After years of slogging in the undergrowth of comedy, whimsy-merchant David O'Doherty has suddenly become an 'overnight' success having won a top prize at Edinburgh.
For the person in the eye of the storm, massive success can involve a titanic struggle. Especially when, as you’re trying to keep your bearings, ordinary life jumps up to punch you in the teeth. Now, after death, birth, fatigue, grief, joy and the "mindfuck" that is "the tidal wave of success," it is time, says David Gray, to get back to the music. and – whisper it – maybe even have a little holiday.
DAVID HOLMES new album is likely to
elevate him to the world s DJ-ing A-list.
STUART CLARK visited him in Belfast to hear tales of voodoo, punk, Primal Scream and, er, Gilbert O Sullivan.
Pictures: MYLES CLAFFEY
A once high-flying solicitor who was jailed for fraud, David Elio Malocco is now a budget film-maker with a strong anti-establishment view, a man who says he has swapped a "disgraceful" materialistic lifestyle for a social conscience. Here, he talks about crime, punishment, Sinn Fein, Shelbourne, God and the movies
Irish legend, Arsenal loyalist and now manager of Champions League surprise package Leeds United, DAVID O'LEARY knows the game of football inside out. Here he talks to STUART CLARK about money, agents, Après Match, Eircom Park, Man Utd., Robbie Keane, Mick McCarthy, his rows with Jack Charlton and Brian Kerr, and why he definitely wants to manage Ireland - at 50!
A former member of the UVF, David Ervine was jailed in 1974 on explosives charges. His paramilitary past notwithstanding, he has emerged in recent years as one of the most impressive politicians in Northern Ireland. The subject of a new biography by Henry Sinnerton, here he talks about Johnny Adair, drink, drugs, his family and the crisis facing Unionism that threatens to derail the peace process
It's all changed for DAVID GRAY. Within the past month he has played a series of sell-out gigs across the US, gone top ten in the UK, and returned to this country to celebrate the release of Lost Songs. In a hotpress exclusive, NIALL STANAGE reports from New York, Boston, London and Dublin on the globalisation of Ireland's favourite Welshman. Hotshot hitman: STEVEN FISHER
In the run-up to Bloomsday, gay rights activist Senator David Norris explains why he hates iPods and he wouldn’t have wanted James Joyce as a neighbour.
KIM PORCELLI sees DAVID KITT in Brussels on the eve of the release of his new album The Big Romance. Back in Dublin, the pair settle in at the Long Hall for the long haul…
Photography: MYLES CLAFFEY
He wrote speeches for Bertie and then criticised him in the press using a pseudonym. He turned down an offer to party with Bono. And Richard Boyd Barrett once nicked one of his crass albums. All this plus the importance of economics, the threat posed by the Bush administration and the truth about power are on the agenda, as Paul Nolan meets David McWilliams.
A spectacular trip up Steven Soderberg’s own arse, the unbelievably pretentious Full Frontal might go some way to erode the enormous, if inflated, credibility his genre-hopping output has so far gained him.
To mark the release of his new album, Jape main-man Richie Egan took comedian David O’Doherty to the zoo on condition that he write 1200 words about it for Hotpress.
A surreal start heralds Craig David's appearance: the big screens show a clip from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory of a sweet shop owner and a gang of wide-eyed kids.
David McAlmont (left) and Bernard Butler have re-united after seven years, following their ill-received eponymous debut in 1995 and their subsequent falling out. The result, according to Butler is the pair's "true debut"
When DAVID DONOHUE set out to make a television documentary about horse racing he had no idea of just how high the stakes would become.
Reporting: LIAM MACKEY
CRAIG FITZSIMONS talks to KURT JONES and DAVID KELLY, writer/director and star respectively, of Waking Ned, a gentle comedy set in Ireland, but shot in the Isle of Man. Pics Cathal dawson.
American comic Rich Hall explains why he prefers the Irish to 'whiny' Brits and talks about working with Curb Your Enthusiasm star Larry David back in the day.
A hit album, critical acclaim, sell-out shows… everything was going swimmingly for DAVID KITT until a sunday paper made serious allegations about him and his Government Minister Dad. In a gloves-off interview with COLIN CARBERRY, Kittser responds to his detractors and explains why, despite the journalistic flak, 2001 has been a great year
The Frames, David Holmes, Mary Black and Altan were among the acts who recently took part in the Irish Cultural Festival in Beijing. Not that too many locals noticed.
Commitments director Alan Parker and actress Laura Linney on their new movie, The Life Of David Gale, which explores the murky territory of the death penalty.
Hosting his own chat-show, running away with the circus and wrestling David O’Doherty whilst swathed in bubblewrap – it’s all in a day’s work for Irish comedy’s busiest performer, Jason Byrne.
In an age when hype springs eternal, DAVID GRAY is that rare phenomenon a success story scripted by the fans rather than the industry. And a distinctly Irish success story at that. A certifiable platinum-selling box-office blockbuster in this country, the Welsh singer-songwriter still awaits a similar eruption of Gray fever in Britain, Europe and America. But his latest album, White Ladder, could be the record which tells the world what Ireland already knows. Now as he prepares to wow the faithful at Galway s Big Beat festival, JOHN WALSHE presents the inside story of the best kept secret in the west.
Pics Mick Quinn
FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM is a major new six-part RTE series. Directed by DAVID HEFFERNAN, and featuring new interviews with the major players including Van Morrison, Bob Geldof, U2 and Siniad O Connor it traces the history of Irish music, from showbands to boybands and beyond. By PETER MURPHY.
DAVID HOLMES is about to leave his native Belfast for New York City, where he will record his third album. STUART BAILIE took a final opportunity to speak to the artist also known as Homer. On the agenda: Hollywood soundtracks, rumours of brawling, past glories and future plans.
Pics: MICHAEL TAYLOR.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Stuart Clark discusses Michael Jackson’s trial, Roxy Music, The Killers, David Bowie and the ideal soundtrack for bonking with a newly peaceful and content Moby.
Fresh from his recent success with the Xpress-2 collaboration 'Lazy', David Byrne reflects on a musical journey that began in 1977 with the legendary Talking Heads
IN THE NEW DAVID MAMET COMEDY STATE AND MAIN, AS IN HER LIFE IN GENERAL, SARAH JESSICA PARKER COULD HARDLY BE FURTHER REMOVED FROM HER SEX AND THE CITY ALTER EGO. TARA BRADY REPORTS.
A new album, an exclusive gig and opinions on Velvet Goldmine, the Internet and life, love and happiness. STUART CLARK meets the legendary DAVID BOWIE.
It’s Christmas, time for some of the leading lights of the Irish musical family to return from far-flung stages and convene for a traditional evening of reflection, revelation, conversation, merriment and, well, gargle. The guests: Glen Hansard and Colm Mac Con Iomaire of The Frames, Gemma Hayes, Mundy and David Kitt.
He pioneered the art of glam-punk excess with the New York Dolls and now he's learned to grow old gracefully. Peter Murphy meets the boy from New York City, the ever cool David Johansen. Photos: MYLES CLAFFEY
Seven years after his last solo LP, David Holmes lost his father. That trauma, and working on the Bobby Sands-era drama Hunger, seem to have brought a new humanity to his work.
Jinx Lennon is a true original, a rock'n'roll outsider whose music throbs to the pulse of rural Ireland. Here he talks about attending cocktail parties with David Norris and explains why Dundalk just might be the strangest town in Ireland.
Her beautiful lo-fi cover of a David Bowie song has made student Paula Flynn a sensation. Here she talks about her unlikely route to overnight stardom.
In a world exclusive interview, Morrissey sets the record straight on sex, religion, politics, David Bowie and his Irish heritage, and casts a Trinny & Susannah-esque eye over Brian Cowen
Coming off of a brief New York sojourn, Dublin's own singer-songwriter David Kitt will be making several stops throughout Ireland in November and December
Snow Patrol‘s Gary Lightbody waxes eloquent about burnout, creativity, exotic fowl, and why David Healy should be made First Citizen Of The Republic And Overlord Of The Universe.
To coinicide with the Festival Of World Cultures at Dun Laoghaire, Tonic in Blackrock has announced a fringe festival, with Mocrac and David Hopkins headlining.
From schlock kingpin to master of understated horror, auteur David Cronenberg has travelled a long way. His latest movie probes the underbelly of Russian criminals in London.
