In an article published today, MusicWeek.com reveals that British indie record label “Cooking Vinyl Records is shaping up for a major assault on the US next year after signing American-friendly The Cranberries“.
The article aslo mention that former Mercury Records chairman Danny Goldberg is “now steering The Cranberries’ career”. Goldberg previously managed O’Riordan’s solo career.
Source: musicweek.com
Late Friday night, a private video entitled “Show Me” was briefly posted on TheCranberriesTV channel on YouTube. Although it was not accessible to users to view (and hear), we can speculate that this track might be the next preview sampler.
According to the text in the picture presented for this preview, “Show Me” will be available as a free download at some point.
The song length is 3:26.
The private video was taken off the list briefly after.
Thanks to a_dri_ano and Maxcranfan from the cranberries.me community for the discovery and the screen captures!
Sources: TheCranberriesTV (Youtube), cranberries.me
A first chance in almost 20 years to hear back “Like You Used To” and “False”
RTÉ radio host Dan Hegarty confirmed tonight on his blog that he is going to broadcast The Cranberries’ complete 1993 Dave Fanning Session next Tuesday. This session was recorded shortly after the release of the band’s first album, Everybody Else is Doing so Why Can’t We?
During an interview with Dave Fanning few days before the first 1993 broadcast, singer Dolores O’ Riordan and drummer Fergal Lawler explained that they were recording a new version of “Wanted” for that session, plus three new songs. It is likely that those songs are “False”, “Like You Used To” and “The Icicle Melts”. The latter was recorded again a year after for the band’s second album No Need to Argue, while the first two were never commercially released.
Few weeks ago, some hardcore fans from the cranberries.me community joined forces to ask the Irish radio host to broadcast this session. Thanks to all who participated!!
And a big CHEERS to Dan Hegarty!
Be sure to tune in to Dan’s show, next Tuesday night (October 18) at 11 p.m. (Ireland time).
Note (October 18): There have been some confusion on RTÉ 2fm website. The session broadcast tonight was the 1991 session (“Dreams”, “Uncertain”, “Reason” and “Put Me Down”) and not the 1993 one, announced last Thursday.
Sources: 2fm.rte.ie, fanningsessions.wordpress.com, cranberries.me
Guys and Girls, give a listen to the third “Roses” preview, “Fire and Soul”, a soft-voice ballad with drum loops and light electronica elements. It’s Cranberries 2.0
The Cranberries – “Fire And Soul” – Preview Sampler
Source: TheCranberriesTV on Youtube
Back in August 2001, The Cranberries embarked on a U.S.promo tour, visiting several radio stations to promote the upcoming release of Wake Up and Smell the Coffee with live performances, most of them played in an acoustic format.
Thanks to a couple of e-mails sent to KBCO – World Class Rock, we are proud to tell you that you can now listen back to “Linger” and “Analyse”, the two songs the band performed at this Boulder (Colorado) radio station on August 16, 2001. A big thanks to the personnel of the 97.3 FM.
This version of “Analyse” was also featured on KBCO Studio C – Volume 13, a locally-sold charity compilation back in 2001.
During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, The Cranberries recorded many other acoustic performances during promotional tours, amongst them a MTV unplugged episode and unforgettable versions of “I Can’t Be With You” (2 Meter Session – 1993), “False”, “Sunday” (KCRW – 1993), “Animal Instinct” and “In the Ghetto” (BBC Radio 1 – 1999). The idea of releasing a compilation regrouping the best of these acoustic performances would surely please tones of Cranberries fans. Santa Claus, are you listening?
In the meantime, you can listen to both KBCO acoustic versions of “Linger” and “Analyse” and a short interview on the radio station website, and tell us about your all-time favorite acoustic performance by the ‘Berries in the discussion box below.
You can also listen to other Studio C performances here. (Link no longer available)
Source: kbco.com
According to German music site Rockszene, the release of Roses’ first single “Tomorrow” is scheduled for January 27, only 2 weeks before the album hit the shelves.
In a music industry more and more focused on digital singles issued months before the release of an album, it seems like a strange marketing strategy for a band that was absent of the musical scene for so long.
Remember that this information was not confirmed by the band. Later last week, O’ Riordan told Billboard the band has not yet made a definitive choice about the first single. First scheduled for an October release, “Tomorrow” was first pushed back in late 2011, according the the band’s official website.
Thanks to cranB82 from the cranberries.me community for the info!
You can hear a one minute preview of “Tomorrow” on Youtube:
The Cranberries – “Tomorrow” – Preview
Sources: rockszene.de, billboard.com, cranberries.com
While Roses release date continues to make the headline all over the world on various news sites -mainly reporting what had already been said on Billboard.com– Australian site AAABackstage published a new short interview with the band last week.
During this interview, guitarist Noel Hogan explained that he and lead singer Dolores O’ Riordan continued to share ideas for new music during the band’s six-year hiatus.
O’ Riordan also talked about how unique making music with the band and producer Stephen Street is. “Having recorded two albums with various different musicians during our hiatus, I could clearly see that Noel and Mike have a unique way of creating chords and Ferg keeps it together in a subtle way. We had a blast in the studio, Stephen was in his zone and it came together rather quickly.”
Lucky Australians will be the first ones to get a hand on a copy of Roses – to be released on Shock Records/Cooking Vinyl on February 10, 2012 – and to hear the new songs on tour, in March 2012.
