Once you see the names Brian Eno and David Holmes printed on a soundtrack tracklist, you know it has to possess at least some serious heavyweight potential.
Once you see the names Brian Eno and David Holmes printed on a soundtrack tracklist, you know it has to possess at least some serious heavyweight potential.
Peter Murphy meets Sweden's Soundtrack Of Our Lives frontman Ebbot Lundberg and discovers that Scandinavia has more to offer music than Roxette and their ilk
AIR's latest outing is the kind of thing that gives the soundtrack a good name. JONATHAN O'BRIEN talks to the finest French musical outfit since LITTLE BOB STOREY!
Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes confirms his place among the Hollywood soundtrack elite with the June 4 release of Ocean’s Thirteen: Music By David Holmes.
Brazilian drum & bass superstar DJ Marky has been added to the list of DJs performing as part of the Soundtrack 08 festival with a set in Crawdaddy this May.
Things just keep getting better for Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova with the Once soundtrack jumping 24 places to number seven in this week’s Billboard American Album Chart.
When an established musician first branches into the world of the soundtrack, in most cases the review pretty much writes itself. First off: comment on how the relevant artist’s back catalogue has always had a ‘cinematic’ feel to it; then note how the film’s subject matter ties in with their particular world view; and, finally, conclude that, while the new record is an interesting curio, it merely whets the appetite for the next album proper.
The soundtrack for the previous Spiderman film had a strong thread of emo and hard rock running through it. This collection has moved more towards contemporary indie-rock.
American rockers Motion City Soundtrack will be stopping at the Temple Bar Music Centre on September 30 for a show in Dublin as part of their upcoming European tour.
Ry Cooder's last album was released way back in 1983, the fairly successful but musically undistinguished 'Slide Area'. Since then! Well, he's done the music for 'Southern Comfort' and 'Paris Texas' but hasn't as yet produced a follow-up LP. In the absence of the latter, this soundtrack album will have to keep the fans happy.
Belfast superstar DJ David Holmes has once again produced the goods with his soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Twelve, this time finding inspiration in sleazy European electro and superfly acid jazz. But not, however, elephant porn.
STRIKING THE RIGHT CORD'
Film soundtrack buffs and nattily-attired acid jazz whippersnappers CORDUROY tell peter murphy about their strange
passion for Dave Allen's theme tune.
They started out as a bunch of punk rock misfits called the Sex Maggots but had their biggest hit with an acoustic ballad on a Meg Ryan movie soundtrack.
John Walshe talks to World Party mainman Karl Wallinger about his quest for independence, his growing profile as a songwriter and his plans for a new online news channel
The Edge talks to Bill Graham about his soundtrack album "Captive" - and about the hidden reservoirs the band are charting in their search for the follow-up to "The Unforgettable Fire"
The soundtrack to this, the latest vehicle for Hugh Grant to bumble his way into our affections, is just what you'd expect. The movie, from the Four Weddings . . . team, may well be funny but the soundtrack is anything but.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Following a strong start with a slew of slickly produced soul/dance singles, including 'All Around The World' and 'This Is The Right Time', Lisa Stansfield has failed to live up to her initial promise as a soul diva of substance.
He’s worked with Van, Dylan, Christy, Sinéad, The Cranberries and many other household names – but now he’s gone centre-stage himself as the composer of The General soundtrack. JOE JACKSON meets RICHIE BUCKLEY. Pix: Mick Quinn
They redefined the parameters of contemporary music, creating weird, eerie and magnificent soundscapes. Now, as they prepare to release a career retrospective, Massive Attack talk about their choice of collaborators and why they agreed to soundtrack a porn movie.
The dark, romantic Raining Down Arrows is the latest milestone in the creative
liberation of Mundy, a man whose thoughts on love, friendship and connecting with the audience are at the core of his music.
Dropped by Warners, but buoyed up by mega-sales of a soundtrack hit, Nick Lowe is back with a great new album, The Impossible Bird, and lots to say about Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello and a benevolent devil with the feet of a chicken. Interview: Joe Jackson.
In truth, Cave, vocally anyway, is more of an absence than a presence here. With little verse, chorus, verse action going on, he seems to float through the tracks – a whisper here, a murmur there – leaving Warren Ellis’s wonderful violin playing to carry most of the record’s narrative weight.
In fact, The Proposition is probably best approached as a powerful, brooding Ellis score with an atmospheric Cave cameo.
CATHAL COUGHLAN has long been among the most articulate and angry of Irish songwriters. Here, he talks to JONATHAN O BRIEN about his new album, money problems and adapting to middle-age
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.
Though The Heroin Diaries is far from being a great record musically, it’s nonetheless an interesting piece of self-examination from a man who really shouldn’t be alive to tell his tale.
With his work on the soundtrack to In The Name Of The Father bringing him into the full glare of media attention Gavin Friday takes this opportunity to put to rest any accusations of riding on U2’s coat-tails. Confident and brimming with ideas for his solo career, The Spotlight Kid gives the lowdown to an eager BILL GRAHAM.
Sountracks are getting weirder, that's for sure. No longer an excuse for stringing together the usual clutch of Motown classics, they are increasingly challenging audiences' sense of time and place by crossing genres and spanning generations.
Sountracks are getting weirder, that's for sure. No longer an excuse for stringing together the usual clutch of Motown classics, they are increasingly challenging audiences' sense of time and place by crossing genres and spanning generations.
As the punk revolution took hold in the UK, Manchester was notable for the bleak, industrial soundtrack even its most successful bands were making. But that all changed with the explosion there of a new and hedonistic culture, centred in and around The Hacienda, a club run by the city's most influential music biz entrepreneur, the boss of Factory Records, TONY WILSON. The story of the transformation of the city into the centre of rock'n'roll's emerging drug and club culture – of the change from Manchester to Madchester – is told in 24 Hour Party People. With the Happy Mondays as it primary musical focus, there's no shortage of on-screen drugs and fighting – but this is really the extraordinary saga of one of the great rock'n'roll towns, in all its gory glory… Tara Brady reports
His dreamy electro-pop is winning Ulrich Schnauss an international fanbase. In his native Germany however, they’re still not convinced. Maybe it’s something to do with all those guitars.
8 Mile has opened in the States to rave reviews and a rapturous public reception. The film soundtrack, masterminded by Eminem, deserves more of the same
The soundtrack to Louis Leterrier’s movie Danny The Dog (a martial arts thriller starring Bob Hoskins, Morgan Freeman and Jet Li), this is more of an interesting side project than a real album. Think Passengers, only without any lyrics.
Shonky has moved away from his acid/electro roots and is concentrating on techno, but whatever about this record’s rationale, its detuned riffs and relentless rhythmic pulses soundtrack the march to the scrapyard where defective drones meet their maker.
If you remember Dan Bell's work, you'll love 'Lego'. It's a record that clings to the idea that minimalism is more than an after-party soundtrack, as its raw, analogue sounds rush to a repetitive climax.
Life must be strange and somewhat paranoid for Danny ‘Legowelt’ Wolfers if this record is anything to go on. There’s the pulsing acid groove and dark synth melodies of the title track. Elsewhere, ‘Strange Events At Mazumba’ is a tense, spooky soundtrack.
Hailing from Rotterdam but sounding like they come from the wrong side of Detroit, Dexter and Cosmic Force take no prisoners on this upfront release. Nightmarish synths, aggro bass and slamming 4/4 beats are the perfect soundtrack to the darker side of Dutch society.
‘Trauermusik’ is a wonderfully warm, deep house track, swathed in strings and woodwind, given a contemporary clubby feeling with a squelchy electronic bass. Even in the winter, it’s not hard to imagine that ‘Trauermusik’ will become the ideal soundtrack to accompany long summer evenings.
Singer Stephen M’s past in Rollerskate Skinny is nearly always referred to in articles about The Radio. And now the band have something else to add to their biog: the inclusion of ‘Whatever Gets You Through Today’ on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. The Radio’s second single ‘Manmade’ from their second album Charm Offensive is a fantastic upbeat song, and should repeat the commercial success of ‘Whatever...’.
The soundtrack to the third Spiderman film features tracks from The Killers and The Flaming Lips, but the honour of lead track goes to ‘Signal Fire’ by Snow Patrol. The sound is – well, like any other Snow Patrol song: sweeping guitar chords building with percussion to the chorus.
Where did Cornershop go with the Anglo/Indian sounds they did so well? Well, let me tell you. In 2003, they began making an film about London’s independent music industry, and ‘Wop The Groove’ is the soundtrack to this.
It needs little imagination to guess quite correctly how such a piece of music might sound. But to throw a spanner into the works, it’s X Factor ‘star’ Rowetta providing vocals. The weirdest thing is that she doesn’t even ruin it.
What good would summer be, if it weren’t accompanied by a soundtrack of optimistic four-pieces from British university towns going all retro on our ass with their jangly guitar pop?
It wouldn’t be good at all, is the answer. It might be filled with some more meaningful music that wasn’t uninhibitedly derivative.
But, who can dance like an idiot in the park to The Mars Volta? This is why it’s okay for The Dodgems to exist, but for the summer only.
This may be their first foray onto a major label, but Babatikidido is still a typically unconventional project.. As the soundtrack to avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham’s 50th Gala Performance, this three-track instrumental wonder is appropriately fluid and dramatic.
‘Winter Notes’ – a song from their last album – was used on the soundtrack of television series 24 but this Toronto quintet headed up by vocalist/guitarists Liz Hysen are unlikely to have Hollywood queuing to use their bleak, lo-fi post-folk.
Ironic that Bangor-born Foy Vance is one of the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack alumni who’s been forgotten, yet he really is up there with other Bangor-born Grey’s Anatomy alumni. ‘Be With Me’ is a languid, bluesy track which has the confidence of a man with nothing to prove. The song sounds like it was made purely for fun, and therefore all the more relaxed and passionate for it. Bodes well for the forthcoming album.
Kate Rogers has been called the Canadian Dido but that description does her little justice – Aimee Mann and Beth Orton are far more apt comparisons. Her unforced vocal style and canny choice of tracks makes this a quietly enjoyable record and the perfect summer soundtrack.