Craig Fitzsimons talks to David Gleeson, director of Cowboys & Angels, another exciting addition to the growning canon of unapologetically youthful and exuberent contemporary Irish movies
Well, absolutely, as anyone who's seen the gifted young Manchester United midfielder crack home a patented 30-yard rocket will testify. But off the pitch, as Jonathan O'Brien discovers, it's that little bit harder to get DAVID BECKHAM overly excited about anything. With the possible exception of discount designer clobber!
David Holmes, whose latest album The Holy Pictures received a resounding thumbs up in the latest issue of Hot Press, will join the Hot Press Chatroom at the Electric Picnic.
Rory Gallagher’s posthumous Wheels Within Wheels is a remarkable collection of previously unreleased acoustic material by Ireland’s guitar legend. It comes complete with a cover by the celebrated painter, David Oxtoby, that is certain to make a lasting impression.
It's one of the most heartwarming and deserved success stories in music - how Beth Orton learned to cope with illness, rebuilt her career and found herself sharing studios and stages with artists as diverse as Emmylou Harris, Ryan Adams, The Chemical Brothers and David Kitt
First there was the bad shit then the mad shit – the biggest-selling album in Irish history, an international hit and a record you hear “in every shoe shop”. So, having climbed the white ladder to phenomenal success, how does David Gray follow that?
Falling in love not only altered David Kitt’s heart but helped reshape his musical vision. Olaf Tyaransen visits his home cum studio and hears about the family affair that is his new album and how meeting Poppy reawakened his love of pop. all this and why the son of a Minister opposes the smoking ban! Photography Roger Woolman.
Sting – all dull AOR anthems, mawkish charidee singles and empty celeb blather, right? wrong! The artist formerly known as Gordon Sumner here talks to hotpress about the lingering fall-out from the break-up of the police, hanging with über-hip filmmakers Terry Gilliam and David Lynch, and getting the seal of approval from the late Johnny Cash.
“I hate these questions,” cries David Holmes, DJ, re-mixer, producer, free associate, film-scorer and friend to the stars. Yet he gamely faces the pan-ish inquisition that is the hotpress mixed grill
Ahead of his public interview in Dublin with Hot Press, Wire creator David Simon talks about the genesis of the series and about his controversial new Iraq-set show.
It’s all about broken down tour buses, Alan Partridge, high speed collisions, Moby, broken ribs, Mina Suvari, MTV stars and David Bowie as Ash launch a sonic assault on America. So riddle me this: can Ireland’s hardest-working rock’n’roll outfit crack the big one?
Since the release of their sophomore album Antics late last year, New York goth-rock quartet Interpol have risen to the pantheon of great contemporary bands. In a rare in-depth interview, the group’s erudite frontman Paul Banks here discusses the making of Antics, their upcoming support slot with U2, the band’s peers in the NYC indie scene, The Strokes, Nirvana and David Lynch - and where one of the most acclaimed groups of recent years go to from here. Interview by Paul Nolan.
Comic book artist and file clerk turned movie star, Harvey Pekar must be one of the most unlikely and somewhat reluctant celebrities of our time. An ordinary man whose work has produced extraordinary art, the anti-hero of American Splendour here talks about his friend Toby, Robert Crumb, James Joyce, David Letterman, fame and misfortune, surviving and more.
The man tipped to knock James Blunt of his throne according to industry sources, David Ford, is showcasing his talents with a number of support dates in Ireland.
An aristocrat turned rock’n’roll promoter, Lord Henry Mountcharles has been one of the most intriguing figures in Irish public life over the past twenty years. On the eve of Madonna’s hugely anticipated gig at Slane Castle, Mountcharles talks to Hot Press about his priviledged upbringing, studying at Harvard, running for electoral office, experimenting with drugs, meeting U2, Guns n’ Roses and David Bowie, and his encounters with UFO's. Photography Cathal Dawson
Fianna Fail TD, guitar player, marathon runner and father of David, TOM KITT on: Charlie, Beverly, Liam, Bertie, Carr Communications, drink, dope, religion, protest singing and the high regard in which he holds his famous son.
Interview: OLAF TYARANSEN. Photography: MELLA TRAVERS
Belfast music merchant David Holmes has exclusively revealed to hotpress.com that he's confirmed for the Ocean's 13 soundtrack, and in the process of writing the follow-up to David Holmes Presents The Free Association.
It’s been a long, hot, muggy day, but Galway’s weather still won’t piss or get off the pot. A short, sharp shower would actually be extremely welcome, but the heavily pregnant clouds just tease with the prospect of rain. On the plus side, the evening skies over the Fisheries Field are appropriately shaded for the musical night ahead (sorry, but it’s an unbreakable rule of music journalism that every David Gray live review must contain at least one pun on his surname).
Irish comedian David O’Doherty is £8,000 and massive international acclaim to the better this week, having scooped the main prize at the Edinburgh Comedy Festival.
DON'T LET the trailer put you off - David O.Russell's third feature is by some distance the most deceptively radical "war movie" to emerge from Hollywood in my living memory,
The Last Of The High Kings (Directed by David Keating. Starring Jared Leto, Catherine O’Hare, Gabriel Byrne, Colm Meaney, Lorraine Pilkington, Emily Mortimer, Christina Ricci.)
Dabbling in the same muddied waters as Fight Club, but to much greater effect, David Ayers’ directorial debut (following his testosterone-drenched screenplays for Training Day and Dark Blue) takes us down, down, down into the most disturbing aspects of masculinity and American life.
Though Pavee Lackeen’s thorough depiction of the disenfranchised included Ireland’s new ethnic minorities around the fringes, David Gleeson’s follow-up to Cowboys And Angels is the first indigenous feature to take the immigrant experience as its central theme.
David Gray’s seventh studio album is called Life In Slow Motion. As someone who hasn’t ever fully understood the appeal of his music, that’s exactly what his concert experience felt like.
A surprisingly gentle, Preston Sturges-inspired satire on Hollywood from the blessed pen of David Mamet, State And Main is almost scarily good-natured coming from the man behind such far-from-gentle classics as the scalpel-sharp Speed The Plow.
David Johansen on the other hand, one-time front man with the New York Dolls (a moment's silence please), stays perfectly still and croaks his blues truths with all the grizzled gravitas of a fellow who has seen the three days.
It requires no great talent to reduce an audience to tears when your backdrop is a concentration camp. If your principals are potato-headed children, so much the better.
John Walshe had a ringside seat for all the music, speeches, laughs and tears that made the 2002 hotpress Irish Music Awards in Belfast a night to remember.
Hot Press are proud to present a screening of The Wire, followed by a public interview with writer/producer David Simon. Read on for your chance to win tickets...
Paddy Casey’s music has improved dramatically since he first emerged, the David Gray-isms of yore being replaced with something far more ambitious and colourful. ‘Addicted To Company’ incorporates swooping strings, the odd splash of brass, and even some gospel-flavoured backing vocals. This has an ambitious feel to it and could be huge.
David Holmes is momentarily back in Belfast, fixing up some business, talking with friends and previewing some of the music that he s been cooking up in New York over the past five months.
I suppose I should say I am sorry. It s just that I find their music completely devoid of humour.
So says David Baddiel, one of the two least funny men in the world, the other being his partner in cringe, Frank Skinner.
The year just gone was one of the most successful yet for Northern musicians. With Snow Patrol, David Holmes and Duke Special riding high, we take a look at 2009’s crop of contenders.
U2 - without even releasing an album last year - have walked away with the 2001 Hot Press Readers' Poll. Here's the scoop...
Politics | McCann
50% | 6 Jan 2004
Eamonn McCann
Eamonn McCann reflects on a tumultuous twelve months in which anti-Bush sentiment reached unprecedented levels of intensity, Dr. David Kelly’s suicide opened a can of worms, and, at home, the stem-cell debate swung into full flow .
As well as providing a remarkable spectacle, David Best's burning temple at the Burning Man festival also offers a forum for people to deal with feelings of grief and loss.
No, he won't be able to tell the Cops where George Clooney, Brad Pitt and the boys ended up after THAT casino heist but HE will tell you ANYTHING else.
So they say. And so too was David, who slew Goliath in the bible. In fact, there is ample reason to believe that key characters involved in two pillars of the DUP’s view of the world would be deeply offended at recent remarks by Ian Paisley Jnr in Hot Press.