Sources: aaabackstage.com, billboard.com
Gossip guru Perez Hilton posted an article on his site, talking about The Cranberries’ comeback album. A pretty short post that sparked off a few improper comments about gay people and music tastes. Fragile hearts, beware!
It looks like Ireland has another “Reason” to love The Cranberries. After being broadcast a few times in the last year on Ireland’s national radio RTÉ 2fm, we have words that the 1993 b-side “Reason” was also played on Limerick’s Live 95 FM during Alan Jacques’s LimRock Special last May. The radio host has been nominated for a PPi Radio award last month for this special.
During his May 19, 2010 show, RTÉ 2fm’s radio host Dan Hegarty caused quite a commotion in The Cranberries fan community by airing three songs (“Dreams”, “Uncertain” and “Reason”) taken from the long-lost 1991 Dave Fanning Session. The Fanning Session version of “Reason” was broadcast a couple of times after that on Hegarty’s show.
“Reason” is not the only b-side which got a life on its own. In 1995 “Liar”, which was first released on the 1992 “Dreams” single, was featured on the Empire Records soundtrack and have been part of The Cranberries concert setlist for many shows up to now. Both songs are available on the complete session edition of Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?
You can listen to the three songs from the 1991 Dave Fanning Session on the The Dave Fanning Sessions Archive website.
Sources: fanningsessions.wordpress.com, live95fm.ie
In an exclusive interview with Billboard.com on October 5, lead singer Dolores O’ Riordan revealed that Roses, The Cranberries sixth studio album and first since the 2001 release of Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, will be released on February 14, 2012 –just in time for Valentine Day– on Downtown Records/Cooking Vinyl in the U.S. and on Cooking Vinyl worldwide (February 13).
O’ Riordan also told Billboard that the band has not yet made a definitive choice about the first single although she favors “Tomorrow”. Earlier this summer, the band posted a preview clip of “Tomorrow” on their official website, mentioning that the song would be released as the first single later in 2011.
Finally, Billboard.com announced “Roses” tracklist, revealing two new songs which were not previously included in the list of songs recorded at the Metalworks studio (Toronto,Canada) in April and May. It is likely that those two new titles –“Losing My Mind” and “Waiting in Walthamstow”– were recorded during the London session last June.
Here’s the tracklist for “Roses”:
1. “Conduct”
2. “Tomorrow”
3. “Fire & Soul”
4. “Raining In My Heart”
5. “Losing My Mind”
6. “Schizophrenic Playboys”
7. “Waiting in Walthamstow”
8. “Show Me”
9. “Astral Projections”
10. “So Good”
11. “Roses”
Sources: Billboard.com, cranberries.com
Target is releasing a compilation album with 10 songs chosen by Avril Lavigne as part of their series, “Influences”. One of the songs listed is “Dreams” by The Cranberries. This may catch a few Cranberries fans oguard.
Another complete shocker is her decision to include “This Is The New Shit” by Marilyn Manson – seeing that this is a target release it will most probably be the censored version.
There are also the not-so surprising appearances by punk bands Blink-182 and The Distillers on the compilation.
US rock magazine Spin mentioned The Cranberries in the first paragraph of the August 2007 cover article on Interpol. The magazine mentioned that “Linger” played at a Dallas Hooters restaurant — where the interview took place — and later went on to contrast the two bands.
David Peisner wrote in the article,
The Hooters in downtown Dallas is not just any Hooters. It is, [guistarist Daniel] Kessler informs me, the largest Hooters in the world. In his black suit, black sweater-vest, and dark sunglesses, the chatty New York vegetarian strieks an odd figure in a chain restaurant known primarily for large-breasted, skimpily outfitted waitresses and chicken wings. Neon beer signs cover the walls, a rerun of the Coca-Cola 600 from Lowe’s Motor Speedway beams from the TV overhead, and the sound system blares inoensive radio-rock staples, including Blind Melon’s “No Rain,” the Cranberries’ “Linger,” and Dave Matthews Band’s “The Space Between.”
Peisner later goes on to write that Interpol are not (yet) at that same level of universal appeal as the aforementioned songs, but would like to be.
The middle of the country is where Interpol need to make their presence felt if they’re going to graduate from their post as New York City’s well-dressed, brooding indie-rock mascots and become, well, a band whose songs might be played over the sound system at the largest Hooters in the world.
It’s official: The Cranberries are getting their first-ever placement in a video game when Singstar 90s releases for the PlayStation 2 in August in Australia and other PAL territories. (Unless, of course, you want to count the Doors and Windows CD-ROM as a game.)
Sony has just confirmed the ocial lineup of songs for the latest in the karaoke series, which carries an impressive lineup of tracks from artists ranging from The Cure to The Cardigans. Even Radiohead, who are notoriously strict about licensing their music — albums like OK Computer and Kid A aren’t even on iTunes — appear with “Creep.” Here’s the confirmed lineup:
The game will also include the music videos for every track that will play in the background for each level. Below is a shot grabbed from WorthPlaying of the “Zombie” level.
Singstar 90s is due out in Australia on August 7, 2007. The game has not yet been announced for North America or other territories, but Zombieguide will post in case that changes.
High profile anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has written an editorial centered around The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” posted on the site Buzzflash.
In it, Sheehan reveals that she happened to be listening to the song on the day her son was killed in Iraq (April 4, 2004):
On the way home from Los Angeles yesterday, my daughter Carly and I stopped in a store on the Grapevine to purchase some CDs for the longish drive (6 hours). One of the CDs we bought was a greatest hits album by The Cranberries.
