Three years ago this month, MICHAEL HUTCHENCE s body was found in a Sydney hotel room. Now, his mother PATRICIA GLASSOP and half-sister TINA HUTCHENCE have written a book about their memories of the singer s life and the bitter legal battles which followed his death. They spoke to NIALL STANAGE
Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes, from Death in Vegas, explain how they survived Big Beat, made one of the albums of the year and ended up working with their heroes.
Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
With his new album sex, age and death in the shops, BOB GELDOF, songwriter and performer, is back in our midst. but after the traumatic personal events of the last five years - events which inform the songs on the new record - the private man is arguably under scrutiny as never before. In this heartfelt, eloquent and, at times, angry interview with JOE JACKSON, Geldof talks about the loss of Paula Yates, the death of Michael Hutchence and his own painful journey back to happiness
Our culture still hasn’t figured out how to deal with mortality, and experiments with a bewildering range of panaceas. But an encounter with death can be invigorating.
What do Hope Sandoval, Liam Gallagher, Susan Dillane, Dr. Subranamian and Paul Weller have in common? They all guest on the new Death In Vegas album, as DIV’s Richard Fearless and Tim Holmes explain
It was in KIERON DUCIE’s house that the model Katy French had the seizure that preceded her tragic death. Since then, he has been the subject of a campaign in the press which reveals the skewed news values of too many newspapers.
While the end of the eponymous film might give the impression that organised crime and hard drugs disappeared from Ireland after the reporter’s death, latest garda figures offer a very different picture. And the harsh reality, many insist, is even worse.
Sex & Death & Rock 'n' Roll
With The Divine Comedy's new album Casanova, the dreamily romantic Neil Hannon has come over all carnal. "I felt I had to get an awful lot of real shit out of my system", he tells Niall Crumlish. "Sometimes you've got to get a bit scummy".
NIALL STANAGE reports on a series of Irish gigs, headlined by STEVE EARLE, which will help the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty internationally.
At the end of an exciting, painful and earthshaking year, Bono reflects on the political and the personal – from drop the debt, September 11, Afghanistan and Genoa to the death of his father Bob, the birth of his son John and the enduring friendship which underpins U2’s music and career. Interview: Niall Stokes
[this interview originally appeared in the spectacular Hot Press Annual 2002 - used in the pictures below - a very limited number of this unique collectors item will shortly be on sale - email u2@hotpress.ie to reserve a copy]
Commitments director Alan Parker and actress Laura Linney on their new movie, The Life Of David Gale, which explores the murky territory of the death penalty.
Aside from a slew of wasted lives, a sad but inescapable consequence of the staggeringly high mortality rates that accompany most worthwhile rock’n’roll voyages is the fact that wet-eared young whippersnappers in their early twenties feel emboldened to undertake ambitious, epic statements about love and death.
Intended as the first of six films set around the outskirts of Bucharest – no wait, come back – Cristi Puiu’s grimly humorous film, winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year, puts Death right back in the movies where it belongs.
Iron Maiden's past few years have seen something of a creative rebirth, with the return of their prodigal lead vocalist and 2003’s impressive Dance Of Death, culminating in this, their 14th studio record, and one that easily matches up to their best work.
Metallica certainly have a lot to prove with Death Magnetic, the follow-up to 2003’s St. Anger, an album which divided the critics and the band’s own audience.
Katharine Gifford of SNOWPONY talks to Adrienne Murphy about the band s debut album, their impeccable pedigree and her favourite themes of sex and death.
Singer-songwriter Emm Gryner hails from Canada, but she looks to the Emerald Isle for inspiration on Songs Of Love And Death, interpreting material from an eclectic mix of Irish acts.
A taster for his forthcoming third album, 'Ol’ Death Whisper' marks Goodtime John’s first batch of new material since signing to Irish indie label, Trust Me I’m A Thief. Fans will be aware; Goodtime John is all about sparse atmospheric folk songs much in the mould of Bonnie Prince Billy. This means the connection between music and lyrical content is all-important. Of these five tracks, he hits the mark twice. ‘Play Funerals’ draws the listener in with its wistful vocal and melancholic imagery. ‘Nothingness’ has a similar impact. The only real let-down is the awful ‘Thought Dictionary’, with high-pitched guitar feedback that torments the ear.
It is five years since rapper TUPAC SHAKUR was gunned down on the streets of las vegas in a gangland-style shooting that took place on September 7, 1996. Since then he has become the subject of one of modern music’s most bizarre death cults, as he continues to sell millions of records and to top charts all over the world. but behind his death lies a story of hip-hop babylon – a sordid tale of intrigue, egos, drugs, sex, intimidation, violence – and, almost by the way, some great and enduring music.
By PETER MURPHY
Having been in a car with a man who opened fire and killed two police officers Sunny Jacobs was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. She lived to tell the extraordinary tale.
For the person in the eye of the storm, massive success can involve a titanic struggle. Especially when, as you’re trying to keep your bearings, ordinary life jumps up to punch you in the teeth. Now, after death, birth, fatigue, grief, joy and the "mindfuck" that is "the tidal wave of success," it is time, says David Gray, to get back to the music. and – whisper it – maybe even have a little holiday.
Alternative country is mourning the death of former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett. But will his estranged band-mates step in to finish his uncompleted masterpiece?
Recorded mostly at home in Montréal and in art galleries and hotel rooms by the quarter-Irish, one-woman cottage industry that is Emm Gryner, Songs of Love and Death is a brave selection of Irish pop and rock songs that thankfully avoids the obvious and gives some perhaps forgotten gems an overdue turn around the block.
I want to get AIDS. I want to die a gory undignified death, lying Christ-like with gaunt cheeks and lolling eyes and tubes transporting juices in and out of every orifice in my skeletal frame, my mind long fragmented with dementia, leaving my grieving family and friends lost in the crazed exhausting tedium of ministering to my wasted body, my personality long having ceased to exist. No farewells, no camp ironic jokes, no gallows humour; just a few last wheezy breaths and then silence, followed by a low whining complaint from the machine.
These are strange times for Death Cab For Cutie. The success they’ve threatened for so long finally arrived in the wake of their fourth album Transatlanticism which, coupled with a guest appearance on The OC, saw their profile rocket. Major labels soon sat up and took notice with Atlantic eventually becoming the group’s new home.
Metallica are back with an album that recaptures their brain-frying '80s pomp. Frontman James Hetfield talks about the dark side of hedonism and his love of Thin Lizzy.
Below is an extract from a new book by michael mccaughan which tells the story of how rodolfo walsh, an irish-argentinian writer and activist, met his bloody end at the hands of the state in buenos aires in 1977
Below is an extract from a new book by michael mccaughan which tells the story of how rodolfo walsh, an irish-argentinian writer and activist, met his bloody end at the hands of the state in buenos aires in 1977
Taking time out from his stag weekend, baroque retro-rocker The Mighty Stef talks about the influence of film on his writing, his enduring love for Nick Cave and his friendship with Shane MacGowan
An Irish human rights campaigner travelled to Colombia recently – and returned with an alarming picture of a society where activists face the constant risk of murder by paramilitary gangs.
John Seymour, who died on September 14th in Pembrokeshire, was one of the foremost figures in the self-sufficiency movement. Here his friend and fellow activist Adrienne Murphy pays her respects.
The recent incredible scenes from the United States, where the Mississippi river and its tributaries ran amok, may have seemed a peculiar but just recompense to a vast area which only a couple of years ago suffered a disastrous drought. Water was all they asked for then. Now they have it, but in quantities so enormous that it all seems like some huge global joke.
AND THAT WAS JUST IN THE HOLLYWOOD BOARDROOMS! NEIL McCORMICK LOOKS BACK AT THE MOVIEMAKING YEAR IN WHICH ARNIE TOOK A TUMBLE, DINOSAURS CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD AND MICHAEL JACKSON’S PETER PAN DISAPPEARED OFF TO NEVER NEVER LAND.
The master of the historical psychological thriller,
CALEB CARR's own life has not been short of drama.
Here, he talks to OLAF TYARANSEN about growing up with the Beats and the shock of discovering that his father was a convicted murderer. Pics: Mick Quinn
The master of the historical psychological thriller,
CALEB CARR's own life has not been short of drama.
Here, he talks to OLAF TYARANSEN about growing up with the Beats and the shock of discovering that his father was a convicted murderer. Pics: Mick Quinn
The master of the historical psychological thriller,
CALEB CARR's own life has not been short of drama.
Here, he talks to OLAF TYARANSEN about growing up with the Beats and the shock of discovering that his father was a convicted murderer. Pics: Mick Quinn
Dave Grohl looks back on 20 years of playing music and talks about the birth of his daughter, the trapped Beaconsfield Miners and why Neil Young is his hero.
Mystery still surrounds the tragic death of a student whose body was found washed ashore on a Wexford beach exactly a year ago. Now, his mother has accused the Gardai of neglect.
On a personal level, I knew Paula Yates only to the same degree many journalists might, after meeting her for a few hours for an interview and socially afterwards. But there was a feeling that you knew Paula better than that. Her name was seldom far from the headlines, and her life was lived in the glare of the celebrity spotlight. Undoubtedly it was part of a great part of her undoing.
Frank Oz may be the man behind those cuddly muppets, but he’s no pushover in person. Now, his chequered career as a director culminates in the darkly comic Death At A Funeral.
