Fancy yourself a bit of an artist? Well the Frames are looking for a creative soul to dream up their next t-shirt design – with lots of prizes for the winner.
Domino Records are branching out into fashion with their new T-Shirt Club, where fans can sign up to get their favourite band tees in the post every month.
As gigs in Whelan’s go, this was a strange one. Brian McFadden was re-inventing himself. Unshaven and dressed in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, he clearly had the scruffy indie kid down.
Between streaming songs, free gigs and t-shirt giveaways, Berkeley are one mighty generous band. Oh and they're music is pretty damn impressive too - judge it for yourself.
Republic Of Loose vocalist Mick Pyro is standing at the front of the stage in Whelan’s, leaning precariously to the left. Sporting a ‘Suck me suck me eat me raw’ T Shirt and a barnet that hasn’t been washed or cut since 1996, he clutches the mic like it possesses some great gravitational power before declaring, “I knew I shouldn’t have drank before this gig”.
Such is the legacy of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, doomed to be iconic in a tragically hip, meaningless way, while languishing alongside everyone’s favourite knife-wielding peacenik Bob Marley, joint in hand. Thankfully, Walter Salles’ (Behind the Sun, Central Station) excellent film does much to reclaim the man behind the T-shirt myth.
Too many live albums are about the stuff that didn’t actually get captured on tape: the ritual, the lights, the t-shirt, the bog roll, the bar tab. Please Leave Quietly is about music, sufficient unto itself.
Touring the States is hard enough when you’re a big-name band, but when you’re a fledgeling Irish act it can be hairy explains Dudley Colley of the Dudley Corporation and how to make it big while staying small with Rob Hope of Limerick popsters Seneca
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
From somewhere outside Dublin, come the small army who make up the Mad Shadows. Reaching almost football team proportions, the MSs feature trombone, saxophone, trumpet and keyboards as well as the usual suspect devices.
40-Year-Old-Virgin star Steve Carell offers our film critic a space on his warm throne and regales her with tales of all-boys’ schools and playing Ricky Gervais’ American equivalent in The Office.
New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody’s talking about Mylo’s music. The 25-year-old dancefloor maestro here sounds off to Steve Cummins about touring the globe, the challenges of following up his acclaimed debut album, and why maruading chavs won’t be enough to dissuade him from moving to Essex.
In summer 2003, Ash played their biggest ever shows to date at Knebworth and the Phoenix Park alongside Robbie Willaims. Tim Wheeler chose to sport a Thin Lizzy T-shirt for the occasion, paying homage to a lifelong hero.
Emerging Scottish indie band The Emperor’s New Clothes insist they are not the emperor’s new clothes, as some cynical rock journalists have recently claimed. The Glasgow quintet are one of the new wave of Scottish bands currently hogging the rock limelight.
Goldfinger might be the intelligent face of punk-pop with politics, animal rights and MTV baiting their subject matter. But bassist Kelly Lemieux insists that they remain balls out rock'n'rollers
Charlotte Hatherley doesn’t do stockings, but she would like to have it off in a thunderstorm. And she wears nothing in bed but a smile. Oh, sweet Jesus.
What has transformed 47-year-old boy Adonis TOM MATHEWS into a realistic simulacrum of that red-nosed little feeb in the Bamforth Comic postcards? Yes, readers, a punishing fortnight at the Galway Arts Festival. Now read on
BREASTS. To have or not to have, and if so, to what extent? This particular, shall we say, philosophical debate has been raging - and I use the term advisedly - across all areas of the British media, from glossie to broadsheet.
Michael Moore, Billy Joel, Rupert Murdoch and “pussy vegan” Chrissie Hynde are all on the menu as gonzo New York chef Anthony Bourdain gets lightly grilled by Stuart Clark
Wank, bollocks, Chris Evans. These are dirty words.
Pop isn t.
STUART CLARK refrains from ruining their career for long enough to discover whether
IN UTOPIA have got what it takes to become Ireland s next three minute heroes.
Pix: Cathal Dawson.
The annual Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival has put Longford on the world music map. Jackie Hayden talks to the festival’s originator Chris Keenan about how it grew from initially being laughed at to becoming one of the most important folk festivals in the international calendar.
Cornershop have re-opened for business with a little help from Noel Gallagher and none at all from the BBC. Stuart Clark finds Tjinder Singh is less than miffed
Back in the '60s the MC5 made it on to the CIA's 'Most Wanted' list. Now, they're a chi-chi fashion accessory beloved of Jennifer Aniston and her Hollywood pals. Guitarist Wayne Kramer explains it all to Stuart Clark.
Tanya Donelly star of the upwardly flying Belly, wouldn't sleep with Robert Redford for a million dollars and she wouldn't throw her knickers at Tom Jones. But she is engaged, believes in the concept of marriage - and is on her way to Sunstroke. Interview: Andrew Darlington
Even without a record deal, industrious Northern Irish reprobates watercress have a back catalogue to be proud of. jackie hayden meets band linchpin dan donnelly.
Even without a record deal, industrious Northern Irish reprobates watercress have a back catalogue to be proud of. jackie hayden meets band linchpin dan donnelly.
LUKE GRIFFIN has been getting rave reviews for his starring performance in The Disappearance Of Finbar. Could we be witnessing the arrival of
a cinematic superstar?
Interview: Craig Fitzsimons.
So what’s it really like to take your band from Dublin to New York in search of that elusive breakthrough? Little Ghetto Boys present their diary of a Paddy’s week mini-tour of the Big Apple with special guest appearances by La Rocca, Mark Geary and others...
