The family courts have traditionally favoured women over men when deciding issues of child custody. Adrienne Murphy discovers that fathers are fighting back.
The Answer have played to almost a million people on the current AC/DC tour. Not bad for an indie hard rock band from Norn Iron. Singer Cormac Neeson gives us the skinny on Angus Young’s love of Rory Gallagher, meeting Alice Cooper, and why Hunger is required tour bus viewing.
Seven years after his last solo LP, David Holmes lost his father. That trauma, and working on the Bobby Sands-era drama Hunger, seem to have brought a new humanity to his work.
Ex-IRA man Gerry Kelly talks to Jason O'Toole about his run-ins with the British Army, his near death experiences, the part he played in inflicting civilian casualties and his time on hunger strike.
Former British soldier BERNARD O MAHONEY served in Northern Ireland during the H-Block Hunger Strike. Now, he has written a book about the reality of army life for a typical squaddie a reality where ideas of decency, fairness and the rule of law were often left behind. Words: NIALL STANAGE. Pictures: PETER MATTHEWS
Columnist Kevin Myers called her “our pretty little she-shinner” but an unimpressed Mary Lou McDonald insists that her party is actually run by a group of formidable women. She also reveals that she believes Gerry Adams when he says he was never in the IRA, defends Sinn Fein’s fund-raising, discusses the release of Jerry McCabe’s killers, and names her least favourite irish politicians. plus: the newly elected MEP’s views on drink, drugs, music, media, religion, and more.
The Christy Moore Interview by Bill Graham
Christy Moore is out on his own. He can't be limited as just a folk singer or a popular artist. Rather he's increasingly an Irish national fixture with an influence far beyond the mere entertainer's reach.
It was a great night for the Irish music community as David Holmes bagged an IFTA for his Hunger score, while Maria Doyle Kennedy scooped the Best Supporting Actress award.
Silent Grace, the new movie about the hunger strikes and dirty protests by women in armagh prison, brilliantly confounds expectations. Tara Brady meets its director Maeve Murphy
Confronted as we are these days by hordes of fame-hunger, toxic, teen princesses – Stefani’s odd-ball, retro-futurist bubblegum pop can be seen as a heartening example of individuality in a field that’s more often creepily exploitative and conformist.
As Northern Ireland begins to cash in on its recent history, NIALL STANAGE takes a West Belfast taxi tour around the area s landmarks. Pics: PETER MATTHEWS
Undead, shape-shifting ghouls who can only be killed by fire may be the stuff of lore. But Dublin resident and ‘sanguinarian’ Lily will happily feed on the intoxicating lifeblood of her fellow mortals. Here it is folks: an honest-to-god interview with the vampire
Jailed in the '70s and '80s for gun-running and membership of the IRA, Kerry-born MARTIN FERRIS was one of the most senior Republican figures in the south to throw his weight behind the Sinn Fiin-backed peace process. Now, a Kerry County Councillor with ambitions to take a Dail seat, Ferris has earned a particular reputation for being tough on drugs in his native Tralee.
Interview: NIALL STANAGE.
helena mulkerns travelled deep into the heart of indian country to encounter the Choctaw Nation and discovered not just a place of stunning beauty, but a people with unique and lasting links to Ireland.
Pix: helena mulkerns
Northern rockers Therapy? are back in the saddle with their tenth studio album Never Apologise, Never Explain – and as Andy Cairns tells Tanya Sweeney, their rabble rousing punk ethic remains as sharply ingrained as ever.
They all left poxy factory jobs to be in a band, they used to dress in Clockwork Orange costume onstage, and they confess that they only signed to their current label so that one of them could sleep with Saffron from Republica. They are THE JOSEPHS, and your host is PETER MURPHY.