Five years after the death of singer Michael Hutchence and with the release of the greatest hits compilation Definitive INXS, the biggest Australian rock outfit of the ’80s and ’90s are about to re-enter the live arena
The violent life and death of the Florida prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002 for a string of murders, is the subject matter of the debut film feature monster by Patty Jenkins. Craig Fitzsimons talks to the writer-director about the controversial, Oscar-winning movie
It was Wednesday June 14th, 1995, when the terrible news of Rory Gallagher’s death was first phoned through to the Hot Press office. In more ways than one, it was the end of an era. On Wednesday November 8th, a commemoration service was held at Brompton Oratory in London. The ceremony ended with a tribute, which was delivered by Niall Stokes, editor of Hot Press. As a special remembrance of Rory, on the 10th anniversary of his death, we reproduce here the full text of that tribute.
A year after Mic Christopher’s untimely death, his family and friends are celebrating his life and music with the release of his Skylarkin’ album and a star-studded gala live performance
Personally speaking, the death of the wonderful Elliott Smith was a major blow his year. I found out about his suicide through Ollie Cole, who had e-mailed me with a very succinct, “Elliott Smith is dead. He was my king”, on the day of his death.
The Flaming Lips, whose new record is a 'concept album about death' are possibly the most life-affirming band you’ll hear this year. Frontman Wayne Coyne explains why
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.
The surprise passing of Stephen Gately forces us to reconsider questions of life and mortality
– and to wonder if there ever really is such a thing as fate.
The musical template remains largely unchanged, but the combination of galloping, melodic bass and searing twin lead guitars – at times oddly reminiscent of Thin Lizzy – is hard to resist.
The musical template remains largely unchanged, but the combination of galloping, melodic bass and searing twin lead guitars – at times oddly reminiscent of Thin Lizzy – is hard to resist.
Bruce Springsteen cancelled his concert early this week at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri, after a member of the E-Street Band’s road crew was found dead in his hotel room at the InterContinental Hotel.
A new book attempts to shed light on the life and violent death of
ROBERT NAIRAC, one of the northern conflict s most mysterious victims. But, as NIALL STANAGE reports, it is unlikely that the whole story will ever emerge.
Never mind Cradle of Filth and their “Jesus Is A Cunt” t-shirts, if it’s real, honest to Beelzebub offensiveness you’re after look no further than Norwegian death metallers Gorgoroth who’ve been charged with blasphemous obscenity following a particularly boisterous gig in Poland.
Jesse Hughes of Eagles Of Death Metal takes time out from showering with nubile fans to explain why the Republican party is too left-wing for him, sings the praises of George W Bush and tells us what it’s like to have a former Sex Pistol as a post-rehab sponsor.
Mr. Hudson talks about his mentor Kanye West’s Taylor Swift meltdown, the challenges of hanging with the hip-hop elite when you’re a skinny white guy from Birmingham and why the death of Auto-Tune is greatly exaggerated.
Though Beth Nielsen Chapman's latest album deeper still was created when she was mourning the death of her husband and battling breast cancer, the result is an uplifting collection of life-affirming songs
The recent release of the compilation album So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley was a potent reminder of the extraordinary impact Jeff Buckley made during his short life. In an exclusive interview, on the 10th anniversary of his death, his mother Mary Guibert reflects on the singer’s legacy.
She’s New Zealand’s biggest musical star. For her new album, Bic Runga retreats from sunny pop songs in favour of an introspective sound inspired by the death of her father.
Peter Sheridan, whose book 44: A Dublin Memoir has just been published to rave reviews, on Archbishop Desmond Connell, brother Jim, Samuel Beckett and Sean O Casey, and on the two key events one, an incident of sexual abuse, the other the death of a family member around which the whole book spins . Interview: joe jackson. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
Annual article: War, famine, pestilence, plague and death...it’s been a cheerful 2005. Here is the Hot Press summary of the events that shook the world.
FIFTEEN YEARS after his death Elvis Presley is probably having the toughest year of his career. Not Elvis the guy who works down at the chipper or at the local A&P, obviously, but Elvis the social construct and cultural phenomenon. Elvis the quintessential folk hero.
Having befriended Joe Strummer before the Clash man’s untimely death, artists such as Adam Duritz, Ryan Adams and Shane MacGowan are also now lining up to give kudos to New York singer-songwriter Jesse Malin.
They're unheralded heroes of Canadian rock, purveyors of slinky indie-pop and swooning torchsongs about gay football hooligans. Say hello to Stars, the other great band from Montreal.
In 1991, five years after the death of Phil Lynott, the late Bill Graham wrote in Hot Press of Philo's enduring legacy. Over ten years later his words are as relevant as ever
As the new leader of the SDLP and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland, MARK DURKAN will have plenty to occupy his mind in 2002. Here he talks about the early death of his father, politics and paramilitaries in the North, the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, his opposition to Sellafield and membership of Greenpeace – and what Mo Mowlam might have piped into the Good Friday talks!
Words: JOE JACKSON
With a new novel Eclipse published to universal acclaim, the enigmatic Irish writer emerges from the deep gloomy cavern he inhabits to discuss art, sex, love, hate, humour, death and the battle of the sexes. Interview: JOE JACKSON.
Portraits of the author: CATHAL DAWSON
Brutally sexually abused as a child, by the age of 14 Anthony Godby Johnson found himself on speaking terms with death, as a result of AIDS. At an advanced stage of the illness, he knows that he is not long for this world. In the meantime, however, he has told his own unforgettable story. Report: Gerry McGovern
…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.
Ross Fitzsimons goes to Portugal’s Euro 04 in search of the beautiful game and the perfect bowl of cataplana, and discovers more than he bargained for – including the ribbon of death.
With the death of Johnny Cash two weeks ago, music’s Mount Rushmore finally crumbled. From the hell-raising country outlaw of the ’60s to his final incarnation as a patriarchal figure intoning songs of guilt and redemption, Cash’s voice resonated down through the years with undimmed intensity. In this special Hot Press tribute to the Man In Black, Peter Murphy talks to Cash collaborators Sandy Kelly and U2, and recounts the turbulent life and times of one of the most iconic figures in 20th century music
With the new publication in book form of a collection of his newspaper columns, the Sinn Féin president addresses matters both personal and political. Here he offers further thoughts on Omagh, death threats and the peace process as well as on music, his late mother, his own family and his vision of a private life beyond politics.
With the release of their acclaimed third album Flock, which went straight to No.1 in Ireland, Bell X1 have staked their claim not just to greatness, but also to potential world domination – a possibility which is reinforced considerably by their powerful showing in the Hot Press Readers’ Poll. Here, in an emotional and revealing interview, the band’s photogenic frontman Paul Noonan discusses life, art, love, death... and music.
Raised on the road by evangelical hippies, Joaquin Phoenix has overcome the tragic death of his brother, River, to become one of Hollywood’s most brooding leading men.
First, a little brainteaser or two to warm you up. Question: What do the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Roxy Music have in common?
Next question: Around whose demise would a fact-based film called Death At Pooh Corner rotate?
The trauma of his mother's death; the joy of his marriage to Yvonne; the truth about his sex life; the pressures of growing up in public; the importance of peer respect; the offers of a solo career; and how America might hold the key to keeping boyzone together. In his most personal and revealing interview to date, ronan keating talks to joe jackson
The trauma of his mother's death; the joy of his marriage to Yvonne; the truth about his sex life; the pressures of growing up in public; the importance of peer respect; the offers of a solo career; and how America might hold the key to keeping boyzone together. In his most personal and revealing interview to date, ronan keating talks to joe jackson
The trauma of his mother's death; the joy of his marriage to Yvonne; the truth about his sex life; the pressures of growing up in public; the importance of peer respect; the offers of a solo career; and how America might hold the key to keeping boyzone together. In his most personal and revealing interview to date, ronan keating talks to joe jackson
Grunge titans Alice in Chains are back after a 14 year hiatus. They talk about the tragic death of vocalist Layne Staley, working with Elton John and keeping the spirit of the early ‘90s alive.
Brit-rock heroes Maximo Park are back with a new album – and without the novelty hair-cuts. Here they talk about death metal, hip-hop and missing notebooks.
The publication of EMILY O'REILLY's Veronica Guerin: The Life And Death Of A Crime Reporter, has stirred up a hornet's nest in Irish media circles, with journalistic heavyweights such as Paddy Prendeville, Vincent Browne and Gene Kerrigan queueing up to take pot-shots at the author. Here, she takes the opportunity to answer her critics.
Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN. Pics: COLM HENRY
Over the past decade, the new wave of films from South Korea has made a stunning impact on movie fans worldwide. The acclaim peaked earlier this year when the remarkable OldBoy scooped the Grand Prix at Cannes. In a Moviehouse special we look at Korea’s visceral treats and talk to ace director Chan Wook Park.
In his first major interview, Aengus Fanning, editor of the Sunday Independent, discusses how he manages the most successful paper in Ireland and the death of Veronica Guerin.
He survived the IRA London bus bomb of February 1996 only to find himself wrongly accused of involvement in terrorism by the British press. His name having been duly cleared young Dubliner BRENDAN WOOLHEAD should have been able to put the worst behind him. Instead, he succumbed to heroin addiction and died in a London hospital having just undergone a costly and controversial detoxification treatment that is now being advertised in Ireland. In the week of the inquest into his death, OLAF TYARANSEN reports on the disturbing implications of a tragic case.
It's not every day a mid 20-something reshapes the basic house template and, in so doing, delivers a work that'll have even the most experienced producers struggling to emulate it.
In the second and final part of an extensive interview, MIKE SCOTT discusses inspiration and influences, recalls his difficult solo years and explains the death and resurrection of THE WATERBOYS. Interview: PETER MURPHY
As the world gears up for a war in which US president George Bush has said the use of nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out in the event of Iraqi chemical attacks, Aideen Sheehan speaks to a survivor of the world’s first a-bomb attack in Hiroshima.
