Though he styles himself as a singer-songwriter, this English Son and former squaddie (who served in Kosovo) comes across as one of those earnest, Pop Idol pretty-boy types with acoustic guitar and floppy haircut – you know the kind!
DIY r’n’b artiste, support act to the new-garage glitterati and unlikely sex-bomb Har Mar gets undressed for success. Superstar skinning up Kim Porcelli
Julie Feeney, Ron Wood and Kazakhstan’s answer to Will Young are just some of the artists who’ve availed of Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott’s Dublin studio. He talks about life as a budding recording mogul
Shakespear s Sister siobhAN FAHEY makes her acting debut in a powerful new short movie that goes to the heart of the Dublin heroin epidemic. Here, she tells craig fitzsimons about the legitimate highs of working in both music and film.
The lure of regular nine-to-five work is exerting a powerful gravitational pull – but Portrush four piece Patio Sounds are determined to stick it out and spread the word about their intriguing brand of idiosyncratic pop.
An estimated 100,000 people showed up in the Phoenix Park for the O2 sponsored gig that featured Samantha Mumba, Ronan Keating, Mundy, Six, David Kitt and Kells' rock outfit Turn. Would one of the local scenes hottest contenders shine brightly enough to win the hearts of the nation’s pop kids?
Never mind CD:UK, Top Of The Pops and Later With Jools – you really know you’ve made it when the phone rings and it’s Sparks telling you they love you. Stuart Clark hears about the irresistible rise of Glasgow hotshots Franz Ferdinand.
She’s the most hyped newcomer since... well, since as long as we can remember. But with her debut album finally here, BBC Sound of '09 winner Little Boots is equal parts nervous and excited.
It's one of the most heartwarming and deserved success stories in music - how Beth Orton learned to cope with illness, rebuilt her career and found herself sharing studios and stages with artists as diverse as Emmylou Harris, Ryan Adams, The Chemical Brothers and David Kitt
From pioneering ambient-trad with Clannad, through to her brand new concept album 'Two Horizons', Moya Brennan can now look back on 30 years of lending her voice and harp to some of the most distinctive music ever to come out of Ireland.
He may not be your average indie kids dream ticket, but Brian Kennedy has lived in very interesting times. An initially promising career was scuppered by record company machinations, but, under the stewardship of Van Morrison, he matured into a remarkably successful solo artist, as well as a respected novelist. Then there were the small matters of performing at George Best's funeral, the recent Eurovision controversy - and his current run at the helm of RTE's flagship summer Saturday night entertainment show.
With Thin Lizzy now officially a thing of the past, Philip Lynott is preparing to start anew with Grand Slam. At this transitional point in his public career Tony Clayton-Lea sought out the private Lynott to ask him his views on a wide range of issues including music, politics, religion, sex, drugs, Ireland, parenthood and rock'n'roll stardom. The result is probably the frankest and most revealing interview Philip Lynott has ever given.
From Dickie Valentine to The Darkness: Andy Darlington dusts the five decades of Christmas records and chats to Slade's Noddy Holder about his haunting ghost of Chris- singles Past.
One of the greatest penslingers in rockdom, he’s championed U2, Joy Division and Kylie and taken a critical scalpel to Oasis, The Strokes and their “miserably narrow mates”. he’s also locked horns with Germaine Greer, helped Frankie to relax and let The Frames slip through his fingers.
Danu may just be the hardest working band in trad. With their fourth album The Road Less Travelled only recently released and another promised for the spring, When Jackie Hayden put a number of key issues to the band’s accordionist Benny McCarthy and bodhran player and uilleann piper Donnchadh Hough he found that they don’t just work hard, they talk hard too.
They blasted into the public consciousness at the end of 2005, when 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor' became the year's biggest breakthrough No.1. Since then it's been an extraordinary rollercoaster ride for the Arctic Monkeys, with bass player trouble, celebrity fans, EastEnders appearances and a row with fellow newcomers The Feeling to show for their efforts. Oh, and then there's the small matter of shifting nearly two million copies of their debut album...
A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
From stardom with Westlife to the breakup of his marriage, and a subsequent attempt to kickstart his solo career, Brian McFadden had an extraordinarily eventful year. With his private life routinely splashed all over the tabloids and controversy currently raging over everything from his latest video to his admiration for Nirvana, he remains in the eye of the storm. In a candid interview with hotpress, he discusses living his life in the media spotlight, his decision to leave Westlife, drink, drugs, sex and the continuing fallout from his break-up with his wife Kerry.
What was remarkable about his first Irish visit in 20 years was how most of the 7,000 or so in attendance all but ignored his tabloid persona, preferring to concentrate on his impeccable pop credentials.
They’re following a blueprint set by The Cramps and the only real difference between them and Dublin underground band The Things is their proximity to A&R men. But woah, do they know how to create an atmosphere.
A surreal start heralds Craig David's appearance: the big screens show a clip from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory of a sweet shop owner and a gang of wide-eyed kids.
According to Conor Deasy, the inspiration for ‘What Ever Happened to Corey Haim’, the lead single from Let’s Bottle Bohemia, is this: “We live in a time when popular culture has reached an all time low. It’s a culture of good fortune and gloating, where really vacant people with nothing to say are idolised.”
The founding father of gangsta rap had his heyday in the early 1990s when his albums went platinum, he was nominated for a Grammy and his explicit lyrics introduced "Parental Advisory"-stickers to CD collections across the world.
Caught In The Net roots out the best and worst of that there information superhighway they call the internet, pardner. This fortnight: The Ozporns and The Hebrew Hammer. Oy
What’s left without the gore? Well, the same demented, tragicomic melancholia to be found within the pages of pretty much everything written by Thom Yorke-favourite, Haruki Murakami, interwoven with traditional Japanese artefacts, such as Bunraki theatre, Noh drums, and skyfuls of hanging cherry blossoms
Superman Returns presents all the iconic standards against a setting that is both contemporary and impossible to place. Remarkably, Singer creates enough spectacle around this familiar mythology to make it seem fresh and cool again.
From rockers on the breadline to the political leader who has turned his mother into a deity, it’s all been grist to the mill of Caught In The Net in 2003. Stuart Clark presents the top ten.