Cellos, harps and horns collide with magical results on the album of the summer, if not the year, from cult \bermensch BADLY DRAWN BOY. KIM PORCELLI reads between the lines
The Corrs hit paydirt with In Blue, an album of memorable pop songs that topped the charts in over twenty countries around the world. It gave them the breathing space they needed to re-establish their roots, to live a little and to reassess their purpose as a band. Now, with the release of Borrowed Heaven, they’re back in the music biz frontline – slightly older, considerably wiser, but still with the same hunger to make great and honest records.
A year after Mic Christopher’s untimely death, his family and friends are celebrating his life and music with the release of his Skylarkin’ album and a star-studded gala live performance
IN THE FIRST PART OF A WORLD EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW IN THE LAST ISSUE OF HOT PRESS, BONO UNVEILED THE NEW U2 ALBUM, SPOKE ABOUT ITS GENESIS IN CYBERPUNK LITERATURE AND THE BAND'S HUNGER TO PUSH ROCK'N'ROLL TO ITS LIMITS. HERE HE ELABORATES ON HOW U2 GO ABOUT WRITING THEIR SONGS AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF GLOBAL CHAOS, HIS ARTISTIC REFERENCE POINTS OUTSIDE MUSIC, THE SUBVERSIVE POWER OF HUMOUR, AND HOW HE ADMIRES THOSE WHO 'PARTICULARLY AGGRESSIVELY' DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD. AND THEN THERE'S THE STORY ABOUT JOHNNY CASH AND THE EMU. CAN THIS MAN BE FOR SURREAL? INTERVIEW:JOE JACKSON.
A defining personality of the seismic changes in Northern Ireland, Billy Hutchinson is a paramilitary turned politician, a convicted UVF murderer who spent 16 years in the Maze and who will now represent the PUP in the new Assembly. But if Hutchinson has abandoned violence, it hasn’t altogether abandoned him. As he reveals in this interview with niall stanage, there have been three attempts on his life by the INLA in the last 18 months.
Pics: Michael Taylor.
The furies have been unleashed over the small matter of a wash and blow-dry for Mary Harney. In the spirit of Christmas, it might be wiser to think: let he who is without sin cast the first stone...
How does a parent react when a teenage son commits a horrific murder? In what has been a surprise best-seller, Lionel Shriver has confronted a taboo subject – with chilling results.
She’s no saint. She swears and smokes and doesn’t think she’ll go to heaven. But the one-time Dublin street kid has used the nightmare of her own past life to help make unlikely dreams come true for abandoned children across the world. Peter Murphy hears her extraordinary story.
ADRIENNE MURPHY reports on the sacking of scientist DR ARPAD PUSZTAI following a recent World In Action TV special on genetic engineering and talks to The Guardian’s environment editor, John Vidal, about his sometimes vexed encounters with the Monsanto group.
This year’s Heineken Green Energy festival has something for every music lover. Whether anthemic stadium rock (Snow Patrol) is your thing or you enjoy boisterous pop (Kaiser Chiefs), it’s a festival packed with sonic treats.
A great many of us lost the run of ourselves during the Celtic Tiger epoch – the trad community included. But now that the arse has fallen out of the economy, maybe it’s time musicians went back to their roots
There’s more to Electric Picnic than rock and roll. One of the non-musical highlights this year will be a political gabfest, hosted by none other than RTÉ presenter of the moment Ryan Tubridy...
When former IRA prisoner Marion Price decided to go public about the intimidation she claims to have suffered,
she did so on Radio Free Iireann. STUART CLARK reports on the New York station that s providing a focal point for dissident Republican opinion.
Grunge titans Alice in Chains are back after a 14 year hiatus. They talk about the tragic death of vocalist Layne Staley, working with Elton John and keeping the spirit of the early ‘90s alive.
They may have started out as avant garde indie noisemongers, but The Flaming Lips have matured into one of the greatest and most musical bands on Planet Earth. Plus, they do an utterly magnificent live show!
LA, Joshua Tree, Alabama, New Orleans . . . Kristin Hersh verbally back-packs her way around the most significant places in her life and career thus far.
Interview: Nick Kelly.
