30th Anniversary retrospective: From the murders of Tupac and Biggie to the bizarre implication of Marilyn Manson in the Columbine massacre; from Courtney, Axl and Spector’s falls from grace to the canonisation and demonisation of Peter Doherty... here’s a potted history of the most controversial events in the last 30 years of rock ‘n’ roll.
The latest wave of right-wing attacks on US musicians is likely to have a knock-on effect here, with the words and actions of our own artists coming under increased scrutiny. In a special hotpress report, Ed Power enlists the help of Marilyn Manson and a number of major Irish players to pick his way through the censorship minefield.
Considering Marilyn Manson changed from being a rag-wearing societal reject to an alt-fashion icon the nanosecond the opportunity presented itself, it should be no surprise that there’s not a trace of goth left in the band anymore. In fact the only thing to separate ‘Heart Shaped Glasses’, the lead track of Eat Me Drink Me, from Franz Ferdinand’s sound is Mr. Manson’s trademark vocals, which are part of his image. The increasing difference between the product and its packaging is only confirmed by the oh-so-shocking Natural Born Killers-inspired video, which features him and his girlfriend, the inspiration for the track, having (possibly real) sex. Oh, please.
I previously couldn’t stand Marilyn Manson. This album has changed my mind.
My preview copy came complete with a letter from Mr Manson himself, articulately explaining his attitude to his art, and rightly castigating the US media for demonising him in the wake of the Littleton, Colorado, high-school killings.
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
He s so vain, but brian molko is also one of the most astute men in rock n roll. Having put his hedonistic days behind him honest! the placebo mainman talks to stuart clark about martyrdom, maturity and Marilyn Manson.
The charm of rural Ireland caught the attention of a couple rather out of the ordinary - supreme goth Marilyn Manson and his new wife Dita, a stripper.
Denounced by the Christian right in America and the Catholic church in Italy but championed by rockers as diverse as Marilyn Manson and Led Zep’s John Paul Jones, Diamanda Galas is unlikely to be hollywood’s flavour of the month as she rips into the oscar-winning Monster
It s the morning after the night before and BRET EASTON ELLIS feels like he s got Marilyn Manson playing inside his head. A dinner date with fellow penslinger Irvine Welsh has gone seriously pear-shaped and like his most famous literary creation, the Californian is fit to kill. STUART CLARK offers tea and solpadeine, and in return gets the lowdown on American Psycho, trans-Atlantic stalkers and why both Air Supply and the Teletubbies are evil. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
Back in their terrifying heyday, they threw pigs’ heads around on stage, covered themselves in muck, provided Marilyn Manson with a career and wrote ‘Community Games’ for Aidan Walsh. Having escaped the clutches of a sinister born-again Christian turned transvestite, they’re now making movies with Neil Jordan, dining with Damien Hirst and consorting with Tony Blair. All in all, it’s been a long, strange trip for The Virgin Prunes
Not content with corrupting the youth of America with his music, the God of Fuck has diversified into painting, acting and writing. Plus: the singer’s encounters with literary outlaws JT Leroy and Hunter S. Thompson.
Weird name? Check. Alienated'n'angry persona? Check. Usage of 'fuck', 'kill' and 'die' in lyrics? Check. Makeup worn even though artist is a goddamn GUY!? Check.
With those other candidates for the job, AC/DC, confirming an O2 Arena show today, it looks an odds-on certainty that Oasis will be unveiled tomorrow as the headliners of Slane ’09.
Superstars, rock stars, movie stars, sports stars, tv stars, authors, actors, artists, comedians, politicians, broadcasters, astrologers, chefs, outlaws, weirdoes, dingbats and Lee Scratch Perry...
U2, Tom Waits, The Pretenders, Motorhead, Billy Corgan, Marilyn Manson & more to cover The Ramones on new tribute album, We're A Happy Family, due out later this year
The creator of cinema’s lost peyote sacraments, mime master, graphic novelist, the man who married Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese, and the secret architect of Dune and Alien, 78-year-old Alejandro Jodorowsky is a counter-cultural legend.
