Details have been announced of what is sure to be a very poignant hometown tribute to Dolores O'Riordan.
Taking place on July 5 in Dolan's, I Heart The Cranberries follows on from the previous 'I Heart' celebrations of David Bowie and Elliot Smith which have been staged in Whelan's, but for obvious reasons is now on the move. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday March 8 from dolans.ie priced €12 with proceeds going to Adapt House and Limerick Mental Health. We doubt they'll be available for long given the enquiries that have been pouring in from as far afield as the US, Hong Kong, Mexico and Spain.
Performers on the night will include Gráinne Hunt, The Brad Pitt Light Orchestra, Jane Fraser, Niamh Farrell, Roisin El Cherif, Anne Rynne and Susie Q to name but a handful.
"I reached out to artists from all over Ireland to make this gig happen," says Emma Langford, a young singer-songwriter who grew up listening to the Cranberries. "Dolores' sudden death shook the music community to the core, so everyone was really eager to be involved."
Emma ran the idea for the night past Noel Hogan who was, she says, "delighted that it was going ahead. I asked what cause Dolores would have had close to her heart, and he recommended a mental health organisation."
The love Limerick has for their famous daughter was apparent when fans spontaneously gathered after her death on Arthur's Quay for a Cranberries sing-song.
In other big news, Noel, Mike and Ferg have confirmed the 25th anniversary re-release of their debut album with the following press release:

"This month marks the 25th anniversary of the release of our debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We. In recent weeks we have had a number of media enquiries asking if we were planning anything to commemorate this milestone.

"We can confirm that since last summer the band had been working with Universal Music on the creation of a very special 25th anniversary edition of the album, a newly re mastered version with previously unreleased material of ours as well as other bonus material from the era of our debut album. We had planned to release this special edition this month to coincide with the 25th anniversary. However, given Dolores’ passing in January we put the entire project on hold.

"In recent weeks we revisited this. After much consideration we have decided to finish what we started. We thought about it and decided that as this is something that we started as a band, with Dolores, we should push ahead and finish it. So that’s the plan, to finish the project and get the special 25th anniversary edition album out later this year.

"We will also be completing the recording of a new studio album as previously announced, which we also started last year and for which Dolores had already recorded the vocals. All going well we hope to have this new album finished and out early next year.

"We will keep you all up to date as things progress.

Noel, Mike and Ferg."