Irish rock group Aslan recently went on record for a bit of mud-slinging at fellow Irish artists The Cranberries and The Corrs, claiming the two are only “pale imitations” of fiery songstress Sinead O’Connor. In an interview with month with the Galway Advertiser, Aslan guitarist Billy McGuinness had this to say:

“We just got a call last week about Sinead. EMI are releasing an album of duets Sinead O’Connor did throughout her career and we’re hoping they’ll include one of the two tracks she sang on our album. She sang on the single ‘She’s So Beautiful’ and sang a duet with Christy called ‘Up In Arms’. Sinead retiring is a major loss because when she came in to sing on our album the hairs were standing up on the back of our necks – her singing in that session was just so beautiful. Sinead is without doubt the best female singer Ireland has ever produced. Dolores O’Riordan or The Corrs or any of them are just pale imitations.”

Source: Galway Advertiser

A new TV comercial for Payless Shoes airing in North America features The Cranberries’ “Dreams” as the backing track. The TV spot shows women plucking clouds out of the sky and then sticking them on their Airwalk fleece boots. The ad is currently airing on several major stations in both the US and Canada.

Thanks to several readers for the tip!

Source: Exclusive

Cranberries guitarist Noel Hogan admits that it’s been over a year since his last proper interview. News on the band has tighted to a trickle since they announced last September that they plan to take a break to pursue solo projects over the next coming year. On Wednesday, Noel talked with Zombieguide’s Alex Kraus over the phone about his first solo album, the challenges behind it, and the future of The Cranberries.

Noel has been no slouch over that period, as he tells Zombieguide in this exclusive first interview for his upcoming solo album. He’s been working with artists like Eagle Eye Cherry and Alexandra Hamnede, programmer Matthew Vaughan, and producers Marius de Vries and Stephen Street on an album he best describes as “diverse” and able to take the listener “through different feelings. You know, there are some hard-hitting moments, some happy moments, there’s quite sad moments.” Working on his own is no easy task, as he admits, the prospect of creating an album on his own has been an incredible challenge. Next year, he plans to take his solo material on the road with a showcase tour that will take him across Europe and the USA.

Noel gives us the unadulterated scoop on his solo album, Dolores, and the future of The Cranberries…

Alex Kraus’s Phone Interview with Noel Hogan (MP3, 85mb, 35mins)
(LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

(Note that the first minute of the interview and a few seconds of audio throughout were cut from the recording.) (Link fixed 10/22/04)

Zombieguide: I suppose this is officially the first interview in promotion of your solo album?

Noel: Yeah, I suppose so, I haven’t done anything yet before this, so this is the first. I’m doing this now cos the album is almost finished.

Zombieguide: I guess it’s been awhile since the last interview you did?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, it has been. I guess the last one was sometime last year right after we were touring with the Rolling Stones. After that we did a once- off gig in Ireland, in August, was it? No, it was July. Anyway, we did an interview that night and that was the last one.

Zombieguide: Well, we have lots of questions here for you from Zombieguide visitors, so we’ll get to those in a minute. But right now, I have to ask you, first of all, straight from the horse’s mouth, what’s the status of The Cranberries?

Noel Hogan: Well right now, we’re just doing what we said we were going to do, which is to kinda go our separate ways and experiment for awhile. We were going to record our sixth album, but then Dolores’s mother-in-law got ill and she couldn’t concentrate. Unfortunately, she died a few months ago… so we said, look, take as much time as you need. There are alot more things that are more important than the band all the time. So Dolores went there [Toronto] and she couldn’t give us a date that she could come back to us. We’ve talked about this for so long about everybody doing their own thing that maybe now is the right time to do that. And then when we feel that the time is right for the band to get back together, then we’ll do that. As it stands right now, everyone’s doing this, their own little bits and pieces. But in a year or so maybe. I talked to Dolores maybe a month or so ago and we were talking about when to get back together again. It will happen, we just don’t have a set date yet. We know that Dolores has recorded stuff as well and she wants to do her own thing as well. You know, we’ve done The Cranberries for 13 years and we’ve never had a chance to get outside it. So it kind of makes it more exciting for us and hopefully the things we’ve learned from doing our own thing, we can bring back and make the next album a really good one.

Zombieguide: Alright. Last summer you guys recorded a 4-track demo that you were using to shop around to different distributors. Did anything come out of that?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, we’ve four tracks and we played 2 of them live. We’ve done one live called “Astral Projection” …

Zombieguide: …and “In It Together”?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, that’s right, so they’re recorded, but they haven’t been mixed, so we have rough mixes of them. They’re in the bag and ready there to go. So I guess when we’re ready to go, we’ll have those four titles to fall back on.

Zombieguide: Can you gives us the other two titles, by any chance?

Noel Hogan: There was “Raining in My Heart” [edited]… and I’m trying to think, I can’t remember to be honest, I can check that and can get Rainer to email that to you, cos I have the demo at home. It’s just been so long since I listened to it that I forget the names. But those three are definite because we’ve had those for awhile.

Zombieguide: You guys said you wanted to go off on an experimental side with the sixth album and the demos you did for that. What were your influences for that? Did you guys have any influences that influenced…

Noel Hogan: Well, you’re always going to be influenced by everything that’s going on. You know, music has changed so much since when we began. There was a time I swore that I’d never ever go near a computer to do anything with music. But then I started to hear what other people had done. Especially — not the hardcore dance stuff, no — but more stuff like even, say, Moby, that style of music, I got interested in. I thought, there are some interesting sounds here. I didn’t want the band to go off into dance rythms or anything like that, but I just thought, in the background, you can get some interesting sounds that you can only get in a computer. You could try to mix what we do with this together and see what results you get. So that was kind of the plan. That’s how initially I came in touch with that programmer I ended up working with, Matt Vaughan. I had written a few songs and I wanted to see how they would sound with different samples and things. I kinda started to get into like that.

Zombieguide: So there is a possibility of The Cranberries going on tour at some point in the future.

Noel Hogan: Oh yeah, yeah, obviously it would be after the album would be recorded, but it’s something that we all want to do. This is the longest we’ve gone without doing something or other. We were just saying how exciting it will be to get back again and do stuff.

Zombieguide: Well, I just have to nag you on behalf of your fans in South America, they’re dying for you to come visit them.

Noel Hogan: Yeah, well, hopefully. This album that I’m doing and this album that Dolores is doing, we’ll have a year of that. By the time we start the next album and record it, you’re looking at two years before the unit will be together as The Cranberries, touring. It will happen at some point.

Zombieguide: This could be a mistranslation, Dolores was at a press conference in Sanremo, Italy, in March, Dolores said that it was her call to go on this break and that you three guys were a bit disappointed. Is that true?

Noel Hogan: Um, no, because she rang about it. It was me she rang and the two boys were on holidays at the time. We were meant to go back into the studio, I think it would have been September-October. When the boys came back, I told them, look, Dolores has this stuff to deal with, so I don’t think we’re going to be recording in the near future. So I guess they were disappointed initially. I didn’t bother ringing them while they were on holidays because I wanted them to enjoy themselves during that. So, I’m sure that’s what she was referring to when she said that. But a couple of weeks later, everybody was fine, we all got used to the idea and planning what everybody was gonna do with themselves.

Zombieguide: OK, someone asked after you and Dolores finish promoting your solo works, will there still be a lots of material left over for The Cranberries and the sixth album? (Asked by Irishset)

Noel Hogan: Yeah, I’m sure because we’re lucky in that we write constantly. Like I have far more songs finished than what I need and Dolores is the same. So it’s never been a problem for us to write. You get a bit picky I guess and you want to try to get the best songs that you can. You can write in an eight or nine month period, you can write and write eight or nine songs. But sometimes you think, well, five of these songs are kinda crap, and four are worth doing and you follow those. But that’s what takes most of the time is weeding out the ones that you think aren’t as strong as the strong ones.

Zombieguide: Dolores said in an interview last year that you guys were really trying to do that now with the newer stuff, that you’d write a lot but only pick a little bit out.

Noel Hogan: Yeah, exactly. You know, like sometimes I could send Dolores a tape or CD with four rough ideas in it and sometimes she might pick none or sometimes she might pick one. We would kind of chop through them like that. The thing is, the ones that you don’t think are as strong, you end up chopping those up and putting two bits together and they make a better song later on. It’s not like you ever forget them, most of them I do keep records of and when I’m trying to get a chorus or something for the song, I think, oh, remember that, I had whatever months ago. You dig it out and use it again, and it worked great this time.

Zombieguide: This is the last Cranberries-related question. In August 2002, while you guys were in Hong Kong you filmed a new documentary , but it wasn’t finished in time to release with “Stars.” Do you think we’ll ever get to see it?

Noel Hogan: Um, you know, I’m not sure really. We did alot of stuff like that, there’s a lot of unfinished stuff there. Maybe someday that could all be put together. I think it’d be great to do a proper full-length documentary, it’s something we’ve always been interested in.

Zombieguide: Now, you made some news earlier this year because you have invited fans to submit names for your solo album. So the question is, do you have a winner? (Phil, N. Ireland)

Noel Hogan: No, not yet. I’ve got it down to about 50 actually. It’s really hard. I tried myself first for ages and I just couldn’t come up with anything. The ones I did come up with had been taken already or even things like companies had them. You got to be careful about that. We got a great response when we put it on the ‘net. There were so many that we just sat there and go through them all. We have a shortlist now and I’d say, because I’m running out of time, in the next six to eight weeks, I’ll have a winner.

Zombieguide: What made you decide to hold a contest, other than not being able to come up with a title?

Noel Hogan: That was the main reason. I was sitting here in the office and I couldn’t think of it. One of the guys who’s been with us for years, it was Sett, I don’t know if you know him, he’s been the tour manager with us. He said to me, you know, maybe you should think about this. I went home and thought about it and thought, you know, that’s a great idea. And it gets the fans involved as well, which is something we’ve always tried to do. So that’s what we did. I met some guys who — there’s a huge art college here in Limerick — so I met up with them. We sat down and kinda thrashed out the idea for a website. It was great, and it turned out great.

Zombieguide: What were you going for in a title? Fans had a really hard time coming up with ideas, since we had NO idea what your solo stuff sounds like.

Noel Hogan: I guess, without anyone hearing it, I was trying to get something that would sum up the music. Now I know that’s really hard without hearing it. But I kinda figured that somebody would stumble onto something for me.

Zombieguide: Were you looking for something, funny, serious, witty…?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, witty enough, but I guess it’d have to be a little bit serious.

Zombieguide: Alright. Celticyodels from Syria asks, how far back does your solo material go? Is there any that you wrote with The Cranberries but then decided that somebody other than Dolores should sing on it?

Noel Hogan: I guess the first few I had written when we were recording those 4 songs we spoke about earlier. Like I said, I keep writing all the time. There were 2 I had written that I had kept, that I was thinking, now these two songs I could take them somewhere else. I hadn’t really thought about the vocals or anything at that point. As I said to you, we had intended to do another album, so I was still writing for The Cranberries still at that point. So that’s when… I guess it would have been February or March of last year that I first got in touch with Matt [Vaughan]. I brought the songs very raw, basically just the guitar part, into the room that he works out of and started working on them. Because it was a new way of writing for me, it took a few months for me to get a point where I was happy with them. Then at that point, we decided that we weren’t going to do another album. That’s when I started thinking OK… that’s what gave me the initial idea of “Well I have these songs started. Maybe it might be interesting to see what it would sound like with other people singing on them.” That sparked the idea really then, so that’s what became now this album.