Niall Stokes: As the drummer in a band, you re occupying a seat that s normally occupied by men.
Caroline Corr: It s a natural thing for boys to go for instead of girls. But I think there should be a lot more females playing. I don t know why they don t.
Despite being peerless at his chosen profession, CHRIS MORRIS has been sacked from more jobs than most people will have in a lifetime. He announced the death of Michael Heseltine on live radio, was responsible for a debate about non-existent drugs in the House of Commons and once screamed Christ s fat cock! at Cliff Richard during an interview. BARRY GLENDENNING examines the career of the broadcaster commonly regarded as Britain s foremost media satirist.
Known from the TV sitcom as the Man who Behaves Badly, actor Neil Morrissey is confounding the laddish caricature with his work for an anti-landmine charity. In this candid interview with Paul Nolan, he also reflects on childhood trauma, death in the family, that affair with Amanda Holden and his encounters with Olivier, Burton and Mel Gibson. main photography Cathal Dawson
Known from the TV sitcom as the man who behaves badly, actor Neil Morrissey is confounding the laddish caricature with his work for an anti-landmine charity. In this candid interview with Paul Nolan, he also reflects on childhood trauma, death in the family, that affair with Amanda Holden and his encounters with Olivier, Burton and Mel Gibson.
It s a story that has it all. Fame, drink, women, politics. Even death threats and The Mob. In a special retrospective feature JOE JACKSON explores the myth, and the reality, of THE RAT PACK, the original reservoir dogs.
Or how TONY BENNETT survived drugs, near-death and the mafia, to become possibly the coolest man on the planet at the age of 72. Interview: Joe Jackson.
The glitz and glamour is but the tip of the iceberg a lot of blood, sweat and tears has also gone into making THE CORRS the huge success they are. And it s not just about the music either the tricky business they call show has to be negotiated too. NIALL STOKES gets the inside story from the captain of the ship, manager JOHN HUGHES, with supporting testimony from some of the crew.
Following the sudden death of his girlfriend in the early ’90s, traumatised US writer Bill Carter took off for the unlikely destination of war-torn Sarajevo. Whilst there, he established a series of satellite link-ups with U2’s Zooropa tour, which still rank among the most divisive and controversial moments of the band’s career. Despite the subsequent media fallout, an unconsummated affair with an indian supermodel, and several brushes with death, Bill Carter has lived to tell his extraordinary tale.
Not since the death of Elvis has the passing of a music legend so gripped the world. As fans and detractors alike struggle to come to grips with the sad, strange end of Michael Jackson we assess his legacy – as musician, celebrity and enduring icon and talk to some of the people who knew and understood him best.
Liam Fay talks to the three men behind the first “unmissable” movie smash of '95 SHALLOW GRAVE and hears why comparisons with the American death-and-glory tradition are a misnomer.
On the release of a double CD retrospective of his forty years as a performer-songwriter, Johnny McEvoy talks to Jackie Hayden about his early days as Ireland’s answer to Bob Dylan, meeting the great man himself, supporting and introducing The Rolling Stones, defending The Wolfe Tones, not apologising for the troubles in the North, U2 and the key albums that have inspired him.
But try finding someone who doesn’t like it. The album Monster is yet another glittering addition to arguably the most astonishing canon in pop music, ever. Here, in a historic summit, the world’s greatest fortnightly rock paper gets together with the world’s greatest rock band for an intimate chat about the big issues: sex, death, drinking and, of course, rrrrrock’n’roll. What else is there? Interview: Liam Fay
JOHNNY ROGAN didn't write just any old biography - he wrote a book about MORRISSEY which brought down a virtual pop fatwah on his head, with his subject declaring in public that he hoped the author would die a grisly death. Now, with the paperback version just published, the 'controversy' seems to have been given a new lease of life. It's not by any chance a publicity scam, is it? CATHY DILLON puts Johnny Rogan on the spot.
So this is Christmas and what have we done... As U2 prepare to enter the final yearof the decade, Bono devotes a long night at his home in Dublin to reflecting on his life, his music and U2's extraordinary career to date. Interview: Liam Mackey
Journalist NEIL McCORMICK was a schoolmate of BONO when U2 were taking baby steps. Over the past 25 years their paths have frequently crossed, inevitably in rather more exotic circumstances than a classroom. As another year draws to a close, they meet up again: the result is an unusually intimate portrait of a man who came not to save the world but to serenade it. Plus: a close-up look at some of the most striking songs on All That You Can t Leave Behind
At the end of another eventful year, Andrea Corr takes time out to reflect on life, death, love, health, music and her role, off-stage and on, in the family that plays together. Interview: Niall Stokes
WHILE HE WAS BEING TERRORISED AND BRUTALISED IN MONNOWITZ, LEON GREENMAN MADE A DEAL WITH GOD: IF HE WAS TO BE ALLOWED TO SEE THE OUTSIDE OF THE DEATH CAMPS AGAIN, HE WOULD DEVOTE HIS LIFE TO TELLING THE WORLD WHAT HAPPENED THERE. NOW, AS DENIAL OF THE HOLOCAUST CONTINUES TO AID THE INSIDIOUS RISE OF THE FASCIST MOVEMENT IN EUROPE, IT IS MORE VITAL THAN EVER THAT HIS STORY IS TOLD. REPORT: GERRY McGOVERN.
The news of Rory Gallagher s tragic death has sent seismic shock waves through the music world. Here was a man who managed to combine the gift of being an authentic creative genius with the even rarer gift of being a genuinely decent, honourable human being. Over the next six pages, Hot Press pays tribute to both the legend and the person, with contributions from the stars, friends, fans and colleagues who were touched by the Gallagher magic, and takes a trip through the backpages of an extraordinary career.
Getting press accreditation for the world’s greatest cycling race seemed like a dream come true. Then the Tour de France turned into the Tour de Farce. SHANE STOKES recalls the death of innocence during three tumultuous weeks in July.
He has already courted controversy with comments about lapdancing and criticisms of Michael McDowell and Michael Martin. now, in this candid interview with Olaf Tyaransen, the new Lord Mayor of Dublin lets fly at the Taoiseach's brother, Noel Ahern; recalls wild days in the hotel trade and Amsterdam; talks about the depths of his despair following his father's death; and reveals how he was more likely to become a tap-dancer than a member of Boyzone. photos: Mick Quinn
OUT FROM BEHIND THE GREASE-PAINT THAT ADORNS HIS FACE ON THE COVER OF ‘SPIKE’, ELVIS COSTELLO EMERGES TO TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC THAT RUNS IN HIS FAMILY FROM BIG-BAND TO SPEED-METAL, HIS MUCH-TOUTED IRISH CONNECTION, WORKING WITH PAUL McCARTNEY, HIS CONTEMPT FOR MUCH OF TODAY’S POP MUSIC AND THE FEELINGS THAT INSPIRED HIS DEATH-WISH FOR MARGARET THATCHER.
Help She Can’t Swim's second album opens with a stripped-down, meticulous harmony that comes from the school of The Posies, before the band whip off their cover and reveal themselves to be the noisy bastards that they are.
The Used furious mix of nu-metal and skate punk may not be the most original of cocktails but it’s the way they blend the ingredients (with just enough contradiction) that keeps them from sliding into mediocrity.
The death has occurred of Joe Strummer, one of the most important British musicians of the punk era. As lead singer and chief lyricist and ideologist with The Clash, he was central to making some of the finest music of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
Weird name? Check. Alienated'n'angry persona? Check. Usage of 'fuck', 'kill' and 'die' in lyrics? Check. Makeup worn even though artist is a goddamn GUY!? Check.
IN HIS intro to the rather splendid anthology Poetry With An Edge, Bloodaxe Books mainman Neil Astley maintained that it's not tried and trusted forms of poetry such as the sonnet which get tired, but the practitioners of those very forms.
Black America mightn’t have wanted a martyr like Tupac Shakur, but they got him anyway. This latest selection is the first of two double albums culled from Shakur’s dreadful “Makaveli” period.
Actor, musician, professional widow and major-label-baiter Courtney Love spins a few at Alan McGee's Death Disco, soon heading to a Dublin near you. Did we mention the new Nirvana track?
Actor, musician, professional widow and all-occasion noisemaker Courtney Love spins a few at Alan McGee's Death Disco, soon heading to a Dublin near you. Oh, did we mention the new Nirvana track?
The mighty !!! deliver a glorious, string-fuelled, quasi-psychedelic cover of The Magnetic Fields’ original. Euphoric death disco? Please! Another half? Yes please!
Since their debut single ‘Wired To The Moon’ went gold here The Revs have established themselves as Ireland’s hungriest and most energetic rock combo, with an appetite for gigging and an eye for publicity that has seen them embroiled in a number of amusing controversies. But behind the brash exterior is the fascinating story of three dedicated young musicians who have overcome their status as outsiders to build one of the biggest and most loyal grass roots following of any local act. Now with the release of their debut studio album, Suck, they are ready to go international.
Ivan Smagghe from Black Strobe follows his excellent ‘Death Disco’ mix with a more contemporary selection here, as Jamie Bissmire and Jesper Dahlback get down and dirty with Random Factor and Tiefschwarz.
The title track bored me to death, its mixture of ‘spiritual’ NY and bleepy electro house proving way too safe. ‘Leo’ sounds far better in Sasse’s hands, who turns it into a gorgeously tripped out Italo mini-epic.
