Gilbert O’Sullivan: New tour, new album this autumn. Picture: Park Promotions
IN 1972 Gilbert O’Sullivan topped the American Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks with Alone Again (Naturally), a song later covered regularly by Morrissey in concert.
The Smiths frontman has also performed Nothing Rhymed and recorded I Didn’t Know What To Do, the B-side to somewhat obscure May 1971 single Susan Van Heusen as the flipside to his 2018 single Back On The Chain Gang.
Dusty Springfield performed Nothing Rhymed on The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine on November 22 1971, while Alone Again (Naturally) has attracted at least 88 cover versions, from Nina Simone to Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond to Pet Shop Boys & Elton John, Diana Krall & Michael Buble to Donny Osmond, Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass to Sarah Vaughan, Johnny Mathis to Andy Williams.
Born in Waterford, Ireland, and long resident in Jersey, triple Ivor Novello Award winner Gilbert will be turning 80 on December 1, but before then he will celebrate 60 Years Of Music on an autumn tour that will visit four Yorkshire locations: York, Bradford, Doncaster and Harrogate.
It will be a chance to revisit his UK chart toppers, 1972’s Clair and 1973’s Get Down, as well as such O’Sullivan favourites as No Matter How I Try, We Will, Matrimony, Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day, Why, Oh Why, Oh Why and What’s In A Kiss?, the last of his 16 Top 40 entries from August 1980.
Then add selections from his multiple studio albums that bear witness to his enduring gift for endearing tunefulness, unabashed sentiment and existentialist musings, with his last three reaching the Top Ten, Top 20 and Top 30 respectively.
60 years, Gilbert: where has all that time gone? “I guess I don’t think about it because I always look ahead, with the imminent release of a new album on November 6,” he says. “So we’ve been working on that. All new material, and there’s a duet with the lead singer from The Corrs, Andrea. A song called Is That You?
Gilbert O’Sullivan in his early songwriting days. Picture: Park Promotions
“On the last studio album [July 2022’s Driven], we had duets with Mick Hucknall [Let Bygones Be Bygones] and K. T. Tunstall [Take Love], which were rock songs, and this time there’s no piano, just acoustic guitar, like a folk song.
“We thought, ‘who could we have singing on this?’, and it was suggested Andrea would be a good choice. So we approached her and she did it in her own way in her own studio because technology is really good for letting you do that now. That will be released as a single, hopefully before the album comes out.”
“Without ever having bothered to look it up, I’m told it will be my 21st studio album,” he says. It will be entitled On The Record (a title shared with a 1976 spoken-word album by controversial British politician Enoch Powell, according to AI Overview). “Between my daughter, my management, my wife and my record company, all my possibilities were rejected,” says Gilbert. “If there were five people arguing about it, this one had three supporting it.
“We did the album artwork in Nashville, where I was playing the Grand Ole Opry after they got in touch with us and I was asked to go there to perform three songs, What’s In A Kiss, Nothing Rhymed and Alone Again (Naturally), one with a band and two with Bill [guitarist Bill Shanley], who’ll be playing on tour with me.”
After working with producer Ethan Johns on his self-titled 2018 album, Gilbert recorded Driven with Andy Wright. “I feel that by having a different producer, you get that difference you want. He’d worked with Simply Red and Simple Minds, so this was Simply O’Sullivan!” he says. “This time I decided to go with Andy again, letting him choose the musicians, with some of them having played on the last album.
“There’s an element of a Sixties feel to a couple of tracks that I really liked, re-mixed with another producer in the USA, Tony Hoffer, who’s well respected in the production field, and it’s worked out really well on the album.”
One song in particular addresses the ageing process. “We have a track called Growing Old Disgracefully, which I was anxious to get done before anyone else pinched it!” says Gilbert.
The artwork for Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 21st studio album, On The Record, to be released on November 6 on BMG
“We also have a song with a choir, made up of studio singers, to sing the chorus to To See Us Gone. That song deals with the end of the world, Putin, and what’s going on now. That fear that one day someone is going to press that bl**dy button and we’ll all be gone.
“That’s what I like when writing songs. My songs are like newspapers with the common denominators as headlines, so you can incorporate things that are going on in the world, like on Nothing Rhymed too.”
Gilbert O’Sullivan, 60 Years Of Music 2026 Autumn Tour, Grand Opera House, York, September 22, doors 7.30pm; St George’s Hall, Bradford, September 27, doors 7.30pm; CAST, Doncaster, October 1, 7.30pm (sold out); Harrogate Theatre, October 30. Box office: York, 0333 009 6690 or atgtickets.com/york; Bradford, 01274 432000 or bradford-theatres.co.uk/st-georges-hall; Doncaster, for returns only, 01302 303959 or castindoncaster.com; Harrogate, 01423 502116 or harrogatetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for Gilbert O’Sullivan’s tour, Celebrating 60 Years Of Music. Picture: Park Promotions
What is the track listing for On The Record?
- It’s Me.
- I Suppose.
- Growing Old Disgracefully.
- Go the Way I Came.
- I Must Be Going.
- Don’t Shout.
- She Never Ceases to Amaze Me.
- Our Love Is Gonna Grow.