The acclaimed Cork 5 piece Fred have hit new heights this week, with their single 'Skyscrapers' having been awarded iTunes Canada's influential Single of the Week accolade
The bright lights of Toronto beckoned for Leeside electro-poppers Fred as they kicked off their North American tour with a turn at the prestigious North by Northeast festival.
On their latest LP Cork electro-rock champs Fred channel rustic vibes and hook up with Razorlight's wingman. The resulting album is their finest hour yet.
Quite why Fred have yet to reap the acclaim they deserve is a puzzle, although taking two years to come up with any new material probably won’t have helped. ‘Good One’ does what they do extremely well, an off-the-wall pop song complete with a cool girl group backing vocal that demands to take its place at the top table. Now let’s hear some more.
...Fred somehow manage to combine potentially jarring elements – spoken lyrics, a Stax-esque brass section, punk rock guitars and drums, lounge funk bass and percussion – into a magical whole
“If you build it, they will come” – a familiar quote from a Hollywood baseball movie – became the mantra for Dolan’s Warehouse’s 10th birthday celebrations.
LIMP BIZKIT are a rock'n'roll phenomenon. Notching up in excess of 20 million album sales over the past two years, they're in the vanguard of the nu-metal movement that has seen guitar rock reclaiming its place at the top of the singles charts. In Madrid to catch the band live, PHIL UDELL first hears passionate words from the frontman, FRED DURST. But, amid a welter of controversy, the raging music is put on hold as Limp Bizkit's show in the Spanish capital is cancelled – an ominous foreshadowing of the events that will see their UK, German and Irish dates also sensationally cancelled
On first impression Making Music So You Don’t Have To is a ticklish, impulsive body of work, but its happy, functional marriage of strings, piano and guitars hints that the band have played nice, taken their hyperactivity medication and developed the album into a gratifyingly mature, ambitious and reflective work.
Lemon Jelly are Nick Franglen and Fred Deakin. (You can see why a clever name was important.) Their first three EPs remain highly sought for both Fred’s stunning screen-printed artwork and the nine tracks now collected here on CD for the first time.
Faction records is to release a new compilation of Irish acts, Faction 2, next month, featuring ten up-and-coming artists including The Flaws and Television Room.
Misanthropic, mischievous but keenly-observed battle epics based around the war of the sexes are LaBute’s speciality, and his latest outing The Shape of Things fits the bill perfectly.
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”
We asked the members of hotpress.com to submit questions for Korn’s kilt-wearing frontman Jonathan Davis and then locked him in a room with just a spotlight and a tape recorder
‘I Gave You Away’ is a return to what Dear’s Audion project does best, teasing the grimiest, dankest sounds from his 303. It’s in good company here: Par Grindvik’s ‘Casio’ makes a nod to Neil Landstrum’s sheet metal ‘90s analogue techno and the organ riff at the centre of Bodycode’s ‘Exciting Ride’ is scarier than a weekend at Fred West’s.
Mission: Impossible 2 opens with a bit of a damp squib - Limp Bizkit's 'Take A Look Around', in which Fred Durst ruins Lalo Schifrin's original Mission Impossible theme with the addition of a lacklustre rap and the occasional burst of noise.
With influences by The Jam, The Clash and the Smiths, shirts by Fred Perry and haircuts grade one, The Ordinary Boys couldn’t be any more British if they embarked on a Bank Holiday tour of sleepy seaside venues with amps draped in Union Jacks.
SHORT CUTS (Directed by Robert Altman. Starring Andie McDowell, Bruce Davison, Julianne Moore, Mathew Modine, Anne Archer, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Penn, Lili Taylor, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Annie Ross, Lori Singer, Jack Lemmon, Lyle Lovett, Buck Henry, Huey Lewis)
Seven Irish newcomers – including Halves, Grand Pocket Orchestra, Heathers and The Minutes – gathered for a showcase gig at historic Toronto venue The Hideout.
Giveamanakick, Jinx Lennon, Fred, Ilya K, Ikeaboy and Rarely Seen Above Ground are among the first batch of acts to be confirmed for this year’s Irish Green Gathering.
Two of Ireland’s top electronica composers are in celebratory mood after releasing a killer collaboration – and to mark the event they’re embarking on a brief tour of the country.
While the line-up may not be as strong as it has in previous years, the fact that the schedule isn’t crammed with must-sees means we have more capacity to take in everything else on offer.
