As previously revealed on hotpress.com, The Killers will headline the Tennents Vital show in Belfast this August. Now organisers have confirmed support acts, as well as a change of venue.
How did Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vannucci, Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer go from the Las Vegas dive bar circuit to selling four million copies of their debut album, Hot Fuss? On the eve of the band's highly-anticipated Oxegen 2005 appearance, Stuart Clark talks to the people involved in the making of The Killers.
The singer is actually much more assured onstage than the last time I saw The Killers, at the Olympia in 2004, when his inhibitions seemed to be holding him back.
The band churn out the dreariest material from both Sam’s Town and Day & Age, and – although I’m definitely in the minority – I find myself feeling a bit bored.
They may be one of the hottest bands of the year, but Las Vegas synth fiends The Killers are planning to cool off this Christmas with some well-earned down-time and a skiing holiday in Utah. But not before they’ve discussed texting Charlize Theron, hanging with Elton John and that David Bowie tribute with Stuart Clark.
Their debut Hot Fuss sold over 4 million copies and in the process set The Killers up as one of the brightest young hopes of the modern era. On the eve of the release of their second album Sam’s Town, the band look like settling for nothing less than U2-sized supremacy. Now, if only Brandon Flowers would shave off that, ahem, controversial face fuzz.
A respectable collection which raises the question: why do the Killers pad their albums out with mediocre filler, when they have at least some decent alternative material to spare?
More slightly unhinged Americana from The Killers, this time sounding for all the world like Meat Loaf – complete with brass section and over-the-top choir. It’s taken a bit of time to get used to their second coming but it’s starting to sound very natural all of a sudden.
Having sold-out their previously announced Point Theatre date in less than 15 minutes, The Killers have announced additional Dublin shows in the RDS Main Hall on February 27 and 28.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Older and wiser but still mad for it, Oasis have delivered their best album in years. In an exclusive – and expletive-filled – interview Liam Gallagher holds forth on fatherhood, brotherly love and explains why Coldplay and The Killers are limp-wristed also-rans.
They’ve embraced the big sound of America but The Killers still aren’t fully comfortable with the burdens of stardom, reveals frontman Brandon Flowers.
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
After studiously walking the line between rock and pop, Corkonian Jennifer Clarke explains why she now regards herself as a country act, and tells Jackie Hayden about her interest in serial killers.
Panic At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie talks about channelling The Beatles, recording at Abbey Road and the influence on their music of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk.
As girl band the saturdays prepare to play this year’s Oxegen, Edwin McFee gets a frosty reception when he talks to Irish member Una Healy. Undeterred, he manages to find out about their bust up with Basshunter, their admiration for Girls Aloud and more.
Belfast boys General Fiasco may be one of the standout acts on the Oh Yeah showcase CD, but when HP catches up with the band, they're feeling a little, um, overexposed.
Sam’s Town suggests that the newly face-fuzzed Brandon Flowers has contracted a serious dose of Bruce-llosis (a quick scan of the album’s titles yields a number of Boss buzzwords: “river”, “town”, “Jonny”, “wild”). No bad thing necessarily, but any rock band without the E-Streeters’ skill or Springsteen’s Steinbeckian grasp of American history should beware of straying across the wrong side of the New Jersey tracks and ending up in Bon Jovi-ville.
Sam’s Town consistently grandstands to the bleachers, makes cheap plays for the listener’s emotions and foolhardily flaunts with the conventions of good taste. Just like a great rock ‘n’ roll record should.
They once blagged a soccer scholarship to America as a laugh. Now back in the UK with a number one album, The Hoosiers are at the forefront of their very own scene: “odd-pop”.
TV presenter, stand-up and all-round gifted wit and raconteur Dara O'Briain has quietly become one of the major Irish success stories in Britain over the past few years. In a rare in-depth interview, The Panel presenter here discusses stardom in the UK, The Killers, Colin Farrell, Michael Parkinson, RTE, Sinn Féin and that ringing endorsement from a certain Samuel L. Jackson. interview Tanya Sweeney photos Liam Sweeney
The star of cult movies such as Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia and Strange Days, Juliette Lewis appeared to have a direct entry to rock's premier league when she turned her attention to her punk outfit The Licks. Instead, she opted to embark on a small-scale tour and play a series of small venues throughout the US and Europe. Peter Murphy was on hand as Lewis' magical mystery tour reached Ireland, and was witness to some truly fascinating scenes as the singer and her band bewitched the Dublin indie cognoscenti, travelled south to rock Limerick and strolled the red carpet to join the glitterati backstage at the Meteor Awards. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
Columnist Kevin Myers called her “our pretty little she-shinner” but an unimpressed Mary Lou McDonald insists that her party is actually run by a group of formidable women. She also reveals that she believes Gerry Adams when he says he was never in the IRA, defends Sinn Fein’s fund-raising, discusses the release of Jerry McCabe’s killers, and names her least favourite irish politicians. plus: the newly elected MEP’s views on drink, drugs, music, media, religion, and more.
The soundtrack to the third Spiderman film features tracks from The Killers and The Flaming Lips, but the honour of lead track goes to ‘Signal Fire’ by Snow Patrol. The sound is – well, like any other Snow Patrol song: sweeping guitar chords building with percussion to the chorus.
