Author Barbara Ehrenreich worked in a variety of low-paid jobs in the USA to research her book Nickel & Dimed - Undercover In Low-Wage USA. The conditions and terms of employment she uncovered make frightening reading
The Presidents of the USA will be stopping off in Dublin in April during their world tour to promote their latest album, These Are the Good Times People
It’s epic, certainly, but hotpress ain’t sure that all the elements in ‘Two Of Us’ add up: the galloping, gritty riff and ‘Love Is Stronger Than Pride’-esque stomp are solid enough foundations to for the scraping, building FX and sparse, surging synths. But the house of cards collapses with the arrival of a ringing music box melody. So close…
Damian Lazarus is another convert to the stripped down groove and this new mix features the scene’s big tunes – Trentemoller’s ‘Physical Fraction’ and Superpitcher’s epic version of M83’s ‘Don’t Save Us’ – as well as big names like Villalobos, Pier Bucci, James Holden as well as, erm, The Stranglers’ ‘Love 303’.
Hungry Hill (Canada), The Jeff and Vida Band (USA), Sunnyside (Czech Republic) and Buffalo Gals (UK) are among the highlights of this year's Guinness International Blue Grass Festival.
The feisty tyke is back with a song whose video was the first by a British artist to reach No. 1 on the US’s Total Request Live. While on this side of the Atlantic, the climate’s changed considerably since she left (Amy Winehouse has become wiser, people have forgotten about chavs, Lily Allen’s stolen her schtick but wears pink dresses), her grime rapping is an anti-establishment, bold statement that puts her firmly on the musical map again. To quote the young lady, “I ain’t got the biggest breastesis/But I write all the bestest hits”.
Rumours worked, both commercially and artistically, because the mature rock audience of the time, especially in the USA, craved a more sophisticated sound than they’d grown up with.
Recorded in 2004 at concerts all over the USA, this live CD is the ninth release from Scottish band Old Blind Dogs, featuring fiddler Jonny Hardie, singer/guitarist/harmonica player Jim Malcolm, Rory Campbell on pipes and low whistle, percussionist Fraser Stone and newest member Aaron Jones (whose excellent duo debut with Claire Mann, Secret Orders, was previously reviewed here) on bouzouki, guitar and bass.
Casting a cold eye on 1986, one must be frank that, although it was a good year, the absolute pinnacles that have marked previous years were absent. Perhaps ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ and ‘Born In The USA’, and their respective tours in 1985, not to mention Live Aid, drained a lot of emotion.
I Want It All will undoubtedly prove hugely popular in Warren Griffin’s homeland of the USA, where its mixture of hip hop and r’n’b is proving all the rage. He will find it harder, however, to find a large slice of the market outside the States.
Rather fatuously billed on the CD sleeve as “the ultimate global stringband”, Mozaik are Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny, Bruce Molsky (USA), Rens Van Der Zalm (Holland) and Nikola Parov (Hungary), and this album was recorded live in Brisbane two years ago with the lads playing 18 instruments between them. The recording quality thankfully captures all the rapture of a terrific gig.
Having watched Shay Healy hold tightly onto his little camera as he, and the Music City USA crew, travelled thousands of miles across the United States this summer, believe me, I know he is driven by a sometimes infuriating "fundamental impulse" to capture beauty. Plus ugliness, pain, poverty, poetry in static form or in motion and humour - in one word: America, in all its twisted glory.
With paranoia running rampant among US immigration officials in the wake of September 11, even a seemingly straightforward holiday in the land of the free can turn into a Kafka-esque nightmare.
Dublin-based singer-songwriter ERIC ECKHART scored with his debut CD Lost And Found. Originally from West Virginia, USA, he reflects on life back there from his temporary base in Berlin.
The big news about Sufjan Stevens is that he plans to record a full album about each of the states of the USA. This is number two of 50, barring annexations, after 2003’s ode to his home patch Michigan
Perhaps the most marketable band in the USA right now, TLC are usually assessed in terms of their take-no-shit sexual politics, their increasingly adventurous visual image (Girlz In The Hood meets Barbarella), and their private lives (rapper Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes once burned down her millionaire boyfriend's mansion). If anyone ever bothered seriously analysing the stuff contained on their records, their jaws would drop even further.
When Boyzone pranced awkardly around the Phoenix Park stage in their orange jumpsuits at the ill-advised and worse-attended homecoming for the Republic's USA 94 squad (which could have been a subtle reference to the fact that we'd been sent packing by Holland, but I doubt it), …
Nice to see Father Ted’s Graham Linehan back in Dublin recently, taking a break from writing his latest project, a comedy feature film set in ‘20s Paris
It appears that the Smuggler’s Tour scheduled for Vicar St on February 18th and featuring Howard Marks and Robert Sabbag has been canceled
Tommy Tiernan is keeping schtum about his recent visit to the USA where he ‘had talks’ with TV entertainment giant NBC
For a city so often celebrated in song, it was inevitable that the horrific events in new york would be felt as keenly in the music world as in any other section of society. STUART CLARK reports on the industry response and compiles a broad selection of individual reactions to the attack
30th Anniversary Retrospective: Thirty years ago, the USA was engaged in a bloody and illegal war, and led by a discredited President with no compunction about breaking domestic or international law. Sound familiar?
Have you ever wondered about the diminutive character who keeps the Irish soccer team supplied with clean jerseys, hard balls and, er, all sorts of other footballing paraphernalia? That's Charlie O’Leary, kit man to the Republic of Ireland squad. Here he talks about;the secrets of his behind-the-scenes trade, the players’ bizarre likes and dislikes and the controversies of USA ’94 to Paul O’Mahony.
The fascinating story of how four Tallaght schoolfriends – and unofficial fifth member Shuggy – made a new home and a career playing music in the USA. All with a little help from their many friends.
Like The White Stripes? You'll love their mates the Von Bondies, the Detroit Cobras and the Dirtbombs - all fellow Detroiters, all helping the Stripes bring the Motor City to Dublin Castle for the Green Energy Festival
It’s all very exciting, if entirely lacking in substance, but what would I know? Every boy I’ve spoken to thinks this an orgasmic masterpiece, what with the shiny things, car-chases and moody unattached protagonist.
SEX, HUMOR And Truth it proudly proclaims on the cover and, sure enough, Hustler is almost as famous nowadays for upholding the Fifth Amendment as for what the porn world so sensitively titles hamburger shots.
Lissen, the first time I heard the new Bruce Springsteen record, I was with my mate Johnny The Zip in his big black Buick screaming down the New Jersey turnpike, headin' for a major scene in Benny's Billiards.
As a documentary following the American quadriplegic rugby team, there’s obviously plenty of inspirational punch-the-air moments on offer, but directors Shapiro and Rubin wisely ignore opportunities for sentiment.
Dead Chickens are scheduled to make two major appearances in Dublin between now and Christmas following their storming launch for Psychotic Reaction at Twisted Pepper last month.
Hailing from Boston, this hotly-tipped, stylish-looking outfit have built their reputation on spiky, punky anthems. Their first major label release sees them fine-tuning their raucous sound somewhat but it’s still strong, fist-punching stuff.
With barely enough time to sober up following their Vicar St. headliner, The Chalets hotfooted it over to the UK where they’re playing two weeks of supports with The Cribs.
Lemonheads singer and songwriter Evan Dando is suing troubled American car makers General Motors, claiming the company illegally used one of his songs in a TV commercial.
HAVING TORN THE roof off the Temple Bar Music Centre earlier in the year, Goldfrapp return to Dublin for a November 3rd headliner at the Ambassador Theatre.
The Ting Tings received the College Award for their multi-platinum debut album We Started Nothing at The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Awards in London.
Ask standup comic, Perrier-award-winner, Late Late show audience-botherer and original Navan man Tommy Tiernan your questions in the Hot Press Mixed Grill
Wicklow’s own electro-rock trio God Is An Astronaut are heading to Russia to play a festival in Moscow this July, alongside acts like Mudhoney and Shitdisco.
