Since her last interview with Barry Egan last november in which she confessed she was sexually abused as a child, Dolores have been entering a healing process which she explains in a new interview in The Independent entitled “Dolores O’Riordan: rock star and truth-seeker“

Invited to join her in Roma, Italy three weeks ago where she performed at “Concerto di Natale”, Barry Egan thus discussed this relief with her:

It does feel good to have that off the shoulders.
You can dwell on negative stuff in the past too much and then you will never grow and you will never evolve and you never embrace the future, or life. So as soon as you can you have to learn to let it go and put it in that box or whatever.
I’m in a place of great happiness. I’ve never been happier or as calm or contented in my life.

Dolores also explains she decided not to go for a therapy as “sometimes that therapy erases the memory too much… erasing the ability to write.“

In Roma where she performed for “Concerto di Natale” – Photo:  Alessandro Penso

The interviews then goes on with what has enabled her to move forward with her life, with a focus on her religious reawakening as well as on her family.
Indeed, she tells Barry how Don, her husband, has always been a great support for her, bringing her joie de vivre since they first met.

He is devoted to me and I am devoted to him.
I think he is very paternal. He really has a protective thing about him. I like that. I couldn’t really do the baby thing. You know the way some men like to be babied? And they want their wife to be their mother figure? I couldn’t do that.

A wonderful interview which enables us to understand how the Rock Star has finally managed to make a happy life for herself despite the hard roads she has travelled along.

The singer is now spending Christmas with her family in Canada and, as opposed to what was stated in the Concerto di Natale program, is not expecting any new baby but is looking forward to having grandbabies in a (near?) future.

Dolores was visiting the Vatican to meet the Pope – Photo: Alessandro Penso

“Concerto di Natale” posted on Facebook something like 900+ photos (some of them HQ) of the event.
Below a selection of some of the best ones featuring Dolores taken during rehearsals and backstage (in leather suit) then during the show (different suit).

Also to notice, Paolo from the website Cranberries Italia (cranberriesitalia.it) who attended the show posted his own review along with some beautiful photos which you can find at the bottom of this page. (link no longer available)

And last but not least, videos of Dolores’ performance are now available on YouTube, thanks to Irishsoul! (videos no longer available)

Ciao!

Earlier tonight was the recording of “Concerto di Natale” in Roma, Italy which will be broadcast on Italian TV on december 24th. This is the 5th time Dolores O’ Riordan is coming to this show. Her previous appearances were in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2006.

This year Dolores sang 4 songs:

• Letting Go (performed live for the 1st time ever & with different lyrics according to fan Schizophrenic Lu)
• Silent Night (duet with Elisa Toffoli)
• Away In A Manger
• Happy Xmas, War Is Over (All Artists together as final)

“Silent Night”, “Away In A Manger” and “Happy Xmas, War Is Over” were already performed by Dolores at some other “Concerto di Natale” through the years, so we can’t wait to see what the 2013 versions sound like.

The new Pope, Pope Franciscus, was in the audience as he is spending his first Christmas in Vatican after being elected last March. Seeing a Pope at the show hasn’t happened in quite a long time as the last Pope, Pope Benedictus Sextus Decimus didn’t like the “Concerto di Natale” very much and we have to go back to Pope Ioannes Paulus II to see a Pope attending the event.
This time again, Dolores had a special audience with the Pontiff earlier this week. Let’s remember she met Pope Ioannes Paulus II in 2001 and 2002.

“Concerto di Natale” banner – Photo: Schizophrenic Lu

Dolores was spotted in Italy today where she’s due to perform at “Concerto di Natale” this Saturday. The photo below was taken in Città del Vaticano (Vatican City).

Dolores in Vatican City (near Rome)

The Italian singer Elisa Toffoli just announced on Twitter that she will be singing a duet with Dolores O’ Riordan in Roma for the “Concerto di Natale” this December 7th.

