He may be better known as manager of The Corrs – but John Hughes has been a musician for well over 30 years. Besides, with a US top 50 album to his credit in the 1980s, his new record – the remarkable Wild Ocean – is just the latest instalment in an extraordinary journey that has taken him close to the edge and back. interview: Niall Stokes
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 Talk On Corners was the biggest-selling album of 1998 in the UK. So far it s shifted 6 million copies worldwide and rising. And now the band are set to embark on their American campaign, with who knows what ultimate destination at journey s end. So they ve had it easy, eh? It s all a big marketing scam, masterminded by the moguls in the American record company that signed them? We thought you d like to know so we put these and other accusations to someone who should know, their manager of nine years, john hughes. And got some interesting answers too. Interview: niall stokes.
John Hughes used to make movies about alienated teenagers (The Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) but now he is more likely to make movies that will alienate them.
She learned her craft with the Wild Oscars and Kaydee, and more recently featured on the John Hughes album Wild Ocean. Now, Tara Blaise has taken flight with the release of her debut album Dancing On Tables Barefoot – a record that unveils an impressively free-spirit and a desire to live life to the full.
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.
The official opening of The Music Show will take place in Trinity College, with an interview with Island records founder Chris Blackwell conducted by our very own Stuart Clark.
Whether or not the world needs a new wave of tributes to John Hughes' teen-Bratpack films of the '80s must be a matter of opinion, but it seems we might have to brace ourselves anyway.
The former South African President, Nelson Mandela, got up to dance to The Corrs in Galway. Then he asked them to guest at his 85th birthday party. How could they refuse?
Andrea Corr as the "local girl" who falls for a fiddle player from Liverpool? Yep, when she reignites her acting career to star in romantic musical-comedy the Great Ceili War
It’s a long time since they graced the stadium circuit, but Simple Minds are still thinking big. Jim Kerr takes time out from sunning himself in Sicily to tell Ed Power their plans.
The Corrs sign up with the planet's leading "sports, entertainment and lifestyle" marketing agency (other clients: the Williams sisters, Man United) - and, in other news, get barked at by Iggy Pop
As the management force behind Boyzone, Westlife and Samantha Mumba, LOUIS WALSH is Ireland s Mr. Pop. In a candid interview with Joe Jackson he talks about his relationships with his acts, the ones that got away, the importance of the producer, the uselessness of critics and why he s unlikely to end up managing Van Morrison. Portraits: Cathal Dawson
Ten, nine, eight… we count down the contenders for 2003. Words Hannah Hamilton, Colin Carberry, Niall Stokes, Richard Brophy, John Walshe, Eamon Sweeney and Stuart Clark
Niall Stokes: With this record you took on responsibilities as a group which were significantly greater than had been the case before, in terms of shaping the record, being involved in production. How did that affect the process?
A chick-flick with attitude, a delicious comedy that’s become a phenomenon in the States, and a journey into the hellish world of teen girl bullying – there are plenty of good reasons why Mean Girls is one of the movies of the year.
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?
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
He began working in music as a drummer, but Dave Pennefather's greatest success has been as MD of Universal Music. Hot Press looks back over the life and times of a man with a larger than life reputation.
THE CORRS' public image is one of unblemished beauty and soaraway success. But beneath the pop sheen lurk the darker lyrical themes of Andrea
Corr.
JOE JACKSON talks to her about the inspiration behind some of the Corrs' biggest hits, hears her anger at recent critical reaction and finds out what "Ireland's sexiest woman" really thinks about love, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and the whole damn thing.
Tonight, however, she seems nervous. She has natural presence, but she hasn’t worked out fully yet how to project it – whether to play the diva or to sing from the heart – with the result that she doesn’t always do full justice to the fine lyrics of her songs.
Essentially a '90s remake of Porky's Revenge and its sequels, American Pie (provisionally entitled Virgin Territory) is as smutty, juvenile and lowbrow as anything you'll ever see. Its saving grace is that it is, for the most part, hilarious and curiously charming.
Best known on these shores for his Under The Table And Dreaming album, and if you're still saying 'huh?', bear in mind that this current album sold 732,000 copies in its first week of release in the US.
Live music industry stalwart Vince Power and classical guitar guru John Feeley are the latest additions to The Music Show, set for October 4-5 in Dublin's RDS.
As a fish-out-of-water piece, you’d have to admit that Green Street is audacious. It’s not everyday that a blood-splattering football beat-‘em-up featuring Elijah Wood – bless his little webbed socks - as a visiting American West Ham hooligan comes along, although the diminutive actor’s valiant efforts to avoid Mark Hamill Syndrome have already seen him get up to much worse. Remember his impressively dweebish knicker-sniffing in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and mute cannibal-butchery in Sin City?
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.
...here's the Hot Press Irish Music Awards, and a massive bash avec much live music is pencilled in for Belfast in April. Read on for the categories and nominees in full
Sam’s Town suggests that the newly face-fuzzed Brandon Flowers has contracted a serious dose of Bruce-llosis (a quick scan of the album’s titles yields a number of Boss buzzwords: “river”, “town”, “Jonny”, “wild”). No bad thing necessarily, but any rock band without the E-Streeters’ skill or Springsteen’s Steinbeckian grasp of American history should beware of straying across the wrong side of the New Jersey tracks and ending up in Bon Jovi-ville.
Sam’s Town consistently grandstands to the bleachers, makes cheap plays for the listener’s emotions and foolhardily flaunts with the conventions of good taste. Just like a great rock ‘n’ roll record should.
The Hot Press Irish Music Awards proved to be as keenly contested as ever with U2, Ash and The Corrs emerging as big winners. But the number of awards acknowledging nascent talent prove there’s more heavy-hitters waiting in the wings
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....
