Ian Pooley s third album, Since Then, is his finest to date. It s also potential crossover material, but that doesn t make any difference to one of house music s most gifted producers. Richard Brophy investigates
The producers of choice for everyone from Justin Timberlake to Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are also earning plaudits for their rock and hip-hop influenced side project, N*E*R*D
Although the acclaimed C Mon Kids was conspicuous by its absence from the
Best-Of-96 polls, The Boo Radleys sice and martin carr aren t bitter. As they prepare for an assault on the States, peter murphy gets the lowdown on their hatred of videos, their contempt for producers and their disapproval of outfits such as Dodgy, The Lightning Seeds and Everything But The Girl.
One of Germany’s most respected DJ/producers weighs in with a mix that includes tracks from minimal luminaries Trentemoller, Thomas Melchior, Robag Wruhme and Steve Bug.
Gothenburg producers Monkeyshop look to Detroit on the bleak and minimal ‘Ancient Cables’, and go grungy and breaky on ‘The Monkey’, while the grimy title track comes across like Bangkok Impact on a bad trip.
Forget all the silliness about German producers re-inventing house/techno and focus your attention on ‘Things’, which takes good old-fashioned deep chords and plunging acid lines into the future.
Forget all the silliness about German producers re-inventing house/techno and focus your attention on ‘Things’, which takes good old-fashioned deep chords and plunging acid lines into the future.
Ubiquity gets their favourite contemporary producers to do covers of their favourite old tunes. Check out This Kid Named Miles’ version of ‘Ring Of Fire’ for proof this is an inspired idea.
Zilske from Smash TV delivers ‘Aura’, a moody, stab-heavy groove that’s too common among German producers, but he compensates with the title track, which rides a mean bass to reach an atmospheric place.
There are too many producers churning out second-rate space disco, so Prins Thomas has decided to put out something moodier. The bassline on ‘Fehrara’ purrs along menacingly and makes the funk-based ‘Is It Big Enough’ on the other side sound tame by comparison.
Two of Europe’s most feted minimal producers get together for a collaboration that’s best listened to in the early hours. Understated beats and out of time bass sequences are combined with sweet, wispy sounds and a soulful vocal to create a serene atmosphere.
This French producer makes most minimal producers sound like amateurs with his raw, screeching take on stripped-back funk. Each track will work in the right situation, but the stomping DBX-influenced title track stands out.
At a time when many producers look to a cold, clinical approach, Andrew Shaw favours warmth and humanity. The reference points are classic Italo and Kraftwerk’s melodic pathos on ‘Sequencers’ and ‘The Spy Theory', while ‘Rumble’ bleeds with an emotion that is all too rare nowadays.
Andy Stott’s one of the few techno producers who makes the 303 sound the way it should – raw, dangerous and exhilirating – and ‘She’s Gone Wrong’’ builds from an understated techno base into a gurgling 303 climax.
Veteran German producers Pascal FEOS and Heiko MSO hook up for this 12-minute romp into the furthest recesses of the Chicago/acid sound. Crisp beats and claps and a scuzzy bass are the basis for a succession of climaxing 303 sequences.
Compost get in on the electro re-issue trend with Academia’s late ‘80s hit, ‘Adventure’. This release focuses on Shep Pettibone’s original remixes. Most modern electro producers could learn a lot from the prowling bass and moody vibes.
Gerard Hanson drops an EP that makes most techno producers sound like amateurs. ‘Interface’ is full of complex yet emotive musical progressions and boasts ‘Translucent Blue Display’, the wiriest techno rhythms since Derrick May last danced ‘The Dance’.
Detroit minimalist Robert Hood’s work as Monobox gets the remix treatment from the new wave of European and US producers he inspired: unsurprisingly, Villalobos, Akufen, Matthew Dear and Pantytec afford Hood’s stripped down techno rhythms the respect they deserve.
Cursor Miner’s ‘Grimewatch’ is based on a splurging bass and cut up rhythms, while sometime drum’n’bass producers Komonasmuk & White Boi’s ‘The Apocalypse’ sounds like the darkest viscous bass of No U-Turn’s back catalogue slowed right down.
New label Gastspiel features releases by obscure producers, but it delivers a wide range of sounds. ‘Ringelpietz’ alternates between the chiming percussion and acidic undercurrents of ‘Ringel’, the moody bass of ‘Pietz’ and the emotive, trance-inspired ‘Anfassen’ – and it beats most established labels’ output.
One of the UK’s greatest producers delves deeper into the world of dub techno: ‘Unknown Exception’s’ introspective layers and gentle bass lurch along, but they drop away suddenly at the midway point and then the track kicks back in as a metallic, minimal groove. Smart and effortlessly sublime.
It’s hard to tell whether this collective of US experimental producers are having a laugh or not, but ‘Rubble’ alternates between offbeat rapping, neo-classical pianos and woodwind pieces, Oriental vocals over industrial breaks and the squeaking sneaker sounds of people playing indoor sports set to a shuffling beat.
The title track achieves what most nouveau trance producers try yet fail, gradually layering subtle melodies over a pulsing rhythm track. But ‘Burger Sichten Falschgeld’ is more impressive, a melodic and evocative hybrid of Frankfurt trance and Chicago house.
The Nottingham DJ duo stick to their rolling tech-house formula on this double CD. Disc one is a mix featuring techy tracks from like minded producers like Da Sunlounge and Hot Toddy, while the second CD boasts their well known productions and remixes.
Speaker-shredding electro by numbers from this Liverpool lad. I know it might be a ‘big tune’, but why can’t producers like this put some effort into things? Oh wait, he has on the ‘Rave’ mix – an excellent arpeggiated bassline, squealing synths and smarter programming making it easier to digest. Predictably better is Joakim’s more refined remix.
It's the kind of record forward thinking producers don't usually have the nerve to attempt – a serious stab at something other than a collection of choons
Featuring acid tracks from every year from the period chosen by German nutter Uwe Schmidt, this compilation shows that, despite the recent so-called revival, the 303 never went away, and underground producers like Plastique, Microsmiles and Tobias Selbermann were churning out acid tracks when it was unfashionable.
Listening to the grainy, bumping electronic bassline and repetitive 303 tones on the title track and the sleazy, low-slung interpretation of tranced out glitch techno that constitutes ‘Trap 2’, it’s clear that ‘Animal’ is the work of two of the most talented and promising techno/house producers in the business.
On ‘Swap’, Lawrence’s melodic take on dubby techno glistens with fragile hooks and mellow acidic sounds. Carsten Jost – one of Germany’s most promising producers – and Serafin both remix ‘Swap’, adding powerful bass undercurrents and clicking off beats to Lawrence’s sublime composition.
Whoever said old punks can’t dance had never heard of Dutch band Oil, who moonlight here as electro producers. With the same white boy guitar, nasal whine and indie strut that Happy Mondays used to sell before things got too druggy, ‘Crack…’ sees the boys’ track bubble with Italo melodies and benefit from a menacing EBM remix from Kid Goesting.
Remember when dance producers weren’t afraid to cut and paste different sounds and styles to create great music? Scandal Inc remember the good old days, as ‘Good Look’ sets old elements, including an infectious hip house rap, haunting electro chords and a classic house vocal sample to a modern track.
Many producers flirt with dub/minimal techno, but few succeed in making a lasting contribution. Thinkertoy, aka Paul Shrimpton and Andrew Wedman, are one of the exceptions. ‘Electric Wilderness’ takes inspiration from German minimalism, but it’s also informed by Global Communcations’ ambience, a classical sensibility, and the brooding, foreboding basslines of Resse techno, which form the basis for ‘Bassalin’ and ‘Pinpin’s Flower Shop’.
After a near ten-year hiatus, German acid duo Hardfloor finally make a comeback. Ramon Zenker and Oliver Bondzio’s re-appearance is timely: so many producers are trying to make 303 trax, but few have the magic formula that runs throughout this new album.
Once in a while, a great album by an unknown producer appears and this year, the great discovery is Milosh. Hailing from Canada, he makes plaintive, reflective electronic music, but what sets him apart from all the other laptop producers is his ability to approach his craft from a pop sensibility. Layered electronic tracks like 'The City' and 'My Life' ooze seductive melodies, while the bittersweet break up narrative of 'It's Over' is a crossover hit in the making. Check out Milosh now before he starts soundtracking teen love scenes on The OC.
Their fifth single sees them still coming up trumps with their choice of producers, and with some sex-sized synth hooks and lyrics about hanging around the kitchen in their underwear is bound to be another huge hit.
There are so many German producers making minimal/dub techno that only the most distinctive sounds stand out: Sender have got it with their visceral funk and, at the other end of the spectrum, Lawrence’s windswept, melodic techno compositions are exceptional.
From the opening bars, you can tell that Soap Opera is the work of a rare talent rather than one of the myriad of faceless producers inspired by Basic Channel. Grummich has developed a distinctive style within the minimal canon and his spiky beats, gnarled bass and deconstructed percussive slivers underpin every track. Irrrespective of whether he is chilling with hypnotic numbers like ‘Incoming’ and ‘Orange Moon’, or going for the dance floor jugular with the mad time signatures of recent single ‘A Roboter’ and the insistent ‘The Animal’, a bold experimental approach defines this mini-masterpiece.