All change in the Bravery camp, it would appear. Gone are the silly haircuts, black nail-polish and ‘80s-influenced synth-rock, replaced by a fairly standard rock approach that sits somewhere between Feeder and The Killers and even references Bryan Adams. Get over the shock and it’s not at all bad, although whether their audience will go with them remains to be seen.
The Automatic’s third single restores them to the realms of candyfloss indie dross. Previous single ‘Raoul’ may not have been half bad in a Killers-meets-The Futureheads kind of way. But ‘Monster’ suggests The Automatic are just another slice of great white hype. Heaving with synth riffs, hints of ska, teen lunacy and dumb chorus lines, ‘Monster’ is as irritating as it is poor.
Doubtless buoyed by their success in the Hot Press Readers' Poll, The Killers have confirmed a Main Stage appearance at Oxegen, which takes place on July 9 and 10 in Punchestown.
Say what you will about these over-styled upstarts – they can certainly deliver the tunes. Greased with a generous slick of sexed-up ‘80s vigour and keyboard-electronica, it’s fairly easy to see where those Killers comparisons stemmed from. Like their indie brethren, The Bravery excel in ambitious, forceful, intricately textured anthems.
Where The Killers and Interpol play karaoke with Joy Division’s legacy, BSP pay closer attention: ‘It Ended On An Oily Stage’ is a funereal romp that would make marble weep. That’s a recommendation, by the way.
Ahead of their long-play debut, Myths Of The Near Future, comes the Londoners’ second major label single. And while ‘Magick’ was a pompous affair which, if it could talk, would have said, “Ooooh, look how kooky and different we are,” they’ve thankfully dropped that façade. ‘Golden Skans’ (what’s a ‘skan’?) is less electronic and plenty mainstream, but crucially, doesn’t sound forced. It’s vaguely reminiscent of The Killers, and perhaps paves the way they should have gone with ‘Sam’s Town’: a dark, faux-spooky affair which KOs you with killer hook after killer hook. And all this without mentioning ‘new rave’ once.
Considering Marilyn Manson changed from being a rag-wearing societal reject to an alt-fashion icon the nanosecond the opportunity presented itself, it should be no surprise that there’s not a trace of goth left in the band anymore. In fact the only thing to separate ‘Heart Shaped Glasses’, the lead track of Eat Me Drink Me, from Franz Ferdinand’s sound is Mr. Manson’s trademark vocals, which are part of his image. The increasing difference between the product and its packaging is only confirmed by the oh-so-shocking Natural Born Killers-inspired video, which features him and his girlfriend, the inspiration for the track, having (possibly real) sex. Oh, please.
You know you’re getting older when new artists come along who were first inspired to pick up a guitar by Pete Doherty. Glaswegian Amy MacDonald is part of the new wave of musicians, equally versed in all aspects of the medium. What impresses most is that she has both a young and old head on her shoulders. She may take a great deal of her motivation from the sheer thrill of making music and hanging out with bands (her online diary gushes with tales of sitting behind the Killers at the Brits and the like) but ‘Poison Prince’ belies a maturity beyond her years. Her voice is rich and clear and the song marries a mainstream sheen with the kind of Scottish folk twang so beloved of the missing in action Sons And Daughters. An album follows in the summer, I’d keep an eye out if I were you.
It is very difficult to get any debate going about the banning of Natural Born Killers. The reasons are obvious. Since the film has been banned, not many people in Ireland have seen it.
"...no-one will accuse One Night Only of re-inventing the wheel, but their sure-footed songcraft, and earnest, unfussy delivery earmarks them as potential upper echelon chart botherers."
Ferree takes an unequivocal delight in his freewheeling approach to music, skipping playfully from the jaunty opening ditty ‘In The Countryside’, to the skittish swagger of the garage rock tinged ‘Dog Killers!’.
Directors and their wives have, down the ages, accounted for a hell of a lot of used celluloid. Sometimes, as in the case of Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate on The Fearless Vampire Killers, they’ve only just found love on the casting couch. Then there are the genuine married muses of cinema – Anna Karina for Jean-Luc Godard, Gena Rowlands for John Cassavetes, Melissa Mounds for Russ Meyers.
New Order are giants, the four-piece that saved guitar pop. At a terribly dull time in the '80s, they brought the rush of possibilities of electronic music to the knuckle-dragging indie masses and added sophistication, sex and mystery to their genre of choice, a genre dying on its arse. Every guitar band that has added electronica to its palette without fear of the sky falling in – from U2 to The Killers – owes New Order a cut.
New Order are giants, the four-piece that saved guitar pop. At a terribly dull time in the '80s, they brought the rush of possibilities of electronic music to the knuckle-dragging indie masses and added sophistication, sex and mystery to their genre of choice, a genre dying on its arse. Every guitar band that has added electronica to its palette without fear of the sky falling in – from U2 to The Killers – owes New Order a cut.
Senile old men, feline old women, pillars of society, killers in search of notoriety and *a guy wearing plastic antlers [who] presses his bum against the glass.* Times may change, empires may rise and fall, but the characters who populate Nick Cave's world remain as lunatic as ever.
The Killers wrapped up Oxegen for another year but not before the 80,000 music fans in attendance saw the likes of Arcade Fire (pictured), Kings Of Leon, The Gossip, Klaxons and Brian Wilson.
Let us now praise famous women. 2003 was the year of the female condition in all its most gorgeous and gruesome. Sure, the boys – and men – acquitted themselves admirably, but this year oestrogen overload didn’t necessarily equate with PMT (Pro-Minstrel Attention).
