The Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan was in London to discuss plans for the band’s latest album when she died.
The singer is to be laid to rest in her home town in Ireland next week after she was found dead in a London hotel on Monday aged 46.
O’Riordan – who was also a member of alternative rock group D.A.R.K – had been working on a new studio album with The Cranberries in the months before her death and was expected to discuss its scheduled release with record label BMG while in England, her publicist confirmed.
A number of tests have been carried out to establish the cause of the musician’s death, an inquest opening heard on Friday before the hearing was adjourned until April 3.
Irish and international singer Dolores O’Riordan has died suddenly in London today. She was 46 years old. Family members are devastated to hear the breaking news and have requested privacy at this very difficult time. Full Statement: https://t.co/L8K98BFpSM pic.twitter.com/ADEY51Xnwe
— The Cranberries (@The_Cranberries) January 15, 2018
In a statement O’Riordan’s publicist said: “Whilst the primary purpose of Dolores’s trip to London last Sunday evening was for a studio mixing session on Monday and Tuesday with Martin ‘Youth’ Glover on a recently recorded D.A.R.K. album, it has emerged that while in London she was also due to meet with The Cranberries’ record label, BMG to discuss plans for the release of a new Cranberries studio album that she had been working on with the band in recent months.”
A spokesperson for the band’s management confirmed the upcoming album.
O’Riordan’s body will return to Ireland for a series of services beginning on Sunday before the funeral mass taking place in the Church of Saint Ailbe in Ballybricken, Co Limerick, on Tuesday at 11.30am.
Canon Liam McNamara, the Associate Pastor and a close friend of the O’Riordan family, will act as the Chief Celebrant of the Requiem Mass.
Father James Walton will be the Chief co-celebrant, alongside Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly and Archbishop Dermot Clifford, the Archbishop Emeritus of Cashel and Emly.
The funeral mass will be broadcast live by Limerick’s local radio station.
A public reposal will take place on Sunday at St Josephs’ Church in Limerick while family and close friends will gather at Cross’s Funeral Home in Ballyneety on Monday.
Tuesday’s service will be followed by a private family burial.
Sales and streams of the band’s back catalogue have rocketed by 1,000% in the days since her death.
Greatest hits collection Stars: The Best Of 1992-2002 landed at number 16 on the albums chart this week, a higher position than its previous peak of number 20 when it was released in 2002.
The singer was renowned for her distinctive voice and the band enjoyed huge success in the 1990s with tracks including Zombie and Linger.