Hot Press & The Silent Knights

• Dermot Stokes
• Niall Stokes
• and guests

Bio:

Hot Press is an Irish music magazine established in the late 70s by Niall Stokes. It fell somewhere between NME and Rolling Stone. Though the standard of music journalism in it was often poor, it provided decent coverage of the Irish music scene up until the early 80s, by which time it had started to become more of a lifestyle magazine. By the 90s it's music journalism had reached the level of the Sunday supplement.

Hot Press & The Silent Knights was Niall and Dermot Stokes backed by various musicians. The two singles are novelty records, a genre of which I am not a great fan. The A-side of the first is a good Ramones parody. It's included on Powerpearls 9 so you can hear it before deciding if it's worth the money you'll undoubtedly have to part with to secure a copy. "Born To Roast" on the B-side is as the title suggests a Springsteen parody.

The second single is harder to find but much less rewarding. On it the Stokes take their cues from Bagatelle (and Springsteen again) rather than the Ramones, resulting in a much less interesting single. The best thing about it is the cover.

The Stokes were musicians before launching Hot Press, having played in various bands during the 1970s. They recorded again as The Brothers in the 90s. These records are unlikely to be of much interest to fans of the earlier punk era records.

 



side one:
Gobble Gobble Gobble Hey! (The Gobbling Song)

side two: Christmas in the Cook House
Born To Roast (St.Stephen's Day Outside Charlie's Diner)

Notes: The lineup is listed as:
Dermot Stokes - vocals, backing vocals, slide guitar
Niall Stokes - backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Mary Stokes - backing vocals
Jimmy Smyth - guitars
Andy Boland - keyboards
Donal McGrath - bass
Robbie Brennan - drums

tracks: Gobble Gobble Gobble Hey!

The Brothers

Dermot Stokes, Niall Stokes & Gerry O'Briain. Guests on the LP include Eoin O'Neill (bass), Robbie Brennan (drums), Davey Spillane, Noel Eccles and Mary Stokes.

side one:
Down In The Valley
Roadblock
Still The House Burns
Peggy Kane
Common Tongue

side two:
Slow Dancing
Lovers And Other Ravens
The Amazing Song
Drought
Shake That Shadow

tracks:
Slow Dancing
Lovers And Other Ravens
The Honey Tree

We need your help to correct and/or complete this entry. If you can provide more information about this band, have scans, photos or any other memorabilia we can use, or spare copies of any releases, then please get in touch.