IT’S BEEN A LIFE WHERE EVERYTHING HAS RHYMED FOR GILBERT
PAUL DEERING SPEAKS TO POP ICON OF THE 1970’S, GILBERT O’SULLIVAN AND FINDS HIM AT EASE WITH BOTH HIS MUSIC AND HIS LIFE AS HE HITS THE ROAD TOURING AT THE AGE OF 70 WHICH WILL INCLUDE A DATE AT SLIGO LIVE
AT the height of his f ame i n the 1970 s and 1980s he was one of the World’s l eading pop stars. A singer songwriter instantly recognisable wherever he went who had hit after hit including, ‘Alone Again’, ‘Clair’, ‘Nothing Rhymed’ ‘Get Down’, and ‘Matrimony’. He might have ‘disappeared’ in the 1990’s and 2000’s but Gilbert O’Sullivan says he didn’t, that he never fell out of love with writing or singing spending months at a time just sitting and basically putting music together.
He’s back touring at the ripe age of 70 and has no retirement plans just yet.
It’s like he has anything to prove, he’s not back on stage because he has to. He just loves what he does and leaves it up to others to judge his music and whatever legacy he will behind.
He basically says, ‘I’m Gilbert O’Sullivan’ like me or leave me. It’s a good way to be. The Top 20 hits, if they even exist anymore, don’t worry him any more. The fact his fan base is in their 50’s to 70’s doesn’t either.
Gilbert O’Sullivan is wrapped around what good vibes life can offer him.
And, it was certainly an enthusiastic and friendly voice that greeted me when I rang his Jersey home to chat about his career and the fact he’s back on the road, a 50 th Anniversary tour which included what he described as “a brilliant” BBC Proms In The Park at Hyde Park earlier this month in front of 50,000 people who were treated to a five-song set.
It has been a busy but not a hectic September he says with the rescheduling of four UK concerts which had been due to be held in March but he had got ill. Sligo Live beckons then in October while he will also play Dublin and Galway to see out the 50 th anniversary tour.
So, what makes a pop star whose height of fame was decades ago want to keep to the forefront of an industry that has changed so much from the days of vinyl?
Afterall, he admits he’s financially secure and with his 71st birthday looming in December you’d imagine he’d have long put away the piano but the one thing that strikes you immediately when talking to Gilbert is that he is content.
It’s like he will never be rushed, that he has his feet firmly on the ground and puts life and its tribulations into perspective.
“It has always been that way with the Waterford born singer. He was never one to hog the limelight even at the pinnacle of his fame.
Another tour is planned for February or March next year and he’s working on another, as of yet untitled album to release in conjunction with it.
“The writing is everything of course but you can’t be making records and not be willing to go out there and perform.
“I don’t like people who make records and then don’t ever perform. If you are going to make a record it’s important you get out there so people can see you if they want to and get to hear you if they want to. Live performances are important but the most important thing for me is song writing.”
He sets no time limit on his song writing. “If I’m writing it’ ll be for how long it takes. I’ ll just sit here five days a week, four weeks a month, eight hours a day until I come up with the music that I’m trying to write and then I’ ll lock that away. I never complete a song until I’m actually going to make a record.”
“I just write songs,” he stresses when asked if his style has changed. He’s working with producer Ethan Johns on the next album which he says will be interesting but adds, “the songs are what I write. It’s what I do for a living. I write songs.”
“If you like them great. If you don’t like them fine and I’ ll just move on and do more of what somebody else likes. I love the process of song writing.
“That’s key to everything I do. If I didn’t have the songs I wouldn’t be talking to you. It’s as simple as that.” A typical year could involve nine months writing and three months of performing.
Born Raymond Edward O’Sullivan, he was seven when his family moved to Battersea, London in 1953 and a year later they moved to Swindon.
“I’m seventy years of age but I’m still 21 as a song writer because the exact process I had when I was writing when I was young is still the same today. Pianos don’t change. Granted, you can have an upright as opposed to a grand piano now but the keyboard is the same.
“Technology has very little to do with what I do. I have a purpose built studio but all I need for writing is my piano and a cassette recorder as I still use cassettes. As long as I love song writing I will continue.
“If I stop writing, if I lose interest in it then I’ ll just stop and do something else. But, at the moment I don’t look beyond what I’m doing now and I’m really enjoying it and I’m looking forward to making a new record and performing.
“We do a two and a half hour concert and involves all the hits people want to hear and an element of new material so it’s a good combination and I really enjoy it and it’s been a good year for me.
“I’m happy I’ve re-established myself and playing in front of 50,000 people at Hyde Park was really special. Things like that are very uplifting for me and positive.”
Looking back to the 1970s and 1980s he says he is proud of everything he achieved but says despite all the adulation he never lost sight of the fact he wished to remain grounded.
He says he was “never a red carpet person or got involved in the social side of success.”
“It didn’t really interest me. My feet have always firmly been on the ground at home here.”
“I’ve always had a good stable background with a good family life,” He adds. In 1980 he married his Norwegian girlfriend, Aase. They went on to have two daughters, Helen-Marie and Tara, the latter having been born in Dublin.
