Twenty five years after The Jam went their separate ways, bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler are back playing together under the name From The Jam.
Paul Weller has a reputation as one of the most truculent men in pop, with a deep-seated dislike of the promotional process. But with the release of his latest solo album Illumination, the man who once led The Jam and the Style Council agreed to put himself in the firing line. Looking back over a career that's studded with success, he's reflective and forthright - but the anger that inspired much of The Jam's finest output still burns
He’s been The Jam Man, The Cappuccino Kid and The Modfather. Now the proud father of a 17-year-old goth daughter, Paul Weller has taken a break from compositional chores to recharge his batteries with a new covers album, Studio 150.
The latest group to benefit from the tutelage of legendary producer Stephen Street, attitudinal Mancunian rockers The Courteeners are one of hottest newcomers on the UK indie scene.
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.
After his celebrated band the blades failed to make a breakthrough in the 1980s, PAUL CLEARY more or less turned his back on music for 15 years. But now unexpectedly, he’s back with a terrific solo album crooked town and more than a few tales to tell.
Interview: LIAM MACKEY
In a highly revealing interview, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke talks about the inspiration behind one of the albums of the year, his current listening and the band's plans for the future.
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
An obvious but decent selection from the Prodge mainman, including PIL, Meat Beat Manifesto, PE, The Jam plus new Prodigy track ‘Wake The Fuck Up’ ( a noisy, thrashy breakbeat thing). Completists will have to have it.
Arriving with an armful of Arctic Monkeys connections (management, tours, hometown, early bands), Reverend And The Makers are fortunately far more than another bunch of soundalikes. Their sound is rooted more deeply in dance and funk, with the backing to their debut single proving to be one of those you know it but you don’t bass lines from some or other ‘80s track (The Jam? Teardrop Explodes?). As the title suggests, self-confidence is not an issue and that would be one thing they do share with Turner & co, as well as a love of John Cooper Clarke (who appears on the b-side). Good idea, whether it’ll carry or disappear commercially is hard to call at the moment.
There must be some mistake, surely? A new British band that don’t stick needles in their arm, live in an East London squat or sound like a really, really bad Franz Ferdinand demo. Not that Kaiser Chiefs are going to win any prizes for originality. Named after one of South Africa’s most famous footie teams, the Leeds quintet have a big thing for The Jam, XTC, Blur and any other band to whom the term “quintessentially English” applies.
With influences by The Jam, The Clash and the Smiths, shirts by Fred Perry and haircuts grade one, The Ordinary Boys couldn’t be any more British if they embarked on a Bank Holiday tour of sleepy seaside venues with amps draped in Union Jacks.
In accordance with the many anti-corporate codes of honour that make life in the Ed-Ved band seem akin to a ten year stretch in some post-grunge version of the Navy Seals (or worse, a spell as Rage Against The Machine’s stylist), the Jam have done the Dead thing and assembled a whole slew of official live bootlegs, each one slated for release in the very territory it was recorded in.
Matt Jam Lamont, previously one half of Tuff Jam puts out his first solo mix, and it’s a representative selection of the development of UK garage in recent years. Comprising two CDs, the first disc consists mainly of slick, sanitized R’n’B style 2 step that veers into cheesy chart fodder territory.
Britrock icon Paul Weller speaks about his new album 22 Dreams and why his influence on acts like Arctic Monkeys and The Enemy has proved a source of gratification and inspiration.
NO LONGER ANGRY YOUNG MEN, BUT STILL PRETTY PISSED OFF THIRTY SOMETHINGS, JAKE BURNS AND BRUCE FOXTON TELL STUART CLARK WHY STIFF LITTLE FINGERS REFUSE TO LAY DOWN AND DIE. PIX.: CATHAL DAWSON.
They’re the unsung heroes of plaintive Irish pop. Ahead of a new run of live shows, Saville talk guitars, pedals and Wurlitzers – and explain why musicians should be prepared for the worst whenever they go on stage.
