Have you got a ticket? The way things are looking, that's going to be the question of the year. U2 played Slane Castle as one of the support acts when Thin Lizzy topped the bill there in 1981. Since then they have gone on to become the biggest band in the world.
As predicted first by hotpress.com over a month ago, Madonna has been confirmed as the headline artist for Slane 2004. The concert has been scheduled for Sunday, August 29, signalling a change in practice for the annual Slane Castle event, which has not taken place on a Sunday since Bob Dylan appeared there in 1984.
Somebody up there likes us -that's for sure! Slane Castle 4pm on Saturday 25th August 2001 and the sun is shining down through deep blue skies like it hasn’t done all summer.
With Madonna's tour about to debut in Los Angeles this Monday, some of Slane's residents seem determined to keep their town out of pop history. The Re-invention tour is a virtual sell out - 47 of the 48 shows currently sport HOUSE FULL signs - with Slane likely to do the same within hours of tickets eventually going on sale.
After several months of will she/won't she speculation, MCD have announced that Madonna will definitely bring her Re:invention Greatest Hits World Tour to Slane Castle on Sunday August 29.
Meath County Council have received a formal licence application from Slane promoters, with the date - confirmed as "the Lord's Day" - drawing protests from the local parish priest and tabloid media
With the last broadcast up for a Mercury and Slane just around the corner, Jimi Goodwin of Doves is happy to enthuse about Planxty, U2, The Streets and Sean O'Hagan. Just don't call his band "the new Radiohead"
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
Hot Press can exclusively reveal the bill that accompanies the Red Bull X-Fighter Freestyle Motocrosss bash at Slane Castle - the headliner of which is Ash.
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.
Despite the hype and controversy surrounding ticket sales in the run up to Slane 2004, on the night it certainly looked as near to a sell-out as made no difference.
On 25 August 2001 - twenty years after first appearing there in support to Thin Lizzy - U2 play Slane Castle. NIALL STOKES reflects on the extraordinary journey that has led up to this historic, and beautiful, day
...cos Feeder - of monster-huge 2003 single 'Just The Way I'm Feeling' - have just been added to the bill for Slane. Tickets (pay attention now) go on sale tomorrow morning at 8
...cos Feeder - of monster-huge 2003 single 'Just The Way I'm Feeling' - have just been added to the bill for Slane. Tickets (pay attention now) go on sale tomorrow morning at 8
Ahead of their Slane appearance, Adam Duritz of The Counting Crows spills the beans on everything from the inspiration behind his songwriting to Gemma Hayes
Debbi Peterson of '80s pop act The Bangles talks about supporting Queen at Slane, surviving an embarrassing moment on the David Letterman show and drumming with Spinal Tap
The Concert – Running Order:
James 1.00pm
The Seahorses 2.15pm
Finley Quaye 3.30pm
Robbie Williams 5.00pm
Manic Street Preachers 6.30pm
The Verve 8.30pm
Where other bands moan about the music industry or spend small fortunes bringing their stage designs to life, Stereophonics like to keep it nice and simple. Or at least as nice and simple as it gets when you tour with U2, get advice from Prince Charles and see Slipknot with their masks off
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.
Maybe the place is just too big, maybe the sound's too low or the songs too weak, but rapt musical attention is giving way to inflatable chair fights and beery boredom
DAVE FANNING meets the inimitable ROBBIE WILLIAMS to talk about his latest album, his battles with the booze, the Take That legacy, his desire to play a politically incorrect James Bond, a vaguely remembered visit to Bono s loo and why he loves and hates The Beatles
Opening our U2 special, DERMOD MOORE catches up with ADAM CLAYTON during the UK leg of the Elevation tour, and delves deep into the physics of music celebrity, politics and, er, penises
STEREOPHONICS are on the up-and-up, their popularity growing without the band making concessions to the London-based music media. GEORGE BYRNE met them to talk about drink, drugs, writer s block and their upcoming Slane support slot.
Mini Pics: MICK 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
The odds on Madonna playing Slane on the weekend of August 28/29 have shortened considerably with the singer confirming a third London date at Wembley Arena on August 22.
With those other candidates for the job, AC/DC, confirming an O2 Arena show today, it looks an odds-on certainty that Oasis will be unveiled tomorrow as the headliners of Slane ’09.
