In the studio, I kept thinking: вЂHe used to sit with Johnny Marr, and now heвЂ™s sat with me.вЂ™ I tried to play it cool but couldnвЂ™t help myself and started grilling him about the Smiths. When Island signed us, we asked if we could work with Stephen Street, because he was the SmithsвЂ™ producer and we all loved them. вЂњWe scraped together money for a demo and sent it to record companies. But when Dolores heard the monotonous loops that would become Linger, she knew they had potential. I knew about five chords and four of them are probably in Linger. Some years later, after I was married, the guy Linger is about wrote me a long letter, saying: вЂI know the songвЂ™s about me. I started running and after three blocks hid behind a skip. Once, I was in a shop buying underwear and about eight people spotted me. They were too big for me, but I put them on anyway. My mother bought my clothes, so at the first photoshoot for the Cranberries, as the band was now called, Noel brought me an outfit and gave me a pair of Doc Martens. While my friends were all getting dolled up and using sunbeds, I was the overprotected, awkward girl in a pink flowery dress with bows in her hair, who played the organ in the church. EverythingвЂ™s so dramatic when youвЂ™re 17, so I poured it into the song. Everyone saw me being dumped, publicly, at the disco. But at the next disco, he walked straight past me and asked my friend to dance. Until then, IвЂ™d always thought that putting tongues in mouths was disgusting, but when he gave me my first proper kiss, I did indeed вЂhave to let it lingerвЂ™. This guy asked me to dance and I thought he was lovely. вЂњIt was inspired by a night I had at a club called MadonnaвЂ™s. I never imagined that that it would become a big song. I took a tape of it home and came up with a verse and chorus. Initially, it was just a chord shape, with no real melody or lyrics. Noel Hogan, their guitarist, used to make up his own chords, sometimes with just one finger. They couldnвЂ™t really play, which was part of their charm. вЂњBands in Limerick just did cover versions, so when I met this group called The Cranberry Saw Us, I was immediately impressed: they wanted to write their own songs.

Cranberries songs linger