Hot Press magazine is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a special celebratory gig at the 3Arena entitled 'History in the Making'.
This evening's lineup features many of Ireland's leading musicians who have a long association with the publication.
Artists expected to perform include Van Morrison, The Boomtown Rats, Clannad, Damien Dempsey, and former president and long-term Hot Press columnist Michael D Higgins among others.
Hot Press magazine, which sold its first edition in June 1977 at the Macroom Rock Music festival, has a long and proud history of putting Irish musicians in the spotlight.
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It was founded by Niall Stokes and Mairin Sheehy.
Mr Stokes said they set out initially to "publish a magazine that reflected our experiences".
"In Ireland at the time, popular music was seen as something very minor that had no artistic merit," he said
"We knew that there was an extra ordinary amount of great music being made in Ireland and we knew that wasn't being represented," he added.
Mr Stokes, who has been the editor of the magazine since the beginning, said "media was tremendously conservative" at the time of its creation.
"We saw an opportunity to create something which would give voice to the radical views and the excitement that was implicit in rock 'n' roll from our perspective at the time," he said.
The first magazine featured Rory Gallagher on the cover, with Mr Stokes noting that Gallagher and his brother, Donal, were always extremely supportive of their work.
Their contacts and industry knowledge meant that Hot Press got off to a strong start, he said.
Watch: Hot Press Editor Niall Stokes speaks to RTE about the magazine in 1984
For Barry Devlin, bassist with The Horslips, the impact of Hot Press was "transcendental".
"It really did change things," he said.
His band was one of Ireland's most successful groups and the musicians travelled north and south of the border, filling venues across the country.
He said Hot Press helped the band, and that they featured on the magazine's cover in the early days with their album 'Aliens'.
"The late very, very great Bill Graham, the guy who got U2, gave us a great review and suddenly, having a paper about you, changed things, it gave you an industry," he said.
Mr Devlin described Hot Press as a "broadsheet with people you knew".
"They made them look like rock stars and they even made me look like a rock star," Mr Devlin said, adding "I'm deeply grateful".
For Mr Stokes, the vision for the magazine was clear from the start.
He said: "We always saw Hot Press as being not just about the music, but what the music was about, and that's life, love, politics, social issues and so on."
The quality and tone of the writing was a key ingredient to the early success of Hot Press, he believes.
"We always saw Hot Press as a writer's paper and we did find brilliant writers," he said.
From the RTÉ Archives:
Alternative Press And Subculture 1977
'Youngline' visits the Hot Press offices 1984
Hot Press Lights Up The Music Scene1984
As part of the 50th anniversary celebrations, Mr Stokes said they have gathered together "the finest 20 interviews to have appeared in Hot Press since the magazine was launched".
"Charlie Haughey, Gay Byrne, Gerry Adams, Mary Robinson, Michael D Higgins, Sinead O'Connor will all be in there," he said.
However, Mr Stokes said even the selection process for this "is an epic task".
"We’re currently sifting through archives revisiting fantastic encounters with the likes of Bertie Ahern, Garret Fitzgerald, Bob Geldof, Gerry Ryan, Colin Farrell, Bono, Dolores O’Riordan, Roy Keane, Fr Michael Cleary, Katie Taylor, Saoirse Ronan in her first ever major interview - and lots, lots more," he said.
Mr Stokes said one thing is guaranteed and that is that "the final selection of 20 will offer an incredible window into the recent past and an extraordinary blaze of insights into Ireland and its people".
He said the magazine was no stranger to controversy in the early years, with a letter being published in the Evening Press after the first issue complaining that it was "littered with expletives".
"It went on from there, with advertisers making it clear that they were not going to advertise in a publication that was dealing with sex and sexuality in an open way that was unfamiliar in Irish media at the time," he said.
Mr Stokes said he is proud of the magazine’s legacy, adding "we became a platform for people from Donegal, Kerry, Wexford or Belfast, and they saw that there was a community here that embraced people who were outside the norm".
He said: "On that very first cover with Rory Gallagher, right behind Liam Cosgrave, who was Taoiseach at the time, we also had a small picture of two men kissing which was landmark moment, especially when you consider that at the time homosexuality was illegal."
Singer and songwriter Ruth-Anne Cunningham said she was delighted to get the call to come back to Dublin to perform with Women in Harmony.
She said Hot Press has been a key part of her musical life since she was young, pointing to "the Hot Press yearbook as an important source of information for emerging musicians and an example of the practical ways the magazine can help our industry".
Ms Cunningham said when she releases a track or is getting ready for a gig, "my first question is will Hot Press be there?"
"All artists and musicians want their seal of approval from Hot Press, it's been a staple of Irish culture and it's always been on the pulse of finding and seeing what is new with Irish music," she added.
Mr Stokes said tonight’s gig is just the "the launch pad, for some mad plans".
However, he added he "simply cannot talk about or reveal at the moment" such ideas.
"This is an occasion where we are going to make absolutely sure to do those things that we would do and should do and could do, they are now going to happen," he said.
