Hot Press, Ireland’s largest entertainment magazine, is compiling votes to determine the Top 100 Greatest Irish Albums of all time. They have selected “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We” in their shortlist, and also give voters the option of including write-in votes.

Click here to go directly to the voting page. You will need to register a free Hot Press voting account to access the poll. There are write-in blanks at the end of the voting page, where you can add The Cranberries’ other four albums as options. (Because you wouldn’t dare consider voting for Sinead or U2, would you?) Voters may select up to 5 albums.

Once you make your selections, voters are asked to rank their top 5 in order and then write a 400-word-max opinion on why they picked their selection for #1 album.

Source: Hot Press

Popular New York-born indie singer Rufus Wainwright — of whom Sting, Diana Krall, Tori Amos and Erikah Badu count themselves as fans — recently told Mexican newspaper “Reforma” that The Cranberries’ “Linger” is one of his favorite songs and that he thinks that too many people don’t give the song enough credit. In the October 16th issue, an interviewer for the paper asked him whether there were any songs that have a particularly deep message for him:

What pop songs do you think have a deep or worthy message of reflection?

There is a lot. “Linger,” by The Cranberries, which some people might think to be a little old these days, has a story about fierce love, if you think about it, and few people truly understand it. “Boys of Summer”, by Don Henley, has a very beautiful background, and it’s only pop. When the New Radicals released “You Get What You Give,” it had a fantatstic melody with interesting lyrics and not many people got the true sense of it.

Source: Reforma (Mexico)

Media Contemporary Arts this week informed Zombieguide that the recently-held exhibit Taken By Storm: Art of Storm Thorgerson will be globe-hopping come 2005. Robin Headlee of Media Bitch tells us, “We will be taking the exhibition travelling in 2005. Our plans are for USA, Asia, Continental Europe, and then UK. I’ll keep you posted as the plans develop.”

An exhibit for Chicago is tenatively scheduled for April 8, 2005, with a date for New York to follow shortly thereafter (Gallery TBC). Several cross- continental dates in the USA and then to Asia, Continental Europe, and the UK will follow.

Although the London exhibit is now closed, you can still purchase signed and numbered prints from the John Martin Galleries London website or schedule an appointment at John Martin Chelsea in London by calling +44 (0)20 7351 4818.

Also, don’t forget to enter our contest to win an unsigned “Wake Up” proof, which will end on or about November 9th.

Below you can also find some photos from the opening night of the exhibition in London on September 21st. Headlee tells us, “It was a huge success with quite a few of the band members that Storm has worked with in attendance.” Guests included members of Muse, author Finlay Cowan, and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, to name but a few.

Source: Exclusive!

The Cranberries Official Site updated today with its long-promised slick redesign. The site now boasts a number of new features, including a search function and an events calendar. The new redesign links heavily to outside sites for content like reviews, interviews, and guitar tabs.

While most of the content is essentially the same, the Frequently Asked Questions section now includes two new questions, one of which surprisingly states: “No, Dolores has no plans to record a solo album.” This comes as a shocking contrast to numerous reports over the past 2 years of her intentions to do so — even from Noel himself. At the moment, Zombieguide is trying to get a confirmation from Lindsey Holmes Publicity regarding this change.

Update 10/23/04: Thomas points out that the FAQ response regarding a solo for Dolores was posted in March 2003 and is not a new update, and therefore may not be current information.

The other question is:

“Are you splitting up? Now , or after the next album? A: No! Not at all. The band last toured in 2003 and released a collection of the hits from years past. Keep an eye on the What’s New section for more updates as the [sic] become available.”

The “Talk” section also now contains a Discussion Board page which links toCranberries fan forums across the net.

Source: Exclusive!

Speaking to Zombieguide via email on Thursday, The Cranberries’ Noel Hogan cleared up a few recent rumors and miscellaneous reports.

Noel tells us that despite a BMI catalog registration for a song titled “When I’m 21”, there is no such song with that title. He says, “I only remember one track with “TWENTY-ONE” in the title. That being the track that we all know. “When I’m twenty-one” could have been an earlier version of the track. Or sometimes when one of the crew is printing out a set list for a gig, they put down the wrong name of a song. Then it gets registered by someone in the office for performing rights.”

We then asked Noel whether fans will ever be able to hear unreleased songs like “Seven Years” and “Yesterday’s Gone.” To that, he replies, “Other songs like “Seven Years” & “Yesterdays gone”… We sometimes write songs, do them once & in time forget about them. We may not like them or just forget in time. There have been many tracks over the years that have been recorded like this. Sometimes @ a radio session or TV thing. We may start playing with something in the studio, put some of it down & mean to go back to it but run out of time and then forget about it. There are lots of bits out there, but it would take a long time to find them all. Maybe someday we might have the time.”

