Saturday fun in the HP Chatroom

We had a great start to the day yesterday when Josh Ritter packed out the tent for a friendly natter with Stuart Clark.

In good form as ever, Mr Ritter was happy to meet and greet his adoring fans post-chat, although they did have to move aside slightly to make room for the huge crowd of excited folk who arrived to see The Stunning. All aglow following a brilliant set in the Electric Arena the previous evening, the Wall brothers reminisced with Roisin Dwyer about the good ol' days, and how the magic was still there when they play together live.

Elbow were along next, answering questions from Paul Nolan and several curious fans, frontman Guy Garvey talked about celeb fans John Cale and the Coen Brothers, and explained how he ended up appearing on record with Cathy Davey.

Norn Iron's Oppenheimer were just as talkative, running through their fun festival season which included a great show at the Ash-headlined Glasgowbury festival in Derry, and telling us how they went from relative obscurity to having tracks appear on hit US TV show Ugly Betty.

Next up, Cathy Davey and her dog Rex (Rex wasn't quite so forthcoming in the interview)! Up for discussion was the success of Davey's latest album, her forthcoming show at the Dublin Fringe, her version of the events that lead up to the Elbow collaboration, and how she got on supporting REM at the Olympia.

And rounding off the day were That Petrol Emotion, with Steve Mac and Raymond giving into to questions from a jammed tent of eager fans (and Roisin Dwyer, of course!). The lads told us why they decided to play Electric Picnic after turning down several high-profile support slots for the likes of U2 and David Bowie, and discussed the possibility of recording together again.

We're chatting away right now, too, with Hadouken, The Flaws, Mark Geary, Foals, Joe Rooney and comedy guests, Gemma Hayes, The Roots and Michael Franti.

We will of course keep you in the loop, stay glued to hotpress.com!