Cardigans singer Nina Persson mentioned The Cranberries in a forum posttoday about female-fronted bands. Persson said she’s never met Dolores O’Riordan or Gwen Stefani, singers to whom she is sometimes compared. But she added that music marketers put major pressure on female band leaders to break out into solo careers, and that there seems to be a major difference in the way solo females are viewed versus women who lead bands. Here’s what she wrote:

Hello friends,

What you’re discussing here is so familiar! I think the problem is that there are still so few ladies out there. The similarity between us and No Doubt I guess is that we are bands with ladies singing, trying to keep it being a band. When it turns into big business though, companies seem to think that you need to narrow the visual part down to one person.

Women who choose to do solo efforts all the way seem to be considered a different category, I don’t understand why. I’m a fan of No Doubt and (maybe more) Gwen Stefani. And I still think that being in a band is the best schooling you get these days, if you wanna do music.

I have never met Gwen or the Cranberries girl. But I’ve met millions of sweet guys and girls in bands. Check out my MySpace-site for A Camp, that’s one way for me to hook up with people!!

Yours, Nina

Thanks to Scott for the news.

The Canadian company that now runs parks the domainwww.cranberries.com sent out a newsletter today saying that the site will get a facelift this fall.

The newsletter also claims:

You will be the first to know about the changes to Cranberries.com and the latest Cranberries news.

A doubtful claim at best, since the site has not had a single update in nearly nine months.

The Official Community Corporation is also seeking input from fans to ask what fans would like in their Official Communityâ„¢.

Hmm, I dunno, updates? Content? An actual community? It’s been three years since the OCC took over www.cranberries.com, and the site doesn’t even have a simple message board.

If you want to know what Zombieguide would like to see, click here to read staffer Thomas’s open letter to the OCC. Since the OCC was considerate enough to ask fans what they want, make sure to tell them: cranberries@cranberries.com

Awesome Until Proven Guilty reports that CBS has censored repeat airings ofDilana Robichaux’s performance of “Zombie” by removing all references to her tanks, and her bombs, and her bombs, and her guns.

The producers also nixed the line, “They are fighting,” (what’s left, we ask?) no doubt to in an attempt to neuter any imagery that would remind viewers of America’s war in Iraq.

“Zombie” is no stranger to censorship. In March 2003, at the start of America’s invasion of Iraq, the British government placed the song on avoluntary list of banned videos, fearing that they would stir up public sentiment.

MTV Latin America recently had a countdown of their Top 100 Videos of all time to celebrate the network’s 25th anniversary.

The Cranberries’ 1994 chart topper came in number 77 on the “Los 100 Videos Mas MTV” countdown.

Thanks to Angel and aguafiestas for the news.

Two psychiatrists have testified that an Australian soldier in Iraq didn’t intend to commit suicide when he shot himself while singing The Cranberries’ “Dreams” in April.

Philip Mitchell, a psychiatry professor at Australia’s University of NSW, and Alexander McFarlane, professor at the University of Adelaide, both agree that Private Jake Kovco didn’t exhibit any suicidal signs.

However, Professor McFarlane concedes that the title of the song may have triggered a memory of a dream that Kovco had weeks previously. Kovco contemplated shooting himself in that dream, and wrote about it in his diary.

“Given that Private Kovco had the dream some months before and he was in a playful state of mind, it is possible the song triggered a recollection of his dream,” McFarlane said.

“At this moment he may have drawn his 9mm pistol and in a jocular (and immensely tragic) way, re-enacted his dream,” he added.

McFarlane testified that Kovco was in a playful mood when he died, and it was therefore unlikely that he would have intentionally shot himself in front of two friends.

Mitchell further found that the lyrics and beat of The Cranberries’ “Dreams” to be that of “an upbeat love song” and unlikely “to induce suicidal thoughts.”

Sources: Border Mail (more), The West Australian

The Irish Independent reports today that Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan, and Fergal Lawler are together putting up 10% of the funds for a new radio company in Limerick.

The new company, called Heart Media, hopes to win a bid for the city’s radio station. The license is currently held by Live 95FM, but according to Irish law, radio licenses go up for renewal every 10 years. Heart Media wants to create a station with a more alternative mix, including at least a third of its content being news and current affairs.

Their investment will give the Cranberry lads a combined 10% sharehold in the company. Other investors include TV show “Killinaskully” star Pat Shortt, radio presenter Will Leahy, and former Live 95FM staff members.

Source: Irish Independent

On Tuesday night, singer Dilana Robichaux let loose a violent rendition of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” on CBS’s “Rock Star: Supernova.” It was a hit with the superstar judges too. You can watch her performance here.

Robichaux is a native of South Africa, but moved to Houston in 2001.

“Hi, Dilana. I wanna,” said Mötley CrÃ1⁄4e drummer Tommy Lee immediately after her performance. (”Sorry, I’m taken,” she said in reply.)

Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro, on the other hand, was a little more sensible in his comments. “Every week I look for that one performance thatâ€TMs the one that gives you chills. That youâ€TMre like, oh my God, I canâ€TMt believe that I just saw that on television. That was it,” he said.

The winner of the show will go on a world tour as the frontperson for a new rock band. (The previous incarnation of the show, “Rock Star: INXS,” filled the singer position for that band.)

Source: Dallas Morning News

Australia’s The Age reports that an Australian soldier stationed in Iraq shot and killed himself while singing along to The Cranberries’ “Dreams.” His death is Australia’s first casualty in Iraq.

A military investigation made public this week revealed that Private Jake Kovko was playing around with his pistol on April 21 at the same time that he and fellow soldiers were mimicking Dolores O’Riordan’s high-pitched vocals on “Dreams.” The song was a random selection from one of the soldiers’ iPods.

Kovko was in a cramped barracks with two other witnesses, named Soldiers 17 and 19 in reports, when his gun went off.

“I think he might have done it in a joking fashion,” Soldier 17 said in a written statement. “The song we were singing was in a female, homosexual way.”

Soldier 17 said that his only explanation for the death was a joke gone wrong: “He may have pulled the pistol and put it to his head, almost to say, ‘This is so gay I’d rather be dead.’”

Both witnesses heard Kovco mumble something in a half-joking manner before he pulled the trigger, although neither heard it clearly.

Both soldiers insist that they did not see Kovko pull the trigger, and investigators are still unsure whether it was an intentional suicide.

Australia’s The Age has several articles about the ongoing investigation, which you can read here, here, and here.

Source: The Age

Conservative American magazine National Review has compiled a list of the “top 50 conservative rock songs of all time,” the New York Times reportstoday. Number 41 on that list is The Cranberries’ “Icicle Melts” from No Need to Argue.

The magazine writes,

41. “The Icicle Melts,” by The Cranberries.
A prolife tune sung by Irish warbler Dolores O’Riordan: “I don’t know what’s happening to people today / When a child, he was taken away . . . ‘Cause nine months is too long.”

The article’s author, John J. Miller, made a request for song suggestions late last year on National Review’s website, and since then has received hundreds of suggestions.

“Any claim that rock is fundamentally revolutionary is just kind of silly,” Miller said. “It’s so mainstream that it puts [liberals] in the position of saying that at no time has there ever been a rock song that expressed a sentiment that conservatives can appreciate. And that’s just silly. In fact here are 50 of them.”

Miller said the songs on the list had to fill two criteria: first, it had to be good, and second, the song’s message had to support traditional values.

Despite Dolores’s pro-life stance, abortion was not the subject that inspired “The Icicle Melts.” In fact, it was the kidnapping and killing of Jamie Bulger(corrected) in 1993 that spurred this track, thus the lyric, “I should not have read the paper today / ‘cos a child, child, child, child, he was taken away.”

Having said that, “The Icicle Melts” can certainly be interpreted as a pro-life song, even if that was not the original intent. Dolores has been an outspoken pro-life supporter over the years, having famously told You! magazine:

“I am in no position to judge other women, you know. But I mean, why did she get pregnant? It’s not good for women to go through the procedure [abortion] and have something living sucked out of their bodies. It belittles women. Even though some women say, ‘Oh, I don’t mind to have one,’ every time a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self–esteem smaller and smaller and smaller.”

