Once an unwitting part of the punk movement, Squeeze have survived the vagries of fashion to become pop elder statesmen, Stuart Clark takes a trip down south London way and swaps a few yarns - but not spit - with Glenn Tilbrook.
Before he was the face of televised pop Jools Holland played empty pubs alongside U2, mentored a skinny kid called Mark Knopfler and rode to school in Daniel Day-Lewis's dad's Mercedes.
More jaunty, happy go lucky, hummable noughties Brit-pop that in truth is nothing more than a clever blend of The Kinks/Hollies/Squeeze/Blur/La’s. So derivative is it in fact that it sounds like it was knocked together in half an hour before everyone went off to the pub. Still, it’ll probably score well.
It’s fair to say that Killiney native Colm Lynch is entering a hugely crowded market of singer/songwriters, but his debut major-label single indicates that Damien Rice et al might be able to squeeze out just a little more.
With only some impressive guitar work and haunting string section accompanying his not-too-tamed voice ‘The Storm’ could very well be known as the single that came out just before his killer song. Let’s just hope he has said killer song up his sleeve.
The sleeve folds out into a poster of Nelly with his bling on display – talk about rubbing it in. It’s suspicious that he released two albums simultaneously last autumn, one representing his street side, the other his smooth side. And it’s disgraceful to combine the best songs eight months later with Sweat Suit, just to squeeze every last penny possible.
The less said about Adamczewski’s lyrics, the better: although plausibly intended as tongue-in-cheek, lines like ‘Aborted babies don’t get graves’ do him no favours.
Twins Ellie and Louise – aka Heathers– are one of the most exciting new Irish acts around. Ahead of a marathon US tour, they talk about overnight success and explain why rumours of their love for Tegan and Sara are greatly overblown.
Those who limit themselves to the traditional man-on-top position during sex are missing out on the fun and excitement that a little sexual experimentation can provide. For the more adventurous a little research can help you see a whole new side of your partner
Bird watching, real ale and having Jim Davidson taken out by a professional assassin are all on the agenda as British Sea Power swap salty tales with Ed Power.
Temporarily quitting their LA abode for a rare homeward trip Saucy Monky reveal that the Viper Room isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and explain how they’ve conquered US television.
Australia s the churcH have survived nearly 20 years of changing fads and fashions by maintaining their commitment to pure pop. siobhan long takes a pew.
Namechecked in Rolling Stone as one of Ryan Adams’ favourite songwriters,
Galway artists ADRIAN CROWLEY gets all pantheist on us for his fifth album Season Of The Sparks.
He may have turned the volume down a bit, but Ricky Warwick‘s Tatoos & Alibis album still rocks like a bastard. Stuart Clark meets him and his multi-platinum mate Joe Elliott.
He said it, we didn't. Henry Rollins may not be the most obvious embodiment of the American Dream but nowadays everything he touches seems to turn to dollars. Dan Oggly discovers the alternative approach to commerce.
The Rolling Stones, The Who, Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Sinéad o' Connor... The Chieftains are on first-name terms with all of them and as they pocket another Grammy for Celtic Harp Paddy Moloney tells Siobhán Long how the band retain their freshness after over twenty years together.
16 years after recording one of the definitive hard rock albums, MEAT LOAF takes a return trip to hell and brings STUART CLARK along with him for the ride.
Last year their Oh Yeah proved to be the star turn of the night, with Neil Hannon guesting on vocals. This year, they ve been nominated in three categories and are looking forward to Awards night with some anticipation. Tim Wheeler of Ash talks to STUART CLARK about that once-in-a-lifetime free CD, the upcoming HEINEKEN HOT PRESS shindig in Belfast and the new album the band are currently in the throes of making.
The bright lights of Toronto beckoned for Leeside electro-poppers Fred as they kicked off their North American tour with a turn at the prestigious North by Northeast festival.
In between starting a family and touring the globe with Bell X1, David Geraghty has managed to find the time to squeeze out a second solo record, The Victory Dance. He talks about dealing with bat infestations, bestriding U2’s ‘Claw’ stage and tackling the fraught subject of 9/11 in song.