Elisa parteciperà al “Concerto di Natale” il 7 dicembre all’Auditorium Conciliazione di Roma. Vi segnaliamo il duetto con Dolores O’ Riordan

 

Translation: Elisa will be attending the “Concerto di Natale” on December 7th at Auditorium Conciliazione in Roma. We point out the duet with Dolores O ‘Riordan

 

Elisa Toffoli / Dolores

Thanks to Irishsoul and Fanberries for the news and picture.

In an online article entitled “Cranberries star Dolores to linger in Canada”, the “Irish Daily Star” revealed that Dolores O’ Riordan and husband Don Burton were to come back to Canada.

As you might remember, the singer and her family had decided to move back to Ireland this summer and rented a house near Dublin for a trial period but it seems her children are homesick and want to go back to Toronto.

We can thus imagine that Dolores will probably not take part in the fourth series of The Voice of Ireland next year (2014-2015).

(The “Irish Daily Star” article is no longer available)

UPDATE – NOVEMBER 18

According to the Independent.ie article published today, the journalist Barry Egan confirms the Burton family has already left to Canada explaining that Dolores & Don, their children, as well as their two dogs took a plane last Tuesday. Dolores has already planned to be back in Dublin mid-December for The Voice Battles.

It was too built up for us. Too many people and cars and it felt like being in a box
[…]
We missed the wilderness. You get used to the great outdoors.
[…]
From my window at home in Canada with the heavy snow on the trees, I can see people fishing through the ice. Doesn’t that sound enticing?
[…]
I’m looking forward to peaceful silence at last!

As we all noticed recently, since Dolores O’ Riordan has been taking part to the reality television singing competition “The Voice of Ireland”, Irish medias keep on digging information about her.

After revealing that she was about to launch court action against Noel Hogan about two weeks ago, the Independent.ie (as well as Irish Mirror) shed a light today on her childhood in a most unexpected interview in which she confesses that she was sexually abused as a child.

The full interview will be available in a few hours this Sunday (it’s almost 3:00 AM Irish Time right now) in the Sunday Independent’s Life Magazine. The ePaper version can already be downloaded for €2.80

Dolores on the front cover of “LIFE”

This is obviously the first time Dolores explicitly mentions such a fact:
Even though she had already spoken about the trauma she suffered from during her relationship with Mike Mahoney, the abuse she recently spoke of “started when she was 8 and continued until she was 12“, which shows this has nothing to do with the physical violence her domineering boyfriend used to impose on her.

Regarding from what we understand of the song “In The Garden“ off the album “Are You Listening?” released in 2007, it seems that Dolores had tried to speak indirectly about what she calls her “little dirty secret” before. Indeed, back in 2007, some of us, fans, analysed the lyrics and suggested the following lines could refer to some of her childhood memories which pointed to such a possibility:

I see her playing in the garden
I was once like her, you did this to me
I don’t remember, when this offence begun
I don’t remember, I can’t undo what’s done

The theory could never be confirmed, even though the song “Skeleton” off the album “No Baggage” released in 2009 provided more clues with lines such as:

I tried to face it
I can’t erase it
So I must face it
I must embrace it
[…]
I have wasted my time
Dwelling in the shadows from the past
[…]
In the corner of the room
I tried to face it

It seems that Dolores has been pondering over what she considers as a “skeleton” a lot recently, hence the revelation that came today. Indeed, she explains she hadn’t seen her abuser for years until she saw him at the funeral of her father two years ago, which brought back the demons of the past as she was about to start a new tour. Dolores then emphasizes the depression she went through on the 2012 world tour, saying “I worried that I might not make it through it“, some facts that created a special atmosphere at these gigs that some of us, fans, could unfortunately feel.

By opening up to her fans via this interview, Dolores hopes that she’ll be released from this trauma, hence the necessity to speak about it and justify some of the songs she wrote in order to heal and move forward.

A new homepage appeared today on the official website of the Concerto di Natale and it now includes a brief biography of Dolores. The big surprise comes from the very last line where it says she is “currently working on her long-awaited third solo album slated for 2014“.

