Feargai: “ It’s not, ‘How are you?5, it’s ‘How are The Cranberries?’.” Noel: “You have a lot more cousins than you used to!” Mike: “And people you went to school with come up and remind you that you went to school with them.” N oel: “ School is the classic. Guys th a t would have probably beaten you up are your best mate!” Dolores: “ Friends are totally normal, • If you wanted to see THE CRANBERRIES while they were still playing tiny indie dubs, but there’s other people who are you’vemissed your chance: they’re waving ’bye to all that at Leeds’, emt, minuscule T&C. constantly aware of the fact that you’ve As Auntie Dolores, dreaming of shiny stadia, leads the ageing ‘kids' through a ‘nice’ smg- become something different than you were. You don’t change, your life changes, that’s all. You grow up " V S t e ila r art-w ork: STEFAN PE BATSEL1ER according to your environment. Inevitably we would have grown up t was a plainly rhetorical because we were only 18 when we ' . projects at other times. started. But some people think that you question. “How you theatre events - thereby concluding this And how the assembled mass of bank look down on them, and that’s terrible. gonna keep ’em down short UK jaunt of “make-up” shows. tellers, car mechanics and student Y ou rfriends don’t think that. Your friends know that you’re the same and onthe farm, after These ai e initially nurses lap it up. Just as the cancelled because r unconventional star qualities of Dolores you struck it lucky and fair play to you.” Ithey Paree?” recuperation following a skiing accident,O’Riordan won them a landslide among How are you coping with these indie Inspiredby the American America’s mall-dwellers, they’ve put a club gigs? we?” status as the band toured abroad, firm downpayment on Britain’s precinct Dolores: “We’re trying not to be too generation too. W ith her simple-minded rock star-ish about it all but... the sound global r e es. songs, so easy to “SING!” along to. The is SHITE! Ah, it’s a good challenge to go W o rld W ar One, when set Were they not contractually obliged Cranberries are about to make the back to the small clubs.” to do so, the band freely admit they transition from playing large halls to Noel: “It’s a good buzz doing these to th e music of W alter wouldn’t be now, after huge arenas look trifling. shows after being in the big places, but . several reschedules, they can use theseAnother unlikely-looking factor in this we know it’s only for a week or so. If it Lewis andJoe Young found shows titNottingham, Sheffield, inevitable process has assembled in a was a whole tour of that... ” T&C dressing-room. Rarely can there Mike: “This w ill be the last time we’ll that they had a bona fide whet appetites for their upcoming debuthave been a group of musicians so ever play places that size. Unless we 1919 Tin Pan Alley smash on UK arena tour and an REM stadium thoroughly unfazed at their status as decide to go back to that for a while.” Noel: “We have had some really good their hands. support slot. This w ill be the last time Feargai, Mike and Noel. Dispensing The Cranberries slum it for as long as drinks and bonhomie, they laugh off gigs this week. The smallest place we Severity-six years on, it’s a query stilltheir star continues to ascend along suchtonight’s technical problems, argue played, Rock City in Nottingham, was resonance. For proof we needa giddy. exponential route. This, quite about whether ‘Parklife’ or ‘Definitely great.” v ' - : simply, is no longer their world. Maybe’ is better and dwell on their D olores: “ Rock C ity! It was as good as v Country Club in Leeds, where And of course, spiritually at least, it recent sojourn at a swish Midlands Central Park or Universal The Cranberries are grappling uneasily never was. For Dolores to regard a health farm where, it seems, they spent Amphitheatre!” amounts to a re tu rn to th e ir 1,700-capacity civic hail as an “ indie several days getting completely Why do you feel more comfortable rustic roots. How are they coping with club” recalls the similarly deluded Jim hammered. “1 don’t think we made playing big places? this sudden flashback to farmlife? W ith Kerr back when Simple Minds broke ourselves very popular with the other Dolores: “It’s more natural because some difficulty. through the enormodome threshold in guests,” Noel