John Otway is an English singer-songwriter who has built a sizeable cult audience through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating underdog persona.
Otway played his first gig in 1972.and 50 years later played his 5,000th gig at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. In those years he has built a sizeable cult following of passionately loyal and adoring fans.
Otway first achieving cult stardom in 1977 with a memorable and very painful – (he jumped and landed astride an amplifier) appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test. This performance that propelled his first hit record ‘Cor Baby That’s Really Free’ into the UK Top 30. Just 25 years later he was in closer proximity to the topper- most of the poppermost when ‘Bunsen Burner’ reached a lofty number nine.
As well as his brace of hits, the man who revels in the title of ‘Rock And Roll’s Greatest Failure’ has released 15 albums (six with on-off, on-off-again partner Wild Willy Barrett). He has sold out the Royal Albert Hall and headlined the London Palladium.
The self-made biopic ‘Otway – the Movie: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Greatest Failure’ premiered in Leicester Square, was shown at Cannes, voted 2nd best film of 2013 by Guardian readers and in 2022 is still popular on Netflix . He has also written two volumes of autobiography.
Otway’s song ‘Beware of the Flowers (‘Cos I’m Sure They’re Going to Get You Yeah’) was voted the seventh greatest lyric of all time in a 1999 BBC poll – higher than anything by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, The Bee Gees or Leonard Cohen!
As an actor he has appeared in TV’s Super Gran, William Tell, Heartbeat
Never happier than when performing, during lockdown he performed 9 shows from his sitting room via Facebook, each attracting over 10,000 views. It is his legendary live shows that have kept the fans coming and this micro-star shining for half a century.
‘Headbutts, featuring frequent, repeated (and very painful) forehead/ microphone interaction. He has probably headbutted a very solid and hard microphone shield at least 80,000 times. Which just might explain everything
Venue Details
The ERT Team: We have a committed Board, comprising of professional theatre-makers and business experts. Patrons: Dame Judi Dench and Sir Mark Rylance Ambassadors: John Godber & Richard Bean Associated Artists: Mark Addy, Berwick Kaler, William Houston, Anna Maxwell-Martin, David Bradley Directors of the Board: Adrian Rawlins – Artistic Director Vincent Regan – Creative Director Chris Wade – Music and Comedy Programming Anne Cooper – Planning and Funding Sue Kirkman – Manager John Merrylees – Technical Production Tom Wilders – Finance
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Baby Changing
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