Six months ago, Kaiser Chiefs were complete unknowns. Now, they’re making appearances on the Ant and Dec show, playing Letterman, being saluted by Damon Albarn and heralded as the spearheads of “the new Britpop” movement. The group here give the lowdown on what’s been a hectic 2005 to Ed Power.
Somebody up there likes us -that's for sure! Slane Castle 4pm on Saturday 25th August 2001 and the sun is shining down through deep blue skies like it hasn’t done all summer.
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
Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley impressed a lot of people here last year with the quirky guitar pop of her debut solo album Grey Will Fade. hotpress catches up with her as she wows the masses at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival.
Hey pal - fancy a record deal? We like your style, we luuuurve the music and we're practically guaranteed to make you a star. So what's the hitch? Absolutely nish, my friend. Just sign the necessaries, and we'll proceed.
Just think of that lovely £500 advance. Sure, you're signing up for a six album deal, but what the hell? Maybe you fancy a management settlement for, say, 12 years? What is there to lose, little guy? In fact we're such an awesome organisation that you should maybe go for a record deal and a management contract, all in the same tidy package. Tell you what, my man, if you really want, we can throw in the publishing rights, also. Wouldn't that take care of all your problems at a stroke?
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.
The National Ploughing Championships are an Irish Institution. mud, beer, wellies, farmerettes, mud, singing priests, yodelling farmhands, mud, tractors and more mud - all human life is here. Lucky sod Jimmy Lacey spent a day amid the furrows. Pix: Cathal Dawson
He was a life-long professional fraudster with a criminal record traversing several timezones. Now Elliot Castro has penned a gripping memoir about his, er, exploits.
They invented 'nu rave', bagged the Mercury Music Prize and gave Noel Gallagher the mother of all migraines. You could say the Klaxons have had a busy 2007.
Renowned for his elaborately-posed images of nude figures in public settings, artist Spencer Tunick is hoping Irish people will strip off for him when he visits these shores in June.
Snow Patrol and Ash are just some of the North’s rock ambassadors who have given their backing to the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a state-of-the-art multi-media development which will put Belfast on the international musical map.
The ace bass in the STONE ROSES and PRIMAL SCREAM, MANI is the living embodiment of the concept of largin it . In Ireland to dee-jay and hang out, he sinks a few beers and offers his uniquely colourful thoughts on music, Man U, drugs, Thatcher, Reagan, Blair and Bill Clinton s blow-jobs. Interview: EAMON SWEENEY.
Noel Gallagher and Paul Arthurs of Oasis talk about their staggering rise from being unemployed no-hopers to Top Ten chart act striving to outshine T.Rex, The Beatles and Neil Young to name but three and show Tony Clayton-Lea how to order a peanut.
Catherine Hardwicke won the Sundance best director award for Thirteen, her controversial and unflinching depiction of teen queen sex, drugs, shoplifting and self-harming. Moviehouse meets the director and co-star Holly Hunter.
He’s been The Jam Man, The Cappuccino Kid and The Modfather. Now the proud father of a 17-year-old goth daughter, Paul Weller has taken a break from compositional chores to recharge his batteries with a new covers album, Studio 150.
He’s the Latin smoothie who has wooed a gaggle of starlets, Scarlett Johansson among them. But Benicio del Toro shows a different side to his persona with his controversial new portrayal of South American revolutionary Che Guevara.
They may have a combined mental age of 12, but that hasn't stopped Goldie Lookin’ Chain from infiltrating the grown-ups' singles chart. Phil Udell talks bad heavy metal, secretarial work and burnt nipples with Newport's most notorious hip hop crew.
In Francie Brady aka Frank Pig, author PAT McCABE has created one of the most unique characters in Irish fiction, an underground cult hero who's already been likened to Holden Caulfield and Huckleberry Finn. The novel from which he comes, The Butcher Boy, is a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic and work on the movie adaptation is already well advanced. Here, the man who's made a silk purse out of a sow's ear (sort of) talks comics, showbands, the human condition and, of course, pigs, in the company of LIAM FAY. Pix: COLM HENRY
He pioneered the art of glam-punk excess with the New York Dolls and now he's learned to grow old gracefully. Peter Murphy meets the boy from New York City, the ever cool David Johansen. Photos: MYLES CLAFFEY
Andy Williams may have a reputation as a bland M.OR. crooner but beneath the squeaky clean showbiz facade lurks an interesting man indeed, who reveals a knowledge of modern art, a past laced with drug use and an unhealthy interest in Shirley Temple. Joe Jackson travels to Branson, Missouri to hear his confessions.
Cavernous arenas, capacity crowds, shrieking teenagers and a brisk trade in merchandising.
No, it s not a Take That reunion, it s eh, Dublin popsters picture house travelling the autobahns of Germany.
Our Eurosceptic in D|sseldorf: colm o hare
Cum On Feel The Noize of turning pages as Slade s NODDY HOLDER does a literary tour to promote his autobiography, telling tales of
Phil Lynott, Oasis, Gary Glitter, Glam-Rock Excess, MERRY XMAS EVERYBODY and Suicidal Groupies. ANDY DARLINGTON tags along.
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.
Ah yes, the glamorous life of the rock n rolling travel writer. Getting to see u2 live in Austria was a delectable piece of cake for liam fay. But getting back again that was when the dream turned into a nightmare.
From Yorkshire to the former USSR, from Leeds to Kiev, from The Wedding Present to their latest CD Kultura, THE UKRAINIANS are a unique band. ANDY DARLINGTON submits a political, sociological and musical report on their progress so far.
