A BLOOD-CURDLING howl of violent white rage that looks set to reverberate around the world for some time to come, Fight Club is an almighty, disturbing, monstrous motherfucker of a movie which power-drills its way into the viewer’s head like few films since the heyday of Martin Scorsese.
Panic At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie talks about channelling The Beatles, recording at Abbey Road and the influence on their music of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk.
He revolutionised contemporary fiction with Fight Club. But, with more than one brutal murder lurking in the family undergrowth, Chuck Palahniuk's own life has been as troubled and disturbing as any of his books
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”
Dabbling in the same muddied waters as Fight Club, but to much greater effect, David Ayers’ directorial debut (following his testosterone-drenched screenplays for Training Day and Dark Blue) takes us down, down, down into the most disturbing aspects of masculinity and American life.
30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto talks about the challenges of juggling a music and Hollywood career and sheds light on his run-in with the authorities in China.
From literary wild-child to haunted son, Bret Easton Ellis has travelled some distance since his clinical dissections of the American ID first scandalized the book world. His new novel, Lunar Park, is perhaps his most entertaining and personal yet.
Is there a technique to picking up a member of the opposite sex – or does it just happen? Feeling that he could do with a little bit of help in that department, journalist Neil Strauss hooked up with a cult community of Pick Up Artists and set out to learn the secrets of the trade. With all those Christmas parties looming, his advice might just come in handy.
John Walshe talks to Irish rugby captain and Munster stalwart Keith Wood ahead of the most important game in Munster s history, and hears his views on the media, sex before a game and his love for bellybuttons and pregnant women.
Pictures: DECLAN ENGLISH
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.
Backstage at Creamfields, JOHN WALSHE talks to FATBOY SLIM about the joys of fatherhood, being one half of the posh and becks of the chemical generation; sharing a hot-tub with Baz Luhrman and how he got Christopher Walken to tap-dance
For a former mod who once failed to get a prince review published in Hot Press, Mark Little has done pretty well for himself. Paul Nolan quizzes the author and broadcaster about Iraq, Washington, the West Wing, Ireland’s place in the world, politics, the media, Michael O’Leary, Bono and, of course, the smoking ban.
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
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
Darina Allen, eat your heart out. New York chef ANTHONY BOURDAIN has done it all, from chopping out lines to chopping off fingertips, along the way dealing with the Mafia, Madonna, a dead man in a freezer and the palpitating heart of a cobra. STUART CLARK hears about cooking as rock'n'roll. CATHAL DAWSON serves up the pictures
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?
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.
As you might have twigged by now, The Panic Room is not the most original movie ever - but if the base material lacks originality, Fincher's treatment of it is novel enough to compensate
Republic Of Loose vocalist Mick Pyro is standing at the front of the stage in Whelan’s, leaning precariously to the left. Sporting a ‘Suck me suck me eat me raw’ T Shirt and a barnet that hasn’t been washed or cut since 1996, he clutches the mic like it possesses some great gravitational power before declaring, “I knew I shouldn’t have drank before this gig”.
How you take toward the latest bit of aggro from Football Factory director Nick Love depends entirely on your tolerance for hearing phrases like “Oi, you cants”.
They've been called the last of the great punk rock bands, and although that's an accolade which smacks of revisionism, it does give some hint of The Pixies' colossal impact. In fact, you can still feel some of those aftershocks resonating through Nirvana, Bowie, JJ72, Fight Club and selected vodka ads.