He was a midwife to grunge and has worked with artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Hole and Ozzy Osbourne. Far from being a studio boffin, though, Michael Beinhorn believes modern music is too often reliant on technology.
The Deftones sound can be described as heavy. It's a heaviness, however, which is attributable to the bruising weight of emotion and atmosphere in the music, as much as to the effect of guitars and drums. The influence of The Cure and The Smiths is obvious: there is a real and pressing darkness to their music, absent in goth metal peers, such as Korn and Marilyn Manson.
A rock star having sex with his 19-year-old girlfriend whilst drenched in blood – no, it’s not Sam Snort’s latest escapade, it’s the new collaboration between God of Fuck Marilyn Manson and Titanic director James Cameron.
CHRIS DONOVAN looks at the incremental progress of the would-be King of Slane, who tells him about life, love, Christianity, veganism and scoring for films Plus: Profiles of Slane s other attractions, MACY GRAY, MEL C, BRYAN ADAMS, THE SCREAMING ORPHANS and DARA. Also: A Quickie with LORD HENRY MOUNTCHARLES
The star-spangled story of how Richard Melville Hall learned to relax and love sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. "Don't tell anybody but I'm actually the lead guitarist with Slipknot," he informs Stuart Clark.
Soulless, heartless, deafeningly loud, and polluted throughout by a hideous neo-Goth soundtrack, Queen Of The Damned is visibly aimed at the sad-and-morbid Marilyn Manson fringe of teenage tossers
Despite their meteorological moniker, The Blizzards are no musical flakes. Ultimately, The Domino Effect should see plenty more fans falling at their feet.
The MTV Europe Music Awards 2002 may have been a bit of a damp squib, but an electrifying Foo Fighters, a boards-sweeping Eminem and a nekkid Christina Aguilera prevented it from being a total washout.
The Jesus & Mary Chain are playing their first Irish gig in over seven years as part of May's Heineken Green Energy Festival. Stuart Clark appreciates their god-like genius.
"I used to always take clothes off people as well, like little kids after gigs who would go 'You were brilliant' and I’d go, 'Can I have your jacket?'”
After an early string of synth-pop classics (‘Are Friends Electric’, ‘Cars’, ‘She’s Got Claws’) Gary Numan survived a two-decade slump and became a cult icon. Now he’s back in road-warrior mode.
Rock has lost one of its most colourful characters with Cramps frontman Lux Interior passing away yesterday in a Californian hospital from a pre-existing heart condition.
ME AND the boys are heading down to Central America for a couple of weeks. Nothing too taxing overthrow a democratically-elected President and replace him with this right-wing dictator bloke who s bunging us $500,000. If you want to come along for the ride, give us a shout.
The border counties may not exactly be a hotbed of indie rock but that hasn’t stopped Monaghan hopefuls The Flaws from producing one of the year’s most mesmerising debuts.
Are they genuine punks or just an amped-up, radio-friendly version of the real thing? Good Charlotte‘s twin frontmen Benji and Joel wouldn’t like to say for certain.
So… Blair Witch 2 has hit the big screen and Mr Manson has assumed charge of all things original sound track. Quite fitting really. The musical emulation of hype, eyeliner and distortion pedals meets the cinematic emulation of forests, shaky cameras crews and things that go bump in the night.
Comparing the insipid, whiney ramblings of The Offspring and Rancid to the incendiary anthems of movement-instigators The Sex Pistols, The New York Dolls and The Ramones is like comparing a firecracker to a nuclear explosion. But then you already knew that
Smoke is billowing out from behind the giant rippling black sheet covering the stage at the RDS. It’s safe to assume that a new pope has not been elected.
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.
English singer Pixie Lott looks like being the latest pop sensation on the block. The stage-school trained 18-year-old already enjoyed a number one single earlier this year with ‘Mama Do’, and this month sees the release of her debut album Turn It Up.
US chart-topping rockers tool like nothing better than hob-nobs, baiting journos and calling their children after prog rock bands. stuart clark shares the chocolate biccies
Tanya Sweeney talks to Hot Hot Heat frontman Steve Bays about guitarist Dante DeCaro’s departure from the band, the creation of their long-awaited new album Elevator, trading Nirvana’s producer for Marilyn Manson’s, and why Ireland remains a favourite destination on the group’s itinerary.
