As Godzilla charges repeatedly at downtown Tokyo, Honda conveys the destruction with an deft use of film grammar – a flick of the tail here, bang goes the neighbourhood there. Panic sweeps a nation. Radiation sickness spreads. The army mobilises. Yet beneath the chaos lurks an elegant melodrama and a taut thriller.
The Manson Family at work, rest and play, in sickness and in health. Peter Murphy travels to britain and the US to bring back the full, intimate story of a band on the run
Endless traffic, skyrocketing house prices, vandalism, litter, corrupt planners, listed buildings being pulled down to make way for |ber-pubs and highrises. Doesn t Dublin deserve better than this? KIM PORCELLI talks to Irish Times Environment Correspondent FRANK McDONALD about his new book, The Construction Of Dublin, and some of the more controversial proposals to save the city before it s too late
Ahead of her appearance at a huge charity fashion show in Dublin, the supermodel talks mountain-climbing, modelling, smoking and U2.
By OLAF TYARANSEN.
There are quite a few things that the world needs at the minute: love, of course, empathy, tolerance, and maybe even a new album from Lauren Hill. However, I’m not sure how far down the wish-list one has to travel before the prospect of a Scandinavian Ocean Colour Scene is mentioned.
No disrespect to the other parties involved, but this is that rare artefact: an engineer’s album. The boffin in question is Persian-born Leila, who, according to the publicity blurb, did the mixing honours on Björk’s Post tour.
The over of Van Morrison's new LP immediately brings to mind a controversial poem of William Wordsworth's called the Leech Gatherer, later retitled 'Resolution and Independence'.
To get ahead in Irish society, a dubious attitude towards the truth has always helped. But as chickens come home to roost it is, at long last perhaps, time for change
During his misspent youth, Johnny Cash crashed and burned so spectacularly, so frequently, that a future rock biopic became something of a certainty. James Mangold’s fine film has plenty of seamy detail – Cash’s amphetamine fuelled tours with Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, hysterical groupies, a drug-bust at the Mexican border. Primarily though, Walk The Line is a romance, a dark, spiritual, difficult, redemptive love story.
Keiji Nakazawa, the godfather of Japanese ‘anime’ art, was six when the atomic bomb devastated his Hiroshima home. It was a tragedy that would haunt him for life, and inspire his fiercely anti-war comics
The recently released photos of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners confirm that the American war effort was born out of entirely self-serving and hypocritical motives.
Would illegal Roma immigrants be treated differently if they were Nigerian or Somali? Are economic refugees suffering from a rose-tinted view of life in Ireland?
Intellectual property rights are being invoked in a landmark case in India that is likely to prevent cheap drugs being produced for the benefit of some of the most disadvantaged people in the world.
I want to get AIDS. I want to die a gory undignified death, lying Christ-like with gaunt cheeks and lolling eyes and tubes transporting juices in and out of every orifice in my skeletal frame, my mind long fragmented with dementia, leaving my grieving family and friends lost in the crazed exhausting tedium of ministering to my wasted body, my personality long having ceased to exist. No farewells, no camp ironic jokes, no gallows humour; just a few last wheezy breaths and then silence, followed by a low whining complaint from the machine.
THE WORD psychology has its roots in Greek: psyche, the soul, spirit, or mind’ and logos, the Divine word; speech; the word which expresses the inward thought; the thought itself.
Sex abuse by priests is just one reflection of a problem that is at the heart of the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church-its defininition of sex outside the confines of marriage as a sin.
IN TERMS of farcicality, time-consumption and sheer bloody-mindedness, the Northern Ireland peace process is in danger of being usurped as the stupidest show in town by the Nicolas Anelka transfer saga. I exaggerate, naturally, but only slightly.
REGINALD MAUDLING, during his stint as colonial overseer of Northern Ireland, had a particularly trying couple of days there once and on his way home on the British government plane he ordered a large Scotch, pronto.
Her work is brutally explicit and fired by an anger that seems to know no limits. GERRY McGOVERN plunges into the black heart of two new works by one of contemporary art's most controversial women, Lydia Lunch.
A New Jersey-ite Eurocentric who mixes the buttoned-up gravitas of Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter with the lush orchestral tapestries of Bacharach and Spector. A Girl Called Eddy’s bohemian rhapsody is well worth acquainting yourself with.
AN RTE radio reporter had the temerity to ask Jackie Charlton whether he thought that four goals were enough against Liechtenstein, a place of comparable size to a region of Tallaght.
David Holmes is momentarily back in Belfast, fixing up some business, talking with friends and previewing some of the music that he s been cooking up in New York over the past five months.
As well as being a rising actress and Playboy cover girl, Dumplings starlet Bai Ling has at least eight spirits currently inhabiting her body, one of whom is so shy it insists she has sex with the lights off. Alrighty then.
At the end of another eventful year, Andrea Corr takes time out to reflect on life, death, love, health, music and her role, off-stage and on, in the family that plays together. Interview: Niall Stokes
20 years and the last seven days: U2 have gone through a whole heavenhell of a lot to get here. One can only guess at Bono’s state of mind, high on the euphoria of playing the most ecstatic shows of his band’s career, drained from the freeze-dried exhaustion of flying home to Dublin from all points around Europe to endure the dim purgatories every son goes through when his father is dying.
Why did RAY BURKE receive #30,000 from a construction firm eight years ago? And what on earth did he spend it on? These were just some of the many questions awaiting answers in the Dail last week. Our man in the public gallery: LIAM FAY.
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.
