From hick to chick

Once upon a time, talking about Dolores O'Riordan and the way she might look at you was a bit of an oxymoron. Once upon a time, the thought of Dolores O'Riordan as a Calvin Klein model was akin to imagining the bashful kid from Ballybricken getting married in a dress which was more thermal underwear than frock of the month. Once upon a time, we considered The Cranberries a fey indie band who would produce a couple of lovely, lush, languid albums and perhaps have one or two minor hits.

To paraphrase Albert Reynolds, that's short-sightedness for you. Nearly 10 years on from their first public steps in Limerick, The Cranberries (nee Cranberry Sauce and neenee The Cranberry Saw Us) are up there with U2 and The Corrs as Irish rock's legacy to the world. And whatever about the Cranberry blokes who remain largely silent, Dolores O'Riordan certainly wants to rock. Or should that be rawk?

There was certainly no hint of this on a Tuesday night in January 1991 when they played at The Stables in Limerick, the university's on-campus drinking factory. Rammed to the gills, most chose to ignore the band tuning up in the far corner. You could say that the band also chose to ignore them; the lead singer faced the wall rather than the audience while both bassist and guitarist stared solemnly at their shoes. Older readers may recall that the shoe-gazing scene was then in full swing in a few pubs in London.

Yet songs like Dreams and Linger made you pull closer and listen carefully. Delicate, intricate and highly crafted, the songs were minor masterpieces. It all seemed far too good to be true.

Within weeks, The Cranberries had been signed, sealed and delivered to Island Records. The process of transforming Dolores O'Riordan had begun. It would take time but it would happen. At first, she remained the indie ingenue who would whisper her way through interviews with the British music press. Early shows away from home saw audiences transfixed by the sight and sound of four kids growing up in public. The debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We? was loaded with shy, majestic gems.

Then The Cranberries discovered the United States of America and things would never be the same again. On tour with fellow indie darlings Suede, something happened to The Cranberries. We don't mean the fact that their records were selling by the ton or that they were overtaking their tour-mates at every turn but other transformations. Most of these were occurring to Dolores Mary O'Riordan.

Maybe it was the fact that they drove on the other side of the road over there or maybe it was the food but Dolores began to rock and roll like she had never shown any sign of rocking or rolling before. At times, such a change is down to the slick machinations of a record company machine but in this case, the personality change was wholly self-generated. The girl who could barely talk to interviewers now wanted to talk about Northern Ireland and write songs like Zombie. You could say that the "hick" had become a "chick".

Sure, acts change; yet the manner in which The Cranberries went from shy/ timid to "Phoenix, Arizona, are you ready to raaaawk?" is quite something else. Perhaps it was always in them, it was just we never spotted it . . .

The Cranberries play Dublin Castle on Saturday 29th April with support from Embrace.