Although dissatisfied with mainstream media and wary of having his own work pigeonholed, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr revels in his role as elder statesman to a generation of maverick musicians and is no less proud of his new album, Boomslang.
Whether with THE SMITHS, ELECTRONIC, THE PRETENDERS or in brown trouser mode sharing a stage with PAUL McCARTNEY, GEORGE MICHAEL and NEIL FINN, he remains, by his own admission, the best JOHNNY MARR-style guitar player around. GEORGE BYRNE meets the cat others like to copy.
on the eve of the arrival of a brand new Smiths release hitting the record shops, Hot Press talks to the band's chief architect Johnny Marr about the music that inspired a generation.
Last month the eternally under-rated indie outfit The Cribs released Ignore The Ignorant, easily their most ambitious and critically acclaimed record to date. Catching up with the band in Belfast Edwin McFee talks to Gary Jarman and new recruit Johnny Marr about press attention and expectations as well as hearing about how the former Smiths guitarist has found a new home with the brothers from Wakefield.
The Smiths: the band who helped re-write the book of guitar rock, the indie darlings who became mainstream legends, the dream of a group which gave the world the unique reality of Morrissey. guitarist Johnny Marr recalls the thrilling heyday of Manchester’s finest.
Third time’s a charm for raggle-taggle Londoners Mystery Jets. Given yet another outing, the furious and infective ‘You Can’t Fool Me Dennis’ is primed to become a festival favourite. All witty one liners amid warm melodies, it sees the Jets mash together the frivolous pop of Blur with some Johnny Marr-derived classic guitar lines. Gloom free – it’s like hearing The Coral on E.
It's one of the most heartwarming and deserved success stories in music - how Beth Orton learned to cope with illness, rebuilt her career and found herself sharing studios and stages with artists as diverse as Emmylou Harris, Ryan Adams, The Chemical Brothers and David Kitt
Last month's tough budget provoked extraordinary public outrage, with thousands taking to the streets in protest. In the new issue of Hot Press, Brian Cowen defends the government's decisions to raise taxes and cut funding for healthcare and education.
After years of pushing the self- destruct button, Pete Doherty has proved his detractors wrong with a solo album that's on a par with anything he did with the Libertines.
Morrissey of The Smiths has taken the place of both Duran Duran and the Thompson Twins, single-handedly wiping them out, at least on my one increasingly [used] cassette. When I told him whose conversations we were taping over he said, "Good. I'll talk louder then." Not a man to be taken lightly.
Fourteen years after Richey Edwards disappeared without trace, THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS have summoned the courage to fashion an album from the lyrics he left behind.
Unfortunately, the material from Morrissey’s most recent solo albums, while still containing the clever lyricism that is his hallmark, is missing one vital element – Johnny Marr – and so is musically generic, undistinguished and at times just downright boring.
Musicians Pat Clafferty, Amanda Claxton, Eoin Young, Darren Nolan and Fiachra McCarthy pay tribute to their friend and comrade-in-arms, the late Derrick Dalton.
From the goodtime vibes of Hot Chip to the full-on sonic assault of Primal Scream, this year's Electric Picnic was even more fab than its predecessors.
"As an album, it’s one that I’m happy with at times. I think though there’s a little bit too much high-mid if I’m totally honest! But you know it’s a good record..."
Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr and one-time Stone Roses vocalist Ian Brown are planning to write songs and record an album together, according to Brown.
IAN McCULLOCH is currently putting the finishing touches to a new solo album which The Christians' Henry Priestman, who's guesting on the sessions, describes as "by far and away the best stuff he's come up with since leaving Echo & The Bunnymen."
It s sink-or-swim time for UK guitar aesthetes gene as they unveil their second album, Drawn To The Deep End. But, two years down the line, the quartet are still insisting they don t sound like The Smiths. Interview: Nick Kelly.
As soul-pop heavyweights M People gear up for another assault on the charts and a brief Irish tour, Nick Kelly shoots the breeze with their well-travelled Mancunian music maestro, Mike Pickering.
From their inception, Electronic were always going to be dogged by high expectations. Let's face it, what act could possibly translate into music the point where three Manchester angles (The Smiths/Joy Division/New Order) trisected?
Discovered that there is life after Brett-pop, that is. nick kelly gets the lowdown from "the bloke who left Suede", Bernard Butler, whose mightily impressive solo debut People Move On, has just been released.
JOHNNY ROGAN didn't write just any old biography - he wrote a book about MORRISSEY which brought down a virtual pop fatwah on his head, with his subject declaring in public that he hoped the author would die a grisly death. Now, with the paperback version just published, the 'controversy' seems to have been given a new lease of life. It's not by any chance a publicity scam, is it? CATHY DILLON puts Johnny Rogan on the spot.
Minimalist electro-pop duo The Ting Tings emerged from a Manchester artists' collective with a love of Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads and a reputation as one of this year's most original new acts.
Morrissey famously said that he hoped the author would die in a motorway pile-up. David Crosby was freebasing when he gave him the best interview of his life. He once went a whole year without speaking to another human being. And now he s just updated his classic biography of The Byrds and made it five times longer. He s JOHNNY ROGAN, the rock biographer s rock biographer. And he s talking to Jonathan O Brien.
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
They’re the unsung heroes of plaintive Irish pop. Ahead of a new run of live shows, Saville talk guitars, pedals and Wurlitzers – and explain why musicians should be prepared for the worst whenever they go on stage.
