Just when you thought it couldn't get stranger than Dervish performing Ireland's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest, it's been announced that Morrissey is in the running for the UK team.
Known from the TV sitcom as the Man who Behaves Badly, actor Neil Morrissey is confounding the laddish caricature with his work for an anti-landmine charity. In this candid interview with Paul Nolan, he also reflects on childhood trauma, death in the family, that affair with Amanda Holden and his encounters with Olivier, Burton and Mel Gibson. main photography Cathal Dawson
Known from the TV sitcom as the man who behaves badly, actor Neil Morrissey is confounding the laddish caricature with his work for an anti-landmine charity. In this candid interview with Paul Nolan, he also reflects on childhood trauma, death in the family, that affair with Amanda Holden and his encounters with Olivier, Burton and Mel Gibson.
Ahead of his 50th birthday, Morrissey talks exclusively to Hot Press about the sexual nature of singing, letting go in the studio, being blacklisted by the UK's Radio One and how he approaches songwriting.
“Now this is the point,” punned Stephen Patrick Morrissey before the unmistakable intro to ‘How Soon Is Now’ reverberated around the walls of the crowded venue...
Morrissey. Avatar of melancholic self-pity, sexual ambiguity, and intense misanthropy. Well, bollocks to that. Somewhere along the road to perdition he has experienced a Damascene conversion. Tonight he stalks the stage like a latter day Errol Flynn, and with his cabal of pink-shirted buccaneers beside him, parades his new, invigorated self.
Morrissey has accused BBC Radio One of banning his music because the Controller doesn't like him. In an exclusive interview, the cover story of the latest Hot Press, he reveals: "I have a letter from him to my plugger which begins, 'let me explain to you why we will never play Morrissey'... which is alarming."
The quiff may have thinned somewhat, but at the grand old age of 43, Morrissey is still in great shape, his white shirt soon transparent with sweat, his collar loosened to accommodate frequent skin-revealing tugs
In a world exclusive interview, Morrissey sets the record straight on sex, religion, politics, David Bowie and his Irish heritage, and casts a Trinny & Susannah-esque eye over Brian Cowen
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.
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.
Aiken Promotions have just announced details of an Irish tour Morrissey is undertaking next year to celebrate his 50th birthday – God, we feel old! – and the February 16 release of his Years Of Refusal album,
Even ordinary life is pretty complex stuff, or so says American Splendor. Morrissey, pop’s foremost oddball-in-exile, has put a lot of living into this, his rebirth after seven years, and such a stretch in such an extraordinary life should provide rich, plentiful pickings. It does, in part.
Damien Dempsey has battled his way centre stage, winning the support of luminaries as diverse as Morrissey, Robert Plant, Sinéad O'Connor, Larry Mullen and Brian Eno along the way. Now with the release of his third album Shots, he is poised to make a major breakthrough. Interview by Tanya Sweeney. Photos by Cathal Dawson.
Glaswegian indie outfit Sons And Daughters are set to make a big impact with their most pop-influenced album to date. They talk about surviving Bernard Butler bootcamp, touring with Morrissey and, er, covering Adamski.
Curious beast, Morrissey.
Few others can have had cause to look back on last year with such a happy heart, 12 months that saw him revive a struggling solo career and re-emerge as a genuine star, something that would certainly be worth marking. Odd then that this is a slightly slip-shod effort.
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
It sounds like the stuff of hype and overnight success – from struggling garage band to next big thing and accolades from noel gallagher, morrissey and bono – but even at an average age of 23 The Thrills have paid their dues. Olaf Tyaransen hears how the summer’s hottest band went from worshipping whipping boy to having beck’s da play on their debut album.
Like the album that immediately preceded it, Ringleader Of The Tormentors is a record of extremes. Extreme bitterness, extreme joy. Above all, extreme guitars – they chug and howl, burying the Moz whine beneath vast drifts of fretwork.
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.
IT’S PROBABLY a little too blatant to run a line of comparison between the newer, younger breed of comedians, like Sean Hughes, and comic-actors like Eamon Morrissey. However, one distinct difference is that Sean has a TV series and Eamon hasn’t.
