The Aftermath are the first rock band from Longford ever to hit the charts. But right now, they live in Mullingar, the new happening epicentre of rock’n’roll.
Hard-working indie rockers The Aftermath continue their full-on Irish tour this summer with a special Whelan’s gig, which many very well feature Liv Tyler in the audience.
Not many bands from Longford make their way into Chris Moyles’ affections, yet The Aftermath are proving adept at making friends in high places. It’s easy to see why. ‘One Is Fun’ is very now, a quirky guitar pop tune with a spring in its step. Of course the problem with being very now is that you soon become very yesterday, so let’s hope The Aftermath have got a good exit strategy worked out. For now though, good work.
The Cronin Brothers have come a long way with their group The Aftermath since leaving Longford to make their fortune. With friends like the Kaiser Chiefs and fans like Chris Moyles, they’re on the brink of making it big.
The nimble guitar part that runs behind the chorus of ‘All I Want Is For You To Be Happy’ reminds me of Pulp’s classic ‘Do You Remember The First Time?’. The Aftermath may still have some distance to go to attain the pithy, effortless brilliance of Cocker and co., but let’s not be negative: the UK-based, Longford-bred group have delivered a solid slice of direct guitar pop, and the echoey treatment of the vocals is a nice sonic touch.
Adrienne Murphy reports on the aftermath of the violence which engulfed the Reclaim The Streets protest in Dublin and finds many wondering, not for the first time, 'who will guard the gardai?'.
Le Cheile have revealed the previsionary line-up for this year's August festival, which will feature appearances from the likes of Cathy Davey, Republic Of Loose and Damien Dempsey.
The Stables in Mullingar has become an essential stopover on the Irish rock touring circuit. Here, the venue's booking man, David McLynn tells Jackie Hayden about the current state of rock in the Midlands.
Paul Nolan talks to Neil Hegarty, author of Waking Up In Dublin, a new book which offers an outsider’s view of the music scene – and more – in the capital
Impartial, level-headed Offaly supporter BARRY GLENDENNING chronicles the good, the bad and the downright Bizarre in this year’s All-Ireland hurling championship and predicts that the Liam McCarthy cup is, once again, bound for the Midlands.
21 Grams’ director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and writer Guilermo Arriaga’s follow up to the acclaimed Amores Perros contains career-high performances from Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts. Moviehouse talks to both men about the “anatomy of pain”.
Philip Watt, director of the National Consultative Committee On Racism and Interculturalism, outlines the urgent and necessary response to racism in ireland
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.
In the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, a growing number, including respected foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, are starting to ask uncomfortable questions about September 11 and the War on Terror it provoked.
When Garbage joined U2 on the autumn leg of their 2001 American campaign, the world was reeling from the aftermath of 9/11. But as the tour progressed, drummer and producer Butch Vig found himself on the verge of a Hepatitis A-induced coma.
Sinister psychological experimnets and political subterfuge are at the centre of Jonathan Demme’s intriguing new remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Luckily for us however, the film’s star Liev Schreiber happens to be an amiable, erudite ex-New Yorker with a degree in semiotics. Oh, and some nice cheekbones.
"When did Ireland ever take a stand on anything?" Niall O'Dowd, leading Irish-American and author of a new book on September 11, attacks Ireland's "moral superiority"
Three teenagers from Craigavon High School have committed suicide in the past month. So why are young men in the North taking their lives in record numbers? And what can be done to prevent further tragedy?
There is nothing more odious, to paraphrase a famous quip, than the British press in one of its fits of moral outrage. And it’s true. Nothing can compare. And I’m not just referring to the tabloids . . .
Banned by the Iraquis and ribbed for “liberating” Kabul, veteran foreign correspondent John Simpson is one of the world’s most recognisable journalists. “I want people to think of me as a little bit like a grenade with the pin out,” he insists
New Xposé presenter GLENDA GILSON talks candidly about the malicious newspaper allegations printed about her late Uncle Liam Lawlor, recalls the feelings of pride she had for her ex Brian O’Driscoll captained the Irish squad to a Grand Slam victory and looks forward to Xposé Live at the RDS!.