The enigmatic pied-piper of psychedelic rock Donovan is to be honoured with a festival and a new documentary. Long based in Ireland, he talks about working with David Lynch and his plans to bring a new movie project on the road.
Funnymen David Mitchell and Robert Webb crown their rise to the comedy top-table with Magicians, a uproarious tale of two entertainers seeking to keep alive the spirit of Paul Daniels.
Snowman FC from Cork won the Irish heat of the JD Sets, played live in the legendary Jack Daniel's Distillery in Tennessee and recorded with REM man David Barbe in Nashville.
Ahead of a headline date at Vicar Street, David O’Doherty talks about hanging out with the Flight of The Conchords and about his new Channel 4 TV show.
Belfast superstar DJ David Holmes has once again produced the goods with his soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Twelve, this time finding inspiration in sleazy European electro and superfly acid jazz. But not, however, elephant porn.
Forget Rod, Emu and gottles of geer david strassman s ventriloquism is the missing link between rock n roll and Bill Hicks. barry glendenning meets the
puppet master. Pix: cathal dawson.
Nobody actually shouted “hit the bitch” during the previous Dublin run of Oleanna – as happened on Broadway – but Irish audiences were sharply divided in terms of the male and female adversaries in David Mamet’s controversial play. Personally, I found the polemical exchanges at the heart of the production a little ham-fisted.
"I don't know whether they're going to replace No Disco with something equally interesting or, as is depressingly often the case, a duller, watered-down version": as one of the artists who benefitted from exposure on No Disco, DAVID GRAY offers this tribute to the show’s pioneering spirit. A Hot Press exclusive
Comedy hit a spectacular high in 2002 with the success of The Office, The League of Gentlemen and Bachelor’s Walk. But there may be even better to come this year, as three generations of Irish comic talent tell us.
In the words of visionary film-maker David Cronenberg, "There are records you listen to when you want diversion, and there are records you go to when you're in spiritual trouble." We asked an array of today's brightest stars to tell us about the artists they feel provide the greatest sustenance in time of turmoil and upheaval.
Ireland beating the mighty Dutch on an enchanted evening at Lansdowne Road. The Frames at Vicar St. Liverpool lifting three trophies in one season. BellX1 at the Music Centre
She’s the post-modern starlet who is stalked by paparazzi wherever she goes but is as comfortable talking about Andy Warhol and John Updike as she is hanging with fashionistas. Say hello to Lady GaGa the good-time pop princess who went to school with Paris Hilton, cultivated a drug habit ‘cos that’s what David Bowie did in the ’70s, but thinks fame is just a game.
It’s been a long, strange trip for David Grohl, from Nirvana drummer to Foo Fighters frontman, via Queens Of The Stone Age and Tenacious D. Now he’s back with a new Foo album, he’s buried the hatchet with Courtney Love and he’s still as rock’n’roll as ever
Painter, sculptor, composer and, of course, the all-action hero who got everyone kung-fu fighting. Tailor made for a part in Kill Bill, renaissance man David Carradine discusses his eventful life and times.
Former Friends star David Schwimmer talks about his dark days of waiting tables and why his lawyer parents were perturbed by his determination to make it as an actor.
Pete Cummins, has just released his first album as a solo performer, from which the single ‘Flowers In Baghdad’ was picked up by Neil Young’s website chart
He’s the reigning champion of gently ironic comedy. Now David O’Doherty has written a nature book, full of fascinating “facts”. Did you know, for example, that panda fur can be used to make bullet-proof vests?
Stylistically speaking, it’s a complete mess, replete with godawful 80s synth score and badly misjudged Se7en-style graphics inserted at random. These problems could be overlooked though, if the script and plot weren’t full of more holes than can be found in an average fishing net.
His tearful acoustic ballads have become a phenomenon. In a forthright interview José González discusses his terror of writing lyrics and meeting Craig David and tells of his parents’ flight from oppression.
The great and the good of the Trinity philosophical society recently assembled to discuss not epistemology, theology or indeed any other class of “ology”, but rather to address the question, “Is music losing its right to artistic licence?”
David Gray's debut album A Century Ends signalled the emergence of an innovative singer-songwriter with forthright lyrics, a remarkable voice, and an unusual degree of integrity. Just, one warning: mention the words 'introverted' or 'soul-searching' and you run the risk of being beaten over the head with a guitar... Interview: Lorraine Freeney
Superstars, rock stars, movie stars, sports stars, tv stars, authors, actors, artists, comedians, politicians, broadcasters, astrologers, chefs, outlaws, weirdoes, dingbats and Lee Scratch Perry...
ENYA: THE LATEST SCORE
From the Gweedore family that gave the world Clannad, another success story in the making. Enya,whose new album featuring music for the forthcoming TV series The Celts , is already making waves months before the programme itself goes on air, is joined by producer Nicky Ryan for a three-way conversation with Bill Graham. Pix:Colm Henry.
Debbi Peterson of '80s pop act The Bangles talks about supporting Queen at Slane, surviving an embarrassing moment on the David Letterman show and drumming with Spinal Tap
Cult actor Crispin Glover talks about his taboo-busting directorial debut What Is It?, playing George McFly in Back To The Future and meeting Andy Warhol at Madonna and Sean Penn’s wedding.
LIAM FAY gets a hot line to DAVID BYRNE on the eve of his Dublin concerts and found a pretty talkative head, discussing everything from Brazlian merengue music to Tommy Cooper.
Daemon Codell – aka Joe Daly – is an illusionist with a difference, who likes nothing better than the sight of blood on the stage. It’s only when it’s his own blood that he gets worried.
He found fame in Queer As Folk and is currently to be seen in the acclaimed US crime drama The Wire. Now Aidan Gillen is burning up the Irish stage in an acclaimed new production of a David Mamet classic.
Arising from the ashes of aborted supergroup Zwan, onetime Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan returns with a hotly anticipated solo debut. Still brimming with that patented goth angst, he tells Paul Nolan about his collaboration with fellow doom-merchant Robert Smith, his friendship with the two Davids – Lynch and Bowie – and, oh yeah, why he's still sore about the Pumpkins.
Here’s a bloke playing vinyl and taking dirty soul and blues vocals, ’80s key synths, country riffs and laying them over a structure of electric urban rhythm
From 15-28 July 2002 Galway city hosts one of the most comprehensive of this year's arts festivals with esoteric offerings from the genres of visual art, music, theatre, comedy and lots, lots more
Stepping out from under the shadow of Tricky – but refusing to leave her former amour entirely behind – Martina Topley Bird has staked her own claim with one of the albums of the year. Comparisons with Billie Holiday may be flattering but, as she tells Stuart Clark, she’s too “pig-headed” to be anyone other than herself
As Stereophonics release their sixth abum, frontman Kelly Jones talks about his friendship with Oasis and reveals that he’s buried the hatchet with Muse.
Moviehouse talks to David Lynch-protegé Eli Roth about his low-budget gore-fest Cabin Fever, and also hears the garrulous director’s views on everything from flesh-eating bacteria to the lamentable absence of nudity in contemporary horror.
Having scored huge chart success with the dance anthem ‘Maniac’, acclaimed Irish DJ Mark McCabe is now broadening his musical horizons with his intriguing debut album, Music From The Fourth Place.
Tanya Donelly has returned with a new album, Beautysleep, which features the cream of Boston's musical talent. But Peter Murphy discovers that the ex-Belly vocalist's pregnancy at the time of recording forced her to re-evaluate her singing technique
Sharp suits, a global fan base, his own luxury recording studio - David Gray has certainly come a long way. On the eve of the release of his latest album, he talks about the dark side of success and explains why he wants to leave the singer-songwriter tag behind
They may be one of the hottest bands of the year, but Las Vegas synth fiends The Killers are planning to cool off this Christmas with some well-earned down-time and a skiing holiday in Utah. But not before they’ve discussed texting Charlize Theron, hanging with Elton John and that David Bowie tribute with Stuart Clark.
On the eve of Kraftwerk’s headlining appearance at the Electric Picnic, mainman Ralf Hütter talks with rare candour about David Bowie, U2, hip-hop, cycling and why sometimes even man-machines have to smile.