So what happens when an indie band goes major league? how can you stay cool when your date’s a Charlie’s Angel? how important is the boy/girl song in a flag-waving time? and like Alexander The Great, do you weep when you have no more worlds to conquer? in addressing these and other pressing questions of the day, The Strokes salute John Lennon, Bob Dylan and their own undying band of brotherliness.
The Cranberries have overcome the growing pains that all young bands encounter to become one of Ireland's brightest prospects. Here, Dolores O'Riordan and Fergal Lawlor tell Stuart Clark about the new friends they’ve made, their first trip to America and a chance encounter with Michael Stipe.
Discovered that there is life after Brett-pop, that is. nick kelly gets the lowdown from "the bloke who left Suede", Bernard Butler, whose mightily impressive solo debut People Move On, has just been released.
He wasn’t going to sing and then he sang. He wasn’t going to talk to the press and then he talked. And, finally, when he was good and ready, Paul McCartney wowed an audience with his greatest hits. Stuart Clark sees Macca in Manchester warming up for Dublin
With compass in hand and their newly unfurled Map Of The Universe nestling comfortably on their laps, Blink are boldly going where few Irish bands have gone before. But what happens when they get to Cork and Ballybunion? Intrepid explorer LIAM FAY dons his rucksack, climbs aboard the Blinkmobile and survives to tell the tale.
Mary Bannoti, Ireland's goodwill ambassador for the United Nations population fund, visited Afghanistan in March. Here, she records some lasting impressions of a place at once brutal and beguiling, and describes her often moving encounters with men, women and children, many still in refugee camps in Pakistan, who are struggling to return home and rebuild their lives.
In a world exclusive interview, Morrissey sets the record straight on sex, religion, politics, David Bowie and his Irish heritage, and casts a Trinny & Susannah-esque eye over Brian Cowen
It’s been 25 years since the legendary Dr. Strangely Strange last toured. Now they’re back on the road, in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Tim Booth kept this diary.
When Alan McLoughlin scored in Belfast on November 17th he not only set the entire country off on an orgiastic rampage but allayed the fears of a pair of filmmakers who’d gambled heavily on Ireland’s qualification of USA ’94. So, it’s happy endings all round as Robert Walpole and Paddy Breathnach of Treasure Films release our official World Cup video The Road To America and detail the trials, tribulations and traumas of the venture to a suitably impressed George Byrne.
30th Anniversary retrospective: From the murders of Tupac and Biggie to the bizarre implication of Marilyn Manson in the Columbine massacre; from Courtney, Axl and Spector’s falls from grace to the canonisation and demonisation of Peter Doherty... here’s a potted history of the most controversial events in the last 30 years of rock ‘n’ roll.
The star of cult movies such as Natural Born Killers, Kalifornia and Strange Days, Juliette Lewis appeared to have a direct entry to rock's premier league when she turned her attention to her punk outfit The Licks. Instead, she opted to embark on a small-scale tour and play a series of small venues throughout the US and Europe. Peter Murphy was on hand as Lewis' magical mystery tour reached Ireland, and was witness to some truly fascinating scenes as the singer and her band bewitched the Dublin indie cognoscenti, travelled south to rock Limerick and strolled the red carpet to join the glitterati backstage at the Meteor Awards. Photography by Liam Sweeney.
As the Magnificent Seven prepare to mosey into Thurles, Stuart Clark probes Chas Smash's - or should that be Cathal Smyth's? - split personality and continuing flirtation with Madness
It's been ten years that's shaken a fair bit of the world and now, suddenly, OASIS are back. what better time for a reflective, confessional, candid and scandalous one-on-one with a man who always gives great quote, NOEL GALLAGHER. Interview: STUART CLARK
A breathtaking variety of acts have come together - as Lennon might have put it - to focus attention on the ongoing genocide in Darfur, under the auspices of Amnesty International.
The Fathers of Heavy Metal? "That child is not mine!", roars JON LORD, who played keyboard through 25 years of DEEP PURPLE splits, reformations, recriminations and tears. Now he's got a new album and tour reuniting the classic "Deep Purple in Rock" formation to talk up, with side-swipes at Metallica, the David Coverdale/Jimmy Page album, and just why Coverdale's sexually explicit lyrics made the Lord "a tad embarrassed."
Interview ANDY DARLINGTON
When Tommy Tiernan held court in the Hot Press Chat Room at Electric Picnic recently, he had no idea the kind of shit storm that would unfold. During what was in effect a spontaneous, unscripted live performance – not unlike an appearance on The Late Late Show that also sparked controversy – he told a story about a couple of Jews who reproached him after a performance in New York. The result? He has been accused of anti-semitism and widely vilified. But those who know Tiernan are quite clear that the accusations are completely wrong. So – in order to allow people to judge for themselves – here is the full text of the Chat Room interview.
Or should that be The Clash? Well no, actually, cos there's no Clash, Damned or Pistols in 1999. But there s still joe strummer, who was there when Shane got his ear bitten off and, 22 years later is back for his own second bite with THE MESCALEROS. I ve seen everything that it s possible to see go down and I ve survived it, he tells STUART CLARK who finds himself shanghaied on a ferry to Stranraer.
Main pix: MICHAEL QUINN.