It’s not me, it’s not my family: One of the songs is the above song, Zombie. The Cranberries were an Irish group that took on social issues such as violence and drug addiction: serious problems in all societies, but especially their society in the 1990s. We were listening to the CD and after Zombie, I looked at Carly and she was wiping tears oof her face. She said: “How can you listen to that song? You listened to it the day Casey was killed while you were cleaning the house.”
You can read the whole thing here or after the jump…
Billboard reports that electronic artist Girl Talk (alias Gregg Gillis) debuted a mash-up of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” and Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” on Saturday at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Festival.
Billboard said that the mix was “among the most crowd-pleasing combos.”
Other mash-ups in Girl Talk’s setlist included Tag Team’s “Whoomp! There It Is” and Big Country’s “In a Big Country,” Kelis’ “Milkshake” with Guns N’ Roses’ cover of Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog,” and Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” with Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”
Dolores O’Riordan’s performance and interview from last week on Ireland’s “Late Late Show” is now posted on the RTE website.
Dolores O’Riordan is an icon of modern music. As lead singer of The Cranberries she has sold a massive 45 million records. Tonight on The Late Late Show Dolores launched her solo career and her debut solo album “Are You Listening?” Dolores performed her new single “Ordinary Day” and spoke to Pat about fame at a young age, performing for two popes and a whole lot more besides.
The clip is pretty long at 17 minutes, and includes some great interview bits, including Dolores describing the time when she got to sit on Luciano Pavarotti’s lap a la Santa Clause.
Strona Cranberries has put up a short clip from Polish news program Teleexpress of Dolores O’Riordan arriving at the Warsaw airport on Monday. Dolores is in Poland this week to do promo for Are You Listening?
[LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE]
Gibraltar-based band Breed 77 will be releasing a “Latino metal” cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” as a bonus track for the digital download of their new album Look at Me Now, to be released on April 23.
According to the UK’s FAME Magazine, who have heard the cover…
Look At Me Now is released April 23, and on the digital bundle contains a never heard before “Latino-metal” version of the Cranberries classic hit, Zombie, which is totally out of this world. Usually a track of this calibre should have a label stating, “Do Not Cover”, placed upon it, but Breed 77 has produced a track, up there with the original itself.
Dolores O’Riordan’s upcoming single is the subject of one of the Q&A’s on the radio-tracking Billboard website.
Don’t worry about Billboard’s response about the radio single — a Sanctuary representative told Zombieguide that the reason U.S. radio stations haven’t started playing the song is because they haven’t gotten the advance CD yet. U.S. stations will start getting advance singles for the song this week.
More interestingly, Billboard has included all the up-to-date sales figures for The Cranberries’ releases in the U.S.
Keith,
I just read that Cranberries’ singer Dolores O’Riordan will be releasing her first solo album on May 15 in North America. I heard the first single on her MySpace page and it is really great. I was wondering what you think her chances of having any success in North America are?Also, how many albums have the Cranberries sold in the U.S.? Thanks so much!
Ryan Gibson Toronto
Hi Ryan,
Indeed, Dolores O’Riordan’s solo debut, “Are You Listening?,” will arrive in the U.S. on May 15 through Sanctuary Records. In Europe it streets on May 7 while Japan and Australia get the album on May 12.
The set was written and recorded over the past four years and is led by the first single, “Ordinary Day.” The song, written about the birth of her third child, has yet to impact U.S. radio. For the week ending March 19, no
monitored American stations had played the song. What are the album’s chances for success? Well, not having radio play your song is a bit worrisome. Though, there is still a sizable gap of time between now and when the album arrives, so things could brighten up for the single.
The Cranberries’ last studio album, 2001’s “Wake Up and Smell the Coee,” has sold 170,000 in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan. In 2002, the band also released “Stars – The Best of 1992-2002.” It has sold 322,000 in America.
The group is best known for its numerous early and mid-’90s hits like “Dreams,” “Linger” and “Zombie.” Those three tunes all made the top 20 on Billboard’s Alternative/Modern Rock chart while the act also scored five more top 20 hits. The Cranberries’ best selling album is 1994’s “No Need To Argue,” which has sold 4.1 million in the U.S. The previous year’s set, “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” has shifted 3.2 million. 1996’s “To The Faithful Departed” has sold 1.7 million while 1999’s “Bury The Hatchet” has moved 377,000.
The Cranberries’ “Daodil Lament” is once again being used in TV commercials to promote Daffodil Day 2007, which is tomorrow, March 23rd in Ireland. The Irish Cancer Society began the event to raise both funds and awareness for cancer research.
The Irish Cancer Society is asking Irish residents to wear or buy a daffodil tomorrow in support of cancer research.
We have the TV commercial below, thanks to Stephen and courtesy of The Irish Cancer Society.
(VIDEO NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
The Cranberries have supported Daodil Day in Ireland in the past by donating an autographed lithograph for auction. “Daffodil Lament” also appeared in Daffodil Day TV adverts in Australia in 2003.
Actor Ed Helms, who plays the hilariously annoying Andy Bernard on NBC’s hit comedy “The Office,” explained in an interview for Creative Loafing how he ended up annoying the bejesus out of his co-workers by singing The Cranberries’ “Zombie” on the episode called “The Return” this season:
Some of the funniest moments happen when the characters sing, or try to sing. Are the songs decided in advance?