The title of Mike Rafferty's long-overdue solo debut refers both to this youthful septuagenarian's current age and to the old 78-rpm records that inspired him. A native of Ballinakill, Co. Galway, Rafferty grew up immersed in the East Galway tradition, learning to play both flute and uilleann pipes from his father, Tom 'Barrel' Rafferty.
There’s interesting use of flamenco-style handclapping, nifty syncopated rhythms and assorted electronic noises, with traditional and contemporary styles integrated far more seamlessly than on most crossover projects
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a musician in Norn Iron next week as anyone who can bang, blow or strum an instrument clears off to Washington DC for the Rediscover Northern Ireland Arts & Culture Program.
The pace is gentle throughout, with soothing tinkly arrangements of classics like ‘Green Grows The Laurel’ and ‘Bonny Light Horseman’ alongside lesser-known songs and tunes; the latter include an unusual jazzy interpretation of Robert Burns’ ‘The Slave’s Lament’, a march written by O’Leary for his newborn son Josef, and the title track co-authored by the two.
Pogues' bassist Cait O'Riordan has joined a new band with former Blue In Heaven drummer Dave Clarke and Hothouse Flowers guitarist/singer Fiachna O'Braonain.
It may be wet outside and April doesn't bode any better but there's news to brighten your mood: the former recipients of the Hot Press single of the fortnight nod are playing a few dates round our way.
UK reviews for Soon It Will Come Time To Face The World Outside - the debut album from Cork's Boa Morte - range from excellent to, er, even more excellent. See what the quiet riot's all about at an upcoming live date near you
Hey! Ho! Let's go (girls)! And so the band who named their debut album Teenage American Rock 'n' Roll Machine reach the ripe old age of twenty one, celebrating with a fourth record and a new, more mature sound.
Having down sterling work for the past decade in the States, Send A Piana To Havana makes its presence felt in Dublin on December 10 when it’s the subject of a Vicar St. fundraiser.
Sometimes it's hard to be Irish, and this is one of them. Imagine, if you must, an amalgam of Sham 69 without the songs; The Wolfe Tones minus the voices; Ding Dong Denny O'Reilly without the wit; the worst thrash metal band you've ever heard; the infantile macho posturing of American wrestling and The Saw Doctors at their shoutiest - and you've taken just one small step to comprehending the atrocity they call Dropkick Murphys.
It’s not particularly deep or complicated but, if it catches you in the right mood (preferably pissed off) and at the right volume (very loud), Land Of The Free is an inspiring piece of punk work.
It’s the understated self-assurance that first strikes you about The Belles. There’s a soothing quality to the way in which each track is allowed space to develop and time to breathe.
Stop press: Enormously highly anticipated reality-TV programme The Osbournes (slightly alters one's definition of "reality", doesn't it) which has taken the US by storm, has had to be pulled by MTV UK for "contractual" reasons
For all the talk of T.A.T.U being the most controversial band in pop, this is an unbelievingly tame experience recalling, at its most exciting, Roxette, and at its worst, the Eurovision.
Neutrality, being less demanding than pacifism seems to mean whatever we want it to mean. But, argues, The Whole Hog, if we are totally opposed to war it behoves us to find other ways to help liberate the people of Iraq
She may have a reputation as an actress who has a penchant for getting romantically involved with many of her leading men, but Julia Roberts is guarded about her personal life. She has been romantically linked to Matthew Perry, Daniel Day Lewis and Pat Manocchia, a friend of the late John F Kennedy Jr. among others, but she is constantly surrounded by a loyal staff, whose job it is to preserve her privacy. However, she has been involved in some very public liaisons,
as Stephen Robinson reports.
Three albums into her career and it seems to be a case of diminishing returns for Ellis-Bextor. Yet again too much of the material on offer has sold her short.
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.
Chances are in three decades time, nobody will realise that Hawley’s beautifully crafted songs don’t date from the 1950s. Hawley is a contemporary master of the sort of moody, majestic torch songs that flourished during that era.
Students bands from across Ireland will compete for an attractive grand prize which includes Grouse Lodge studio time and entry to the UK's equivalent competition
Dark Side Of The Moon became the inevitable breakthrough Pink Floyd had been heading towards for some time, but none could have predicted either its runaway commercial success or its claim to a permanent place in the pantheon of great rock albums of all time.
Singer Maria Tecce’s wardrobe is as eclectic and as multi-cultural as you would expect from a woman with a repertoire of English, Spanish, Italian, French and Polish songs
Gauthier has a natural Southern twang and a laid-back, conversational singing style that keep the unrelenting gloom of the lyrics from crossing over the line into self-parody.
The highlight of the evening comes when he asks the crowd to form a human tunnel. As more and more people join in, the tunnel sneaks out the door and around the corner
In a mediocre year, there was one album which offered a complete vindication of our continuing belief in the power of rock’n’roll. Just one – but that one is enough.
Phillips’ vocal style is of the quietly devastated Erin Moran/Aimee Mann school, backlit by Bacharach-and-Wilson-ish arrangements on ‘Another Song’, ‘Little Plastic Life’ and ‘Flower Up’.
Black Box Recorder sometimes come across like the musical equivalent of Chris Morris’ Brass Eye, such is the level of sarcastic satire projected at the listener.
Ossie Kilkenny, the top music industry accountant who has worked with many of the biggest acts in the world, including U2, Morrissey, Oasis and Van Morrison, has said that the record industry is finished.
Cherry Ghost’s mainman Simon Aldred is clearly in love with all things Americana. That Aldred resides in rainy Bolton hasn’t lessened his fascination with Marlboro Country.
“One… two… three… four. Is anybody aliiive out there?” Recorded at the final two shows of his record breaking ten-night stand at Madison Square Gardens last summer, this is The Boss’ most anticipated release in years.
There may be growing opposition to the impending war in Iraq, but the British and American governments seem unwilling to learn from their predecessors’ mistakes.
As the dust settles on the war in Iraq, the US government are said to have roped in Recording Industry Association Of aAmerica CEO, Hilary Rosen, to help draft copyright law for the new Iraqi administration.
Thankfully, once you've sat through an opening hour, the film settles down to become a stylish and pacy yarn about missing nukes and sinister shadowy international neo-Nazi organisations
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.
Fantastic Playroom sounds exactly like it sounds: often cute, occasionally lurid, always novel, a record with one eye on the alt-style supplements, the other on the charts.
This is easily the most eagerly-awaited film of all time - which is another way of saying we have been asked some 500 times when it would be coming out.
Don't tread on us, said Buffalo Bill Clinton, and the Cruise missiles shot off at Baghdad. Hitting this and missing that, amassing what the Americans presumably see as acceptable "collateral damage", including six civilians.
No difficult second album for Ken McHugh’s Autamata. Short Stories builds on the blueprint of the debut LP, My Sanctuary, and takes this loose collective into new and interesting territory.
Caught In The Net is suffering from a bruised ego this fortnight after discovering that there’s somebody who spends even more time trawling the web for juvenile content than we do.
Formed when they were fresh-faced school kids, border country gloomsters Sanzkrit are at long last set to unleash their debut album. You could say they’re looking forward to finally getting stuck in.
Happily denying themselves a break until the new year, The Frames have confirmed live dates in the US, Australia and even humble old Ireland over the next 3 months!
Well, there s another Paddy s Day gone, and good riddance. What an embarrassment. Even a stroll around town with a hand-spray of weed-killer for squirting on shamrock didn t ease my sense of mortification.
The alarm only went off half-an-hour ago, and yet here we are, looking back in anguish at a year that threatened so much and largely failed to deliver.
NIALL STANAGE reports on a series of Irish gigs, headlined by STEVE EARLE, which will help the campaign for the abolition of the death penalty internationally.
John Walshe gets the lowdown on the release of
. . . And Finally, the second album from Derry guitarniks Scheer, released 15 months after they split up.
