The legendary GRACE JONES is coming to Dublin.
OLAF TYARANSEN caught up with her in New York to talk about drugs, stalkers, her recent marriage and period pains.
She’s the post-modern starlet who is stalked by paparazzi wherever she goes but is as comfortable talking about Andy Warhol and John Updike as she is hanging with fashionistas. Say hello to Lady GaGa the good-time pop princess who went to school with Paris Hilton, cultivated a drug habit ‘cos that’s what David Bowie did in the ’70s, but thinks fame is just a game.
‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ used to be a pretty good song before it became a fairly awful movie. Now it will be impossible to listen to Percy Sledge’s tremblingly emotive cry from the heart without thinking of Andy Garcia giving moist-eyed Meg Ryan that puppy dog on prozac look.
Since the release of her debut album, Hardcore, a few years ago, former Junior M.A.F.I.A member and Notorious B.I.G. protegie Kimberly Jones has been brewing up a storm all on her own.
The debut solo album from Moloko singer Roisin Murphy embraces the avant-garde end of dance music. But it's still a great pop record. Interview by Peter Murphy.
…In October, actually. The reunited band’s guitarist and songwriter, Gary Kemp, talks about their rivalry with Duran Duran, inspiring Quentin Tarantino and the group’s long association with Ireland.
As the founder of Island Records Chris Blackwell can claim a unique role in the evolution of popular music. He pulls up a chair and shoots the breeze about his Jamaican heritage, his relationship with Bob Marley and taking power-lunches with U2.
No great surprise then that tonight’s audience was overwhelmingly female (average age early 30-something) and clearly out for a good time as they sang along to virtually every word of every song on Gabrielle’s hit-heavy set-list.
Blame Canada. And a bit of Portugal, apparently. Nelly Furtado is a twenty-three year old singer-songwriter who's 'I'm Like A Bird' single has proved a hit in the US, and if I'm not very much mistaken it's not going to be her last.
Known for his hyperactive - even threatening - live performances, Iggy Pop is sure to deliver one of Féile '93's most invigorating performances. Here, with an overview of the ex - Stooge's unconventional career, Hot Press prepares you for what's to come.
One of the greatest penslingers in rockdom, he’s championed U2, Joy Division and Kylie and taken a critical scalpel to Oasis, The Strokes and their “miserably narrow mates”. he’s also locked horns with Germaine Greer, helped Frankie to relax and let The Frames slip through his fingers.
As founder and director of the acclaimed choral group, Anuna, MICHAEL McGLYNN has established himself as one of the country's most gifted and innovated composers. However, he has also become a figure by some elements in the Irish Music Industry and been dismissed by others as a "pig ignorant arrogant bastard" Inetrview: LIAM FAY
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
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.
After being a magnet for A&R men during the 80s, Dublin has recently developed into something of an underachiever. The city may have the second biggest growth-rate in Europe but there are a hell of a lot of gigs and records that simply aren t selling. peter murphy casts a critical ear over the capital s music scene and decides that what s required is a full-scale artistic enema.
On their last album Slang, Def Leppard moved away from the stomping, Glam-influenced anthems with which they'd earned their fame and fortune and slipped into experimental mode but that album's looser, funkier structures were met with a distinct lack of interest from their fanbase and so, for Euphoria, they're back on more familiar ground.
So then: a Francophile Belinda Carlisle album featuring Brian Eno, Sharon Shannon and Fiachna O Braonain on songs written and/or popularised by Piaf, Brel, Gainsbourg and Hardy. I swear, I haven’t been at the brown acid.
Dream line-ups are occasions to be celebrated, so when news came through that some of the brightest lights emerging from the UK music scene were to converge on Fabric this Easter Bank Holiday weekend for what can only be described as one of the most exciting gigs so far this year, Hot Press felt it was only right to grab our trusty notebook and a hip flask of whiskey and get the hell down there.
Yeah, it’s got posthumous vocals from Kirsty MacColl, post-retirement ones from Sinéad O’Connor, and a Malawian rap artist jamming with a British soul singer on a track remixed by Rupert Christie.
IN THE cold light of 1999, it's easy to forget that reggae was once the hip-hop of its time, a well of indigenous black music used by every other mainstream act as a source of rejuvenation and inspiration.
Today sees the first unveiling of the complete Hot Press Covers Exhibition online, featuring a selection of the great and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards
Under the X-Press 2, Ballistic Brothers, Black Jazz Chronicles and Black Science Orchestra guises, Ashley Beedle has been responsible for all manner of funky, soulful dance music. Now he s gone and put together Influences, an album that documents his twenty-year-long obsession with music. Words: Richard Brophy.
There’s a 30 minute break before Bono reappears to introduce the Cat formerly known as Stevens, Yusuf Islam. “A seeker,” he pronounced. “A troubadour. A pilgrim. A poet. A guitar picker. A natty dresser. A singer and writer of some of the best songs ever written. A serious Cat.”
It was obvious right from the start that there was more to Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart than the restricting format of The Tourists would ever be capable of revealing.
John Lennon is back but trust him to deflate the expectations that have been invested in his return. The message of Double Fantasy is that he and Yoko won't be anybody's heroes if they can't be each other's. This is a family album, Yoko's as much as his.
While Electric Picnic did not lack for non-musical highlights, the hottest action was to be found on stage, where the likes of the Sex Pistols and My Bloody Valentine whipped up a storm.
The cream of the crop from Saturday's live pictures, taking in Crystal Castles, Elbow, Duffy, Franz Ferdinand, Grace Jones, Lisa Hannigan and tonnes more!
Some of the country's leading music industry figures joined thousands of people for the Music Show, a two-day celebration of all that's good about the recording arts in Ireland.