What happens when trip-hop producers stop making credible dance music? On the evidence of James Lavelle’s new Unkle album, they start churning out radio-friendly rock music.
London DJ/producer Will Saul first came to prominence as a breaks DJ, but thankfully, he has subsequently expanded his canon to include seductive house and deep, dubby techno. On ‘Space’, his debut album, he adds some unusual flavours – including African instrumentation – to create a rounded work that has echoes of Mathew Jonson, Charles Webster and the London breaks mafia. So many dance producers talk about making a proper artist album but invariably fail to deliver.
Shout has more in common with minimal-trance producers like Nathan Fake and Gabriel Ananda as the epic chords that underpin the hushed vocals on the title track and the quasi-mystical synth washes of ‘The Captain’ demonstrate.
Some producers have that secret ingredient that means their music stands apart from the increasing volume of records pushed out into the public domain.
Ricky Simmonds and Stephen Jones made their mark with a string of hugely successful epic vocal trance singles under psuedonyms like Chakra, Lustrial and Ascension, before deciding to concentrate on their Space Brothers project and taking the relatively unusual step (for trance producers) of recording an album.
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.
Apart from Donnacha Costello and Dave Donohoe, Irish dance producers have failed spectacularly in their efforts to make a lasting dance album. While Swedish producer Jesper Dahlback co-wrote ‘Disarmed’, his partner in crime is Corkonian Mark O’Sullivan, and their debut is one of the freshest electronic albums of 2005. Apart from their ability to deliver timeless acid trax – ‘The Difference’ and ‘Life Is Everywhere’ – there’s the prickly indie pop of ‘Sweetness In Time’, the downbeat, Joy Division-styled doom of ‘Disarm’ and the mixture of epic dancefloor techno, brooding Dave Gahan-esque vocals and Gothic undercurrents on ‘Where’s The Fun’, ‘Heart Like A Demon’ and ‘Three Souls’. By combining music from opposite ends of the spectrum, DK7 have created something disarmingly compelling.
The Apache Tribe label is an offshoot of a Belfast clothes shop that prides itself on being much more than just a store - a hybrid of modern culture showcasing the previously hidden talents of local DJs and first-time producers from as far afield as South Africa.
Known in Irish music circles as one of the finest producers and accompanists in the business, multi-instrumentalist Garry O Briain has played on over 100 albums, but tends to shun the spotlight himself.
Cass and Slide are progressive house producers - top notch ones, in fact - who are obviously conscious of the fact that it's not really a genre that's best suited to albums
Derrick Carter and Luke Solomon’s Classic stamp reaches its third compilation, and there’s no let up in the quality control department. In a period when so many house producers are still looking to the disco filter as a device to gain attention, it’s revealing that the Classic stable looks to funk sources and employs more subtle, minimal house grooves.
Most big beat producers and DJs have changed their direction during the last few years, dropping the cartoon samples and breaks for twisted house grooves.
To give this release some context, it’s worth noting that When It’s Ajar is not quite a re- mix album. It’s a compilation of re-compositions of Daniel Figgis’ work by prominent producers and musicians from the experimental and electronic music scene.
Los Paranoias began as techno producers in Brighton when it was the UK’s clubbing capital, but now the rock revolution is in full swing, they’re not sure how to realign to the displacement. For their debut album they remain an electronic act, but with the qualification that they play ‘rocking electronica’.
The two producers seem determined to load the kitchen sink onto every track. It's a pity, because Spillane's lovely gentle voice and real songwriting talent would hold up just fine on their own, given half a chance
Wonky was conceived for the eyes and ears as a celebration of the best live bands around sharing a stage with the best new electronic producers with the most entertaining visual backdrop possible courtesy of D.A.D.D.Y. and Del-9
Producers to the stars, Deep Dish have won numerous awards (including two Grammys), supported Madonna, remixed The Stones, Michael and Janet, The Pet Shop Boys and many more, played Versace couture fashion shows, DJed in the world’s most famous clubs, have had plenty of top 20 hits and were voted the second best DJ/ production outfit in the world by Rolling Stone magazine.
Producers to the stars, Deep Dish have won numerous awards (including two Grammys), supported Madonna, remixed The Stones, Michael and Janet, The Pet Shop Boys and many more, played Versace couture fashion shows, DJed in the world’s most famous clubs, have had plenty of top 20 hits and were voted the second best DJ/ production outfit in the world by Rolling Stone magazine.
"14 finger clicking choons from the Sunny South" reads the upful by-line from Southern Fried - a collection of music from producers based in and around the Cork area.
Aside from the obvious, one of the benefits of being in an outfit that sells 38 million albums, I should imagine, would be the chance to work with a reassuringly pricey roll-call of producers. For his first solo project, ex-Cranberries guitarist and writer Noel Hogan has recruited an impressive line-up of sonic doctors, among them Marius De Vries, Stephen Street and Matt Vaughan.
For this his third album, DJ Shadow attempts to shed the “indie rap” tag which sticks so easily to instrumental hip-hop producers. To that end, Shadow collaborates with the likes of Keak Da Sneak, David Banner, and several other rappers. The result is an album which, in places, takes a far more conventionally “rap” direction than previous outings.
Funny how, these days, everything not touched by the hand of Pharrell sounds… well, smaller – but Trak Starz, Jackpot’s producers, are too playful, and unshowy with their skills, to be written off as merely a Dunnes Stores Neptunes.
Currently drawing huge crowds to The Olympia with his third Mrs. Brown play, Brendan O’Carroll nonetheless has a bone to pick with those pushing for the retention of the section 481 tax break for film-makers.
They've masterminded recordings by Lily Allen, Estelle and Kate Nash, to name a few. In this exclusive interview, Future Cut lift the veil on their whizz-bang production techniques.
Plans for a film based on the life of Republican figurehead and Labour party founder James Connolly have received a boost with SIPTU agreeing to help finance the project.
"This is very much my love-letter to wine," says trained sommelier and film director Jonathon Nossiter. So why then is his new documentary Mondovino coming under fire from the global wine industry? Because, as he tells Tara Brady, it exposes how the globalisation of the wine industry is destroying thousands of years of heritage.
He's resident DJ at Mr. C's End club, records for the End label, runs his own Plank stamp, and, with fellow co-Ender Layo makes some rather fine music as the Usual Suspects. He's Matthew B, and he's here to talk to Digital Beat. Interrogating the suspect: Richard Brophy.
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.
Berlin’s Get Physical label is the hottest thing in techno. Now founder DJ T has released a solo record. The album is, he says, a distillation of a 17-year career at the forefront of electronic music.
Earlier this year, the dance music community was shocked by the sudden departure of Darren Emerson from Underworld. However, the band continues to blossom, embracing new technologies and ideas to remain at the forefront of electronic music. Richard Brophy catches up with Rick Smith to find out more.
Pete Kushnereit and Rene Lowe, better known as Scion, have released a mix album of Jamaican-inspired electronic tracks by the elusive German technocrat Maurizio
With the publication of U2 By U2, the band have finally got to tell the story of their success from their own perspective. It’s got some great pictures too.
The criterati may not like them but Adrian Young doesn't care. and why should he when No Doubt have crafted a most excellent pop record, with dancehall rhythms, in rock steady
Tara Brady talks to Niels Muller, director of controversial thriller The Assassination Of Richard Nixon, which portrays the social and political factors which caused real-life ‘70s malcontent, Sam Byck, to plan the killing of Tricky Dick himself.
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.
Backed by apparently damning new scientific findings, there is a move across Europe to outlaw ‘Spice’ and other legal smokes. Will this bring an end to the booming legal high industry – or encourage smokers to look further afield for their chemical buzz?
Two Icelandic natives who came together in London and have carved out a niche playing supremely melodic, melancholy pop music – boy-girl duo The Honeymoon look to be here for the long run.
After suffering from a particularly nasty bout of 'difficult second album' syndrome, GOATS DON'T SHAVE have come up trumps with a record that's destined to take them way beyond their present cult status. PAT GALLAGHER tells COLM O'HARE how they managed to avoid becoming the world's first folk techno band and why doing-it-yourself is definitely the best policy.
Resistance Isn't Futile
EAMON SWEENEY reports on Detroit's pivotal Underground Resistance label, and the controversy ignited when Sony released a 'cover version' of one of the label's best-known tracks.
Righteous, raging and hysterically funny, the late Bill Hicks was the comedian too hot even for Letterman. Paul Nolan on a new book that fills out the legend.
He may have stopped smoking superhuman amounts of weed, but otherwise it’s business as usual for Ghostface Killah as he continues to spread the Wu-Tang gospel.
From sharing cheeseburgers to sharing a bill with Korn and Puddle Of Mudd, it’s been a big year for Geffen signingsTrust Company, and they’re loving every minute of it
With over twenty-one years experience in pro audio, Richard Dowling is the man responsible for making Interpol, Foo Fighters, The Undertones and countless others sound good!
