Closer, with its explicit language and nudity is one of the most controversial plays to grace the stage of Dublin's Peacock Theatre. Here one of its stars, ALI WHITE talks about her role
The Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has just promised “to streamline and modernise our liquor licensing laws”. Karla Healion asks if the government is correct in its approach to curbing problems associated with alcohol.
An overnight sensation after ten years and a theatrical star with no special love of the theatre, Martin McDonagh is a playwright with his eyes set firmly on the big screen.
Interview: Olaf Tyaransen.
An overnight sensation after ten years and a theatrical star with no special love of the theatre, Martin McDonagh is a playwright with his eyes set firmly on the big screen.
Interview: Olaf Tyaransen.
The Dublin Theatre Festival celebrates its 45th birthday in 2002 with a quality combination of classic and more recent works in musical theatre, comedy and drama
The Dublin Theatre Festival celebrates its 45th birthday in 2002 with a quality combination of classic and more recent works in musical theatre, comedy and drama
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
He may not always be the critics darling, but BERNARD FARRELL remains one of Ireland s most popular and successful playwrights. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his regard for theatre and everyday heroes, and his contempt for snobs, suits and Celtic Tiger Ireland. Pics: Cathal Dawson
From 15-28 July 2002 Galway city hosts one of the most comprehensive of this year's arts festivals with esoteric offerings from the genres of visual art, music, theatre, comedy and lots, lots more
Joe Jackson talks to Paul Meade, director of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing , the hugely successful examination of sexual politics which is currently enjoying an extended run at Andrew’s Lane Theatre.
Enjoying parallels with works as diverse as Chekov’s Three Sisters and About Adam, Very Heaven looks set to be another success for dublin’s focus theatre. Joe Jackson talks to the show’s director, Bairbre Ni Chaoimh
Rough Magic, one of Ireland’s outstanding theatre ensembles, returns with a production of Shakespeare that examines the battle of the sexes in Ireland.
In a special Hot Press investigative report, Jonathan O'Brien looks into the activities of Father Sean Fortune [pictured left with the Pope - courtesy The Star] and his Institute of Journalism and Theatre, while Craig Fitzsimons goes undercover to discover exactly what is - and isn't - on offer in one of the priest's diploma courses.
With the general election approaching, the leader of the Labour Party offers his views on Bob Dylan, Bono, Ali Hewson, Sile De Valera, RTE, Sellafield, The Abbey Theatre, marital breakdown, the decline in power of the Catholic Church, the rise of Sinn Fein, the irrelevance of the PDs, his ambitions for Labour, and the perception of him as a smoked salmon socialist. All this, and the enduring appeal of a certain song
Lobby group Theatre Ireland recently invited the arts spokespeople of the main political parties to outline their policies ahead of the general election. The event took place at Andrew’s Lane Theatre before an audience of key figures from the arts sector.
Despite the valiant attempts of an efficient fog machine, irony quickly displaces mist in the Olympia Theatre as the most noticeable (if unintended) element of Good Charlotte’s show. "The world is a cold, dark, lonely place and no one understands me. But Ireland, I think you understand me!" screeches lead singer Joel Madden before launching into ‘The World is Black’, a surprisingly serious song from Good Charlotte’s surprisingly serious new album.
Bruce Springsteen is one of those performing artists who you should see at least once before you die, fan or not. At best, I consider myself to be merely a casual Springsteen follower, yet I felt like I was in safe hands from the moment he stepped onstage at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. and stood amidst the sumptuous drapery and candelabrum.
DAVID GRAY’s sell-out December gig at Dublin’s Point Theatre was an intense, emotional affair.
NIALL STANAGE reports on a remarkable night and offers a personal perspective on the singer-songwriter’s journey
WEEK AFTER week I try to remain the right side of well-mannered when some myopic PR person or director phones and says "There's a play coming up in the blah-blah-blah theatre and it's got great music that'll really appeal to your readers."
Druid Theatre founder Garry Hynes warns that unless the Arts Council rethink their recent funding cuts, Irish theatre – and Irish culture – could be damaged for good.
BEING OUT of the country on holidays means I have yet to see the latest interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (Gate Theatre) but one fellow journalist did describe it as "a menopausal sex fantasy".
Watching an Oscar Wilde play in full flight is one thing, right? As in Alan Stanford s meticulously directed version of An Ideal Husband, now running at Dublin s Gate Theatre.
IN THE last issue of Hot Press we previewed the play which turned out to be the most universally-acclaimed production of the Dublin Theatre Festival: Marina Carr’s The Mai, which is still running at the Peacock Theatre.
This year there is one striking feature of the Dublin Theatre Festival which would suggest that the Capital’s two key theatres are not making too much of an effort for the event.
FANS OF this column have complained that in my preview of the Dublin Theatre Festival, in the last issue of Hot Press I paid only lip service to the "most prestigious and biggest show on offer," the RSC's production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale (Gaiety Theatre).
Under the direction of Joe Devlin, the Focus Theatre has taken on an impressive range of projects – not least two plays that tackle burning contemporary issues. Devlin tells us how he’s been carrying on the Focus tradition.
After over a year in refurbishment, the Point will now re-open as The 02 this December. Update: an artist's impressions of what you can expect from the new venue.
The Dublin Theatre Festival is fast approaching its 50th anniversary, but the organisers haven’t let anticipation of next year distract them from the task in hand. There’s a rake of quality shows to check out over the coming weeks, from Ibsen to Leonard Cohen.
Newly divorced from the Theatre Festival, this year’s Magnet Entertainment Dublin Fringe Festival is a more compact but also more diverse event than ever before.
Joe Jackson talks to Peter Hanly, currently starring in the Pulitzer Prize winning play Dinner With Friends, which explores the minefield of contemporary conjugal relationships.
Joe Jackson talks to Bernard Farrell, author of Many Happy Returns, a darkly funny Yuletide drama that explores the spiritual malaise of contemporary Irish life.
Mark Doherty is best known to Irish audiences for his live stand-up shows and his television appearances on RTE's Couched, yet as Joe Jackson finds out, he's just finished writing his first play
Controversy is already swirling around the forthcoming Abbey Theatre production, Barbaric Comedies. JOE JACKSON finds out what it s all about and talks to one Irish actress who decided against appearing in the play
Playwright Michael Harding insists that composing and playing music has inspired his writing for the stage, a theory borne out by his latest play, Talking Through His Hat
Joe Jackson talks to Arthur Riordan, author of Improbable Frequency, the hit musical comedy which examines Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World War in humorous and insightful fashion.
Earlier this year, hotpress spent some time out and about, shooting scenes around some of the hotspots, and our pictures caught revellers aplenty from all over Europe, as well as Africa, America, Australia and New Zealand, who had come here to live – and were out there tasting and enjoying the nightlife.