Irish festivalgoers are going to be spoilt for choice next year, as Witnness, Green Energy and Slane will be sharing the calendar with an Irish version of (wait for it!) the Reading Festival
Following a period during which they were rumoured to be playing Slane, Coldplay are revealed to be Witnness 2003's Saturday night headliners. A hotpress.com exclusive
The tabloids have been trying their darndest to guess who's headlining Slane 2003 (recent "scoops": Coldplay, The Rolling Stones) - but promoters MCD say they couldn't be further off
In the wake of Eminem's cancellation of Slane, fellow rapper 50 Cent has announced an extra date in addition to his 18 December date at The Point, Dublin.
...cos Feeder - of monster-huge 2003 single 'Just The Way I'm Feeling'
- have just been added to the bill for Slane. Tickets (pay attention now) go
on sale tomorrow morning at 8
Ahead of the Red-Bull X-Fighters freestyle motorcross extravaganza at Slane Castle, Duan Stokes checks out the Mexico City leg of this extraordinary motorsport spectacle.
Ahead of the Red-Bull X-Fighters freestyle motorcross extravaganza at Slane Castle, Duan Stokes checks out the Mexico City leg of this extraordinary motorsport spectacle.
Recorded in Slane Castle in Co. Meath, this was the first U2 album on which the quartet used the studio as brush rather than canvas, with results that were often dense and impressionistic: the majestic title track, the fractious punk-funk of ‘Wire’, the slow motion fireworks of ‘MLK’ and ‘Bad’.
“Where were you last night?” asked the ol’ man. “We played a concert in Trinity College. “How did it go?” “Well,” I said, we had a bit of trouble from a few 16 year olds in the audience. “You weren’t very polite yourself at 16!” he replied.
Having got themselves back on the road so spectacularly over the past couple of years, noone is going to risk the wheels coming off the RHCP juggernaut just yet. Thus a pre-Christmas release blitz sees a Live At Slane DVD and this greatest hits, also bolstered by a limited edition discs of videos.
You know, many young people come up to me in the street and then, when they see that I’m Sam Snort, start to shriek and run very quickly in the opposite direction.
In fitting tribute to the biggest gig of the year, we've dug out classic interviews with the headline acts: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age. Rock on!
Russian cosmonauts, mexican desperadoes and cranky italian elephants – it’s all in a day’s work for solo too supremo Ned O’Hanlon, the man entrusted with documenting the multi-media extravaganza that is the U2 live experience.
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.
In 2007, Hot Press will celebrate its 30th anniversary. By way of a prelude to the up-coming festivities, at Music Ireland ‘06, we will be unveiling the Hot Press Covers Exhibition featuring a selection of the great, and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards...
Brody Dalle is tired – but then she has had a pretty intense few years of it. Peter Murphy learns how The Distillers survived marital discord and peer disapproval.
Her fans include David Bowie, Bono and The Cardigans’ Nina Persson – and now she’s released possibly her finest record yet. EMM GRYNER talks about raising her game and steering clear of the ‘indie-folk’ vogue.
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
Having drummed his way round the world with Therapy?, Graham Hopkins is now upfront singing with his own band Halite. But as Paul Nolan finds out, he’s no indie Phil Collins
You cook them, we serve them up in the Q&A cantina. At the table to answer the questions posed, in our second serving this fortnight, by members of hotpress.com: Ash
Will U2 play Phoenix Park or not? And what is the future of the rock festival as we have come to know and love it in Ireland? Special Report: STUART CLARK.
In the instant world of pop music, it would be fair to say that life can be a bit of a rollercoaster – as some of our homegrown teenybop maestros discovered in 2001. But WESTLIFE and SAMANTHA MUMBA are still riding high.
BY STEPHEN ROBINSON
Jackie hayden meetsjournalist turned PR guru, Tony O Brien and speaks to him about his rock n roll adventures with the likes of U2, Michael Stipe and Bruce Springsteen.
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is a major new six-part RTE series. Directed by DAVID HEFFERNAN, and featuring new interviews with the major players including Van Morrison, Bob Geldof, U2 and Siniad O Connor it traces the history of Irish music, from showbands to boybands and beyond. By PETER MURPHY.
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.
