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October 17th 1998, UK, London, Sound Republic, Leceister Square

Emperor's New Clothes
Thief Of Your Heart
Stretched On Your Grave
On Raglan Road
Nothing Compares 2U
Thank You For Hearing Me
In This Heart
Fire On Babylon
Last Day Of Our Acquaintance
Redemption Song

by Sarah;

Launch of new venue: Sound Republic.
Swiss Centre, Leicester Square, London.
Saturday 17th October, 7pm - 3am.
In Aid of the "War Child" charity.

The stage (you were right Ross) is only knee high and the venue so intimate that you are virtually on it yourself. The first act is the Buzzcocks who (IMHO) were awful!! Very loud and every tune sounding exactly the same as the one before it (infact if they had played the same tune ten times I don't think anyone would have noticed the difference!!!). I was merely counting how many to go before they would be off but I was able to employ my eyes in searching for tasters of what was to come and soon spied a bunch of equipment with 'Sinead' stamped all over it. Every confirmation that she was there was enough to keep me happy. Fast show guy returns to stage apologises that "Beth Orton can't come, she's sick, she's in hospital and can't come, sends her biggest apologies etc etc" then talks about the War Child charity (set up in 1993 in aid of children who've suffered loss of family and loss of limbs and los of spirit in countries such as Bosnia Herzigovna) and Sinead appears at the satge door GRINNING from ear to ear. She's leaning against the doorway with her boot hugging the wall and she's grinning ferociously, I've never seen her look so happy, and she obviously can't wait to get onto the stage. Fast show guy: ".... the lovely SINEAD O'CONNOR" and on she bounces to BIG applause!! She looks delighted to be here, says "hello!" and giggles. Someone yells "I Love You Sinead" and she grins and says "I love YOU TOO!!" ina playful way that makes everyone laugh. Launches into the Emperor's New Clothes,... I can tell it's going to be a great night, Sinead is singing note perfect right from the off and really getting into it, dancing and joking about. I've never seen her so RELAXED you would think she was in her own living room with some friends. She's wearing mid-brown coloured suede zip up boots which look well-worn, a blue/grey satin skirt with a japanese print and a soft, baggy navy blue jumper (VERY casual). The skirt has a small split in the seam which continue to come undone during the course of Sinead's set. By the end of the night there are three splits and one has come so far apart that you can see her leg through it (!!!). She looks good (a bit thin but quite happy and healthy looking other than that). Her face is incredible, this is the closest I have ever been to Sinead, I am less than three feet from her and when she takes a step forward I can touch her if I want to. I am closer to her than anyone in the room and am proud of myself for being stubborn about not moving from my spot, it has definitely paid off. When Sinead opens her mouth to sing the long notes I can see the tastebuds on the end of her tongue, I can confirm that she has no fillings in her top jaw and that she has long downy lanugo hair down the sides of her face and cheeks. Under this light I can see the hairs on her forehead (!!) it's like having her under a magnifyling glass, and I can see exactly how she wears her eyeliner. David can't get over how enormous her eyes are, how long her eyelashes are (covered as always with lashings of black mascara) and how blue they are, I can't either. She has something scrawled on her hand in biro ("Tony Tuesday" I think it says). She's also wearing a gold necklace which says "IRISH PRINCESS". At the end of the song ecstatic cheers go up and I know I'm not the only big fan in the room. Some heckler says something to the effect that he wants to shag Sinead and she grins and replies "maybe later, but only if it's not TOO big!!" and starts giggling again. "Okay, this one is for the Irish posse here tonight" she says and the band launches into "You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart". ....... (cont. She sings brilliantly and is really working it, dancing like she's in a club (that seam is splitting!!). Next is "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" which she introduces as "a song I usually dedicate to the dead people amongst us here and in keeping with tonight's theme especially to the children who have died as a result of war". She is so energetic in her singing though she seems to have a tickly throat because she coughs a little (once or twice) when she's not singing. The next song she also dedicates to the Irish posse,.. On Raglan Road. Before the song starts a heckler with a strong Irish accent yells something which I didn't catch but Sinead replied saying "I'm tryin', I'm tryin' real hard, cos I'm a tryin' girl" in a put on North-Dublin accent to mirror the heckler's and then insists that it's a famous line from a movie but she can't remember what one. She's talking to her sound man, "You know, the one with the guy, with the big, the curly hair and the, you know with the curly hair, that guy, you know?" but she gives up, "ah, feck it! whatever!". It's quite funny. She sings the song beautifully, her voice is so strong and full. As good and better than I have ever heard it. At the end of the song there is lots of cheering and whooping (especially from me!! - -) ). Then she says "Right now, anyone who knows the words to this song, please do sing along, no prizes for guessing which one it is" and she sings the first line of Nothing Compares 2U to which the crowd reply with a premature "ah ah ah ah ah" but Sinead is delighted and gives us all a little clap. Everyone joins in singing the next lines and "ah, ah" bits