“The world’s in a state of chassis,” to paraphrase that great, unforgettable actor whose name I can’t quite remember right now. At least, that’s the thought that struck me while entering Eamonn Doran’s Theatre in Dublin’s Crown alley (ex-Rock Garden) to see Shoot, If You Must.
By now one of the most esteemed events on the Irish cultural calendar, the Galway Arts Festival 2003 will once again bring you the best in contemporary theatre, literature, comedy and music
Flora Montgomery is one of Ireland's brghtest stars of stage and screen. She may have achieved a career high as the curvaceous criminal lead in When Brendan Met Trudy. But, as Stephen Robinson discovered, you don’t want to ask her about her nude scenes
BRENDAN O’CARROLL is bringing his latest opus
Good Mourning Mrs Brown to the Olympia theatre, Dublin, in January. But STEPHEN ROBINSON discovers that the author and comedian has quite a serious side
AIDAN KELLY’S latest stage role in blasted, as a psychotic soldier, is a far cry from his last TV role in the RTE sitcom 'TheCassidys'. Interview: JOE JACKSON
IT HAS been suggested that Graham Reid’s plays are pungent with “the thick and acrid air” of Belfast. Any actor performing one of these production in The Lyric Players Theatre in Belfast at this point in time would certainly know if that statement is true.
Veteran actor Tom Courtenay remains hugely enthusiastic about Brian Friel’s work, as he tells Joe Jackson ahead of his starring role in the Gate’s version of the playwright’s 19th century-set play, The Home Place.
Sebastian Barry's new play Hinterland concerns the reflections of a former Taoiseach and his failed relationship with his family. Joe Jackson asks director Max Stafford-Clarke if the story is based on anyone in particular
Ed Byrne has just finished a smash-hit series of concerts at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre as part of his hundred-date tour but those who are missing him already can tune into the new Network 2 show Just For Laughs which finds him wearing his TV presenters’ hat. and shades.
Joe Jackson talks to John Kilby, founding member of famed French theatre company Footsbarn, who are set to light up the George’s Dock Festival this June with Perchance To Dream, their lively and imaginative reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s most famous plays.
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.
PETER MURPHY meets GAVIN FRIDAY and discovers a fascination with Kurt Weill that has led to Friday and Maurice Seezer’s Ich Lieb Dich revue at the Tivoli Theatre
Once a rock’n’roll performer in his youth, CONOR McPHERSON has now graduated into one of Ireland’s brightest theatrical and literary talents. Still only in his mid-20s, he’s already written the screenplay of the acclaimed Irish thriller I Went Down, as well as several acclaimed plays, This Limetree Bower and his latest effort The Weir. Here, he talks to JOE JACKSON about the mixed reception he’s received from Irish theatre critics, and the influence of rock music on his work.
The 12th annual Miss Alternative Ireland competition took place last week at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre. A host of entrants – of all genders! – came to see who would follow in the shoestraps of last year’s winner Miss Heidi Konnt. The judging panel included Anna Nolan, Brendan Courtney and Mick Wilson and they gave the crown to Funtime Gustavo – who here tells how she came, saw and truly conquered. Photos by Cathal Dawson
Lauren Guillery and the Claws have confirmed that they will support French band Plastiscines as part of the 'Let's French' Festival at Andrews Lane on Friday
Eyebrows were raised in the Irish rock community at Dave Fanning’s appointment as a panellist for RTE’s next series of You’re A Star. Colm O’Hare gives him a chance to explain why he doesn’t care.
Irish fiction continues to grow in both popularity and hipness. In this special feature we talk to three of its most prominent young exponents: John Connolly, Conal Creedon and Julie Parsons.
Irish fiction continues to grow in both popularity and hipness. In this special feature we talk to three of its most prominent young exponents: John Connolly, Conal Creedon and Julie Parsons.
The gate’s current production of Pygmalion reverses the chauvinistic aspects of both film adaptations. Actress Jeananne Crowley explains how george bernard shaw got his feminist groove back.
Joe Jackson talks to Elizabeth Moynihan, star of the Gate’s new production of Lady Windermere’s Fan, the classic Oscar Wilde play, which, in its new 1947 setting, explores the social mores of the upper classes in post-war London.
He’s been many things: a roadie with De Danann, a carpenter with Druid, a founder of the world-famous Macnas theatre group and, not least, a six-foot four-inch Connemara man in a skirt and self-styled “cranky fuck”. But now Paraic Breathnach spends a lot of his time crying tears of rage. Olaf Tyaransen finds him down but definitely not out. Portrait Aengus McMahon
A former skateboarding god and young entrepreneur of the year, Davie Philip exchanged the fast life for the good life. Iva Pocock reports on the curious making of a passionate green activist
BECKETT ON FILM is one of the most ambitious cinematic projects ever. Nineteen of Samuel Beckett's plays have been made into movies, directed by and starring numerous A-list figures. To mark the occasion, JOE JACKSON talks to Bono, John Hurt and Enda Hughes about one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists
The Frames and BellX1 stormed the palisades of Groningen recently as part of the Eurosonic Festival. John Walshe was there to see it happen and to revisit the spot where the great Mic Christopher met with his tragic accident. Plus: the latest news and reaction to the Frames’ new record deal
On Sunday 16 October a unique event takes place in The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, as the climax of the 1994 Dublin Theatre Festival. Organised by Amnesty International, Voices Of The Disappeared is intended to highlight their campaign on “ Disappearances” and Political Killings. Stuart Carolan reports.
Brian Wilson is among the most influential forces in modern music and created, in The Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, what many music fans agree is the greatest record ever made. In February he takes his world tour to Dublin's Point Theatre and Stephen Robinson asks what's on the set-list
With her new movie The Heart Of Me having just hit theatre, acclaimed english actress Olivia Williams here discusses her breaththrough role in The Sixth Sense and what it takes to succeed in hollywood. words Tara Brady
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.
Time magazine dubbed him The Renaissance Man Of Rock . With and without Talking Heads, he s made some of the most innovative music of the last two decades, as well as being an author, photographer, director, sound-track scorer, Academy Award winner, and all-round friendly neighbourhood psycho-killer. David Byrne allowed Hot Press to put him on the couch for thirty minutes when he arrived in Dublin for his recent Olympia Theatre show.
Peter Murphy was there to hear the Head man
talking.
By the end of Damien Rice's set, the crowd is clapping wildly, roaring with appreciation. Fiona Apple, for her part, is the closest thing to Janis Joplin we have in 2006.
With the recently released Some Cities completing a trio of gorgeously layered masterpieces, Doves are the band many take for granted. Brilliance is expected, and we have become accustomed to excellence from the Manchester trio. If there was anything unexpected about their set at a sold out Olympia, it was that we may have forgotten beforehand just how special they really are.
It was a little piece of Off Broadway in Dublin. Now Andrew’s Lane is closing and Irish theatre shall be the poorer for its going. Pat Moylan reflects on the end of an era.
If REM apply the same print-and-be-damned attitude to the recording of these songs as they did to their live unveiling, they might produce their most vibrant record in years.
