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Gilbert O'Sullivan.....So Happy With Life NaturallyTV Times March 28, 1981 By JAN ETHERINGTON
A fter two years away from the limelight, jaunty Irish singer Gilbert O'Sullivan is celebrating his 10th anniversary in show business with a new album, two recent hits on the international charts, a new single ready for release, a British tour starting next month and a new family. 0’Sullivan denies he is celebrating a comeback. "I’m just picking up where I left off. Nothing's really changed. I'm still in the same house, still playing the same old piano. However, before his latest album, Off Centre (C.B.S. Records) was released at the end of last year, O'Sullivan had been almost completely out of circulation while he was involved in bitter litigation over song royalties with his former manager, Gordon Mills. It took him two years to sort out. This year he believes he is entering a better phase in both career and personal life. A year ago he married Aase Brekke, a Norwegian airhostess, and last November he became a father for the fist time. He is, he admits, taking a certain pride in his daughter, Helen Marie. "It seemed a very natural step to get married and have children," he says, “but I used to cringe when people talked about their babies. I thought, 'Here we go, but now I tend to be like that. Boy or girl, if they're healthy, it's quite an unbelievable thing." The living room mantelpiece at his Weybridge, Surrey, home is clammed with snapshots of the baby and O'Sullivan admits he helps out whenever he can. "The nappy situation is easy because Aase has these wonderful American diapers but I help out by holding Helen and getting her to sleep after a feed."' It looks as if Aase may have changed the man who wrote the uncompromising song A Woman’s Place is in the Home. But he insists he hasn't altered his views. I stand by every word. I think for most people marriage only works with children and when you have children it's essential the woman stays at home while they're young. One of you must, and by the laws of nature, the A woman seems the most appropriate. I hate the word chauvinist, but I do hold very chauvinistic views. I'm very opinionated about it. My mother hated the song A Woman's Place Is In The Home. "But I'm first and foremost a writer and I found it a fascinating subject." It might be fascinating but, he admits, it's also controversial- especially at home. "Aase totally disagrees with most of my views. We'd known each other for seven years before we married. She didn't want to up work after our marriage and I told that she should. I know she misses it, but I don't want her to work." Aase may have a fight on her hands there but in other areas she appears to be winning. "I have to go out more now, for her sake," O'Sullivan agrees. "She keeps telling me that I remind her of a film about a man who kept thinking he was being recognized when he wasn't. It's true. I do get paranoid if I go out and I think someone's watching me. I think appearance is very important and I worry about how I look. I'd hate a couple of fans to come to the door when I'm not prepared to look and act as they expect me to." He has, he knows, a reputation as a hermit. "Not many people know me. I don't socialize. I don't go down to the pub. I must be one of the few Irishmen who don't drink. It’s just that I hate crowds and . . . " he thinks for a moment and adds, wryly, "I don't like being among people like myself. O'Sullivan has always been a thoughtful, articulate talker and writer. A decade ago, his first Top Ten hit, Nothing Rhymed, established him as being both perceptive and original. His schoolboy appearance, however, while appealing to pop audiences, meant that many music critics refused to take him seriously. "I don't regret the way I started," he insists. "It was my idea to wear the pudding basin haircut and the short trousers. I admit that I might have had more credibility if I had appeared more normal. I was pretty immature and naive at the time but I think these are essential things at certain times in life. I always come in for criticism one way or another." One criticism which really makes him angry is that his lifestyle is that of a "wealthy pop star". "I never asked for the money. All I wanted was to be successful," he says. "I won't deny that I enjoy some of the things that success brings and I also think it's important to act out the part. But I've never owned a Rolls-Royce and I deliberately drive an economical small car these days. I've read interviews in which this house is described as 'a secluded luxurious mansion', which is rubbish." It is, in fact, a comfortable, rambling family house and O'Sullivan has lived there for eight years. "If it burnt down, I'd try and save these," he says, pointing to his growing collection of framed cartoons which cover the walls in every room. I think they give a truer picture than almost anything else of the British way of life." He has an office in the house, and a brass plaque on the door reads "Genius at Work." It is here that he works, writes, and plays tapes often in the restful company of Leo, his rough coated collie. "Since I passed 30, I've found that age has become an absorbing subject for me as a writer. I was aware of time in my 20s but it just seems to fly by after 30." Now 34, he says that while his ambitions are all to do with musical success, he doesn't see them in terms of age. "'For instance, I don't think that I must write a musical by the time I'm 35. I still have a lot to learn about writing and a lot of improvements to make. I do think I have something valid to offer with my songs." He is aware of possible pitfalls. "I could become the variety show entertainer, or I could do the shows I want to do, dress the way I like. But people will try to put me in a pigeon hole." To confuse those who would like to place a convenient label round his work O'Sullivan's latest album, Off Centre, contains a cross section of songs from the romantic What's In A Kiss? to the cynical, sarcastic I love it, but. . ., both of which made the international charts. The album was produced by Gus Dudgeon, Elton John's former producer. The songs were all written during O'Sullivan's recent enforced "'retirement" when "I disciplined myself five days a week to get up, have breakfast, spend three hours putting some ideas on tape, have lunch then go back to work again. "What comes out may not be very good but it is important that you do it. Discipline is important and if you have that in your make-up it's better than anything else. A lot of people tend to take the alcohol way out and drown their sorrows. I may have walked up a few walls in my time, but I never got to that point. Failure in my career is not having a successful record." Gilbert O'Sullivan smiles a rare smile. People are always telling him he doesn't smile enough but those people who know him say that he's smiling a lot these days.
O'Sullivan - man and music Gilbert O'Sullivan was discovered in 1969 and managed, along with Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, by Gordon Mills. All but his latest album release were recorded on the M.A.M. label. Since Nothing Rhymed made the Top 10 in late 1970, O'Sullivan has had a number of hit singles, including Clair, Get Down, Matrimony and What's In A Kiss and Alone Again (Naturally) (1972). Albums released on M.A.M. include: Himself (1971), Back To Front (1972), I'm A Writer, Not A Fighter (1973), A Stranger In My Own Back Yard (1974), Southpaw (1975). Now recording with C.B.S., his latest album has, so far, yielded two hit singles, What's In A Kiss and I love It But ... Off Centre (C.B.S. album, 1980) Side 1: I love it, but. . What’s in a Kiss?, Hello, It's Goodbye, Why Pretend, I'm Not Getting Any Younger, Things That Go Bump In The Night. Side 2: Help Is On The Way, For What It's Worth, The Niceness Of It All, Can’t Get Enough Of You, Break It To Me Gently, Or So They Say. |
