The Blog of Less Renown, celebrating under-appreciated unusual, unique, sick or strange Singers, Songwriters and Songs
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Half-Deaf BEVERLY O'SULLIVAN Dies in Crash
Blonde Irish singer Beverly O'Sullivan was killed in Bharatpur, India on November 2nd, the passenger in a car driven by her boyfriend, Steve Reeves.
They were on vacation at the time, the reward for Beverly finishing a film role that included six songs on the soundtrack.
She was beginning a promising solo career, after being a member of "Fifth Avenue," an Irish pop band.
Back in September of 2004, they were hoping to make money off tweens via generic pop music and band members who looked cute. Beverly was the Barbie Doll blonde, there was also a brunette, plus three pretty-boys with varying amounts of short, gel-gopped hair and pubescent stubble.
Their try for a hit single was the ethnic "Spanish Eyes," showing the way too obvious influences of Shakira, Michael Jackson, and sound-alike boy bands. Beverly's solo turn comes about 2 minutes into the tune. You get both the U.K. version and the thumpier dance version. Each had its own music video.
The dance version (www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6FvkLxRmcM) has the band doing basic, club-footed aerobic moves and posturing. Two minutes in, coinciding with her solo turn, Beverly does the orgasmic-moan bit, there's a gratuitous cleavage shot and then a moment for her to press her hand near her crotch, as a sign of lust or cramps. Mostly all five stand around doing the traditional Irish dance known as "dead from the waist up."
Beverly O'Sullivan was capable of more than Riverdance in a Colombian Brothel, or spoiling her smooth vocals with Britney moans, but she spent several years with "Fifth Avenue." She also guested on a piece of generic trance: "Don't Look Back," a noisy number from John O'Callaghan's album "Never Fade." Beverly's vocalise is buried in the mix and disappears quickly in favor of the usual thumps and electronic noises.
It'll be your headache. Beverly's years of pop and trance caused even worse headaches for the lady herself. Aside from being on stage with a loud tween-aimed band, airplane travel aggravated her hearing problems and she suffered an extra 10% loss of hearing while touring with "Fifth Avenue."
"I haven't heard of any other popstars with a hearing aid," O'Sullivan told The Guardian, but the reporter pointed out Pete Townshend, completely deaf in one ear and suffering tinnitus, and Fatboy Slim, Ozzy Osbourne and Phil Collins, all suffering hearing loss. Only Beverly was born with the problem.
Beverly, who routinely took painkillers, and had to be careful while washing her hair to avoid any water getting into her ears, admitted to having a 45% hearing loss in one ear, and 30% in the other. Technically, "unilateral conductive hearing loss" was the problem, which her £2,500, hearing aid somewhat remedied.
At three, she had "glue ear," (wax build-up) and ended up with a perforated eardrum, the hole getting larger over the years. The delicate bones in her middle ear began to give way as well. She recalled, "I had really bad earaches. I was only about three or four and I was screaming my head off...I was always in pain as a child...I can't hear great now either. Things are a bit mumbly."
Able to manage a conversation one-to-one in a quiet room, if her "good ear" was facing the speaker, O'Sullivan joined the band without giving away her secret. It was only after about six months that she had to explain why she needed the monitors to be turned up loud during rehearsals, or why she was sometimes in distress after a long night of music.
O'Sullivan was eager to move on to solo work, singing music more in line with her real interests. With her good looks, she landed a role as a cabaret singer in the film "Happy Ever Afters," singing a half dozen songs on the soundtrack. The film will be released Christmas Day, 2009.
DON'T LOOK BACK trance No pop ups, captchas, pop unders or wait time.
SPANISH EYES, DANCE VERSION
SPANISH EYES, U.K. VERSION
Her boyfriend was not driving the car, get your facts right
ReplyDeleteFrom trancealliance.com:
ReplyDelete"The couple left Ireland on Sunday for a six week break and had hired a car and driver for the first four days of the tour.
Her boyfriend is understood to have been taken off the critical list."
From Wikipedia:
"She was a passenger in the car. Her boyfriend, 32-year-old Stephen Reeves, was also in the car at the time."
These two items were just checked (March 25 2010) to see if there were updates listing somebody else as driving the car.
If her boyfriend wasn't driving the car, then tell us who was, FACTOID BREATH.
PS, it doesn't alter the fact that she's dead, or that my intent was to make note of the tragedy.
so inappropriate, have some respect
ReplyDelete