‘Witches Float’ builds on a pounding drumbeat that recalls, of all people, Theatre Of Hate before heading off into a cacophony of sound that could perhaps do with a stronger song to really help it take off.
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.
Changes to the start date of the Doggyfizzle Tour have forced the Snoop Dogg concert in the RDS on February 22 to move to The Point Theatre on Friday February 25.
Reports that The Point Theatre - situated in the redeveloping Docklands area - is to close, are greatly exaggerated, claims general manager Cormac Rennick
STEREOPHONICS’ LOVE AFFAIR with this island of ours continues when they play The Point Theatre, Dublin on November 13th and the Odyssey Arena, Belfast on the 14th.
Armed with just his guitar and emotive voice, Bloom magically transformed a large theatre into an intimate bedsit, for this was not just a gig but a celebration of life, love, sex and the Irish weather
With the status of the Savoy Theatre still up in the air, Heineken Music have relocated Saturday 11th's Thirst featuring Pete Tong & Tiesto to the Cork Opera House.
HAVING TORN THE roof off the Temple Bar Music Centre earlier in the year, Goldfrapp return to Dublin for a November 3rd headliner at the Ambassador Theatre.
The first in a series of fully remastered re-releases of the entire Seán Ó Riada collection. Recorded in 1969 at a now-legendary concert in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre, the album features Ó Riada together with sean-nós singer Seán Ó Sé, plus the embryonic Chieftains, then performing as Ceoltóirí Chualann.
Pushing 70, at least, perched on a high stool in a baseball hat, cowboy boots and sunglasses, the evening has about it a hint of Vegas dinner-theatre, if an unusually moving one
Thirty lucky fans were treated to a special acoustic Bell X1 show in the intimate surroundings of Bewley's Cafe Theatre in Dublin on Sunday. **NOW UPDATED with photos!
O2 have talked to hotpress.com to explain how they plan to allow their customers to buy tickets for shows in the new O2 venue (formerly the Point), before they go on general sale.
He has been hailed as a wunderkind of Irish theatre. Now, with his second feature film, The Actors, Conor McPherson brings his theatrical experience to bear on celluloid – with considerable success.
While her recent visit to the Point Theatre met with mixed reviews, the show containing perhaps a little too much material from her last album, the critically panned (and rightly so . . .), Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, this unplugged offering is, well, alright.
Someone once said that listening to a Tom Waits CD is more like watching a play than hearing an album. So seeing a Tom Waits show is perhaps akin to some abstruse sensory overload that, no matter how high the expectation, will bite you like a shark. The Carre Theatre in Amsterdam is a beautifully classic, large auditorium with retracting chandeliers and burgundy seats.
Someone once said that listening to a Tom Waits CD is more like watching a play than hearing an album. So seeing a Tom Waits show is perhaps akin to some abstruse sensory overload that, no matter how high the expectation, will bite you like a shark. The Carre Theatre in Amsterdam is a beautifully classic, large auditorium with retracting chandeliers and burgundy seats.
In addition to their mailing-list invite gig at The Gate Theatre, Snow Patrol will be signing copies of their new album at HMV Grafton Street this weekend
Recorded last August over three sold-out nights in Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre, Skin And Bones is a superb snapshot of the band’s first ever tour with its expanded eight piece line-up.
Natalie Merchant's first live solo album, recorded at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway last June, is a curious beast. In her choice of material Merchant has largely steered clear of both her most recent accomplishments (only the title track from her last album, Ophelia, is included) and her 10,000 Maniacs days.
“Don’t give in, 2000 man,” sighs Jason Lytle through the nine-minute prog-epic heartbreaker that is ‘He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot,’ and a theatre-ful of enthusiastic Lytle-people are delighted to have him looking out for us.
Rumours of Bono and Len himself turning up proved to be unfounded, but that didn’t stop this Dublin Theatre Festival shindig being the stuff legend is made of.
It was Tennessee Williams' first real masterpiece. The Glass Menagerie, now in revival at Dublin's Gate, also saw the playwright baring his soul as never before.
What’s left without the gore? Well, the same demented, tragicomic melancholia to be found within the pages of pretty much everything written by Thom Yorke-favourite, Haruki Murakami, interwoven with traditional Japanese artefacts, such as Bunraki theatre, Noh drums, and skyfuls of hanging cherry blossoms
Snow Patrol kicked off their whistle-stop Take Back The Cities tour with their first live gig in over a year yesterday with a sold out lunchtime show in Dublin's Gate Theatre.
The haunting under-belly of a small-town Ireland in transition is probed in Patrick McCabe’s new play, The Revenant. The result is both a chilling piece of theatre and a barbed social commentary, says its director Joe O’Byrne.
After endless procrastination, the Government is finally planning to introduce civil partnerships for gay people. But reports suggest that gay couples are to be denied the right to adopt.
D UNBELIEVABLES are probably the most popular comics in Ireland. As preparations continue for the opening of their new show, Olaf Tyaransen talks to the duo about rural Ireland, negative press, and whether they have yet made their fortune.
Disappointment that Arcade Fire’s Olympia Theatre shows sold-out last week in 10 minutes turned to anger when fans discovered eBay immediately advertising tickets for as much as €250 each. 10 days later and that figure has risen to an even more staggering €350.
For the duration of August each year, Edinburgh becomes a veritable treasure trove of artistic delights, playing host to the best in theatre, music, film and, of course, comedy.
Black, dark, twisted, perverse, politically incorrect, macabre, obscene, profane, disturbing, gothic… and, oh yes, hilariously funny. Barry Glendenning meets the League of Gentlemen, the unlikely stars of radio, stage and screen who may well be coming to a theatre near you
In previous years Dara O'Briain’s public persona seemed to pendulum-swing from TV personality and game show host to stand-up guy – but with the release of his Live At The Theatre Royal DVD, the former UCD man’s comedy ship has well and truly come in.
Why do so many people hate manchester united? stuart clark thumbs through two new books which suggest that there s more to ABUism than just plain envy.
Playwright Michael Harding explains why his newest play, Birdie Birdie, is about how “the only way to survive, as an individual or as a society, is to mind each other.”
Galway has a proud history of involvement in the arts - a fact which is mirrored in the strong emphasis on the Humanities in the city's most prestigious college, NUI Galway. But the President, DR. PAT FOTTRELL promises that there's more to come in the future. By OLAF TYARANSEN
Nobody actually shouted “hit the bitch” during the previous Dublin run of Oleanna – as happened on Broadway – but Irish audiences were sharply divided in terms of the male and female adversaries in David Mamet’s controversial play. Personally, I found the polemical exchanges at the heart of the production a little ham-fisted.
IT’S PROBABLY a little too blatant to run a line of comparison between the newer, younger breed of comedians, like Sean Hughes, and comic-actors like Eamon Morrissey. However, one distinct difference is that Sean has a TV series and Eamon hasn’t.