When PETER O CONNELL (not his real name) was charged with the molestation of two young boys in Kilkenny and Waterford in 1994, his statement to Gardai revealed for the first time, his own horrific saga of sexual abuse, and resulted in the conviction of a priest who had ostensibly taken him under his care. With full access to court documents, RICHARD BALLS reports on the case of a 33-year-old with a mental age of 12 who, for much of his grim, institutionalised life, had been in the words of the judge who sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment more sinned against than sinning .
owen O Neill almost drowned a promising comedy career in drink. Now, with the bottle firmly corked, his harrowing experience of alcoholism is fuelling his most powerful one-man show to date. Interview: barry glendenning.
To celebrate hotpress’s thirtieth anniversary issue, we thought we’d break out the bubbly (and the tea!) and invite round a collection of Ireland’s biggest stars.
She’s shaping up to be one of the break-out stars of 2009, with a number one album and a Mercury Prize nomination to her name. We catch up with Florence And The Machine’s Florence Welch, who talks about becoming an overnight sensation, reflects on her bizarre childhood and explains why her most controversial song really isn’t as contentious as it’s made out to be.
Starting at Moray Firth Radio in Inverness and ending seven days later at BBC WM in Birmingham, ASTERIX are on a mission to conquer England s airwaves. Joining the tour in Nottingham,
SUSAN DARLINGTON witnesses three days of maps, mobiles and milkshakes.
Each year, the BALLYBUNION BACHELOR FESTIVAL in Co. Kerry sees numerous unattached males flocking to the Kingdom for a week of boozing, carousing and
general merry-making, in a vainglorious attempt to prove their bachelorian credentials. OLAF TYARANSEN went along for this year’s ride. Pics (and occasional enraged outbursts): CATHAL DAWSON.
Not content with being one of the most successful stand-up comics of his generation, sean hughes has once again turned his hand to the world of prose with the publication of his first novel, The Detainees. barry glendenning, for his part, gives it a ringing endorsement of Eh, quite good. The Booker Prize awaits.
A MAN U DON'T MEET EVERY DAY
Oui, c'est Eric Cantona: le nouveau enfant terrible de la Premièreship or ze man vu
'stud up' zu de football yobs? Mise-en-scène: Neil McCormick.
I was living fast, planning to die young and I was probably gonna take a few people with me, says Fatima Mansions firebrand Cathal Coughlan of his descent into a personal and creative nightmare. Now back stronger, healthier and with an acclaimed new album, Lost In The Former West, under his belt, he retraces the highs, lows and kicks in the teeth of the last few years with Liam Fay.
I’ll have at least one foot in the grave – or at least that’s the dominant feeling as JOE JACKSON joins the Country Music U.S.A. crew on their visit to BRANSON – a bizarre small town in the Ozark Mountains that now rivals Nashville as a centre for country music tourism, of the blue-rinse variety.
Robyn Hitchcock – wayward musical genius or fruitcake, depending on your point of view – is on the brink of even greater notoriety with the patronage of REM and the release of his strongest album to date. Andy Darlington does his best to uncover the man behind the mayhem.
Every Picture Tells A Story
You don’t have to hire the services of a professional photographer or the PR agency to help your band achieve world domination. But it certainly helps! Colm O’Hare offers some valuable advice to the would-be stars of tomorrow and talks to some music biz insiders who can point you in the right direction.
“I was living fast, planning to die young and I was probably gonna take a few people with me,” says Fatima Mansions firebrand Cathal Coughlan of his descent into a personal and creative nightmare. Now back stronger, healthier and with an acclaimed new album, Lost In The Former West, under his belt, he retraces the highs, lows and kicks in the teeth of the last few years with Liam Fay.
After years when her triumphs were in danger of being masked by her tribulations, DOLORES O RIORDAN is back in defiantly upbeat form. She talks to STUART CLARK about confidence, critics, Calvin Klein and her confirmation-size breasts ! Pics: MICK QUINN.
Well and truly punch-drunk and punch-lined, BARRY GLENDENNING rounds
up the gargles and the giggles at this year's CAT LAUGHS COMEDY FESTIVAL
in Kilkenny. Pix: Kevin Clancy
Masturbating for charity – it was a new one on us. So whose idea was it? What was the purpose? Who would turn up? And what would happen in real life, when the doors to the Wank-a-thon were finally declared open? There was only one way to get the real SP on what promised to be one of the most bizarre events ever mounted in London. Send for our man Tyaransen: he wouldn’t make his excuses and leave! Or would he?
Falling in love not only altered David Kitt’s heart but helped reshape his musical vision. Olaf Tyaransen visits his home cum studio and hears about the family affair that is his new album and how meeting Poppy reawakened his love of pop. all this and why the son of a Minister opposes the smoking ban! Photography Roger Woolman.
But try finding someone who doesn’t like it. The album Monster is yet another glittering addition to arguably the most astonishing canon in pop music, ever. Here, in a historic summit, the world’s greatest fortnightly rock paper gets together with the world’s greatest rock band for an intimate chat about the big issues: sex, death, drinking and, of course, rrrrrock’n’roll. What else is there? Interview: Liam Fay
AND THAT WAS JUST IN THE HOLLYWOOD BOARDROOMS! NEIL McCORMICK LOOKS BACK AT THE MOVIEMAKING YEAR IN WHICH ARNIE TOOK A TUMBLE, DINOSAURS CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD AND MICHAEL JACKSON’S PETER PAN DISAPPEARED OFF TO NEVER NEVER LAND.
Stuart Clark – himself a black belt in origami – discovers how The Ramones and kickboxing chinese detectives have helped Ash to overcome their sordid heavy metal past and become Top of the Chops.
Heineken/Hot Press Awards presenter ULRIKA JONSSON offers her thoughts on fame, comedy, motherhood, relationships, loyalty and the media A? as well as a very final word on Stan Collymore. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
Mark Eitzel and American Music Club have had all the critical plaudits and cult status that they ever could've wished for. What they really want now is fame and megabuck success! Patrick Brennan met the Wet Wet Wet wannabees.