You may not have been able to see the banned movie Showgirls in an Irish cinema or take it home from your local video store but that doesn t mean Irish viewers were prevented from catching it on the small screen. peter murphy reports on how satellite television avails of EU regulations to exploit a loophole in the Irish censorship laws.
You may not have been able to see the banned movie Showgirls in an Irish cinema or take it home from your local video store but that doesn t mean Irish viewers were prevented from catching it on the small screen. peter murphy reports on how satellite television avails of EU regulations to exploit a loophole in the Irish censorship laws.
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?
Hitmen are hot. Ain’t it always the way? You can never find a well dressed, cold blooded killer when you need one, then half a dozen all come along at once.
“I grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and we used to say, ‘You can get further with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word’.”
- Robert De Niro as Al Capone in The Untouchables
ALTHOUGH Poe senior was getting severely inebriated he came to the conclusion that he was having a splendid time. Having just finished a large four-course meal in the company of some charming friends, he had managed to play some Elgar on his guitar, had got involved in some riveting discussions on the state of music today and now, with a lopsided paper hat on his head, swayed off down the dark cobbled streets towards the bay for a bit of fresh night air.
Annual article: Bright young things like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen captured the HP critics’ hearts this year, though they somehow neglected Johnny Cash and Mark Lanegan...
Having spent the summer in Europe wowing huge festival audiences, Royseven are now concentrating on matters of a domestic nature. Phil Udell joins them as they experience the highs, lows and drunken dancing eejits of the Irish live circuit.
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.
Louis Walsh and Bono suffer a roasting as Echo And The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch talks to Hot Press about life as an indie-pop legend and explains why he’s rock music’s answer to Frank Sinatra.
It's eyes down and no conferring as Colm Russell asks We Are Scientists about their new album, intra-band bullying and why Alex Turner wouldn't know a hit single if it bit him in the ass.
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?
The border counties may not exactly be a hotbed of indie rock but that hasn’t stopped Monaghan hopefuls The Flaws from producing one of the year’s most mesmerising debuts.
…In October, actually. The reunited band’s guitarist and songwriter, Gary Kemp, talks about their rivalry with Duran Duran, inspiring Quentin Tarantino and the group’s long association with Ireland.
Danielle Brigham catches up with new Britrock darlings The Futureheads to discuss their recent gigs in, respectively, a ski resort and the biggest shopping mall in the world, touring with Franz Ferdinand, appearing on The OC soundtrack and their collaboration with Bloc Party.
How does a parent react when a teenage son commits a horrific murder? In what has been a surprise best-seller, Lionel Shriver has confronted a taboo subject – with chilling results.
...Or is it? Mani has definitely NOT left Primal Scream, despite recent reports to the contrary from none other than Ian Brown. "The last time I spoke to Mani," Brown told us this weekend, "he was sending two kids to dangle that Gillespie out the window"
Donegal rockers The Revs have been ensconced in Malmo’s prestigious Yellow Studios for the last three months working on the eagerly anticipated follow-up to Suck. Steve Cummins joins the group in Malmo for an exclusive listen to what many expect to be their breakthrough album.
Can you see the Forrest for the Gump? Can you explain the cultural phenomenon of Steven Seagal in English plain enough for Seagal himself to understand? Did you recognise any of the actors hiding beneath moustaches in Wyatt Earp, Tombstone and Gettysburg? Are you ready for the fourth annual X-mas rated Blow Up Movie Quiz?
Oh, well, give it a go anyway. Now we separate the movie buffs from the people who have got something more interesting to do than spend all day hanging around cinemas and reading Hot Press. Answers can be found on page 99 but anyone caught peeking will have to live with the knowledge that they are a dirty, rotten, good for nothing, low down cheat. Good luck. And remember, this quiz is just like a box of chocolates . . . you’ll feel sick when you’ve finished.
A full 17 years after their acclaimed eponymous debut exploded onto the American alt-rock landscape, Milwaukee malcontents The Violent Femmes are back with a new album (Freak MAgnet) and the same old typically off-kilter worldview. Interview: PETER MURPHY.
Live at the Marquee on Friday June 29: They were the gaudiest of the ‘80s pop sensations. 20 years on, Duran Duran leader Simon Le Bon explains why the good time boys are a band for the long haul.
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
Best known as the author of the modern noir classic LA Confidential, JAMES ELLROY is back in the spotlight with his new book The Cold 6000, a factional encounter with late 20th century America.
Here, the straight-talking Ellroy tells why JFK was second-rate and J. Edgar Hoover a fiend, why Bill Clinton is a horrible human being and George W. Bush not as bad as we think, and why Martin Luther King was the greatest American man of the last century
Words: DANNY ILEGEMS
Manic Street Preachers have turned the guitars down, but not the bile. A slimline James Dean Bradfield tells a pleasantly plump Stuart Clark why John F. Kennedy, Billy Connolly and Jesus Christ Superstar are in league with Satan. Or words to that effect.
Amid rumours and press reports that his career could be at an end, Larry Mullen reveals the truth about the extent of an injury to his hand that is becoming a common problem for rock drummers. Interview: Niall Stokes
As Joy Division, and then New Order, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris have been responsible for some of the most spellbinding, groundbreaking and downright brilliant music of the past twenty-five years. With their new album Waiting For The Sirens' Call in the top 10, the legendary trio here sound-off about the legions of bands they’ve influenced, Madchester, Ian Curtis, 24 Hour Party People, Bez, Gwen Stefani, and why they intend to continue their quest for sonic innovation for some time yet.
