Few records are brass-necked enough to proclaim their genius from the very beginning. But then, few records are so audaciously beautiful as The Stone Roses.
John Squire has categorically ruled himself out of a Stone Roses reunion tour, which if you’re to believe the rumour mill was going to include an open air Irish stop-off.
The Roses have been compiled numerous times before against the band’s wishes, hence the fact that Ian Brown and John Squire buried their grievances and hand-picked these fifteen stone cold classics for the one disc is an event in itself.
It s re-introductions all round, as the Starman embarks on a hazardous solo mission. Stuart Bailie records him taking one giant leap for a man.
The Starman walks into a public bar in Chorlton and looks for a quiet spot. The old regulars at the back are nudging each other. They re sure that they recognise the face
and the style of a traveller who s been all the way up there and back.
Having survived the Stone Roses and a spell in jail, IAN BROWN briefly toyed with the idea of a career in gardening before re-inventing himself as the man most likely to bridge the gap between rock and dance. Ahead of his appearance at Homelands, he talks to RICHARD BROPHY.
As Velvet Revolver prepare to play Dublin on January 12, Duff McKagan talks to Steve Cummins about the band's chart-topping success and his pancreas-exploding days of yore with Guns N' Roses.
There’s a danger that someone who tries to be everything to everyone – a country crooner for Mary-Lou, a rocker for Sadie – ends up meaning not much to anybody. So while Adams’ post Whiskeytown affairs have been inconsistent in terms of style and quality, Cold Roses is a return to the form that made him famous.
Not Loach’s greatest film – arguably, not even one of his better ones – Bread And Roses still beats the living shit out of almost anything else to gain release this year
The most exciting merger of rock and dance since the heyday of The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream – meet The Rapture. Words Paul Nolan
Andy Darlington travels to Manchester to meet the Stone Roses, an outfit who’ve progressed past the point of being just a band to become something altogether bigger...
Court cases! Vintage wines! Smack! Bad craziness! A burst pancreas! And a chart-topping album! It can only be the posthumous but never-ending saga of the defining rock band of the ’80s and ’90s. Stuart Clark gets the latest from Duff McKagan
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.
CATIE CURTIS’ music draws from a variety of sources, but the tag of “folk/pop” will suffice. Observational in tone, her songs deal with the uncertainty of life’s path.
Having undergone a punishing regime of drink, drugs and debauchery during Guns N’ Roses’ heyday, few thought that iconic guitar-slinger Slash would ever again venture out into the mainstream rock arena. But having put together a motley crew of collaborators in Velvet Revolver, he’s now back at No. 1 in the album charts and rocking harder than ever.
Now here’s a turn up for the books. First Ian Brown does a gig full of Stone Roses material and then he pitches up with quite possibly his finest solo record to date.
Bad-ass rockers The Cult have reconvened following half a decade in the wilderness. Frontman Ian Astbury talks about standing-in for Jim Morrison, jamming with UNKLE and explains why it's good to return to his day-job.
Pennie Smith, the legendary NME photographer who shot the cover of The Clash’s London Calling is about to have an exhibition in Belfast. Peter Murphy gets her to rewind the film
After two years of being that bloke who used to be in the Stone Roses, John Squire is back in the saddle with The Seahorses. On the eve of their Heineken Green Energy appearance at Dublin Castle, Madchester s answer to Jimmy Page talks to Stuart Clark about old friends, new challenges and his penchant for obscure Belfast punk bands.
He's barely recovered from Velvet Revolver but Duff McKagan is back with his Loaded side-project. He talks about Scott Weiland's departure from VR and his plane ride with a doomed Kurt Cobain
Lesbian singer-songwriter CATIE CURTIS doesn t care much for the mainstream. She talks to SIOBHAN LONG about sexuality, Lilith Fair and success in a parallel universe .
The ace bass in the STONE ROSES and PRIMAL SCREAM, MANI is the living embodiment of the concept of largin it . In Ireland to dee-jay and hang out, he sinks a few beers and offers his uniquely colourful thoughts on music, Man U, drugs, Thatcher, Reagan, Blair and Bill Clinton s blow-jobs. Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
Although john squire and his new band The seahorses have taken something of a critical mauling following the release of their album Do It Yourself and some less-than-sparkling live shows, the former Stone Roses axeman is surprisingly unperturbed as peter murphy finds out.
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.
Loaded vocalist and guitarist DUFF McKAGAN has one complaint, that nobody has yet invented a system that would make soundchecks unnecessary. Jackie Hayden interrupted the former Guns N’ Roses bassist at his band’s rehearsal cabin on the eve of their visit to Ireland.
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.
Velvet Revolver axe-man Slash, one of the most influential guitarists of all time, joins bandmate Duff McKagan in reflecting on Guns N' Roses' hellraising heyday.
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
One of the most disturbing developments in the Middle East over the past number of years has been the rising number of female suicide bombers. Colm O’Hare talks to Barbara Victor, the pulitzer prize-nominated journalist who examines this alarming trend in a compelling new book, Army of Roses.
Metallica are back with an album that recaptures their brain-frying '80s pomp. Frontman James Hetfield talks about the dark side of hedonism and his love of Thin Lizzy.
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.
Roses Kings Castles, the moniker under which Adam performs and records his own unique catalogue of blissfully astute acoustic pop songs, will play Whelans Dublin on October 8.
Duff McKagan has exclusively revealed to Hot Press that Velvet Revolver are in pole position to support Led Zeppelin if they decide to go ahead with a full-blown reunion tour.
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
Following in the footsteps of Joy Division, The Smiths and The Stone Roses, Mancunian rockers Doves have continued the tradition of musical excellence for which their hometown is internationally renowned. With their new opus Some Cities in the offing, vocalist Jimi Goodwin here discusses apocalyptic weather, urban decay and those abandoned recording sessions with Madonna’s producer.
An aristocrat turned rock’n’roll promoter, Lord Henry Mountcharles has been one of the most intriguing figures in Irish public life over the past twenty years. On the eve of Madonna’s hugely anticipated gig at Slane Castle, Mountcharles talks to Hot Press about his priviledged upbringing, studying at Harvard, running for electoral office, experimenting with drugs, meeting U2, Guns n’ Roses and David Bowie, and his encounters with UFO's. Photography Cathal Dawson
An overnight success story that was years in the making, The Strokes have been dismissed as flagrant hype and lauded as the saviours of rock 'n' roll. Eamon Sweeney, a journalist who has spent more time in their company than most, gets the fullest account yet of the rise and rise of New York's band of brothers. "Whatever happens, we'll be there together," they tell him. "we won’t let each other fall."
From dark age to middle age, Nick Cave is such a far cry from the blood-spilling junkie of rock legend that these days you’re likely to encounter him commuting to his 9 to 5. Except of course that his job is writing and making music, his new album is called Nocturama and there are, he admits, some sizeable blow-outs in the memory banks.
In 1991, Guns N' Roses, lip-curled graduates of Sunset Strip’s hair-rock scene, released one of heavy rock’s defining records. Spilling over with gloriously dumb riffola and classic choruses, Appetite was as much a litmus test as an LP: if this didn’t rock your bollocks off, you were clinically deceased.
