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.
We really could do without another set of Coldplay clones, couldn't we? Well, Cord wouldn't agree: they seem pretty happy following in the dull footsteps of Chris Martin and co. 'Winter' is not a bad song, it is just very unexciting. Listening to it, I couldn't help feeling decidedly underwhelmed. Which is not the kind of feeling I want music to evoke in me.
The presence of co-writer Chris Martin is the big selling point here and the track does bear some of his trademarks, especially the looping piano, but this is still very much the Jamelia show and all the better for it.
If you listen to the first half of ‘Burning Benches’ whilst remembering that they supported Coldplay in Marlay Park last year, one may form the impression that these Mancunians are a weak version of a drippy act. But it soon builds up into a furious, fast-paced jam, complete with gravelly vocals that Chris Martin couldn’t match with a duty-free allowance-worth of cigarettes.
If Morning Runner are this diverse at their fourth single, where will their fifth take them? Stay tuned to their channel.
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
After Ms Furtado’s disappointing attempt to join the generic territory of Timbaland collaborators with ‘Maneater’ and ‘Promiscuous Girl’, it’s good to know he hasn’t completely beaten out of her the very thing that makes her unique. Though he’s still behind the glass wall for this, and it shows by being interchangeable with any old claptrap in the charts, ‘All Good Things’ displays Furtado’s honey-sweet voice in all its glory. It would have been interesting to hear its original form, with Chris Martin from Coldplay guest-starring, but alas, the record company gods intervened.
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.
It’s Christmas, time for some of the leading lights of the Irish musical family to return from far-flung stages and convene for a traditional evening of reflection, revelation, conversation, merriment and, well, gargle. The guests: Glen Hansard and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of The Frames, Gemma Hayes, Mundy and David Kitt.
For years now, so his cheerleaders (eg Chris Martin) would have us believe, Ron Sexsmith has been teetering on the precipice of gigantic, head-spinning, success.
West crosses genres with wilful and speedy abandon, taking the listener on an epic quest where the journey is just as enjoyable and unpredictable as the destination.
Astronomical record sales, sell-out tours and critical plaudits have not dimmed Coldplay's reputation as the worried men of pop. Bassist Guy Berryman gives us the lowdown.
Well sort of ...
Not content with priming their Meltdown album for April release, Ash have recorded a cover of the Buzzcocks' 'Everybody's Happy Nowadays' with one C. Martin on backing-vocals.
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.
Having grown up in Scunthorpe, Stephen Fretwell found his muse – and mates like Elbow and Doves – in Manchester. And the record company haven't even asked him to get his hair cut.
To make up for the frustration of having to wait until next year for a new album, Declan O’Rourke fans can bag themselves a Special Edition version of his Since Kyabram album.
Dublin’s newly-opened Gallery Number One was the venue last Sunday as The Frames played an acoustic gig to celebrate the publication of Zoran Orlic and Janine Schaults’ photo-book on them, Behind The Glass. View the photo gallery here!
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.
Coldplay, White Stripes, Strokes, Queens, Garbage, Oasis, JJ72, Franz... With a whole slew of major albums in the pipeline, it looks like ‘05 will be the wrong year to kick that addiction to noise.
With their new album, Gotta Go There To Come Back, in the bag, Stereophonics have chosen a very special gig at the Heineken Green Energy extravaganza in Dublin, to make their return to the stage. No wonder the boys are feeling bullish! Chris Martin, Ronnie Wood, Fran Healy, Rod Stewart, Noel Gallagher, U2 and the Rolling Stones – Kelly Jones has opinions on all of them! So who’s feeling the lash of the ‘phonics frontman’s verbal assault, then?
Following a period during which they were rumoured to be playing Slane, Coldplay are revealed to be Witnness 2003's Saturday night headliners. A hotpress.com exclusive
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.
Coldplay do big spaces extremely well, and considering that the only acts that genuinely wowed me in this horrible dockside barn are Primal Scream, the Pixies and Metallica, that is a telling indication of their calibre in 2002
While 2004 has not been an especially spectacular year to date, there is good reason to believe that rocks big guns are likely to deliver the kind of records that will revive spirits in the industry. Chris Donovan previews some of the albums that are likely to top the sales – and the critical – charts before 2004 is out...
While 2004 has not been an especially spectacular year to date, there is good reason to believe that rocks big guns are likely to deliver the kind of records that will revive spirits in the industry. Chris Donovan previews some of the albums that are likely to top the sales – and the critical – charts before 2004 is out...
The Streets’ new album, A Grand Don’t Come For Free, looks set to skyrocket Mike Skinner’s status as the voice of hedonistic British youth. Hot Press meets up with Skinner backstage in Derry to discuss the creation of his latest masterwork, the perils of fame, superstar collaborations, hanging out in Ibiza and the art and artifice of his onstage persona.