May 10 saw a crowd of several thousand take part in a pro-cannabis rally outside the Dáil. However, political expediency and media scaremongering mean that misinformation about the drug continues to be rife.
EAMONN McCANN reports on detailed, eye-witness claims of the Catholic Church’s involvement in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 – and of the Vatican’s efforts to protect the guilty
If I ever attempt to write the Irish novel please feel free to kill me . Best-selling thriller writer JOHN CONNOLLY assures GEORGE BYRNE that he only has murder and mayhem on his mind.
From piano-plonking crooners to nihilistic electro-pop duos, the UK and US are bursting at the seams with fresh talent in 2007. Could there be a new Arctic Monkeys out there somewhere?
Veteran 2FM DJ Larry Gogan was honoured by IRMA earlier this month, in recognition of the forty years he has spent at the top of his profession. To mark the occasion, Hot Press catches up with the presenter to discuss the beginnings of his career during the showband era, how Irish music has changed down through the years – and the time he earned Larry Mullen's thanks for playing U2 records despite the protestations of station chiefs.
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
The new year, according to some astrologer or other, was a very good time for making resolutions, as long as you got on with them from the start. If you’ve left it ’til now, forget it. Depending on your particular weakness, you might be just as well off.
the jon spencer blues explosion
are the hippest, baddest,
sleaziest, sweatiest, sexiest, sickest, noisiest,
in-your-face-est rock n roll
act to come out of America
for a loooooong time.
colm o hare joined them on the road to Manchester.
Belfast human rights lawyer PAT FINUCANE was shot dead in his home by the UFF ten years ago. There has long been a suspicion that the security forces colluded in his assassination. Recent developments do nothing to alter that belief. By NIALL STANAGE.
He’s spent years trying to live down his bubble-gum pop days but, two decades after the event, former hearthrob Jason Donovan is finally going back to his roots.
The Smiths: the band who helped re-write the book of guitar rock, the indie darlings who became mainstream legends, the dream of a group which gave the world the unique reality of Morrissey. guitarist Johnny Marr recalls the thrilling heyday of Manchester’s finest.
In Zaire, Irish journalist David Orr stumbles upon a village massacre, part of a horrific epidemic of tribal slaughter which the country's authorities seem in no rush to end.
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
Re-telling the story of September 11 with a measured hand and lightness of touch hithertoo unhinted at, director Oliver Stone proves a more serious thinker than his paranoia-soaked canon would suggest. Here, he explains how his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam framed his outlook on life and art.
Sometimes it's hard to be a woman, especially when it involves piling on layers of latex, strapping on corsets, and getting to grips with false eyelashes. And yet, whether it's Kurt Cobain donning a scruffy frock, Robin Williams in full matronly guise for Mrs Doubtfire, or the 6'7 Ru Paul co-presenting The Brits, transvestism seems to have acquired a stronger multi-media allure than ever before. Andy Darlington examines the portrayal of TVs in cinema and the arts, and considers the sexual and social implications of the ancient art of cross-dressing.
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.
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.
Could a serial killer be behind a rash of disappearances in Dublin and neighbouring counties over the past two decades? And might the murderer now be behind bars? Craig Fitzsimons untangles a dark and disturbing tale and wonders whether the truth of what happened will really ever become known.
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
The reclassification of cannabis in Britain was a good day for the UK’s estimated five million users. But not a great day. A drug that is much less damaging than alcohol or tobacco remains illegal in most parts of the world, including Ireland, a situation which criminalises the user and benefits only the criminal gangs. It’s high time for a change, argues Olaf Tyaransen.
East Timor may be out of the headlines but for those on the ground the problem in that ravaged country is less one of re-building than of almost total construction from scratch. MACDARA DOYLE reports.
Seven years after his last solo LP, David Holmes lost his father. That trauma, and working on the Bobby Sands-era drama Hunger, seem to have brought a new humanity to his work.
Moviehouse meets the creative team behind King Arthur, the rollicking action-adventure story shot on location in County Wicklow. just don’t mention the Irish weather.
She learned her craft with the Wild Oscars and Kaydee, and more recently featured on the John Hughes album Wild Ocean. Now, Tara Blaise has taken flight with the release of her debut album Dancing On Tables Barefoot – a record that unveils an impressively free-spirit and a desire to live life to the full.
Kenny Egan brought back a silver medal for Ireland from the Olympic Games – but almost everyone agrees it should have been gold. A national sporting hero, he tells Hot Press of his plans for the future...
It's been a long strange trip and no mistake, one that describes a discernible line from
Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music through to the Handsome Family.
But there's even more going on beneath the surface. GREIL MARCUS, the music critic's music critic,
is PETER MURPHY's guide on a mystery train whose other passengers include Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, Mark Twain, Nick Cave, The Blair Witch, Bill Clinton, The Band, Siniad O'Connor, Beck, William Burroughs, William Faulkner and Bob Dylan. And that's just the first class carriage. All aboard
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
RICHARD BROPHY journeyed to the Czech Republic to see CJ Boland perform at the Summer of Love dancefest. But the trip included encounters with lunatic drivers and Beretta-toting security men, too. Pics: Peter Matthews.