Ian Brown, aka King Monkey, has been letting his simian minions down ever since leaving the Stones Roses. Embarrassing posing with Noel Gallagher and shambolic live performances have seen him become a ‘Madchester’ caricature. The annoying thing is that his solo stuff can still be quite decent at times, as ‘All Ablaze’ ably proves. Delivering his lyrics in an understated manner over mellow eastern-inspired rhythms, this single won’t set your stereo on fire, but it won’t make you want to hurl it out the bedroom window either.
Renewed interest in Guns n' Roses might have knock-on benefits for Mayo's Whitewater. On the evidence of this debut single, Axl Rose and co have rarely left their communal stereo. 'Original' is a chugging monster of commercial cock rock full of lines such as "I'm cranking up the meter/I'm pumping up the dials/Kicking out the jams/For miles and miles". Pure class, boasting a memorable chorus line: "I want to hear original/I'm sick and tired of the usual". Great fun.
Well now, what kept them? Gone are the days when the Stone Roses would take an age to follow up a groundbreaking debut. Instead the Arctic Monkeys return in less than a year. Good to have them back and all that, but maybe they could have done with a bit longer. The breakneck pace of ‘Brainstorm’ certainly suggests a band in a hurry, yet, if we can be frank for a moment, the tune itself isn’t much cop. You might think this precludes the Monkeys from bagging ‘single of the fortnight’. Such is the sheer ubiquity of the track, however, we’ve decided to bend our house rules a little. Because, whichever way you look at it, ‘Brainstorm’ is the most important record to fetch up on our singles pile lately. And so the gong goes to the urchins. Still, we’re expecting better things from the new album.
Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr and one-time Stone Roses vocalist Ian Brown are planning to write songs and record an album together, according to Brown.
AC/DC's new album has debuted at number one in 29 countries including Ireland where it's trailed by Kings Of Leon's Only By The Night and Boyzone's Back Again… No Matter What.
Christiaan and Justin Webb have wasted no time in carving their own niche: it’s a world of purple haze and post-Y2K insouciance, a hybrid of the Stone Roses and the Eels. This is music that’s so knowingly nonchalant, it lopes at its own pace in every direction except the one with the bright lights.
Wow! Former Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist, Slash, has turned his back on his hard rockin’ roots and reinvented himself as a Tricky-esque creator of original sound and beatscapes par excellence.
Any band that’s brave enough to change direction when they’d already got it right deserves respeck at the very least, and Liverpool’s The Open are definitely of that ilk. With their debut album The Silent Hours being critically acclaimed but invariably likened to Echo And The Bunnymen or early Stone Roses, God bless them for coming back with something more diverse.
This is the age of the comeback girls and boys. Everybody from the Pixies and the La’s to the Spice Girls and the Stone Roses is dying to live in the past, yet still the notion of the reappearance of two hit wonders PUSA is an odd one.
As Velvet Revolver prepare to play Dublin on January 12, Duff McKagan talks to Steve Cummins about the band's chart-topping success and his pancreas-exploding days of yore with Guns N' Roses.
If you ever wondered how Slash’s legendary guitar solos would go down without the requisite fog of cigarette smoke in these post-ban environs, the short answer tonight is; they don’t. Shrugging off the rules with enviable elan, the ex-Guns’n’Roses guitarist is tonight doing what he does best – flouting convention and delivering the type of riffs for which big hair and a smattering of menacing looking tattoos are almost required.
The Twang are essentially a derivative mix of early Stone Roses, ecstatic Happy Mondays, and the laddish posturing of Mike Skinner. That’s not to say it’s not entertaining.
However hard it might have been for mar dhea credible bands like Nirvana, The Stone Roses, The Verve and Kula Shaker to follow-up successful breakthrough or debut albums, it must be ten times harder for a ‘mere’ Pop act supposedly created out of nothing by a combination of faceless stylists and studio technicians.
Pet sounds of Ulster: Kharma 45, The Undertones, Triggerman, Red Organ Serpent Sound and the late great Billy Browne. Not to mention masturbating monkeys.
They'll never go away you know. Despite releasing only two full length studio albums, they have posthumously (and against the original members' wishes) been anthologized and compiled to an extent befitting a band with a far more prolific and extensive back catalogue.
With the opening strains of ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, it does seem that, aside from Guns N'Roses frontman Axl Rose’s growing-old-disgracefully complexion, precious little has changed.
1980s heroes Echo And The Bunnymen have pulled off the seemingly impossible - they ve made a credible, well-received comeback. Interview: peter murphy.
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.
Are they Madchester tribute band charlatans, an even more half-baked Kula Shaker, or swaggering rock monsters from Leicester? The jury is still out in the case of The People vs Kasabian.
Primal Scream bandmate Kevin Shields may be complaining about the neighbours, but Mani hasn’t thrown the towel in yet. He tells us why things are looking up for the Scream.
Having already played high-profile support slots with the likes of Joe Strummer and John Squire, Omagh folk-rockers The Basement are aiming to go overground in 2003.
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.
John Walshe talks to Doves Andy Williams about their past life as Sub Sub, their debut album Lost Souls, and what it s like being heralded as the saviours of British rock music.
In going back to her roots on her latest album, Nanci Griffith also shines a light on one of the great backing bands of rock n roll Buddy Holly s Crickets. Interview: Joe Jackson.
Tribute bands may not capture the true spirit of rock’n’roll – but they do succeed in attracting fans, starved of the music of the originals of the species.
Tribute bands may not capture the true spirit of rock’n’roll – but they do succeed in attracting fans, starved of the music of the originals of the species.
Renowned for his elaborately-posed images of nude figures in public settings, artist Spencer Tunick is hoping Irish people will strip off for him when he visits these shores in June.
Difficult second album syndrome has no place in the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah vocabulary. Not that the blogger faves are exactly busting a gut to have a hit.
They have the tunes to back up their enigmatic image, and it looks like ¡Forward, Russia! will be storming the Winter Palace of indie rock before you can say “Lenin”.
It's probably one of the more unlikely cross-cultural, rock ‘n’ roll match-ups. But the current Brotherly Love Tour in the US featuring kick-ass Southern rockers The Black Crowes and erstwhile Brit-poppers Oasis has been a surprising success.
“Goth groove” hopefuls Angel Pier are only a year in existence but already they’ve wooed audiences from Galway to New York. Might they be Ireland’s next break-out success?
They started out as a bunch of punk rock misfits called the Sex Maggots but had their biggest hit with an acoustic ballad on a Meg Ryan movie soundtrack.
Manchester bands may be notoriously bad travellers, bur Nine Black Alps are planning to do what the likes of the Mondays, Roses and New Order failed to do before them and that’s conquer America.
The tears have stopped falling – because those who bitterly mourned the demise of The Go-Betweens soon discovered that what they got instead was a double-helping of the weird genius which had inspired the band in the shape of solo albums from Grant McLennan and Robert Forster. With both of them releasing new records and working on a film script together, everything seems to be coming up roses. Why Lorraine Freeney even got to see a breathtaking reunion gig . . .