The Police's reformation is the reunion they said would never happen, and according to guitarist Andy Summers the band is still the same mix of egos and visionaries.
She’s been dubbed America’s answer to M.I.A. and blown Bjork off stage in Madison Square Garden. Brooklyn rapper Santogold explains how it feels to be hyped as New York’s next big thing.
With their debut single 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' zooming to no.1 in the UK, Arctic Monkeys ended 2005 on a high. They are destined to be the new band of 2006.
Noel Gallagher and Paul Arthurs of Oasis talk about their staggering rise from being unemployed no-hopers to Top Ten chart act striving to outshine T.Rex, The Beatles and Neil Young to name but three and show Tony Clayton-Lea how to order a peanut.
Adulation from teenage girls, encounters with Jack Osbourne and hi-jinks with coked-up prostitutes – Donegal rockers The Revs are starting to make a name for themselves in Britain and beyond.
whinging, yak-herding and masturbating over the sunday dinner are just three of the tenuously-related subjects that come up for discussion as stuart clark gets completely wireless with radiohead plankspanker from hell colin greenwood.
They all left poxy factory jobs to be in a band, they used to dress in Clockwork Orange costume onstage, and they confess that they only signed to their current label so that one of them could sleep with Saffron from Republica. They are THE JOSEPHS, and your host is PETER MURPHY.
Four years on from Inflammable Material and even Jake Burns is beginning to wonder if Stiff Little Fingers are losing their bearings. Here he reveals some of his misgivings to Bill Graham
The Subtonics first came to our attention when they attempted to sabotage last year's hotpress award's ceremony with a nearby rooftop gig. But what have they done for us lately? Stephen Robinson Sub-scribes
How Eric Eckhart quit his swish job, sold his house and cars, split with his girlfriend and burned his picket fence in order to pursue his creative vision.
Doctor John may be renowned as a laid-back Big Easy legend, but get him started on the Federal Government's treatment of his beloved New Orleans and he spits nails.
Belfast boys General Fiasco may be one of the standout acts on the Oh Yeah showcase CD, but when HP catches up with the band, they're feeling a little, um, overexposed.
Ex-Desert Hearts drummer Chris Heaney has taken the front seat in his new buzz-saw noise-pop trio Escape Act. Parenthood, he says makes you work at double-speed.
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.
On the eve of his appearance in the Dublin Theatre Festival and with a nationwide Irish tour pending, Jimeoin, the award-winning Irish comedian, talks to Tony Clayton-Lea about his journey to fame, from his early jobs as a builder in London and a carpenter in Sydney to his current status as the funniest man in Australia. He may own ten Van Morrison albums but he's still the best man around to liven up a night on the town.
On the eve of his appearance in the Dublin Theatre Festival and with a nationwide Irish tour pending, Jimeoin, the award-winning Irish comedian, talks to Tony Clayton-Lea about his journey to fame, from his early jobs as a builder in London and a carpenter in Sydney to his current status as the funniest man in Australia. He may own ten Van Morrison albums but he's still the best man around to liven up a night on the town.
Edwyn Collins, late of Orange Juice and whose third solo album was recently released, gets all acidic about the state of the music business. Interview: Patrick Brennan.
In another case of “Bono made me do it”, former hotpress-er and U2 biographer Neil McCormick explains to Jackie Hayden how he ended up living near Bob The Builder and about the travails of interviewing all four U2 men on four different continents in the same evening. Photos by Mark Harrison.
Never mind CD:UK, Top Of The Pops and Later With Jools – you really know you’ve made it when the phone rings and it’s Sparks telling you they love you. Stuart Clark hears about the irresistible rise of Glasgow hotshots Franz Ferdinand.
How the mafia did Noel a favour by twatting Liam; the U2 song Oasis might cover; the most he’s spent on cocaine; a great night out in Ireland’ and what it will say on his tombstone. Noel Gallagher answers the reader’s questions. Turning up the heat Stuart Clark.
