The Beatles and the Stones should, by rights, have been assigned to some sort of rock’n’roll museum by now – nice to look at, but surely irrelevant in this day and age.
with a higher profile internationally than at home, and the support of heavyweight friends, The Devlins have recorded an impressive third album. COLM O'HARE reports
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.
She's the multi-platinum artist you won't read about in the tabloids. AMY MACDONALD explains how she managed to top the charts without becoming famous.
Louis Walsh and Bono suffer a roasting as Echo And The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch talks to Hot Press about life as an indie-pop legend and explains why he’s rock music’s answer to Frank Sinatra.
The latest group to benefit from the tutelage of legendary producer Stephen Street, attitudinal Mancunian rockers The Courteeners are one of hottest newcomers on the UK indie scene.
The reclassification of cannabis in Britain was a good day for the UK’s estimated five million users. But not a great day. A drug that is much less damaging than alcohol or tobacco remains illegal in most parts of the world, including Ireland, a situation which criminalises the user and benefits only the criminal gangs. It’s high time for a change, argues Olaf Tyaransen.
'Cellar veteran and all round nice guy Dermot Carmody returns to the fray with a brand new one-man show which he previews in Dublin, Galway and Cork before travelling to Edinburgh this Summer. Stephen Robinson reports
Or how to stare apocalypse in the face and still keep smiling. Liam Fay talks to Ute Bellion, the German-born chairperson of Greenpeace International and a woman who remains optimistic despite the scale of the environmental problems with which she daily grapples.
Kim Porcelli investigates Speakers’ Corner, the “forum for public discourse” currently running in Temple Bar each Sunday. The brainchild of Kila’s Rossa O’Snodaigh, the event promises all manner of political and social debate. But are the people of the Republic actually all that bothered? Photography Cathal Dawson
The Flaming Lips, whose new record is a 'concept album about death' are possibly the most life-affirming band you’ll hear this year. Frontman Wayne Coyne explains why
In an unprecedented development, the prison service has slapped a ban on Ireland’s leading music and current affairs magazine – that’s HP, incidentally – a move that legal experts say is unconstitutional.
Michelin star man Dylan McGrath has brought something of a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic to Irish cooking. In a slap-up feast of an interview, he talks about his West Belfast childhood, kitchen stabbings and why he’s no time for mumsy housewives' choice chefs.
BREASTS. To have or not to have, and if so, to what extent? This particular, shall we say, philosophical debate has been raging - and I use the term advisedly - across all areas of the British media, from glossie to broadsheet.
Billed as the publishing event of the century, Crossing The Threshold Of Hope by Pope John Paul has already netted its author an advance of $10 million and is currently topping bestseller lists the world over. LIAM FAY wades through this extra helping of papal bull and comes to the conclusion that His Holiness is now, certifiably, as crazy as a shithouse rat.
After an initial reluctance to tell the outside world about his predicament, author and poet PAT TIERNEY this year went public about his HIV-positive status, and encountered a far more compassionate response than he had anticipated. Interview: LORRAINE FREENEY
Having made his name with the cult movie Tarnation, Jonathan Caouette has taken his career in an unexpected new direction with a movie about, of all things, an indie-rock festival, namely England’s All Tomorrow’s Parties.
Dance is dead, says Roisin Murphy, but if any act is going to raise it from the grave it’s Moloko, proud authors of the over the top and utterly sincere Statues, an album of tremendous pop songs that recapture the glory of classic disco.
Tim Booth does. The James frontman chats candidly to John Walshe about fame, riches, sexuality, being called a 'faggot' on the Lollapalooza tour, and the band's
brilliant 10th album, Millionaires.
Adam Duritz of Counting Crows and Kieran Kennedy a mutual appreciation society that went public during the Heineken Green Energy Festival get together to discuss songwriting, critics, genius, mediocrity and what it takes to be a rock n roll outlaw. Referee: PETER MURPHY.
A once high-flying solicitor who was jailed for fraud, David Elio Malocco is now a budget film-maker with a strong anti-establishment view, a man who says he has swapped a "disgraceful" materialistic lifestyle for a social conscience. Here, he talks about crime, punishment, Sinn Fein, Shelbourne, God and the movies
Ahead of the reformed Pistols' Electric Picnic set, we caught up with the guitarist, Steve Jones, who spoke about kicking heroin, his dislike of Malcolm McLaren, his on-air confrontation with Jerry Lee Lewis, and why he'd love to do an album with Cliff Richard.