Combat’s exploration of the electro/dubstep interface continues, with Scan One and Komonazmuk & White Boi venturing into uncharted territories, as death march beats and intricate percussion give guidance to the visceral bass splurges.
Post-industrial Manchester provided a fittingly bleak setting for a regional aftershock and punk’s death rattle. You can hear Ian Curtis' world collapsing – the epilepsy, the drugs, the bizarre love triangle – in every stentorian plea.
Fair play to Yorke for continuing to do his own thing. Yet why does it have to be quite so unlistenable? ‘Harrowdown Hill’ deals with yet another Big Subject (the death of Dr David Kelly) but is really a collection of electronic doodlings and off-key vocals. Portentous and challenging it may be, a good record it isn’t.
Convincing new wave death disco on the A1 is backed by two top mixes. Optimo’s is a game of two halves – one storming but subtle synth rock, the second a more manic take on the original. Luvly. Musical magpies The Glimmers drop a ‘Balearic house’ version of ‘Feel Like I Feel’ that sounds like The Glimmers.
Following on from Volume 1, released earlier this year, this third album from Echoboy’s Richard Warren is a moody, buzzy amalgam of the pounding guitar-drone Death in Vegas have patented, the brave-new-worldisms of Primal Scream’s Xxtrmntr and the slightly nerdy keyboard manifestos of the retro-80s/Krautrock set. It’s as noisy, mock-threatening and fun – and, occasionally, as disposable – as a high-tech, batteries-not-included toy lasergun.
Are you ready for another massive David Gray hit that gets rotated to death by every mid-afternoon DJ on the planet? Well, we’re quite sure you’re going to be hearing a lot of ‘The One I Love’ when it hits the airwaves later this August. Instantly catchy (if suspiciously like Paul Brady) and featuring one of David’s most uplifting choruses to date, this power-ballad has the potential to be even bigger than ‘Babylon’ was back in 2000.
They might be one of the most hard-working bands in Ireland at the moment, but sadly that doesn’t necessarily translate to being great on record. The Longford natives are competent songwriters of cheery pop gems with just a hint of dark undertones about them (though they’re nothing like the death metal band I’d once anticipated from their name!). Unfortunately, it’s spoiled by Johnny Cronin’s vocals, which to me come across like an overzealous attempt to take off Edwyn Collins. But hey, ‘distinctive’ vocals never stopped Clap Your Hands Say Yeah…
When the NME referred to him as “One of the greatest songwriters anyone has ever heard”, Stephen Fretwell could have been forgiven for thinking his career had been given the kiss of death. Thankfully, Fretwell falls amongst the 10% that the UK rag has been right about.
Suge Knight, the Death Row Records supremo, coughed up $2.5m to keep the artist formerly known as Snoop Doggy Dogg out of jail, then went down himself for gun possession.
Released just five months after the death of vocalist Bon Scott, Back In Black went on to become one of the most celebrated hard rock albums of all time.
A Treasury is a compilation of songs taken from Drake’s three albums, Five Leaves Left (1969), Bryter Layter (1970) and Pink Moon (1972), along with a couple of tracks that he recorded shortly before his death. This is deep, beautiful music that rewards repeated listening.
With Master of Puppets, Metallica pushed their taste for the epic to the ultimate with what is their finest moment, that once-in-a-career phase when all members of a band seem to peak at the same time. It was their last album before the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton, and also the album on which James Hetfield came into his true voice, as on ‘Battery’. With layers of grinding guitars creating a truly dark, sinister sound, Kirk Hammet peeled off riff after limitless riff.
Master Of Puppets proved that Metallica were one of the most important metal bands of all time.
The self-styled "heaviest band on the planet" aren't about to relinquish that mantle just yet, on the evidence of Reinventing The Steel, and they waste no time in letting us know. Titles like 'Death Rattle', 'Revolution Is My Name' and 'Hellbound' ...
FRANK DARABONT, whose 1994 Shawshank Redemption ranks as one of the most auspicious directorial debuts of all time, returns to centre stage after a lengthy six-year layoff with another Stephen King-penned Death Row drama,
Colm O’Hare reports on the controversy over death metal whose continuing interest in all things Satanic has been blamed for a series of anti-social activities, from the vandalisation of cemeteries and churches to the deaths of rock stars themselves.
The diverse appeal of Donegal outfit Berkeley has seen them notch up an impressive array of support slots with visiting international acts of the calibre of Jimmy Eat World, The Cooper Temple Clause, The D4 and Death In Vegas – and it’s not too difficult to see why. [hotpress.com member's offer]
Funeral is a diverse collection of absorbing songs, each rich in both its thematic and sonic content. Colours of death, love, life, youth and family are splashed across a lush soundscape that seamlessly blends searing violin and subdued cello with indie riffs and disco beats.
Following the untimely death of Johnny Cunningham in December 2003, his Celtic Fiddle Festival tour-mates – Kevin Burke, Christian Lemaître and guitarist Ged Foley – were left facing a difficult decision. Thankfully, they decided to proceed as their new album title indicates; and while Cunningham's wit and magnetism are irreplaceable, the young French-Canadian fiddler André Brunet (of the band La Bottine Souriante) makes a fine addition to the group.
Elliot Smith was nothing if not prolific but it still comes as something of a surprise when, almost four years after his death, a double album’s worth of mostly unheard material is unearthed.
Written by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill on the death of her husband Art Ó Laoghaire in 1773, the Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire is generally acknowledged to be a masterpiece of Irish-language poetry...
At first, the death of Rosemary Toole Gilhooly must have seemed like any other tale of ordinary tragedy - one more sad suicide to add to the statistics, over which sociologists might in time pore and ponder 'why?'
It entered another realm, however, with the revelation that Gardaí were investigating the possibility that this was Ireland's first case of assisted suicide
This odd murder thriller jumps between the mob-dominated club scene of the '50s and the swinging possibilities of the '70s as a determined journalist (Lohman) attempts to investigate the suspicious death of a hotel maid (naked in bathtub, of course) and the subsequent break-up of Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth’s Martin And Lewis inspired comedy duo.
THEY RE NOT quite in the Tommy Hilfiger or Yves St. Laurent league yet, but 1998 found the Los Angeles County Coroner s Office selling over $1 million worth of its death-themed fun wear.
It takes an artist of supreme confidence to record an entire album of cover versions. Maria Doyle Kennedy has courage in spades, and Skullcover is a subtly seductive record.
Something Ilk display the tender shoots of what promises to be a hugely illustrious career. Hype can often be akin to the kiss of death for a new artist, but Davey has the sheer talent and the lust for life to kiss right back.
A mess but a pretty Resnais-inspired mess, The energetically baffling Science Of Sleep stars Gael Garcia Bernal as a Mexican returning to mother’s Parisian apartment after the death of his father.
Even though the citizenship referendum produced a worrying result, the fight for justice and equality goes on – a fitting tribute to the memory of a great journalist.
It soon becomes apparent very early on that Death Watch, perhaps a fine idea in the first place, flounders sadly without the benefit of remotely accomplished direction or a script worthy of the name.
The death has occurred in Dublin of Brian Molloy, for many years one of the leading lights of the local music industry. He had fought a long and difficult battle with cancer.
Formed in Texas. Named after a Polanski movie. A healthy interest in death and decay. Have shared bills with Calexico and The Dirty Three and been described as Gram Parsons-meets-Spiritualized.
The tenth anniversary of Rory Gallagher's death will be honoured with a very special event in Ballyshannon, plus a Best Of album and a Gerry McAvoy autobiography
Today is the 22nd anniversary of the death of Irish rock legend Phil Lynott. To mark the occasion, Hotpress.com is revisiting some of the Thin Lizzy man's most notable appearances in the pages of the magazine.
So far, think classic '80s Depeche Mode, The Young Gods, Nine Inch Nails, Faithless and Death in Vegas - good goth/dance/pomp rock/freaked out fusion stuff - all shouty and melodramatic but still sweet and smooth
Camogie Lovers emerged victorious on Friday after The JD Set descended on Limerick’s Trinity Rooms for heats that also included Last Days Of Death Country, Nick Carswell, Neon Stars, VIC and Roadrunner.
Nova Scotia, then, is a somewhat curious offering, and opens with the upbeat, pounding ‘Sadness’, a disorienting number given the band’s penchant for sombre, dewy atmospherics. It’s also a surprise to find that ‘She’s Not Coming Back’ was actually written not about the rotting of an amorous relationship, but the media circus surrounding the death of Paula Yates.
Still, if the band’s remaining members felt tentative about writing the album, they sure have a funny way of not showing it.
Heavy metal never corrodes, it just warps. Death metal, rap metal, black metal, industrial metal, glam-metal, nu-metal – there are 666 ways to polish a turd.
Davis Guggenheim’s excellent, clear-headed documentary, fronted by former almost-President Gore, is a compelling, scary-ass piece of cinema detailing how close we are to planetary heat death. That, of course, is enough to get the cranks out.
Perennial Cork favourites the Frank And Walters are back. A near death experience followed by period of reflection, then a slate cleaning triple album of odds and ends (Souvenirs) and now their first studio album in six years. It’s all come full circle: the guys find themselves at square one, making infectious, charming and effervescent indie-rock.
On her sixth album, Missy Elliott has – for the most part – ended her long-running working relationship with gifted producer Timbaland. It’s difficult to be happy about the death of a partnership that has thrown up some of the most dazzlingly futuristic pop music of recent years, but it was a collaboration that had been on the wane for some time.
Donkey is the mediocre second outing Brazilian electro rockers CSS – will it show that they have more substance beyond being a mere good-time party band?
