From Neil Hannon’s orchestral manoeuvres to Brian Kennedy’s literary debut, the Belfast Festival at Queen’s looks set to provide some of the cultural highlights of the season.
The Duke will be treating fans to two signings this Saturday, first in HMV Grafton Street, followed by an afternoon appearance in HMV Donegall Arcade, Belfast
Furious Tradesmen present a four band 'extravaganza of joy' in Belfast this month, with New York native Pixie Saytar and Belfast acts Panda Kopanda, Three Tales and Heliopause.
The Seen a Million Faces music photography exhibition, featuring rare photographs of bands including Metallica, will take place in Belfast on October 9 until 23.
The Apache Tribe label is an offshoot of a Belfast clothes shop that prides itself on being much more than just a store - a hybrid of modern culture showcasing the previously hidden talents of local DJs and first-time producers from as far afield as South Africa.
Fresh from strutting their stuff at Oxegen, Kasabian will be joined by The Rapture and Hot Chip to play a special show in Belfast as part of a new Channel 4 music programme.
Tim Wheeler from Ash, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol and Radio 1’s Colin Murray are among the active supporters of a project to establish a dedicated music centre for Belfast.
Not the TG4 reality TV show, but the Glasgow rock group of the same name, Glasvegas will play two Irish dates in December, stopping off at Dublin and Belfast.
The Joe Strummer Foundation For New Music has teamed up with the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Belfast to create two new rooms for songwriting and rehearsing.
While lots of Northerners have moved on to fresh pastures over the past few years, new Hit The North columnist COLIN CARBERRY believes that it s a good time to stick around
As soon as you spot Terry Hooley – the man who released ‘Teenage Kicks’, kids – holding court at the bar, you know you’re in for a classic Belfast rock ‘n’ roll night.
It’s a forbidding date – no I’m not talking about Friday the 13th, I’m referring to Ash’s first Belfast date proper since the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley.
A one-night stand entitled Orchestral Manoeuvres In Belfast in which the Ulster Orchestra gets its oh-so-refined freak on with three of Ireland’s most popular performers.
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
The Imagine Belfast committee may have missed the mark in more ways than one in their unsuccessful bid for the European City Of Culture according to BelFest organiser Gerard Sheppard
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.
PHIL KIERAN is a man of many talents producer, promoter, DJ, collaborator. Here, he talks about why the idea of a new Belfast scene is bollocks , teenage kicks and Drumcree!
As Northern Ireland begins to cash in on its recent history, NIALL STANAGE takes a West Belfast taxi tour around the area s landmarks. Pics: PETER MATTHEWS
Having been dogged for years by sectarianism, Northern Irish sport has finally found a team that everyone can support. Colin Carberry reports on the phenomenal rise of the ice hockeying Belfast Giants
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
…Unless, that is, you live in Belfast. Colin Carberry talks to Sean Kelly, director of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, about the exciting and diverse range of events lined up for this year’s programme.
No-one knows a city like a local and so we asked Mike Edgar to be our guide to Belfast. Here he chooses ten things for visitors to do in the North s leading city. Only one problem: he forgot to tell us where to get an after-hours drink!
Belfast-based novelist Jo Baker has once again become the subject of much attention in literary circles with the publication of her powerful and compelling second novel The Mermaid’s Child.
While the likes of Cream and Ministry Of Sound have struggled, Belfast superclub Shine continues to go from strength to strength. Barry O’Donoghue reports on one of Irish dance’s big success stories
Belfast superstar DJ David Holmes has once again produced the goods with his soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Twelve, this time finding inspiration in sleazy European electro and superfly acid jazz. But not, however, elephant porn.