Touring mates and neighbours of The Go! Team, the Pipettes had been flitting from one small indie label to another, before finding a home with the Team at Memphis. It also marks their move away from the slight air of novelty to proper pop band, much in the manner of The Chalets’s recent transformation. Indeed the two bands share something of a musical template, especially in the classic girl-group vocals. ‘Dirty Mind’ is good yet b-side ‘Because It’s Not Love’ is better and wouldn’t sound out of place on the Grease soundtrack. Yes, that is a complement.
Touring mates and neighbours of The Go! Team, the Pipettes had been flitting from one small indie label to another, before finding a home with the Team at Memphis. It also marks their move away from the slight air of novelty to proper pop band, much in the manner of The Chalets’s recent transformation. Indeed the two bands share something of a musical template, especially in the classic girl-group vocals. ‘Dirty Mind’ is good yet b-side ‘Because It’s Not Love’ is better and wouldn’t sound out of place on the Grease soundtrack. Yes, that is a complement.
On Planet Punk, there’s a hemisphere of a difference between Hüsker Dü and Busted, but it’s exactly equidistant of the two where Reekus-signed band SuperJimenez have spread out their kit. ‘Helicopters’, the Dubliners’ debut single, has enough spunk to avoid it being fobbed off as a throwaway pop record, yet bounces along like the radio-friendly tune that Mr Mould never wrote. And given that summer’s slowly slowly approaching, the single’s a perfect soundtrack to those first visits to Howth and lunchtimes in St Stephen’s Green. Cheerful stuff.
Silicone Soul became synonymous with undemanding, mainstream house music through their success with 'Right On, Right On', but, as their second album demonstrates, there's far more to the Glasgow duo's work than providing the soundtrack to football programmes.
The boy Kittser’s seemingly unstoppable rise towards world domination continues with the second single from this summer’s certifiable soundtrack album The Big Romance.
Soulless, heartless, deafeningly loud, and polluted throughout by a hideous neo-Goth soundtrack, Queen Of The Damned is visibly aimed at the sad-and-morbid Marilyn Manson fringe of teenage tossers
Get ready for new Dublin rom-com Goldfish Memory - not to mention its soundtrack, featuring Hedrock Valley Beats, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan and Glen Hansard among others
It only took Jay Haze and Samim, aka Fuckpony, a few months to write and record 'Children', but its underlying themes are the result of two lives spent on the edge. Haze and Samim's troubled experiences - including stints living homeless in San Francisco and selling LSD while touring with the Grateful Dead - are not obvious from the predominant musical soundtrack, an unusual mixture of deep old school house and wiry minimalism. However, scratch beneath the surface and cautionary tales like 'Cell Phone Hit' and 'Make Money Hoe' reveal the darker side of life. Their story probably warrants a good book or film, but until Sodebergh comes calling, we'll make do with 'Children'.
Not the greatest film of the year, but by several light-years the buzziest, this Hong Kong comedy has stormed the American box-office despite having English dubbed over Cantonese on the soundtrack and the word ‘soccer’ in the title.
Baz Luhrmann’s forthcoming musical is set in the 19th century, features classic songs from the 20th and was made in the 21st. A lot of big names – Bowie, Beck, Bono – have been co-opted to make this soundtrack more interesting than your average movie tie-in.
Dismal offering from would-be R&B Lothario, this 14-song supposed sexual odyssey is more like a soundtrack to a day in the life of Mr Bean than Hugh Hefner.
Lead Us Not Into Temptation, David Byrne’s soundtrack to Young Adam, was sublime, one of the best records of last year. Take a recent immersion in film scores and a well-known wildly wandering muse, and it’s no surprise that Grown Backwards has all the eclecticism of a soundtrack album, from vibrant chamber pop to protest songs and forwards to full-on arias. It’s like it was made by five different people.
If ever a film was destined to polarise opinion, this is the one. An insider document of the weekender/raver lifestyle, with vague similiarities to Trainspotting and a thumping techno soundtrack, Human Traffic is extremely unlikely to translate effectively to those outside the chemical-generation culture.
Belfast music merchant David Holmes has exclusively revealed to hotpress.com that he's confirmed for the Ocean's 13 soundtrack, and in the process of writing the follow-up to David Holmes Presents The Free Association.
Oliver Ho is usually perceived as a hard as nails minimal techno producer, a soundtrack provider to those scary clubs full of men with their tops off and no females. Happily, his second album looks set to smash this misleading perception.
Some of the tracks on Red Cities are so vividly redolent of a sense of place, it could almost be the soundtrack for a series of imaginary J.G Ballard travelogues
Dripping from your stereo like a wetter, more rancid Keane, The Fray have notched up two million US album sales on the back of a berth on the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack.
Unlike most soundtrack albums A Clockwork Orange OST assumes a mystique of its own, befitting the relentless cinematic onslaught that Kubrick aspired to create.
Do you remember the music that was playing when you got your first kiss? And what was the soundtrack the first time you had sex? Often it’s not the overtly sexy songs that have the deepest sexual resonance…
This film's crap: let's remake it and score the soundtrack! Belfast production maverick and film buff David Holmes hits Tinseltown on the wave of Ocean's 11
Another graduate from The OC soundtrack hall of fame, Jason Mraz is best described as a funkier version of John Mayer or a close relation to New Radicals front man Gregg Alexander.
After the commercial disaster that was La Passione (both the film and Rea's over-indulgent soundtrack) and last year's less than spectacular revisit to the Road To Hell (Part Two) the Middelsboro' bottle blonde returns to yet another familiar theme.
Armstrong has been canny enough to make this more than just the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, the frequent instrumentals combining a massive cinematic scope with the ambition of the best left-field rock and dance artists
For the most part, whether Folds is encouraging the crowd to act as a makeshift brass section, or playfully throwing in a snippet of ‘Misirlou’ from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, this is music guaranteed to put a smile on your face
Recorded in Italy on September 11th 2001, this live album (and soundtrack to an upcoming DVD) presents more or less the same show in a similar format. But what started out as an end-of-tour celebration for the former Policeman turned into an emotion-filled requiem for the events that had taken place hours before.
Five years after the sublime I'm With Stupid and Aimee acolytes are now having to contend with the shock of Manna from heaven in the shape of her contributions to the Magnolia soundtrack and this more focused, full-length release.
While not strictly a fully-fledged follow-up, Sing-a-Longs… is to all intents and purposes a Jack Johnson solo album. Nine of the 13 songs are newly written and recorded by Johnson, in just a month, for the soundtrack of the animated movie.
Nick Cave has confirmed that he and Warren Ellis will write the soundtrack to John Hillcoats forthcoming film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
He has encompassed bare bones acoustic music, bluegrass, r’n’ b, hard country, soundtrack music and rock and held it all together with a voice that could never really be anything other than country.
Long gone are the days when the Donnas were perfect teen-movie soundtrack fodder. As the fair maidens of new hair-metal, they’re a little like the missing link between Angus Young and Courtney Love.
The soundtrack features eight tracks from the canine one himself, and contributions from any hip-hop crew who happened to have a free weekend around recording time
Thankfully however they've garnered enough spot on contributions from Michael Franti, DJ Speech and Grant Lee Phillips - all held together by 1GL's pre-recorded soundtrack - to draw the curious in to this diverse melange.
Shock horror! No elvis Costello album! … In certain circles 1988 will be best remembered for the King’s lack of vinyl. His soundtrack for ‘The Courier’ was all well and good and ‘Out Of Our Idiot’ filled in a few of this particular household …
I haven't seen the movie which spawned this soundtrack, but the music certainly stands up on its own and should prove another winner for Madonna's Maverick label.
Steeped in classic sixties West Coast pop styles, albeit with a futuristic edge, this LA trio have a recent history that most like-minded outfits would kill for. They not only appeared on the first Austin Powers movie soundtrack but, far more impressively, they form the core of Brian Wilson's 12- piece backing band on his current stateside tour.
This soundtrack is essentially a collage of the work of three bands - Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays - with a few house tunes and the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and The Clash thrown in for good measure
Music Review | Live
52% | 1 Jul 2004
Tanya Sweeney
As Metallica take to the stage amid a cacophony of fireworks, it seems that, despite their sonic brutality, their slick show is beginning to feel a little…well, inauthentic. In fact, it feels a little like Imax…but with a much better soundtrack.
Following a seemingly endless bout of movie soundtrack projects, Newman's first album proper in almost a decade has been hailed (most notably by Newman himself) as his best yet. Whether that's true or not is debatable, but Bad Love, produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, Ron Sexsmith etc.) is certainly up there with past glories such as Good Old Boys, Sail Away and Little Criminals.
By this stage, you're no doubt aware that Bono co-wrote this movie and provides no less than six songs on the soundtrack, some with his old muckers in U2 and others with The Million Dollar Hotel Band, which prises the likes of Lanois and Eno away from the desk and into more standard musical roles.
A few years back, Underworld were viewed as one of the most important bridging links between the mediums of rock and dance. Album number two Second Toughest In The Infants had consolidated their enviable position as darlings of the rock press, and 'Born Slippy' had blown up the mainstream following its inclusion on the Trainspotting soundtrack.
It may constitute the soundtrack to one of the most technically impressive concert films ever made, but once it's divorced from its constituent visuals, Stop Making Sense falls fairly flat as a document of Talking Heads' musical abilities.
They are the ultimate life-is-a-movie soundtrack, perfect for self-mythologizing and elevating the humdrum ho-hum of the ’burbs and the boonies into the stuff of half-speed-shutter-flutter-partial-exposure existential
Idlewild is the soundtrack to Outkast’s upcoming movie of the same name, and the follow-up to 2003’s massively acclaimed double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
WITH JULIAN Temple's film going a long way towards restoring the legend the Pistols themselves did their damnedest to defile on the reunion tour of '96, it's inevitable that we'd get the soundtrack of the repackaging of the resurrection.
This forty-two song, two CD compilation follows Costello's career from his 1977 debut album My Aim Is True, to his most recent solo hit, 'She' from the Notting Hill soundtrack.