U2 Live: A Concert Documentary - possibly the definitive book on U2's history as a live band - to be given an update and re-release following the tragic death of its compiler
The former Bowie backing singer and occasional member of The Cardigans is an award-winning solo star in her native Canada, but given her frequent visits here she seems doggedly determined to break out on this side of the pond. Following her eclectic take on a bunch of Irish classics on last year’s Songs Of Love And Death, she wastes little time in returning with this album of her own material recorded on and off over the past three years.
The Dears seem set to storm Europe with their second offering, the literary and apocalyptic No Cities Left, a cinematic symphony about the death of one world and the birth of another.
Recent events may have caused us to ask ourselves what level of passion, commitment and all-consuming belief does a person need in order to die the horrific death of a suicide bomber. But, Bootboy muses, are they the only people who truly care about anything these days?
If Bob Geldof hadn’t so busy saving us from ourselves we might have been allowed more time to appreciate his post-Rats solo work. But now, with the release of this anthology, we can re-examine his four solo albums in a set that also includes 10 outtakes from the Sex, Age And Death period, and 24 new tracks in all.
An elegant meditation on mourning, Nanni Moretti's Palme D'Or winner is a moving and honest account of the death of a loved one which never stoops toward the sickly sentimentality, otherwise known as Robin Williams factor, that typifies the Hollywood treatment of such subject matter
On 1998's Electro Shock Blues, Eels frontman E drew on the suicide of his sister and imminent death of his mother to produce a bleak masterpiece worthy of being filed alongside Lou Reed's Berlin and Magic & Loss.
The comeback trail has, in its time, thrown up some far-fetched candidates. The highly inconvenient fact of John Lennon’s death didn’t prevent him appearing on a new Beatles single; Thin Lizzy’s busy touring schedule suggests they have long overcome the speed-bump of Phil Lynott’s passing.
Few rebirths, though, have been as unlikely as that of The La’s, a Liverpool band undone by the tortured brilliance of its leader, Lee Mavers.
FRANKIE KENNEDY - R.I.P.
WRITING ABOUT death is never easy, but trying to find the appropriate words to mark the sad passing of Frankie Kennedy is, for me, particularly difficult.
Bicke’s increasingly unhinged critique of the American Dream and the film’s eventual drone-goes-postal trajectory inevitably evokes Death Of A Salesman, while the failed assassination plot has brought many comparisons with Taxi Driver. In common with those works, Mr. Mueller’s film engages with Big Ideas about the ruthlessness of capitalism and the marketing of politics and fear. He deftly recreates the malaise of 1974 – demoralising news broadcasts, classic Herzog aesthetic, all-brown interiors – without overstatement or peppering the place with lava lamps (I counted only one safari suit), an approach which cannily reinforces the contemporary relevance of the Nixon era.
He was one of the first true trailblazers in Irish comedy. Now, a decade after his death, a host of his friends will gather to pay tribute to Dermot Morgan.
We could squabble over the Mercury Music Prize shortlist until the cows come home, but this year has seen some unfathomable omissions. For instance, how come Primal Scream’s Xtrmntr, a career high and easily the equal of 1991’s Mercury-winning Screamadelica, gets ignored in favour of their buddies Death In Vegas muscular but somewhat overrated Contino Sessions.
Death Row might be dead, but on Xzibit's third album, Restless, the West Coast crew prove that they're still a major artistic force to be reckoned with.
The current issue of Hot Press includes an exclusive interview with The Edge in which he talks about meeting Michael Jackson, the singer's death, criticism of U2 in Ireland, blogging and the controversy over U2’s carbon footprint. He also gives a unique insider’s view of how U2’s 360º Tour works.
Personal catastrophe invites two possible responses – surrender or quiet, dignified resistance. Eels, the American indie-pop band who flaunt their private traumas like couture fashion, have stumbled upon a third way. They’ve learned to laugh at the grisly comedy that is life.
Not that you’d know it from their records, which are awash with avant-garde moroseness. Their most celebrated, 1998’s Electro Shock Blues, recalled the protracted death from cancer of the mother of singer and group leader, Mark Everett.
The faces so resemble reanimated death-masks it’s often like watching a Joan Rivers lookalike contest. This coldness naturally detracts somewhat from the festive vibe. After all, even It’s A Wonderful Life wouldn’t work if it starred a bunch of robots.
With the death of Terri Schiavo in Florida and the news that an Irishman used the services of Dignitas to commit suicide last year, the issue of death has been in the news.
The US army graverobs Hendrix… the death of the man who exposed the Turin Shroud… the international court hamstrung at birth… the lonely death of Annie Kelly
The old actor in Mr Oldham has never forgotten the importance of making a strong visual impression – and with his mixture of Chaplin tramp, chimney corner minstrel and death row pen-pal, you’ll certainly never confuse him with anyone else.
Despite a body of work that marks him as one of the outstanding figures of British music over the past 30 years and high profile patronage from the likes of REM (who covered his song 'Wall of Death'), Richard Thompson continues to bathe in relative obscurity.
It’s beyond pointless to bang on about the death of the knowing horror – the sub-genre where nubile young things get picked off while spouting flippant po-mo insights gained from viewing slasher movies – so we won’t. Sadly, we all played our shameful parts in the making of the Scream franchise, not knowing that no one would see fit to call time on the nudging and winking. In any case, such criticisms are academic with respect to Cursed, a cack-handed Wes Craven werewolf movie that evokes such pre-revival, low-faluting follies as Wishmaster far more readily than any of the director’s earlier collaborations with the now dreaded Kevin Williamson.
You might remember Aileen Wuornos (legendarily misnamed ‘the world’s first female serial killer’) – a lower-end-of-the-market prostitute with an extremely troubled background, whose loathing of males led her to kill a series of ill-starred punters in the early ’90s before the law caught up with her. She languished in Death Row for the guts of a decade before being executed in October 2002, but from beyond the grave, Wuornos – inevitably, when you consider her crimes – has now been immortalised in a full-scale feminist-avenger biopic.
The death has occurred of the great Irish writer John McGahern, at the Mater Hospital in Dublin. He was 71 years of age. Although his health had not been the best for some time, his death was sudden.
Those were the final, prophetic words from STEPHEN GATELY on Twitter, as he planned to finish his children’s fantasy novel, The Tree of Seasons. Tragically, death was to intervene, bringing a sad and premature end to the career of a man who was much loved, warm and wonderfully likeable.
What a curse it must be to nail it the first time out and then spend the rest of your career trying to get back to that point. Chrissie Hynde laboured long and hard in order to get The Pretenders airborne in 1979, but no sooner had her band become established than the ranks were decimated by Dr. Death.
"It was in the winter of my 50th year when it hit me: I was really alone, and there wasn't a hell of a lot of time left. Every laugh and touch that I could get became more important. Strangely, I became more bookish, and my home and study meant more to me as I considered the circumstances of my death. I wanted to find a balance between joy and dignity on my way out. Above all, I didn't wanna take any more shit, not from anybody."
As the Northern Irish nights draw in, the gigs get better. Coldplay, Ryan Adams, Beverly Knight and Teenage Fanclub are just some of the acts who are flying North in the coming months
EAMONN McCANN has all the latest news from the wild and wacky worlds of sex, prostitution, death cults and wildest and wackiest by far mainstream religion.
Yesterday I went to listen to a Franciscan friar, a psychoanalyst, talk about his work with people with HIV and AIDS. He spoke eloquently and movingly about the many difficult journeys he has witnessed and followed. He spoke of gay men coming to terms with their own premature death, and of their search for their life’s meaning in the face of such bleak horror.
As he prepares for the Murphy s Ungagged Festival in Killarney this weekend, the compire s compire, JOHN HENDERSON, tells NICK KELLY why rumours of stand-up comedy s death have been greatly exaggerated.
Even divorced from the poignant circumstances of his death, a Greek tragedy for our time, the essential wonder of Marvin Gaye’s troubled mysticism ensures that What’s Going On, an album first released in 1971, will remain both relevant and thrilling for generations to come
One of the music world s best-loved and most charismatic figures, IAN DURY finally lost his battle with cancer in March of this year. But as this edited extract from a major new biography by author RICHARD BALLS shows, Dury left life as he lived it fighting and smiling all the way
AGNES BERNELLE s death last month brought a truly remarkable
life to a close. SIOBHAN LONG looks back, in the company of
Gavin Friday, Philip Chevron and Alan Amsby.
Why the musical legacy bequeathed by Michael Jackson will ultimately outlive and overshadow the huge morass of questions surrounding his life and death...
With the death of Kurt Cobain in April casting a shadow over the following months 1994 will hardly go down as one of the most joyous in Rock history. Your guide to a month-by-month account of the names and events of the past year. Stuart Clark.
For the average expat Irish criminal living in Spain, life is a blur of booze, prostitutes and drug deals with the threat of violence, and even death, never far away.
Kevin Myers' use of the word bastard may have been pernicious – but it was not the most offensive aspect of his attack on unmarried mothers. Plus: the death of the great Hunter S. Thompson.
The first time The Killers played Oxegen they fretted whether anyone would turn up to see them. Now they’re sweeping in to headline the main stage. They talk to us about being chased by papparazi, growing up in Middle America and sharing a bill with Bono and, er, Gary Barlow
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.
When someone dies in a car crash, alcohol is routinely blamed. But a close look at the figures shows that, beyond the tabloid hysteria, the truth is sometimes very different.
Jackie Hayden looks back over the career of the legendary soul singer Wilson Pickett who died last month, and talks to Andrew Strong about the man’s impact on his own career.