When you sound like a version of a band that sound like a weak version of you, what exactly does that mean?
Music Review | Live
43% | 21 Jun 2004
Kim Porcelli
Any cynics betting on an evening of flabby nostalgia and/or paycheque-induced dead-but-won’t-lie-downism can pay up now. That’s not to say it’s anything less than heartstoppingly moving to hear the old stuff in the flesh , but it’s more thrilling still to witness a sterling set drawn mostly from brill new LP You Are The Quarry and to see and hear proof in spades that Moz in 2004 isn’t just trading on past glories.
Those in Dublin and the vicinity (plus diehard fans who are willing to travel of course) will be thrilled to learn that the big Moz himself has announced an outdoor date for the summer.
With their Adventura Majestica album currently enjoying critical and commercial success, Sack explain what a long, strange trip it s been. Stephen Robinson holds the tape recorder
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.
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.
When My Little Funhouse signed on the dotted line with Geffen, they were precisely 12 gigs old and probably knew more about the inner workings of a thermo-nuclear reactor than they did a recording studio. Since then they’ve toured the world, taken on the same heavyweight management as Guns N’ Roses and moved to Los Angeles where Slash and Matt Sorum are among their best buddies. Brendan Morrissey tells Stuart Clark why the Kilkenny metallers will either end up filthy rich or six feet under.
Former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce talks about playing Dublin back in the day with Morrissey and co, his hugely impressive list of musical collaborations, and the joys of life behind the kit.
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.
The latest group to benefit from the tutelage of legendary producer Stephen Street, attitudinal Mancunian rockers The Courteeners are one of hottest newcomers on the UK indie scene.
The still vibrant 64-year-old on why Morrissey’s like Father Frank, why Iraq is like Vietnam, and on her meetings with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Bono, Phil Spector and a whole Oval Office full of presidents.
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.
Director Fintan Connolly’s sophomore effort is a rather more contemplative exercise than his previous buzzy urban thriller, Flick. Trouble With Sex is a low-key modern Irish romance in much the same vein as Karl Golden’s The Honeymooners or Liz Gill’s Goldfish Memory – a pleasing will-they-won’t they strut set by the banks of the Liffey.
A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
hotpress.com can reveal the line up for the 2004 Heineken Green Energy Festival, which returns to Dublin on the June Bank Holiday weekend - June 4th through 7th - in the courtyard of Dublin Castle.
If it’s on B-Unique, home of the Kaiser Chiefs and The Automatic, it’s likely to be okay-to-amazing, and Alterkicks don’t disappoint. ‘On A Holiday’ is, oddly enough, a hybrid of The Kooks and Morrissey, taking the former’s retro sensibilities and the latter’s veiled mournfulness. Thus, all the stops are in place for these Liverpudlians to be huuuuge.
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
Back in the saddle witha politically charged new album, Burning TimesChristy Moore and co-collaborator Declan Sinnott are putting the agit-prop back into folk. In a rare interview, Moore speaks frankly abot Hattie Carroll and Rachel Corrie, Richard Thompson anoraks, interpreting Morrissey and recently being detained by British authorities under anti-terrorism laws.
If The Smiths had an even less salubrious address, they’d sound like Jonathan Ross-endorsed SixNationState. The vocals are like Morrissey with a gutter for a throat, and, while there’s a skiffly, Libertines-y feel to the verse, the chorus is pure, soaring Smiths. The crazy thing is that this isn’t their best song here – a fact that bodes well for their eponymous debut, out next month. Both the ska-vaudeville jaunt of ‘1,2,3,4’ and ‘Got It Right Got It Wrong’ – with its dark, freewheeling bridge – are addictive listens. Definitely ones to watch over the next few months.
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.
The Thrills will be joining the likes of Morrissey, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth and many, many more for the Lollapalooza festivities
Survivors don’t come more grizzled than the New York Dolls’ David Johansen. Here he recalls shooting the breeze with Muddy Waters and explains how Morrissey persuaded the Dolls to get back together over lunch.
