A compilation, a new album in the works, more distressing rumours about Richey and the prospect of the greatest football song ever – Eamon Sweeney finds Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers with plenty to talk about
Manic Street Preachers have turned the guitars down, but not the bile. A slimline James Dean Bradfield tells a pleasantly plump Stuart Clark why John F. Kennedy, Billy Connolly and Jesus Christ Superstar are in league with Satan. Or words to that effect.
From gigs with cider punks in limerick to playing for Fidel in Havana and from the low of Richey’s disappearance to the high of performing before Wales’ victory over Italy – life has never been boring for the Manic Street Preachers. Stuart Clark listens intently as Nicky Wire discusses their defining moments
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.
You heard it here first: the Manic Street Preachers are recording an "album of city songs" to be completed next year - and our own capital has made the final cut
The highlight of the year – and probably the decade – was scamming a trip to Havana to see the Manic Street Preachers do their live thing in front of Fidel Castro
Returning from an extended hiatus, Manic Street Preachers are in stridently upbeat form. In a revealing interview, they reflect on their enduring cultural imprint and talk about long lost Manic Richey Edwards.
Those upstanding Manic Street Preachers have announced that their upcoming New Year s Eve gig in Cardiff will be their last live show for the best part of a year, as they intend to spend 2000 in the studio working on what they ve indicated could well be their final album.
It was one of rock's most bizarre and impressive spectacles - the MANIC STREET PREACHERS live in Cuba, in front of an audience including Fidel Castro! STUART CLARK was there, and spoke to JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD about Bill Clinton, Top Of The Pops, Bono, Elian Gonzales and the band's new album
Codes underline their growing stature with an October headliner in Dublin’s Button Factory, which will doubtless feature all three of their Irish top 40 singles.
After the totting up of votes – there were thousands of the blighters – the first heat of the Sony Ericsson Raw Sessions was won by Kilkenny’s very fine Rarely Seen Above Ground...
James Dean Bradfield on The Cult of Richey, The Spanish Civil War, Jon Bon Jovi, and the new album This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours. Truth Serum: Peter Murphy. Light Detector Test: Simon Clemenger.
A pyrrhic victory? Don’t the Manic Street Preachers own the rights to that phrase? Anyhow, London’s most epic rock band return after an extended hiatus, and it’s like the tenner in the pocket you forgot you had: you were fine without it but it’s a surprise and bonus in equal measures. The Smashing Pumpkins-esque lead track ‘War Of The Worlds’ is not quite as melodic as 2000’s ‘Grounded’, nor as driving as ‘Losing Touch’, but the layers are denser and the musicianship even more refined. Elsewhere they cover Martika’s ‘Toy Soldiers’, and ‘ElectroWar’ is a stunning instrumental that’s a textbook example of how to create atmosphere. Superb.
Did the MANIC STREET PREACHERS really say that travellers are parasites and express the hope
that Michael Stipe dies of AIDS? STUART CLARK hears the band's side of the story.
On the face of it, you could take the title as indicating a reversal of the Manics' musical prejudices. Nicky Wire might've always professed a hatred of the New York school of hip, yet the opening notes of this album find his band blamming their way through a prime Velvets 4/4 and one-note piano motif ('Found That Soul').
On the face of it, you could take the title as indicating a reversal of the Manics' musical prejudices. Nicky Wire might've always professed a hatred of the New York school of hip, yet the opening notes of this album find his band blamming their way through a prime Velvets 4/4 and one-note piano motif ('Found That Soul').
Superstars, rock stars, movie stars, sports stars, tv stars, authors, actors, artists, comedians, politicians, broadcasters, astrologers, chefs, outlaws, weirdoes, dingbats and Lee Scratch Perry...
Is football hooliganism really the new rock ’n’ roll and should little boys be wearing Boot’s No.7 blusher? Stuart Clark fears for the moral wellbeing of the nation’s youth as Manic Street Preachers wage holy war against MTV, Take That, Kate Moss and poor old Gerry Ryan.
Pix: Cathal Dawson.
Lipstick Traces comprises two CDs of covers, live, and unreleased tracks spanning their eleven-year career of consistently strong, intellectual rock on release.