Pioneering ambient artist, film-scorer, and producer of choice for everyone from Willie Nelson to U2, Daniel Lanois has assembled one of the most impressive CVs in modern rock. And with his new album, Shine, having just hit the racks, he’s far from done yet, as he tells Peter Murphy
With the first in a series of Tortured mix CDs, Tortured Chambers, highlighting nu-skool European techno producers like Umek, Joel Mull and Adam Beyer, RICHARD BROPHY caught up with one of the hardest working, genuine nice guys in dance music, Billy Nasty
The initial rumours were that it was going to be a rock n roll record . Then subsequent whispers hinted at everything from trip-hop to techno to ambient. But U2 s eighth studio album, Pop, is all of these things and more. It s the first album since 1983 that they ve made without the assistance of Brian Eno, it s been a long time in the making roughly a full year, all told and it s selling like the proverbial warm buns. Here, NIALL STOKES talks to BONO and ADAM CLAYTON, as well as co-producers FLOOD, HOWIE B and THE EDGE, about its lengthy genesis and what the band hoped to accomplish in creating it.
Pix: STEPHANE SEDNAOUI .
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is set to be the most successful yet for the Irish film-making community, according to film board chief executive Mark Woods.
STEPHEN ROBINSON talks to former CROWDED HOUSE bassist NICK SEYMOUR about the band s break-up, their rarieties collection and his nascent career as a producer.
They dress as surgeons on stage and punctuate their records with spoken-word monologues. You could say indie electro oddballs Clinic are determined to do things their own way.
Derrick May is often referred to as The Godfather , The Legend and The Innovator , the creator of dance music s most magical moments. But does he really prefer trainers and jeans to Versace and Patrick Cox? Richard Brophy goes beyond the exterior.
The next generation of Stanley Kubricks cut their creative teeth on some of Ireland's finest bands: hotpress.com brings you video streaming of the completed works from the Tisch film school in New York
Ex-Python turned film-maker Terry Gilliam watched his latest movie project the man who killed Don Quixote collapse after a succession of production disasters. Yet two young film-makers who accompanied the director on the shoot have released a documentary film about the making, and un-making, of Gilliam's epic
On the eve of the Childline benefit gig at which she is one of the hosts, EMMA LEDDEN talks to Stephen Robinson about the rock'n'roll lifestyle, why she'll never model nude, and"loafing" Gary Barlow.
Colm O’Hare talks to Katie Larmour, presenter of UTV’s new music show Live At The Limelight, which will be showcasing the best young artists from around Ireland.
Steve Lillywhite, who produced U2's first three albums – and has featured on the production team of almost all of their records – looks back over the band's career and recalls the highs... and the lows
Their contribution to Robbie Williams' 'Rock DJ' may have gone unacknowledged, but Soul Mekanik, aka brothers and acid house veterans Kelvin Andrews and Danny Spencer, are now earning kudos in their own right for their dynamic and eclectic '80s-influenced debut album, Eighty One.
She’s been a regular festival goer since she first attended Féile at the age of 14. Gemma Hayes waxes lyrical on the joys of those sprawling, big days out
They've hardly played any gigs and have only a handful of releasees to their name. Thanks in part, to the blessing of Damien Rice, however The Guggenheim Grotto are going places.
No longer content to be an indie under-achiever, Joe Chester has produced a solo album that owes as much to Fleetwood Mac as it does My Bloody Valentine. Interview by Maurice O'Brien.
MICHAEL D. Higgins obviously got under the hypersensitive skin of Sunday Independent journalists who have accelerated their systematic, and at points, paranoiac attack on the Minister since he proposed some relatively revolutionary ideas about the arts, in a recent issue of Hot Press.
Colin Dale has had a long and impressive career. His love for music and his talent have cut through the dance scene s rampant egos and petty policking. He spoke to Richard Brophy
Having conquered the music scene in their native Sweden, purveyors of dark electro-pop and socially aware lyrics The Knife have turned their attention to the rest of Europe.
15-years after saying “no thanks” to the people who made a star out of LeeAnn Rimes, Luan Parle has made an album that should finally see her take her place among country’s elite.
Gone are the booming synths and melodic choruses. Instead, techno darlings The Knife have embraced their gothic side. But why are they dressed as birds?
German dance music may be characterised by the likes of Paul Van Dyk, Sven Vath and Hardfloor, but the country has always boasted an underground
alternative. Richard Brophy talks to one of its main proponents, Pole.
DONAL SCANNELL of Quadrophonic Records responds to a recent Phantom item
which criticised his late now departed Insomnia show on the former Radio Ireland.
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.
Annmarie O'Grady's second album, 24 Hours, was produced in New York by Malcolm Burn who worked with Daniel Lanois on Bob Dylan's acclaimed Oh Mercy album.
That a bonefide Irish film industry actually exists is no small achievement, but with a new Minister For The Arts now in place, this is hardly the time for complacency. To ascertain how best the industry can be maintained and developed, Hot Press film critic, cathy dillon, canvassed the views of a number of key players.
Having released one of hip-hop’s seminal records, DJ Shadow has struggled for years to leave behind his repuation as a sample wizard. He may finally have succeeded.
The recent press conference for Marley And Me found the film’s stars, tabloid fixture Jennifer Aniston and suicide attempt survivor Owen Wilson, grudgingly going through the motions in front of a crowd of tentative journalists. You could say there was some awkwardness in the room
“There’s still nothing like the sound of a fat four/four kick drum on a great sound system,” say UK house merchants Futureshock, and Barry O’Donoghue isn’t about to disagree with them.
Thanks to their distinctively guitar-saturated sound, French outfit RINOCEROSE have carved out their own niche in the already crowded Gallic dance scene. Interview: RICHARD BROPHY.
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
They’re named after a saucy Playboy model – well, sort of. As their debut album hits the streets, irascible punk-popsters SUPERJIMINEZ discuss their unconventional moniker and tell us why, recession or not, they’re determined to bring their feel-good party music to the masses.
You can get prescription drugs elsewhere in the EU for a fraction of the price we pay in Ireland. You wouldn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to deduce that there is something seriously wrong.
The most exciting merger of rock and dance since the heyday of The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream – meet The Rapture. Words Paul Nolan
Techno duo Echospace have earned a devoted cult following – and caused quite a commotion on eBay – thanks to their imaginative reinvention of old-school production techniques.
LCD Soundsystem's frontman James Murphy talks about working with Justin Timberlake, his Cork ancestors and recalls the time he almost hooked up with Arcade Fire
Phuture are the creators of 'Acid Trax', and the people who introduced the Roland 303 'acid box' to the music world. They are arguably one of the most influential groups ever. So why are they still doing day jobs? Richard Brophy talks to original member Spanky and new addition Professor Trax, and reports on a travesty of justice in the dance world.
Ten years after his last solo album, and twenty years after he formed Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Holly Johnson is back with a new album and a new outlook on life. Interview: RICHARD BROPHY.
The introduction of Ryan Tubridy's breakfast show and the rescheduling of Dave Fanning's slot have led critics, both inside and outside 2FM, to claim that the station is buckling under the pressure of increased competition and limited financial resources. Jackie Hayden reports
She was once voted "Britain's sexiest blonde". But Jennifer Ellison is more interested in furthering her acting reputation than becoming a lad-mag pin-up.
Steve-O, the man best known for stapling his penis to his scrotum, on the scariest stunts, life after Jackass, and being empowered by going backstage with Mötley Crue.
They may have hit a few bumps earlier in the year, but Northern indie-rock whippersnappers The Embers have regrouped and are now back on the agenda with an excellent new EP, Vice And Virtue.
A unique blend of domestic and international talent, Other Voices is the brainchild of Philip King. The new series is, he believes, the most ambitious yet.
Cinematic weirditude! arbus-like photography! theoretical physics! as Paul Nolan discovers, it’s definitely not only rock’n’roll for Hope Of The States, the Chichester band with a certain Westmeath connection.
Cinematic weirditude! arbus-like photography! theoretical physics! as Paul Nolan discovers, it’s definitely not only rock’n’roll for Hope Of The States, the Chichester band with a certain Westmeath connection.
Or perhaps we might have reached for another old familiar headline - Fears and Loathing in RTE - as the bosses at Radio 1 announce the chopping of virtually all specialist music programmes from the schedule. It is, writes Bill Graham, an act of cultural criminal negligence.
Who better to launch this year’s Music Show than Irish band of the moment The Script? In a taster of what to expect from October’s RDS weekender, Danny, Glen and Mark treated a roomful of fans, music students and industry professionals to their thoughts on illegal downloading, songwriting, the dreaded Auto-tune and touring with Macca and U2.
The future of house music is in the hands of a trainee teacher from Frankfurt. Sounds strange? Let Richard Brophy introduce you to the weird and wonderful world of Isolee.
Talk was not in short supply at the recent World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong. But did the gathering of 150 world leaders achieve anything concrete for the world’s under-privileged?
New York house DJ/producer Junior Sanchez has joined forces with Dutch techno prodigy Laidback Luke to create Riot Society’s impressive ‘Understand Me’.
Elizabeth Hurley derided as a scab ; the film industry s stars getting militant; a total shutdown in production imminent. Strange times as Hollywood prepares for a major actors and screenwriters strike. By CRAIG FITZSIMONS and TARA BRADY
Freed from corporate and commercial concerns, student media can provide a valuable conduit for independent voices, as well as serve as a breeding ground for young journalists and broadcasters.
