September 3, 2015
Over the past few months I have not had much luck in getting hold of an old friend. I understand why I can’t and hope she gets the help she needs. When healthy she is one of kinder celebrities I have encountered and back in the day I witnessed a really cool act of kindness performed by her and her then husband. When this incident happened she was A+ list. She was in a group but it was all her that made it pop. Her group was touring with another group that still lingers but had its heyday about the same time as our foreign born former A+ lister.
I was there because of the other group and everyone decided to go to lunch. Both groups together. It was a mutual admiration society. All told with friends and whatever there were about 25 of us. No one bothered to call a restaurant we all just showed up. Seating 25 people was going to be an issue. All the tables were filled and there was a deadline to get back and no one wanted to get back in the vehicles and find another place to eat. This was in a strip mall and one of the stores was a True Value or Ace Hardware. Our singer walked over and saw they had picnic tables for sale so she bought all they had and then some traffic cones and rope and blocked off part of the parking lot and set up the tables. She then went back to the restaurant and told them her plan and they agreed to deliver the food. It was a Mexican place and they just served a bunch of different fillings with tortillas and brought out chips and salsa. basically it became one big buffet. Our singer felt bad for the patrons inside because their lunches had been disrupted so she bought all of them lunch and gave them all tickets and backstage passes to the show and boozed them up like crazy that night. She went to all the owners and employees of the stores in the strip mall and invited them all to eat for free at the buffet and did the same thing with tickets and passes. She paid the bill for the entire place and for a tip she tripled the amount of the bill. It was just something I will never forget. All of these people who were gathered together almost instantly and all together eating lunch out on picnic tables in the middle of a parking lot.
Dolores O'Riordan/Cranberries
A+ list? We're stretching a bit there
ReplyDeleteYeah, I sort of put them in that one-hit-wonder box.
ReplyDeleteZombie !
ReplyDeleteDisagree with the ranking as well but amazed at the thoughtfulness. I hope she gets help, too.
ReplyDeleteAre fucking kidding me? One of the biggest acts of the 90s, four Top 20 albums, eight Top 20 singles, one of only five bands to debut an album at #1 on the UK charts. "No Need to Argue" and "Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?" went 5x and 7x platinum in the US alone. Where WERE you in the 90s?
ReplyDeleteTHANK you!
ReplyDelete@Lisa: Thank YOU!
ReplyDeleteAlso, you couldn't ESCAPE them on MTV. I dunno, maybe it's a generational thing. I graduated high school in 92, and for roughly the balance of the decade, I don't think I knew ANYONE who didn't own at least one Cranberries album. They were kind of a big f'ing deal.
Great band I absolutely agree. Great reveal today also,and great job guessing it@Tricia13.
ReplyDeleteI think she will be ok, Dolores O. seems like a tough chick.
Beautiful voice. Beautiful woman. It's nice to hear that she's got a beautiful soul too... I wish good luck to her, whatever the problems she may be facing.
ReplyDeleteI think this is my favorite blind ever
ReplyDeleteExactly! And I still can't believe Mr. Hall wouldn't let poor Elton rescue their cd from the quad!
ReplyDelete@Mooshki: Hahahaha, right? You know, that wound up being a nice little character touch that I would have missed under most circumstances, but I was a little obsessed with the Cranberries in the 90s. I knew all their albums, and I didn't recognize that song, so I was kind of baffled at first. I did some extensive searching at my local record stores (no Google back then!), and eventually found out that the song Elton was listening to in the car with Cher was only released on a single that was an import to the US - or at least, that was the only place I could find it at the time. So, not only was Elton pining for his Cranberries CD, it was like a $30 buck import that only had four songs... the ultimate in rich kid pretentious music purchases!
ReplyDeleteThe @Ivy. Like others here said-- I was a fan of theirs. Some beautiful music and hey- they are Irish after all!
ReplyDeleteTHIS
ReplyDelete@Mooshki
ReplyDeleteWell, I graduated in the 80s and the Cranberries were never on my radar. I can only name one song too.
ReplyDeleteah bummer... class of 81 and huge fan who bought a few CDs and much later downloaded everything to itunes library. Just operate on the premise that just because we haven't heard of someone... it doesn't negate their success.
DeleteApparently when her father died a couple of years ago she came into contact at the funeral the person who abused her as a child who has never been brought to justice. She had a history or depression and anorexia and it seems like this set her off again. I hope she is getting help and can find solace and recovery from it. It's lovely to hear what a generous and thoughtful person she can be.
ReplyDeleteApparently she has some legal & medical troubles. This article from DM was dated the same day as OB. Hopefully she has someone show her the same kindness that she showed others previously. I wish her well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3220727/Cranberries-singer-ill-attend-court-Dolores-O-Riordan-receiving-residential-medical-care-following-alleged-air-rage-incident-New-York-flight.html