Cranberries reunite after 6 year hiatus

Dolores O'Riordan announces Cranberries reunion tour!

The acclaimed Irish Indie-Rock quartet have ended their 6 year hiatus.

I didn't know that Dolores was living in the small Ontario community of Kawarthas, (a cottage region about two and a half hours north east of Toronto, just north of Peterborough,) with her husband raising their children and writing songs. (Ignore the portion that describes her being in Northern Ontario - at best Peterborough might be described as the central part of Southern Ontario.)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009...es-reunion.html
Cranberries reunion lures O'Riordan from Ontario cabin
Last Updated: Friday, August 28, 2009 | 3:29 PM ET

Dolores O'Riordan is ready to emerge from her log cabin in Northern Ontario and become a Cranberry again.

The former lead singer and driving creative force behind the Cranberries has announced a reunion tour of the Irish band famous for 1990s hits such as Zombie and Linger.

And a new album may not be far behind, she told CBC's cultural affairs radio show Q on Friday.

O'Riordan has been pursuing a solo career since 2002, when the Cranberries began their hiatus, and just released her latest album, No Baggage. She's also had three children with Canadian husband Don Burton, now her manager.

"I'm always writing — it's part of you, it's part of your soul, of who you are. It's a gift you are given," said the singer, who added that the Ontario bush has been an inspiration. From her cabin home, she has seen foxes, bears and wolves, and she said she loves being surrounded by trees.

The impetus for the reunion was a letter from Trinity College in Dublin admitting O'Riordan to its Philosophical Society, alongside such luminaries as W.B. Yeats.

"I asked the boys to come up from Limerick and play with me and I hired a quartet, and it was the first time seeing them in 6½ years — and it was like I saw them yesterday," she said. "When we started playing together, it felt so right."

The "boys" are Noel Hogan, Mike Hogan and Fergal Lawler, her Cranberries bandmates. They also had a few children in the interim, none of whom would have imagined their parents as famous.

"We're kind of excited about getting together again, because our kids are kind of now going, 'Were you in a band?' and we kind of have to play for our kids now, just to show them we're still cool," she said.

O'Riordan was close to a breakdown in her 20s from the pressure of being with such a prominent band. She said she went back to her cabin in Ontario and thought about how much she'd missed the band before making the decision to tour again.


"They're a big part of my heart and soul," she said. "There's only three people in the world who understand that journey that I went through and that's Mike, Ferg and Noel, who were there with me."

The live tour begins at the end of this year in North America, though no dates have yet been announced. The band plans to play O'Riordan's solo material, as well as old Cranberries songs and new works they are writing together even now.

She estimates another album could come out of the collaboration, perhaps as soon as next year.

"We kind of had to go through whatever it was — kind of taking a break, creative, go out there and find what it's like not to be a Cranberry," she said.

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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...b=Entertainment
Dolores O'Riordan readies for Cranberries reunion
Updated Sat. Aug. 29 2009 1:33 PM ET
The Canadian Press

TORONTO -- Dolores O'Riordan was weeks away from releasing her second solo album, "No Baggage," and going on tour when she dropped an unexpected bombshell on her fans.

The tour dates had been cancelled because her band, the Cranberries, had decided to reunite after an almost six-year hiatus.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, O'Riordan said it was a one-off get together with her bandmates that convinced them to mount a comeback, which was ultimately made possible because of the peace she achieved through her relocation to cottage country in Ontario, where she escaped to raise her family and avoid becoming a "has-been dead rock star."

Irish-born O'Riordan, 37, was 18 when the Cranberries formed in 1990, and the next 13 years were a whirlwind of touring and releasing albums, which produced a number of hits including "Dreams," "Linger," "Ode To My Family," "Zombie," "Salvation," "Ridiculous Thoughts" and "Free To Decide."

But the stresses of fame fissured the band in 2003, and in O'Riordan's case, she was emotionally falling apart.


"I was so young when I got so famous and then I kind of put up a wall around myself, I didn't really want to show people any fragilities or fears, I was trying to be this tough person that I felt was expected of me," she said Friday during an interview at a Toronto hotel.

"It's important to take time off because it's a long journey this life, and I want to be singing in 30 years time. You see a lot of artists who get caught up in the here and now, and they just burn themselves out, and I kind of did that myself with my third album."

"But I realized I didn't want to die, I wanted to live a long life and sing for a long time and have kids and have a reality outside of just being some has-been celebrity or has-been dead rock star."

O'Riordan sought solace in anonymity, which she found in the middle of the woods in Ontario, where she has a home with her Canadian husband, Don Burton, their two children and a child from Burton's previous relationship.

"What's amazing is -- I actually have problems getting it into my head -- Canada is so big, right? And Ireland's small you know; you drive from coast to coast in three hours. You can really get lost here, and I like that," she said.

"For an artist or an entertainer it's the ultimate when you can go to the forest when you're done your work and escape."

Her children have also been a life-saving, grounding force for her and are now her inspiration for her return to the Cranberries, O'Riordan said.

Between all the band members the Cranberries have 12 kids, who don't really remember the band's heyday and the fame their parents had.

A couple years ago, O'Riordan's kids had a hard time reacting to seeing their mom as a famous musician and she recalls one of her sons saying, "I don't know, it kinda weirds me out when you're head banging."

"I think it was weird for him also because ... he sees me on stage in front of all these people that have been following me for 20 years, before he was born, so he probably suddenly realized there was this whole life, this whole part of me that he didn't really know about," she said.

But now that they're a little older, she thinks they'll revel in seeing her on stage.

"They're kind of discovering it now... we want to show them what it is that their parents did, as opposed to reading about it."

The Cranberries' North American reunion tour is tentatively scheduled to begin sometime in November and the first show is expected to be in Toronto.

"I'm half a Canuck, I've spent half my life here now," O'Riordan joked.

The band also hopes to write new songs and put out another album, and given that next year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Cranberries forming, the timing feels right, O'Riordan said.

"It's kind of cosmic too, right, that we were reuniting. I didn't think about it, but these coincidences to me signify you're doing the right thing," she said.

She said fans can expect something different with the new songs -- although she doesn't know exactly what.

"I think we're trying to lighten it up and try different things and go totally out there and try new ideas," she said.

"Not like anything you've heard before, that's the idea, just trying to make it different."
 
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