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Let’s do the time-warpThe Stage - December 1989 AFTER years of being held back by a legal dispute, pop singer and composer Gilbert O'Sullivan is back and raring to go but says he finds today's pop scene very much The Way Things Used To Be, to quote a song on his new album. Swindon reared singer and songwriter O’Sullivan celebrated his 43rd birthday on December 1 by coming back on the record and raring to go on the road again in 1990. Relaxing at a top London hotel O'Sullivan, real name Raymond, explained that he finds little changed on the pop scene. On the records side he has a new album, in The Key Of G on Dover/ Chrysalis Records, a single from it, Lost A Friend, and he stressed that whether the album is successful or not, it's a success as he had managed to do it and have complete control now over everything he does and has done in the past.
"I was not prepared to just sign to another record company. I wanted to have as much control of my product as possible and it has taken me four years to be in a position to do that," he told me. During the years he has not put out a record or performed, he has never stopped writing "and often I have given a concert for one in my living room," he smiled. Home since 1985 has been the island of Jersey. He chose to live there because "of financial reasons and second, my daughter was at school when we moved and it's a good place to educate children. There's little unemployment and no teacher problems. It reminds me of when I grew up in Swindon in the fifties. "Both my daughters are at school now. Helen Marie is nine and Tara five. My wife, Asa, is Norwegian," explained O’Sullivan, who enjoys the semi-rural lifestyle. "I do not drive and I can walk to the airport and into town. It's a half hour flying time to England and half an hour by boat to France." O'Sullivan, born at Waterford, Eire, was educated at St Joseph's Secondary Modem, Swindon and at the town's art college. He is not happy with the way his hometown has been altered. "There's little of what I remember about Swindon growing up there. Because of the M4 it's a perfect place to do business. It would be nice if industrial estates were in keeping with the environment instead of those red and grey structures they are putting 0`Sullivan whose mother and sisters still live there. Did he think in the years he couldn't do things that his music career might be over? "I never had any doubts' I continued working behind the scenes. I have never had any doubts as a songwriter. That's the sort of boost that you get when you have problems. You feel you are still capable of writing good songs." Picking up where he left off, O'Sullivan feels like he is in a time warp. "I think if you had stopped and moved into something different and then come back that might be a culture shock-, but nothing has really changed for me." Discussing how be manages to work at home with two young daughters about the house he explained that he has a music room, "where I just go upstairs. I work from nine to four, five days a week, nine months of the year. I don't have any studio equipment." O'Sullivan would have preferred to get his comeback album out sooner "but I am delighted it's out now. If people are interested they will want to have it. It’s nice to think you can appeal to people who were not born when you had your first success. It's one of the exciting things. There's no reason to feel you are not contemporary. I feel very positive about it. I love writing songs and making records. I feel I am as valid as anybody.
"We are pleased with the record and it's a nice way to re-emerge, to pick up where we left off. We are coming in quietly, hopefully leading up to bigger things. The single? We thought the song was a very good song which might not be commercial but will make people know it's you, rather than come back with another track which people might accuse you of doing with contemporary dance music." Discussing his stage plans O'Sullivan disclosed that he's thinking- of going on the road in the spring, "and it might be a solo tour with keyboards, no band. It would be a UK tour, all over, and afterwards possibly one or two, dates in Europe. Concerts are good fun, you get an opportunity to see the people who are going to your concerts and get a idea of the people you are appealing to, and they can hear songs you have written over the years." I asked O'Sullivan about his reissuing of old material, in these CD days, and he replied cautiously that "think for the time being we will just keep it out. There will be a time when it will be appropriate to release old products. That's one of the nice things about timing control of it. Hopefully, we will get success with this and perhaps at that time we can combine the old with the new. There’s a time for us to release old material on CD. "My brother Kevin takes care of licensing and publishing. That's a part of the business that doesn't particularly interest me." Are his daughters musical? "I don't, encourage it but it's in their blood. They have never seen me perform. They are not aware of what I am. When people stop me in the street and say "are you Gilbert O'Sullivan? I say I used to be." Discussing how he kept his interest during the difficult years, he paused and replied: "It doesn't matter if you are right or wrong, it’s if you are enthusiastic to keep doing it. If you are the kind of person who loves that interest and doesn’t feel like staying in on a Sunny day to write songs you lose it. Discipline is the only thing. |