Denounced by the Christian right in America and the Catholic church in Italy but championed by rockers as diverse as Marilyn Manson and Led Zep’s John Paul Jones, Diamanda Galas is unlikely to be hollywood’s flavour of the month as she rips into the oscar-winning Monster
The Ministry of Defence will have to come out of its hiding place declared Eilis MacDermott QC for the family of Bloody Sunday victim Patrick Doherty, at the Saville Inquiry. Here we reproduce the bulk of her powerful and hard-hitting opening address
Civil liberties in Ireland are being gradually eroded. But, then, it’s just part of an international trend. If we’re not careful, we will we soon be living in a Big Brother nation.
From the ashes of The Libertines comes Dirty Pretty Things, Carl Barat's new band. But can Pete Doherty's old sparring partner escape the legacy of his old group?
The winds of change have been blowing through Northern Ireland in 1998, with the endorsement of the Belfast Agreement and the establishment of the Assembly. But that only made it more likely that extreme loyalists would portray the march to Drumcree church near Portadown, and the July 12th parades, as an opportunity for Protestants and Orangemen to make a final stand. It was surely shaping up for a season of discontent – until the Quinn brothers were murdered in a loyalist sectarian petrol bomb attack on their home. By Niall Stanage. Photos: Peter Matthews.
The murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson sent shockwaves throughout Ireland and beyond. As was the case with the murder of Pat Finucane almost exactly ten years before, there are suspicions of security force collusion, and a feeling that anyone who speaks out for the beleaguered nationalist community is putting their own life in Danger. Report: Niall Stanage.
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.
With anti-Republican sentiment running high in the wake of the Enniskillen massacre and the O’Grady kidnapping, and with the first wave of joint RUC-Garda arms searches in progress, Kate Shanahan travelled to Belfast for an exclusive interview with Sinn Féin President, Gerry Adams. In it, the Westminster MP recalls his childhood in Belfast, evaluates the position the IRA now find themselves in and outlines his personal views on subjects as diverse as abortion, the Catholic Church, Dessie O’Hare, Bono and the role of violence in the Republican struggle.
Tori Amos’ new album, the acclaimed Scarlet’s Walk, was inspired equally by her joyous pregnancy with daughter Natashya and the tragedy of September 11, which led the singer-songwriter on a musical quest to discover the true soul of America
Dance is dead, says Roisin Murphy, but if any act is going to raise it from the grave it’s Moloko, proud authors of the over the top and utterly sincere Statues, an album of tremendous pop songs that recapture the glory of classic disco.
The idea for Home, an album of Irish songs, has been on the agenda for The Corrs for a number of years. But its release marks an important stage in the evolution not just of the band, but of lead singer Andrea Corr – who has been exploring new ways of expressing herself as an artist with increasing poise and confidence.
t certainly would, Joe. But you can have a toot on my megaphone if you like! Gavin Friday discusses the finer points of sexual politics not to mention the post-Freudian subtext to his stunning new meisterwork Shag Tobacco with Dr Joe Jackson. Our man in the white coat concluded: Gavin s time has come. But is the world finally read
Age has not withered them. twenty years after they rose out of the new york underground, Sonic Youth have managed to grow old and stay hardcore. Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon reveal how it’s done
Dana may be trying to shunt him into the background, but TCG O?Mahony is adamant that it was he who inspired the former Eurovision winner to run for the presidency. And while he is confident that ?she will win if it is God?s will?, he warns of serious repercussions from above should one of her opponents triumph in the race to the Aras. Our man with the locust repellant: liam fay.
Ahead of the European Championships in Portugal, the England and Arsenal full back on another great year for the Gunners, discipline and indiscipline, football scandals, money and, of course, Roy Keane.
Spike Lee is a firebrand film-maker and not one to mince his words. So what is the spiritual father of African-American cinema doing making an old fashioned heist flick?
Fetishised in film and song, suicide has become part of the everyday language of pop culture. So why are schools so afraid even to talk about it? There is always a better way.
