The Cranberries open up about singer Dolores O’Riordan’s death for first time as they discuss ‘painful process’ of finishing band’s final album ahead of release of new song with her vocals
- The Cranberries will release the first song of their ‘In the End’ album tomorrow
- It is the anniversary of the death of their lead singer Dolores O’Riordan
- The mother-of-three, 46, was found dead in a hotel room in London on September 15, 2017, as the band was set to record their new album
- Using her vocals the band has recorded ‘huge iconic songs’ for the latest album
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Dolores O’Riordan died aged 46 in London
The Cranberries have opened up about the death of their lead singer for the first time as they release music with her vocals, a year after she was found dead.
Dolores O’Riordan, 46, died by drowning due to alcohol intoxication, an inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court heard in September.
The singer had been staying at London’s Park Lane Hilton hotel while on a recording trip with the band.
Now, her best friends are going on without her and are releasing the songs she worked on.
To mark the anniversary of her death the Irish rock band will release the first song from their latest album, ‘In the End’, on January 15 – exactly a year after the day that she died.
Lead guitarist Noel Hogan said throughout the recording they were reminded of Dolores.
He told ITV: ‘It comes in waves.
‘You forget about it a little bit and then there constant reminders for us, especially with us being so public in our lives
The rest of the band (l-r) Mike and Noel Hogan and Fergal Lawler recorded the album without Dolores but used her ideas and her voice in her memory
‘It doesn’t seem like a year at all, it just seems like a few weeks really
‘I found at night when you weren’t working it really, really would hit you. you get up then next day and brush yourself off and you do it.’
Bassist Mike Hogan said when they were recording the band were ‘expecting her to come through the door and say it wasn’t right’ after they made the decision to carry on after her death.
The Irish singer was found ‘face up in the bath dressed in her pyjamas’ in the bath of her room at London’s Hilton Park Lane on January 15.
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The 46-year-old mother-of-three from Kilmallock, County Limerick, who had battled alcoholism, had drunk spirits and champagne and was four times over the legal drinking limit when she died.
Police found the minibar was activated around 2am, and she phoned her mother at around 3am. She was later found unresponsive and confirmed dead at 9.16am.
The cause of her death was found to be drowning due to excessive alcohol consumption.
Her band mates said Dolores had been emailing them lyrics and was excited about recording before she died.
Speaking to ITV News the band said they heard the songs and just knew recording and releasing them was the ‘right thing to do’
Mr Hogan said she had ’emailed stuff she wanted to check’ on the day of her death.
He added: ‘She was really, really excited about getting back into the studio. When we went through the songs and realised how strong we felt this album was, to not do it would have been the wrong thing to do.
‘I think we’re just excited for it to be out there and for people to hear it because we’ve lived with it for so long under secrecy.
‘People will be really really impressed with the vocals, especially the lyrics, they’re really from Dolores’ heart.’
He added: ‘She left such a massive collection of songs, such huge iconic songs.
‘For anybody to leave even one is a great thing but to have the collection you know, and it’s great to see that people have focused on her music after her death.’
How Dolores O’Riordan turned into a global star after answering an ad
Dolores O’Riordan was born on September 6, 1971 in Ballybricken, Ireland.
In 1990, she answered an ad from a local band in nearby Limerick city – then called The Cranberry Saw Us – that was looking for a lead singer.
A name change and a confluence of factors turned The Cranberries into international stars. Their guitar-based sound had an alternative-rock edge at a time when grunge was storming the music scene.
Dolores O’Riordan (pictured at Dublin Castle in 2000) was a charismatic lead singer
The band’s songs – on which O’Riordan was chief lyricist and co-songwriter – had a Celtic-infused tunefulness.
And in O’Riordan the group had a charismatic lead singer with a distinctively powerful voice.
Heavy play on MTV for their debut single ‘Dream’ and the singles that followed helped bring the group to the attention of a mass audience.
The Cranberries’ 1993 debut album, ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’, sold millions of copies and produced the hit single ‘Linger.’
The follow-up, ‘No Need to Argue,’ sold in even greater numbers and contained ‘Zombie,’ a visceral howl against Northern Ireland’s violent Troubles that topped singles charts in several countries.
O’Riordan (pictured in Tirana in 2007) was one of Ireland’s richest women
The band released three more studio albums before splitting up in 2003.
O’Riordan released a solo album, ‘Are You Listening,’ in 2007, and another, ‘No Baggage,’ in 2009.
The Cranberries also reunited that year, resulting in the album ‘Roses’ in 2012.
For a time, O’Riordan was one of Ireland’s richest women, but she struggled with both physical and mental health problems.
The Cranberries released the acoustic album ‘Something Else’ in 2017 and had been due to tour Europe and North America. The tour was cut short because O’Riordan was suffering from back problems.
In 2014, O’Riordan was accused of assaulting three police officers and a flight attendant during a flight from New York to Ireland. She pleaded guilty and was fined €6,000 (£5,400)
O’Riordan (pictured in Paris in May 2017) struggled with both physical and mental health problems
Medical records given to the court indicated she was mentally ill at the time of the altercation. After her court hearing O’Riordan urged other people suffering mental illness to seek help.
She told Metro newspaper last year that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and she spoke to the Irish News about her battles with depression.
O’Riordan said depression ‘is one of the worst things to go through,’ but that ‘I’ve also had a lot of joy in my life, especially with my children.’
‘You get ups as well as downs. Sure, isn’t that what life’s all about?’ she said.
O’Riordan is survived by her ex-husband, the former Duran Duran tour manager Don Burton, and their three children.
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