After close to a decade of neglect, Pinter’s classic play The Birthday Party is currently enjoying a long-overdue renaissance thanks to directorial debutant, Michael Donegan
MICHAEL D. Higgins obviously got under the hypersensitive skin of Sunday Independent journalists who have accelerated their systematic, and at points, paranoiac attack on the Minister since he proposed some relatively revolutionary ideas about the arts, in a recent issue of Hot Press.
B*spoke’s Jane Brennan on Tom Murphy’s adaptation of The Drunkard – and the family connections which make this production all the more meaningful for her.
Long gone are the days when appearing in a play in the Gaiety rather than the Abbey or Gate was seen as “slumming it”. Or that's how Ronan Smith, who plays a priest in Groundwork’s latest production of John B. Keane’s Moll, which opens on March 9th and runs till April 9, sees it anyhow.
Having previously worked with directors of the stature of Danny Boyle and Anthony Minghella, and with a role as the main villain in the next Batman movie in the offing, Cillian Murphy is one of the hottest young actors around. Joe Jackson caught up with murphy to discuss his central role in Garry Hynes’ version of Synge’s famous play, the Playboy of the Western World.
The Price is widely regarded as playwright Arthur Miller’s most personal work. Joe Jackson speaks to actor Lorcan Cranitch about brotherly love and hate and his co-star, ex-Hill Street Blues veteran Robert Prosky
DUBLIN'S OLYMPIA is one of the city's great venues for late night rock gigs that roll the music right back to its base on the streets, and among the community.
Joe Jackson talks to Christopher Adlington, star of Enlightenment, the new play from Shelagh Stephenson which examines British attitudes towards the Middle East.
IT MAY be hard to explain, but we’ve all witnessed great acting – in our favourite movie, play or television programme (or simply when your lover claims that she, or he didn’t betray you, despite the fact that you caught them in the act).
IN HIS interview elsewhere in this issue Michael D. Higgins points out that there is little to be gained from indulging in discussions about a Dublin/the rest of Ireland divide. However it would be fatuous to deny that while Dublin slept coiled inside smug self assurance in terms of its pivotal role in relation to the arts, regional areas such as Galway gradually became more vibrant centres of cultural life, in many ways.
Joe Jackson talks to Arthur Riordan, author of Improbable Frequency, the hit musical comedy which examines Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World War in humorous and insightful fashion.
Gavin Friday’s been a Virgin Prune and a glam cabaret torch singer, he’s done Brecht and Weill, and most recently stole the show at Hal Willner’s Leonard Cohen tribute concert Came So Far For Beauty.
LUKE GRIFFIN has been getting rave reviews for his starring performance in The Disappearance Of Finbar. Could we be witnessing the arrival of
a cinematic superstar?
Interview: Craig Fitzsimons.
He's the comedy songwriter who is deadly serious about his work. Meet Stephen Lynch, the man determined to prove that stand-up and indie rock really can get along.
THE WAR between the sexes certainly seems to be dominating Dublin stages these days. In The Mai at the Peacock, the male character is slowly marginalised, and in Refugees at the Eblana, the man exists only as an object of mockery, whose prick has been removed by his wife’s knife.
THE WAR between the sexes certainly seems to be dominating Dublin stages these days. In The Mai at the Peacock, the male character is slowly marginalised, and in Refugees at the Eblana, the man exists only as an object of mockery, whose prick has been removed by his wife’s knife.
Rik Mayall is back with a show that could be his rudest and most spectacular yet. Paul Nolan asks about the latest installment of bottom, and why he and Ade Eedmondson are the new Laurel & Hardy.
Rik Mayall is back with a show that could be his rudest and most spectacular yet. Paul Nolan asks about the latest installment of bottom, and why he and Ade Eedmondson are the new Laurel & Hardy.
PATRICK JONES is the brother of the Manics NICKY WIRE. And his new play explores similar themes to the band s music. Poetry and politics and action changed the world, he tells Joe Jackson
Karen Ramirez may have hit the big time with her massive hit single ‘Looking For Love’, but, as she tells Barry Glendenning, her heart
currently lies not in the Top Of The Pops studio, but in sunny Naples.
Joe Jackson talks to Apres Match’s Risteard Cooper, currently starring in the Abbey’s production of Frank McGuinness’ acclaimed First World War play, Observe The Sons Of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme.
She made her name as one of Ireland’s leading stand-ups. Now Deirdre O'Kane is channelling her comic skills into a bittersweet study of a dissolving relationship.
Currently drawing huge crowds to The Olympia with his third Mrs. Brown play, Brendan O’Carroll nonetheless has a bone to pick with those pushing for the retention of the section 481 tax break for film-makers.
Top international journalist and acclaimed stand-up comedian BARRY GLENDENNING pens this self-aggrandising subhead before continuing his countdown to the third Murphy s Cat Laughs Comedy Festival
Tara Brady talks to Catalina Sandino Moreno, star of Maria Full Of Grace, the gritty Colombian drama which tells the story of a seventeen year-old girl attempting to escape the dead-end environs of backstreet Bogota.
It's not just bands that make a scene. Ken Maguire talks about setting up kilkennymusic.com, and the impact it's had on the local rock 'n' roll fraternity.
Angeline Ball tells Joe Jackson why she s delighted to get away from her image as that bimbo from The Commitments , with her role in The Plough And The Stars.
Brendan Kennelly s Book Of Judas is soon to hit the stage. Peter Murphy reports on a work which had Bono enthralled, and predicted many of the more unappealing features of contemporary Ireland
IN THE NEW DAVID MAMET COMEDY STATE AND MAIN, AS IN HER LIFE IN GENERAL, SARAH JESSICA PARKER COULD HARDLY BE FURTHER REMOVED FROM HER SEX AND THE CITY ALTER EGO. TARA BRADY REPORTS.
Charlotte Bradley has worked as a successful actress since her early twenties. Now, however, her leading role in About Adam may make her a star.
Interview: Stephen Robinson
We hope you're feeling hungry because on September 1, 2 and 3, over 50 of the hottest live acts and DJs around are descending on Stradbally Estate in Laois for the Electric Picnic.
We hope you're feeling hungry because on September 3 and 4 over 50 of the hottest live acts and DJs around are descending on Stradbally Estate in Laois for the Electric Picnic.
RAIDIS NA GAELTACHTA seems an unlikely home for one of the most adventurous music shows on the Irish airwaves. Drop your prejudices and check out An Taobh Tuathail, says EAMON SWEENEY.
There’s lots of opportunities for great sex at college. But, of course, you need a partner with a bit of a sense of adventure to get you off the ground...
They can rock with the best of them but beneath the guitars-to-eleven mania, Belfast noise-poppers Therapy? have a lot of smart things to say. Their new album was even inspired by an famous playwright
Despite the continued absence of Phil 'The Power' Taylor, the Embassy World Darts Championship at Frimley Green made for essential viewing. BARRY GLENDENNING reports.