In the first film we get Megan Fox dry humping a car. But now here’s Megan dry-humping a bike, shaking her hair out of motorcycle helmet in slow motion and pouting with lips that seem to have expanded since the first movie.
It seems altogether churlish to criticise Pixar for producing a movie that isn’t quite as good as Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, but with Cars, you just can’t help it.
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
Anointed by the blogosphere, Tapes ‘N Tapes are just about the hottest thing in indie rock right now. Despite his rather fraught stage persona, frontman Josh Grier turns out to be a picture of charm. And no, he can’t explain the slightly silly name either.
Trad quartet Lunasa, named to honour the Irish harvest god Lugh, who also gave his name to the month of August, have become something of gods themselves within the Irish trad scene. Jackie Hayden talks to them in the wake of the release of their new album Se.
Fresh from his recent success with the Xpress-2 collaboration 'Lazy', David Byrne reflects on a musical journey that began in 1977 with the legendary Talking Heads
It may have given new hope - and virility - to impotent men around the globe, but, as stuart clark reports, the wonder drug viagra is also causing an excitable commotion among the world's media.
Morrissey. Avatar of melancholic self-pity, sexual ambiguity, and intense misanthropy. Well, bollocks to that. Somewhere along the road to perdition he has experienced a Damascene conversion. Tonight he stalks the stage like a latter day Errol Flynn, and with his cabal of pink-shirted buccaneers beside him, parades his new, invigorated self.
And a nation weeps! The three Spanish goals that went in one after the other drooped the heart and mind. The ISEQ Index probably lowered by five points. Travel agents have ulcers where they once had digestive tracts!
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is set to be the most successful yet for the Irish film-making community, according to film board chief executive Mark Woods.
On the back of five years’ worth of movies that either overtly or covertly address Iraq and the War On Terror, Rendition feels a little late coming out of the starting gates.
In the middle of the present rather straitened times, it may seem a bit previous, as they say in Cavan, to be talking about the recession bottoming out. well, actually, in its own rather weary wary piddly way, it is.
It seems that two of Galway's finest comedy venues have come to an agreement about how to maximise the entertainment in the Tribal city
Brendan Burke has branched out into the promotions game and is hosting a series of comedy gigs in Gibney’s of Malahide on Friday evenings
Their contribution to Robbie Williams' 'Rock DJ' may have gone unacknowledged, but Soul Mekanik, aka brothers and acid house veterans Kelvin Andrews and Danny Spencer, are now earning kudos in their own right for their dynamic and eclectic '80s-influenced debut album, Eighty One.
What was I thinking of when I wrote my last column about water? What strange movements were in the skies? Damned if I know, but its references to possible wars over water supplies, and the specific instancing of Israel seems uncannily prescient in the light of that country's latest brutish incursion into the south of Lebanon.
Musical trends come and go but the blues continues to thrive. In Ireland, the scene is now stronger than ever. With her reputation growing internationally, Mary Stokes talks about her role as a performer - and her friendships with numerous blues legends. Oh, and Van Morrison's birth sign!
Pierce Turner, back in the USA after his recent successful gigs in Ireland, is rehearsing with a string quartet ahead of his forthcoming gig in New York's Joe's Pub on October 24th.
…And head out on the highway. Oh, and take a notebook while you’re at it. Those were Hot Press’ instructions to acclaimed singer/songwriter Mark Geary as he hit the road with The Frames in the good ol’d US of A. And as the following account of spellbinding shows, irate audience members, near-death experiences and suspicious cops shows, it was a hell of a trip. Photography by Shawn Lynch.
From Bill Clinton’s infidelity to his country’s version of foreign policy, the concept of “moral indefensibility” makes a twisted kind of sense in the United States
A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
Brazilian society may well be the most chaotic, violent and polarised on earth outside the USA, as startlingly reflected in last year’s eye-opening City Of God, and this remarkable documentary also offers much to raise the blood pressure.
Tori Amos’ new album, the acclaimed Scarlet’s Walk, was inspired equally by her joyous pregnancy with daughter Natashya and the tragedy of September 11, which led the singer-songwriter on a musical quest to discover the true soul of America
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.
As the Bush-Gore election night morphed into pure strung-out political farce, a footloose hotpress writer found himself hunkered down in Amherst, Massachusetts, the place Emily Dickinson and Dinosaur Jnr have both called home. With smalltown American as his window on the world, this is the view that Peter Murphy got
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.
DESMOND HOGAN'S fight against both indifference and hostility towards his homosexuality has led him to Dublin, London, Berlin, North Yemen and the USA. Along the way he's produced *The Edge of the City* a collage of his observations on different cities, which is how he finds himself in the company of Joe Jackson.
Deciding he d achieved as much as he could within the confines of the music scene in Ireland. Barry Moore changed his name, packed his bags and took off for the USA. There, as Luka Bloom, he was fjted for his live performances, awarded a major international record deal and his debut album, Riverside, given the four-star treatment by Rolling Stone. On a visit home, he tells Bill Graham about his emigrant s success story and explains how a man who was regarded as a folky in Dublin came to cut a rap track in New York.
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.
A new Dublin-based operation claims to be about to revolutionise the music business by adopting a non-contractual, non-A&R approach to releasing records via key internet music stores. Jackie Hayden talks to the company’s mainman Denver Thomas.
After the spiking of their last album led to the demise of co.dot, Joe Brush decided he couldn’t jump around on a stage anymore. The result is a new sound and a new band, Vapor Lounge.
Comfortably ensconsed in his favourite Indian buffet restaurant, Electric 6 frontman Dick Valentine chats to Steve Cummins about the band’s new opus Señor Smoke, time travel, OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson’s impending trial.
From sweeping the steps of lauren hill’s manager’s house to teetering on the brink of a massive hit – native american Jason Downs tells his story to John Walshe
Film director Todd Solondz has a well-earned reputation for exploring the controversial issues his rivals studiously ignore. Tara Brady gets the lowdown on his new effort Palindromes.
They may make an unholy racket, but Slipknot are definitely on the side of righteousness when it comes to the Iraq War. Corey Taylor tells Phil Udell why George Bush is vying with Rick Rubin for top spot on their hate-list.
A veritable den of dubious delicacies, the menu includes Cream Collon Biscuit Rolls, Coq Fromage Turkey, Pschitt! Lemonade and - tee hee hee - Grated Fanny Light Meat Tuna
Earle commands protest chops that go back to Guthrie, but he also has the smarts to examine the allure of war, both as boys’ own glamour and last-ditch career option. Most of the songs study the anatomy of soldiery.
Meet the new Boss - not the same as the old Boss! Or is he? When you think about it, this is quite possibly the least surprising album of Springsteen’s entire career. Despite his glory days as a rocker beyond compare circa Born To Run/Darkness On The Edge Of Town, he has always been a folk artist, in spirit if not in deed.
Cork singer-songwriter NICOLE MAGUIRE is rapidly making a name for herself with her full-on pop-rock songs, swoonful voice and dogged determination. On the release of her debut album Fight The Score she talks to Jackie Hayden.
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.
After doing time in the greatest power trio of them all, the late Jimi Hendrix experience bassist Noel Redding spent the rest of his life coming to terms with being ripped off by the music industry.
No sooner had the smoke cleared from a recent issue of this column than I had a phone-call from a band called Bungalow, whom I d just written about, revealing that a fan/friend had just discovered a Kentucky band using the same name. A couple of days later they read in a fanzine that a Scottish band called Bungalow had issued two singles on an Indie label.
Cork outfit Rulers Of The Planet may have started out with few ambitions other than having lots of fun, but the growing acclaim being afforded their exhilarating brand of corrosive punk-rock means that world domination is an increasingly realistic prospect.
Kildare’s favourite son and godfather of the singer-songwriter scene, Luka Bloom, talks to Jackie Hayden about his most intimate album to date, Innocence, gigging with The Frames in Australia and hanging backstage with Gabriel Byrne.