The Stables in Mullingar has become an essential stopover on the Irish rock touring circuit. Here, the venue's booking man, David McLynn tells Jackie Hayden about the current state of rock in the Midlands.
DAVID GRAY’s sell-out December gig at Dublin’s Point Theatre was an intense, emotional affair.
NIALL STANAGE reports on a remarkable night and offers a personal perspective on the singer-songwriter’s journey
Accompanied by images from his photo diary, DONAL DINEEN takes us through a month-by-month guide to the records that kept himself, and the Today FM faithful happy in 2001
He helped invent disco, funk, r 'n' b and hip-hop. And when he wasn’t changing the face of popular music, Chic leader NILE RODGERS found time to chin-wag with pop’s best, bravest and weirdest. Here he talks about hanging with David Bowie, Slash and Madonna and reveals his oft-overlooked hippy leanings.
The case for and against Holocaust Revisionist and Nazi apologist DAVID IRVING being allowed to speak on a public platform in Ireland. For: GERRY McGOVERN. Against: EAMONN McCANN
I can still hear their taunts – “Clark’s talking through his arse again!”... “It’s not the ’70s anymore, Granddad!”... “I had my suspicions but now I know you’re a wanker!”
As it was my mother saying it, that last one was particularly hurtful.
An estimated 100,000 people showed up in the Phoenix Park for the O2 sponsored gig that featured Samantha Mumba, Ronan Keating, Mundy, Six, David Kitt and Kells' rock outfit Turn. Would one of the local scenes hottest contenders shine brightly enough to win the hearts of the nation’s pop kids?
Patrick Freyne talks to Ken McHugh of Autamata about his double life as artist and producer, his new album, Colours of Sound - and about moving to the country.
Acclaimed music writer Simon Reynolds has revisited the post-punk era with a fascinating set of interview transcripts. He talks about prising choice quotes from Phil Oakey, David Byrne and, after a tense stand-off, Pere Ubu’s David Thomas - and explains why the internet has taken some of the fun out of music
Time magazine dubbed him The Renaissance Man Of Rock . With and without Talking Heads, he s made some of the most innovative music of the last two decades, as well as being an author, photographer, director, sound-track scorer, Academy Award winner, and all-round friendly neighbourhood psycho-killer. David Byrne allowed Hot Press to put him on the couch for thirty minutes when he arrived in Dublin for his recent Olympia Theatre show.
Peter Murphy was there to hear the Head man
talking.
Her fans include David Bowie, Bono and The Cardigans’ Nina Persson – and now she’s released possibly her finest record yet. EMM GRYNER talks about raising her game and steering clear of the ‘indie-folk’ vogue.
Until now, that is! DAVID PUTTNAM is one of Britain s most successful film directors of the past 20 years. But, as the turn of the century approaches, he believes that the control exerted by Hollywood over the film, entertainment and information industries globally may yet inspire a violent reaction. Interview: CATHY DILLON
In fiercely conservative Jerusalem, few crimes are more unforgivable than a homosexual relationship between a Palestinian and an Israeli – as Ezra Yitzhak discovered.
The north did not witness such seismic changes in Y2K as it had in preceding years. But there was still plenty going on, as a society in which war had become the norm stumbled towards peace.
On the occasion of the first Irish screening of Nagisa Oshima’s Ai No Corrida (In The Realm Of The senses), banned for 18 years because of its explicit sex scenes involving lead actor Tatsuya Fujii’s hardcore hard-on’s, Neil McCormick takes a ride through the history of the ’members’ of the film world’s penis colony and while he’s ‘at it’, talks to film sexpert David Sullivan about the ever narrowing gap between the porn film industry and mainstream cinema.
The Fathers of Heavy Metal? "That child is not mine!", roars JON LORD, who played keyboard through 25 years of DEEP PURPLE splits, reformations, recriminations and tears. Now he's got a new album and tour reuniting the classic "Deep Purple in Rock" formation to talk up, with side-swipes at Metallica, the David Coverdale/Jimmy Page album, and just why Coverdale's sexually explicit lyrics made the Lord "a tad embarrassed."
Interview ANDY DARLINGTON
In the five years since its debut, The Sopranos has grown from an underground show with a small cult following to one of the most successful TV series' of all time. Paul Nolan traces the show’s development from its inauspicious beginnings on HBO to its current status as a transatlantic cultural phenomenon, and also examines our enduring fascination with a man called Tony Soprano.
In between starting a family and touring the globe with Bell X1, David Geraghty has managed to find the time to squeeze out a second solo record, The Victory Dance. He talks about dealing with bat infestations, bestriding U2’s ‘Claw’ stage and tackling the fraught subject of 9/11 in song.
Superheroes, talking animals, three fingered dressmakers and more populate the weird and wonderful world of the soon to be massive Empire of the sun and Edwin McFee steps inside the mind of main-man Luke Steele for a journey he’ll never forget.
Now taking the solo route, Hugh Cornwell talks about his latest album, reminsces about kicking back with David Bowie, squaring off back-stage with U2 and cooling his heels in Pentonville.
With a little help from peers like Johnny Moy and Primal Scream, Mainline look like animating the Irish scene with some long overdue black-shades-and-scuzz-rock sleaze.
The reclassification of cannabis in Britain was a good day for the UK’s estimated five million users. But not a great day. A drug that is much less damaging than alcohol or tobacco remains illegal in most parts of the world, including Ireland, a situation which criminalises the user and benefits only the criminal gangs. It’s high time for a change, argues Olaf Tyaransen.
Having drummed his way round the world with Therapy?, Graham Hopkins is now upfront singing with his own band Halite. But as Paul Nolan finds out, he’s no indie Phil Collins
Taking surf rock, doo-wop and bowery punk down the Euro-autobahn, The Raveonettes have hit on a winning combination of the wild, the innocent and the sado shuffle. Sharin Foo tells the story.
Taking surf rock, doo-wop and bowery punk down the Euro-autobahn, The Raveonettes have hit on a winning combination of the wild, the innocent and the sado shuffle. Sharin Foo tells the story.
Taking surf rock, doo-wop and bowery punk down the Euro-autobahn, The Raveonettes have hit on a winning combination of the wild, the innocent and the sado shuffle. Sharin Foo tells the story.
His admirers have included Kurt Cobain, Beck and Jack White. But Billy Childish is far from your average cult musician. He’s dabbled in conceptual art, is equally influenced by The Kinks and Joe Strummer and doesn’t listen to music – especially if it has anything to do with Leonard Cohen.
They may sport one of the most original sounds in rock’n’roll – but along the way they’ve been influenced by some of the greats.
STUART BAILIE identifies the ten (plus!) key influences on the music of U2
Its action all areas as a musically beefed- up David Gray leaps back into the fray. Inviting Hot Press to an exclusive tour of his London studio, he talks about early success in Ireland, his break with loyal drummer Clune and a recent get-together with uber-diva Annie Lennox
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
Minnie Driver
The comedy of the season has arrived! Fun fun fun! O joy, o bliss! Seriously, for all its putrid feelbland chirpiness, the unbelievably inoffensive Return To Me practically qualifies as a must-see, so inadvertently hilarious is the whole affair from start to finish.
Paddy Courtney is one of the country’s hardest working stand-ups with hundreds of live gigs under his belt, a lucrative side-line as a warm-up man for Patrick Kielty and Gay Byrne and further plans for a television show which should make him a household name.
His witty real-life relationship tales have made him the foremost humourist of the age but David Sedaris is darned if he truly knows what makes his readers laugh.
He’s been the artist to watch for years in Belfast, with a critically acclaimed David Holmes collaboration one of his many achievements. Now Phil Kieran is finally getting around to releasing an album. He talks to Colin Carberry about the long journey from drawing board to completion.
He’s one of the most modest figures on the Northern Ireland music scene. But with David Holmes and Duke Special among his cheerleaders, it’s clear that Robyn G. Shiels is a special talent indeed.
Stuart Clark joins Bon Jovi for one wild night in Mexico city and hears how the band survived drink, drugs, dodgy haircuts and, ah, parasitical infections to hobnob with a beatle and stake their claim as “one of the best rock ’n’ roll bands on the planet”
WITH DIALOGUE such as *you'd have married me by now if it wasn't for the pigs* to cement the case for the prosecution, there is no way the makers of Waking Ned can escape the charge of begorrah Rent-a-Paddy Oirishness.
