The Cranberries

Noel and Mike Hogan, two brothers from Limerick, formed the band with drummer Fergal Lawler in 1990. The band was originally named The Cranberry Saw Us, a pun on cranberry sauce. The lead singer at that time was a friend of theirs named Niall Quinn, who had an extravagant taste for composing and song names, such as "My Grandma drowned in a fountain in Lourdes", "I was always all ways" and "Throw Me Down A Big Stairs". When he left the band, Dolores O'Riordan, who was a friend of Niall's girlfriend at the time, auditioned and won the role of lead singer. She quickly demonstrated her lyrical ability when the band handed her a demo of a melody they had been working on. She took the demo home and returned with a full set of lyrics for it the next day, the song (which later became one of the band's biggest hits) was then given the name "Linger".



Their homemade demo tape did well locally and the band soon recorded a demo tape which they sold in record stores throughout Ireland. After the original run of 300 copies sold out, the group truncated their name to the Cranberries and sent another demo tape, which featured early versions of both "Linger" and "Dreams," to record companies throughout the UK. The tape was made at Xeric studios, which was run by Pearse Gilmore, who would later become their manager. At the time the tape was made, all of the members were still in their late teens.
The demo tape earned the attention of both the UK press and record industry and there soon was a bidding war between major British record labels. Eventually, the group signed with Island Records whose other famous Irish contract is with U2. The Cranberries headed into the studio with Gilmore as their producer to record their first single, "Uncertain." The title proved to be prophetic, as the band did indeed sound ill at ease on the single, leading to poor reviews in the press, in addition to tensions between the group and Gilmore. Before they were scheduled to record their debut in 1992, the Cranberries discovered that Gilmore had signed a secret deal with Island to improve his studios. The tensions within the band became so great they nearly broke up. Instead, the band severed all relations with Gilmore, hired Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records as their new manager, and hired Stephen Street, who had previously worked with The Smiths, as their new producer.
The Cranberries' debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?, was released in the spring of 1993, followed by a single of "Dreams." Neither the album or the single gained much attention, nor did a second single, "Linger". In the summer and fall of 1993, the band toured the United States, opening for The The and Suede, respectively; frequently, the Cranberries were given a friendlier reception than either of the headliners. The strong live shows led to MTV putting "Linger" into heavy rotation. By the end of the year, the single was on its way to becoming a crossover hit. Eventually, the single reached number eight on the US charts, while the album went double platinum. Everybody Else and "Linger" began to take off in Britain in early 1994; the album eventually peaked at number one during the summer.

In 1999, the group released Bury the Hatchet. The first single "Promises" was released in February, backed by a video made by French Director Oliver Dahn (who previously worked with them on "Salvation").
The album went on sale in April 1999 and reached #7 in the UK and #13 in the US, where it went gold. The album's most successful single was "Promises", which peaked in the UK at #12, and in the United States at #34. The second single was "Animal Instinct", which didn't reach the Top 40 in UK. The third and fourth singles were "Just My Imagination" and "You & Me", respectively. The group started a world tour in April 1999 and it finished in July 2000. It was the biggest and most successful tour of the Cranberries' career. The album has sold over 3,500,000 copies to date (their fourth-best selling album), with impressive sales in countries like France, Italy, Spain and Taiwan.
The tour brought them back to Ireland for their first date in four years, when they performed at Millstreet in County Cork. As the tour rolled on, the band released "Bury The Hatchet - The Complete Sessions", a double CD featuring B-sides as well as live tracks taken from a live show in Paris.

2000s:

In October 2001, the album Wake Up and Smell the Coffee was released. One of the band's longtime fans, producer Stephen Street, had returned. The album debuted at #46 in the U.S. charts and #61 in the UK (the band's least successful album) but helped them to revive their career in the U.S. The first single was "Analyse", which didn't reach the Top 75 in the UK, becoming one of their least successful singles. In January 2002, they released the second single "Time Is Ticking Out", and some months later another one, "This Is The Day". Neither song reached the UK singles charts. The album has sold over 1,500,000 copies to date. They completed a world tour from February to October 2002.
The following year a greatest-hits compilation entitled Stars - The Best of 1992 - 2002 was released, along with a DVD of music videos.
The three non-single tracks appearing on Stars are "Daffodil Lament" (voted by the fans as the top non-single from the band's five albums), "New New York", and "Stars", the latter two tracks both previously unreleased. "New New York" is, as would be expected, a reaction to September 11th. It reached #20 in the U.K albums charts. The song "Stars" was released as a single from that album. They won an award in Taiwan, in 2002, for best selling international band with the album "Stars". In that country, they have been successful with every album they have released to date. They started a tour in late October 2002, which ended in December of the same year. It was their shortest tour; they went only to Europe and Asia. In mid 2003, the band played a few tour dates, some with the Rolling Stones (The Cranberries were the opening act), and some alone. They performed new songs during those dates ("Astral Projection" and "In It Together").

Time for a break:

In 2004, The Cranberries announced they were taking some time to pursue individual careers. Earlier that year, O'Riordan had sung the title track to the movie The Passion of the Christ, "Ave Maria" and composed a song for the movie Evilenko (with Malcolm McDowell). Her solo album "Are You Listening?" is planned for release on May 8, 2007. Noel Hogan's new project is Mono Band.
The Cranberries have decided to put the next album on hold after more than a dozen years of relentless touring and promotion, which saw them rack up album sales in excess of 38 million and play to hundreds of thousands of fans around the globe.