Gilbert O'Sullivan Interview 2026

I spoke to Gilbert O'Sullivan about his big hits "Alone Again, Get Down, Clair, Nothing Rhymed" 

Gilbert is on tour this year and he has a new album on the way!!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

If I give up the sea, I've been saving. Elderly lady, oh man Am I being a gold right Mother please if you please And if I'm in the police my duty I perform anything Will you punish me so please so Never again This feeling inside me never deny the right choice This When I'm drinking my bottle of punch O'Neill I'm gonna scream and sleep and big stuff with that Nothing oh nothing nothing Squeeze nothing Nothing good nothing bad Nothing bad Okay Nothing Nothing black Nothing flat nothing like welcome to the show Gilbert O'Sullivan How's it going?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Good thank you yes Yeah yeah no problems good Great So you're gonna be performing at the Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells on the 27th of June. How much are you looking forward to it?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah, I guess because I've never been there. It'll be the first time toured pretty much around the UK all over. So it'll be a first so I'm looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

How many dates have you got?

SPEAKER_02 3:42

To start with, we're doing three uh in conjunction with yours, but these are pre-tour dates when the album is released in September. So we're going like twenty dates, I think, after around September, October time.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Oh great. What can you tell us about the new album?

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Thirteen new songs, and which I'm really happy with, and uh recording went really well. We're at the stage now we're mastering stage, so that's kind of interesting when you've done that. It's like putting a gloss on what you've recorded. Um I'm really happy. Good producer, good engineer, good musicians, and uh it's been a joy to work with them and I'm looking forward to its release.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

And how long did that take you to put that together?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Well, it only takes a week to record 30 songs. You can average two a day. It isn't rocket science because it involves five musicians sit around the piano, I play the song, they hear it for the first time, I go back to their stools, chairs, rehearse it a few times, and we do a take. Maybe we end up doing two or three takes at the most, move on to the next song. So it that that system has worked really well for me. My first number one was Claire. Okay. Second number one was get down. Um Nothing Rhymed was, I think, got number six or seven in the top ten. So it was a big success. It was a great success for me just to have that any kind of success after three years of you know learning the business, going through lots of ups and downs, suddenly to be in a position where you've made a really good record. I was really proud of Nothing Rhymed. So regardless, if it never made the top hundred, I would have been absolutely over the moon with it.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Yeah, and one of your most famous songs is Alone Again Naturally, which was a worldwide hit. Did you have a good feeling about this one when you recorded it?

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Yeah, I mean the the good feeling is that you're happy with the song. I was happy with at the time I was writing for a new single, and so it was either gonna be Alone Again or Out of the Question. Happy with both songs. I didn't think one was more better than the other. In terms of the craft of writing songs, once I finished the song, if I'm happy with it, then I'll play it to people I'm gonna be working with. So I liked it. We went to the studio, and because it was a single, what was gonna be the A side? So everybody kind of in the studio at first, out of the question should be the choice because it's more commercial. But at the end of the day, my manager Gordon Mills said, Alone again may not be the most commercial song, but it's a better song. So let's go with that. Took a while to to break, but um it ended up being hugely successful for me.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

It's one of those songs you hear on the radio a lot.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Well, I don't, but yeah if I come on the radio I turn it off. But it's um No, it's it's in particular because of the success in America. They look upon it as one of their songs. It was number one for six weeks in America. It's a massive success there. And um it's a highlight when we tour. We go to Nashville next week. And I will be singing three songs at the Grand Old Opera. You know, one of them will be Alone Again, which it as I say is very special to to America.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

So you mentioned you don't like listening to yourself. Is that because you're kind of overcritical or no, I know.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

