Gilbert O’Sullivan told David Hennessy about his new live record, feeling at home in Ireland and avoiding the red carpet.
With his new live album Songbook, Gilbert O’Sullivan reimagines eleven well known songs from his 57 year career.
O’Sullivan’s songwriting has earned him top 10 singles and No. 1s around the world, including the classic Alone Again (Naturally) which topped the U.S. charts for six weeks and earned him three Grammy nominations.
British recognition soon followed with the songs Clair and Get Down reaching the summit of the U.K. singles charts and his LP Back to Front topping the album charts.
Gilbert O’Sullivan has headline Glastonbury, been nominated for three Grammy Awards and won three Ivor Novellos including Songwriter of the Year in 1973.
But it should come as no surprise that it was not Gilbert O’Sullivan’s idea in the beginning as he is never one for looking back and is always keener to look ahead to the next album.
The album he expects to release next year will be his 21st.
His career will also reach six decades in 2027 but Gilbert doesn’t get carried away with anniversaries or milestones either.
However what he is proudest of is to still be doing almost 60 years on from starting out.
The idea for Songbook came after the acclaim and success of his last two studio albums.
BMG came up with the idea of recording stripped back versions of hits like Clair, Alone Again (Naturally) and Nothing Rhymed to capture the magic of the live shows.
O’Sullivan insisted the songs should be recorded at a venue with no audience and not in a studio. Thereafter, recording took place over two days in late 2023 at Lafayette, King’s Cross.
The Irish World spoke to Gilbert O’Sullivan last week when he happened to be back in Ireland for some shows. He was born in Waterford before his family moved to London and then Swindon when he was a child.
Is it good to be back in Ireland? “Of course, I always feel at home here.
“I was born in Waterford and although we left when I was seven years old, it’s always had a place in my heart. I used to go back a lot and it’s a very special place for me.
“It always will be very special to me.”
You got the freedom of the city of Waterford not that long ago as well. Was that a very proud moment?
“Yeah, that was a wonderful evening.
“All my family were there.
“I wish my mother had been there.
“It would have been pretty special for her.
“It’s fantastic and that’s why we’re going back for the first time in 20 odd years.”
Gilbert is to play five shows in his native city in November and December.
“Originally we agreed that we would do two shows in Waterford, and then that sold out in 20 minutes.
“Then we stuck another two in and that sold out in 20 minutes, so we’ve ended up doing five shows.
“After being given the freedom, I had to give something back.”
You are releasing the new record Songbook, a collection of stripped back versions of some of your well known hits but also a mix of old and new.
What has that experience been like?
“I’ve done live albums with a band in the past but what’s special about this was it was just recorded over two days, no audience.
“It’s just myself and Bill Shanley on guitar which is what we do on stage.
“I wasn’t that excited about the project to begin with, but I ended up really being happy about it.
“I think it’s turned out really nice, stripped back versions of the songs work really well because it pretty much captures the way we perform.
“I think people like the intimacy that you get by just hearing the song with very little accompaniment.”
O’Sullivan’s long time collaborator is also an Irishman, originally from Clonakilty, Co. Cork.
“Bill Shanley, my guitar player, is a fantastic guitar player.
“He gets a lot of credit for how successful we are in concert.
“We’ve been together now as a duo for quite some time.
“Long may that continue.”
Get Down, one of your best known, is not on there. Was it hard to pick which tracks would be included?
“No. Ironically enough, no difficulty.
“I allowed the record company, I allowed my record producer, I allowed the girls, my daughters and my wife all to have an input into what songs to put on.
“Nothing Rhymed is there. Of course it is.
“Nothing Rhymed is one of the major tracks on the album and it sounds great with just the two of us.
“Get Down sounds good but, as I say, the list that was put forward- For example, two songs on there are very popular which are not hits and that’s Dansette Dreams and 45s, a really nice song, and I’ll Never Love Again.
“Those are two songs that really work well on stage and they’ve worked really, really well on record.”