Here is the full list of National Review’s Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs:

1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who.
2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles.
3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones.
4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
5. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” by The Beach Boys.
6. “Gloria,” by U2.
7. “Revolution,” by The Beatles.
8. “Bodies,” by The Sex Pistols.
9. “Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica.
10. “20th Century Man,” by The Kinks.
11. “The Trees,” by Rush.
12. “Neighborhood Bully,” by Bob Dylan.
13. “My City Was Gone,” by The Pretenders.
14. “Right Here, Right Now,” by Jesus Jones.
15. “I Fought the Law,” by The Crickets.
16. “Get Over It,” by The Eagles.
17. “Stay Together for the Kids,” by Blink 182.
18. “Cult of Personality,” by Living Colour.
19. “Kicks,” by Paul Revere and the Raiders.
20. “Rock the Casbah,” by The Clash.
21. “Heroes,” by David Bowie.
22. “Red Barchetta,” by Rush.
23. “Brick,” by Ben Folds Five.
24. “Der Kommissar,” by After the Fire.
25. “The Battle of Evermore,” by Led Zeppelin.
26. “Capitalism,” by Oingo Boingo.
27. “Obvious Song,” by Joe Jackson.
28. “Janie’s Got a Gun,” by Aerosmith.
29. “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Iron Maiden.
30. “You Can’t Be Too Strong,” by Graham Parker.
31. “Small Town,” by John Mellencamp.
32. “Keep Your Hands to Yourself,” by The Georgia Satellites.
33. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” by The Rolling Stones.
34. “Godzilla,” by Blue Oyster Cult.
35. “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival.
36. “Government Cheese,” by The Rainmakers.
37. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” by The Band.
38. “I Can’t Drive 55,” by Sammy Hagar.
39. “Property Line,” by The Marshall Tucker Band.
40. “Wake Up Little Susie,” by The Everly Brothers.
41. “The Icicle Melts,” by The Cranberries.
42. “Everybody’s a Victim,” by The Proclaimers.
43. “Wonderful,” by Everclear.
44. “Two Sisters,” by The Kinks.
45. “Taxman, Mr. Thief,” by Cheap Trick.
46. “Wind of Change,” by The Scorpions.
47. “One,” by Creed.
48. “Why Don’t You Get a Job,” by The Offspring.
49. “Abortion,” by Kid Rock.
50. “Stand By Your Man,” by Tammy Wynette.

Source: New York Times

America’s favorite shock jock Howard Stern played The Cranberries’ “Zombie” live from MTV Unplugged on his Sirius satellite radio show today.

Stern started the “Zombie” discussion by talking about yesterday’s death of Colombian-American singer Soraya. Show co-host Robin Quivers remarked that Soraya “sounds like that Irish singer from The Cranberries,” which prompted Stern to start playing a clip of “Zombie” from MTV Unplugged. Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons sang along, although he thought the lyrics were “feed your head,” as evidently no one had heard the song in awhile. The segment lasted for about 4 minutes.

Stern had some especially good things to say about the song: “Man, that girl can sing!”

This is not the first time Stern has had flattering (yet raunchy) things to say about Dolores O’Riordan. Years ago, he played “Go Your Own Way” and said, “She’s pretty good… I dig her. I’d like to bang her! I dig this chick’s voice.” A caller then told him to shut up — he was ruining the song. (MP3 #1, MP3 #2of that show)

On the same show, he said, “I hear people carrying on about Barbara Streisand and stuff, and I go, ‘What are they talking about?’ I hear her [Dolores O’Riordan], and go, ‘She’s good!’ I hear this broad singing and go, ‘Man, she could bring me to tears every time practically.’”

Thanks to Kama and Zombieguide founder John for the news.

Source: Exclusive

The Cranberries’ “When You’re Gone” is being used in the recently-released French film ‘Toute la Beauté du Monde’, starring Marc Lavoine and Zoé Félix.

The film has already gone out to theaters, but you can view a trailer of the film here, which has “When You’re Gone” playing throughout.

Thanks to Copycat for the tip.

Source: Exclusive

British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield has picked The Cranberries as one of the bands for her iTunes Celebrity Playlist. Surprisingly, Bedingfield didn’t pick a hit single, but instead opted for the somber title track from “No Need to Argue.”

She wrote:

“No Need To Argue” (Track 12): “I grew up with these guys constantly playing in my house. My sister and I used to try and mimic Dolores’ haunting and emotional vocals…I could never quite get it right but my sister did a pretty good impression. This song has quite a melancholy feel. The organ and choir-like harmonies compliment the subject matter quite nicely.”

It comes as no surprise, since Bedingfield lists The Cranberries as one of her influences in her official biography.

Thanks to Scott for the tip.

Source: Exclusive

British music snobs Q delivered a blow to The Cranberries’ “most difficult” album To the Faithful Departed by including it in their 50 Worst Albums list in their May 2006 issue.

Keep in mind, this is the same magazine that gave Dolores O’Riordan the cover in promotion of that very album and awarded it a modest 3 out of 5 stars.

Here’s the full list:

1. Duran Duran – Thank You
2. Spice Girls – All Their Solo Albums!
3. Various – Urban Renewal: The Songs Of Phil Collins
4. Lou Reed – Metal Machine Music
5. Billy Idol – Cyberpunk
6. Naomi Campbell – Babywoman
7. Kevin Rowland – My Beauty
8. Mick Jagger – Primitive Cool
9. Westlife – Allow Us To Be Frank
10. Tim Machine – Tin Machine Ii
11. Limp Bizkit – Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water
12. Tom Jones – Mr Jones
13. Bruce Willis – The Return Of Bruno
14. Terence Trent Diabolical – Neither Fish Nor Flesh
15. Various – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band – OST
16. Spice Girls – Forever
17. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – Dylan And The Dead
18. Crazy Frog – Crazy Hits
19. Goldie – Saturnz Return
20. Mariah Cary – Glitter OST
21. The Clash – Cut The Crap
22. Robson & Jerome – Robson & Jerome
23. Alanis Morissette – Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
24. Lauryn Hill – MTV Unpugged 2.0
25. The Cranberries – To The Faithful Departed
26. Vanilla Ice – Hard To Swallow
27. Destiny’s Child – Destiny Fulfilled
28. The Rolling Stones – Dirty Work
29. Various – Christmas In The Stars: Star Wars Christmas Album
30. Michael Jackson – Invincible
31. Stevie Wonder – Woman In Red
32. Ace Of Bass – The Sign
33. Billy Ray Cyrus – Some Gave All
34. Fishspooner – #1
35. Puff Daddy – Forever
36. Kula Shaker – Peanuts, Pigs & Astronauts
37. Shania Twain – Come On Over
38. Chris Rea – The Road To Hell Pt2
39. Big Country – Undercover
40. The Others – The Others
41. Paul Simon – Songs From The Capeman OST
42. Babylon Zoo – The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes
43. The Travelling Wilburys – Vol 3
44. Kiss – Music From The Elder
45. William Shatner – The Transformed Man
46. Oasis – Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants
47. Ozzy Osbourne – Under Cover
48. Milli Vanilli – All Or Nothing
49. Neil Young And The Shocking Pinks – Everybody’s Rocking
50. Beck – Midnight Vultures

Please direct all hate mail to Q, thank you.

Source: Rocklist.net

Zombieguide has learned that there were plans for Dolores O’Riordan to record two duets for an independent movie called “Catching the Stars” in 2003 — however, the film was scrapped due to budget problems.

The film’s soundtrack was to include two tracks with Dolores duetting with American rock singer Dusty Hughes. The first was to be a new version of The Cranberries’ “This is the Day” with Hughes on several verses, and the second was to be a Hughes-penned song called “Worthwhile” with Dolores on backing vocals.

“Back in 2003, I was contacted by a film producer, producing an independent film called ‘Catching The Stars,'” Hughes told Zombieguide this week. “I had written two songs for a previous movie of his. He sent me a track that I ignorantly thought was brand new called ‘This Is The Day.’ I was asked to sing verse 2 and background vocals on it, and harmony on the bridge. We were also supposed to duet another song together, which I wrote. I waited six months without hearing anything, then the guy wrote me back saying there was licensing problems with ‘This Is The Day,’ Mrs. O’Riordan wouldn’t be available to sing on the other song, etc. Then two months after that, he confessed to me that the film had been grossly over-budgeted, filming was brought to a halt, and it was going to be put on the shelf indefinitely.”

“I was a great bit disappointed,” he admits.

“The producer was already in contact with Dolores and had apparently been for a while. He asked if I would be willing to contribute two songs to this NEW movie — at that time — and I said gladly. He then asked if I would be comfortable singing with Dolores, and, even though I was very nervous about it, just starting out, I wasn’t about to refuse the offer! I never directly contacted her, although there was ‘small talk’ through the go-between. I can imagine her being a very cautious individual, not wanting her contact info leaked out, especially to a relatively unknown singer. I would really like to work on something like this now, where I’ve developed my sound, started finally actually receiving national attention, national air-play, etc.”

“When he first contacted me, I was very honoured, of course, but I confess I didn’t know much at all about the Cranberries. I remembered the Linger, Dreams, and Free To Decide videos, and of course Analyze from the radio, all of which I loved, but didn’t know much else,” he added.

While O’Riordan never recorded the vocals to “Worthwhile,” Hughes did manage to lay down tracks for “This is the Day.”

“I will say that I think it was a bit of injustice to replace her vocals in those parts with mine, especially at that stage of my ‘singing career’ if you will. I had only just started singing that year. I think if I had the chance to do it again now, I could definitely do it a little more justice. But that’s life!” he said.

This collaboration, like Dolores’s recent collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti, would have been long-distance.

“Incidentally, I never actually met Mrs. O’Riordan, but I did complete vocals on the first song. Listening back now, it’s pretty cringesome, but it was fun nonetheless… I think that’s a really great thing, the long-distance studio relationships. You can get so much done, without the huge costs of flying around in jets.”

We’d like to thank Dusty for the info!