These days you're more likely to meet a witch at the frontlines of mass anti-globalisation rallies than on the mountain tops under a full moon. Renowned American witch and author Starhawk tells Adrienne Murphy why.
TERRY EAGLETON, English professor at Oxford University, has just published The Truth About The Irish. But is it fact or fiction?
NIALL STANAGE investigates. Pics: Cathal Dawson.
CATHY DILLON chats to Dubliner JIMMY SMALLHORNE, writer and director of 2by4, an acclaimed new film charting the lives of young gay Irish immigrants in New York.
Moving Hearts were of the most provocative trad groups to emerge from Ireland, with songs that touched on fraught issues such as the northern troubles. Now they’re back for a much-anticipated reunion show. But will the band stay together in the long term?
MICHAEL NOONAN may be the most follicularly-challenged member of the Fine Gael front bench but he is also seen by some as the party's leader in waiting, the only person capable of bringing about the kind of revitalisation which has so conspicuously eluded John Bruton. Now aged fifty, Noonan was for years known as the man who as Minister for Justice in the mid-eighties exposed the Sean Doherty bugging scandal and ordered the release of Nicky Kelly. More recently, however, he has achieved real fame as a Scrap Saturday caricature. Interview: LIAM FAY.
The inaugural Thirst event in Cork featured Paul Oakenfold, a DJ competition for some of Ireland’s best emerging spindoctors and 1,200 up-for-it clubbers determined to have the night of their lives
LOST LIVES, the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of The Troubles, is one of the most remarkable and essential books of our time. NIALL STANAGE interviews one of its authors, BRIAN FEENEY, and on the opposite page, recounts how his own life was touched by a violent chapter that many now hope is drawing to a close.
Great weather for ducks, they say. This island has been deluged. Inundated. East to west, south to north. And it is, if anything, worse to the east. The Rhine is already many metres above normal as far inland as Köln. By the time it subsides, billions of marks worth of damage will have been done.
PAUL BRADY has had an embattled career. In the course of it, he has made great music, won new fans and lost old friends. He has written powerful songs, locked horns with his record company, even contemplated quitting the business entirely. Now finally, he has come to new realisations about himself and about the enduring power of love. Interview: JOE JACKSON.
People are dying on the streets of Dublin. Sometimes it’s a result of the lethal cocktail of homelessness and drugs. For others, it’s just that the wear and tear catches up with them. In a country awash with money, will no one give these outsiders an even break?
. . . who is the sexiest of them all? Helen MIRREN, apparently, at least according to readers of the Radio Times, who recently voted her the sexiest woman on TV. Which may be flattering but possibly also does a disservice to a gifted actress who has no qualms about speaking her mind whether on nudity, money, the stage, television or even the cowardly assholes who bomb for Ireland. Interview: Joe Jackson
In the second and final part of an extensive interview, director Jim Sheridan discusses his troubles with Gabriel Byrne and Noel Pearson, explains why he could marry Daniel Day-Lewis but would fail to measure up against Richard Harris, and suggests the best way forward for the embattled Irish film industry. Plus: the ouija board prophecies which seem to have shaped his life. By Joe Jackson.
Siobhan MacGowan s debut album Chariot confirms that the sister of you-know-who is a force to be reckoned with in her own right. Here she tells Joe Jackson how her music charts an emotional journey from darkness into light. Pix: COLM HENRY
In the first part of an extensive two-part interview, writer and director Jim Sheridan explains how 90% of what he creates is rooted in the tension that existed between himself and his dad. By Joe Jackson.
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
There's another Belfast, an alternate dimension populated by C.S. Lewis, Van and your host and spirit guide, Duke Special, who's just released his latest album.
