Niall Stokes: As a band you took more responsibility with In Blue you have a greater level of input into the production and so on. Was that a strain when you were doing it?
Glasgow on the morning of the release of Deacon Blue's second album, "When The World Knows Your Name", is bathed in sunshine boasting a skyline view of the drive from the airport that is in sharp contrast to the image entrenched on the cover of the band's debut album "Raintown". Bright and sharp, the morning reflects the initial impressions of the new record, the bustle of the first rush-hour of the day reflecting the urgency of the opening tracks, "Queen Of The New Year'', "Wages Day" and "Real Gone Kid".
Niall Stokes: As the drummer in a band, you re occupying a seat that s normally occupied by men.
Caroline Corr: It s a natural thing for boys to go for instead of girls. But I think there should be a lot more females playing. I don t know why they don t.
The glitz and glamour is but the tip of the iceberg a lot of blood, sweat and tears has also gone into making THE CORRS the huge success they are. And it s not just about the music either the tricky business they call show has to be negotiated too. NIALL STOKES gets the inside story from the captain of the ship, manager JOHN HUGHES, with supporting testimony from some of the crew.
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.
At the end of another eventful year, Andrea Corr takes time out to reflect on life, death, love, health, music and her role, off-stage and on, in the family that plays together. Interview: Niall Stokes
Jerry Fish – or if you prefer, Gerry Whelan – is what you might call a happy man right now. In fact, if the guy were any higher, the boys in blue would probably stop him on the street and ask him to piss into a cup. Not only is he preparing to close on his most successful professional year in a decade, he’s also received a rather momentous early Christmas present. Some 28 hours before our meeting, the singer’s partner Niki had given birth to a baby boy, their second child. Mr Fish, as you can imagine, is coasting on cigars and brandy and goodwill to all men.
The American interior has long influenced the music of Wilco. But frontman Jeff Tweedy, a confirmed member of liberal 'blue' US still feels deeply alienated from his nation’s conservative heartland.
Prior to their recent Dublin gig, THE BLUETONES talked to NADINE O REGAN about the fickleness of fame, artistic integrity, America and the dangers of sausage sponsorship!
As The White Stripes prepare to unleash another work of scuzz-bucket genius, frontman Jack White talks about his Catholic upbringing and explains why, as a teenager in blue collar Detroit, he fell hopelessly in love with the blues.
If the media are to be believed, we’re living in a hotbed of crime which is one of the most dangerous places in Europe. But, as SIMON BASKETTER discovers, the latest official figures simply don’t add up.
It used to be a dentist’s surgery and the interior décor might generously be described as “quixotic”, but The Chalets’ Paula Cullen wouldn’t dream of departing her well-populated Walkinstown residence.
A Private Members' Bill which aims to put ticket touts out of business will come before the Dail in September. Here we talk to some of the scalpers themselves, to get their reaction. By Peter Murphy.
Masters of the macabre the League Of Gentlemen have now extended their reign of terror beyond the confines of sinister township Royston Vasey. Their feature film sees Tubbs, Edward and the rest of the gang set their sights on a fresh target – the real world. Interview by Tara Brady.
Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden? It doesn t get much
better than this. JOE JACKSON goes
backstage for a brief but revealing encounter with Joni and, from a vantage point to die for, finds two 60s legends who can still send shivers up the spine at the end of the millennium.
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]
By any standards, The Corrs are an extraordinary phenomenon. It won't be long before the combined global sales of their albums to date top the 20 million mark. In Ireland alone, by the end of the year, they will have sold over a million records - at which point they may well have established themselves as the biggest-selling Irish act of all time on home turf.
No one has their ears sadistically sliced off with a cut-throat razor but there's savage revelry aplenty as Siobhan Long sets her watch to Hiney time and spends 24 hours in the dangerously
danceable company of Speranza.
What promoters and clubbers perceive as Garda heavy-handedness in the -war on drugs- is making life increasingly difficult for dance venues across the country. STUART CLARK reports.
Tabloids, those small, square, screeching newspapers in which England in particular specialises, have never really caught on in Ireland, certainly not in the same way that they have across the water. It’s certainly not because we don’t have the shock! horror! scandals needed to feed their hungry maw. In fact, some of the stuff that goes on in this country is actually too sensational for the sensational press.
Below, Liam Fay looks at some of the secrets in the lives of four famous Irish figures from the past hundred and fifty years or so and attempts to reinterpret them as a modern day tabloid would.
All of the ‘scandals’ alluded to are factual. Joyce was a coprophiliac, Yeats did have sheep glands inserted into his body, James Clarence Mangan was a phenomenal dipso and Michael Collins was, well, inordinately fond of wrestling.
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.
Where hip and hype go together, that's where you'll find The Hives who are buzzing to tell Stuart Clark all about Kylie, curling, punk rock, nice forests and bad Norwegian jokes
Niall Stokes: People would make an assumption that since The Corrs have sold millions of records, you ve already got it made. Does it feel like that to you?
