he just always wants to be able to say "i told you so!", he's like the cousin from my perfect cousin, his articles are written as if spoken from atop a tall creature, possibly a horse of some kind, in a middle class smug tone that can only best be described as, dreadful. Although astonishingly i like what he says alot of the time, just not the delivery. That paper is the only one for irish music today and i think it lets us down badly. for instance, rev jules had to be the one to inform me here about this rap thing in dublin. i dont have time to discover these things, so i need people whose job it is to know music to throw a fricken bone every once and a while and let me know the sceal in the music scene with its hipin and hopin. havent seen the review yet, never heard of the band either

Well Niall is certainly friendly with them, as can be seen from these 2 photos of him with the band, which are up on their website: http://www.saucymonky.com/PhotoPages/images/PagePhotoFiles/Ireland01.jpg http://www.saucymonky.com/PhotoPages/images/PagePhotoFiles/Ireland02.jpg And then they've visited the Hot Press offices: http://www.saucymonky.com/PhotoPages/images/PagePhotoFiles/atHotPress.jpg Draw your own conclusions I suppose. eoghan

hmmmm, well eoghan - the conclusion i am drawing has no place in family-oriented web-lication like cluas. might check out that saucy monkey website meself though - purely for further analysis you understand.

I knew there was something going on there. The review is ok but well too long and bit biased for a national publication. And as I said Nick Cave and Steve Earle got had shorter reviews in the same issue. But the pics say it all aswell as his constant referral to the sexual enegry that the girls in the band have.

I think everyone knows that about 70% of all articles in hot press are the product of payoffs and favours. Apart from a few good writers and the odd decent article the magazine is seriosly clueless rubbish.

i wish hotpress was good. i'd love to enjoy reading it, i'm not a bitter person or a begrudger in any way, but i feel that the magazine smacks of snobbery, smugness and a closed shop. that said, i've bought a copy every few months for years... but it hasn't really improved. come on hotpress! shape up!