When Lucan band The Riptide set off on a recce mission to the States, the last thing they expected was a seven hour ordeal at the hands of US immigration control officials in Dublin Airport.
Tower's Wicklow Street store manager Clive Branagan reflects on how the shop's independent stance enabled them to get progressively stronger, while others floundered.
Irony-deficient Nordic rockers Turbonegro are one of the world’s most credible hardcore acts, with a fanlist that includes Queens Of The Stone Age and Therapy?
It s probably an indelible part of what we are, but we seem to have an over-developed tendency in this country to wring our hands and whine about this, that and the other, often forgetting that the energy, effort and time thus expended might be put to better use in actually doing something positive.
By threatening to tighten the rules for provisional drivers, the government is implicitly holding young motorists responsible for rising levels of death on the road.
US Stand-up Emo Phillips is one of the star attractions at this year's Murphy's Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival which takes place from May 30th-June 3rd. Stephen Robinson is amused
The glum view is easily stated: finally, after eight years, the Bay City Rollers revival. The dominant pop purveyors – Duran, Wham, Spandau, Culture Club, Young, Kershaw, and Jones – regressed to the most conservative models of teen exploitation.
THERE IS a town in California called San Luis Obispo. I arrived there one rainy day to discover that smoking had been banned in all indoor places where the public gather, including bars, restaurants and hotels. Things got even worse, I learned, since that awful day in 1992 when a few of us lit up under a dripping tree on the sidewalk.
The first-ever dedicated sound and lighting exhibition to be held in this country takes place at the Green Isle Hotel in Dublin during October. Entitled ISLEX ’94, it’s being run by experienced exhibition organisers KMS & MD Associates. Report: Oliver P. Sweeney.
He's the original soul brother number one love machine (with respects to the late James and Issac) and he's got the kind of honeyed voice that could charm the knickers off a nun.
30th Anniversary retrospective: Royston Brady was a rising star of Fianna Fail when he told Hot Press about his taxi driver father’s role in the Dublin bombings. The rest was history.
The US-led ‘War on Terror’ has officially extended its scope to east African territory. But will this make the world a safer place or merely stoke the flames of Islamic extremism?
Foul Play has found little to enthuse over in the early rounds of the fifth rugby world cup, as the weaker nations are once again subjected to ritual humiliation. meanwhile, the outlook appears equally grim for Irish football following the Swiss debacle.
In the media wilderness, certain maverick voices can be depended upon to speak the truth. Also, the agonising decision faced by the FA’s dubious goals committee.
The Centre for Public Inquiry is a new Dublin-based and privately-funded organisation recently established in Ireland to monitor aspects of public importance in our political, public and corporate spheres. Frank Connolly, the investigative journalist given the role of the Centre’s executive director, helps Jackie Hayden with some inquiries of his own. Photography by Cathal Dawson.
In the 80s, every second person you met was setting up a video production company. I was reminded me of the late Peter Cook s response when he met an out-of-work actor at a party and on being told he was writing a novel, Cook retorted, What a coincidence, neither am I!
Today, instead of writing novels or setting up video production companies, setting up websites is the buzz phrase, especially for those associated with young bands.
Andre Antunes, ace percussionist with Republic of Loose, was born in Brazil. Here, he waxes lyrical about his memories of his native country, and offers tips on where to visit.
To coincide with the launch of his new 'Greatest Hits' DVD , Ed Byrne talks to Jackie Hayden about profanity in Irish comedy, how he fucked up in Edinburgh, the Christopher Reeves joke that some misunderstood, and how he regularly meets people who claim not to know him.
Dublin singer-songwriter MICHELE ANN KELLY has been nominated as “Advocate of the Month” by the Marriage Equality campaign, having declared her support for the concept of Marriage Equality by dedicating a share of proceeds from the sale of her current single ‘Time’ to the campaign.
Dublin songwriter Paul Nash from the band Rainbow Chaser has delivered a demo of his own songs which he calls Fireflies And Rainbows. Unfortunately there are fourteen songs on the CD and I have a life. So, as most people I know would have done, I listened to the first three tracks only.
30th Anniversary Retrospective: An Irish team had never qualified for the finals of a major tournament in 1977. It took another 11 years for that dream to be realised – and there’s been a few memorable campaigns since. Tony Cascarino fills us in.
Best known as the author of the modern noir classic LA Confidential, JAMES ELLROY is back in the spotlight with his new book The Cold 6000, a factional encounter with late 20th century America.
Here, the straight-talking Ellroy tells why JFK was second-rate and J. Edgar Hoover a fiend, why Bill Clinton is a horrible human being and George W. Bush not as bad as we think, and why Martin Luther King was the greatest American man of the last century
Words: DANNY ILEGEMS
They’re the unsung heroes of plaintive Irish pop. Ahead of a new run of live shows, Saville talk guitars, pedals and Wurlitzers – and explain why musicians should be prepared for the worst whenever they go on stage.
This year's Murphy's Kilkenny Cat Laughs festival features a strong line-up of both Irish and International acts that includes some old favourites and a smattering of Kilkenny virgins. Below we offer some top tips from the Laughlines' Cat Laughs Comedy Card. Ladies and gentlemen place your bets...
With Oscar hysteria in the air, Tanya Sweeney recalls the night she “gate-crashed”
hollywood a-list party – and survived to tell this tale of beauty and the beasts.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has for some time been making life extremely difficult for homosexual men who wish to donate blood. Whilst the ban has largely gone unnoticed until now, as Ciara Cunnane reports, gay men are no longer prepared to tolerate what they see as a discriminatory system. Photography by Cathal Dawson
In today's music industry, it s vital that artists know as much as possible about the key business decisions they will be called upon to make. JACKIE HAYDEN talks to some of the organisations which are there to help.
Jackie Hayden looks back over the career of the legendary soul singer Wilson Pickett who died last month, and talks to Andrew Strong about the man’s impact on his own career.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has for some time been making life extremely difficult for homosexual men who wish to donate blood. Whilst the ban has largely gone unnoticed until now, as Ciara Cunnane reports, gay men are no longer prepared to tolerate what they see as a discriminatory system. Photoography by Cathal Dawson.
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
Joanne Hynes is one of Ireland’s most intuitive fashion designers, with a particular love for knitwear. She talks to Jackie Hayden about the vision thing.
Everyone knows Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith is a fan of woolly hats and long, complicated novels. But did you realise Limerick is one of his favourite cities? Or that, as a teenager, he used to copy out all of Morrissey’s lyrics?
Knock-knock, who’s there? It’s only Jackie Hayden, making another of his house calls. This time the door is opened by Cork’s Red FM presenter Martina O’Donoghue.
Vampire Weekend, the preppy Ivy Leaguers whose Afro-beat references indie pop, talk about instant fame, their fondness for nice trousers and class politics in America.
In the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, a growing number, including respected foreign correspondent Robert Fisk, are starting to ask uncomfortable questions about September 11 and the War on Terror it provoked.
Ireland's The Answer have pulled off a major coup by bagging the support slot on the American leg of AC/DC's Black Ice tour. Cormac Neeson talks us through their first fortnight on the road.
Get ready for the first great Northern Irish record of 2009 – PANDA KOPANDA’s fantastic This Hope Will Kill Us. The band give us a blow-by-blow account.
The use of rock music for soundtracking and advertising purposes has opened up important new avenues for artists eager to get their music out to a mass audience.
The furies have been unleashed over the small matter of a wash and blow-dry for Mary Harney. In the spirit of Christmas, it might be wiser to think: let he who is without sin cast the first stone...
She's the red-haired electro-pop debutante of the year. La Roux frontwoman Elly Jackson talks about her love of the 80s and tells us why Blur were the only decent rock band of the past 20 years.
Having made the headlines recently with their attention-grabbing impromptu gig at the You’re A Star auditions in Portlaoise, Longford rockers The Rubens are now out to put the life and soul back into Irish pop.