One of the new breed of DJs emerging from the UK, Craig Richards and his DJing partner Lee Burridge have been lauded for their ability to seamlessly join the gaps between breakbeat, tripped out tech-house and deep trance. Resident at London superclub Tyrant, friends with the enigmatic Sasha and on the brink of releasing the definitive Tyrant mix CD, one of the hottest DJs on the planet talks to RICHARD BROPHY.
When Jackie Hayden was enlisted to interview Sugababe Mutya Buena, little did he suspect that he would be loudly upstaged by another woman as he tries to get the lowdown on the Sugababes’ near break-up, Mutya’s concern over the sexing-up of their recent video, the effects of her pregnancy on her career and who ‘Push The Button’ was really about.
After cutting her teeth (ouch!) in Bachelor’s Walk and Shimmy Marcus’s Headrush, Derry actress Laura Pyper has squeezed herself into thigh-high boots and corset for Hex, Sky One’s teenage witch riposte to Buffy.
They may have become a one man operation but that hasn’t stopped Decal making one of the dance records of the year. Alan O’Boyle talks electro to Richard Brophy
He found fame in Queer As Folk and is currently to be seen in the acclaimed US crime drama The Wire. Now Aidan Gillen is burning up the Irish stage in an acclaimed new production of a David Mamet classic.
As the management force behind Boyzone, Westlife and Samantha Mumba, LOUIS WALSH is Ireland s Mr. Pop. In a candid interview with Joe Jackson he talks about his relationships with his acts, the ones that got away, the importance of the producer, the uselessness of critics and why he s unlikely to end up managing Van Morrison. Portraits: Cathal Dawson
He is best known as a musician and a songwriter, but Nick Kelly has a parallel career as a very successful advertising ‘creative’. So much so, that he was recently asked to be a judge at one of the advertising industry’s big international events, the annual Shark Awards.
After years of slogging in the undergrowth of comedy, whimsy-merchant David O'Doherty has suddenly become an 'overnight' success having won a top prize at Edinburgh.
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.
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is a major new six-part RTE series. Directed by DAVID HEFFERNAN, and featuring new interviews with the major players including Van Morrison, Bob Geldof, U2 and Siniad O Connor it traces the history of Irish music, from showbands to boybands and beyond. By PETER MURPHY.
Calling all up-and-coming music stars! The path to success can sometimes seem dauntingly steep. But, in an ongoing series, JACKIE HAYDEN looks at the various challenges which face new bands, and how to overcome them. This issue: RECORDING. Photo: KAREN CAULFIELD
End of the millennium psychosis techno? Political partying house? Dance music with a social conscience and a sense of humour ? If you re looking for all of the above, then look no further than Green Velvet s new LP, Constant Chaos . On the soapbox: Richard Brophy.
They used to be a bit of a joke but, with the release of their fantastic new record, The Horrors are suddenly a band to watch. Faris Badwan talks about stepping out with Peaches Geldof, ditching the freak-show hair and recalls his traumatic childhood experiences on Palestine’s West Bank
Best-selling author Colin Bateman has just published his 21st book, which is being hailed by critics as a cracker. He talks to Hot Press about cutting his teeth as a writer in Northern Ireland
Whether with THE SMITHS, ELECTRONIC, THE PRETENDERS or in brown trouser mode sharing a stage with PAUL McCARTNEY, GEORGE MICHAEL and NEIL FINN, he remains, by his own admission, the best JOHNNY MARR-style guitar player around. GEORGE BYRNE meets the cat others like to copy.
Dance is dead, says Roisin Murphy, but if any act is going to raise it from the grave it’s Moloko, proud authors of the over the top and utterly sincere Statues, an album of tremendous pop songs that recapture the glory of classic disco.
There was a time when the associations of Irish culture were such that those of a radical, progressive outlook automatically turned the other way. Not any more. Irish culture is alive and kicking. Report: Chris Donovan.
These days he may be more famous for his movies than his prose, but in conversation Neil Jordan remains linguistically precise as he dissects the Hollywood machine, reveals his love for Lord Of The Rings and discusses his latest movie The Good Thief, starring Nick Nolte.
Others may seek to inspire shock and awe – but Ireland’s leading designer John Rocha sees things differently. His thing is to make clothes that people really want to wear.
Radio Ulster’s Donna Legge ensures there’s no punching below the belt as she and two of the north’s other leading DJs - Maurice Jay and Johnny Hero - come together to discuss the local music scene, on-air rows with James Galway and prank calls to Sellafield.
Stepping out from under the shadow of Tricky – but refusing to leave her former amour entirely behind – Martina Topley Bird has staked her own claim with one of the albums of the year. Comparisons with Billie Holiday may be flattering but, as she tells Stuart Clark, she’s too “pig-headed” to be anyone other than herself
By dragging leprechauns into the new millennium, Wexford author EOIN COLFER has enraptured children and adults alike and given Harry Potter a right run for his money. FIONA REID meets the brains behind Artemis Fowl
Rregarded as the original, manufactured boy band, once upon a time The Monkees ruled the world. Now, half of television's fab four are back and, as you might expect, they have quite a tale to tell. Joe Jackson talks to Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz
Unlike most Hollywood remakes, the new version of Hairspray succeeds in being as deliciously camp as the John Waters original. One of its young stars, Amanda Bynes, talks to Tara Brady about the joys of getting hot and sweaty with John Travolta.
JEAN BUTLER was at the very heart of the Riverdance phenomenon, as the original Eurovision interval set-piece was transformed into the most successful dance stage-show ever. Now, for the first time, she tells her side of that extraordinary saga. In a blistering broadside, she accuses her co-star MICHAEL FLATLEY of rampant egotism and argues that she's never been given the credit she deserves for the show's sensational impact. And then there's the question of money...
Interview: JOE JACKSON
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.
Since swapping Dublin for Los Angeles, hotly-tipped indie rockers La Rocca have experienced all the ludicrous pleasures and extremes of the City of Angels. Here, they regale us with tales from their California exile.
For 20 years, iarla o lionaird has steeped himself in the neglected tradition of sean nss singing. Now signed to Peter Gabriel s Realworld label, he believes that the late 90s could finally see a breakthrough for his beloved art form. siobhan long talks to the man with what Martin Hayes calls the lonesome touch
Having already conquered Ireland and the UK, SAMANTHA MUMBA is poised to join Britney and Christina at the top of the American pop chart. Not bad for someone who two years ago was fired from a panto by Twink! Now, with her new album Gotta Tell You ready for release, the Dublin singer talks candidly to JOE JACKSON about drugs, sex and the break-up of her parents marriage
He’s best known as the voice of Soundgarden and Audioslave. But now grunge legend Chris Cornell has embarked on his most far-fetched adventure yet – a hook-up with uber-beatmaster Timbaland.
CRAIG FITZSIMONS speaks to young Irish director DAMIEN O'DONNELL, whose debut feature East Is East takes a controversial look at Pakistani immigrant culture.
BRENDAN O’CARROLL is bringing his latest opus
Good Mourning Mrs Brown to the Olympia theatre, Dublin, in January. But STEPHEN ROBINSON discovers that the author and comedian has quite a serious side
In a single decade, Irish electronica and dance music has transformed the national scene. MARK KAVANAGH has been involved from the very beginning, as a DJ, activist, producer and hotpress columnist. Here, he offers a personal take on a long and winding but ultimately fruitful road, and reveals some of the new challenges he ll be undertaking as a DJ, producer and recording artist over the coming 12 months
Ex-Split Enz member Tim Finn left Crowded House in 1991 with a new-found clarity of purpose and is now making inroads to a successful solo career with 'Persuasion', the first single off his new album. Here, he reflects on his split with Crowded House and discusses why Ireland feels like home. LORRAINE FREENEY lends an ear.
Following the success of her Mercury-prize nominated debut album, Gemma Hayes was struck down suddenly with writer's block. Her artistic recovery was a long, painful process, taking her from a sleepy Kerry village to downtown L.A.
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.
Tara Brady talks to uber-hip actor - and scion of the Coppola clan - Jason Schwartzman about his latest film with cult director Wes Anderson, an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
She may be one of the biggest r&b stars on the planet, but that doesn’t mean MARY J/ BLIGE is happy with her lot. in one of her frankest
intervews yet, she tells HELEN TOLAND why she’s been given a bad rap
The outlaw French directors’ leading man of choice, Vincent Cassel is also a mainstay of the Kourtrajmé collective, husband to Monica Bellucci and the star of the comic-horror guerilla feature Satan.
Hero of the underground; the fastest, most exciting DJ in the world; creator of wildly experimental, white-knuckle techno; and now a photographer hosting his first ever show! Richard Brophy catches up with the Purposemaker in London and discovers a new side to the Jeff Mills mystique.
With State Of Play and Shameless, Paul Abbott has taken more risks than any other writer of TV drama – with spectacularly successful results. Now, Channel 4 have asked the BAFTA award winner to write a pantomime, that’s destined to be one of the highlights of the festive season.
Their reputation for seriousness precedes them. But in the flesh, Daniel Day-Lewis and Rebecca Miller could very nearly pass for an everyday couple. Photos by Graham Keogh.
Cult actor Crispin Glover talks about his taboo-busting directorial debut What Is It?, playing George McFly in Back To The Future and meeting Andy Warhol at Madonna and Sean Penn’s wedding.
