Bigwigs from the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army were on hand as stoner-rock favourites Deep Purple took their banana tour to the exotic environs of Beijing.
The Fathers of Heavy Metal? "That child is not mine!", roars JON LORD, who played keyboard through 25 years of DEEP PURPLE splits, reformations, recriminations and tears. Now he's got a new album and tour reuniting the classic "Deep Purple in Rock" formation to talk up, with side-swipes at Metallica, the David Coverdale/Jimmy Page album, and just why Coverdale's sexually explicit lyrics made the Lord "a tad embarrassed."
Interview ANDY DARLINGTON
Swooping in on a wave of Doors-y keyboards, this promises a psychedelic style wig out and nearly delivers. Built around a back-and-forth boy-girl vocal, the title track does the retro ‘70s thing (Deep Purple even spring to mind) without sounding like a pastiche, which is a neat trick altogether.
REFORMATIONS. Who needs them, eh? Cartloads of bathchair boffins attempting to revive their bank balances through hastily concocted vinyl junkyards - invariably, they're an insult to the memories left by the bands in question and to the intelligence of rock fans everywhere.
PAUL RODGERS is real special. You can name the duff albums since Free split up, you can say he's old hat, or a hanger on from the days of Deep Purple, Led Zep, and dinosaur rock.
Depending on your viewpoint, it was either a glorious marriage of rock and classical music, or an overblown travesty by proggers who had lost the plot. Now, Deep Purple’s fabled ‘Concerto For Group and Orchestra’ is coming to Ireland. Its creator Jon Lord talks about the piece – and the controversy it created
Irish guitarist bernie torme no relation to Mel has played with Ian Gillan, Atomic Rooster and Ozzy Osbourne, and lived to tell the tale. Interview: colm o hare.
He may have turned the volume down a bit, but Ricky Warwick‘s Tatoos & Alibis album still rocks like a bastard. Stuart Clark meets him and his multi-platinum mate Joe Elliott.
Colm O’Hare talks to Kerry King, guitarist with thrash-metal outfit Slayer, and discovers that under that murderous, violent exterior lies a great big pussy cat . . . almost.
He’s played with The Corrs and was a member of the real-life Commitments. CONOR BRADY talks about life as one of the great unsung mainstays of Irish rock and roll. photos Ruth Medjber
Origin of Symmetry? Freak of Evolution more like. The common response to Muse’s Showbiz debut in 1999 was akin to a primitive people’s first glimpse of a spacecraft over the prehistorical landscape. Here was an unlikely but hugely accomplished hybrid of prog-rock flash, quasi-symphonic attack and ferocious virtuosity, spearheaded by Matt Bellamy’s soaring tenor and Dick-ian lyrics. An impressive sound, even if you didn’t know what the hell it was.
Once he cleaned up in the charts, now he s cleaned up himself. Bruised but unbroken, MARC ALMOND is back and busy on all fronts. And, whisper it, there s even talk of SOFT CELL reforming. Interview: NICK KELLY.
Few bands have managed to divide
critical opinion quite so spectacularly as Kula Shaker. Mystic musical saviours to some, prog rock nightmares to others, the one thing that everybody s agreed on is that mainman Crispian Mills gives exceedingly good quote. Interview and
periodic bewilderment:
Stuart Clark
What on earth is milky-white, squeaky-clean, God-fearin PAT BOONE doing,
wearing leather
and studs and singing heavy metal anthems? JOE JACKSON delves behind the year s most bizarre comeback to extract a rare and fascinating interview with a man who once alienated rockers and now finds himself ostracised by Christians.
STEREOPHONICS are on the up-and-up, their popularity growing without the band making concessions to the London-based music media. GEORGE BYRNE met them to talk about drink, drugs, writer s block and their upcoming Slane support slot.
Mini Pics: MICK QUINN.
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.
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.
Triumph Of The Will meets Spinal Tap and Bach meets Sabbath as METALLICA join
forces with 101 dinner jackets. Peter Murphy travels to Berlin to sample the results.
The End Of The Beginning pretty much picks up where Revive left off, this time without any guest vocalists to distract our attention from the compelling compositions.
Apollo 440 are one of those bands for whom there is no middle ground. You either love them for their unique brand of electronic sampladelica or despise them with a passion usually only reserved for the Man Utd money machine.
Metallica have emerged as the most popular metal band in Ireland to judge by their showing in the chart of the one hundred best metal tracks of all time as chosen by the readers of Hot Press and the listeners to 2FM’s increasingly popular Metal Show.
Fay Wolftree ponders whether or not attending a Pink Floyd concert was an inspired move or a momentary lapse of reason. Either way, the bell was in Earls Court.
PHIL LYNOTT would have been 50 on 20th August this year. Here, PETER MURPHY profiles the legendary Philo, and talks to other stars about his enduring influence.
Hard rock has taken on many forms, but if it's loud enough to annoy the neighbours, it should be categorised as good old-fashioned metal. Peter Murphy guides you through our choice of the Top 30 metal albums of all time.
Neil McCormick, a friend of U2 in their earliest days, who, as a writer, has closely monitored their progress since then, analyses Eamon Dunphy's much-touted 'authorised' biography "Unforgettable Fire" – and can't quite believe what he reads