From the pits to the pits no, hang on, that s the story of Welsh soccer. Or is it Welsh rugby? For the manic street preachers, by contrast, it s all onwards and upwards. james dean bradfield tells jonathan o brien about their unlikely climb to the top.
Or how a short-term model, aspiring novelist and Indie kitten became a sophisti-cat and lived to twitch her tale. Peter Murphy meets the multi-layered Sophie Ellis Bextor
The Black Crowes! Blowjobs! Journey! Drink! Bob Seger! Vick’s inhaler! and why Keith Duffy is more fun than the Manic Street Preachers! Stereophonics let their hair down in the company of Stuart Clark
The organisers of Oxegen '08 have revealed that the three day festival is now completely sold out. Plus, they've announced the day by day line-up so far...
The Concert – Running Order:
James 1.00pm
The Seahorses 2.15pm
Finley Quaye 3.30pm
Robbie Williams 5.00pm
Manic Street Preachers 6.30pm
The Verve 8.30pm
PATRICK JONES is the brother of the Manics NICKY WIRE. And his new play explores similar themes to the band s music. Poetry and politics and action changed the world, he tells Joe Jackson
Greg Haver has joined the list of major industry names appearing at The Music Show. The event takes place at the RDS in Dublin on October 4 and 5 and boasts a line-up that is packed with industry heavyweights.
As previously revealed on hotpress.com, The Killers will headline the Tennents Vital show in Belfast this August. Now organisers have confirmed support acts, as well as a change of venue.
Losing their keyboard player to Dirty Pretty Things and falling out of favour with their record label The Cooper Temple Clause have certainly been through the mill of late. From adversity comes strength however and the band are back with arguably their strongest album yet.
The Stables in Mullingar has become an essential stopover on the Irish rock touring circuit. Here, the venue's booking man, David McLynn tells Jackie Hayden about the current state of rock in the Midlands.
In a year that saw events which will forever change the world in which we live, selected hotpress contributors offer some personal recollections of the past twelve months. We begin by listing the critics’ choice of 2001’s single and album releases
Controversial Welsh filmmaker Marc Evans discusses his new project, violent reality-TV parody My Little Eye, and fondly remembers the mayhem his last one caused
Welsh noiseniks
STEREOPHONICS who've just come up with the song title of the year in the shape of "More Life In A Tramp's Vest" have recently been the subject of a frenzied A&R bidding war. Sarah McQuaid finds out more.
But where would you be in the middle of the night with no bells and your knickers ringing? Or more to the point, where would you be without the new Hot Press/Heineken link up with Tower Records on Sundays?
She's swapped her Cardigans for a blanket of mid-life melancholia. From her new home in Harlem, Swedish indie-babe Nina Persson talks about her downbeat new album as A Camp,
hooking up with a former Smashing Pumpkin and why life in a band can be like a prison sentence.
Indie golden boys Delays are back – and they’ve gone all shiny and techno on us. But then that’s what happens when you make a record with produer-to-the-stars Trevor Horn.
In Case Of Fire are one of a clutch of NI bands that are helping to spearhead a new alternative Ulster. With a string of high profile festival dates on the cards, they talk about their plans for world domination.
For a few dizzying months in 2007, New Young Pony Club were London’s pre-eminent ‘it’ band. But despite a Mercury Music Prize nomination, commercial success never quite arrived. Now they’re regrouped and planning another full-frontal assault on the pop universe. Singer Tahita Bulmer talks about the personal traumas that coloured their new record and explains why they’re not angry with La Roux for stealing their electro-pop thunder.
SHAMPOO are famous for looking cool, sounding cool and throwing large, heavy objects at interviewers who aren’t up to scratch. Risking his life for his readers: NIALL CRUMLISH.
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.
It's been sniffer dogs and paddywagons all the way as The enemy visit some of Britain's less salubrious Rock n' Roll locales. If they can stay out of jail, though a support tour with Oasis awaits.
I can't say I'm exactly in the Ester Rantzen-league when it comes to caring for other people but something I've just said to Ed O'Brien hasn't so much pricked my conscience as stuck a dirty great big hole in it.