Despite being peerless at his chosen profession, CHRIS MORRIS has been sacked from more jobs than most people will have in a lifetime. He announced the death of Michael Heseltine on live radio, was responsible for a debate about non-existent drugs in the House of Commons and once screamed Christ s fat cock! at Cliff Richard during an interview. BARRY GLENDENNING examines the career of the broadcaster commonly regarded as Britain s foremost media satirist.
Snow Patrol‘s Gary Lightbody may be the thinking woman’s indie sexpot, but with their new album Eyes Open going supernova all over the shop, the poor fella has no time to capitalise on his status, given that the only people he sees on a regular basis are his band and crewmates. With whom, he assures us, “penetrative sex is out of the question.” Also on the agenda: break-ups, infidelity, the Northern body politic, U2 and, of course, underpants.
Inevitably, The Best Of Nick Cave ... The Bad Seeds can only hint at the scope of the band's back catalogue. But if one listens to the group's ten studio albums chronologically, there are no gear-grinding changes of direction or radical overhaulings of the sound, all the more remarkable considering the amount of personnel that passed through the line-up.
Yes, you've read that headline somewhere before! But referendum on the Belfast Agreement gets into full swing in the North. Diary: NIALL STANAGE. Pix: peter matthews
Yes, you've read that headline somewhere before! But referendum on the Belfast Agreement gets into full swing in the North. Diary: NIALL STANAGE. Pix: peter matthews
Following the sudden death of his girlfriend in the early ’90s, traumatised US writer Bill Carter took off for the unlikely destination of war-torn Sarajevo. Whilst there, he established a series of satellite link-ups with U2’s Zooropa tour, which still rank among the most divisive and controversial moments of the band’s career. Despite the subsequent media fallout, an unconsummated affair with an indian supermodel, and several brushes with death, Bill Carter has lived to tell his extraordinary tale.
Bruised but unbowed by a turbulent campaign, the People s Coalition candidate, ADI ROCHE, discusses matters personal, political and presidential with JOE JACKSON.
The industry may not have always liked them but their fans couldn’t be more passionate. Ten members, four studio albums, three managers and two major labels later, The Frames still managed to add up to more than the sum of their parts. Peter Murphy, with help from Glen Hansard and other key players brings the story of the band up to date in this, the final part of our two-part special [Photo Mick Quinn]
BRENDAN INGLE was born in Dublin, but made his name as a boxing trainer in Sheffield. He s the man who discovered PRINCE NASEEM and shared in the fighter s huge success until they fell out acrimoniously. ANDY DARLINGTON meets a man with a story to tell.
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
As the new leader of the SDLP and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland, MARK DURKAN will have plenty to occupy his mind in 2002. Here he talks about the early death of his father, politics and paramilitaries in the North, the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, his opposition to Sellafield and membership of Greenpeace – and what Mo Mowlam might have piped into the Good Friday talks!
Words: JOE JACKSON
The latest wave of right-wing attacks on US musicians is likely to have a knock-on effect here, with the words and actions of our own artists coming under increased scrutiny. In a special hotpress report, Ed Power enlists the help of Marilyn Manson and a number of major Irish players to pick his way through the censorship minefield.
In the wake of the IRA’s complete cessation of violence, the Unionist community must engage in a process of re-defintion – because while they have been clinging to the last vestiges of the British Empire, the world around them has been transformed. By Bill Graham.
When Siniad O Connor tore up a picture of the pope on the Saturday Night Live television show in the US recently, she unleashed a storm which has been swirling around her ever since, causing her at one point to announce her premature retirement from the music industry. One month on, bruised and weary she may be but Siniad is neither downhearted nor repentant. Having declared war on the Roman Catholic Church she is determined to keep taking the battle to the real enemy. Interview: Niall Stokes.
In a presidential nomination field virtually devoid of candidates of real calibre and charisma, the name of ex-Boomtown Rat and Live Aid hero BOB GELDOF has cropped up again and again. Despite his outright denial that he will run for office, the rumour refuses to die away. Here, in an interview with LIAM FAY, he gives his assessment of Mary Robinson s seven years in the job, and his hopes for the future occupants of Aras an Uachtarain.