Over the past twenty-five years, attitudes and experiences in the North’s two biggest cities, Belfast and Derry, have been markedly and vitally different. To understand why may help us to define both the opportunities for and the obstacles to peaceful change. Report: BILL GRAHAM
He may indeed be from Limerick but if you think you’re going to get a subheadline that mentions bringing home the bacon, acting the ham or even being on the pig’s back, then you’re sadly mistaken. Instead we’re going to keep things simple. Mick Hanly has just released a new album entitled Happy Like This. What better occasion for Jackie Hayden to visit him in his Kilkenny home and look back over his career to date, and to remember the days when he hadn’t a sausage (would you cut the crap, please? – Ed)? Pix.: Brendan Fitzpatrick.
John Noonan, who played a pivotal role in the IRA’s military campaign against the British occupation of Northern Ireland, gives a revealing interview to Jason O'Toole.
The murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson sent shockwaves throughout Ireland and beyond. As was the case with the murder of Pat Finucane almost exactly ten years before, there are suspicions of security force collusion, and a feeling that anyone who speaks out for the beleaguered nationalist community is putting their own life in Danger. Report: Niall Stanage.
White English writer WILLIAM SHAW spent months in South Central LA documenting the lives of would-be rap stars and the young men fighting to survive in the ghetto. His book, Westsiders, is the result. He spoke to PETER MURPHY
Melissa Auf Der Maur, the former Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist, on working with Courtney Love and Billy Corgan, and finding her own space in the male locker room. Interview by Peter Murphy.
BERNADETTE SANDS-McKEVITT, sister of Bobby Sands, is vice chairperson of the 32-County Sovereignty Committee, a body which has taken the lead in offering public opposition to Sinn Féin's peace strategy. Over the course of an historic weekend in Ireland north and south, NIALL STANAGE spoke to her about life as a Republican dissident.
ned o'hanlon and maurice linnane, the men behind media company dreamchaser productions, aren't given to false modesty. And why should they be, given that their recent list of clients includes Garth Brooks, U2 and the Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame? siobhÁN LONG meets the men who once adopted Gary Oldman for an all-night bender in America.
The most momentous journalistic event of the decade nay, the millennium has come to pass. They said it could never happen, but after months of careful pre-planning and tense negotiation, nick kelly has finally interviewed NICK KELLY. Here, the Stars Of Heaven fan remorselessly grills the former Fat Lady Sings mainman about his long sabbatical from the music industry, his perception of modern culture, and his cracking new album Between Trapezes. Pix, gimmicky t-shirts and
unfeasibly large trousers: mick RAGING PUFF QUInn.
To celebrate hotpress’s thirtieth anniversary issue, we thought we’d break out the bubbly (and the tea!) and invite round a collection of Ireland’s biggest stars.
From Belfast, NIALL STANAGE reports on the still-growing controversy surrounding Brian Nelson, British Intelligence and the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane.
Sinn Fiin s first sitting TD since 1918 chooses his words carefully for the Hot Press Political Interview. I m not measured or calculating, he explains, this is me. As I am. LIAM FAY fires the questions. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
They may not be that just yet but if current plans for global domination go according to the script Linkin Park will be very soon. Stuart Clark travels to London to hear the band’s new album Meteora and finds that American rock’s hottest property are surrounded by the kind of security normally reserved for Michael Jackson
Sinn Féin’s first sitting TD since 1918 chooses his words carefully for the Hot Press Political Interview. “I’m not measured or calculating,” he explains, “this is me. As I am.” Liam Fay fires the questions. Pic: Cathal Dawson
Mary Robinson's frustration with the obstacles placed in the path of the struggle for human rights reflects a deeper and wider world problem - the spread of a new inTolerance which places profit before people and is even prepared to go to war to defend its supremacy. here, Michael D. Higgins TD makes an impassioned plea for change
Sharp suits, a global fan base, his own luxury recording studio - David Gray has certainly come a long way. On the eve of the release of his latest album, he talks about the dark side of success and explains why he wants to leave the singer-songwriter tag behind
n a career spanning 25 years in the glare of the stagelight, CHRISTY MOORE has known every emotion from insecurity, despair and vilification to adulation, triumph and the warm glow of creative fulfilment. He has dabbed in drugs, drink to excess, suffered a heart attack for his troubles and made some of the finest records that have ever been subjected to critical scrutiny in this country. Now, in a frighteningly honest interview, he tells it like it is and was. Cross-examination: JOE JACKSON. Microscopic camerawork: COLM HENRY.