Ron Sexsmith has always had a unique take on the alt.country genre. Combining a flair for haunting Americana a la Johnny Cash (indeed Retriever is dedicated to the memories of June & Johnny, along with Elliot Smith), with an arch lyrical sensibility owing a debt to Jonathan Richman, Morrissey, and even, on this outing, Neil Hannon...
A special exhibition focussing on musical inspirations as been lined up for The Music Show, which takes place at the RDS in Dublin this weekend, Saturday October 4 and Sunday October 5.
This is depressing stuff – stagnant lyrical miserablism, copping optimistic nods at Morrissey and Curtis but entirely lacking in any poetry, mystery or romance. Timid, by the numbers rock that, while affecting to shake up a transatlantic rumble, falls resoundingly flat.
Is there anyone who will 'fess up to ordering another dozen tunes with earnest lyrics, dampened down drums, polite keyboards and sub-Floydian guitar solos?
Discuss: The Libertines – one of the most exciting personality clashes since Mick & Keef/Strummer & Jones/Morrissey & Marr, or Jam-my dodgers in matching emperor’s new Sgt. Pepper suits who struck lucky with a couple of decent tunes?
Aw, who cares.
When the Tom Waits shows were announced, there was the by now almost compulsory hue and cry about the ticket prices. So why do we pay more for tickets in Ireland than in the US?
They pinched their name from the Old Testament and are quite partial to a bit of Moz. They are The Maccabees and just maybe they’ll rock your world in 2007.
He's been painted as a loud-mouthed yob but The Courteeners' Liam Fray is actually a complete sweetheart - so long as you don't ply him with liquor and encourage him to slag his rivals.
Revisit our Nirvana cover story from earlier this year, encompassing ten-years-on recollections from Butch Vig, Greil Marcus and Mark Lanegan and one of Hot Press' undisputed highlights of '02
A suitably awestruck nick kelly shares a chinwag with jake shillingford, ringmaster of perfect pop merchants my life story and unashamed wearer of gold lami suits in public.
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.
Well, skip a light fandango if it isn’t The Pale, back with a new EP after the long absence that followed their massive contribution to the Irish rock scene of the early nineties. The Final Garden sees them re-emerge as a sturdier yet looser musical unit than of yore.
He’s just staggered off a tour-bus and could sleep for a week. But The Dears frontman Murray Lightburn digs deep and talks about the success of the band’s best-selling No Cities Left album
They may be one of the hottest bands of the year, but Las Vegas synth fiends The Killers are planning to cool off this Christmas with some well-earned down-time and a skiing holiday in Utah. But not before they’ve discussed texting Charlize Theron, hanging with Elton John and that David Bowie tribute with Stuart Clark.
From Stone Roses' stringsman to stand alone soloist, John Squire's musical journey has had both highs and lows, yet he's returned with a new album and this time he's getting vocal
Having departed from Suede in acrimonious circumstances a decade ago, Bernard Butler is now back working with his artistic soul mate, Brett Anderson, this time in The Tears. And as Anderson tells Ed Power, the duo feel their best work is still ahead of them.
Canadian songwriter Emm Gryner has released a covers album of Irish rock classics. But what inspired her to tackle Horslips, The Undertones and Gilbeert O'Sullivan? And why didn't The Pogues make the cut?
Despite parting ways with their long-serving guitarist Evil Harrisons are going from strength to strength. In fact, they're positively gagging to go back into the studio.
MUSIC, COMEDY, THE WORLD - FAMOUS ROSE, THRILLS, SPILLS, AND THE CHANCE TO BE A STAR - IT'S ALL HAPPENING AT THIS YEAR'S TRALEE FESTIVAL IN THE CAPITAL OF KERRY
They’ve sold millions of records but don’t expect to find Beautiful South frontman Paul Heaton breaking out in a grin. Unless England have been stuffed at football.
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.
Thanks to internet fueled word-of-mouth, Brooklyn’s Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are indie-rock’s latest sensation. But they’d much rather you compared them to Hall & Oates.
It sounds like the opening line to an elaborate joke – heard the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the multi-million selling, gag-stuffed science fiction saga? However, Eoin Colfer is perfectly serious about breathing new life into Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. But what has that got to do with The Blizzards? Read on to find out
Everyone knows Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith is a fan of woolly hats and long, complicated novels. But did you realise Limerick is one of his favourite cities? Or that, as a teenager, he used to copy out all of Morrissey’s lyrics?