Zombieguide: We know the name of two of your collaborators, Alexandra Hamnede and Richard Walters, who I think is going to record with you next month. Cranlady1981 asks, with whom else are you going to work and there are you going to work and are there going to be any big surprises? (Cranlady1981, Greece)

Noel Hogan: Well, there are a few. The most well known one is Eagle Eye Cherry, is doing one track. There’s a girl called Kate Havnevik, she’s a Norwegian girl. She’s got a bit of a buzz over here at the moment. She’s on two other tracks. There’s a guy from a French band called Overhead. His name is Nicolas and I can’t even pronounce his second name so I won’t even attempt it. [Editor’s note: Overhead is fronted by Nicolas Leroux] He’s a singer with them. He’s got an amazing voice, he sounds kind of like Jeff Buckley. So he’s done another track and he’s actually working on a second one at the moment.

Zombieguide: I was reading some reviews for Richard Walters and someone else compared him to Jeff Buckley…

Noel Hogan: Yeah, he’s kinda got that vibe as well. I’m in with him not next Tuesday but the following Tuesday. I’m booked in with him. The last guy I can think of offhand, he’s in an Irish band called Woodstar and he sings with them. He’s done two tracks, these were the first 2 tracks I did because I know him pretty well.

Zombieguide: They’ve opened for you, right?

Noel Hogan: That’s right, they did some gigs here with us. They’re doing their second album at the moment, so I got him in between albums to work on two tracks with me. He’s got quite an interesting voice, very high voice he has. He’d actually done stuff — their first album was produced with Stephen as well, so I got to meet him through a bunch of different people. And there’s some instrumentals on there as well. There was one I did where I had a sitar player brought in because it had a very Middle Eastern type of vibe to it and I thought this would be good. Then I worked with Marius de Vries on that track and he brought in this Turkish girl. She’s not singing lyrics as such, more like wails over it, and it’s completely different to anything I’ve done before. So it’s quite varied, some of it’s quite rocky, some of it’s very laid-back. It is electronic sounding, some of it, because the majority of it was done on computers.

Zombieguide: Let’s see, Kerrie from Spain asks… now we know Mike and his wife just had a baby and Ferg’s studying programming at home. Do you know if they have any projects lined up for their time off?

Noel Hogan: Well, I know that Ferg has started writing stuff. I heard a few bits of it and I know that he’s working with a few people here, locals guys in Limerick. He’s definitely… I’m not sure how many songs he’s got done yet. I know because he’s played on two tracks for me, I got him to play drums on. But he’s working away, he’s definitely working with different people. He’s really gotten into the whole programming side of things.

Zombieguide: What kind of promo are you anticipating to do for your solo CD? Maybe a promo tour or…?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, the plan is… I’ve got a couple more vocals to finish. I’ve got half the stuff mixed. I just have to mix the rest of it. By September, I should be finished the bones of the recording. And then the plan is to start rehearsing with a band. I’ve already approached different people that I know, they’re just friends of mine that have played for years. [We have to] start learning the parts and working through it. And then to do some showcase gigs across Europe and then over to the States. I’m talking about January to start doing that. I’ll probably start doing other promo towards the end of the year, press and that sort of thing. I’d like to get one song out somehow or other before Christmas just as a sampler for people to hear, and then come January, start touring proper.

Zombieguide: Mouna asks, what sort of message are you hoping to convey with your album or what do you hope people will get out of it? (Mouna, Toronto)

Noel Hogan: Um, well, like I said earlier, it varies a lot, so there’s alot of different moods in it. Some of it is very very atmospheric. Most of the people that I’ve played it to or have worked with, I’m giving them bits of the instrumental part, more or less finished, to do the vocal part over. A lot of people has said it’s very cinematic, the vibe that they got off of it. [That’s what] they thought without even a vocal in there, what you would hear in a movie in the background. Obviously not the more rocky ones… hopefully, when people listen to it, it takes them through different feelings. You know, there are some hard-hitting moments, some happy moments, there’s quite sad moments, I guess.

Zombieguide: That’s interesting you mention “cinematic.” Someone asked if you’re considering doing any movie music. (Chloe, France)

Noel Hogan: Well, it’s something that the publisher I’m with at the moment has approached me with. There’s a girl there who does what they call “synch,” which is basically movie, TV, and cinema. When she heard the stuff, she approached me and asked me if I’d be interested in doing stuff solely for movies, which is something myself and Dolores have always talked about, it’s something that we’ve always been interested in. I said to her, look, let me finish this and we’ll see what happens after that. I don’t wanna commit to anything else right now, just get this done. I’ll probably do the band after that. It’s just [a matter of] trying to fit it all in to get the time. I would imagine that takes up a lot of time as well.

Zombieguide: Sigma from Mexico City points out that in earlier Cranberries works, we can hear pretty simple guitar arrangements, but in later works like New New York, Stars, and WUASTC, we can hear that your guitar playing has become a little more complicated. Do you think we’ll be able to hear more of that in your new solo work?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, I think so. What I started doing is, I did it first on that track, “In It Together”… I’ve always used the regular tuning on the guitar. I met a guy, he was one of the guitar techs on tour, and he said to me, have you ever tried alternative tuning? So I’d heard of it, but I’d never really tried it. He gave me a bunch of tunings and basically this whole album was written around these six or seven tunings that I’ve been using. It’s like learning guitar all over again, it’s really opened it up completely for me, it’s been incredible. Sometimes you feel like you’re running out of ideas if you just use the regular tuning, since you’ve used it for so long.

Zombieguide: Actually, someone asked a question about that, if you’re going to use alternate tunings or open tunings? (Nigel)

Noel Hogan: Yeah, basically every song is a completely different tuning, which is fine in the studio and when I’m writing, but I haven’t even thought of how I’m going to approach it live yet. Obviously you can’t have whatever, 12 or 13 guitars, it’d be crazy.

Zombieguide: Especially after you give one away in the contest!

Noel Hogan: Yeah, exactly, so I’ll have to work that out. Because of doing this, it’s opened it up completely and it’s given me a lot more freedom playing live and a lot more confidence.

Zombieguide: Alright. Mummbz wants to know, do any of the band members plan to start a record label now that you’ve left Universal?

Noel Hogan: It’s something we have dabbled with. We’ve definitely talked about it over the years. I think we would feel better if we did it as the four of us instead of individuals, ‘cos financially, it’s a lot to pump into something. If you have the comfort of the other 3, you wouldn’t worry so much. So it’s not something I would completely throw my back on, but at some point it’s something we might dabble in.

Zombieguide: A related question, someone askes, are you disillusioned with the whole music businiess machine, especially in regards to the lack of support you received from you last record label? How will things change in the future as to how The Cranberries are promoted and how you are promoted? What lessons have you learned? (Sundaygirl, Manchester)

Noel Hogan: It is. There are moments when you are made a lot of promises and obviously these things don’t happen. You do get seriously pissed off then. And you kind of wonder why you bother half the time because you’re doing it and no one’s getting to hear it. It does annoy you a lot but then when you sit back and relax, you realize this is the way it’s gone on for years. We were very lucky because in the beginning we were successful and we had them at our beck and call. But as time goes by, they get used to you and they get acts that are more successful, so they go to them. Once you realize that, that that’s the way the game is played, you don’t get as upset about it as you probably should sometimes. I think at the moment, it’s no secret that the record companies are all in a lot of trouble with downloading. Every week you pick up a newspaper or one of those interview papers and another company is about to fire another 20 people or whatever. They’re struggling, but I think their problem is that they haven’t embraced the whole Internet thing yet.

Zombieguide: That’s what I was going to ask you next, the Official Site said you were considering making your new album available through downloads. Are you still considering doing this?

Noel Hogan: Yeah. It’s the way it’s going, you can’t turn your back on it. It’s like saying when CDs came out, “I’m sticking to vinyl. I’m ignoring it. I don’t wanna release it.” It’s the same thing. It’s just the way it’s going and you just have to go with it. You can’t be living [in the past,] 10 years ago. I personally find that I love going into a record shop and wandering around for an hour or two, looking at covers and that type of thing. But that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and, let’s be honest, who doesn’t download something or other?

Zombieguide: Aiencran from Italy, who runs the great site CranPortal, an Italian site, says we’ve heard that a song called “Brighty Sky” might be used as a singe?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, that’s the one with a sitar on it, the one I’ve done with Marius de Vries. It’s the most, I guess, the most different song I’ve done compared to The Cranberries’ stuff. And that’s why I was thinking for an initial track to come out to have something completely different so that people hear straight off the bat that it isn’t the same thing exactly. We haven’t made any decision yet. There’s about 3 tracks that we’re throwing around as the first single. I’m at the moment in the process of getting another remix of it done as it’s very much an upbeat type of song. I was trying to get a remix done of it to put on the B-side as well, for clubs and that type of thing. I’m just going through different remixes at the moment to see what we’re going to do with that. The other option we were thinking about was not to release it as an official single but maybe doing it as a white label 12″, maybe print up 2000 copies and give them to people…

Zombieguide: …send them to clubs, that sort of thing…

Noel Hogan: …or even over the ‘net. It might become available as a download or something like that.

Zombieguide: Now we know that you’ve been working with Marius de Vries and also Stephen Street now on this album, is that right?

Noel Hogan: Yeah.

Zombieguide: What has each of their roles been?

Noel Hogan: Stephen has done a lot of the vocal parts. I’d be fine on my own to do the music, because it’d be just me in a room, or me with Matt and we got used to each other so I felt confident enough to deal with that, learning how to play different parts: keyboards and bass. But when it came to the vocal, because I was bringing in outside people that I wouldn’t have known that well [whom] I maybe would have talked to two or three times before. I was just worried that I’d get them in and… you know, I’ve never recorded a vocal in my life. What if I’d get them in and I’d make a [?], so I got in touch with Stephen. We stay in touch all the time anyway. He was interested in what I was doing anyway. So I asked him as a favor, would he mind? He has a small studio in London now, that he uses, Olympic. I knew he had this room that he does a lot of vocals in. So I asked him, as a favor to me, would he mind if I just show up with this track and will you produce the vocal part for me? So he was delighted to do that. So I’ve done, I guess, it must be 6 or 7 tracks with him doing the vocal part at this point. I might get him to mix 2 of them at the moment. They’re more guitar-oriented ones. I’ve always liked the guitar songs that he’s done for me. We haven’t done that at the moment, it’s still kind of up in the air. That’s what I’ve done with Stephen so far. With Marius, it was just one track that I had, the Brighter Skies track. I had it finished, there was just something I felt it needed, I just wasn’t sure. I’d done as much as I thought I could. Marius has done a couple of bits before and I liked the sound that he had gotten. So we approached him with it, and he said send him the track, he was really busy, if he liked it, he said he’d work with it, which he did. I’ve actually never met him, only spoken with him on the phone.

Zombieguide: So Stephen’s handled a lot of the vocal parts, you say. Supervago from Spain wants to know who’s been responsible for the lyrics.

Noel Hogan: It’s been each individual singer. They’ve all gone to Matt and said, look, is there anything you don’t want, anything you do want? And I said, look, if I knew that, then I’d write them myself, you know? So just do what you think is right and send it to me. I make the decision then. I have worked with some people where it didn’t work out. Not many, now, only 2 or 3. I just thought, no offense, but it’s just not what I’ve been looking for for that song and they’ve been fine.

