The new issue of Hot Press, out on Thursday July 6, is a Longitude special with a complete guide to July 14-16’s musical happenings in Marlay Park.
Friday night headlining duties are being take care of by Stormzy whose manager and friend, Tobe Onwuka, treats us to the inside story of the making of the grime superstar.
“This wouldn’t have happened if the music industry had been the way it was 20, 30 years ago when you ‘needed a demo’ to approach an A&R from some label,” Tobe reflects. “It was a barrier – a permission, if you like - that got torn down by the internet. You can literally record a song in your bedroom that’s good enough quality to put online 24 hours later and become the world’s next hot tune. That ‘No one will give me a deal’ excuse has gone.”
He recalls the October 2014 Later… With Jools Holland appearance, which introduced Stormzy to the nation.
“It was Robert Plant who came over and asked to have his picture taken with Stormzy rather than the other way around," he laughs. "My manager at Land Rover, who I was still working for when we went on Jools, is a massive Led Zeppelin fan and thought I was taking the piss when I said, ‘Oh yeah, I met their singer last night!’ Up till then, they thought it was just a little hobby I had outside of my 9 to 5.”
We also get the lowdown on Cardboard Gangsters, now officially the most successful Irish movie of the year, from director and writer Mark O’Connor who admits he was a trifle worried when star John Connors started running amok with a chainsaw.
“The scene is based on something he’d witnessed first-hand growing up in Darndale,” Mark reveals. “This guy went in with a chainsaw because somebody owed him money and sliced through the couch and the cupboards and everything. John had to get specialist chainsaw training from the stunt guys because it’s hard to cut things if you don’t have the technique. He practiced beforehand, so when we had a live chainsaw in a small little cabin no one’s lives were actually in danger.”
The Hot Press Interview is with Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada, a no punches pulled politician who discusses the pain of losing both her parents at an early age, coping with the tragic death of her first husband, her views on terrorism, sexism in politics – and much else besides.
“No woman goes out there thinking, ‘I’ll have an abortion!’” she says of the need to Repeal The 8th. “It’s a very traumatic experience for anybody. It’s an intensely private affair. Women shouldn’t be judged by people if that’s what they need to do. It’s a woman’s body, it’s a woman’s choice to do what she needs to do. The only part I would have a problem possibly with is a certain length of time: if somebody has an abortion after when a foetus is very viable I would have an issue with that. It’s a question of responsibility.”
Add in the unveiling of the Global Drug Survey, and major interviews with Eleanor McEvoy, The Strypes, The Charlatans, Lol Tolhurst, Beth Ditto, Will Ferrell, and Iseult Casey, the star of controversial new film Twice Shy, and it’s an issue you won’t want to miss!

You can buy Hot Press 41-11 Longitude Special issue on racks across Ireland now. You can also Buy 41-11: direct from hotpress.com, or download the iOS app for iPad.