You wanted the best, you got GENE SIMMONS. Here, the motormouth frontman of KISS, the world s greatest showband, talks about sex and women at length (quelle surprise), discusses his Jewish heritage, explains why Kierkegaard and Nietzsche obviously never got laid, and announces to an increasingly bemused JOE JACKSON that he Gene, that is possesses the world s smallest penis.
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.
A full 17 years after their acclaimed eponymous debut exploded onto the American alt-rock landscape, Milwaukee malcontents The Violent Femmes are back with a new album (Freak MAgnet) and the same old typically off-kilter worldview. Interview: PETER MURPHY.
Taking time out from a hectic schedule of stage, studio and club work the one and only Boy George sets the record straight on Eminem, Graham Norton, Elton John and the new homophobia
It's been 33 years since Belfast girl Ruby Murray topped the UK charts with 'Softly Softly'. Since then, the female singers from the North have rarely scored internationally. Dana last hit the top 50 in '79. Newry stomper Clodagh Rodgers wowed Eurovision in '71 with her hot pants and a rendition of the oompah crowd-pleaser 'Jack In The Box'. And, er, that's about
Sean Hughes, stand-up comedian, television star, playwright and master of the 'startled bunny' impersonation, is now a published poet and author. SEAN'S BOOK is a wry and poignant collection of short stories, poetry, prose, journalism, travelogues and breakfast recipes... is there no stopping him? Sean's interviewer: LORRAINE FREENEY.
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.
If not reinventing the wheel, Arctic Monkeys are certainly giving the spokes a good polish. Stuart Clark takes his place in the moshpit for their recent Dublin show.
Flora Montgomery is one of Ireland's brghtest stars of stage and screen. She may have achieved a career high as the curvaceous criminal lead in When Brendan Met Trudy. But, as Stephen Robinson discovered, you don’t want to ask her about her nude scenes
the frank and walters are back addressing the nation. Our man on the inside, Peter Murphy, shares a day in the life of the Cork threesome as they record a radio session for RTE.
With the return of Sean's Show to Channel 4, Ireland's most successful funny man (he'll love that - Ed) is back in the spotlight. But behind the obsessive, neurotic, insecure, angst-ridden exterior of the show's central character, is there an obsessive, neurotic, insecure, angst-ridden individual? Here Sean Hughes worries over religion, dreams, sex, drugs, family and ... Christmas (aaah!). Interview: Joe Jackson.
It is an old Republican principle. But it could also be applied to the attitude the authorities have taken to Ireland’s longest serving political prisoners, Paddy McCann and Colm O’Shea. Jailed for the killing of two Gardai during a bank raid in Roscommon in 1980, as the peace process reached its final stages they were asked to sign up to the Good Friday Agreement. They subsequently put their names on the dotted line. That was ten years ago. So why have they not been released in the meantime, like dozens of other former Paramilitary activists? In an extraordinary, confessional interview, PADDY MCCANN makes his case against the State.
How did Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vannucci, Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer go from the Las Vegas dive bar circuit to selling four million copies of their debut album, Hot Fuss? On the eve of the band's highly-anticipated Oxegen 2005 appearance, Stuart Clark talks to the people involved in the making of The Killers.
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...
In 1991, five years after the death of Phil Lynott, the late Bill Graham wrote in Hot Press of Philo's enduring legacy. Over ten years later his words are as relevant as ever
Well, okay, it's SOMETHING HAPPENS, so that's overstating it a bit. Still, having taken a fair few industry beatings over the years, the band are no longer inclined to simply turn the other cheek. At the end of a year in which they toured the States with Warren Zevon, released a "Best Of ..." and are bringing it all back home for Christmas, Olaf Tyaransen finds the band can snarl as well as smile.
From the tragic death of Cliff the fish to turning Madonna down, praise from Nick Hornby and fanmail from Bono, Badly Drawn Boy ’s life is certainly bewildering.
and that’s before you consider his hellenic aspirations…
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...