With Oscar hysteria in the air, Tanya Sweeney recalls the night she “gate-crashed”
hollywood a-list party – and survived to tell this tale of beauty and the beasts.
With interest in this year’s 10th Roundstone Arts Festival already building up, we sent our very own Roundstone Cowboy Jackie Hayden to check out this year’s line-up.
Devendra Banhart tells Colin Carberry that wearing a turban and having a beard can get you into all sorts of trouble these days. Lucky for us, he's still looking forward to the Electric Picnic.
Seneca's sorrowfully spirited anthems don't exactly fit in with today's high-energy trends, but that hasn't stopped them from creating a major buzz in the US.
With preparations well underway for Cork city’s hosting of the European City Of Culture festivities in 2005, the indigenous music scene is already rising to the challenge
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.
When it comes to selecting a condom for that steamy sexual encounter, the revolutionary Avanti leaves Mr Fred Brewster s Geronimo in the ha penny place. Report: adrienne murphy.
Cork Independent outfit The Waiting Room have just released their debut album Losing Patience, yet they're quite prepared to hold on to the day jobs for a little while yet as Marc O'Sullivan discovers
Her fantasy is out-qualifying Michael Schumacher, she once drove at 200 miles per hour and she'd "consider" sleeping with a fat, sweaty Italian if it meant getting a drive with Ferrari! She's sarah kavanagh, and her ambition is to take her place on the Forumula One grid by the year 2,000. Interview: barry glendenning.
Pix: clare kavanagh.
UK white hopes mansun have toned down their visual image but their music remains as defiantly maverick and angular as ever. Interview: deirdre cartmill.
With presenter John Creedon on a roll with his new mid-afternoon slot on RTE Radio 1, Jackie Hayden crosses the threshold of his Cork abode to see what the man gets up to away from the mike.
Intriguing new developments are afoot in the world of Ulster rock ‘n’ roll. Plus tidings of a new Limerick indie compilation and the usual round-up of news from around the country.
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.
The task of exhuming a number of folk legend Woody Guthrie’s unused lyrics and setting them to music would be a daunting prospect for most artists – but not Billy Bragg, the self-styled Bard of Barking. The guitar-slinging socialist has teamed up with acclaimed US country-rockers Wilco to do just that. Interview: Colm O’Hare.
It was the day the world stood still to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office and start his historic Presidency. Millions gathered on Washington’s mall to see him sworn in – including campaign staffer Patrick Reilly, who'd travelled all the way from Ireland to bear witness.
GERRY MALLON is the brains behind The Murphy's Comedy Club which has been running weekly in Galway's GPO for the last three years, despite one Englishman's determined attempt to incinerate the joint. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
Ahead of the release of his new movie, Irish boxing melodrama Strength And Honour, Michael Madsen reflects on a career that been sometimes troubled but never boring.
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.
It took ten years for debutante director Kerry Conran to complete his film, even though most part was done before he uttered the word "Action!". Tara Brady meets the brimming brain behind the film-geek opus, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Peter Murphy considers Nirvana’s legacy and wonders will we ever hear their like again. Producer Butch Vig and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age help him with his enquiries
Back in the '60s the MC5 made it on to the CIA's 'Most Wanted' list. Now, they're a chi-chi fashion accessory beloved of Jennifer Aniston and her Hollywood pals. Guitarist Wayne Kramer explains it all to Stuart Clark.
From First Cuts to Latest Cuts, from the First Lady Of Immediate , recording with Phil Spector, Jimi Hendrix and the Small Faces, to the First Lady of Techno, scoring Top Ten hits with Altern-8 and the Beatmasters, to today with Primal Scream and Ocean Colour Scene
P.P. ARNOLD has always been there, wherever the beat is hottest.
Interview: andy darlington.
CORONATION STREET. It s an
institution. So who wants to live in an institution? Well - there s Ken Barlow, Vera Duckworth, Deirdre, Fiona . . . you know them all, don t you? Be
honest! ANDY DARLINGTON visits
the Street of Dreams, and finds out that it s real!
How Bubba Sparxxx went from being nose-down in a bowl of coke to becoming hip-hop's greatest white hope since Eminem. Peter Murphy hears how the southerner fell and rose
Having learned his trade with Muddy Waters and just about any other blues legend you care to mention, BUDDY GUY has long since become one himself. On the eve of his showcase gig in Dublin's Olympia, he tells PETER MURPHY of his struggle to pass the blues torch on to another generation.