Slash can go boil his silly hat, but Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones and Kraftwerk are welcome to come and stay in Fagersta any time they want. Howlin’ Pelle and the boys talk heroes and zeros with Stuart Clark
The indelible images of September 11th tragedy will be for many, the key memory of these past 12 months. Music may seem lightweight in comparison, yet its healing powers were probably more needed than ever
While one Irish Ronan is currently attempting to break the US market, another already has. COLM O'HARE meets RONAN HARDIMAN, the music composer behind Michael Flatley’s successes and discovers a considerable solo talent
After a lengthy Facebook campaign by fans of leading man Rupert Grint, gritty Belfast-based drama Cherrybomb has finally secured a cinema release for 2010. We catch up with co-director GLENN LEYBURN to find out about the movie that the world nearly didn’t see.
Declan Lynch's acclaimed account of an alcoholic coming to terms with his self-destructive past has been adapted for the stage and is proving to be a hit all over again.
Need help, advice or a second opinion? Put your music industry question to the oracle@hotpress.ie.
This fortnight, Susan from Kenmare asks: is there anything a songwriter can do to stop an artist issuing a version of their song which they feel is just a bad version?
Country music’s stock has never been higher. First Johnny Cash gained an entire new generation of fans, then Hollywood began to pepper its films with bluegrass and roots music. Now, everyone from Jack White to Van Morrison is waking up to the magic of country. Ireland's getting in on the act too, with the launch of the Midlands Music Festival, a two-day celebration of all things hatted and booted. Colm O’Hare traces the rebirth of a genre.
Louis Walsh and Bono suffer a roasting as Echo And The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch talks to Hot Press about life as an indie-pop legend and explains why he’s rock music’s answer to Frank Sinatra.
Anybody who has lived their life up to this point without managing to see Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal 1960 horror-flick Psycho is hereby urged to drag their lazy ass down to the IFC
Personally speaking, the death of the wonderful Elliott Smith was a major blow his year. I found out about his suicide through Ollie Cole, who had e-mailed me with a very succinct, “Elliott Smith is dead. He was my king”, on the day of his death.
Annual article: The arrival of Channel 6 was a boom – but music programming on television in 2006 was challenged by reality TV game shows and, increasingly, by YouTube.
CATHY DILLON chats to Dubliner JIMMY SMALLHORNE, writer and director of 2by4, an acclaimed new film charting the lives of young gay Irish immigrants in New York.
Debbi Peterson of '80s pop act The Bangles talks about supporting Queen at Slane, surviving an embarrassing moment on the David Letterman show and drumming with Spinal Tap
He loves Natasha Bedingfield and Charlotte Hatherley, but has no time for Franz Ferdinand, Donnie Darko and hammock-sized bras. Lisa Coen wakes Ian McCulloch from his slumbers and finds the Echo & The Bunnymen legend in wonderfully morose form.
Danielle Brigham catches up with new Britrock darlings The Futureheads to discuss their recent gigs in, respectively, a ski resort and the biggest shopping mall in the world, touring with Franz Ferdinand, appearing on The OC soundtrack and their collaboration with Bloc Party.
With her urban flavoured show on 2FM providing the soundtrack to many youths’ misdemeanours, the quiet suburb of Baltinglass seems an unlikely hood for Nikki Hayes. She talks to Shilpa Ganatra about her new neighbours, hapless attempts at playing housewife, and meeting Lionel Richie. Photography by Cathal Dawson
Growing up alongside the nascent U2 in the ’70s, Neil McCormick dreamt that one day he too would rank among the rock’n’roll greats. having quit songwriting to focus on journalism, his musical ambitions were ironically realised when he found himself included among such heavyweight talents as leonard cohen, bob dylan and elvis presley on The Passion Of The Christ soundtrack.
During the heady days of Italia ’90, The Stunning provided the unofficial soundtrack to the nation’s summer-long party, playing a series of uproarious shows around the country and treating the top-ten like their local. thirteen years later, having just re-released their classic album, Paradise In The Picturehouse, the group reflect on what a long, strange trip it’s been and why they’re not ready to hang up their guitars just yet.
No, we're not taking the piss. Click below to hear a 30 second sampler of the star belting out a cover of 'I Fought The Law' from the soundtrack of his latest movie, Intermission...
Not content with her million selling success with Destiny's Child, Beyonce Knowles has just released a solo single 'Work It Out' from the Austin Powers - Goldmember soundtrack and is shortly to release a debut solo album
Producer and musician Daniel Lanois talks about turning his latest album into a film, cutting out the middleman to distribute his own music, and why he's fascinated by Michael Jackson's feet.
Just about every artist will tell you they never pay attention to reviews. Those same acts can most likely recite word for word those very same reviews. Sound bites, artistic temperament and tight deadlines are not the makings of a quiet life.
When ‘Theme From S’Express’ became a massive hit back in 1988, S’Express mastermind Mark Moore found himself surfing the crest of a rave wave. 18 years later, he’s still proud of it.
ENYA: THE LATEST SCORE
From the Gweedore family that gave the world Clannad, another success story in the making. Enya,whose new album featuring music for the forthcoming TV series The Celts , is already making waves months before the programme itself goes on air, is joined by producer Nicky Ryan for a three-way conversation with Bill Graham. Pix:Colm Henry.
IARLA O LIONAIRD has a new star-studded solo album out but the Afro Celt Sound System continue to teach him that music can be enjoyable and not just sublime . Interview: Colm O'Hare
Paul Nolan talks to Neil Hegarty, author of Waking Up In Dublin, a new book which offers an outsider’s view of the music scene – and more – in the capital
Between recording the theme music for The Saint and fending off accusations of satanism, Orbital mainman PHILIP HARTNOLL barely has time to do the washing up. STUART CLARK stands by with the tea-towel.
Temporarily quitting their LA abode for a rare homeward trip Saucy Monky reveal that the Viper Room isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and explain how they’ve conquered US television.
Despite having Kevin Shields stolen away from them by Gemma Hayes, Primal Scream are in the best shape of their careers. So says Bobby Gillespie in a no punches pulled interview.
Fresh from the success of ‘Shrooms, in which she has a leading role, Lindsey Haun shoots the breeze about music, film and growing up as the daughter of a soft-rock legend.
She came to our attention with a disturbingly convincing turn as a bondage queen. Now Emma De Caunes joins an ensemble cast for a whimsical deconstruction of the Hollywood musical.
Akron singer-songwriter Tim Easton has just settled in Alaska, a place where people “go mad or die”. Thankfully, he’s still alive and sane enough to tell the tale.
Aimee Mann is one of the most interesting and distinctive songwriters of the past 20 years. Just don’t ask her what she thinks of the Mercury shortlist!
UFOs, sunken Civil War forts and songs about Van Gogh’s severed ear are all subjects liable to come up when in conversation with WARREN DEFEVER from Michigan-based eclecticists his naME IS ALIVE. Interview: Nick Kelly.
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.
2004 was a year of infotainment overload when popular culture became increasingly co-opted to the business of selling. But there were those precious few, who remained faithful to the idea of art for its own sake.
He may have his critics among the academic literati, but Belfast singer/songwriter Brian Kennedy insists that his move into the realm of fiction is a natural artistic progression.
You might not have heard of Leya, but Elton John, Ronan Keating and Jools Holland have. Peter Murphy meets the band who are putting Bangor on the rock’n’roll map
It sounds like a car-crash waiting to happen – a Southern California garage band channelling psychedelic Cambodian pop. In fact, DENGUE FEVER are one of the most beguiling new acts to pop up on the radar recently.
They're flagbearers for the 'new eccentric' scene and the toast of the fashion set. So what are These New Puritans doing writing songs about Michael Barrymore?
The man formerly known as Dennis Pennis, Paul Kaye, has made a return to form as hedonistic DJ Frankie Wilde in the new Ibiza-set comedy, It’s All Gone Pete Tong. A rollicking mockumentary following the fortunes of its errant lead character, it aims to do for the dance scene what This Is Spinal Tap did for heavy metal.
“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.
It may be the time of year for staying indoors, but there are plenty of comic treats around to keep you entertained, including a brace of top class new TV shows and the return of one Christopher Morris.
Deco Cuffe me bollix. With the release of his debut album Andrew Strong has finally left behind his Commitments' character and launched his solo career in earnest. Interview: Colm O'Hare
Cork act Kooky, aka Tony O Sullivan, has just released his debut album, The Good Old Days, but it s been a long time a comin , as John Walshe found out.
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
They’re German, they’ve been making music for years, have been unfairly compared to Daft Punk, and are about to blow up with their debut album, Selected Funks. Richard Brophy meets the strike boys and says ‘gut, gut super gut!’
Underground heroes for the best part of a decade, French soft-rockers Phoenix look set to break-big with their latest album. They talk about drawing inspiration from the annals, and hanging out with Francis Ford Coppola
He s only twenty three years old, but rest assured you ll be hearing a lot more about DJ Hyper in the not too distant future. Richard Brophy profiles one of the newest faces on the break beat scene.
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.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it s not a new game we ve invented to pass slow days at HP Central, just a reflection on the confusion you can face when a CD or tape arrives which is recorded and packaged so well that you don t know whether it s a demo or an actual release that should be re-directed to the Album Dissection and Resuscitation Department.
He helped invent synth-pop and is famous for his huge open-air shows. Now Jean-Michel Jarre is going back to basics to reprise his landmark Oxygene album.
How do you follow an album that sells 26 million copies? Since Jagged Little Pill, this is the dilemma that has haunted Alanis Morissette. A decade on, she feels able to come to terms with her whirlwind success.
Roddy Doyle is one of Ireland's most important writers. Having made his initial breakthrough with The Commitments, he won the Booker prize in 1993 with Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Now with his new novel Oh, Play That Thing – the sequel to the critically acclaimed A Star called Henry – he is back to one of his guiding passions, music, as he takes his protagonist Henry smart through the scrum of 1920s New York, and on to Louis Armstrong's Chicago.
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.
He’s been the artist to watch for years in Belfast, with a critically acclaimed David Holmes collaboration one of his many achievements. Now Phil Kieran is finally getting around to releasing an album. He talks to Colin Carberry about the long journey from drawing board to completion.
With his pounding third novel, The Rooms, Declan Lynch has written one of the books of the year – a driven story of love, lust and alcohol that introduces one of the great anti-heroes of contemporary fiction.
We’ve tipped them for success in the past, and now, with a New Year upon us, Laura Izibor, Dirty Epic’s SJ Wai and Fight Like Apes’ MayKay are set to sweep all before them.
