Tyaransen launches Selected Recordings 2000 - 2010

The launch of Selected Recordings 2000 - 2010 took place in The Workman's Club, in advance of the Jägermeister Freezer Sessions, and was attended by a hardy gathering of writers, journalists, bohemians and musicians, who braved arctic conditions to be there.

Hot Press editor Niall Stokes regaled the audience with stories of sending Tyaransen off to the Ukraine in the hope of getting him married off to a local femme fatale, and other past adventures. Tyaransen then read from his interview with the notorious Loyalist paramilitary Johnny Adair.

The book is a collection of superb interviews, which features some of the biggest names in popular culture, often in unexpectedly confessional mode.

"It is a great book and a hugely entertaining one," Niall Stokes commented. "There is great wit and verve in the writing – and some of the encounters have to be read to be believed. There has been a great reaction to it from shops, so I think it could be a real bestseller this Christmas. It certainly deserves to be."

The interviews collected in Selected Recordings 2000 - 2010 include headline-making encounters with Courtney Love, Tommy Tiernan, U2, Lady Gaga and Damien Rice. There is also a fine collection of sex fiends between the covers, including Ron Jeremy, Hugh Hefner and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.

Among those who attended were novelist Emer Martin, poet Michael O'Loughlin, film-maker Dearbhla Glynn and Anthony O'Keefe, chef Kevin Thornton, cartoonist extraordinaire Tom Mathews, theatre director Peter Reid, PR guru Neill O'Gorman, Dermot Doran, Ian O'Doherty and Ken Sweeney of the Irish Independent, Dave Diebold, Maurice Haugh and Orla Timmins of the Evening Herald, Derek Foley of The Star, Barry Hartigan of the Irish Daily Mail, members of Republic of Loose, ex-Dubliner publisher Trevor White, Anthony Farrell of Lilliput Press, Maud Reardon of Maud in Cahoots and her sister Zoe Reardon, Ham Sandwich's Niamh Farrell and Podge McNamee, The Mighty Stef, musician Liam Coade, singer and writer Judith Mok, Richie Ryan of Phantom FM – and loads more, including a large posse from Hot Press who came to pay their respects.

Selected Recordings is available from all good bookshops now. To buy online, click here.