Whether feeding dubious cups of coffee to celebrity chefs or coercing Joe Strummer to dress up as an Indian on Top Of The Pops, Alex James is a man who knows how to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of life.
Not all refugees who seek asylum in this country are granted it. Niamh Connolly talks to some Cubans who have been lucky enough to squeeze through the rigid vetting process in operation and teases out some of the political issues that lie behind some of the decisions as well as the social implications for the successful ones.
"This is very much my love-letter to wine," says trained sommelier and film director Jonathon Nossiter. So why then is his new documentary Mondovino coming under fire from the global wine industry? Because, as he tells Tara Brady, it exposes how the globalisation of the wine industry is destroying thousands of years of heritage.
Social diarist Amanda Brunker is so high-maintenance even her paper plates are designed by Damien Hirst. Colm O'Hare joins the TV presenter, model, actress, budding novelist and loose-tongued Eamon Dunphy guest in her comfy sea-front residence in Clontarf. Photos by Cathal Dawson.
Six months ago, Kaiser Chiefs were complete unknowns. Now, they’re making appearances on the Ant and Dec show, playing Letterman, being saluted by Damon Albarn and heralded as the spearheads of “the new Britpop” movement. The group here give the lowdown on what’s been a hectic 2005 to Ed Power.
A new organisation of musicians has written to Barack Obama protesting against the use of music to torture detainees. Also: a closer look at the individuals behind the recent An Bord Snip report, which recommends systematic fleecing of the poor in order to keep fat-cats in the style to which they’re accustomed.
RAY D’ARCY is currently one of the hottest young presenters on RTE Television, featuring in both the madcap context of The Den and the more, ah, serious environment of Blackboard Jungle. He talks to JACKIE HAYDEN.
Radio Ulster’s Donna Legge ensures there’s no punching below the belt as she and two of the north’s other leading DJs - Maurice Jay and Johnny Hero - come together to discuss the local music scene, on-air rows with James Galway and prank calls to Sellafield.
They may be novices in the beer-swilling, coke-snorting and babe-pulling stakes but if it's killer tunes you're after, THE JAYHAWKS leave the competition standing.
STUART CLARK gets a crash-course in country living from MARK OLSON.
In the middle of the present rather straitened times, it may seem a bit previous, as they say in Cavan, to be talking about the recession bottoming out. well, actually, in its own rather weary wary piddly way, it is.
Andrew Maxwell who has followed up a year of successful television appearances with a sell-out stand-up show and a nomination for a prestigious comedy award.
He’s the Latin smoothie who has wooed a gaggle of starlets, Scarlett Johansson among them. But Benicio del Toro shows a different side to his persona with his controversial new portrayal of South American revolutionary Che Guevara.
June 1998, the World Cup is in full swing and the Saw Doctors are on their tenth visit to the US of A. Leo Moran of Tuam’s finest kept a diary. Now read on . . .
To mark the occasion of the release of a near definitive punk compilation, GEORGE BYRNE fondly recalls the days when pogo was go-go and gabba gabba was hey.
Well it’s one for the money Two for the show
US3 GET READY . . .
. . . Now go cats go! When a critic talks about awarding his favourite gig, album and band of the year accolades to the same outfit then we gotta be talking about something special. In this case it’s transatlantic Jazz Rappers US3. And the, er, critic in question: MR. STUART CLARK
STEPHEN RYAN has made his songwriting reputation on the byways rather than the highways. Now, with a new REVENANTS album finally on release, he takes NICK KELLY on a trip off the beaten track. Pics: Bernard Walsh.
And why is young America going overboard about over-weight, over-30 jazzers? john walshe forgoes the pleasures of Dublin versus Kildare to pop across the Atlantic and investigate one of the most unlikely success stories of recent years.
