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1 week ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Music 18 Jun 25 Live Report: Charli XCX resurrects brat summer with a thrill-pushing spectacle at Malahide Castle Charli XCX. Credit: Harley Weir The pop megastar descended on Dublin for the victory lap of her era-defining 2024 album brat. A night of endless verve? Check. Anarchy, hedonism and unadulterated soul? Check, check, check. It was always going to be this way.
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1 week ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Music 16 Jun 25 Grian Chatten calls KNEECAP terror charge “a witch hunt” Fontaines D.C. at Primavera Sound 2025. Photo Credit: Eric Pamies. The Fontaines frontman further commented, “I stand by their side, and I’m totally unafraid to do so.”
Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten has deemed KNEECAP’s Mo Chara’s terror charge as a “witch hunt”.
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2 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Pulp, was there ever Britpop royalty so left-field yet towering in the cultural consciousness? Well over 44 years have passed since they played their first gig at the City Comprehensive School in Sheffield, going on to dominate the 1990s charts after a decade of struggling to break through. Following the release of their seventh studio album, We Love Life, in 2001, the band took a decade-long hiatus, reuniting for a festival run in 2011 and another reunion tour in 2022.
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3 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Music 06 Jun 25 Album Review: Beoga, Phases Beoga. Credit: Ruth Medjber Trad for the masses. 7/10 Whether they’re giving Dave Grohl a bodhrán lesson or collaborating with Ed Sheeran on ‘Galway Girl’, Beoga are well-known for bringing Irish trad to the masses with their genre-defiant craft. On their latest album, Phases, the Irish outfit continue their line of sonic populism, following up a four-year hiatus with 10 impressive tracks.
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3 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Macklemore’s concert at St. Anne’s Park on Wednesday night was something of a homecoming. For a long time, the Seattle rapper has celebrated his Irish heritage in spades. And if his intimate, yet massive Dublin show has anything to prove, it’s that this ancestral pride is going nowhere soon. By the time Macklemore was due to arrive, the venue was already packed to the back, the crowd a mix of fans old and young.
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3 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you’re probably familiar with the album campaign-turned-cultural phenomenon that is Brat. Released last June, Charli XCX’s sixth album not only defined the visual style of the summer – a welcome antidote to 2023’s Barbiecore – but also captured the zeitgeist of a chronically-online generation, plagued by existential crises.
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3 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Cliffords. If you haven’t heard their name – stretched on billboards and blasted on the airwaves – yet, it’s only a matter of time. Last year, the Cork band released their debut EP Strawberry Scented, a self-financed labour of love that earned some glowing critical notices. They've followed it up with an excellent sophomore EP, Salt Of The Lee, which is only a few days old when I meet singer Iona Lynch and keyboardist Locon O’Toole over Zoom.
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4 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears dished his admiration for British pop songsmith Self Esteem in the May issue of Hot Press Magazine. Speaking to Flo Laurent, the New York frontman called the singer—aka Rebecca Lucy Taylor—a “fucking clever” artist whose stage production inspired Scissor Sisters’ upcoming UK and Ireland tour. “I saw Self Esteem play on Sunday at this residency that she had in the West End, which was incredible,” Shears noted.
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4 weeks ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
After a six-year-long battle to secure the rights to her first six albums, Taylor Swift is now officially the sole owner of her masters. The popstar announced via a letter on her website on Friday, 30 May, that she has bought back her music catalogue from Shamrock Capital, with the price of the settlement being kept under wraps. "Hi. I’m trying to gather my thoughts into something coherent, but right now my mind is just a slideshow.
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1 month ago | 
hotpress.com | Caroline Kelly
KNEECAP shared news saying they have been removed from the TRNSMT musical festival in Glasgow due to safety concerns from police. In a statement posted to Instagram, the Belfast rap group announced a new show at O2 Academy in Glasgow, writing: To the thousands of people who bought tickets, flights and hotels to see us play, we are sorry...it is out of our hands. “Glasgow has always been a huge city for us. We’ve played there many many times, with no issues - ever. Make of that what you will.