Charlotte Hatherley doesn’t do stockings, but she would like to have it off in a thunderstorm. And she wears nothing in bed but a smile. Oh, sweet Jesus.
Playing Live at the Marquee on Sunday June 24: Lock up your housewives. Ireland’s most eligible bachelors, Podge & Rodge, are on the road and looking for love.
On the eve of the release of the group’s new album Winning Days, The Vines’ bassist Patrick Mathews gives hannah Hamilton the inside story on the tensions that threatened to split the band, hanging with Steve-o and the Jackass crew, and the group’s heretofore undeclared love of the Clancy Brothers.
When not locking themselves away in 18th-century farmhouses and getting freaked out by UFOs, Mani-endorsed English rockers Kasabian are setting ablaze the UK indie scene and claiming, “If you cut our skins, we bleed rock’n’roll.” Danielle Brigham talks to the group’s consummately charming frontman, Tom Meighan
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...
Wayward alt. country sensation Ryan Adams talks about his battles with depression and the new lease of life he's enjoyed since hooking up with The Cardinals.
isabel monteiro, lead vocalist with arch miserabilists drugstore tells stuart bailie exactly why she's writing songs about dead Chilean heads of state.
Graduates of the Manhattan avant-garde scene The Virgins join us from somewhere to the left of the middle of nowhere – that would be Madison, Wisconsin – to talk hype, art and modelling shoots.
Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes, from Death in Vegas, explain how they survived Big Beat, made one of the albums of the year and ended up working with their heroes.
Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
Patrick Freyne interviews chief Charlatan tim burgess, about 20 years of music, a new collaborative album and his role as a mentor for this year’s JD Set band competition.
She's the red-haired electro-pop debutante of the year. La Roux frontwoman Elly Jackson talks about her love of the 80s and tells us why Blur were the only decent rock band of the past 20 years.
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...
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
The missing link (ouch) between the Velvet Underground and Phil Spector, The Jesus & Mary Chain were one of the most influential and critically lauded bands of the 1980s. 20 years after Psychocandy though, Jim Reid found himself mired in serious alcohol addiction problems. Now domiciled in Devon, he looks back through the lens of newfound – but still precarious – sobriety.
To mark the release of her new album And Winter Came, Enya talks about quietly becoming a phenomenon and explains why it may at last be time to head out on the road.
Many Irish radio fans reckon that the 2fm evening schedule is at its most exciting for years – from 6 pm, when a revitalised Dave Fanning comes on, right through to Hotpress columnist Cormac Battle signing off at 2am. One of the linchpins of that stretch is Dubliner Rick O’Shea. To celebrate his tenth year in radio we sent Jackie Hayden to ask O’Shea a few leading questions and to check out the great man’s credentials with his colleagues.
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.
Jesse Hughes of Eagles Of Death Metal takes time out from showering with nubile fans to explain why the Republican party is too left-wing for him, sings the praises of George W Bush and tells us what it’s like to have a former Sex Pistol as a post-rehab sponsor.
Torquil Campbell, singer with Canadian indie achievers Stars, is a thoroughly nice guy – when he’s not plotting to put photographs of his naked, crucified, Spiddal-born wife on his album covers.
...So said David St. Hubbins 20 years ago in Marti DiBergi’s seminal documentary or, if you will, rockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap. In the time that’s elapsed since then, the Tap have become synonymous with all manner of excess, on the road hi-jinx and bizarre gardening accidents. In a special hotpress tribute, we ask a plethora of their admirers for their own Spinal Tap-style stories. And remember, it’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.
As Beck contemplates a belated sequel to Odelay, feel free to ask him any old question you like – just as long as it isn’t about that recent break-up with his long-time girlfriend. Oh, and make sure you don’t have the sniffles. Nadine O’Regan packs a hankie
As Joy Division, and then New Order, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris have been responsible for some of the most spellbinding, groundbreaking and downright brilliant music of the past twenty-five years. With their new album Waiting For The Sirens' Call in the top 10, the legendary trio here sound-off about the legions of bands they’ve influenced, Madchester, Ian Curtis, 24 Hour Party People, Bez, Gwen Stefani, and why they intend to continue their quest for sonic innovation for some time yet.
With a herd of their fellow Bostonians stampeding the charts and a fine new album Big Red Letter Day to their credit, BUFFALO TOM seem especially primed to cash in on the commercial success that has been dangled teasingly in front of their faces for years. But are they too normal to be
rock 'n' roll stars? LORRAINE FREENEY tracked the band in London with that very question in mind.
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.
He’s Ireland’s latest singer-songwriter sensation. But Colm Lynch is no mere Damien Rice clone. In fact, his debut album, A Whisper In A Riot might be the most exciting thing you’ve heard in years.
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.
He may be able to put more bums on stadium seats down under than INXS but elsewhere no one seems to give a XXXX about Jimmy Barnes. That could all be about to change though as Stuart Clark
discovers when he has his hand broken by Australia's best-kept secret.
Exclusive: The new Coldplay album, X & Y, is set to finally hit the stores next month, and Hot Press has been granted a special sneak preview. Ed Power here gives a track-by-track guide to one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
It?s real, it?s now and it goes all the way back to the source ? roots music is taking the world by storm and Ireland is very definitely on the map.
By siobhan long.
They’ll never win any prizes for speaking the Queen’s English but, with a number one album under their belts, mop-topped Dundee rockers The View aren’t too bothered.
An Irish band who don’t entirely fit in at home, Relish can console themslves with a great new album Karma Calling, and an international fanbase that stretches from the U.S. to Japan.
An Irish band who don’t entirely fit in at home, Relish can console themslves with a great new album Karma Calling, and an international fanbase that stretches from the U.S. to Japan.
And that s just the band! Galway s finest, The Stunning, take time out from sticking pins in themselves as their debut album Paradise In The Picturehouse finds itself perched atop the Irish charts to explain the secret of their success to an attentive Michael O Hara, who undergoes a road to Damascus experience en route.
Noel Gallagher and Paul Arthurs of Oasis talk about their staggering rise from being unemployed no-hopers to Top Ten chart act striving to outshine T.Rex, The Beatles and Neil Young to name but three and show Tony Clayton-Lea how to order a peanut.
Paul McCartney talks of life after linda, September 11th and the memories of his firefighter father, being 'lucky enough' to write with John Lennon and his new solo album, Driving Rain
A crack team of collaborators and advisors including Nick Cave, Bono and James Dean Bradfield have ensured that Antipodean indie princess KYLIE MINOGUE is virtually unrecognisable from the fresh-faced teenager who made the breakthrough from Ramsay Street to recording studio back in 1987. Interveiw: OLAF TYARANSEN.
From piano-plonking crooners to nihilistic electro-pop duos, the UK and US are bursting at the seams with fresh talent in 2007. Could there be a new Arctic Monkeys out there somewhere?
Veteran agitprop folk-rocker Steve Earle talks to Peter Murphy about kicking against George Dubya, jamming in Galway and revamping Shakespeare for the 21st century.
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.
