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the big 6 Ronald Grant “There’s no challenge in that skiddely-eye Irish takes its political correctness and Mandy Bentley, Playmate folk stuff' very seriously indeed, Cannes Heather Kozar and, no doubt, remains the one film festival other young women frequently Dolores O’Riordan lays in to where entertainment, art and seen wearing little more than pom happily mb sweaty lipgloss and a staple. For shoulders in the May sunshine.Hefner, the trip will be tinged And, this year, the festival is with nostalgia: he last visited the 14 to welcome back one of its seaside cinefest back in 1959, his “This cast are oldest and dearest friends, first trip outside America. That Hugh M. Hefner, the founder same year, he purchased the astonishing, they have ofPlayboy magazine and the Playboy Mansion, opened the incredible ta le n t” annes would not be Cannesperfect embodiment of that first Playboy Club and began to without the paparazzi- naughty Cannes spirit. Hef willpromote himself as the pyjama- Behind the scenes at the friendly spectacle of rich travel by private jet and stay onwearing king of the swingers. exciting new adaptation of C Cl iekhov’sThree Sisters roues cruising the Croisette a yacht moored in the Vieux Unsurprisingly, Hef s schedule draped in enough bikini-clad Port, just behind the Palais du for next weekend includes the arm candy to open a Cote d’AzurFestivals. His entourage will world premiere of groove-tastic branch of John Menzies. For include constant companions sex comedyAustin Powers 2: The 16 while the rest of the film world Brande Roderick, twins Sandy Spy Who Shagged Me. “I wanted to check out the women and have o Jewel is now the highest- slender volume of verse that was lots of fun” paid poet in the world. Onpublished over here yesterday. Sthe strength of selling a few Ever since Bob Dylan and How Tim Lott’s life did not million records,the 24-year-old Leonard Cohen, every singer- go according to plan warbler has been paid more songwriter who comes up with a for her first collection of poems couple of half-clever rhymes than John Betjeman or Ted seems to think that penning Hughes ever made.More, it is three-minute pop ditties makes 24 said, than even Shelley or Byron,them profound poets. “He’s the Browning or Tennyson earnedskinny one of the two/He "It can’t rain for i from their scribblings (at reminds her of it constantly/ | present-day rates). The He’s a very funny guy that three years in a row” K $2 million sum was paid way/Ha ha as she wobbles-to- Glastonbury or V99? Plan E k in America forA Night walk” goes one of her better your summer music H | Without Armher odes. Steps, eat your hearts out. festivals withm etro's essential gig guide Catatonia, Manic Street Preachers in the charts; Anthony Hopkins on a level with Michael Caine, and Michael Sheen challenging Ralph Fiennes’s also inside COMING SOON! t was all going crown on the stage. EvenNotting swimmingly for the Hill has a Taffia cast member, Your chance to sound off th is w eek Welsh. For so long Rhys Ifans, erstwhile Evans, who about films, music, art, ^ a cultural desert actually changed his name to Win! Win! Win! comedy - or anything else jj£_ (unless you make it more Welsh, acting the H i count cheese grey Y-fronts off the very Englishshort cu ts - in our new letters page. on toast, Tom Hugh Grant. Write to: metro, The Times, wk Jones and love To top it all, this week it was m usic 1 Pennington Street K: spoons), Wales announced that Catherine Zeta El 9XN books ; has undergoneJones (left), dark-haired siren e-mail: [email protected] ^ an image from Swansea, now commands the vulture make-over $5 million per picture. And worthy of that is where the rot sets in. Cover: Paul Rider

Changing Remember Scotland? There they Editor: Jayne DowleDeputy Editor:Paul ConnollyAssociate Editor:Sarah VineAssistant Editor: Rooms. were. Trainspotting away, Louise GoudieDesign Editor:Anderida HatchPicture Editor: Helen HealyChief Sub Editor: Liz Wilson Listings Editor:Ray DouglasListings Production Editor:Alastair MoxeyPicture Researcher: Donna when Hollywood got interested RichmondDesigner. Andrew ThompsonResearchers: Amber Cowan and Ed Potton and - bang, Irvine Welsh is about as cool as your dad dancing at a wedding.Let’s hope Catherine’s perfick PLUS full arts lisHngs for pricetag doesn’t kick off anotheryour area start on page 26 Capital kind of Welsh backlash. me I m • music May 8-14 1999 (IF) May 8-14 1999 (IF) music • metro THE BIG INTERVIEW All the ju ice

