POP/ROCK - Aug. 27, 1990

Sinead’s Last Gleaming: Pop singer-songwriter Sinead O’Connor has sung her last note at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. O’Connor, who is Irish, threatened Friday to walk out on a 9,000-member audience if the American national anthem was played at her concert. Backstage staff reportedly relented out of fear that a last-minute cancellation would cause a commotion. George Zilocchi, acting executive director of the New Jersey Highway Authority, which operates the center, gave his reasons for banning O’Connor from appearing there: “No performer who does not agree to have the national anthem played will be allowed to perform.”