The boys are back in town for Galway s Big Beat and SHAUN RYDER is back in the saddle. I m actually now becoming some sort of poet-film-directing-intelligent-motherfucking-artist-luvvy-darling sort of guy and it s wonderful, he tells PETER MURPHY. Pics: Michael Quinn
Fresh from winning the IMPAC literary award for his acclaimed novel My Name Is Red, the Turkish writer talks about censorship and self-censorship, east and west, Christianity and Islam and the U.S. versus them. Photography: Roger Woolman
Steve Earle is known for his passionate political views. But never mind standing firm in the face of conservative America. The hardest thing he ever did was follow Christy Moore onstage.
Rising Irish star ANTONIA CAMPBELL HUGHES talks about her starring role as a sulky teenager alongside Jack Dee in the BBC’s Lead Balloon, her ringside view of the Pete Doherty circus and being ogled by Bryan Adams
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.
He helped invent disco, funk, r 'n' b and hip-hop. And when he wasn’t changing the face of popular music, Chic leader NILE RODGERS found time to chin-wag with pop’s best, bravest and weirdest. Here he talks about hanging with David Bowie, Slash and Madonna and reveals his oft-overlooked hippy leanings.
Grant Lee Buffalo's debut album Fuzzy was the best record of last year - Michael Stipe said so, so it must be true. Its successor, Mighty Joe Moon, has just been released, and while everyone else may expect them to be apprehensive about its reception, the band seem happier and more confident - and in Grant's case, more bonkers - than ever before. Interview: Lorraine Freeney
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
Hailed as one of the UK s hottest young talents, and having appeared in such successes as Michael Collins, The Magnificent Abersons, and Velvet Goldmine, Jonathan Rhys-Myers is in fact Dublin-born and raised in Cork. OLAF TYARANSEN met the rising star. Thesp Behaviour: Peter Matthews
Sex? Yep. Drugs? Uh-huh. Rock 'n' Roll? Yesireebob! Aerosmith were no strangers to the unholy trinity of debauchery during the '70's and early '80's but find that having cleaned up ten years ago they're now cleaning up with the punters. Not that they're beyond having fun, fun and, er, more fun as our resident boogiemeister Stuart Clark finds out.
Bobby Gillespie's still staying up all night but now it's because there's a baby in the house. Otherwise, it's all systems go for Primal Scream at their bunker hq - Witnness cometh, Mani's back and Kate Moss, Kevin Shields, Robert Plant and AndrewWeatherall all feature on the groundbreaking evil high
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
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
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.
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?
From Big Tom and the Mainliners to The Cranberries and, indeed, back again, Alan Corcoran, one of the lower-profile 2FM DJ’s, has been there, seen that, played that. An uncommonly committed supporter of Irish music in Irish airwaves, here Jackie Hayden watches him at work and finds out more.
As none of the three people named in the title of SOMETHING HAPPENS new album Alan, Elvis and God was available for interview, TOM DUNNE, RAY
HARMAN and TED RYAN took on the roles of all three to discuss how the planet-fab foursome are moving into overdrive with the acquisition of a new record deal and the imminent release of that new album.
As none of the three people named in the title of Something Happens new album Alan, Elvis And God was available for interview, Tom Dunne, Ray Harman and Ted Ryan took on the roles of all three to discuss how the planet-fab foursome are moving into overdrive with the acquisition of a new record deal and the imminent release of that new album.
Tape: JACKIE HAYDEN.
You might think that the Crash Test Dummies are a strange bunch now but you should have seen them four years ago! Dan Roberts and Mitch Dorge tell Stuart Clark how a big-haired Winnipeg bar band with a penchant for the Clancy Brothers have managed to hit the big time. Pix: Cathal Dawson
The HP-7 Summit is back with Michelle Doherty, Rocky O'Reilly, Niall Breslin, Mark Greaney, Niamh Farrell, Messiah J and Danny O'Donoghue sat around the only table that matters this Christmas.
It's Christmas, 1997 is drawing to a close and Noel Gallagher is in suitably reflective mood. "I can't be bothered writing music anymore", says the Oasis mainman before telling Stuart Clark precisely what he thinks of Liam, Meg, Sinéad O'Connor, that cunt Mick Jagger and England's chances of lifting the World Cup.
From First Cuts to Latest Cuts, from the First Lady Of Immediate , recording with Phil Spector, Jimi Hendrix and the Small Faces, to the First Lady of Techno, scoring Top Ten hits with Altern-8 and the Beatmasters, to today with Primal Scream and Ocean Colour Scene
P.P. ARNOLD has always been there, wherever the beat is hottest.
Interview: andy darlington.
Following his Man of the Match performance against the Czech Republic, Paul McShane has been hailed as one of the finest young Irish players of his generation.
He can't sing, he can't play but Jim Rose can sure wail on a pile of glass! STUART CLARK meets the man behind the travelling freak show that took Féile by storm and Ray Darcy by surprise. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
To celebrate hotpress’s thirtieth anniversary issue, we thought we’d break out the bubbly (and the tea!) and invite round a collection of Ireland’s biggest stars.
Are we talking about the effect of narcotics? Or the impact of alcohol? Or could we indeed be referring to the metaphorical slings and arrows used by outrageous journalists to do down innocent bands whose only objective in life is to make great records. In the case of the jesus and mary chain, it's probably a bit of all three. Interview: Lorraine Freeney.
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
When Adam Clayton was arrested in Dublin in August of 1989 and charged with possession of 19 grammes of cannabis with intent to supply, it placed U2's immediate future as a live band in jeopardy. Trial report: Liam Fay.
With her own debut album, ELEANOR McEVOY, one of the stars of 'A Woman's Heart', has come out of the folk closet and revealed herself to be a real rocker - feedback, distorted guitars and all. Interview: COLM O'HARE
With her own debut album, Eleanor McEvoy, one of the stars of A Woman s Heart , has come out of the folk closet and revealed herself to be a real rocker feedback, distorted guitars and all. Interview: Colm O Hare.
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.
The pen behind "My Beautiful Launderette" and "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid", HANIF KUREISHI has been treated as an outsider in his home, Britain, and as a traitor by some elements within his own race. But, he maintains, it's the job of the writer to "stir the shit" - and now he's got the fundamentalists in his sights. Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
Actress, writer, director, singer and not quite so archetypal French heroine Julie Delpy renders terms like ‘renaissance woman’ positively anaemic. Currently back on the map with Before Sunset, one of the cinematic highlights of the year, she talks art, sex romance and Gallic caricatures.
No mere actor boy moonlighting as a rock star, Billy Bob Thornton is steeped in music and also in the kind of brooding Southern gothic aesthetic which informs his compelling album of song and story, Private Radio. Peter Murphy meets a singular man of stage and screen
Robyn Hitchcock – wayward musical genius or fruitcake, depending on your point of view – is on the brink of even greater notoriety with the patronage of REM and the release of his strongest album to date. Andy Darlington does his best to uncover the man behind the mayhem.
He may have a wicked sense of humour but, ultimately, it's the way he sings 'em that has seen Kieran Goss lay to rest his partnership with Frances Black and produce one of the finest albums of the year. Siobhan Long has her ears caressed and her funnybone tickled by the newest member of Ireland's songwriting elite.