Source: Exclusive

According to a message board post on the Internet Movie Database, Dolores O’Riordan was recently spotted in London.

Dolores was reportedly seen on King’s Road in the Chelsea district of London, looking “like she rules the world,” according to one observer.

No word yet on what she might be doing in London. Although her solo record was slated to be released in spring, there has been no news from Dolores since December, which means that yet another delay is almost inevitable.

Update: A source close to Dolores has confirmed to Zombieguide that she was indeed in London approximately three weeks ago.

Source: IMDb

A 7″ record that appeared on eBay weeks ago purporting to be a demo version of “Uncertain” has turned out to be fake.

The listing purported that the 45 rpm, which has “The Cranberries, UNCERTAIN DEMO” machine-printed onto the white label, had four tracks. The vinyl also has a printed catalog number “XERIC PROMO 001.”

We at Zombieguide purchased the vinyl, only to be dismayed that not only was it not The Cranberries, but that it wasn’t even a Xeric Records release. The vinyl is actually a 1989 punk release on Glut Records, catalog number FRIDGE 001. The vinyl carries four songs by Glut artists, none of which even remotely resemble The Cranberries.

A close inspection of the center label shows that the actual label information (“Glut Records”) has been whited out. The actual catalog number, “FRIDGE 001,” is etched into the inner ring of the vinyl.

Noel Hogan told Zombieguide that he does not believe Xeric ever released a 7″ version of “Uncertain.”

“We never released a 7″ version of Uncertain, or a demo. There were demos, but we would not have released them. The EP is the only version of that track, there was the white label and the printed cover version. I have most of everything we ever released, and that is what I have here,” he said.

In 2002, Fergal Lawler sent Zombieguide a copy of a demo version of “Uncertain,” which appears to have been taped from a radio broadcast. We have an MP3 of that demo available to download (see first link in post, “Xeric Records Demos” folder).

The Cranberries’ “Uncertain,” released in 1991 on Limerick label Xeric Records, is only available in three known formats: a CD release (discography), 12″ vinyl (discography), and a 12″ white-label test/promo vinyl (discography). The CD version is the version most sought-after by collectors, usually fetching over $100.

The fake vinyl has since been “lost” in the mail. We returned it for a refund, only to have the seller claim that he never received it.

Why did this vinyl get re-labeled as a non-existant Cranberries rarity? It’s a question we still have yet to answer. The seller claims to know nothing about it, and has an otherwise good eBay feedback rating.

Source: Exclusive

Universal Music Distribution this month pulled the US single release of “When You’re Gone” (discography entry) from its catalogs, making the single now officially out of print.

The 1996 single was still a part of The Cranberries’ active catalog up until earlier this month. The move by Universal simply means that stores will no longer be able to order it as inventory. (In other words, if your local store still has a copy, you might want to pick it up as new copies will slowly evaporate.)

In 2002, Universal similarly removed the original pressings of The Cranberries’ first four albums from its catalogs, instead replacing them with expanded “Complete Sessions” versions with all of the studio B-sides from that era.

Source: Universal Music Distribution

Italian cartoonist theHand (aka Maurizio di Bona) is gearing up to release his first graphic diary, titled Scarabocchio Ergo Sum, which includes several pages of Cranberries and Dolores O’Riordan caricatures in its pages. The book compiles work that theHand has completed over the last three years.

theHand produced a line of official merchandise for The Cranberries in 2003. One piece included in the book, a spooky horror-flick rendition of the now iconic No Need to Argue album cover, was part of that line of merchandise.

The book is being released under a “print on demand” license, so click here to reserve your copy for the first pressing of the book. For more previews from the book, look here. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Thanks to theHand for the preview images.

Ireland’s Sunday Business Post reports today that Noel Hogan has put up the financial backing for a new plan to install hundreds of entertainment kiosks around Ireland.

The “Digital Jet” Kiosks will offer multimedia content — digital books, music, and videos — that users will be able to download by connecting their MP3 players, laptops, and mobile phones. The kiosks will be placed in airports, universities, and other high-traffic areas and will allow, for example, someone to download a digital book before they board a flight.

Longtime Cranberries financial manager Alan McEvoy got Noel involved in the venture. “The machine can be updated easily so it will never be dated,” McEvoy said.

The first machines will roll out in mid-February. McEvoy plans to have 300 kiosks installed around Ireland by the end of 2006.

Source: Sunday Business Post

“Zombie” is a chart hit in The Netherlands this week for the second time — but it’s not the original version.

A house music cover version of “Zombie” performed by Maximus vs. Banks feat. Jason entered the Dutch “Megatop 100” singles chart last week at No. 49. It dropped slightly to No. 55 this week. (The original release of “Zombie” hit No. 3 on the same chart.)

The new version was released as a 4-track single on the Double Dance label on November 9. You can buy it here. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE). (The sound sample does not appear to be working.)

Thanks to Taco for the news.

Source: Planet.nl

Dolores isn’t the only one pursuing business opportunities these days — Ireland’s Sunday Business Post reports that Noel Hogan has opened a designer clothes store in Limerick called “Identikit.”

“It is true that I have a clothes shop in Limerick, I am half owner,” Noel told Zombieguide. “We opened about six or seven months ago. It is casual street wear, jeans, t-shirts, that kind of thing. It’s been doing really well.” Noel opened the venture together with longtime Cranberries business manager Alan McEvoy. Noel patented the name in January of this year.

The Sunday Business Post also notes that despite the fact that The Cranberries have not released any new music in the past three years, “the royalties are still flowing in.”

Update: Monica Peña had a chance to visit the Identikit store in Limerick this week, so she took some photos and writes, “I found Noel’s shop Identikit. I was looking for it but never thought it was gonna be so easy to find, but it’s on the main street. Of course when I saw it I had a very small hope that maybe Noel had gone there at that time to check how sales were going or something, but of course he wasnt there… The clothes are cool, it’s a brand store so it’s a little expensive, for example a jacket for 130 euros but there were also tshirts for 30 euros and they sell footwear and accesories too.”

Source: Sunday Business Post

The Cranberries are among 12 of the most influential artists in Irish music to be selected for the newly-erected Wall of Fame in Dublin.

The wall, which encompasses the Temple Lane wall of the historic Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin, includes 11 smaller windows (6 x 6 ft) and one large window (20 x 20 ft) to house photographs of Ireland’s most influential musicians. The wall was unveiled on October 20th with a launch party that included notables Dave Fanning, Paul Brady and Philomena Lynott.

The permanent outdoor exhibit is complimented by a small indoor exhibit inside the Temple Bar Music Centre, which includes a synopsis of each artist compiled by Hot Press editor Stewart Clark. The 12 artists were chosen for the following criteria: “The artists featured on the Wall of Fame were judged by several criteria – not record sales alone, but also for their genuine pioneering work in contributing to modern popular music and for showcasing the quality and range of Irish musical talent on the World stage. It is by no means a definitive list of the Irish top 12, but each act has been highly influential in the Irish music scene past and present.”

The exhibiton includes a 6 x 6 ft decal of Dolores O’Riordan, photographed at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London in 1994. Photographer Jill Furmanovsky of Dublin’s Rockarchive Gallery said, “The band had already conquered America but were relatively unknown in the UK. This daytime showcase was for the press and promoters. Dolores looked like a schoolgirl bunking off during her dinner hour.” The translucent decals are backlit at night, which makes the free public exhibit an attraction even during the evening.

The other 11 artists on the wall currently are Paul Brady, The Boomtown Rats, Christy Moore, Philip Lynott, Rory Gallagher, Shane MacGowan, U2, Sinead O’Connor, The Undertones, Van Morrison, and Luke Kelly.

You can find more info at the Wall of Fame’s Official Website.

Source: Wall of Fame

Dolores O’Riordan’s publicist Lindsey Holmes today told Zombieguide that yesterday’s rumor of a Cranberries regroup in the near future is false.

Holmes said, “Dolores did not have dinner with the other members of the Cranberries on Friday night.She had dinner with her husband and some fellow musicians. The rumour is not true that the Cranberries are getting back together.”

The rumor made the top headline on gossip website Showbiz Irelandyesterday.

No word yet on what Dolores’s reference to “four months” may have been, if anything.

If there are any more developments on the rumor, Zombieguide will have them here.

Source: Exclusive

Update: Dolores O’Riordan’s publicist has denied this rumor, read more here

Today’s front page story on gossip website Showbiz Ireland suggests that the Cranberries could be back as soon as within the next few months.

The tabloid managed to squeeze a few words out of Dolores at Shanahan’s Restaurant in Dublin, where they report that she and her husband were eating with the rest of The Cranberries last Friday, November 4.

While details are scant, Dolores told the tabloid that we might hear something from The Cranberries within the next four months.

Showbiz Ireland writes, “Now hopefully Dolores wasn’t just playing games with the waiting media because at the top of their game The Cranberries were one of the biggest bands in the world and it’s about time someone gave U2 and Coldplay a run- for-their-money!”

The website has also posted three brand new photos of Dolores and Don. Dolores’s very long black hair in these shots suggest that the tautbrunette shots posted last month on the Irish Independent may be slightly dated.