considers, reaching for the it’s profiling. When you go out on tour I !: /accustomed as she now is to: halls the late-’80s. In an interview, Kerr was champagne. Only the pricey libation for a year-and-a-half you’re building. You incapable of hosting the Horse O f The /: looking forward to some gigs at gives him away. Every other aspect of start out playing 2,000 seaters, then you Year Show, Dolores O ’Riordan marches Glasgow’s Barrowfands, saying it was his demeanour befits a young man happy go to 4,000 and then the last tour was around in a state of some agitation. good to be getting back to the clubs. to have been supporting Arse Bracket at 8,000 seaters and they were all sold out, Pointing at the monitors, she then When it was suggested that with a the Northampton Roadmenders (a and then the next tour is 15,000. So it’s gestures forcefully to the side of stage,capacity of nearly 2,000 the Barrowlands proper indie club). a steady build, and it’s just so weird to where The Cranberries’ new soundmanhardly qualified as a “club”, in mitigation Dolores does not join us in this go from 8,000 seaters down to a 1,700. fo u r songs in to a Kerr pointed to the fact that it had a post-gig wind-down. Instead she went And it really looks like a 1,000 capacity contract he must be wishing had gone ro o f. straight from the stage onto the coach w ith everybody stuffed in like sardines. elsewhere for. The Leeds T&C might have a roof but and off to Edinburgh, This does not It’s mad! ’Cos in the arenas it’s all nice Ms G’Riordan’s band-mates, too, lookits occupants tonight are making a come as a surprise. As well as their and clean and everything smells good as if they’ve had more fun watching hearty stab at raising it, via sheer amour- Island Records press officer, who drove and the sound is similar every night... ” bananas decompose. Walking over to power. “Dolores! Ah ioovya!” an the NME up from London, The Mike: “The dressing rooms are nice.” guitarist Noel Hogan, Dolores elicits a especially distraught Tetley-boy sobs. “I Cranberries have Lindsey, their own Feargai: “You know what to expect” shake of the head and a clearly visible love you too, sweetheart,” replies thepress officer, in tow. If the press officer’s Dolores: “The building structures are mouthing of the word “Shit!”, Over on henna-headed object of his traditional role is to act as a buffer pretty similar every day. They’re usually bass, N o e l’s bro th e r, M ike, can only befuddlement. Indie club or not, Thebetween band and journalists, then ice-hockey rinks or something.” shrug his shoulders. And at the heart of Lindsey’s role is to act as a buffer Granted, on paper this could read like the racket, Feargai Lawler ploughs on, between band, journalists and the band’s they’re taking the piss, but no - The gripped with the doughty conviction so record company; effectively, the band’s Cranberries love playing arenas because typical of drummers that if anyone can management’s earthly representative. It they smell nice and each one looks the see them through this it’ll have to be was she who had warned us that while same. It would come as no surprise if him. It’s not How are we were welcome to come and meet their next American tour came Another squall of feedback issues “the boys” after the gig, Dolores “w ill be sponsored by Holiday Inn and Burger from somewhere inbetween the you? It’s How are doing a run ne r” . King, so they could then cross an entire brothers Hogan and Dolores swivels 90 That she could do so and start the continent playing in identical-looking degrees, unleashing a glare worthy of The Cranberries? journey to Edinburghsans gargons is venues, staying in identical looking hotels Medusa. We can only guess what the Feargai down to The Cranberries’ fleet of three and eating identical tasting food. monitor tech is thinking. We can, coaches, one for the crew, the other OK. One: an-ice hockey rink was Money, money, money it's rich band’s world: (left to right) Feargai, Dolores, Mike and Noel however, speculate with a reasonable Cranberries continue to give it large, two for the band. While the record a designed for ice-hockey, not rock’n’roll. degree of confidence that at this playing to an imaginary punter with company PR is at pains to stress this is cause for celebration. N ot quite on awith par the artist for a while.