In the past, many Irish people suffered from an inferiority complex about their own culture – about the language, music, film and literature of this island. But music is one arena where things have changed dramatically. Report: Jackie Hayden
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
Although the acclaimed C Mon Kids was conspicuous by its absence from the
Best-Of-96 polls, The Boo Radleys sice and martin carr aren t bitter. As they prepare for an assault on the States, peter murphy gets the lowdown on their hatred of videos, their contempt for producers and their disapproval of outfits such as Dodgy, The Lightning Seeds and Everything But The Girl.
You may well have thought Samantha Mumba had tumbled off the face of the earth. Not so. She’s been enjoying a year's break and plotting the next phase of her career. Ahead of the release of her new movie, the zombie comedy Boy Eats Girl, Mumba is in ebullient mood, as she talks about life in the goldfish bowl – and why she and Louis Walsh are still the best of friends. [Photos: Peter Evers]
IT WAS straight out of Reservoir Dogs. Six men, all in black, most in suits, lope onto the stage, a cigarette nestling between fingers or dangling from
the side of the mouth. You half-expect them to open with 'Stuck In the Middle With You' and drag out a member of the Garda Siochana from the side
of the stage with a gag in his mouth and the contents of an extra-large can of Castrol GTX dripping from his fettered uniform.
Older and wiser but still mad for it, Oasis have delivered their best album in years. In an exclusive – and expletive-filled – interview Liam Gallagher holds forth on fatherhood, brotherly love and explains why Coldplay and The Killers are limp-wristed also-rans.
Leaving behind his desk job, Paul Oakenfold has enlisted a galaxy of stars to perform vocal duties on hs new album Bunkka including Tricky, Nelly Furtado and, uh,
Hunter S. Thompson
He pioneered the art of glam-punk excess with the New York Dolls and now he's learned to grow old gracefully. Peter Murphy meets the boy from New York City, the ever cool David Johansen. Photos: MYLES CLAFFEY
Don't write the singular Maria McKee; write the plural Maria McKee instead. Bill Graham encounters a mercurial talent in a variety of moods, musics and memories.
From a darkened studio in Artane to the bright lights of Top Of The Pops and beyond that 'Orinoco Flow' has taken Enya and all who sail with her on an unprecedented voyage of discovery. Niall Stokes joins the key figures as the flow swells into a torrent of success and is pleased to report that nobody on board is in danger of losing their bearings.
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
Andy Williams may have a reputation as a bland M.OR. crooner but beneath the squeaky clean showbiz facade lurks an interesting man indeed, who reveals a knowledge of modern art, a past laced with drug use and an unhealthy interest in Shirley Temple. Joe Jackson travels to Branson, Missouri to hear his confessions.
In the second and final part of an extensive interview, MIKE SCOTT discusses inspiration and influences, recalls his difficult solo years and explains the death and resurrection of THE WATERBOYS. Interview: PETER MURPHY
When The Wind That Shakes The Barley, Ken Loach’s dramatisation of the Irish War of Independence, won the Palme D’Or at Cannes last month, it triggered a vociferously hostile response from right wing British pundits, who branded the director as a terrorist-sympathising Commie. Few of them, however, had actually seen the film.
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
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...
Hot Press' answer to Russell Grant, Jackie Hayden, slips into his chunky-knit jumper, gazes at his crystal ball and comes up with more predictions that probably won't come true. Like last year.
Out goes Bernard Butler, in comes Richard Oakes and Suede seem to go from strength to strength. LORRAINE FREENEY discovers that Brett Anderson and co. are shiny, happy people again.
Although arguably the outstanding female country artist of her generation, Emmylou Harris has always distanced herself from the Nashville
mainstream. From early recordings with Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan through to her most recent Daniel Lanois-produced album Wrecking Ball, her work has been characterised by a maverick spirit and real fire in the belly.
PETER MURPHY caught up with her in Dublin.
STUART CLARK meets man-of-the-moment NORMAN COOK (aka FATBOY SLIM). On the agenda - tabloid intrusion, drugs, his love affair with Zoe Ball, and The Housemartins.
Beaten down by the acrimonious collapse of In Tua Nua and lifted up by a hard-fought victory over cancer, leslie dowdall is back with a new album and new outlook on life. I m just delighted to have been given a second chance, she tells joe jackson. Pix: COLM HENRY.
Annie Nightingale on BBC Radio One is Dance Music s fixture for insomniac clubbers. But for the BBC s first-ever female DJ this is just the latest incarnation of a career that began, sort-of, by insulting John Lennon. ANDY DARLINGTON reads the book, sits in on the show, and even finds time for an interview.
Beaten down by the acrimonious collapse of In Tua Nua and lifted up by a hard-fought victory over cancer, Leslie Dowdall is back with a new album and new outlook on life. “I’m just delighted to have been given a second chance,” she tells Joe Jackson. Pix: COLM HENRY.
As one half of D’unbelievables, Jon Kenny became one of Ireland’s most famous and successful entertainers. but the hard touring took its toll and, he believes, may even have contributed to the cancer which threatened not only his career but his life. now fully recovered, Kenny is back as a solo artist but one still hugely inspired by small-town Ireland and its rich crop of characters. Photo Cathal Dawson
From strange days coming second in a yoghurt-sponsored competition and playing awful gigs sandwiched between boy bands, Damien Dempsey, with a little help from Shane, Sinéad and Christy, has survived and thrived. Eamon Sweeney meets a rap balladeer with a hit album, a social conscience and more than a few stories to tell.
Few Irish albums have been as eagerly awaited as THERAPY?’s Troublegum and while the jury has yet to deliver its final verdict, early indications suggest that the band from Larne may be about to fulfil their own prophecy and become multifuckingnationally huge. But does taking on the world mean having to compromise the hardcore principles they’ve fought so hard to protect?
ANDY CAIRNS and MICHAEL McKEEGAN tell Hot Press trouble-shooter GERRY McGOVERN that displaying your gums doesn’t mean having to sacrifice your teeth. Pix.: MICHAEL QUINN.
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
Former cop, private eye and the only man on the Presidential ballot paper, derek nally is the dark horse candidate who could yet shake up the race for the Park. Here he holds forth on low standards in high places, how Sean Doherty almost destroyed the gardai , the foul treatment of Albert Reynolds, the case for the decriminalisation of prostitution and why he wasn t surprised by J. Edgar Hoover s penchant for frocks. Interview: liam fay.
Pix: Cathal dawson.
Renewing acquaintances with Hot Press, a chipper Noel Gallagher reveals how he helped Italy bag the World Cup, explains why Oasis are better than U2 – sort of – and tells us about the band’s new 'best of' collection.
ave Fanning: We just played "Wild Things Run Free" (sic) and as you say yourself you are "back in the harness". Now, except for the vocals would it be a fair assumption to call the music on the new album pop with a rock steady beat?