He’s one of the last great orators in Irish politics. But there’s more to Joe Higgins TD than firebrand socialism. In this candid interview, the man once described as a ‘nitwit’ by an enraged Bertie Ahern talks about his childhood, the role of the church in his life and explains why the Celtic Tiger has let Ireland down
He’s one of the last great orators in Irish politics. But there’s more to Joe Higgins TD than firebrand socialism. In this candid interview, the man once described as a ‘nitwit’ by an enraged Bertie Ahern talks about his childhood, the role of the church in his life and explains why the Celtic Tiger has let Ireland down
As the body double for Saddam Hussein's son, Latif Yahia suffered several assassination attempts. Having escaped to Offaly, the controversial figure is now seriously at odds with his adopted country.
Metallica are back with an album that recaptures their brain-frying '80s pomp. Frontman James Hetfield talks about the dark side of hedonism and his love of Thin Lizzy.
In 1992, following seventeen years of dedicated research and having overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, George Smoot made what Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History Of Time, described as “the scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time“ – ripples in the fabric of space-time that validate the theory of The Big Bang. GERRY McGOVERN meets GEORGE SMOOT on the publication of his new book, Wrinkles In Time
Don’t go, they said. but they didn’t follow their own advice. Now, after much professional and personal upheaval, the Hothouse Flowers are back, once more in love with the idea of “ringin’ the bell”.
MARILYN MANSON may be the epitome of Middle America's worst nightmare but, as STUART CLARK discovers, he's not that bad, really. On the agenda: Bono, Eminem, Moby, George W. Bush and the Columbine shootings
The Edge talks to Bill Graham about his soundtrack album "Captive" - and about the hidden reservoirs the band are charting in their search for the follow-up to "The Unforgettable Fire"
The Make Poverty History marches in Dublin and Edinburgh were among the biggest political demonstrations in years. Rory Hearne kept a diary of an inspiring week on the barricades.
Hot Press have teamed up with Concern for a special creative writing competition, where you can tell us what you would write to US President Obama on one of several global issues. Entries are still welcome, but hurry – the closing date is coming up!
Recently returned from a visit to Baghdad, MICHAEL D. HIGGINS calls on Ireland to take a lead in demanding an end to sanctions against Iraq, arguing that Saddam Hussein can never justify the deaths of children and the use of long-suffering civilians, as tools of opposition to his regime.
Ah yes, the glamorous life of the rock n rolling travel writer. Getting to see u2 live in Austria was a delectable piece of cake for liam fay. But getting back again that was when the dream turned into a nightmare.
Will genetic engineering be a force for good or for evil? And since the genie is already out of the bottle, is even that profound question becoming redundant? GERRY McGOVERN delves into the worrying, wonderful and definitely weird world of genetics. The future starts here.
While the path to rock n roll stardom is never smooth, RICHARD ASHCROFT has experienced more ups and downs than most. In a wide-ranging interview with DAVE FANNING, he talks about drugs, The Verve, his new solo album and why the old hometown doesn t look so bad.
There are no saints in love. That’s a lesson The Frames’ mainman Glen Hansard learned the hard way – and which he articulates in the bittersweet love songs that make up much of the band’s new album The Cost. Hot Press hits the road with the band for an extended interview, conducted in radio studios, backstage areas, tour buses – and one very dedicated fan’s house.
Following the sudden death of his girlfriend in the early ’90s, traumatised US writer Bill Carter took off for the unlikely destination of war-torn Sarajevo. Whilst there, he established a series of satellite link-ups with U2’s Zooropa tour, which still rank among the most divisive and controversial moments of the band’s career. Despite the subsequent media fallout, an unconsummated affair with an indian supermodel, and several brushes with death, Bill Carter has lived to tell his extraordinary tale.