With a new album ready for release, Idlewild 's Irish bassist Gavin Fox talks about celebrity spotting in LA, touring with Pearl Jam and why Warnings/Promises is the best thing they've ever done. Interview by John Walshe
As fiscal Armageddon looms, the Irish Government is faced with tough choices. In considering its options, it would do well to remember the lessons to be learned from past experience – in particular the fact that the Poll Tax marked the beginning of the end for Margaret Thatcher
Who’d be a football manager? Well, actually, I wouldn’t mind being one myself, if it would mean assuming the mantle of Alex Ferguson at Man United, or Fabio Capello at A.C. Milan.
They come from Los Angeles, support Rotherham United and have a lead singer who loves Andrew Lloyd-Webber as much as he does Arcade Fire. Stuart Clark meets Orson's rather peculiar Jason Pebworth.
As cats all over Ireland prepare to have their fancies tickled, Jackie Hayden reflects on the comedic talents of one of the star turns at this year’s Smithwick’s Cat Laughs Festival, Tommy Tiernan.
As none of the three people named in the title of SOMETHING HAPPENS new album Alan, Elvis and God was available for interview, TOM DUNNE, RAY
HARMAN and TED RYAN took on the roles of all three to discuss how the planet-fab foursome are moving into overdrive with the acquisition of a new record deal and the imminent release of that new album.
As none of the three people named in the title of Something Happens new album Alan, Elvis And God was available for interview, Tom Dunne, Ray Harman and Ted Ryan took on the roles of all three to discuss how the planet-fab foursome are moving into overdrive with the acquisition of a new record deal and the imminent release of that new album.
Tape: JACKIE HAYDEN.
Claudia Carroll is a busy actress and author, but she still allows our Jackie Hayden the time of day, gives him a hot scoop and introduces him to her haunted room.
A New Jersey-ite Eurocentric who mixes the buttoned-up gravitas of Dusty Springfield and Karen Carpenter with the lush orchestral tapestries of Bacharach and Spector. A Girl Called Eddy’s bohemian rhapsody is well worth acquainting yourself with.
If that sounds nostalgic, well, it’s meant to. Jonathan O’Brien looks back over the marvels of France 98 and reflects on what this frequently wonderful World Cup says about the state of the beautiful game.
NIALL STANAGE sees GERRY ADAMS and EAMON DUNPHY fight out an honourable draw. Pix: Peter Matthews
They've been talking about it for weeks. Now the moment of truth has finally arrived. The sense of anticipation that has been building up over the past few weeks, around the impending clash of these two old adversaries, has been immense. It's been billed as the clash of the titans, the battle of the giants, the mother of all matches and even, extraordinarily, as the rumble in the mumble. Now the house-full signs have gone up, the touts are out in force and there's an air of
expectancy you could cut with a knife.
NIALL STANAGE sees GERRY ADAMS and EAMON DUNPHY fight out an honourable draw. Pix: Peter Matthews
They've been talking about it for weeks. Now the moment of truth has finally arrived. The sense of anticipation that has been building up over the past few weeks, around the impending clash of these two old adversaries, has been immense. It's been billed as the clash of the titans, the battle of the giants, the mother of all matches and even, extraordinarily, as the rumble in the mumble. Now the house-full signs have gone up, the touts are out in force and there's an air of
Following unrest at IMRO, new chair KEITH DONALD says the organisation is now better placed to fight the rights of Irish and international music makers.
Inspired by a renewed interest in Christianity, MAIRE BRENNAN of CLANNAD has spread her solo wings again. It s better to be addicted to faith than to drugs, she tells JACKIE HAYDEN
With the release of his second solo album, Running Dog, Nick Kelly has cemented his reputation as one of the leading contemporary songwriters in Ireland. Here, the former Fat Lady Sings frontman talks to Jackie Hayden about the break-up of one of Dublin's most respected bands, financing his solo career through the largesse of his fanbase – and the ongoing joys of artistic independence.
Italy to win the world cup. Germany fail to get out of their group. Ireland for the same group and navigate the last 16 but go out in the quarter-finals. Jonathan O'Brien peers into his world cup crystal ball and explains who'll do well - and why - in Japan and Korea.
Illustrations Niall O’Loughlin
Many Irish holiday-makers will be heading for the United States this year. But there’s much more on offer in that vast playground than the dubious prospect of sweltering in the crushing heat of an Orlando football stadium in June. Jackie Hayden travelled with a bunch of media types to the small town of Lynchburg in Tennessee and visited the source of one of the world’s great spirits, Jack Daniels, making some musical connections along the way.
Well, ya can’t say I didn’t warn ya. I’ve been writing about a forthcoming earthquake in Japan for months. And now it’s struck with a vengeance. Hundreds of thousands are dislocated, their homes either destroyed or threatened.
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.
Ed Byrne has just finished a smash-hit series of concerts at Dublin’s Olympia Theatre as part of his hundred-date tour but those who are missing him already can tune into the new Network 2 show Just For Laughs which finds him wearing his TV presenters’ hat. and shades.
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
RAY D’ARCY is currently one of the hottest young presenters on RTE Television, featuring in both the madcap context of The Den and the more, ah, serious environment of Blackboard Jungle. He talks to JACKIE HAYDEN.
It's been sniffer dogs and paddywagons all the way as The enemy visit some of Britain's less salubrious Rock n' Roll locales. If they can stay out of jail, though a support tour with Oasis awaits.
But it wasn’t confined to cell block number nine. In fact the whole of Dublin city centre was engulfed as mobs of rioters were given the run of the city by Gardai, in the wake of the protest against the holding of the Love Ulster parade in O’Connell Street. Rory Hearne pieces together the anatomy of a riot.
And even worse, they took it to heart. Thus was Sebastian Horsley refused entry to the United States for the launch of his book Dandy In The Underworld.
As the countdown to the 4th Hot Press Bacardi Unplugged final continues,
JACKIE HAYDEN speaks out against those who would protray band competitions as irrelevant anachronisms.
An icon of the radical left, Noam Chomsky has long been one of the fiercest critics of US foreign policy. During a rare visit to Ireland, he explains why the Bush Presidency might be the most dangerous yet.
Northern Irishman Colin Murphy's Blizzard of Odd series on Network 2 takes a scathing look at some of the stranger films and television shows that appear on our screens. The actor, writer and comedian returns to the stage this month with a brand new stand-up show that proves he's more than just a telly-addict. Stephen Robinson meets the man who puts the 'ouch' in couch potato
For 25 years Music Maker have been a central force in the Irish instruments industry, their premises in Exchequer Street in Dublin a veritable musical mecca for international and Irish customers alike. Latterly they have expanded into distribution with MIDI (Musical Instrument Distribution Ireland) and were also involved in the initiative to create the permanent memorial to Rory Gallagher being unveiled this week. Jackie Hayden talked to the key players about the Music Maker success story, and even heard the one about the man with the child's organ!
A former skateboarding god and young entrepreneur of the year, Davie Philip exchanged the fast life for the good life. Iva Pocock reports on the curious making of a passionate green activist
They may be novices in the beer-swilling, coke-snorting and babe-pulling stakes but if it's killer tunes you're after, THE JAYHAWKS leave the competition standing.
STUART CLARK gets a crash-course in country living from MARK OLSON.
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.
Dave McSavage is one of Ireland's newest, funniest and most challenging comedians to emerge on the circuit in recent months, combining improvised guitar musings with audience laceration. "But i just want them to like me," says Dublin's most dangerous stand-up
Whether it’s reality schlock, hard news or sports, television holds a mirror up to society – and tells us truths about ourselves we may not always be comfortable confronting.
In the past, many Irish people suffered from an inferiority complex about their own culture – about the language, music, film and literature of this island. But music is one arena where things have changed dramatically. Report: Jackie Hayden
On the face of it, the Fleadh Mor in Tramore had it all: blistering sunshine, hairy hippies, a stall selling glow in the dark condoms and a line up of rock 'n' roll legends that would be hard to match.
