It's disconcerting to have a conversation with Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men, through no fault of Bichlbaum's. Well, then again, it is his fault. After having seen The Yes Men movie, and Bichlbaum's various poker faced media stunts, there's always the suspicion in the back of your mind that he's somehow, to put it […]
[A Laos travelogue, from a journey taken in 2002] In the words of former Taoiseach of Ireland, Charles Haughey, the situation is “grotesque, unprecedented, bizarre and unbelievable”. It’s 10.30 at night in a bar on the outskirts of Muang Sing, a town itself on the outskirts of the rest of Laos, a country on the […]
The 2005 Six Nations opened with the clash between Scotland and France. France were generally expected to pummel a troubled Scottish side, but the Scots fought bravely. However, despite what Matt Williams would have you believe, they did not deserve to win. With the prominence of the kicking expert in the modern game, discipline is […]
Keith Wood is in a jovial mood at the University of Limerick Ulster Bank this morning. He is here as an ambassador for the RBS Six Nations tournament and is accompanying the Six Nations trophy, as well as a considerable PR entourage, on a whistle-stop tour of Limerick city this icy Monday. Three Monkeys loiters […]
Revisionists and romantics would have you believe that the Rolling Stones started when Mich Jagger bumped into Keith Richards, carrying a bunch of blues records, in Dartford railway station in 1960. It would be, though, just as easy to say that the Stones started in 1963 when Andrew Loog Oldham encountered Jagger, Richards, Jones, Wyman […]
June 2004 saw the release of the third album from Irish singer songwriter Alan 'Roesy' Roe, Only Love is Real. Received warmly by most critics, and rapturously by his small but loyal army of fans, it is an optimistic and atmospheric record which, although not dazzling in its originality, is nonetheless a beguiling listening experience. […]
The Killers. A Britpop-obsessed quartet from Las Vegas. Such a description evokes gruesome images of a genetic mutation of Siegfried and Roy and the Gallagher brothers, but thankfully that is not the case with this foursome. Their 2004 debut album, Hot Fuss, featured on plenty “Best of 2004” music pundit lists, so it’s no surprise […]
“I hope you got fat”, Gordon Gano sang, caustically, in 1988, on The Violent Femmes album 3. Eighteen years later and the lyric raises an extra smile as one notes that the Femmes frontman has the signs of a modest middle-age spread himself. These are the ironies that bands with longevity must learn to live […]
“One of the interesting things about biography is its limits. You can make educated guesses but you can never really know people’s motivations and desires. People aren’t necessarily conscious of the motives which drive them. It’s very easy to rationalise anything we want or that is in our interest, no matter how it appears to […]