Best-selling crime-writer PATRICIA
CORNWELL
has a gripping new tale of sex, exploitation and violence to tell. But this time it s her own.
LIAM FAY hears the story she didn t tell on Kenny Live.
Pix: colm henry
Martin McGuinness was one of the key figures in the troubles in Northern Ireland . Many unionists believe that the one-time IRA man was at the heart of much that was wrong and divisive in Irish life. But ultimately the quiet Derryman has taken on the role of peacemaker – and he is now the Deputy First Minister in the new power-sharing administration at Stormont.
The trauma of his mother's death; the joy of his marriage to Yvonne; the truth about his sex life; the pressures of growing up in public; the importance of peer respect; the offers of a solo career; and how America might hold the key to keeping boyzone together. In his most personal and revealing interview to date, ronan keating talks to joe jackson
The trauma of his mother's death; the joy of his marriage to Yvonne; the truth about his sex life; the pressures of growing up in public; the importance of peer respect; the offers of a solo career; and how America might hold the key to keeping boyzone together. In his most personal and revealing interview to date, ronan keating talks to joe jackson
The trauma of his mother's death; the joy of his marriage to Yvonne; the truth about his sex life; the pressures of growing up in public; the importance of peer respect; the offers of a solo career; and how America might hold the key to keeping boyzone together. In his most personal and revealing interview to date, ronan keating talks to joe jackson
Ex-IRA man Gerry Kelly talks to Jason O'Toole about his run-ins with the British Army, his near death experiences, the part he played in inflicting civilian casualties and his time on hunger strike.
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
Critics have not been kind to the long-awaited second novel from Booker-winning novelist DBC Pierre. After a lifetime that has lurched between excess and poverty, privilege and despair, he’s not bothered though.
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.
Sinn Fiin s first sitting TD since 1918 chooses his words carefully for the Hot Press Political Interview. I m not measured or calculating, he explains, this is me. As I am. LIAM FAY fires the questions. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
Sinn Féin’s first sitting TD since 1918 chooses his words carefully for the Hot Press Political Interview. “I’m not measured or calculating,” he explains, “this is me. As I am.” Liam Fay fires the questions. Pic: Cathal Dawson
Cathy Davey’s summer has just become even busier with the Tales Of Silversleeve woman headlining the Eurocultured Festival in Smithfield Plaza, Dublin this August.
Dust off your platform shoes and get your camping gear at the ready - now that's some advice we never thought we'd give - 70s legends Sister Sledge are coming to Ireland!
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!
Taking place tonight in the Dublin Point, the Meteor Ireland Music Awards will feature performances by Paddy Casey, Bell X1 and The Thrills among others
It would be virtually impossible to get through a review of Mr. Estes’ teen murder movie without mentioning George Washington and River’s Edge, but if it shares plot points with these other fine dramas, Mean Creek is still uniquely, if often grimly compelling.
In common with most tales of childhood lost, Mean Creek’s dramatic fulcrum is a bully...
What is it with American junior chick-lit and chick-flicks? While little girls in these parts are following the god-slaying adventures of His Dark Materials’ Lyra, or Jacqueline Wilson’s spunky heroines, in the US, they get stuck with frothy confectionary like The Princess Diaries, wherein the simpering protagonists get carried off by some prince or footballer or other.
The news that the legendary outfit Rocky De Valera & The Gravediggers were reconvening - 26 years after they last played a note - has caused more than a few smiles around town.
Gran Torino is less weighty than Clint’s previous movie, The Changeling. But this poignant, tremendously entertaining film is how we’ll likely remember him.
Northern hopefuls Fighting With Wire and rising Dublin electro act Robotnik are among those set to play this year's HWCH festival, with the full line-up just announced.
For a band that started over three decades ago, Devo put remarkable energy and imagination into their live shows, with a performance that retains its unpredictability right to the finish.
A mere decade after his first post-Clash solo effort, Earthquake Weather, Joe Strummer comes bounding back into the ring just as his previous band's legacy is revisited via a superb video documentary Westway To The World, an incendiary live collection From Here To Eternity and the remastered reissue of their entire back catalogue.