Having just done her leaving certificate exam, summer came as a great relief to hotpress reader Breda Bourke. and then everyone started to complain! here, she looks back at the season that seems to have pissed everyone off – and takes a somewhat different view.
Promoter Jim Aiken, who passed away recently, was a hugely important and universally admired figure in the Irish music scene. Here, leading industry representatives pay tribute. (free content)
As Stereophonics release their sixth abum, frontman Kelly Jones talks about his friendship with Oasis and reveals that he’s buried the hatchet with Muse.
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.
Belfast, then Glasgow and NEXT STOP – the cover of the Radio Times?
Stuart Clark joins fast-rising Snow Patrol on Scottish manoeuvres. PICS: IAN McMURRAY
30th Anniversary Retrospective: On the eve of the release of their fifth album, Ash talk longevity, writing songs in Bono’s summer house and why Twilight Of The Innocents is not a pipe-and-slippers album.
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.
If not reinventing the wheel, Arctic Monkeys are certainly giving the spokes a good polish. Stuart Clark takes his place in the moshpit for their recent Dublin show.
The High Court had decided that the U2 gigs at Lansdowne Road could not go ahead. But after a tense week in the Supreme Court, that decision was comprehensively overturned. Reporters: PETER MURPHY, ADRIENNE MURPPHY and BARRY GLENDENNING.
Christy Moore, who headlines this year’s rejuvenated Lisdoonvarna Festival, recalls the first flowering of music festivals in Ireland – and looks forward to this year’s event, when once again the challenge will be to weave that spell
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.
Steve Lillywhite, who produced U2's first three albums – and has featured on the production team of almost all of their records – looks back over the band's career and recalls the highs... and the lows
GREEN DAY have had a meteoric rise over the last 18 years, from poky Dublin dives to colossal international stadia. But despite their maturing worldview and increasing political articulacy, they’re still as exciting a kick-ass punk rock group as ever.
Adored by Hollywood’s elite and admired by everyone from the dearly-departed Oasis to Bruce Springsteen, Kasabian’s career has gone into over-drive this year. Main songwriter Serge Pizzorno dishes the dirt on those swine flu rumours, how Quentin Tarantino might be the next alumni from Tinsel Town to fall under their spell and why he’ll need to take a few days off after their Arthur’s Day celebrations in Dublin.
The BLUE ANGELS have waited a long, long time for the release of their debut album Coming Out Of Nowhere. Now that this occasion has finally arrived the big question is: what next?
TARA McCARTHY talks to SHANE O'NEILL
Now on their third album, Kings Of Leon have rubbed shoulders with Bob Dylan, U2 and the Pixies, and can count Led Zep and the Rolling Stones among their fans.
Donegal fiddle player john doherty died relatively unheralded in 1980 at the age of 86. Now, a new CD bears ample testament to his almost supernatural skill with a bow and strings.
By peter murphy.
They may sport one of the most original sounds in rock’n’roll – but along the way they’ve been influenced by some of the greats.
STUART BAILIE identifies the ten (plus!) key influences on the music of U2
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
When Paddy Moloney isn t busy gigging, rehearsing or recording with his band of merry men, The chieftains, he s laughing. A man who makes The Laughing Policeman look like Leonard Cohen, Moloney recently took a 10-minute break to talk to Paul Byrne about the band s new album REEL MUSIC, their upcoming London festival weekend, their up-coming Christmas album, Van Morrison and oh, about four million other things The Chieftains are currently involved with. Hold onto your sides!
ROCK IN RIO, which attracts 200,000 people, may be known for headliners like Sting, REM and Britney Spears. But this year, DERVISH played there too - and got a rapturous welcome. SIOBHÁN LONG reports from an extraordinary event
Most of us agree that the Eurovision Song Contest is a load of arse, but at least we can switch to another channel. The Irish Times' KEVIN COURTNEY, however, attended this year’s contest in Copenhagen - and got sucked into the black hole of rock 'n' roll
If you know who to call, it's as easy to buy a gun in Dublin as a microwave. No wonder there are more firearms in the streets – and more gangland murders – than ever before.
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]
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.
Does ABSINTHE really make the heart grow fonder or are the Conservatives right in calling for its ban? STUART CLARK and his showbiz chums check out the drink that s taking clubland by storm. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
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.
