The Cranberries posted on Instagram today 2 photos of the test pressings of NNTA 25th Anniversary Edition. There is no information about the tracklist yet.

These are test pressings for the band. Official vinyl, cd, boxset etc… made for the 25th Anniversary Edition are still soon to be released (possibly September/October Fergal said in the interview for LíR Media TV).

Catalog numbers: 5391296, 5391297

New interview with Fergal Lawler published on Facebook and YouTube just a few days ago.

Dear fellow Cranberries fans and collectors,

First, we would like to thank all of you who went out their way to share their thoughts with us by emails, PMs, on our socials or on our website, regarding the eBay listing, analyzing all possible details.

As the auction is to end tomorrow, here is our last recap on the Cranberries World’s plans and all the infos we gathered these last 8 days.

First thing you all need to know is that we contacted eBay so as to make sure we would be covered by their « buyer protection » if these tapes turned out not to be as claimed.
They answered that bootleg concerts are not allowed to be sold on their platform.
A quick look at eBay’s policies and you’ll see that « Counterfeit copies are illegal and not allowed on ebay, examples include Bootleg recordings from concerts. These items may infringe on someone’s copyright ».
Digging deeper, we found out that Paypal lists « items that infringe or violate any copyright » under the « things that are not covered under the buyer protection ».
It is also specified that counterfeit and illegal items are to be « confiscated » and not returned to the seller in case buyer were to ask for a refund, meaning those tapes would be lost forever.
As a consequence everyone has to be aware that buyer is very likely not to get any refund if these tapes do not feature the content that is listed!!!
The financial risk is thus huge, as it now means losing several thousands of dollars.

Nonetheless, The Cranberries World team, with the help of other fansites and fans, has decided to keep going with the initial plan providing that we receive the samples seller stated we will all obtain, as these are more than ever essential to prove what’s on these tapes.
Therefore, we do ask that fans refrain from bidding so that the final price won’t be ridiculously high, especially since we believe that there’s only about a 1% chance that these items are legitimate.
As we now know, seller should be able to send those samples shortly before – or AFTER – the end of the auction, which means we might only be able to make our mind on whether or not these recordings are genuine in the hours following the auction!
If the samples are not received before it ends, our plans are to try to win these tapes whatever happens, and insist on receiving the samples before we send any money to the seller. If he still can’t provide those samples – which we have been asking for since June 5th – 48 hours after the auction ended, we will most likely withdraw, as we believe 12 days are far enough to find a way to send some samples!

Below are the pros & cons that shed light on why the Cranberries World team wants to remain super cautious and won’t be sending any money if samples are not received:

CONS

• Seller is a new eBay member
• This listing was oddly listed once, deleted, and re-listed
• Seller initially told us he had no way of playing the tapes as he had « no VCR to play the tapes on », yet he stated in the listing that his sisters’ “VCR played PAL tapes and I can include it with your purchase if you would like“
• When we suggested he used his sister’s VCR to send us samples, he explained that is was no longer working
• How could this seller list what’s on the tapes and state the video were of good quality if he had in fact no mean of checking the content himself ?
• Seller won’t send screenshots before auction ends despite numerous requests from us and others since June 5th (10 days)
• Seller says in the listing that “Her notes indicate that any show her friends sent to her from outside America was filmed in something called PAL format (…) Anything she filmed was in something called NSTC format” but this is nowhere to be found on his sister’s notes, he also told us there was no other notes and nothing on the back of the note we own, so where did he get this detailed information from?
• NSTC is wrong, it’s called NTSC, which he should know as it’s the VHS format in his own country
• The sister would have been in her early 20s when the note was written but the style is very childish like from a very young teenage girl, yet she uses professional grading terms for the tapes
• The dates on the notes are written in the European way « day, month, year » but she was an American and would have written it « month, day, year ».
• The writing around the edges of the notes seems to be saying some sort of message, these along with the writing on the audio tape seem to have some meaning for buyers, such as “Can you afford to buy that diamond? Still Can’t“
• On the note The Newcastle 1992 concert says “confiscated” but the performance is still rated and the concert is still for sale on the listing
• Seller says that some tapes are master tapes and other are copies sent from UK. Where are the originals of the copies? Why haven’t they been traded to other people?
• How come no big Cranberries collector has never heard of the existence of these shows before, nor ever traded with this US woman or her UK friends? We’re not dealing with a few unknown shows here, but approx 80% of this list is new to all collectors who got in touch with us – even die-hard ones!
• How come does a collector who trades tapes with her UK friends does not own any of the common bootlegs that were shared back in the days? How odd her 90s collection features only boots that are rare in 2020?
• How come her UK friends who filmed the shows back in the early 90s do not know that Coventry isn’t in Scotland but in England?
• How could her British friend would have known about the Cranberries playing support act in Ireland in the 90s when the band hadn’t yet released any material?
• Why did the seller go into such personal and intimate details about his sister’s passing when these are not necessary for a sale?
• In the original picture on the listing, all the label sides of the tapes were turned away from the camera, was this deliberate?
• In the new pictures of the tapes that the seller added, the labels are showing but they look brand new, modern printed, and don’t seem to feature on the original picture
• In the same original picture there is one tape at the back of the left box that has no labels on
• The tabs are still on all the tapes (no serious collector would leave them on in case they accidentally taped over them, especially if masters copies!)
• How odd that the only audio tapes she owns have the only unknown Cranberries song on it?
• How could she write the only few known lyrics to this unknown song on the Glasgow tape when they were only deciphered last year when the tape was cleaned up?
• Seller is not answering when asked to send samples of the audio tapes
• Seller states the tapes were stored well and are in good condition but he can’t verify this and they look dusty and are not in their cases
• Seller told us his sister « left the damn VHS tapes everywhere, had to put them in and out of the rewinding machine to find the date at the start of the VHS (…) our house was a disaster when she came home on school breaks » – this doesn’t sound like looking after the tapes
• Seller is not able to tell us what’s the length of the videos and confirms he hasn’t seen them all
• eBay listing features Féile 1991, but it’s very likely The Cranberries did not play there in 1991
• Seller uses the Uncertain CD as a proof but a lot of people have the Uncertain CD and it is easily available online
• Seller told us he wants to be careful with what his sister would have wanted him to do with her collection, yet he writes he’s ready to throw away the Uncertain CD and audio tapes if buyer don’t want them
• Seller couldn’t tell us his sisters surname because he’s not sure if she used her maiden name or not, all we know is that she was “Jennifer“
• Seller can’t provide sister’s concerts tickets (does anyone know any big fan who doesn’t keep tickets as a souvenir?)
• There are 7 bidders, the 2 that are doing most of the bidding seem fake as they have 0 and 1 feedback : seller making price climb?
• Seller sort of confirmed he’s bidding himself as he states he accepts offers and that “If we come to an agreement, you may make the bid on eBay (…) I will accept your bid and end the auction early with the sell to the highest bidder option”. To do so, he would have to bid just under the agreed price to settle the auction this way.
• Seller says his sister’s tapes are master copies, but they are full size VHS, so how did his sister manage to take a full size camcorder and illegally film so many shows without being caught – unless she was authorized by the band (?)
• Seller only offered to meet him in Boston to check the content on the tape the day before the auction ends
• Seller told us he would be happy if those tapes were shared with the world when he is not supposed to know of our plans – does he read CW? He is not supposed to as he is not a Cranberries fan (his sister was, not him)
• Seller is happy to write words, words, words and some more stories, but never actually sends any convincing proofs

PROS

• A friend of us does remember trading tapes with someone from Massachusetts in the 90s
• A few of these bootlegs have been identified by fans as « possibly existing » : Indiana 99, « Edinburg gigs », Wembley 99, Glasgow 94, and possibly Killarney 2003
• The fact seller agreed on providing more pictures of the tags on the tapes (although it weirdly took him 4 days to take these pics)
• The sister’s note looks old and faded, with notes that look like those of a real bootleggers
• Seller found an Uncertain CD showing she was an old fan
• Writing on the audio cassettes seller found this week fit the writings on the notes and look faded too
• Ebay listing states there’s a Feile 91 video but the actual tape doesn’t seem to feature a Cranberries concert, only a Van Morrison concert
• It is possible that unknown material exists and don’t circulate, some rarities still surface from time to time
• It is common to hear of fans who lost interest after 2003
• If real, price expected is absolutely fair
• Seller is open to send samples/screenshots and meet bidders in Boston to play 10 tapes (yet no one has seen anything yet)
• Why ? Why would someone lose so much time with such scam ? Why would they pick The Cranberries when some other bands could trigger much higher bids ?

UPDATE – JUNE 14

AUCTION HAS ENDED EARLY AT 5.45 PM UK TIME TODAY LIKELY BOUGHT BY A U.S. CITIZEN

UPDATE – JUNE 15

Dear all,

It’s been some intense 10 days for our team, working extended hours to try and find out what was the best way to verify the content of the tapes and make sure these videos would go to the fan community.