Champagne corks were popped last week as Snow Patrol joined that elite group of bands who’ve simultaneously topped the charts in Ireland and the UK. It’s all a far cry from the days when their fame was confined to the University of Dundee Students Union bar. Gary Lightbody takes time out from wowing the masses in Dublin and Belfast to tell Stuart Clark about their twisty and turny route to the top.
Since writing her book The Morning After: Sex, Fear And Feminism, author Katie Roiphe has been subjected to an unprecedented level of private and public vilification for her outspoken views on rape. Here, she talks to Liam Fay about the growing complexity of sexual politics in the States.
Pix: Cathal Dawson.
He began working in music as a drummer, but Dave Pennefather's greatest success has been as MD of Universal Music. Hot Press looks back over the life and times of a man with a larger than life reputation.
Never mind pressies and OD’ing on cranberry sauce, the important thing about Christmas is that it signals the return of the HP-10 Summit. Absolutely no blushes are spared as Ireland’s rock ‘n’ roll elite dissects the musical year that was 2006. Keeping order: Stuart “Paxman” Clark. Taking photos: Graham “Paparazzi” Keogh. Taking the piss: Eyebrowy
Never mind pressies and OD’ing on cranberry sauce, the important thing about Christmas is that it signals the return of the HP-10 Summit. Absolutely no blushes are spared as Ireland’s rock ‘n’ roll elite dissects the musical year that was 2006. Keeping order: Stuart “Paxman” Clark. Taking photos: Graham “Paparazzi” Keogh. Taking the piss: Eyebrowy.
Neil Jordan's controversial new film Interview With The Vampire has angered both the gay community, who objected to the dilution of the movie's homoerotic content, and the author of the novel from which it is adapted, Anne Rice, who disagreed with the choice of Hollywood golden boy Tom Cruise in the starring role.
However, with Anne Rice conspicuously recanting and the critics in the U.S. responding rapturously, signs are that this is one Vampire which won't lay down and die. Report: Helena Mulkerns
They were the coolest band on the planet – until the backlash started. Now The Strokes have released their most ambitious album yet. Can they leave their past behind?
Renewing acquaintances with Hot Press, a chipper Noel Gallagher reveals how he helped Italy bag the World Cup, explains why Oasis are better than U2 – sort of – and tells us about the band’s new 'best of' collection.
Bobby Gillespie's still staying up all night but now it's because there's a baby in the house. Otherwise, it's all systems go for Primal Scream at their bunker hq - Witnness cometh, Mani's back and Kate Moss, Kevin Shields, Robert Plant and AndrewWeatherall all feature on the groundbreaking evil high
. . . Or not, as the case may be. In this extremely revealing interview with peter murphy, henry rollins speaks frankly about relationships, violence, depression, squaring up to Al Pacino and the problems that come with a life lived on the road
Alex Barclay used to write about fashion and beauty products. Now she’s a best-selling crime author with a lucrative book deal. What sets her apart from other whodunnit writers is her forensic eye for detail and chilling mastery of plot. She’s just getting started, she tells Peter Murphy.
In a world exclusive interview, Morrissey sets the record straight on sex, religion, politics, David Bowie and his Irish heritage, and casts a Trinny & Susannah-esque eye over Brian Cowen
There s very little torture involved in making a record until it s released and then the audience gets to suffer. PETER MURPHY meets the one and only LYDIA LUNCH.
On Sunday 16 October a unique event takes place in The Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, as the climax of the 1994 Dublin Theatre Festival. Organised by Amnesty International, Voices Of The Disappeared is intended to highlight their campaign on “ Disappearances” and Political Killings. Stuart Carolan reports.
From circus dwarves, incest and lesbian love affairs to severed organs and transvestite Indian brothels, John Irving’s novels are awash with enough tales of screwball sex and lurid violence to make even Quentin Tarantino blush. With his mammoth new 633-page novel A Son Of The Circus just published, the multi-million selling New Hampshire author indulges in a spot of verbal wrestling with liam fay, who discovers why he should keep this particular tête-à-tête purely literary. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
GARBAGE are a band who absorb all the detritus, darkness and despair of the pre-millennial zeitgeist and spit it back out in a torrent of searing guitars, futuristic technological trickery and lyrics that freeze the blood. They've also made two of the most sinister pop records of modern times - the second of which, Version 2.0, is due for imminent release. PETER MURPHY met them in London to discuss sex, surveillance, studio strife, pre-2000 tension and their special fondness for The Beach Boys.
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.
Bono, Adam and Larry. Not to mention the self-styled King Boogaloo himself, Mr B. P. Fallon, whose new book U2: Faraway So Close offers an intimate visual and verbal diary of the band’s world-record shattering ZOO TV tour. For good measure the, um, also self-styled Mr Ramalama talks about Jimi Hendrix and the Mafia connection, toting guns with Tone Loc, giving Little Richard a hard-on, and other little, um, side voyages into other territories, man. Er, tape recorder thingy: Joe Jackson.
He may unashamedly refer to himself as an artist and others may caricature him as a cold fish, but even if he suspects he has spent too much time writing and not enough living, john banville bears scant resemblance to the pompous boffin of popular prejudice. With the publication of his latest novel, The Untouchable, the acclaimed author gets his round in with liam fay. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
And so, unbelievably another year has bitten the dust. Here, continuing a tradition as Christmassy as the eating of turkey and the consumption of way too much alcohol, The Hog reflects on a turbulent year, when we all grew older and much, much wiser.