Mostly, but a few of them are improvised. There’s an episode when Andy’s singing at his desk, off in his own world and annoying Jim, and there was some song written in the script, but we thought, “There’s got to be a more annoying song than this one.” We talked for a while and ended up with the Cranberries’ “Zombie,” because it has that voice cracking on “In your he-ead.” Also, there was an earlier episode when Andy and Jim stay up late getting drunk in the Stamford office, and Andy was half-passed out on the floor singing songs from his a cappella group from college. We had one Indigo Girls song in the script, but Jim wanted to harmonize, so we did “Closer to Fine” instead.
This week’s Sunday Independent in Ireland published a list of the Top 10 Richest Entertainers in Ireland. The Cranberries are #8 on the list, worth an estimated €56 million. The Sunday Independent writes, “THE band’s 1993 album, Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? remains Ireland’s best- selling album after U2’s The Joshua Tree. Their music continues to feature regularly in films, a big earner.”
In case you’re curious, here’s the full Top 10:
1. U2, €800m
2. MICHAEL FLATLEY, €580m
3. MOYA DOHERTY and JOHN McCOLGAN, €165m
4. ENYA, €127m
5. VAN MORRISON, €68m
6. CHRIS de BURGH, €57m
7. THE CRANBERRIES, €56m
8. GRAHAM NORTON, €37m
9. COLIN FARRELL, €32m
10. WESTLIFE, €30m
The Cranberries have not one, not two, but three songs on iTunes’ special “The List: 22 Songs by Irish Rockers” playlist in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. U2, Van Morrison, and Thin Lizzy also weigh in with three tracks each. The special playlist is currently featured on the front page of the iTunes Music Store with a jumbo button —click here to go straight to the compilation. Here’s the rundown:
1. Gloria, Van Morrison with Them
2. Sunday Bloody Sunday (Live 1983), U2
3. The Boys Are Back in Town, Thin Lizzy
4. Dreams, The Cranberries
5. Dirty Old Town, Pogues
6. I Don’t Like Mondays, The Boomtown Rats
7. Mandinka, Sinead O’Connor
8. Still Got the Blues (Full Version), Gary Moore
9. Cowboy Song, Thin Lizzy
10. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
11. New Year’s Day, U2
12. Don’t Go, Hothouse Flowers
13. Nothing Compares 2 U, Sinead O’Connor
14. Linger, The Cranberries
15. Bad Penny, Rory Gallagher
16. Wild Night, Van Morrison
17. Drunken Lullabies, Flogging Molly
18. Jailbreak, Thin Lizzy
19. Zombie, The Cranberries
20. Where the Streets Have No Name (New Edit U218), U2
21. Only Shallow, My Bloody Valentine
22. Suspect Device, Stiff Little Fingers
On April 3rd, Universal Music will be reissuing “The Cranberries: Millennium Collection” in the United States in a new biodegradable sleeve rather than the usual jewel case. The jewel case version is still “in print” in the catalog, but may be pulled soon. Click here to download a PDF sellsheet about the new campaign. Of course, that’s just fancy speak to say that you’ll be getting less for your money — the liner notes are now online only at http://www.ilovethatsong.com/green/
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It’s a sad day for Bury the Hatchet fans in the US — all versions of the album have been pulled from Universal Music Distribution’s catalog of active items. In other words, no new copies of the album are being printed and stores will not be able to purchase new stock.
The Cranberries’ first three albums (Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, No Need to Argue, and To the Faithful Departed) are still in print in their Complete Sessions versions with extra B-sides. Wake Up and Smell the Coffee is also still available.
Similarly, The Cranberries’ Treasure Box boxed set of the first four albums has also now gone out of print.
In an interview with bassist Marco Menodza in the El Universal (Mexico) newspaper, the Whitesnake bassist reveals that he played on parts of The Cranberries’ last album Wake Up and Smell The Coffee without being credited for it.
Mendoza filled in on an unspecified number of tracks for Mike Hogan, who was attending to a “severe crisis” during the recording sessions.
While Mendoza did not become the “5th” member of The Cranberries, Dolores O’Riordan told him clearly at the time: “I want you with me in the future,” and thus recruited him as bassist for her solo album. According to the article, Mendoza recorded 22 songs with Dolores.
“Dolores has matured, now she is mother of three children, and that new stage is reflected in the compositions, much more critical, but still with that political line of The Cranberries,” he said.
He affirmed that Dolores has a strong affinity for Latin America, especially Mexico, and that she will try to include Mexico on her upcoming North American tour.
Mendoza was an old friend of Dolores O’Riordan’s husband, Don Burton.
Thanks to Juanberries for the news.
The “Cent Pour Cent” special on The Cranberries will re-air on France’s M6 Music Rock on March 14th at 14h and 20h. This is a half-hour segment of The Cranberries’ music videos.
Dolores O’Riordan will record a new interview for the M6 Music Rock channel tomorrow — see the news below for more details.
Thanks to kaixo2222 for the news.
Happy birthday to Fergal Lawler — he turns 36 today!
Hope you have a good one, and best of luck with all your current personal pursuits.
Universal Music is releasing another budget-priced “greatest hits” collection for The Cranberries in the UK, this time a DVD title called The Cranberries: The Videos, which will be part of their Gold Collection series.
The disc will release on March 5, 2007. You can preorder at Amazon UK. The MSRP is £7.99 (about $16 US) and will contain the following videos:
1. Ode To My Family [USA Radio Version]
2. Salvation
3. Just My Imagination
4. Animal Instinct 5. Dreams
6. Promises
7. Zombie
8. I Can’t Be With You
9. Free To Decide
10. Linger
11. Ridiculous Thoughts
12. When You’re Gone
13. You and Me
14. Analyse [Original Version]
15. Time Is Ticking Out
16. Stars
Thanks to many for the tip.
