Frontman Neil Finn is reluctant to engage in the arena-pleasing jinks with which Crowded House made their reputation – anyone hoping for another ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ is going to find Time On Earth a disappointment.
STEPHEN ROBINSON talks to former CROWDED HOUSE bassist NICK SEYMOUR about the band s break-up, their rarieties collection and his nascent career as a producer.
With the best part of a decade of excellence behind them, including four outstanding studio albums and a best-selling compilation, it was inevitable that Crowded House would leave behind a clutch of songs which failed to reach the widest possible audience.
Welcome to the Irish summer, where monsoon-like rains transform Marley Park into a soggy wetland. But Crowded House cheered up the crowd with their quality tunes and Peter Gabriel's high-octane set sent the hoards home wet but happy.
Following on from their Marlay Park cracker last year with Peter Gabriel, Crowded House have announced their own headlining show in the capital for June.
Ex-Split Enz member Tim Finn left Crowded House in 1991 with a new-found clarity of purpose and is now making inroads to a successful solo career with 'Persuasion', the first single off his new album. Here, he reflects on his split with Crowded House and discusses why Ireland feels like home. LORRAINE FREENEY lends an ear.
During their 11-year lifespan, New Zealand popsters Crowded House racked up four hugely successful albums and umpteen hit singles.
It was, therefore, all the more of a shock to their legions of fans when they called it a day in 1996. Here, erstwhile mainman NEIL FINN explains the reasons for the split in typically candid fashion to NEIL McCORMICK, as well as discussing the anticipated reaction to his new solo album, Try Whistling This.
The advertising campaign for Crowded House’s final Best Of… album a few years back ran something along the lines of it was surprising how many of their songs you knew without realising it.
Fran King was one of the finalists on You’re A Star, but don’t let that put you off. Beautification, the Terenure native’s debut album, is an assured collection of sun-kissed shimmery pop/rock, equal parts Crowded House and Elvis Costello, with a smattering of Elliott Smith and Brendan Benson thrown in for good measure.
The lion’s share of I'll Be Lightning is an impressive, pleasantly surprising record. There's evidence of timeless songcraft, but there’s a welcome element of whimsy here, too.
His eight album in a decade sees the Toronto-based troubadour re-united with producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Costello etc), who helmed his first couple of albums.
The deadline is approaching for entries to the 2008 International Songwriting Competition, with the full list of judges just announced, including Tom Waits and Black Francis.
Following a seemingly endless bout of movie soundtrack projects, Newman's first album proper in almost a decade has been hailed (most notably by Newman himself) as his best yet. Whether that's true or not is debatable, but Bad Love, produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, Ron Sexsmith etc.) is certainly up there with past glories such as Good Old Boys, Sail Away and Little Criminals.
Although born in Melbourne, Australia, Liam Finn regards Auckland in New Zealand as his spiritual home. He takes us on a tour of some of his favourite neighbourhoods.
Tara Brady talks to Renee Weldon, star of The Trouble With Sex, the new romantic drama from director Fintan Connolly which explores the rules of attraction in modern Ireland with style and panache.
After a gap of half a lifetime, Steve Wall is back living in the house he grew up in and learning to love DIY. He also recalls his days as a greyhound. Photography by Cathal Dawson
Suzanne Vega talks to COLM O HARE about the
proliferation of serious female artists, the break-up of her marriage and incorporating spoken word into her performances
Suffering from mental exhaustion following the recent suicide of his close friend, Neil Finn has been advised by doctors to further postpone their reshceduled tour
With titles like ‘Cum When You Cum’, ‘Cafe Necrofilia’ and ‘Wasted So Ferociously Stoned’, The Unsuspecting Public will probably not be playing at a folk mass anywhere near you in the forseeable future
She’s New Zealand’s biggest musical star. For her new album, Bic Runga retreats from sunny pop songs in favour of an introspective sound inspired by the death of her father.
Ex-Picturehouse front man Dave Browne talks about differentiating his USB, pushing the envelope, and disambiguating his product with a blue-sky opportunity.
Paul Woodfull isn’t just one of the creators of the megatastic I, Keano, but the alter ego of a veritable houseful of send up acts, including Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Glam Tarts, Tony St James and the Joshua Tree.
After studiously walking the line between rock and pop, Corkonian Jennifer Clarke explains why she now regards herself as a country act, and tells Jackie Hayden about her interest in serial killers.
Exhausted following her prolonged spell on tour, Bic Runga is keen to make it back home to New Zealand for some well-earned r’n’r. but not before she discusses the vagaries of life, love and pop stardom.
But where would you be in the middle of the night with no bells and your knickers ringing? Or more to the point, where would you be without the new Hot Press/Heineken link up with Tower Records on Sundays?
Why have one of the most successful Irish bands of the past decade decided to split up? And who's going to get custody of the Fender-Rhodes keyboard? STEVE WALL tells STUART CLARK where it all went wrong – and right! Pic: CATHAL DAWSON.