When Patti Smith came up with Rock N Roll Nigger in the 70s, she marked herself out as one of the most articulate and confrontational performers of her generation. On the eve of her visit to Ireland, the High Priestess of American Punk Poetry talks to Peter Murphy about art, music, the people she s lost and why she ll never give in to political correctness
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
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]
t certainly would, Joe. But you can have a toot on my megaphone if you like! Gavin Friday discusses the finer points of sexual politics not to mention the post-Freudian subtext to his stunning new meisterwork Shag Tobacco with Dr Joe Jackson. Our man in the white coat concluded: Gavin s time has come. But is the world finally read
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
Most cities and towns have their trouble spots and their danger zones, but Limerick's have been given more than their unfair share of publicity. Such a focus on the negative has tended to detract attention from the positive aspects of this resurgent city, with its vibrant music scene, its buzzing university, the warmth and friendliness of the people, its obsession with rugby, and er, Ryan Turbidy.
He was soccer s hardest man. Now he s in the process of becoming a genuine Hollywood star. Here VINNIE JONES talks to STUART CLARK about being mates with Madonna and Brad Pitt, his years with the Crazy Gang, and why he dislikes Johnny Giles
The Streets’ new album, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, looks set to skyrocket Mike Skinner’s status as the voice of hedonistic British youth. Hot Press meets up with Skinner backstage in Derry to discuss the creation of his latest masterwork, the perils of fame, superstar collaborations, hanging out in Ibiza and the art and artifice of his onstage persona.
"To tell you the truth, I don’t see myself as being all that interesting or attractive." that being so, Colin Farrell must be one of a very few who doesn’t. Dublin’s latest superstar, famous for cussing, bedding women and (lest we forget) acting, has been inescapable in the gossip columns in recent months. But how much is truth and how much fiction? In this candid interview with Tara Brady, he talks about drink, drugs, football, fame, hype, luck, romance and – in his latest box office winner The Recruit – working with Al Pacino
Johnny Ray invented rock ’n’ roll. Elvis Presley marked the beginning of the downfall of popular music. The Beatles only ever wrote one great song. Cranky stuff maybe, but when the speaker is Tony Bennett – the man Sinatra called “The best singer in the business” – you have to listen. Joe Jackson does and, in this exclusive interview, hears how a Jewish-Italian New York kid grew up to be a musical legend, a respected painter and a man who, at 67, can still kick ’90s rock off MTV.
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.
BRENDAN INGLE was born in Dublin, but made his name as a boxing trainer in Sheffield. He s the man who discovered PRINCE NASEEM and shared in the fighter s huge success until they fell out acrimoniously. ANDY DARLINGTON meets a man with a story to tell.
It should have been the biggest indoor rock n roll knees-up of the year but oasis three nights at The Point were as notable for what happened off stage as for what happened on it. Does Liam s partial no show spell the end for the dreadnoughts of Britpop or is it just the latest hiccup in a career that seems to thrive on adversity? Report: siobhAn LONG.
Alex Barclay used to write about fashion and beauty products. Now she’s a best-selling crime author with a lucrative book deal. What sets her apart from other whodunnit writers is her forensic eye for detail and chilling mastery of plot. She’s just getting started, she tells Peter Murphy.
As Secretary Of State in Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam [pic left by Mick Quinn] played a crucial role in formulation and implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. It helped that she is no conventional politician but rather a warm, down-to-earth and decent individual with a genuine commitment to positive action. in both the UK and Ireland, she became by far the most popular British figure in the history of Northern politics - which may explain why, in the end, she was shafted.
He s the Godfather of TV-Astronomy. He s not only the size of a minor planet, he even has one named after him. He knows all the secrets of Life, the Universe and Everything. He is Patrick Moore. And now he tells Andy Darlington about his Flying Saucer Close Encounter , his musical input into 2001: A Space Odyssey, why there are no Skating Rinks on the Moon and much more groovy cosmic stuff
from reagan to bush; from radio free europe to clear channel; from green to reveal; from the sfx to marlay park. REM call time out and Peter Buck fills in the gaps from 1983 to 2003. interview Peter Murphy
It was one of rock's most bizarre and impressive spectacles - the MANIC STREET PREACHERS live in Cuba, in front of an audience including Fidel Castro! STUART CLARK was there, and spoke to JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD about Bill Clinton, Top Of The Pops, Bono, Elian Gonzales and the band's new album
Released in 1999 Paddy Casey’s debut album went double-platinum, establishing him as one of Ireland’s brightest prospects. but the intervening four years have seen that crown slip, as a succession of homegrown singer songwriters battled their way into contention, outstripping him in terms of record sales – and hard graft. now casey is back in the frame, with his long-waited follow-up, the cheekily titled Living – an album that sees him gloriously back on top of his game. why did it take four years to make? the answer to that burning question may go back even further. because Paddy Casey’s life story is truly a remarkable one.
