Yesterday we posted a a scan of the Amsterdam review from the Dutch magazine “OOR.” We unfortunately mistakenly said that contributor Jessica van Kessel works for “OOR” but is only currently studying to become a journalist. We’ll let her explain in her own words of how exactly she got her review into “OOR”:
During my studies (international management), I worked at a media company that published a magazine for young people (age 16-25). I did the marketing and some editorial writing for it, which is the best job I ever had because it meant keeping contact with record, movie and promotion companies, and having the chance to create campaigns to present new bands, movies or cd’s to the readers. Unfortunately, the publisher decided to resign and take the magazine off the market, so I had to find myself another job. I still remained on some of the promotion companies mailing lists though, so during the past year I’ve been receiving tons of press announcements and ecards about Madonna, Kylie, U2 etc, which I all deleted right away. Until out of the blue, there suddenly was a Cranberries e-card which I happily forwarded to you 😉 So that ecard was still a remainder of my old job.
The review in OOR is a completely different story: since 1999 I know a pop photographer, who always is present when the crans visit Holland and makes the most beautiful shots. He went to their concert in the Heineken Music Hall together with another photographer, from the music magazine OOR, who always have this section called ‘Visitor of the Week’ where they pick out a visitor to comment on the show. So the OOR-representative asked the photographer if he knew anybody for that section, and he told him about me as he knew I am eh… well kind of passionate about the cran’s music ;-). So they rushed off to the venue to see if they could find me there before the show started. Well amazingly they did manage to pick me out of the huge row of people, so I needed to get out for a while to take pictures ‘n stuff. I was kind of shocked seeing the picture, as I am really pulling my ugly ‘oh no it’s only ten minutes before the doors open and although I am really happy they asked about the review, but I do not want to be on the other end of the street when that happens’ – face, LOL! 😉 Anyhow, the OOR-representative asked me to write a heartfelt story about my perspective on the band from the first moment I became a fan, the shows I had seen so far, etc. So I wrote about one page, already knowing that they had to shorten it, which they did. Due to a shortage of space they had to leave out a comparison with two other shows and the bands interaction with the fans, but kept the original remaining text intact though.
About the journalism-thing: I am studying that right now, to fulfill a long- time wish. The study will end in December this year, but from June it’s ok take up jobs in that workfield. Writing professionally for a magazine like OOR would be amazing, but I am quite far from that level right now. Also, I am not sure if I’d choose the direction of pop journalism, as I would never want to find myself on the other end of the line, where the crans completely hate people with that profession. Speaking of this subject, I think I actually bumped into you on icq while I was making some assignments, as I remember chatting a little bit about that and you telling me you were planning to take up journalism as well, right? Maybe in that conversation there was a little confusion, I don’t know. Anyhow, could you please take that passage about me being a journalist for OOR from The Herald, as you are giving me way too much credit then! I was planning to send this explanation together with my translation today, but I hadn’t expected you to put the review online so soon 😉
Anyhow, enough blah-blah, here’s the translation, or at least an attempt to – I don’t think I could find the right English words to translate so for some reason it looks very awful, but here we go anyway:
“Armed with enough food and drinks to survive at least a week I had planned to view the complete marathon broadcast of Woodstock ’94. But after a day of staring at the screen in complete boredom, I knew I wasn’t going to last another day. Until in the middle of the night, an unknown and really young band took the stage. From the first tone I was wide awake. With that unique voice, subtle lyrics and beautifully composed arrangements, The Cranberries distinguished themselves clearly from all the predictable, established bands of the nineties. The biggest impression was made with the song Zombie, which became a big hit because of that particular performance. It was safe to turn the tv off after that, as I was convinced that I’d seen the highlight of the festival right there and then. During the years that followed, I’ve seen the band perform about 8 times, varying from the 013 [a Dutch venue], an old 30’s theatre, big stadiums, a recording studio [their showcase at 3fm] and the inner court of a castle in Dublin. Their show at the Heineken Music Hall was one of their best. There were a couple of sound problems, but the enthusiasm of the band and the energetic performance of Dolores completely made up for it. They clearly had a lot of fun, and the audience quickly responded to that: the first 15 rows were jumping and singing continiously [at least I thought they were!]. During this tour The Cranberries make a lot of changes in their setlist, and try to play songs that the fans never heard live before. Last friday they played Joe and The Concept. The balance between the typical intensive Cranberries-songs like Ridiculous Thoughts and the modest, delicate songs like Daffodil Lament was perfect. Because of their renewing approach The Cranberries will never become predicable or boring band, in fact, I could see them every week!”
Thanks to “The Vine” Jessica van Kessel again for the info.
Source: Exclusive