Last month we reported the interview of Marco Mendoza where he revealed that he was working with Dolores and that there were some songs done but couldn’t really say if it was for an album, a movie or anything else. Cranberries World suggested that those songs could be for a 3rd solo album for the reasons we exposed (please re-read) and today this new small biography for the Concerto di Natale seems to go in our way even revealing that the album is for 2014!

Wait and see!

Dolores biography – Concerto di Natale’s website

Dolores O’Riordan , oltre ad essere un’artista solista acclamata dalla critica, è la cantante leader dei The Cranberries, band irlandese amata a livello internazionale. Con The Cranberries, O’Riordan ha raggiunto ottimi risultati come quattro album nella “Billboard top 20”, 8 singoli di successo mondiale, inclusi Linger e Dreams, e oltre 30 milioni di album venduti in tutto il mondo. Nel 2011, dopo oltre un decennio, la band è tornata sulle scene con Roses, il suo primo nuovo album studio. Da solista, O’Riordan ha pubblicato due album molto acclamati dalla critica, Are You Listening? (2007) e No Baggage (2009).  Inoltre è famosa per il suo contributo a colonne sonore cinematografiche, avendo collaborato tra l’altro con Angelo Badalamenti alla colonna sonora del film Evilenko. O’Riordan si è anche esibita numerose volte in Vaticano ed è madre di tre bambini. Al momento sta lavorando al suo atteso terzo album da solista, la cui uscita è prevista per il 2014

Thanks to Cranberries MEXICO for noticing!

Glide Magazine just published a long interview with Marco Mendoza where the guy declares to be working with Dolores O’ Riordan from The Cranberries on her possible 3rd new album. He says that he doesn’t know at this point if it’s going to be an album or not:

There’s some songs, some movie possibilities, a lot of things cooking in her world so we’re working on that right now

 

Macro Mendoza

For those of you who may not know Marco Mendoza, the Glide Magazine article is a very good start to have an idea as he is a musician that doesn’t stick to one singer or one band but has always been involved in many different music projects.
As for his collaboration with Dolores, the man already worked on her 2 solo albums and went on tour with her on the “Are You Listening Tour” in 2007 during which he was playing bass guitar.

No doubt that we can take the guy very seriously when he says he is working with Dolores.
Not to mention that right now our favourite singer just became a new judge at “The Voice of Ireland” so it all makes sense: indeed, mostly all coaches who took part to this TV show until now saw their popularity and career coming back in force and the music business naturally asked them to release something shortly after (usually when they reach the next season of the show). The Voice of Ireland may definitely be a marvellous way for a 3rd solo album.

Nevertheless we all have to be very careful with that news and we don’t have to expect too much yet as all those different projects are just at the start, but a good start what ‘ya think?

As you might remember, Dolores was due to perform at “Concerto di Natale” in Italy last year but her name was taken off the official website (concertodinatale.it) at the last minute.

According to the RomaToday (romatoday.it), Dolores should be part of this year’s edition which will take place at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Roma.

romatoday.it – screen capture

As for the official website of Concerto di Natale nothing has changed yet and their homepage’s banner still does not include the name of Dolores.
Hopefully soon…

Homepage banner – Concerto di Natale’s website

Thanks to Irishsoul for the info.

UPDATE – OCTOBER 23

CONFIRMED. As reported 3 days ago (October 20th) in our news about The Voice, Dolores will sing at “Concerto di Natale”. It is now officially confirmed on the Facebook page of the event but not yet on their website! Probably just a question of time as nowadays only Facebook seems to count!

As usual the show will be pre-recorded (Saturday, December 7, 2013 at 7:00pm-10:30pm) for a later TV and Radio broadcast in Italy. All those who’d like to go can get tickets on the official website.