If I Should Fall From Grace is the most intimate portrait of SHANE MacGOWAN yet. CRAIG FITZSIMONS meets the director of the critically acclaimed biopic, SARAH SHARE.
Mary Coughlan returns to Midnight At The Olympia on February 4th, but this time it's with an unreserved optimistic outlook, and the determination to put all her troubles behind her. Interview Lorraine Freeney
The latest radio listenership figures suggest that the once embattled Today FM is finally emerging as a credible national alternative to RTE. In the third of a four-part series, Jackie Hayden breakfasts - as do more Irish radio listeners than ever - with morning-show helmsman Ian Dempsey
Eurovision may have kick-started her career, but things didn't exactly go according to plan after that. Now NIAMH KAVANAGH is taking off again. colm o'hare reports.
MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER talks to JOE JACKSON about Party Doll And Other Favourites, a Greatest Hits collection which she hopes will breathe new life into a tired format.
Life has never been so sweet for Pugwash's Thomas Walsh with a cracking new album, a song on an A-List Hollywood movie, and a cricket-loving pal to play with.
Not a bad ambition at all. But you have to think of yourself as well. When she did, Anne Sexton realised that she could only come, as it were, if she let herself go – and that meant being prepared to make a lot of noise indeed at critical moments. Everyone say: AAAAAAAAAGH……….
Falling snow, falling bodies and equipment, and music to fall in love with: it’s Australian mod-disco anarcho-samplers THE AVALANCHES. Text: KIM PORCELLI
The Stunning's new EP, Deja Voodoo, features cover versions of Beatles, Byrds, Dylan and Captain Beefheart tracks. But what about the more intriguing and embarrassing records that lurk within Steve Wall's collection? Olaf Tyaransen investigates and unearths a few surprises like The Goons, BBC sound effects albums, and ...Barry White?!
Folk doyen Richard Thompson remains a singular presence in the roots music scene after four decades. Here he talks about “exile” on the US West Coast and his recent return to his electric rock roots.
Apologies if it seems like a bit of an obsession, but – for women in particular – foreplay is such an important part of good, satisfying sex. Here, then are some top tips on how best to ignite the passions of the woman you lust.
Having survived their initial mauling at the hands of the British music press, Asia-obsessed psychedelists KULA SHAKER have returned for a second innings. Frontman CRISPIAN MILLS lays off the poppadoms for long enough to chat to JACKIE HAYDEN about his band's new album, Strangefolk.
Continuing the theme of cars and road imagery in his music, chris rea has delved into the world of 1960s Italian sportscars for his latest project, La Passione. colm o hare finds out about it.
WELL. It’s here again. The shopping, the stamp-licking, the mad social whirl, the parties, the receptions, the reunions, the idiotic games, the enforced cheerfulness . . .
A visit from Larry Harvey, creator of Nevada’s legendary Burning Man festival, looks set to be one of the highlights of Dublin’s forthcoming convergence weekend.
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.
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
Invisible Armies have just released their killer debut EP, A Neutral Space. Richard Brophy talks to Leo Pearson, one-third of the band s core assault squad.
Seven years after his last solo LP, David Holmes lost his father. That trauma, and working on the Bobby Sands-era drama Hunger, seem to have brought a new humanity to his work.
Advertising maestro, Warhol/Burroughs associate and portrait photographer BRUCE WEBER talks about his re-released biopic of jazz lost-boy Chet Baker, Let's Get Lost.
It's one of the most heartwarming and deserved success stories in music - how Beth Orton learned to cope with illness, rebuilt her career and found herself sharing studios and stages with artists as diverse as Emmylou Harris, Ryan Adams, The Chemical Brothers and David Kitt
STEPHEN MORRIS takes time out from humming the theme to Green Acres and terrorising everyone within a five-mile radius of his newly-aquired Yorkshire farm (with his equally newly-acquired heavy artillery) to talk to STUART CLARK about his and Gillian Gilbert's New Order offshoot The Other Two.
We re surrounded by American culture from the breakfasts we eat through the beer we drink to the music and movies we define our lives by. And with Independence Day coming on July 4th, you might as well go ahead and enjoy it to the full. Here EAMON SWEENEY suggests how to become an American for a day.
With their Adventura Majestica album currently enjoying critical and commercial success, Sack explain what a long, strange trip it s been. Stephen Robinson holds the tape recorder
As Beck contemplates a belated sequel to Odelay, feel free to ask him any old question you like – just as long as it isn’t about that recent break-up with his long-time girlfriend. Oh, and make sure you don’t have the sniffles. Nadine O’Regan packs a hankie
Forget all the chatter about solo albums and injuries sustained on the road: Snow Patrol are revelling in the end of a triumphant year, one which saw Eyes Open become the biggest selling album in the UK in '06, as well as making serious inroads Stateside.
Exhausted following her prolonged spell on tour, Bic Runga is keen to make it back home to New Zealand for some well-earned r’n’r. but not before she discusses the vagaries of life, love and pop stardom.
From Timeless to Celebrity Big Brother to stopping Esso, and all points in-between – is it any wonder Eamon Sweeney has to ask if the real Goldie would please stand up
When not sleeping late or trying to score free beer, students like nothing better than to kick back and watch a movie. In fact, it is thanks to students that many films have gained a permanent place in the pantheon. Here are some stude faves from the annals.
Never mind the Champions League, if it’s fierce competition you’re after look no further than the National Student Music Awards. Doing his third level best to pick the winner: Neil Brennan.
AHEAD OF THEIR COIS FHARRAIGE APPEARANCE, Born-again indie rockers Doves talk about the changing of the seasons, escaping the country and getting past those fourth album blues
Exclusive: Kevin Shields, the missing presumed lost genius of Irish rock, re-emerges to tell the truth about sandbags and barbed wire, the making of Loveless, early Dublin days with Gavin Friday, Liam O Maonlai and U2, and his Bafta-winning work on Lost in Translation.
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 . . .
Recorded in the bucolic splendour of County Westmeath, Bloc Party's second album is a labyrinthine concept album about urban living. Better to take a risk, says frontman Kelé Okereke, than to repeat yourself .
Time magazine dubbed him The Renaissance Man Of Rock . With and without Talking Heads, he s made some of the most innovative music of the last two decades, as well as being an author, photographer, director, sound-track scorer, Academy Award winner, and all-round friendly neighbourhood psycho-killer. David Byrne allowed Hot Press to put him on the couch for thirty minutes when he arrived in Dublin for his recent Olympia Theatre show.
Peter Murphy was there to hear the Head man
talking.
He’s played with The Corrs and was a member of the real-life Commitments. CONOR BRADY talks about life as one of the great unsung mainstays of Irish rock and roll. photos Ruth Medjber
John Walshe talks to The Wannadies Pdr Wiksten and Christina Bergmark about their new album, Yeah, tribute bands, Swedish soft rock stars and the Abba legacy.
They were one of the superstars of grunge, a band that did more than perhaps any other – even Nirvana – to bring underground rock and roll to the mainstream. But they lost their way with fan-alienating experimental records and a long-running feud with Ticketmaster. Now Pearl Jam have shrugged off the cobwebs and are back rocking like legends. Ahead of the release of their best album in years they talk about the long-road to rejuvenation, lessons gleaned from Neil Young and their place in the greater scheme of things.
DAVID HOLMES is about to leave his native Belfast for New York City, where he will record his third album. STUART BAILIE took a final opportunity to speak to the artist also known as Homer. On the agenda: Hollywood soundtracks, rumours of brawling, past glories and future plans.
Pics: MICHAEL TAYLOR.
Billy Bragg’s larynx, sexual politics, and Jilly Cooper paperbacks. What’s it all about? NICK KELLY finds out when he beams himself up to the planet DUBSTAR.
In a 25th anniversary rose-tinted special, Hot Press' dance correspondents select their 25 most influential floor fillers. The editor's decision is final and all that
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.
After the release of HSM3, choreographer and director Kenny Ortega tells us why the restrictive family values parameters only inspire him to be more creative.
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.
At a time when the British hip-hop scene is again witnessing extreme violence, COLM WALSH meets MC HARVEY of SO SOLID CREW and discovers how the problem is affecting the UK garage scene
They named themselves after a Japanese biker gang, they won t give details of their line-up to the music press, and their first ever recorded release was limited to 33 copies. GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR also happen to be one of the most exciting new bands to emerge in years. PETER MURPHY investigates.
CHRONICALLY SHY, NERVOUS AND INTROVERTED, DONALD FAGEN IS NOT AT ALL WHAT YOU WOULD EXPECT OF THE MAN, WHO ALONG WITH WALTER BECKER, MADE UP THE NOW LEGENDARY STEELY DAN, ONE OF THE SEVENTIES' MOST SOPHISTICATED AND CYNICAL ROCK BANDS. HAVING SURVIVED OVER A DECADE OF "PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISES" AND INACTIVITY, HOWEVER, HE HAS NOW RE-EMERGED WITH A BRAND NEW ALBUM. INTERVIEW: LIAM FAY.
John Spillane has remained a stalwart of the traditional scene for close to two decades. With his excellent new album Hey Dreamer having just hit the shops, Spillane sounds off to hotpress about his long and eventful career, his enthusiasm for younger artists such as Damien Dempsey and Juliet Turner, and why the organisers of the European Capital of Culture events in his native Cork have gotten things spectacularly wrong. words Colm O’Hare photos Mick Quinn
Music | Interview
34% | 27 Jul 2005
Colm O Hare
She’s been a rock icon, a tabloid sensation and a muse to Mick Jagger. But you won’t find Marianne Faithfull mooning over past glories.
Leaving behind his desk job, Paul Oakenfold has enlisted a galaxy of stars to perform vocal duties on hs new album Bunkka including Tricky, Nelly Furtado and, uh,
Hunter S. Thompson
The Frames and BellX1 stormed the palisades of Groningen recently as part of the Eurosonic Festival. John Walshe was there to see it happen and to revisit the spot where the great Mic Christopher met with his tragic accident. Plus: the latest news and reaction to the Frames’ new record deal
The days of pop dominance are over. The worm has turned, and a whole new slew of blood and guts rock and roll bands are coming through with records that carry more than a hint of greatness. The darkling posse is headed by the Kings Of Leon – but there are outfits from all over the world who will be vying for poll position over the coming 12 months.