As the Magnificent Seven prepare to mosey into Thurles, Stuart Clark probes Chas Smash's - or should that be Cathal Smyth's? - split personality and continuing flirtation with Madness
If you know who to call, it's as easy to buy a gun in Dublin as a microwave. No wonder there are more firearms in the streets – and more gangland murders – than ever before.
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
DAVID GRAY’s sell-out December gig at Dublin’s Point Theatre was an intense, emotional affair.
NIALL STANAGE reports on a remarkable night and offers a personal perspective on the singer-songwriter’s journey
AGEING PUNK STUART 'CIDER'N'SPIT' CLARK REHEATS THE WHITE HOT CAULDRON OF 1977 IN A DISCUSSION OF TIMES PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE WITH THOSE CHARMING MEN FROM MANCHESTER, BUZZCOCKS. PIC: CATHAL DAWSON
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.”
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.
Once he cleaned up in the charts, now he s cleaned up himself. Bruised but unbroken, MARC ALMOND is back and busy on all fronts. And, whisper it, there s even talk of SOFT CELL reforming. Interview: NICK KELLY.
It’s been quite a year for PETE DOHERTY, the former Libertines frontman, and now leader of Babyshambles. 2005 featured a series of drug busts, failed rehab attempts, the tabloid witch hunt of his girlfriend Kate Moss, several non-appearances and live shows that fluctuated between agonising and ecstatic... oh, and the small matter of a debut album. As hotpress went to press, the news broke that Doherty had been busted yet again, barely two days out of an Arizona clinic. hotpress talks to Doherty’s label boss, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, tour photographer Danny Clifford, and former Babyshambles drummer Gemma Clarke, for the insiders' view on what’s becoming an increasingly sad and fearful saga.
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.
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
Their debut Hot Fuss sold over 4 million copies and in the process set The Killers up as one of the brightest young hopes of the modern era. On the eve of the release of their second album Sam’s Town, the band look like settling for nothing less than U2-sized supremacy. Now, if only Brandon Flowers would shave off that, ahem, controversial face fuzz.
Stuart Clark – himself a black belt in origami – discovers how The Ramones and kickboxing chinese detectives have helped Ash to overcome their sordid heavy metal past and become Top of the Chops.
Texas native Jonathan Caouette has caused a sensation in underground circles in the US with his brilliant and groundbreaking debut, Tarnation. A dazzling mix of autobiographical scenes, TV clips, movie footage and cutting-edge music, it might just be the best movie you’ll see this year.
Despite the controversies in which she has recently bee involved, when SINIAD O'CONNOR starts talking music it becomes evident why she ran away to join the rock'n'roll circus in the first place. Citing Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Van Morrison as her ultimate trinity, she discusses the spiritual forces that drive and inspire. Interview: BILL GRAHAM
Songs titles like ‘Lonely At The Top’, ‘Great Big Rip Off’ and ‘The Higher The Highs’ tell the whole story. This is one of those dreaded ‘life in the public eye’ records and we have a right to be particularly worried at the outcome. Actually it isn’t bad.
Since Dolores O'Riordan appeared on the cover of Hot Press at the beginning of the year, her life has changed dramatically on both a personal and professional level. Not only has she starred in the Wedding Of The Year, but she's also sustained a serious leg injury, appeared on the Late Late show, and became a dab hand at dealing with media begrudgery. In between all this, The Cranberries found time to record a new album, No Need To Argue. Interview: Cathy Dillon.
Determined to establish a firm identity for their second album, A House forsook exotic locations and took themselves off to Inishbofin to record I Want Too Much, musically and emotionally their starkest statement to date. Bill Graham met up with them to discuss their new-found assertiveness and discovered a band with a single-minded approach to the music industry and its numerous pitfalls
In a highly revealing interview, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke talks about the inspiration behind one of the albums of the year, his current listening and the band's plans for the future.