This week sees the unleashing this week of The Spirit Of Freedom, Christy Moore’s legendary “lost” album, which received only a limited vinyl release in 1985.
Or, Augusten Burroughs And The Art Of Magical Thinking. Peter Murphy talks to the bestselling author about his troubled upbringing in rural Massachusetts, the long and strange series of events that led to him becoming a writer, and why his current personal and professional happiness may just mean that his extraordinary story has a happy ending after all. Photography by Emily Quinn.
When Richard O' Brien put Dr. Frank' N' Furter into fishnets just over 20 years ago, few could have predicted the cult that would grow up around the Rocky Horror Show. Fay Wolftree genderbenders her way through a history of Transylvanian transvestism.
As the new leader of the SDLP and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland, MARK DURKAN will have plenty to occupy his mind in 2002. Here he talks about the early death of his father, politics and paramilitaries in the North, the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, his opposition to Sellafield and membership of Greenpeace – and what Mo Mowlam might have piped into the Good Friday talks!
Words: JOE JACKSON
With the opinion polls predicting a tight finish in the upcoming General Election, there is an increasing likelihood that the Greens will play a part in the next Government. So what is their leader Trevor Sargent really made of?
JOHN WHELAN journeys through the former Yugoslavia with New Age travellers, the Rainbow tribe, on the occasion of the 12th European Rainbow gathering which, this year, was held in Slovenia. The event encapsulated the very essence of international socialism; and the earthy conditions in which it was held only served to underline its lineage with the true spirit of Woodstock.
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
Yup, we thought you'd like our stab at a tabloid headline. Thing is, there was a time when Danny Boy O'Connor looked inexorably set on a course for the California State Penitentiary. Then he discovered the therapeutic qualities of the House Of Pain and apart from the odd skirmish with the 2FM Roadcaster, there's been no looking back since. Crime reporter: Stuart Clark.
WHILE HE WAS BEING TERRORISED AND BRUTALISED IN MONNOWITZ, LEON GREENMAN MADE A DEAL WITH GOD: IF HE WAS TO BE ALLOWED TO SEE THE OUTSIDE OF THE DEATH CAMPS AGAIN, HE WOULD DEVOTE HIS LIFE TO TELLING THE WORLD WHAT HAPPENED THERE. NOW, AS DENIAL OF THE HOLOCAUST CONTINUES TO AID THE INSIDIOUS RISE OF THE FASCIST MOVEMENT IN EUROPE, IT IS MORE VITAL THAN EVER THAT HIS STORY IS TOLD. REPORT: GERRY McGOVERN.
Never has a leader of a government so suicidally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory as Albert Reynolds has. BILL GRAHAM mulls over the reasons why.
An aristocrat turned rock’n’roll promoter, Lord Henry Mountcharles has been one of the most intriguing figures in Irish public life over the past twenty years. On the eve of Madonna’s hugely anticipated gig at Slane Castle, Mountcharles talks to Hot Press about his priviledged upbringing, studying at Harvard, running for electoral office, experimenting with drugs, meeting U2, Guns n’ Roses and David Bowie, and his encounters with UFO's. Photography Cathal Dawson
It's time to lock up your sons, daughters, pet poodle and drinks cabinet, as eight of Ireland's top bands descend on the venue, london, for the first major Hot Press-sponsored musical event of the year.
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.
With their biggest dates ever in Ireland looming, LIAM MACKEY dips into voluminous hotpress archives and selects a small sample of what the paper said about U2 over the years
In a remarkably honest interview, which directly preceded the death of his mother, Jonathan Rhys Meyers reflects on his spells in rehab and discusses life as one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors.