In addition to being an internationally renowned centre of artistic activity, Ireland is also famed for its party-friendly atmosphere. So, what better way to spend the summer than combining both equally noble pursuits – below is a comprehensive guide to the arts events on offer throughout the country over the next few months, and the sheer level of diversity on show offers further proof of our enduring love affair with the festival experience.
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
Making his first home town foray in months, Kilkenny drumming sensation R.S.A.G is just one of the highlights of this year’s arts festival in the Marble City.
A graduate of art-house cinema and experimental theatre, Cork actor Cillian Murphy is set for the a-list following his chilling turn as Scarecrow in Batman Begins. Interview by Tara Brady.
Currently reprising her role of Mrs. Johnstone in Willie Russell’s Blood Brothers, Rebecca Storm here enthuses about both the play and her own burgeoning musical career
Coming off the suck of her dark leading role in Marina Corr’s Aerial, Ingrid Craigie is happy to get up to some mischief in the Gate’s production of The Misanthrope, as she tells Joe Jackson
As the Bachelor's Walk team start shooting the second series of the hit comedy-drama, actor Simon Delaney, who played easygoing if indolent barrister Michael, insists that the show's success hasn't changed him at all. Unfortunately. But can he tell us what's afoot in series two?
Caitlin Murphy's darkly comic new play imagines the relationship between Joyce's daughter and Beckett's wife, one which would have been fraught with tension and sexual jealousy
It’s a good life being a FUN LOVIN' CRIMINAL. You get to party at your own club in Dublin, chill out in Maui, dress like "an irish soccer hooligan" and watch astral television in germany. All this and you’re a nice guy too. HUEY MORGAN tells FIONA REID about life on the town
IBEN HJELJE, the female lead in the new film of Nick Hornby s acclaimed High Fidelity, is the best thing to come out of Denmark since Hamlet.
Interview: CRAIG FITZSIMONS
THERE probably isn’t any other play quite as relevant to the changing political landscape in Ireland right now as A Night In November by Marie Jones. It’s currently running in Eamon Doran’s, on the site of the former Rock Garden, and focuses on the experience of a young Northern Protestant, who finds he must completely re-evaluate his life and attitudes after attending a qualifying match between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in Belfast’s Windsor Park and then following the Irish teak to New York.
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.
With a Rolling Stones support under their collective belts, it seems that nothing can stop The Cooper Temple Clause. Except perhaps their fondness for the gargle.
It hasn't been success all the way for Paths To Freedom star Deirdre O’Kane but here she tells Paul Nolan how a chance encounter with Billy Connolly helped her see the funnier side of the Montreal Comedy Festival
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.
Donal Dineen launches his latest exhibition at the Galway Arts Festival this month. as we've come to expect from the DJ, TV presenter, filmmaker and photographer, music plays a big part in the new work
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.
She is already established as Ireland’s most seductive screen icon. but in Sixteen Years Of Alcohol, Susan Lynch turns in a marvellously enigmatic performance.
BBC 4 & 6, Gardener's Question Time, The Guardian crossword... comedian Colin Murphy's Belfast home is a veritable hub of bacchanalia. Photos by Amberlea Trainor.
In just two years the 2fm 2moro 2our has grown into a high-profile showcase for Ireland's best new talent. Ahead of the latest jaunt, the featured acts tell Colm Russell what it means to them.
With interest in this year’s 10th Roundstone Arts Festival already building up, we sent our very own Roundstone Cowboy Jackie Hayden to check out this year’s line-up.
I’ll have at least one foot in the grave – or at least that’s the dominant feeling as JOE JACKSON joins the Country Music U.S.A. crew on their visit to BRANSON – a bizarre small town in the Ozark Mountains that now rivals Nashville as a centre for country music tourism, of the blue-rinse variety.
Folk legend and son of Woody, ARLO GUTHRIE is feeling a conspiracy of hope take shape as the inauguration approaches and he gears up for his Irish tour.
She could have carved her niche as matinee totty but instead Catherine McCormack has followed her own route. Her latest movie, for instance, is a zombie flick freigthed with political overtones.
THERE ARE those in contemporary music who ascend suddenly to the heights, their stars burning fiercely bright for a short time before they fall just as spectacularly back down to earth. There are others who build steadily upwards over a period of years, gradually winning new audiences, selling more records and expanding their sphere of influence until they attain the status of superstars, almost by stealth.
There has been nothing showy or ostentatious about Mary Black's progress to date...
BERNARD FARRELL is flying in more ways than one. Speaking on the phone from Dublin Airport he's just picked up the Sunday newspapers and, following the five positive reviews his play "The Last Apache Reunion" received in the dailies, all of the Sundays are also singing its praises.
Having released just three albums in 16 years, PAUL BUCHANAN explains why THE BLUE NILE don t want to clutter the world up with useless CDs. Interview: SIOBHAN LONG.
The creator of cinema’s lost peyote sacraments, mime master, graphic novelist, the man who married Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese, and the secret architect of Dune and Alien, 78-year-old Alejandro Jodorowsky is a counter-cultural legend.
Hoot Press talks to the perennially busy Ed Byrne about his hectic schedule, partying hard at comedy festivals, sexing up his audience and why he won’t be doing a McDonald’s voice-over any time soon.
Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange depicts the battle for one man's soul being fought in the arena of a psychiatric institution. The play's star George Costigan tells all.
Producer and musician Daniel Lanois talks about turning his latest album into a film, cutting out the middleman to distribute his own music, and why he's fascinated by Michael Jackson's feet.
Award-winning singer-songwriter Julie Feeney puts pen to paper for Hot Press as she arrives in the Dutch city of Groningen for the annual Eurosonic pop festival.
The indie director's female lead of choice (I Shot Any Warhol, The Addiction), Lili Taylor is perfectly cast as a Liquored Up Fuck Machine in Bent Hamer's screen adaption of Charles Bukowski's classic Factotum.
STEPHEN ROBINSON talks to former CROWDED HOUSE bassist NICK SEYMOUR about the band s break-up, their rarieties collection and his nascent career as a producer.
COLM O HARE talks to MARY COUGHLAN about her upcoming show, LADY SINGS THE BLUES, a tribute to BILLIE HOLIDAY, and about the parallels between Holiday s life and her own.
Teen prodigy George Murphy followed in the footsteps of some of the biggest names in Irish music when he recently performed for the inmates of Wheatfield prison in Clondalkin. Danielle Brigham reports. Photos: Cathal Dawson
Having a tapdancer instead of a drummer might seem like the height of indie schmindieness, but thanks to Conor Oberst, Tilly and the Wall are heading for the big time.
Going on the road with Chris Rea was a once in a lifetime opportunity for Derry blues virtuoso Paul Casey. Here he opens his tour diary to Hot Press readers.
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.