WHAT IS the connection between The X Files, massive drinking bouts, Man United fans and top ten hits? CATATONIA, that s what. The Welsh guitar popsters are currently nestling in the upper reaches of the charts with their hit Mulder And Scully , and JOHN WALSHE talks to vocalist CERYS MATTHEWS about their meteoric rise to the top.
The college circuit is an important stepping stone in rock music around the world. While the potential remains unfulfilled in Ireland, there’s a new breed of Ents Officer who are aiming higher.
AIR's latest outing is the kind of thing that gives the soundtrack a good name. JONATHAN O'BRIEN talks to the finest French musical outfit since LITTLE BOB STOREY!
Since 1996 the Heineken Green Energy Festival has lit up the capital city with some of the brightest stars of modern rock. Patrick Hedlund and hotpress assistant editor, Stuart Clark, report
Travelling by first class train between Wales and London James Dean Bradfield did a surprising thing: he started working on his first solo album. The resulting record taps the Manic Street Preacher’s growing affection for his roots in the valleys.
Defecating lemurs, exploding dogs, dirty movies, alien abduction and, of course, the longest feet in pop. it can all only mean that Gruff Rhys & Co. are back.
THERAPY? are back. ANDY CAIRNS talks to Peter Murphy about losing (and re-finding) the plot, hardcore, and the new album s resonances with the Northern peace process.
Government indignation and empty promises characterise China’s response to CD and DVD piracy, which flourishes in the country. Irish artists like U2, Westlife and Enya are bootleggers’ staple sellers. And Mary Black gets ripped off too. Mark Godfrey reports
George Murphy is a great singer, and with his second LP, And So The Story Goes, he has effectively positioned himself for a marathon rather than a sprint.
He may have been a mere whippersnapper when the punk wars erupted in London- but Stuart Clark hustled his way into the Roxy when it was all happening, and survived. At least, we think he did!
Martin McCann, lead singer of Sack has been ‘out’ for a number of years now. Here he talks about his homosexuality and its impact on his music. Interview: George Byrne.
You'd have thought that 12 consecutive top 40 hits would have earned them the key to the executive bathroom but, nope, before the ink was even dry on their Guinness Book Of Records entry, THE WEDDING PRESENT were shown the door by their record company. Unperturbed, everyone's favourite indie popsters found a new label, a new bass player and a new studio accomplice who's helped them produce their best album since the classic George Best. A slightly battered and bruised DAVE GEDGE gives a blow-by-blow account of the events to our ringside reporter STUART CLARK.
We re surrounded by American culture from the breakfasts we eat through the beer we drink to the music and movies we define our lives by. And with Independence Day coming on July 4th, you might as well go ahead and enjoy it to the full. Here EAMON SWEENEY suggests how to become an American for a day.
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]
You re the frontman with The Stunning, you make an innocent remark about farmers and acid house and you end up creating banner headlines in The Western People. Lorraine Freeney assures Steve Wall that this is the sort of stuff Hot Press never stoop to, and also hears about the new album, Deco in The Commitments and the art of bridging the rural-urban divide.
The Sultans of Ping may have a penchant still for fetishwear and dirty three-minute pop songs but they’re definitely mellowing as Stuart Clark discovers when he meets Niall O’Flaherty and Pat O’Connell for
afternoon tea. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
Cakes: Mr. Kipling
Fetishised in film and song, suicide has become part of the everyday language of pop culture. So why are schools so afraid even to talk about it? There is always a better way.
After a hiatus and reshuffle, Tindersticks have returned to former glories with their album The Hungry Saw. Singer Stuart Staples talks about the band's rejuvenation.
RTÉ is doing its bit for Irish music with the 2FM 2moro 2our. Patrick Freyne went along to the live launch to catch a glimpse of the hit bands of the future.
“I hate these questions,” cries David Holmes, DJ, re-mixer, producer, free associate, film-scorer and friend to the stars. Yet he gamely faces the pan-ish inquisition that is the hotpress mixed grill
Elstree, remember me, went the old Boggles tune. The location is a far-flung suburb of north London, former nerve centre of an entire B-movie industry, now home to television shows like East Enders, Holby City (wandering through the corridors, your correspondent comes across a room identified by the rather ominous notice: Make-up - GUTS), and of course Top Of The Pops.