Origin of Symmetry? Freak of Evolution more like. The common response to Muse’s Showbiz debut in 1999 was akin to a primitive people’s first glimpse of a spacecraft over the prehistorical landscape. Here was an unlikely but hugely accomplished hybrid of prog-rock flash, quasi-symphonic attack and ferocious virtuosity, spearheaded by Matt Bellamy’s soaring tenor and Dick-ian lyrics. An impressive sound, even if you didn’t know what the hell it was.
He’s a legend, an icon and a farmer. His hit singles tally in this country is surpassed only by Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. He is, above all else, the man who brought... ...us ‘Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down’ and ‘Carrots From Clonoun’. Behold the unexpurgated brendan shIne on sex, drugs, drink, the accordion, grunge, GATT and Donie Cassidy’s wig. Interview: Liam Fay. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
The first time The Killers played Oxegen they fretted whether anyone would turn up to see them. Now they’re sweeping in to headline the main stage. They talk to us about being chased by papparazi, growing up in Middle America and sharing a bill with Bono and, er, Gary Barlow
No-one has ever asked suzanne vega before if Luka the story about child sexual abuse which made her famous was based on personal experience. Here for the first time ever the singer reveals that indeed it is and that she is still dealing with the after-effects of that traumatic experience. Interview: SIOBHAN LONG. Pix: COLM HENRY.
RICHARD THOMPSON s new album Mock Tudor consolidates his position as one
of the most articulate and influential songwriters around. GEORGE BYRNE met him.
Some cities have all the luck - Los Angeles is not one of them. As it begins rebuilding after its third major disaster in as many years, our man on the spot, Tomas Conlon, writes that, when not even the ground beneath your feet can be trusted, you see life differently.
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.
On the eve of the release of Tour De Flock, BellX1’s live album and DVD from Dublin’s Point Theatre, Paul Noonan, Brian Crosby and Dominic Phillips answer the weird and wonderful questions of hotpress readers, from the swimming habits of monkeys to ripping the gusset of your pants on stage.
Starting at Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and ending seven days later at BBC WM in Birmingham, ASTERIX are on a mission to conquer England s airwaves. Joining the tour in Nottingham,
SUSAN DARLINGTON witnesses three days of maps, mobiles and milkshakes.
Intrigued by the ridicule and bad press being generated by London s Millennium Dome, BARRY GLENDENNING pays a visit to Greenwich and discovers why Tony Blair is having trouble sustaining his massive erection.
As the masses prepare to descend on Punchestown, we dispatch Hannah Hamilton to assess the festival fitness of one of this year's Oxegen buzz bands, Franz Ferdinand.
The Boomtown Rats are undoubtedly the most important band ever to emerge from - or get out of - Ireland. They've had more front covers, appeared on more radio and TV shows and most importantly sold more records than any Irish group or artist has ever done.
Stuart Clark – himself a black belt in origami – discovers how The Ramones and kickboxing chinese detectives have helped Ash to overcome their sordid heavy metal past and become Top of the Chops.
JASON PIERCE of SPIRITUALIZED comes on down to talk about mythology versus reality, art versus autobiography and the economy inherent in a cast of hundreds.
Interview: PETER MURPHY
Peter Sheridan, whose book 44: A Dublin Memoir has just been published to rave reviews, on Archbishop Desmond Connell, brother Jim, Samuel Beckett and Sean O Casey, and on the two key events one, an incident of sexual abuse, the other the death of a family member around which the whole book spins . Interview: joe jackson. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
With the Tour de France scheduled to kick off in Ireland on July 11th this year, the subject of drugs in international sport has become a hot topic again. Not only did PAUL KIMMAGE take drugs himself as a professional cyclist - he wrote an award-winning book about it. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING
Drinking, arguments, men in kilts, rickshaws, more drinking, and the search for an errant sheep: it's all part and parcel of one night out in Dublin. On-the-spot report: NIALL STANAGE
Following the lukewarm reception accorded Jackie Brown six years ago, Quentin Tarantino reached a crossroads in his career. now, following a prolonged retreat from the media spotlight, a rumoured struggle with writer’s block and his break-up with Mira Sorvino, the most influential film-maker of the nineties has made a stunning return to form with the explosive samurai thriller, Kill Bill. Craig Fitzsimons travelled to london to meet the director and discuss the film he describes as “the movie of my geek boy dreams.”