We are awaiting comment from Noel Hogan on this news and we will post his response on Zombieguide as soon as we get it.

Source: Showbiz Ireland

The Irish Independent reports today that Dolores O’Riordan (remember her?) has finally received permission to build four mansions in Alicante, Spain after nearly ten years of legal wrestling.

The Independent also published a brand new photo of Dolores today. This is her first public appearance in nearly a year.

Dolores purchased a 20,000 acre tract of coastal land called Tossal del Tender near the village of Benissa, Spain in 1996 after touring the area via helicopter. The land is one of the very few sites in that area of Spain that remains undeveloped. Since then, Dolores has been fighting a battle with the local deveopment board for permission to build on the land.

Originally, Dolores intended to build a hotel on the land, although this plan was rejected by the local development board. In 2001, Dolores set up a development venture named Paradise Hills with the plan of building four large homes. The development board again rejected this plan, after Benissa’s municipal architect pointed out that there would be too many technical problems in developing the land without disturbing the environment. Click here to read Zombieguide’s report from 2002 on that development.

In 2003, the town finally gave O’Riordan a tentative approval for the project. On Tuesday, October 3rd, the board gave O’Riordan final approval to begin building. The board approved under the stipulation that Dolores build an additional 30 homes on the property and sell these to the public. Irish real estate agent Jaime Jaen estimates that the finished complex will be worth a total of €13m (about $16 million US).

This is the latest in a number of investments that Dolores has made in recent years, including the purchase of a run-down mansion in Dublin for improvement and an aborted restaurant venture.

Source: Irish Independent

Universal Music announced today that they will release a 3-disc “Deluxe Sound & Vision” version of “Stars: The Best of The Cranberries 1992-2002” in October that will be made up of a greatest hits CD, a B-sides CD, and a bonus DVD.

The B-sides are all previously available tracks that you can find on 2002’s “Treasure Box” and the DVD will include the same videos 2002’s “Stars: The Best of Videos.” The “Deluxe Sound & Vision” series in the UK has included previous greatest hits installments by artists like Abba, Elton John, The Cure, Roger Waters, Texas, Tears for Fears, and Robert Palmer, just to name a few.

The set will include:

CD One:
1. Dreams
2. Linger
3. Zombie
4. Ode To My Family
5. I Can’t Be With You
6. Ridiculous Thoughts
7. Salvation
8. Free To Decide
9. When You’re Gone
10. Hollywood
11. Promises
12. Animal Instinct
13. Just My Imagination
14. You & Me
15. Analyse
16. Time Is Ticking Out
17. This Is The Day
18. Daffodil Lament
19. New New York
20. Stars

CD Two:
1. Reason
2. Them
3. What You Were
4. Liar
5. Pretty – Pret A Porter Movie Remix
6. How – Radical Mix
7. Away
8. I Don’t Need
9. Close To You
10. So Cold In Ireland
11. Zombie – Camel’s Hump Mix
12. Cordell
13. The Picture I View
14. Ave Maria
15. Go Your Own Way
16. God Be With You
17. Baby Blues
18. Sweetest Thing
19. Woman Without Pride
20. Such A Shame
21. Paparazzi on Mopeds

DVD:
1. Dreams
2. Linger
3. Zombie
4. Ode To My Family
5. I Can’t Be With You
6. Ridiculous Thoughts
7. Salvation
8. Free To Decide
9. When You’re Gone
10. Promises
11. Animal Instinct
12. Just My Imagination
13. You & Me
14. Analyse
15. Time Is Ticking Out
16. This Is The Day
17. Stars

HMV lists the set for release on October 17th in the UK. EIL lists it for release on October 30th. No word yet on a release outside the UK.

Thanks to YSGone for the tip.

Source: HMV, EIL

In a rather surprising move, Universal Music has sent a cease and desist order to Spanish lyrics website Portaldeletras, demanding that the website remove the lyrics for The Cranberries’ “Zombie” — or else pay for the right to reproduce them.

Universal claims that by posting the lyrics to the song (written by O’Riordan), the unauthorized website is infringing upon the copyright of the artist. It appears that “Zombie” is the only song that Universal is requesting be removed.

Portaldeletras has complied by removing both English and a Portuguese translation of the lyrics. However, the website has posted a long letter in its defense, saying, “Today, portaldeletras has never at any time supported piracy, and even furthermore, we have tried to support different music artists. Like how you can see from our website, you have the possibility of buying the artists’ discs, downloading the ringtones, and Real Audio clips and wallpapers and many other things. Everything is 100% legal.”

While the site claims to have no links to piracy — they even offer a link to download songs from iTunes — there are also links to much grayer P2P programs scattered throughout the page.

Thanks to Scott for the news.

Sources: Noticiasdot.com, Portaldeletras

Fergal Lawler and his wife Laurie are proud parents again this month, as Laurie gave birth to their third child in mid-August. There were no reported complications, so it appears both mother and baby are doing fine.

The baby’s name and date of birth have not yet been announced. If anyone has more details, please drop a line!

This is Fergal’s third child, after two sons, Jacob (born March 2, 2000) and Nathan (born September 24, 2002).

Thanks to an anonymous tip!

Source: Exclusive

Last Thursday (August 18th), Le Monde, one of the largest national newspapers in France published an essay on the significance of The Cranberries’ “Zombie” to mark its 10th anniversary as a hit.

Here is the English translation, followed by the original French text:

Zombie
Le Monde / 18 August 2005

Summer Hit 1995

Let’s get back ten years ago. It is the summer and the weather is good. Suddenly, on the radio, a voice vibrates, rumbles, and roars. All at the same time, and upon a single word, haunting: “Zombie, Zombie, Zoooooooooombie…”. The sentence ends with incredible vocal performances, almost yodels, bathed in saturated electric guitars reminiscent of those of Nirvana that emerged with the grunge in 1992. That vocal assault is named Dolores O’Riordan. She is 23, has short hair, piercings lined up on her ear, a strong Irish accent and, from her 1.60 meters, she shouts to the world about the misfortune of her island and of the victims of the Ulster conflict. For a summer hit, it is as far from La Lambada as one can be.

The Irish “Troubles” theme is not new: in 1983, U2 had already sung the endless violence striking the civilians stuck between the IRA’s bombs and the British army. The famous Sunday Bloody Sunday, “non-partisan” hymn, where the drums imitate the sound of a marching drum, was recalling that “bloody Sunday” of 1972 when the British army had opened fire on a Catholic demonstration in Derry. Ten thousand people that had come to protest against the arbitrary imprisonment policy lead by Great Britain were welcome by a sustained fire killing 14.

Ten years later, the Cranberries make their breakthrough on that same topic, among the “political” bands. The 20th of March 1993, they are touring Great Britain when they learn that two bombs planted by the IRA have spread terror in a commercial center in Warrington, in the north of the country. Two children have been killed – one was sitting on a bin that exploded, the other was killed the following day while he was looking for a Mother’s Day card.

The event doesn’t have the same political impact as the Bloody Sunday – which convinced Great Britain to administer Ulster directly from Westminster. However, the emotion is great in the United Kingdom. Dolores O’Riordan follows her glorious predecessor’s lead and writes Zombie: “Another head hangs lowly / Child is slowly taken / Who are we mistaken”. The song describes the inner anguish of a man – a zombie – traumatized by the civil war that lasts since the “Easter Insurrection”, date when the Republic was proclaimed: “It’s the same old theme since 1916 / In your head they’re still fighting”. The Cranberries are not very subtle. In the video, shot in Belfast, children play war in a gloomy city patrolled by armed, threatening soldiers. A divine figure (Dolores O’Riordan painted in gold) shouts her rage from the top of a cross, surrounded by scared cherubs.

Unfortunately, the song is released in 1994, when the IRA just signs a ceasefire and the civil war pauses. The singer is accused of needlessly relaunching the debate. Moreover, the song, which is meant a call for peace, comes in the media with declarations far less politically correct.

“In some cases, I am in favor of the death penalty,” Dolores O’Riordan explains to the Inrockuptibles in 1995. “In Singapore, they cut off theives’ hands and they cut off murderers’ heads. Result: no more crimes.”

She is also blamed for definitive tirades on subjects like abortion or feminism (“As far as I’m concerned, it is a thing for girls who have been ditched thirty times in their lives and decide that all men are filth”). Undoubtedly, the muse of the Cranberries, a timid teenager gone a star in a couple of months, remains marked by her childhood in the island she personifies almost caricaturely. The last of seven children, she sings in the church at the age of 5; she reads Gaelic fluently; she plays the traditional tin whistle skillfully. And, of course, she is Catholic. “At school, we had to confess,” she says. “As I hadn’t done anything bad, I had to make up sins to please the priest who was listening behind the screen. (…) But without that education, I wouldn’t have been so frustrated. And if I hadn’t been so frustrated, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Just like her, the other members of the band, the brothers Mike and Noel Hogan, bassist and guitarist, and the drummer Fergal Lawler originate from the Limerick area ; they have grown up drinking Guinness and doing small jobs. Polemics don’t prevent Zombie from going supernova. The album No Need To Argue sells more that 15 millions copies. For the Cranberries, 1995 is a sumptuous year. Dolores O’Riordan, who got married – in the church and in Doc Martens – joins her voice with Luciano Pavarotti to sing an Ave Maria during a concert for Bosnia children. A song that will belong, nine years later, to Mel Gibson’s Passion of The Christ original soundtrack. Then, Ireland decidedly becomes fashionable.