I'd rather listening is about hearing new artists, new records by other people and stuff. I mean, you know, I I'm happy with my voice and stuff, but I you know, but I'm I don't uh enjoy listening to it. When the kids were younger, my two daughters were younger, they would go to their friend's house and hear me more there than they would at home.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Yeah, I mean you do hear this a lot from actors and singers that they don't necessarily like to watch themselves or listen to them their own music.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Happy to do the work, happy when you're recording. I mean, I'm very happy with my voice when I'm recording to get the right vocal and stuff. That's important to me. But um but I'm happy it's being played wherever it's being played. I'm there's no question about that.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

And one of your biggest um selling singles was Claire, as you mentioned already, in 1972, uh, from your second album, Back to Front. Um, is this one of the best songs you've recorded?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Well, again, it harks back to what I mentioned about alone again out of the question. I was happy with the song. Difference being this time it was about a real person. Gordon Mills, my manager, and his wife Jo, they lived up the road from me where I lived in a bungalow, which Gordon Mills owned. So I would go up to their house periodically, I had a piano and I'd be writing during the day. I'd go up and I would have tea there, sometimes have dinner with them. And occasionally when they were going out for a big do, they'd get me to babysit. So I kind of babysit a few times. And Claire was the girl who would kind of get up a lot. So um but I have an affection for a lot of a lot of affection for Claire. And the idea was to write the song as a thank you to Gordon Mills, who's my manager, to thank his wife for cooking for me. And to in you know, to have Claire laughing at the end of the record, Gordon Mills playing the harmonica solo. It was very much a family record, but I did it as a thank you to them. Uh and I was really pleased with it. It's a bit disappointing that it's something I you couldn't write today, which is really interesting, kind of sad in a way, because the idea of a young man's relationship affection for a child, you know, you're in a grey area these days. Different world to how it was in the early seventies. Which is such a shame. I'll give you one instance. There was a program on Radio One in the old days. Children's played children's on a Saturday morning with a certain DJ. Children's for children's art. And Jeremy Clarkson went to talk to the person who ran the program and said, Um, could you get could you play uh could you play Claire for me? Because it's my young I think it's his young member of of people he knew had asked if he could get um to Jeremy could get the presenter of the program to and he said, Oh no, we can't do that because it's a young man and a young girl and stuff, so it's such a shame, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yeah, that's just seem odd to me.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Yeah, and it doesn't stop it being a good record. It's you know it's a highlight in the concert when we do it. So so in that sense it's it's stood the test of time. But it's a different world these days to how it was back then.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, and how did you first get into music, Gilbert?

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Well, through just radio, just love the radio. And when I could afford to buy records, buy a single, couldn't afford an album and stuff. The love of it, and in in terms of the liking music, that's how all that started. And then how into songwriting with the Beatles and to singing with Bob Dylan, those were the kind of major influences for me in the very beginning. And uh yeah. In terms of songwriting, you to learn your craft, you listen to craft to be a good songwriter, you need to listen and learn. And that's part of the process that I I've always had. And great music was coming out in my mind in those early sixties. And then I love Bob Dylan because I don't have a great voice, but I have a distinctive voice, and he certainly has had a distinctive voice. Early Bob Dylan was a big, big influence for me. And um so that was that's pretty much it. Then I just continued to develop the craft. The love of songwriting just grew and grew. For all my attempts to be a success as a singer, nothing stood in the way of the writing and stuff, because without the writing, every I would have had no chance of being successful. I knew I wrote good songs. I knew that if I was gonna be signed by a record company, it'll be because of the song, not because of how I looked.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

It's interesting you mention about a distinctive voice. Yeah, I I think you have the very distinctive voice. And I I also think it doesn't matter how good you are, if you haven't got a distinctive voice, um it's gonna be difficult.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

I think you what's interesting is because a distinctive voice, you get these great voices. I mean, there there's wonderful voices out there in the market today, but they all sound very similar to each other. You you can't really tell the difference. Some of these female singers, I mean, they go operatic. I mean it's ridiculous. But they uh they all sound very similar. It's great, but very similar. Whereas if you have a distinctive voice, you may not be he reaching those great heights and stuff, but you sound different to other people, and I think that's that was important for me.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Yeah, and uh what is the process like when you do a song, when you write new material? How do you do it?