And you will know him by the trail of defenders... almost as elusive off the pitch as he is on it, the 23-year-old from Ballyboden is being tipped by many to be one of the sensations of the forthcoming World Cup. But away from the pitch, you're unlikely to find 'the duffer' turning up in the pages of Hello. Though you may bump into him at a u2 gig...
Making her solo debut, Andrea Corr has set about re-casting herself as a vampish singer with a taste for dark beats and sultry wordplay. In a forthright interview, she talks about her unexpected re-invention.
He pioneered the art of glam-punk excess with the New York Dolls and now he's learned to grow old gracefully. Peter Murphy meets the boy from New York City, the ever cool David Johansen. Photos: MYLES CLAFFEY
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.
GARBAGE are a band who absorb all the detritus, darkness and despair of the pre-millennial zeitgeist and spit it back out in a torrent of searing guitars, futuristic technological trickery and lyrics that freeze the blood. They've also made two of the most sinister pop records of modern times - the second of which, Version 2.0, is due for imminent release. PETER MURPHY met them in London to discuss sex, surveillance, studio strife, pre-2000 tension and their special fondness for The Beach Boys.
An ex-con, a foe of The Krays and a man capable of such acts of violence that he once sliced off a prison guard s ear, Mad Frankie Fraser now makes quite a nice living for himself spinning yarns about his gangster years. Stuart Clark interrogates him about prison, drugs, the IRA, Arsenal and a novel theory on Veronica Guerin s murder which, Fraser insists, the Irish media haven t had the bottle to print. Mugshots: Cathal Dawson
Jape and Lisa Hannigan may inhabit opposite ends of the musical spectrum but their careers have followed remarkably similar paths. On the road together in the UK, he talks about bagging the Choice Music Prize and she discusses her dramatic split from Damien Rice
There’s no drink or drugs for Tommy Tiernan these days, but you couldn’t say his life is uneventful. In conversation with Olaf Tyaransen, the comedian reflects on tabloid interest in his private life, the night he had to get away from Jordan, the future for post-Catholic Ireland and the genius of Flann O’Brien and James Joyce. All this plus the unveiling of the secret tattoo. Photography by Mick Quinn.
From the funky opening strains of the first song, ‘Can’t Stop’, to the slowed down quasi-punk jam at the end of their final song, mega hit ‘Give It Away’, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were clearly amped up and prepared to give their all.
When the news came through it was well after midnight. The Hot Press production crew were doing their usual crazy stint trying to pin the beast down, and put it to bed. In the middle of the mayhem and the pressure, it still came as a terrible shock.
Following on from the orgy of excess that was the Christmas and New Year period, we’re sure that you’re all trying to undo the damage by cutting down on calories and making regular trips to the gym. Us? Well, we’re planning to spend even more time in 2004 sitting on our big fat wobbly arses.
Has an award ceremony in Ireland ever created such an optimistic buzz, or such a feverish sense of righteousness among the music community as the Choice Music Prize?
To borrow a line from the great Leonard Nimoy, this account of an alien encounter is true. And by true, we mean false. It’s all lies, but they’re entertaining lies, and in the end, isn’t that the real truth?
Four years is a hell of a long time in pop music – the fact that The Corrs could afford to lay low for such an extended period is a testament to the band’s confidence in their audience...
So what do I think of the World Cup draw, I hear you ask? Well, like most followers of the beautiful game, and many people who know bugger all about it, my instant reaction was one of considerable alarm.
Back in his native Dublin after another successful stint in the US, magician Keith Barry is a young mage in a hurry. But what’s this about being arrested for driving while blind-folded?
JACKIE HAYDEN reports on IMRO s recent CONFERENCE ON PIRACY in Dublin, where the music industry movers and shakers joined forces to discuss ways of fighting back against the pirates.
You may love them or loathe them but we'll bet you never thought THE CORRS played "British regional music". Peter Murphy observes The Observer getting its nationalities in a twist
Five albums, fifty-eight songs, sixty-eight pages of liner notes, one large container, and a title that's as bone-dry academic as anything you'll find sitting atop a legal document - against that backdrop, perhaps the first and most useful thing to say about Bob in the box is: don't be intimidated!
They may be Europe s premier exponents of dishevelled cool and string-laden romance, but, as tindersticks mainman stuart staples explains, there s always been that Nottingham Forest element to their music. We re 35% more popular in Greece than Sting, he tells a gobsmacked stuart clark.
Bowling down through the centre of the country on Friday afternoon en route from Derry to fabled Thurles I tune in to 2FM and hear that there are many thousands of folk already foregathered for the Féile. Also I hear the chief of the local gardai saying that so far the behaviour of all concerned has been 'perfect'.