Millionaire, pop idol, wife and mother — not a bad list of achievements for

a 27-year-old. So what exactly is eating Dolores O’Riordan? Nigel Williamson

gets the lowdown from ’ lead singer. Portrait: Paul Rider

olores O ’Riordan may be and next door is full of photogra­ started studying the piano at nine; listed as the fifth richest phers, publicists, aides and other as­ at 14 she picked up a guitar and woman in the British Isles sorted hangers-on. O ’Riordan learnt Simon & Garfunkel’s Scar­ D(she is, of course, Irish) looks fantastic, despite having sam­ borough Fair. “I wrote my first with a personal fortune calculated pled ’s nightlife until 6am af­ song on a Yamaha keyboard my at £30 million, but hers is a caution­ ter an appearance on ’s best­ mum bought me. It was a little pop ary tale that proves the old adage loved television programme. The ditty that went ‘La, la, la, I miss that money can’t buy happiness. Late, Late Show. Gone is the waif, y o u ’. It sounded like the Corrs. Three years ago, the Cranberries replaced by a confident young There were loads of them. There were riding high with worldwide woman who has clearly been was another one called Calling. I sales of 28 million. The band through a lot but has emerged could dig them out and start a had just embarked upon a year- wiser and happier. whole new career.” long world tour that was expected “The best thing I ever did was Since the Cranberries’ last to gross £60 million when they having my baby. Once you have a album, To the Faithful Departed, abruptly cancelled. “I was a nerv­ child it really changes your perspec­ in 1996, the Corrs have arguably ous wreck. I had lost so much tive,” she says. “You look at this overtaken them as the biggest band weight and I hadn’t slept for weeks. little thing, and the most important out of Ireland since . It appears I was really depressed and the vibe thing to you is that he is healthy to rankle with O ’Riordan and she in the band was crap. I didn’t want and happy. When you walk in the recently predicted that they would to be there,” recalls O ’Riordan, 27. door you know that whatever hap­ never crack America. “I shouldn’t “People were saying I had anor­ pens out there, this is what matters say anything more because I got exia but it seemed the only thing — life, love, family. It straightens into trouble for criticising them last anyone cared about was the money. your head out totally,” time,” she says. “But th e re’s no chal­ ‘Screw her — she might be six-and- Her mother, Eileen, is looking lenge in that skiddely-eye Irish folk a-half stone and she might be after Taylor back in Limerick and stuff. I could pick up a dying, but what about the tour?’ I O ’Riordan has just called home. and play really good skiddely-eye. felt I was a product, and nobody “My mum was taking him out for a But for me that is for the pub. When gave a toss. T ie tabloids were say­ walk. H e ’s starting to get interested you put it in r o c k ’n’ro ll it sounds ing I was a bitch and an asshole in the big bad world out there but really cheesy.” and I had ceased to feel like a I’m going to be very careful about Yet she admits she was singing human being.” protecting him. I d o n ’t want him to Runaway in the shower that morn­ Her chilling experiences form a be around the band. I want to give ing and Hogan confesses to owning RENAISSANCE WOMAN : O’Riordan at the Shephenls Bush Empire in April Rex salutary tale for pop wannabes. him a normal childhood and I’d be the Corrs’ album. “Why do rock stars go for cocaine She accuses him of fancying the and drugs and die? Because they girls. “I love them all,” he says and feel there is no escape. I said to “Whatever I said, I’m she laughs awkwardly. myself, I don’t want to die. And O ’Rio rd a n joined the Cranber­ then I thought, maybe I do. You not into the death ries — made up of , 27, wonder if you can ever redeem your­ and his brother Mike, 26, on bass self and get back to the real world,” penalty. I t ’s a dodgy and Fergal Lawler, 28, on drums — she continues. at 18. “Before that I had sung Fortunately, O ’Riordan found issue but I d o n ’t like mostly in church,” she says. “I used her way back. Now the proud to play the organ six or seven times mother of a 15-month-old son, Tay­ the idea of anyone a week with the choir. Sometimes I lor, and with an upbeat new Cran­ used to wish I could he outside berries’ album called Bury the getting killed” smoking fags instead, but really I Hatchet to promote (priorities are enjoyed it. T h a t’s where I started firmly in