If you’re Randy Newman you’ll also need a piano, some borrowed dominants and lashings of irony. And that’s just for starters. Joe Jackson hears about the private, public and musical lives of one of American music’s most singular talents.
Full profiles on Faithless, Antony & The Johnsons, Slayer, The Who, Bell X1, Status Quo, The Flaming Lips, 50 Cent, Madness, Christy Moore, Elton John and Lionel Richie.
The author and former Conservative MP on clashing with Ian Paisley, shaking hands with Gerry Adams, sex and drugs in the house of commons, what Margaret Thatcher did and didn’t know about her closest aides and why kissing and telling on John Major is justified
There’s no pipe of peace – in fact no pipe at all from the non-smoking sinn féin leader – as Olaf Tyaransen asks if, given Osama Bin Laden’s use of terror as a political weapon, Gerry Adams might not have some sympathy for the world’s most wanted man. that question and other contentious queries relating to the IRA, Jean McConville and the murder of Garda Jerry McCabe are dealt with in an interview which also takes in Eoghan Harris, George Bush and Bono, and ends with the interviewee humming a familiar Monty Python tune.
WITH ITS RESOUNDING ECHOES OF THE TROUBLES, THE WAR BETWEEN THE BASQUE SEPARATIST GROUP ETA AND THE SPANISH STATE REMAINS BLOODY AND SEEMINGLY INTRACTABLE. WITH HIS FIRST BOOK, DIRTY WAR, CLEAN HANDS, IRISH JOURNALIST PADDY WOODWORTH PRESENTS A COMPELLING BUT OFTEN HARROWING ACCOUNT OF HOW VIOLENCE DEFEATS POLITICS AND TERROR BEGETS TERROR. AND, REFLECTING ALSO ON HIS OWN PAST POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT WITH SINN FÉIN, HE TELLS JOE JACKSON HOW HE HAS COME AROUND TO THE VIEW THAT TALKING IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN WAR. AUTHOR PORTRAITS: CATHAL DAWSON.
John Banville places himself among some of the century’s most celebrated and notorious figures, in a frank interview which sees one of Ireland’s most revered and controversial writers musing on the raging battle between high art and popular culture, not to mention the war between the sexes . . . Tape: Joe Jackson Pix: Cathal Dawson
The HP-7 Summit is back with Michelle Doherty, Rocky O'Reilly, Niall Breslin, Mark Greaney, Niamh Farrell, Messiah J and Danny O'Donoghue sat around the only table that matters this Christmas.
The task facing SEÁN HAUGHEY is a daunting one: to attempt to emulate the achievements of his father, a man who spent decades at the very centre of Irish public life. Liam Fay talks to the most famous moustache in politics about life, love and the pursuit of happiness, and asks: is Dáil Éireann to be the House of the Rising Son? Pix: COLM HENRY.
From dark age to middle age, Nick Cave is such a far cry from the blood-spilling junkie of rock legend that these days you’re likely to encounter him commuting to his 9 to 5. Except of course that his job is writing and making music, his new album is called Nocturama and there are, he admits, some sizeable blow-outs in the memory banks.
Long before boomtime Ireland there was boomtown Ireland, a country where the national symbol was not a tiger but a rat. to coincide with the release of the best of the boomtown rats, Bob Geldof looks back to the tepid Irish scene of the mid-’70s from which the rats emerged, biting, snarling and laughing, to take on the establishment, Britain and, almost, the world.
As U2 gear up for the release of No Line On The Horizon, they meet HP to talk about the creation of their latest masterwork, meeting world leaders, the way they’re perceived in Ireland, the current state of the music business and their future plans.
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.
Commander of the notorious Company C of the UDA in Belfast, Johnny Adair was given 16 years for directing terrorism. While he was never convicted of murder, the rumour mill suggests that he has been reponsible for as many as 43 deaths.
Fr Shay Cullen, an Irish Columban Missionary priest, tells Jason O’Toole about falling in love, the battle against corruption in the Philipines, the scourge of western sex tourism – and why the Irish government isn’t doing enough to protect children from paedophiles.
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.
For close to twenty years, MARTIN CAHILL led the forces of law and order a merry dance. Known as the General, he was suspected of masterminding virtually every major crime committed in Ireland – but for as long as matters, the Gardai had been unable to pin anything on him. And when he was brought to court on petty charges, he posed outside for press photographers, dropping his trousers to reveal a pair of Mickey Mouse boxer shorts. Last week, however, the game was cut brutally short when Cahill was blown away within 100 yards of his South Dublin home by an IRA hit squad. Report: NEIL McCORMICK.
Not content with bringing you the cream of new Irish and overseas talent, this year’s Hard Working Class Heroes festival has rounded-up some prominent industry names to participate in its workshops and panel discussions.
Turning 30 has made Hot Press feel a bit geriatric, but we’re mere kids compared to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which celebrates its 40th birthday this year.
Songs of Praise will launch their new clubnight on October 15, promising to bring the madness that is Songs of Praise Rock + Roll karaoke to a whole new level.
The line-up for this year's Oxegen festival is getting bigger and better with the addition of many new Irish and international acts, including UK indie kids Editors.
Having been available for the past four years as a white label 12”, Tim Wheeler’s collaboration with legendary dance producer Arthur Baker is finally receiving a commercial release.
