Avert your gazes, sensitive readers. Jon McClure of Reverend And The Makers offers his thoughts on Johnny Borrell, Thom Yorke and “the most racist television ad of all time”.
RADIOHEAD are just about to release one of the most uncompromising and controversial records of the year in Kid A. As the band prepare for their upcoming Irish dates, mainman THOM YORKE talks about the genesis of a record that seems destined to divide rock fans for years. Not to mention Bono, Britney and Alicia Silverstone! Interview: DAVE FANNING
P.J. HARVEY's latest album, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea will surprise listeners with its positive spirit and sheer lust for life. Hell, she even manages to get Thom Yorke to sound like Tom Jones! KIM PORCELLI meets an artist who has come in from the cold
This listener had to really work at the paradoxical nature of The Eraser's harrowing lyrics and impersonal, computerised and often discordant rhythms and melodies before they started to make sense, but ultimately it proves worth the effort.
Where other bands moan about the music industry or spend small fortunes bringing their stage designs to life, Stereophonics like to keep it nice and simple. Or at least as nice and simple as it gets when you tour with U2, get advice from Prince Charles and see Slipknot with their masks off
Dunno if there were too many Red Bulls in the backstage rider this evening, but something has given Thom Yorke wiiings. In fact, along with Thom’s frantic making-shapes-in-the-air dancing, there are many factors to indicate this is not a garden-variety Radiohead experience...
Part two of our glance back over the year that was, complete with clickable quotes so you can read each and every article in full, if you like. And you know you like! So don't just sit there. Get reading...
Michael Stipe talks about REM's new album Accelerate, looks back at their 'working rehearsals' in Dublin and explains how their Irish-born producer helped them through their mid-life crisis.
2006 seems to be the Chinese year of the side project, what with Broken Social Scene, James Dean Bradfield, The Raconteurs, Thom Yorke and now this second album from Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme – or ‘Baby Duck’ as his alter ego dictates.
This melting pot of sound is like Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fronting a band made up of members of Arcade Fire and Elbow, with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke handling production duties.
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
Stories From The City… saw Polly Harvey abandoning her tendency towards bruising electronica and post-rock atmospherics, in favour of rich melodies and fat classic rock riffs.
Disappointingly not a cover of the Def Leppard track, this is instead a typically plodding pseudo-industrial workout from the perennially gloomy Devonshire boys.
isabel monteiro, lead vocalist with arch miserabilists drugstore tells stuart bailie exactly why she's writing songs about dead Chilean heads of state.
Ice, ice, baby. The Columbia Glacier in Alaska has retreated nearly 13 kilometres since 1982. In 1999, its retreat rate increased from 25 metres per day to 35 metres per day.
Taking the best – or at least, the most over-the-top – pieces of KLF, Slayer and Radiohead, Enter Shakarai are the hottest thing on eight legs at the moment.
Now that minimal techno has become a trendy cliché, it’s time for the cutting edge of dance music to find a new direction. Trentemoller has pointed the way with a compelling new album.
Annual article: Bright young things like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen captured the HP critics’ hearts this year, though they somehow neglected Johnny Cash and Mark Lanegan...
Glaswegian quartet TRAVIS may have spent much of the last year playing
support to Manc legends Oasis, but deep down, all they want to do is rock. Interview: NICK KELLY
headswim have left behind the "English Pearl Jam" tag that dogged them and are about to release their second album, the tortured pop of Despite Yourself, on an unsuspecting public. Interview: john walshe.
headswim have left behind the "English Pearl Jam" tag that dogged them and are about to release their second album, the tortured pop of Despite Yourself, on an unsuspecting public. Interview: john walshe.
Having released one of hip-hop’s seminal records, DJ Shadow has struggled for years to leave behind his repuation as a sample wizard. He may finally have succeeded.