Lastly, Noel tells us that despite the band having left Universal Music in January of last year, the label has asked the band to get involved with the upcoming DVD re-release of “Live.” Universal has asked the band to locate video footage from the 1994 era to use as bonus features for the DVD. Noel explains, “Universal have been in touch once so far about the new DVD. They are looking for any extra footage we may have from around the time. We are trying to locate anything we might have @ the moment.”

That’s it for now, more to come…

Source: Exclusive!

If you’ve been conscious and reading Zombieguide often, you’ll know that last year, The Cranberries went into the studio to record a demo of four songs with longtime producing veteran Stephen Street. The band plans to use these songs sometime in the indefinite future as a basis for their sixth album, which has been put on hold.

Noel Hogan, speaking to Zombieguide in July about the demo, told us “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.”

Earlier today, Noel emailed us the titles of the four songs: “Sorry for taking so long to get back to you with the names of the tracks we recorded with Stephen. The tracks are…”

1. Astral Projection
2. Someday
3. Raining in My Heart
4. The Fall

The band first played “Astral Projection” at the beginning of last year’s summer tour (which included dates with The Rolling Stones). Surprisingly, the other new song, “In It Together” is not part of the demo.

Longtime fans may recall an old rumor of an unreleased song from the No Need to Argue period called “The Fall.” We do not know if there is any relation between the old rumor and the new song, but we will see if Noel can perhaps shed some light on that particular point of interest.

Noel also told us today, “I have most of the track names for my own album now. If you like, I can also send them on.” He promises to send updates along as they happen, so stay with Zombieguide for the latest Cranberries buzz…

Source: Exclusive!

Yesterday’s “Sunday Times” (London) published the first details about Dolores and Don Burton’s new home in Howth, Co Dublin, Ireland. The article says that the relatively new 5-bedroom home is far from the lavishness of Riversfeild Stud — no recording studio, pool, or even a garage.

Thanks to Nigel Bernstein for sending it in. Read the full article below:

Changing her tune
Why has Dolores O’Riordan bought an unprepossesing house in the Dublin suburbs, wonders Colin Coyle

Dolores O’Riordan has bought a new home in Howth, Co Dublin, and it’s . . . . well, not very rock ’n’ roll. The house, on the edge of the unassuming Thormanby Woods development in the upmarket suburb, doesn’t have a swimming pool, gym, recording studio or even a garage. The only suggestion of exclusivity is its sale price: the Cranberries’ lead singer is believed to have paid about €2m for the five-bedroom, 5,800-sq-ft property.

O’Riordan’s no-frills new home is in stark contrast to her last Irish base, Riversfield Stud in Kilmallock, Co Limerick, which she sold earlier this year.

The 150-acre estate, which fetched close to €4.5m, included all the rock- star trappings and then some: a swimming pool, gym, tennis court, bar, wine cellar, sauna, stables, enough garaging for a fleet of cars and a mini- pizzeria. A stained-glass window in the reception hall was even engraved with the lyrics to Zombie, the Cranberries’ biggest-selling hit.

The switch to Howth is largely down to its proximity to Dublin airport. O’Riordan and her husband Don Burton, who was born in Toronto, are frequent visitors to Canada and own a log cabin on Big Bald Lake in eastern Ontario.

It’s not clear whether the couple and their two children will use the Howth property as their main residence or whether they’re planning to spend more time in Burton’s native Canada. The house’s selling agent, HOK Residential, refused to comment on the sale or the couple’s plans, although the neighbourhood is already abuzz with talk of the new arrivals.

Built in the past five years, the couple’s new home is just off Thormanby Road, on the edge of a development of roomy but restrained executive-style family homes. The last house to sell in the 1980s-built scheme, a four- bedroom dormer bungalow, went for close to €1m at auction late last year.

The diminutive superstar is the latest in a growing list of celebrities to favour Howth over its mirror image on the south side, the twin peaks of Dalkey and Killiney.

O’Riordan joins Moya Doherty and John McColgan, the Riverdance duo, Larry Mullen of U2, Gay Byrne, the television presenter, and Feargal Quinn, the supermarket mogul, in the pretty fishing village.

David O’Leary, the Aston Villa manager, also recently invested in an apartment in the Howth Lodge development, while Michael O’Leary of Ryanair is building a mansion on Howth Head.

O’Riordan’s decision to swap a gated estate for a house where passers-by can sneak a peek in the window is all the more surprising given that she sold her first Irish home to escape prying eyes. Following the initial success of the Cranberries, the feisty rock star built a hill-top mansion, with a slated round tower at its centre, in Dun Chaoin in west Kerry.

