It's far too easy for super-cool musos to cast derision on Coldplay's Chris Martin. Whether it's the conscious uncoupling from Gwyneth Paltrow or his wholesome image, the sandal-wearing singer,...
He's not dead yet. Despite splitting his head open in a nasty fall just a few weeks ago, pop legend Phil Collins proved he could still deliver at a packed Aviva Stadium last night.
Having headlined seemingly every festival on earth, the Foo Fighters have finally – finally – made...
Justin Bieber was always going to give a sizzling performance in the eyes of his loyal army of...
Exactly twenty years ago today, Radiohead played the largest show of their early career at the...
Never let it be said that Robbie Williams doesn’t give full value. At his sell out Aviva show,...
Kraftwerk are pop's original robot overlords, their belief in the supremacy of machines once...
Shawn Mendes is the first pop star to play 3Arena since Ariana Grande headlined in May. A lot has changed since then and security is tight. Mendes obliquely references the suicide bombing in...
Shawn Mendes was the first pop star to play 3Arena since Ariana Grande headlined ten days previously.
Imelda May performed in Manchester just two days before a suicide bomber killed 23 people at an...
After facing three security checks, 83,000 people patiently queued for beer and burgers in a slightly muddy but far from devastated Slane hill.
Cranberries singer Dolores O'Riordain has been in the headlines in recent years for air rage and...
Laurie Anderson’s three-night residency at the NCH began with a performance of “Language of the Future” – a meditation on place and memory and how they intersect with politics in the Age of...
Nostalgia is a comfort blanket of youthful memories sound tracked by acts who are probably twenty...
The Gods long ago equipped Bono with the antennae of a wise man. So, he must have known that...
Bob Dylan has played in Ireland numerous times in the first seventeen years of the 21st century, including major open air shows in Kilkenny and...
Maz and Bricks comes at a particularly timely moment: it debuted just days after the Citizen’s Assembly voted overwhelmingly to allow abortion in Ireland.
Bruno Mars is a classic case of musical Marmite - his tracks are oft dismissed as wedding dance fodder, but over the past couple of years, he’s...
It has been impossible to escape Ed Sheeran and his big, smiley face this week.
Harry Styles isn't destined for mid-level stardom. All eyes will be on the former One Direction star this weekend when he joins Saturday Night Live as...
Every time Ed Sheeran rolls into town, the pre-show buzz really feels like a homecoming.
Pink Martini are a phenomenally successful pop jazz group from Portland, Oregon. They have such remarkable evergreen appeal they’re able to...
Not every artist who comes to town gets a gigantic mural in Smithfield painted in their honour, but...
Joan Wasser's recent career has been a case study in casting off your inhibitions and giving voice to the crowd-pleaser within.
Drake has a well-deserved reputation as the grumpiest rapper alive. But as he opened a two-night stand at 3Arena, it was in the guise of world-class flatterer.
One of the nicer Valentine’s Day traditions, rather than corny Hallmark cards and supermarket dine-in deals, is a romantic concert.
The National Concert Hall begins its centenary celebration of the Russian revolution with a welcome visit from the St Petersburg Philharmonic.
The ripple of excitement that passed through the room as Olivia Newton-John made her entrance confirmed that, at 68, the singer has lost none...
When musicians start writing songs about their kids, it’s usually time to reach for the ‘off’ switch. But on her new album Martha Wainwright upends this fundamental law of pop, with music that...
Christmas arrived early for fans of louche lounge-pop and groan-worthy one-liners as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr swaggered onto a stage demurely accessorised with giant, tinsel-...
What do Madonna, the Edge and Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie have in common? They’ve all suffered very embarrassing tumbles while performing onstage.
Ocean Colour Scene are the cockroaches of British music.
Paul Simon is one of pop’s great chameleons. As the more introspective half of Simon and Garfunkel, he crafted coffee house folk both briskly catchy...
“I’d like to take you back in my time machine to an age before there were smart phones,” announces dapper ABC front man Martin Fry a few songs into a set that serves up generous portions...
A funny thing happened when people returned home from the annual pilgrimage to Electric Picnic.
In 2001, Leonard Cohen said: "When Alberta Hunter was singing many years ago, at 82, I came to New York just to listen to her. When she said 'God bless you', you really felt that you had been blessed. It's wonderful to hear a 20-year-old speaking about love. As the Talmud says, there's good wine in...
During the opening number of Justin Bieber’s mammoth Purpose world tour, the 22-year old...
It is hard to say with absolute certainty but I don’t think anyone has danced on a Dublin stage dressed as a banana since an Aphex Twin DJ set in the old Temple Bar Music Centre.
John Carpenter rebooted horror cinema through the late seventies and early eighties with lean and efficient chillers such as Halloween and...
Kodaline's Steve Garrigan echoed the thoughts of many a discerning music lover when he said on the Twitter machine from Los Angeles last week: ''Well the new @boniver album is amazing.'' And hirsute visionary Justin Vernon's third - and five-beard-scratching-years in the making - album as Bon...
By Jean-Michel Jarre’s record-breaking standards, playing Ireland’s largest indoor venue is an intimate walk in the park compared to performing for millions of people at some of the highest...
Andrea Bocelli is seemingly becoming more mainstream by the day.
The 11th New Ross Piano Festival offers an eclectic choice of programmes in the agreeable acoustic of St Mary’s Church.
So Justin Vernon is back with a new album, five years on from Bon Iver, the collection that followed the spectacular global success of the debut, For Emma, Forever Ago.
In the middle of an extremely busy July for outdoor shows, Longitude still sells out for its fourth instalment. Friday headliner Kendrick Lamar...
Self doubt has been the making of some great art. Great singers have often found personal redemption in song.
The Queen Bey is back in town, nineteen years after she burst onto the world stage alongside Destiny's Child.
As Iceland prepare for their Euros showdown with a Brexiting England, the biggest Icelandic musical export since Björk play their biggest Irish headline show to date.
Rihanna had Irish fans worried at a gig in Dublin on Tuesday night after arriving 30 minutes late and then crying onstage.