The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival offers a take on modern Belfast that rings true, as well as an eclectic musical line-up and some controversial readings from modern UK writers says Colin Carberry
From studying at the Brit School of Performing Arts and providing backing vocals for Westlife, to her Terry Wogan-facilitated assault on the charts and subsequent elevation to bona-fide star status, former Belfast resident Katie Melua has packed an enormous amount into her 19 years.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
Belfast, like Dublin, is getting a bit frisky with the promise of spring. Loads of music initiatives are being planned and the landscape is looking better than ever. The difference between the two social diaries is that Belfast stops having fun at the end of June, to allow the marching season to have its ruinous way. By the time we pull out of that regular mess, the summer is packing up and it s time to go indoors again.
The link between sacked airport workers in Belfast and Israeli intelligence; and the controversy surrounding Alex Maskey's wreath-laying at the war memorial
DAVID HOLMES is about to leave his native Belfast for New York City, where he will record his third album. STUART BAILIE took a final opportunity to speak to the artist also known as Homer. On the agenda: Hollywood soundtracks, rumours of brawling, past glories and future plans.
Pics: MICHAEL TAYLOR.
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
It’s the title of his new album, his first on the legendary jazz label, Blue Note. it’s also an apt introduction to an interview in which Van Morrison talks freely about his work, his background in Belfast, his brushes with the music industry – and about what made him what he is.
If the exclamation marks are anything to go by, you should start getting excited now, as You Say Party! We Say Die! line up an Irish date for November.
Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer broke her foot yesterday after she was hit by a car; but the determined singer still managed to play a stunner in Auntie Annie's that night.
Foy Vance, Bap Kennedy, The Four Of Us, The Winding Stair and Tom McShane are among the artists set to re-interpret Van Morrisson's classic album Astral Weeks at a special event next month.
While the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival offered a typically eclectic and dynamic programme once again this year, the organisers behind the event nonetheless weren’t afraid to deliver a few uncomfortable home truths about Northern Irish society.
It’s all very free-spirited, some might even say immoral. Certainly relations within The Immediate are unconventional: band members frequently change places, instruments are swapped and vocal duties rotated. There’s a playful grope with U2 here, a quick fumble with Talking Heads there and a covert, climactic Krautrock fondle at the end.
Tributes have been pouring in, to one of the most important figures in the Irish music industry over the past fifty years, the concert promoter Jim Aiken, who died yesterday (free content)
Oh Yeah Belfast have announced the opening of a new café on their Gordon Street centre and to celebrate, Clown Parlour are performing a special gig on June 2.
Heading for the Trinity Fresher's Ball and a Vampire Weekend support slot, Iglu & Hartly make their third visit to Ireland in as many months with December shows in Dublin and Belfast.
It’s shaping up to be a very happy Moshmas with those hyperactive Enter Shikari boys paying festive visits to Mandela Hall, Belfast (December 19) and The Village, Dublin (20).
Having patched up their differences with lead singer Rob Halford, Judas Priest wing their way over to Belfast on March 24 for a show in the Odyssey Arena.
The lineup for the Belfast festival at Queens has just been announced. Running from 22 Oct - 7 Nov, the event will cover lots of activities including film, comedy, dance, theatre and more.
The whiff of patchouli oil promises to be overwhelming in May when veteran psychedelic warlords Hawkwind play the Ambassador, Dublin (4) and the Limelight, Belfast (5).
The whiff of patchouli oil promises to be overwhelming in May when veteran psychedelic warlords Hawkwind play the Ambassador, Dublin (4) and the Limelight, Belfast (5).
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.
Tonight, Stipe looks like The Riddler – pipe-cleaner thin, all legs and hips and frozen Ka-Pow poses; while around the eyes, a thick smudge of face paint completes the effect. For a forty-something, he sheds years like his lyric sheets.
Just confirmed to play support for the 22-20's, Mainline are enjoying some major label attention. Plus: Derry band Red Organ Serpent Sound sign to Universal.
The Pussycat Dolls have just confirmed a 2nd Irish show with a date in The Kings Hall, Belfast, following the announcement last week that they will play the O2, Dublin
It’s the Icelandic minx’s first ever performance in the north, and with tickets as rare as a teetotaller at a Pogues gig, you can feel the excitement in the venue.