There are those who believe that the Downing St. Declaration offers the best hope of peace in Northern Ireland for twenty-five years. But as Sinn Féin’s consideration of the fine print drags on, Bill Graham accuses them of theological nitpicking and argues that their negotiating position makes impossible demands on reality.
With 1993 going down as the year that Irish rock finally emerged from U2’s shadow, HOT PRESS takes an introductory look at four of the rapidly emerging outfits that are poised to make headlines and sell bucket–loads of records in ’94.
Schtum, Ash, Joyrider, Compulsion.
Find out what Brian Cowen thinks is in store for Ireland in light of the global financial crisis and the government's unpopular decisions on medical cards and education cuts.
Re-telling the story of September 11 with a measured hand and lightness of touch hithertoo unhinted at, director Oliver Stone proves a more serious thinker than his paranoia-soaked canon would suggest. Here, he explains how his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam framed his outlook on life and art.
Or, Augusten Burroughs And The Art Of Magical Thinking. Peter Murphy talks to the bestselling author about his troubled upbringing in rural Massachusetts, the long and strange series of events that led to him becoming a writer, and why his current personal and professional happiness may just mean that his extraordinary story has a happy ending after all. Photography by Emily Quinn.
New album, new look, new attitude: having turned the big three-oh, DIVINE COMEDY's Neil Hannon says he's much more sure of his place in the world. "Basically, the one thing I have to offer humanity is a good time with interesting words," he tells Olaf Tyaransen. Divine camera intervention: MICK QUINN
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone talks about toffs in politics, Tony versus Gordon and sheds light on his own intervention in the Troubles, at the height of the bloodshed.
Ahead of his 50th birthday, Morrissey talks exclusively to Hot Press about the sexual nature of singing, letting go in the studio, being blacklisted by the UK's Radio One and how he approaches songwriting.
Olaf Tyaransen travels east to investigate the mail-order bride business in the Ukraine and returns with a story of love, lust, laughs, paranoia, despair and hope. An extract from ‘To Ukraine For Love’, a featured piece in Olaf’s acclaimed new collection of journalism Sex Lines – Adventures In The Erotic Underground
He may well be a prime target for the jibes of other Irish comedian-types, but right now brendan o carroll is
riding the crest of a wave of popularity of quite phenomenal proportions. With three best-selling books to his credit, a smash hit play and a movie already in the offing, he s back on the road with his sell-out one-man show The Story So Far. Here, in a startlingly honest interview, he talks about his addiction to gambling, his contempt for the theatrical establishment, the fear and paralysis that is endemic in RTE, Father Ted, the Catholic Church, groupies and (cue fanfare please) his plans to become an M.E.P. Tape recorder: liam fay.
Pix: MICK QUINN
What on earth is milky-white, squeaky-clean, God-fearin PAT BOONE doing,
wearing leather
and studs and singing heavy metal anthems? JOE JACKSON delves behind the year s most bizarre comeback to extract a rare and fascinating interview with a man who once alienated rockers and now finds himself ostracised by Christians.
He revolutionised contemporary fiction with Fight Club. But, with more than one brutal murder lurking in the family undergrowth, Chuck Palahniuk's own life has been as troubled and disturbing as any of his books
It is five years since rapper TUPAC SHAKUR was gunned down on the streets of las vegas in a gangland-style shooting that took place on September 7, 1996. Since then he has become the subject of one of modern music’s most bizarre death cults, as he continues to sell millions of records and to top charts all over the world. but behind his death lies a story of hip-hop babylon – a sordid tale of intrigue, egos, drugs, sex, intimidation, violence – and, almost by the way, some great and enduring music.