They blasted into the public consciousness at the end of 2005, when 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' became the year's biggest breakthrough No.1. Since then it's been an extraordinary rollercoaster ride for the Arctic Monkeys, with bass player trouble, celebrity fans, EastEnders appearances and a row with fellow newcomers The Feeling to show for their efforts. Oh, and then there's the small matter of shifting nearly two million copies of their debut album...
From “Outspan” to Glen Hansard, from Grafton Street to Hollywood – and onwards to Lisdoonvarna 2003. A portrait of The Frames as a most unusual band. Part one of a two-part special feature by Peter Murphy. [Main Photos: Mick Quinn]
30th Anniversary Retrospective: In a special interview, The Edge reminisces about the early days of Hotpress, explains Bill Graham’s role in U2’s development, and comes clean about what the band have been up to recently in Morocco.
Technology is setting the pace in the musical instrument and equipment market of the ’90s, with one great leap forward following another, and the musican reaping the benefits in terms of a vastly increased range of product choices. But it’s a difficult market for retailers nonetheless, with the level of investment and exposure rising all the time. Report: Colm O’Hare
With the launch of a commemorative series of Irish postage stamps celebrating four of the nation's most important rock legends, we revisit some of the seminal moments in the careers of Phil Lynott, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison and - first - U2
COLM O'HARE meets SCOTT YOUNG, father of Neil, and a renowned journalist, author and broadcaster in his own right. In this rare interview he talks about his best-known subject - his famous son.
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
The Black Crowes! Blowjobs! Journey! Drink! Bob Seger! Vick’s inhaler! and why Keith Duffy is more fun than the Manic Street Preachers! Stereophonics let their hair down in the company of Stuart Clark
For many people it is U2's greatest album. Twenty years on, to mark it's re-release, Colm O'Hare talks to Daniel Lanois and reflects on the extraordinary background to a monumental album.
Forget Oxegen or U2 at Croke Park – the biggest shows in town this summer are the All Ireland Championships. With the crowning of the provincial championships, the season is entering its most competitive stage.
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...
Niall Stokes draws on his best-selling book Into The Heart: The Stories Behind The Songs Of U2 to offer a unique insight into the way in which some of the greatest songs in the history of popular music came into being.
A former drug dealer, he’s been shot at nine times and lived to tell the tale, emerging as one of the most controversial and uncompromising figures in rap. But there's more to 50 Cent than the popular legend suggests. For a start, there’s a new commercial edge to the music, as his US and Irish number one album The Massacre demonstrates. Plus, as one of the new faces of Reebok’s ‘I Am What I Am’ campaign, he’s taken to the role of cultural icon with considerable zest. Oh, and besides, he’s a bit of a wow with the ladies.
If you want to make a demo that won't be used to blackmail you a few years down the road to fame and fortune, there are a few things you should know. Here, the experts tell Niall Crumlish what they are.
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.
While the path to rock n roll stardom is never smooth, RICHARD ASHCROFT has experienced more ups and downs than most. In a wide-ranging interview with DAVE FANNING, he talks about drugs, The Verve, his new solo album and why the old hometown doesn t look so bad.
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.
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?
It sounds like the stuff of hype and overnight success – from struggling garage band to next big thing and accolades from noel gallagher, morrissey and bono – but even at an average age of 23 The Thrills have paid their dues. Olaf Tyaransen hears how the summer’s hottest band went from worshipping whipping boy to having beck’s da play on their debut album.
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
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
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.
James Dean Bradfield on The Cult of Richey, The Spanish Civil War, Jon Bon Jovi, and the new album This Is My Truth, Tell Me Yours. Truth Serum: Peter Murphy. Light Detector Test: Simon Clemenger.
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
Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden? It doesn t get much
better than this. JOE JACKSON goes
backstage for a brief but revealing encounter with Joni and, from a vantage point to die for, finds two 60s legends who can still send shivers up the spine at the end of the millennium.
U2, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, The Waterboys, Emmylou Harris, Hothouse Flowers, The Everly Brothers, Christy Moore just some of the dozens of artists who contribute to an adventurous new five part TV series which traces the extraordinary return journey that Irish traditional music has made to America and beyond. Here, Liam Fay previews the programmes, talks to Philip King who originated and nurtured the project and hears many of the participants explain how they discovered the importance and influence of Irish music.
