God bless reeling in the years
A musical genius.
A proud Wexfordman and Bunclody native, Gilbert is an alright sort.
I like this fella a lot. Marty is a big fan too so manys an early morning dash has been brightened by his genius.
Why is Gilbert so under appreciated? Is he a creep or something. Some of his songs & lyrics are wonderful.
As far as I know he is not a creep or anything. He has been happily married for 40 years or so. Certainly the once or twice he was on the Late Late in the early 70s he came across as a nice chap.
I think his music just went out of fashion and never came back in, like a lot of early 1970s pop culture phenomena, it looked embarrassing through the rear view mirror of punk and new wave. Some of it was junk in hindsight ( the Cassidys, Donie and Marie, Mudd, the Rubettes ) and some of it was the best pop music ever made ( Slade, the Sweet, Seasons in the Sun, Gilbert O’Sullivan ). And the shadow of child abuse hangs over the whole era as well. You’d be afraid to admit liking some of this music in case the artist turned out to be the next Gary Glitter.
Gilbert was born in Waterford and ended up in Swindon as a child. After a poorly attended show in the Theatre Royal a decade or more ago he swore he’d never play Waterford again if that was the level of appreciation his home town had for him. To date he has kept his promise.
He was absolutely ripped off by his manager, Gordon Mills, a common enough practice at the time. It was particularly embittering because Mills purported to treat him as one of his family. Gilbert wrote the song Clare as a tribute to Mills daughter.
Perfect pop.
Another gem. Covered by Morrissey at some of his live gigs.