Andy Williams may have a reputation as a bland M.OR. crooner but beneath the squeaky clean showbiz facade lurks an interesting man indeed, who reveals a knowledge of modern art, a past laced with drug use and an unhealthy interest in Shirley Temple. Joe Jackson travels to Branson, Missouri to hear his confessions.
The last time we met Cillian Murphy he was fighting Black and Tans in west Cork. Now he’s the star of a lavish Danny Boyle space opera. Still, no matter what the subject matter, the actor keeps his feet firmly on the ground.
Former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy talks to Paul Nolan about collaborating with an all-star team of songwriters, her unique image and clubbing in Sheffield and New York.
In the five years since its debut, The Sopranos has grown from an underground show with a small cult following to one of the most successful TV series' of all time. Paul Nolan traces the show’s development from its inauspicious beginnings on HBO to its current status as a transatlantic cultural phenomenon, and also examines our enduring fascination with a man called Tony Soprano.
Roisin Dwyer catches up with electropop duo MGMT to discuss their greatest rock 'n' roll moment, Jools Holland and their growing reputation as popular music's new trouble-makers.
Four years on from Inflammable Material and even Jake Burns is beginning to wonder if Stiff Little Fingers are losing their bearings. Here he reveals some of his misgivings to Bill Graham
Hand-picked, coddled and manufactured: mainstream pop stars have the life. Don t they? KIM PORCELLI gets up about twelve hours earlier than usual and spends the day with SAMANTHA MUMBA. Hot shots: PETER MATTHEWS
The global economic system is out of control and leading humanity on a road to environmental self-destruction. So says visionary economist RICHARD DOUTHWAITE, who argues that Ireland, for all its problems, is well placed to give birth to a new kind of culture that would ultimately safeguard the future of the planet and its inhabitants. Interview: ADRIENNE MURPHY
With her new movie The Heart Of Me having just hit theatre, acclaimed english actress Olivia Williams here discusses her breaththrough role in The Sixth Sense and what it takes to succeed in hollywood. words Tara Brady
Annual article: Phil Kieran and DJ Papillion were two of the outstanding names in a fantastic year for dance music, says Mark Kavanagh. Plus the dance charts of 2005.
He debuted in East is East, became a household face in Eastenders and has finally gone west to star in the bollywood meets hollywood movie, The Guru. The son of an Indian father and Irish mother, he talks here about his thrash metal past, the difficulties of being an Asian actor and why Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson are his spiritual gurus.
Or should that be Pub Stars? Either way, their debut album is soaked in the strong spirit - and stronger spirits - of their native city. Nick Kelly meets Dublin's JUBILEE ALLSTARS.
Having crammed more into their first four years than some acts do in a decade, Gomez took a much-needed break. But now they’re back with a new album in our gun. "We just got pissed, played a few tunes and started recording," they tell John Walshe
Government indignation and empty promises characterise China’s response to CD and DVD piracy, which flourishes in the country. Irish artists like U2, Westlife and Enya are bootleggers’ staple sellers. And Mary Black gets ripped off too. Mark Godfrey reports
Despite predictable criticism from certain quarters, Sarah McLachlan’s vision of “a celebration of women in music” has made the touring Lilith Fair one of the hottest tickets in rock in 1998. Tim Perry reports.
Self-styled sex siren Diablo Cody has moved into the mainstream with the acclaimed, Oscar-nominated Juno. What’s more, the movie is so good, she might just prove to be a winner.
In Belfast recently for the Film Festival, Albert Maysles talks to Tara Brady about his early days with the Drew Collective and the challenges he faced pioneering fly-on-the-wall documentary making.
As the station nears the end of its first year on the air and celebrates the two-year extension to its licence, any appraisal of Anna Livia Radio has to be made in the context of the current debate on the ethnic music cleansing at RTE Radio 1, Minister Higgins' plans for the revamping of the Broadcasting Act, and the general despair at the failure of the current Irish radio network to deliver on the promises made to sell us the deal in the first place. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
The latest Boy to leave the Zone, the launch of Mikey Graham s solo voyage has been attended by
controversy and criticism. But don t underestimate his determination. I m not the passenger, he tells PETER MURPHY. Portraits of the Artist: DECLAN ENGLISH
Well, a trio of humans, to be precise. Confronted with the flesh and blood reality of Phil, Susanne and Joanne munching sandwiches right in front of his eyes, Nicholas G. Kelly accepts that we must come to terms with the fact that The Human League have indeed risen from the grave. But not, repeat not, the ’80s.
He may have already seated his place in movie history with searing performances in the likes of Scarface and Dog Day Afternoon, but legendary screen icon Al Pacino remains keen to seek out fresh challenges. Hotpress caught up with Pacino to discuss his role in People I Know, the gritty New York thriller which sees the actor go back to his lo-fi indie roots.
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice, amongst others, has inspired a new do-it-yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here, Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice – amongst others has inspired a new do it yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate. Words: Tanya Sweeney. Additional reporting: Jackie Hayden
The success of The Frames, Juliet Turner and Damien Rice – amongst others has inspired a new do it yourself attitude among Irish musicians and bands, who are no longer prepared to wait for the imprimatur of a major label to get their records made. Here Hot Press presents a step by step guide to becoming a DIY record magnate. Words: Tanya Sweeney. Additional reporting: Jackie Hayden
When the decision to dump Rattlebag and Mystery Train from the RTE Radio 1 schedule was taken, accusations of dumbing down were rife. So is there scope for arts and music programmes with a bit of depth in Montrose? John Kelly insists that there should be.
Positivity is their mantra, classy is their byword and their mission is to become the biggest and best pop group on the plant. With their jam in the point date looming SYLVIA PATTERSON goes on the road with DESTINY'S CHILD and hears a tale of self-empowerment, vision and that collision between cleavage and christianity
It’s been 25 years since the legendary Dr. Strangely Strange last toured. Now they’re back on the road, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Tim Booth kept this diary.
Think about direction, wonder why . . . It’s eleven years since Stano released his debut album Content To Write In I Dine Weathercraft. Despite his genuine originality and dedication to his art over the intervening years, he remains one of Ireland’s most enigmatic performers, more appreciated on the continent than in his homeland. Interview: Joe Jackson
When Alan McLoughlin scored in Belfast on November 17th he not only set the entire country off on an orgiastic rampage but allayed the fears of a pair of filmmakers who’d gambled heavily on Ireland’s qualification of USA ’94. So, it’s happy endings all round as Robert Walpole and Paddy Breathnach of Treasure Films release our official World Cup video The Road To America and detail the trials, tribulations and traumas of the venture to a suitably impressed George Byrne.
The Walls are about to embark on their most extensive Irish tour yet, including their biggest Dublin gig to date at the Ambassador and may be about to finally break the bank
The Walls are about to embark on their most extensive Irish tour yet, including their biggest Dublin gig to date at the ambassador and may be about to finally break the bank
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.
Artists and record companies are losing millions of pounds every year through piracy. New developments like Napster and MP3 will bring further challenges. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
The Irish star opens up on sex, drugs, racism, crime, acting, actors and actresses, as well as slamming the Irish film industry and RTE.
Text: JOE JACKSON. Portraits: CATHAL DAWSON
The Corrs Talk On Corners was the biggest-selling album of 1998 in the UK. So far it s shifted 6 million copies worldwide and rising. And now the band are set to embark on their American campaign, with who knows what ultimate destination at journey s end. So they ve had it easy, eh? It s all a big marketing scam, masterminded by the moguls in the American record company that signed them? We thought you d like to know so we put these and other accusations to someone who should know, their manager of nine years, john hughes. And got some interesting answers too. Interview: niall stokes.
The latest wave of right-wing attacks on US musicians is likely to have a knock-on effect here, with the words and actions of our own artists coming under increased scrutiny. In a special hotpress report, Ed Power enlists the help of Marilyn Manson and a number of major Irish players to pick his way through the censorship minefield.
"There's Denzel Washington behind me with Ethan Hawke beside him, and behind them are Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly. I look to my left and there's David Lynch." Yep, it's just a typical day in the life of an oscar nominee. Brown Bag Films' Darragh O'Connell who, along with Cathal Gaffney, received a nomination for the animated short Give Up Yer Aul Sins, shares his Oscars diary exclusively with hotpress
Pop star, movie star, UNICEF youth ambassador – Samantha Mumba has already packed a lot into her young life (including a secret boyfriend!) and the stakes are constantly being raised
Having survived the Stone Roses and a spell in jail, IAN BROWN briefly toyed with the idea of a career in gardening before re-inventing himself as the man most likely to bridge the gap between rock and dance. Ahead of his appearance at Homelands, he talks to RICHARD BROPHY.
Following in the footsteps of Joy Division, The Smiths and The Stone Roses, Mancunian rockers Doves have continued the tradition of musical excellence for which their hometown is internationally renowned. With their new opus Some Cities in the offing, vocalist Jimi Goodwin here discusses apocalyptic weather, urban decay and those abandoned recording sessions with Madonna’s producer.
Colm O’Hare reports on the latest developments in the Irish film world which – thanks to initiatives spearheaded by Michael D. Higgins, Minister of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht – is experiencing an unprecedented boom period.
And our wombs. Under the cloak of so-called free trade agreements, and using genetic engineering as a weapon, a small number of corporations are not only seeking to control and exploit the global market they have also begun to establish a patent on life itself.