They used to be a bit of a joke but, with the release of their fantastic new record, The Horrors are suddenly a band to watch. Faris Badwan talks about stepping out with Peaches Geldof, ditching the freak-show hair and recalls his traumatic childhood experiences on Palestine’s West Bank
Meet hot new Dublin quintet THE HIGH BABIES. They re endorsed by Bret Easton Ellis, produced by Kim Fowley and wanted by Madonna. Could this be the first great Irish rock sensation of the 21st century?
PETER MURPHY reports. Cathal Dawson gets the pics in.
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.
Part two of our glance back over the year that was, complete with clickable quotes so you can read each and every article in full, if you like. And you know you like! So don't just sit there. Get reading...
30 years after the savage Tate/LaBianca murders that epitomised the dark side of the American hippy dream, CHARLES MANSON aka God aka The Devil, continues to exert a potent influence on popular culture. In part one of a two-part feature, PETER MURPHY recalls the twisted vision of a charismatic man whose personal interpretation of The Beatles Helter Skelter helped give rise to one of the crimes of the century.
Getting behind the scary image of the world’s most notorious band is not easy but PHIL UDELL manfully plugs away as SLIPKNOT’s SHAWN CRAHAN plays hardball
There s very little torture involved in making a record until it s released and then the audience gets to suffer. PETER MURPHY meets the one and only LYDIA LUNCH.
Ireland's most hyped event of the year, the MTV EUROPE AWARDS may have had as many gossip columnists as winners thanking God, but after hours it was IGGY POP and heavy friends who made the real headlines on a night when rock'n'roll bit back. Report: OLAF TYARANSEN and PETER MURPHY. Awards Pics: PETER MATTHEWS. Iggy Pics: Cathal Dawson
While 2004 has not been an especially spectacular year to date, there is good reason to believe that rocks big guns are likely to deliver the kind of records that will revive spirits in the industry. Chris Donovan previews some of the albums that are likely to top the sales – and the critical – charts before 2004 is out...
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
From the ashes of The Libertines comes Dirty Pretty Things, Carl Barat's new band. But can Pete Doherty's old sparring partner escape the legacy of his old group?
Another appeal to the armies of alienated youth, We Have Come For Your Parents is a 14-track manifesto of unAmerican, anti-establishment, bible-burning rants.
Who better to launch this year’s Music Show than Irish band of the moment The Script? In a taster of what to expect from October’s RDS weekender, Danny, Glen and Mark treated a roomful of fans, music students and industry professionals to their thoughts on illegal downloading, songwriting, the dreaded Auto-tune and touring with Macca and U2.
It wasn't too long ago that The Blizzards were unknown outside of their native Mullingar. Now they've three top 10 Irish singles to their credit and an album, A Public Display Of Affection, that has the potential to explode internationally.
An altogether darker affair than its predecessor, Thirteenth Step sees Keenan and co drifting through the album’s twists and turns on a bass heavy raft.
Being assaulted by irate audience members at Donnington, working with Iggy Pop, asked to write songs for Britney – and shocking Marilyn Manson’s crowd. It’s all in a year’s work for electro-punk princess and ‘Erotic Performer Of The Year’ Peaches.
While 2004 has not been an especially spectacular year to date, there is good reason to believe that rocks big guns are likely to deliver the kind of records that will revive spirits in the industry. Chris Donovan previews some of the albums that are likely to top the sales – and the critical – charts before 2004 is out...
With A Head Full Of Blue, music journalist Nick Johnstone reveals the harrowing story of his alcohol addiction - not just from first drink to last, but right back to the childhood "faulty wiring" that also led him to cut himself and through to the sometimes difficult process of recovery which has allowed him to reclaim his life
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
It's all a little bizarre. Michelle Shocked, one time spiky folk singer of this parish, is shaking her not inconsiderable barnet, shimmying around the Vicar St stage and giving her electric guitar a right good thrashing.