Need help, advice or a second opinion? Put your music industry question to the oracle@hotpress.ie. This fortnight, Brad in London asks whether he and his other band members can protect themselves against a manager who constantly exaggerates their activities in such a way that they think it will have serious repercussions on their future?
RAYTHEON, the armament-technology firm which manufactured Patriot and Sidewinder missiles, is establishing a plant in Derry and the local politicians couldn t be happier. EAMONN McCANN reports.
colin murphy is living proof that there is such a thing as a comedic afterlife. The Downpatrick funny man, who once "died every week for six months", tells barry glendenning all about heaven down here.
hotpress.com re-runs an extensive 1999 interview with Joe Strummer and lets Brian Young, lead singer with legendary northern punks Rudi, explain how The Clash changed his life
KIM HOLLAND makes films, Collectors Only films. She is also a former Jehovah s Witness. PAUL O MAHONY reports from The Netherlands on a liberation struggle with a difference.
Misdirected criticism of U2 for their Sarajevo satellitre link up has plagued publications as diverse as The Independent and NME. But none of these has bothered to ask BILL CARTER, the American in Sarajevo who actually conceived the idea, what he makes of the whole thing. Here BILL GRAHAM does just that.
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.
BONNIE PRINCE BILLY is the new moniker of cult hero WILL OLDHAM. NICK KELLY spoke to him about his album I See A Darkness. And received a lot of curt replies.
There is nothing more odious, to paraphrase a famous quip, than the British press in one of its fits of moral outrage. And it’s true. Nothing can compare. And I’m not just referring to the tabloids . . .
In 1988, HP journalist Joe Jackson interviewed the then Lord Mayor, Ben Briscoe. His homophobic opinions in the resulting article in Hot Press sparked an argument in the letters section of the Irish Times, to which Dermod Moore, then unaffiliated with Hot Press, contributed his thoughts. Here's the letter in full.
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.
Magic mushrooms were banned in Ireland recently, effectively aiming an exocet at the local ‘head’ shop business. But even before the ban, customs officials had been waging a bizarre war against what most people accept was a legal substance – resulting in considerable losses being sustained by shop owners. No wonder some of them are considering going to court to gain redress.
Maureen Bolger's son Darren committed suicide in 2003, at the age of 16. This tragedy inspired her to create Teen-Line Ireland to assist other young people at risk.
If we care about the lives of Irish women, then a no vote in the march 6th abortion referendum is a must. Adrienne Murphy poses the questions and offers some answers
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.
The cause still endures, the hope still lives. Thus spoke Senator Ted Kennedy in what is widely regarded as his finest speech. Now more than ever, we need the same kind of visionary commitment in Ireland.
The former NME rock crit, ZTT founder and hyper of Frankie has written a book. But it s not about pop it s about the suicide of his dad. PETER MURPHY reports on how Nothing matters.
In fiercely conservative Jerusalem, few crimes are more unforgivable than a homosexual relationship between a Palestinian and an Israeli – as Ezra Yitzhak discovered.
The Kooks' first album was a million-selling sensation. As they unleash the long-awaited sequel, frontman Luke Pritchard talks about the death of his father, his feud with television presenter Simon Amstell and much more...
Ex-IRA man Gerry Kelly talks to Jason O'Toole about his run-ins with the British Army, his near death experiences, the part he played in inflicting civilian casualties and his time on hunger strike.
Padraig Harrington talks about gay golfers, stalkers on the tour, the potential of Rory McIlroy and the death of his father. And, he says, his Open win was just the beginning.
In a remarkably honest interview, which directly preceded the death of his mother, Jonathan Rhys Meyers reflects on his spells in rehab and discusses life as one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors.
They love Ireland and Ireland loves them. As the Arcade Fire ramp up for world domination, the band talk about love, death, war and making music in churches.
From Dr Strangelove to Eyes Wide Shut, film director Stanley Kubrick cast an enigmatic shadow over film. Since his death, the director’s widow, Christiane Kubrick, has dedicated herself to preserving his legacy. Here she offers a glimpse of the man behind the legend.
Pop superstar du jour Daniel Bedingfield talks to Shilpa Ganatra about the enthusiasm of Irish audiences, escaping death in New Zealand and why he intends to push the stylistic envelope on his future albums.
The 20th anniversary of the death of Luke Kelly is being marked by a double CD The Best Of Luke Kelly, and a week-long tribute Remembering Luke at the Gaiety. The Dubliners are, not surprisingly, deeply involved in both projects, and bandmember John Sheahan here explains all.
The death of John Entwistle and Pete Townshend’s troubles haven’t stopped The Who reconvening for another tour. Colm O’Hare got to see the warm-up show ..
The “war on terrorism” and the death of Irish Happy Hour aside, 2003 has been a year of good times and great tunes. For me, it’s also been a year of daring debuts.
When your personal background includes dusting down knives for sex and walking up the aisle wearing a white shirt with your husband’s name written in blood on it, then playing all-action heroine Lara Croft on the big screen probably seems like the very essence of normality. Angelina Jolie describes the joy of death-defying work, explains why England is more attractive to live in than the US, underscores the importance of her UN role and, finally, talks about life and love post-Billy Bob. interview Tara Brady and Craig Fitzsimons
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…
He’s collaborated with Bono, Mick Jagger, and Destiny’s Child, hung out with Bill Clinton and co-wrote the biggest selling rap album of all time. but that’s only the beginning. The multi-talented Wyclef Jean here discusses George W. Bush, the death of his father and why Michael Jackson might not be such a strange guy after all
The Department Of Justice has denied asylum to Elizabeth Onasanwo and her four children, who are due to be deported back to Nigeria, where the two girls - Bolu aged 6 and Christina aged 18 - will face female genital mutilation, a traditional practice frequently resulting in death
One by-product of the technological revolution is an increase in state surveillance. Sweeping new EU powers invoked in the 'war against terror' may sound the death-knell for our communications privacy
The tragic death of Mic Christopher before Christmas came as a terrible blow to his many friends and fans (see letters page). Here our own Kim Porcelli recalls her memorable encounters with "an exceedingly generous soul".
As the RUC continues to undergo serious changes, STUART CLARK meets RICHARD LATHAM, a former officer who has a story of danger, death, politics and sex to tell
From Oasis to The Ping Pong Bitches, ALAN McGEE is living proof that there s life after
success, excess, Labour, near-death and, oh yes, Creation Records. Even if you re a Rangers
supporter. Interview: STUART CLARK
THE FINAL YEARS OF peter cook
The father of modern British comedy, peter cook s death in 1995 brought the strangest chapter of his life to a close. Ravaged by alcoholism, he dedicated his final years to sloth, drink, drugs, porn, daytime television and late-night radio phone-ins. But even in his darkest hours, the black humour and brilliant wit that marked him out as the towering comedy talent of his generation just kept on breaking through. liam fay reports.
THE FINAL YEARS OF peter cook
The father of modern British comedy, peter cook s death in 1995 brought the strangest chapter of his life to a close. Ravaged by alcoholism, he dedicated his final years to sloth, drink, drugs, porn, daytime television and late-night radio phone-ins. But even in his darkest hours, the black humour and brilliant wit that marked him out as the towering comedy talent of his generation just kept on breaking through. liam fay reports.
Spoken-word firebrand and Black Flag legend Henry Rollins is probably better known as an orator, writer, journalist, actor, publisher, philosopher and "aging alternative icon" (his description) these days than as a singer...
According to producer LISSA EVANS, the third and final series of Father Ted is the most fitting tribute possible to its late star. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING
Garda heavy-handedness isn’t confined to Donegal. As stories of harassment, corruption and cover-ups escalate, we report on the treatment suffered by one grieving family, whose son mysteriously died after a short time in police custody.
A joint Irish Presidency/European Commission Conference on the Future of Tobacco Control in Europe opened today at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Limerick, Ireland. The conference runs over two days, from 17-18 June 2004.
Need help, advice or a second opinion? Put your music industry question to the oracle@hotpress.ie. This fortnight, Brian Johnston from Bray asks: I’m thinking of putting a drawing I’ve done of John Lennon on the cover of a single I’m planning to release. Are there any copyright issues involved in doing this?
Held in the Dutch city of Groningen, this year's Eurosonic Festival brought back some painful memories for Irish attendees, The Frames. Hot Press' John Walshe followed the band to the site where Mic Christopher lost his life.
30th Anniversary retrospective: From the murders of Tupac and Biggie to the bizarre implication of Marilyn Manson in the Columbine massacre; from Courtney, Axl and Spector’s falls from grace to the canonisation and demonisation of Peter Doherty... here’s a potted history of the most controversial events in the last 30 years of rock ‘n’ roll.
Though practically unheard of in their home country, Dublin metal band Primordial nonetheless have a huge worldwide following and are expected to sell up to 20,000 copies of their excellent new album, The Gathering Wilderness. Interview by Phil Udell.
After laying At The Drive-In to rest, two of their members have put together another outfit who are determined to push back the boundaries of modern music. In a far-ranging interview, Peter Murphy talks to The Mars Volta about reincarnation, hanging out with the Chili Peppers and their Hispanic roots.
isabel monteiro, lead vocalist with arch miserabilists drugstore tells stuart bailie exactly why she's writing songs about dead Chilean heads of state.
Though a renowned singer-songwriter in her own right, SHAWN COLVIN’S current album is a collection of cover versions. MELISSA KNIGHT hears why the songs on Cover Girl are so special to her.