that order), she is full of mad if there were pictures of him in chanting and learning Latin renewed optimism. She also has Hello! or something. Childhood is hymns, which helped me to form the self-awareness to reflect upon very sacred and special and when my own style.” her privileged position and realise kids grow up with the pressure of Her mother wanted her to follow how she must sound to people strug­ being in the spotlight, it ’s not fair.” a religious vocation and was horri­ gling to make ends meet. O ’Riord a n ’s own childhood was fied at the thought of her daughter “I know money is cool so I don’t spent in a large Catholic family in joining a band. “She was scared I blame anyone for thinking we are Limerick as the youngest of seven would get pregnant. We toured Brit­ moaning bastards,” she admits. daughters. “My parents were very ain in a van and I used to kip on the “But I’m telling you exactly what religious and I had to go to Mass boys’ laps because we co u ld n ’t happened. I get depressed even talk­ every day as a teenager,” she afford hotels. I had an uncle in ing about it. Real life is meant to be recalls. “Warped things do happen London and he said we could sleep fun. It’s great and amazing but we in Ireland and what they used to do at his house. He had a big family have had to relearn how to be part to children was terrible. It w a sn ’t and there used to be eight in a bed. of it. And it was a hard lesson.” just the Church, it was the beatings W e’d fall in at four o ’clo c k in the We are talking in a suite at in school, too. But I was very lucky. morning out of our heads.” Dublin’s most up-market hotel; I was never abused as a child. I had guitarist Noel Hogan is also here a very loving upbringing.” She CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 STARTING OVER: From left, Mike Hogan, O’Riordan, Fergal Lawler and Noel Hogan. ‘We ’ve made a vow. Next time the pressure is on, w e ’re just going to go home’ had heard of the Cranberries. It was fantastic to feel human again.” During the band’s long lay-off Fergal Lawler backpacked around Australia; football-mad iMike Hogan moved to Manchester to fol­ low his beloved United. Noel went home to Limerick. And O ’Riordan became pregnant. “I was so underweight I d id n ’t think I could conceive. It was like redemption.” She had the baby in November 1997 in Canada, where her hus­ band has a house, and moved back to Limerick in early 1998 to work on the Cranberries’ fourth album. “When we came off the road we d id n ’t talk to each other for six months and it was the first time since we were 17 that we h a d n ’t been together every day. But we SIMPLY THE BEST: Collecting their MTV European Music award in Paris, 1995 Rex UNDER PRESSURE: At the MTV Video M usic aw ards in New York, 1996 Rex w eren ’t angry with each other. We were angry with the world. Ulti­ mately it made us closer. Bury the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 Because of managerial problems, it pint. Even after we got the record Hatchet is our return to reality.” was not until 1993 that their debut deal we were only on £100 a week. “I’m not possessive but Again, the album has taken a bat­ O ’Rio rd a n promised her mother album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, We used to go into the dressing tering from the critics over the that if the band h a d n ’t made it in a So Why Can't We? appeared. And room of the band we were support­ I d o n ’t like other women naivety of the lyrics, something to year she would go back to college. it was America which gave them ing when they were on stage and which O ’Rio rd a n seems resigned. Six months later, in 1991, Island their initial success. “We felt like nick their beer.” touching my husband. Many of the new songs reflect her signed them to a six-album deal. scumbags in Britain and Ireland. A re-release of the evocatively contentment in married life and “When the band did break she We used to play little gigs in Dublin beguiling Linger (the song was Especially women motherhood. Of the angrier songs, was very proud but I now know and nobody would come because about O ’Rio rd a n ’s teenage love for Delilah was written after she had what she was feeling. I w o u ld n ’t we were from Limerick. People a soldier) finally made the singles with big boobs” attacked another woman in a pub. like my son to be in a band. It’s not sh o u ld n ’t think we got it all over­ chart in 1994; the first album went “I’m not possessive but I d o n ’t like a very stable life. I’m