Report: Adrienne Murphy
Niall Stokes: As a band you took more responsibility with In Blue you have a greater level of input into the production and so on. Was that a strain when you were doing it?
As the final countdown to Blur’s Oxegen comeback gets underway, Alex James talks about falling in and out with his bandmates, collaborating with New Order’s Bernard Sumner – and why Clonakilty Black Pudding will definitely be on the band’s Punchestown rider.
How Bubba Sparxxx went from being nose-down in a bowl of coke to becoming hip-hop's greatest white hope since Eminem. Peter Murphy hears how the southerner fell and rose
The former editor of the Sunday Tribune on the tough task of replacing Eamon Dunphy in the hottest seat in radio, The Last Word. plus: the Dunph, hook, O’Reilly, war, politics, sport, media, sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and, of course, that much-missed coiffure. Joe Jackson has the first word.
With a herd of their fellow Bostonians stampeding the charts and a fine new album Big Red Letter Day to their credit, BUFFALO TOM seem especially primed to cash in on the commercial success that has been dangled teasingly in front of their faces for years. But are they too normal to be
rock 'n' roll stars? LORRAINE FREENEY tracked the band in London with that very question in mind.
One of the ten most photographed people in Ireland, TV presenter Caroline Morahan isn’t just a pretty face. Fame, fashion, drugs, the Antisocial Behaviour Order and George Dubbya are all on the agenda all she pours scorn on John Walshe's ten-year plan and vetos Caroline – The Fragrance. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
Basking in the warm glow of that first day's successful recording may tempt you to imagine that it's all over but for the fame and fortune. Wrong, and double wrong. JACKIE HAYDEN considers music marketing and PR.
Tim Booth does. The James frontman chats candidly to John Walshe about fame, riches, sexuality, being called a 'faggot' on the Lollapalooza tour, and the band's
brilliant 10th album, Millionaires.
The tears have stopped falling – because those who bitterly mourned the demise of The Go-Betweens soon discovered that what they got instead was a double-helping of the weird genius which had inspired the band in the shape of solo albums from Grant McLennan and Robert Forster. With both of them releasing new records and working on a film script together, everything seems to be coming up roses. Why Lorraine Freeney even got to see a breathtaking reunion gig . . .
From the backstreets of Waterford to a place on the podium next to the Beatles, Gilbert O'Sullivan lived an extraordinary life. Now 60, he looks back on his rollercoaster career.
A fresh generation of bands is tearing up the rule book and redefining what it means to be Irish. To celebrate this new wave of talent, we catch up with the best of them.
One by one, the members of CHILL Ireland s answer to the Spice Girls occupy the Hot Press hot seat. Popping the questions: JOE JACKSON. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
It s hardly surprising that the neurotic Monica Geller is widely regarded as the least popular member of the Friends ensemble. Nevertheless, you ll be pleased to hear that Courteney Cox, the 33-year-old Alabama native who plays the Big Apple s tidiest twentysomething, revels in the role. What s more, with her success in Wes Craven s masterful suspense chiller Scream, she remains the only cast member from the smash-hit sitcom to have achieved major box office success. And now there s a sequel on the way . . . Interview: chris donovan.
He may well be RTE s only living intellectual but ANDY O MAHONY, host of The Sunday Show, will long be remembered by many as the man who asked Deirdre Purcell if she ever did the bold thing with Gay Byrne. JOE JACKSON gets the self-styled closet determinist to come out of the closet. Pix: Colm Henry
30th Anniversary Retrospective: In a special interview, The Edge reminisces about the early days of Hotpress, explains Bill Graham’s role in U2’s development, and comes clean about what the band have been up to recently in Morocco.
He’s been a Scottish warrior, a Panamanian revolutionary, a sheriff, a banker and a robot rag-and-bone man, all in the last eight years. in Scorsese’s new epic Gangs Of New York he plays, of all things, an Irishman. Brendan Gleeson holds forth on 19th century squalor, his late blooming as an actor, and the pleasure of working with big Marty.
Since making it's debut in 1964, Match Of The Day has become a national institution watched by an average six million football addicts a week. Paul O'mahony goes behind the scenes at the BBC's longest running sports programme and discovers that the people piecing it together are every bit as commited to the 'beautiful game' as those on the terraces.
With the launch of a commemorative series of Irish postage stamps celebrating four of the nation's most important rock legends, we revisit some of the seminal moments in the careers of Phil Lynott, Rory Gallagher, Van Morrison and - first - U2
You're right, that's the not so original headline that we used when Jackie Hayden - who signed U2 to CBS Records in Ireland in 1978 and is now General Manager with Hot Press - spoke to the bearded one about further adventures at the Fab Four's mixing desk, and his growing involvement in
Súlán Studios in Cork.
KEN RUSSELL is one of the most
controversial film directors of our time. Now, he s published his first novel. OLAF TYARANSEN met him. Pics: CATHAL DAWSON.
the frank and walters are back addressing the nation. Our man on the inside, Peter Murphy, shares a day in the life of the Cork threesome as they record a radio session for RTE.
what good was rock’n’roll in 2001? No good at all – and yet we couldn’t have got through without it.
Peter Murphy reflects on a year in which some old codgers stood up to be counted and many of us lived “on songs and hope”
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.
He's the Hollywood enfant terrible who refuses to mellow with age. In a rare interview, John Waters talks about the aesthetics of trash, and looks back on his career.
When the offer came to produce the new Rolling Stones album in Dublin what answer could Don Was give but a resounding ‘Yes’. Mick, Keef & Co. are the latest in a long and impressive list of the man’s studio credits which includes Bob Dylan, The B-52’s, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Paula Abdu. But throw in the small matter of the career of Was (Not Was) and the musical rehabilitation of errant Beach Boys’ genius Brian Wilson and we’re talking major industry player here. Bill Graham takes up the story . . .
Well when you've conquered the world, what else can the biggest band on the planet do except go into space? BONO and LARRY discuss matters cosmic and personal with Olaf Tyaransen
The mainman in Tenacious D and scene-stealer in High Fidelity, Jack Black is now at the heart of a box-office phenomenon in School of Rock. But who does he really want to be – Laurence Olivier or Ronnie James Dio? Tara Brady asks the tough questions.
t certainly would, Joe. But you can have a toot on my megaphone if you like! Gavin Friday discusses the finer points of sexual politics not to mention the post-Freudian subtext to his stunning new meisterwork Shag Tobacco with Dr Joe Jackson. Our man in the white coat concluded: Gavin s time has come. But is the world finally read
In a candid interview, Sylvester Stallone talks about his lost years and explains why he’s happy that America’s Christian right has embraced the new Rocky movie as a ‘spiritual’ film.
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.
Running a marathon, writing the folk-pop equivalent of Dante’s Divine Comedy, buying a house, releasing the finest record of his career. All in a year’s work for Josh Ritter. John Walshe travelled to Boston to meet the young songwriter.
They re the biggest new band in Britain, but
all saints didn t always inhabit a world of no.1 singles,
million-selling albums and media limelight.
shaznay
and melanie
talk to jonathan o brien
about stardom, tattoos, tabloids and why they definitely aren t a bunch of porn obsessives.
1 guitar + 1 drum kit + 1 boy + 1 girl = The White Stripes. In other words, sweet, sweet noise meets the best brother and sister penned pop since The Carpenters. Eamon Sweeney meets Detroit's finest, who play Dublin Castle on Saturday, May 4th as part of the Heineken Green Energy Festival
Massive Attack explain why they are outspoken opponents of the proposed war in Iraq, give high praise to Sinéad O’Connor and reveal how a porn soundtrack left them gasping for airtime.
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.
In all of Ireland s hydra-headed entertainment industry, no other act simultaneously inspires as much love and loathing as The Wolfe Tones, a band who, annually, attract huge support at Siamsa Cois Laoi, while, no less vociferously, their detractors continue to dismiss them as the musical wing of the IRA, and worse. On the occasion of The Wolfe Tones celebrating 25 years together as a group, Eamon McCann went to meet them.
Determined to establish a firm identity for their second album, A House forsook exotic locations and took themselves off to Inishbofin to record I Want Too Much, musically and emotionally their starkest statement to date. Bill Graham met up with them to discuss their new-found assertiveness and discovered a band with a single-minded approach to the music industry and its numerous pitfalls
Fourteen years after Richey Edwards disappeared without trace, THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS have summoned the courage to fashion an album from the lyrics he left behind.
Hard house is this year s biggest dance craze, and it was born at the most renowned
after-hours gay club in the world, Trade. MARK KAVANAGH talks to LAURENCE MALICE,
the Caligula of clubland , about excess, success and his Irish roots. Photographs: Myles Claffey
30 years after the music was originally recorded, Led Zeppelin topped the record and DVD charts in 2003 with the sound and vision of the band in all their pomp and glory. The guitar hero’s guitar hero, Jimmy Page reflects on the passion for music which inspired him then – and now.
Many Irish holiday-makers will be heading for the United States this year. But there’s much more on offer in that vast playground than the dubious prospect of sweltering in the crushing heat of an Orlando football stadium in June. Jackie Hayden travelled with a bunch of media types to the small town of Lynchburg in Tennessee and visited the source of one of the world’s great spirits, Jack Daniels, making some musical connections along the way.
