Camille O'Sullivan

A couple of video clips tonight. I discovered Camille O'Sullivan a few years back and managed to get hold of one of her CDs (A Little Yearning). Back then it was some task as she was still relatively obscure, and I had to order the CD from some small independent Irish distributor, not knowing if I'd actually receive anything in return. The instant appeal for me was due to the fact that she adapted some of my favourite artists: Tom Waits, Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, Nick Cave; and she did so in a very singular and dramatic Weimar/Cabaret style.
A few years on and she's now on the cover of Time Out magazine, winning awards left, right and centre, as well as appearing in movies. Last year we discovered she was doing a show at Birmingham's newly re-opened Town Hall but at the last minute and couldn't make it. Luckily I noticed yesterday that her 'The Dark Angel' show was coming around to the Town Hall again in June and tonight managed to get some tickets.
After a bit of a scout around on YouTube, I found these two performances that I thought I'd post, as they're a good representation of her versatility.
The first, a version of Kirsty MaColl's very funny In These Shoes is from Jools Holland's Later, and the second is her interpretation of Nick Cave's The Ship Song. It was already one of my favourite of Cave's 'quieter' songs, but O'Sullivan's version is simply stunning, and possibly better than the original.