Yesterday in Dublin in a full-house 3Arena were the 50th anniversary celebrations of Hot Press magazine. A special event/concert named “Hot Press 50 ยท History In The Making”
Among many artists, featured Mike and Noel Hogan for a special performance with Dermot Kennedy, just like it happened at Electric Picnic last year (without the full orchestra!)
The set was possibly 4 songs, three from The Cranberries, “Linger”, “Zombie”, “Dreams”, and one from Dermot Kennedy, “Funeral” (the first single of his 3rd album).
“Linger” was definitely the opening, “Dreams” the last one, so “Funeral” and “Zombie” were possibly the second and third ones, or the opposite.
Dermot Kennedy shared a few Instagram Stories from the show (videos and photos) as well as a few snippets from the rehearsals and soundcheck earlier in the day. Have a look before they disappear!
The 4 songs filmed in 4K from the front row were shared on YouTube by user Kjed4ever.
Special thanks to her!
Also available, the live report published by Hot Press on hotpress.com
This not like any cranberries concert I ever saw. So bad. No passion. Shame
That’s because it’s not a Cranberries concert. No Dolores – not The Cranberries, no Fergal – not The Cranberries. It’s just Noel and Mike and no one, not them or anyone else should call this The Cranberries. If they want to perform with this bloke they should form a new band and call it something else instead of hijacking The Cranberries name.
True. Except they aren’t hijacking the Cranberries name, they were presented as Noel and Mike (of the cranberries) just like Adam Clayton was of U2, and everyone knows U2 was not on stage.
Tell that to Hot Press who sent emails saying Dermot Kennedy and The Cranberries.
Kinda like it. Rather see a guy singing than a wannabee Dolores. If you can accept in your mind you are not seeing the crans then it is ok for me. Elena
To be fair, it’s actually much worse than if they had actually done Fergal with Noel and Mike, or just the Hogan brothers, than to have a girl singing Cranberries songs under the same name. I think they haven’t done that because of the experience Noel gained from collaborating on his project The Puro with Mel Peck. Logically, they never used the name The Cranberries with other singers, but they have sung The Cranberries songs. And this is a point: once Dolores died, Noel acquired the royalties and rights to all the Cranberries songs written solely by Dolores. So this is where the complexity lies. They have the right to play the songs, but on the other hand, they choose a guy to sing, thus completely dissociating any intention of seeking a female voice. Noel are very careful at all times because the good thing about them is that it was only the imitation of Dolores that was Mell, and that it remained an anecdote, even though it was called The Puro. They didn’t fall into the trap of other bands by continuing with the name and replacing the singer. We can’t criticize them for having a guy sing, but the problem I do see is that they play Cranberries songs without Dolores singing them; it generates rejection regardless of who’s imitating her, man or woman. I would offer a two-part suggestion here: either Cranberries do an instrumental concert with an empty chair representing Dolores and some visuals behind it, which would truly be the most fitting tribute concert they could do, and the audience sings along. Either I’d stop playing The Cranberries songs altogether and play Mono Band and Arkitekt songs, or I’d form a new band with a different name, but whoever the singer was, I’d want to completely distance myself from The Cranberries. I understand that they, as musicians, are also geniuses and have the rights to the songs, but The Cranberries died for me when Dolores passed away, and it would be good if they started accepting that now and stopped living in the past. Because The Cranberries, and going to their concerts playing Cranberries songs, only made sense when Dolores was alive and the four of them together was magic, the perfect spark.