By PETER MURPHY
The legend of the booker prize-winning author is of a life of fear and loathing and bad craziness that not even Hunter S. Thompson would dare to invent. But the truth is even stranger than the fiction. From a pampered mexican childhood through lost family fortunes, doomed movie ventures, alleged swindling, a couple of convictions and a serious drug habit, Peter Finlay has re-emerged atop a mountain in Leitrim, a little god of the literary world. Interview Olaf Tyaransen Photo: Nick Hitchcox
Not content with taking care of special guest duties as U2 wend their way around South America, Franz Ferdinand have contributed a version of ‘A Song For Sorry Angels’ to a Serge Gainsbourg tribute album.
Not content with taking care of special guest duties as U2 wend their way around South America, Franz Ferdinand have contributed a version of ‘A Song For Sorry Angels’ to a Serge Gainsbourg tribute album.
A new name to me, Neil Myles has, it appears, been travelling to foreign parts these last few years, but is now back in Drogheda, from where his gameplan for world domination is being launched...
It may be just day one, but we've already collected a heck of a lot of autographs from the likes of Republic of Loose, The Coronas, Therapy?, Spinnerette and more!
this rollicking hotchpotch of old obscure r’n’b standards and screeching rock guitars could and should catapult Rachel Nagy & Co. into the same league as their other Motor City compatriots, The White Stripes and Brendan Benson.
Establishment rules O.K.! That’s the message to be drawn from ’85s long playing output!
In a year which has been yawn-inducing rather than epoch-making, it speaks volumes about the state of the art that the year’s best buys were reissues of one sort or another by Echo And The Bunnymen, Velvet Underground and The Doors.
MUCH AS I love Howie B's music, I absolutely hate reviewing his records. Mr. Bernstein creates soundscapes the way Monet created lanscapes and, like Rorschach tests, they can mean completely different things to different people. They can also mean different things to the same people at different times, depending on moon, setting and the amount of spliff consumed.
Don Mescall is a Limerick-raised singer-songwriter who has been plying his trade on London’s music circuit for almost 20 years. Innocent Run, his debut album, should have been an impressive culmination of two decades’ worth of experience, but instead feels like a regrettable last-ditch compromise.
’85 was a good year for music, though not for albums. The most interesting 12-inch singles came from John Lydon and Afrika Baambatae’s Time Zone project and The Bomb Party with ‘World Destruction’ and ’Ray Gun EP’ respectively.
Killarney-born Brendan O’Shea, like his good friend Mark Geary, has spent the majority of his songwriting life in New York, and the sounds of the Big Apple ooze through on his second album, albeit with a slightly Irish flavour.
Despite the big guitars, big chorus and witty one-liners, this is a long way from the cheeky chappy, thumbs-up image of The Darkness that we’ve come to expect.
November 9th marks the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin wall, an event almost as momentous as Everton’s winning four years earlier of the European Cup Winners Cup. History of course being a subjective thing.
Essentially a brilliantly produced heavy metal record with lots of strange moments, Origin Of Symmetry will undoubtedly propel Muse further upwards in their quest for stardom
Adrian Thaws revolutionised music nearly a decade ago as the darkest and most fascinating architect of trip-hop, seamlessly fusing claustrophobic urban isolation-scapes with sheet-metal guitars and jagged hip-hop arrhythmia, resulting in a kind of fractured, unbearably bleak yet transcendental ghetto poetry.
Sticking to the template that has worked so well in the past (even the press release describes their approach as a “straightforward formula”) means it’s back to the soaring ballads with the odd mid-tempo dance pop-tune and the carefully calculated cover.
Siobhán Long was at the Olympia Theatre to hear Ireland’s finest musicians
pay their respects to the much lamented Altan flautist who died last September.
The event, sponsored by Smithwicks/Hot Press, was a truly memorable and moving occasion.