Ex-Python turned film-maker Terry Gilliam watched his latest movie project the man who killed Don Quixote collapse after a succession of production disasters. Yet two young film-makers who accompanied the director on the shoot have released a documentary film about the making, and un-making, of Gilliam's epic
Jools, Letterman, platinum discs, fan hysteria – it’s all very nice and much appreciated, you understand, but for Damien Rice the bottom line remains the song – and doing things his way.
Equipment, like fame, has it price. Colm O’Hare goes bargain-hunting and discovers that spending your band’s hard-earned loot on new musical instruments need not be a traumatic experience.
Commitments director Alan Parker and actress Laura Linney on their new movie, The Life Of David Gale, which explores the murky territory of the death penalty.
RTE Lyric FM will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of the late genre-defying trumpeter Mile Davis with a special weekend focusing on a man who is arguably the greatest jazz innovator to have a major impact on rock music. To give you a little something for that weekend, Jackie hayden reflects on one of the true giants of music.
There is a political dimension to what most development agencies refer to simply as ‘famine’. Here mary van lieshoUt of Oxfam outlines the critical issues which must be confronted if the brutalisation and exploitation of the developing countries is to be adequately addressed.
Civil rights activists, and a small handful of political supporters in Dail Eireann, are campaigning for marriage rights for gay couples in Ireland – at precisely the moment that Rome has upped the ante in its condemnation of homosexuality. once again, old style battle lines are being drawn between church and state. Imogen Murphy reports
Born on 26th February 1932 in Arkansas, the guitarist, singer and songwriter Johnny Cash is one of the true legends of country music, a performer whose popularity transcends the boundaries of that art-form.
And you will know him by the trail of defenders... almost as elusive off the pitch as he is on it, the 23-year-old from Ballyboden is being tipped by many to be one of the sensations of the forthcoming World Cup. But away from the pitch, you're unlikely to find 'the duffer' turning up in the pages of Hello. Though you may bump into him at a u2 gig...
They are senior members of the ‘frat pack’, the insider clique that rules Hollywood comedy. But do Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson ever stop goofing around in real-life?
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.
STEPHEN ROBINSON meets author JAMIE O’NEILL, who’s acclaimed first novel At Swim Two Boys, which concerns a sexual relationship between two Irish boys and an older Englishman set against the background of the 1916 rising
There is no doubting that politics is a dirty game. Everywhere. People here may sniff their superiority over the sleazebags in England and America, and how we don’t dump on a cabinet minister for bonking five secretaries and getting caught. But in truth it’s just as dirty on this island as anywhere else.
Tommy Tiernan has become engulfed in a nasty controversy over remarks made in the context of a comedic performance. The furore raises the question: are there meaningful boundaries to ‘acceptable’ humour?
By now one of the most esteemed events on the Irish cultural calendar, the Galway Arts Festival 2003 will once again bring you the best in contemporary theatre, literature, comedy and music
Sarah McQuaid rounds up the news from the folk, trad and roots scene for one last time as her tenure as HP’s resident folk columnist draws to a conclusion.
Low priced guitars and pianos manufactured in China are music to the ears of Western music fans: Mark Godfrey reports from the biggest music expo in Asia.
Wwhy, despite his best efforts, Bruce Springsteen's take on September 11 is ultimately a let-down; and how the Catholic Church in the US is experiencing simultaneous accountancy problems and sex abuse scandals
The Irish language is currently enjoying its most significant renaissance in many a year. in a special report, Seán O Héadeáin investigates the rebirth of the most unfairly maligned element of traditional culture
This is the time of year when two major national events, the Galway Arts Festival and the Galway Races, make Galway the destination of choice for many Irish and international funsters. But the City of the Tribes has a lot more to offer – including some of the best live music and clubbing in Ireland.
In a surprise change of direction, Green Day’s latest album American Idiot sees the punk three-piece coming out fighting against a certain George W. Bush.
We are currently going through the Golden Age of Sexual Freedom. But there are dark clouds on the horizon with the increase in STDs on the one hand and the resurgence of fundamentalist religion in different guises on the other. So will our children become the New Puritans? This is the third and final part in a special three part series.
It took ten years for debutante director Kerry Conran to complete his film, even though most part was done before he uttered the word "Action!". Tara Brady meets the brimming brain behind the film-geek opus, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
Fifty Nigerians were forcibly deported last month. On their return to west Africa, they will face intimidation and violence. Why is the Government doing nothing?
As Barack Obama gets ready to take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Bob Geldof, Josh Ritter and Laura Izibor offer their views on his presidency. Plus what the rest of the rock ‘n’ roll community including Bruce Springsteen and Ani DiFranco are saying about the new man in the White House.
It may well be wall to wall war on our tv screens but for all the
spectacular images and crazed punditry, we’re getting very little sense of
the truly brutal reality of violent conflict. Jonathan O’Brien found it
elsewhere
He's still wild at heart, but somewhat less weird on top now that he's found his very own version of domestic bliss. James Jewel Osterberg, alias Iggy Pop, talks to Liam Fay, who predicts that the Igster's performance will be the highpoint of Feile '93.
It's Bruce and the band given a new coat of paint by producer Brendan O’ Brien, who through his work with bands like Pearl Jam, knows a thing or two about gut feeling and mile-high noise
Government indignation and empty promises characterise China’s response to CD and DVD piracy, which flourishes in the country. Irish artists like U2, Westlife and Enya are bootleggers’ staple sellers. And Mary Black gets ripped off too. Mark Godfrey reports
Despite predictable criticism from certain quarters, Sarah McLachlan’s vision of “a celebration of women in music” has made the touring Lilith Fair one of the hottest tickets in rock in 1998. Tim Perry reports.
Barely had the new smoking legislation been put in place than the law was broken – in the Dail Eireann bar, by a TD. John Deasy, who subsequently lost his position as fine gael spokesperson on justice, reckons his crime was minor compared to the “criminal excesses” of some of his political colleagues. and he won’t guarantee that he won’t break the law again.
In Perth, Western Australia, Michael Dwyer sees two sides of REM on the opening brace of shows in their first world tour proper in five years. He also reports on behind-the-scenes developments, including the marriage of Pete Buck.
QUADROPHONIC diarist DONAL SCANNELL chronicles the Dublin-based collective s recent jaunt around the US of A, and reports that Uncle Sam is currently welcoming drum n bass with open arms. Pic: Bruce Dye
In a special hotpress feature Colm O’Hare investigates how the music business is attempting to deal with the single biggest threat facing the industry today – piracy.
When Ryan Adams gave his record company an album called 'Love Is Hell', they declined to release this “fucking dark, twisted sad and morose” record. so Adams decided instead to record a loud, punky, uptempo album called 'Rock N Roll'. and guess what? now we get to hear both.
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.
Who better to launch this year’s Music Show than Irish band of the moment The Script? In a taster of what to expect from October’s RDS weekender, Danny, Glen and Mark treated a roomful of fans, music students and industry professionals to their thoughts on illegal downloading, songwriting, the dreaded Auto-tune and touring with Macca and U2.
Brutally sexually abused as a child, by the age of 14 Anthony Godby Johnson found himself on speaking terms with death, as a result of AIDS. At an advanced stage of the illness, he knows that he is not long for this world. In the meantime, however, he has told his own unforgettable story. Report: Gerry McGovern
For the indigenous peoples of Central America, peace does not always mean prosperity. Nowhere is this more true than in Guatemala, where even ten years after the end of a brutal civil war, the wounds remain raw.
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.
Danu may just be the hardest working band in trad. With their fourth album The Road Less Travelled only recently released and another promised for the spring, When Jackie Hayden put a number of key issues to the band’s accordionist Benny McCarthy and bodhran player and uilleann piper Donnchadh Hough he found that they don’t just work hard, they talk hard too.