A flyover near the old Harland & Wolff shipyard was the starting point for a remarkable three months that has seen Franz Ferdinand challenging U2 and Coldplay for the title of ‘Biggest Band In The World'. Daredevil photographic exploits completed, Hot Press jumped on their tour bus and got the lowdown on Snoop, Bono, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield and nights of debauchery with the Scissor Sisters.
Arriving in Dublin in the last sixties as a 16 year old guitar wunderkind, Belfast born Gary Moore embarked on a musical career that has seen him go through several metamorphoses and achieve numerous notable success in the process.
THE CHARLATANS are back firing on all cylinders, and talking global domination. TIM BURGESS and JON BROOKES talk to STUART CLARK about the joys of L.A., the dangers of Jack Daniel s and falling down Noel Gallagher s
marble staircase. Pics: MICK QUINN
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
In the second part of his examination of the cult of CHARLES MANSON, PETER MURPHY looks at the cult leader s trial, his continuing influence of left-field heroes and the controversy over his recordings. Also: BONO on U2 s decision to include Helter Skelter in their Rattle And Hum set.
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?
Republic Of Loose are that rarest of beasts – an Irish rock band who can get their groove on. Ahead of the release of their new album, they talk about standing out from the crowd.
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
One of the most familiar faces and voices in Irish broadcasting, Dave Fanning has interviewed just about every rock and movie star worth knowing. But here Olaf Tyaransen goes behind the public image to unearth some of his more secret history: working with the disgraced “Captain” Cooke; nude interviewing with U2; getting ripped off by the nanny; and much more.
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
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.
When Pulp released the obsessively carnal This Is Hardcore, it was widely touted that the band's main mover, Jarvis Cocker, had lost the plot entirely. But Pulp are back on the road now and Cocker is in fine form - as eloquent when talking about pornography and sex as he is reflecting on the vagaries of the press and his relationship with his father. Interview: peter Murphy.
When Pulp released the obsessively carnal This Is Hardcore, it was widely touted that the band's main mover, Jarvis Cocker, had lost the plot entirely. But Pulp are back on the road now and Cocker is in fine form - as eloquent when talking about pornography and sex as he is reflecting on the vagaries of the press and his relationship with his father. Interview: peter Murphy.
The wild rise and fall of the coke-snorting, heavy boozing, rampantly horny music biz mogul who knew Dylan, Jagger, Jackson, Springsteen and Streisand better than most. And now he’s ready to tell all.
Bono, Adam and Larry. Not to mention the self-styled King Boogaloo himself, Mr B. P. Fallon, whose new book U2: Faraway So Close offers an intimate visual and verbal diary of the band’s world-record shattering ZOO TV tour. For good measure the, um, also self-styled Mr Ramalama talks about Jimi Hendrix and the Mafia connection, toting guns with Tone Loc, giving Little Richard a hard-on, and other little, um, side voyages into other territories, man. Er, tape recorder thingy: Joe Jackson.
No, it's not the overworked Hot Press subs finally snapping beneath the strain of a hectic production schedule but a finely argued debate by our finest writers on the phenomenon of naff. What is naff? Are you naff and if so how do you go about rectifying matters? Read on and be saved . . .
From hip replacement to hip and onto hip-hop, the second coming of texas has been one of the most unlikely artistic and commercial triumphs of recent years.
But as olaf Tyaransen discovers, the new-look
sharleen spiteri remains very much her old self.
Has Madonna become the immaterial girl? Or will the Re-invention tour re-establish her as the foremost female icon on the planet? On the eve of her first ever Irish appearance at Slane, Peter Murphy takes a look at the strange twist the Queen of Pop’s career has taken – and how she is now fighting back, for all she’s worth.
Meeting the Pope, marriage to the Taoiseach’s daughter, the trouble with relationships, why they couldn’t have a hit with Bono, bad language on kids’ telly, golf in drugs out, Louis’ biggest lie and other tales from the lives of Westlife.
In the first of a new series about life at the rock n roll coalface, musician and writer Peter Murphy recalls the night the devil wrecked all his best tunes. Confessions Of A
Rock n Roll
Survivor
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
Greetings From LA
beck and tom petty get together in Los Angeles for an impassioned rap on songs, songwriting, showbiz, the Unplugged phenomenon and how too much music can boggle the mind. mark rowland listens in.
In a remarkable interview, the legendary David Kelly looks back on a long and adventurous career including parts in box office smashes, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Waking Ned.
In the following pages, hear about Bono's top secret solo album; meet The Joshua Trio, the band whose mission is to bring U2's music to a wider audience; thrill to an appreciation of The Fab Four in their native tongue; and, last but not least, discover The Greatest U2 Fan Letter Ever Written! And, remember, don't believe everything you read...
Twelve months ago The Cranberries were unknown outside of the hippest rock circles, now with the platinum success of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? they stand as the first Irish band to genuinely crack America since U2.
Much of the media attention given to them has focussed on Dolores O'Riordan, a singer whose unique approach to her craft underlines the defiantly independent path the group has trodden all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Here she talks to JOE JACKSON about what by any standards has been a perfect year. .
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.
The technology which drives home entertainment is changing, and it's changing fast. Colm O'Hare takes a close-up look at what's happening in hi-fi, television, video and home cinema technology and discovers that the future has already arrived.
"Listening to their lackadaisical, bluesy songs, it’s easy to be transported away from the incessant drizzle to a rooftop bar in the blistering sunshine."
As before, there are songs aplenty in both Irish and English, delivered in Garvey’s magnificent rich baritone and accompanied by him on deftly finger-picked guitar
Alfie were, for a long while, Badly Drawn Boy's backing band - and you'll certainly recognise that plangent guitar sound, that moony-eyed cello and those sombre Northern horns, not to mention an innocence, a lightness of touch, an absolute lack of guile mucking up the melancholy which they share with their famous ex-collaborator.
Now pushing forty, he may well be one of the great mercurial guitarists, but, as tonight proves, he is also one of the most discomforting vocalists I’ve ever heard – a strangled, nasally mixture of Robert Wyatt and Ashley from Coronation Street.
Super Extra Bonus Party put their €10,000 Choice Music Prize spoils to good use by making their Appetite For Reconstruction remix album available as a free download.
This young singer and piano accordion player from Newcastle is a fine composer of new tunes, as demonstrated on the opening set featuring one jig in honour of Cunningham and another dedicated to Bartlett’s pet parrot.
Singalong to your favourites at the Rock Band sessions, or watch top movies, as the Xbox Live Stage brings digital thrills to this year's Oxegen festival.
Few new Irish bands arrive as seemingly perfectly formed as The Rags. Everything about the package that surrounds their debut suggests that they’ve got their act seriously together, not least the music itself.
JJ72 aim to hot up the charts with a re-recorded, John Leckie-produced version of I To Sky track 'Always And Forever'. Read on for details of B-sides and the video
Fleadh Cowboy Pete Cummins lends his weight to the Irish anti-war movement with the release of ‘Flowers In Baghdad’, a reference to the Iraqi blogger Salam Pax who wrote about the lack of colour in the capital since the American invasion.