Where there's a crisis or a human catastrophe, a charity album is never far behind, with artists, major and minor, eager to be seen to be doing something to ease the suffering of the victims.
DAVID HOLMES is about to leave his native Belfast for New York City, where he will record his third album. STUART BAILIE took a final opportunity to speak to the artist also known as Homer. On the agenda: Hollywood soundtracks, rumours of brawling, past glories and future plans.
Pics: MICHAEL TAYLOR.
Did you ever find yourself wondering ‘Where have I heard that song before?’ Well, Andy Darlington may be able to help as he trawls through the tangled undergrowth of that increasingly common phenomenon: The Cover Version
It's been ten years that's shaken a fair bit of the world and now, suddenly, OASIS are back. what better time for a reflective, confessional, candid and scandalous one-on-one with a man who always gives great quote, NOEL GALLAGHER. Interview: STUART CLARK
Stuart Clark, whose middle name is “Intrepid”, recently spent 48 hours on tour with PET LAMB, grindpopcore merchants extraordinaire. His liver and tympanic membranes survived intact, and after a mere six weeks recuperation, he filed this report.
It may seem like a curious observation, given that she has already established herself as a bona fide Pop Star, but on tonight’s evidence P!nk remains very much a work in progress.
Gorge yourself on a selection of exclusive (and in some cases never-before-seen) hotpress.com video interviews from Witnness past, as well as some of the artists gracing the stage at Witnness 2003
Go on, admit it. You thought you knew it all about the most festive occasion. Wrong, suckers! OLAF TYARANSEN is the man with the definitive lowdown on the Christmas alphabet as he offers his essential guide to surviving the Santa season. Well, with a name like that he’s obviously more in tune with the North Pole, right?
London has long been recognised as one of the world's leading centres of entertainment and musical excitement - not to mention pleasure in all its multifarious manifestations. But when you really need it, do you know where to find it? Fay Wolftree brings you the insider's inside guide to Europe's premier rock 'n' roll metropolis.
With their new album, Gotta Go There To Come Back, in the bag, Stereophonics have chosen a very special gig at the Heineken Green Energy extravaganza in Dublin, to make their return to the stage. No wonder the boys are feeling bullish! Chris Martin, Ronnie Wood, Fran Healy, Rod Stewart, Noel Gallagher, U2 and the Rolling Stones – Kelly Jones has opinions on all of them! So who’s feeling the lash of the ‘phonics frontman’s verbal assault, then?
Hotpress hitch a ride on the Wilt tour bus for the band’s whistle-stop tour of Europe. For tales of on-stage abandon, backstage debauchery and bizarre drumming accidents, read on. Plus Cormac Battle’s tour diary
From A to Z, Paul Nolan and Ronan Fitzgerald introduce all the runners and riders for Punchestown – throwing in a baker’s dozen of acts who are not to be missed* along the way
After more than 15 years in the business, Aslan are still able to command massive, devoted audiences in music venue and record shop alike. John Walshe joins the Lions' club on the road
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.
The foot-and-mouth crisis plunged the Irish live music scene into one of its most difficult phases. Now, however, the business is back – and flourishing. Report: COLM O'HARE
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
The Great Record has visited some fine places over the past year or more. Now we ve finally wound up in Limerick, plumbed the depths of both city and county and emerged in one piece to tell the tale.
...it was a year like any other year at Féile - except that there were dozens of extra acts on show, on not just two but three stages. There was also the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, the Chris de Burgh stripper incident, Michael Hutchence dispensing condoms...and a rather loud Little Red Rooster that nearly got itself strangled. And the crack Hot Press team of reporters who attempted to keep up with it all? Words: Bill Graham, Stuart Clark, Tara McCarthy, Lorraine Freeney and Chris Donovan. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
With the death of Kurt Cobain in April casting a shadow over the following months 1994 will hardly go down as one of the most joyous in Rock history. Your guide to a month-by-month account of the names and events of the past year. Stuart Clark.