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.
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.
Jackie hayden meetsjournalist turned PR guru, Tony O Brien and speaks to him about his rock n roll adventures with the likes of U2, Michael Stipe and Bruce Springsteen.
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]
Not so long ago mavericks and experimentalism were thin on the ground in Ireland. But with the growth of an independent scene, all of that has changed. for confirmation, look no further than the rise to eminence of The Jimmy Cake.
BECK is one of the most eclectically talented musicians of his generation. STUART CLARK sees the man play a stormer at Witnness and hears him talk about fame, musical obsession, heroes like Bowie and Black Sabbath and 'Britney fascism'
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
To mark the occasion of the release of a near definitive punk compilation, GEORGE BYRNE fondly recalls the days when pogo was go-go and gabba gabba was hey.
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.
With 1993 going down as the year that Irish rock finally emerged from U2’s shadow, HOT PRESS takes an introductory look at four of the rapidly emerging outfits that are poised to make headlines and sell bucket–loads of records in ’94.
Schtum, Ash, Joyrider, Compulsion.
Alryte! Liam Fay gets on the blower to Phil Redmond, the scouser who launched a thousand Brookside storylines, who chin wags about lesbianism, wife-beating, Emmerdale and, er, those Farm t-shirts!
andy darlington meets skunk anansie with a live grenade in his hand
Peter Murphy s damning Hot Press review of their latest album Stoosh. You could cut the tension with a knife
which appears to be exactly what Skin wants at this very moment. Will anyone here get out alive?
In a highly revealing interview, Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke talks about the inspiration behind one of the albums of the year, his current listening and the band's plans for the future.
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.
Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous offers a pleasant and almost innocent view of the life of a rock hack - sort of Little House On The Road. The reality, as PETER MURPHY explains, is rather different. Certain names in this harrowing saga have been changed to protect the guilty - and the author's delicate bone structure
What do you get when you lock indie gods Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and Dublin's up-and-coming Blink in a room with unlimited booze and a tape machine? Well, you're about to find out as Blink ask their tourmates Carter how many pairs of underpants to bring along, whether or not you can leave stage to prevent wetting them and who washes them if you can't. Pix: Leo Regan
What do you get when you lock indie gods Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and Dublin's up-and-coming Blink in a room with unlimited booze and a tape machine? Well, you're about to find out as Blink ask their tourmates Carter how many pairs of underpants to bring along, whether or not you can leave stage to prevent wetting them and who washes them if you can't. Pix: Leo Regan
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.
"To tell you the truth, I don’t see myself as being all that interesting or attractive." that being so, Colin Farrell must be one of a very few who doesn’t. Dublin’s latest superstar, famous for cussing, bedding women and (lest we forget) acting, has been inescapable in the gossip columns in recent months. But how much is truth and how much fiction? In this candid interview with Tara Brady, he talks about drink, drugs, football, fame, hype, luck, romance and – in his latest box office winner The Recruit – working with Al Pacino
She’s no saint. She swears and smokes and doesn’t think she’ll go to heaven. But the one-time Dublin street kid has used the nightmare of her own past life to help make unlikely dreams come true for abandoned children across the world. Peter Murphy hears her extraordinary story.
Few Irish albums have been as eagerly awaited as THERAPY?’s Troublegum and while the jury has yet to deliver its final verdict, early indications suggest that the band from Larne may be about to fulfil their own prophecy and become multifuckingnationally huge. But does taking on the world mean having to compromise the hardcore principles they’ve fought so hard to protect?
ANDY CAIRNS and MICHAEL McKEEGAN tell Hot Press trouble-shooter GERRY McGOVERN that displaying your gums doesn’t mean having to sacrifice your teeth. Pix.: MICHAEL QUINN.
For close to twenty years, MARTIN CAHILL led the forces of law and order a merry dance. Known as the General, he was suspected of masterminding virtually every major crime committed in Ireland – but for as long as matters, the Gardai had been unable to pin anything on him. And when he was brought to court on petty charges, he posed outside for press photographers, dropping his trousers to reveal a pair of Mickey Mouse boxer shorts. Last week, however, the game was cut brutally short when Cahill was blown away within 100 yards of his South Dublin home by an IRA hit squad. Report: NEIL McCORMICK.
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.
BRENDAN INGLE was born in Dublin, but made his name as a boxing trainer in Sheffield. He s the man who discovered PRINCE NASEEM and shared in the fighter s huge success until they fell out acrimoniously. ANDY DARLINGTON meets a man with a story to tell.
Positivity is their mantra, classy is their byword and their mission is to become the biggest and best pop group on the plant. With their jam in the point date looming SYLVIA PATTERSON goes on the road with DESTINY'S CHILD and hears a tale of self-empowerment, vision and that collision between cleavage and christianity
It should have been the biggest indoor rock n roll knees-up of the year but oasis three nights at The Point were as notable for what happened off stage as for what happened on it. Does Liam s partial no show spell the end for the dreadnoughts of Britpop or is it just the latest hiccup in a career that seems to thrive on adversity? Report: siobhAn LONG.
Well, so would you be if you had to wear all that hideous make-up. Barry Glendenning meets FRANK KELLY, the long-established actor and comedian who now finds himself in the curious position of being best-known for shouting 'Feck!', 'Drink!', 'Girls!' and 'Arse!' fr. Jack hackett, this is your other life . . .