He was a literary sensation, a writer with the outlaw charm of a rock star. But when rumours began to circulate that JT LeRoy was nothing more than a post-modern media prank, Peter Murphy, a friend and confidante, found himself caught up in an extraordinary story.
Did you hear the one about the Clare man who loves Dublin and is less than enamoured with rural Ireland?
Or the staunch Labour Party man who doesn’t worship Dick Spring?
Or the politician whose fed up to the teeth with political correctness?
Then you haven’t heard about PAT UPTON, Labour TD for Dublin South Central.
LIAM FAY did, and now it’s your turn.
Pix: COLM HENRY
How The White Stripes turned the bare essentials into an essential noise, insisted that three is indeed a magic number and wound up becoming one of the most phenomenally successful rock acts in the world
It’s a different world than it used to be! In this special extended birthday column, The Hog takes a necessarily selective – and typically colourful – look at the 30 most important influences on the process of change that has brought this country all the way from there to… well, where else but here?
When Nirvana exploded out of Seattle with the classic grunge album Nevermind, they were hailed as modern primitives, punk upstarts whose hard musical edge and authentic street style were the antithesis of the dominant ethos of corporate rock. Two years on however, their reputation as Rock 'n' Roll rebels is somewhat less secure. Bill Graham sifts through two new biographies of the band, and talks to Victoria clarke, the co-author of a third which has been effectively surpressed by the Nirvana 'corporation'.
Make no mistake about it, cocaine is more widely available in Ireland than at any time in the past. But is it the nasty, evil and dangerous drug of tabloid legend? In this Special Hot Press Report, Olaf Tyaransen goes behind the myths to uncover the history of, and the facts about, what has been dubbed the Champagne Drug. He talks to the Gardai and to dealers – and offers an honest assessment, from his own personal experience, of the drug that's widely used by musicians, media types, accountants, advertising execs and lawyers.
The recipient of a Late Late Show tribute and the outgoing presenter of The Arts Show, MIKE MURPHY avails of a timely opportunity to reflect on the highs and lows of his personal and professional life and to assure JOE JACKSON that, contrary to certain popular mythology, he is neither a marshmallow nor a flowerpot man
So this is Christmas and what have we done... As U2 prepare to enter the final yearof the decade, Bono devotes a long night at his home in Dublin to reflecting on his life, his music and U2's extraordinary career to date. Interview: Liam Mackey
If you sign 4 friends up to hotpress.com we're going to give you a "Festival Pack"
OFFER NOW SOLD OUT!
Just like Oxegen, this offer is now sold out
To all those who availed of it ENJOY the show!
This album makes for harrowing reading and melancholy listening, but Harte’s strong high tenor and Lunny’s restrained accompaniment carry it off beautifully.
Barack Obama makes history on January 20 as he becomes the 44th President of the United States. To celebrate the occasion, Hot Press has a load of American-themed treats in store...
Flying solo for his first hometown show in over four years, the full force of Carroll’s voice shines through, with simple guitar and piano backing bringing to the fore his strong lyrical ability.
Once upon a time, it was almost too easy to denounce Gabrielle as an anodyne chanteuse who simply got lucky with her radio-friendly hit ‘Dreams’ 11 years ago...
Out of the ashes of a fairly unassuming Dublin outfit called Listo, Humanzi have arisen, phoenix-style, to become our new Great White Hope and the frontrunner of a new music scene.
Shelby's got a brand new bag, okay. And look. And sales pitch. And slightly-altered style, being touted as the next Shania Twain, the new "wonder woman" out of Nashville. The truth is she's still the 'wonder woman' she was back in '93, when, with cropped hair French beret and her own big band, she released the smouldering Temptation album.
Christy Moore headlines a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. At short notice, Moore recruited artists such as Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, Mary Coughlan and Declan Sinnott. Together they served up a feast of folk and blues.
It’s not often that people start queuing outside London’s Koko at 5pm – the last time was for Madonna, and that was Madonna. Tonight though, the Doherty-ites are making sure Babyshambles’ UK tour kicks off in style.