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
Their debut album Hopes And Fears launched a host of hit singles, going on to become one of the most successful British records of the past five years. But, their indie background notwithstanding, Keane have still been dismissed by some self-styled aficionados as just too nice to be considered real rock'n'rollers. "If only people knew," says lead singer Tom Chaplin.
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
After 12 months which saw the group go from the indie B-division to rock’s premier league, Snow Patrol have had a more dramatic 2004 than most. In an in-depth interview, Gary Lightbody discusses a life-changing year, the Irish and British music scenes, friendships, relationships and where the band go to next.
A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
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.
Currently flavour of the season in the UK, where they are being hailed as the new saviours of British pop music (ie this year’s Coldplay), Keane are the victims of that most despised of four-letter words, hype.
The pace rarely raises itself beyond stately, there are enough strings for an entire evening of chamber music, and the emotion is laid on as thick as the butter in a Kerrygold advert.
While the plot is not quite what it was in Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's new character – flamboyant, gay Austrian fashion TV presenter Brüno – is still funny as hell.
McCulloch always possessed an unfortunate penchant for grating melodrama, so when the tunes don’t come up to scratch that’s pretty much all you’re left with.
Former Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology student Paul O’Brien has won the competition to come up with a video for the new Coldplay single, ‘Lost?’.
That Dave Matthews is still relatively unknown round these parts is not something you feel he’s particularly worried about, given the fact that his band have sold in the region of 25m albums stateside, where they enjoy a revered status amongst more sensitive college rock types.
Once unfairly derided as a second-rate Oasis, it looked for a while as if the McNamara brothers and co might be swept away in the great Britpop clear-out which saw off even more successful outfits like The Verve.
One of the things that becomes clear as the wonders of A Rush Of Blood To The Head unfolds is that Coldplay are making a truly startling sound within a basic rock format
Essex born Clive Carroll got the Walton’s Guitar Festival of Ireland underway at Crawdaddy, with a truly remarkable display of acoustic guitar virtuosity.
Will South’s haunting vocal is moody and edgy and fits perfectly alongside some often eerie backing. You can hear it forcing itself out to fill stadiums across the globe.
About five years ago I grew mildly obsessive over an album of icily beautiful electronica that went by the entirely appropriate title, Closer Colder. It was the debut release from a brilliant and, judging by interviews conducted at the time, emotionally fragile young producer called David Kosten. If you believe Walt Disney’s head is being cryogenically stored in a lab somewhere, this record will be playing in the background.
Ten years ago, Paul Weller’s influence permeated the atmosphere of British rock like a bad smell, but The Rifles by-pass the tortured retro-rock of his Wild Wood incarnation and go straight back to Weller’s most popular and palatable era as The Jam's frontman.
Takk, their major label debut, comes across almost as conventional. There are proper songs! With names, and lyrics – conveyed in Icelandic yet recognizably of this universe. Have Sigur Ros gone normal on us?
Jamie Cullum is naff, and not in an endearing way. There are many artists whose lack of cool is a pleasure to behold (who could not be charmed by The Darkness’ ability to be entertainingly out-of-step with their contemporaries?), but Cullum is a different species.
The sun slicing through the Dublin evening skyline makes the after-work traffic bearable on the hike out to furthest Rathfarnham. Indeed, the gridlock is so bad that we miss the start of Interpol and have to be content to hear the masterful ‘NYC’ and the driving ‘Obstacle One’ while walking down the leafy path that leads to the venue.
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
Hales has ploughed his own furrow in an admirably single-minded and low-key fashion, deservedly earning himself a loyal following for his Tindersticks/ Joy Division-indebted brand of spectral melancholia.
Hales has ploughed his own furrow in an admirably single-minded and low-key fashion, deservedly earning himself a loyal following for his Tindersticks/ Joy Division-indebted brand of spectral melancholia.
The word ‘luck’ turns up in the Snow Patrol story with set-your-watch regularity, and it’s commonly accepted that the period when the band cashed in theirs was around the release of their biggest selling single. I’m not sure I agree. The care and detail lavished on Eyes Open seems symptomatic of people who, finally rewarded with a budget to match their ambition, are determined to enjoy this opportunity for all it’s worth.
Chris Martin and co arrive at Witnness tooled up with the two most essential qualities required of a festival headliner: a set full of anthemic tunes and a couple of years' worth of experience spent taming the slavering beast that is the US stadium circuit. Expect the festival's lighter fuel supplies to be stretched to breaking point during the group's rendidition of 'Yellow'. Archive interview, 2000: We talk to guitarist Guy Berryman
RTE2 have plenty of live music action to keep us placated for the next few weeks - here's the line up of bands and when to catch them. For more about the Other Voices series, click on the link at the very bottom.