However, you're a fool if you let prickly political correctness interfere with your appreciation of artistic works (Father Ted has done more to perpetuate the image of Irish people as witless simpletons than any amount of Mick McCarthy's muddled musings) - and judged purely on its own merits, Waking Ned is a harmless (at worst) and hilarious (at best) little caper that only a complete curmudgeon could find offensive.
She's the red-haired electro-pop debutante of the year. La Roux frontwoman Elly Jackson talks about her love of the 80s and tells us why Blur were the only decent rock band of the past 20 years.
As cult continental rockers Deus release their fifth album, frontman Tom Barman talks about interviewing David Lynch, collaborating with Glen Hansard and hanging out with Elbow's Guy Garvey.
To transform the intimacy of his records into an entertainment show is some task, but one which Ireland’s favourite Welshman has improved on as the years go on, simply because more material equals rich pickings: those less suited to shared appreciation can be dropped.
2007 was another vintage year for Iggy. Here, he finds the time to discuss reforming the Stooges, his relationship with Bowie, the Stones and his trailer park upbringing.
In one of Irish music’s worst kept secrets, The Frames played Whelan’s recently, road testing some new songs and being joined on stage by a number of special guests. John Walshe reports from ringside.
0ver the past twelve months, Daniel Kitson has risen to prominence following his Perrier award winning show at the Edinburgh fringe, and his celebrated appearance on Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights but all the bespectacled comic really wants is to be recognised as a stand-up guy.
David bickley, aka Mobius of hyper[borea], tells Olaf Tyaransen about dance music as gaeilge, Bronze Age atmospheres and how he came to throw his Hot Press Award off a cliff.
Morrissey famously said that he hoped the author would die in a motorway pile-up. David Crosby was freebasing when he gave him the best interview of his life. He once went a whole year without speaking to another human being. And now he s just updated his classic biography of The Byrds and made it five times longer. He s JOHNNY ROGAN, the rock biographer s rock biographer. And he s talking to Jonathan O Brien.
The best electro-rock outfit since KLF or this year's Sigue Sigue Sputnik? The jury's still out, but Fischerspooner's Casey Spooner tells us he's more than just a cheap stunt
Irish rugby captain Brian O’Driscoll waxes lyrical about his sporting heroes, Ireland’s hopes for the Rugby World Cup and admits to liking Justin Timberlake.
Having released his debut album to little recognition at home in Ireland. Perry Blake's career unexpectedly gathered momentum in continental Europe. Whilst he remains little more than a cult figure in his native land. These days in France it's all deification by La Monde, movie soundtracks and policy debate with the Culture Minister. "Part of me is thinking, oh fuck I hope it doesn't do a David Gray" Perry Blake.
NIALL STANAGE reports from the tenth Finsbury Park Fleadh, which featured performances from THE PRETENDERS, VAN MORRISON, ELVIS COSTELLO, SHANE MACGOWAN, DAVID GRAY and, er, RONAN KEATING
Dave McSavage is one of Ireland's newest, funniest and most challenging comedians to emerge on the circuit in recent months, combining improvised guitar musings with audience laceration. "But i just want them to like me," says Dublin's most dangerous stand-up
Darina Allen, eat your heart out. New York chef ANTHONY BOURDAIN has done it all, from chopping out lines to chopping off fingertips, along the way dealing with the Mafia, Madonna, a dead man in a freezer and the palpitating heart of a cobra. STUART CLARK hears about cooking as rock'n'roll. CATHAL DAWSON serves up the pictures
Canadian songstress Emm Gryner has toured with David Bowie and released a collection of Irish rock covers. Her new album might just be her most ambitious, and mysterious, yet.
Heard the one about the Irishman, the Bronx and the tab of industrial-strength acid? Stuart Clark hadn t either until that most eligible of bachelors, David Holmes, talked him through the mad month in New York that inspired his Let s Get Killed album.
Astrology. an ancient science or a load of cosmic nonsense?
FERGUS GIBSON is probably ireland's best-known astrologer, a man who gave up a hit-making career in music to concentrate on another kind of stardom. Here her talks about his astrological work with David Bowie, Iina Turner and Garth Brooks, explains why your aura always reveals the truth about your love life, describes his own encounters with strange and inexplicable phenomena and, finally, gives our own STEPHEN ROBINSON a personal palm reading. star gazer: Cathal Dawson
When writer and documentary film-maker Jon Ronson set out to discover the truth about the secret group which conspiracy theorists believe rules the world, he expected an interesting trip. What he didn’t anticipate was a brain-rattling, five year-long odyssey, by turns wacky and scary, that would bring him into contact with neo-nazis, religious fundamentalists, twelve-foot lizards, Mr burns from The Simpsons, David icke, peter mandelson and, ahem, Ian Paisley. Olaf Tyaransen hears the story that’s coming to a bookshelf and television screen near you. undercover pictorIal evidence: Cathal Dawson
Paul McCartney talks of life after linda, September 11th and the memories of his firefighter father, being 'lucky enough' to write with John Lennon and his new solo album, Driving Rain
Like many of his brethren in the world of comedy, David Baddiel has turned his hand to fiction in recent years. Although his previous efforts met with a lukewarm critical response, his new novel, The Secret Purposes – a skilfully rendered tale which draws heavily on Baddiel's grandparents' experience in wartime England – looks set to reverse that trend. Interview by Peter Murphy. Photography by Liam Sweeney
In a remarkable interview, the legendary David Kelly looks back on a long and adventurous career including parts in box office smashes, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Waking Ned.
Not so long ago mavericks and experimentalism were thin on the ground in Ireland. But with the growth of an independent scene, all of that has changed. for confirmation, look no further than the rise to eminence of The Jimmy Cake.
John Walshe travels to Berlin to see Ash in superlative live form on Paddy's night. And no wonder: the band reckon their new album, free all angels could put them in the Michael Jackson league! plus: why they're so down on Louis Walsh, Westlife and Ronan Keating and so up for Bono, John Hume, David Trimble and - wait for it - Darius of Popstars. Flash photography: Mella Travers
A glimpse into Glen Hansard’s tour diary while on the road with The Frames' fourth album For The Birds (2001) - including reflections on their first landmark Olympia show (March 30th, 2001)
He predicts rocky times ahead for the economy and says the housing boom is unsustainable. But what’s really troubling David McWilliams is all the flak his latest book has attracted.
David Baldacci‘s unsavoury contacts within the vast American military-industrial complex have lent authenticity to his tangled tales of insider dealings in the corridors of power
The story of how Paul Brady was transformed from a superlative folk artist into a superlative rock artist in a blinding flash of light (well, fifteen years actually). Today's reading is by Niall Stokes.
A year ago they were being paid fifty quid a gig, now they’re one of the biggest rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet and about to take the Oxegen main stage by storm. A pun loving Stuart Clark discovers how Franz Ferdinand have become Top of the Fops.
RAYTHEON, the armament-technology firm which manufactured Patriot and Sidewinder missiles, is establishing a plant in Derry and the local politicians couldn t be happier. EAMONN McCANN reports.
The media is in turmoil, with huge losses being posted by some of the country’s biggest broadcasting and publishing groups. It is a dramatic backdrop to the Hot Press Interview with DAVID McREDMOND, chief executive at TV3. In no mood to mince his words, the independent TV boss repeatedly goes for the jugular, insisting that RTÉ’s dual funding must end, and telling the State regulator to get off TV3’s back.
He may have done time in Long Kesh for possession of explosives but Progressive Unionist leader DAVID ERVINE has left behind his terrorist past and embraced a future based on shared social democracy which, he says, the peace process can bring about. Interview: JOE JACKSON.
Gregory David Robert‘s life reads like the most sensational book, a painfully true but scarcely believable saga of academic success, crime, heroin addiction, incarceration, torture, escape, re-capture, and finally, literary acclaim. Peter Murphy hears the extraordinary tale of australia’s ‘gentleman bandit’ turned author. photography Liam Sweeney
RICH HALL has survived working with David Letterman and having his love life exposed in the Sindo, to take his rightful place as one of the top attractions of this year's Cat Laughs Festival. Interview: BARRY GLENDENNING.
The inspiration for ‘Fuck Her Gently’; Kyle’s stoned scene from Almost Famous; did KG really eat JB’s shitzel? And the best way to do cock push-ups. Tenacious D answer the readers’ questions. Turning up the heat Patrick Hedlund.