A terrific boy’s own adventure shot through with Herzog’s deliciously dark wit and Bale’s unnerving rawness, in a season of mind numbing Iraq movies, this is the war film to beat.
Weird Canadians rule the indie clubs and nervy Brooklyn David Byrneophiles are keeping t-shirts stripy and hair boot-polish black, and meanwhile here reappears a band with a Stones fetish and a predisposition to grindy, sawdust-floored, sub-Dirtbombs bar-fight blues.
It’s refreshingly pleasant to watch sets by bands that seem so thrilled and honoured to be playing on a decent stage in front of a healthy-sized audience.
It was the play that took dramatist Tarell McCraney from obscurity to Broadway acclaim - a progression that was all the more impressive considering its minuscule budget.
Katie Kirby may be only in her early 20s, but a healthy appetite for acting means that her appearance in Great Expectations at Dublin's The Gate will cap a prolific year.
Since records began, popular music has maintained a healthy and unstinting preoccupation with political issues. GERRY McGOVERN namechecks some of the artists who have nurtured such links and argues that even music which ostensibly extricates itself from the issues of the day, is itself inherently political.
Paddy C. Courtney may be bidding “adieu” to The Comedy Cellar, but there’s a new crop of testosterone-filled freaks waiting to take over at dublin’s most famous chuckle palace.
The surprise passing of Stephen Gately forces us to reconsider questions of life and mortality
– and to wonder if there ever really is such a thing as fate.
IT is all highly entertaining. In men s athletics, the traditional dominance of white athletes was overturned a long time ago. At first it was the Kenyans and the Ethiopians displaying a prowess in long-distance running that required the wholesale rewriting of the record books. Then black American, British, Canadian and Jamaican athletes began to come through in the sprints. Then gradually a bunch of middle-distance runners followed on, to fill in the gaps.
It was another spectacular own goal by Immigration Control. Nineteen Moldovan workers arrived in Dublin Airport last week. They had valid visas and work permits. Despite that fact, however, they were questioned for between two and four hours by immigration officials at the airport - and then refused entry.
THE CATHOLIC Church will legalise the pill. The IRA will cease firing. The reasons given in both cases will be fascinating, the language used a testimony to diplomacy and delicacy.
On the occasion of Mr McCartney’s recent visit to this country and in a welcome contribution to the on-going debate on the merits or otherwise of popular culture, our Mr Snort explains why the Beatles were a load of shite.
The internet is a wonderful creation – but there’s a dark side to email and social networking. All too often, it has the paradoxical effect of isolating us from those with whom we should be closest.
As part of the build-up to Music Ireland ’06 in the RDS next month, hotpress has launched a nationwide campaign to encourage musicians to support their local instrument shop. Jackie Hayden explains the central importance of the local store to the Irish music industry – and to every musician’s livelihood.
Mainstream opinion on Third World debt as espoused by Geldof, Blair et al is grievously wrong. Plus reflections on the many bitter ironies at the heart of the Bloody Sunday inquiry.
If Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ is to be true to the bible then it has no alternative to be anti-semitic. Plus: why Sir Bob and Bono are on the wrong side.
2004 was dominated by the Special Committe on the Traditional Arts’ failure to agree on the way forward for traditional music. Elsewhere, the TG4 National Music Awards attracted major attention and Music Network continued to do an estimable job of getting traditional music into new venues around the country.
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.
The Corrib gas project has long been a source of controversy, with allegations of intimidation and Garda man-handling of anti-Shell protestors. The arrival of the pipe-laying ship The Solitaire sees things taking an even more dramatic turn, as local fisherman Pat O’Donnell and his son Jonathan prepare to make a stand.
The Irish were out in force at MIDEM, the annual music industry bash held in Cannes, in the south of France last week. With Irish music’s international stock running high and the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Michael D. Higgins on hand to lend his support, it proved to be a very interesting year. Report: Niall Stokes.