sorry, mum, night. We were bums for at least to No 1 in Britain 16 months after its other women touching my hus­ for being such a s*** teenager!” two years, asking people to buy us a release. That summer, wearing a band. Especially women with big see-through dress, O ’Riord a n boobs. I was very hormonal married Duran D u ra n ’s tour because I had just finished breast­ manager, Don Burton. feeding, and you feel a bit insecure The Cranberries supported after childbirth. You d o n ’t feel like a Duran Duran on tour and, accord­ sex kitten and you feel threatened ing to the myth, the couple decided by other women. I was drunk and I to get married after knowing each went for her. The next day I was other for ten days. “It was actually still livid, and I wrote Delilah, two months,” says O ’Riordan. telling her to stay away.” “One day he said ‘I want to marry Another song. Fee Fi Fo, is about you’ and he handed me a piece of child abuse. “Why would anyone paper that said July 18. That was want to screw a child? When my the day we married. Before I even little boy falls and hurts himself he really knew him he gave me a rose cries and looks at you to take away as I was going on stage every night. his pain. And you feel awful if you He wooed me very romantically.” ca n ’t,” says O ’Riord an . When she is The first album went on to sell older she intends to use some of her seven million copies but the second, millions to start a charity to counsel , released in Octo­ abused children. ber 1994, was even more successful. In the past, the singer has been And, despite some criticisms of the prone to saying some senselessly naivety of O ’Rio rd a n ’s lyrics, (Zom­ provocative things, opposing bie, for example, written after the abortion and supporting capital IRA bomb at Warrington, was punishment. These days she is attacked as crude and untimely, NUPTIALS: Sum m er 1994 All Action wiser. “I was an angry young although it went on to win an MTV woman and I d o n ’t even know what award for Best Song in 1995) the an amazing amount of pressure to I said. I could have been drunk. album sold 15 million copies. continue. It was a very depressing When you get famous, people Other songs were inspired by album. We were living in hotels expect you to be a politician. They O ’Rio rd a n ’s long-term relationship and on buses and we c o u ld n ’t even want to know what you think about immediately before her marriage go out for a walk. It was like being divorce or abortion or the Catholic with someone from her home town; a prisoner. My grandmother died Church. It’s annoying when you it had ended messily and violently. and we were in Australia and I have blurted out things without “No Need to Argue was a beautiful c o u ld n ’t go to her funeral. You get a thinking. Whatever I said, I’m not album because I was motivated by phone call saying so m e o n e ’s dead into the death penalty. It ’s a dodgy a lot of stuff that was going on in and you have to forget about it and issue but I d o n ’t like the idea of my life. What you hear on that do a gig. Emotionally you are not in anyone getting killed.” album is the sound of really getting touch with anything. You are isola­ This time, the Cranberries are your heart broken,” she confesses. ted and screwed up and lonely.” easing in slowly to touring with just Then, at the height of the In October 1996 they cancelled all six dates in Europe and eight in Cranberries’ success, it all started further plans. “As far as we were America. “We’re going to be very to go wrong. concerned the band was over. We strict. One month on, one month Towards the end of 1995 the band were never again going to make off,” says O ’Riordan . “You think went back into the studio to record music because we were so angry. I you have to say yes to everything their third album, the maudlin To went and saw a counsellor and said because there is a lot of bread in it the Faithful Departed. O ’Riord a n I was freaked out. Everywhere I but we learnt a very valuable took a critical mauling for songs went I thought people were point­ lesson. W e’ve made a vow. Next such as Bosnia and the album sold ing at me, saying I was anorexic time the pressure is on, w e ’re just a disappointing six million copies. and a bitch. He told me to go some going to go home.” “We should have taken a break place where people d id n ’t know instead of doing the third album. who I was. So we went to the Carib­ Bury the Hatchet is out now on But we had got so big that we felt bean for a few months — nobody Island US/Mercury Records.