MIKE SCOTT once fronted the greatest rock n roll band in the world, but before the world got a chance to wake up to the fact he had gone west and invented raggle taggle. Now with a new Waterboys album, A Rock In The Weary Place, just released, Scott takes time out to reflect on his strange but true adventure. By PETER MURPHY
U2 manager Paul McGuinness is among the most powerful players in the music industry. To coincide with the DVD release of U2’s classic ZOO TV Live From Sydney, he talks candidly about his relationship with the band and their controversial decision to move part of their business empire to the Netherlands in order to lower their tax burden.
Long before boomtime Ireland there was boomtown Ireland, a country where the national symbol was not a tiger but a rat. to coincide with the release of the best of the boomtown rats, Bob Geldof looks back to the tepid Irish scene of the mid-’70s from which the rats emerged, biting, snarling and laughing, to take on the establishment, Britain and, almost, the world.
With a new 'best of' bringing the band's story up to date U2's guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2.
Special hotpress.com members edition: "director's cut" featuring interview sections unavailable anywhere else.
From "Out Of Control" to "All I Want Is You", Neil McCormick presents a major critical retrospective on the complete recorded works of U2, the band who went from being one of the world's worst cover groups to become a leading force in modern Rock'n'Roll
Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer, rock stars that they are, have just arrived at the Castle by helicopter and will be revealing all to a rabid posse of journalists
A record company spokesperson has elaborated on the “medical issues” that have lead to Eminem canceling the European leg of his Anger Management 3 world tour.
This 23-track compilation includes material from five albums recorded during their 1968-1972 heyday, presented in chronological order so that one can trace the band’s musical evolution
From Radiohead to Springsteen, the twelve months ahead are already packed with highlights. But will Led Zeppelin be among the group’s hitting the comeback trail?
Bless me reader for I have sinned. It's been a month since my last Skindive gig, an extremely enjoyable evening that ended in a euphoric alcoholic blank. From what I remember, it was a great show…
The cheeky chappie that is Robbie Williams promised to return at some point this year to play a free show after what he thought to be a sub-standard gig at Croke Park. It wasn't *that* bad, but hell, never say no to free stuff.
Featuring Mundy, Hothouse Flowers and Rodrigo y Gabriella among others, the Woodstock Weekend offers a diverse musical line-up as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival
...here's the Hot Press Irish Music Awards, and a massive bash avec much live music is pencilled in for Belfast in April. Read on for the categories and nominees in full
They say that you play venues like Whelan’s twice in your career – once on the way up, once in the other direction. The Stereophonics are somewhere between the two at the moment so their appearance at the Wexford St. venue has to be an unusual state of affairs. Indeed it is, part of a series of club dates designed to introduce new album Language, Sex, Violence, Other? and make the daily chore of talking to the press more bearable.
Barry Murphy, Risteard Cooper and friends - Apres Match to you - head the bill at tonight's big little homecoming party for the Irish World Cup side tonight in the Phoenix Park. Oh yeah... some lot called Westlife are playing as well
Unconfirmed: Springsteen to play Ireland before the end of the year? Totally definite: fantastic new album - and his first with The E Street Band since 1984 - on the way
Tributes have been pouring in, to one of the most important figures in the Irish music industry over the past fifty years, the concert promoter Jim Aiken, who died yesterday (free content)
Ever since they first poked their tiny heads over the parapet of fame, Dublin's own JJ72 have always been the subject of ferocious debate on the Hot Press letters page. A tradition which continues apace on the hotpress.com messageboard ...
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.
You have to hand it to The Frames. Even Bruce and U2 baulk at starting new campaigns outdoors in front of 17,000 people – although Glen Hansard might claim that this is a farewell to Set List arms rather than the unveiling of Burn The Maps.
So Bono and the lads did appear at last night’s IRMA Meteor Music Awards in the end (you would, too, if you had eight of them to collect). Read on for the IRMA results in full
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.
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.
Hey, hey, it’s The Pixies. A little thicker around the waistline maybe, but otherwise perfectly preserved, beamed down as if from Planet 1988. And your reporter, like the other few thousand in the front pit, well, he’s having a moment. Their Phoenix Park performance reconfirms The Pixies as rock ’n’ roll’s great dimestore surrealists.
