A mug of Caffe latte – up to €3. Single train fare from Laytown to Dublin – about €10. A weekend away for two in Prague (including meals, decent wine and unnecessary shopping) – about €1,000. A red brick house on Ailsbury Road – anywhere between €10m-€30m. Drinkies with the Pet Shop Boys – priceless. There are some things money
My areas of specialist knowledge and expertise are in the broad remit of arts, entertainment, travel, food/drink/hospitality industries. I have been writing about these areas for over 25 years, and have within the past 20 years provided content, copywriting, and forensic editorial refurbishment for many websites relating to music, travel,
She is, as they say, a different kettle of fish, altogether. For some, American singer/songwriter/performer Tori Amos is many things to many people: a firebrand of individualism, a torchbearer for idiosyncrasy, a beacon of light for those wavering between independency and soul-selling. To others, she is the oddest side of odd: the woman suckling a piglet on the cover
Billy Corgan has been both baton master and whipping boy of a post-grunge generation. He was the front man of Smashing Pumpkins, the band some initially considered to be Nirvana’s poor relative; he is the rock star that even Sharon Osbourne – wife of dear, cerebrally-departed Ozzy – found to be unmanageable; he is a former boyfriend of Courtney Love,
What a contradiction Maria McKee is: she exudes the type of laidback hippy chick demeanour that went out of style the day after Woodstock packed up, yet she’s no sooner sitting down at a table in a very posh Dublin hotel lounge – where customers are talking in little more than whispers – when she refuses to comply with a
“I’ve been to many places in the world where I am not recognised.” Surely not? After all, we are talking with Michael Palin, an Englishman in his late 60s who has had more than one bite of a cherry that is singularly known as “fame”. First, there was his integral role as part of the famously influential comedy writing group
As feasible manifestos go, it would seem that Fontaines D.C. have got it right: “A minimalist approach was there from the start: three chords, backbeat, don’t say anything at all. Play the songs, and let them speak for us.” There are in rock music many different stylistic strands yet, evidently, only two methods of performing. The first is a
Michael Stipe is looking, as usual, pensive. As slim as a pencil, he sports (actually, that’s hardly the word – there is nothing remotely sporty about Michael Stipe) a salt and pepper stubble beard that shades in his countenance; a continuous supply of match-thin roll your own cigarettes and a takeaway mug of coffee are the orders of the
Tony Clayton-Lea is an Irish-based freelance journalist/writer/editor who writes on music, arts, and pop culture (and travel/hospitality) for a variety of print and online outlets.
Email: tclaytonlea@gmail.com
This is the personal website for Tony Clayton-Lea.