There are newer songs like Blue Anchor Bay which comes from your most recent album, Driven. However, while it is a new track it is one about a young time in your life so there is still nostalgia in there with that one.
“It’s one of the few songs that’s written about a real situation.
“Most of my songs are based on an understanding of a subject.
“The nice thing about Blue Anchor Bay is it’s based on when I was an art student in 1962.
“The teachers said one day that, ‘We’re going to have a trip to the seaside’ as a kind of surprise for everyone.
“So we all went to Blue Anchor Bay for the day.
“So it was based around that experience and so one of the few songs that are biographical in a sense.”
I can only think of Clair, which was written about a young child that you used to mind, that is personal in a similar way…
“It was my manager’s daughter and I used to babysit for them.
“She was a really sweet child and I wrote the song as a thank you to the parents.
“It’s very special.”
Does Clair herself love the song now she is much older? Are you still in touch?
“Yes, of course. We meet up with her every now and then and the relationship is strong.
“I think the last time she saw us on stage was at Hyde Park in front of about 25,000 people, and it was quite emotional for her when I sang Clair with the orchestra.
“So yes, she’s a special person. Always will be because of that song and she loves it too which is nice.”
This is nice to hear as O’Sullivan’s relationship with Mills, Clair’s father, turned somewhat sour with a bitter court battle about money the songwriter was owed being settled in O’Sullivan’s favour.
You spoke of growing up in Waterford before the family moved.
You also lived for some time in Bunclody, Co. Wexford, didn’t you? Did you enjoy your time there?
“Well, that was during all the legal issues.
“I had very large legal issues which prevented me from recording so coming to Ireland for the four years was beneficial because it meant that had I lost the major court case, it would have been very expensive.
“I would have had to be in a position to repay all the costs.
“But I didn’t lose, I won the case so that meant that, after four years, we were able to move back to the UK.
“We had a great time in Bunclody.
“The children were very young.
“It was a nice experience for all of us.”
But it must have been a worrying time with all you had going on..
“You can’t enter a court case without taking the view that you might lose.
“You can’t.
“It doesn’t always work out the way you think it should and so therefore I was very careful to make sure that we were in a position, because not only are court cases difficult and important but very expensive.
“And it can go on for years which, of course, it did.
“It started out as a small, I hoped, case but it developed into a whole can of worms but we dealt with it, and the result was very positive.”
Indeed but I’m sure you would have been happier to not have to go through it all.
“Of course, who needs to go to court?
“You need that like you need a hole in the head, but sometimes you have to react and deal with it.”
As you have. You started in 1967 but I’m sure all the way back then you could have been seen yourself here now, 20 albums later and a career that spans 57 years and counting..
“Back then you didn’t think in terms of longevity.
“The first record I made in 1967, I wasn’t mad about the record but I was determined to write good songs. That’s how I saw my future. That was the key to being a success for me.
“It was coming up with a good song and being able to go in the studio, record it and release it.
“That’s basically the story of my career and it will be on the next album.
“That’s what I love doing.”
You write every day don’t you, almost like a 9 to 5 or according to a video I saw. Do you still work that way?
“Well it’s the process when I’m in need of songs.
“The routine is discipline.
“When I need to write songs, I’ll sit there for however long it takes. Eight hours a day, five days a week I’ll work at it.
“The key is always to come up with it with a melody, so I’ll work at that.
“If I come up with what I think is a good melody, I’ll lock it away and continue to work for other melodies.
“Then the time comes to make an album, that’s the time when you choose the melodies.
“Maybe some of the lyrics are done but not all of them.
“You get with a producer.
“I’ll play them the songs with made up lyrics.
“We’ll pick the 12 together.
“Then I’ll go away for three months, write the lyrics and we go in the studio.
“That’s pretty much the process.”
You took big inspiration from The Beatles and even knocked around with Paul McCartney somewhat, didn’t you?
“The Beatles were a huge influence.