It was a Jubilee ago that The Sex Pistols exploded onto the world stage and changed music forever. Except little has changed, according to John Lydon and that's why he's back
He has warts on his face, chemical paste in his blood, viagra in his dick and a heart full of rock 'n' roll. "There are occasions when I do preach temperance," Lemmy tells a startled STUART CLARK Woooooargh! Photography: SIMON ROCHE
For a city so often celebrated in song, it was inevitable that the horrific events in new york would be felt as keenly in the music world as in any other section of society. STUART CLARK reports on the industry response and compiles a broad selection of individual reactions to the attack
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.
what good was rock’n’roll in 2001? No good at all – and yet we couldn’t have got through without it.
Peter Murphy reflects on a year in which some old codgers stood up to be counted and many of us lived “on songs and hope”
Not so long ago mavericks and experimentalism were thin on the ground in Ireland. But with the growth of an independent scene, all of that has changed. for confirmation, look no further than the rise to eminence of The Jimmy Cake.
Is there a technique to picking up a member of the opposite sex – or does it just happen? Feeling that he could do with a little bit of help in that department, journalist Neil Strauss hooked up with a cult community of Pick Up Artists and set out to learn the secrets of the trade. With all those Christmas parties looming, his advice might just come in handy.
First she learned to pout - then she learned to kick butt. from Revlon to Resident Evil, Milla Jovovich explains how a girl from the Ukraine conquered the world. In Prada boots, of course
Trailing a new album and a new contentment, Dolores O Riordan tells Stuart Clark about how she got rid of her hang-ups and learned to love being a pop star.
Fiona H. Stevenson aka Fay Wolftree Webb was the gifted Hot Press writer once dubbed the ‘High Priestess of Punk’ in Ireland in the mid-’80s. in later life, having moved to England, she had to cope with the complex and difficult reality of living with manic depression. on December 18, 2003, aged just 39, Fiona died, apparently of a prescription drug overdose. in a personal tribute to Fiona, and as a means of highlighting a major mental health concern, former Hot Press writer Paul O’Mahony here recalls his first love and enduring friend.
Even more than winning a Mercury Prize, you know you’ve made it when the disappearance of your woolly hat makes the news. with rave reviews for his album offset by damning criticism of his live shows.
NADINE O’REGAN talks to DAMON GOUGH about nerves, self-belief, and the birth of his daughter. Well-taken pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
Over the hills and far away, Chumbawamba come out to play! They get knocked down. But they get up again. They get dropped by Indie One Little Indian, and then get signed up by Capitalist major EMI. Then the Tub-Thumpers Anonymous go on to score the most unlikely hit single of 1997. So what now for Alice Nutter and her chums? ANDY DARLINGTON reports.
Over the hills and far away, Chumbawamba come out to play! They get knocked down. But they get up again. They get dropped by Indie One Little Indian, and then get signed up by Capitalist major EMI. Then the Tub-Thumpers Anonymous go on to score the most unlikely hit single of 1997. So what now for Alice Nutter and her chums? ANDY DARLINGTON reports.
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.
As the son of horror writer Stephen King, Joe Hill has a great deal to live up to. Far from being over-shadowed by his father, however, Hill has crafted a chilling and original debut novel.
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice, amongst others, has inspired a new do-it-yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here, Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice – amongst others has inspired a new do it yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate. Words: Tanya Sweeney. Additional reporting: Jackie Hayden
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice – amongst others has inspired a new do it yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate. Words: Tanya Sweeney. Additional reporting: Jackie Hayden
Not since the death of Elvis has the passing of a music legend so gripped the world. As fans and detractors alike struggle to come to grips with the sad, strange end of Michael Jackson we assess his legacy – as musician, celebrity and enduring icon and talk to some of the people who knew and understood him best.
LIMP BIZKIT are a rock'n'roll phenomenon. Notching up in excess of 20 million album sales over the past two years, they're in the vanguard of the nu-metal movement that has seen guitar rock reclaiming its place at the top of the singles charts. In Madrid to catch the band live, PHIL UDELL first hears passionate words from the frontman, FRED DURST. But, amid a welter of controversy, the raging music is put on hold as Limp Bizkit's show in the Spanish capital is cancelled – an ominous foreshadowing of the events that will see their UK, German and Irish dates also sensationally cancelled
Berlin s LOVE PARADE attracts over one million people for an event mixing techno and hedonism.
