Pat Carty

A great honour - and great sport - to interview Earl Slick in front of a kind crowd for the Dublin Bowie Festival. The stories and laughs kept coming so hats off to Earl who’s a lovely chap. Sitting beside him as he played those Station To Station riffs was pretty cool.

A band revitalised and full of political fire – U2’s surprise ‘Days of Ash’ EP is their best release in decades It’s tricky, if not near impossible, to keep things under wraps in this information-saturated age, but U2 just about managed it.

"Rocks like a battleship balancing on a bottle of milk..."
I wrote about being caught on the hop by Days Of Ash, the new EP from U2 in today's Irish Independent.

In the new issue of Classic Rock Magazine I report back from Mike the Pies in Listowel where Ash proved yet again how marvellous they are, and the Dedication to Philip Lynott gig at 3Arena. In your newsagents now (with a few photos by me n’ all).

A review of Art Cure: The Science Of How The Arts Transform Our Health by Daisy Fancourt for last week's Sunday Independent that didn't make it to their website...

Lucinda Williams review: US country star marks birthday with fine gig at Olympia in Dublin Amidst all the great music, Lucinda Williams also took time to rail at Trump and the awful goings-on in her homeland. And one of Rory Gallagher's guitars even made it to the stage

Still All Biker Jacket Cool, And Still Swinging: Lucinda Williams at 3Olympia.

@irishexaminer.bsky.social

Hothouse Flowers at Tradfest: Powerful night of music from a band with real soul Hothouse Flowers are joined by several special guests, from Susan O’Neill to Steve Wall and more

There are people who don’t like Hothouse Flowers. Those people are wrong.
The Flowers At Dublin Trad Fest at the National Stadium.
@irishtimes.com

A melodic gift and a focus on female characters: Why there’s more to Leonard Cohen than ‘Hallelujah’ Leonard Cohen was only nine when his father passed away. After the funeral, the boy wrote his first poem which he placed in one of his father’s bowties and buried in the back garden, “confronting unha...

Leonard and Doubting Thomas.
Reviewed The World Of Leonard Cohen for @independent.ie

Pat Carty: My one evening with David Bowie in Dublin was worth a thousand nights in the doghouse My mother remembers the death of JFK being announced during a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. She says she left the cinema on O’Connell Street in shock at the loss of the American president...

David Bowie in Ireland (with me down near the front).
@davidbowiereal.bsky.social
@independent.ie

Emmylou Harris review: Fond farewell to American country star at final gig at 3Arena, Dublin Emmylou Harris impressed in Dublin with a combination of her own songs and well-chosen covers from the likes of Gram Parsons and Gillian Welch

A moving farewell from Emmylou Harris @3arena.bsky.social

@aikenpromotions.bsky.social @irishexaminer.bsky.social

Pat Carty: Which came first, the rockstar or the rock-star hair? And what happens when you can’t field a mullet anymore? Far be it from me to suggest you fashion a tinfoil hat but your phone is listening to you. The Ma asked about a Christmas gift and I suggested a luxury timepiece for a laugh. Cue an instant bombardmen...

The quiff of Elvis, The moptops of The Beatles, Jagger's seismic style, Rod's pineapple, the dead animal on Bono's head, and my own tonsorial troubles - all are examined in depth in this @independent.ie investigation...

Wish You Were Here at 50 Pat Carty looks back at Pink Floyd's iconic album, Wish You Were Here.

Slating is a bit strong. A few gentle digs…

www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

Ferocious: Ash in Mike The Pies, Listowel.

Insomnia by Robbie Robertson - review Pat Carty reviews Insomnia, the posthumously released second memoir from The Band's Robbie Robertson.

Marty & Bob's Wild Weekend: reviewed Insomnia by Robbie Robertson on RTÉ Radio 1's Arena with Evelyn O'Rourke.

@rteradio1.bsky.social @robbierobertson.bsky.social

Anthony Hopkins’s memoir is a forthright portrait of a Welshman who has no truck with ‘touchy-feely’ stuff After almost eight months in a West End production of M Butterfly, Anthony Hopkins was “bored and irritable” and fed up with “doing the same thing night in and night out” for what would become his fin...