Snow Patrol (complete with the *as revealed in the latest issue of Hot Press* new bassist Paul Wilson 2nd from right) are the latest act to join Oxfam's Make Trade Fair Campaign.
Heineken/Hot Press Awards presenter ULRIKA JONSSON offers her thoughts on fame, comedy, motherhood, relationships, loyalty and the media A? as well as a very final word on Stan Collymore. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
Last year their Oh Yeah proved to be the star turn of the night, with Neil Hannon guesting on vocals. This year, they ve been nominated in three categories and are looking forward to Awards night with some anticipation. Tim Wheeler of Ash talks to STUART CLARK about that once-in-a-lifetime free CD, the upcoming HEINEKEN HOT PRESS shindig in Belfast and the new album the band are currently in the throes of making.
He s the man behind Reservoir Prods , a load of Premiership goals and a woozy Robbie Williams. But most he s behind pop songs with big fuck-off choruses , a passion PHIL WOOLSEY extends with his new band NINEBAR
No longer the nascent, impressionable - though hugely ambitious - young quintet who unleashed the blood-splattered masterpiece The Bends in the mid-'90s, nor the newly crowned kings of modern rock who enjoyed virtually unprecedented levels of acclaim circa-OK Computer, they have instead settled into a role as sort of latter-day alt. culture godfathers
Bounding between genres, Derry rocker Andrew Ferris would seem to suffer from the best sort of attention-deficit disorder. And he also has his own label.
They've ditched the tweed and taken their music in a darker direction. The Young Knives talk about Gilbert and George, the Mercurys and Thom Yorke's seaside hideaway.
WE TOLD YOU so dept. As revealed last month in hotpress, Radiohead journey to Belfast on September 14th for a show at the 8,000-capacity Odyssey Arena.
Exclusive: The new Coldplay album, X & Y, is set to finally hit the stores next month, and Hot Press has been granted a special sneak preview. Ed Power here gives a track-by-track guide to one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
COLM O HARE speaks to Fran Healy and Dougie Payne of TRAVIS about ongoing success, irritating Radiohead comparisons and avoiding the nightmare of 9-5 existence.
Scissor Sisters are back, and this time they’re on a mission to channel Elton John, Paul McCartney and the Bee Gees into the first soft rock masterpiece of the 21st Century. In an exclusive interview, the group’s main songwriter, Babydaddy, gives us the lowdown on their second coming.
“This is good,” quips Daragh Dukes. “We’re trying to keep it cult, so if you like it, don’t tell anyone.”
The joke’s actually on him, because no bastard’s turned up to see his band. At the best of times, the sheer choice in London keeps people away from bands in the ‘maybe’ pile. But on a Tuesday? And up against Chelsea vs Liverpool? They didn’t stand a chance.
In which Editors, like Bloc Party before them, abandon urban ennui for the country life, recording that not-very-difficult second album in Grouse Lodge with Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee.
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
From the tragic death of Cliff the fish to turning Madonna down, praise from Nick Hornby and fanmail from Bono, Badly Drawn Boy ’s life is certainly bewildering.
and that’s before you consider his hellenic aspirations…
Hot Press crime correspondent STUART CLARK
preaches zero tolerance to MASSIVE ATTACK and in return gets the
lowdown on their new album, Bruce n Tarby-style hobnobbing with Radiohead, and why Bristol City piss all over Bristol Rovers
This showcase concert was sponsored by Jack Daniels, so punters began the night on what was a happy note for those who like their drink with a bit of fire in it, with a complementary bourbon.
THERAPY? are back. ANDY CAIRNS talks to Peter Murphy about losing (and re-finding) the plot, hardcore, and the new album s resonances with the Northern peace process.
Ossie Kilkenny, the top music industry accountant who has worked with many of the biggest acts in the world, including U2, Morrissey, Oasis and Van Morrison, has said that the record industry is finished.