Criminologist and author of The Irish War On Drugs, Paul O'Mahony was one of the few voices of reason in the recent, hugely impressive Prime Time report on the subject.
Nothing could prepare one for the shimmering beacon of awfulness that is Trust The Man. As useless as a volleyball court in a hospital for landmine victims, to gaze on it’s ineptitude is an act of masochism far greater than anything visited upon Wanda von Sacher-Masoch.
"There's Denzel Washington behind me with Ethan Hawke beside him, and behind them are Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly. I look to my left and there's David Lynch." Yep, it's just a typical day in the life of an oscar nominee. Brown Bag Films' Darragh O'Connell who, along with Cathal Gaffney, received a nomination for the animated short Give Up Yer Aul Sins, shares his Oscars diary exclusively with hotpress
Yes, hello. We'll have a number two single to start, and then a follow-up that drops bang into number one, please, thank you. Nothing to drink for me, thanks.
The man behind the Mystery Train is a bit of a mystery himself but, at Peter Murphy's request, writer and broadcaster JOHN KELLY steps forward to talk about Enniskillen, friends in high places, the fall and rise of his broadcasting career, his lack of intercourse with Dave Trimble, "taking the soup", desert island music and Uaneen.
Broadcast Views: Cathal Dawson
Carl Perkins, the rock pioneer who wrote Blue Suede Shoes and no less than four songs for the Beatles, is dead. ANDY DARLINGTON remembers his career from Sun Records and the legendary Million Dollar Quartet , through to Johnny Cash s Live At San Quentin . . . and a movie knife-fight with David Bowie
A fresh generation of bands is tearing up the rule book and redefining what it means to be Irish. To celebrate this new wave of talent, we catch up with the best of them.
IAN STRACHAN was jailed for blackmailing a member of the Royal Family over allegations of a sex and drugs ‘scandal’. But a media blackout ensured that little of the substance of the case was reported.
Tom Baxter's second album, Skybound, has just topped the Irish album chart. But it was a record that only got made after Baxter personally financed the sessions with his other talent of figurative art painting.
In the second and final part of our exclusive interview, JONI MITCHELL tells her story from the ground-breaking Blue to the present day.
Having grown increasingly disenchanted with a music biz providing junk food for juveniles it took the classic songs of Billie Holiday and Etta James to restore her faith and give her own career a new lease of old life. Once a romantic always a romantic, she tells JOE JACKSON
In the second and final part of our exclusive interview, JONI MITCHELL tells her story from the ground-breaking Blue to the present day.
Having grown increasingly disenchanted with a music biz providing junk food for juveniles it took the classic songs of Billie Holiday and Etta James to restore her faith and give her own career a new lease of old life. Once a romantic always a romantic, she tells JOE JACKSON
In the second and final part of our exclusive interview, JONI MITCHELL tells her story from the ground-breaking Blue to the present day.
Having grown increasingly disenchanted with a music biz providing junk food for juveniles it took the classic songs of Billie Holiday and Etta James to restore her faith and give her own career a new lease of old life. Once a romantic always a romantic, she tells JOE JACKSON
In the second and final part of our exclusive interview, JONI MITCHELL tells her story from the ground-breaking Blue to the present day.
Having grown increasingly disenchanted with a music biz providing junk food for juveniles it took the classic songs of Billie Holiday and Etta James to restore her faith and give her own career a new lease of old life. Once a romantic always a romantic, she tells JOE JACKSON
The Edge talks to Bill Graham about his soundtrack album "Captive" - and about the hidden reservoirs the band are charting in their search for the follow-up to "The Unforgettable Fire"
Since bursting onto the world stage with her No.1 single, Orinoco Flow and the multi-million selling album, WATERMARK, Enya has become one of Ireland s brightest star. Now with the release of her new album, SHEPHERD MOONS she prepares to take on the world again, with music of an almost other-worldly beauty. In the throes of a personal odyssey to pastures east, Molly McAnailly Burke explores the genesis of the album, talks to Enya s collaborators Roma and Nicky Ryan and discovers in the work of this extraordinary trinity intimations of mythic grandeur.
With the release of their fourth and finest album "For The Birds", THE FRAMES have zoomed straight into the Irish top ten for the first time. Now, with critical acclaim ringing in their ears, and their glowing fanbase sensing that something special may be about to take place, they prepare to take the Green Energy Weekend by storm. could it be their time has finally come? Interview: KIM PORCELLI. plus mainman GLEN HANSARD gives us a glimpse inside his private diary. out of frame: MICK QUINN
Bobby Gillespie's still staying up all night but now it's because there's a baby in the house. Otherwise, it's all systems go for Primal Scream at their bunker hq - Witnness cometh, Mani's back and Kate Moss, Kevin Shields, Robert Plant and AndrewWeatherall all feature on the groundbreaking evil high
He’s jammed with Bob Dylan, partied with Keith Moon, sued The Byrds, traded spiky tops with Rod Stewart, had close encounters with Presleys Reg and Elvis and played "name that key" with John Lee Hooker, but arguably the best moment in his life was when he was named small breeder of the year. RON WOOD, the man who would be the queen mum of rock 'n' roll, tells a mean tale.
Words: STUART CLARK. Pictures ROGER WOOLMAN
His TV breakthrough came when he told Pat Kenny about how he hung weights from his penis. Since then it’s been wild globetrotting and fluent Irish all the way. And now, in his latest spectacular for the viewing public, Hector O hEochagain has only gone and bought himself a share in a racehorse.
Essentially a two-hander, Hard Candy rehearses all manner of arguments pertaining to paedophilia and vigilante justice through two brilliantly sharp, menacing performances from Ms. Page and Patrick Wilson.
The world was united in condemnation over the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. In a rare print interview Israel ambassador to Dublin Zion Evrony says the campaign was justified and that his country was motivated by the desire to bring peace to the Middle East. And he tells us why comparisons between Northern Ireland the Middle East are fatuous
As U2 gear up for the release of No Line On The Horizon, they meet HP to talk about the creation of their latest masterwork, meeting world leaders, the way they’re perceived in Ireland, the current state of the music business and their future plans.
A home-grown, low-budget offering about a Dublin-based dope-dealer and his struggles against the forces of law and order, Flick is by no means as bad as the recent glut of gangster Britflicks - but for a movie with such a promising and praiseworthy agenda, it suffers from a curious lack of heart and charm.
Even devout horror nuts had little cause to feel perturbed by the prospect of a remake of The Omen. I mean, who cares if it was thrown together to capitalise on a date (6/6/06)? It’s not like we’re dealing with a classic.
A broadly Hitchcock-like frightener with allusions to ghosts and brutal slayings, Stir Of Echoes positively plays havoc with the heart-rate, and, if not exactly awash with originality, it's extremely satisfying in its own right.
"Cloverfield is, as the pitch and poster suggests, Godzilla meets The Blair Witch Project and the shocks are made all the more potent by the trivial world they intrude upon."
Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes confirms his place among the Hollywood soundtrack elite with the June 4 release of Ocean’s Thirteen: Music By David Holmes.
With his September 18 visit to the Olympia selling-out in nanoseconds, Hot Press cover star David Gray has announced a somewhat bigger Dublin date at the Point Theatre.
So too this fantastic film (honest), which makes for easily the best aquatic night out since they found Nemo. Preserving the quirky surrealist aesthetic of the sublime TV show (one part Tex Avery, two parts John K., one part anti-John K.), the movie sees our pure-hearted porous hero take off with Patrick the starfish on a perilous mission to rescue King Neptune’s crown and save township Bikini Bottom from the ever nefarious schemes of the Napoleonic Plankton.
Verbinski’s taut direction sees him back on form after his recent misfiring star-vehicle, The Mexican and while much of the film – particularly the central video images – plagiarises Nakata’s original, it’s difficult to criticise the well-crafted and chilling results.
Still, there’s a neat efficiency about Reeker that clammily grasps your attention. It’s no Sistine Chapel, but if you stand back far enough, you can admire the gleaming nuts and bolts.
Craig David’s opening volley of singles – ‘Re-Wind’, ‘Fill Me In’ and ‘Seven Days’ – were so devilishly entertaining and filled with youthful promise that following them was always going to be a tough task.