And what’s he, then, that says I play the villain: reviewed We Did OK, Kid by Anthony Hopkins for the Irish Independent/The Sunday Independent.

@simonschusteruk.bsky.social @anthonyhopkinss.bsky.social @independent.ie

What the McCartneys sent in the post after a Wings concert got a bad review Dealing with failure is one thing but handling success is likely another matter altogether. Just imagine for a minute that at 27 you’ve already created a peerless body of musical work that literally c...

What Paul Did Next.
Reviewed Wings: The Story Of A Band On The Run by Paul McCartney for the Irish Independent.

@independent.ie @paulmccartney147.bsky.social @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social

Reviewed the 40th Anniversary Edition of Rum, Sodomy & The Lash by The Pogues for Classic Rock Magazine (not on the web).

@thepogues.bsky.social @warnermusic.bsky.social

Reviewed The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie for The Sunday Independent.

Tim Wheeler on early fame: ‘I got hammered during the gig. The next day we were doing MTV interviews but I woke up in my own vomit. Management were really upset’ Anyone with any sense joins a band as a teenager and dreams big. Once reality lashes out a few kicks, the majority get on with their lives but that’s not how it panned out for Downpatrick native Tim W...

Interviewed Tim Wheeler out of Ash for @independent.ie

Lawrence Of Arabia, The Godfather(s), Master And Commander, Goodfellas, Gimme Shelter, Blazing Saddles, Tombstone, The Searchers, and YES! - The 13th Warrior.

This deluxe makeover of The Who's Who Are You is interesting and exhaustive "How all deluxe releases should be done"

Good-humoured and Arse-kicking: reviewed the deluxe edition of Who Are You from The Who for @classicrockmag.bsky.social

Pat Carty on the trials of music criticism: ‘People can take it very personally when you express a preference contrary to their own’ It might seem obvious, but it’s OK not to like things. It’s fine not to like a presidential candidate or the last Mission Impossible movie (bit slow to kick off, I felt). What is not OK is the way peo...

Disagreeing about agreeing to disagree...

@independent.ie

Jeremy Allen White shines in Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere The review of the film of the book about the making of Bruce Springsteen's bleak masterpiece, Nebraska

"A burgeoning superstar unsure of everything apart from the music."
Reviewed Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere for @classicrockmag.bsky.social

@brucespringsteen.net

Go get the Sunday Indo!

Truly by Lionel Ritchie: A cut above the usual music memoir Highly enjoyable read doesn’t shy away from discussing racism, money or personal struggles

He knows how to tell a story. I reviewed Truly by Lionel Richie for @irishtimes.com

@harpercollins.bsky.social

Richard Hawley review: Songs of magnificence at the Olympia in Dublin Richard Hawley revisited his classic Coles Corner album for a fine gig in Dublin

From tectonic tremolo rumbles to a librarian’s dream of a hush. Went to see the great Richard Hawley at 3Olympia Theatre for the Irish Examiner.

@richardhawley.bsky.social @irishexaminer.bsky.social

Priscilla Presley recalls her complicated love for Elvis in a tale of heartbreak and survival Much like the one that surrounds The Beatles, the Elvis Presley book industry shows no sign of abatement. This year alone has seen, amongst others, Preston Lauterbach’s excellent examination of the mu...

Reviewed Softly As I Leave You by Priscilla Presley in today’s Irish Independent

@headlinebooks.bsky.social
@independent.ie

Down the back of the new issue (with free Motörhead sticker!) of Classic Rock Magazine waxing about Ron Sexsmith, Buckingham/Nicks, Tom Petty, and Queens of the Stone Age.

@ronsexsmith.bsky.social @qotsa-official.bsky.social @classicrockmag.bsky.social

Wrote about the €13,000 copy of Patrick Kavanagh’s Tarry Flynn for The Sunday Times.
Abridged, of course.
Not on website.

Born To Run at 50 Pat Carty on Bruce Springsteen's legendary album Born To Run, which turns 50.

Listen back to me waxing about Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run at 50 with the lovely Ciara King on RTÉ's Arena.

@brucespringsteen.net @sonymusicofficial.bsky.social @rteradio1.bsky.social