“I’m proud and pleased with all the success that I’ve had no question about that but that was then, this is now.”
He says he didn’t go into the business to make money.
The former postal clerk who was earning ten pounds a week saw success in getting a record played and getting it into the Hit parade if you were lucky. I didn’t see it in terms of money.
“If someone writes to me and says they want to get into it to make money I tell them to become accountants. So, it’s not about money for me.
“Of course, I’m comfortable because I own my publishing so I benefit from that and the master recordings I own so I don’t have any financial problems in that sense but as I say the music business for me is about success. It’s not about making money.”
Gilbert had one celebrated falling out with MAM Records and a lawsuit followed with a court deciding in 1982 he was entitled to £7 million in damages in a dispute over how much money his songs had earned and how much of that money he had actually received.
His recording career ended up being on hold for five years. It’s all well behind him now of course and there’s no hint of regret over anything he has ever done.
The industry has changed so much of course with downloads the norm just as vinyl and CDs were in the past.
“Progress is what it is. As long as there is room for people like myself then I’m happy to be there.
“I wouldn’t knock anybody, there’s a market for everything and you do what you can and enjoy it. If you don’t like it then get out.”
He admits he never watches X-Factor a show that dominates entertainment viewing in the lead-up to Christmas as the next ‘star’ of the pop world is unearthed.
“I wouldn’t knock it in the sense that you must remember a lot of people just want to get on television and don’t mind if they don’t win. It’s okay. I’m not mad about X-Factor.
“What I don’t like is people being criticised on screen. I don’t like the way people get put down for singing in a way that doesn’t agree with the panel that’s there. But that’s how it is and it is very popular and good luck to the people who do it.
“Even the ones who don’t win and get criticised seem to enjoy it and don’t mind getting some kind of exposure. There’s room for it if that’s what people want.”
Gilbert still has relations in Waterford and gets over to Dublin on a regular basis. “You never lose track of your roots.”
“I’m proud of my Irish roots albeit most of my musical background stems from growing up in England, listening to radio and American and English pop music.”
Ireland embraced his early success and he recalls playing a packed Dublin Stadium and an appearance on the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne in the aftermath of the runaway hit, ‘Nothing Rhymed’ released in October 1971.
“They loved me. I don’t think there had been anyone like me in Ireland before with the kind of success globally I had so they were really proud of me.
“It ebbed off. They quickly moved off in Ireland from me but whenever I go over there, there is always a lot of goodwill for me when I do concerts.
“I meet people afterwards and they are really proud of me and that’s really nice that they feel that way.”
Jersey has been home for Gilbert and his family since 1984 .
“It was a great place for my daughters to grow up. It’s a healthy place, good beaches and the air is good. It’s a small island. I don’t drive. so there’s no motorways to worry about and I can walk home from the airport if I want to.”
It’ ll be Gilbert’s first time in Sligo but he’s aware it’s the home of Westlife and he has plenty of praise for Shane Filan. “He’s a really good singer. They were all really talented singers. The standard of singing in young people today is much better than it was in the 1960s.
“If you take people like the Beatles for instance. If you saw them perform live in the 1960s the vocals were good, but kind of shaky. Bands like Boyzone and Westlife, particularly the main singer in Westlife, he can stand on any stage his voice in fantastic. So, the standard of singing among young people today is huge. The only thing you don’t have is the individuality.
“In other words you knew it was McCartney singing, you knew it was Lennon, you knew it was Jagger, whereas today the standard of singing is very high but you don’t hear much difference between all of the singers. That’s the one thing I think which is perhaps missing. The voices are great but they don’t sound that different to a lot of other voices.”
“I have a lot of respect for the Boyzones and Westlifes of this world. Good luck to them. People like Nathan Carter whom I’ve met is very talented. The standard is a lot higher in terms of live performance than fifty odd years ago.”
He might be nearing completing a 50 th anniversary tour and planning another one next year but Gilbert is not interested in legacy, preferring to leave that for others to judge what his influence was on the music scene.
“I enjoy what I’m doing and if there are people who out there who like it that’s nice. I meet people after every concert. The joy of that is that people will tell you what a particular song means to them.
“You sang my favourite song tonight, that’s often said to me. In Ipswich a few nights ago, people were there who hadn’t see me in over forty years That’s very special.
‘Alone Again’ has a lot of meaning for so many people and it takes my breath away to think how important it is to so many people a certain lyric I have written. I’ve never lost sight of how nice a feeling that is.
“As for my legacy,.... you know.......if whatever. I mean, we live for the moment and what happens afterwards is up to ......” So, this tour or the next one cannot be described as farewells. I don’t think such sentimentality sits with Gilbert O’Sullivan. When he decides to quit he’ ll just go out the back door quietly.
“As long as I have that enthusiasm, the drive and the ambition to continue then I will, that’s pretty much how I am at the moment.
“I’m not saying that would continue year after year. Who knows? Obviously, at some point I’m going to have to stop but at the moment I’m enjoying it and it’s all systems go.”