Philadelphia’s The Intelligencer newspaper mentioned The Cranberries in a January 17 article called “Resurrecting the hits of the â€TM90s,” saying that the band — along with Counting Crows, Savage Garden, Semisonic, and R.E.M. — are among the most prolific hit-makers of the last decade. Here’s what they had to say:
Along similar lines, still haunting the airwaves, with Dolores O’Riordan’s unique smooth vocals, is The Cranberries.
The Britain based group [sic] is most often represented with its platinum hit “Linger” (Do you have to let it linger?), “Zombie” (Another heads hangs lowly, child is slowly taken/ and the violence caused such silence/ who are we mistaken?) and “Ode to My Family” (Understand the things I say/ dont turn away from me/ cause I spent half my life out there/ you wouldnt disagree).
You can read the whole thing at phillyBurbs.com
The attempt by the Heart FM media group to win Limerick’s 10-year radio license, currently held by Live 95, has failed, as the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland announced last Monday that it would award a renewal to Live 95’s license.
The Heart FM group was funded in part by Cranberries members Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan, and Fergal Lawler, among others. Mike Hogan was poised to become a director for the new radio station if it was approved.
Thanks to Thomas for the news.
Niall Quinn today emailed us a very rare piece of memorabilia indeed — an August 1990 Night Times newspaper interview to promote Water Circle, The Cranberries’ first demo tape released in 1990. You’ll recall that Niall Quinn was the lead singer for The Cranberry Saw Us, the precursor to The Cranberries. Niall writes, “I was doing some archiving of my own at the weekend and came across it.”
The interview is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) known Cranberries interviews to survive. In it, Noel Hogan talks about the trouble the band went through to recruit a new singer after Quinn left to concentrate on his other band The Hitchers:
When Niall announced that he was leaving the rest of us decided straight away that we wanted to continue. He introduced us to someone who was interested but in singing but the guy messed us around and we ended up auditioning a fella called Alan who was heavily into the doomier side of The Cure. He wanted to drown all the songs in feedback and distortion, which isn’t us at all. The only good thing is that it made us realize that we need a soft, gentle voice because we’re not that heavy. That’s when we decided to advertise in Xeric [Studios] for a girl and we struck lucky straight away.
The girl who responded to that ad, of course, was Dolores O’Riordan.
We brought Niall in to sing her some of the old songs and she seemed to like them. Then she did a Sinead O’Connor number and we were all stunned, so we said, ‘Great, let’s give it a go!’
Niall says that the interviewer was probably Stuart Clark, who is now an editor for Hot Press, Ireland’s largest entertainment magazine.
Niall writes that he may also have a video of The Cranberries broadcasted on Irish TV in June 1990: “I know thereâ€TMs also a VHS cassette in my parents house that I have to get my hands on — it contains amongst other (hitchers) stuff — a very brief glimpse of The Cranberries, They Do It With Mirrors and The Hitchers all busking together (Iâ€TMm not kidding –there was about ten of us!!!). Thatâ€TMd be dated about July 1990 and was broadcast on an Irish TV show called PuirÃnÃthat Autumn. As soon as I have it digitised I’ll let you know.”
The Cranberries’ classic 1994 performance on the Jools Holland show on the BBC will re-air next weekend on German network ZDF: Theaterkanal. The band performed “Dreaming My Dreams,” while Dolores performed “No Need to Argue” with Holland on organ and a string quartet. The show that features The Cranberries, Crowded House, the Auteurs, and Aswad will air February 3rd at 23:00 local time on ZDF: Theaterkanal (schedule).
Thanks to dominestar for the tip. Screen capture taken from Cranberries Shows.
The Cranberries’ “Zombie” was used on last night’s episode of “The Office.” Andy Bernard, a character in the series, is evidently a fan of the song. If any watched the show, tell us about it in the ZG Forums.
Source: E! Online
The January/February 2007 issue of Teen Strings magazine carries sheet music for a string quartet arrangement of The Cranberries’ “Zombie.” This version was arranged by John Reed, and it appears to be the same arrangement that Strings Magazine published in their February 2006 issue. You can view a sample PDF here. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
Notorious radio shock jock Howard Stern played the live MTV Unplugged version of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” on his Sirius satellite radio show on Monday. He played the same live version last May on his show. Stern sang along with most of the song until co-host Robin Quivers told him to shut up because she was having a “good time” listening to the song without him. Artie Lange added that it was a “good tune.”
The repeat of the MTV Unplugged performance is no surprise since Stern has repeatedly professed his, er, certain fondness for Dolores O’Riordan’s short- cropped hair.
Thanks to ZG’s venerable founder John for the news.
Rock legend Meat Loaf this week told York University’s student newspaper Excalibur that he likes The Cranberries.
The interviewer asked him what other food-item-named-things he likes, to which he responded a UK singer by the name of Fish and of course the Irish band with the tart but delicious name.
French singer Dominique performed The Cranberries’ “Zombie” last Friday night on the French Idol-like TV show “Star Academy.” Dominique is in the running against other winners for the best weekly performances.
You can watch Dominque’s performance here at the TF1 website, which includes some rather elaborate choreography with, er, flight attendants and a giant airplane prop.
Thanks to Cyril for the news.