The Mac brigade are back – and they’re at it again in style. We’re not talking about Phoenix Park doggers, although iLife 06 does offer an incomparable suite of tools.
Since 1914, the PRS has administered the rights accruing to Irish songwriters, composers and publishers from the use of their music in public places throughout the world. However, the campaign to establish Ireland as a separate territory, with its own independent music rights organisation, has been gathering momentum. Now in a controversial move the PRS have declared that this change can only take place with the approval of two-thirds of the Society’s members in Ireland. Niall Stokes – himself a member of the PRS – examines the issues and concludes that subsidiary status is no longer enough for IMRO.
Astronomical record sales, sell-out tours and critical plaudits have not dimmed Coldplay's reputation as the worried men of pop. Bassist Guy Berryman gives us the lowdown.
Fermanagh is a county that s accommodated a rake of musical traditions both past and present. Split by the sibling lakes of Upper and Lower Lough Erin, Fermanagh s musical identity is as diverse as her geography, to the extent that at times there s little or no crossover in musical style from north to south of the county and vice versa.
Denounced by the Christian right in America and the Catholic church in Italy but championed by rockers as diverse as Marilyn Manson and Led Zep’s John Paul Jones, Diamanda Galas is unlikely to be hollywood’s flavour of the month as she rips into the oscar-winning Monster
The legendary GRACE JONES is coming to Dublin.
OLAF TYARANSEN caught up with her in New York to talk about drugs, stalkers, her recent marriage and period pains.
From his early punkish, defiantly anti-establishment indie flicks like The Doom Generation and Nowhere to his latest effort, the child sex-abuse drama Mysterious Skin, Gregg Araki has remained the most uncompromising alumnus of the early ‘90s new wave of queer cinema.
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.
The Flaming Lips, whose new record is a 'concept album about death' are possibly the most life-affirming band you’ll hear this year. Frontman Wayne Coyne explains why
“I hate these questions,” cries David Holmes, DJ, re-mixer, producer, free associate, film-scorer and friend to the stars. Yet he gamely faces the pan-ish inquisition that is the hotpress mixed grill
The release of Born may confirm that hothouse flowers are back to their blooming best, but as john walshe discovers, liam, peter and fiachna have a few vinyl skeletons in the closet. Readers of a nervous disposition are advised to proceed with care.
RADIOHEAD are just about to release one of the most uncompromising and controversial records of the year in Kid A. As the band prepare for their upcoming Irish dates, mainman THOM YORKE talks about the genesis of a record that seems destined to divide rock fans for years. Not to mention Bono, Britney and Alicia Silverstone! Interview: DAVE FANNING
Defecating lemurs, exploding dogs, dirty movies, alien abduction and, of course, the longest feet in pop. it can all only mean that Gruff Rhys & Co. are back.
JOHN WALSHE talks to top Irish 400m hurdler Susan Smith about what it means to devote yourself completely to athletics and her need to challenge for gold at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Pix: COLM HENRY.
We asked the members of hotpress.com to submit questions for Korn’s kilt-wearing frontman Jonathan Davis and then locked him in a room with just a spotlight and a tape recorder
He brought the plight of the Guildford Four to the silver screen and shot a weepy film about the Irish diaspora. Now Jim Sheridan has made a movie with the sultan of bling, rap star 50 Cent. It’s all Bono’s fault, he tells Tara Brady.
The release of Born may confirm that Hothouse Flowers are back to their blooming best, but as John Walsh discovers, Liam, Peter and Fiachna have a few vinyl skeletons in the closet. Readers of a nervous disposition are advised to proceed with care.
The angry young(ish) man of Irish preacher-punk is back, bleeding righteous indignation from every pore. Jinx Lennon tells us why it's time for a revolution.
When Paddy Moloney isn t busy gigging, rehearsing or recording with his band of merry men, The chieftains, he s laughing. A man who makes The Laughing Policeman look like Leonard Cohen, Moloney recently took a 10-minute break to talk to Paul Byrne about the band s new album REEL MUSIC, their upcoming London festival weekend, their up-coming Christmas album, Van Morrison and oh, about four million other things The Chieftains are currently involved with. Hold onto your sides!
What does Peter Buck have in his bathroom? What does Justine Frischmann do all day? stephen j. malkmus and spiral stairs of the decidedly non-lo-fi and non-slacker indie rock gods pavement spill the beans to nick kelly.
Accompanied by images from his photo diary, DONAL DINEEN takes us through a month-by-month guide to the records that kept himself, and the Today FM faithful happy in 2001
It's probably the last headline you'd expect on a Portishead interview but, then again, you haven't heard Beth Gibbons using her favourite expletive. Very few people have - the singer with Bristol's latest and potentially greatest musical export up 'til now refusing to talk to the press because she reckoned she had nothing to say. But even the most reluctant of tongues can be loosened as Stuart Clark and his cattle prod discover when they go Avon calling.
He's gone from bashing out Brel covers in pokey Dublin clubs to crooning 'New York, New York' while gazing at the Manhattan skyline.For his latest project, the wonderful story so far. Jack L has pushed the boundaries yet again by collaborating with up and coming Irish Novelist Anna McPartlin. Here they talk to Hot Press about their intriguing hook-up and explain how your career can lead you to some very strange places...
STEPHEN RYAN has made his songwriting reputation on the byways rather than the highways. Now, with a new REVENANTS album finally on release, he takes NICK KELLY on a trip off the beaten track. Pics: Bernard Walsh.
Hotly-tipped art-rock outfit Headgear fuse bed-sit miserablism with a masterful pop instinct. But what’s former D’Unbelievable Pat Shortt doing on sax duty?
From the tragic death of Cliff the fish to turning Madonna down, praise from Nick Hornby and fanmail from Bono, Badly Drawn Boy ’s life is certainly bewildering.
and that’s before you consider his hellenic aspirations…
Hot Press crime correspondent STUART CLARK
preaches zero tolerance to MASSIVE ATTACK and in return gets the
lowdown on their new album, Bruce n Tarby-style hobnobbing with Radiohead, and why Bristol City piss all over Bristol Rovers
Intrepid explorer Olaf Tyaransen stops scratching his arse long enough to detail his ongoing struggle with mosquito bites, view a DVD package of Tsunami footage and inadvertently attend a Thai funeral.
From 15-28 July 2002 Galway city hosts one of the most comprehensive of this year's arts festivals with esoteric offerings from the genres of visual art, music, theatre, comedy and lots, lots more
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.
They're fronted by a dead ringer for Xena, Warrior Princess; they've just won the Heineken Hot Press Best New Band Award; and, like inbreeding, they're big in Alabama. They're junkster, and here, deirdre o'neill and graham darcy tell jackie hayden exactly what they've been up to since they first "trespassed" on the American Dance Charts.
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
Nerd godhead Kevin Smith has gone back to the motherlode with his new movie, Clerks II. Middle age has done little to dent his infatuation with potty humour, he tells Tara Brady.
I HAVE realised I am in the wrong profession, or at least the wrong strand of my profession. As a film journalist I get to see films before they are released in salubrious surroundings, with food and, more importantly, drink laid on.
BLOODHOUND GANG might not be paragons of good taste, but they do live out the rock n roll lifestyle like no other band. JIMMY POP talks to STUART CLARK about swearing, drugs, porn stars and amusing Germans! Pop Pic-er: Declan English
If having your music featured on every TV programme from TFI Friday to England v Morocco is a measure of success, then CORNERSHOP are now one of the biggest bands in the world. Multi-instrumentalist BEN AYRES talks to STUART CLARK about Noel Gallagher collaborations, festivals, royalties, The Blind Boys Of Alabama and that Fatboy Slim remix.
In the magical, wind-swept landscape of Ireland's remote north-west the cameras roll as U2's Bono and Maire of Clannad make the video for their collaborative single "In A Lifetime". Bill Graham joins the entourage at work and at play and talks to the main protagonists.
Ten, nine, eight… we count down the contenders for 2003. Words Hannah Hamilton, Colin Carberry, Niall Stokes, Richard Brophy, John Walshe, Eamon Sweeney and Stuart Clark
With Hello Starling Josh Ritter has emerged as one of the finest songwriters who's operating today. John Walshe meets the reluctant hero who's storming the Irish charts.
Arising from the ashes of aborted supergroup Zwan, onetime Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan returns with a hotly anticipated solo debut. Still brimming with that patented goth angst, he tells Paul Nolan about his collaboration with fellow doom-merchant Robert Smith, his friendship with the two Davids – Lynch and Bowie – and, oh yeah, why he's still sore about the Pumpkins.
You might think that the Crash Test Dummies are a strange bunch now but you should have seen them four years ago! Dan Roberts and Mitch Dorge tell Stuart Clark how a big-haired Winnipeg bar band with a penchant for the Clancy Brothers have managed to hit the big time. Pix: Cathal Dawson
The Miss Ireland competition is in its 45th year. Liam Fay went along to the Burlington Hotel final to come to (metaphorical) grips with the assets of Miss Irish Sun Newspaper, among others.
He found the experience deeply embarrassing. Pix: Colm Henry.
A STRANGE sound can be heard in L.A. late at night, when the traffic has finally begun to die down, Mickey Rourke has parked his Harley, Bruce Willis has turned off his 1,000 megawatt speakers and the denizens of the Dream Factory are getting ready to embrace the great unconscious.
Attending the infamously repressed St Peter’s College in Wexford gave a young Colm Tóibín an insight into ‘70s Ireland’s twisted attitudes to sexuality.
Sex and sanctity, grit and glitter, penthouse and pavement, God and the Devil, and all conical points in between!
PETER MURPHY dials M for ADONNA, the pre-eminent pop icon of this and every other year
From Donegal to London and beyond, altan s breathtaking music continues to win new converts. As the band showcase material from their latest album, Runaway Sunday, at the international headquarters of Virgin Records,
mairiad nm mhaonaigh tells sarah mcquaid:
It s all about letting it rip.
While commercial success hasn't exactly come a-knockin' on his door, Pierce Turner, in stoical mood, tells Liam Fay why he's not all that bothered at the relative lack of lolly rolling in but how with his new live album Manana In Manhattan just released, the wily Wexford wizard believes his time will come.