...Or is it? Mani has definitely NOT left Primal Scream, despite recent reports to the contrary from none other than Ian Brown. "The last time I spoke to Mani," Brown told us this weekend, "he was sending two kids to dangle that Gillespie out the window"
The Irish are storytellers supreme, and for four decades now Ronnie Drew has been one of our most engaging raconteurs, both within and outside the context of the Dubliners.
Director, Republic Of Loose and the Sultans Of Ping are set to headline this year's Indie-pendence Festival, which features a host of homegrown talent - for free!
Think of all the indie bands that you can remember from the last decade, bad to mediocre to absolute classic, and throw them all together in an indistinguishable aural stew and you're kind of close to High, the debut album from London six-piece, Southern Fly.
The latest LA outfit to cause a stir on this side of the pond (in the pages of Kerrang! at any rate) The Bronx come with all the right booze, puke ‘n’ drugs credentials to make them instantly appealing to their demographic (i.e. 13-year-old males).
When The Twang get it right they achieve a lying in the gutter/staring at the stars poetic vision similar to Mike Skinner's. But these moments are in the minority, often replaced by a boorish, lads on the town vibe that doesn’t suit them.
SCHOOLED in the old way, under the tutelage of such luminaries as Leo Rowsome and Séamus Ennis, Neil Mulligan's music belongs not to the I'll-get-more-notes-in-if-it-kills-me formula of modern music, but to a gentler, more reflective, age.
While Marc Carroll is definitely possessed of a considerable talent, this solo outing unfortunately sees him spreading it too thinly over writing, playing and production duties
Tired of choosing between sequels and prequels? Now you don’t have to. Terminator Salvation does both jobs in the same running time as leading rival products.
It was always going to be a bit messy. Students being students you couldn’t but have expected the odd scuffle, girls vomiting on their expensive ball gowns, lads pissing wherever there was a wall and thousands of well dressed revellers drunkenly stumbling around the courtyards of Trinity College. What was unexpected though, certainly for a first timer, was just how good a night the Trinity Ball is. This was an event streets ahead of most outdoor events. Everything was well organised, queues for loos and bars were minimal, and security didn’t make themselves felt. It meant that all were allowed to just get on with the night at hand and enjoy Europe’s largest private party.
What’s impressive is how they manage to reproduce the epic sound of the album, with an aurally competitive blaze of samples, funky basslines and John Squire-ish guitars, all nailed together by Robert Harvey’s improbable vocals
With Michael Eavis letting the grass grow at Glastonbury this year, Scandinavia’s long-running equivalent was bound to be a huge draw for international music fans. Those seeking a people-friendly atmosphere and a musically-varied experience were always likely to flock to Roskilde, a festival structured along similar lines to its English counterpart
There’s something reassuringly real about Delays. They’ve kicked around the dreary provinces (in their case Southampton), gigged every toilet in the UK, supported Ocean Colour Scene and released a string of singles that have inched their way towards the bottom end of the Top 40.
It must be great craic to be in Gnarls Barkley. Not only are you one of the most successful groups of the year, but you get to outfit yourself in a different costume for every show.
While their fortunes may have faded since Jamiroquai last swung on by in 2001, there’s no sign of it in The Point tonight, the very venue they previously visited.
The Frames
Hotel Curracloe, Wexford
Preaching to the choir is for the godless. The Frames, possessors of possibly the largest ‘choir’ in Ireland in the form of a fanbase more devout than most religions, have nevertheless always seemed to prefer to shun the easy option.
On first listen, the debut album from New York-born Anastacia comes across as fairly innocuous stuff. Not That Kind is comprised of twelve ditties ranging across rock, R ‘n’ B and dance styles.
Now, there's a sentence you don't see every day. But when Hot Press hooks up with Ronnie Wood, there's always more where that came from. Read on to learn why the Stones won't be playing the "Party In The Palace", why Ronnie can be found in Arizona before tours and about the new DVD that captures Andrea and Slash's special relationship
First on stage tonight were Lucas, whose songs were melodic and meandering but with enough unexpected twists to maintain interest, and an ultra-confident singer boasting a voice like Vedder's, but with high notes.
Kasabian have wrung no more than a handful of killer pop moments from a somewhat one-dimensional sound. But the enthusiastic crowd reaction at Hineken Green Energy has tempered my less than converted position just a little.
The Charlatans have finally made the sun-kissed Californian album they always threatened since Tim Burgess turned his back on Blighty for LA a few years back.
I get the feeling he’s cleverly surrounded himself with a bunch of musicians who can take a lot of the credit – the right people to do justice to his own particular writing style.
Liquor, women, drugs and killing. This is how the Supersuckers sum up the subject matter of their songs. Comprising a singer called Eddie Spaghetti, guitarist Dan 'Thunder' Bolton and a personage known as The Dancing Eagle on drums, expect a band who don't take themselves all that seriously.
In a manner befitting their name, various setbacks and the loss of over a hundred demos have meant the follow up to the Delays’ widely under-rated 2004 debut has endured a difficult birth. The wait, however, has been worth it.
The thirteen tracks herein can be split roughly into two camps - the originals penned quick and recorded even quicker for soundtracks, and the covers dashed off as extra incentives on special edition albums, or just for pig iron
The comeback trail has, in its time, thrown up some far-fetched candidates. The highly inconvenient fact of John Lennon’s death didn’t prevent him appearing on a new Beatles single; Thin Lizzy’s busy touring schedule suggests they have long overcome the speed-bump of Phil Lynott’s passing.
Few rebirths, though, have been as unlikely as that of The La’s, a Liverpool band undone by the tortured brilliance of its leader, Lee Mavers.
Spiritualised, The Redneck Manifesto, Redsettaz and Telepopmusic are merely a few of the latest additions to the delightfully overstuffed Witnness '02 bill
Despite Loach’s justified reputation for startling realism, it’s undeniable that many of his films are as melodramatic as it’s humanly possible to get, and Sweet Sixteen is certainly no exception
Metallica have emerged as the most popular metal band in Ireland to judge by their showing in the chart of the one hundred best metal tracks of all time as chosen by the readers of Hot Press and the listeners to 2FM’s increasingly popular Metal Show.
The sense of expectation is tangible as Woody, fag and glass of red wine in hand, saunters on and launches into a deliciously loose version of ‘So You Want To Be A Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’.
The highlight of the Cork leg of JD's trawl for Ireland's best unsigned act came when Nassau presented a polished set of psychedelic pop numbers that brought the evening to a deliriously woozy climax.
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.
Despite the sometimes feral nature of the music, there are enough dollops of melody sprinkled around the crunching bar-chords to make the whole thing palatable
They don’t come more unlikely than this long-distance collaboration between the Scottish-based former Belle and Sebastian chanteuse and the ever-versatile Screaming Trees/Queens of the Stone Age vocalist and LA resident.
A handful of bands, each playing four or five-song sets; this is a formula that will always produce mixed results. But, pleasingly, tonight threw up more hits than misses.
End of term reviewers are a bit like film censors. As they reel in the year, there is a tendency to cut and paste according to their own prejudices and passions.
No one in their right mind can deny that he’s a spellbinding filmmaker, a truth arguably never more vividly demonstrated than in The Pianist, Polanski’s hugely elegant and beautifully haunting Holocaust memoir.