The creator of Bowling For Columbine, this year’s most devastating big screen documentary, shoots from the hip on violence, gun control, Charlton Heston, George Bush, satire and the Canadian solution to an American problem
Yes readers, it s that time of year again when TOM MATHEWS hacks his way through the vin and verbiage of dear old Galway town for the cuirt festival of literature.
With a hit Colin Farrell movie to his name, Martin McDonagh mulls over his early rejections at the hand of the Abbey, his "rivalry" with Conor McPherson and his run-in with Sean Connery.
There are those who argue that the best that Northern Ireland can hope for is dreariness. They’ll have been disappointed this year, so. It’s been grim instead, and right from the off.
With Franz Ferdinand sweeping all before them, Tanya Sweeney talks to Domino Records’ latest star in waiting – and favourite son of Ireland’s singer-songwriter community.
It's probably one of the more unlikely cross-cultural, rock ‘n’ roll match-ups. But the current Brotherly Love Tour in the US featuring kick-ass Southern rockers The Black Crowes and erstwhile Brit-poppers Oasis has been a surprising success.
PASSION MACHINE s new production aims to tell the story of seven Irish people all born in 1958. Writer PAUL MERCIER tells JOE JACKSON about the phenomena his generation have witnessed.
With cork set to become european capital of culture just over a year from now, Colm O’Hare reports on the cultural attractions punters will be treated to by the lee in 2005
Their groove-laden mix of sleaze and glamour captures the spirit of Britain’s scuzziest ‘burbs. But this morning, all Hard Fi want to talk about is colonic irrigation.
As if shifting 30,000 units of D Video and making the Tivoli their second home wasn t enough, D Unbelievables have only gone and scooped Best Comedy Act in the Hot Press Readers Poll. Here, exclusively for the fans , jon kenny and pat shortt deconstruct the subtext of Timmy Leary s big hands.
D Interview:
barry glendenning.
D Images:
mick quinn.
Purveyors of high-IQ indie rock, We Are Scientists have built a reputation as incendiary live performers. But they won’t be satisfied until their shows include performing tigers.
While other European nations party until dawn, Irish clubs are forced to close their doors early. Now campaigners like Sunil Sharpe want the law be liberalised.
Who needs Abbey Road or The Power Station when you ve got Connolly s Of Leap? Failed Keith Richards impersonator martin stephenson tells nick kelly about a wild week in County Cork.
In Istanbul as a "curious neutral observer" of the Champions League Final, Ed Power was unimpressed by the Irish contingent’s putatively genuine support for Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool side.
Ahead of her appearance at a huge charity fashion show in Dublin, the supermodel talks mountain-climbing, modelling, smoking and U2.
By OLAF TYARANSEN.
The Monaghan-Cavan area has been a bit of a desert in quality rock terms in recent years, but the new Monaghan-based Venue Promotions is set on changing all that.
A screwball farce with a keenly observational core, Caught In The Net examines manners and mores in the 21st Century. The play’s author Ray Cooney talks about his journey from would-be matinee idol to subversive playwright.
Next time you visit Cork City, take a cool look around, for the vista is likely to undergo a major facelift over the next 20 years thanks to the planned development of the Cork Docklands area.
The Irish club scene has been plunged into controversy with the decision to force a number of clubs to close earlier. Meanwhile the threat of a 1.30am curfew has not gone away.
Being a strange, terrible, wondrous and uplifting saga of pints, goats, monsters, Malcolm McLaren, jokes, art and, er, lettuce. Or, to put it another way, the inimitable tom mathews reports from The Galway ARts Festival.
Since 1996 the Heineken Green Energy Festival has lit up the capital city with some of the brightest stars of modern rock. Patrick Hedlund and hotpress assistant editor, Stuart Clark, report
This is the time of year when two major national events, the Galway Arts Festival and the Galway Races, make Galway the destination of choice for many Irish and international funsters. But the City of the Tribes has a lot more to offer – including some of the best live music and clubbing in Ireland.
Joe Jackson talks to Susan FitzGerald, star of Landmark Productions’ Irish premiere of Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, the controversial play which explores a range of taboo topics.
Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall is back on our screens in John Boorman’s The Tiger’s Tail, a dark satirical comedy planets away from her role as the kit-shedding Samantha.
The biggest obstacle to Belfast becoming the European City Of Culture may be the reluctance of its own people to accept that it deserves the title. Colin Carberry reports
He found fame in Queer As Folk and is currently to be seen in the acclaimed US crime drama The Wire. Now Aidan Gillen is burning up the Irish stage in an acclaimed new production of a David Mamet classic.
Having successfully avoided submersion into Tim DeLaughter’s Polyphonic Spree, New York-based psych-rockers Secret Machines are now touring with The Chemical Brothers and being widely cited as one of the hottest bands on the US underground.
MARY STOKES reminisces on her first decade as Ireland s premier blues artist, and looks forward to expanding her horizons in the future. Interview: john walshe.
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
The sheer quality, not to mention quantity, of the GALWAY ARTS FESTIVAL once more triumphed over inadequate facilities.
OLAF TYARANSEN reflects on a cultural banquet.
He's one of the most distinguised and individualistic figures on the folk scene, an artist who is not afraid to take risks or challenge convention. Now John Spillane has written a moving paean to Ireland - and to his mother.
He may have his critics among the academic literati, but Belfast singer/songwriter Brian Kennedy insists that his move into the realm of fiction is a natural artistic progression.
You might not have heard of Leya, but Elton John, Ronan Keating and Jools Holland have. Peter Murphy meets the band who are putting Bangor on the rock’n’roll map
One of the nation’s most acclaimed playwrights, Conor McPherson has examined the Irish condition in forensic detail in plays and films such as The Weir, Port Authority and Saltwater. In his new play Shining City, McPherson uses the disturbed psyches of his lead characters as a means to explore loneliness, isolation, friendship and salvation in the ghostly setting of contemporary Dublin. “The city holds some very dark feelings for me,” he admits to Kim Porcelli.
As Ireland’s Latin American solidarity committee prepares to mark the 30th anniversary of the coup which overthrew Chilean President Salvador Allende, Michael D. Higgins TD remembers the inspirational life, poetry and music of the great folk singer Victor Jara who was brutally murdered in 1973.
The Dublin Gospel Choir celebrate their 10th anniversary with the November 3 release of Moving On, an absolute belter of an album that explains why they’ve worked with everyone from James Brown and The Chieftains to John Legend and Damien Rice.
. . . who is the sexiest of them all? Helen MIRREN, apparently, at least according to readers of the Radio Times, who recently voted her the sexiest woman on TV. Which may be flattering but possibly also does a disservice to a gifted actress who has no qualms about speaking her mind whether on nudity, money, the stage, television or even the cowardly assholes who bomb for Ireland. Interview: Joe Jackson
US Stand-up Emo Phillips is one of the star attractions at this year's Murphy's Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival which takes place from May 30th-June 3rd. Stephen Robinson is amused
While An Taoiseach insists that being presented with thousands of pounds in a suitcase by shady businessmen is completely ‘normal’, the rest of us have our doubts.
