2004 on hotpress.com

So this is Christmas, and what have we done?

Well, aside from putting a magazine out on the streets every fortnight, attending important industry functions and subjecting ourselves to a helluva lot of tunes in order to sift out the best, we’ve also managed to attend just about every self-respecting gig in the EU.

OK, that may not be entirely true, but we were the Official Magazine of the Official Rock Tour-cum-Welcoming Committee to the New Member States of the Enlarged European Union. And that was just St. Patrick’s Day!

Yes, it’s that time of year when we engage in such time-honoured traditions as manic Christmas shopping, partying like it’s 1999 and whittling down the year’s events and cultural offerings into a series of ‘best’ and ’worst of’ lists.

You can read all that in the brand new Hot Press Annual, available in all good news agents from December 16. In the meantime, we’ve dug up some more nostalgic treats from the hotpress.com archive…

March 2004
The Walls and The Jimmy Cake Go East
Danielle Brigham reports from the Irsko Tour as it rolls through Hungary and Slovakia. Includes full photo gallery and live audio streaming from the gig in Bratislava.

July 2004
Oxegen archive
Reminisce about the wet and wild adventures you had at this year’s Oxegen festival. Our reportage includes live reviews a-go-go, photographs of the best performances and a plethora of backstage video interviews and acoustic recordings.

Under the grill with hotpress.com: Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters, The Killers, Dogs Die In Hot Cars, Republic of Loose, Hope of the States, Future Kings of Spain, Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Delays, Michael Franti, Turn, Erin McKeown, Electric Six, Elbow, Tyconaut, The Shins, Bell X1, The Radiators + more!

August 2004
The Frames at Marlay Park
As one of the 17, 000 people in attendance, Peter Murphy reviews The Frames biggest date yet.

November 2004
Hot Press presentsThe 100 Greatest Irish Albums of all Time
We polled over 100 musicians from around the country to find out their single most cherished Irish album. Then, after the predicted wave of controversy, we put the vote to you, the public. The votes have been coming in thick and fast and still being processed in time for the second wave of controversy in the New year. If you haven't already voted, the public poll is closing very, very soon.

November 2004
hotpress.com launches The U2 Microsite:
Features the highlights from the U2 archive, the previously unpublished Bono interview from the 2002 Annual Cover Story, as well as Peter Murphy's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb review plus the competition to win a signed copy of The U2 File... (closing soon, so enter now if you haven't already!)

December 2004
The Hot Press Christmas Bash
We invited a whole bunch of musicians and socialites (well, one) to the central Bar, Dublin, for an afternoon of revelry and reflection. Here you can see all the incriminating photos from our extensive gallery and read all about the year's big events in the HP-7 Round Table Summit as hosted by Stuart Clark. Not forgetting to treat all our members for being good boys and girls, we also put together a whole bunch of Chrissie pressies in our Competitions page. Go forth and win!

Until 2005, happy holidays tout-le-monde!