The director plays the crime for maximum grisliness, though long before the final atrocities, there is the horror of helplessness, of civilians sandwiched between German and Russian troops in Kraków, of terrible events happening faster than anyone can process.
Around two years ago, Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat told this reviewer that the finest gig he’d ever seen was by an American musician named Devendra Banhart
Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves can't but arrive as a Big Statement. The Virgin Prunes were always elitist, dissembling, treacherous spies in the house of Irish rock.
The Mix-Up is billed as the Beastie Boys’ “first ever album of all-new instrumental material,” although the NYC trio have been playing around with wordless funk and jazz pieces throughout their career.
Fantastic, sadistic and sublime, Pan’s Labyrinth, the director’s latest work, is a coruscating fairy-tale breeding horror, politics and unblemished innocence to produce the hands-down, honest-to-God, best movie of 2006.
For a month there, I thought I had something good going with someone; until he finished it last week. It was strange revisiting the pleasures of coupledom; it had been two years since my last relationship ground to a shuddering, gory halt. This time around, it has a no-blame feel to the ending
In Love With Detail is the sound of a band realising their potential. It’s the first truly great Irish album of 2007 and the finest debut from a homegrown act in years.
The terrorist attack in Beslan has shown that Russia may yet emerge as a major battle ground in the conflict between radical Islam and the major world powers.
In the aftermath of the horrific report into institutional child abuse, let us not forget that the higher echelons of the Catholic Church was perfectly aware of the evil being perpetrated in its name – and refused to do anything.
I'd like you all to get comfortable first. Pull up your favourite chair, take the phone off the hook, make yourself a nice cup of tea or whatever beverage you prefer when in a mode of relaxation.
The ordinary people of Ireland have made the running of the Special Olympics here possible. The government must now do its bit for people with disabilities.
While the international community comes to the aid of the South East Asia tsunami victims, it’s worth remembering that an equivalent number of people die every week in Africa from disease and starvation.
ON THE official Newcastle United FC website, a stylish and well-constructed piece of work, there is a Magpies team group photo in which all the players are standing instead of sitting on benches.
Hold on to your hats, folks, fasten your seat-belts, gird your loins, and let the devil take the hindmost, for that annual bonanza of brinkmanship when Foul Play makes its predictions for the destination of soccer's major prizes is upon us.
A lot of people have expressed shock and outrage at the fact that the bishops and the clergy have been giving Bertie Ahern and his partner, Celia Larkin, a hard time of it recently
To make the case against State forces for the murder of Aidan McAnespie is not to give expression to Catholic Nationalism. To show unconcern about the matter is not to express the thinking or the interests of Protestants.
Directed by Michael Moore. Featuring Michael Moore, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Britney Spears.
110mins. Cert 12pg. Out now.
’85 was a remarkably stagnant year. Twelve months after the end of ’84, little seems to have changed or advanced musically and I only hope and pray we won’t be running on the same spot when ’86 ends.
In pre-judging the guilt of those arrested in connection with the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, and fomenting a desire for vengeance, elements of the media have behaved abominably
The dramatic announcement last week that the Irish Record Music Assocation was planning to sue 17 individuals the association has identified as "serial file-sharers" sent shock waves through the industry. IRMA chief executive Dick Doyle explains the background to to the move. Report by Tanya Sweeney.
After the London bombings, the Muslim community in Britain is feeling isolated, angry and under siege from new ‘anti-terror’ measures and anti-Islamic racism.
25 YEARS ago this month, on January 30th, 1972, Bloody Sunday, British soldiers stormed up the street where I was born and shot 13 people dead. I watched some of it happen.
In which, after a year spent in the Savoy, our film editor declares her craw full to the brim with CGI animals, gloomy rom-coms and Celtic Tiger thrillers. But there were more than a few pearls in the pig-trough too.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory. But fresh documentary evidence suggests that the US covertly orchestrated the establishment of the EU – and that a prime mover was an Irish-American secret agent who had had dinner with Hitler.
Kevin Myers' use of the word bastard may have been pernicious – but it was not the most offensive aspect of his attack on unmarried mothers. Plus: the death of the great Hunter S. Thompson.
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 . . .
