Promoters Love Thy Neighbour have this morning announced that they have secured the services of the Britain’s loveable madcap two-hit legend John Otway, who will be bringing his joyous material to The Con Club in Lewes on Saturday 7th December. Tickets are already on sale and can be purchased HERE and HERE.
Otway gives off an air of being a self-deprecating British failure, but to be honest, that’s far from the truth, as back in 2022 he played to a packed Shepherd’s Bush Empire and it was a milestone for him as it was his 5,000th gig, and if that’s not enough, we are now talking about Doctor John as he was awarded an Honorary PhD in Music by Oxford Brookes University. On receiving this Otway stated “I’m really thrilled to be awarded this totally unexpected honour, especially as I failed all my A levels as I decided to concentrate on preparing for my burgeoning career as a rock star. To get this from Oxford Brookes 50 years later shows I did the right thing.”
Watching Otway performing live brings a smile to people’s faces as he recently did for me when I caught up with him at Glastonwick. Here’s my account:
JOHN OTWAY – GLASTONWICK FESTIVAL, CHURCH FARM, COOMBES 2.6.24
Let’s face it, ‘Glastonwick’ wouldn’t be ‘Glastonwick’ without certain characters and arguably at the top of this list is the madcap but truly loveable two-hit wonder that is John Otway, who immediately and excitedly informs everyone “I am a pop star with two hit singles!”. Otway then states that his fuzz pedal is better than requiring the services of Attila The Stockbroker as he launched into his 1977 hit ‘(Cor Baby That’s) Really Free’ on his guitar, comedically (and unintentionally) the said fuzz pedal gave out and so mid tune he summoned his faithful roadie ‘Deadly’ onto the stage to fix it, which he didn’t immediately do as the battery had run out in it and so Deadly left the stage to get another one followed by some jip from Otway. The offending item was fixed and an accompanying V-sign from Deadly to Otway was the result.
After this first number Otway performed its B-side ‘Beware Of The Flowers (‘Cause I’m Sure They’re Going To Get You, Yeh)’ which he informs us was more popular than anything by Bob Dylan in a certain BBC poll. He then told us that after 25 years he had found out which end to put the “s” that goes with “hit” and thus had a second hit with ‘Bunsen Burner’ in 2002. But you know what, I know he trades off as having just two hit singles, but I reckon he is selling himself short as in 1980 I bought his ‘DK 50-80’ single and that reached No.45 in the official charts!
Moving on….Otway is a decent standup and a legend and he got out his 12 string double joined guitar and spoke the lyrics to The Sweet’s ‘Blockbuster’ which the crowd filled in the next lines!. He then switched back to his single guitar and got out a coat hanger and put it around his neck which allowed him to sing and play guitar at the same time whilst moving around the stage. After that he was making use of a Theremin as well as hitting strategically placed body pads to make an electronic beat. Further antics followed which may or may not have featured a well known Stockbroker as an anoraked trainspotter!