Do you recognise this voice? "It really annoys me that our bleedin’ patron saint is a bloody Brit. Before he came along we were havin’ the craic, drinkin’, fightin’, killin’, pukin’, inbreedin’ an’ ridin’ animals. Then over he trots with his ‘thou shalt not do this’ or ‘hey, leave that Irish wolfhound alone’..."
The murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson sent shockwaves throughout Ireland and beyond. As was the case with the murder of Pat Finucane almost exactly ten years before, there are suspicions of security force collusion, and a feeling that anyone who speaks out for the beleaguered nationalist community is putting their own life in Danger. Report: Niall Stanage.
Bosnian ex-pat Aleksander Hemon has found modern resonances in the century-old tale of the murder of Jewish immigrant Lazarus Avenbach by the then Chicago chief of police.
She is a passionate advocate of social justice for women and a dreamer, who achieved extraordinary insights through use of the shamanic drug, ayahuasca. Isabel Allende talks to Hot Press
Following a potentially fatal bout of auto-immune deficiency, Airborne Toxic Event’s Mikel Jollett gave up a damned promising writing career to play music.
Madness, madness, war. Spin that globe and wonder. We live in murderous and turbulent times. The most awful century known to history is drawing to a close in much the same way as it dawned.
He wrote one of the most influential novels in the English language but, for too long, Bram Stoker has been forgotten by his home town of Dublin. But a new city-wide celebration of Stoker’s Dracula aims to set this to rights
WHAT motivates a writer to consign words to page? By what method do they arrive at their chosen subject matter? Is the writer more or less a voyeur than those who read their scribblings?
In the second part of her investigation into the issues surrounding childbirth in Ireland, ADRIENNE MURPHY speaks to Jo Murphy-Lawless, author of a compelling book on obstetrics.
After an early string of synth-pop classics (‘Are Friends Electric’, ‘Cars’, ‘She’s Got Claws’) Gary Numan survived a two-decade slump and became a cult icon. Now he’s back in road-warrior mode.
Daemon Codell – aka Joe Daly – is an illusionist with a difference, who likes nothing better than the sight of blood on the stage. It’s only when it’s his own blood that he gets worried.
A New Jersey-ite Eurocentric who mixes the buttoned-up gravitas of Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter with the lush orchestral tapestries of Bacharach and Spector. A Girl Called Eddy’s bohemian rhapsody is well worth acquainting yourself with.
Bob Geldof recalls his initial response to the tsunami disaster in South East Asia and outlines the fundamental differences between it and the ongoing crises in Africa.
He’s the Latin smoothie who has wooed a gaggle of starlets, Scarlett Johansson among them. But Benicio del Toro shows a different side to his persona with his controversial new portrayal of South American revolutionary Che Guevara.
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.
Video interview: Tim Burgess and Mark Collins of THE CHARLATANS tell us about their latest album, Wonderland, and about how having a singer that lives 5000 miles away in L.A. helps to focus the band's energies. Well, it would, wouldn't it
As evenings lengthen and winds shift, as light becomes harder and higher and as summer edgily advances, Ireland blinks and shakes its head. A strange year entirely so far. And no story has preoccupied attention like the Catherine Nevin murder trial.
Well, ya can’t say I didn’t warn ya. I’ve been writing about a forthcoming earthquake in Japan for months. And now it’s struck with a vengeance. Hundreds of thousands are dislocated, their homes either destroyed or threatened.
After what seemed like an eternity of enduring processed boy/girl band hell, 2003 was the year that pop became exciting again. Finally, we got a long hot summer soundtracked by Beyoncé (song of the year – hands down), 50 Cent’s awesome ‘In Da Club’ and even a band from my own ‘hood whose debut album was the feelgood hit of the season.
The brutal regime of Idi Amin is the subject of Kevin Macdonald‘s The Last King Of Scotland. Here the director explains why, to capture the real Africa, he insisted on shooting on location in Uganda.
Blood, parties, testosterone, gonzoid lyrics – that nice ANDREW WK has a little something for just about everyone. "Hell, I don't even mind if your other favourite artist’s Enya," he tells STUART CK
Despite promises to the contrary, the Government has failed to invest adequately in services for young people with mental health issues, forcing volunteer groups to step into the void.
Frank McBrearty Jnr. is the victim of what may well be the greatest miscarriage of justice ever in the Irish State. However, having been exonerated by the Morris Tribunal, he has more on his mind than mere compensation.
Following the implosion of Suede, drummer Simon Gilbert quit the rock'n'roll business and moved to Thailand, only to hook up with a pair of fellow ex-pats, making big music under the Futon banner.
Colm O’Hare talks to Kerry King, guitarist with thrash-metal outfit Slayer, and discovers that under that murderous, violent exterior lies a great big pussy cat . . . almost.
They may be nothing more than a tribute band but if so, they re a damn good one. JACK L and his BLACK ROMANTICS have been unanimously lauded for their Jacques Brel-inspired Wax album: The idea was to bridge the gap between Brel and Scott Walker. Now Jack L himself talks to JOE JA
They say they’ve come from hell to bring us foot and mouth. But in reality they come from a small village outside Ipswich. STUART CLARK meets CRADLE OF FILTH, metal maniacs and purveyors of blasphemy, horror and gore – and, as you might expect, ends up talking about mums, kiddies, Winnie the Pooh and moisturiser
Those upstanding Manic Street Preachers have announced that their upcoming New Year s Eve gig in Cardiff will be their last live show for the best part of a year, as they intend to spend 2000 in the studio working on what they ve indicated could well be their final album.
World AIDS Day will take place on December 1st. In an effort to raise awareness of issues surrounding the virus, Stephen Robinson offers personal reminiscences
Recently the Netherlands government moved to follow the Irish example and ban "magic mushrooms". But pro-civil liberty groups have rallied to stall the planned prohibition.
It may have given new hope - and virility - to impotent men around the globe, but, as stuart clark reports, the wonder drug viagra is also causing an excitable commotion among the world's media.
Kill Bill is widely seen as a vehicle for director Quentin Tarrantino to express his deep-seated fascination with his favourite leading lady, Uma Thurman. But the character of The Bride – the super-deadly vixen played by Thurman in Kill Bill – is based on the blood-thirsty heroines of a bevy of B-Movies with which modern cinema’s most deadly talent is obsessed. So, as Kill Bill 2 hits the screens, we ask who are these foxy ladies, and what makes them such ruthless killers?
Patrick Freyne meets synth-rock extroverts Holy Fuck who explain why DIY is the future of music and hold forth on their love for 'stubborn prick' Neil Young.
As Scottish tunesmiths BIFFY CLYRO prepare to release their fifth record Only Revolutions, Edwin McFee chats with bassist James Johnston and hears all about working with Josh Homme, why their latest sonic manifesto is their most positive to date and why he’s glad he doesn’t have to support Limp Bizkit anymore.
This year’s Convergence Festival in the heart of Dublin promises a scintillating feast of events celebrating sustainability and cultural transformation. Adrienne Murphy takes a bite
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
She began her career as a police reporter before taking a job in the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in Virginia. There, she spent as much time in the morgue as possible, watching autopsies - including dozens on bodies which had been savagely maimed and mutilated in the course of being murdered. Now she writes crime novels, but Patricia D. Cornwell keeps going back to the morgue to witness the kind of gruesome sights that would give an angel bad dreams.
Interview: Liam Fay Pix: Colm Henry
Niall Stanage pays tribute to a remarkable young woman whose passion for music made her one of the most widely respected and genuinely loved people in the history of Irish music
When Iain Archer decided to get away from it all for the making of his latest album, he didn’t settle for half measures. He packed up his guitars and vanished for several months into the depths of Germany’s Black Forest. But can the resulting record transform the career of a singer still best known for helping write Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’?
LIAM FAY investigates the strange phenomenon of the RAINBOW PARTY, a pseudo-democratic movement dedicated to the abolition of politics and politicians , and meets its leader, the enigmatic RAINBOW GEORGE.
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.
Some cities have all the luck - Los Angeles is not one of them. As it begins rebuilding after its third major disaster in as many years, our man on the spot, Tomas Conlon, writes that, when not even the ground beneath your feet can be trusted, you see life differently.
"This is hell, dude!"
- Ascanio Pignatelli. L.A. based graduate student and would-be actor, interviewed during the Malibu fires by the Los Angeles Times.
With the opposition parties in Ireland now all more or less occupying the centre ground, it's up to the country's youth to become the true voice of dissent.
He's not a Christmassy guy, he says, but perhaps the season has made Jape's Richie Egan reflective. Patrick Freyne talks to him about the past, present and future.
Well, it all goes to show that you can’t predict anything. There I was, like all distant observers, predicting an apocalypse in Mid-Africa, and what happens?
British director Bernard Rose hit paydirt over decade ago with Candyman, but his uncompromising single-mindedness has made him a virtual Hollywood pariah. However, Snuff Movie looks like putting him back in the game.
Writer-director Christopher Smith has already curried a great deal of favour with such clever Brit horrors as Severance and Creep. Triangle, a smart and nifty psychological chiller, suggests that Mr. Smith has only been clearing his throat.
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.
They may have started out as avant garde indie noisemongers, but The Flaming Lips have matured into one of the greatest and most musical bands on Planet Earth. Plus, they do an utterly magnificent live show!
He might be quite the cove but Leslie Phillips is also an enduring presence in British cinema. Here he talks about co-staring with Peter O'Toole in Venus and explains why he had to leave his working class background behind to get a foothold in acting.
Returning for a second big screen helping of stunt show Jackass, Johnny Knoxville lovingly recalls the time he was strapped to a rocket –and nearly died.
