Cranberries have to let it linger

The Cranberries are to reform to perform a series of concerts and record new music.

The announcement was made on the band’s website this morning. They said they “couldn’t be happier to announce the news”.

Touring will begin at the end of the year in North America with dates in Europe, including Ireland, happening in early 2010.

The announcement was made to coincide with the release today of singer Dolores O'Riordan's second solo album No Baggage.

The Cranberries were one of the biggest Irish bands of the last decade. Their debut album Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We?and its follow-up No Need to Arguewere multi-million selling records.

O'Riordan said on the band's website: "I've decided to reunite with my former band members in The Cranberries and we will be writing new songs and performing tracks off my new album as well as our greatest hits during the shows."

The band went their separate ways in 2003, but never formally broke up.

There was a Cranberries reunion at Trinity College in January with brothers Noel and Mike Hogan to commemorate O'Riordan being made an honorary patron of Trinity's Philosophical Society though no tour announcement came of it.

Guitarist Noel Hogan said: "Over the last few years, each member of the band has had time to work on different projects and learn so much from their experience. Now the time is right for The Cranberries to bring all of this together and move forward."