This is a transcript of a radio interview Gilbert did on BBC Radio 2 in the UK with Ed Stewart, broadcast on 5th August 2001.   ED:  Catching up with somebody this week whose record of "Clair" was such a favourite in the old Junior Choice days and in actual fact is his first number one it was back in 1972 for Gilbert O'Sullivan.  Hello Gilbert.   GILBERT: Hi Ed, it's nice to talk to you.   ED:  And nice to talk to you again, it was so popular that, you say would  it be still your most popular of all your old tracks.   GILBERT:  I think in the UK it is arguably the most popular, whereas every kind of country, in Germany it's "Get Down", in America it's "Alone Again", in Spain it's "What's In A Kiss?"  In England it definitely "Clair".   ED:  Now tell us about Clair, who is she?   GILBERT:  Clair was my manager's daughter, well still is.  Gordon Mills, God rest his soul, he managed me very well in the early days and he had four children and Clair was the youngest at that time, and I used to spend a lot of time with the family, almost became a member of the family in the very early days '69, 1970.  Would sort of pop off to their house every other day and occasionally they would be going out to some big do or something and I'd baby-sit for them, I love children anyway coming from a large family, so I kind of you know got very close to Clair.  And the song was really written for the parents about her, because both not only Gordon was good for me but his wife was very good for me because she used to feed me.   ED: Only because you looked very skinny, I remember the early publicity shots when you first appeared on Top Of The Pops, you were dressed in that sort of unusual way.  Now who's idea was that?   GILBERT:  Well that was my idea, I've had that since 1967.  Started off with just a love of Buster Keaton / Chaplin and I kind of just based the image...I used to wear a Chaplin jacket originally and the cap...it was pretty much a kind of 30's look, the no side burns, the short back and sides, one trouser leg shorter than the other, and you know I just wanted to look different.  I just wanted to be different.  I knew I could write good songs but I didn't want to look like everybody else so I just thought this is different, it's unusual.  A lot of doors didn't open for me because of that look but on the other hand I would never of given up until somebody had accepted it.  I would never of compromised.   ED:  Well that's very honest of you, 'cause you didn't need the look because the quality of your writing was so high.   GILBERT:  That's right everybody liked it, that was partly the reason that I was so adamant about using it, because I knew the material was good, I knew that people would like my songs regardless but I also knew that if I wore a pair of jeans and grew my hair long that it would be more acceptable, arguably more acceptable to my audience as well, but on the other hand I just wanted to do something that was different and I feel that if you compromise and do things the way that everyone else does it, it's a bit of a cop out, so I think in retrospect I 'm really pleased I did it but at the time I really did get a hard time.   ED: Well there was something very endearing about your look.   GILBERT:  Yeah I liked it, regardless if you just said that I thought it was ridiculous I would still...most record companies thought it looked stupid and I respect them for that but on the other hand if the record company at the time said we don't like the way you look and therefore we're not going to give you a record deal, well I would have said fine then, I would just walk out and go to another company.  And even Gordon Mills, bless him, he didn't like the look and that was the reason I wrote to him to manage me because obviously I didn't look like Tom Jones or Humperdinck and so when he saw the pictures he wasn't all that impressed.  But then again he like the songs and then when he met me, we talked for a while he realised how strongly I was determined to use this image and he said "okay if you want to dress like that, that's fine".   ED: Well it didn't make any difference one way or the another because it started your great songwriting and performing career off so we are going to hear that first record of yours now.   GILBERT:  Absolutely   ED: Okay?   GILBERT: Okay.   "NOTHING RHYMED" plays   ED: The start of it all for Gilbert O'Sullivan, boy I mean after the reject slips had dried up how long did it take you, 'cause you were working weren't you in C&A, you worked as a postal clerk, so how many years did you have sending your tapes off?   GILBERT:  Well it is not untypical, it is a three year apprenticeship I think, '67 I started sending songs from Swindon which is where I was raised.  I would send songs to people like Tony Hatch.  And generally, mostly they were rejected, the biggest reject was Page One I think Larry Page and Page One.  And I was really annoyed at them for not returning my tapes, so I kind of stormed up to London, went into their offices and said "WHERE'S MY TAPE?" (giggles) really arrogant, they gave it back to me but I think you serve a three year apprenticeship, what happens is.. I was with CBS to begin with, you tend to get kicked around a bit, because again they like your songs and they want to do something with you.  They are pretty much dismissive of how you want to look but they are prepared to give you a one record deal.  A one single deal.  So what happens is that you go in the studio, you're really under the thumb of people who think they know how you should be recorded, so you are a newcomer you might have ideas yourself but you're not really given much of an opportunity to have any say, 'cause you are just a young upstart.  So what happens is after CBS I went into Major Minor with Phil Solomon and then I was a bit frustrated after a couple of years of that, I figured I really needed somebody to kind of represent me, I couldn't keep going to record companies myself and I need somebody to do it for me.  So that's when I decided somebody like Gordon, I'd write to him and Robert Stigwood, Stigwood managed the Bee Gees.  And Gordon kindly returned the call.   ED: Good well the rest of it as they say is history and over the ensuing years and your court cases and all that unhappiness is behind you and now you are signed up to a company called Bygum Records.   GILBERT:  Eh bygum. (giggles)   ED: Eh by gum.  Now there's always something sort of quirky about you, having dressed in that way when you started with your records, you now have a record company called Bygum Records.   GILBERT:  My company is called Grand Upright Music, so that's G-U-M, right?  So when it came to this record company, is our own record company and so it was quite easy: eh by gum and then By Gum which is By Grand Upright Music, so it all kind of links together.   ED: Well it's good to hear that you are being creative as you always have been, but you are creative as much as that you have your stuff down on a new label.   GILBERT:  Well this is my seventh album in the last ten years.  I call it the 3 R's: I write, record and release.  That's basically what I do for a living.   ED: Good, have you got a favourite off that new album?  Which is called what by the way?   GILBERT: The album is called "Irlish" which is really a combination of Irish and English, because I'm one of that generation...   ED: IRLISH?   GILBERT: Yeah, you're sort of born in Ireland and raised in England, so you are sort of half and half.   ED: Before we say goodbye, how about something of your own.  Have you got a record, I mean you have given us three sort of choices here.  The one that fascinates me: "If I Only Had A Brain" from The Wizard of Oz.   GILBERT:  I have songs like that, there's a couple, there's another one: "The House Of Singing Bamboo" which is from The Pagan Love Song.  What I tend to do is when I play records as  a songwriter you are always learning and it's very important never to lose sight of what you are trying to achieve, so if you listen to "If I Only Had A Brain", apart from feeling at times like that, the simplicity of it, it's just a nice simple melody, it just cheers me up and makes me realise the whole point of what songwriting should be about.  Trying to come up with a little simple tune regardless of the lyric, it's the kind of tune that determines everything and that's such a nice simple melody amongst all the Nelly's and the Janet Jackson's, it's one of the things that I do on a regular basis.   ED: Good, well Gilbert great to talk to you and good luck, especially with the new album.   GILBERT:  Thanks.   ED: And it's always fascinating for my listeners I know as to what our artiste of the week is going to choose and this is a fascinating choice, thanks for sharing it with us.   GILBERT:  Okay   ED: All the best.   GILBERT:  Take care.  Bye.   Ed Plays "IF I ONLY HAD A BRAIN"   Ed later played "HAVE IT" from the Irlish album.