In one of the most dramatic developments in Irish music in decades, Sinead O'Connor has said that she will retire from the music business in three months time
Duetting pairs Lisa Hannigan (pictured) and Gary Lightbody as well as Sinead O'Connor and Republic Of Loose, are set to perform live together at the forthcoming Meteor Irish Music Awards.
Sinead O'Connor isn't exactly one to take things lying down, and some US websites are about to find this out for themselves. In an exclusive chat with Hot Press she puts the story straight and talks about her next album. Only here folks!
It's almost two years since Sinead O'Connor announced her retirement from music. However, it was always on the cards that she would find her voice again. The good news is that she has. She explains all in an exclusive interview with Niall Stokes...
As Live 8 looms closer, rumours have been circulating that artists are being told that they cannot criticise politicians from the stage. HotPress' guest writer looks at the issues from an artist’s perspective. Bob Geldof responds below.
Sinead’s voice and the band, honed from months on the road, are at the absolute peak of their powers. Lots of fans I spoke to afterwards felt they’d never heard her sound better.
Proffering a delicious taste of her forthcoming album, Throw Down Your Arms, due for release this autumn, Sinead O’Connor thrilled punters at the Prime Minister’s 2005 Independence Gala in Jamaica with her impassioned version of Bob Marley’s ‘War’, accompanied on drum and bass by famous riddim twins, Sly and Robbie.
Other Voices: Songs From A Room director Philip King reacts to news of Sinead O'Connor's retirement from public life - and praises "one of the world's very best singers"
The most important female Irish artist of the last decade-and-a-half shuffles self-consciously onto the stage to a truly warm Mayo welcome. She looks healthy, rested and fighting fit.
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.
Sinéad O’Connor fans will want to invest in Theology: Live At The Sugar Club, a limited-edition deluxe CD/DVD, which is available exclusively from sineadoconnor.com.
Having had a whale of a time readying it for the Meteors, Sinéad O’Connor and Republic Of Loose have decided to release their cover of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘We People Who Are Darker Than Blue’.
Sinéad O’Connor's voice is still capable of enchanting you with its fragility and blowing you away with its power, but maybe we all expected that, because at first it’s the bravely mixed set-list that grabs your attention.
Tonight, from Bob Marley’s ‘War’ to Burning Spear’s ‘Jah Nuh Dead’, Sinéad O’Connor and her sidekicks deliver in spades. On a musical level, the reggae-fuelled set is funky, moving and, above all, inspiring.
Aslan were the unexpected winners of the night at the Meteor Ireland Music awards, beating off competition from the likes of Ash, Delorentos and the Flaws to take the title of Best Irish Band.
A special exhibition focussing on musical inspirations as been lined up for The Music Show, which takes place at the RDS in Dublin this weekend, Saturday October 4 and Sunday October 5.
SINEAD O'CONNOR has been many things - bona fide pop star, tabloid target, controversial activist, mother and priest. But, above all, she is one of Ireland's most compelling musicians.
With a new album due for release, she talks to NIALL STOKES about love, sex, the Church, fame, racism and why "it's important to make it soul music." Pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
U2, Simon Carmody and Kila have led a collaboration on a special tribute to Ronnie Drew, which was recorded in Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, over the past few days.
Bloom with a view after a four year sabbatical, Hothouse Flowers are back. John Walsh talks to arch-otanists Liam, Peter and Fiachna about just
what it was that kept them out of the limelight (or should that be sunlamp) for so long.
U2, Andrea Corr, The Dubliners, Sinead O'Connor and Kila are among the acts who will appear on tonight's Late Late Show to perform their tribute to Ronnie Drew.
BP Fallon, who toured with The Ramones in 1977 and 1978 - including their epochal gig in Dublin at The State Cinema in Phibsboro that forever changed the face of Irish rock'n'roll - dips into the archives of oblivion to remember Dee Dee Ramone
The new album Closer To the Bone by Kris Kristofferson includes a song ‘Sister Sinead’ which the American country legend penned as a tribute to the Irish artist.
IARLA O LIONAIRD has a new star-studded solo album out but the Afro Celt Sound System continue to teach him that music can be enjoyable and not just sublime . Interview: Colm O'Hare
One of Ireland’s outstanding violin players, Steve Wickham is a long-time member of The Waterboys and respected composer in his own right. Born in Dublin, he’s a country boy at heart.
Furious Tradesmen present a four band 'extravaganza of joy' in Belfast this month, with New York native Pixie Saytar and Belfast acts Panda Kopanda, Three Tales and Heliopause.
Californian-born JIM PAGE is no ordinary protest singer. Best known on this side of the Atlantic as the writer of such classics as 'Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Russian Roulette', his music has continued to move hearts and minds well into the corporate nineties. Here, he traces his roots from Bob Dylan to Public Enemy, and explains why he wrote a special song in tribute to Sinead O'Connor. Interview: GERRY McGOVERN
A STRANGE sound can be heard in L.A. late at night, when the traffic has finally begun to die down, Mickey Rourke has parked his Harley, Bruce Willis has turned off his 1,000 megawatt speakers and the denizens of the Dream Factory are getting ready to embrace the great unconscious.