UPDATE – OCTOBER 31

Finally Dolores O’ Riordan appeared today on the official website… and it was worth the wait!
The homepage slides 2 brand new banners: one with all the artists’ names including Dolores’ and another one entirely dedicated to her. Have a look:

All artists banner – Concerto di Natale’s website

Dolores banner – Concerto di Natale’s website

And now here’s the last present we have for you in our hood: Dolores’ last Christmas Concert performance in 2006. That year, the concert took place in Monte-Carlo as the Pope Benedict XVI cancelled the traditional concert in Vatican. At this show Dolores performed “Angel Fire”, one of her solo song, in an orchestral version and two Christmas songs, “Away In A Manger” and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”, that she already sang in 2002.

The Christmas Special continues… Let’s go on with the 3rd participation of Dolores to the Christmas Concert in Vatican in 2005. Just like in 2002 Dolores performed “Linger” and “Adeste Fideles” but this time in a new orchestral version for the first one and as a duet with Gianluca Terranova for the second. To end the show she sang “White Christmas” with all the other artists who participated to the show.

Dolores and Gianluca Terranova

Now, the 10th edition of the Christmas Concert in 2002.
Before the show Dolores met the Pope John Paul II: here’s a short interview (link no longer available) from current.com where she tells about it.

At this show Dolores sang an orchestral version of “Linger” and two Christmas songs, “Adeste Fideles” and “Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)”, the latter with various artists.

As announced earlier this week, today we’re celebrating “Christmas before time”.
There will be updates on CW with Dolores’ performances at the Christmas Concerts from 2001 to 2006.

Let’s start with the 9th edition of those “Concerto di Natale”, it was in 2001 in Vatican and it was Dolores’ very first participation to such concerts. She performed 4 songs: An orchestral version of “Analyse” and 3 Christmas classics, “Little Drummer Boy“(with Westlife), “Panis Angelicus” and “Silent Night‘ (with various artists).

Dear ‘berries fans,
Now that we all survived this end-of-the-world-day, we’re very happy to announce that next Sunday -Dec 23rd- will be “Christmas Before Time” on Cranberries World!

All day long, we’ll update the site adding information about Dolores performances to the Christmas Concerts in Vatican or in Monte-Carlo from 2001 to 2006. Song List and Promo Performances sections will be updated. Stay tuned…

Film director Bruce Isacson confirmed that a soundtrack from the movie “South Dakota” will be released in 2013 and all 4 songs from Dolores O’ Riordan will be included.
This means the original versions of “Apple Of My Eye” and “Stupid” along with new solo versions of “Dreams” and “Empty”.

Bruce Isacson explains:

Dolores went back into the studio and recorded a new version of “Dreams” and “Empty”.  We feel the new recordings have more passion than the original, that comes from her maturity and greater experience since the original recording

South Dakota film director Bruce Isacson

As for the musical score segment that Dolores contributed, it does not have a proper title, although it is referred as the “Subway Scene”.

Dolores at the “Teen Screen”

Remember that you can contribute money via Kickstarter to help Isacson distribute the movie. Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires. Your pledges will help them raise the P&A Budget (Prints and Advertising Materials).

“South Dakota” screened for 1,000 teenage girls from 17 Los Angeles County high schools

Source: Bruce Isacson

“South Dakota”, a docufiction movie about teenage pregnancy and abortion, will finally see a national release in the USA in October 2013… with some new music from Dolores!

Filmmaker Bruce Isacson confirmed to Cranberries World that 4 songs by Dolores will be featured in the movie: original versions of “Stupid” and “Apple Of My Eye” and brand new versions of The Cranberries’ “Empty” and “Dreams”, for which Dolores went back into studio to record them.

Dolores also contributed to the movie score told Isacson:

Dolores scored one of our sequences in the film, and she is credited as one of the film’s composers. Dolores and her husband Don Burton have been extremely supportive of our important film!  I am so thankful for their continued encouragement.

The “South Dakota” movie project was first announced in 2009. The movie portrays two dramatic stories about unplanned pregnancies along with sound bites of passionate pro choice and pro life advocates. Film director explains:

I found that so many of the women, when they go into this crisis of an unwanted pregnancy, they don’t have enough information so they can arrive at an intelligent decision or what course of action to take. And that’s why I made the film. You know, I stayed neutral. I didn’t want to manipulate my audience with my own point of view

Check out below the movie trailer featuring a message from the Director and some footage from a screening back in 2009 in which you can see Dolores.
Note that the versions of “Dreams” and “Empty” in this footage are the 1993 and 1994 album versions, not the new ones.