Gone, or at least sidelined, is the four-piece purity perfected on Blood Sugar Sex Magik in favour of noodly guitar soundscapes, synths, choral harmonies and full orchestral arrangements
ELEANOR MacEVOY has a lot to answer for. Without her that little vessel that goes lub-a-dub-dub every time a stethoscope gets near it would still be languishing in the advertising pages of the Irish Medical Times, all arteries and veins, but no soul.
Oh, to live in an ideal world! In an ideal world The Blades would be on their third album, at least, and we wouldn't have had to wait until now, five years after their debut single 'Hot For You'.
A rock star having sex with his 19-year-old girlfriend whilst drenched in blood – no, it’s not Sam Snort’s latest escapade, it’s the new collaboration between God of Fuck Marilyn Manson and Titanic director James Cameron.
Whilst Ireland’s hopes of a first grand-slam win in 55 years were being unceremoniously dashed in Lansdowne Road, your correspondent jostled for viewing space in a crowded D4 hostelry.
Sometimes putting together this fortnightly column is far easier than you could possibly imagine, and this particular one has been a truly effortless breeze.
Over three days, the cream of up-and-coming Irish and Scandinavian talent gave it their all. Killian Murphy picks out those that shone brightest. Click here. for live gallery.
WHAT WE have here are two prime specimens of Metallicus Mutatus, a creature indigenous to North America and as resistant to extinction as the cockroach.
The relationship between sex and love is a thorny one. The cliché is that sex is better with someone you love – but the truth is that people play away for a reason…
I AM writing this with a crick in my neck, the kind we used to call red-hot-pokers when we were kids. I am ramrod stiff, and cannot turn my head to the left. I feel like a cross between Frankenstein’s bolt-necked monster and Julian Cleary, who carries himself as if he has invisible drop earrings tied to his shoulder pads. Very regal and pained.
Legendary venue The Grove will be playing host to their long-running alternative disco over the Xmas period, and while the first date is sold out, they've managed to squeeze in a second night.
From the goodtime vibes of Hot Chip to the full-on sonic assault of Primal Scream, this year's Electric Picnic achieved the impossible by being even more fab than its predecessors.
THOSE OF us who watched the highlights of Shelbourne's victory over a Ukrainian outfit in the European Cup-Winners' Cup, were wondering if perhaps we had stumbled onto the wrong channel.
FOR MOST people, this Christmas will be a joyous occasion, as things tend to be when there are monstrous amounts of drink taken, oiling the axles of leurve.
Fine words, fine wines and possibly even the occasional fine. Tom Mathews makes his now annual pilgrimage to the cuirt festival of literature in Galway.
THAT WAS a bad old vibe in the United States recently, when that babe cut off her husband’s pecker with a kitchen knife after he had allegedly raped her. A bad vibe . . .
“Guilty until proved innocent” seems to be the unthinking philosophy behind the recent introduction of ASBOs, providing just one more opportunity for the authorities to abuse their powers.
Though oscar-nominated screenwriter Menno Meyjes has received criticism from some quarters for his portrayal of the young Adolf Hitler in his directorial debut Max, the Dutch-born film-maker insists that the humanity of history’s most notorious tyrant is all too clear. “And that’s what we should be afraid of,” he tells Tara Brady
DURING THE 70s, Jim Moir comprised 20% of an ensemble known as the Fashionable Five who, for a laugh, once followed a complete stranger through their home town of Darlington, in single file, for half a mile.
At the precise moment that TOWER RECORDS are celebrating their 30th anniversary, they have the youngest managing director in their history – ANDY LOWN. Since assuming his present post in July 1996, he’s masterminded the expansion of the company in Ireland, and is about to preside over the opening of five new outlets in this country. Interview: STUART CLARK.
...it was a year like any other year at Féile - except that there were dozens of extra acts on show, on not just two but three stages. There was also the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow, the Chris de Burgh stripper incident, Michael Hutchence dispensing condoms...and a rather loud Little Red Rooster that nearly got itself strangled. And the crack Hot Press team of reporters who attempted to keep up with it all? Words: Bill Graham, Stuart Clark, Tara McCarthy, Lorraine Freeney and Chris Donovan. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