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.
As Duke Special set off for a jaunt around Europe with the Divine Comedy, our correspondent hitched a ride on the tour bus. In between the sound-checks and the motor-way pitstops, he received a unique insight into the life of the touring musician.
With a little help from Timbaland and The Neptunes, Justin Timberlake’s debut solo album justified propelled him from N’Sync baby food salesman to purveyor of the slickest dancefloor pop since the days when Michael Jackson was black. here, via the wonders of modern technology, HP eavesdrops as the boy wonder receives a Woodward & Bernstein-style investigative enema from the Euro-press.
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?
There are no guarantees of success in the music biz, but if you have what it takes there is plenty of expert help available to ensure you give it your best shot.
The media is in turmoil, with huge losses being posted by some of the country’s biggest broadcasting and publishing groups. It is a dramatic backdrop to the Hot Press Interview with DAVID McREDMOND, chief executive at TV3. In no mood to mince his words, the independent TV boss repeatedly goes for the jugular, insisting that RTÉ’s dual funding must end, and telling the State regulator to get off TV3’s back.
Heard the one about the Irishman, the Bronx and the tab of industrial-strength acid? Stuart Clark hadn t either until that most eligible of bachelors, David Holmes, talked him through the mad month in New York that inspired his Let s Get Killed album.
If you want to make a demo that won't be used to blackmail you a few years down the road to fame and fortune, there are a few things you should know. Here, the experts tell Niall Crumlish what they are.
The spectacle of U2 playing to 50,000 admirers with OASIS as their support band would seem to suggest that reports of PopMart's demise have been greatly exagerrated. And, behind the scenes, the mood is even more upbeat as the two bands revel in a mutual appreciation society.
Neil "Access All Areas" McCormick was with them in the dressing room, the mini-bus and the after-hours bar.
MORE PEOPLE SMOKE IT IN THE UK THAN GO TO CHURCH, THE AMERICAN LAW JUDGES ADMIT THAT IT'S THE SAFEST THERAPEUTICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN BUT STILL THE WAR AGAINST CANNABIS RAGES ON. OLAF TYARANSEN EXAMINES THE VESTED INTERESTS WHICH STAND IN THE WAY OF ITS LEGALISATION.
To coincide with the release of the Today FM DJ’s double-CD compilation tracking the history of alternative rock in Ireland, Tom Dunne talks to Jackie Hayden about the state of Irish music, singer-songwriters versus guitar bands and the role of Irish radio.
Not all Irish emigrants spend their time crying into their green pints of Guinness in Biddy Mulligans. HELENA MULKERNS previews STATESIDE, an ambitious new TV series that chronicles the flesh and blood reality of life in the Big Apple for the so-called Greencard Generation.
They say he s a Man Of The World it s just that for two decades the world in question happened to be Saturn. andy darlington meets peter green, the man who created fleetwood mac, then wrote the longest suicide note in rock n roll history.
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.
Pat Kenny answers his critics, tackles TV3, bins the
Sunday Times, denies he's Alan Partridge, backs John Kelly, queries Clare McKeon and reveals his best, worst and
scariest moments in television's hottest seat.
Interview: Peter Murphy. Pics: Mick Quinn.
Promoter Jim Aiken, who passed away recently, was a hugely important and universally admired figure in the Irish music scene. Here, leading industry representatives pay tribute. (free content)
Arriving in Dublin in the last sixties as a 16 year old guitar wunderkind, Belfast born Gary Moore embarked on a musical career that has seen him go through several metamorphoses and achieve numerous notable success in the process.
He’s the joker in the Irish music pack, a working class hero who has at once conquered and subverted the mainstream. For his first album in six years JERRY FISH and his MUDBUG CLUB have also roped in some top-tier collaborators including rockabilly queen Imelda May and Carol Keogh.
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.
16 years a teacher of Irish, Oliver P. Sweeney is ideally placed to reflect on the past, present and future status of our native tongue and the culture with which it is inextricably linked.
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
He’s jammed with Bob Dylan, partied with Keith Moon, sued The Byrds, traded spiky tops with Rod Stewart, had close encounters with Presleys Reg and Elvis and played "name that key" with John Lee Hooker, but arguably the best moment in his life was when he was named small breeder of the year. RON WOOD, the man who would be the queen mum of rock 'n' roll, tells a mean tale.
Words: STUART CLARK. Pictures ROGER WOOLMAN
He was a midwife to grunge and has worked with artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Hole and Ozzy Osbourne. Far from being a studio boffin, though, Michael Beinhorn believes modern music is too often reliant on technology.
PIGEON-HOLE THEM AS BELFAST HARDCORE MERCHANTS AT YOUR PERIL - IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS THERAPY? HAVE RELEASED TWO CLASSIC PUNK-POP EP'S THAT SHOOK THE BRITISH CHARTS, AND EVEN GOT THEM INTO THE PAGES OF TEEN-BIBLE SMASH HITS. AS THEY BEGIN RECORDING THEIR NEW LP, THEY TAKE TIME OUT TO GET NERVOUS ABOUT FEILE, GET ANGRY ABOUT THE BEATLES, AND EXPLAIN WHY THE DAYS OF THE NINE-MINUTE INSTRUMENTAL EPIC ARE OVER. INTERVIEW: LORRAINE FREENEY
JJ 72 have been hailed by some critics as the finest thing to come out of Ireland since U2 - and no wonder. With a hugely impressive debut album under their collective belt, the expectations are even higher for the follow-up, I To Sky. They share with their illustrious predecessors a predilection for intense songs of spiritual yearning - and a desire to make music that truly stands the test of time. But is it rock'n'roll?
With his first two albums, Streets mastermind Mike Skinner established himself as one of the most eloquent, idiosyncratic and gifted vocalists and worsdsmiths of his generation. But the 27 year old came close to blowing it all on spread-betting and crack, not to mention engaging in an XXX-rated tryst with an unnamed pop starlet. Thankfully, he’s bounced back with the tell-all confessional of The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.
Pigeon-hole them as Belfast hardcore merchants at your peril in the past few months Therapy? have released two classic punk-pop EPs that shook the British charts, and even got them into the pages of teen-bible Smash Hits. As they begin recording their new LP, they take time out to get nervous about Fiile, get angry about the Beatles, and explain why the days of the nine-minute instrumental epic are over. Interview: Lorraine Freeney.
Boyzone are, irrefutably, Ireland s first ever bona fide Pop gods. Reviled by many but dreamed about, screamed at and lusted after by far, far more, they are the men boys of the moment. Joe Jackson meets Louis Walsh and John Reynolds, the Svengalis behind Boyzone, and asks Steve, Shane, Ronan, Mikey and Keith what it s like when every female alive wants to shag you senseless. As if he doesn t know.
Boyzone are, irrefutably, Ireland’s first ever bona fide Pop gods. Reviled by many but dreamed about, screamed at and lusted after by far, far more, they are the men – boys – of the moment. Joe Jackson meets Louis Walsh and John Reynolds, the svengalis behind Boyzone, and asks Steve, Shane, Ronan, Mikey and Keith what it’s like when every female alive wants to shag you senseless. As if he doesn’t know.
He is one of our highest profile broadcasters and journalists. Now in his new book, Last Word host MATT COOPER looks at the rot and corruption that festered beneath the surface of the Celtic Tiger. He talks about the sense of anger he feels over the mismanagement of the economy, the damage wrought by the Bertie Ahern years and the apparent unwillingness of RTE to give him any publicity
By any standards, The Corrs are an extraordinary phenomenon. It won't be long before the combined global sales of their albums to date top the 20 million mark. In Ireland alone, by the end of the year, they will have sold over a million records - at which point they may well have established themselves as the biggest-selling Irish act of all time on home turf.
Nirvana - Ten years after. Peter Murphy talks to producer Butch Vig, musician Mark Lanegan and critic Greil Marcus, and gets the inside story of the making of Nevermind, the classic album that changed the face of music, unveiled the anthem 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and brought the world face to face with a screaming soul called Kurt Cobain.
Comic book artist and file clerk turned movie star, Harvey Pekar must be one of the most unlikely and somewhat reluctant celebrities of our time. An ordinary man whose work has produced extraordinary art, the anti-hero of American Splendour here talks about his friend Toby, Robert Crumb, James Joyce, David Letterman, fame and misfortune, surviving and more.
WILLIAM GIBSON is no ordinary science-fiction writer. Aside from coining such essential nineties' terms as Cyberspace and Cyberpunk, his work has also influenced everyone from computer hackers to scientists developing virtual reality technology. In the rock world, he's regarded as a visionary and artists as diverse as U2, Billy Idol and The Rolling Stones have all claimed inspiration from his novels. Interview: Liam Fay. Cyberpics: Cathal Dawson.
Graham Knuttel talks about his fight with the bottle, his friendship with Sylvester Stallone and why he doesn’t want to be surrounded by his own paintings.
NIALL STOKES takes a very personal journey back through the music and memories of a friendship with a man he was proud to have known
THE DRIVE to Cork was a lonely one. Ry Cooder on the deck, that sweet slide guitar shooting off tracers: the memories, stacked up like a vast
rack of on-line CDs, kept slipping in and out of the engagement slot. No need ever to press the play button. Now and then I had to hold back the
tears as the music of past friendship flooded the car and, with it, a terrible awareness of all the things that might have, but hadn't, been done.