With the departure of Shane McGowan a couple of years ago, it was fashionable to write off The Pogues as mere also rans. But the band have proven to be one of the success stories of 1993, with the release of their superb Waiting For Herb album putting them right back on course. Now they can afford to tell their detractors: kiss my ass (under the mistletoe of course). Interview: Siobhán Long.
From First Cuts to Latest Cuts, from the First Lady Of Immediate , recording with Phil Spector, Jimi Hendrix and the Small Faces, to the First Lady of Techno, scoring Top Ten hits with Altern-8 and the Beatmasters, to today with Primal Scream and Ocean Colour Scene
P.P. ARNOLD has always been there, wherever the beat is hottest.
Interview: andy darlington.
Sean O’Reilly, whose superb Watermark hit the shelves recently, has been hailed as one of the most important new voices in Irish fiction. So why has more widespread success eluded him to date?
From Chet Baker through Joe Cocker to The Cranberries, the world of music owes the late Denny Cordell an enormous debt. Bill Graham pays tribute to an inspirational craftsman who made Ireland his final home and resting place.
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
Don’t let her steal your heart away!
sheryl crow: Hot Press Readers’ Love Of The Year and Bob Dylan’s favourite singer-songwriter is the hottest new star in rock'n'roll. Helena Mulkerns charts the singular rise of Kennet, Missouri’s most celebrated slacker country queen.
While the entity that is U2 continues to be the dominant focus in the creative lives of its four members, away from the band, Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry have all indulged in extra-curricular activities, bringing them – and their music - into contact with such legends as Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Keith Richards, and Roy Orbison, By Dermot Stokes
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.
While commercial success hasn’t exactly come a-knockin’ on his door, Pierce Turner, in stoical mood, tells Liam Fay why he’s not all that bothered at the relative lack of lolly rolling in but how with his new live album Manaña In Manhattan just released, the wily Wexford wizard believes his time will come . . . Pic: Cathal Dawson.
IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN WHEN THOUSANDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE TAKE THAT OFTEN DAUNTING LEAP FROM SCHOOL TO COLLEGE. HERE, THE HOT PRESS STUDENT SPECIAL OFFERS ITS OWN INIMITABLE SAFETY NET.
EVERY YEAR, AND FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS, HUNDREDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE FROM THE SOUTH DECIDE TO GO ON TO THIRD LEVEL EDUCATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND. EMMA FLYNN REPORTS ON THE REALITIES OF ACADEMIC LIFE OVER THE BORDER.
Summer time, and the record stores are going to be full to bursting with some cracking albums across all genres. John Walshe examines the hottest album releases set to hit the shelves
In Vienna, along with another 99,999 people, LIAM FAY witnesses what may well be the finest rock n roll extravaganza ever mounted and discovers that its got both art and heart in abundance as well.
When a gang of Ireland’s finest musicians, media stars and political types gathered in the Central Hotel for pre-Christmas drinks, there were fun and games aplenty. reporting: Stephen Bailey, Stuart Clark and Roisin Dwyer. Photos: Mick Quinn and Graham Keogh. Costumes: courtesy of The Dublin Costume Company.
Everyone's favourite punk-pop pranksters Fight Like Apes report exclusively from their recent trips to Canadian Music Week and the South By South West indie festival in Austin, Texas.
“I grew up in a tough neighbourhood, and we used to say, ‘You can get further with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word’.”
- Robert De Niro as Al Capone in The Untouchables
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
Carl Perkins, the rock pioneer who wrote Blue Suede Shoes and no less than four songs for the Beatles, is dead. ANDY DARLINGTON remembers his career from Sun Records and the legendary Million Dollar Quartet , through to Johnny Cash s Live At San Quentin . . . and a movie knife-fight with David Bowie
The pen behind "My Beautiful Launderette" and "Sammy and Rosie Get Laid", HANIF KUREISHI has been treated as an outsider in his home, Britain, and as a traitor by some elements within his own race. But, he maintains, it's the job of the writer to "stir the shit" - and now he's got the fundamentalists in his sights. Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN
A powerful tale of love, lust and life with the Taureg nomads of Nigeria, Gaye Shortland’s new novel, Polygamy is based in large part on her own extraordinary experiences of an alien culture. Interview: Siobhan Long.
Belfast, then Glasgow and NEXT STOP – the cover of the Radio Times?
Stuart Clark joins fast-rising Snow Patrol on Scottish manoeuvres. PICS: IAN McMURRAY
The outlaw loved by the in-law, Willie Nelson can draw 4,000 people outside Dublin virtually by word of mouth. But it ain't all middle of the road: as befits a veteran of the honky-tonks who had done battle with the IRS and the law, the country music legend can still get in touch with the dark side of Hank
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
Actress, writer, director, singer and not quite so archetypal French heroine Julie Delpy renders terms like ‘renaissance woman’ positively anaemic. Currently back on the map with Before Sunset, one of the cinematic highlights of the year, she talks art, sex romance and Gallic caricatures.
After his celebrated band the blades failed to make a breakthrough in the 1980s, PAUL CLEARY more or less turned his back on music for 15 years. But now unexpectedly, he’s back with a terrific solo album crooked town and more than a few tales to tell.
Interview: LIAM MACKEY
First kisses, hanging with the hip-hop aristocracy and why life is better on the wagon are some of the topics for conversation as Hot Press hitches a ride on the tour bus with domestic goddess and soapy bath enthusiast Amy Winehouse.
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
In a remarkably honest interview, which directly preceded the death of his mother, Jonathan Rhys Meyers reflects on his spells in rehab and discusses life as one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors.
A win next week and we're there - but what lies in store for Irish supporters if Big Jack's men do qualify for America? Long suffering England fan Stuart Clark was in the States this summer for US Cup '93 and found that if the dress rehearsal is anything to go by, the World Cup Finals should be a sporting event to savour. Main pix: Simon Parry.
30 years after the savage Tate/LaBianca murders that epitomised the dark side of the American hippy dream, CHARLES MANSON aka God aka The Devil, continues to exert a potent influence on popular culture. In part one of a two-part feature, PETER MURPHY recalls the twisted vision of a charismatic man whose personal interpretation of The Beatles Helter Skelter helped give rise to one of the crimes of the century.
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.
Their debut album Hopes And Fears launched a host of hit singles, going on to become one of the most successful British records of the past five years. But, their indie background notwithstanding, Keane have still been dismissed by some self-styled aficionados as just too nice to be considered real rock'n'rollers. "If only people knew," says lead singer Tom Chaplin.
At last, now it can be told, is that First Cut really the deepest? Andy Darlington explores the phenomenon of skin versus skinless when it comes to living with genital mutilation.
At last, now it can be told, is that First Cut really the deepest? Andy Darlington explores the phenomenon of skin versus skinless when it comes to living with genital mutilation.
LAURYN HILL s debut album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill was the fastest selling album ever by a female artist in the United States. What s more it s just garnered her five Grammy Awards, confirming her status as one of American music s most important new icons. OLAF TYARANSEN went to London to hear the singer talk frankly about success, motherhood, the future of The Fugees and her father-in-law, Bob Marley.
Texas native Jonathan Caouette has caused a sensation in underground circles in the US with his brilliant and groundbreaking debut, Tarnation. A dazzling mix of autobiographical scenes, TV clips, movie footage and cutting-edge music, it might just be the best movie you’ll see this year.
and didn’t like what he saw... Fatboy Slim tells Stuart Clark about an encounter with Man Utd so unpleasant that even Zoe Ball is thinking of switching her allegiance to Brighton. Plus: the highs of Normstock and the lows of So Solid Crew
Jack Johnson may be a regular dude, but with his latest album simultaneously at No.1 in the UK and the US he is one with a vast world-wide fanbase. So how did this happy-go-lucky surfer suddenly become a hero to millions?
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
For Gen X-ers like Kurt Cobain, Matt Groening and Sonic Youth, Daniel Johnston is akin to Syd or Roky, a gifted figure beset by the demons of delusional paranoia and manic depression. A 1994 tribute album featuring Beck, Tom Waits and eels showcased his ghostly and surrealistic folk songs, and now, as the remarkable documentary film The Devil And Daniel Johnston goes on release, hotpress is granted an audience with the man who isn’t there.
In which Olaf Tyaransen comes face to face with a raging bull, declares war on the neighbourhood dogs and undergoes the Thai rite of passage that is surviving a motorbike accident.
It's head-scratching, nail-biting, on-the-tip-of-your-tongue time again, as GEORGE BYRNE presides over our renowned annual music quiz [this is for the year 2000]
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.
Perhaps the most influential punk band of the ‘70s, The Ramones were nonetheless riven with internal divisions and a variety of personal traumas, both psychological and pharmaceutical. All this and more is covered in an excellent new documentary on the band, End Of The Century – The Story Of The Ramones. Here, Tommy – the last surviving member of the original line-up – looks back on the dark times and discusses the group’s legacy with Tara Brady.
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
At the end of the last decade, Philip King was best known as a founder member of Scullion and writer of the music to the Frank O’Connor translation of the Irish lyric ‘I Am Stretched On Your Grave’. However, since setting up Hummingbird Productions with his partners Nuala O’Connor and Kieran Corrigan in 1987, he has established himself as one of the country’s leading makers of films about Irish music and culture, including acclaimed series such as Bringing It All Back Home, A River Of Sound, and Sult. Here he talks to Peter Murphy about the current Irish climate for independent film-makers, his stop-start relationship with RTE, and post-Riverdance Irishry. Pics: Cathal Dawson
DAVID HOLMES new album is likely to
elevate him to the world s DJ-ing A-list.
STUART CLARK visited him in Belfast to hear tales of voodoo, punk, Primal Scream and, er, Gilbert O Sullivan.
Pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
LIAM FAY gets a hot line to DAVID BYRNE on the eve of his Dublin concerts and found a pretty talkative head, discussing everything from Brazlian merengue music to Tommy Cooper.
Forget Oxegen or U2 at Croke Park – the biggest shows in town this summer are the All Ireland Championships. With the crowning of the provincial championships, the season is entering its most competitive stage.