With even the comparatively tranquil Euro 2004 marred by trouble on the Algarve, the issue of football hooliganism remains a live one. Now, one of its definitive texts has made it to the big screen. Craig Fitzsimons meets the men – and learns about the hard men – behind The Football Factory
Fifteen years since they first topped the Irish charts, The Saw Doctors remain one of this country’s most successful bands. So why do so many people still consider them a novelty act?
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?
And we ain’t talking turkey. Miles Hunt, lead singer and songwriter with The Wonder Stuff doesn't give a flying, er, saucer what anyone thinks of the band, their image, their videos or even their P/E ratio. Interview: Stuart Clark.
Bum, bottom and crevice may be dirty words but pop certainly isn't as Stuart Clark discovers when he enters the fluffy pink bunny rabbit world of the Lightning Seeds.
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Lewis Carrol may all be touchstones for the muse of sinÉad lohan, but this is one talented and increasingly successful singer-songwriter who definitely does things her way. joe jackson meets a self-confessed "spacer".
Pix: Mick Quinn
And that s just the band! Galway s finest, The Stunning, take time out from sticking pins in themselves as their debut album Paradise In The Picturehouse finds itself perched atop the Irish charts to explain the secret of their success to an attentive Michael O Hara, who undergoes a road to Damascus experience en route.
...And the kids just keep on comin’, as Hot Press investigates another assortment of motley crews with songs in their hearts and stars in their eyes, and concludes that the future is indeed so bright, you’ve gotta wear shades.
FLEXIHEAD, MEXICAN PETS, THE GLEE CLUB, IN MOTION
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 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.
To follow up his summer headlining stints at Oxegen last weekend and at the V Festival next month, rock veteran Paul Weller will get back on the road this winter.
Since their debut single ‘Wired To The Moon’ went gold here The Revs have established themselves as Ireland’s hungriest and most energetic rock combo, with an appetite for gigging and an eye for publicity that has seen them embroiled in a number of amusing controversies. But behind the brash exterior is the fascinating story of three dedicated young musicians who have overcome their status as outsiders to build one of the biggest and most loyal grass roots following of any local act. Now with the release of their debut studio album, Suck, they are ready to go international.
With his upcoming concert in Poulaphouca marking his solo Irish debut, it's been all too easy in the recent past to overlook Bob Geldof's standing as a musical and lyrical artist. The lines connecting the youthful Dun Laoghaire blues and Dylan aficionado with the creator of The Vegetarians Of Love are rarely traced in media-bytes that prefer to concentrate on Modest Bob, Live Aid Bob and Saint Bob. Here, Bill Graham, who knew the schoolboy, takes musician Bob on a freewheeling trip from then to now.
With his upcoming concert in Poulaphouca marking his solo Irish debut, it's been all too easy in the recent past to overlook Bob Geldof's standing as a musical and lyrical artist. The lines connecting the youthful Dun Laoghaire blues and Dylan aficionado with the creator of The Vegetarians Of Love are rarely traced in media-bytes that prefer to concentrate on Modest Bob, Live Aid Bob and Saint Bob. Here, Bill Graham, who knew the schoolboy, takes musician Bob on a freewheeling trip from then to now.
With his upcoming concert in Poulaphouca marking his solo Irish debut, it s been all too easy in the recent past to overlook Bob Geldof s standing as a musical and lyrical artist. The lines connecting the youthful Dun Laoghaire blues and Dylan aficionado with the creator of The Vegetarians Of Love are rarely traced in media-bytes that prefer to concentrate on Modest Bob, Live Aid Bob and Saint Bob. Here, Bill Graham, who knew the schoolboy, takes musician Bob on a freewheeling trip from then to now.
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 special report on the arts in Northern Ireland which is alive and rocking with the whole gamut of cultural activity. Here James Elliott and Margaret F. Grundy give the lowdown on the province’s artistic and creative hub.
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 . . .
It’s certainly the most energised and stylistically wide-reaching of all his solo albums to date, bringing together pretty much every musical direction he’s taken in a career that stretches back almost 30 years.
