview: LIAM FAY. Pix: COLM HENRY
He may well be RTE s only living intellectual but ANDY O MAHONY, host of The Sunday Show, will long be remembered by many as the man who asked Deirdre Purcell if she ever did the bold thing with Gay Byrne. JOE JACKSON gets the self-styled closet determinist to come out of the closet. Pix: Colm Henry
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
With Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous putting rock hackery on the silver screen, no less, Peter Murphy wonders if Seventies rock journalism is the new rock n roll. Helping him with his enquiries: PAUL MORLEY and GREIL MARCUS
It s easy to trace the tracks of DAVE GAHAN s tears. Like the illustrated man, the marks on his body tell their own story. But not the whole story for this is a man who took heroin abuse to such a lethal extent that he was once clinically dead for two minutes. Now, after a long and painful battle, he s clean, sober and delighted that depeche mode have released the album that few ever expected them to make. Interview: Olaf Tyaransen.
Erasure were one of those bands who had a pedigree, who arrived, who released a bundle of tunes (some quite good), and then disappeared from the face of the earth. And nobody noticed.
...here's the Hot Press Irish Music Awards, and a massive bash avec much live music is pencilled in for Belfast in April. Read on for the categories and nominees in full
Forty years since she belted her way to the top of the charts with a raucous version of the Isley Brothers’ ‘Shout’, the former teen soul singing sensation somehow manages to stave off the ravages of age.
McGuinness has established himself as something of a retro antidote to Dublin’s modern-day, introspective singer songwriters – the emphasis, it would appear, is on making fun, psychedelic records, and looking damn fine while doing it.
The young, in the know crowd (70 people is probably more of an intimate gathering, than a crowd per se) at the tiny Alterknit Lounge in Hollywood, California was expectant, though quietly so.
The man who signed The Smiths, Arcade Fire, The Libertines and The Strokes (to name but a few!) to his Rough Trade label, Geoff Travis makes a special appearance at the RDS on October 7.
Saturday was chatterday here in the Hot Press Chatroom, with appearances from Josh Ritter, The Stunning, Elbow, Oppenheimer, Cathy Davey and That Petrol Emotion.
Two weeks ago it was Triumph The Comedy Insult Dog, now it’s the turn of Nathan Explosion and Pickles to be introduced to the Caught In The Net masses.
As frontman with The Spikes, Tom Dunne likes to makes sure that he stands out from the crowd. Jackie Hayden asks the former model his views on the links between fashion and rock music/
"Sweeney Todd, a masterpiece of misanthropy, sees Mr. Burton put away his childish things for a declaration to rival James Whale’s most famous lightning bolt shot."
An unsatisfying year for albums. In this video age I’m rapidly falling victim to the 'Instant Gratification Syndrome’. Why wade through 45 mins of uneven music for the sake of one or two highlights when it’s so easy to make video and audio recordings of favourite songs.
Ten years on from what many critics consider to be the band’s career apex – the era of down ‘n’ Dirty, Butch Vig-facilitated crossover appeal and Kurt-ordained, alt.rock godfathers-status – the Youth are certainly unlikely to re-attain cred-heavy money-spinner status with Sonic Nurse, but as the band put it on the incomparably brilliant ‘100%’, that’s got nothing to do with a good time.
Thus far reviewers have been foaming at the mouth trying to describe what an ungainly and unprecedented enterprise is The Raven, but Reed has always been at his best when there’s a thread to his threnodies, from New York to Berlin.
YOU KNOW, Sam Snort was beginning to run out of hope that the true spirit of rock 'n' roll could ever be redeemed in these scabrous times. But now it has. It has indeed.
Somebody is onto something, that's for certain. To begin with the name has a touch of magic. Dexy's Midnight Runners suggests something illicit, even apart from the drug reference. It's both strong and open, pointed and evocative. And in the end it's accurate because it registers the desired connection – Dexy's Midnight Runners are a soul band.
Tributes have been pouring in, to one of the most important figures in the Irish music industry over the past fifty years, the concert promoter Jim Aiken, who died yesterday (free content)
Getting inside the head of one of modern music’s deepest enigmas was both a challenge and a privilege, says documentary maker Stephen Kijak, director of Scott Walker 30 Century Man.
Comedienne Eleanor Tiernan invites Anne Sexton into her Georgian home, and talks to her about childhood holidays in Kerry, her love of JP Donleavy, and writing a play – well, kind of – about Damien Rice and Damien Dempsey.
Travel back in time, say, to twenty years ago. At that time few people would have believed that at a time not far into the future we would be able to watch virtually every major film that was ever made in the comfort of our own home on our television screens.
Over the past 12 months, The Mighty Boosh have made the transition from cult favourites to arena-filling icons. Noel Fielding chats to Ed Power about playing huge venues, his friend Russell Brand's recent difficulties, and borrowing clothes from Courtney Love.
THE CRITICS PANEL WHO VOTED FOR THE TOP 30 ALBUMS AND SINGLES OF THE YEAR ARE AS FOLLOWS: BILL GRAHAM, LIAM FAY, GEORGE BYRNE, STUART CLARK, LORRAINE FREENEY, TARA McCARTHY, GERRY McGOVERN, NEIL McCORMICK, DERMOT STOKES, OLIVER P. SWEENEY, SIOBHAN LONG, STEVE AVERILL, ANDY DARLINGTON, COLM O’HARE, JOE JACKSON, HELENA MULKERNS, DAN OGGLY, CATHY DILLON, NIALL CRUMLISH, OLAF TYARANSEN, PATRICK BRENNAN, JACKIE HAYDEN AND NIALL STOKES.
Have you got a ticket? The way things are looking, that's going to be the question of the year. U2 played Slane Castle as one of the support acts when Thin Lizzy topped the bill there in 1981. Since then they have gone on to become the biggest band in the world.
With David Bowie and The Darkness already confirmed for Oxegen, hotpress.com brings you more details and exclusive 'predictions' for the festival line-up...
As exclusively predicted by hotpress.com as early as November of 2003, David Bowie and The Darkness have been confirmed as headliners for this year's Witnness-style festival.
’85 was a remarkably stagnant year. Twelve months after the end of ’84, little seems to have changed or advanced musically and I only hope and pray we won’t be running on the same spot when ’86 ends.
Opening this month with a volley of gigs from such rock 'n' roll A-Listers as Kings Of Leon, and Coldplay, the 14,500-capacity Dublin O2 looks like being one of the best venues in the world.
There is a huge wealth of music talent in Ireland today. In this economic meltdown, the government should help the industry live up to its potential through the introduction of initiatives that would make Ireland a better environment for musicians.
The foot-and-mouth crisis plunged the Irish live music scene into one of its most difficult phases. Now, however, the business is back – and flourishing. Report: COLM O'HARE
30th Anniversary Retrospective: It was the funniest Irish comedy ever. A decade after Father Ted, two of the men behind the show - Declan Lowney and Arthur Mathews - reminisce about its impact.
All Write Now, we said. And boy did you follow instructions! The entries poured in from all over Ireland, and further afield, in their thousands. We were snowed under – but, as the song says: That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, we like it…