Ian Hunter, the former voice of MOTT THE HOOPLE, is back with a 38-track Greatest Hits & Rarities double-CD, plus an all-new album, From The Knees Of My Heart, to follow later this year. Now, from where past and present collide, he explains how he once broke into Elvis Presley s Gracelands, how he produced hits for Billy Idol and what it was like to tour with Queen as your support act. He even finds time to tell tales about Marc Bolan, Mick Ronson, and, incidentally, Mott The Hoople too Andy Darlington listens in.
The Kooks' first album was a million-selling sensation. As they unleash the long-awaited sequel, frontman Luke Pritchard talks about the death of his father, his feud with television presenter Simon Amstell and much more...
As the founder of Island Records Chris Blackwell can claim a unique role in the evolution of popular music. He pulls up a chair and shoots the breeze about his Jamaican heritage, his relationship with Bob Marley and taking power-lunches with U2.
It's probably the last headline you'd expect on a Portishead interview but, then again, you haven't heard Beth Gibbons using her favourite expletive. Very few people have - the singer with Bristol's latest and potentially greatest musical export up 'til now refusing to talk to the press because she reckoned she had nothing to say. But even the most reluctant of tongues can be loosened as Stuart Clark and his cattle prod discover when they go Avon calling.
Any self-consciousness was quickly dispelled by the notion of how ridiculous I d look with my head and shoulders buried a few feet in the earth. A frankly terrified olaf tyaransen embarks on his first ever parachute jump and lives to tell the tale.
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
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.
From circus dwarves, incest and lesbian love affairs to severed organs and transvestite Indian brothels, John Irving’s novels are awash with enough tales of screwball sex and lurid violence to make even Quentin Tarantino blush. With his mammoth new 633-page novel A Son Of The Circus just published, the multi-million selling New Hampshire author indulges in a spot of verbal wrestling with liam fay, who discovers why he should keep this particular tête-à-tête purely literary. Pix: 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
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.
Liam Fay calls on Shane MacGowan at home, where over mugs of brandy, the singer cheerfully rationalises his notorious alcohol-intake in the face of widespread concern that he might be drinking himself to an early grave. The premier Pogue disagrees, predicting instead a happy fulfilling life away from the stage, in which he would own and run a fully-licensed restaurant in London and face extended vacations in Thailand.
When Nirvana exploded out of Seattle with the classic grunge album Nevermind, they were hailed as modern primitives, punk upstarts whose hard musical edge and authentic street style were the antithesis of the dominant ethos of corporate rock. Two years on however, their reputation as Rock 'n' Roll rebels is somewhat less secure. Bill Graham sifts through two new biographies of the band, and talks to Victoria clarke, the co-author of a third which has been effectively surpressed by the Nirvana 'corporation'.
OUT FROM BEHIND THE GREASE-PAINT THAT ADORNS HIS FACE ON THE COVER OF ‘SPIKE’, ELVIS COSTELLO EMERGES TO TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC THAT RUNS IN HIS FAMILY FROM BIG-BAND TO SPEED-METAL, HIS MUCH-TOUTED IRISH CONNECTION, WORKING WITH PAUL McCARTNEY, HIS CONTEMPT FOR MUCH OF TODAY’S POP MUSIC AND THE FEELINGS THAT INSPIRED HIS DEATH-WISH FOR MARGARET THATCHER.
MIKE SCOTT once fronted the greatest rock n roll band in the world, but before the world got a chance to wake up to the fact he had gone west and invented raggle taggle. Now with a new Waterboys album, A Rock In The Weary Place, just released, Scott takes time out to reflect on his strange but true adventure. By PETER MURPHY
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.
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.
With a couple of well-received EPs under their belts and a growing live following, the first full-length release from these Dublin contenders is keenly anticipated in some quarters. Pleased to report then that Stay is as good a local debut as has arrived on the HP reviews desk in many a month.
When 17-year-old Finn Andrews left New Zealand to come to London and make the big time, he hinted at the confidence and self-belief that simply pours out of The Runaway Found.
As tonight’s performance grates on, it’s apparent that the entire rhythm section is buried underneath a treble heavy din. Norman Blake’s guitar solos are beautiful, but in no way as crisp and clear as they should be.