SPEAKER_02 11:43

Well, it's just nine to five, it's a braille-building mentality. The braille building was New York, where writers like Carol King, Jerry Coffin, Neil Sadaka, Howard Greenfield, Neil Sudaka, God rest his soul, passed away. Yeah, you clock in at nine o'clock, sit there, might be piano or a guitar, and come and finish at five, see what you come up with to write a song. That's all it was about. That mentality, that discipline is how I write. Monday morning I'll sit there from nine to five. If I'm in need of melodies, which is the hardest thing to get, I'll stay there for the week. And if nothing comes of it, not been a complete waste of time because you've practiced, so your fingers are getting better. So that you know nothing's a waste of time. But come up with a good melody, put it on cassette, move on. The great thing about a good melody is that it will sustain, it'll last a long time. The danger is if you finish a lyric that you're not going to use initially, that'll date could be dated because you tend I tend to write about things going on in the world as well as other aspects of of lyric writing. So I never finish a lyric until I know I'm going to record it. But if I don't know I'm going to record it, then I leave the melody intact and wait until the time comes on any of the lyric.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

So d do you always start with the melody or does it vary?

SPEAKER_02 12:56

No, the melody well, nine times out of ten, very often you have a lyrical idea that you pick up on. But by and large it's the melody, because that will dictate pretty much everything. It'll dictate if it's um slow s if it's a romantic song or if it's a rocker rocky song, or you know, that that's the kind of that's the great thing about coming up with a good melody. You're very happy with that. Where it's going to be lyrically, because lyric writing starts with an empty book. And so, but if it's a n really good melody, it might mean a certain type of lyrical approach. But if it's an out and out rocker, then we know where that will go lyrically and stuff. So that's that pretty much sums up the process.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Great. And in 1972 your disc sales exceeded ten million, and in nineteen seventy-three you won an Iva Novella Award for the British Songwriter of the Year. That must have made you proud. Was that a proud moment?

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah, well I had three Ivanovellas. Uh it's really, really good. The first Ivanovella I got was for No Matter How I Try, which was in 1971. And uh I found that out because my I was in bed because I usually worked all night writing songs, so I slept during the day and I got a call, phone call from my manager that said, Hey, you won an Ivan Novella Award. And in those days the the Ivanovella was not a big affair. It was an it was a business affair affair important, but didn't have the wasn't on television or wasn't talked about too much and stuff. And he said you won it for no matter how I try, and yeah, really nice. A bit surprised that it would best it would win best romantic song. Didn't quite figure that out, but yeah, the songwriter was it was it was lovely because it it's it's acknowledging your craft. It's acknowledging what you've done with your ability to write songs. People are um you know admiring that. So I was really happy about that.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

You also had a number one in 1973 with Get Down. What are your memories of this song?

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Well very simple. It's just it it harks back to you know the idea of the melody you come up with. I come up with a good melody, a good rocky melody. Left hand plays the drums, right hand plays the chords, that's the style of playing. Piano players hate the fact that there's this guy who uses his hand like that. Um yeah, it sounded good. The nice thing about it was that there's myself on piano, Laurie Holloway, Lori, uh my arranger wrote all the string arrangements for me. He passed away a few months back. So it rested me, he rest in peace. Yeah, so the Laurie on on electric keyboard and the drummer, we did have a guitar player that was meant to be coming, but yeah, it didn't he didn't turn up. So it was just bass, two pianos and drums, and it turned out really well. It's very simple. You know, the lyric is just you know, it's just the same kind of lyric that I that that stories, you know, it's not it's not about a dog, but it's uh it's just an easy approach lyric for me without having having a bit of fun. It's a very catchy song. Yeah, it's like get back by the beatman and stuff, you know, what's get back about? You know, yeah. Georgia was a man who thought he was a woman, but it was another man. What the hell is that all about?

unknown 15:54

It doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

It doesn't really matter, you know. Get down. I told you once before I don't tell you get down. You know, Panzer people who you worked on top of the pops in those days, they I I wasn't available to appear on the show that particular week. So they they mimed to the record, danced to the record, and they had dogs come on, so because they thought get down was about a dog. In the UK or just everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

The world?