Why ARE Veggies on a demographic roll? Who says THAT by the middle of the next century we could all be Veggie? Who are the radical outer fringes of the Paramilitary Provisional Wing of the Vegetarian Society? And what is the hideous secret behind . . . Jelly Babies ???
Andrew Darlington, who gave up eating meat five years ago, HAS THE ANSWERs.
Widely recognised as the best sports writer in Ireland, Tom Humphries became a key player himself, this time last year, when his interview with Roy Keane led to the departure of the Corkman from Ireland’s World Cup squad. Here, Humphries discusses sports journalism, club versus country, soccer in Croker, the Michelle Smith scandal and, of course, Roy Keane, his part in his downfall. [Pics Mick Quinn]
Coke is it. Coke is the real thing. It's not the choice of a new generation but the choice of countless generations past, present and future. Coca-Cola knows how to get American presidents elected and is even responsible for Santa Claus as we know him.
Here BILL GRAHAM delves into Mark Prendergast's unauthorised history of the company, For God, Country and Coca-Cola, and discovers over a century's worth of evidence that Coke is no ordinary soft drink.
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
In the first part of a two-part interview, Michael D. Higgins, Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, talks about his philosophy of art, about his own poetry and, more controversially, about RTE, the IRTC, the future of commercial radio - and the sustained and slanderous campaign against him in the Sunday Independent.
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.
The future is here. Well, somehow it always is. And, as usual, it is both familiar and strange. Nothing seems to change, but one day you turn around, it is 1995, and you are cybersurfing on the internet, summer seems to last all winter, ambient-acid-techno is bubbling away on the radio, your fax machine shows up on the Antiques Roadshow and papa’s got a brand new drug.
By now, sensible seasoned cinema goers will have stopped expecting the always tolerable antics of the Christopher Guest players to replicate the brilliance of This Is Spinal Tap.
Nobody beats the skins harder than Jimmy Chamberlain. Well okay, Dave Grohl gives them a decent hiding as well, but Jimmy has earned just as good a reputation by banging the drums for Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan.
Metallica precede massive August all-dayer in the RDS (elsewhere on bill: Linkin Park, Mudvayne, The Deftones) with the June release of eighth LP St. Anger
Not to be outdone by FM104’s Bestest Bits, Ray D’Arcy has released a collection of the “groove-tastic” covers that have graced his Today FM morning show over the past year.
Enniscorthy-man Clive Barnes is a 24-year-old blues singer-songwriter who, unlike too many of his European blues counterparts, doesn't sing in a fake American accent about going down to Chicago.
They’re a band who seem split in two – one half intent on making fairly average, mainstream American pop rock, the other half interested in what can best be described as, well, weird shit.
With a couple of well-received EPs under their belts and a growing live following, the first full-length release from these Dublin contenders is keenly anticipated in some quarters. Pleased to report then that Stay is as good a local debut as has arrived on the HP reviews desk in many a month.
US metallers Creed are the latest in a long line of Stateside wavemakers to hit our shores. As a guitar driven hard rock four-piece caught somewhere between Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots, they've notched up a rather impressive 9 x platinum sales figure on this, their second release, Human Clay.
THERE CAN’T be that many people, of a certain age, who don’t know the music of Kris Kristofferson in one form or another.
His early songs were covered by a wide variety of performers, from Janis Joplin to Johnny Cash, and this collection, which revisits and reworks many of those hits, confirms his status as a writer.
Tommy Hilfiger have joined forces with Sony BMG for the global launch of TommyTV (www.tommytv.com), “an online evolution” of the Hilfiger Sessions music series.
It falters on more than one occasion certainly, and the ballad card is played perhaps a touch too often, but Stripped proves that she is a major talent
Those going to the Hard Working Class Heroes musicfest in Dublin next weekend (August 26-9) will be mighty thrilled to learn that there will be a series of lunchtime in-stores at Tower Records as a taster for what the three-day event holds.