Black & White Pix: CATHAL DAWSON
. . . Or not, as the case may be. In this extremely revealing interview with peter murphy, henry rollins speaks frankly about relationships, violence, depression, squaring up to Al Pacino and the problems that come with a life lived on the road
They may refuse to play the media game, but whether it’s dating page three models, accepting awards dressed as the Village People or earning the ire of Keith Richards, there’s never a dull moment in the world of Alex Turner and Arctic Monkeys.
Formula One's plucky outsider Eddie Jordan talks about motor sport's party-hard reputation, jamming with Bryan Adams and winning to the British national anthem.
The first rule of interviewing LOU REED is that you don t: he interviews you. Peter Murphy survives the turning of the tables and is rewarded with thoughts on Joyce, Wilde, Dylan, Ginsberg and on becoming an elder stateman for the alternative thing .
In what may well be the most effective marriage yet of rock and pragmatic politics, U2, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed and others are pushing the Amnesty International message on the 'Conspiracy Of Hope' tour. Pat Singer joins them on the road.
Never mind figgy puddings and partridges in pear trees, there’s some serious seasonal business to be done as the annual HP-7 summit gathers in the crucible of cultural discourse that is The Central Hotel’s Library Bar.
PAUL BRADY has had an embattled career. In the course of it, he has made great music, won new fans and lost old friends. He has written powerful songs, locked horns with his record company, even contemplated quitting the business entirely. Now finally, he has come to new realisations about himself and about the enduring power of love. Interview: JOE JACKSON.
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.
Allen Long put his own life on the line, smuggling dope from Colombia to the US in massive quantities. The business made him wealthy and gave him a taste for both the good life and the fast, white powder. But then it all went wrong: after some years on the run, Long was caught and sentenced to five years in jail.
Now author Robert Sabbag has put his extraordinary story in print. hotpress meets "the American Howard Marks"
(N.B. This is a work of faction. All names have been changed in order to protect the guilty from certain incarceration in state mental institutions or correctional
facilities.)
She can't sit still. She has the attention span of a senile goldfish. And she has got some very strange personal habits. But Bjork is still one of the brightest and most compelling pop stars the nineties has produced thus far. LIAM FAY travels to darkest Blackpool for a close and often strange encounter with the Icelandic imp herself.
Is she a manufactured pop act made to look like a rock chick? is she a rock chick who sells records like a manufactured pop act? or is she something else entirely? Why’d Avril Lavigne have to go and make things so complicated?
Columnist Kevin Myers called her “our pretty little she-shinner” but an unimpressed Mary Lou McDonald insists that her party is actually run by a group of formidable women. She also reveals that she believes Gerry Adams when he says he was never in the IRA, defends Sinn Fein’s fund-raising, discusses the release of Jerry McCabe’s killers, and names her least favourite irish politicians. plus: the newly elected MEP’s views on drink, drugs, music, media, religion, and more.
Ciaran Cuffe [right by Mick Quinn] doesn’t look much like a typical Teachta Dala. So little so, in fact, that when the Green Party TD comes out to greet photographer Mick Quinn and myself in a guarded reception area in Leinster House, we simply don’t recognise him. He just doesn’t look the part.
Following the huge commercial success of Set List and ‘Fake’, The Frames look poised to ascend to rock’s premier league with the upcoming worldwide release of the Burn The Maps album. Kim Porcelli joins the band on the day of their triumphant show at Marlay Park to discuss the pros and cons of pop-stardom, the departure of dave odlum, the abiding influence of mic christopher, and the challenge of creating their most eagerly anticipated record yet.
Sci-fi revolutionary and reluctant cyberpunk, William Gibson marks the publication of his new novel pattern recognition by offering Peter Murphy a peek into the present and a brief history of the future.
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
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.
From “Outspan” to Glen Hansard, from Grafton Street to Hollywood – and onwards to Lisdoonvarna 2003. A portrait of The Frames as a most unusual band. Part one of a two-part special feature by Peter Murphy. [Main Photos: Mick Quinn]
In a swelteringly hot Budape#st movie studio, situated by the banks of the River Danube just twenty minutes drive from the centre of the Hungarian capital, a beautiful flame-haired young actress named Juliana is painting a picture.
In a swelteringly hot Budape#st movie studio, situated by the banks of the River Danube just twenty minutes drive from the centre of the Hungarian capital, a beautiful flame-haired young actress named Juliana is painting a picture.
With Cameron Crowe s Almost Famous putting rock hackery on the silver screen, no less, Peter Murphy wonders if Seventies rock journalism is the new rock n roll. Helping him with his enquiries: PAUL MORLEY and GREIL MARCUS
Well when you've conquered the world, what else can the biggest band on the planet do except go into space? BONO and LARRY discuss matters cosmic and personal with Olaf Tyaransen
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.
Long before boomtime Ireland there was boomtown Ireland, a country where the national symbol was not a tiger but a rat. to coincide with the release of the best of the boomtown rats, Bob Geldof looks back to the tepid Irish scene of the mid-’70s from which the rats emerged, biting, snarling and laughing, to take on the establishment, Britain and, almost, the world.
Saturday, July 13th, 1985 will go down in history as Live Aid Day, the extraordinary culmination of Bob Geldof's attempts to mobilise the international music industry behind urgently-needed famine relief in Africa. Among the stellar cast performing for 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium, London are U2, a band determined to rise to the occasion. Report: Neil McCormick
The future is here. Well, somehow it always is. And, as usual, it is both familiar and strange. Nothing seems to change, but one day you turn around, it is 1995, and you are cybersurfing on the internet, summer seems to last all winter, ambient-acid-techno is bubbling away on the radio, your fax machine shows up on the Antiques Roadshow and papa’s got a brand new drug.