As you know, the seller decided to end the auction early, resulting in these tapes slipping through our fingers.
We understand this might be a regret for many of you reading this, however we don’t feel this way as we did consider every single possibility to get our hands on these tapes, including making private offers to the seller; but the financial risk, knowing that eBay hinted that we wouldn’t get any refund through their buyers protection if the content turned out not to be as claimed, was much too important for us considering we were perfectly aware that this would be a matter of several thousands dollars. We were therefore left with no other choice than awaiting convincing proof(s) before engaging financially in this.
It goes without saying that we did also contemplate travelling to Boston to check 10 of those tapes by ourselves or asking friends to do so, but the worldwide Covid-19 situation made it impossible to work out.
If there’s no regret, there are some elements of frustration though, as this means none of us might ever know if these videos were genuine.
The mystery remains unsolved!

Once again, we’d like to thank every single one of you who went out of their way to help us.
Special thanks from our webmaster to: the Dolores O’Riordan Spain team who has been by our side since the earlier stages of the auction, Justin at Cranberries Library, Luis, Jay, Alex, Alan, Andrea, Danny, Claire, Tex, Maurizio, Sören, Paul and Patrick.

Last, we have to say that if we were to go back in time, we wouldn’t have done things any differently, as we truly believe that the most intelligent strategy to obtain these (possible) treasures was to go public and offer the biggest collectors to work hand in hand with us on this.
We’re quite happy of the response of The Cranberries community on the matter, which encourages us to pursue our work at Cranberries World in an effort to build the most exhaustive database about the Cranberries and, of course, keep Dolores O’Riordan’s memory alive.

Thank you.

Dear fellow fans and collectors of The Cranberries,

We’re calling upon your help today as we have recently come upon what could be considered a priceless eBay listing:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Cranberries-VHS-Concert-Collection-1990-2003-92-concerts-inc-masters/313107213106

Useless to say, we immediately got interested in this treasure which we believe is worth A LOT given how many rare and never-heard-of-before bootlegs it features.
We thus got in touch with the seller to ask for more details before putting so much money into this, we asked for screenshots to check on the quality of these shows and verify if the content listed on eBay corresponds to what really is on these tapes, but the seller fails to send any and states he can’t manage to play the tapes himself.

So we would like to know if any of you, any collectors, have ever known of the existence of these boots or ever traded with this woman from Massachusetts before, and could therefore confirm that if we were to buy these tapes, we would get the shows the seller states are featured on them?

We don’t want to take any risk spending a huge amount of money on something whose content we can’t verify before buying, so we would also like to ask all of you who trust us, not to bid on this auction to help us win it, in return for which we commit to freely and openly share these boots with the fan community if they turn out to be the valuable gems listed here that all of us would surely like to own.

If you have any information or would like to discuss this with us, please feel free to contact us at:
contact [ at ] cranberriesworld [ dot ] com

UPDATE ON WHY CRANBERRIES WORLD IS SO SUSPICIOUS:

• this ebay seller is new to ebay (never a good sign)
• seller says he has no way of verifying the content of the tapes as the VCR he is giving away in the listing is not working – how can he thus affirm the tapes are in good condition ?
• not only can’t the seller provide any sample or screenshots, but he also won’t send pics of his sister’s notes or the tags on the tapes – these must exist otherwise how would he know what’s on the tapes ?
• the seller states his sister’s UK friends filmed the 2 star ** shows, which makes it very surprising these persons would have attended and filmed some early days gigs in Ireland, when the band was still a support act then and had actually never put anything out. As UK citizens, how would these UK friends know about The Cranberries at all at the time ?
• how could her tapers friends, who are UK citizens, not be aware that Coventry is in England and not in Scotland, especially if they attended these shows themselves to film them ?
• seller states the Feile 91 concert features on these tapes, though it’s very unlikely the band actually ever played Feile festival in 1991 !!!
• this person was obviously a major collector of Cranberries bootlegs, trading with some friends abroad, yet her list does not feature bootlegs that were very common and easy to find in the trading circle back then. Why would she only own super rarities and not be interested in commonly shared shows ?
• if this person was trading with other bootleggers, how come some of the biggest Cranberries collectors who were involved in the 1990s trading circle have never heard of most of these bootlegs before, nor even exchanged with these traders in the past (the sister, or her UK friends) ?

Happy to hear everyone’s thoughts to help us find out if this is all genuine or not.
Please note that whatever happens, we’re still willing to buy these tapes and make sure by ourselves what’s the content on there, to share it with the Cranberries fan community if this happens to be a gold mine.

