Tuam legends the Saw Doctors will be seeing out one of their most successful years yet with a gig in the Royal Theatre in Castlebar this New Year's Eve.
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?
At least The Saw Doctors never let you down. You always get what you’d expect: good old slap-yourself-on-the-knee pub songs! Toning things down ever so slightly, ‘If Only’ marks a slight return to the subtler, less raucous folk rock of 1996’s Same Old Town.
Though it retains the vibrancy of the past, it also marks a more mature Saw Doctors outlook of regret and nostalgia. Excellent b-side ‘Going Home’ builds on such wistfulness, adding to the group’s well of immigrant songs, and is worth the prize of the single alone.
Most of us have, at certain times, been guilty of doing The Saw Doctors a great disservice, airbrushing them out of the Irish musical family portrait. In the meantime they’ve continued to sell more records and play to bigger audiences around the world than most of their cooler countemporaries.
Ireland has changed utterly since the Saw Doctors first enthralled us with their hick schtick, doing for rural Ireland what rap acts did for Compton, but now they’re back with their sixth studio album and sounding as vibrant and celebratory of all things real and Irish as ever.
A mere 17 years after last doing it with ‘The Hay Wrap’, The Saw Dactors are back at number one on the Irish singles chart with their beefed-up version of Sugababes’ ‘About You Now’.
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 . . .
The Saw Doctors, one of Ireland's most enduring acts are back in the frame. Their To Win Just Once, The Best Of The Saw Doctors album has debuted at No.3 in the Irish album charts.
Mick Flannery is just one of the top artists featured singing a track on Seachtain na Gaeilge’s Irish language compilation Ceol ’09, due for release next month. Jackie Hayden talks to him about the experience.
Given that he’s this issue’s cover star, it’s only fitting that the many Christy Moore goodies in our possession are dug up and given a new lease of life. So, if you’re sitting comfortably, let’s begin…
MUSIC, COMEDY, THE WORLD - FAMOUS ROSE, THRILLS, SPILLS, AND THE CHANCE TO BE A STAR - IT'S ALL HAPPENING AT THIS YEAR'S TRALEE FESTIVAL IN THE CAPITAL OF KERRY
There is many a haven for shunners of the Christmas Cheer like myself. Lots of lovely bands, singers, comedians and even hynotherapists are at hand to entertain the life out of us, and distract Santa while we throttle him. Right up to the New Year there’s so much going on you needn’t come home till Easter.
Such is the close proximity of most of the well-known pubs to each other and to other central locations that Galway could quite conceivably have been designed with the pub crawler in mind. The sheer abundance and variety of pubs that Galway has to offer the thirsty reveller is one of the big attractions of the City of The Tribes. Galway pubs are renowned for their unique and friendly atmosphere, mighty craic and impromptu traditional music sessions.
Live on your TV and your wireless, 2TV will be broadcasting all summer long. JACKIE HAYDEN goes behind the scenes on the show that shakes up Sunday mornings.
Irish labels, bands and artists often face an uphill struggle to garner recognition, even on their home turf. Which is why hotpress and HMV have undertaken their own combined initiative, to coincide with the announcement of the shortlist for the first Choice Irish music prize. As a product of this initiative, all ten albums will be specially stocked and displayed in HMV stores all over Ireland on the run-in to the announcement of the winning album later this month. Here, we take a look at the list – and reflect on those that have been omitted.
Celebrating its 21st anniversary this summer, 1998's Galway Arts Festival promises to be the best ever. Hot Press' honorary Tribes-man, COLM O'HARE, previews the main attractions and offers a comprehensive guide
to the best places to eat, drink and make merry.
Bringing a multi-national flavour to the West's music scene are Emmet Scanlan and What the Good Thought- a cosmopolitan group who infuse cello, classical guitar and drums with "chaotic" glee.
In the run up to her Sligo Live appearance, chanteuse Martha Wainwright talks about learning from her father Loudon, channelling Edith Piaf and the perils of true romance.