Zombieguide: And I believe this is the last question, Adam from California wants to know what kind of pedals do you use and what’s the name of the pedal you use in the Daffodil Lament?

Noel Hogan: It’s actually not a pedal, it’s a little thing called an ebow. It’s basically a magnet that goes over the strings and it vibrates the strings and then you play the notes. You can get them in any good guitar shop basically. It takes awhile to get used to because it makes the guitar very loud. There’s a lot of positioning to be done. It takes about a month and you’ll be able to perfect it pretty well. For the pedals, there’s hundreds, I could be here all day, to be honest. They’re your regular kind of Boss pedals that you can buy anywhere. What I’ve done is I’ve put it all into a big rack unit that’s controlled by one big pedal. That’s called a Bradshaw unit, it’s a guy in California that makes these. You basicially give him everything you want and he gives you back one little pedal board which is what you have in front of you then and its [the unit] backstage.

Zombieguide: Alright. Lots of people wanted to say hi, I don’t have time to mention them all…

Noel Hogan: No problem.

Zombieguide: Thank you SO much for doing this for us.

Noel Hogan: Honestly, thank you, the reason I [?] is because I check out the site every week. Sometimes I don’t talk to the guys and I mightn’t see Dolores for a few weeks or Ferg or Mike, so sometimes I check out to see if you’ve any news about them that you would know that I wouldn’t, so… it’s a great site, you do a really good job.

Zombieguide: Thank you very much. I try to keep it all accurate, that’s the hardest thing.

Noel Hogan: Yep, it’s amazingly up-to-date which is what impressed me as well.

Zombieguide: It’s very hard to get accurate news these days with you guys on break…

Noel Hogan: Yeah, hopefully over the next few months, there will be more stuff coming out with me doing this and Dolores’s is quite near the end of her thing as well. Between the both of us, hopefully, we’ll keep you busy.

Zombieguide: Really? Any idea when Dolores’s might be out?

Noel Hogan: I’m not sure yet, I know that she was in LA earlier this week or late last week having different meetings with different people as well. I would imagine, to be honest, that it’s so late in the year now that it wouldn’t be until January or February as well. To get something out now before the Christmas rush is impossible. I had hoped myself to have mine out by this time, but there’s so many unforseen things that you have to add on months.

Zombieguide: It’s always harder than it looks, isn’t it?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, it’s hard, especially when you’re doing it on your own because you’ve had the comfort of 3 people to bounce things off of for so many years. You do get there, as I’m discovering finally.

Zombieguide: Well, I wish you luck with it and we can’t wait to hear it… Noel Hogan: I hope to see you soon.
Zombieguide: We hope so too. Come to the States!

Noel Hogan: Definitely. I just got back actually, I just got back actually. I was on holiday in LA, I just got back this day [Tuesday] last week. I did thephotos for the album cover there. They’re done, it’s just a matter of picking the ones that I don’t look too bad in.

Zombieguide: Maybe Rainer could send us a sneak peek of those?

Noel Hogan: Yeah, I’m sure he could, as soon as we get them. The guy did like 600 shots and I picked out 20 earlier in the week. He said by the end of this week, he’d doctor them up and whatever they do for the final finished versions. Hopefully by the end of the week, he’ll have some, and I’ll get Rainer to send one or two over to you.

Zombieguide: Alright, that would be awesome! Thanks again! Cheers!

Noel Hogan: Cheers, thanks, bye!

Zombieguide would like to thank Noel Hogan for his time and also thank his management at The Artist Group for arranging the interview for us!

Source: Exclusive!!

It’s been an unspoken longtime goal of ours to do a proper interview with one of The Cranberries, and now, we’re stoked to say, it’s going to happen.

Noel has specifically chosen Zombieguide to conduct the first interview in promotion of his upcoming solo project. Your humble webmaster, Alex, will be interviewing him either tomorrow or sometime next week, depending on what works for Noel’s schedule.

So until then, you can submit your own questions and we will ask Noel himself during the interview. Just click here to go to the proper thread in the Zombieguide Forums and submit your question as a reply! If you’re not already registered in the forums, you’ll need to do so, it’s quick and easy.

We’re utterly thrilled to have this opportunity to talk with Noel one-on-one, and we hope you all will be just as happy to participate.

Sources: Exclusive!

An Italian Cranberries tribute band by the name of “Salvation” is organizing a Cranberries fan meet in Civitella d’Agliano, Italy, to take place on July 24th.

Salvation will be setting up space at the venue where fans can display their collectionn of Cranberries CDs, T-shirts, autographs, etc. to share with other fans. Of course, the meet will include a performance by Salvation as well. Lead singer and guitarist Anna d’Aloisio says, “It’s imporant that we know how many people are interested, especially for having enough time to organize everything, so we must get word from you by July 15th.” Therefore, all interested fans are encouraged to respond by that date.

For more information, check out the news page at Cranberries Italia for all the details in a .PDF file.

Source: Cranberries Italia

The “Woman” compilation, which compiles rock and pop songs from female artists, has now had 5 incarnations and the series has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide — not bad for a compilation. With 5 entries now in the series, a “Best of Woman” compilation is now on the way, and The Cranberries’ “Analyse” is the last track in the 2CD set.

The Cranberries were previously included in the series with “Just My Imagination” on the first “Woman” comp and “Analyse” on “Woman 3.”

The tracklist for the new two-disc “best of” set is as follows:

Nelly Furtado / Turn Off The Light
Beyoncé (feat. Jay Z) / Crazy In Love
Destiny’s Child / Survivor
Swing Out Sister / Am I The Same Girl
Ashanti / Rock With You
Macy Gray / I Try
Sophie Ellis Bextor / Murder On The Dancefloor
India Arie / Video
Alison Moyet / Love Resurrection
Kelly Rowland / Stole
Texas / In Demands
Mya / My Love is Like …Wo
Martika / Toy Soldier
Sade / Hang On To Your Love
The Cardigans / Erase & Rewind
Sheryl Crow / If It Makes You Happy
Anastacia / Love Is Alive
Vanessa Carlton / A Thousand Miles
Shania Twain / That Don’t Impress Me Much
Diana Krall / Cry Me A River
Tori Amos / A Shorta Fairlytale
Des’ree / You Gotta Be
Sheryl Crow / The First Cut Is The Deepest
The Cardigans / Lovefool
Jill Scott / Gettin’ In The way
Solange Knowles Feelin’ You
Paulina / Don ́t Say Goodbye
Suzanne Vega / Marlene On The Wall
Lara Fabian / I Will Love Again
The Cranberries / Analyse

No word yet on when the compilation will be in stores, although past “Woman” compilations have received a worldwide release.

Thanks to Sigma for the tip.

Source: Sanborns Radio

Zombieguide has discovered the title of what could possibly be an unreleased Cranberries song titled “When I’m 21”.

The song was officially registered by The Cranberries through the Irish Music Rights Organisation and is listed in The Cranberries’ repertoire of written songs in BMI’s database.

The title is completely authentic, although what could possibly make it “not a song” is if it is an alternate title for the No Need to Argue track “Twenty One.” However, “Twenty One” has its own listing and the only other alternate title for the unknown song is “When I’m Twenty One” (with the numerals spelled out in letters). The song was co-written by Dolores and Noel, as was No Need to Argue’s “Twenty One.”

The BMI registration number for “When I’m 21” is 5509119, which chronologically puts it around the time that songs for “Bury the Hatchet” were registered (“Desperate Andy” is 5700000). However, registrations for older songs like “Still Can’t” were also renewed at the same time.

The registry includes several obscure listings for long-forgotten Cranberries songs (“Like You Used To,” “False,” and “Yesterday’s Gone”), and also credits for songs used in TV show backgrounds for MTV’s “Fanatic” and “Undressed.”

The registry also provides another piece of the puzzle for the Gaelic song played at the London Underworld in 1991, commonly known among fans as “Iosa” (Gaelic for “Jesus.”) The official registered name for the song is “Atosa”. With this information in mind, Zombieguide will from now on refer to the song as its official title, “Atosa.” (If someone can give us the Gaelic translation for that, we’d appreciate it). “Atosa” was registered alongside many songs recorded for “No Need to Argue.”

Those interested in songwriting credits might be interested in the tidbits that “False” and “Yesterday’s Gone” were co-written by Dolores and Noel, while “Atosa” was written by Dolores alone.

Other songs are curiously missing from the database: the early song “The Same Old Story” and the unreleased “Wake Up” B-side “Seven Years” are nowhere to be found.

In other rumored news, the blog Dolores – para Iniciantes e Iniciados claims that The Cranberries surpassed 40 million in worldwide album sales in April of this year, but does not cite a source. We couldn’t contact the webmaster for confirmation, so if he/she is reading this, please send us an email.

We tried to contact Lindsey Holmes Publicity last week to confirm this news, but we got no reply. For the past year, Zombieguide has had no official contacts, and thus we cannot independently confirm many of the rumors popping up. If someone “in the know” is reading this and could help us in this regard, please contact me, as we’d very much appreciate it.

Sources: BMI’s database, Dolores – para Iniciantes e Iniciados

In the June 2nd issue of The Daily Telegraph, editors for the British newspaper put together their list of the “Top 10 Break-Up Tunes” of all time. The article reads, “Breaking up is hard to do. Or if you’re Eamon, it’s downright blasphemous. We all cope with the end of a relationship differently. Women tend to cry their weight in tears while men tend to drink their weight in alcohol and plan a trip to Bali with the boys. But those of us who are musically inclined are able to vent through song. SLM’s Penelope Cross looks at 10 of the most memorable break-up tracks.”

The Cranberries’ “I Can’t Be With You” got into the list at #10. Here’s what they had to say about the song:

10. I Can’t Be With You – The Cranberries

The songs on the album from which this track was taken were all written after singer Dolores O’Riordan broke up with her first “big love”. As a result, No Need To Argue has hurt written all over it and is a very personal piece of work. Not that it bothers Dolores: “I’m not ashamed of the way I feel, why should I be?” I Can’t Be With You has a slightly faster pace than some of the other album tracks but it’s the singer’s enunciation and emotion that make this song about missing someone so great. It includes lyrics like “Thinking back on how we were/And how we loved so well/ I wanted to be the mother of your child/And now it’s just farewell”.

Leading the list are “Lovesong – Amiel,” “Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley,” and “Cry Me A River – Justin Timberlake” at the 1, 2, and 3 spots, respectively.

Source: The Daily Telegraph

As one might expect, lots of Cranberries news unfolded this month that we were unfortunately unable to update with (Japan was fantastic, thanks to everyone who’s been asking!). Here are brief highlights from Cranberries news over the past month:

• NoelHogan.com is now open with a contest to let fans choose the name of Noel’s upcoming solo album. The winner will receive one of Noel’s guitars and a copy of the new album, due out before the end of the year. According to 365 Artists, the likely candidate for the first single is to be a song called “Brighter Sky”. It appears that the album has been mixed by Marius De Vries (who remixed “Analyse” and “Time is Ticking Out”). Noel has also worked with Alexis Smith (“Analyse” and “TITO” remixes) and James Loughrey (Hope of the States, Razorlight). (Source: CranPortal)

• Dolores’s court case against former nanny Joy Fahy ended with a decisive victory for Dolores. The judge ruled in all counts for the Burtons except on the issue of Joy Fahy’s lost clothing, for which the Burtons must pay approximately $1,500. Fahy, on the other hand, must pay a daunting $300,000 (approx.) in legal fees for the Burtons, far more than what she would have gained had she won the case. Fahy plans to appeal the case.