and by the time we get to the climax they are so loud it's incredible and Sinead looks quite surprised but also delighted. She sings "Since you've been gone I can do whatever I want, I can shag whoever I choose" and laughs in the direction of the guy who made the earlier comment. Everyone laughs but keeps singing with her. Now, I have to tell you something else as discussed elsewhere in JITR, Sinead was NOT wearing a ring on her ring finger. She wore a small silver ring on her little finger on her left hand and that was all, and at the end of Nothing Compares she adlibbed with "love is shit, love is shit" repeated four times. (hmmmm....!!?!). But she didn't look too unhappy about it, she was certainly the happiest and most relaxed and "up for it" I've ever seen her. At the end she said "gives YOURSELVES a big clap"and she clapped for us as well. Between songs she sang the rhyme she sang on SlyFiTV "... and it smells like a doggies arse, and that is not the smell of Elizabeth Arden.." twice and in a funny voice. She next sang Thank You For Hearing Me which the crowd loved and she was really 'getting down' and boogying to it. She received rapturous applause for this song. Next up was In This Heart sung with the five band memebers. Sinead introduced this song: "No one ever answers this question when asked but how many of you out there tonight are in LURRRVV???" answered by screams and whoops, "Well," says Sinead, "this one is for YOU!" and again she points roughly in the direction of the guy who earlier yelled his declaration of love to her. "It's a widdle wuv song" she says "and I want to dedicate this song to the Irish posse as well" and then hearing all the chitter chatter at the bar at the back she says "shut up" Terry Hall style (not quite!) and laughs, then into it she plunges. When the first male band member joins in he hits a bum note and she turns to him grinning with one hand on her hip and the other wiggling a finger at him mocking a telling off. (She did the same to the cellist when she comes in too early during Thank You For Hearing Me). Then a very unsure face appeared at the stage door and Sinead beckoned him onto the stage. She says "I want to welcome the wonderful singer, the beautiful, beautiful voice of Iarla O' Lionaird to the stage to sing with me on this song" and the band kicks into Fire On Babylon. Iarla looks very nervous and Sinead is trying to comfort him. She beams at him and very obviously thinks very highly of him. She sings a fantastic Fire On Babylon and where she normally begins to adlib she gestures to Iarla 'take it away' style, and he sings some traditional stuff while the band plays on, at the end of which Sinead applauds wildly and Iarla quickly leaves the stage looking very embarrassed and hides at the stage door again. Sinead finishes the song with the same adlib as on the This IS A Rebel Song CD-single ("Move out of Babylon, Rasta Man.... etc") and then turns towards the stage door where Iarla is still standing to give him a little clap and a big, big smile. She says to the crowd "and he's so shy, he wasn't even going to come out here, but I'm very glad he did, wonderful, beautiful voice of Iarla O' Lionaird.". (BTW, Iarla O'Lionaird also performed at the concert Mandy went to on Sunday night at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, starring Sinead). Now Sinead starts singing "My ol' man's a dustman, he wears a dustman's 'at, ..."in a Cockney accent but the band interrupts her and breaks into the Last Day Of Our Acquaintance. ..... Sinead gets lost after the first line o the second verse and turns to her bassist with a shrug, bassist shrugs back and Sinead sings "I don't remember the frigging words" which also gets a little laugh. The song ends up quite short as she picks it up in the fourth verse and then plays "air guitar" mirroring her guitarists part and leaning back as if it's her big solo! At the end of the song there is lots of whoops and cheers and it's their cue to walk off and wait for everyone to clap them back on again, the band all start to get up but Sinead goes "nah, stay here". John Reynolds keeps saying, "no lets go off and come back on" and they're grinning at each other but she gestures that she needs to pee and he laughs, they all take up their places again and Sinead tells the crowd "we were going to go off and come back on again but ah, fuck it!". She's laughing. The last song of the night, Redemption Song, Sinead urges the crowd "if you know the words then sing along". The crowd obliges. During the song Sinead sticks her microphone up her bum and gestures to the sound guy that she's dying for the loo!! It's really funny. She sings the song and really yells out the last lines "Sing out with me children", then waves to the crowd and says "Good night, God bless" and beaming bounces off stage with as much energy and enthusiasm as she bounced onto it. Just as she was leaving the stage she looked into my face for the first time all night and I mouthed the words "I love you Sinead" and she grinned and gave me a cheeky little look of acknowledgement:-) Ahhhh!!! . Those huge sparkling blue eyes, cheeky grin, happy laughing face. This tiny little person making this enormous sound, like a beautiful,tiny but powerful angel. And then she was gone.

by; Nevermind

I saw sinead at the royal albert hall, london for the lilith fair uk show. She was amazing.
Last night (17th oct)I saw her at the opening of new uk club `sound republic`. It was an industry event only. There were about 40 people on the dance floor of this club, while the rest were just hanging around the free bar. I was at the very front with only her microphone stand seperating. It was exceptional. set list: emperors, thief, raglan road, nothing compares, babylon, i am stretched, last days of...