NIALL STANAGE reports from the tenth Finsbury Park Fleadh, which featured performances from THE PRETENDERS, VAN MORRISON, ELVIS COSTELLO, SHANE MACGOWAN, DAVID GRAY and, er, RONAN KEATING
On the face of it, the Fleadh Mor in Tramore had it all: blistering sunshine, hairy hippies, a stall selling glow in the dark condoms and a line up of rock 'n' roll legends that would be hard to match.
Cavernous arenas, capacity crowds, shrieking teenagers and a brisk trade in merchandising.
No, it s not a Take That reunion, it s eh, Dublin popsters picture house travelling the autobahns of Germany.
Our Eurosceptic in D|sseldorf: colm o hare
From Big Tom and the Mainliners to The Cranberries and, indeed, back again, Alan Corcoran, one of the lower-profile 2FM DJ’s, has been there, seen that, played that. An uncommonly committed supporter of Irish music in Irish airwaves, here Jackie Hayden watches him at work and finds out more.
You re the frontman with The Stunning, you make an innocent remark about farmers and acid house and you end up creating banner headlines in The Western People. Lorraine Freeney assures Steve Wall that this is the sort of stuff Hot Press never stoop to, and also hears about the new album, Deco in The Commitments and the art of bridging the rural-urban divide.
Hot Press' answer to Russell Grant, Jackie Hayden, slips into his chunky-knit jumper, gazes at his crystal ball and comes up with more predictions that probably won't come true. Like last year.
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
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
Kenny Rogers and Van Morrison are the headline attractions at Midlands, a two-day country festival taking place on July 29 and 30 in Ballinlough Castle, County Meath.
Christmas has indeed come early - the latest issue of Hot Press has a FREE exclusive thirteen-track CD of live and rare tracks from some of the country's favourite acts.
Aslan were the unexpected winners of the night at the Meteor Ireland Music awards, beating off competition from the likes of Ash, Delorentos and the Flaws to take the title of Best Irish Band.
They must be sick of the Pogues comparisons by this stage, but listening to Blood Or Whiskey’s third studio album it’s impossible not to think of Spider Stacey bouncing his head off a beer crate and an early Shane MacGowan screeching into the microphone with two fingers aloft as the squaddies chucked their chips at him. Blood Or Whiskey evoke those sort of memories. The Rum, Sodomy And The Lash era when The Pogues stuck to their punk and traditional origins.
Anyone who ached with Shane MaacGowan on the Late Late Show will not be surprised to find him missing in action from this new album apart from some co-writing credits.
With a guest list worthy of a Paddy Moloney project, this is an album which, on the face of it, could have sunk beneath the pressure of too many big names, too many egos jostling for position.
Sometimes it's hard to be Irish, and this is one of them. Imagine, if you must, an amalgam of Sham 69 without the songs; The Wolfe Tones minus the voices; Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly without the wit; the worst thrash metal band you've ever heard; the infantile macho posturing of American wrestling and The Saw Doctors at their shoutiest - and you've taken just one small step to comprehending the atrocity they call Dropkick Murphys.
The glitter cannon has been primed. The pyrotechnics are sorted, likewise a series of 40 foot video screens. A massive sound system will have been freighted in from London. And at midnight on New Year's Eve, a Shine club special at the King's Hall in Belfast will be hailed by much noise and a computerised system sequencing animation, music and samplers - a millennium shindig that's likely to be the best of its kind in Ireland
THE BALLOT–BOXES HAVE BEEN OPENED, THE VOTES SCRUTINISED UNDER THE STRICTEST OF SECURITY AND NOW THE RETURNING OFFICER STEPS UP ONTO THE STAGE TO ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS OF THE 1993 HOT PRESS READERS’ POLL
Last week, I was surprised – and rather tickled, if the truth be known – to get a call from Larry Bass, CEO of Screentime ShinAwiL, the production company behind You’re A Star – the third series of which is set to take the headline slot on RTÉ every Sunday night for 17 weeks commencing in November.
The college circuit has always been a lucrative one for touring acts, and a fine opportunity for students to check out the best in show, at a reasonable price.
It may be miles off the beaten track, but Connolly’s of Leap has become one of the best-loved live venues in Ireland. Now with the launch of Rescue Music, the man behind the Connolly’s phenomenon, Paddy McNicholl is embarking on an exciting new phase of activity. Report: Jackie Hayden.
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
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.