Controversy rages about whether the papers should have published the story about Michael Cleary being a da. What fun. Some say The Phoenix was way out of line printing the yarn when his corpse wasn’t cold in the grave. Others engage in earnest disputation as to whether the story is actually true.
Artists and record companies are losing millions of pounds every year through piracy. New developments like Napster and MP3 will bring further challenges. Report: JACKIE HAYDEN.
40 years after the Clancy Brothers brought Irish ballads to an international audience and won famous fans like Bob Dylan, Tommy Makem is still committed to the power of song – but appalled at the way modern Ireland treats its own culture.
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.
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.
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.
Following in the footsteps of such luminaries as W.B. Yeats, Ray McSharry and Tommie Gorman, western folk heroes Dervish have recently been honoured as Free Men of Sligo.
As the Creamfields dance juggernaut heads towards Punchestown we catch up with the carnvial at Prague in the Czech Republic and offer a preview of what’s to come
‘That’s entertainment’ was the message of the year but not as Paul Weller intended it, for in 1986 popular music was closer to mass entertainment as Declan McManus’ pater knew it than any year since Elvis Presley swivelled his hips on the Ed Sullivan show.
He plays guitar for Springsteen, plays The Clash on his radio show and plays it fast and loose as Silvio Dante in The Sopranos. Colm O’Hare meets the three-in-one Steven Van Zandt
Where hip and hype go together, that's where you'll find The Hives who are buzzing to tell Stuart Clark all about Kylie, curling, punk rock, nice forests and bad Norwegian jokes
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
The recent murder of
the notorious b.i.g., following the killing of Tupac shakur six months ago, has been linked by many to the prolonged East Coast-West Coast feud which threatened to tear the US hip-hop community apart. jonathan o brien reports on how life
chillingly imitates art in the gangsta rap wars.
Velvet Revolver axe-man Slash, one of the most influential guitarists of all time, joins bandmate Duff McKagan in reflecting on Guns N' Roses' hellraising heyday.
They may have been one of the most consistently hotly-tipped bands in Ireland over the past three years but Lir are still mere babes in the great rock’n’roll scheme of things. It’s ironic then that they should so often be accused of harking back to the ’70s. Interview: Jackie Hayden
It sounds like a conspiracy theory. But fresh documentary evidence suggests that the US covertly orchestrated the establishment of the EU – and that a prime mover was an Irish-American secret agent who had had dinner with Hitler.
Thirty years ago Neil Armstrong took that famous first step on behalf of all mankind. That means me and you. But wait a minute wasn t it also supposed to be a giant leap? So what happened next? And what went wrong? ANDY DARLINGTON reports.
Sprawling across four restless, angry and sometimes contradictory sides, "Rattle And Hum" is nothing less than U2's most ambitious album yet. Review by Bill Graham
Sprawling across four restless, angry and sometimes contradictory sides, "Rattle And Hum" is nothing less than U2's most ambitious album yet. Review by Bill Graham
Ever on the lookout for new comedic talent, BARRY GLENDENNING selects his World Cup squad from the wits and half-wits who rarely failed to reduce us to paroxysms of mirth with their “expert analysis” of the Beautiful Game during France 98.
It’s the guide Ladbrokes, the Central Bank, Mystic Meg and Mark Lawrenson turn to at the start of each year – Jackie Hayden’s cultural, sporting and political forecasts for the forthcoming twelve months.
From gigs with cider punks in limerick to playing for Fidel in Havana and from the low of Richey’s disappearance to the high of performing before Wales’ victory over Italy – life has never been boring for the Manic Street Preachers. Stuart Clark listens intently as Nicky Wire discusses their defining moments
They’ve been heralded as the biggest thing in Irish rock since U2 – a prediction that proved prescient when The Script romped to the top of the charts with their debut album.
Mark McClelland was a feature and music writer for Cork's Evening Echo for four years. Here, he presents his top ten most significant musical acts to emerge from Cork.
WHENEVER we gather together, as we often do, to celebrate Irish music successes on the international stage, there is a tendency for us to focus almost exclusively on the performers - on U2, Clannad, Van Morrison, Chris de Burgh, and the rest of that litany - invariably to the total exclusion of other equally noteworthy achievers from what some might regard as the more unglamorous wing of the industry.
America may be a conservative place in many respects – but in fact we owe our modern sense of sexual freedom to great American pioneers, from Alfred Kinsey to Annie Sprinkle…
The Boomtown Rats are undoubtedly the most important band ever to emerge from - or get out of - Ireland. They've had more front covers, appeared on more radio and TV shows and most importantly sold more records than any Irish group or artist has ever done.
Their debut Hot Fuss sold over 4 million copies and in the process set The Killers up as one of the brightest young hopes of the modern era. On the eve of the release of their second album Sam’s Town, the band look like settling for nothing less than U2-sized supremacy. Now, if only Brandon Flowers would shave off that, ahem, controversial face fuzz.
A chick-flick with attitude, a delicious comedy that’s become a phenomenon in the States, and a journey into the hellish world of teen girl bullying – there are plenty of good reasons why Mean Girls is one of the movies of the year.
Think you've got them all right? Or maybe you fancy a sneaky peak (you're only cheating yourself you know!). Either way, you've got the questions – we've got the answers....
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.
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.
Age has not withered them. twenty years after they rose out of the new york underground, Sonic Youth have managed to grow old and stay hardcore. Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon reveal how it’s done
The procedures and policies of the judicial system in Northern Ireland has come, once again, under close scrutiny with the case of the Ballymurphy Seven. Stuart Carolan travels to Long Kesh to hear the stories of Hughie McLoughlin and Mickey Beck, who along with Tony Garland, are the longest-ever remand prisoners in the province.
1 guitar + 1 drum kit + 1 boy + 1 girl = The White Stripes. In other words, sweet, sweet noise meets the best brother and sister penned pop since The Carpenters. Eamon Sweeney meets Detroit's finest, who play Dublin Castle on Saturday, May 4th as part of the Heineken Green Energy Festival
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.
How did Brandon Flowers, Ronnie Vannucci, Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer go from the Las Vegas dive bar circuit to selling four million copies of their debut album, Hot Fuss? On the eve of the band's highly-anticipated Oxegen 2005 appearance, Stuart Clark talks to the people involved in the making of The Killers.
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 been an unusually tough year at IMRO, with the organisation being involved in a number of controversies. with elections to the board looming, however, chairman Mike Hanrahan and chief executive Adrian Gaffney believe that it’s time to look to the future.
Hot Press' answer to Russell Grant, Jackie Hayden, slips into his chunky-knit jumper, gazes at his crystal ball and comes up with more predictions that probably won't come true. Like last year.
Every year thousands of film fans make the trip to the southern capital for the feast of cinema that is the Cork Film Festival. Hot Press looks back over the history of one of Europe’s longest-running cinematic events and checks out what this year’s packed programme has to offer. Report: Patrick Brennan
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.
Neil Jordan's controversial new film Interview With The Vampire has angered both the gay community, who objected to the dilution of the movie's homoerotic content, and the author of the novel from which it is adapted, Anne Rice, who disagreed with the choice of Hollywood golden boy Tom Cruise in the starring role.
However, with Anne Rice conspicuously recanting and the critics in the U.S. responding rapturously, signs are that this is one Vampire which won't lay down and die. Report: Helena Mulkerns
They were the coolest band on the planet – until the backlash started. Now The Strokes have released their most ambitious album yet. Can they leave their past behind?
phish
are a bone-fide American underground phenomenon who have gone overground in a very big way. Word of mouth rather than record company hype, initially made their reputation Stateside and now they can boast of chart success,
mega-audience attendance and their very own devoted following of Phisheads. But is Europe ready for the 90s equivalent of The Grateful Dead extended jams, waccy baccy, patented ice-cream flavours and all?
peter murphy
investigates.
Even more than winning a Mercury Prize, you know you’ve made it when the disappearance of your woolly hat makes the news. with rave reviews for his album offset by damning criticism of his live shows.