Armed with a hood-load of forceful character and a (Ben Sherman) pocket full of poesies, Mike Skinner has single-handedly altered the British urban/garage landscape
Of the dozen or so Springsteen shows I’ve witnessed over the years, this was without doubt the most memorable, and certainly the most emotionally intense of them all. Shorn of the formidable might of the E-Street Band, the man-they-still-call-The-Boss arguably had to work harder than ever. That he pulled it off so successfully in the acoustically-unfriendly environs of The Point was a testament not only to his talent and experience but to his willingness to experiment.
THE PSYCHOPATHIC serial-killing doll from the Child’s Play series, his face liberally decorated with huge black stitches, Chucky is one of the most gruesomely horrendous sights ever exposed to mankind.
Few performances will have done more to shape the future of The Ordinary Boys than the ignoble appearance of frontman Samuel Preston on Celebrity Big Brother. Ironically, his dalliance with trash television, though ensuring the commercial survival of the band, would also signal their exile from the affections of credibility junkies.
Ah, Taking Back Sunday: the quintessential emo band, right down to the meaningless name. Arguably, their 2002 debut Tell All Your Friends was Generation X’s shift in the evolutionary trail that began with Fugazi, mutated to Jimmy Eat World, and after TBS, spawned malformed acts like Panic! At The Disco that dominate the alternative scene today.
It’s a classic story, the once great but now slightly washed up band turning to the new kids on the block to give them a shot in the arm, hoping to recapture past glories and boost a flagging career. Then there was the time that Aerosmith made a record with Run DMC…
Watching an Enter Shikari show is like being stuck in the body of a hormonally challenged 15-year-old. It’s sweaty, loud, confusing and bloody impossible to get your hands on some alcohol.
Along with Liam O'Flynn, Davy Spillane has done much over the years to convert new worshippers to the haunting sound of the uilleann pipes, and few will ever forget his high-octane contributions to Moving Hearts at their peak.
Meath County Council have received a formal licence application from Slane promoters, with the date - confirmed as "the Lord's Day" - drawing protests from the local parish priest and tabloid media
Northern hopefuls Fighting With Wire and rising Dublin electro act Robotnik are among those set to play this year's HWCH festival, with the full line-up just announced.
Formed by four Sheffield school friends just a year-and-a-half ago, and signed to V2 within months, Little Man Tate have basically been fast-tracked to minor fame.
Music Review | Live
18% | 9 Mar 2005
Steve Cummins
Those in attendance are leaving for home grinning from ear to ear. Some can hardly speak. Those who can are uttering the words "fuckin’" and "amazin’".
Although under constant review, the word from the U2 camp is that they are still planning to go ahead with the return visit of the Elevation tour to North America.
I used to think that no movie with the word ‘gothic’ in the title – even one with questionable spelling – would be dafter than Ken Russell’s 1986 modern Prometheus, Gothic. I stand humbly corrected. It’s not that Gothika is all that bad. But mere words cannot convey just how risibly silly Mathieu Kassovitz’s supernatural thriller is.
In the '90s, hip-hop moved out of the streets into the world of big business. An avant-garde street art that expressed black consciousness lost its DIY ethic and became a commercially driven industry, spearheaded by Suge Knight and Puff Daddy.
In the '90s, hip-hop moved out of the streets into the world of big business. An avant-garde street art that expressed black consciousness lost its DIY ethic and became a commercially driven industry, spearheaded by Suge Knight and Puff Daddy.
Utilising the same phantasmagoric computer-rotoscoped animation he once employed for Waking Life, Richard Linklater has achieved something any sane, rational person would have thought impossible – he’s made a coherent film from Philip K. Dick’s labyrinthine A Scanner Darkly.
As one of Britain’s most consistent singles bands ever (in a six-year period between 1979 and 1985 their first twenty releases made the Top 20; spookily enough their twenty-first stalled at No.21), Madness were frequently under-rated by ‘serious’ critics on the rather patronising grounds that they seemed to be enjoying themselves a bit too much and therefore couldn’t be regarded as heavyweight contenders.
She may not be a native but Carol O'Beirne, Red FM chief executive, has fallen head-over-heels in love with her adopted home town of Cork. Here, she shares some of the city's secrets with us.
Only a filmmaker as distinguished and divinely gifted as Errol Morris could deliver a documentary portrait of Robert Mc Namara, one-time dread architect of the Vietnam War, which might rightly be described as oddly romantic.
