THIN, gaunt-featured with a halo of Shaft-like hair, one of the 1970s most creative songwriters seats himself at an electric keyboard at the front of the stage, wearing a smock-like shirt with floppy pink sleeves.

O'Sullivan's hermit-like existence on Jersey for the past 18 years seems all too evident at first as he slides through two unfamiliar songs and glances up just once. Then the classic Nothing Rhymed from 1970 hits the spot and O'Sullivan the slightly eccentric showman takes over.

The night before, 1,000 packed in to see him perform at Southport, a wretchedly cold York reduces the attendance to a few hundred. But there are plenty of diehard fans who bang off digital flash cameras and show scant concern for normal theatre etiquette.

O'Sullivan appears unmoved, enjoys some banter with onlookers and earns a round of applause for slating York's traffic system. He even addresses the question of why he's still touring after 35 years in showbusiness, though can't quite bring himself to reveal the exact year of his last visit to York ("19-ull-la-la").

Mixed in with tracks from his current new album Piano Foreplay are the ones that millions can sing along to. Clare, We Will, No Matter, Get Down, Why Oh Why and the controversial A Woman's Place (is in the home), from 1974, are finally followed by the tear-jerker Alone Again. Memory Lane was never more attractive.

Published: 12/11/2004