• Dolores performed “Pure Love” with Zucchero on May 6. If you haven’t seen it already, you can download a video of the Dolores & Zucchero performance here. The album “Zucchero & Co.” was released this month in Europe and went straight to No. 1 in Italy and Switzerland. Check out Un Po Di Zucchero and the ZG Forums for photos.

• Dolores is performing again tonight (May 29th) with Zucchero at the Festivalbar concert in Milan, Italy. Once again, the song will be “Pure Love.” More news on this event as it happens.

• Dolores has put her home, Riversfield Stud, in Co Limerick up for sale. As ZG reported months ago, Dolores and Don are house-shopping in Dublin. Dolores has lived at Riversfield Stud since 1997, and, if sold, this will be the first time in her life that she has not had a home in Limerick. Click here to read an article from the Irish Independent about the features of Dolores’s former home, now on the market with bids in excess of $3 million.

• According to the Malcom McDowell Tribute Site, Brian Johnson’s Helen of Troy play has not been scrapped and could premiere late 2004. (Thanks cranberry_india.)

• According to Dance Artist Info, Jam & Spoon’s “Tripomatic Fairytales 3003” featuring Dolores O’Riordan’s “Mirror Lover” is now set to go on sale June 14th. (Thanks cranberry_india.)

• The CD soundtrack for “EvilEnko” featuring Dolores O’Riordan’s “Angels Go to Heaven” was supposed to go on sale in early May, but no one (even in Italy) has yet to find the soundtrack on sale. The soundtrack is scheduled to include both the original film version and a “full band version” of “Angels Go to Heaven.”

• According to the World’s End website, Dolores has recorded a new song called “Apple of My Eye” with producer Tim Palmer. No word yet on what the song might be used for. (Thanks forevercran.)

Thanks to everyone at the Zombieguide Forums for keeping up on the news. Zombieguide will now resume regular updates. As always, if you have Cranberries-related news that we don’t have here, email it in to us!

Since September, many Cranberries fans have written emails to the Official Cranberries Website in hopes of learning something — anything — about the status of The Cranberries. For months, nearly all of those emails have gone unanswered. Zombieguide reader Jill Smith was one such fan who went proactive by writing to the Official Site and yesterday, to our surprise, received this response:

Great to hear your wife and you are such fans of The Cranberries music. At the moment, the band is just taking some time off after having started working on new material. The Web site is in the process of being redesigned and reorganized. So that is why there has been a lack of updates in the past. Things should be up and running in a couple months and we’ll be keeping it current with news and tour info to help our online fans stay notified. The Cranberries are still a unit.

ZG Forum user Forevercran also received a personal reply today which read:

Thank you for writing in. I’m sorry to hear of your frustration with the lack of information and I hope this doesn’t prevent you from continuing to be a Cranberries fan in the future. A lot has happened in the last few months with the band and there has been much confusion surrounding them. At the press conference from the Sanremo festival, Dolores mentioned that the band was currently taking some time off and that was translated into the band has broken up.

There is no need to worry, all is well in the Cranberries land. They have recorded some new songs and are now taking some time off, they have not broken up. At the moment, the Web site is being redesigning and reorganizing. Once it’s up and running, we’ll be updating it with news and tour info as before, and keep our online fans notified. If you haven’t subscribed to our newsletters yet, you can do so here:http://www.cranberries.com/cb/elists.html.

I hope this cleared things up, and you continue to enjoy the Cranberries music!

So it appears that the new webmastering team at InDIMENSIONS has begun digging into the no doubt massive pile of email, and more such repsonses seem likely.

But more than that, an official site redesign can only be seen as a good sign. The proposition of future news updates about tour info is even more promising.

Source: Exclusive

According to the latest print issue of the Irish music mag Hot Press, members of the Cranberries are “to be confirmed” to speak at a music seminar in Limerick on April 10th targeted at small independent bands.

Hot Press says: “In other live news, Upstairs In Dolan’s — the imaginatively titled new venue in Dolan’s — will be hosting the forthcoming AMC weekender which will bring lots of great acts to the venue, the highlight of which will be a music seminar on the 10th [of April] which will include speakers from Woodstar, The Cranberries (tbc) and Mike Sound from Dolan’s. All info is avaliable on www.theamc.net.”

The seminar will cover basic “do it yourself” topics for indie bands like recording, promoting, and touring. Doors open at 12 noon for the seminar and tickets are only €5.

Also of interest to Cranberries fans, former Cranberry Saw Us singer Niall Quinn will be performing with his band The Pennywhores at Dolan’s on the same day. The Pennywhores are part of a “Vibe for Kurt” Nirvana tribute concert to take place at 8 o’clock that night. Ticket prices are still undetermined. Update 04.01: The Pennywhores will no longer be playing at Dolan’s on April 10th. However, Niall Quinn tells us that he will still be attending the seminar.

Thanks to Des for the info!

Source: Hot Press, Upstairs In Dolan’s

According to articles published this weekend by the Irish tabloids The Mirror (Saturday) and the Sunday Independent (Sunday), The Cranberries lost a whopping €1.3 million of their own funds during the year 2002. This information comes from the recently-filed financial reports for their self- owned company, Curtain Call Limited.

The filed accounts show that Curtain Call began the year with a surplus budget of €647,500 and ended with a deficit of €673,500. Directors’ fees for the year were €12,000 and €818,431 was paid for what’s denoted as “other services.” Perhaps the most costly expense was the €1.2 million in taxes that hit the company for the year.

The Sunday Independent is quick to point out that despite the harsh year, The Cranberries still have plenty to fall back on; the band is estimated to be worth around €50 million.

In usual tabloid style, both papers quote anonymous sources with dubious credibility. A “music insider” for the Sunday Independent said, “The year 2002 was a hard one for the Cranberries. They were still getting back on their feet after the album Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, which was slated by the critics and did not do well sales-wise.” The Mirror quotes a source “close to the band” as saying, “The tax was on their profits of the year 2002 in which they performed around the world and released new material. It’s a big bill but they can afford it because they made so much money in the early 90s.”

This news compares with an article published last year by The Sunday Tribune which shows hefty touring costs cutting into the band’s profit in 2000 and 2001.

The Sunday Independent tried to call the Curtain Call offices for comment on the 2002 loss but received no response.

Sources: The Mirror, Sunday Independent

More media is coming in from Dolores O’Riordan’s first solo performance yesterday at the Sanremo Festival 2004.

The first three photos below are from Reuters. The first is taken from Friday’s press conference, while the next two were taken during her performance on stage late last night (1:00 local time).

Photo 4 is from Corriere della Sera (thanks Little_Dolores).

The next four photos are from Cranberries fan Mara (Irishsoul), who had the supreme good fortune of meeting Dolores at the hotel where she was staying. Check out her post in the forums to read Irishsoul’s interesting storywhich includes a cryptic encounter with Cranberries backup singer and guitarist Steve DiMarchi. Is Steve working with Dolores on her solo material? Makes you wonder…

The last photo is from Virgilio Musica, and appears to be taken at the same time as the photo from Corriere della Sera but at a different angle. If you have found more news or photos from the Sanremo festival, please send them to us!

In a press conference in Sanremo, Italy, today at 17:30 local time, singer Dolores O’Riordan confirmed that The Cranberries have split for the foreseeable future.

When asked if The Cranberries will get back together, her frank response was, “I don’t think so, perhaps in ten years.”

She continued, “We have worked together for 13 years and now we have closed a circle. Maybe a new Cranberries album will never come out. Maybe we’ll return together in 10 years, who knows? Nothing lasts forever. The reason of this decision is that my main priority are my children. The band used to take away too much time from my life. The Cranberries were becoming only a routine. I need new things like a solo album. The album will come out in 2005 0r 2006.”

“It was all becoming a routine and I think a solo record is the only way for me to release something. At first, the boys were unhappy [with the decision]. Then I spoke to Noel Hogan and he told me that was happy, because now he has a way to discover new musical paths. We were always saying that if a day comes when it was no longer exciting or fun, we would stop. And so we have.”

“There will be plenty of variation from what I’ve done before. I am continuing my musical evolution, but not chaning my core spirit, and I’m still the same person, frankly. The songs that I am writing now are all born out of the piano, as it happened for the song ‘Pretty Eyes.’ It’ll be an album with a more modern and contemporary sound.”

“I had known Lady Diana, one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever met. While we were at dinner together, her humanity struck me, very rare for people of her kind. The song [Ave Maria] will be included on the soundtrack for Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ.’ Last week I tried to see it in Toronto. Even though there were five showings, I couldn’t. There were too many people. But I’ve read a lot about this movie. I know that it has raised many controversies, but it’s reasonable considering the topics that it touches. I allowed them to put it in the film, despite the controversey, because it respects the contents of the Bible from the point of view of a Catholic.”

Dolores also revealed what Mel Gibson himself thought of her song. According to the article on Rockol, Gibson said of the song, “It was as if Dolores herself knelt down and prayed.”

Below is a photo of Dolores from the press conference, her first public appearance in months and Dolores’s first press conference since the day of September 17th, 2003.

Zombieguide will have more news on Dolores’s appearance at Sanremo 2004 as Saturday approaches. Thanks to many, many people for help with this important news piece.

Sources: Rockol News, Yahoo News

The March issue of the Italian magazine “Tutto Musica” carries two articles about The Cranberries, though neither carry any new information.

The first article is one called called: “Dossier: Music and Drugs Special: But What Do the Songs Say?” According to Tutto, there is a kind of “drug discrimination” going on in music with one type pitted against another: “The topic of drugs has been drawn in music in multiple ways; hardly ever are there exaltations of their use, but rather descriptions of the effects. Of course, heroin is nearly always associated with death, but not marijuana. You read and judge.”

The article then examines the lyrics of “Salvation” in English and Italian. Under a circa 1996 photo of Dolores, the magazine states, “Dolores had written it after a long phase of depression. In the photo, she provacatively extends her untouched arms.”

In another section of the magazine, one rather confused fan wants to knonw the same thing that everyone else does: What’s going on with The Cranberries? Unfortunately, Tutto can’t say much more than we can, but nevertheless, here it is:

QUESTION: I’m a big Cranberries fan and I’m looking forward to hearing their next album. Do you know anything about?

ANSWER: From what we can see on the official website of Dolores O’Riordan’s band, the band is working on several projects, but no mention of a new recording. Most likely Dolores will release a solo work (perhaps a soundtrack, expected for this spring [Songs Inspired By The Passion of the Christ]) and so will Noel Hogan. The Cranberries have anyway denied about their breaking-up.

To check out scans of the new issue of Tutto, head over to the Magazines Gallery.

Thanks to Eva and Lorenzo for the scans and info.

Source: Exclusive

Zombieguide received an email today regarding yesterday’s news about the newly-formed company The Artist Group International. Unfortunately, the parts of the website that were online yesterday served only as an “illustration,” we were told, and that information we reported from it below is “not necessarily final or accurate.” That is, none of the people below are confirmed to be involved with the company, rather they are listed for illustrative purposes only.

