Dolores’ singing was not music to my ears
Former theatre owner recalls Cranberries’ f irst Royal gig
WHEN Seamus Flynn heard The Cranberries perform for the very first time it was not quite music to his ears.
As far as the former Theatre Royal owner was concerned, the band was making ‘an unbelievable racket’.
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, the 70-year-old said: ‘I would love to say that I discovered them, but I thought it was a wall of noise initially. Then again, a lot of young bands sounded like that at the start as they warmed up and got used to their equipment.’
Little did he know that within two short years they’d be playing to thousands of people in some of the biggest stadia across the world. Opening his scrapbook of memorabilia on The Cranberries to the MoS, he reveals a ticket to their first gig. It’s even more poignant now that lead singer Dolores O’Riordan – who was found dead on Monday in a London hotel, aged 46 – will be laid to rest in her native Limerick on Tuesday.
Mr Flynn, who ran the now defunct Royal in Limerick city for a decade, saw many stars of a different era pass through their doors – The Sawdoctors, The Stunning, Aslan – but none reached the dizzying heights of stardom like The Cranberries did.
Dolores’s best friend, Breiffne McCarthy, who went on to be her bridesmaid at her 1994 wedding to Duran Duran tour manager Don Burton, also worked in the Royal before they were famous.
There was a string of calls between the friends, said Mr Flynn, who smiled when he listened back to a voice recording left for Breiffne by Dolores – the week Daniel O’Donnell played the Cecil Street venue. ‘The rock and rollers like Dolores believed the Royal was their venue, and didn’t see it as a place for the likes of Frank Patterson,’ he added. ‘I listened back to the voice recordings one day and there was a message from Dolores asking Breiffne to ring her, and at the end of it she said, “Breiffne, please ring me… Daniel O’Donnell… for feck’s sake.”’
After their homecoming gig in the Royal in 1993, the quartet would return there again prior to taking to the stage in Woodstock in 1994, sneaking into the venue incognito for a fortnight of practice sessions.
‘People were ringing me up and asking were they imagining that they were hearing The Cranberries from inside the Royal.
‘Someone said, “Are you playing Cranberries’ CDs constantly inside?” They were in the superstar stage then and we had to keep it quiet. They were wearing wigs and hats, and it was a cloak and dagger moment. They just wanted to work as they were seriously hard workers and that’s often overlooked.’ Enamoured with the success of The Cranberries, Glen Hansard and The Frames arrived to the venue, and asked to see the dressing room where Dolores and the band hung out, Mr Flynn recalled.
‘A lot of the bands coming down to Limerick were very impressed by The Cranberries’ success, because here was a band that nobody had ever heard of and hadn’t played in Dublin. It gave everyone hope; you could just see that it was possible,’ he added. ‘Usually bands that broke America had a following built up, and here was a little band from Limerick who just came out of nowhere.’
For the princely sum of just £3, less than 50 people attended The Cranberries’ inaugural gig in the Royal in 1991, but within two years the crowds swelled, and Mr Flynn’s tune had certainly changed.
He said: ‘They played the Royal and practically nowhere else from 1990 to ’93, because they were in a recording studio close by. They were only kids at the time, but they took themselves very seriously from the beginning and saw themselves as recording artists.
‘Dolores was just a kid, a very nice kid and wanted to be successful and was very ambitious. She had her head well screwed on business wise as well.’
When the band weren’t touring they’d leave their equipment in the Royal, which the venue in turn used for different concerts. But not without cost. ‘Dolores would charge us £25 a time. But they took them with them when they became big,’ said Mr Flynn.
Music journalist and critic Dave Fanning, who was at Dolores’ wedding, described her as ‘the most unrock star of rock stars’. He said: ‘She was searingly honest. Nothing was off limits. The Dolores O’Riordan affect was her voice and people’s connections with the songs; they just spoke to so many.’
‘They were only kids, but took themselves seriously’ ‘She was honest. Nothing was off limits’