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.
The fourth series of RTÉ Two's highly-acclaimed Other Voices, presented by John Kelly, was recorded over an extraordinary eight days during the madcap run-up to Christmas, in the thoroughly invigorating coastal environs of Dingle. Hot Press reporter Craig Fitzsimons was there to soak up the phantasmagoria, as some of the hottest talent from Ireland and abroad descended on the tranquil Kerry town to make heavenly music.
In a special Hot Press investigative report, Jonathan O'Brien looks into the activities of Father Sean Fortune [pictured left with the Pope - courtesy The Star] and his Institute of Journalism and Theatre, while Craig Fitzsimons goes undercover to discover exactly what is - and isn't - on offer in one of the priest's diploma courses.
The star of cult movies such as Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia and Strange Days, Juliette Lewis appeared to have a direct entry to rock's premier league when she turned her attention to her punk outfit The Licks. Instead, she opted to embark on a small-scale tour and play a series of small venues throughout the US and Europe. Peter Murphy was on hand as Lewis' magical mystery tour reached Ireland, and was witness to some truly fascinating scenes as the singer and her band bewitched the Dublin indie cognoscenti, travelled south to rock Limerick and strolled the red carpet to join the glitterati backstage at the Meteor Awards. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
inishing off a year in which his immersion in the craziness of orthodox religion won him a top journalism award, Liam Fay finds himself standing atop a windswept Hill of Tara in the dead of night in the depths of winter all the better to survey the diverse landscape of paganism and witchcraft in 90s Ireland.
Ask nicely and Breed 77 might play you their Latino metal version of ‘Zombie’ when they visit the Spring & Airbrake (April 19) and Temple Bar Music Centre, Dublin (20).
World Without End is a dance with the dead, a seance of lost souls, a slow waltz with the dark side of human nature. If that sounds like something you’d sooner avoid, then stop and listen with an open mind.
Armed with the sonic verve and drive of a battalion of horsemen, this debut album is a staggering wake-up call that not only delivers on its early promise, but also suggests that greater things are yet to come.
Another animated feature? But haven’t I seen 765,664 of these this year already? But wait. This one is from Aardman Studios so, in common with debilitating bone disease, it has to be better than Barnyard, right?
UNBELIEVABLY TOUTED in many quarters as a serious contender for Oscars glory, Ride With The Devil – an elegiac Dixie/Western set during the American Civil War – marks a sharp change of territory for its highly-respected director Ang Lee, a man more commonly associated with fine-lined character dramas such as the impeccable Ice Storm.
Better to say your piece and suffer the consequences than remain one of the fearful silent – as your correspondent discovered when he weighed in on the Cathal Ó Searcaigh scandal.
Why Boy George has lost Sam’s respect. Meanwhile, Bono has taken some flack for moving his swag to the Netherlands – but it’s better than letting the Irish government fritter it away.
THE WORD psychology has its roots in Greek: psyche, the soul, spirit, or mind’ and logos, the Divine word; speech; the word which expresses the inward thought; the thought itself.
They say that he was among the most powerful – and the most ruthless – Republican activists of them all. Here the legendary Bobby Storey, reputed to have been Director of Intelligence for the IRA, talks for the first time about his role in the struggle, and about some of the critical events that led to the IRA ceasefire and the Peace Process.
This coming Saturday, Belgium play Sweden in the opening game of EURO 2000. But don t panic things will rapidly improve after that. In a Foul Play special, JONATHAN O BRIEN tells you all need to know about this year s crop of contenders
The gay marriage debate was reignited when the Government’s Civil Partnership Bill, while allowing for same sex partnerships, fell short of legislating for gay and lesbian marriage. In an unusually frank exchange, Green Party justice spokesman CIARAN CUFFE debates the merit of the bill with Dermod Moore.
Colm O’Hare previews MIDEM, the music business trade fair to end all music business trade fairs held each year in Cannes, France and talks to Irish delegates about the increasing possibilities it opens up for Irish labels.
He comes from a long line of priests – including his own father. But now, as Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Neill is one of the most influential people in the Anglican church.