Set on 16 acres and with four bedrooms, a bar, wine cellar, gallery, office, recording studio and guest apartment, it seemed the perfect retreat for O’Riordan and Burton. Dubbed Dolly’s Folly by locals, the multi-millionairess decided to sell the property in 1997, complaining that she was “plagued” by sightseers. Apparently, tour buses headed for the Ring of Kerry would stop for a photo opportunity outside the contemporary cut-stone construction.

While O’Riordan hasn’t lingered longer than a few years in any of her homes, all her property investments have yielded a profit. While it’s not clear how much she paid for the 16-acre site and the construction of her Kerry mansion, she is likely to have made a profit from its €1.3m sale in 1997. She is likely to have made even more on the sale of her Co Limerick stud farm. Bought for €2.5m, it recently sold for close to its €4.5m asking price.

No stranger to moving house, the 33-year-old’s childhood home in Patrickswell in Limerick burnt to the ground when she was seven. By the time she was 14, she had lived in three different houses in Limerick.

The Cranberries have been on a two-year break since the release of a best- of compilation in 2002.

The singer spent the early part of this year locked in a bitter legal battle with her former nanny, Joy Fahy. In April, the High Court dismissed Fahy’s claims that she and her husband had falsely imprisoned her and broken the terms of her contract.

Her latest home, unsurprisingly, has no separate accommodation for a nanny.

Source: Sunday Times

Scandinavian online retailer CDON.com has begun listing the upcoming “Live” DVD re-release with a slightly modified title: “Live in London”. The change suggests that Universal will release the DVD under the new title to avoid confusion.

Additionally, the site lists a catalog number, UNI-982335 -7, and a preliminary price of €20.80. The release date is still set at November 29th.

Source: CDON.com

Universal Music Australia yesterday revealed its list of 100 top songs that it will pursue in a lawsuit against Sharman Networks, makers of the peer-to- peer file sharing software KaZaA. Universal’s laywer, John Nicolas, presented the list yesterday, which includes songs from the Universal catalog that seem to have been picked for their ironic titles — among them, The Cranberries’ “No Need to Argue” and Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.” The prosecution will focus on these 100 songs as the primary evidence during the trial.

The Universal parties were forced to compile the relatively select list of 100 songs after the prosecution was asked earlier this year to reduce the scope of their proceedings. Even still, this case will mark one of the largest music copyright infringement cases that Australia has ever witnessed.

One of the case’s main goals is to uncover the identity of the owner and corporate structure of Sharman Networks, which remains a well-guarded secret, despite legal scrutiny. In a preliminary hearing, Nicolas asked the judge, “So we will at some time have to make an application, your Honour, for an order that those documents (relating to the identity of Sharman’s owner) be produced. They are not going to be volunteered and despite the best will in the world as between my learned friend and myself, that’s not going to bring them out.”

More hearings on the case will occur before November 29, the date when the main part of the trial, regarding the 100 key songs from Universal’s catalog, will begin.

Thanks to Cold Winter for the tip.

Source: ZDNet Australia

According to the latest promotional materials sent out by Universal Music in Europe, Universal will be re-releasing The Cranberries first video release, “Live,” on DVD later this year. The latest issue of “Universal News” highlights releases for the upcoming autumn-Christmas season and lists “Live” for a possible November 29th release in Spain. Other details are still “TBC.”

No word yet on any bonus features, or on any other international release dates. You can expect Zombieguide to have the very latest when we know it.

Thanks to supervago for the news!

Source: Exclusive

A news story posted today on the website for the Irish newspaper The Western People includes some quotes from Dolores O’Riordan’s father, Terry O’Riordan, on the subject of the 125th anniversary of an apparation of the Virgin Mary at Knock Church in east Mayo.

On August 21, 1879, fifteen people witnessed an apparition of Mary, Joseph, and John the Baptist at the Knock Church. Since then, the church has become the largest attraction in Ireland, drawing in nearly 1.5 million visitors each year. From August 14th to the 22nd of this year, it is estimated that nearly 100,000 pilgrims visited the shine, including Terry O’Riordan, Dolores’s father.

O’Riordan, who had a debilitating motorcycle accident earlier in his life, believes that the miracle at Knock has blessed his recovery: “I’ve had a few bad crashes and if it weren’t for Knock, I wouldn’t be here today.” According to reporter Marian Harrison, O’Riordan also said that he thanked God for his daughter’s success.