UK site Creativedesign has put up a profile of Cally, the graphic designer behind The Cranberries’ first three albums, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, No Need to Argue, and To the Faithful Departed. Cally recently orchestrated a total redesign of the Island offices on Kensington High Street in London. You can read about it here. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
A fan who recently purchased The Cranberries’ first commercially-produced demo tape has made high-quality photos and MP3s of the tape available online.
While “Water Circle” was The Cranberries’ first demo tape in May 1990 (then called by the dreadful pun The Cranberry Saw Us), it was home-made and its liner art photocopied. Later that year, Xeric Records released just 300 copies of the Saw Us’s first commercially pressed tape, “Nothing Left At All” (discography entry).
Zombieguide Forums member Caputokey was lucky enough to snag the extremely rare piece off of eBay months ago and has since put up MP3s and photos on his own server.
While MP3 rips of the tape have been available for years, most of those came from low-quality bootleg copies that had circulated among fans for the past decade. The quality suffered from high nth-generation tape-to-tape copying in the tape trading community in the mid-90s. (Now there’s a story I can tell my grandkids.)
“Nothing Left At All” is the same version that appeared in CD quality on the “Uncertain” EP. “Pathetic Senses” is different from the “Uncertain” EP and features vocals from Dolores’s (allegedly aggressive) boyfriend Miko Mahoney (also did the vocals at the end of “Dreams”) and producer Pearse Gilmore, whom the band accused of making secret agreements with Island during the band’s last days at Xeric. “Shine Down,” later known as “Take My Soul Away,” is the most elusive of the three. This is by far the best recording of “Shine Down” to ever surface.
You can grab them all from this directory, courtesy of Caputokey. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)
Some short biographies released in conjunction with the proposal of a new radio station for Limerick, Heart FM (read more), include some tidbits about what Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler have been up to lately.
If the radio station is approved, Mike Hogan will become a director for Heart FM. Also, Noel, Mike, and Fergal will give some hands-on input for a show called “Green Heart,” which will showcase demos and upcoming local bands.
The bio also reveals that Mike opened a café on Catherine Street in Limerick called The Sage Café earlier this year. The café opened in mid- April and seats 45-50 people. Mike has become the director of a company called TM Coffee, Ltd. (which runs the cafe), and he continues to to live and work in Limerick.
As for Fergal, his bio reveals that he “has been collaborating with other local musicians and recording at his studio in Ballymorris.”
Heart FM, a new proposed radio station being funded by Mike and Noel Hogan that we first told you about here, gave an oral presentation on Monday to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. The Hogan brothers and Fergal Lawler are among a small group of investors who are competing to win a 10-year broadcasting license in Limerick.
In order to win approval for the station, the Heart FM backers will need to wrestle the city’s radio franchise away from the incumbent broadcaster, Live 95FM.
The Heart FM group told the BCI that if approved, the station would make a profit of €15-€20 million over 10 years. The station would also employ 36 full-time and 33 part-time staff, more than Live 95, and would open a new 5,000-sq ft office in downtown Limerick.
Live 95FM argued that it should be able to keep its existing license because of its strong track record, especially after being bought by UTV in 2002. (Coincidentally, Dolores’s brother P.J. O’Riordan was one of the previous owners of Live 95FM.)
The BCI will decide on January 22, 2007 which group will receive the new license.
You can check out some attractively designed proposal PDF documents at the BCI website. Of special interest to Cranberries fans are sections 3 and 4, which have short up-to-date biographies on Noel, Mike, and Fergal.
Sources: Irish Times, Irish Independent
Maurizio di Bona, a.k.a. theHand, who created a line of official merchandise for The Cranberries in 2003, has just released a new book that includes four pages of Cranberries caricatures.
di Bona, a longtime Cranberries fan, had put several of his Cranberries cartoons online before the band came to him and commissioned him to produce a series of illustrations for their last world tour. His new book, called Scarabocchio Ergo Sum, features works he created for the band and also more recent drawings of Dolores, Noel, Mike, and Fergal. The text is in Italian, but the spot-on caricatures are alone worth the price of admission.
You can order the new book for only $10.65 US from Lulu.com
MTV Latin America has ranked The Cranberries’ “Linger” as one of the 100 “poppiest” songs of all time. The network chose “Linger” at #92 on last night’s “Los 100 + Pop” special. The series began yesterday and will run until November 24.
Thanks to Cristobal for the news!
The redesign of The Cranberries Official Webpage has launched at http://www.cranberries.com (http://www.cranberries.ie has not yet rolled over to the new design). Not much new content, but there is a vastly improved lyrics section.
There are no official forums yet (surprise? They were promised two and a half years ago.), so instead why not join the largest and most active Cranberries forums online?
The Official Community Corporation, the Toronto-based corporation that now runs http://www.cranberries.com today posted a preview image of the long-promised redesign of the official website.
This will be the second redesign since Official Community Corporation took control of the site in 2004. Previously, it was operated by Timeless Music, The Cranberries’ self-owned management company.
If the preview is accurate, it appears that an official discussion forum is in the works. No other new features appear on the preview layout.
A rare, previously-unseen acoustic performance of The Cranberries’ “Linger” has surfaced on YouTube. The performance was taken from MTV’s “Alternative Nation” show (US) in 1993. (MTV.com used to offer streaming interview clips from this same appearance.)
Thanks to despandy for the tip.
Even if you don’t know his name, you know his art.