Famously footwear-bereft folkie Beth Orton cries our name once again at two Vicar Street shows in October, following the late summer release of fab new LP Daybreaker
With the last broadcast up for a Mercury and Slane just around the corner, Jimi Goodwin of Doves is happy to enthuse about Planxty, U2, The Streets and Sean O'Hagan. Just don't call his band "the new Radiohead"
Billy Bragg’s larynx, sexual politics, and Jilly Cooper paperbacks. What’s it all about? NICK KELLY finds out when he beams himself up to the planet DUBSTAR.
How the mafia did Noel a favour by twatting Liam; the U2 song Oasis might cover; the most he’s spent on cocaine; a great night out in Ireland’ and what it will say on his tombstone. Noel Gallagher answers the reader’s questions. Turning up the heat Stuart Clark.
Once he was the mouthy fop rocker who enraged at least as many people as he delighted; now with a debut novel just published he's a (mostly) critically acclaimed author whose time has apparently come. Peter Murphy meets former Toasted Heretic frontman Julian Gough to discuss a meeting with Morrissey and a near-miss with Sinead, the benefits of being humbled and crushed, fame and creativity on the dole and, one more time with feeling, the epic story of lawyers, lubricants and lunacy at Feile '92. Photography: Phillip Tottenham
You know that your pop star interviewee is confident about the quality of his splendid new album, when he's happy to talk about everyone else under the sun. So it is with Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant as he gives the thumbs up or down to Eminem, Liza Minelli, Kylie Minogue, So Solid Crew, Boy George and Westlife. Keeping score: Stuart Clark
Hear this man carelessly and distractedly humming to himself, in the bathroom mirror: “And if a double-decker bus/crashes into us/To die by your side/ Such a heavenly way to die/ And if a ten-ton truck/Kills the both of us/To die by your side/ The pleasure and privilege is mine.”
Pigeon-hole them as Belfast hardcore merchants at your peril in the past few months Therapy? have released two classic punk-pop EPs that shook the British charts, and even got them into the pages of teen-bible Smash Hits. As they begin recording their new LP, they take time out to get nervous about Fiile, get angry about the Beatles, and explain why the days of the nine-minute instrumental epic are over. Interview: Lorraine Freeney.
After an intense A&R scrum, the much-lauded Haven released their emotional, hand-wringing debut Between The Senses amid clouds of ‘promising indie hopefuls’ plaudits.
Older and wiser but still mad for it, Oasis have delivered their best album in years. In an exclusive – and expletive-filled – interview Liam Gallagher holds forth on fatherhood, brotherly love and explains why Coldplay and The Killers are limp-wristed also-rans.
After two decades of electro-pop hits, the PET SHOP BOYS have gone back to basics with their new album Fundamental – and thrown some timely political digs into the mix while they’re at it. But the real battle is getting people to take them seriously.
PIGEON-HOLE THEM AS BELFAST HARDCORE MERCHANTS AT YOUR PERIL - IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS THERAPY? HAVE RELEASED TWO CLASSIC PUNK-POP EP'S THAT SHOOK THE BRITISH CHARTS, AND EVEN GOT THEM INTO THE PAGES OF TEEN-BIBLE SMASH HITS. AS THEY BEGIN RECORDING THEIR NEW LP, THEY TAKE TIME OUT TO GET NERVOUS ABOUT FEILE, GET ANGRY ABOUT THE BEATLES, AND EXPLAIN WHY THE DAYS OF THE NINE-MINUTE INSTRUMENTAL EPIC ARE OVER. INTERVIEW: LORRAINE FREENEY
As the punk revolution took hold in the UK, Manchester was notable for the bleak, industrial soundtrack even its most successful bands were making. But that all changed with the explosion there of a new and hedonistic culture, centred in and around The Hacienda, a club run by the city's most influential music biz entrepreneur, the boss of Factory Records, TONY WILSON. The story of the transformation of the city into the centre of rock'n'roll's emerging drug and club culture – of the change from Manchester to Madchester – is told in 24 Hour Party People. With the Happy Mondays as it primary musical focus, there's no shortage of on-screen drugs and fighting – but this is really the extraordinary saga of one of the great rock'n'roll towns, in all its gory glory… Tara Brady reports
There are quite a few things that the world needs at the minute: love, of course, empathy, tolerance, and maybe even a new album from Lauren Hill. However, I’m not sure how far down the wish-list one has to travel before the prospect of a Scandinavian Ocean Colour Scene is mentioned.
For many people it is U2's greatest album. Twenty years on, to mark it's re-release, Colm O'Hare talks to Daniel Lanois and reflects on the extraordinary background to a monumental album.
Tracing Scott Walker’s journey from reluctant 60s teen idol to leftfield dignitary, this award-winning doc should please both neophytes and dedicated champions alike.
Wide Eyed and Ignorant is a pop album; taking into account the fact
that A House are advocates of the distictively off-kilter, shambolic,
hopelessly romantic school of pop founded by The Go Betweens way
back when
What a curse it must be to nail it the first time out and then spend the rest of your career trying to get back to that point. Chrissie Hynde laboured long and hard in order to get The Pretenders airborne in 1979, but no sooner had her band become established than the ranks were decimated by Dr. Death.
While the arrangements, production and execution of ideas are as excellent as you’d expect the songwriting is surprisingly lightweight and indistinctive.
Getting inside the head of one of modern music’s deepest enigmas was both a challenge and a privilege, says documentary maker Stephen Kijak, director of Scott Walker 30 Century Man.
Pete Doherty visits Trinity College, where he joined the likes of Johnny Marr and Chris Blackwell in being made an Honorary Patron of the student Philosophical Society.
Colm O'Hare turns over a new leaf or two from the huge variety of publications on the shelves this Christmas, from rock biographies to more general Irish published works. So, for those of you who like your entertainment between the covers, read on . . .