Their three-minute cartoon punk pop may be perfect bubblegum listening, but one the novelty wears off, you're left with comic music: all painted-on grins and jokes that have worn a bit thin
Taking his cue from a wide range of left-of-centre practitioners – from Billy Bragg and Ray Davies to Jonathan Richman and Ian Dury – this Dublin singer-songwriter has come up with a hugely engaging and highly tuneful collection of numbers. As debuts go, this is a hell of an arrival.
Hardly had the ink dried on the last issue s item of advice for would-be entrants for the revised Bacardi Plugged band competition than a number of missives arrived in asking why there was no advice for those who might be thinking of entering the song part of the same project. As some of the senders know where I live I d thought I better oblige.
Other People’s Problems bathes the listener in anodyne, no-more-tears formula wishy-washyness. The problem lies in balancing this Radox-rock with enough vitality to not make it veer towards the insipid. The Upper Room stay on the right side, but only just.
A COMPILATION of eight years worth of The Pastels' singles, b-sides, odds, sods, cover versions and fiddly instrumental bits, Truckload Of Trouble proves that The Pastels are, in one sense at least, a remarkable group.
Days Run Away sees House Of Love adopt a productively low-key approach to their comeback. It’s been over 10 years since Terry Bickers and Guy Chadwick’s famously nasty break up, but if you’re expecting a hurried scramble to make up for lost time then you’ll be in for a disappointment.
The Dears seem set to storm Europe with their second offering, the literary and apocalyptic No Cities Left, a cinematic symphony about the death of one world and the birth of another.
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?
Most artists who do the 360 degrees re-invention thing just get laughed at - but Luke Haines's vicarious volte face has the Bowie-esque stamp of genius about it.
Unquestionably one of the finest lyricists of his generation, Britain’s Tom McRae has so far failed to reach anything near the level of commercial success his talent deserves.
Renowned Irish recording engineer and producer Brian Masterson has been added to the line-up for Music Ireland 07, which takes place in the RDS from October 5 to 7.
It ought to have been perfect. Everygirl meets Everyfratboy, their collective likeability bolstered by an off-screen romance and sympathy garnered from the Brangelina fallout. Finally, we thought, Jen’s found a vehicle to properly showboat with her finely attuned comic skills. She and Vaughn tear strips off each other while Jon Favreau quips like it’s 1996. Go Vaughniston! Can’t fail, right?
A fitting tribute to the late John Peel, showcasing an impressive collection of diverse bands, all of whom featured on the legendary broadcaster’s show at some stage – a testament to the Radio 1 DJ’s tireless promotion of new music.
Kraftwerk's upcoming planned appearance at Luggala Estate in Wicklow has been moved to Dublin's Royal Hospital in Kilmainham due to recent inclement weather.
The Critics Panel who voted for the Top 30 Albums and Singles of the Year are as follows: Bill Graham, Liam Fay, George Byrne, Stuart Clark, Lorraine Freeney, Tara McCarthy, Gerry McGovern, Neil McCormick, Dermot Stokes, Oliver P. Sweeney, Siobhan Long, Steve Averill, Andy Darlington, Colm O’Hare, Joe Jackson, Niall Crumlish, Olaf Tyaransen, Patrick Brennan, Nicholas G. Kelly, Jackie Hayden and Niall Stokes.
Ian Brown, Richard Ashcroft and now Brett Anderson; these guys seem doomed to roam the fringes of indie consciousness, forever questioned about halcyon days by cub reporters shiny-eyed with retro visions.
Two weeks ago it was Triumph The Comedy Insult Dog, now it’s the turn of Nathan Explosion and Pickles to be introduced to the Caught In The Net masses.
OR, IF you prefer, a very long album about love.
69 Love Songs does exactly as it says on the tin – it’s a 3CD set of pop sonnets by workaholic wonderboy Stephen Merritt, originally conceived as a 100-song revue to be performed by a cast of singers in the hotel bars and cabaret spots of New York.
You will cheer, You will scowl, You will stare in disbelief - but don't blame us...
'cos it's all your fault! Yep, it's the Hot Press Reader's poll Results.
All things considered, the past twelve months are unlikely to be considered essential in the rock’n’roll scheme of things. It was a year when few new acts came to the public eye and those that did weren’t breaking any particularly new ground.