A glimpse into Glen Hansard’s tour diary while on the road with The Frames' fourth album For The Birds (2001) - including reflections on their first landmark Olympia show (March 30th, 2001)
Having been catapulted to fame by their debut, the knives came out for GARBAGE with the release of Version 2.0. But their crifical mauling has only served to bring the band closer together. PETER MURPHY saw them triumph at The Point, and spoke to SHIRLEY MANSON about fame, performance and one-night stands.
The Junk yard: Voices From An Irish Prison is the title of a powerful new collection of writings by inmates of Mountjoy Prison. ADRIENNE MURPHY hears how the pen has replaced the spike for one former inmate, PENNER, and also talks to the anthology s editor, MARSHA HUNT.
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
Dirk Whittenborn started his writing career on the cult us show saturday night live in the 1970s when the hedonistic, cocaine-fuelled lifestyle claimed the talents of many of his contemporaries, including John Belushi. Whittenborn survived - but only after brutal heart surgery.
Tim Booth does. The James frontman chats candidly to John Walshe about fame, riches, sexuality, being called a 'faggot' on the Lollapalooza tour, and the band's
brilliant 10th album, Millionaires.
Queen of catharsis as the leader of Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh raised a few eyebrows with her debut solo album Hips And Makers, a sublimely private collection which made it all the way to the Top 10. Here she explains her approach to songwriting, the emotional extremes she suffers and what it’s like working with The Sexiest Man Alive to NIALL CRUMLISH.
Tori Amos has rocketed to international prominence with her album "Little Earthquakes", but behind the public success story lies the private trauma
of a young woman who was raped at the age of 22. In an uncompromisingly honest interview with Joe Jackson, Tori talks about that terrible experience, it's lasting scars and how her music has helped to set her free again.
The case for and against Holocaust Revisionist and Nazi apologist DAVID IRVING being allowed to speak on a public platform in Ireland. For: GERRY McGOVERN. Against: EAMONN McCANN
. . . who is the sexiest of them all? Helen MIRREN, apparently, at least according to readers of the Radio Times, who recently voted her the sexiest woman on TV. Which may be flattering but possibly also does a disservice to a gifted actress who has no qualms about speaking her mind whether on nudity, money, the stage, television or even the cowardly assholes who bomb for Ireland. Interview: Joe Jackson
Annual article: The Electric Picnic wasn’t just one of the musical events of the year; it also let us chow down and have a natter with some of the top pop combos of the day, including Bloc Party, Gang Of Four and New Order.
WITH THEIR LONG AWAITED SECOND ALBUM *JUNK PUPPETS* ABOUT TO HIT THE STREETS AN EMOTIONAL FISH ARE BACK ON THE ROAD AND READY TO TAKE THE WORLD BY STORM. BUT FIRST, THERE'S THE SMALL MATTER OF A TRIP TO THE WILDS OF WEST CORK, DURING WHICH THE BAND CAN RELAX, REFLECT, INGEST LARGE QUANTITIES OF LIQUID REFRESHMENTS-AND PLAY THE ODD STORMING GIG. A TIRED AND VERY EMOTIONAL LORRAINE FREENEY REPORTS.
It s a story that has it all. Fame, drink, women, politics. Even death threats and The Mob. In a special retrospective feature JOE JACKSON explores the myth, and the reality, of THE RAT PACK, the original reservoir dogs.
30,000 people, loads of A-list stars, four stages on Fairyhouse Racecourse. Yes, we're talking about WITNNESS. KIM PORCELLI reviews the biggest festival of the summer.
Not since the death of Elvis has the passing of a music legend so gripped the world. As fans and detractors alike struggle to come to grips with the sad, strange end of Michael Jackson we assess his legacy – as musician, celebrity and enduring icon and talk to some of the people who knew and understood him best.
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.
There s very little torture involved in making a record until it s released and then the audience gets to suffer. PETER MURPHY meets the one and only LYDIA LUNCH.
The legendary GRACE JONES is coming to Dublin.
OLAF TYARANSEN caught up with her in New York to talk about drugs, stalkers, her recent marriage and period pains.
One of the ten most photographed people in Ireland, TV presenter Caroline Morahan isn’t just a pretty face. Fame, fashion, drugs, the Antisocial Behaviour Order and George Dubbya are all on the agenda all she pours scorn on John Walshe's ten-year plan and vetos Caroline – The Fragrance. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
Imagine the scene. It is August 15th, 1977. Joe Jackson of Hot Press arrives at Graceland, to do the ultimate interview with Elvis Presley. Elvis is in the music room,seated at the piano and singing 'Blue
Eyes Cryin In The Rain'. They sit down across the table, Jackson pushes the record button - and so begins the final interview with the greatest rock'n'roll star of them all
Make no mistake about it, cocaine is more widely available in Ireland than at any time in the past. But is it the nasty, evil and dangerous drug of tabloid legend? In this Special Hot Press Report, Olaf Tyaransen goes behind the myths to uncover the history of, and the facts about, what has been dubbed the Champagne Drug. He talks to the Gardai and to dealers – and offers an honest assessment, from his own personal experience, of the drug that's widely used by musicians, media types, accountants, advertising execs and lawyers.
At the end of an exciting, painful and earthshaking year, Bono reflects on the political and the personal – from drop the debt, September 11, Afghanistan and Genoa to the death of his father Bob, the birth of his son John and the enduring friendship which underpins U2’s music and career. Interview: Niall Stokes
[this interview originally appeared in the spectacular Hot Press Annual 2002 - used in the pictures below - a very limited number of this unique collectors item will shortly be on sale - email u2@hotpress.ie to reserve a copy]
inishing off a year in which his immersion in the craziness of orthodox religion won him a top journalism award, Liam Fay finds himself standing atop a windswept Hill of Tara in the dead of night in the depths of winter all the better to survey the diverse landscape of paganism and witchcraft in 90s Ireland.