Official trailer & a personal word from the director

“South Dakota” swept major awards at the 2010 Los Angeles Reel Film Festival including Best Screenplay and Best Director.
You can follow the South Dakota movie project on Facebook.
You can also contribute money to help Isacson distribute the movie via Kickstarter. Kickstarter is the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Every Kickstarter project must be fully funded before its time expires. Your pledges will help them raise the P&A Budget (Prints and Advertising Materials).

Source: Bruce Isacson

Dolores name was taken off the official Concerto di natale website.
Her presence is no longer confirmed.

The official site of the Concerto Di Natale just confirmed Dolores’ participation in the Italian Christmas Concert next December as reported before. The annual concert will take place on December 15th at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Roma and is to be broadcast on Rai 2 TV on Christmas night.

Source: Concertodinatale.it

Dolores O’ Riordan might perform at the 20th Concerto Di Natale next December according to Radio Italia (radioitalia.it). The concert will take place on December 15th at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Roma and is to be broadcast on Rai 2 TV on Christmas night.

Dolores’ presence is not confirmed yet.

Dolores was part of the 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2006 editions where she performed her own material (both Cranberries and solo songs) and Christmas classics.

According to a recent article published in the Sunday World, Dolores O’ Riordan lost out on a mansion located in Malahide, North County Dublin.
Whether this information -which is surprising considering that Dolores has often explained she’s really enjoying her life in Canada- is real or not, one could imagine that The Cranberries singer would like to return full time to Ireland in order to get closer to her family after the loss of her father.

Dolores’ mansion in Malahide

Now a word about today’s new rumor…

You probably all know that yesterday a My Fox article reported that Dolores was spotted in several Minneapolis bars drinking “both before and after the cancelled show” whereas there is absolutely no proof of this statement that was originally made by several disappointed and angry fans.

Information currently circulating about the band and Dolores on the web are to be ‘taken with a grain of salt’ especially as the band hasn’t released any statement yet on the last cancellations of US shows. Let’s thus be careful and wait for official news.

Dolores sent a Good Luck video to one of the female finalists of the French-Canadian reality television singing competition series Star Académie.

In the short video, Dolores invited Andréanne A. at The Cranberries’ show in Montréal on May 8th where the young singer will have a chance to meet the whole band afterwards.

Dolores “Good luck” message sent from Melbourne

Andréanne often sings The Cranberries 90’s hit single “Zombie” during her shows. The folk-oriented singer, who sang her own composition on Sunday night, did not win the women’s final.

In an article entitled “Five Pro-Life Women Celebrities Worthy of Your Support“, pro-life website lifenews.com credits an anti-abortion statement to Dolores O’ Riordan and distorts “The Icles Melts” lyrics meaning. It looks like the author relied on some random blog to support her article.

(((((((As for “The Icicle Melts”, it is commonly known that the song is about the murder of two-year old Jamie Bulger by two minors in Liverpool, back in the early 90’s.)))))))))

Although The Cranberries’ lead singer made a comment on abortion that could be interpreted as anti-abortion back in the mid 90’s, she more recently told The Los Angeles Times in 2009 that she “prefers not to disclose how she feels”. As a matter of fact, O’ Riordan associated herself to “South Dakota”, a movie that “presents interviews with experts on those questions with opposing views about a woman’s right to choose“.

After posting back acoustic versions of “Analyse” and “Linger” on their website last October, the good people from Colorado-based KBCO radio station are now giving the fans a chance to hear back Dolores O’ Riordan’s “Ordinary Day” as well as her solo rendition of “Dreams” in acoustic format.