The Fundamentals are set to release their debut single ‘Brother’ on November 21 in Flannery’s in Kilkenny on Decadent Records, with a nationwide tour to follow.
New Order will play this summer's Oxegen festival and there is a strong possibility that Queens Of The Stone Age and the Cocteau Twins will also be added to the bill
HOTPRESS is encouraging the real fans of music and sport to let us know who is ripping you off! Contact us on outatout@hotpress.ie or call (01) 241 1500 to tip us off. The fans must stand up and play their part in the Out A Tout campaign. The time for complaining is over. The time for action is now.
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 first issue of (RED)Wire digital music magazine will be available for download on December 1 to coincide with World AIDS Day. It's the latest initiative from (RED), the HIV/AIDS organisation whose prime movers include Bono.
Extreme heat can provoke strange reactions. People lose the ability to fret over pointless dilemmas. Such as: do I watch New Order or the Super Furry Animals? Or, when are Audioslave on and is there time to visit the loo first?
Fresh from supporting Foo Fighters in the States, Supergrass roll into Dublin for a brace of low-key gigs in preparation for their Cois Fharraige headline slot.
This showcase concert was sponsored by Jack Daniels, so punters began the night on what was a happy note for those who like their drink with a bit of fire in it, with a complementary bourbon.
In a manner befitting their name, various setbacks and the loss of over a hundred demos have meant the follow up to the Delays’ widely under-rated 2004 debut has endured a difficult birth. The wait, however, has been worth it.
Russell Crowe, Keanu Reeves, Minnie Driver, Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeff Bridges, David Hasselhoff, Patrick Swayze…the list of Hollywood A-Listers who’ve made unlistenable records is depressingly long.
It was therefore with much trepidation – and a fresh bottle of vitriol – that I approached this debut six-tracker from Juliette Lewis who’s suddenly decided she wants to be a punk.
The first live Brits since 1989 took place at Earl's Court in London last night, with Lily Allen walking away empty-handed despite being the most nominated artist.
Amanda Byram was today unveiled as the host of this year’s Meteors Awards and nominees for 2009 were revealed - as well as the fact that Sharon Shannon would receive a lifetime achievement award.
Out of the ashes of a fairly unassuming Dublin outfit called Listo, Humanzi have arisen, phoenix-style, to become our new Great White Hope and the frontrunner of a new music scene.
More than another group of wannabes hoofing together the latest trendy noise, Bloc Party are a ridiculously sophisticated outfit and Silent Alarm is a most gratifying piece of aural amusement.
Spitting expletives and wearing costumes that would turn heads in a Berlin S&M dungeon, The Warlords Of Pez are here to save Ireland from the po-faced musicians who threaten to take the island over.
Mr And Mrs Smith is all about the pitch; two deadly assassins are married without knowing it! Then an assignment brings them into direct competition! It’s a full-scale battle of the sexes with Vince Vaughn quipping from the sidelines! Then they find a common enemy! Coasting along on this dizzyingly high concept jiggery, Doug Liman’s blissfully empty-headed popcorn flick offers the seductive spectacle of two of the planet’s most prepossessing movie stars attempting to kill and fuck each other, often at the same time.
Located somewhere at the nexus between horror and science fiction, Isolation imaginatively transplants the squelching grand guignol of Alien onto a desolate Hibernian landscape.
For those who’d prefer not to listen to the shrill cockney choruses of Carol Reed’s 1967 musical version, this slavishly faithful adaptation should hit the spot, if, of course, one feels inclined to revisit such an overly familiar Dickens’ tale.
It all comes down to this. After making their way through their respective heats, Cork’s Lotus Lullaby and Waterford’s Ashley Sheehan & The Mute gathered in Cyprus Avenue for the final of Murphy’s Live and a winning prize of two grand’s worth of recording time.
Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer broke her foot yesterday after she was hit by a car; but the determined singer still managed to play a stunner in Auntie Annie's that night.
At the risk of sounding snotty, I can think of far more appealing ways to spend my time than sitting in darkened cinemas watching people being tied to chairs and brutalised with knives
There’s nothing worse than staggering out of the traps when the winner has already been declared, and Douglas McGrath’s Truman Capote biopic, arriving after last year’s highly regarded, Oscar-winning film, has something of the bridesmaid about it.
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.
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.
HOTPRESS is encouraging the real fans of music and sport to let us know who is ripping you off! Contact us on outatout@hotpress.ie or call (01) 241 1500 to tip us off. The fans must stand up and play their part in the Out A Tout campaign. The time for complaining is over. The time for action is now.
Whatever the musical merits and demerits of this debut album, you can be sure of one thing: the grunts and dog soldiers in the Sony frontline will not allow it to fail.
With last year's Swoon Prefab Sprout managed to divide critical opinion into two distinct camps: those who regarded Paddy McAloon as a modern-day Al Stewart, self-consciously sensitive, a wimp, and others who felt that 'Swoon' was the glittering emergence of a major new songwriter. I'm firmly in the latter category.
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.
Elevator is safer-sounding, less adventurous and less exciting than their last blast Make Up The Breakdown, an evolution possibly not unrelated to their being snapped up by a major label. The intimidating energy level remains undiminished, and there still isn’t a note out of place - all that’s missing is anything resembling a sharp edge. At its worst, the frantic cramming of hooks and harmony vocals can create a faintly twee, sugary effect, conjuring spectres of an amped-up They Might Be Giants. At its best, there’s more than enough bite and balls in the guitar work to render such objections irrelevant.
