The Times
April 27, 1990, Friday

Sinead O'Connor

Mike Nicholls


   Sinead O'Connor, Hammersmith Odeon

   THERE cannot have been too much demand for babysitters in the London area
this week. If Sinead O'Connor's first night was anything to go by, most parents
brought their children with them.

   Attracting a multi-generation audience is a serious index of success these
days, as the moneymen surrounding everybody from the Rolling Stones to Madonna
will doubtless have observed. Despite this and the fact that she has already
topped the charts for a month this year, O'Connor can hardly be accused of
selling out.

   The show was a voyage of emotional intensity, the singer directing her
followers through a series of mood changes bewildering in one so young. For
example, the angry, anti-government song ''Black Boys on Mopeds'' was followed
by a solo rendition of ''Jackie'', during which she reduced the large theatre to
the intimacy of a folk-club.

   The singer opened with ''Feel So Different'', the key to the new Sinead. Two
years ago, O'Connor's way of gaining attention was by declaring her sympathy for
the IRA. Now at 23, she has found fulfilment through domesticity and dresses in
New Age white. But if, on the one hand, she has espoused the spirit of the
times, on the other she has hardly lost her cutting edge.

   ''Emperor's New Clothes'' was delivered with passion, while ''I Am Stretched
On Your Grave'' was an extraordinary set-piece. A haunting dirge of a song, it
started with Sinead programming a drum machine and climaxed in a frenzied
display of traditional Irish dancing. In other songs, she was accompanied by a
small band which included the former Adam Ant sidekick, Marco Pirroni.

   Their concise accompaniment was matched by the sparse yet effective lighting
whichproved to be one of the show's many strengths. Another of these was not
saving the number one ''Nothing Compares 2 U'' until the end, but rather
following it with more up-tempo cuts like ''Jump In The River'' and
''Mandinka''.

   A further song from that era, the epic ''Troy'', was reserved for the only
encore. Another bitter diatribe about a failed relationship, it concluded the
concert with menacing verve. It also showed that here is a lady who has not sold
out and who certainly is not for sale.