In the nineties, renegade novelist, short-story-writer and establishment-bothering journalist WILL SELF had the additional dubious distinction of being the literary world's most high-profile drug addict. He begins the new decade clean, sober and with How the Dead Live, a new novel many are lauding as his finest work. He talks to KIM PORCELLI about being free of his own past, being alive, being dead, and being 'deader'
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
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.
Indigo Fury won the Hot Press band of the year competition in 2002. The fruits of that success are now becoming apparent, with the release of their debut single.
AIR's latest outing is the kind of thing that gives the soundtrack a good name. JONATHAN O'BRIEN talks to the finest French musical outfit since LITTLE BOB STOREY!
EAMON SWEENEY meets LLOYD COLE to talk about his forthcoming Dublin gigs, the changing face of music, and why he doesn t want to write songs for a while.
With the second part of The Gallery Of Photography s Robert Mapplethorpe Exhibition running until January 31 in Temple Bar, paul o mahony takes a look at the photographer s raison d jtre and talks to the Gallery s Director, christine Redmond.
In 1990, 22 year-old college graduate Christopher McCandless donated his $24,000 in savings to Oxfam and hit the road. Two years later he died in Alaska, after approximately 112 days in the wild. Legendary actor and director Sean Penn tells the story in his fourth film Into The Wild.
Dirk Whittenborn started his writing career on the cult us show saturday night live in the 1970s when the hedonistic, cocaine-fuelled lifestyle claimed the talents of many of his contemporaries, including John Belushi. Whittenborn survived - but only after brutal heart surgery.
Peering through a letter box, fielding flying knickers and knocking out a strong contender for album of the year - it's all happening for Cooper Temple Clause
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.
Ghost Of Mae Nak is a love story with a difference. For one thing, it’s set largely in the afterlife. It’s also the latest piece of Thai cinema to catch the attention of international audiences, says English-born, Bangkok-based director Mark Duffield.
Finns can only get better as dodgy England World Cup songs, credibility-destroying Coke ads and blood-spurting Eurovision entrants star in our C.I.N. music special.
He used to be the ultimate indie no-hoper. But now JACK PEÑATE has discovered Krautrock, nu-rave and world music and released one of the year’s most engaging, and surprisingly accomplished, records. He talks about cultivating his eclectic side and discovering an outsider sensibility he describes as ‘joyous melancholy’.
Gaspard Augé of acclaimed electro duo Justice on the group’s stunning live performances, upstaging Kanye West and putting the humour back into dance music.
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.
Moving Hearts were of the most provocative trad groups to emerge from Ireland, with songs that touched on fraught issues such as the northern troubles. Now they’re back for a much-anticipated reunion show. But will the band stay together in the long term?
Unwilling to remain confined in a drum'n'bass pigeonhole, Justice, aka Tony Bowes makes music that straddles all modern electronic genres. Richard Brophy caught up with him prior to the release of his fourth album, Hears To the Future, to find out why he's become disillusioned with jungle.
Bomb materials made in Northern Ireland are killing people in the Middle East while the PSNI arrest protesters against the manufacturers, including this HotPress columnist.
Far from the miserable pessimist of lore, eels frontman Mark Everett, aka E, is in fact an upbeat, sanguine character with an engagingly wry sense of humour. He here talks to Paul Nolan about The Eels’ extraordinary new double album, Blinking Lights And Other Revelations, being inspired by Stanley Kubrick, collaborating with Tom Waits, why his dog couldn’t make it out on tour, and slapping Steve Jones’ backside.
Love, relationships, dating – and the first Diana song since the reworked ‘Candle In The Wind’. Sarah Nixey takes Paul Nolan on a guided tour of Black Box Recorder’s new album Passionoia.
Albums such as Streetcleaner and Pure have established Brummie noise terrorists godflesh as one of the most exciting alternative bands on the planet. Their latest effort, Love And Hate In Dub, is a radically overhauled remix version of its predecessor, Songs Of Love And Hate. The band s
talkative mainman justin broadrick explains all to jonathan o Brien.
Geoff Topley just can’t help writing songs and releasing records. And going entirely solo hasn’t stemmed the flow. “it’s an addiction,” he tells Colin Carberry
Canadian songwriter Emm Gryner has released a covers album of Irish rock classics. But what inspired her to tackle Horslips, The Undertones and Gilbeert O'Sullivan? And why didn't The Pogues make the cut?
As part of a scam to exaggerate the weight of the cannabis they sell, ruthless Irish criminals are lacing their wares with pieces of glass – thereby putting the health of consumers at serious risk.
Having scored critical and commercial success – not to mention putting Irish cinema on the map with the likes of My Left Foot and In The Name Of The Father – Jim Sheridan has now mined his own past for in America, a haunting remembrance of the film-maker’s time as a struggling immigrant on the streets of New York.
Lunar Records supremo Brian Molloy has enlisted the help of such luminaries as Bertie Ahern, Eamon Dunphy and Bono in the making of voices and poetry of Ireland, a one-off CD being released to benefit the homeless this Christmas.
Halloween is just around the corner. But do we celebrate it in a way that is fundamentally prejudiced and hostile? MELISSA KNIGHT argues that it's time we understood the reality of Witchcraft and Goddess worship.
LOST LIVES, the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of The Troubles, is one of the most remarkable and essential books of our time. NIALL STANAGE interviews one of its authors, BRIAN FEENEY, and on the opposite page, recounts how his own life was touched by a violent chapter that many now hope is drawing to a close.
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.
Denounced by the Christian right in America and the Catholic church in Italy but championed by rockers as diverse as Marilyn Manson and Led Zep’s John Paul Jones, Diamanda Galas is unlikely to be hollywood’s flavour of the month as she rips into the oscar-winning Monster
American singer-songwriter SHAWN COLVIN explains that her fourth and latest album A Few Small Repairs is about more than just her recent marital breakdown. Interview: JOE JACKSON
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.
In her new collection award-winning Northern poet Leontia Flynn invites the reader on a metaphorical journey by car, plane and modes of conveyance more obscure.
Country music’s stock has never been higher. First Johnny Cash gained an entire new generation of fans, then Hollywood began to pepper its films with bluegrass and roots music. Now, everyone from Jack White to Van Morrison is waking up to the magic of country. Ireland's getting in on the act too, with the launch of the Midlands Music Festival, a two-day celebration of all things hatted and booted. Colm O’Hare traces the rebirth of a genre.
Great weather for ducks, they say. This island has been deluged. Inundated. East to west, south to north. And it is, if anything, worse to the east. The Rhine is already many metres above normal as far inland as Köln. By the time it subsides, billions of marks worth of damage will have been done.
Unofficial curator of the New York club scene and head of a creative emporium many have described as a contemporary version of Warhol’s factory, LCD Soundsystem mastermind James Murphy is rapidly emerging as one of the biggest players in the U.S. underground. He tells Barry O’Donoghue how it happened
With his latest opus Team America upsetting everybody from Sean Penn down to the White House, South Park co-creator Matt Stone sounds off to Tara Brady...
2004 was a year of infotainment overload when popular culture became increasingly co-opted to the business of selling. But there were those precious few, who remained faithful to the idea of art for its own sake.
The inside story of Veronica Guerin, directed by Joel Schumacer and starring Gerard McSorley, Ciaran Hinds and Cate Blanchett. Rolling tape Tara Brady and Craig Fitzsimons
No, they’re not Jack White’s extra-curricular band. Rather, The Racketeers are long time veterans of the Irish scene with shades of Nick Cave and Johnny Cash in their darkly fascinating sound.
Gloria Steinem was 65 last month; Germaine Greer was 60; Jill Johnston was 70. There are some who will not understand the resonance of this roll-call of veterans they are doubtless too busy poring over the latest edict of the Catholic Church, which holds that maturbation is not always a sin. Ho-hum. Listen up wankers, while I tell you how it was when real women strode the earth.
After doing time in the greatest power trio of them all, the late Jimi Hendrix experience bassist Noel Redding spent the rest of his life coming to terms with being ripped off by the music industry.
Fifty Nigerians were forcibly deported last month. On their return to west Africa, they will face intimidation and violence. Why is the Government doing nothing?
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 a little help from peers like Johnny Moy and Primal Scream, Mainline look like animating the Irish scene with some long overdue black-shades-and-scuzz-rock sleaze.
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
The recent murder of
the notorious b.i.g., following the killing of Tupac shakur six months ago, has been linked by many to the prolonged East Coast-West Coast feud which threatened to tear the US hip-hop community apart. jonathan o brien reports on how life
chillingly imitates art in the gangsta rap wars.
Journalist STEVEN POOLE has, inspired by Orwell, written a riveting book documenting the insidious abuses of the English language perpetrated by politicians and powermongers.
The Prodigy may be one of the most potent acts on the dance scene but they've got a rock'n'roll attitude to live performance. STUART CLARK finds out why from the prodigy himself, LIAM HOWLETT.
Raised in India and hailed as an heir to Tori Amos, singer-songwriter Nerina Pallot is set to break big in 2007. Just don’t ask her about her appearance on kids’ television.
Having first envisaged the film in the late ’80s, director Taylor Hackford has finally realised his long-cherished biopic of legendary soul performer, Ray Charles. Here, he talks to Moviehouse about the challenges of putting the singer’s tumultuous life onscreen.
ANI Di FRANCO has confirmed her position as one of the 90s most compelling performers with her new album Up, Up, Up, Up, Up Up. But there has always been more to Di Franco than her music. Here she talks to SIOBHAN LONG about her hard-won independence, corporate America and the stupidity of conservativism.