ANY ALBUM that devotes its opening track to the cross-dressing antics of cartoon character Mr. Benn must have something going for it and as 'Festive Road' takes you strolling through the leafy streets of sixties' London suburbia, it soon becomes apparent that what we're dealing with here is songwriting of a vastly superior quality.
...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
Frankly Mr Shankly
This position I hold
It pays my way
And it corrodes my soul
I want to leave
You will not miss me
I want to go down in musical history
- The Smiths
“I’ll bet it sounds like Simon and Garfunkel meets The Smiths,” sneered a friend as I headed deckwards with the cheap looking monochrome sleeve tucked safely under my arm.
Check out the last of the old-format HP before we went skinny in February '08. Our new slimline cover hosted the likes of Glen, Marketa and an Oscar, along with Morrissey, Tom Waits and The Boss.
Ossie Kilkenny, the top music industry accountant who has worked with many of the biggest acts in the world, including U2, Morrissey, Oasis and Van Morrison, has said that the record industry is finished.
Today sees the first unveiling of the complete Hot Press Covers Exhibition online, featuring a selection of the great and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards
Nice to see Father Ted’s Graham Linehan back in Dublin recently, taking a break from writing his latest project, a comedy feature film set in ‘20s Paris
It appears that the Smuggler’s Tour scheduled for Vicar St on February 18th and featuring Howard Marks and Robert Sabbag has been canceled
Tommy Tiernan is keeping schtum about his recent visit to the USA where he ‘had talks’ with TV entertainment giant NBC
JONATHAN O BRIEN is distinctly unimpressed by this season s footballing fare, and Leicester s omnipresence on TV coupled with Celtic s fallibility is doing nothing to improve his mood.
THE BALLOT–BOXES HAVE BEEN OPENED, THE VOTES SCRUTINISED UNDER THE STRICTEST OF SECURITY AND NOW THE RETURNING OFFICER STEPS UP ONTO THE STAGE TO ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS OF THE 1993 HOT PRESS READERS’ POLL
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
From rockers on the breadline to the political leader who has turned his mother into a deity, it’s all been grist to the mill of Caught In The Net in 2003. Stuart Clark presents the top ten.
There was a time when being shortsighted was regarded as a major handicap. However with the popularisation of contact lenses the necessity of wearing specs has diminished. Meanwhile the design of frames has improved so dramatically that prescription glasses and shades alike have become a hot fashion item. Report: Colm O’Hare.
Clive Barnes has been trekking across the US for most of January, playing at some pretty tasty venues and bringing his wistful desert-hearted acoustic blues to its spiritual home.
And that’s just the politicians we spoke to... The publication of a major new anthology of Hot Press interviews by Jason O’Toole, focused primarily on the Irish criminal underworld, gives cause for reflection on what it takes to ‘get good interview’.
The Irish music industry has spawned a number of official bodies and companies, who provide invaluable services especially relevant to artists going the independent route. But what do these operators actually do? Here, we present a handy run-down on the key bodies and expert companies out there waiting to serve you.
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.
Following in the footsteps of such luminaries as W.B. Yeats, Ray McSharry and Tommie Gorman, western folk heroes Dervish have recently been honoured as Free Men of Sligo.
They’ve embraced the big sound of America but The Killers still aren’t fully comfortable with the burdens of stardom, reveals frontman Brandon Flowers.
Freddie Middleton, the General Manager of BMG Records in Ireland has been twenty years in the music business. Here Hot Press, and his many friends in the industry, pay him a special tribute.
Aer Rianta’s Annual Arts Festival takes place this year from the 6th to the 12th of February at Dublin Airport. Now in its seventh year, the festival is a massive undertaking and is the first and only event of its kind to take place at an airport terminal, anywhere in the world. Featuring both performing and visual arts, this year’s festival promises to be the most ambitious and exciting to date and a quick glance at the impressive line-up should confirm exactly why, writes Colm O’Hare.
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 . . .
All Write Now, we said. And boy did you follow instructions! The entries poured in from all over Ireland, and further afield, in their thousands. We were snowed under – but, as the song says: That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, we like it…