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

It's it's hard for that.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Well, not really good good theatres and stuff. You know, the first let's see, the first uh first concert appearance was in Ireland in the stadium. That was a small stadium. That was special because it was the first first in England was up in Scotland. That was special. I think the early the earliest appearances were pretty special. I had no background for for singing in clubs. Gary Barlow learned his craft for writing and for performing in the nightclubs as a keyboard player. I learned mine by writing, not by playing. And that that was the difference. But I know Holland, Amsterdam, lovely theatre. Uh in America we we we did some interesting dates. I mean I I don't really kind of analyze, I'm excited about doing performing. Interestingly enough, only recently, it's 43 years that I've been in Jersey. And for all those years, people have stopped me in the street, met me at an airport or and said, you know, why don't you perform in Jersey? You live in Jersey. Why have you never appeared here? And I kept saying over the years, don't worry, I am I'm going to do it. It's definitely gonna happen. And it happened in January. We did two nights at the theatre in Jersey. That was pretty special. And it was kind of interesting to walk out on stage and say, it's great to be here the first time in 43 years than to perform special nights. So things like that m make it kind of special.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

And I find when you go and see performers it is it is nicer when you see them in a more intimate venue.

SPEAKER_02 20:29

Yeah, the interesting thing about you'll find uh coming to you is that uh currently how we work, myself and my guitar player Bill Shanley. Bill Shanley used to work with Ray Davis of the Kings, he's a great guitar player. Ray Davis took a break and I grabbed Bill. If Ray Davis wants him back, he's not gonna get himself. But uh the intimacy up close and personal is pretty much how Bill and I operate for two hours on the stage. And the intimacy, the the the people talk about they hear the lyrics more clearly. When we do uh concerts with the band, you know, people say loud, would have liked to have heard the lyrics more clear. So the good thing with the current uh way we're working is that intimacy up close and personal. People really like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, I mean it's gonna be a great gig. How do you um narrow down the song list? Because you must have so many songs to choose from.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yeah, it's over thirty to thirty-five songs, I think. And the difficulty I have is remembering them. I think a lot of instances not a constant goes by when I don't miss a word here or there, and Bill is right beside me and uh he'll prompt me uh if I get it wrong. I've sometimes I've got it so wrong that I've waited till the end and then I've sang it again. Just but I know I never get nervous about going wrong and stuff because the great thing about live work is because it's live. You make a mistake, it's live. It's not cushioned off, it's not cleaned up. And people like that because you're real, there's a real person. So you know, you make a mistake and we laugh about it. We do but people I think you know people enjoy that. And I'm happy with that because I never get nervous about going wrong with this song. I mean I miss the chords. The amount of time in my I I lose track completely where my bloody hands are meant to be going on the piano. Because it's it's you know with thirty or thirty-six songs, it's you're bound to get it slightly wrong here and there. I don't have a prompter. I believe Alton has a prompter on the stage where you can see the lyrics clearly and so I I haven't got to that stage yet.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

So so with the new album, um this is going to be coming out soon. You mentioned um what kind of songs are on there? I suppose it's all original material.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