The man who probably sounds a bit like a million things you've heard before. You could say it is formulaic, and boldly rips off everyone from Simon And Garfunkel to Oasis, but then again, isn't that the post-modern way? There's nothing new in this world, the philosophers cry.
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!
As skyscrapers, lightning storms, and oceans blaze above them in lieu of further communiques, it becomes clear that this wordless, relentless music is in desperate love/hate with planet earth, testing the boundaries of its ugliness and majesty
After years when her triumphs were in danger of being masked by her tribulations, DOLORES O RIORDAN is back in defiantly upbeat form. She talks to STUART CLARK about confidence, critics, Calvin Klein and her confirmation-size breasts ! Pics: MICK QUINN.
They blasted into the public consciousness at the end of 2005, when 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' became the year's biggest breakthrough No.1. Since then it's been an extraordinary rollercoaster ride for the Arctic Monkeys, with bass player trouble, celebrity fans, EastEnders appearances and a row with fellow newcomers The Feeling to show for their efforts. Oh, and then there's the small matter of shifting nearly two million copies of their debut album...
With 25,000 albums released in Ireland every year, keeping tabs on new music has become an increasingly expensive hobby.
Staying abreast of what has become a fast moving, ever changing domestic scene is especially challenging. A handful of specialist shows aside, one rarely encounters bands such as The Amazing Pilots or Dry County on radio. Often checking out emerging groups means trial and error purchasing.
Thank God, then, for HMV’s Irish Playlist CD. Given away free with selected titles, the HMV Playlist has established itself as a gem of a compilation album. June’s Irish Playlist is exceptional throughout.
He's shot U2 and Madonna and numerous nudes, formulated an "aesthetic of the dick", published the perfect magazine and, most recently, hit the headlines for endeavouring to make the Queen of England look "really fresh". He's Rankin Waddell, co-founder of Dazed And Confused and probably the most renowned fashion, music and pop culture snapper on the planet
In the making of their third album, Coldplay may have abandoned all hope at one juncture and come within an inch of splitting up, but the record has now finally arrived in the shape of X & Y. Chris Martin and co. here give Peter Murphy the inside story on the fraught creation of perhaps the most anticipated album of the year.
U2 are about to unleash their new album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. The world’s media are descending on Dublin. And Bono is back at the punch-bag, getting into fighting shape before the shit storm really explodes. The gloves are off. He’s got work to do. And he’s going to do it. Words Stuart Clark, additional reporting by Niall Stokes.
A flyover near the old Harland & Wolff shipyard was the starting point for a remarkable three months that has seen Franz Ferdinand challenging U2 and Coldplay for the title of ‘Biggest Band In The World'. Daredevil photographic exploits completed, Hot Press jumped on their tour bus and got the lowdown on Snoop, Bono, Kanye West, Natasha Bedingfield and nights of debauchery with the Scissor Sisters.
Hotpress hitch a ride on the Wilt tour bus for the band’s whistle-stop tour of Europe. For tales of on-stage abandon, backstage debauchery and bizarre drumming accidents, read on. Plus Cormac Battle’s tour diary
Rubyhorse has trotted a long and winding road since their humble beginnings recording songs in a Cork City meat processing plant. Moving to Boston in ‘97, the four school friends earned themselves a name playing residencies in Irish bars, eventually propelling their debut album beyond the pint-swilling ex-pats to the mass audiences of Dave Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Good Morning America
Staying true to their post OK Computer resolution to minimise touring to a bare but intimate handful, Oxford’s most revered sons have chosen to play one single English date in 2001...
Music In Mouth is a more unified, distinctive and cohesive record that showcases the band’s multiple directions, adding further conviction to the depths of epic balladeering on ‘Eve, The Apple Of My Eye’, the quirky pop of ‘Next To You’ or the manic rock of ‘White Water Song
All Write Now, we said. And boy did you follow instructions! The entries poured in from all over Ireland, and further afield, in their thousands. We were snowed under – but, as the song says: That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, we like it…
