Special Child

{ Sinead O'Connor - Utrecht, Vredenburg, March 17, 1988 }

I remember it
Dublin in a rainstorm
sitting in the long grass in summer
keeping warm

I remember it
every restless night
we were so young then
we thought that everything
we could possibly do was right
every move stolen from our very eyes
- Troy

I remember sitting in A's room in our flat, three of us listening to 'The Lion and the Cobra'. Sinead's name I knew from her involvement in In Tua Nua, and her work on the 'Captive' soundtrack with The Edge.

G.'s favourite track was 'Just call me Joe', but the fuzzy guitars in that were just a little too Jesus and Mary Chain for me. Sinead's unlikely hit single 'Troy' (written when she was just 15) had captured my imagination. The angry lament had risen to the top of the Dutch chart, and her appearance on 'Countdown' was surely one of that awful programme's few highlights.

We saw Sinead in the MCV in Utrecht in 1988. It was a large venue for a starting artist, but her chart success made sure it was packed. The Urban Dance Squad - whom we hadn't heard of before - supported. We were late and missed most of their performance.

Photography was not allowed, so I had to sneak a few shots. I managed to take a handful, but none of them came out too well.

She played for just 45 minutes, too short for a headliner, but it was all the material she had. The Lion and the Cobra remains my favourite album of hers.

People have strong opinions on Sinead, and a lot of them unfavourable. Her convictions often go against the grain, and she's impossible to pin down. Her mouth gets her into trouble, but then there are more Irish singers with the same problem.

I'm all-forgiving when it comes to Sinead. No matter what she does, what she says, whether she wants to be a lesbian one day and marry a journalist the other, all that matters to me is the work.

Trust the art, not the artist, I've been told and when Sinead opens her mouth to sing, truly it is art.

From the 1988 MCV concert:

• Jackie


• Mandinka


• Troy

Various

• Feel So Different London, 1990
• Three Babies London, 1990
• My Special Child Concert for the Kurds, 1991
• You made me the thief of your heart Late Late Show, 1994