“The Beatles were great songwriters so they were the catalyst not just for being influenced to write songs but also image wise.
“The image that I created was nothing like them but the fact is that they did something very different.
“Because they did that, it left a big impression on me so the image I created, while very different, was based on the fact that I just wanted to do something that was different.
“Paul McCartney had a big do for, I think, his second solo album so I was invited.
“He (Paul) was dancing with his wife in the corner so I didn’t interrupt.”
I remember hearing you tell that story of McCartney’s party and how you almost snuck in avoiding the red carpet. It may surprise some with you being a showman but you’re actually introverted as well, aren’t you?
“I’m not a red carpet person, never have been.
“The thing with the Paul McCartney do was the driver was taking my sister and I.
“I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time so I took my sister.
“There was such a queue of people either side of the red carpet going into the venue so I kept telling the driver to go round and round and round hoping that the crowd would get lesser, but it didn’t.
“So in the end, I grabbed my sister and I sort of we walked up, sneaked up to the outside of the queue right at the top and then we just barged in.”
Brilliant. You have mentioned about your early image a few times.
That was what record companies wanted to change about you but you were determined to keep it, was it about not conforming?
“Of course.
“Nobody liked the image.
“Nobody liked it but I was determined, because I just dared to be different.
“When I look back on pictures, my hairstyle is the most fashionable hairstyle today.
“You look at my first record releases, you’ll see this pudding basin hair cut which at the time, in 1967, you looked like a freak.
“That’s how it was with me.
“I’m proud of that, because I look at my image as a kind of light thing: A light aspect of a career, not that important.
“The important things are the songs.
“I wouldn’t like to be looking back at pictures now and see me in flare jeans and long hair in 1970 which is what everybody thought I should be doing.
“I’m quite pleased to see the cap, boots and stuff.”
And the ironic thing is that now you’ve got the long hair….
“Yeah and why do I have that? Because everyone has short hair,” he laughs.
“If long hair come back into fashion, then who knows?”
You mentioned your forthcoming album. Can I ask what sort of themes are dealt with in the new album? I know you like to take inspiration from what is going on in the world?
“I touched onto quite a lot of things on the current album, I’ve talked about the state of the world and I’ve talked about issues that affect us all.
“I like, as a lyricist, to incorporate things that are going on today, which I think has a relevance.
“It doesn’t mean that the whole song will be about an issue I pick up on, it’ll just be part of the song. A bit like Nothing Rhymed.
“Nothing Rhymed has a different verse about a different aspect.
“The whole song, in many ways, is based on the fact that for the first time in 1968, when I was writing that song, maybe ’69, for the first time on television, you were able to see starving children. Nobody had seen Biafra. Nobody had ever seen on television starving children, hundreds of thousands of starving children, but that really affected so many people around the world.
“That’s incorporated into Nothing Rhymed.
“There’s aspects of that that I pick up on on new songs because, as I say, it doesn’t have to be the whole song about the particular subject.
“You just kind of incorporate it in there.
“That’s what makes lyric writing really interesting.
“You can kind of incorporate it in a subtle way, it would be dangerous to do it in a bigger way.
“So it’s just a subtle hint of what’s going on in the world, issues that we all pick up on.”
It’s a different world now. You speak about seeing starving children on TV for the first time, now we have events in Ukraine and Gaza unfolding in rolling news coverage..
“I picked up on aspects of that because we have a song called Let Bygones Be Bygones on the current album.
“There’s a middle section which states, ‘I fear for a child in a burned out home looking on in despair’.
“You can kind of touch on subjects which are important and relevant.”
Songbook is out now.
Gilbert O’Sullivan plays Liverpool Philharmonic on 14 October, Buxton Opera House on 20 October, Birmingham Town Hall on 21 October, The Pavilion in Glasgow on 23 October, The Town Hall in Cheltenham on 26 October and Theatre Royal in Waterford on 26, 28, 29 of November and 9 and 10 December.
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