John Otway

John Otway

John Otway is a British singer-songwriter and rock performer from Aylesbury, in the United Kingdom. Born in 1952, he builds a cult following through extensive touring, a surreal sense of humour and a self-deprecating public persona. He is associated with punk and rock, as well as singer-songwriter work.

Career

Otway first releases a single, Gypsy/Misty Mountain, in 1972. He later becomes more widely known through punk audiences and a gymnastic performance on The Old Grey Whistle Test. His sixth single, the half-spoken Really Free, reaches number 27 in the UK Singles Chart in 1977. The single earns him a five-album deal with Polydor Records, which treats him as a punk act rather than simply an eccentric performer.

Otway records his first album with Wild Willy Barrett, with production by Pete Townshend. That release sells only modestly, and follow-up singles also perform poorly despite unusual promotion tactics. One example is Frightened And Scared in 1979, which is offered in a version with the vocal omitted from only three copies, with the promise that Otway will perform at the buyer’s house. Otway and Barrett score another UK chart entry in July 1980 with DK 50-80, which reaches number 45.

Performance style and later work

As a solo performer, Otway keeps a loyal audience even when record sales remain limited. His shows often include songs such as Headbutts, which contribute to his reputation for unpredictable live performance. In the mid-1980s, he appears regularly on Vivian and Ki Longfellow-Stanshall’s showboat, The Old Profanity Showboat, in Bristol’s Floating Harbour.

When his music career slows, Otway writes for the stage, co-authoring the play Verbal Diary. He also appears in television advertisements, often playing a version of himself as a disorganised but likable figure. His autobiography, Cor Baby, That’s Really Me, appears in 1990 and is subtitled Rock and Roll’s Greatest Failure. It outsells almost all of his albums within weeks. A later sequel, I Did It Otway, is published in 2010.

1990s and 2000s activity

In the 1990s, Otway tours as Headbutts and Halibuts with Attila the Stockbroker, and the pair write a surreal rock opera called Cheryl. He appears at GuilFest in 1992. In 1993, he draws 2,500 people to a London concert, and in 1998 4,000 people attend a birthday show at the Royal Albert Hall. That same period also sees the release of Premature Adulation, his first album of new material in more than ten years.

Otway also uses fan-backed publicity campaigns as part of his career. His song Beware of the Flowers Cause I’m Sure They’re Going to Get You Yeah is voted the seventh greatest lyric of all time in a BBC poll. In 2002, he asks for “a second hit” for his 50th birthday, and Bunsen Burner reaches number nine in the UK Singles Chart. The song uses sampled music from The Trammps’ Disco Inferno and lyrics written to help his daughter with chemistry homework. It leads to an appearance on Top Of The Pops. He releases three versions of the single, and the B-side The Hit Mix is a cover of The House of the Rising Sun recorded at Abbey Road Studios with 900 fans on backing vocals, each named on the sleeve.

Recent activity and collaborations

Otway continues to tour in several formats. He performs as a solo act, as a duo with Richard Holgarth, and often with The Big Band, which includes Murray Torkildsen, Seymour, Adam Batterbee and guest keyboard player Barry Upton. He reunites with Wild Willy Barrett for a UK tour in 2009, and they regularly perform together again. In 2011, the pair record 40-Odd Years of Otway and Barrett, a new album of reworked older material and the previously unrecorded song The Snowflake Effect.

He performs in the Cabaret Tent at the 2010 Glastonbury Festival. In 2012, he books the Odeon Leicester Square for a screening of Otway the Movie, a documentary about his life. The screening is sold out, and the film’s final scenes are shot from the red carpet on the morning of the event. The project is funded by fans acting as producers, all of whom are credited by name. Otway also has a motorcycle club of fans called Beware of the Flowers MCC and gives occasional humorous lectures on the theme “Making success out of failure.”