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 also has 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. “He sent me a recording with a full band – and he told me he liked my image too,” recalls Gilbert.
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. No wonder CMAT has called it “the greatest Irish song ever made”.
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.
Gilbert O’Sullivan in his early songwriting days. Picture: Park Promotions
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?
“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.
Gilbert O’Sullivan with guitarist Bill Shanley, who will join him for the 60 Years Of Music tour
“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.
O’Sullivan and Wright then made Songbook, a collection of key songs from Gilbert’s expansive catalogue accrued over 55 years, recorded at Lafayette, King’s Cross, London in late 2023 for release in September 2024.
For On The Record, “I decided to go with Andy again, letting him choose the musicians, with some of them having played on the last album,” says Gilbert who recorded the 13 tracks over five days in Eastcote Studios in London. “They know how I work. I play the song to them on the piano, we rehearse it a few times, and then we do a take. No rocket science involved.
“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.”
The poster for Gilbert O’Sullivan’s tour, Celebrating 60 Years Of Music. Picture: Park Promotions
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.
“We also have a song with a choir, made up of studio singers, to sing the chorus 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.”
Heading out on his 22-date tour from September 1 to November 8, pianist Gilbert travels with his own keyboard, rather than relying on each venue to provide him with a piano. “This keyboard allows me to face the audience, and the sound I get is proper sounding, with electric piano for a couple of songs,” he says.
“I have five instruments now, including one in Nashville, one in Ireland and one in Denmark. They’re kept by people I’m working with, who are happy to put them up.
“In the beginning, of course, I used a grand piano and my voice could sing in concert pitch, then one tuned one below concert pitch, and now I have buttons on my keyboard that allow me to be one tone below concert pitch and a semi-tone below concert pitch.
“Morrissey told me he liked my image,” says Gilbert O’Sullivan, pictured in his trademark garb when first making his name. Picture: Park Promotions
“It helps me because, as you get older, your voice drops and you have to drop your singing voice. I have a good voice but limited range so I make sure I’m in the right key.”
Gilbert conducts vocal exercises before each concert. “If you don’t have a good voice, forget it,” he says. “I look after my voice. I’ve had no issues, thank goodness.”
He has lived on the island of Jersey for more than 30 years, having moved there with his wife, Aase, to raise their two daughters. “I love it here. It’s just home,” says Gilbert, who has a studio there. “I’m not a social animal. I go on my walks; home life is great.
“My daughters look after the business for me. Tara is on the internet, doing the social media, which is so important for musicians now.”
Summing up 60 years of songwriting, Gilbert concludes: “Why are we able to keep doing it? You do it because of your love of music. You love what you’re hearing. You hear the chords of Burt Bacharach? You want that. I’m a rhythm pianist, I can’t tinkle the ivories, but we have the ability to write music because we love what we hear.”
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 artwork for Gilbert O’Sullivan’s 21st studio album, On The Record, to be released on November 6 on BMG
What is the track listing for On The Record?
1. It’s Me
2. I Suppose
3. Growing Old Disgracefully
4. Go The Way I Came
5. I Must Be Going
6. Don’t Shout
7. She Never Ceases To Amaze Me
8. Our Love Is Gonna Grow
9. Is That You? (featuring Andrea Corr)
10. Wait
11. Minus Is A Plus With You
12. No Place Like Home
13. See Us Gone