But, unlike their great predecessors, U2 or Sinead O’Connor, the bands assaulting the global market are often keen to avoid politics and polemic. The boys band Boyzone or the Corrs siblings prefer to remember their homeland’s folklore only, and barely tint their sentimental ballads with harp and tin whistle.

Claire Guillot

And here is the original French version for our francophone readers:

ZOMBIE
Jeudi 18 août 2005 / Le Monde

REVENONS dix ans en arrière. C’est l’été et il fait beau. A la radio, soudain, une voix vibre, gronde, rugit. Le tout à la fois, et sur un même mot, lancinant : ” Zombie, Zombie, Zoooooooombie… » La phrase s’achève sur d’incroyables vocalises, presque des yodles, baignées de guitares électriques saturées qui rappellent Nirvana, surgi avec le grunge en 1992. Cette déferlante vocale s’appelle Dolores O’Riordan. Elle a 23 ans, les cheveux ras, des piercings en rang sur l’oreille, un accent irlandais à couper au couteau et, du haut de son 1,60 m, elle hurle à la face du monde les malheurs de son île et des victimes du conflit nord-irlandais. Pour un tube de l’été, c’est aussi loin que possible de La Lambada.

Le thème des ” troubles » irlandais n’est pas neuf : en 1983, le groupe U2 avait déjà chanté l’interminable violence frappant les civils coincés entre les bombes de l’IRA et l’armée britannique. Le célèbre Sunday, Bloody Sunday, hymne ” non partisan », où la batterie imite le roulement du tambour, évoquait ce ” dimanche sanglant » de 1972 où l’armée britannique avait ouvert le feu sur une manifestation catholique à Derry. Dix mille personnes, venues protester contre la politique d’emprisonnement arbitraire menée par la Grande-Bretagne, avaient été accueillies par un feu nourri faisant 14 victimes.

Dix ans plus tard, les Cranberries font leur entrée, sur ce même thème, dans les rangs des groupes ” à thèse ». Ils sont en tournée en Grande-Bretagne quand ils apprennent, le 20 mars 1993, que deux bombes de l’IRA ont semé la terreur dans un centre commercial à Warrington, au nord du pays. Deux enfants ont été tués – l’un était assis sur une poubelle qui a explosé, l’autre a été fauché, le lendemain, alors qu’il cherchait une carte de voeux pour la Fête des mères.

L’événement n’a pas le retentissement politique du Bloody Sunday – qui convainquit la Grande-Bretagne d’administrer l’Ulster directement depuis Westminster. Néanmoins, l’émoi est grand dans les îles Britanniques. Dolores O’Riordan emboîte le pas à ses glorieux aînés et écrit Zombie : ” Encore une tête qui pend / Un enfant est évacué lentement / Qui sommes-nous, trompés. » La chanson décrit le tourment intérieur d’un homme – un zombie – traumatisé par la guerre civile qui dure depuis l'” insurrection de Pâques », date de la proclamation de la République : ” C’est la même rengaine depuis 1916 ; dans ta tête ils continuent à se battre. »

Les Cranberrries ne font pas dans la dentelle. Dans le clip, tourné à Belfast, des enfants jouent à la guerre dans une ville lugubre, arpentée par des soldats armés et menaçants. Une figure divine (Dolores O’Riordan, peinte en doré) hurle sa rage duhaut d’une croix, entourée d’angelots effrayés.

Manque de chance, la chanson ne sort qu’en 1994, alors que l’IRA vient de signer un cessez-le-feu et que la guerre civile fait une pause. La chanteuse est accusée de relancer gratuitement le débat. D’autant que sa chanson, qui se veut un appel à la paix, s’accompagne dans les médias de déclarations bien moins politiquement correctes. ” Dans certains cas, je suis pour la peine de mort, explique Dolores O’Riordan aux Inrockuptibles en 1995. A Singapour, on coupe les mains des voleurs, on coupe les têtes des meurtriers. Résultat : il n’y a plus de crimes. »

On lui reproche aussi des tirades définitives sur des sujets comme l’avortement ou le féminisme (” Pour moi, c’est quelque chose pour les filles qui se sont fait plaquer trente fois dans leur vie et qui décident que les hommes sont tous des ordures »). Sans doute l’égérie des Cranberries, adolescente timide devenue rockstar en quelques mois, reste-t-elle marquée par son enfance dans son île, qu’elle incarne jusqu’à la caricature. Petite dernière d’une famille de sept enfants, elle chantait à l’église dès l’âge de 5 ans ; elle lit le gaélique dans le texte ; elle maîtrise le tin whistle, la flûte traditionnelle. Et, bien entendu, elle est catholique. ” A l’école il fallait toujours se confesser, raconte-t- elle. Comme je n’avais rien à me reprocher, j’étais obligée d’inventer des péchés pour faire plaisir au prêtre qui m’écoutait derrière la grille. (…) Mais, sans cette éducation, je n’aurais jamais été frustrée. Et si je n’avais pas été frustrée, je ne serais pas ici aujourd’hui. »

Les autres membres du groupe, les frères Mike et Noel Hogan, bassiste et guitariste, et le batteur Fergal Lawlern sont comme elle originaires de la région de Limerick ; ils ont grandi en vivant de Guinness et de petits boulots. Les polémiques n’empêchent pas Zombie de faire le tour du monde : l’album No Need to Argue s’écoule à plus de 15 millions d’exemplaires. Pour les Cranberries, l’année 1995 est fastueuse. Dolores O’Riordan, qui s’est mariée – à l’église et en Doc Martens -, joint sa voix puissante à celle de Luciano Pavarotti pour chanter un Ave Maria lors d’un concert en faveur des enfants de Bosnie. Une chanson qui figurera, neuf ans plus tard, sur la bande originale du film La Passion du Christ, de Mel Gibson. Puis l’Irlande devient décidément à la mode.

Mais, au contraire des grands anciens, U2 ou Sinead O’Connor, les groupes qui se lancent à l’assaut du marché mondial sont soucieux d’éviter politique et polémique. Le boys band Boyzone ou la tribu des Corrs préfèrent ne retenir de leur patrie que son folklore, et se contentent de teinter leurs ballades sentimentales de harpe ou de pipeau.

Claire Guillot

Thanks to Sir Thomas Montagné, Esq., for the scan and laborious translation.

Source: Le Monde (France)

Universal Music Distribution today announced the tracks that will appear on The Cranberries’ 20th Century Masters CD, due to release in the United States on September 27, 2005.

The eleven tracks make this a strictly “greatest hits” release, nearly half the number of tracks that appeared on The Cranberries’ more complete Stars: The Best of The Cranberries 1992-2002. However, like all installments in the 20th Century Masters,
the CD will be available at a budget price of less than $10.

Universal has released the cover art (medium and HUGE resolution) and a tracklisting (see PDF sell sheet) for 20th Century Masters: The Best of The Cranberries: Millennium Collection.  (LINKS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

The tracklisting is:

1. Dreams
2. Linger
3. Zombie
4. Ode to My Family
5. I Can’t Be With You
6. Salvation
7. Free to Decide
8. When You’re Gone
9. Animal Instinct
10. Promises
11. Analyse

The Cranberries Millennium Collection: 20th Century Masters CD is due to be released on September 27, 2005 in the USA.

Meanwhile, the previously announced The Cranberries 20th Century Masters: DVD Collection will release next week in the USA and is available to order from DeepDiscountDVD.com for $5.99 with free shipping.

Source: Universal Music Distribution (Exclusive)

The unconfirmed word out of London is that Dolores O’Riordan recently held a dinner and reception for music industry types to announce the details of her forthcoming solo album.

One person in the music biz said she got a personalized invitation at the beginning of July to attend the dinner in London, but couldn’t go due to travel obligations.

More than likely, Dolores held the reception to get a pre-release buzz going within the industry, and perhaps look for a record label and/or distributor.

No other details are available at the moment. Dolores’s solo album is due in 2006.

Thanks to Jordan on the Forums for the news.

Source: Exclusive

Original Cranberry Saw Us lead singer Niall Quinn has discovered what he believes to be the first printed reference to “The Cranberries,” the shortened moniker that The Cranberry Saw Us adopted after the addition of a certain member named Dolores O’Riordan.

The article comes from the October 27, 1990

issue of “City Limits,” a section from the Limerick Tribune. The third paragraph in “Getting the Balance Right”

describes the swelling praise for Water Circle, The Cranberry Saw Us’s first demo with Dolores. The article was written by Stuart Clark, who is now Assistant Editor for Hot Press

This is “one of the first newspaper clippings about the Cranberries,” Niall Quinn told Zombieguide today, “and I’d say it actually IS the first time they’re referred to as ‘The Cranberries’ in print as opposed to ‘TCSU’ – a name they’d still have been going by at that point and I’m guessing for another few months. We used just refer to them as The Cranberries for short –like we’d refer to They Do It With Mirrors as The Mirrors.”

