Today, The Cranberries’ highly anticipated ‘Live At The London Astoria II, 1994’ will be released for the first time via Island/UME on multiple formats, including 2LP Limited Edition Molten Lava Vinyl, standard black vinyl, CD, and digitally for streaming and download.
Featuring seven tracks from their debut ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’, including ‘Pretty’, ‘Linger’, and ‘Dreams’, and nine from their follow-up ‘No Need to Argue’, including ‘Dreaming My Dream’, ‘Daffodil Lament’, ‘Empty’ and, of course, ‘Zombie’. It also features two non-studio album tracks – ‘Liar’ which was originally released on the Empire Records Soundtrack (1995) and ‘So Cold In Ireland’, a B-side for their single ‘Ode to My Family.’
“It was such a buzz playing in The Astoria,” remembers drummer Fergal Lawler. “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.”
Recorded between their widely celebrated debut ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’ (1993) and soon-to-be-released commercial breakthrough ‘No Need to Argue’ (1994), this special performance found the Irish band at the pivotal moment before they would become worldwide stars. Feeding off the excitement from their chart-topping first album which spawned the massive hits ‘Linger’ and ‘Dreams’, The Cranberries played to an intimate crowd at the legendary venue London Astoria II.
Chosen by NPR as a “Best New Album” upon release, the reception for the album has been heralded by NME, DORK, MXDWN, ABC News, among many others. Glide Magazine praises, “Despite still being a relatively young band, they played that show with the confidence many groups take decades to develop. More than 30 years later, it’s remarkable to hear those songs when they were still new, played by a band seemingly unaware of just how massive they, and those songs, were about to become.” SPIN notes “before ‘No Need to Argue’ made them one of the biggest bands in the world, this performance finds the band road-testing songs that would soon become cornerstones of its catalog.”
‘Live at The Astoria II, 1994’ offered the attending fans an inside peek at never-before-released music, including a one-of-a-kind performance of ‘Zombie’. Seven months later, the single would be released, achieving worldwide chart-topping status in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland and was #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US. Currently amassing over 1.8 billion views on YouTube, it remains one of the most streamed ‘90s songs globally to this day.
A snapshot of the band before becoming one of the biggest bands from Ireland, ‘Live at The London Astoria II, 1994’ captures all the early excitement of a band on the verge of superstardom and bottles it in this special live recording. It is released today, September 4th, 2026 via Island/UME as 2LP limited edition molten lava vinyl, standard black vinyl, CD and digital and is available HERE.