We also asked if any members of The Cranberries (particuarly Noel Hogan) have any current relationship with Mr. Kovac and The Artist Group. To that question, a representative responded, “Mr. Kovac has business and personal relationships with the parties you mention and many others, however, those relationships remain private.”

Since yesterday, the TAG site was updated to remove all of the tentative information.

Former Cranberries manager Lewis Kovac has established a new artist management agency called The Artist Group International. The new agency is running out of the same building as The Cranberries’ self-owned management company, Curtain Call, Ltd.

When The Cranberries announced their haitus last September, their press release mentioned that Lewis Kovac was preparing to establish a new company, although no details were available at the time.

The website domain was registered last September but didn’t go online until sometime within the past few weeks.

The Artist Group’s physical address is on O’Connell Street in Limerick, the same office space used by The Cranberries’ self-owned business ventures Curtain Call Limited and Timeless Music Limited.

While The Cranberries as a unit no longer have a professional relationship with Kovac, recent Irish press reports indicate that the lads continue to work with him. Noel was photographed together with Kovac in Limerick’s Trinity Rooms in November. One Hot Press article claims that Noel, Mike, and Fergal may be working together with Kovac on material without Dolores.

The Artist Group already has a few clients lined up, French-grown bandMétisse being one of them.

Source: The Artist Group International

The Cranberries’ classic “Linger” is being included in a new CD compilation entitled “Greatest Irish Bands” due for release on February 24th in the US, just in time for the St. Patrick’s season.

The CD, out on Hip-O/UTV Records, has done an impressive job of collecting all of the biggest Irish artists, including U2, Sinéad O’Connor, The Corrs, Thin Lizzy, etc. The CD includes a Bonus DVD with the short film Sightings of Bono. According to the press release, “Bono is also part of Sightings Of Bono, a seven-minute film shot in Dublin in 2000 about a girl who sees the U2 lead singer everywhere until she eventually meets him in the shop where she works. The short was seen in a few theaters and on the Internet but has never been released elsewhere until now.”

Tracklisting:
1. U2 – Where The Streets Have No Name
2. SINÉAD O’CONNOR – Nothing Compares 2 U
3. THIN LIZZY – Whiskey In The Jar
4. BOOMTOWN RATS – I Don’t Like Mondays
5. CLANNAD (WITH BONO) – In A Lifetime
6. THE POGUES – Fairytale Of New York
7. STIFF LITTLE FINGERS – Alternative Ulster
8. RORY GALLAGHER – Tattooed Lady
9. THE CRANBERRIES – Linger
10. THE CORRS – Breathless
11. HOTHOUSE FLOWERS – Don’t Go
12. THE UNDERTONES – Teenage Kicks
13. VAN MORRISON – Brown Eyed Girl

Nationwide promotion of the CD and DVD are expected; you can download the sales sheet sent to retailers here to read about upcoming promotion for the CD. High-resolution cover art is below.

Thanks to Kama and several others for the tip.

Source: Universal Music

In their January 9th issue, editors of the Australian newspaper “Illawarra Mercury” compiled a list of the best songs of summer from the past 10 years, and The Cranberries’ are at the top of their list for the 1994-1995 season. In order to be considered, all songs on the list had to spend time at #1 on the Australian charts.

According to the paper, “Zombie” is one example of an “upbeat, party song that wedges itself so far into your head nothing short of a lobotomy is going to get it out… That song that is always being played in the car radio; the one that you’re singing in your head and you don’t even know how it got there. In fact, you didn’t even know you knew the words.”

“In the hottest months of the year we were listening to Dolores O’Riordan bang on about ‘their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their gons’, Okay, the last word was actually ‘guns’, but her accent twisted it into ‘gons’. A serious song about the conflict in their Northern Ireland homeland, it might have skated under our… radar if it weren’t for the really cool grinding guitar that runs through the song. Released during the tail-end of grunge, it was a guitar sound we were used to.”

Here’s the full list of “Best Songs of Summer” that the editors picked for the past 10 years:

Other notable contenders of the past 10 years mentioned are No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” and Oasis’s “Wonderwall.”

Source: Illawarra Mercury

Cede.ch, Sweden’s largest online CD, DVD, and game vendor, is teaming up with Universal Music Sweden to auction a series of gold and platinum award plaques for charity.

CeDe manager Eric Bachmann told German newspaper Blick,”Right now we have a minimum bid for each item. For Sting’s double platinum that includes an original autograph, we’ve set it at 1200 CHF ($960 US)… [there are] seven gold disks from the Cranberries. In addition platinum and gold from Sheryl Crow… all between 100 CFH ($80) and 300 CHF ($230).” Other Universal artists in the auction include Zucchero, The Cure, Andrea Bocelli, Texas, Metallica, and Tears for Fears.

The seven gold awards from The Cranberries are all in recognition of sales of 20,000 in Sweden for “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.” The seven plaques were presented to MCA, UMI International, Mike Hogan, Noel Hogan, Fergal Lawler, Jay Boberg (MCA President), and Lewis Kovac (former Cranberries manager). Currently, all seven stand at around 300 CHF, or about $230 US. The auctions end on January 22nd and you must be registered to bid.

The three charities receiving the proceeds from the auction are Terre des Hommes (Land of the People), Stiftung der Elternvereinigung krebskranker Kinder (Fund for Parents of Children with Cancer), and Susy Utzinger Stiftung für Tierschutz (Susy Utzinger Fund for Animal Protection).

Click the golden flash banner on the left side of Cede.ch to access the auction site.

Although The Cranberries’ Official Website has been mysteriously inactive for months, a look at the website’s registration record suggests that there has been some movement behind the scenes, as the website was transferred this week to a different hosting company.

On January 6, the Official Website was transferred from Irish-based hosting company Elive to Atlanta-based Interland, a company that specializes in small- and medium-sized businesses. Elive was also Zombieguide’s previous hosting company. Elive had hosted the Official Site since it opened in January 1998.

A whois database lookup for the site shows that Alan McEvoy, The Cranberries’ longtime financial consultant, has been designated as the administrative contact after the band parted ways with former manager Lewis Kovac in September.

It appears that the bare-bones website for Timeless Music Management is still hosted by Elive and that no changes were made to the registration record.

In related news, the shopping cart function on the “Shopping” section of the site has been disabled, making it impossible to purchase anything from the site. (Update: Savannah has posted in the Forums that the shopping cart is working, although it still doesn’t functionn for us.)

No word on why the band’s administration ended their long-term relationship with Elive. The lack of any updates in the past 4 months caused some to fear the worst for the site’s future. However, the server move suggests that the site will be online at least for the foreseeable future.

As to when we’ll see an official update, that’s anyone’s guess. Until then (and even after then), stay tuned to Zombieguide for the latest Cranberries developments, official or otherwise.

Source: Exclusive

On Christmas Day, Britain’s BBC Radio 2 invited Irish celebrity Ronan Keating to host an hour and a half special entitled “Ronan Keating’s Celtic Christmas.” Keating was not only hosted the show, but was given full control over what songs were played on the program. In a move that the BBC website called “surprising,” he chose a Cranberries song for the program, along with selections by fellow countrymen Christy Moore, Clannad, Thin Lizzy, The Pogues, and Jackson Browne.

No word on what song he played during the evening Christmas special.

Source: BBC Radio 2

eBay shut down approximately 237 auctions for Cranberries rarities when they suspected that their seller, Danny Kronstrom, may have engaged in shill bidding. We told you last week that Kronstrom, one of the biggest Cranberries collectors in the world, had decided to auction his entire collection. By Saturday night, eBay closed all of his auctions and suspended his account. The goodies up for auction included a French “Hollywood” radio promo, a Brazilian “I’m Still Remembering” radio promo, countless European live bootleg CDs, and some promos that we’ve never even seen before.

Shill bidding is the process of creating a fake ID to bid on your own auctions in order to artificially raise the prices. A user with the ID of “patheticsenses” was found to be bidding on 117 of Kronstrom’s auctions. “Patheticsenses” had no previous eBay history, was created at the same time as Kronstrom’s account, and was bidding exclusively on Kronstrom’s auctions, but only to outbid other users and never as the first bid. These are all telltale signs of shill bidding. (Even your humble webmaster was outbid by “patheticsenses.”) While Kronstrom’s seller account (“dannykronstrom”) was suspended, the account “patheticsenses” was not.

In an email to Zombieguide, Danny denies all accusations and claims no wrongdoing. “‘Patheticsenses’ is not me, Alex. I don’t know who has made this rumor, began this story, but I only want to sell my items and quit [my interest] in The Cranberries…”

“I feel so bad.. I want to write my real emotions, but my English is not good.”

Zombieguide estimates that Kronstrom must still pay at least $60 in lost eBay listing fees for the closed auctions.

Thanks to Paul for keeping an eye on this situation for us.

Source: Exclusive

Longtime Cranberries collector Danny Kronstrom has made the hard decision of parting with his collection.

Many Cranberries fans, including myself, met Danny through his website,The Cranberries Tape Trader, formerly one of the largest Cranberries websites online. The page that remains there now is but a shadow of its former self. Danny has spent the last several years amassing one of the largest Cranberries memorabilia collections in the world.

Danny and I have a long history together, as we ran The Cranberries Gazettetogether before I was invited by former webmaster John Armijo to join Zombieguide.

When asked why he is selling his collection, Danny told me, “I fear it’s the end of The Cranberries and it’s no longer as important to me. I love it, but not enough to buy everything about them. I have some rare stuff and I think it’s important to share it. Some people have shared rare stuff… it’s my time now!”

Danny will be listing his collection piece by piece on eBay over the coming weeks and months. Click here to view Danny’s eBay items. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Source: Exclusive

Norbert from over at Zombieguide Europe has dug up an interview with Noel, Mike, and Fergal recorded backstage from this summer’s Rolling Stones Fourty Licks World Tour, where The Cranberries opened for several European dates. This marks the first, and probably only, video interview of The Cranberries that we’ve seen online in 2003.

“It’s been amazing,” Noel says about the band’s summer outing with the rock veterans. “I guess every band, when you begin, you dream that someday you’ll have this kind of opportunity. I think it’s been everything we hoped it would be. Everyone’s been really nice. We’ve played to an audience that maybe wouldn’t have known us before. I really couldn’t say a bad thing about any of those things. It’s been a really good experience.”

He goes on, “When we used to be teenagers, we used to go to alternative discos and stuff, and they used to play–”

“‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ was it?” Fergal interrups. “That was the big one.”

“There was a collection that they used to play every Friday night,” Noel continues. “When I was watching the show and listening to some of the songs, it kind of reminded me of when we were growing up and hanging out at places back at home.”

Fergal then recounts a story regarding The Rolling Stones’ frontman: “There was the Curse of Keith,” he begins, exchanging mischievous glances with Noel. “There was a pub in New York, and we were sitting down, a bunch of us for a night out. And there was a big picture of Keith in the background with a light on it. So we ended up having a [drinking] session all night until like 5 or 6 in the morning, or something like that. Then we were in some other pub down in Australia. This was like a couple of weeks later. There was another picture of him in the corner. That ended up being another session ’til like 5 or 6 int he morning. So over a few stages, these pictures appeared and it ended up in a drinking session, because of the Curse of Keith.”

Noel was admittedly impressed by the sheer size of The Rolling Stones’ tour: “It’s amazing to see, when you see the scale of it, the size of the whole setup, you know? I think we thought we had a big setup with a few trucks and a few buses, and then you see this… It’s like a town moving across Europe, it’s amazing to see.”