As frontman with The Spikes, Tom Dunne likes to makes sure that he stands out from the crowd. Jackie Hayden asks the former model his views on the links between fashion and rock music/
Hotpress.com is delighted to bring you this pre-release goo at the artwork for Bell X1’s Blue Lights On The Runway album, which makes it into the shops here on February 20.
Those of you fascinated by Oliver Stone’s recent interview in Hot Press will be keen to learn that the three-time Oscar-winning director is set to make a public appearance in Dublin this weekend.
Snow Patrol kicked off their whistle-stop Take Back The Cities tour with their first live gig in over a year yesterday with a sold out lunchtime show in Dublin's Gate Theatre.
Festival season again, and, as if on cue, the debut album from Kilkenny's Wilt arrives in a squall of seamless, subtext-free grunge pop and three-minute mosh-o-ramas readymade for summer location broadcasts on MTV.
You certainly wouldn’t need telling that You And Me And Everyone We Know came to our shores via Sundance. With its seemingly endless capacity for navel-gazing and quirkiness (spit), it belongs right down there on a special me-me-me triple bill featuring What The Bleep Do We Know? and My Life Without Me
No great surprise then that tonight’s audience was overwhelmingly female (average age early 30-something) and clearly out for a good time as they sang along to virtually every word of every song on Gabrielle’s hit-heavy set-list.
When a band have been going 10 years, there’s only a certain number of variables that can keep a gig exciting – both for the audience as well as for themselves.
While the plot is not quite what it was in Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's new character – flamboyant, gay Austrian fashion TV presenter Brüno – is still funny as hell.
The first issue of (RED)Wire digital music magazine will be available for download on December 1 to coincide with World AIDS Day. It's the latest initiative from (RED), the HIV/AIDS organisation whose prime movers include Bono.
It’s rather tough to even consider putting lyrics over this. The wall of sound that this troubadour of instrumentalists create is so vibrant, powerful and (every hack’s favorite adjective) evocative, that the music really does speak for itself.
With so many wannabe divas moving up the ranks, has Pink got what it takes to shake off the Britney-with-balls tag and prove her reputation as the riot girl of corporate pop?
Well, yes.
Although 1988 saw the continued assault on discerning sensibilities in the shape of SAW, there were (surprisingly enough!) one or two reasons to be cheerful.
The Darkness couldn’t take the place of the Thin White Duke in our hearts, but they truly are an irresistible force of glam-rock delight. Music geniuses or not, the camera sweeping through the crowd showed that, at this stage, we were only capable of pointing open-mouthed and all we wanted were simple gestures of sensory pleasure. The jumpsuit is half the battle.
Run DMC practically invented hip hop, they were the first rap act to appear on MTV, the first to be nominated for a Grammy, and the first to sign to a product endorsement deal
If REM apply the same print-and-be-damned attitude to the recording of these songs as they did to their live unveiling, they might produce their most vibrant record in years.
Those more familiar with Dylan’s modus operandi know that he has latterly treated the recorded versions of his songs as mere rough demos and starting points from which he walks a tightrope of adventurous reinvention from which he sometimes topples off.
Whatever your fancy chances are the capital will be able to oblige. Here, the Hot Press team pound the pavement in selfless pursuit of Dublin's hottest - and coolest - nightspots.
A SPRAWLING, uneven, lengthy and massively entertaining scuzz-cruise through Seventies New York, Summer Of Sam might well be Spike Lee's most broadly accessible film yet, and if it sinks without trace (as I suspect it might) it will be little short of a tragedy.
From the moment they hit the stage, Maximo Park looked the part, their innate confidence magnified in the small space. Their chief selling-point is frontman Paul Smith and you can immediately see why - he is genuinely eccentric performer.
A smouldering demented femme disrupts a buttoned-up bourgeois existence. Dead bodies pop up. Elegant, yet coolly dispassionate Hitchcockian rhythms with no particular place to go. Yep, it’s a Claude Chabrol movie alright. Never quite as terrible as the rest of the New Wave enfants, The Bridesmaid marks the 75 year old director’s second crack at a Ruth Rendell mystery, but that’s no cause to panic.
Lowestoft’s finest have come up with a lorry-load of impossibly joyous pop-metal anthems, the likes of which haven’t been heard since David Lee Roth and Van Halen were spandexing their way round the ginormodome circuit.
Unsurprisingly, we’re straight into dramatics with Ms. Goldfrapp delivering Kate Bush proportioned vocals over Connery Bond themes that never got made.
Nerdlinger frontman Cormac Sheehan inadvertently got caught up in the rioting in Genoa last week while attending the G8 summit protest with anti-capitalist group Globalise Resistance.
Just when you thought the body-switch comedy had thoughtfully been put out of its misery, along comes this delightful froth on a daydream from indie-graduate Winick.
I WAS drinking with an old friend in a small and friendly gay pub in London, run by an Irish couple, when a big man strode in, who looked as if he had just stepped off a construction site.
His black hair may be turning grey but his voice is still as deep as the mine shafts he sings about and still as pure as the sweat from his working man's chest. Because Gil Scott Heron is growing old with honour.
What the hell was Marvel thinking? It was bad enough that they resurrected The Punisher (The Least Endearing Comic Book Hero Ever) to cash in on the Vietnam vigilante nostalgia of the pure market Reaganite ’80s, but to give him another movie?