Storm Thorgerson has produced some of the most instantly recognizable album covers in rock history: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, Division Bell; Led Zepplin’s Houses of the Holy; Audioslave’s self- titled; The Mars Volta’s Frances the Mute; Umphrey’s McGee’s Safety in Numbers; the list goes on and on. Of course, as you probably know, his portfolio also includes the album covers for The Cranberries’ post-crisis Bury the Hatchet, its 2001 follow-up Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, Beneath the Skin live DVD, and all related singles.
Storm is kicking off a series of exhibitions of his work around the world for Fall 2006 in Long Island, NY; Cleveland, OH; Birmingham, UK; Milan, Italy; San Francisco, CA; and Bath, UK in 2007. Click here for the full itinerary of Storm Thorgerson’s ongoing exhibit dates. You can find out more and browse a number of limited edition prints made specially for this tour at theTaken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson website.
Last week, Storm gave us a rare phone interview to talk about his work with The Cranberries. (We even managed to squeeze in some chatter about Noel Hogan’s current project Mono Band.) Here’s what Storm had to say in the exclusive Zombieguide interview…
ZG: How did you get involved in working with The Cranberries? How did they approach you?
Storm: Through a friend, a business friend, whom I didn’t know very well, but they did, called Jamie. He was working also for Ian Dury and the Blockheads, which is a band I work for, and I think he recommended me. Then I went to have an interview, a chat with Dolores and Noel in Olympic Studios, I think. We got along OK, and so we chatted again later, and then I started to do designs for Bury the Hatchet.
ZG: How did the design process go for Bury the Hatchet? How did you form the ideas that went with that album?
Storm: Now you’ve got me there. That’s a very good question. I’m trying to remember. I think it had something to do with Dolores’s checkered past. I think she told me some tales. She’s had quite a tough life, Dolores. She was telling me about an old boyfriend of hers who was inclined to be a little physical. So I think it was partly related to that. It was probably related to other things that they said, because the way that I work is to submit different possibilities, and so I probably suggested about eight things to them, of which the rough for Bury the Hatchet was one. It was kind of like about paranoia. I think in the way Dolores felt that she had been in her life — and to some extent, the other guys as well — some degrees of unhappiness and undue pressure for which it was now time to shake off, “bury the hatchet” literally. To shake off old grudges, old difficulties. I don’t know if you have this expression in America, “bury the hatchet,” but I presume you do.
ZG: Yeah, we know it.
Storm: Actually, the cover design is a two-piece. So it is a before and after picture. If you like, a diptych. It comes in two parts. We made the cover as also suggested by the band as a trompe l’oeil, a trick of the eye so actually the front sort of repeated on the back so you didn’t know which way around it was. So then you’ve got the two pictures that go together.
ZG: Right. And it has the spine…
Storm: That’s right, we did a fake spine. That was quite clever, don’t you think? But very annoying because you keep trying to open the CD the wrong way. I thought it was a great idea, but it wasn’t my idea. But it was a good one and it was good for me because it meant I could flip the designs, either front or back. In the actual booklet, there’s a picture of a guy being threatened by the all-seeing eye, and on the back when you turn it around, you see he’s turning around, telling the eye to go away.
That’s the kind of nub of it at the time. You know, all these things have other bits and pieces that connect to the making of a cover, which I probably can’t remember now. They kind of coalesce to form a background out of which I make designs and then show them back to the band as roughs and then they choose. So they must have thought this was appropriate somewhere or other. It’s not always clear to me why bands choose the things they do.
ZG: At what point do you actually get a copy of the album and get to listen to it all the way through?
Storm: Pretty early on. When it was in demo form, probably, or early mixes. Because the album cover needs to be done before the record is finished. It takes longer to print an album cover than it does to press a CD. So in eect, the album cover has to be ahead of the CD, the finished item.
ZG: One of the things that Dolores said in the interviews for Bury the Hatchet was that the band did their first three albums, and they all had a picture of the band on the cover…
Storm: The sofa! (laughs) That’s right, they probably fancied a change, I suppose!
ZG: Right, and one of the things that Dolores said about Bury the Hatchet was that she thought of the first three albums as a triad, and that she wanted to form a new era. One of the things I associate with that are your designs, and so I was wondering if that was a conscious thing?
Storm: It may have been a conscious decision of theirs. Obviously it wasn’t a conscious decision of mine. I’m only a gun for hire, aren’t I? I can be hired, commissioned as a freelance designer, and design as I think appropriate for whoever asks, by and large. So I don’t often know what their agenda is, but I agree with you, I think they decided that band photos and sofas was enough. Well, they weren’t going to get them from me, so I presume they must have realized.
ZG: Your work is very distinctive. It’s very easy to, say, look at a new album cover and say right away, “Oh yeah, that’s Storm Thorgerson.”
Storm: You think so?
ZG: Very much so. Every once in awhile you put out a new–
Storm: Are you sure?
ZG: One of the reasons I say that is that you have a lot of symbols that you use in your art and sometimes those repeat from piece to piece. I’ve noticed, for example, I have your book, Eye of the Storm, and I noticed you used the theme of the eye a lot [Bury the Hatchet cover, for example] and I was wondering if there’s a particular reason you like using that symbol.