This month, the 2006 RTÉ Living Music Festival, sponsored by IMRO, celebrates Steve Reich, arguably America’s greatest living composer. Jackie Hayden meets the 70-year-old whose influences stretch beyond the contemporary classical world to rock and rap music.
The on-going trauma of being a Liverpool supporter isn?t the only reason that author, journalist and broadcaster declan lynch has been kept away from the Foul Play desk over recent issues ? he?s also
been readying his
theatrical debut, Massive Damages,
a tale, at once
rip-roaring and
sobering, of libel,
barristers, journalists, showbands . . . and Sting. Interview: jonathan o?brien.
Pix: MICK QUINN.
A tired and emotional Ed Byrne talks to Hoot Press about partying in Edinburgh, undergoing strenuous discourse with Ricky Gervais and attempting to track down a Czech porn star.
RTE is often, and rightly, castigated by the print media for sub-standard productions, but its new comedy-drama series Bachelors Walk is already being heralded as one of the station’s best ever projects before it's even half-way through its eight-part run.
STEPHEN ROBINSON goes on location to discover the secret of the show’s success
From Shakespearian thesp to sitcom star in Black Books, Nina Conti has proven herself to be one of the most versatile actresses around. But, as she tells Phil Udell, what she’s most interested in is reviving the lost art of ventriloquism
From Shakespearian thesp to sitcom star in Black Books, Nina Conti has proven herself to be one of the most versatile actresses around. But, as she tells Phil Udell, what she’s most interested in is reviving the lost art of ventriloquism
. . . Here’s T.P. McKenna, one of Ireland’s most eminent actors – and a punk at heart. In an outspoken interview he savages Marlon Brando, Joseph Strick, Ian Paisley and Margaret Thatcher – and talks about his desire to be held in the arms of young girls again . . .
Interview: JOE JACKSON
MICHAEL STIPE RECKONS THEY'VE PRODUCED THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR, THEIR SINGER HAS BEEN HAILED AS THE ‘NEW BOB DYLAN’ AND THEY HAVE IMPECCABLE TASTE IN COATS. CAN ANYTHING HALT GRANT LEE BUFFALO'S MAD DASH TO STARDOM? LORRAINE FREENEY INVESTIGATES.
Few things faze gary louris and marc perlman, the original members of the jayhawks. In fact, their only regret is that they don t have breasts. Interview: Peter Murphy.
Or the total lack thereof, in an Ireland where unfavourable weather conditions and reactionary legislation has had the effect of ensuring tourists now rate Dublin as one of the most boring cities in Europe.
HEADGEAR, THE BRAD PITT LIGHT ORCHESTRA and DRUMMING ROOM are among the plethora of exciting new acts featured on a compilation of Limerick’s finest talents.
The Frames, David Holmes, Mary Black and Altan were among the acts who recently took part in the Irish Cultural Festival in Beijing. Not that too many locals noticed.
This Is My Father is a new Irish film which manages to be commercial but not patronisingly Irish. CRAIG FITZSIMONS spoke to one of the stars, PAT SHORTT.
Hot Press visited BellX1 in their city-centre studio, where the group are working on the follow-up to Music In Mouth. “There’s been a lot less fuck-acting this time around,” they tell John Walshe. Photo: Liam Sweeney
What promoters and clubbers perceive as Garda heavy-handedness in the -war on drugs- is making life increasingly difficult for dance venues across the country. STUART CLARK reports.
THANKS TO HIS INTELLIGENT AND PROVOCATIVE BRAND OF COMEDY, STEWART LEE IS WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED AS ONE OF THE FINEST STAND-UP COMICS OF HIS GENERATION. HE TALKS TO JOHN DONNELLAN ABOUT HIS CONTROVERSIAL MUSICAL JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA, THE POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF HIS NEW SHOW AND REVEALS WHY IRELAND IS THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD FOR STAND-UP.
In the second part of our world exclusive interview, Dolores O’Riordon talks about the upside of leaving The Cranberries, her debut solo album and what she's been getting up to on the phone with Angelo Badalamenti.
For fourteen years, Sean Ronan has lived with his son’s heroin addiction. Here, he describes the enormous strain of coping with this harrowing reality.
Country, folk and roots fans are in for a treat on the May Bank Holiday weekend when a veritable who's who of the best bands and solo performers of the genre head to Kilkenny for the second annual Kilkenny Country Roots Weekend.
She’s worked with film makers as diverse as Alan Parker and Quentin Tarantino. For her latest role Bronagh Gallagher found herself in a Middle Ages love triangle. No wonder she kept breaking out in giggles.
One of the most hotly anticipated events at the Galway Comedy Festival is the show featuring stand-up comedian from the characters of Father Ted. Jackie Hayden talks to the evening's host Frank Kelly, a.k.a Father Jack.
…And head out on the highway. Oh, and take a notebook while you’re at it. Those were Hot Press’ instructions to acclaimed singer/songwriter Mark Geary as he hit the road with The Frames in the good ol’d US of A. And as the following account of spellbinding shows, irate audience members, near-death experiences and suspicious cops shows, it was a hell of a trip. Photography by Shawn Lynch.
When Richard O' Brien put Dr. Frank' N' Furter into fishnets just over 20 years ago, few could have predicted the cult that would grow up around the Rocky Horror Show. Fay Wolftree genderbenders her way through a history of Transylvanian transvestism.
Andy Williams may have a reputation as a bland M.OR. crooner but beneath the squeaky clean showbiz facade lurks an interesting man indeed, who reveals a knowledge of modern art, a past laced with drug use and an unhealthy interest in Shirley Temple. Joe Jackson travels to Branson, Missouri to hear his confessions.
STUART CLARK checks out the inside story of L!VE TV, perhaps the daftest tabloid telly station in the world (ever), and wonders how Irish television might follow suit.
While there are moves afoot to crack down on ticket touts, auctioning concert tickets may be a way for promoters and artists to absorb the touts’ share of the spoils.
Philip Chevron's career has been nothing if not varied. From the early days with the Radiators through his collaborations with people like Agnes Bernelle and right up to his current work with The Pogues, he has proved himself to be a consistently fine songwriter and performer. In the first part of a lengthy and intense interview, he talks to Eamonn McCann about his childhood, his love of Broadway musicals, the Horslips connection, the genesis of the Radiators and his fleeting career as a journalist.
As one half of D’unbelievables, Jon Kenny became one of Ireland’s most famous and successful entertainers. but the hard touring took its toll and, he believes, may even have contributed to the cancer which threatened not only his career but his life. now fully recovered, Kenny is back as a solo artist but one still hugely inspired by small-town Ireland and its rich crop of characters. Photo Cathal Dawson
Danish This is Your Life specials; Bob Monkhouse game shows and seling petrol to Bobby Robson . . . Nick Kelly hears the untold story of Prefab Sprout from Martin McAloon bassist, founder member and sibling of songwriting genius, Paddy.