Source: The Western People

Speaking to Zombieguide today, Cranberries spokesperson Lindsey Holmes confirmed an earlier unconfirmed report The Cranberries’ album sales have topped over 40 million copies to date. In a message this morning, Holmes stated, “To the best of my knowledge total sales have surpassed 40 million.”

The last official total of the band’s album sales put them at 38 million in November 2002, with nearly 2 million of those sales comprising of special and limited editions. (Sales were at 28 million just before the release of Bury the Hatchet, and 33 million before the release of “Wake Up.”) Note that these figures do not include singles such as “Linger” and “Zombie,” which have sold millions on their own.

Source: Exclusive

London’s John Martin Gallery and Media Contemporary Arts are jointly preparing for a major exhibition of Storm Thorgerson’s art to open next month. This will mark Thorgerson’s first public exhibition since he suffered a stroke last October.

Thorgerson’s surrealistic album covers are some of the most easily recognized in rock ‘n’ roll history. His credits include Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” “Wish You Were Here,” “The Division Bell,” Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy,” and Audioslave’s self-titled CD. Of course, Cranberries fans will recognize him most for his work on the art for “Bury the Hatchet,” “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee,” “Beneath the Skin: Live in Paris,” and design elements of theCranberries Official Website.

The exhibition will be held from September 21th until October 9th at the John Martin Gallery in in Chelsea at 6 Burnsall Street, Off Kings Road, London SW3 3ST. The exhibition will be free to enter.

Robin Headlee, Director of Media Contemporary Arts, confirmed to Zombieguide that Thorgerson’s work for The Cranberries will be a definite inclusion at the exhibition. “We will definitely have Bury the Hatchet and we [will] do a special large edition of [Wake Up and] Smell the Coffee.”

Headlee told Zombieguide last Saturday, “We will definitely be doing a special exhibition print of Wake Up. It will be larger than the other prints with an image size of 30 inches square and a 5-6 inch border. It will be signed and archivable… I’m hoping to get the first proof done by the end of next week. No doubt it will take a few proofs until it is accepted; Storm is incredibly fussy – which is good – about his work.”

Beginning on September 1st, the John Martin Gallery Website will have prints all of the exhibition’s featured work available for viewing and purchase. Headlee confirmed to Zombieguide that the massive special edition “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” print will also be available for purchase online, although it may not ship immediately due to its late production: “We will though start taking orders from the website www.jmlondon.com from 1st September, there just may be a slight delay (1-2 weeks) on printing until Storm is happy with the quality.” Headlee adds, “Although not limited, it is a special edition only for sale in conjunction with our exhibition … so limited in that only for sale from September 1st until December 31st at John Martin Chelsea or on www.jmlondon.com. They are all archivable and signed by Storm Thorgerson. The price is £175 plus VAT (but anyone outside the EU doesn’t have to pay VAT). That is approximately $315… Larger than others but less expensive than others, as it’s not limited in number just limited in time on sale.”

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee cover, high-resolution, .JPG format, 109k, courtesy of Storm Thorgerson (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

The normal-sized “Bury the Hatchet” is already available for purchase fromwww.jmlondon.com. A 19″x19″ design is silkscreened onto a 33″x25.5″ paper by Coriander Studios. The “Body Series” print is limited to an edition of 125. Cost for the “Bury the Hatchet” print is £300.00 + VAT (UK only), or about $540.

A press kit for the exhibition describes now now-classic Cranberries cover: “The Cranberries cosmos is reflected beautifully with the diptych images used for ‘Bury the Hatchet’. Two themes are represented in this picture: that someone may always be watching (eg big brother, surveillance, terrorist measures) and the internal eye of guilt and paranoid (one’s conscious). In this particular image, the ‘dreaded eye of paranoia’ is hovering over the naked and vulnerable figure. Afraid and pressing down on him with nowhere to escape, the figure covers his head to hide but the eye is still watching. The second image (not shown) illustrates the same figure standing facing the eye, screaming in retaliation and fighting back. We may not be able to escape the all-seeing eye, but we can tell it to fu*k off when we want to!”

Bury the Hatchet cover, high-resolution, .TIF format, 4mb, courtesy of Storm Thorgerson (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

In his 1999 book, “Eye of the Storm,” Thorgerson narrated the snags that his crew went through in photographing the cover for “Bury the Hatchet”: “When we arrived in Flagstaff [Arizona] it actually snowed. Couldn’t believe it. Miraculously the weather cleared further north, providing two glorious days of perfect winter light. On location on the first morning our truck broke down in the middle of nowhere. We got the Navajo heebie jeebies about working on what might be the sacred land, and with what exactly? An evil eye and a naked man! Should be easy to explain (especially to a Navajo). And then we were caught speeding twice.”

Source: Exclusive

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