Credit: Andy FallonNext week, 1970s British pop star Gilbert O’Sullivan will play his first concerts in the U.S. in 43 years. The shows are scheduled for July 9 at the City Winery in New York and July 10 at World Café Live in Philadelphia.
O’Sullivan tells Billboard that the long gap between U.S. performances is a result of what he describes as a miscalculation by his then-manager to have him mount a headlining tour of large venues — rather than take an offered support slot on a Moody Blues trek — before he’d established himself as a popular live performer.
He describes that headlining tour, which eventually was aborted, as “a wonderful disaster,” although it did include a successful show at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall.
“We had a fantastic orchestra and a private plane and it was wonderful, but as we continued, there weren’t that many people,” O’Sullivan remembers. “Just because you sell millions of records it doesn’t guarantee bums on seats.”
He adds, “[O]bviously looking back at this it was the wrong decision to send me out there without having the experience of doing support.”
O’Sullivan is best-known for the trio of top 10 U.S. hits he scored in 1972 and ’73, including the #1 ballad “Alone Again (Naturally)” and the #2 pop gem “Clair.”
By the late 1970s, Gilbert’s career had waned a bit, but during the early 2000s he began touring regularly again. His latest studio album is a 2018 self-titled effort. While he often tours with a full band, he will be playing as a duo with guitarist Bill Shanley — who frequently collaborates with The Kinks‘ Ray Davies — at his two U.S. shows.
If these concerts go well, he tells Billboard, he may do another run of U.S. shows in the spring.
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