They may be about as prolific as giant pandas, but now the waiting is over. The mighty LEFTFIELD are back with their first new material in almost five years - the new album Rhythm And Stealth - and it looks set to have the same genre-redefining impact as their debut long-player Leftism. BARRY GLENDENNING talks to mainman PAUL DALEY about media critics, professional jealousy, John Lydon, banned videos and that Guinness ad.
Backstage at Creamfields, JOHN WALSHE talks to FATBOY SLIM about the joys of fatherhood, being one half of the posh and becks of the chemical generation; sharing a hot-tub with Baz Luhrman and how he got Christopher Walken to tap-dance
He might have been a young Einsten but instead MARK OLIVER EVERETT ended up as EELS aka a man called E aka the Souljacker. PETER MURPHY discovers how it all went horribly right
FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINAL Huey Morgan offers stuart clark a guided tour of the rotten apple, detouring occasionally to take in topics such as California Mist, London gangsters, Tricky, Ian McCulloch and Tony Bennett, as well as his high-profile relationship with Jerry Hall’s daughter. And, let’s see now, there was one thing . . . oh yes “every American’s inalienable right to have nails hammered through their scrotum if they want”.
They love Ireland and Ireland loves them. As the Arcade Fire ramp up for world domination, the band talk about love, death, war and making music in churches.
So this is Christmas and what have we done... As U2 prepare to enter the final yearof the decade, Bono devotes a long night at his home in Dublin to reflecting on his life, his music and U2's extraordinary career to date. Interview: Liam Mackey
Few bands have managed to divide
critical opinion quite so spectacularly as Kula Shaker. Mystic musical saviours to some, prog rock nightmares to others, the one thing that everybody s agreed on is that mainman Crispian Mills gives exceedingly good quote. Interview and
periodic bewilderment:
Stuart Clark
Since bursting onto the world stage with her No.1 single, Orinoco Flow and the multi-million selling album, WATERMARK, Enya has become one of Ireland s brightest star. Now with the release of her new album, SHEPHERD MOONS she prepares to take on the world again, with music of an almost other-worldly beauty. In the throes of a personal odyssey to pastures east, Molly McAnailly Burke explores the genesis of the album, talks to Enya s collaborators Roma and Nicky Ryan and discovers in the work of this extraordinary trinity intimations of mythic grandeur.
Blow me down, it’s that chirpy Counting Crow adam duritz again, flapping his vocal chords on everything from bunking off the MTV awards, why the Rolling Stones are still “fucking great” and why he won’t be emigrating to Utah just yet. Witness for the defence: Niall Crumlish.
Glasgow on the morning of the release of Deacon Blue's second album, "When The World Knows Your Name", is bathed in sunshine boasting a skyline view of the drive from the airport that is in sharp contrast to the image entrenched on the cover of the band's debut album "Raintown". Bright and sharp, the morning reflects the initial impressions of the new record, the bustle of the first rush-hour of the day reflecting the urgency of the opening tracks, "Queen Of The New Year'', "Wages Day" and "Real Gone Kid".
It s the morning after the night before and BRET EASTON ELLIS feels like he s got Marilyn Manson playing inside his head. A dinner date with fellow penslinger Irvine Welsh has gone seriously pear-shaped and like his most famous literary creation, the Californian is fit to kill. STUART CLARK offers tea and solpadeine, and in return gets the lowdown on American Psycho, trans-Atlantic stalkers and why both Air Supply and the Teletubbies are evil. Pix: Cathal Dawson.
After two decades of electro-pop hits, the PET SHOP BOYS have gone back to basics with their new album Fundamental – and thrown some timely political digs into the mix while they’re at it. But the real battle is getting people to take them seriously.
RTE is often, and rightly, castigated by the print media for sub-standard productions, but its new comedy-drama series Bachelors Walk is already being heralded as one of the station’s best ever projects before it's even half-way through its eight-part run.
STEPHEN ROBINSON goes on location to discover the secret of the show’s success
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
Ahead of the band s heineken green energy gig in Dublin, PETER MURPHY talks to
NINA PERSSON of THE CARDIGANS about success, sexuality, self-esteem and joyriding!
Award-winning director and actor Ed Burns talks about enjoying success on your own terms, his lifelong music obsession and the fact that he’s about to make his first big-budget Hollywood movie.
He may have ranked among the biggest-selling artists in the world in 2002 – but the ambition that has driven Eminem to pop’s dizziest heights shows no sign of abating with the release of his own biopic, 8 Mile. On track to becoming Hollywood’s latest darling, with all the attendant pressures and provocations that entails, will his art survive?
That, according to Shane MacGowan, will be the title of his next, and exceedingly long-awaited album. in the meantime there’s Sean Nós, the war, his dad, drink and Celtic football legend Jimmy Johnstone to be going on with.
We asked the fans to vote for U2's Greatest Hits and they did - in their thousands. The result is a selection of 20 tracks which, without doubt, would combine to produce a record to rank among the weightiest and most powerful anthologies in the history of rock. The full track listing is not without its controversial selections and omissions, however. Bill Graham and Niall Stokes take us through the fans' vision of the fab four's dream album.
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
Annie Nightingale on BBC Radio One is Dance Music s fixture for insomniac clubbers. But for the BBC s first-ever female DJ this is just the latest incarnation of a career that began, sort-of, by insulting John Lennon. ANDY DARLINGTON reads the book, sits in on the show, and even finds time for an interview.
Philip Chevron's career has been nothing if not varied. From the early days with the Radiators through his collaborations with people like Agnes Bernelle and right up to his current work with The Pogues, he has proved himself to be a consistently fine songwriter and performer. In the first part of a lengthy and intense interview, he talks to Eamonn McCann about his childhood, his love of Broadway musicals, the Horslips connection, the genesis of the Radiators and his fleeting career as a journalist.
Cork is happening enough at the best of times, but when the annual Guinness Jazz Weekend comes around, it's all too much. Where to go? What to do? What hangover cure to concoct? Let KEVIN BARRY show the way.
Hailed as one of the UK s hottest young talents, and having appeared in such successes as Michael Collins, The Magnificent Abersons, and Velvet Goldmine, Jonathan Rhys-Myers is in fact Dublin-born and raised in Cork. OLAF TYARANSEN met the rising star. Thesp Behaviour: Peter Matthews
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
The star of what s set to be the summer s hottest movie, High Fidelity, on love, obsession, movies, rock n roll, his pal Bruce Springsteen and the records he turns to when he s had his heart broken. With support from co-star Lisa Bonet and director Stephen Frears. Text: CRAIG FITZSIMONS
The grand dame of country and western music tells Olaf Tyaransen about her enduring passion for her music, her attachment to her tennessee roots, the ups and downs of her 36-year marriage and her ambitions to record an album of traditional Irish tunes
His career was almost over before it began. But hard work - and a surprise hit - have turned Edmund 'Mundy' Enright into one of Ireland's most widely adored stars. Here he reflects on some of the high points of what has been an amazing journey, during the course of which he has rubbed shoulders with some of the greats.
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.
Sometimes it's hard to be a woman, especially when it involves piling on layers of latex, strapping on corsets, and getting to grips with false eyelashes. And yet, whether it's Kurt Cobain donning a scruffy frock, Robin Williams in full matronly guise for Mrs Doubtfire, or the 6'7 Ru Paul co-presenting The Brits, transvestism seems to have acquired a stronger multi-media allure than ever before. Andy Darlington examines the portrayal of TVs in cinema and the arts, and considers the sexual and social implications of the ancient art of cross-dressing.
While the path to rock n roll stardom is never smooth, RICHARD ASHCROFT has experienced more ups and downs than most. In a wide-ranging interview with DAVE FANNING, he talks about drugs, The Verve, his new solo album and why the old hometown doesn t look so bad.
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
It is every boy's wildest fantasy (bar, perhaps, Brett from Suede) to make a living playing with a fantastically successful football side. Craig Johnston was there, saw that and quit while he was ahead. But he has continued to make his dreams real. Gerry McGovern meets the kangaroo who won't be tied down, sport.
The still vibrant 64-year-old on why Morrissey’s like Father Frank, why Iraq is like Vietnam, and on her meetings with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Bono, Phil Spector and a whole Oval Office full of presidents.
As founder and director of the acclaimed choral group, Anuna, MICHAEL McGLYNN has established himself as one of the country's most gifted and innovated composers. However, he has also become a figure by some elements in the Irish Music Industry and been dismissed by others as a "pig ignorant arrogant bastard" Inetrview: LIAM FAY
The night has a thousand eyes, and, after a skinful of booze, most of them are on the lookout for a good after-hours cook-house where they can get a nice fry up. Bon vivant and gourmet, LIAM FAY, takes a long, strange trip into the netherworld of The Manhattan and The Gigs Place, two exotic night spots where daytime rules no longer apply.
Alex Barclay used to write about fashion and beauty products. Now she’s a best-selling crime author with a lucrative book deal. What sets her apart from other whodunnit writers is her forensic eye for detail and chilling mastery of plot. She’s just getting started, she tells Peter Murphy.
Republic Of Loose are that rarest of beasts – an Irish rock band who can get their groove on. Ahead of the release of their new album, they talk about standing out from the crowd.
As the new leader of the SDLP and Deputy First Minister in Northern Ireland, MARK DURKAN will have plenty to occupy his mind in 2002. Here he talks about the early death of his father, politics and paramilitaries in the North, the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, his opposition to Sellafield and membership of Greenpeace – and what Mo Mowlam might have piped into the Good Friday talks!
Words: JOE JACKSON
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
Giant lemons, 100ft toothpicks and enough lights to put Las Vegas on full-scale UFO alert. Helena Mulkerns watches with gob well and truly smacked as U2's PopMart extravaganza opens for business at the Sam Boyd Stadium.
Pix: All Action
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.
The fourth series of RTÉ Two's highly-acclaimed Other Voices, presented by John Kelly, was recorded over an extraordinary eight days during the madcap run-up to Christmas, in the thoroughly invigorating coastal environs of Dingle. Hot Press reporter Craig Fitzsimons was there to soak up the phantasmagoria, as some of the hottest talent from Ireland and abroad descended on the tranquil Kerry town to make heavenly music.
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.
The wild rise and fall of the coke-snorting, heavy boozing, rampantly horny music biz mogul who knew Dylan, Jagger, Jackson, Springsteen and Streisand better than most. And now he’s ready to tell all.
