The Cranberries Unearth Lost 1994 London Show

The Cranberries are revisiting the pivotal stretch between their debut album and global breakthrough with the release of Live at The London Astoria II, 1994, a newly unearthed concert recording due Aug. 28 via Island/UMe.

Captured during the brief window after 1993’s Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? had turned the Irish quartet into an international attraction, but before No Need to Argue made them one of the biggest bands in the world, the performance finds the band road-testing songs that would soon become cornerstones of its catalog. Alongside early favorites like “Linger,” “Dreams” and “Pretty,” the 15-song set includes live versions of future No Need to Argue standouts such as “Dreaming My Dreams,” “Ridiculous Thoughts,” “Daffodil Lament,” “Empty” and an early performance of “Zombie,” months before its release as the album’s lead single.

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“It was such a buzz playing in the Astoria,” drummer Fergal Lawler says. “We had returned from the U.S. and taken a bit of time off for Christmas. This was our first concert back in London after achieving such success in America. We were delighted to see a few of our hardcore fans at the front of the stage. I think we felt proud that all our hard work had finally come to fruition.”

The timing of the recording reflects a band whose relentless touring had sharpened both its confidence and its new material. Looking back on the No Need to Argue era in a 2020 interview with SPIN, guitarist Noel Hogan recalled that nearly all of the album was written while the group was on the road. “We had been playing particular songs like ‘Zombie’ a long, long time before we got into the studio,” he said. “The great thing was we were so much tighter as a band, and it went really, really quick.”

Lawler remembered entering the sessions without the pressure others around them were feeling. “We had all the songs written before we got to the studio because we had been touring for, Jesus, nearly two years,” he told SPIN. “We weren’t really stressed. We were just enjoying ourselves.”

That confidence paid off. Released in October 1994, No Need to Argue reached No. 1 in multiple countries and of course spawned “Zombie,” one of defining alternative songs of the mid ’90s. It has accumulated more than 1.8 billion YouTube views to date.

Live at The London Astoria II, 1994 also features the non-album tracks “Liar,” originally released on the Empire Records soundtrack, and “So Cold in Ireland,” the B-side to “Ode to My Family.” The collection will be available digitally, on CD, standard black vinyl and a limited-edition “molten lava” 2LP pressing. Click here to pre-order.

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