UPDATE – JUNE 10

The seller just added 8 more pics on eBay. Don’t hesitate to let us know what you think about them (Authentic? or Fake?)

Pink sticker: * on the list
Green sticker: ** on the list

…and from our side, the seller also sent us (one of?) his sister’s notes. Don’t hesitate to let us know how you understand it (the initials, the ratings, the lyrics around etc…)

UPDATE – JUNE 14

As many of you noticed, the seller updated the description 2 more times these last days (on the 11th and the 13th) and also added new pics of cd/cassette/LP that will be included with the VHS… or thrown away if winner does not want them!!

We will publish an important update later today…

The Cranberries posted on their socials today (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) regarding the #blackouttuesday

More behind the scenes photos from the “Something Else” photoshoot in 2017 in Cancún Mexico shared by joanna.cran.pic on Instagram today. Thanks to her as always for these gems!

Dolores O’Riordan front page today on the Sunday Independent supplement LIFE. Inside, a 4-page article by Barry Egan as The Cranberries join YouTube’s billion views club. Available in print in Ireland this Sunday and online on independent.ie (Premium access required).

Cranfan Luis Hernández recently posted 2 rare (incomplete) audio bootlegs on YouTube. Regarding the Detroit show Luis wrote on Facebook, “I got the complete show if somebody want it, contact me.”

• Royal Albert Hall, London – 20 November 1992

• State Theatre, Detroit, MI – 10 November 1994

Again and again and again!
Two more very rare photos of Dolores published by the incredible joanna.cran.pic on Instagram today.
Now guess the dates…

• PHOTO #1

• PHOTO #2

The Cranberries and “Ode To My Family” mentioned in the Season 18, Episode 16 of the American animated sitcom “Family Guy”

Thanks to Instagram users cranberrysofa for the info a couple of weeks ago…

…and bhfdvkgf for the video posted yesterday, filming his/her TV screen.

The complete episode is available on YouTube

Nine very rare photos of Dolores O’Riordan at a wedding were posted on Instagram today by joanna.cran.pic. Thanks to her once again.

Dolores performed a private show and the lucky newly weds also had a private photo session with her and probably a few autographs as well! There is no information about who they are, where and when this happened (probably late 2007) or the setlist.

UPDATE – MAY 9

Cranberries Library published on Facebook more information regarding the wedding as well as another photo of the show. Thanks to their very reliable source for the info and pic!

One year since the cranb err ies final album In the end was released.
Which version(s) is(are) yours?

Read the article directly on independent.ie (Premium Access required to unlock full article). This article was originally published on telegraph.co.uk on 18 April 2020 (Premium Access also required).

And it was published in print yesterday on the Irish Independent’s supplement “Review”

Noel Hogan was interviewed this morning on “Chiles on Friday” on BBC Radio 5 live. He obviously talked about Zombie reaching a billion views on YouTube, and also a little bit about “Daffodil Lament”.

Listen back directly on bbc.co.uk. Interview starts at 1:16:34

The Cranberries announced it on Twitter and Facebook:

The contest was posted only on the official Dolores O’Riordan Facebook page. Please post your answers only on Facebook!

UPDATE – APRIL 27

The contest is now over. It was announced today on the official DO’R Facebook page.

Felipe Rissato, alias lipecran from Brazil, posted a few days ago on Instagram a great video to compare all 4 versions of the video.

More than 735,000 views after Zombie’s one billionth view, the 4K remastered version of the official music video is finally available. Simply stunning!

UPDATE – 5:30 PM (Irish Time)

The Cranberries posted a 15-sec video on their socials (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to announce it:

…as well as on their official website cranberries.com

The Cranberries posted a second message on Twitter and Facebook regarding Covid-19:

Yesterday, Fergal Lawler was interviewed on the “Dave Fanning” show on the Irish radio RTÉ 2fm. He obviously mainly talked about the Zombie’s one billionth view, however near the end, fans got a first glimpse of what will be on the NNTA 25th Anniversary boxset.

Fergal mentioned that there would be things for the hard-core fans, things like demos the band did in New York before the album was recorded, some radio station stuff, acoustic versions of the tracks and live versions, but there was no mention of when it will be released.

Listen back Fergal’s 12-minute interview by clicking here (starts at 1:36:20)

The Cranberries also appeared on “RTÉ News: Nine O’Clock” (Irish TV) last night, featuring a short interview with Noel Hogan, starting at 15:45. Replay is only available a couple of days on RTÉ Player, so watch now!