The Walls are about to embark on their most extensive Irish tour yet, including their biggest Dublin gig to date at the Ambassador and may be about to finally break the bank
The Walls are about to embark on their most extensive Irish tour yet, including their biggest Dublin gig to date at the ambassador and may be about to finally break the bank
The second day of the Music Show brought together James Bond composer David Arnold, Enya producer Nicky Ryan, Christy Moore, Sharon Corr and... The Blizzards
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN FREQUENTING THE LATE-NIGHT HOSTELRIES OF DUBLIN, YOU’RE UNLIKELY TO HAVE HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE IN A BATTLE OF WITS, ER, MANO A MANO, WITH ACE QUIZ MASTER GEORGE “I KNOW A LOT MORE THAN YOU DO” BYRNE. WORRY NOT. THAT’S WHAT THE HOT PRESS QUIZ OF THE YEAR IS FOR. NOW GO FOR IT. SECONDS OUT!
The latest Boy to leave the Zone, the launch of Mikey Graham s solo voyage has been attended by
controversy and criticism. But don t underestimate his determination. I m not the passenger, he tells PETER MURPHY. Portraits of the Artist: DECLAN ENGLISH
With compass in hand and their newly unfurled Map Of The Universe nestling comfortably on their laps, Blink are boldly going where few Irish bands have gone before. But what happens when they get to Cork and Ballybunion? Intrepid explorer LIAM FAY dons his rucksack, climbs aboard the Blinkmobile and survives to tell the tale.
That's co-producer Nick Seymour's verdict on Bell X-1's forthcoming LP, due out early in the new year. But first: a visit to the Temple Bar Music Centre later this month
Don’t let her steal your heart away!
sheryl crow: Hot Press Readers’ Love Of The Year and Bob Dylan’s favourite singer-songwriter is the hottest new star in rock'n'roll. Helena Mulkerns charts the singular rise of Kennet, Missouri’s most celebrated slacker country queen.
Full profiles on Faithless, Antony & The Johnsons, Slayer, The Who, Bell X1, Status Quo, The Flaming Lips, 50 Cent, Madness, Christy Moore, Elton John and Lionel Richie.
Where they got the name from I don't know, but Emily Ryder are a bouncy, chirpy four-piece from up North armed with acoustic guitars, hooks aplenty and a nice line in tunesmithery to boot.
It would appear that The Long Stay’s Brendan Donnelly, Sean McAuley and Brendan McCullough are pretty much intent on keeping it country…kind of. First Collection is a set of sweet, slightly inoffensive new-country/acoustic offerings.
It has to be said that the new album from founder of the late great Split Enz Tim Finn doesn't deviate to any great degree from what you'd expect of someone with his background in controlled, melodic Pop.
They make few out and out pop albums like this any more, with songs that shamelessly attempt to make you fall in love with them at first sight and wherein catchy hooks (sorry) are far more important than meaningful lyrics.
First on stage tonight were Lucas, whose songs were melodic and meandering but with enough unexpected twists to maintain interest, and an ultra-confident singer boasting a voice like Vedder's, but with high notes.
Transplant Terry Callier or Curtis Mayfield down under and you just might get a Jimmy Little. He’s got a voice that’s more Stax soul than outback. Pair that with a lyric sheet that’s in equal parts pleasure and politics and you’ve got quite a cocktail.
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.
Five years after their Hi-Lo debut, the former Stunning Brothers return to the fray with their strongest calling card to date. Recorded largely in the famed Black Box studios in France with the ubiquitous Dave Odlum at the helm, New Dawn Breaking is an immediately impressive record on almost every level (and very nicely packaged it is too in gatefold digipak!)
"GARTH HAS summoned up the long-gone thrill of innovation, adventure and risk that was once the foundation of rock ’n’ roll music. More importantly, he has done so while making an artistically gratifying album that blossoms under the scrutiny of repeated listening.”
One of the most useful lessons re-learned during the Heineken Green Energy Careers In Music seminars in Dublin, Cork and Galway is that while those in the business have a reasonable grasp as to how it works and why, from the stand-point of a seventeen-year-old would-be, the Music Industry can appear like one ginormous complex monster.
THE CRITICS PANEL WHO VOTED FOR THE TOP 30 ALBUMS AND SINGLES OF THE YEAR ARE AS FOLLOWS: BILL GRAHAM, LIAM FAY, GEORGE BYRNE, STUART CLARK, LORRAINE FREENEY, TARA McCARTHY, GERRY McGOVERN, NEIL McCORMICK, DERMOT STOKES, OLIVER P. SWEENEY, SIOBHAN LONG, STEVE AVERILL, ANDY DARLINGTON, COLM O’HARE, JOE JACKSON, HELENA MULKERNS, DAN OGGLY, CATHY DILLON, NIALL CRUMLISH, OLAF TYARANSEN, PATRICK BRENNAN, JACKIE HAYDEN AND NIALL STOKES.
Some of the country's leading music industry figures joined thousands of people for the Music Show, a two-day celebration of all that's good about the recording arts in Ireland.
This fortnight's Hot Press is our Electric Picnic special to celebrate we've teamed with O2 to put together a collection of the best Irish talent to grace the festival in a 16 track free CD. There’s something here for everyone; in fact, it’s the perfect picnic spread! Not only that, but we've got some of the bands in question to preview the festival for you (and us!!)
That’s the philosophy behind Cross Border Media, a label which has had a remarkable impact on Irish music since its foundation just three years ago. A special report by Colm O’Hare and Jackie Hayden
With the death of Kurt Cobain in April casting a shadow over the following months 1994 will hardly go down as one of the most joyous in Rock history. Your guide to a month-by-month account of the names and events of the past year. Stuart Clark.