NADINE O’REGAN talks to DAMON GOUGH about nerves, self-belief, and the birth of his daughter. Well-taken pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
With the release of their acclaimed third album Flock, which went straight to No.1 in Ireland, Bell X1 have staked their claim not just to greatness, but also to potential world domination – a possibility which is reinforced considerably by their powerful showing in the Hot Press Readers’ Poll. Here, in an emotional and revealing interview, the band’s photogenic frontman Paul Noonan discusses life, art, love, death... and music.
Helena Mulkerns catches up with the charming Dublin-based chanteuse on a tour of East Coast college campuses, and finds a wilfully free spirit at ease with her sexuality – if not with the industry’s categorisation of such guitar-wielding women.
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.
Promoter Jim Aiken, who passed away recently, was a hugely important and universally admired figure in the Irish music scene. Here, leading industry representatives pay tribute. (free content)
When someone dies in a car crash, alcohol is routinely blamed. But a close look at the figures shows that, beyond the tabloid hysteria, the truth is sometimes very different.
The long, barren post-World Cup drought is almost over as the promised land of yet another footie season hoves into view. Jonathan O’Brien assesses the contenders and no-hopers for the 1998/99 Premiership
To suggest that music is thriving in Sligo is akin to declaring that there s been a bit of an upturn in the economy lately. Music of all breeds, creeds and colour can be found in abundance around the county.
The Irish were out in force at MIDEM, the annual music industry bash held in Cannes, in the south of France last week. With Irish music’s international stock running high and the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht Michael D. Higgins on hand to lend his support, it proved to be a very interesting year. Report: Niall Stokes.
Or, Augusten Burroughs And The Art Of Magical Thinking. Peter Murphy talks to the bestselling author about his troubled upbringing in rural Massachusetts, the long and strange series of events that led to him becoming a writer, and why his current personal and professional happiness may just mean that his extraordinary story has a happy ending after all. Photography by Emily Quinn.
Ireland’s biggest transatlantic TV star, Graham Norton has come a long way from his humble beginnings in Bandon. In his new tell-all autobiography, So Me, Norton writes about his tumultuous rise to the top, living in the media spotlight, keeping A-list company and coping with emotional upheaval. “It’s an uncertain time in my life,” he tells Olaf Tyaransen.
It sounds like the stuff of hype and overnight success – from struggling garage band to next big thing and accolades from noel gallagher, morrissey and bono – but even at an average age of 23 The Thrills have paid their dues. Olaf Tyaransen hears how the summer’s hottest band went from worshipping whipping boy to having beck’s da play on their debut album.
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 .
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
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
It's Christmas, 1997 is drawing to a close and Noel Gallagher is in suitably reflective mood. "I can't be bothered writing music anymore", says the Oasis mainman before telling Stuart Clark precisely what he thinks of Liam, Meg, Sinéad O'Connor, that cunt Mick Jagger and England's chances of lifting the World Cup.
Released in 1999 Paddy Casey’s debut album went double-platinum, establishing him as one of Ireland’s brightest prospects. but the intervening four years have seen that crown slip, as a succession of homegrown singer songwriters battled their way into contention, outstripping him in terms of record sales – and hard graft. now casey is back in the frame, with his long-waited follow-up, the cheekily titled Living – an album that sees him gloriously back on top of his game. why did it take four years to make? the answer to that burning question may go back even further. because Paddy Casey’s life story is truly a remarkable one.
Meeting the Pope, marriage to the Taoiseach’s daughter, the trouble with relationships, why they couldn’t have a hit with Bono, bad language on kids’ telly, golf in drugs out, Louis’ biggest lie and other tales from the lives of Westlife.
Neil McCormick embarks on a verbal showdown with Hollywood's most famous drug store cowboys and discovers that 1994 was the year in which the hot shots traded in their smoking guns for a pill called Prozac.
From Dickie Valentine to The Darkness: Andy Darlington dusts the five decades of Christmas records and chats to Slade's Noddy Holder about his haunting ghost of Chris- singles Past.
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.
From the pits to the pits no, hang on, that s the story of Welsh soccer. Or is it Welsh rugby? For the manic street preachers, by contrast, it s all onwards and upwards. james dean bradfield tells jonathan o brien about their unlikely climb to the top.
The first sci-fi cineplex
blockbuster of 1998
STARSHIP TROOPERS is directed by Paul Verhoeven from a book by noted sci-fi scribe Robert A. Heinlein. And it s either a mindlessly enjoyable special effects white-knuckle ride or dangerously subversive propaganda for right wing militarism. You decide: to Grok, or not to Grok?
A former member of the UVF, David Ervine was jailed in 1974 on explosives charges. His paramilitary past notwithstanding, he has emerged in recent years as one of the most impressive politicians in Northern Ireland. The subject of a new biography by Henry Sinnerton, here he talks about Johnny Adair, drink, drugs, his family and the crisis facing Unionism that threatens to derail the peace process
Hard rock has taken on many forms, but if it's loud enough to annoy the neighbours, it should be categorised as good old-fashioned metal. Peter Murphy guides you through our choice of the Top 30 metal albums of all time.
Shane MacGowan is not happy with the newly published A DRINK WITH SHANE MacGOWAN.
for a start, it should be called Several drinks with Shane MacGowan, he points out. Plus there's a lot in it that's "garbled, dodgy and well-suspect". and on top of that, he wouldn't even stand over SOME of HIS OWN opinions AS expressed in the book. in fact, if shane had his way he'd "burn every fucking copy". Olaf Tyaransen tries to get the record straight while, inevitably, getting the drinks in. photography: Mick Quinn
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.
Jesus Christ And The Church Of Gnostic Rock. Peter Murphy on the good, clean, but mostly dirty, fight for the soul of the Devil s Music. Part One: The Old Testament.
Andy Darlington travels to Manchester to meet the Stone Roses, an outfit who’ve progressed past the point of being just a band to become something altogether bigger...
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]
Critics have not been kind to the long-awaited second novel from Booker-winning novelist DBC Pierre. After a lifetime that has lurched between excess and poverty, privilege and despair, he’s not bothered though.
He has already courted controversy with comments about lapdancing and criticisms of Michael McDowell and Michael Martin. now, in this candid interview with Olaf Tyaransen, the new Lord Mayor of Dublin lets fly at the Taoiseach's brother, Noel Ahern; recalls wild days in the hotel trade and Amsterdam; talks about the depths of his despair following his father's death; and reveals how he was more likely to become a tap-dancer than a member of Boyzone. photos: Mick Quinn
As the General Election looms, many polls suggest Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is the next Taoiseach in waiting. So what is he really like? And where does he stand on the issues that matter to Hot Press readers?
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
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
Senate leader Donie Cassidy, a reluctant interviewee, opens up about his rivalry with Fianna Fail colleague Mary O'Rourke and reminisces about his days in the show-band business.
When the offer came to produce the new Rolling Stones album in Dublin what answer could Don Was give but a resounding ‘Yes’. Mick, Keef & Co. are the latest in a long and impressive list of the man’s studio credits which includes Bob Dylan, The B-52’s, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and Paula Abdu. But throw in the small matter of the career of Was (Not Was) and the musical rehabilitation of errant Beach Boys’ genius Brian Wilson and we’re talking major industry player here. Bill Graham takes up the story . . .
It’s a different world than it used to be! In this special extended birthday column, The Hog takes a necessarily selective – and typically colourful – look at the 30 most important influences on the process of change that has brought this country all the way from there to… well, where else but here?
From dark age to middle age, Nick Cave is such a far cry from the blood-spilling junkie of rock legend that these days you’re likely to encounter him commuting to his 9 to 5. Except of course that his job is writing and making music, his new album is called Nocturama and there are, he admits, some sizeable blow-outs in the memory banks.
The Manson Family at work, rest and play, in sickness and in health. Peter Murphy travels to britain and the US to bring back the full, intimate story of a band on the run