Olaf Tyaransen went there with high expectations, but found something empty at the heart of it all. Pics and handcuff props:
PETER MATTHEWS.
JJ 72 have been hailed by some critics as the finest thing to come out of Ireland since U2 - and no wonder. With a hugely impressive debut album under their collective belt, the expectations are even higher for the follow-up, I To Sky. They share with their illustrious predecessors a predilection for intense songs of spiritual yearning - and a desire to make music that truly stands the test of time. But is it rock'n'roll?
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.
Triumph Of The Will meets Spinal Tap and Bach meets Sabbath as METALLICA join
forces with 101 dinner jackets. Peter Murphy travels to Berlin to sample the results.
Full profiles on Faithless, Antony & The Johnsons, Slayer, The Who, Bell X1, Status Quo, The Flaming Lips, 50 Cent, Madness, Christy Moore, Elton John and Lionel Richie.
EMINEM s Marshall Mathers LP has gone 12 times platinum in Ireland. He s been voted Time magazine s Man Of The Year. And, having broken through into the mainstream with the remarkable Stan , he s just been nominated for four Grammys. So why is the world suddenly falling at the feet of a venomous bottle-blonde rapper who s penned some of the most repugnant, hate-filled lyrics since the invention of the gramophone record? Peter Murphy tells one of pop music s most extraordinary stories ever
After being a magnet for A&R men during the 80s, Dublin has recently developed into something of an underachiever. The city may have the second biggest growth-rate in Europe but there are a hell of a lot of gigs and records that simply aren t selling. peter murphy casts a critical ear over the capital s music scene and decides that what s required is a full-scale artistic enema.
Avril Lavigne has never been the easiest of artists to figure out. Is she a skate-punk princess or a black nail-varnish-wearing Britney? Is she a real songwriter or just a pretender who insists on adding her name to the credits?
Elephant is though, quite an accomplishment in filmmaking terms – it’s brilliantly atmospheric, with the music of Elgar wailing over images of footballing youths.
Spoken of in hushed, reverential tones by an entire generation of aspiring guitarslingers, QOTSA are modern-day six-string gods, utterly fluent in post-Zep/Hendrix metal, and heavily informed by a certain strain of early-‘90s stoner rock (Soundgarden, Alice in Chains) though without the glum, humourless self-absorption that made most of the latter ilk such a charmless proposition.
Al Jourgensen's Ministry are one of those bands - the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Sonic Youth are two more - who once, back in the mists of time (eight years ago, in fact), radiated a certain affectation of danger, an air of left-field cool, an indefinable cachet of credibility. These days, though, they are as stale a proposition as last night's lasagne.
COURTNEY LOVE’S dismissal of Trent Reznor as a farmboy who’d never really seen The Horror was glib but off-the-mark: any Deliverance fan will tell you there’s as much atrocity to be found in redneck terrortory as the urban sprawl, and Columbine scenarios are an epidemic endemic to the sticks, not the inner city.
Fancy getting fit? Caught In The Net presents slavercise: the perfect regime for those who need a little extra motivation (whip-cracking noise) Whtt-tchhhh!
Since new Radicals, currently the golden-bollocked boys of the American overground, are so fond of irony, they might like the fact that they strongly remind me of all those Scottish and northern English soulboys who dominated the UK charts around 1987-1988 (Hue & Cry, Danny Wilson, Deacon Blue, The Kane Gang, The Blow Monkeys et al).
The stars, dealers, limos and choppers are already gathering for the high point of the social calendar the annual Christmas/New Year party of parties at Snort Towers
Far from leading to violence, studies show that the availability of hard core porn leads to a reduction in sex crimes. And besides, perfectly normal people enjoy it.
Fresh from signing a heavyweight management deal with former Trent Reznor and Marilyn Manson mentor Tony Ciulla, Dolores O’Riordan cameos in the a Adam Sandler film.
Hard rock has taken on many forms, but if it's loud enough to annoy the neighbours, it should be categorised as good old-fashioned metal. Peter Murphy guides you through our choice of the Top 30 metal albums of all time.