The article also describes further sessions at Xeric Studios which were released as Nothing Left At All, the band’s second demo with Dolores in 1990.” The songs that they were going in to Xeric to record would be “Nothing Left At All” and the other tracks from that same cassingle which came out around Christmas (still under the name TCSU),” Niall said.

The band continued to use the name “The Cranberry Saw Us” for months after Niall Quinn’s departure until it was briefly shortened to “The Cranberry’s,” and then “The Cranberries.” (“We discussed them and eventually settled on ‘The Cranberry Saw Us’. I remember favoring it over ‘The Cranberries’ – which I reckoned sounded like a band a girl would be singing with – like ‘The Darling Buds’ or ‘The Sugar Cubes’. Maybe that’s why long after my departure they shortened it back to its source name – because it fitted perfectly a band fronted by a female,” Niall wrote in 2002)

Niall has previously posted more Hitchers and early Cranberries-relatedarticles on the Hitchers website.

Update:
Niall has uncovered an even earlier Cranberries reference from August 1990, two months previous to the prior October 1990 article. The article appeared in the now defunct Limerick Tribune by the now renowned Hot Press editor Stewart Clark.

Niall writes, “The article appeared in The Limerick tribune (long gone) and was again written by Stuart Clark who’s interviewed the band many times and is a nationally renowned journalist and commentator here in Ireland now.

“I remember this gig quite well as some of the older lads in The Hitchers would’ve have got their Leaving Cert (High School final exams) results that day and were pretty pissed drunk by the time it came for The Hitchers to play. So that puts it in and around the 3rd Wednesday in august as that’s when these results are always released.

“Incidently, the ‘Termite Club’ referred to is STILL GOING here in Limerick 15 years later. It’s moved home several times but is still the place the indie kids head for on a Friday or Saturday night.”

Thanks to Niall Quinn for the scan and info.

Source: Exclusive

Zombieguide has learned that Fergal Lawler has begun recording and writing sessions with at least one former member of fellow Limerick band Woodstar.

Fergal has started recording with Kieran Calvert, guitarist for Woodstar, and the project could possibly also rope in Al Sheahan, Woodstar’s keyboardist.

A source close to Mono Band tells Zombieguide, “Fergal remains a very close friend of the Hogan brothers and is constantly seen out socialising with them around Limerick City. Fergal is busy doing his own thing now, writing and recording in his studio at home.”

“As for Fergal, I spoke recently to him, not about anything in particular, but I know he has been writing with Keiran Calvert from Woodstar, Im not sure if Alan (his Sir name escapes me) but any time I meet them out, they are always together, I would only be speculating if I said he was involved. Its not that Fergal is secretive about what he is doing, I don’t think there is much to tell.”

The project is said to be “in its infancy” and still very tentative as of the time of writing. As such, any announcements of a solid project are still down the road.

Attentive fans know that this is not the first collaboration between members of The Cranberries and Woodstar. The professional relationship begain in 2002 when Woodstar opened for The Cranberries’ tour dates in Ireland and continued with vocalist Fin Chambers’s contribution to the Mono Band album this year.

Thanks to monoman for the news.

Source: Exclusive

Universal Music Distribution on Monday announced the release of a new Cranberries DVD and CD in the 20th Century Masters series for August and September, respectively.

Although details are still forthcoming, both releases appear to be “greatest hits” type offerings and there is no word yet of any extra bonuses.

Universal yesterday released cover art (medium and
HUGE resolution) and a tentative tracklisting (see
PDF sell sheet) for The Cranberries 20th Century
Masters: DVD Collection, which is scheduled for
release on August 30, 2005 in the USA. The tentative tracklisting for the DVD is:

1. Linger
2. Zombie
3. Ridiculous Thoughts
4. Salvation
5. Animal Instinct

If these are simply music videos, you’ll be better off picking up the superior Stars: The Best of Videos 1992-2002 DVD released in 2002.

The Cranberries Millenium Collection: 20th Century Masters CD is due to be released on September 27, 2005 in the USA. No tracklisting or cover art has been announced for the CD, though you can count on more details right here in the coming weeks.

(Note to our friends at The Official Community Corp.: If you would like to “borrow” this news, please kindly credit us.)

Source: Universal Music Distribution (Exclusive)

Yesterday’s Sunday Times (UK) published a lengthy interview with Noel Hogan about his previous home at No. 1 Clogrennan Terrace in Limerick, the Victorian house where he says he wrote the majority of Bury the Hatchet.

You can get it online here, the full text is below:

The Sunday Times – Property
July 24, 2005
Time and Place: Dreams of being at No 1
NOEL HOGAN of the Cranberries turned an end-of-terrace Victorian house into a happy family home

No 1 Clogrennan Terrace in Limerick city was my first proper home. Until then, I had lived with my parents. Because I was on tour so much of the time with the Cranberries, it had never made sense to move out. When I took the plunge, it was 1996 and I was 23.

I knew the road well, having passed the terrace of houses all through my teens. I always thought it would be a great place to live. The house was an old red-brick Victorian end-of-terrace, right in the middle of town. It was 130 years old and had huge bay windows and oodles of space.

I shared with Catherine Nash, then my girlfriend and now my wife. There were four bedrooms and a converted attic, accessed by a spiral staircase. We got rid of that very early on and continued the main staircase up into the third floor, which lent the house a better sense of continuity. I used the attic room as a home cinema.

We invested in a big couch that could seat three or four, as well as a chair just for me. We would have people over to watch films and occasionally even did popcorn.

During our first two years living there, it was a party house. As we were doing it up, we didn’t mind making a mess. We invited 20 to the housewarming and 70 turned up. Next morning it looked like a bomb had gone off.

The bathroom was tiny so we decided to knock through into one of the adjoining bedrooms and expand the bathroom into a great big statement room.

Downstairs, there were two reception rooms, a kitchen and utility room. The front room was home to a beautiful imposing, black, grey and white marble fireplace.

The former residents, the Clancy family, who owned the first cinema in Limerick, had taken it with them when the picturehouse closed and installed it in the house. For me, it was the biggest selling point of No 1.

Double doors divided the front and back rooms. I used the back room as a CD library. I did most of the Bury The Hatchet album in the front room. During the day I would camp on the couch, writing everything into a notebook on the coffee table with the television on in the background.

At the back of the house was a big kitchen built from recycled red brick with wooden rafters. The brick was salvaged from the old Milk Market, also in the city.

Generally I was left alone during my time there but occasionally fans would knock on the door to say hello. More often they would leave flowers on the doorstep. One day I opened the door to a guy asking me if one of the Cranberries lived around here. I sent him off down the road to ask one of my neighbours and he never came back.

Thankfully, the house needed little refurbishment when we bought it. We had it rewired and had an external wall repointed but it was in fine condition for its age.

When we were decorating, I would buy bits and pieces while away on tour. Each time I returned home, I had to buy an extra suitcase to carry all the purchases. I must have had 40 or 50 suitcases, which ended up in the garden shed stacked floor to ceiling.

Asia and North America were great for furniture. One of my best finds was a Mexican sideboard I picked up in Vancouver and had shipped home. It stood in the kitchen. Another memorable piece was a stone kitchen table that’s now in storage because it doesn’t suit our new home. We used up every available square inch and it began to resemble a furniture shop.

When I decided to sell, I had to find a home for all the furniture. We sold up in 2001, when our eldest daughter Rachel had just turned one. We stayed in the area; in fact, I don’t think I’ll ever leave.

Hogan’s Mono Band, who have just released their self-titled debut album, play the Hard Working Class Heroes festival in Temple Bar in August, www.hwch.net.

Interview by Alanna Gallagher

Source: Times Online

Dolores O’Riordan has turned over the directorship of her solo company, Helter Limited, to her husband, Don Burton, Zombieguide can confirm.

Public documents filed in January show that Dolores has given the position of director to her husband. Dolores served only a short two-month stint as Helter Ltd.’s director. Dolores became director on November 10, 2004, replacing Grainne Riordan. Dolores continues to serve as Helter’s secretary.

Thanks to Kama for the news.
Source: Exclusive

Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple Computer in 1975, said in Tuesday’s issue of Digital Life magazine that The Cranberries are one of his top three favorite bands.

The engineering genius told Digital Life that listening to music is one of his biggest hobbies, with his favorites being Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and The Cranberries: “[My] PowerBook is with me all the time. It’s the high-end version, 17-inch screen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 2GB RAM. And of course, I have my music in it.”

“I have six iPods including the iPod Photo, the Shuffle and the iPod minis,” the creator of the Apple I and II said. “My favourite is the U2 iPod. Each iPod contains a different type of music.” Apple’s other co-founder, Steve Jobs, used The Cranberries’ “Dreams” in the press conference to launch iTunes in 2003.

Wozniak joins a list of notables including Madonna, Dido, Rufus Wainwright, and Ben Stein, who have all professed their love for The Cranberries in the past. That should flatter a certain Apple-loving friend of ours.