They’re all here tonight – the freaks, the weirdoes, the confused, the lost, the trapped and the marginal. And that’s just the characters in the songs. You really want to see the crowd.
They say that life begins at 40 and tonight, performing in front of a sold-out Odyssey Arena, pint-sized sauce-pot Kylie Minogue is doing her best to make us all believe it.
You look up 'skiffle' in the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary and it says "a strongly accented jazz type of folk music, played by guitar, drums and often unconventional instruments etc. popular about 1957".
How Jools Holland, Jo Brand and peter alexander ended up wrestling on the floor while a woman dressed as a giraffe offered them beer. Or, if you prefer your sub-heads sedate: peter murphy meets The vivid.
How Jools Holland, Jo Brand and Peter Alexander ended up wrestling on the floor while a woman dressed as a giraffe offered them beer. Or, if you prefer your sub-heads sedate: Peter Murphy meets The vivid.
Dig out those Take That T-shirts, scarves, badges, window stickers, patches, lever arch files, pencils, records, posters and coffee mugs: Take That are relighting their fire with a 2006 tour, and it's coming to Dublin and Belfast!
Northern Irish treasure Foy Vance emerges from the studio to play dates in Belfast and Dublin in the coming months, including a special show at The Academy in May.
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.
Cracking 4-tracker from this new Belfast label – our favourites are Scoper and Bubba’s hip electro-funker and New Aluminists and Phil Kieran’s techy ‘Clinton Bleeps’. Excellent.
As well as May and Regan, Josh Ritter, Buzzcocks and Tinariwen will headline the forthcoming Belfast Festival at Queens, running from October 16 to 31.
Canada's Juno award-winning Annabelle Chvostek kicks off her tour of Britain and Ireland with a gig in Belfast on Wednesday, November 11 at The Real Music Club at The Errigle Inn.
With the Moldy Peaches seemingly running out of juice, Jeffrey Lewis brings his brother Jack to Ireland for shows in CrawDaddy, Dublin (February 28) and McHugh’s Bar, Belfast (March 1).
From a Belfast band causing something of a stir across the pond, ‘Little Heat’ is a indie club classic in the making. It's all nonsense lyrics, clever hooks and a beat which can’t but set you in motion. There may be nothing here to indicate V//Formation are in it for the long haul, but nonetheless ‘Little Heat’ remains a fun four minutes in which to get your groove on.
Although the ’90s are over, Escape Act manage to harness the sound and energy of the decade’s alternative scene on their new EP. The Belfast three-piece have a simple drum, bass, and guitar arrangement, but the upbeat and catchy melodies are engaging. This EP will stay in your head for days, but the tracks are so likeable that you won’t mind at all.
If you’re looking for modesty, you’ve come to the wrong place. Colin Carberry meets Dirty Stevie, the balls to the wall rockers who are determined to become Belfast’s biggest band ever!
Having well and truly stuffed Whelan’s earlier in the year, British Sea Power play their biggest Irish shows to date in Dublin and Belfast next September.
A Belfast band on a Dublin label with their musical vision cast further afield, Panda Kopanda are keeping all their bases covered. Weighing in at a meaty five tracks, their second release suggests that they’re not short of confidence in their own material. A DIY approach leaves it all lacking a bit in the production department, although it suits their left field attitude to all things guitar-orientated. Fans of the US underground should definitely make their acquaintance.
Garth Brooks, Michael Flatley, John Hume and Paul Brady were among the mourners today at the funeral of Jim Aiken, the pioneering Belfast concert promoter who died on Tuesday aged 74.
There’s no fear of Snow Patrol surprising us. ‘You’re All I Have’ is as safe a return as you might expect from the Belfast band. Chugging guitar lines and baby faced vocals characterise three minutes of Gary Lightbody’s pleas “to hold on” to whatever girl may or may not inspired this rehash of previous offerings. Its incessantly warm and catchy chorus may make this no bad thing necessarily but we could really do without Final Straw mark two.