UBIQUITOUS ISN’T the word for it: Kim Fowley has placed himself just left of the epicentre of almost every major noisequake to strike Los Angeles since rock ‘n’ roll first kicked its way out of the belly of the blues.
The singer is actually much more assured onstage than the last time I saw The Killers, at the Olympia in 2004, when his inhibitions seemed to be holding him back.
Like their incendiary live performances, the pace is nothing short of relentless over the course of the 43 minutes or so it takes Humanzi to slash and scorch their way through this 11-track debut.
Precious and few are those who can take possession of the inanimate figures of Rock'n'Roll wax museum, get 'em on the good foot, and send them out to Boogaloo down Broadway.
If the title of his second solo album is anything to go by, Ian Brown has retained some vestige of humour through all the trials and tribulations he’s endured over the past ten years or so.
IF JULIAN Cope didn't already exist, nobody would've invented him. The spaceman has cometh in many guises over the last 15 years: flight-jacketed Scott Walker obsessive, collector of psychedelic Nuggets and Pebbles, krautrock authority, maggot-brained space cadet and now, modern antiquary - Julian belongs to a long and very zig-zag line of English eccentrics, one that stretches right back from Barrett through Byron to Blake.
Album number three sees them progress to such a startling extent that they have a right to believe both critical acclaim and commercial success will follow.
The twin worlds of Pink the pop star and the punk rock princess collided here tonight and made awkward bedfellows. The outcome of which one will win out is still in the balance.
Men out of time, The Verve were a neo-psychedelic jam-rock outfit who got fortuitously swept up in the Britpop boom and stumbled upon a timely form of Big Music.
Whatever your fancy chances are the capital will be able to oblige. Here, the Hot Press team pound the pavement in selfless pursuit of Dublin's hottest - and coolest - nightspots.
They're back. With a bang. Never ones to do it colour by numbers, The Cranberries waited 'til their third trip to the studio before encountering the difficult album syndrome.
JUST THINK of all those symbols of American culture that have found their way across the Atlantic over the years and which have come to symbolise the ultimate teen-age American dream. Rock 'n' Roll, Wurlitzer Jukeboxes, Harley Davidson motorcycles, Coca Cola, Rayban Shades, Levis, '57 Chevvies - the list is endless.
One of the most useful lessons re-learned during the Heineken Green Energy Careers In Music seminars in Dublin, Cork and Galway is that while those in the business have a reasonable grasp as to how it works and why, from the stand-point of a seventeen-year-old would-be, the Music Industry can appear like one ginormous complex monster.
A new decade kicks off Sinéad O'Connor's revolution of the heart, followed by covers with A House, Stone Roses, The Pixies, AC/DC, Paul Simon and more...
Ian Brown’s fifth solo album is about the big issues. And while he's picked all the right targets, lyrically and musically it’s still a bit disappointing.
Rodrigo y Gabriela take to the road next month in support of their eponymous new album, which was produced by Radiohead, Stone Roses and Muse man John Leckie.
HAILING FROM Macroom, Co. Cork are the recently formed Coil, a four-piece who trade in a type of narcotic Goth pop music. The group’s line-up is Ann-Marie Ryan (vocals), Mark Tangney (guitar), Paul Kelleher (bass) and Rory Hanly (drums).
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.
Valentine’s Day is on its way. But forget the cheesy cards, the flowers and the pink ribbons. What every smart woman really wants on February 14th is the hot breath of a lover whose naked desire is for her, and her alone…
MIND-BOGGLING. There is no other word for it. A decade ago the country was tearing itself apart over the legalisation of divorce. Three years ago, we introduced it by the most slender of majorities – the vote split almost evenly down the middle and succeeded by less than one per cent. Now Councillor Anne Devitt of Fine Gael has proposed that we open up castles by the sea as “romantic” places in which to have civil weddings.
Comedienne Eleanor Tiernan invites Anne Sexton into her Georgian home, and talks to her about childhood holidays in Kerry, her love of JP Donleavy, and writing a play – well, kind of – about Damien Rice and Damien Dempsey.
The Pogues’ turbulent history can be traced back into the mists of 1982 when ex-Nipple Erector vocalist and London-Celt Shane McGowan joined ex-Millwall Chainsaw Spider Stacy to play a set of Irish rebel songs at a gig in London. They were pelted off the stage with chips.
Well, it’s back to the future time again, as we woozily welcome in 1995. With happy hearts and sick stomachs and peace and integration high on the list of high hopes, we kick off Demo Parade with a mixture of groups from home and abroad.
As well as improving his word power, the admirable Reader’s Digest gives Barry Glendenning some indigestible food for thought about the place of Ireland in europe
There’s more to Glasgow than Rab C. Nesbitt, Rangers/Celtic turf wars and Taggart. Adele Bethel, vocalist with Sons And Daughters, sings the praises of her native city.
In recent years, Oxegen has made it easier than ever for fans to enjoy an ecologically responsible festival. This year organisers are raising the ante yet further with a host of green initiatives – as well as oodles of on-site entertainment for campers .
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
Bigwigs from the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army were on hand as stoner-rock favourites Deep Purple took their banana tour to the exotic environs of Beijing.
Dublin's Hyland Brothers are aiming to punch their way into the Guinness Book Of Records. How? They are all launching individual bids for European boxing titles.
The college circuit has always been a lucrative one for touring acts, and a fine opportunity for students to check out the best in show, at a reasonable price.
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
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.
That’s the philosophy behind Cross Border Media, a label which has had a remarkable impact on Irish music since its foundation just three years ago. A special report by Colm O’Hare and Jackie Hayden
‘That’s entertainment’ was the message of the year but not as Paul Weller intended it, for in 1986 popular music was closer to mass entertainment as Declan McManus’ pater knew it than any year since Elvis Presley swivelled his hips on the Ed Sullivan show.
Think you've got them all right? Or maybe you fancy a sneaky peak (you're only cheating yourself you know!). Either way, you've got the questions – we've got the answers....
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.
On Tuesday 23rd November, at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Church & General Insurance Company present The Celebration Concert, featuring an extraordinary array of Ireland's finest contemporary songwriting and composing talents. In this four-page special, Jackie Hayden explores the background to the event and we profile the leading players.
Music Review | Live
17% | 7 Sep 2006
They said it couldn’t be done, but this year’s Electric Picnic achieved the impossible by being even more joyous, vibey and action-packed than its predecessors. Hot Press was in the thick of things as 200 acts and 30,000 music lovers descended on one very big house in the country.
The relationship between drugs and creativity has always been a hotly debated subject. But narcotic indulgence has proven to be the downfall of many a gifted artist.
Twelve months ago The Cranberries were unknown outside of the hippest rock circles, now with the platinum success of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? they stand as the first Irish band to genuinely crack America since U2.-Much of the media attention given to them has focussed on Dolores O’Riordan, a singer whose unique approach to her craft underlines the defiantly independent path the group has trodden all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Here she talks to JOE JACKSON about what by any standards has been a perfect year. Pix: Michael Quinn.
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 . . .
