New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Universal
Music Enterprises) - Despite being the biggest-selling Irish rock artists outside of U2, with more than 35 million albums sold worldwide, the
Cranberries have never issued a live album. Now, on the heels of the band's first North American tour in several years, that gap in the group's history is filled by Bualadh Bos: The
Cranberries Live (Island/UMe), released January 5, 2010. Bualadh Bos (pronounced "boola bahs," Celtic for "clap your hands") brings together 15 selections recorded at the height of the Cranberries' success, from 1994-1998, from Los Angeles and Michigan to Toronto, Tipperary, and even Oslo, Norway at the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
The Limerick band-singer Dolores O'Riordan, brothers Noel and Mike Hogan (guitar and bass, respectively) and drummer Fergal Lawler-debuted with 1993's Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? . The album went Top 10 and quintuple platinum and spun off the Top 10 and gold "Linger." Bualadh Bos: The Cranberries Live finds the group performing six of that album's dozen tracks ("Wanted," "Linger," "I Still Do," "Waltzing Back," "Not Sorry," "Pretty") at the Record Plant studio in Hollywood in 1994; one ("Dreams") at Feile, Tipperary that same year; and another ("Sunday") at Pine Knob in Clarkston, Michigan in 1996 on the Free To Decide World Tour. "Liar," a non-album single b-side, is also heard from the Record Plant performance.
The follow-up album, 1994's No Need To Argue, debuted at No 6 and reached seven times platinum. The Bualadh Bos live recordings from "...Argue" are its No 1 Modern Rock hit "Zombie," No 11 Pop hit "Ode To My Family" and "Ridiculous Thoughts," and all from the Tipperary concert. 1996's double platinum To The Faithful Departed also debuted at No 6 before rising to No 4. Its "Forever Yellow Skies" and "Free To Decide" are heard on Bualadh Bos in their concert versions from Toronto and Michigan, respectively, on the Free To Decide tour.
Prior to the release of the band's fourth album, the Cranberries performed "Promises" at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. The studio version of the song would appear on 1999's Bury The Hatchet, which debuted Top 15 and is gold. After one more album and a greatest hits package, in 2003 the band went on hiatus as the members pursued solo projects.
In January 2009, O'Riordan played a set at Dublin's Trinity College with the Brothers Hogan to commemorate her being made an Honorary Patron of Trinity's Philosophical Society. The performance was their first since 2003. Playing together again made them realize how much they had missed each other and in late 2009 the Cranberries announced their reunion for North American tour dates in November and December, followed by South and Central American and European shows the following year.
