In an interview last year, Johnny Marr gave me an insight into a working manifesto that’s stuck with him for 30 years, saying: “Believe it or not, there’s a real trick to making it sound so […]
Gigs of the week: April 17-23
JULIAN COPE, Whelan’s, Dublin, tomorrow One-time accidental pop star Julian Cope has become one of music’s most singular underground voices since his chart act The Teardrop Explodes drowned in gallons of LSD and imploded in 1982. […]
Everything ship-shape: DGTL festival in Amsterdam
It’s still not warm enough to ditch your jacket and the sky is a hundred shades of grey, but we’re waiting on a ferry at the back of Amsterdam Centraal station – festival season is […]
Gigs of the week: April 10-16
THE BOMB SQUAD (Hank Shocklee), Sugar Club, Dublin, Tonight PUBLIC Enemy are a rare enough hip-hop act with a production team that get as much praise as the MCs — largely down to Hank Shocklee of the […]
Gigs of the week: April 3-9
Sting and Paul Simon, 3Arena, Dublin, Tuesday YOU have to feel for Art Garfunkel and his loyal fans who packed into Vicar Street a few weeks ago, singing iconic Simon & Garfunkel songs without […]
Gigs of the week: March 27-April 2
NICKY MINAJ, 3Arena, Dublin, Tuesday, & Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Wednesday BAR Kanye West, Nicki Minaj is the most divisive figure in hip-hop right now, even if she’s not at Glasto headline status just yet. Minaj is another […]
Just for the record: Paul Oakenfold on 25 years of Perfecto
WITH any given pop culture movement there’s always a ‘back in the day’ — a nebulous chain of events that ignite a scene and help forge the myth. Then we get the year-zero pinpoint events […]
Gigs of the week: March 20-26
MORRISSEY, Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Tuesday ASIDE from his role as one of the last great iconic frontmen, Morrissey’s greatest talent these days seems to be keeping us all guessing. After Morrissey bowed out before Christmas […]
Gigs of the week: March 13-19
2 MANY DJs, Olympia Theatre, Dublin, tonight, 11pm-late, €29.90 (tickets) Any time there’s a retrospective about music at the turn of the millennium, the resurgence of guitars generally rises above all the other chatter – as […]
Hit the ground Running: Vann Music interview
POP music is full of brilliant eureka moment stories — but we’re not sure how many classics are composed in the bathroom. But Aaron Smyth of Dublin new wave electronic act Vann Music had a Radox […]
Gigs of the week: March 6 – 12
LIONEL RICHIE, Odyssey Arena, Belfast, Tuesday (Tickets) / 3Arena, Dublin, Wednesday (Tickets) LIONEL Richie’s latest tour is dubbed All the Hits All Night Long — but has Lionel played any other type of gig in […]
Gigs of the week: February 27 – March 6
CHOICE MUSIC PRIZE, Vicar Street, Dublin, Thursday, SOLD OUT Say what you want about the irrelevancy of the BRITs for actual music — you know we won’t be here this time next week talking about all […]
Taking up space: Public Service Broadcasting interview
In an era of nanosecond attention spans and click & dump music listening habits, it takes some brass neck to bring out a concept album. But living up to their name, English duo Public Service Broadcasting are out […]
Gigs of the week: February 20-26
JAPE, Roisin Dubh, Galway, tonight (tickets); Dolan’s, Limerick, tomorrow (tickets) and Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Sunday (tickets) We know it’s early days yet, but Richie Egan didn’t hang about this year before dropping an album that’s sure to […]
House nation: Interview with Joey Negro
In this climate of reissues and retromania it’s easy to turn your nose up at major labels wringing pennies out of dormant rock acts with best-ofs or anniversary releases full of leftovers. Retrospectives in dance music generally […]
Moo Kid 