Wozniak’s autobiography, tentatively titled I Woz, is due in 2007.

Source: Digital Life magazine, June 28 (Singapore)

Australian harpist Anna Louis has released a new album which includes harp arrangements of songs by The Cranberries and Sinead O’Connor, Australia’s The Echo reported yesterday.

The album, which she says has a “slightly Celtic, slightly jazz feel,” includes a mix of traditional harp pieces combined with her arrangements of rock songs.

“It is breaking the bounds of where the harp is going,” she says. “Because I use an electric harp I can get away with it.”

While there are some purists who frown upon her turn to covering rock tunes, she thinks she can win them over: “”Yeah, I’ve had a few people look down on me for doing it, but they soon come round,” she says.

She told The Echo that it’s the versatility of the electric harp that has allowed her to go beyond traditional harp pieces into experimental fields.

“Before you would be completely drowned out by the other instruments. Now I can plug it in with effects units and it is something really different and incredibly unusual,” she says.

“The new recording is completely live and was recorded in Barwon Heads… I wanted to catch the ambience of the live sound — I’m pretty proud of it,” she admits.

The album is supposed to be available from her website www.noangel.biz(which appears to be down at the moment). In the meantime, you can visit a mirror of her website here. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

We’ll have more on Anna Louis as we know it — hopefully with a tracklisting soon. If you know more about her new album, please let us know.

Source: The Echo (Australia)

The Chicago Tribune has posted a new interview with Storm Thorgerson, the designer of The Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee album covers, not to mention a whole catalog of iconic rock covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Audioslave, The Mars Volta, etc.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Cranberries: “Bury the Hatchet” (1999)

“The band, especially the singer [Dolores O’Riordan], was interested in the desire to bury the hatchet. The cover is a diptych. It’s an affirmative statement about paranoia, and the want to stand up against nameless authority — the capitalistic rich, parents, police. But the all-seeing eye of consciousness is threatening the man, and pursues him everywhere. He can’t get away, and the eye pushes him into the corner of the picture. On the back, he’s standing and shouting at the eye to go away.”

Facts: While shooting in Monument Valley, Thorgerson nearly got busted by the Navajo police, who initially thought he was being disrespectful but later asked for his e-mail address.

An essay on The Cranberries’ “Dreams” will be among 41 essays on Irish music published in Beautiful Day: 40 Years of Irish Rock when it goes to press later this year.

Beautiful Day, published by Cork University Press, will cover the dynamic changes in Irish music from 1964 to 2004. Each year will have a feature song and 1200-word essay on that song. The Cranberries’ “Dreams” will be the highlighted song for the year 1992. Each essay will include photos from the featured artist.

Preliminary information for the book says, “This book will place representative material by a variety of artists – including U2, The Corrs, Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison, and Sinéad O’Connor – in their musical, cultural and historical contexts, while also introducing a range of less well known, but no less interesting, Irish popular musicians from the 1960s down to the present. Although the style is accessible, the research is thorough, and is intended to challenge many received ideas relating to the development of Ireland during this key stage of its political and cultural history. The overall intention is to combine written text with photographs to produce an attractive book that is evocative, informative, and controversial, and that has widespread, cross-demographic appeal.” The book will also include essays on Snow Patrol, My Bloody Valentine, and The Frames.

The book is being penned by two lecturers in Irish studies, Sean Campbell from Anglia Polytechnic University and Gerry Smyth from Liverpool John Moores University.

The book’s publishers are in negotiations with Apple to include an iTunes voucher to download the songs featured in the book. For now, the book hasits own iMix in case you want to hear a sampling of the tracks early.

Beautiful Day: 40 Years of Irish Rock will be published on September 1, 2005, by Cork University Press. Zombieguide will try to have a review of the book once it’s published. You can pre-order the book for €20 (€5 less than the cover price) from the Beautiful Day site.

Source: Beautiful Day site

Yesterday, the Sunday Mirror tabloid (Eire edition) published a new interview with Noel Hogan that should warm the heart of any Cranberries fan: He insists the band will regroup, but he’s not sure when.

Noel also revealed that the Cranberries didn’t intend to start doing solo projects until they had finished their uncompleted sixth album. However, with a number of personal issues, including the illness of Dolores’s mother- in-law, the band decided to take a break earlier than planned.

Here’s the full article:

HOGAN GOES OUT ON HIS OWN WITH THE MONO BAND; BUT HE WILL RETURN WITH CRANBERRIES
By MAEVE QUIGLEY

CRANBERRIES guitarist Noel Hogan said the band WILL be back – but not until they have finished their own solo work.

Millionaire Noel – who wrote some of the band’s biggest hits including Linger and Dreams – has just released a new album with his Mono Band.

But he insists that some day he will reunite with his band members and make more Cranberries music.

He said: “We went into the studio almost three years ago and we had started to demo the next album.

“We only had about four or five tracks done when Dolores’s mother-in-law became ill and she had to go back to Canada for a while.

“There was no real rush to get another album out – we weren’t under any real obligations to anyone to get one done.

“We had originally planned to take a break and do our own projects after another album but because of the circumstances we decided to just go and do what we wanted there and then.

“We will see what happens down the road and we haven’t given ourselves any time frame as everyone wanted the time and space to do their own projects properly.

“But definitely at some point we will pick up the phone to each other and say that it’s time to regroup.”

Dolores O’Riordan is working on a solo album which is scheduled for release next month [Editor’s note: this should say “next year,” not “next month”] and Fergal Lawler is also working on his on projects.

Noel said: “Obviously I see Mike as he’s my brother and he’s been helping me out with my live shows by playing in my band.

“I still speak to Ferg and Dolores the odd time on the phone but it’s not like it used to be when we were practically living in each other’s pockets for years.”

Already Mono Band are in demand in America and Noel admits that being in The Cranberries has helped his solo project take off.

But he also has a lot to live up to which is making the 33-year- old very nervous.

Noel said: “There has been a lot of interest in the album in America – we’ve already done a few gigs out there and a few of the tracks have been picked up by radio.

“Being in The Cranberries has opened doors for Mono Band – it has made us much easier than if we were fresh out of the box.”

Noel still lives in Limerick with his wife Catherine and children Sophie, five, and Rachel, four.

He said: “I think it is possible to have an international music career and still be based in Ireland.

“In many ways if I hadn’t stayed in Ireland my personality and everything would have changed and I would have lost the whole idea of what it is to be in a band.”

The Sunday Mirror is also giving away tickets to Mono Band’s gig at Whelan’s at the Budrising Festival. Here’s how to enter:

NOEL Hogan’s Mono Band is just one of the acts that play the BudRising Dublin City Festival from June 1-7.

BudRising will bring music lovers seven days and nights of inspirational sounds in 23 indoor and outdoor venues across Dublin city centre.

Beck, The Las, Jimmy Cliff, Dizzee Rascal, Echo And The Bunnymen and Noel Hogan from the Cranberries’ new outfit Mono Band are just some of the great acts that will be playing.

The BudRising Festival Club at the POD will kick off proceedings at 6pm every evening with a FREE BBQ and end the party with serious dancing shenanigans once the gigs are over.

For more information see www.budrising.ie

We have three pairs of tickets to give away to one lucky reader who will get to see The Las, Jimmy Cliff and Dizzee Rascal at the festival.

Simply call or text us with your answer to the following question, plus your name and contact details.

Q: Which famous multi-million selling band is Noel Hogan a member of?

Is it:

A: THE CRANBERRIES B: THE BLUEBERRIES C: THE STRAWBERRIES

You can e-mail your answer to m.quigley@mgn.co.uk with name address and telephone number or text answer to 086 055 5657 To arrive before midday Tues 31

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

CALLS cost standard rate. One winner will be randomly selected, after the closing date, from all correct entries received. Usual MGN competition rules apply.

More Mono Band news soon!

Source: Sunday Mirror (Eire edition)

An article published today by Ireland’s Sunday Business Post reveals, unsurprisingly, that The Cranberries scaled down their self-owned management business, Curtain Call Ltd., at the end of 2003.

Curtain Call shrank in size, from €119,000 in tangible assets in 2002, to€28,000 at the end of 2003. Additionally, the company sustained a loss of€700,000, with retained losses of €1.3 million.

Notes filed with the financial reports confirm that the band intended to “take a break from recording, touring and related activities to facilitate individual band members to pursue solo projects.” As a result, the reports note, “the company’s activities are considerably less than in the past.”

Despite the losses, the company’s four shareholders — Dolores O’Riordan, Fergal Lawler, and Noel and Mike Hogan — will continue to support the company financially. The four shareholders “have confirmed that they will continue to provide the company with the financial support necessary for it to meet its obligations.”

The reports also show that Artwest, a separate company owned by Dolores O’Riordan, received €75,000 from Curtain Call. O’Riordan herself received €21,000 for studio rental costs. Curtain Call also owes €118,000 to their self-owned touring company, All Around Touring.