Not content with storming straight into the UK album chart at number one – they’re number seven here – Girls Aloud bring their Out Of Control tour to Belfast and Dublin.
Babyshambles’ Irish tour eventually kicked off in Belfast last Friday, April 14 after the previous night’s Dublin date was cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances" - and then again on its rescheduled date, April 18.
Irish indie supergroup Concerto For Constantine have been announced as the support act for the Smashing Pumpkins' eagerly-anticipated visits to Dublin and Belfast.
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.
Leya are blessed with bags of ambition. Sparse for the most part, ‘All On The Black’ is powered almost solely by Ciaran Gribbin’s soaring vocals and lyrics of departing love. Of course the crash of drums and guitar half way through comes, as expected, but nonetheless there’s a scope to the track that sets the Belfast rockers apart from most of their peers.
...here's the Hot Press Irish Music Awards, and a massive bash avec much live music is pencilled in for Belfast in April. Read on for the categories and nominees in full
Wyclef Jean is the next luminary to feature in Witnness' ongoing gig series: and his Dublin date is soon to be followed by "equally special" events in Belfast, Cork and Galway
Possibly the best band named after a small musical instrument, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone pay a visit to Ireland this March for dates in Galway, Belfast and Dublin.
As previously revealed on hotpress.com, The Killers will headline the Tennents Vital show in Belfast this August. Now organisers have confirmed support acts, as well as a change of venue.
Despite being voted Most Promising Irish Band in the Hot Press readers' poll this time last year and tipped for the top by Snow Patrol too, Belfast band Leya have officially disbanded.
Fans of Delaware emo rockers boysetsfire are in for some sad news - they've announced their demise. The only saving grace is their last ever shows they have planned are in Belfast and Dublin.
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.
She’s been hailed in some quarters as the new Norah Jones and the heir to Eva Cassidy’s throne. With sales of her debut going through the roof, things are looking bright indeed for the Russian-born, Belfast-bred daughter of a heart surgeon.
The Belfast boys will follow up their 2005 success with a spate of dates which - fingers crossed - will elevate them to the next league of indie rock'n'rollers.
After a lengthy Facebook campaign by fans of leading man Rupert Grint, gritty Belfast-based drama Cherrybomb has finally secured a cinema release for 2010. We catch up with co-director GLENN LEYBURN to find out about the movie that the world nearly didn’t see.
Belfast prog metallers In Case Of Fire have landed a spot on the upcoming Kerrang! Relentless Tour, which will be coming to Belfast and Dublin in January
We all think we know what Belfast stands for, but beneath the headlines is a city with a very specific industrial sensibility – something constantly reflected in the bands it produces.
Even if the lyrics were penned by journalist-turned-managerial Svengali Gordon Ogilvie, you have to admire the balls of four Belfast teenagers who circa 1979 were prepared to go on stage and tell the paramilitaries where to “stuff their fucking armies”.
The line-up for August's Belsonic festival in Belfast is hotting up with some new additions to the bill, including Mystery Jets, Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip and Delorentos.
Not even a suspect device on the railway line could prevent the Bacardi/hotpress team from reaching Belfast for the Northern leg of the new-look plugged format.
Belfast rockers Leya were unable to perform at the Oxegen festival on Sunday, when singer Ciaran Gribbin was suddenly taken ill with suspected food poisoning.
With the Belfast scene dominated by predictable indie males, it’s refreshing to hear from an ambitious young woman with talent to burn. Pixie Saytar may have a diminutive frame but her voice could blow your house down.
Music fans who came to the open day of the Oh Yeah music centre in Belfast were treated to a host of special performances, including an acoustic set from Gary Lightbody.
Snow Patrol give their A Hundred Million Suns album the official launch treatment with a whistle-stop concert tour of four capital cities – Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh and London.
He's long been one of the North's most singular songwriting talents. Now ANDY WHITE is returning to Belfast to perform a show that sees him bringing together some of his earliest and most current compositions.