With presenter John Creedon on a roll with his new mid-afternoon slot on RTE Radio 1, Jackie Hayden crosses the threshold of his Cork abode to see what the man gets up to away from the mike.
Intriguing new developments are afoot in the world of Ulster rock ‘n’ roll. Plus tidings of a new Limerick indie compilation and the usual round-up of news from around the country.
Having survived their initial mauling at the hands of the British music press, Asia-obsessed psychedelists KULA SHAKER have returned for a second innings. Frontman CRISPIAN MILLS lays off the poppadoms for long enough to chat to JACKIE HAYDEN about his band's new album, Strangefolk.
With Hello Starling Josh Ritter has emerged as one of the finest songwriters who's operating today. John Walshe meets the reluctant hero who's storming the Irish charts.
Forget Rod, Emu and gottles of geer david strassman s ventriloquism is the missing link between rock n roll and Bill Hicks. barry glendenning meets the
puppet master. Pix: cathal dawson.
Patti Smith has been an avant-garde icon and punk poet idol for more than two decades. We thought it would be interesting to see what Cathy Jordan, the stylish singer with folk supergroup Dervish, would make of her recent performance in Jordan's hometown of Sligo.
Whether starring in popcorn blockbusters or thoughtful art-house movies, Gabriel Byrne is a reassuring presence on our screens. But he reserves his deepest passions for keeping alive the flame of Irish culture among the diaspora.
The hostage crisis in Beslan, which ended last week in terrible carnage, has brought the conflict in the former soviet union into sharper focus than ever before. the emerging picture is a chastening one, as the prospect of a descent into chaos looms ever larger.
JEAN BUTLER was at the very heart of the Riverdance phenomenon, as the original Eurovision interval set-piece was transformed into the most successful dance stage-show ever. Now, for the first time, she tells her side of that extraordinary saga. In a blistering broadside, she accuses her co-star MICHAEL FLATLEY of rampant egotism and argues that she's never been given the credit she deserves for the show's sensational impact. And then there's the question of money...
Interview: JOE JACKSON
English singer Pixie Lott looks like being the latest pop sensation on the block. The stage-school trained 18-year-old already enjoyed a number one single earlier this year with ‘Mama Do’, and this month sees the release of her debut album Turn It Up.
Award-winning director and actor Ed Burns talks about enjoying success on your own terms, his lifelong music obsession and the fact that he’s about to make his first big-budget Hollywood movie.
In June 1993, the legislation decriminalising sex between men was passed in Dáil Eireann and the Seanad, and was later signed into law by President Robinson. Five years on, how has life changed for Irish lesbians and gay men? By DEBORAH BALLARD.
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.
He didn t win the Perrier Award but he was the undisputed people s, critics and peers favourite at this year s Edinburgh Festival. barry glendenning meets johnny vegas.
A visit from Larry Harvey, creator of Nevada’s legendary Burning Man festival, looks set to be one of the highlights of Dublin’s forthcoming convergence weekend.
He's one of the most notorious stand-up comics on the circuit, once even sparking a brawl among outraged audience members. But Jim Jeffries says he's just trying to make people laugh.
Fifteen years after winning an oscar for his Les Liaisons Dangereuses screenplay, Christopher Hampton has finally managed to make his dream project Imagining Argentina, which investigages the plight of ‘the disappeared’ in 1970s Argentina. The response has been controversial to say the least.
From First Cuts to Latest Cuts, from the First Lady Of Immediate , recording with Phil Spector, Jimi Hendrix and the Small Faces, to the First Lady of Techno, scoring Top Ten hits with Altern-8 and the Beatmasters, to today with Primal Scream and Ocean Colour Scene
P.P. ARNOLD has always been there, wherever the beat is hottest.
Interview: andy darlington.
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.
Ronnie Wood reveals that his autobiography, a rather entertaining account of his hair-raising life as the 'new boy' in the Stones, was a toil of love to write.
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.
End of the millennium psychosis techno? Political partying house? Dance music with a social conscience and a sense of humour ? If you re looking for all of the above, then look no further than Green Velvet s new LP, Constant Chaos . On the soapbox: Richard Brophy.
After five years of hard graft and dedicated shoegazing, The Boo Radleys came up with Giant Steps, an album so ambitious in scope that it’s been perched at the top spot of many end-of-year polls and has seen them heralded as the new Best Band In Britain.
Interview: LORRAINE FREENEY
FAST tells Fiona Reid about the Fun Lovin Criminals' plans to posthumously record with Reggie Kray and takes her track by track through their new album Loco
The home studio, the stadium gigs, the best-selling dvd – nope, it’s not rock’n’roll, it’s stand-up comedy. Pat Shortt talks about a boom year for mirth-making.
Ahead of a headline date at Vicar Street, David O’Doherty talks about hanging out with the Flight of The Conchords and about his new Channel 4 TV show.
During the heady days of Italia ’90, The Stunning provided the unofficial soundtrack to the nation’s summer-long party, playing a series of uproarious shows around the country and treating the top-ten like their local. thirteen years later, having just re-released their classic album, Paradise In The Picturehouse, the group reflect on what a long, strange trip it’s been and why they’re not ready to hang up their guitars just yet.
Director PADDY BREATHNACH, producer ROB WALPOLE and writer CONOR McPHERSON take time out from polishing their latest haul of gongs to talk CATHY DILLON through the making of I Went Down.
The Alien vs Predator movie has resurrected two of the most successful action movie franchises of recent years. You’ll kick yourself – in slow motion, and with gratuitous blood loss, of course – if you miss it, according to the film’s star Colin Salmon.
Guitarist richArd hawley explains why legal wrangles and a lack of media exposure have not affected the meteoric rise of Sheffield s longpigs. Askin t questions: peter murphy.
Gigs with Mick ’n’ Keef and Angus ’n’ Malcolm, and a potential ding-dong with The Strokes – it’s only rock’n’roll but Jet like it as does Stuart Clark.
Once he cleaned up in the charts, now he s cleaned up himself. Bruised but unbroken, MARC ALMOND is back and busy on all fronts. And, whisper it, there s even talk of SOFT CELL reforming. Interview: NICK KELLY.
When we catch up with Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan on a fine August afternoon, he’s bracing himself for a grueller of an autumn schedule that will begin with a handful of festival appearances – including an Electric Picnic set – and culminate in full-on month-long European and US tours. Reading dispatches from the band’s recent blogs, it’s apparent that the landscape of modern touring is far from Beat Generation romance and way closer to a Ballardian landscape of endless petrol stations, motorways and ferry docks.
Having established himself with a number of juicy supporting roles – most of them opposite Russell Crowe – the very naturally blonde Paul Bettany is moving to centre court for Wimbledon.
There was a time when the associations of Irish culture were such that those of a radical, progressive outlook automatically turned the other way. Not any more. Irish culture is alive and kicking. Report: Chris Donovan.
