The Daily Telegraph
August 28, 1990, Tuesday

Irish singer bans the Banner

By Our New York Correspondent


   IRISH singer Sinead O'Connor was in hot water in the United States last night
after refusing to allow the Star Spangled Banner to be played at a New Jersey
concert.

    Frank Sinatra, who sang at the same venue, the Garden State Arts Centre, the
next night was given a standing ovation for saying O'Connor ought not to have
been permitted to go on stage.

    "If she didn't like it, she should have just left," he said.

    Mr George Zilocchi, executive director of the Arts Centre, announced
yesterday that she would never be invited back. "I was outraged," he added.

    Patriotic Americans are still recovering from the insult delivered by
Roseanne Barr, the comedienne, who caused a rumpus last month with a screeching
version of the anthem at a baseball game in San Diego. She then spat on the
field and grabbed her crutch in a rude gesture.

   President Bush rebuked her and the star had to make a public apology.

    O'Connor, noted for her shaven head and songs condemning racism in Britain,
refused to perform if the anthem was played.

    Her objection was linked to the refusal of the National Endowment for the
Arts to subsidise so-called obscene performances by actresses like Karen Finley,
34, the "chocolate-smeared woman", who paints her naked body in the angry hues
of militant feminism.

    O'Connor said: "I feel very strongly about censorship, and I don't want to
go on stage after the anthem of a country that's arresting people and harassing
people."