Dublin-born fiddler Paul O’Shaughnessy and Belfast flute player Harry Bradley have both made critically lauded solo albums in addition to performing with high-profile bands like Altan. Their debut album as a duo was occasioned by an invitation to tour in Japan, and we can all be thankful that the opportunity arose: this is one of the finest recordings I’ve heard in years.
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.
Belfast community TV station NvTv will take its 'Kick Out The Jams' series global with a new video podcast. This week's show includes Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro.
Having supported the likes of Relish and Interpol, Belfast-based rockers Leya have now signed with prestigious Dublin label Rubyworks. Plus the usual round-up of news from the domestic front.
There’s a strange din echoing around Belfast these days. It can only be sometime satanists, occasional folkies and day-tripper pagans The Factotum Choir.
David Holmes is momentarily back in Belfast, fixing up some business, talking with friends and previewing some of the music that he s been cooking up in New York over the past five months.
Colin Reid is so far out of the frame that it takes a while to understand the concept. He s a virtuoso guitarist, from Belfast, who doesn t care for guitar music.
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.
Nailed is a heist movie with a difference. It’s been written, produced and shot in Belfast. Director Adrian O’Connell believes it could revitalise the north’s film industry.
Morricone brings a taste of the Wild West to Belfast when he performs scores from famous western films through the sounds of an orchestra over 200 musicians strong.
It s a kind of an honour to be invited in here. The scenery isn t so special a rented office in an industrial park in west Belfast, lined with concrete.
On Belfast's Royal Avenue, there's a genuinely stirring event taking place. It's Saturday afternoon, the rain has held off for an hour, and the fourth Belfast Carnival is kicking in. Roll on the floats, the dance troupes, the chi-chi costumes, the giant skeletons and the enormous Picasso masks.
In a place where any parade - from St Patrick's Day to
The annual Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival kicks off in Belfast next month with a guestlist that includes Buck 65, Damien Dempsey and The Skatalites among others
...at the Hot Press Irish Music Awards. That's right: in a world exclusive, Suede will be debuting their new single as Hot Press' special guests in Belfast
In an exclusive interview, DeLorean executive Brian Beharrell talks about the $24 million cocaine bust that hastened the demise of the sports car manufacturer's Belfast base.
The Faltering Flame is a collection of poems and songs united behind the common theme of striving for peace in Northern Ireland. All the profits from the sale of this CD go to the Cornerstone and Currach projects, two bodies working with mixed community groups on the peace line in Belfast. Needless to say, it's a very worthy cause and deserves your support.
Belfast filmmaker John T. Davis on Uncle Jack, a troubled but ultimately cathartic labour of love commemmorating his late uncle’s achievements as a cinema architect. Interview: Cathy Dillon.
Colin Carberry meets Darren Smyth and Pete O’Neill, the men behind Fortune Cookie Music, the leftfield promotional company who continue to bring a range of America’s foremost alternative artists to perform in Belfast. And in Meg White’s case, to crash in their gaff!
Controversial underground magazine The Vacuum has been drawing severe criticism from the more conservative elements of Belfast City Council, including threats of an outright ban. words Colin Carberry
At the time of writing, we are in a state of suspended animation. The new, so-called Blueprint for the North which has been hammered together over the past fortnight by the Irish and British governments is finished.
Hard to believe it’s almost ten years since the Belfast troubadour departed these shores for pastures new; first to live in rural Switzerland, followed by a more permanent move to Australia where he’s currently based.
Close your eyes and you could be having a last waltz in the sawdust of some off-track saloon.
Open them, though, and you’re very much in Belfast, surrounded by not very many people, some of whom are audibly unimpressed.
Lord Laird’s chequered past and unsavoury acquaintances make his criticism of Phil Flynn somewhat strange. Plus: Our columnist recalls a difficult meeting with Van Morrison and explores the origins of the singer’s legendary pugnacity.
