Sinead O’Connor sent texts ‘laden with despair’ to Bob Geldof in weeks before her death
Sinead O’Connor sent text messages “laden with desperation, despair and sorrow” to Bob Geldof in the weeks before her death, The Boomtown Rats frontman has told a festival crowd.
He dedicated the band’s performance at Cavan Calling in Ireland to O’Connor, who died at her home in southeast London last week, aged 56.
Sinead O Connor shot to fame with her 1990 song Nothing Compares 2 U
As a fellow Irish singer, Geldof, 71, said he grew up with her family and lived just “down the road” from her.
He told the crowd: “Many, many times Sinead was full of a terrible loneliness and a terrible despair. She was a very good friend of mine. We are talking right up to a couple of weeks ago.
“Some of the texts were laden with desperation and despair and sorrow and some were ecstatically happy. And she was like that.”
Best known for her 1990 song Nothing Compares 2 U, O’Connor was known for her outspoken views on subjects such as religion, war and feminism.
She infamously tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in 1992 to protest against abuse in the Catholic Church.
Geldof said: “She tore up the picture of the Pope because she saw me tearing up a picture of John Travolta on Top Of The Pops.
“It was a little more extreme than tearing up f****** disco – tearing up the Vatican is a whole other thing – but more correct actually, I should’ve done it.”
Ahead of the Irish concert, Geldof told Aine Duffy, for Irish Web TV, that the band were “all very sad” following O’Connor’s death and would be playing some of their oldest tracks as O’Connor had been a “big Rats fan”, attending many of the band’s gigs as a young girl.
He said: “Sinead lived down the road from me and Gary, the guitar player in the band who died about six or seven months ago, we are quite literally down the road.
“So, we’ve known that girl most of her life, really. She was a big Rats fan… so, to be honest with you, that’s why we’re doing very early stuff and we dedicate this gig to her, it’s the only thing we can do as musicians.
“We were friends all the way through. She was signed to the same little record label we were signed to, by the same guy, had the same manager and stuff like that so there’s a big connection there.”
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O’Connor began playing on the streets of Dublin using a guitar given to her by a nun and released her debut album The Lion and the Cobra in 1987. Her last album – I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss – came out in 2014.
In 2021 O’Connor cancelled a number of gigs after announcing she was entering a one-year programme for trauma and addiction.
The following year her 17-year-old son Shane took his own life.
Geldof, who has been in the public eye since The Boomtown Rats formed in the mid-70s, has also experienced tragedy in his life, with the death of his ex-wife Paula Yates from a heroin overdose in 2000 echoed 14 years later by the death of his 25-year-old daughter Peaches.
US musician and rock producer Steve Albini, who has worked with acts including Nirvana, PJ Harvey and Pixies, has died aged 61.
The “punk legend” recorded Nirvana’s third and final studio album In Utero, released in 1993, as well as Pixies’ debut studio album Surfer Rosa, which came out in 1988, and PJ Harvey’s second studio album Rid Of Me, in 1993.
Pixies were one of late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain’s favourite bands.
Albini also recorded and mixed the 1998 record Walking Into Clarksdale, the only album by surviving Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
(L-R) Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic in August 1991. Pic: AP
He also performed in his own bands including Big Black and his most recent project, Shellac.
Shellac had just finished recording a new album, To All Trains, due for release next week, and the group were set to tour the record prior to Albini’s death, according to the music website Pitchfork.
In 1997, he opened his famed Electric Audio recording studio in Chicago.
He told The Guardian last year: “The recording part is the part that matters to me – that I’m making a document that records a piece of our culture, the life’s work of the musicians that are hiring me.
“I take that part very seriously. I want the music to outlive all of us.”
Brian Fox, an engineer at the studio, said Albini died following a heart attack on Tuesday night.
Speaking in 2018, Albini said he had worked on more than 2,000 albums, mostly for underground or indie bands.
Among the tributes, Pixies posted a photo of him on X, with the caption RIP Steve Albini.
The Lord Of The Rings star Elijah Wood wrote: “Ugh man, a heartbreaking loss of a legend. Love to his family and innumerable colleagues. Farewell, Steve Albini.”
Rough Trade, a retail chain of record shops in the UK and US, wrote on X: “Musician, studio engineer and the mastermind behind some of rock’s greatest albums. A hero to us all. Thank you for setting the standard so high. RIP Steve Albini. Deeply missed, forever loved.”
Born on 22 July 1962 in Pasadena, California, he grew up in Montana and went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied journalism.
He became a fixture on the Chicago punk rock scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he began performing with various bands and engineering albums.
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Albini remained a prominent figure in the Chicago music scene after his time at Northwestern, owning and operating Electrical Audio.
Pitchfork reported he did not take royalties from records he worked on, and he kept his day rates for artists comparatively low, especially as a producer with his pedigree.
He also became well-known for his commentary on the state of the music industry in the age of streaming.
Albini is survived by his filmmaker wife Heather Whinna.
Legislation dubbed the “Taylor Swift bill” has passed in Minnesota in an effort to help people buy concert tickets.
The bill, officially called House File 1989 in reference to Taylor Swift’s hit album and the year she was born, was signed into Minnesota law on Tuesday.
It will require sellers offering tickets to people in the state or tickets for concerts being held there to disclose all fees up front and prohibit resellers from selling more than one copy of a ticket, among other measures.
Minnesota State Representative Kelly Moller, chief author of the bill, pushed for the legislation after she tried to get tickets to one of Swift’s concerts in 2022.
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Ms Moller said she was among thousands of people who became stuck in ticket sales company Ticketmaster’s system after it crashed amid the huge demand for Swift concert tickets and attacks from bots, which tried to buy tickets for resale at inflated prices.
The situation led to congressional hearings but no federal legislation.
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Governor Tim Walz, who signed the bill into law at First Avenue, a popular concert venue in downtown Minneapolis, said it was “protection so you don’t get a bad ticket, a fraudulent ticket, and resellers can’t snatch them all up before you get an opportunity”.
Two young girls – one wearing a shirt that said “A LOT going on at the moment” in a nod to Swift, and another wearing a shirt that said “Iowa 22” in reference to basketball star Caitlin Clark – attended the bill signing with their dad, Mike Dean, who testified in support of it.
An eras tour ticket. Pic: Fernando Gens/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
Mr Dean said his daughter came to him in December and said she wanted to see Clark play. He said the website initially showed the tickets would cost $300 total, but they ended up costing over $500 because of hidden fees.
The timer had begun in the online checkout process, so he had just minutes to decide whether to buy the tickets for the higher price or lose them.
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He ultimately bought them, but he told the Associated Press these practices mean customers can’t make informed decisions. The new law, he said, will bring transparency to the process.
Sky News contacted Ticketmaster for comment.
A spokesperson for fellow ticket sales giants StubHub said: “StubHub has long advocated for legislation that protects fans from anti-competitive and anti-consumer practices in the ticket buying process.
“We share the goals of HF1989 and look forward to continuing discussions with policymakers to advance policies that provide more transparency, more control, and more choice for ticket buyers.”
The law takes effect from 1 January 2025 and applies to tickets sold on or after that date.
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