Click here to download the 2 minute interview. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
The video should soon be available in the the ZG Videos Section.

Japan is finally getting their hands on the Special Edition 2CD version of “Stars: The Best of 1992-2002,” thanks to Universal Music Japan.

Japan initally only received the 1CD version of the greatest hits album when it was released there in September 2002. The new 2CD version will release on January 28, 2004 at a price of 2427 Yen, the same price as the original 1CD version. Universal Music Japan also gave the “Stars” DVD a low-price re- release last month, though no changes were made except new stickers on the outside.

No word yet on whether the re-release will contain anything new not included in the international 2CD special edition version. Zombieguide will keep an eye on the new release and let you know if there are any new additions.

Source: CD Japan

Patience has always had to be a virtue near and dear to the hearts of Cranberries fans. And now, it appears that it’s time once again to exercise the inspiring (albeit annoying) quality of patience as the January 5th, 2004 release date of Jam & Spoon’s upcoming CD Tripomatic Fairytales 3003 gets postponed.

Now, it seems that fans of The Cranberries will have to wait until the vague day in “early 2004” to pick up the Jam & Spoon album that includes “Mirror Lover,” the track that features guest vocals by Dolores O’Riordan. Because no exact date has yet been given to the delayed release, it’s not clear when Tripomatic Fairytales 3003 will finally hit stores.

As more information becomes available, we’ll bring it to you right here on Zombieguide.com

Source: danceartistinfo.com

Some people are counting down the days until Christmas. Others are counting down the days until the New Year. But fans of The Cranberries are counting down the days until January 5, 2004. That’s the scheduled release date of Tripomatic Fairytales 3003, the latest by German trance duo Jam & Spoon that includes the Dolores O’Riordan-vocaled song “Mirror Lover”. And for those close to the music industry, January 5 just got a lot closer. Universal has released a full-length advance album promo disc that includes all twelve album tracks plus three additional bonus tracks.

The advance Promo CD (CD: 2003 DE (Polydor / Island / Universal; 51446259) is in circulation now among key industry professionals, but is not sold in stores. Could it be time to go eBay-ing?

Head over to JamAndSpoon-Fan.de to check out the scans and more info.

Source: JamAndSpoon-Fan.de

Even if you have to wait two years before getting a chance to catch The Cranberries live in concert, you don’t have forfeit the thrill of watching The Cranberries live. Thanks to the power of the Internet and a slew of live performances from the past, MTV UK has posted a streaming video performance of “Salvation” live available for download. The only strand of red tape is you’ll need to download RealOne Player and obtain a subscription to RealOne SuperPass…both available now with a limited time free trial period. So logon to MTV UK, power up your pc’s speakers and enjoy.

Source: MTV UK

Well, we knew something was fishy when Google could not produce more information about this supposed cover of “Linger.” According to witnesses (no pun intended) and several reviews of the Witnness Festival show that it was not “Linger” that Coldplay covered, but Ash’s “Shining Light.” Apparently the representative at the Coldplay Official Website didn’t bother to check to see what song was actually played.

Though the person who sent the question was clearly describing “Linger,” we’ve We will take our beating now, because we really deserve to be whipped for missing this spectacular news: The magnificent Coldplay performed a cover of “Linger” during their tour of Ireland this summer.

On July 13, at the Witnness Festival in Ratoath, Ireland, the sublime Chris Martin introduced a special addition to the setlist, saying “We love Thanksgiving food so you should all enjoy this one.” In the Q&A Section of the Official Coldplay Website, one concert goer asked about the cover of The Cranberries classic:

“I was at Coldplay’s gig in Ireland in July, they sang this beautiful song that I hadn’t heard from them before and was wondering what it was. They introduced it like this, “We love Thanksgiving food so you should all enjoy this one”, and he made it sound like it was a song the Irish should know. I think the song was was called ‘Linger’ or ‘Do you have to?’, the lyrics said ‘You know I’m such a fool for you, you’ve got me wrapped around your finger, do you have to let it linger’, what CD is that from? It was a beautiful song.”

One of Coldplay’s representatives responded to the question, saying, “Are you Irish? Shame on you for not knowing this if you are! The reason they played this song is because it’s originally by an Irish group, The Cranberries. It’s called Linger and was one of their biggest hits. Coldplay like to play a cover of a native band wherever they go.”

Oi!! The first person to send Alex an MP3 of this live cover will receive a shiny penny and his eternal gratitude! Seriously, if anyone can help us find a recording of this cover of a great song by another great band, we will gladly host it for everyone to download.

Thanks to Brad P for the tip!

Source: Official Coldplay Website

An employee of Elive has confirmed to Zombieguide that The Cranberries will soon be ending their hosting of The Cranberries’ Official Website with their company.

“My commercial dealings with the band will be ending soon,” Seanie Ryan, Managing Director of elive Internet Business Solutions, told us on Sunday. Ryan declined to comment further.

This leaves two options for the future of the Official Site: either the band’s management is finding a new hosting company or the Official Site is shutting down. Elive has hosted the Official Site since it opened in January 1998. Given the site’s severe lack of any signs of life since September does not make for a pleasant outlook for the website’s future.

Zombieguide is also negatively effected by this revelation, since our site hosting has been provided by Elive as a side product of The Cranberries’ business with them. Because The Cranberries have ended their business with the company, Zombieguide has been asked to move servers within “a timescale of 3-4 weeks.”

Given this information, we speculate that the Official Site will either move servers or close before the end of the 2003.

Meanwhile, Zombieguide will be moving the site to our Metropoliglobal account, where we host most of our media files. This account was set up for us as a favor by Diego, webmaster of ChocolateBrown.com. Most of the main site should move fine, since our fiasco this past March, we’ve gotten some education on site-moving. However, the Zombieguide Forums may need to restart once more; moving SQL databases is not exactly our expertise.

We are grateful to Elive for the service they have provided us with for the past several months

We will take our beating now, because we really deserve to be whipped for missing this spectacular news: The magnificent Coldplay performed a cover of “Linger” during their tour of Ireland this summer.

On July 13, at the Witnness Festival in Ratoath, Ireland, the sublime Chris Martin introduced a special addition to the setlist, saying “We love Thanksgiving food so you should all enjoy this one.” In the Q&A Section of the Official Coldplay Website, one concert goer asked about the cover of The Cranberries classic:

“I was at Coldplay’s gig in Ireland in July, they sang this beautiful song that I hadn’t heard from them before and was wondering what it was. They introduced it like this, “We love Thanksgiving food so you should all enjoy this one”, and he made it sound like it was a song the Irish should know. I think the song was was called ‘Linger’ or ‘Do you have to?’, the lyrics said ‘You know I’m such a fool for you, you’ve got me wrapped around your finger, do you have to let it linger’, what CD is that from? It was a beautiful song.”

One of Coldplay’s representatives responded to the question, saying, “Are you Irish? Shame on you for not knowing this if you are! The reason they played this song is because it’s originally by an Irish group, The Cranberries. It’s called Linger and was one of their biggest hits. Coldplay like to play a cover of a native band wherever they go.”

Oi!! The first person to send Alex an MP3 of this live cover will receive a shiny penny and his eternal gratitude! Seriously, if anyone can help us find a recording of this cover of a great song by another great band, we will gladly host it for everyone to download.

Thanks to Brad P for the tip!

Source: Official Coldplay Website

Ireland’s Sunday Mirror must have a tracking device implanted in Noel Hogan’s body.

After spotting him buying CDs in Dublin last month, The Sunday Mirror has found him yet again. In yesterday’s issue of the tabloid, the Mirror ran a photo of Noel and his wife Catherine talking to Cranberries ex-manager Lewis Kovac at Limerick’s Trinity Rooms club.

Hmmm. And so the mystery grows. While Lewis Kovac has officially parted ways with The Cranberries, Hot Press hinted in September that Kovac will be working on a project with Noel, Mike, and Fergal, without Dolores. Or else, the meeting could have been related to Noel’s solo project. On another note, after hearing of Catherine Hogan’s sickness, it’s good to hear that she’s out and about with her husband.

Source: Sunday Mirror

According to a short blurb from the November 9th issue of the Irish newspaper “The Sunday Independent,” Dolores will be flying home to Limerick on December 12th, just in time for her mother Eileen’s birthday. The O’Riordan clan (that’s Dolores, Don, Taylor, and Molly) are currently in Toronto. Dolores is recording solo material at Metalworks with co-producerMatt Vaughan and engineer Mike Plotnikoff.

Sounds like the O’Riordan family will be spending Christmas at home this year. What, no third Pope performance? Dang it.

Source: Sunday Independent

Trying to find new interviews with The Cranberries this year has been a bit like hunting Yeti. But luckily, a new interview with Fergal Lawler is being published this week in book form, thanks to author Alan Swan. Alan has been working on his new book “From the Cradle to the Stage” for the past year and a half, and it’s turned into quite an impressive project with interviews from over 70 Irish musicians, including Damien Rice, Damien Dempsey, The Frames, Mundy, David Kitt, Christy Moore, The Corrs, Relish, Ronan Keating, Westlife, Bellefire, Six, and oh-so-many more.

Perhaps the best part is that it’s all for a good cause: all profits from the book will be donated to Irish charity Fighting Blindness. According to their press release, “Fighting Blindness has been in existence since 1983. It is a small but dynamic charity made up of families and individuals affected by progressive blindness. The charity is determined to investigate every avenue where a realistic hope of finding a cure exists. The projects it funds are at the cutting edge of international research and have become global leaders in the search for treatments for blindness. 65,000 Irish adults and children are currently losing their sight to progressive blinding conditions known as retinal degenerations. Funds raised through the sale of this book will ensure this vital work is maintained and developed, bringing hope of a bright future to those currently affected by blindness and to future generations.”

“From the Cradle to the Stage” will be released on Wednesday, November 10th for €14.99 ($15 US). You can order the book now from the publisher,Poolbeg (direct link to the book) or from Fighting Blindness.

A full review of the book will come soon, but in the meantime, Alan Swan sat down with Zombieguide’s Alex Kraus to talk about his interview with Fergal, Fighting Blindness, and the current state of Irish music…

Zombieguide: First of all, when did you come up with the idea for this book?

Alan Swan: It was brewing around in my mind for a long time but it
wasn’t until March of 2002 that I sat down and started the ball rolling
on the project. I was presenting a breakfast show on CKRfm, a
commercial station for counties Carlow and Kildare, at the time, so I was up early in the morning, in for work at 5 am, on air at 6 am, finished work at 11 am. I was getting into the habit of sitting down at home pottering around at this and that and not really making use of the time that I had in the afternoons. So one day I just switched on the laptop and got going.

Zombieguide: What was the idea behind the book?

Alan Swan: The creative idea behind the book was very simple. I’m a massive fan of music, always have been. I wanted to put together a book where the artist, speaking in their own words could talk about there younger years and why they choose the road they travel. I’ve always been fascinated about what lights the spark. I wanted all original material. So I set about interviewing over 70-75 acts either face to face, by phone or by e-mail. Hoping that I could get little snippets of information that would give the book a little edge. Because I only had space for 80,000 words myself and my editor felt that we would have to give each artist around 800-1000 words each. Looking at the book now I feel we have a nice mix, some chapters run a bit more, some are short and get the message across. I’m happy with the finished product and extremely proud. I hope that someday someone might pick it up and that it might inspire them to take up music.