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.
It’s been ten years since his last novel, but Neil Jordan has now reprised his role as one of Ireland’s finest contemporary prose writers with the dark gothic drama, Shade. In a wide-ranging interview with Olaf Tyaransen the Oscar-winning writer/director discusses the challenges of literary craftsmanship, swimming with sharks in Hollywood, working with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, his disinterest in celebrity and why Ireland continues to be his preferred place of residence.
After a lengthy silence, TRICKY is back with an impressively upbeat new album. But the man himself still insists on going against the grain. Here he talks about his aversion to celebrityhood, his dislike of the music biz, his fondness for Bryan Adams and Bono, and how he copes with the terrible burden of having hundreds of women who want to have sex with him. Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
The renowned Irish language poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh was the subject of an extraordinary documentary, broadcast on RTÉ last year, entitled Fairytale Of Kathmandu. Accused in it of the sexual exploitation of Nepalese teenage boys, defiantly asserts his innocence in this, his first in-depth interview.
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.
Greetings From LA
beck and tom petty get together in Los Angeles for an impassioned rap on songs, songwriting, showbiz, the Unplugged phenomenon and how too much music can boggle the mind. mark rowland listens in.
Is she a manufactured pop act made to look like a rock chick? is she a rock chick who sells records like a manufactured pop act? or is she something else entirely? Why’d Avril Lavigne have to go and make things so complicated?
What links Richard Harris with Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkel with The Supremes, and Frank Sinatra with er, Ghost Of An American Airman? Why, the music of Jimmy Webb, of course, one of the most widely-respected songwriters of all-time. Here he talks to JOE JACKSON about his friendship with Richard Harris, his encounters with Elvis and his deep-rooted love of Irish music.
It’s the guide Ladbrokes, the Central Bank, Mystic Meg and Mark Lawrenson turn to at the start of each year – Jackie Hayden’s cultural, sporting and political forecasts for the forthcoming twelve months.
Triumph Of The Will meets Spinal Tap and Bach meets Sabbath as METALLICA join
forces with 101 dinner jackets. Peter Murphy travels to Berlin to sample the results.
It’s a rare thing indeed to hear an Irish lesbian speak openly and frankly about her life, lusts and loves. Gay writer, EMMA DONOGHUE, however, is one of the first of a new and more confident generation. At twenty-four, she has already produced a prodigious body of work ranging from drama to cultural history to her just-published first novel, Stir Fry. In the process, she has emerged as a proud and powerful voice for hundreds of young lesbians in this country. Interview: LIAM FAY. Pix: COLM HENRY
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
For a former mod who once failed to get a prince review published in Hot Press, Mark Little has done pretty well for himself. Paul Nolan quizzes the author and broadcaster about Iraq, Washington, the West Wing, Ireland’s place in the world, politics, the media, Michael O’Leary, Bono and, of course, the smoking ban.
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.
With a new ‘Best Of’ bringing the band’s story up to date, U2’s guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms, and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2
SINEAD O'CONNOR has been many things - bona fide pop star, tabloid target, controversial activist, mother and priest. But, above all, she is one of Ireland's most compelling musicians.
With a new album due for release, she talks to NIALL STOKES about love, sex, the Church, fame, racism and why "it's important to make it soul music." Pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
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.
In the second and final part of an extensive interview, director Jim Sheridan discusses his troubles with Gabriel Byrne and Noel Pearson, explains why he could marry Daniel Day-Lewis but would fail to measure up against Richard Harris, and suggests the best way forward for the embattled Irish film industry. Plus: the ouija board prophecies which seem to have shaped his life. By Joe Jackson.
With his upcoming concert in Poulaphouca marking his solo Irish debut, it's been all too easy in the recent past to overlook Bob Geldof's standing as a musical and lyrical artist. The lines connecting the youthful Dun Laoghaire blues and Dylan aficionado with the creator of The Vegetarians Of Love are rarely traced in media-bytes that prefer to concentrate on Modest Bob, Live Aid Bob and Saint Bob. Here, Bill Graham, who knew the schoolboy, takes musician Bob on a freewheeling trip from then to now.
With his upcoming concert in Poulaphouca marking his solo Irish debut, it's been all too easy in the recent past to overlook Bob Geldof's standing as a musical and lyrical artist. The lines connecting the youthful Dun Laoghaire blues and Dylan aficionado with the creator of The Vegetarians Of Love are rarely traced in media-bytes that prefer to concentrate on Modest Bob, Live Aid Bob and Saint Bob. Here, Bill Graham, who knew the schoolboy, takes musician Bob on a freewheeling trip from then to now.
With his upcoming concert in Poulaphouca marking his solo Irish debut, it s been all too easy in the recent past to overlook Bob Geldof s standing as a musical and lyrical artist. The lines connecting the youthful Dun Laoghaire blues and Dylan aficionado with the creator of The Vegetarians Of Love are rarely traced in media-bytes that prefer to concentrate on Modest Bob, Live Aid Bob and Saint Bob. Here, Bill Graham, who knew the schoolboy, takes musician Bob on a freewheeling trip from then to now.
U2, Elvis Costello, The Pogues, The Waterboys, Emmylou Harris, Hothouse Flowers, The Everly Brothers, Christy Moore just some of the dozens of artists who contribute to an adventurous new five part TV series which traces the extraordinary return journey that Irish traditional music has made to America and beyond. Here, Liam Fay previews the programmes, talks to Philip King who originated and nurtured the project and hears many of the participants explain how they discovered the importance and influence of Irish music.
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.
It's all changed for DAVID GRAY. Within the past month he has played a series of sell-out gigs across the US, gone top ten in the UK, and returned to this country to celebrate the release of Lost Songs. In a hotpress exclusive, NIALL STANAGE reports from New York, Boston, London and Dublin on the globalisation of Ireland's favourite Welshman. Hotshot hitman: STEVEN FISHER
The drink, the drugs, the fights, the sex, the loves, the hates, the hits and the Taoiseach's daughter - here are Ireland's most successful boy band as you've never heard them before.
Hearing their confessions: Joe Jackson
Johnny Ray invented rock ’n’ roll. Elvis Presley marked the beginning of the downfall of popular music. The Beatles only ever wrote one great song. Cranky stuff maybe, but when the speaker is Tony Bennett – the man Sinatra called “The best singer in the business” – you have to listen. Joe Jackson does and, in this exclusive interview, hears how a Jewish-Italian New York kid grew up to be a musical legend, a respected painter and a man who, at 67, can still kick ’90s rock off MTV.
He revolutionised contemporary fiction with Fight Club. But, with more than one brutal murder lurking in the family undergrowth, Chuck Palahniuk's own life has been as troubled and disturbing as any of his books
The recipient of a Late Late Show tribute and the outgoing presenter of The Arts Show, MIKE MURPHY avails of a timely opportunity to reflect on the highs and lows of his personal and professional life and to assure JOE JACKSON that, contrary to certain popular mythology, he is neither a marshmallow nor a flowerpot man
For many people it is U2's greatest album. Twenty years on, to mark it's re-release, Colm O'Hare talks to Daniel Lanois and reflects on the extraordinary background to a monumental album.
With a new 'best of' bringing the band's story up to date U2's guitar man steps forward to riff on good times and bad, the private life of a public figure, discovering the secrets of the universe on mushrooms and why, after all these years, few things match the high of being a member of U2.
Special hotpress.com members edition: "director's cut" featuring interview sections unavailable anywhere else.
25 years after the publicaton of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, doctor hunter s. thompson remains the originator and unequalled exponent of Gonzo journalism, an author as famous for his own high-octane, outlaw lifestyle as he is for the remarkable series of books and articles which made him a rock star of the written word.
Tracked down to his lair in the Colorado mountains, Thompson lives up to all expectations in this exclusive interview and story by daniel senstius and jurrien dekker. Photography: chris van houts.
Niall Stokes draws on his best-selling book Into The Heart: The Stories Behind The Songs Of U2 to offer a unique insight into the way in which some of the greatest songs in the history of popular music came into being.
The year began with contrasting and contradictory alignments. On the one hand, the United States were about to invest a new president, a young, rock’n’roll-loving sax-playing boyo from the south called Bill Clinton, offering the possibility of America as the last great hope again.
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.
“When you think of hip hop you think of something grimy, grungy, kind of like gritty concrete. And when you think of R&B you think of something soft, sensual…kind of like a rose.” So breathes Ashanti in her slushy and pointless introduction to Concrete Rose as she helpfully interprets the mystery behind the album’s title.
The Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) is has announced the inaugural IFTA Music Forum, focusing on "Music for the Moving Image", will take place in Dublin on 4 September 2009.
There won’t be any half-human half-dog creatures, but Daft Punk are at it again and this time they’ve created a video clip of astronomical proportions.
Greg Haver has joined the list of major industry names appearing at The Music Show. The event takes place at the RDS in Dublin on October 4 and 5 and boasts a line-up that is packed with industry heavyweights.
Already a favourite at Autamata live shows, ‘Jellyman’ further showcases the collaborative talents of maverick producer Ken McHugh and the gonna-be-huge Cathy Davey.
