In 1990 Sinead O'Connor was a superstar- she might not have intended this to happen but Nothing Compares 2 U made it happen. A couple of years later she became public enemy number one in the USA when she tore up a photo of the Pope on live TV. Her childhood and family life had given her plenty of reasons to be a bit out of shape already and global fame added a few more. Her autobiography, Rememberings, is highly recommended- traumatic and tough going in places but well written, funny and tender too. It was written before the awful death of her son Shane last year which adds an extra layer poignancy to parts of it too. I hope she's ok and doing as well as you can do under those circumstances.
In late October 1990 Sinead played two concerts, one in Brussels and one the night after in Rotterdam. They were filmed and in 1991 a video was released, a merging of the two gigs. Sinead, a tiny figure with a huge presence, shaven head, round framed sunglasses and dressed in black plays a set built around 1990s' I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got and 1987's The Lion And The Cobra with a band featuring ex- Ant Person Marco Pirroni on guitar and Dean Garcia on bass who would go on to find some success with Toni Halliday as Curve. The full gig is below but I thought I'd pull out this performance from mid- set of I Am Stretched On Your Grave for the TL/DR of you- the Public Enemy drum loop, reel to reel tape machine, bubbles of bass and Sinead's voice singing the 17th century words- is a starkly beautiful and perfectly 1990 way to spend five and a half minutes.
The full hour's worth of gig is here, opening with Feel So Different and then the crunchy guitar pop of The Emperor's New Clothes and then I Want Your (Hands On Me) and Three Babies, the stunning Thatcherism/ racist policing take down of Black Boys On Mopeds, just Sinead and an acoustic guitar, Irish Ways Irish Laws, I Am Stretched On Your Grave, The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance, Nothing Compares 2 U, Jump In The River, Jerusalem and finally for the encore, Troy, the boneshaking, furious story of young love and betrayal from The Lion And The Cobra (a song she didn't perform after 1990 until 2008).
4 comments:
She really was fantastic around that time. I saw her at Glastonbury in 1990 and although she seemed a little frazzled it was a spellbinding performance. Must get round to reading her book.
Adam, did you manage to find time to watch the documentary I mentioned before? One of the interesting things that came out of it was that it completely changed my perspective on what the song Troy was all about. I won't mention it here in case you haven't seen it yet....
This concert was the first thing I ever recorded on a blank video tape
Haven't seen it yet Jase, you've just reminded me
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