It is five years since rapper TUPAC SHAKUR was gunned down on the streets of las vegas in a gangland-style shooting that took place on September 7, 1996. Since then he has become the subject of one of modern music’s most bizarre death cults, as he continues to sell millions of records and to top charts all over the world. but behind his death lies a story of hip-hop babylon – a sordid tale of intrigue, egos, drugs, sex, intimidation, violence – and, almost by the way, some great and enduring music.
By PETER MURPHY
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.
Bono, Adam and Larry. Not to mention the self-styled King Boogaloo himself, Mr B. P. Fallon, whose new book U2: Faraway So Close offers an intimate visual and verbal diary of the band’s world-record shattering ZOO TV tour. For good measure the, um, also self-styled Mr Ramalama talks about Jimi Hendrix and the Mafia connection, toting guns with Tone Loc, giving Little Richard a hard-on, and other little, um, side voyages into other territories, man. Er, tape recorder thingy: Joe Jackson.
In an age when hype springs eternal, DAVID GRAY is that rare phenomenon a success story scripted by the fans rather than the industry. And a distinctly Irish success story at that. A certifiable platinum-selling box-office blockbuster in this country, the Welsh singer-songwriter still awaits a similar eruption of Gray fever in Britain, Europe and America. But his latest album, White Ladder, could be the record which tells the world what Ireland already knows. Now as he prepares to wow the faithful at Galway s Big Beat festival, JOHN WALSHE presents the inside story of the best kept secret in the west.
Pics Mick Quinn
At the ripe old age of 50, when most of his peers are floundering in the doldrums, Nick Cave has hit a purple patch with Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, his most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album to date.
Watching David Bowie on television recently one couldn't help but think of Neil Hannon. Not that he is a musical "chameleon"—to use the phrase most often applied to Bowie—but he does seem to be a person more comfortable presenting to the world a series of ever-changing poses designed to conceal rather than reveal his "real self", as in vocally situating himself somewhere between Barry White and Prince on the magnificent Charge, or satirising—while still relishing—his role as the eponymous sexist hero in Becoming More Like Alfie. Strangely enough, Neil confesses that he was thinking something similar while watching Bowie being interviewed
From hip replacement to hip and onto hip-hop, the second coming of texas has been one of the most unlikely artistic and commercial triumphs of recent years.
But as olaf Tyaransen discovers, the new-look
sharleen spiteri remains very much her old self.
It's been a long strange trip and no mistake, one that describes a discernible line from
Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music through to the Handsome Family.
But there's even more going on beneath the surface. GREIL MARCUS, the music critic's music critic,
is PETER MURPHY's guide on a mystery train whose other passengers include Elvis Presley, Robert Johnson, Mark Twain, Nick Cave, The Blair Witch, Bill Clinton, The Band, Siniad O'Connor, Beck, William Burroughs, William Faulkner and Bob Dylan. And that's just the first class carriage. All aboard
Has Madonna become the immaterial girl? Or will the Re-invention tour re-establish her as the foremost female icon on the planet? On the eve of her first ever Irish appearance at Slane, Peter Murphy takes a look at the strange twist the Queen of Pop’s career has taken – and how she is now fighting back, for all she’s worth.
In an exclusive interview, Once stars Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova talk about the love affair that sneaked up on them, recall their Oscar-winning adventures, give us the inside track on the movie's remarkable success and explain what it's like to hang out with the Coen brothers for an evening.
Meet Larry Harvey, the man behind burning man, the world’s most extraordinary festival, in which a whole city, run as a gift economy, springs up in the arid nevada desert to celebrate creativity, non-conformism and the healing power of fire.
Republic Of Loose are one of the most exciting bands to emerge from Ireland during the last decade with one of the most charismatic lead singers ever to bestride a stage in the country.
When Siniad O Connor tore up a picture of the pope on the Saturday Night Live television show in the US recently, she unleashed a storm which has been swirling around her ever since, causing her at one point to announce her premature retirement from the music industry. One month on, bruised and weary she may be but Siniad is neither downhearted nor repentant. Having declared war on the Roman Catholic Church she is determined to keep taking the battle to the real enemy. Interview: Niall Stokes.
Nearly a decade after the release of their debut single, U2 are widely regarded as the No. 1 rock band in the world. But the album and the film "Rattle And Hum" depict another kind of reality entirely. Larry, Adam and The Edge talk to Niall Stokes.
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.
A new album, a new producer, a new sound and a new lease of life so where better to launch mary black s Shine than in New Orleans? Report and
interview: siobhAN LONG
A new album, a new producer, a new sound and a new lease of life so where better to launch mary black s Shine than in New Orleans? Report and
interview: siobhAN LONG
From A to Z, Paul Nolan and Ronan Fitzgerald introduce all the runners and riders for Punchestown – throwing in a baker’s dozen of acts who are not to be missed* along the way
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.
With the tragedy which disfigured their last Irish appearance still fresh in people's minds, SMASHING PUMPKINS' return to a Dublin stage was never going to be an ordinary affair. As it turned out, PETER MURPHY witnessed an act of redemption and spoke to BILLY CORGAN about surviving troubled times.
With the return of Sean's Show to Channel 4, Ireland's most successful funny man (he'll love that - Ed) is back in the spotlight. But behind the obsessive, neurotic, insecure, angst-ridden exterior of the show's central character, is there an obsessive, neurotic, insecure, angst-ridden individual? Here Sean Hughes worries over religion, dreams, sex, drugs, family and ... Christmas (aaah!). Interview: 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.
In the second and final part of the ultimate interview, elvis talks about colonel Tom Parker, marriage to priscilla, his '68 comeback, his quest for enlightenment and the truth about his drug intake. but as he dreams of an exciting future, at 42 he doesn’t realise that the end is close at hand
*The quotes in this recreated interview are drawn from a wealth of reliable sources and involved extensive research into many rare articles and books
Ireland's most hyped event of the year, the MTV EUROPE AWARDS may have had as many gossip columnists as winners thanking God, but after hours it was IGGY POP and heavy friends who made the real headlines on a night when rock'n'roll bit back. Report: OLAF TYARANSEN and PETER MURPHY. Awards Pics: PETER MATTHEWS. Iggy Pics: Cathal Dawson
They go together like a horse and carriage. You can't have one without the other - or words to that effect. In fact, however, even rock 'n' roll has yet to invent an erotic language that does justice to the breadth and complexity of human desire. In pushing out the boundaries, madonna has taken on the role of sexual pioneer, and done it with courage and no little success. Niall Stokes weighs up the evidence . . .
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
On the eve of the release of Snow Patrol's epic fifth album A Hundred Million Suns, Hot Press finds out how singer Gary Lightbody gets inspiration for his songs.
With ‘Yellow’, Coldplay captured the imagination of even the most resistant of hard-boiled rock’n’roll cynics. Now, as A Rush Of Blood To The Head achieves lift-off in the U.S., even the sky is no longer the limit.
The technology which drives home entertainment is changing, and it's changing fast. Colm O'Hare takes a close-up look at what's happening in hi-fi, television, video and home cinema technology and discovers that the future has already arrived.
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.
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.
DEREK BELL on art, spirituality and porn! MARTIN FAY on Sean O'Riada, Carnegie Hall and drink! And PADDY MOLONEY on superstar friends, Bono's problematic vocals and his critics, inside and outside the group. Yes, it's the second and final part of JOE JACKSON'S extraordinary interview with THE CHIEFTAINS.
Shane MacGowan interviews Sinead O’Connor for hotpress, with Olaf Tyaransen acting as referee. On the day, Victoria Clark also sat in. What followed turned into a wide-ranging and often hilarious exchange of almost Beckettian dimensions.
EMINEM s Marshall Mathers LP has gone 12 times platinum in Ireland. He s been voted Time magazine s Man Of The Year. And, having broken through into the mainstream with the remarkable Stan , he s just been nominated for four Grammys. So why is the world suddenly falling at the feet of a venomous bottle-blonde rapper who s penned some of the most repugnant, hate-filled lyrics since the invention of the gramophone record? Peter Murphy tells one of pop music s most extraordinary stories ever
“Crossover” may be a favourite buzz-word at the moment but as rap and the rock mainstream strike an uneasy alliance, it’s clear that a huge gulf still exists between black and white culture.
Cast by certain sections of the media in the role of villain, Ice-T has spent the past decade pounding home the message that unless America is willing to accept a major race war, something has to change.
Here, the Iceman talks to GERRY McGOVERN about censorship and the politics of rap and gives him an exclusive preview of his Return Of The Real album. Pix: CATHAL DAWSON.
After being a magnet for A&R men during the 80s, Dublin has recently developed into something of an underachiever. The city may have the second biggest growth-rate in Europe but there are a hell of a lot of gigs and records that simply aren t selling. peter murphy casts a critical ear over the capital s music scene and decides that what s required is a full-scale artistic enema.
IN THE FIRST PART OF A WORLD EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW IN THE LAST ISSUE OF HOT PRESS, BONO UNVEILED THE NEW U2 ALBUM, SPOKE ABOUT ITS GENESIS IN CYBERPUNK LITERATURE AND THE BAND'S HUNGER TO PUSH ROCK'N'ROLL TO ITS LIMITS. HERE HE ELABORATES ON HOW U2 GO ABOUT WRITING THEIR SONGS AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF GLOBAL CHAOS, HIS ARTISTIC REFERENCE POINTS OUTSIDE MUSIC, THE SUBVERSIVE POWER OF HUMOUR, AND HOW HE ADMIRES THOSE WHO 'PARTICULARLY AGGRESSIVELY' DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD. AND THEN THERE'S THE STORY ABOUT JOHNNY CASH AND THE EMU. CAN THIS MAN BE FOR SURREAL? INTERVIEW:JOE JACKSON.
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.
inishing off a year in which his immersion in the craziness of orthodox religion won him a top journalism award, Liam Fay finds himself standing atop a windswept Hill of Tara in the dead of night in the depths of winter all the better to survey the diverse landscape of paganism and witchcraft in 90s Ireland.
There’s some excellent news from the Fionn Regan camp, with the Bray tunesmith’s ‘Be Good Or Be Gone’ gracing a new episode of Grey’s Anatomy, which premiered this week in the States.