Cork favourites The Berries are set to release their brand new EP ahead of the city’s stint as European Capital of Culture. Plus the usual round-up of news from the domestic front
Tim Booth is not a man who has ever been unduly troubled by contemporary notions of cool and un-cool. In the early nineties, when Nirvana were storming the barricades, Primal Scream had the nation under an acid-drenched groove and Kevin Shields was in the process of reinventing guitar music with Loveless, Booth and his cohorts in James were encouraging patrons at Student Union discos all around Britain to literally sit down to the strains of the anthemic stadium rawk number, er, ‘Sit Down’.
This issue’s forecast... a cold front moving in from the west guarantees a storming night of top tunes from The Blizzards in Whelan’s on September 11. The Mullingar act have been the subject of much attention of late.
hotpress.com can exclusively reveal the hundred or so acts that are getting offered a slot at the prestigious Hard Working Class Heroes Festival 2005. Selected by over 25 judges including the likes of Thrills & Humanzi manager Allan Cullivan
BellX1 have announced a run round Ireland in support of their Blue Lights On The Runway album, which is due on February 20 and is preceded by the lead single, ‘The Great Defector’.
Just what the hell are Wu-Tang Clan these days anyway? A finishing school for loony-tunesters like ODB, Raekwon, Redman and Method Man? A clothing label/video game franchise? A hip-hop Freemasonry who’ve ceased to exist as a unit per se, but whose name and trademark represent a code of ethics by which the new breed must be measured?
Superhate, a five piece band from Wicklow play raw, guitar-driven music. Here we have a three track demo which begins with ‘Hatpin’, an early Banshees-style horror-obsessional lyric linked to a driving backing.
Returning to vintage mode of several venues for year six Hard Working Class Heroes 2008 in Dublin from 12-15 September was the finest installation yet.
Sometimes symbols are powerful and universal; they carry an archetypal, numinous force. Sometimes symbols are subtle; only those trained psychoanalytically or esoterically can help you come to some understanding of what they mean to you.
I do not know now whether Dublin rent-boys now have anything like the same culture or cohesiveness. Perhaps they have faded away, having been replaced in the 90s by ice-cool bodybuilders who take credit cards over the phone.
Traditionally the highpoint of the autumn music calendar, the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival takes place for the seventh time over the October bank holiday weekend.
Politics | McCann
16% | 18 Feb 2003
Eamonn McCann
why unionists and nationalists helplessly wring their hands at job losses but go on the offensive over a city's name; the origin of the "axis of evil"; and a hail of abuse to the chief
A new initiative from Musicbase could help to win more airspace for Irish music here. It's just one of a range of ideas floated by industry leaders. Report: NIALL CRUMLISH.
Dundalk’s Spirit Store is one of the leading folk venues in the country. On evidence of its inaugural night, The Tall Poppy Club sees looks set to be the jewel in the crown. Also: Steve Earle and Billy Bragg, old dogs with new tricks.
why unionists and nationalists helplessly wring their hands at job losses but go on the offensive over a city's name; the origin of the "axis of evil"; and a hail of abuse to the chief
DURING THE 70s, Jim Moir comprised 20% of an ensemble known as the Fashionable Five who, for a laugh, once followed a complete stranger through their home town of Darlington, in single file, for half a mile.
In which the musical renaissance of Don Van Vliet continues apace (and at what a pace). Like 'Shiny Beast' and 'Doc At The Radar Station', Ice Cream For Crow mines the seams first deliriously pick-axed in the 69/70 Trout Mask/Decals period.
Think you've got them all right? Or maybe you fancy a sneaky peak (you're only cheating yourself you know!). Either way, you've got the questions – we've got the answers....
One of the music world s best-loved and most charismatic figures, IAN DURY finally lost his battle with cancer in March of this year. But as this edited extract from a major new biography by author RICHARD BALLS shows, Dury left life as he lived it fighting and smiling all the way
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
It reads like a scene from Twin Peaks but turns out to be far stranger than any fiction. Bill Graham dons his best John Travolta strides and eavesdrops on the American slants being given to Irish traditions at the Green Linnet Folk Weekender.
Pix: DAVID NEWTON.
Olaf Tyaransen travels to london to find out why spanking is as quintessentially english as roast beef and yorkshire pudding. “i’m not saying what we do at our parties is normal but it’s not abnormal either,” he’s told. this is his own hands-on account of all that you can’t leave behind
With the death of Kurt Cobain in April casting a shadow over the following months 1994 will hardly go down as one of the most joyous in Rock history. Your guide to a month-by-month account of the names and events of the past year. Stuart Clark.