Easy on the eye, and not exactly challenging in the grey matter stakes, Pitch Black is a highly watchable if far from unforgettable slice of low-budget sci-fi/monster-movie daftness.
Adapted by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan from Christopher Priest’s novel about two competing magicians in turn-of-the-20th-century London, The Prestige charts the fortunes of suave Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and working-class runt Alfred Borden (Christian Bale).
It took Gray a few songs, but by mid-set the singer-songwriter and his two-man acoustic band had moved into their flow, helped hugely by a pivotally-placed ‘Babylon’, to which the audience gave great song.
given the choice, I’d prefer to see him in front of a comfortable-sized crowd, but due to his immense popularity, grander things are called for these days. .
Possibly weirder than anything Cronenberg has done before (and we're talking about the man responsible for Crash and Naked Lunch here), Existenz is the most genuinely warped film I've seen in several years, and like most of the man's work, it leaves you quite unsure what to make of it.
There is some predictable tomfoolery involving chewed furniture and an obedience school run by Kathleen Turner, but Marley And Me sneaks up and coalesces into something unexpected.
THE ORIGINAL was, of course, an absolute joy and a thing of wonder, but its impact might have been even greater if they hadn't insisted on following it up with two sequels
As you might have twigged by now, The Panic Room is not the most original movie ever - but if the base material lacks originality, Fincher's treatment of it is novel enough to compensate
Racing Stripes blends live action and animatronix for a narrative about a zebra who wants to be a racehorse trapped in a movie that wants to be Babe. It’s nowhere near, I’m afraid, belonging instead to a genus that includes Ice Age or Shark’s Tale - you know, family features seemingly designed to help the Pixar people cackle themselves to sleep on mattresses stuffed with thousand dollar bills.
The Dark Is Rising, an adaptation of Susan Cooper’s massively influential children’s classic, is a big, plodding dud that bares little or no resemblance to the book that inspired it.
Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan do sterling work as the hunter and the hunted. Forget everything you ever learned from Anthony Mann; Carver (Neeson) and Gideon (Brosnan) are elemental sorts locked in an elemental struggle.
Had Dreamworks’ animation wing chosen to follow Shrek 2 with Madagascar one might be inclined to see this jungle-to-jungle fable as evidence that the signature studio gumbo of starry voiceovers, pop pastiche and cartoon buffoonery was starting to turn...
Sadly, Phoenix is woefully short on incident. In the absence of any real narrative thrust, the film instead concerns itself with interpersonal intricacies.
The six-piece outfit are undeniably exciting, with Holmes’ trademark infectious breakneck apocalyptic voodoo grooves, fleshed out with pulsating bass, pounding drums, stabbed jagged shards of guitar and equal-parts-scary-and-beautiful vocals from rapper Sean Reveron and chanteuse Petra Jean Phillipson.
Simultaneously an autobiographical cine-scrapbook, a boy’s heartbreaking love letter to his mother and a screaming-comes-across-the-screen instant (appropriate that) post-modern classic, Tarnation was assembled from family home-movies, tape-recordings, video-diaries, stark inter-titles and pop-culture fragments to create a cubist portrait of the director as a young man, reflected primarily through his relationship with his mentally-traumatised mother, Renee.
A PISS-POOR slice of low-rent northern-English comic whimsy, with misguided feelgood pretensions and the most horrific costume design this side of Velvet Goldmine, this painfully lame romantic comedy should be available on video in all good bargain-bins for 50p before the year's out.
'The huge number of multinational executives being abducted abroad has made organised kidnapping a big business. It has also spawned a counter-industry - getting them back - and a secret drama involving spies and revolutionaries, AK-47's and armoured cars, helicopter drops and hideaways' - William Prouchtnau, Vanity Fair, May 1998.
More po-faced and humourless than anything Peter Greenaway has ever put his name to, Lars von Trier's hideous quasi-musical Dancer In The Dark represents the absolute ultimate in bullshit arthouse pretension
Gosh. It’s so difficult to review Tarantino movies without sounding like a stalker fan-girl who’d blissfully dwell amidst his celluloid garbage. Or worse, his actual garbage.
Tracing Scott Walker’s journey from reluctant 60s teen idol to leftfield dignitary, this award-winning doc should please both neophytes and dedicated champions alike.
A BLOOD-CURDLING howl of violent white rage that looks set to reverberate around the world for some time to come, Fight Club is an almighty, disturbing, monstrous motherfucker of a movie which power-drills its way into the viewer’s head like few films since the heyday of Martin Scorsese.
Massive Attack explain why they are outspoken opponents of the proposed war in Iraq, give high praise to Sinéad O’Connor and reveal how a porn soundtrack left them gasping for airtime.
what good was rock’n’roll in 2001? No good at all – and yet we couldn’t have got through without it.
Peter Murphy reflects on a year in which some old codgers stood up to be counted and many of us lived “on songs and hope”
The author and former Conservative MP on clashing with Ian Paisley, shaking hands with Gerry Adams, sex and drugs in the house of commons, what Margaret Thatcher did and didn’t know about her closest aides and why kissing and telling on John Major is justified
Interviews, reviews, images, videos and more....
hotpress.com documents the rise and rise of Ireland-adopted folk phenomenon DAVID GRAY in an exclusive microsite
Get your diaries out now: a new show featuring specially-recorded performances from the likes of Republic Of Loose and David Kitt is to be aired on Channel 6 on 2 June at 11pm.
The bloody amazing Flaming Lips take over for The White Stripes (forced to cancel following Jack White's car accident) on the Sunday main stage - and that's not all. David Kitt is now on the Witnness bill, too
The bloody wonderful Flaming Lips move to the Witnness Main Stage on Sunday night, following The White Stripes' sad departure from the festival bill (following Jack White's car accident). And that's not all: David Kitt is now playing Witnness, too
The apparently not-so-mild-mannered-after-all David Gray is less than impressed with the I'm-so-rich-it-hurts apologias of pop's Mr Tortured Bigmouth, Robbie Williams. Ooh, get him
Stuart David, bassist from Belle ... Sebastian, gets his chance to shine with Looper, his latest project, and belies the oft- held notion that bass players are also rans in the creative department: just given the notes and told what to do. Up A Tree sees David displaying enough invention and imagination for a Brazilian football coach, without the attendant histrionics.
Hot Press has it on unimpeachable authority that David Gray will be returning to Ireland in November for shows at the Dublin Point and Belfast Odyssey.
Pick of the bunch here is label boss David Ekenback’s ‘Breakdance’ – buzzing tech drums, tribal percussion, Rachmad-esque stabs, musical key changes, a fierce bass and proper bazzin’ breakdowns, make this a choon.
It’s another year, so that means another compilation from the ever-reliable NRK. Musically, it’s the same deep, flowing techy house as ever, with contributions from Miguel Migs, David Alvarado and Nick Holder and a mix CD from Hipp-E.
Like a combination of Lemon Jelly and Squarepusher, David Edwards’ second album is so chock full of both warmth and inventiveness you’ll find you’ll be all at sea without it. Sorry…
Fair play to Yorke for continuing to do his own thing. Yet why does it have to be quite so unlistenable? ‘Harrowdown Hill’ deals with yet another Big Subject (the death of Dr David Kelly) but is really a collection of electronic doodlings and off-key vocals. Portentous and challenging it may be, a good record it isn’t.
The Frames and David Kitt are the latest additions to the Hot Press Irish Music Awards bill. And with TV3 as well as BBC NI broadcasting it & a potential audience of 20 million, it's a good job we've no less than ex-Live Aid director David Croft at the helm
John Dahlback and David Ekenback deliver an EP that’s inspired by a wealth of influences: there’s gnarly techno on ‘The Tron’, deep, mellow sounds prevail on ‘Give Me A Hugg’ and the bleepy ‘Gin & Tronic’ pulses along with understated menace.
Josh Wink’s label shows its diversity on this compilation: alternating between lush techno from David Alvarado, Steve Bug’s minimalism, D’Julz 303 fixation and Yann Fontaine’s deep house, ‘Fall Collection’ is a fine collection of underground dance floor music.
How David Gray - whose follow-up to the planet-conqueringly successful Whilte Ladder is due out in eight weeks - beat the how-the-hell-do-you-follow-White-Ladder blues
David Duriez keeps the jacking tracks coming: tight drums and ominous bass pulses power this streamlined affair, and an old school snare roll makes a cheeky nod to his love of all things retro. It isn’t all warehouse thrills though and ‘Menth A L’Eau’ sounds like classic Ron Trent.
