Alex Kapranos

Franz Ferdinand at Collins Barracks: Scissor-kicking, foot-stomping, phones-aloft rock’n’roll

Band’s power-pop experience brings Collins Barracks’ Wider Than Pictures series to a close with a bang

Los Bitchos: ‘Being instrumental puts us on an even playing field’

The four-piece bring the tequila and Tarantino vibes – just don’t call them a girl band

Tim Burgess: The listening parties are here to stay

The Charlatans frontman on why he will not monetise his hugely successful Twitter series

Franz Ferdinand: Always Ascending review – ‘futuristic and naturalistic’

Mad Mary and Young Offenders take Galway Film Fleadh by storm

The two films are the pick of a crop that reveals the breadth of talent in Irish film

Culture Shock: Songs that bum your last cigarette, then break your heart

RM Hubbert’s music comes from the sort of tragedy that would have an ‘X Factor’ contestant slack-jawed with envy

Franz Forever

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos spills the beans on the quartet’s stellar fourth album, his Irish literary inspiration and why his band will never be the showbiz types