One day you're celebrated being made a Commander of the British Empire in the Queen's New Year's Honours List, the next you're being rushed to a foreign hospital with a gunshot wound.
Debut album from the former Rialto frontman sees him focus his talents as a singer-songwriter in a Ray Davies mode, with shades of Beck and Elliot Smith.
Confronted by an autobiography with a dual narrator, Joe Jackson asks the real Ray Davies to stand up and testify on homosexuality, marriage, groupies, the essence of Kinkdom – and the true story of Lola.
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.
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.
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.
Cowboy Robot are four musicians firmly embedded in the rock tradition, with much to offer in terms of originality and a timely sense of good old rock’n’roll fun.
Once a rock’n’roll performer in his youth, CONOR McPHERSON has now graduated into one of Ireland’s brightest theatrical and literary talents. Still only in his mid-20s, he’s already written the screenplay of the acclaimed Irish thriller I Went Down, as well as several acclaimed plays, This Limetree Bower and his latest effort The Weir. Here, he talks to JOE JACKSON about the mixed reception he’s received from Irish theatre critics, and the influence of rock music on his work.
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.
Joe Jackson sneaks a peek at Wayne Studer’s new book Rock On The Wild Side, which gender-bends its way through three decades of gay imagery in rock music from Jimi Hendrix’ first kiss to George Michael’s shuttlecock.
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.
Or will we? Pete Townshend's solo career has been marked by an increasingly ambitious search for more "mature" forms of saying what he's got to say. His latest project, psychoderelict, is no exception. So just why has the former powerhouse behind The Who, and much-acclaimed spokesman for a generation, lost confidence in the rock 'n' roll music he did so much to define in the '60's and '70's. Liam Fay goes up before the beak.
Even though he s just as acerbic and witty as he ever was, these days GRAHAM PARKER isn t what you d call the man of the moment. Which is a shame, because the veteran new-wave critics darling is currently writing some of the best material of his life, including last year s Acid Bubblegum album, which he describes as a fucking great record . And as if that wasn t enough to be going on with, he s also got plenty of short stories on the go.
Tape: Peter Murphy
GREEN DAY have had a meteoric rise over the last 18 years, from poky Dublin dives to colossal international stadia. But despite their maturing worldview and increasing political articulacy, they’re still as exciting a kick-ass punk rock group as ever.
The deadline is approaching for entries to the 2008 International Songwriting Competition, with the full list of judges just announced, including Tom Waits and Black Francis.
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...
Although 1988 saw the continued assault on discerning sensibilities in the shape of SAW, there were (surprisingly enough!) one or two reasons to be cheerful.
Having written his own obituary on his latest album, RANDY NEWMAN rises from the grave to discuss love, age, irony, honesty, the importance of melody and the tightrope act of being an idealist in pessimist's clothing. JOE JACKSON helps roll away the stone.
Luke Kelly’s passion for literature lead to him giving full value to every syllable in every word and to every note and nuance. But he was equally capable of injecting more than enough gusto into lusty ballads of the class of ‘The Black Velvet Band’, ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ and ‘Home Boys Home’.
If Bob Geldof hadn’t so busy saving us from ourselves we might have been allowed more time to appreciate his post-Rats solo work. But now, with the release of this anthology, we can re-examine his four solo albums in a set that also includes 10 outtakes from the Sex, Age And Death period, and 24 new tracks in all.
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
From "Out Of Control" to "All I Want Is You", Neil McCormick presents a major critical retrospective on the complete recorded works of U2, the band who went from being one of the world's worst cover groups to become a leading force in modern Rock'n'Roll
Mark Cullen’s second album, the follow up to the respectfully received Home Truths, further establishes him and his band as one of the sharpest tools in the indie shed.
FOR A band capable of composing such cockle-warming ballads as 'The Universal' and 'To The End', there's always been something innately stand-offish about Blur. At worst, this quality manifested itself in the smug observations of British Lotto culture that made up the bulk of 1995's The Great Escape, a work largely flawed by champagne-fatigue and a lack of compassion for its subjects.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Budget cuts almost spelled the end of Other Voices. But the team behind the Dingle music institution rallied around – with the result that this year’s line-up is arguably among the strongest in the history of the show
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 . . .