Just when we thought that we had seen Paul Weller do everything, he comes back again and surprises us all with this first single from an album of covers called Studio 150.
The erstwhile Jam and Style Council frontman was attempting another reinvention in a career that has seen him traverse the genre divides of punk, mod and soul.
Cellist Vyvienne Long and Kila's Colm Ó Snodaigh are among the artists playing at this month's Shoestring Collective gig in the James Joyce Centre, Dublin.
On Shabba Ranks And Friends, Shabba brings his deep ragga voice and pop/soul/hip hop treatment to a range of diverse songs, most of which were recorded six or seven years ago.
Like all great songwriters you could always rely on Paul Weller to come up with a good cover version – for his 10th studio album he’s gone the whole hog and recorded an entire album of covers.
Regarded by many as The Beatles’ finest work, and coming a mere eight months after the superb Rubber Soul, their seventh album Revolver was light years further on in terms of musical innovation, paving the way for the acid- and meditation-fuelled psychedelia to come, and pioneering lyrical invention that thrashed the conventions of the pop song.
Their recent appearance in the top ten with a cover of ‘Hounds Of Love’ has provided The Futureheads with the perfect excuse to tart up and re-release last year’s fine but neglected debut L.P. Of course, this is a shameless example of commercial opportunism (the world really could go on spinning without seeing the ropey videos, mumbled interviews and shaky gig footage contained on the bonus DVD), but such is the energy and likeability of said record, only a churl or Stereophonics fan would deny it a further opportunity to invade as many extra collections as it can.
Never a serious fan of the man who was retro before retro, my expectations weren't too high for this closer in a hat-trick of solo dates. It was a pleasant surprise then to hear him deliver a fresh and uplifting set.
So much has been written, spoken and, most importantly, blogged about Arctic Monkeys that it’s difficult to believe this is their debut album. The four piece’s incredible rise is, in the main, due to a Libertines-esque use of the Internet to spread their gospel without ever straying far from Sheffield.
There's no point in beating around the bush here: Jay Kay has to be one of the most loathed men in pop. Put it down to a perceived smugness, that spritzer-eating grin, a penchant for posh autos, a celebrity girlfriend - anything but the music.
Liam Mackey's 1979
Released when the infant ’79 was still in the grip of winter, Graham Parker’s ‘Squeezing Out Sparks’ stood the test of time and defeated the heaviest competition.
PAUL WELLER is often accorded an elder statesman status which ill becomes him - in this listener's opinion, the Modfather never really earned his stripes
PAUL WELLER is often accorded an elder statesman status which ill becomes him - in this listener's opinion, the Modfather never really earned his stripes.
HMV’s acclaimed 'my inspiration' campaign – where artists reference a song or lyric that has inspired them, is to be taken to a new level with the first-ever album compilation of 'my inspiration' covers.
Danielle Brigham caught the hililghts from last night's Witnness bill. Feast your peepers on reviews of Badly Drawn Boy, The Thrills, Lemon Jelly and The Streets
Don't beat that, beat this! After a modest period of hesitance, your correspondent is pleased to be able to confirm that Wha'ppen finds the Beat striking creative gold for the second time album-wise.
Danielle Brigham caught the highlights from last night's Witnness bill. Feast your peepers on reviews of Badly Drawn Boy, The Thrills, Lemon Jelly and The Streets
Having debuted at Number One in the UK album charts last week, it would appear that working-class Coventry trio The Enemy are now officially the next big thing.
Over a hundred acts took part in the annual Hard Working Class Heroes event in Dublin last weekend. While the standard wasn’t uniformly impressive, a number of new contenders emerged who might ultimately be capable of lifting the rock’n’roll crown...
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.
Neil McCormick, a friend of U2 in their earliest days, who, as a writer, has closely monitored their progress since then, analyses Eamon Dunphy's much-touted 'authorised' biography "Unforgettable Fire" – and can't quite believe what he reads
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