The performance, which was recorded on the 17^th of July 2007 at the KBCO Studio C, was posted back today on the radio station website. O’ Riordan also gives a short interview between the two songs, talking about her time off before she recorded her first solo album, Are You Listening? and her contribution to the Adam Sandler’s movie Click.

Thanks to Cranfandy who brought up the existence of this performance, posted a few years earlier on the KBCO site.

Source: KBCO.com

Charlottesville-based radio station The Corner (WCNR, 106.1) uploaded on its website today a pretty interesting acoustic show Dolores O’ Riordan performed on December 3, 2007 making this a rare chance to hear some of The Cranberries classics and O’ Riordan solo material in an unplugged style.

This eleven-track performance, recorded at the Gravity Lounge during a free Holiday benefit show, is one of the most generous of her 2007 American promo tour. That night, O’ Riordan not only gave the crowd up-tempo acoustic versions of “Free to Decide” and “Dreams” – rarely played that way –, but also three tracks from her first solo album Are You Listening?. To this date, it is the highest attendance in the history of the venue.

Even though she was struggling with a bad cold, O’ Riordan did not miss an occasion to chat with the crowd, talking about her kids, Christmas and the 90’s, laughing at herself for not being able to do math in her head and for not remembering in which year “Free to Decide” was released (she initially said 1993!), and joking about Steve DiMarchi looking for a wife.

A big THANKS to Brad Savage from 106.1 FM The Corner for answering to this request from The Cranberries Press. You can listen to the show in a streaming format and download the mp3 file at The Corner Lounge Listening Room. (link no longer available)

Track list
1. Linger
2. Ode to My Family
3. Ordinary Day
4. Animal Instinct
5. Zombie
6. Free to Decide
7. When You’re Gone
8. Loser
9. When We Were Young
10. Shattered
11. Dreams

How much do we love these acoustic sets, uh?

Source: 1061thecorner.com

The UK’s The Guardian reports today that Universal Music has decided to shut down the Sanctuary Records UK label, leaving Dolores O’Riordan without a record label.

This closure follows Sanctuary’s closing of its US division at the end of June. Universal Music bought Sanctuary, which has been having financial struggles

for the past few years, for 44.5 million pounds in August.

Universal said in a statement, “Sanctuary Records UK division will no longer continue as a stand-alone, frontline record label. Consultations with employees have begun to minimise redundancies as a result of the restructuring.”

Sources: Guardian Unlimited, Reuters

theguardian.com

uk.reuters.com

Surprise! Dolores O’Riordan has already filmed the video for “When We Were Young” with longtime collaborator Olivier Dahan and it’s online now for viewing.

Production company U-Man Films has put the video in Quicktime format, along with a few screencaps, online on their site. Download Dolores O’Riordan’s “When We Were Young” music video here. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

With its gritty green color scheme, on-rails camera, and lots of up-to-no- good vagrant extras, the video looks almost as if it could have been made on the same set as The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Ava Adore.” Dolores, for her part, wears plenty of bling to help her remember “how things just seemed so ezah.”

Cranberries fans will remember that Dahan directed the videos for The Cranberries’ “Salvation,” “Promises,” “Animal Instinct,” and “This is the Day.”

Big thanks to Maxence for the tip.

MySpace user “Ben & Jan” posted the following note on Dolores O’Riordan’s MySpace:

UPDATE: We just spoke with a rep at the LA House of Blues and she said the band is trying to reschedule (yay!) possibly sometime in November, but more word will not come until midday Monday at the earliest. If we hear anything more we’ll share!

Still no official announcement of rescheduling the Los Angeles show (or the DC one, for that matter), but we’ll have any official announcements posted here on Zombieguide. (Thanks to GlenninLA for the tip.)

Promotional CDs for the new single “When We Were Young” have started being sent out to radio stations. “When We Were Young” is the second single from Are You Listening?

Here’s a photo of the new promo, courtesy of Sigma on the ZG Forums:

Singer Amy Lee of Evanescence said in an interview posted online today that she recently got to see Dolores O’Riordan on tour — “it was awesome,” she said. Lee added, “I really like her new music.”

