Comic book artist and file clerk turned movie star, Harvey Pekar must be one of the most unlikely and somewhat reluctant celebrities of our time. An ordinary man whose work has produced extraordinary art, the anti-hero of American Splendour here talks about his friend Toby, Robert Crumb, James Joyce, David Letterman, fame and misfortune, surviving and more.
Debbi Peterson of '80s pop act The Bangles talks about supporting Queen at Slane, surviving an embarrassing moment on the David Letterman show and drumming with Spinal Tap
RICH HALL has survived working with David Letterman and having his love life exposed in the Sindo, to take his rightful place as one of the top attractions of this year's Cat Laughs Festival. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
American readers that missed out on tickets for his sold-out tour with The Frames can catch Damien Rice up close and personal with David Letterman tonight
Neil Delamere on the joys of working on The Panel, meeting Jason Alexander from Seinfeld and his appearance on Holland’s answer to the David Letterman show.
Righteous, raging and hysterically funny, the late Bill Hicks was the comedian too hot even for Letterman. Paul Nolan on a new book that fills out the legend.
Anointed by the blogosphere, Tapes ‘N Tapes are just about the hottest thing in indie rock right now. Despite his rather fraught stage persona, frontman Josh Grier turns out to be a picture of charm. And no, he can’t explain the slightly silly name either.
When Rubyhorse quit their native Cork for the US in 1997, they had no game plan. Now they’re being hailed as one of the rock hopes for 2003, with appearances on Letterman and Conan O’Brian to their credit – as well as an extraordinary collaboration with the late George Harrison.
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.
Top international journalist and acclaimed stand-up comedian BARRY GLENDENNING pens this self-aggrandising subhead before continuing his countdown to the third Murphy s Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
Self-styled sex siren Diablo Cody has moved into the mainstream with the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Juno. What’s more, the movie is so good, she might just prove to be a winner.
IN THE NEW DAVID MAMET COMEDY STATE AND MAIN, AS IN HER LIFE IN GENERAL, SARAH JESSICA PARKER COULD HARDLY BE FURTHER REMOVED FROM HER SEX AND THE CITY ALTER EGO. TARA BRADY REPORTS.
He’s the classic indie shyboy who quit music to become a bingo announcer because he can't bear the rock 'n' roll gossip mill. Now Jens Lekman is back with his finest album yet words.
Patrick Hedlund catches up with Damien Rice and The Frames in Boston and finds they’re having more success on-stage than in the bowling alley. Additional reporting Stuart Clark
When we catch up with Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan on a fine August afternoon, he’s bracing himself for a grueller of an autumn schedule that will begin with a handful of festival appearances – including an Electric Picnic set – and culminate in full-on month-long European and US tours. Reading dispatches from the band’s recent blogs, it’s apparent that the landscape of modern touring is far from Beat Generation romance and way closer to a Ballardian landscape of endless petrol stations, motorways and ferry docks.
They’re the hottest thing in British rock, four working class kids done good from the wrong side of the Glasgow tracks. At the start of what is shaping up to be a whirlwind year GLASVEGAS talk fame, football and fisticuffs.
With a self-recorded and self-released album – called simply O – Damien Rice has emerged as a major force in Irish music. But that’s just the start of it: the record is now in the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K., and with the kind of momentum he has generated, the feeling is that it might just go all the way.
British director Bernard Rose hit paydirt over decade ago with Candyman, but his uncompromising single-mindedness has made him a virtual Hollywood pariah. However, Snuff Movie looks like putting him back in the game.
As U2 gear up for the release of No Line On The Horizon, they meet HP to talk about the creation of their latest masterwork, meeting world leaders, the way they’re perceived in Ireland, the current state of the music business and their future plans.
30th Anniversary retrospective: From the murders of Tupac and Biggie to the bizarre implication of Marilyn Manson in the Columbine massacre; from Courtney, Axl and Spector’s falls from grace to the canonisation and demonisation of Peter Doherty... here’s a potted history of the most controversial events in the last 30 years of rock ‘n’ roll.
The Answer have played to almost a million people on the current AC/DC tour. Not bad for an indie hard rock band from Norn Iron. Singer Cormac Neeson gives us the skinny on Angus Young’s love of Rory Gallagher, meeting Alice Cooper, and why Hunger is required tour bus viewing.
He created great songs out of the good, the bad and the ugly and earned the respect of people as diverse as Bob Dylan and Hunter S. Thompson. In this previously unpublished interview Warren Zevon, who died last week after a long battle with cancer, reflects on his sweet and dirty life and times.
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?
Mark McClelland was a feature and music writer for Cork's Evening Echo for four years. Here, he presents his top ten most significant musical acts to emerge from Cork.
Champagne corks were popped last week as Snow Patrol joined that elite group of bands who’ve simultaneously topped the charts in Ireland and the UK. It’s all a far cry from the days when their fame was confined to the University of Dundee Students Union bar. Gary Lightbody takes time out from wowing the masses in Dublin and Belfast to tell Stuart Clark about their twisty and turny route to the top.
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
JEAN BUTLER was at the very heart of the Riverdance phenomenon, as the original Eurovision interval set-piece was transformed into the most successful dance stage-show ever. Now, for the first time, she tells her side of that extraordinary saga. In a blistering broadside, she accuses her co-star MICHAEL FLATLEY of rampant egotism and argues that she's never been given the credit she deserves for the show's sensational impact. And then there's the question of money...
Interview: JOE JACKSON
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.
It was inflight double entendres all round as Bell X1 donned cabin crew attire for a special Hot Press photoshoot. When not showing an unhealthy interest in women’s clothes and fancy Raybans, they talked about their chart-topping new album Blue Lights On The Runway, their imminent breakthrough in the US and freezing their arses off on The Late Show with Dave Letterman
From A to Z, Paul Nolan and Ronan Fitzgerald introduce all the runners and riders for Punchestown – throwing in a baker’s dozen of acts who are not to be missed* along the way
Sex and sanctity, grit and glitter, penthouse and pavement, God and the Devil, and all conical points in between!
PETER MURPHY dials M for ADONNA, the pre-eminent pop icon of this and every other year
This is THE CHIEFTAINS as you've never encountered them before - more like mad, trad and dangerous to know than the grand-daddies of Irish traditional music. Smoking dope with Philip Lynott! Busting muscles through wild sex! Yes, it's the bits that aren't in the official biography. But, soft, not a word to Paddy, OK? Part One of an exclusive two-part interview. By JOE JACKSON.
25 years after the publicaton of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, doctor hunter s. thompson remains the originator and unequalled exponent of Gonzo journalism, an author as famous for his own high-octane, outlaw lifestyle as he is for the remarkable series of books and articles which made him a rock star of the written word.
Tracked down to his lair in the Colorado mountains, Thompson lives up to all expectations in this exclusive interview and story by daniel senstius and jurrien dekker. Photography: chris van houts.
As cats all over Ireland prepare to have their fancies tickled, Jackie Hayden reflects on the comedic talents of one of the star turns at this year’s Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival, Tommy Tiernan.