Source: Sunday Business Post

If you’re wondering what Fergal’s been up to lately, he’s just pocked a modest €895,000 and is moving back to Limerick full-time, the Sunday Tribune reports.

The Lawlers have arranged to sell their Dublin home in the Ranelagh area, just a short walk away from Dublin’s town center. The house has been on the market since March. Until recently, the Lawlers rented out the red brick house, and are instead living in their home in the Cratloe area in Limerick.

If you’re curious, there are photos and a lengthy description at the Mannon Auctioneers website. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Source: Sunday Tribune

There’s another interview with Noel on Untitled with David O’Doherty. The interview is available as MP3s, so download them and keep ’em forever.

In the interview, Noel describes why The Cranberries’ effort to record their sixth album didn’t come together:

“Just before I started this, we were getting ready to go in and do the fourth or fifth album [sic]… or one of those. Nobody was really in the mood to do it. We did some demos.”

David O’Doherty buts in, “You can do that when you’ve sold 36 million albums. Let’s just leave it for a few years…”

Noel agrees, “Yeah, it got a bit like that. Everbody kinda wanted to do other things, away from The Cranberries for awhile. So we just decided, hey, lets do that. Let’s go off and spend whatever amount of time you need and see where it’s at then in a few years. We didn’t give ourselves a year, or five years, or ten. We just said, when we feel like it again. So that’s where it is, it’s just kinda left hanging there.”

Later, O’Doherty asks, “Did you ever sing?”

Noel’s response? “Oh God no! In the bathroom, and that’s just about it. It’s bad.”

Zombieguide will have a full lineup of all of Mono Band’s promo work, which we will post tomorrow.

Source: Untitled with David O’Doherty

In response to an article published a week ago by the The People, Noel Hogan wrote in to Zombieguide to say that he was misquoted and that more skewings of his words may pop up over the next few weeks as he does promo in support of his solo outfit, Mono Band.

Here is the email in full:

Hi Alex.
How are things? I am just getting back to normal after the long flight home, I did not see the article in The People, but by the looks of things I have been misquoted. I never said, there was no plans to get back together, I did say, there were no plans to get back together at the moment.
Also I never said that The Cranberries ‘PREVENTED ME EXPLORING” this is not true. I am doing this now because this is where my head is at now, we in the band always explored any kind of music we were into at that time. It true that right now the kind of music I am doing, is the kind I am interested in right now. This may change again in time.
I hope this clears things up a bit, this kind of thing may happen a lot over the next few weeks as I do a lot more press.
Take care.
Noel.

P.S. If you can have a look at this weeks HOT PRESS.

There you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth.

We’ll have more of Noel’s ongoing press interviews (hopefully with 53% less misquotings) over the next few weeks as they happen!

Source: Exclusive

In a thoroughly disappointing article published yesterday by Ireland’s The People, Noel Hogan told the paper that there are no plans for The Cranberries to get back together.

“We haven’t talked about it at all and there are certainly no plans to give it another go or get back together again,” he said.

“The way it was with The Cranberries was that the three lads just got on with it and let Dolores do the rock ‘n’ roll thing. She was the public image of the band and that’s the way we preferred it.”

Rather, he said, Mono Band is the band that he “always wanted to do,” but his commitments with The Cranberries prevented him from exploring that avenue.

“I was always into computers and wanted to work with them to make music instead of just using guitars and traditional instruments. I’d always been tinkering away at home creating new sounds and Mono Band came from that.”

Despite heavily making the rounds to promote Mono Band, Noel told the paper that Limerick is still his home and that he has no plans to move out. “It’s a vibrant place to live and it has so much going for it.”

Click here to read Noel’s response to this article. (LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

Source: The People

A statue commemorating Michael Hogan, a noted Limerick poet and ancestor of brothers Noel and Mike Hogan, is set to be built in the middle of the city, today’s Limerick Post reports.

An American decendent, Peter Hogan of Savannah, Georgia, donated over 10,000 Euro for a statue of Hogan, popularly known as the Bard of Thomond, to be erected in the city’s Castle Plaza, outside of King John’s Castle.

Hogan, who died in 1899, did not get much recognition — or wealth — for his work during his lifetime. It was not until 1924, 25 years after his death, that his Lays and Legends of Thomond was put into hardback edition.

In 1999, Noel and Mike Hogan funded a reprint of Lays and Legends of Thomond almost entirely out of their own pockets. Though Michael Hogan had no children of his own, the Hogan brothers are indirect decendents of the poet.

You can read the full article over at the Limerick Post. Thanks to an Irish fan for the tip.

Source: Limerick Post

In a new interview in promotion of his ongoing exhibition world tour, Storm Thorgerson revealed for the first time that a Navajo guard demanded to confiscate all of the film containing Bury the Hatchet’s cover art during the photo shoot — only to find out that it was a joke.

Thorgerson admitted to Fmagazine that he and his crew were trespassing on Native American reservation grounds in Monument Valley, Utah, to photograph the cover for Bury the Hatchet.

“So what did I have here in Monument Valley? I had an eye and a naked man. We were filming in what are the sacred lands of the Navajo Indians and out of nowhere in this big, wide-open space, a Navajo appears in a truck. He jumps out of the truck, a big huge guy, broad rather than tall, with incredibly jet-black hair and he walks over. We’re all going, ‘Oh my God, what is this, what’s happening?’ He comes over, puts his hand on my shoulder, and says, ‘I confiscate all your film and your props.’”

“He just appeared out of nowhere and he was built like a brick house. He had no neck at all, it just went from his head to his huge body,” he recalled.

Thorgerson, who said he’s never had his equipment confiscated, said, “For one moment, I was utterly terrified.”

“Then he burst out laughing and we start swapping e-mail addresses. We couldn’t believe it! It was absolutely hysterical.”

“You always worry as a photographer if they’ll take away your camera and confiscate your film. Then you’ll come back empty handed. Coming back empty handed is a very difficult to say to the client. If you say, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have the shot,’ then it doesn’t sound very good. Most clients are very unimpressed. It’s easy to fail. It’s easy not to do it. So to not come back with a picture is like a cardinal sin. You always have to come back with something. If the stuff has been taken by police — or in this case, a Navajo — what are you going to say? Will the band ever believe you anyway? So when you get home, and you tell the band, they go, “Oh yeah right! Pull the other one! Are you fucking kidding? You must be mad! I’m not going to believe that!”

Thorgerson also got the chance to talk about the making of the Wake Up and Smell the Coffee cover: “We built a tower and put 100 gym balls on top of the tower. It has a tilting ramp. We’d bounce them off the tower and onto the beach. It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic, just the way I had imagined it. They all bounced like crazy.”

You can listen to them both at Fmagazine (Oct. issue) or download the audio clips for Bury the Hatchet and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee here.

Thorgerson’s US exhibition tour kicks off in Chicago on May 12.

Source: Fmagazine

The 2005-2006 “Taken by Storm” US tour of the art of Storm Thorgerson will officially kick off on May 12, 2005, at Chicago’s Inspire Fine Art. Thorgerson, who designed some of the most iconic album covers in rock history, such as Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, created the covers for The Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee and Beneath the Skin: Live in Paris.

The US tour will be a continuation of the premiere exhibition in London that took place on September 21, 2004.

The Chicago exhibit will run from May 6th – June 5th, with the official opening night on May 12th. There will also be an “Experience the Storm” event on May 13th, and a fan club night on the 20th.

For those on the west coast, the “Taken by Storm” exhibit will be moving to Los Angeles (Glendale), CA, from July 31st – October 9th. The exhibit will be part of the larger “Art in Music” exhibition at the Forest Lawn Museum.

For more information on the upcoming US exhibitions, check outTakenByStorm.us for the latest information. You can also purchase prints from the site, including the 19′′ x 19′′ Bury the Hatchet print, limited edition of 125. The tour will be sponsored by Wines.com and promoted by Media Bitch, who generously donated our “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” artist’s proof giveaway last fall.

Source: TakenByStorm.us

Joy Fahy says she is putting the pieces of her life back together, one year after losing an expensive lawsuit against Dolores O’Riordan and Don Burton in the Irish High Court.

Ireland’s The Sunday Independent caught up with her this past week at London Heathrow Airport. Fahy is flying off to Manhattan, where she will continue to serve as nanny for U2’s Larry Mullen and his partner Anne Acheson while U2 tours the States.

“Larry and Anne have always been very supportive of me, as have Elle and the Rothschilds. Larry and Anne are great people,” she said. Acheson accompanied Fahy to the courts during every day of the trial last year.

The paper now dubs Fahy “Ireland’s most famous nanny” for the lawsuit that captured the covers of Irish tabloids one year ago. Fahy originally planned to appeal the verdict, although there have not been any developments since the suit closed last April.

Fahy told The Sunday Independent that her disastrous loss against O’Riordan has not affected her relationships with her other clients. Her previous clients have in fact all remained firm friends — she had lunch with Elle Macpherson, one of her most high profile clients, just days ago.

Despite being stuck with a legal bill topping €200,000 (approx. $250,000), Fahy says things are starting to brighten up.

“Life has never been better for me. I’m looking forward to America.”

Source: The Sunday Independent