Storm: I don’t think of myself as doing that, but it’s for other people to make that distinction, I suppose. I don’t think about it, really. I do design as I feel the music or the band to be, or the title, or the combination. I think that every designer, artist, [or] photographer has recurring threads, recurring obsessions that therefore by definition may recur. But it’s not purposeful or conscious. I think I notice things in my work that reoccur, and then I think maybe I don’t. I’m not sure whether I know. I don’t have any particular thing about eyes, more than I do anything about beds or water, all of which you might say feature in my work. But girls feature in my work as well. Mountains feature in my work. Sculptures. Animals, particularly animals. I do a lot more animals more than I do eyes.
ZG: You mention beds — there’s a bed on the other album cover that you did for The Cranberries, which is Wake Up and Smell the Coee. Do you remember the design process for that album?
Storm: They were telling me that they thought the album was a return to simpler, fresher styles. A bit like “wake up, wake up” — the title of the album. So I imagined granules of coee or the “atoms” of coee going up the stairs to the bedroom, waking you up. I like the smell of coee myself. So I imagined them bouncing or riding up the stairs to wake me in my bed in the morning. Coee granules are quite small so it doesn’t really interest me. I like big things. So they turn into cranberries, and then the cranberries turn into large gym balls. You know, the kind of balls you exercise on?
ZG: That’s what I thought they looked like, but I wasn’t sure.
Storm: Well, that’s what they are. They’re supposed to be cranberries, metaphorically. So the granules of coee, or the “atoms” of coee, or the “atoms” of cranberries, or the “cranberry atoms” are coming to wake you up with the music.
ZG: Now you did an interesting thing with that album, and that is that the band released four dierent covers in dierent regions of the world. Was that a result of alternate covers?
Storm: No, apparently the Japanese like to have a dierent cover, I didn’t know why.
ZG: Yeah, they like having bonus things…
Storm: Yeah, something like that. It’s all beyond me. Record company shenanigans, I don’t know what it all means. I just tend to supply what I’m asked to supply, as long as I’m told upfront. I can’t supply all sorts of versions if I don’t know what’s going on. I need to prepare for it.
We actually shot this picture on a grass landscape and a sandy beach. But the sandy beach is much more spectacular because the balls didn’t really bounce well on grass.
ZG: You’re doing several exhibitions around the world of all your art. Why did you choose this point in your career to do something like that?
Storm: Well, no, I started about five years ago. It started about five years ago — somebody asked me to do an exhibition in Japan, so I agreed. The thing that was dierent then was that it was a graphic exhibition. The ones I do now tend to be fine art exhibitions, print exhibitions. I think it’s just what designers do, really. Musicians play gigs. This is my version of a gig. This all happened by chance, because somebody asked me. The first two exhibitions I did were in Japan. They were great! I really enjoyed those. After I did two or three there, I thought, “Hmm, that was interesting. I’ll do some more.” So that’s what we’re doing.
ZG: I guess a favorite topic that people like to ask you about is Pink Floyd. Do you ever get tired of talking about Pink Floyd and say, “I have other art that I’d like to talk about”?
Storm: I thought you were ringing me up about The Cranberries!
ZG: I was, but…
Storm: I don’t get tired, no. I did some very nice pieces with the Floyd, I think.
ZG: I think so.
Storm: I’ve no time to talk to you about that now. That’ll have to be another interview… mostly because we’re trying to wrap up some work here and get out the door… It’s what we call clocking otime here. Let me ask you a question: What’s happening to The Cranberries? Are they not together?
ZG: That’s a good question. Dolores is putting out a solo album next year. Noel has already put out his own solo album last year under the name Mono Band.
Storm: “Mono Band”? What’s it like?
ZG: It’s interesting. For his first album, he actually got several dierent vocalists to do it. One in particular, a British guy by the name of Richard Walters. Anyway, I quite like it, no surprise. It hasn’t been released in CD format outside of Ireland yet. As for the band themselves, God only knows. They said they were going on temporary hiatus for awhile, but there’s really been no news on that front.
Storm: Maybe they’ve broken up then.
ZG: De facto, they are. It’s kind of sad. [Editor’s note: extreme understatement]
Storm: Sad, really.
ZG: Well, Dolores and Noel have both said that they want to reconvene at some point. They say they’re on amicable terms so I guess nothing’s ruled out for the future.
Storm: We’ll keep our fingers crossed. OK Alex, I’m going to adjourn for now.
ZG: OK, I know you’re very busy. Thank you very much, Storm.
Storm: I’m very tired too, I’m afraid. Take care of yourself.
Special thanks to Robin and Nina at Media Bitch (we love that name, BTW) for help in arranging our interview with Storm.
Storm Thorgerson, the graphic designer and photographer behind The Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee covers (not to mention Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, and a whole lot more) will be putting his iconic artwork on tour this fall in art galleries around the world.
An Art of Pink Floyd exhibit is already ongoing at the Gifted Images Gallery in New York and will last until October 13th. Meanwhile, the largest exhibition ever of Thorgerson’s art (Pink Floyd and otherwise) will open this Thursday, October 5th, in Birmingham, UK. Check the list below for more dates.
You can find out more and browse a number of limited edition prints made specially for this tour at the Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson website.
Four years after The Cranberries released their greatest hits compilation, Stars: The Best of The Cranberries 1992-2002, the album unexpectedly re- entered the Spanish album charts last week.
Despite having no promotion, Stars re-entered at No. 100 for the week of September 4th-10th. Other greatest hits offerings by Elvis Presley, Rod Stewart, Abba, and Texas also re-entered the charts that week.
The chart re-entry suggests that the album continues to have steady sales, especially in Spain, where The Cranberries have always had a strong fan base.
Thanks to supervago for the news.