In 2005, what is the point of REM? At times even they seem to be grasping for an answer.
For nearly a decade now, the music of Stipe, Buck and Mills has told a story of wavering attention spans. Over that period, fans have cheered rousing, reflective echoes of previous glories – ‘Leaving New York’ might be their best stab at an unapologetic anthem since the mid 1990s – yet endured reams of disinterested dross also.
The heart is a bloom, but you knew that already. Bono's lead line on 'Beautiful Day' effectively sets the tone for this new scheme. Great things can be nurtured, he tells us. Scepticism is out and old-fashioned hope is the greatest buzz around. So it's entirely fitting that the stage for the band's Elevation Tour should be framed by a massive, pulsating heart.
For under-18s, gaining entry to concerts in licensed venues is a constant problem. But the regular BLAST gigs at Dublin's Temple Bar Music Centre provide a solution: twice a month, up-and coming bands play afternoon shows to a teenage crowd in a venue serving nothing stronger than water. NIALL STANAGE reports.
When The Revs imploded, frontman Rory Gallagher bit the bullet and supported himself playing the bars in Lanzarote. Eighteen months later, he’s back with a new solo album.
Having played to 80,000 people last year in Croke Park, The Police have confirmed that they’re returning to Ireland for a June 20 show in the grounds of Belfast’s Stormont Castle.
Rolling Stones fans with plenty of cash to burn may do worse than invest in a VIP package for their Slane Castle show. What do you get for your €393.16? Well...
There's some consolation to rap fans disappointed at the news that Eminem's cancelled Slane - fellow homie (or whatever the lingo is in the hood these days) 50 Cent will is confirmed to carry on with his own show at The Point.
Having given U2 a serious run for their backstage rider at Slane, the Red Hot Chili Peppers return to Ireland for a Lansdowne Road headliner on June 25th.
As the country’s largest music festival, Oxegen is a crucial shop window for Irish acts. From main-stage headliners Snow Patrol through new kids on the block The Script. Here are some of our favourite Irish picks.
One of the things that becomes clear as the wonders of A Rush Of Blood To The Head unfolds is that Coldplay are making a truly startling sound within a basic rock format
Today sees the first unveiling of the complete Hot Press Covers Exhibition online, featuring a selection of the great and historic images that have adorned the front page of the magazine, from June 1977 onwards
Awards by the dozen, celebrities wall-to-wall, gobsmacking world exclusives and of course, great music: it can only be the Hot Press Irish Music Awards. Only 24 hours to go - here's how it's all shaping up
As the Summer festival season kicks in, our Nostalgia Correspondent recalls the heady, pioneering days of rock in the great Irish outdoors. Keep a hose handy.
Some good news for clubbing fans – the annual 12 hour dance marathon at Fairyhouse Racecourse is to go ahead in the summer. And this time, it’s got a brand new name.
Cuckoo could be heard all over Ireland and Britain during June and July as the northern band toured the two countries. They’ve just released their new album, Breathing Lessons, but aren’t stopping to catch their breath.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Whether it’s the suicide bomber, the pilgrimage stampede or a blood sacrifice closer to home, religion is at the core of a lot of the world’s worst thinking.
The Hot Press Irish Music Awards proved to be as keenly contested as ever with U2, Ash and The Corrs emerging as big winners. But the number of awards acknowledging nascent talent prove there’s more heavy-hitters waiting in the wings
When the Tom Waits shows were announced, there was the by now almost compulsory hue and cry about the ticket prices. So why do we pay more for tickets in Ireland than in the US?
‘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.
The foot-and-mouth crisis plunged the Irish live music scene into one of its most difficult phases. Now, however, the business is back – and flourishing. Report: COLM O'HARE
Freddie Middleton, the General Manager of BMG Records in Ireland has been twenty years in the music business. Here Hot Press, and his many friends in the industry, pay him a special tribute.
IF EVERYBODY s doing it, why can t we? It s not a bad question actually, though of course you can answer it in a dozen different ways especially where starting your own business, or becoming your own boss.
While the rest of you were off stuffing your faces with turkey, here at HotPress we were busily polishing our crystal balls in readiness for our annual gaze into the future. S
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.