Jim Sturgess has attracted plenty of attention for his pin-up good looks and ability to master accents. He’s now further proved his diversity by adopting a Northern Irish brogue for high octane Belfast thriller 50 Dead Men Walking
THE SUPERNATURALS
The Edinburgh combo continue their quest for pop perfection with an August 30th visit to The Limelight, Belfast. Expect a judicious plugging for ‘Get Myself Together’, the Natties’ new single which knocks spots off anything Travis have come up with recently.
There will be a secret meeting in Belfast next Thursday (April 23rd) to mark the centenary of the birth of Paul Robeson, the prototype for Muhammad Ali.
U2 and Ash played Belfast to support the Yes Vote in the Belfast Agreement. Hot Press columnist Stuart Bailie was the compére for the evening. And it rocked, big style.
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.
With something of a renaissance having taken place in the Dublin independent scene over the past few years, now seems as good a time as any to bring ourselves fully up to speed with the sounds emanating from the Belfast underground.
Colin Carberry talks to Jimmy Devlin, co-founder of the No Dancing label, which continues to provide an invaluable outlet for young Northern Irish bands seeking wider exposure.
Six years ago, when a group of Belfast artists invited Bill Drummond to play host at a gathering at College Green House on Botanic Avenue, something like a seed seems to have been planted.
You can bet that Santa is glad that The Strokes are playing Belfast before Christmas. Tickets for this surprise show (announced Tuesday, takes place Sunday) sold – according to promoters – at a quicker rate that even Oasis managed in their Morning Glory prime. The big guy would have some indie kid hearts to break on Christmas morning.
[Photographs: Amberlea Trainor]
For the Chinese community in Northern Ireland, life can at times be difficult in the face of racism and violent attacks. But they can also spare a little time to party, as our very own Chinese checker Colin Carberry discovered on a visit to the hectic offices of the Chinese Welfare Association. Photos: Amberlea Trainor.
Michelin star man Dylan McGrath has brought something of a rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic to Irish cooking. In a slap-up feast of an interview, he talks about his West Belfast childhood, kitchen stabbings and why he’s no time for mumsy housewives' choice chefs.
He’s the hottest thing in boxing and has been tipped as a future world champion. Recently Amir Khan was in King’s Hall Belfast for a lightweight bout with Laszlo Komjathi of Hungary. Francis Jones was in the audience.
You can bet that Santa is glad that The Strokes are playing Belfast before Christmas. Tickets for this surprise show (announced Tuesday, takes place Sunday) sold – according to promoters – at a quicker rate that even Oasis managed in their Morning Glory prime. The big guy would have some indie kid hearts to break on Christmas morning.
[Photographs: Amberlea Trainor]
You can bet that Santa is glad that The Strokes are playing Belfast before Christmas. Tickets for this surprise show (announced Tuesday, takes place Sunday) sold – according to promoters – at a quicker rate that even Oasis managed in their Morning Glory prime. The big guy would have some indie kid hearts to break on Christmas morning.
[Photographs: Amberlea Trainor]
Snow Patrol and Ash are just some of the North’s rock ambassadors who have given their backing to the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a state-of-the-art multi-media development which will put Belfast on the international musical map.
It's Friday, May 22. The votes haven't even been counted yet, but already a succession of post-ballot parties are taking place. Your prime location is the Mandela Hall at Queens University Belfast, where a few hundred groovers will congregate around an event organised by those feverish tykes from the local music magazine, Blank. The name of the game is 'Keep Ulster Brattish' and admission is a mere quid.
It's Friday, May 22. The votes haven't even been counted yet, but already a succession of post-ballot parties are taking place. Your prime location is the Mandela Hall at Queens University Belfast, where a few hundred groovers will congregate around an event organised by those feverish tykes from the local music magazine, Blank. The name of the game is 'Keep Ulster Brattish' and admission is a mere quid.
