Cuckoo could be heard all over Ireland and Britain during June and July as the northern band toured the two countries. They’ve just released their new album, Breathing Lessons, but aren’t stopping to catch their breath. The Derry boys are now a quintet after aquiring a new bassist and are due back in the recording studio in September. They hope to have a new single out before Christmas – possibly in October.

Also due to bring out an album are the Hitchers, who have set January of next year for its release date. Currently rehearsing, they’ll be hitting the studios in Limerick in the next few weeks to begin recording and are also composing material for a single.

A second album looks like being on the cards for Junkster. They’re currently working on songs for this and are due to begin recording later this year, for release in March 1999. The recording and mixing will take place in Dublin and Los Angeles. The band are due to do a radio tour in L.A. between August 3rd and 15th but will be back in Ireland for a gig in Galway on the 28th of that month – one day before they play at Slane.

Engine Alley took a break from their musical career in 1996 but they’re back! Group member Brian told Hot Press that the band will play the Watergate Theatre on August 18th, as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival. They’ve also covered ‘Suspicion’ for the Natural Born Elvis tribute album, which will raise money for the charity Children At Risk in Ireland. The album is due for release on August 16th.

After touring Europe with her, The Devlins are back on the road with Tori Amos – this time in North America. Having opened in Milwaukee on July 15th, the tour is set to finish in early October. As part of the tour the band played with the American superstar at Madison Square Gardens on July 28th, which has a 15,000 capacity. The Irish-only release of their single, ‘Years Could Go By’, took place just three days after the Madison Square gig. The single has both a Summer and a Winter version – the former is a remix while the latter is acoustic. Taken from their album Waiting, the single is backed up by a live cover of the Prince song ‘I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man’.

Meanwhile, America is reciprocating the Devlins’ trans-Atlantic venture by sending their talent to the Emerald Isle. San Francisco band Red House Painters are set to play their first gig in Ireland in the Mean Fiddler in Dublin on Wednesday, August 12th.

On the pop scene, Dublin duo In Utopia will be playing in the 2FM Beat On The Street tour in August. The Dublin boys, whose sound has been compared to Erasure, are set to hit Wexford on August 8th, Dublin on the 22nd and Cork on the 30th. They’ll also be appearing on the BBC’s George Jones Show in Belfast in September and will harness the opportunity to play live in the city on the 10th, 11th and 12th of the month. Germany has also played host to their talents as they’ve been to Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Munich recently, playing before 80,000 at the Munich gig. They’ll be back in Germany on August 15th to take part in Popkom. In the meantime they intend to release another single before Christmas and there may be an album in the not too distant future. If all goes well, there could be more to come as the boys have written about 50 songs in the twelve months that they’ve been together.

Belfast man David Holmes, aka ‘Homer’, has learned that his hit single ‘My Mate Paul’ is to be the theme music to the new Sony PlayStation game Fluid. He and Johnny Moy played The Red Box on the first of this month. If you missed it you’ll have a long wait before you catch Holmes in Ireland again. It was his last show in the country for about a year as he is jetting off to New York again – this time to record his new album.

Five-piece Antipodean-Celt music sensation Fling are currently touring Ireland. The group, celebrating seven years together, play the Temple Bar Music Centre on September 6th. The next day sees them in Belfast’s Rotterdam Warehouse, followed by two Cork gigs on the 8th and 9th at the Lobby Bar and Connolly’s of Leap.

Sticking with the trad scene, The McNamara Family’s recently released album, Leitrim’s Hidden Treasures, includes some previously unrecorded tunes taken from a rediscovered text called the Grier Manuscript. This tome contains over 1,000 traditional Irish tunes and the group’s album is released on Drumline Records.

Also on the album front, Darren Holden has released Suddenly on Crash records and Picturehouse are about to release an as yet untitled album, which has a ‘rockier’ sound Indian are also back writing songs and are starting to play live shows again after their gig scene hiatus.