Zombieguide: How many pages will the final book have?

Alan Swan: Well it comes in at around 80,000 words, so 200 words a page, 400 pages. To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I still haven’t seen the finished product yet… I have seen the cover and it looks great. It has lots of different shots of different acts, including the Cranberries.

Zombieguide: Nice… when did Fighting Blindness come into the picture?

Alan Swan: Fighting Blindness came in from the start. I wanted a charity involved because I knew it would the perfect vehicle for them to promote themselves. I am good friends with one of there chief fund raising managers in Fighting Blindness and out of courtesy I asked him first before I pitched the idea to other charities. His Chief Exec. liked the idea, got the board to approve it and here we are. I’m thrilled the proceeds of this book is going to charity, Fighting Blindness are an incredible organization and quoting their Chief Exec. Micahel Griffith “Its flagship project in Trinity College is a world leader in the development of gene therapy for dominantly inherited retinopathies and the contribution of this group to the global research effort to find treatments for blindness has been truly outstanding by international terms.” I knew by having the charity on board that it would make it a lot easier to have all the other pieces to come together. The result is that from all of us combined, ie., from publishers to record companies, from artists to me, all our efforts will result in the proceeds from this book going to charity.

Zombieguide: I would assume then that not only was it easier to publish the book once you got a charity sponsor, but that it was a lot easier to get artists to jump in once you told them that it was for

charity?

Alan Swan: It was in a way – but there was an awful lot of work and presentations to do. Our publishers are great, like myself they are very passionate about the book and have put so much effort into it. The artists have been great too – a few due to work commitments weren’t able to contribute (which I totally understand) but I would hope they would make the second edition which I would love to put together in a few years time. Those who did contribute in fairness gave up there time to take part, for example Donal Lunny wrote a beautiful piece from Japan which he e-mailed to me. A lot of artists really took the project to heart and were very generous.

Zombieguide: It looks like the book has gone under a few changes since the first press releases were put out. Originally, the press release stated that Dolores wasto appear in the book, but now it’s Fergal who will appear in the final version. Was Dolores originally supposed to be interviewed? What happened?

Alan Swan: It was a simple case of crossed wires. Nothing more. It was a really early Press Release that wasn’t really finalized before it went out into the public domain. We are delighted to have Fergal on board and I think you will like his contribution. I honestly think that all our contributors have great little stories to tell.

Zombieguide: Yeah, can’t wait to check it out. This question comes from Brad from the Zombieguide Forums… What makes this book unique and not just a mini-biography? I mean, a lot of us diehard fans have already read many, many biographies already, especially about the band’s early days. Just last year, Niall Quinn published his own story online about the earliest days of The Cranberry Saw Us in his own words. Can you promise us something new?

Alan Swan: To be honest I can’t promise anything.

Zombieguide: Then can you give us a little taste of what to expect?

Alan Swan: Each chapter contains small snapshots of the artists life. In Fergal’s case he talks about his first gig, listening to the radio, singing songs in his father’s rocking chair and so on. It would be unfair of me to say “Ah yeah, it’s full of so much new info, lots of it, go out and buy it.” I wouldn’t lie to you, it’s only when you read through the whole book that you get a sense of Irish life and how these stories compare. I found Fergal’s chapter really interesting and I hope whoever buys the book finds this too. Remember too it’s in his own words like all the chapters in the book. I would hope that whoever buys the book would enjoy the other artists stories too, and go, “Jaysus did that happen to Jim Corr, or I never knew that about James Galway or Damien Rice, was THAT the first ever song he learned?” It’s really a celebration of Irish music and that we as a small country have such an array of different styles and singers. I think it’s unique in the way that I don’t think there has been a book that gives such a broad taste of Irish music through the artists own words.

Zombieguide: Oh, really? So the chapters are in first-person monologue style, like an autobiography? Dolores did something very similar for Liz Evans’s book “Women, Sex, and Rock ‘n’ Roll” in 1994, only Evans had to turn the interview into a monologue on her own, since Dolores was in a hospital bed from her skiing accident in the Alps.

Alan Swan: Yes they are. I felt it would be more personal to the reader if it was written like that. I tried to have it flow like a natural conversation, snippets here, snippets there. I hope it works.

Zombieguide: When exactly did you get to interview Fergal? Was it a face-to- face interview or by phone or…? What were your overall impressions of him?

Alan Swan: Because the band where busy, I conducted Fergal’s interview via e-mail and he was very open and obliging. He also wished the project the very best of luck.

Zombieguide: Wow, so did you get Fergal’s personal email address? If you did, I think you just captured the envy of everyone reading this.

Alan Swan: Actually, I have a good friend who acted as a third party for me. E-Mails were then just forwarded to me through that address. I was delighted Fergal had the time to do it because he was on tour at the time. He also left a lovely good luck message for me at the end which was very kind.

Zombieguide: We know that “Cradle to the Stage” covers artists’ roots and early days, but what other subject matter is in the book? Did Fergal get the chance to talk about The Cranberries’ current or future projects?

Alan Swan: No I’m sorry he didn’t, because we asked the artists to focus so much on the past we tended not to get so much info on the future, In some cases we did, but in Fergal’s case we didn’t. Sorry…

Zombieguide: It’s alright. Dolores has been quoted as saying that she doesn’t like to incorporate “trad” elements into The Cranberries’ music because she feels that it’s too much of a cliché for an Irish band. In a sense, its one distinction that separates The Cranberries from other modern Irish, particularly female acts like Enya and The Corrs. Do you feel that a lot of new bands agree with Dolores’ sentiment, or are there still a number that have that “Irish” sound?

Alan Swan: Not to be arguing with Dolores, but in my honest opinion and in a sense I think Dolores’s main instrument, her voice, has a massive Irish traditional Sean Nos sense to it. Her voice is sensational and much of their early material had an Irish feel to it. Recently it has shifted away from that. I can see her point though; some Irish acts do go with the trad element. I don’t think it’s a cliché, I think if it works for Enya and The Corrs and the fans like it well then it works. There are a lot of Irish acts that don’t go with the Trad slant — JJ72, Ash and The Frames. I think it’s great for the Irish sound to be still around, it’s what makes us distinctive, different.

Zombieguide: About the Irish elements, I think everyone would have to agree that Dolores’ voice has a very inherently Celtic quality. But what she means to say is that she’s very much against incorporating stuff like the fiddle or the tin whistle unless it’s absolutely necessary…

Alan Swan: I know exactly where you’re coming from. With regards to Enya and so if it works it works. What the Cranberries do also works and works incredibly well.

Zombieguide: On a broader scale, there is this fear among some cultural purists that Ireland is losing a lot of its ethnic identity and “Irish charm.” (Not to be confused with Lucky Charms, of course.) A hundred years ago, it was a fear of Ireland becoming Anglicized, but today, there’s just as much of a fear of becoming Americanized, or even just “globalized” in general. Do you feel this social trend is having a large impact on music?

Alan Swan: It is in a way. A few years back, and to some small extent now, an awful lot of bands were trying to sound like Radiohead, singer- songwriters were trying to sound like David Gray, and many would follow what was the in sound at the time. I think you will get that in every country though and not just in Ireland. I don’t think Irish music is dying though, I think it’s stronger the ever and a lot of acts are going back to basics and bringing an Irish folk kind of feel to there music. In that I mean that many of our best artists have always been unique story tellers. We have a new generation of artists such as Damien Rice, Glen Hansard, David Kitt, Mundy and so on who all have there own unique sound and bring something fresh to Irish music. I’ve always said it but for a country as small as Ireland we really do produce amazing things. On the other side Trad music is as popular as ever and seems to have lost the stupid stigma that was attached to it. Acts like Altan, Donal Lunny, Dervish and as always The Chieftains are leading the way.

Zombieguide: One radio-related website that I ran across said that “From the Cradle to the Stage,” is your first book but that you have “several others in the pipeline.” Is that right?

Alan Swan: It is, I’m going to take a bit of break from writing for a while, maybe six months or so. I want to write a book about my grandmother, it’s a personal story and really a celebration of her life, she was an amazing woman and I’m really looking forward to sitting down and starting the research work on that. I also want to work on some other biogs but that’s a long way down the road.

Zombieguide: Any chance of another Cranberries-related book?

Alan Swan: Who knows, maybe some day… never say never!

Zombieguide would like to thank Alan Swan for his time and wish best of luck to him and Fighting Blindness.

Source: Exclusive!

Before they appeared on the show “Absolutely Fabulous,” British comedy duo Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French carried their own series called “French & Saunders,” which is now getting a flurry of releases on DVD. Their newest DVD release, Living in a Material World has something to offer which will amuse — or infuriate — Cranberries fans.

“Living in a Material World” includes one skit that impersonates Dolores O’Riordan. DVD Talk laments that the parodied lyrics are tough to make out, but hilarious none the less. “Bjork and the Cranberries… also get intricate send-ups… although the musical tributes are a bit less effective as the jokey lyrics are a bit tough to make out. Still, these skits are all awesomely funny.” Björk and Dolores aren’t the only ones getting a jab; Madonna also gets the shaft.

“French and Saunders – Living in a Material World” is now available on DVD in the US for a retail price of $14.98.

Source: DVD Talk

The Irish rock documentary “From a Whisper to a Scream” has been picked up by Eagle Vision USA for a re-release this week on DVD. The new version, entitled “Out of Ireland: From a Whisper to a Scream” was originally released by Fox Lorber under the title “From a Whisper to a Scream: The Living History of Irish Rock” in March 2001 on DVD and a VHS set. The documentary was produced in 2000 and was originally aired on national network RTE in Ireland. The documentary includes a brief segment on The Cranberries and an exclusive interview with Dolores O’Riordan as she comments on Sinead O’Connor, Thin Lizzy, and Irish traditional music.

The new version boasts new packaging (including a shot of Dolores on the cover), but the content appears to be the same as the original release.

Check out Zombieguide Europe for scans of the original release and screen captures.

(IMAGES NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Source: Eagle Vision USA

It’s too bad the album title “Rumours” has already been done (snatched up by Fleetwood Mac in 1977), because lately, it seems that this would be the ideal title for the Cranberries’ sixth album. Amidst all of the mayhem of “will they or won’t they” ever return to the studio, fans are left wondering: how are The Cranberries coping with the allegations, insinuations, and the ever popular out-of-context publications?

Well, for a little poetic answer to that question, Zombieguide presents an astonishing creation by mesmerizing cartoonist, Maurizio di Bona aka The Hand. Cranberries fans may remember that it was The Hand who, earlier this year, was asked by The Cranberries to produce artwork for official band merchandise. Created in an attempt to portray The Cranberries’ struggle to balance personal with professional, this one-of-a-kind illustration, entitled “Stop Rumours” was submitted to Zombieguide in an effort to help stifle the whirlwind of conclusions and remind fans that The Cranberries remain individuals with significant responsibilities that lie beyond the group itself.

Special thanks to the astonishing artist, The Hand, for kindly allowing Zombieguide to post this terrific piece of art!

Source: Exclusive

What do The Cranberries have in common with Chopin? How about a top- ranked spot in the personal favorites list of Norwegian actor, Dennis Storhøi! In an IGN Filmforce online interview, actor Dennis Storhoi (The Thirteenth Warrior) named The Cranberries, alongside Chopin, as his personal favorite musicians…as odd of a combination as it might seem.