Gen X race memory and The Devil And Daniel Johnston have ensured a full house at Vicar St, and in the foyer ‘Hi, How Are You?’ frog t-shirts are doing a brisk business in black and white.
The crowd’s unbridled outpouring of devotion and fervour is like getting swept up at Nuremberg – it’s burn, baby, burn – and burn is the operative word.
Lesley-Ann Halvey, singer and bassist with the all-girl Dublin four-piece Black Daisy, claims being in a band is different for girls, not least in squatting down to do the ass test in Penneys.
To tie in with their contribution to Instant Karma – The Amnesty International Campaign To Save Darfur, Green Day have designed a limited-edition ‘Working Class Hero’ t-shirt, which is available in Ireland from the Fleet Street, Dublin 2 branch of the Hard Rock Café.
With the sound of The Prodigy’s Marmite-esque set still ringing in our ears from last night, we arrive back on site to be greeted with some much needed Sunday morning sunshine.
Phwoaarrr! Cor! Cop a load of the melons on that! This, at any rate, would seem to be the reaction Charlie’s Angels is intended to provoke among its target audience
"...the Coen brothers work their magic unseen. They’ve always been too secure in their talents to bother with showboating and here their deft touch has never seemed surer."
Those who like a drag can at least take consolation from the fact that anti-smoking legislation goes completely unobserved in the afterlife. By Caught In The Net's guest writer Teddy de Bono.
I bought a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans today. I had to search for them, they’re not easy to find these days. I eventually found a dedicated Levi’s shop that had them in stock, in the back, behind sliding panels.
I bought a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans today. I had to search for them, they’re not easy to find these days. I eventually found a dedicated Levi’s shop that had them in stock, in the back, behind sliding panels.
Colin Carberry talks to Jimmy Devlin, co-founder of the No Dancing label, which continues to provide an invaluable outlet for young Northern Irish bands seeking wider exposure.
It’s been a long, hot, muggy day, but Galway’s weather still won’t piss or get off the pot. A short, sharp shower would actually be extremely welcome, but the heavily pregnant clouds just tease with the prospect of rain. On the plus side, the evening skies over the Fisheries Field are appropriately shaded for the musical night ahead (sorry, but it’s an unbreakable rule of music journalism that every David Gray live review must contain at least one pun on his surname).
Yes, the incessant downpour ensured that Punchestown Racecourse often looked more like the set of a World War 1 epic than a music festival, but the rain couldn't dampen the 80,000-strong Oxegen crowd's spirits, not to mention the fiery performances delivered by Arctic Monkeys, Franz, The Who, the Chili Peppers and a cast of, well, hundreds.
Photographer JILL FURMANOVSKY has snapped and shuttered virtually all of the rock industry's big names during her illustrious 25-year carrer, from
U2 to Dylan to Miles Davis. Her latest subjects are Oasis, who she's "spent three years having an absolute ball with." olaf tyaransen caught up with her. Pic: Colm Henry
The finalists, chosen from the hundreds of entries received, were all winners of the regional heats that had taken place up and down the country since January
Introducing The XXX Factor, a talent show that auditions wanna-be young things for a future in the porno industry. Oh, and a guy from Wisconsin sets fire to his todger. No, really.
Having made his reputation as gonzo journalist and memoirist with such books as Story Of O, Palace Of Wisdom and Sexlines, Olaf Tyaransen branches into short fiction in this Hot Press exclusive.
Bigwigs from the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army were on hand as stoner-rock favourites Deep Purple took their banana tour to the exotic environs of Beijing.
Over the past 12 months, The Mighty Boosh have made the transition from cult favourites to arena-filling icons. Noel Fielding chats to Ed Power about playing huge venues, his friend Russell Brand's recent difficulties, and borrowing clothes from Courtney Love.
Bowling down through the centre of the country on Friday afternoon en route from Derry to fabled Thurles I tune in to 2FM and hear that there are many thousands of folk already foregathered for the Féile. Also I hear the chief of the local gardai saying that so far the behaviour of all concerned has been 'perfect'.
'The Irish Are Coming' was the banner headline for a two-night musical extravaganza held at The Venue in London, organised in conjunction with Hot Press, that showcased some of the most promising Irish bands. Gerry McGovern gives a behind-the-scenes account of the weekend that was...
Music Review | Live
19% | 7 Sep 2006
They said it couldn’t be done, but this year’s Electric Picnic achieved the impossible by being even more joyous, vibey and action-packed than its predecessors. Hot Press was in the thick of things as 200 acts and 30,000 music lovers descended on one very big house in the country.
Olaf Tyaransen travels to london to find out why spanking is as quintessentially english as roast beef and yorkshire pudding. “i’m not saying what we do at our parties is normal but it’s not abnormal either,” he’s told. this is his own hands-on account of all that you can’t leave behind
D UNBELIEVABLES are probably the most popular comics in Ireland. As preparations continue for the opening of their new show, Olaf Tyaransen talks to the duo about rural Ireland, negative press, and whether they have yet made their fortune.
The gay marriage debate was reignited when the Government’s Civil Partnership Bill, while allowing for same sex partnerships, fell short of legislating for gay and lesbian marriage. In an unusually frank exchange, Green Party justice spokesman CIARAN CUFFE debates the merit of the bill with Dermod Moore.
While the rest of you were off stuffing your faces with turkey, here at HotPress we were busily polishing our crystal balls in readiness for our annual gaze into the future. S
All Write Now, we said. And boy did you follow instructions! The entries poured in from all over Ireland, and further afield, in their thousands. We were snowed under – but, as the song says: That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, we like it…