Cynics may see this album as a stop-gap release designed simply to fill the void back home, while
David Gray sets out to break America with White Ladder.
Yet another young jazz-influenced singer (she’s just 15) Olstead tackles the Great American Songbook with impressive ease on her debut, produced by David Foster who has worked with Celine Dion and Michael Buble.
And you can dance to them too, they said way back, and it was the truth. Talking Heads are one of the perfect marriages of modern rock'n'roll. They don't just sound of angles, perspectives and prisms of thought, they actually mean something! And dey got riddim too!! Ah yes, David Byrne is a fellow who knows what it is to be ridden by an angst, and to make it jumpy and funky and fun!
Are you ready for another massive David Gray hit that gets rotated to death by every mid-afternoon DJ on the planet? Well, we’re quite sure you’re going to be hearing a lot of ‘The One I Love’ when it hits the airwaves later this August. Instantly catchy (if suspiciously like Paul Brady) and featuring one of David’s most uplifting choruses to date, this power-ballad has the potential to be even bigger than ‘Babylon’ was back in 2000.
Signed to Warner offshoot 14th Floor Records by the man who also signed David Gray and Damien Rice, things are looking good for the Luton DIY star who gatecrashed the charts with his home recorded single ‘Fly’.
Ben Larsen’s fusion of sparse, minimal shapes and niggling 303 sounds is similar to current Poker Flat releases, but David Duriez’ ferocious, jacking Chicago mix of Moody Preachers’ ‘SP 12 Resurrection doesn’t rely on such niceties and takes Phuture’s dark, acid-soaked Windy City legacy to new extremities.
Read an interview with David Berman of Silver Jews - and then listen to 'Tennessee', from new opus Bright Flight, an ode to a dream state with an unlimited supply of "club soda" and "hot middle-aged women"
David Duriez’s imprint has been responsible for releasing some fine underground house music in recent years and this hip house remix package upholds its high standards. On Land Shark’s version, the vocals are twisted and teased into an old skool acid mash up and A Jackin’ Phreak’s re-shape fuses restrained minimal funk with deep chords. Both are well worth a spin.
Fancy yourself a bit of a space oddity? Like your makeup zigzagged? Don't miss Rock'n'roll Suicide: A Celebration Of The Works Of David Bowie, featuring acoustic homages (by various Dublin bands) to the chameleon of rock
Taken from her forthcoming album We’re Smiling, this slightly skewed break-up song finds Scott sharing the studio with Katell Keineg, David Kitt and former Frames Karl Odlum and Dave Hingerty. Suggesting nothing so much as a heavily sedated PJ Harvey, Scott delivers a haunting vocal backed by a deep, dark bass and sparse electronic noodlings. There are shades of Bjork here too, yet Scott ultimately carves out a territory all of her own.
Yngve Wieland’s debut EP brings with it shades of early Bright Eyes and David Kitt throughout its five tracks. While exploring familiar lyrical territories of lost love and all that goes with it, Wieland, at his best, manages to draw the listener in with his wistful vocals and stripped-back guitar hooks.
Mr David Couse releases the third single off The World Should Know and it has the potenial to garner him lots of radio play, with a chorus that really likes the word ‘Celebration’. Long standing fans will be more interested to hear what’s actually the third re-recording of A House’s ‘Endless Art’, in which he reels off a brand new list of those who are “all dead, yet still alive”. Delivered with a softer approach on this occasion, he pays tribute to the likes of Dermot Morgan, Ella Fitzgerald and Hunter S Thompson.
Watch our exclusive David Kitt video interview - filmed after the success of his debut mini-album, the aptly-titled 'Small Moments', and shortly before the completion of 'The Big Romance', an album which went on to be counted as one of the best Irish records of last year.
Although David Byrne’s Lead Us Not Into Temptation is composed almost entirely of moody incidental music, it’s still a work of art in its own right and easily the best movie score I’ve heard this century.
Heart's Quest is the brainchild of David Downes (oboe, cor anglais) and David Agnew (whistles, keyboards) augmented by whatever musical battalions they need from track to track.
Hosted by Channel 6’s Michelle Doherty and Across The Line presenter David “Rigsy” O’Reilly, the second Choice Music Prize, set out to showcase the ten best albums of the previous year and, of course, to decide a winner.
Ireland gets world-premiere first dibs on David Gray's new album, A New Day At Midnight, when it's released here a full 4 days ahead of the rest of the planet on October 24th. At midnight of course
He may have a touch of the singer-songwriters about him, but there's no whining, no introverted self-absorbtion, and no miserable-ism surrounding New Yorker David Mead.
April 26 sees radio duo Donna Legge and David O’Reilly enter the realm of the audio-visual in Across The Line TV, with Snow Patrol playing a starring role in the warm-up special
Featuring multiple mixes each of three songs, All Your Life/Sweet Love is an absolute gem of an EP by arch Irish musicians David Bickley of Hyper[boreal] and Ferus O’Farrell of Interference. These stunning tracks – put together in O’Farrell’s studio on the remote West Cork coast – blend O’Farrell’s beautiful folk vocals into some seriously spacey electronica/funky dance beats. Individually, Bickley and O’Farrell are geniuses in their own right; what they’ve created together brings their gifts to a whole new plane.
David Donohoe, along with his friend Donnacha Costello, is one of Ireland’s brightest techno hopes and ‘Statuesque’, his second album for D1, shows that he has developed a unique identity.
For this his third album, DJ Shadow attempts to shed the “indie rap” tag which sticks so easily to instrumental hip-hop producers. To that end, Shadow collaborates with the likes of Keak Da Sneak, David Banner, and several other rappers. The result is an album which, in places, takes a far more conventionally “rap” direction than previous outings.
This mini-album had its genesis in the Irish tour undertaken late last year by The Frames, Jubilee Allstars, David Kitt and Dave Cleary, but it's calibre makes it more than just a souvenir of that jaunt.
A special exhibition focussing on musical inspirations as been lined up for The Music Show, which takes place at the RDS in Dublin this weekend, Saturday October 4 and Sunday October 5.
David Holmes soundtracks the sequel to mafioso-meets-headshrinker comedy Analyze This, starring Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal and Lisa Kudrow. What's it called? Analyze That, strangely enough
David Byrne
‘Like Humans Do’ [Virgin]
Claiming to hate the condescending catch-all entity that is known as world music, ‘Like Humans Do’ sees Byrne back on a similar observational pop tip to what informed all the best Talking Heads records.
David Power's done a brilliant job of researching the notes on the tunes for the CD booklet, and one only wishes he'd applied the same thoroughness to displaying his clean, elegant playing in the best possible light: too often, irregular foot thumps and other minor glitches mar the overall effect.
Spread over two CDs, the New York DJs moves smoothly from vocal house tracks from Dubtribe, Blaze and Corrina Joseph into progressive house jams by David James, 16B and Superchumbo
Veteran producer Hal Willner has revealed the preliminary line-up for this July's Rogue’s Gallery concert in Dublin, which will feature top artists performing sea chanteys and pirate ballads.
The songwriter’s oldest friends – Don Henley, Ry Cooder, David Lindley and Jackson Browne – occasionally seem hamstrung by too much respect for the material, although Bob Dylan does essay a decent ‘Mutineer’, and you can hear Bruce Springsteen’s mouth water as he gets his chops around the East Texas testament of ‘My Ride’s Here’.
Cornershop, Sigur Ros, The Dirty Three, David Kitt, The Frames, Lambchop? Yep, the dreamy bill above, and much more besides, is in store at this year's Galway Arts Festival
No longer the angry young man who heralded A Century Ends, nor the underdog troubadour we took to our hearts and our homes with White Ladder, the David Gray of 2005 is something like a phenomenon.
After more than 15 years BBC Radio Ulster's Across The Line is undergoing something of a re-vamp. Colin Carberry reports on why this is good news for fans, and bands, on both sides of the border
For the duration of August each year, Edinburgh becomes a veritable treasure trove of artistic delights, playing host to the best in theatre, music, film and, of course, comedy.
American readers that missed out on tickets for his sold-out tour with The Frames can catch Damien Rice up close and personal with David Letterman tonight