Here’s the excerpt:

Q) With all of the bands getting back together like The Police and The Spice Girls, which one are you most excited for?

A) The Police, we’re going. We’re going to the New York show and we were trying to get tickets. This has been the big talk of the band and crew for the past couple of months is how we’re going to get Police tickets because they all sold out instantly. We finally got our hands on Police tickets and Terry just went and said it was incredible and he wants to go again. I think Tim is going this weekend so everybody, I think, has jumped on and everyone’s found their own way to get to The Police. That’s the one that everyone’s been talking about.

Q) Are there any other ones that you saw?

A) Actually, last night I went and saw, let me try to say her name right – Dolores O’Riordan from The Cranberries and it was awesome. She’s incredible! I loved The Cranberries and I was way too young to go really see them and they didn’t come to our town. It was really cool to see her, but I really like her new music. It’s really cool! It’s strange and it gets really heavy sometimes, but it’s very sincere and I think she’s awesome. So, I don’t know if you call that reuniting, because it’s not that, but it’s kind of the same thing. I thought she was incredible.

A staff member for San Francisco’s Fillmore just told Zombieguide Forumsmember Hollywood Sav over the phone that “As far as we know, [the concert]’s still on for tonight.”

Fans have been worried whether tonight’s concert (and indeed, further shows) would be canceled due to Graham Hopkins’s medical issue that canceled last night’s concert in Los Angeles.

Ireland’s Hot Press reports that Graham was discharged from the hospital earlier today.

Hot Press also writes, “An official statement on the continuation of the tour is to be released shortly, as Dolores & her team assess the situation.”

hotpress.com

Drummer Graham Hopkins had a seizure on stage last night during Dolores O’Riordan’s show in Los Angeles. The rest of Dolores O’Riordan’s tour may be canceled, although we are waiting for an official announcement. Update 9:08 PM EST: Looks like tonight’s San Francisco show will go on as scheduled. Dolores’s crew is unpacking at the venue and a queue is forming in front of the hall. (Thanks Sue and Anna.)

New Zombie wrote on the Zombieguide Forums,

I just got back. I seriously thought the drummer (Graham Hopkins, I think) was going to die. It was not a pretty sight and it was not a fun night…I hope he makes a full recovery. There is no replacement drummer. Refunds will be issued at the point of purchase (yes for LA too as she only got through about 3-4 songs). The rest of the tour is CANCELLED (not postponed) and an announcement to that effect will be made tomorrow.

The drummer had a seizure right on stage. They killed the lights and lowered a screen. He had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital after what seemed like 20 minutes of medical treatment while he was laying on stage.

bendomino writes,

To let everyone know, my wife and I were there at the concert in LA tonight. To clarify the account posted on Perez Hilton’s site, Dolores wasn’t screaming, she was calmly asking for the lights to be turned down and then an ambulance. There was no chaos, and we didn’t see any police, only the ambulance she asked for. Sunset was not shut down either. I applaud everyone at the event for handling the situation as best they could, there was never a threat to ours or anyone’s safety. The Perez Hilton comment posted is totally blown out of proportion. We hope and pray the drummer is ok, by the way his name is Graham Hopkins and he is a renowned Irish drummer who has played with many bands in the past. In light of the news that the rest of the tour is probably cancelled, we wish the band the best and look forward to their next visit in LA, which hopefully is in the near future.

For those that haven’t had a chance to meet him, Graham is a wonderful and all-around awesome guy, and we hope he gets better as soon as possible.

Whew! After a week of travel, I’ve finally had a minute to sit down and sort through a few hundred photos that we took at Dolores O’Riordan’s concerts in New York and Philadelphia. A sampling of the best ones are now available on Flickr. Here are Zombieguide’s Flickr sets of Dolores O’Riordan @ New York’s Irving Plaza 07.10.2007 and Dolores O’Riordan @ Philadelphia’s Fillmore at the TLA 07.13.2007

Speaking of tours, we want to take a second to once again recommend Felipe’s site Cranberries Shows, where you can find lots of useful stuff like past setlists and tour photos. If you have setlists, merchandise photos, or ticket scans from the current tour, send it to Felipe!