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
Or perhaps we might have reached for another old familiar headline - Fears and Loathing in RTE - as the bosses at Radio 1 announce the chopping of virtually all specialist music programmes from the schedule. It is, writes Bill Graham, an act of cultural criminal negligence.
Calling all up-and-coming music stars! The path to success can sometimes seem dauntingly steep. But, in an ongoing series, JACKIE HAYDEN looks at the various challenges which face new bands, and how to overcome them. This issue: RECORDING. Photo: KAREN CAULFIELD
Lunar Records supremo Brian Molloy has enlisted the help of such luminaries as Bertie Ahern, Eamon Dunphy and Bono in the making of voices and poetry of Ireland, a one-off CD being released to benefit the homeless this Christmas.
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.
Massive Attack explain why they are outspoken opponents of the proposed war in Iraq, give high praise to Sinéad O’Connor and reveal how a porn soundtrack left them gasping for airtime.
The grand dame of country and western music tells Olaf Tyaransen about her enduring passion for her music, her attachment to her tennessee roots, the ups and downs of her 36-year marriage and her ambitions to record an album of traditional Irish tunes
The proceeds from a new CD featuring the cream of Ireland’s musical talent including U2, Sinéad O’Connor and Ash will benefit people living with mental illness
The star-spangled story of how Richard Melville Hall learned to relax and love sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. "Don't tell anybody but I'm actually the lead guitarist with Slipknot," he informs Stuart Clark.
If there was a competition to replace St. Patrick with someone else worth honouring on a national day, who would you choose - and why? Jackie Hayden consults a living Irish legend and canvasses celebrity opinion
PHIL COULTER is far from the muzak-producing bore of caricature. Here, he talks to JOE JACKSON about family tragedy, northern politics, drink binges, having songs covered by Elvis and his experiences working with stars like Van Morrison, Siniad O Connor and Luke Kelly. Portraits: MYLES CLAFFEY
Or should that be Black pages? Mary Black and her long-time friend, producer and collaborator Declan Sinnott look back over ten years of solo work, and the steady progress which finds her ready to take on the world with her latest album. The Holy Ground. Interview: Joe Jackson
THERE WAS a time when the magical words "for charity" were the guarantee of any old tat selling a million but nowadays, cynicism being what it is, there has to be musical substance to the good intentions.
Nearly a decade after the release of their debut single, U2 are widely regarded as the No. 1 rock band in the world. But the album and the film "Rattle And Hum" depict another kind of reality entirely. Larry, Adam and The Edge talk to Niall Stokes.
The Edge talks to Bill Graham about his soundtrack album "Captive" - and about the hidden reservoirs the band are charting in their search for the follow-up to "The Unforgettable Fire"
Having made his name in the folk arena with Emmet Spiceland, Planxty and The Bothy Band, DONAL LUNNY went electric with the ground-breaking Moving Hearts. In the second part of a wide-ranging interview reflecting on all of the major characters and plots in Irish music since the folk revival blossomed in the '60s, he talks about the demise of the Hearts, the impact of Riverdance, Shane MacGowan, Sharon Shannon, Altan, Coolfin – and what he'd like to do with Sheryl Crow. Tape: NIALL STOKES
A new era begins for Irish record distribution as showband svengali Mick Clerkin, Noel Cusack of Chart Records, and RMG's Peter Kenny join forces to form RMG Chart Entertainment Ltd
Seize The Day, the new album by Damien Dempsey, finally due out next month. Read on for tour dates and news of the fate of that Massive Attack/Sinead O'Connor collaboration too
So this is Christmas and what have we done... As U2 prepare to enter the final yearof the decade, Bono devotes a long night at his home in Dublin to reflecting on his life, his music and U2's extraordinary career to date. Interview: Liam Mackey
The Waterboys are back, with arguably their most complete record yet, Book Of Lightning. In this remarkably open and honest interview, Mike Scott talks about his songwriting genius, about relationships, his family, his boozy years in Galway - and turning U2 onto Greenpeace.
While the entity that is U2 continues to be the dominant focus in the creative lives of its four members, away from the band, Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry have all indulged in extra-curricular activities, bringing them – and their music - into contact with such legends as Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Keith Richards, and Roy Orbison, By Dermot Stokes
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 . . .
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.
Amanda Byram was today unveiled as the host of this year’s Meteors Awards and nominees for 2009 were revealed - as well as the fact that Sharon Shannon would receive a lifetime achievement award.
Hot Press gets saucy with a steamy Samantha Mumba shoot. Also, Sinead O'Connor goes wild in Jamaica, Damien Dempsey takes on the world and Andrea Corr fronts our women's issue.
The Simpsons crash our cover along with Bruce Springsteen, REM, Arcade Fire and The Smiths. Plus, the HP celebrates our 30th birthday with Shane MacGowan, Sinead O'Connor, Tommy Tiernan, Damien Dempsey, Christy Moore, and a lovely big cake.
...says Massive Attack's 3D, now that several tracks' worth of collaboration with Sinead O'Connor are finally in the bag. And we'll surely see the new Massive album released in the autumn... okay, this time next century at the latest
