The Cranberries

The Cranberries were an Irish rock band formed in Limerick in 1989. The band was composed of lead singer and guitarist Dolores O'Riordan, guitarist Noel Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan (Noel's brother), and drummer Fergal Lawler. O'Riordan replaced founding member Niall Quinn in 1990. The band, originally named The Cranberry Saw Us, was renamed after the addition of O'Riordan. The band classified themselves as an alternative rock group, but they incorporated into their sound elements of indie rock, jangle pop, dream pop, folk rock, post-punk, and pop rock.

In 1991, the Cranberries signed with Island Records. They released their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993), to commercial success. Their second album, No Need to Argue (1994), brought the band to international fame and included the single "Zombie," which became a stadium anthem and one of the band's most recognizable songs. The band continued this success with the albums To the Faithful Departed (1996) and Bury the Hatchet (1999).

They transferred to MCA Records in 2000. Their fifth album, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001), did not meet the commercial success of their preceding albums, and the band cited their dissatisfaction with MCA's promotion.

Following a six-year hiatus from 2003 to 2009, the Cranberries embarked on a North American tour that was followed by shows in Latin America and Europe. They released their sixth album, Roses (2012), their first album in eleven years since Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. They expanded their musical style with their seventh acoustic album, Something Else (2017). Following O'Riordan's death from drowning due to alcohol intoxication in 2018, Noel Hogan confirmed that the remaining members chose to disband out of respect for her. They disbanded after the release of their acclaimed final album, In the End (2019).

The Cranberries were one of the best-selling alternative acts of the 1990s, having sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide as of 2019. They won an Ivor Novello Award, a Juno Award, an MTV Europe Music Award, and a World Music Award. They were nominated for a Brit Award and a Grammy Award. The music video for "Zombie" is the first by an Irish band to reach one billion views on YouTube.

Brothers Noel Hogan and Mike Hogan, descendants of the nineteenth-century Irish poet Michael Hogan, met Fergal Lawler in the mid-1980s. The young kids who grew up together in Limerick, Ireland, also shared their love of 1980s English/indie music and were "galvanised by punk's DIY ethic". Lawler received his first drum kit as a Christmas present when he was about seventeen; two months later, Mike Hogan received his first bass and his brother his first guitar. Niall Quinn, who also lived in the region, played with his own group called Hitchers and occasionally shared his experiences with the trio. Thereafter, they moved towards the idea of a four-piece ensemble and Quinn decided to stay on with the band. In mid-1989, Mike (16) and Noel (18) Hogan formed the Cranberry Saw Us with Lawler (18), and singer Quinn. The initial release from Cranberry Saw Us was the demo EP Anything in January 1990. Shortly afterwards, Quinn left the band to return to his previous group Hitchers, although they remained on good terms. Despite this unexpected break-up, the three musicians transitioned to an instrumental group for several months, continuing to improve on ideas and song structures of instrumental pieces. Lawler and the two Hogan brothers then placed an advertisement for a female singer. Subsequently, Quinn introduced the trio to a friend of his girlfriend's sister, mentioning that she was a singer-songwriter looking for a group who would compose original music.

On a Sunday afternoon in mid-1990, 18-year-old Dolores O'Riordan cycled to the audition at Xeric Studios dressed in a tracksuit and with a broken Casio keyboard under her arm. O'Riordan said of the first encounter "I really liked what I heard; I thought they were very nice and tight. It was a lovely potential band but they needed a singer – and direction". Noel Hogan gave her a rough cassette demo incorporating chord sequences of indie-jangly guitar sounds, then O'Riordan took home Hogan's tape and began writing lyrics and overlaying melodies which would underpin the group's future material. Within a week, she returned to the musicians with whom she sang along a rough version of "Linger". Mike Hogan later described it as "we were immediately blown away, her voice was something special". Noel Hogan elaborated, "she was so small and quiet... then she opened her mouth and this amazing voice, this huge voice came out for the size of her"; and then acknowledged: "how come she's not already in a band? [...] that day changed our lives". A musical relationship rapidly developed between O'Riordan and Noel Hogan, who had enough songs to record a demo. "It was that thing where you've found somebody that you clicked with, and you wanted to get as much as you could out of that," says Hogan. The fledgling band recorded a four-track demo EP called Water Circle, released in cassette format by local record label Xeric Records.

In July 1990, the group performed their first gig with O'Riordan at a hotel basement called Ruby's Club, Cruises Hotel, Limerick, performing six original songs to an audience of 60 people including three other local groups. The Cranberry Saw Us moved to Xeric Recording studio and recorded Nothing Left at All, their first commercial three-track EP released on tape in 300 copies by Xeric Records, which sold out in local record shops in Limerick within a few days. The owner of Xeric Studios, Pearse Gilmore, became their manager and provided the group with studio time to complete a demo tape, which he produced. It featured early versions of "Linger" and "Dreams", which were sent directly to record companies in London by Noel Hogan, determined to leave the underground circuit of small Irish clubs and pubs. Rough Trade label founder Geoff Travis immediately gave his approval, and although the Cranberries did not sign on to his label the demo continued to earn the attention of both the UK press and record industry and sparked a bidding war between major British record labels.