You know, s love songs, interesting songs, different situations. Talk about a lot of subjects, uh a lot of different subjects. On the last album we had a duet with Mick Hucknell, uh, Let Bygones Be Bygons. I kinda like to use English words, English English Irish songwriter. I'm not American, so I I like the idea. I'll give you one example that We Will is a favourite song of mine. Not a big hit, but it was a hit. But I'm very proud of this song. It's very much about a family. It's almost my my mother talking. And we were in America, and I got telecom from Andy Williams, great Andy Williams, and said how much he loved We Will. I knew he was a fan of my music because he had recorded a song called Who Was It that I wrote, and he recorded Alone Again. Anyway, he said he loved We Will and he he said, but there was a one l little bit that he didn't understand he'd wanted to change. I thought, oh god, what's he gonna do? So but he didn't know what Bagsy Beaningal meant. Bagsy meaning goal is what we say in England for you want to be the goalkeeper. It's a very English expression. So that's what he didn't know what it what it was. So he asked if he could change that, and I said, Of course. No problem. So there's a right variety of songs fast songs, slow songs, humour, a bit of humor. We have a song called Where Would We Be Without Tea. That's uh a popular song when we when we do it on stage. So there are lots of subjects that areas that I cover lyrically, which makes uh l lyric writing interesting.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

And what do you think is the best song you've recorded?

SPEAKER_02 24:03

This is a very hard question, and you might not be able to answer it, but Well I mean it's I don't really I mean I have a song called It's Easy to See When You're Blind. I'm very proud of that song because of the subject matter. Uh song called I Wish I Could Cry I wrote before my success. I wrote it in '68 with a former record company. I wish I could cry was about the death of Robert Kennedy because we all thought that he would become the next president. And I was a teenager. So that got into my lyric and stuff. I'm proud of that song. 9-11. I picked on an aspect of 9-11, the horror of 9-11, that I read about that was not so much sidelined, but everything was about the the planes hitting the building. I picked up on something. All they wanted to say is a song they call it, because all that people wanted to say who were trapped in the buildings, who were trapped in the plane, was just to say, I love you. So that song, particularly when we do it in America, really goes down well. So those kind of areas I find very interesting as a lyricist.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah, definitely. And what was it like um performing on top of the pops back on back in the day?

SPEAKER_02 25:02

Well d difficult, sometimes difficult for me because I wasn't a band. I couldn't get away with using the backing track. I had to do it live. Uh best example of that was What's in a Kiss was uh the last top 20 hit we had uh in the UK. Uh I was with CBS Records. I remember the the Top of the Boss day. Alan Adam and the Ants were on with a backing track, it sounded fantastic. There's another band on backing track. I come on with a live version of What's in a kiss, not very good. I mean nothing wrong with the orchestra, but I wish I could have had the backing track because it made such a difference. But Top of the Boss was great visually, uh with my image and stuff. It was important how people were able to see somebody who looked as weird as I did singing a song that was that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

And as you say, you performed a lot of them live, whereas a lot of Top of the Pops was mimed back then, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Uh yeah, I did mime too. I did miming too. But in most instances I had to to to perform live. If I had been in a band, we would we would probably have got away with using a proper back-and-track.

SPEAKER_01 26:03

And what do you think of music today?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

I love it. Yeah, I love it. You know, Olivia Dean, Chapel Roan, but uh Post Malone, Dua Lipa. I mean I like it all. I'm really into current uh stuff because I think again, to be a good songwriter, you've got to be listening as well as uh writing. So if for example I didn't like anything that was gone musically today, that could affect my writing. I remember a quote from George Harrison, he said he hated this was in the eighties, I think. He said he he disliked everything he heard on the radio. But I'm thinking when George Harden was 18 or 19 or 20, he probably loved what he heard on the radio. That's the difference. So I like you know I pick up on everything. If I buy a an album by a CD by a rap artist and stuff, I won't get much out of it melodically. But the production value will hit me. There'll be the production value, which production is very important in records these days, the technical aspect. Because the technology is so good that we've got available. You can make things, you can take people who have no voice, give them a voice. You can make people who can't sing in tune, you can give them put them in tune. So they're uh you know the technology has really moved on. And yeah, so so that's uh you know, that that's a that's a positive thing. But I like what's going on today, and and listen and learn is an important factor.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

That's good. And uh that kind of leads on to my next question. Uh what are the biggest differences between recording uh back when you first started and today?