Hot new Irish release this fortnight is the Vorsprung Durch Celtik EP on Belfast label Nice & Nasty Records. This quality package from Desy Balmer’s long running imprint includes a couple of deep and uplifting Irish techno soul productions from Derek Carr, Teknik and Slow Chocolate Autopsy, plus remixes by Fabrice Lig and Tomas Jirku…
It's been 33 years since Belfast girl Ruby Murray topped the UK charts with 'Softly Softly'. Since then, the female singers from the North have rarely scored internationally. Dana last hit the top 50 in '79. Newry stomper Clodagh Rodgers wowed Eurovision in '71 with her hot pants and a rendition of the oompah crowd-pleaser 'Jack In The Box'. And, er, that's about
JUST when you thought it was safe to go back into the water, the jetty collapses. On Friday afternoon last, it was hard to escape an awful, mournful sense of dij` vu, as the word came in on the mojo wire that the new devolved institutions of governance in Northern Ireland had been suspended, and direct rule from Britain reimposed.
t’s all going on north of the border this fortnight with a new imprint launching in Belfast and a Derry electro duo giving Beyonce a banging make-over.
Over the past twenty-five years, attitudes and experiences in the North’s two biggest cities, Belfast and Derry, have been markedly and vitally different. To understand why may help us to define both the opportunities for and the obstacles to peaceful change. Report: BILL GRAHAM
While the provisional IRA might not have a British licence to murder, they might be allowed a certain leeway when it comes to tackling dissident Republicans.
From Belfast, NIALL STANAGE reports on the still-growing controversy surrounding Brian Nelson, British Intelligence and the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane.
Having steamrolled its way across America, and through most of Europe, it seemed as if U2 s PopMart extravaganza might come to grief in the most unlikely of places their homeland of Ireland. Now however, one Supreme Court case on, U2 are scheduled to play not just two Dublin dates but a newly-added Belfast homecoming as well. Interview: MIKE EDGAR
Belfast musician Colin Reid likes to surprise his audiences, something he’s sure to accomplsh with an instrumental suite inspired by Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman
THE EXTREMELY WONDERFUL Mr. Adam Freeland is the headline attraction on August 18th as Breakdown returns to the Empire, Belfast. Bringing up the rear, so to speak, are Hedrock Valley Beats…
Johnny Vegas to play the Belfast Festival, Scott Capuro revealed to not be Graham Norton, and Tommy Tiernan in possibly moving to LA to star in a sitcom shocker
They may have recorded the guitars on their new EP down the barrel of a shotgun in a bid to achieve the perfect metallic sound, but Belfast rockers Panda Kopanda are really all about melodic ingenuity and songwriting nous.
STUART CLARK collars Divine Comedy mainman Neil Hannon for a brief but highly intimate chinwag as they both take a break from drinking the bar dry at the Heineken/Hot Press Rock Awards in Belfast.
Dom Joly hasn’t heard them but says they’re his favourite band. Noel Gallagher hasn’t heard them but thinks they’re probably shite. And what has country troubadour Crawford Bell got to do with all this? The Embers explain all to Colin Carberry
Belfast human rights lawyer PAT FINUCANE was shot dead in his home by the UFF ten years ago. There has long been a suspicion that the security forces colluded in his assassination. Recent developments do nothing to alter that belief. By NIALL STANAGE.
SUSAN McKAY has just published a startling book about Northern Protestants. Here, NIALL STANAGE meets the Dublin-based journalist and, below, relates his own experiences of life as a Belfast-born Prod. Portraits: Cathal Dawson
In Belfast recently for the Film Festival, Albert Maysles talks to Tara Brady about his early days with the Drew Collective and the challenges he faced pioneering fly-on-the-wall documentary making.
. . . she was reet petite! That's not true, actually. Instead, the maverick motorbike-riding DUP councillor and former Lord Mayor of Belfast talks about loyalist paramilitary violence, the assassination of prison officers, the indifference of London, his hostility to Mary Robinson, his scorn for the Official Unionist Party - and his own willingness to take up arms in the cause of keeping the six counties out of a united Ireland. Interview: JOE JACKSON. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
There's another Belfast, an alternate dimension populated by C.S. Lewis, Van and your host and spirit guide, Duke Special, who's just released his latest album.