Men out of time, The Verve were a neo-psychedelic jam-rock outfit who got fortuitously swept up in the Britpop boom and stumbled upon a timely form of Big Music.
You think you have a basic understanding of someone, and then Hollywood goes and makes an incredible movie about them and puts your knowledge to shame. That's just what audiences experience with Director Bennet Miller's eye-opening Capote.
DID we really imagine that it might be any different? What was it that created the expectation that Drumcree would not become another celebration of Orange supremacism in 1997? Looking back now over the events of the past few weeks, it s hard to believe that we were naive enough to hold out any hope of a compromise. It s hard to believe that we did not see the writing on the wall.
“ROSE-mair-ee!” yells a sold-out Olympia along with Paul Banks, as the Morse-code bassline of ‘Evil” jitters away beneath. “HEAV-en re-STORES you in LIFE!” So, yes, onstage it looks like Interpol: five smart-suited gentlemen throwing rock shapes in a graveyard-mist fug that is ‘lit’ (if you can say that about a near-dark stage) in their trademark two colours, black and dark red. But turn around to face tonight’s all-singing, all-dancing crowd, and you could be at an Oasis concert circa Definitely Maybe.
Many of these gorgeous songs, which are steeped in mournful pedal steel (especially the thematically representative ‘Sex, War and Robots’) and couched in intricate arrangements, deal directly with broken relationships and war.
Senile old men, feline old women, pillars of society, killers in search of notoriety and "a guy wearing plastic antlers [who] presses his bum against the glass." Times may change, empires may rise and fall, but the characters who populate Nick Cave's world remain as lunatic as ever.
Senile old men, feline old women, pillars of society, killers in search of notoriety and "a guy wearing plastic antlers [who] presses his bum against the glass." Times may change, empires may rise and fall, but the characters who populate Nick Cave's world remain as lunatic as ever.
Tokyo is like a sci-fi version of the West – plus, the people are immaculately polite, the trains run on time and the chances of something unpleasant befalling you are virtually zero.
Songwriters have been adopted alternate identities for decades now but few have gone so deeply into ‘character’ as Martin Corrigan, or, as he would prefer to be called, John Edgar Voe
Hordes of penny-pinching citizens of the Republic have fled to the North in search of, at best, a 4% saving on their Christmas shopping. Are their brains functioning properly?
Here it is Oxegen-goers: all you need to know about the coming weekend festival including transport, camping, opening times, what to bring, etc. etc. etc.
In the first installment of Hot Press' Oxegen coverage, Phil Udell, Steve Cummins and John Walshe pick out their personal favourites of the weekend. This Thursday's Hot Press will feature extended coverage from Kim Porcelli & Ed Power as well as more exclusive photos from Liam Sweeney, Graham Keogh & Andrew Duffy - PLUS the Phantom reports from backstage!
Online Gallery Of Live Shots Here
As 1993 draws to a close, considerable optimism is being expressed about the possibility of bringing peace to Northern Ireland. But no process or initiative grounded in Catholic Nationalism can bring about enduring peace, says Eamonn McCann.
“The best four million pounds I ever spent,” beamed Dermot Desmond last month from the front page of Celtic View, the official magazine of Glasgow Celtic FC.
TRUE ROMANCE (Directed by Tony Scott. Starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken)
One of Ireland's most beloved dance emporiums has shut its doors, blaming plummeting CD sales. But it may soon be back, as a vinyl-only store. Is the future of music retail in Ireland?
The world is full of well-meaning people making things worse.
After the murder of the three Quinn children, well-meaners jammed the lines to phone-in programmes with suggestions, for example, that a covered walk-way should be constructed along the length of the Garvaghy Road
He was the underclass delinquent who almost became a chess grandmaster and then stumbled into literary acclaim. John Healy looks back upon a life less ordinary.
Too many gardai with guns; the international role of the soldiers of bigotry; and a potentially significant advance in abortion law in Northern Ireland.
It's Bruce and the band given a new coat of paint by producer Brendan O’ Brien, who through his work with bands like Pearl Jam, knows a thing or two about gut feeling and mile-high noise
Last winter, as the cold set in and rock ‘n’ roll seemed about as useful as a paper piss-pot, you could almost hear the voices from the back of Madison Square Gardens hollering, “Bruce, why hast thou forsaken us?”
There are fewer refugees living in Ireland than there are Irish emigrants in Munich, but that hasn’t stopped Justice Minister John O’Donoghue, however inadvertently, whipping up race hate on the refugee issue.
The opening night of a U2 tour can be fraught with peril. But in the Camp Nou in Barcelona tonight they exorcised the demons of previous tours and started on a winning note. Report: Olaf Tyaransen
It hasn’t been an easy time to raise political arguments. I was on UTV’s Counterpoint programme the Thursday after the Greysteel massacre and had sharpened my thoughts in advance for cut-and-thrust interplay with ex-UDA chief Glen Barr, Gregory Campbell of the Democratic Unionists and Mark Durkin of the SDLP.
Q: Which top Irish quiz-masters’ pathological obsessions include Something Happens, Shamrock Rovers and the amount of shopping days left to the next Suede gig? A: George “You Started, So I’ll Finish” Byrne