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Well at the beginning '67 was my first recording with CBS Records. Two of my songs. Big first time in a big time studio with a big time producer. Big producer just had a number one with the love affair, um, Everlasting Love. So I was put with him for as a producer. The arrangement for number one was I I he was given to me to do the arrangement and stuff. So I didn't really like the way they turned out. But I was new, I couldn't really say much to change them. So I just kind of left that record company and moved to another another record company, which is where I was able to sing, I wish I could cry, but I did not like how that turned out. So the great thing was that when Gordon Mills came along and he loved my songs, he managed me and he produced the records. When we recorded Nothing Rhymed, I was in seventh heaven. That's all it was. I mean I left the studio that night just just in in heaven. Because for me that was what success was all about. I had no idea how it would be how it would the reaction would be in the outside world. Fortunately, it was uh uh you know it was a success. But that that's you know, that's how the ups and downs of recording. You know, get down was easier to record. You know, other songs can take uh take a while. But it's an interesting process regardless.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

With nothing rhymed, I saw the music video where you're playing the piano in the pub, I thought that was quite good.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Yeah, with the with the image I had, the cap in the boots and the the Charlie Chaplin jacket and stuff. Um Yeah, I mean it's you know that was miming. Did a lot of miming in Europe in Europe you go over to Germany, to Holland for TV shows, all you did was mime and stuff. Um when you have a good band behind you, you actually if I could have done Top of the Pops with a with the band that I work with behind me, I would have probably enjoyed that. But you're using a Top of the Pops orchestra who have done several songs previous, then you come along and you have to sit there and they get the music style.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

So with Alone Again naturally, I think it is a song that means a lot to a lot of people because of the lyrics in the song. Do you find that?

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yeah, it deals with serious subjects. Suicide, death. I mean not a happy scenario, that one. But it's but it was an interesting song to write because most people a lot of people were surprised, not based on personal experience to some extent. In other words, the death of a parent, your reaction to your both your parents die. No, uh my mother was a well, my father was dead when I wrote it, but my mother was alive with with my brothers and sisters. So it wasn't about her, it wasn't about them. But I get into that. It that's the thing about lyric writing is that you don't have to experience the subject to be able to write about it in an intelligent, sensible way. An understanding of the subject is the power that you need to bring to it. And when I started with The Ludigan, without having the title, but certainly the lyric of the verses, it it's it's that thing I just get into the characterization that's taken place. The person who stood up with the church, commits suicide. Those are the things the serious subjects, but it was interesting to be able to write about. And an understanding of that is what led me to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

So you're gonna be performing at Tunbridge Wales on the 27th of June. We'll look forward to that. Remind us when the album's out, and have you got a name for it yet?

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Well, that's the danger. We haven't we've been deliberating for the last month titles. It started with It It Is What It Is, that got dropped. Currently it's either self-penned. Do you know what self-penned is?

SPEAKER_01 30:50

When you do something for yourself?

unknown 30:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:53

Self-pended. So I all the songs I write are are in there's not six people that I write that I go write. And the other one is is musicology musicology. Okay. Yeah. So we're working on those. Uh but when you know, obviously the uh the artwork will be being done in the next month or so, and so it's um we've got a bit of time before we need to be absolutely certain what it's gonna be called. But but you've heard three options, so it could well be one of those.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Brilliant. Well, thanks a lot for joining us on the show, Gilbert. It's been lovely to speak to you. Well, are you gonna come and see us? Yeah, yeah, I hope so. Yeah, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Come and say hello.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Yeah, that'd be lovely.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Good to see you. All right, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Thanks a lot. Cheers, Gilbert. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 31:39

I promised myself to treat myself a visit a nearby town. Climbing to the top, throw myself up in an effort to make clear to ever what it's like when you're shattered and standing in the lunch at a church, where people stay on the gun, that's touch, we stole them up. No point in under streaming. May as well alone sided on my own alone again, naturally. I was cheerful bright again, looking forward to wooden role I was about to play. Without someone, me and it's been done. I remember it. When she planned I can climb on it, naturally.