The accomplished actor has performed in numerous on-stage productions as well as silver screen projects. In IGN Filmforce’s brief ten questions spanning everything from favorite film to greatest influences, his reference to The Cranberries as favorite musical artist took first line in the interview.

Source: IGN Filmforce

As if quirky tunes such as “Yellow Submarine”, “Rocky Raccoon”, and “I Am the Walrus” aren’t enough of a novelty for Beatles fans, there is now a new three-volume compilation that exalts the music industry’s fascination with the Fab Four. We Want the Beatles is an eclectic compilation that’s turned up on eBay. The strange set features both well-known and obscure tracks that include virtually any reference to John, Paul, George or Ringo. So what has this to do with The Cranberries you ask? Think hard. Yes, you’ve got it. To The Faithful Departed’s rocking tribute to the late John Lennon, “I Just Shot John Lennon” is included in the smorgasbord of songs about The Beatles. As long-time fans of The Beatles, The Cranberries were bound to pay homage to the mop-topped music legends somehow; and a savvy bootlegger out there didn’t overlook The Cranberries contribution to Beatle Mania.

We Want the Beatles appears to be an unofficial collection of songs; yet it certainly does deserve credit for baring a painstaking appearance. Zealot bidders currently have the unofficially-released six-disc set priced at over $90.00 on eBay.com

Source: eBay.com

Universal Music has released a brand new limited edtion 2CD set in Colombia entited, “Master Collection.” The set consists of the full “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” and “No Need to Argue” albums housed in a special cardboard sleeve. The limited edition set appears to be aimed at new fans, offering both the most recent album and what some consider to be the “best” album in one package. The officially-released set is currently available in Colombia; it is unknown if Universal plans to release the set in other areas as well. For reference, the full tracklising is:

Wake Up & Smell The Coffee:
1. Never Grow Old
2. Analyse
3. Time Is Ticking Out
4. Dying Inside
5. This is The Day
6. The Concept
7. Wake Up & Smell THe Coffee
8. Pretty Eyes
9. I Really Hope
10. Every Morning
11. Do You Know
12. Carry On
13. Chocolate Brown – bonus track
14. Salvation – Live In Paris
15. In The Ghetto

No Need To Argue:
1. Ode To My Family
2. I Can’t Be With You
3. Twenty One
4. Zombie
5. Empty
6. Everything I Said
7. The Icicle Melts
8. Disappointment
9. Ridiculous Thoughts
10. Dreaming My Dreams
11. Yeat’s Grave
12. Daffodil Lament
13. No Need to Argue

Thanks to Vincent for the tip!

Source: Esprit

Author Alan Swan sent us a note yesterday to say that his upcoming book,”From the Cradle to the Stage,” will be released on November 12th with a cover price of €14.99 (€5 lower than the anticipated price). The book contains an interview with The Cranberries’ Fergal Lawler, as well as a host of other Irish musicians like Ash, Devlins, The Corrs, Samantha Mumba, Christy Moore, Chieftains, and others, 70 in total. “From the Cradle to the Stage” contains a forward by Gay Byrne and commentary by Dave Fanning and Tom Dunne. All proceeds will benefit Irish charity Fighting Blindness.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase from the publisher’s website, Poolbeg.com, upon release.

Zombieguide has interviewed Alan Swan about his book (and about Fergal’s contribution!), and we will publish that interview as the release date draws near.

Source: Exclusive

The Limerick Post reports that members of The Cranberries were in attendence at the recent launch party for the Red Room, a new nightclub in downtown Limerick. The venue was formerly known as Doc’s Bar, but has undergone massive renovations to turn the building into a more modern, trendier nightclub and bar. Guests’ attendence at the party was by invitation only and the list included a large number of local personalities.

Members of The Cranberries were seen “rubbing shoulders” with fellow Limerick musicians Woodstar at the revamped venue. Woodstar opened for The Crans last December in Ireland, while Fergal gave them a name-check in an Official Site post this past May. All the crossovers aren’t coincidental; Woodstar’s lead singer Fin Chambers tells The Limerick Post that The Cranberries have been among their biggest supporters:

“They [The Cranberries] have been absolutely fantastic with their support for us. We know that if there is any help we want, anything we need such as getting someone to listen to our stuff, then all we have to do is ask. Some of the band have been to three of four of our gigs. They wouldn’t be very vocal people, but they seem to like our stuff and we know if we need anything they will oblige us, so it is fantastic to have their support,” Fin says.

Source: The Limerick Post

A new factory-produced Cranberries bootleg has appeared on the streets of Europe under the title “Go Your Own Way.” The new bootleg consists mostly of audio from professionally-recorded shows, primarily ARTE’s Music Planet 2Nite show from 2002 and the Vicar Street concert from 2000 (officially released on the “Stars” DVD). Due to the professional sources, the audio quality is said to be “excellent.”

“Go Your Own Way” has been released on the pseudo-label “Salavation Records” with the catalog ID “CRANBERRIESLIVE 2000/02.” The tracklisting is:

Arte TV Show, Sept 8, 2002, Gloria Theatre, Cologne:

1. Linger
2. I Can’t Be With You 3. Free To Decide
4. Salvation
5. Animal Instinct
6. Zombie
7. Interview 1
8. Interview 2

Vicar Street, Ireland, Nov 11, 2000:

9. Intro Irish Show
10. Time Is Ticking Out
11. Linger
12. In The Ghetto
13. Ode To My Family
14. Shattered
15. Animal Instinct
16. Loud And Clear
17. I Can’t Be With You
18. Analyse

Paris Bercy, Dec 9, 1999:

19. Go Your Own Way

Astoria, UK, Jan 22, 1994:

20. Daffodil Lament 21. Empty

Thanks to Vincent of My Cranberries Discography for the info.

Source: My Cranberries Discography

From Shannen Doherty (“Friends ‘Til The End”) now to Kathryn Morris (“Minority Report”), you can hear The Cranberries’ 1996 single “When You’re Gone”, lofting through the background of television drama after drama. On Sunday night’s episode of the new CBS series Cold Case, starring Kathryn Morris and John Finn, approximately ten seconds of “When You’re Gone” was used to help create the mood of dramatic television. Though it was just a clip, and a small one at that, it’s a rare treat to have the opportunity to savor a Cranberries moment on network television.

Thanks to Michelle for the news.
Cold Case airs Sunday nights at 8:00 pm ET/PT on CBS.

Source: Exclusive

Reports out of France indicate that art designer Storm Thorgerson is resting in a Paris hospital after suffering a stroke last Friday. Thorgerson has been in Paris for the last few weeks for a Pink Floyd art exhibition which runs from October 10th, 2003 until January 25th, 2004.

Thorgerson has designed the covers of nearly all of The Cranberries’ recent releases (aside from “Stars”). We all pray he has a swift recovery!

Thanks to Echoes In Babylon for the news.

Source: N/A

In her first commercially-released video performance since the announced 2-year hiatus for The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan appears on the new DVD companion to this year’s CD release, “Zu & Co”. As a part ofa collection of duets with Italian vocalist, Zucchero, Dolores’s performance of “Pure Love” will be included on the singer’s live DVD. The concert footage was taken from a performance held on May 6, 2004 at London’s Royal Albert Hall – a stage familiar to The Cranberries.

The region 2 DVD, currently scheduled for released on October 18 in most European countries, November for France, will most likely hit stores in November and will include a backstage documentary, a photo gallery, the making of the ZU & Co album (presumably the same as on the ZU & Co special edition), Dunne Mosse with Miles Davis and “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime” live at the 46664 concert in South Africa with Queen’s Brian May as well as Roger Taylor and Sharon Corr. Plus, the disc has a teasing collection of “Hiden Extras”. Currently, only a Region 2 release is planned for “Live at Royal Albert Hall.”

The main event of the DVD, however, is the show itself, boasting this tracklisting:

Dunne Mosse (featuring Miles Davis ‘in spirit’)
Dindondio
Rossa mela della sera
Il grande baboomba (featuring Mousse T.)
Like the sun (featuring Irene Fornaciari)
Everybody’s got to learn sometime (featuring Jenny Bae)
I’m in trouble (featuring Tina Arena)
Baila Morena (featuring Maná’s Fher)
Ali D’Oro (featuring John Lee Hooker ‘in spirit’)
Senza una donna (featuring Paul Young)
Pure Love (featuring Dolores O’Riordan)
Diavolo in me (featuring Solomon Burke)
Il volo (featuring Ronan Keating)
Cosi Celeste (featuring Cheb Mami)
Madre Dolcissima (featuring Brian May)
Il Mare… (featuring Brian May)
Hey Man (featuring Eric Clapton)
Wonderful World (featuring Eric Clapton)
Miserere (featuring Luciano Pavarotti)
Solo una sana…
Shake
Diamante
X colpa di chi?
Hai scelto me

Zu & Co is not the only upcoming DVD release for Dolores. Universal is re- releasing 1994’s The Cranberries “Live” on DVD, November 29th throughout Europe.

Source: Un Po’ di Zucchero

Today’s issue of the Irish tabloid “The Sunday Mirror” has spotted The Cranberries’ Noel Hogan in Dublin this week. Photographers for the tabloid followed Noel around while he was shopping for CDs at the Tower Records on Wicklow Street.

The tabloid published a photo of their encounter with Noel. Unfortunately, since we only have the text version, we don’t have a scan to share. If anyone (Phil?) has access to today’s issue to make scans for us, please send it toZombieguide!

Source: Exclusive

Zombieguide’s own Shannon Sankar took the initiative today in contactingThe Cranberries Official Website regarding the recent lack of updates in the past month, sorely needed in the light of Irish reports that the band is taking a two year break. Shannon wrote, “And because the official web site continues to include, as its last update, a title that reads: ‘Cranberries quietly working away…’, I feel like this is starting to not only become frustrating for fans who have been left out of the loop of the truth, but is also becoming misleading, if in fact The Cranberries are NOT ‘working away’ right now. I write you because I know that you have always strived to be especially appreciative of the connection your band has with its fans. You have taken initiative in the past to communicate with your fans; and I have a great respect for that. … I am asking that you please clarify the information released on Sept. 17th from your publicists stating a vague reference to what could either be a two-year break or an indefinite break up.”

To her surprise, unlike most fans’ inqueries to the page, she received a reply! The response read, “Hi Shannon, an update will come soon!” Though no time frame was given, we should be able to hope for some kind of official announcement soon.

I know, I know. We said the same thing a month ago, but that statement from the official site had no promise of “soon.”

Zombieguide will have the absolute latest on The Cranberries’ hiatus status as we know it.

Source: Exclusive

“What’s in your head?” For Brazilian students learning the English language, educators at Yazigi Internexus, a leading educational facility in Brazil, are hoping to put a little English grammar in the heads of their students. Recently, Yazigi Internexus chose to incorportate clips of The Cranberries’ videos for both “Zombie” and “Salvation” to help students learn about and discuss controversial topics as conveyed in English. In classes with topics such as “Drugs” and “Violence,” students studied the lyrics to each song in depth, their meanings, and how they apply to society. With a little help from a gold-painted Dolores, students are debating the effects of violence while learning to communicate in English. And thanks to a drug-pushing psycho clown, Brazilian students are learning how English-speakers “just say no”. And to think, you’ve laughed at Dolores’s “one, two, tree, four” before kicking into “Salvation” live in concert. Look who’s the English language role model now!

Thanks to Daniel for the information!

Source: Exclusive