When Gilbert O’Sullivan broke into the Top Ten in 1970, I was mid-teens and didn’t appreciate the excellent pop songs that followed his first big hit, Nothing Rhymed. I had Led Zeppelin and Rory Gallagher and Wishbone Ash to concern myself with. In fact, I was only listening to music that avoided the charts; it was ‘underground music’ and I loved it, writes Michael Holland.
My evenings were spent tuned into Radio Luxembourg or late-night cult Radio 1 shows for a ‘progressive rock’ fix. But daytime radio and Top of the Pops kept me in touch with what was going on outside my sphere, and Gilbert had a great run of top pop that kept him in the charts. He was right there in my peripheral hearing for much of my formative years.
After that I thought he’d packed it all in, but every now and again his name would crop up and I’d think kindly of the hits I heard as a boy.
Recently I had a press release saying he had a new album out and was on tour and would I like to go and see him at the London Palladium! Yes! Of course I would.
And so there we were, Sunday Night at the London Palladium, up in the Grand Circle looking down on Gilbert O’Sullivan, front and centre of the stage, behind his keyboard and surrounded by an orchestra comprising strings, woodwind, brass, percussion, a choir and two backing singers. Plus, of course, guitarists and a drummer.
Straight away he kicked off with an old favourite, then another, and another, and then he introduced ‘one from my latest album’, and it sounded like it could well have been on his first. The similarity creates a familiarity, and that led to his popularity, because when bands change their fans don’t like it.
The new track was quite conversational, as if he was telling a story to a friend; it was another song that dealt with normal, everyday events, like all his songs that are about meeting a girl, putting the kettle on, visiting family, playing football, putting the kids to bed…
With the benefit of hindsight, I can see that Gilbert O’Sullivan is up there with other great story-telling songwriters: Tilbrook and Difford, Ian Dury, Jarvis Cocker; they all kept their lyrics real and relatable.
And his voice hadn’t changed at all. It is still distinctly Gilbert. Between songs, he told little stories about how they came about. At one point, Andrea Corr came out and did a duet with him, and there was an amazing rendition of We Will.
Then, when you thought he had sung them all, came more old favourites. He had a catalogue of pop going back almost 60 years; he was never going to run out of songs to sing us. But time run out, though. And then he left us wanting more with his three-song medley of big hits that we had forgotten about for his finale.
I didn’t appreciate the pop tunes that Gilbert O’Sullivan made when I was growing up. But I appreciate them now.
He put on a great show at the Palladium. Go Gilbert!
Booking and tour details: https://www.gilbertosullivan.co.uk/tour-dates/