We see the reports on television and hear the voices on the radio but the brutal adrenaline-charged reality of the rioting in North Belfast can only be fully understood if you're in the thick of it. Gerry Ryan Show reporter Brenda O' Donoghue briefly was.
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.
THERE WERE two Irish records in the UK club charts simultaneously for the first time ever recently. As Belfast boy Wand’s remix of Dubliner Kerri Ann’s ‘Do You Love Me Boy’ slipped from number 27 to number 29, Northern duo Agnelli & Nelson crashed straight in at number five.
He’s been the artist to watch for years in Belfast, with a critically acclaimed David Holmes collaboration one of his many achievements. Now Phil Kieran is finally getting around to releasing an album. He talks to Colin Carberry about the long journey from drawing board to completion.
DAVID HOLMES new album is likely to
elevate him to the world s DJ-ing A-list.
STUART CLARK visited him in Belfast to hear tales of voodoo, punk, Primal Scream and, er, Gilbert O Sullivan.
Pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
They’re the hottest thing to have come out of Belfast in years. Ahead of the release of their hugely anticipated long-play debut, guitar-abusing noiseniks and so I watched you from afar, give us a track-by-track lowdown on the album.
When Alan McLoughlin scored in Belfast on November 17th he not only set the entire country off on an orgiastic rampage but allayed the fears of a pair of filmmakers who’d gambled heavily on Ireland’s qualification of USA ’94. So, it’s happy endings all round as Robert Walpole and Paddy Breathnach of Treasure Films release our official World Cup video The Road To America and detail the trials, tribulations and traumas of the venture to a suitably impressed George Byrne.
I M looking again now at a picture taken at the funeral of the West Belfast taxi driver John McColgan, who was murdered by the LVF. In the centre is Lorraine McColgan, John s wife, her face contorted with crying, her body doubled over in grief.
When the IRA ceasefire began in the early minutes of September 1st last, nationalists in Belfast and Derry rejoiced in the streets. In the South Armagh village of Crossmaglen, however, there was barely a murmur. Over the past 25 years, the sniper’s bullet and the mortar bomb have claimed the lives of more soldiers and RUC personnel in this small area than anywhere else in Northern Ireland. Anne Connolly visits what has become the most militarised zone in western Europe and takes the post-ceasefire pulse of a stubbornly resilient little town. Pics: Jason Clarke.
He scored his first hit single as lead singer with Them in 1965, with Baby Please Don t Go . In 1968, he released his debut solo album Astral Weeks, which is widely regarded among critics as one of the most important and complete records of the past 50 years. But these are just two early landmarks in a remarkable career which finds Van Morrison still on top of his game 40 years since he made his debut with his own skiffle group, The Sputkniks, at a school concert in Orangefield in Belfast. In an exclusive interview, carried out for the RTE television series From A Whisper To A Scream, and published in the run-up to Van s latest Irish dates, he talks to Niall Stokes.
Between the unattractive alternatives of the Belfast Agreement and a return to war, there has to be a new way forward for the Republican movement. So says former IRA man and respected Republican TOMMY McKEARNEY. Interview: EAMONN McCANN
PICS: CATHAL DAWSON
Yes, you've read that headline somewhere before! But referendum on the Belfast Agreement gets into full swing in the North. Diary: NIALL STANAGE. Pix: peter matthews
Yes, you've read that headline somewhere before! But referendum on the Belfast Agreement gets into full swing in the North. Diary: NIALL STANAGE. Pix: peter matthews
Belfast, then Glasgow and NEXT STOP – the cover of the Radio Times?
Stuart Clark joins fast-rising Snow Patrol on Scottish manoeuvres. PICS: IAN McMURRAY
Commander of the notorious Company C of the UDA in Belfast, Johnny Adair was given 16 years for directing terrorism. While he was never convicted of murder, the rumour mill suggests that he has been reponsible for as many as 43 deaths.