The Cranberries posted on their socials (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) for the 2nd time today:

Below are just a few articles – and one press release – published about “Zombie” today. Probably many more to come in the coming hours… impossible to share them all.

Click each link or image below to read directly on each website.

• rte.ie

• udiscovery.com

• limerickleader.ie

• telegraph.co.uk

• ilovelimerick.ie

• limerickpost.ie

• hotpress.com

• independent.ie

• reybee.com

• thejournal.ie

• nova.ie

• newsweek.com

• variety.com

• ezanime.net

• codigoespagueti.com

HIP HIP HIP, HOORAY!
The official “Zombie” music video just hit 1 billion views on YouTube/VEVO today at 2:40 pm (Irish Time). Congratulations to The Cranberries, the fans and all the viewers for the achievement. If you’re reading this, you are probably one of the billion!

To celebrate, the 480p standard version of The Cranberries biggest hit should be replaced by a remastered 4K version available very soon. MASTERPIECE.

UPDATE – 3:15 PM (Irish Time)

At 2:40 pm exactly, The Cranberries posted on their socials (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) a message signed by Fergal Lawler, and including a 31-second video:

Just one minute after, at 2:41 pm, a message was posted on the official Dolores O’Riordan Facebook:

And almost the same message was posted on her official – coming soon… – website:

Read the article directly on limerickleader.ie or click image below to open pdf file.

Here’s an interesting discovery we wanted to share:
As some of our team members were browsing old Irish 90s papers, we found out in a 1993 Limerick Leader article that Noel & Mike happen to be the great great grandsons of Michael Hogan, a poet known as “The Bard Of Thomond” in the 1800s.

Some of you might already have heard about this as, in 1999, Noel & Mike helped to reissue the poems and songs of their ancestor, according to an Irish Times article.

But our discovery did not stop there! As we read more about The Bard Of Thomond, we realized that a life-size statue of the Hogan’s great great grandfather is actually to be found at King Johns Castle Plaza in Limerick, that is to say… right in front of Dolores’ mural painted in 2019 by Aches!

When the tribute to a Hogan family member meets the tribute to a O’Riordan family member… destiny!!!

Michael Hogan – The Bard – and Dolores, facing each other

Special thanks to CranberriesItalia for the wiki link!

Sources: Niall Griffin (IG @niall_g), Pól Ó Conghaile (independent.ie), Michael Hogan (Wikipedia)

Unbelievable!
Almost 30 years after the filming, a never before seen Alternative Version of the “Uncertain” video with different takes has surfaced yesterday. Simply titled “The Cranberries Uncertain Music Video Uncut”, the video was posted on YouTube by Julianne Hennelly who writes, “Featuring Dolores brother Brendan O’Riordan and his daughter Cora”.

If you’d like to compare the 2 music videos, the classic version was posted here.
Thanks to The Cranberries Newspaper on Facebook for noticing!

The Cranberries have posted the following message on their socials (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) today:

Read the interview directly on hotpress.com or click image below to open pdf file.

The vinyl was released in most European countries today except France to be released on 3 April. Release dates vary a lot depending on countries and/or continents, so check your local store(s) for more information. For example it was released on 20 February in Japan, on 28 February in Mexico, and it will be released in USA and Canada on 13 March.

Nice release with great artworks. Only one mistake in the credits: Noel Horgan with a ‘R’

A few days earlier than expected, “Dreams The Collection” is now available on vinyl. The first photo was posted on Instagram today by user Kiosh Starus.

A behind the scenes video of the making of The Cranberries single “Wake Me When It’s Over” has been posted on YouTube today by Justin Gawke, 4th year student fine art painting – LSAD (Limerick School of Art & Design). He was part of the team that collaborated to the project.

The “Something Else” Purple Double Gatefold Vinyl is now available on The Cranberries official webstore.

Price: £25 (€29.99 / US$32.99)

Read the article/interview directly on abcnews.com or click image below to open pdf file.

Last January 24, the West Coast entertainment correspondent from ABC News Radio, Jason Nathanson, shared on Instagram a photo with The Cranberries. The above article has no credits but there is a huge possibility that the author is Jason.

The Cranberries interviewed by Rob Herrera / Front Row Live Ent. The video was recorded at GRAMMY Museum and posted on YouTube today. 

UPDATE – JANUARY 29

Rob Herrera shared on Instagram a photo with the band.

Look who is behind Lewis Capaldi on the Grammy Awards Red Carpet.
PJ O’Riordan and his wife Sandra at 0:30
The Cranberries at 3:37

The Cranberries still behind Lewis Capaldi in this other video (interview by Billboard)