A dental injury has canceled Dolores O’Riordan’s planned show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC tonight.

A member of the crew told Zombieguide that Dolores broke her front tooth on a Japanese rice cracker at dinner. She did not show up for the 5:00 PM soundcheck as planned, and evidently never left her tour bus. Concert goers saw crew returning Dolores’s clothes and personal effects to the tour bus after 7:30.

Staff members for the 9:30 Club announced the cancellation around 8:00 (first announced as a postponement, later changed to a cancellation).

A person close to Dolores reported that she was in quite a lot of pain, but “were lining up dentists as we speak.”

It is currently unknown if Dolores will perform tomorrow night’s scheduled Philadelphia show. Crew members were preparing for the trip to Philadelphia, but did not know if it would occur as scheduled.

Fans who bought tickets will receive full refunds from their place of purchase through July 27th according to verbal announcements at the show and a post on the 9:30 Club website. Major online ticket vendors such as Ticketmaster should refund automatically.

We wish the best for Dolores and hope she gets fixed up soon!

GayWired has a straightforward Q&A with Dolores posted. The interview hits all the same topics as the other interviews floating around, with the addition of some Q&A about gay rights, specifically gay marriage in Dolores’s part- time home of Canada.

Here it is:

Ten Minutes with Dolores O’Riordan 06.22.07
Who can ever forget Dolores O’Riordan’s glorious vocal gymnastics? As the leader of mega-successful alt-pop band the Cranberries, O’Riordan took listeners on countless musical joy rides, her crystalline instrument rising slowly from a whisper to a gorgeous and cathartic emotional cry. Still in awesome vocal form, O’Riordan has just released her first-ever solo album Are You Listening? on Sanctuary Records. Co-produced by Youth and Dan Broadbeck, the eagerly anticipated album is a 12-track tour de force and marks her first release in four years.

“The Cranberries couldn’t couldn’t do another ‘Linger’ or ‘Dreams,’ because you can’t really do the same thing twice,” said Dolores O’Riordan in an interview published yesterday in New Jersey’s Courier-Post, explaining why she left the band.

At the same time, she’s quick to point out that there will be plenty of Cranberries material in her live shows during the upcoming US tour. The article in the South Jersey paper is specifically to promote the Philadelpha show on July 13th. (We’ll be there!)

“The Cranberries stuff is great and I still like to sing those songs,” she said via phone from Greece. “They bring back memories and it’s light-hearted now to sing them.”

Here’s the article text, as posted in the forums by CordellNJ:

Former Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan performs at the Fillmore at the TLA on July 13 with her four-member band. During her years with the Cranberries, O’Riordan, 35, helped the band sell more than 40 million records between 1993 and 1999. The group, which released four albums during that time, had it’s biggest hit single with 1994’s “Zombie.” This month, O’Riordan embarks on her first U.S tour in more than 5 years to plug her just released solo debut album, “Are You Listening?” The records earned raves as a striking return, “With angular chords and O’Riordan’s distinctively powerful vocals.” Written and recorded over 4 years, the album is largly inspired by personal experience. Her name, speaking by phone from greece, said she “Didn’t feel any pressure at all” in making the CD. “The more success you have, the more pressure you aquire.” She says. “The Cranberries couldn’t couldn’t do another ‘Linger’ or ‘Dreams,’ because you can’t really do the same thing twice. But after I stepped away from all that, and just focused on being a fulltime mom, music became a hobby to me again, and the pressure disappeared. “Music then was truely just for theraputic purposes.” The resulting effect, O’Riordan says, was “more experimental than her work with the Cranberries, while still retaining her melodic flare. For her solo tour, O’Riordan will be backed by a four member band, and plans to do a mix of old and new material. “The Cranberries stuff is great and I still like to sing those songs,” she said. “They bring back memories and it’s light-hearted now to sing them.”