Sinéad on Planet Rock Profiles
Reviewed by Noodle
I missed the first few minutes, but
they were playing the Mandinka video, and
talked about Sinéad's beginnings.
Then they cut to her talking about how she
left Ton Ton Macoute and was asked
to create an album just as they were
starting to split up. She
commented on how it was very shocking to see an Irish
woman bald-headed wearing boots
and generally being 'angry' in those days. It
was generally thought that Irish
should just 'shut up and sing'!
Then onto IDNWIHG and NC2U, how she
is grateful for her unexpected fame knowing
that she'll "have a career for the
rest of her life". She also spoke about how
she asked Ensign to allow to produce
this album as she wants, and they accepted
after the success of TL&TC.
She knew NC2U would do well, though the company
thought it was too personal for
commercial/public consumption. Alas, we know
the story there, and the record
company was obviously (and unexpectedly) pleased
with the results.
Then onto the Bob Dylan tribute concert.
She explained how the booing was
obviously preplanned,and that 3/4
of the crowd were actually cheering. The
narrator explained that this moved
her on artistically, but almost destroyed her
commercially. She agrees that
she is happy that this event helped to move her
career from a 'pop' genre - which
she didn't want - into her own genre. Also,
she is happy to be slagged off/criticised
by some, if it means that they'll take
their anger out on her (not literally!),
and not on another. She accepts that
it is part and parcel of being an
artist
Moving onto today, and F&C.
She explained how she was frightened for the first
few years of fame to move out of
her close-knit production team, but was now
ready to 'go out into the world',
and work with outside producers. She goes on
to say that some would comment that
she's gone back to how she was before, but
she disagrees saying that she'd
never produced an album outside of her original
production team/location.
(We find out that her recording studio was in John
Reynold's bedroom! She felt
safe there, she knew where she stood). Sinéad then
went on to explain how some of the
song writing came about, talking about Dave
Stewart. He had written a
song (Jealous), and wanted the lyrics to be about one
of his friends' troubled relationships
- and so Sinéad went off to write the
lyrics for it. Daddy I'm Fine
was also a case of her asking Dave to write a
reggae-style songs, and he asked
her to write about how she left Ireland to
become a rock star. The title
of the album was basically a summary of how a
friend of hers saw her life and
career, and she decided that this fitted in
perfectly. She hopes that
this will also inspire others to find Faith and
Courage.