Somebody sent it to him, and a few weeks later he wrote to me on his surprisingly cheery personalised stationery. It turns out he doesn't read articles about himself, and even though the piece was as flattering as any artist could hope, he still hasn't read it when we speak, admitting breezily that he has no intention of ever doing so.
I am not into self-analysis. The music is the thing. I am not writing for critics; I don't want to become a personality. He is open about what he sees as a conspiracy to keep him out of the popular music press, to stop younger artists being exposed to his work.
It might not be a conspiracy, but the man has a point. Although it's cool for singers to namecheck everyone from Paul Simon to Bob Dylan, Sandie Shaw to The Carpenters, mentioning the quintessentially English Irish-born songwriter is seen as a bridge too far.
Never mind that ultracool songwriters such as Morrissey and Aimee Mann admire his lyrics or that, as O'Sullivan mentions, The Thrills popped in recently for tea and sandwiches made by his Norwegian-born wife, Ase.
Wow, I say, The Thrills: they like you. O'Sullivan gets a bit annoyed, assuming that a reporter must be shocked that the Dublin band could like him.
His misplaced ire is a little irritating, but even as he begins a lecture about jumping to musical conclusions you can't help finding this faintly pessimistic, mordant and hyper-sensitive man endearing, especially as those are the qualities behind his best songs. This is, after all, the man who wrote Alone Again Naturally , a song about contemplating suicide, which in the early s hit the top of the US charts for six weeks.
They love him in the US, apparently, giving him none of the ribbing that is par for the course in the UK. What I really want to talk to him about is the way he feels he is viewed in Ireland and why he seems so bitter about the size of his following here.
I still have lots of family there, and I went back to live in Bunclody, Co Wexford, for a few years during the court case. But the fact remains that the Irish only claimed me as their own, and were proud of me, after I started being big in England.
When the success tailed off they were the first not to buy new product, whereas in England, where they weren't 'proud' of me, they would still buy the records. These days I am interviewed by people in Ireland and they say the Irish call me one of their own, but if that is the case why don't they buy my records? His doubts about whether the Irish care about him have been mildly assuaged by the fact that The Berry Vest Of Gilbert O'Sullivan is about to go platinum in the Republic.
But he will never play in his native Waterford again after a 1,seat theatre in the town was only half-full for an appearance in the early s. I couldn't understand it; they were obviously trying to tell me something.
Jim Barnes. Celebrities Born in Ireland. Aidan Walsh Gaelic Football Player. Louise Quinn Association Football Player. Declan Carr Hurler. Iris Murdoch Novelist. Laura Duryea Football Player. Jim Sheridan Director. Famous Birthdays December 1. George Sterling Poet. Lloyd Doyley Association Football Player. Gilbert also made a return to live performances in the early nineties, playing regularly in both Europe and Japan.
In , Gilbert was again in court, this time he sued American rapper Biz Markie and won the decision after Markie's unauthorized sample of "Alone Again Naturally " on his album I Need a Haircut. A single, Tomorrow Today had topped the Japanese charts for nine weeks, and this success led to a tour of Japan in early with his newly formed backing group, during which he recorded and filmed his first ever live album Tomorrow Today.
This album was recorded almost entirely at his home in Jersey in the Channel Islands. By Larry with a similar track listing to the Japanese released The Little Album was released in Larry is a famous English cartoonist, much admired by Gilbert.
Larry provided original cartoons for the album sleeve and booklet. Every Song Has It's Play was released the following year and was the soundtrack of the semi-autobiographical stage show that Gilbert had acted and sang in, in Singer Sowing Machine was released in The album title Irlish, combination of the words Irish and English, appropriate for someone born in Ireland and raised in England. Gilbert's family was part of this migration.
Gilbert continued to tour and he played a series of concerts in Ireland in and in the UK in to promote the Irlish album. A new studio album Piano Foreplay followed in It contains 73 tracks which span the years This is the first in-depth survey of Gilbert's lengthy career.
It contains numerous singles and B-sides, tracks from 16 of his albums, and five previously unreleased tracks. Gilbert returned to Japan in June for a series of 13 shows. Gilbert spent the end of and the beginning of recording his next studio album "A Scruff At Heart" which was released in Japan on 25 October Artist descriptions on Last. Feel free to contribute! All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply.
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