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[guitar playing]
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[crowd cheering]
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♪ Look out, baby ♪
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[crowd cheering]
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♪ Look out, pal ♪
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♪ Here's the kidWho's going to get the blues ♪
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♪ When you go away ♪
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♪ I'm on fire ♪
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♪ 'Cause I'm in love ♪
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♪ With a girl who's not the girl she was ♪
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♪ When I was out with her ♪
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♪ I saw you in the garden babyAnd you looked so debonair ♪
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♪ But you were up the flowers ♪
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♪ 'Cause I'm sureThey're gonna get you yet ♪
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♪ I won't try to say goodbye ♪
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♪ Maybe I'll just kick myself inside ♪
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♪ I really wanted to go home ♪
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♪ You might say that today ♪
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♪ Was the very last timeYou walked this way ♪
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♪ You're gonna tell him on your own ♪
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♪ Well I'd tell him where to go to babyBut you know I wouldn't dare ♪
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♪ Beware of the flowers'Cause I'm sure they're gonna get ♪
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♪ You ♪
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♪ Yeah ♪
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{\an8}♪ She said it's hard for meTo explain to you ♪
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{\an8}♪ The brightness of the light ♪
27
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{\an8}♪ I can still rememberWhen my life was like that ♪
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One thing I'm doing
this year which is nice
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is I'm taking Deadly my roadie
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back to my old school, The Grange County
Secondary School in Aylesbury.
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And we're taking a group of sixth formers
on a course
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on how you make a living
and a career in the music industry.
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Deadly, throw.
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I wish someone had done that
when I was at school.
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I mean, no pop stars came to this school
when I was there.
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I mean, I've had to make
it up as I've gone along.
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-[whooping]
-Okay.
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Okay, I'll give you a note.
39
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♪ Ahhh ♪
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-[Theremin trilling]
-[laughing]
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[John]I guess what my students wanted
to know was how did I become successful?
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[Theremin buzzing]
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This is 1977, the big year of punk rock.
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I wanted to be a pop star
since I was nine years old.
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I was now 24, and this was my first
experience of national television.
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Me and Wild Willy Barrett were booked
to play The Old Grey Whistle Test.
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We were gonna make the most out of it.
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Very simply, they're crazy.
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Anyway, you'll see it all now
as we hear two numbers
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from this latest chart bound recording,
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John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett
in "Really Free".
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Bye-bye, now.
53
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♪ I go walking down to your house ♪
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♪ Tell me baby is it good for me ♪
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♪ Your ma and paThey just wanna kick me ♪
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♪ I say Cor baby that's really free ♪
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♪ Really free, really free ♪
58
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♪ Really, really, really, really freeKick me ♪
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[Bob] Yeah, I mean, there wasn't a lot
of music on TV in those days
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it wasn't multi-channel like it is now.
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I mean, we had BBC One, BBC Two, and ITV.
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So at the point that John
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appeared on the show in 1977
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{\an8}he would've been seen on that show
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{\an8}by about five and a half million people,
probably.
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{\an8}Yeah, so, and the impact of his
performance was incredible, as we know.
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That moment in that performance
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changed his life like forever.
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♪ Just so damn sad ♪
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[Bob] He crushed his testicles…
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[Bob laughs] …on the amplifier.
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♪ Oh you say-- ♪ Ow!
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Who would've ever known?
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One foot went one side of the amplifier,
75
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the other foot went the other side
of the amplifier,
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and the whole weight of my body
77
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came piling down
on the most delicate parts of my anatomy.
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And did it hurt.
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[John]Well, it's still regarded
as a pretty impressive performance.
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♪ Oh you say-- ♪ Ow!
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[laughing]
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{\an8}First time I saw Otway and Barrett
was on the telly in 1977,
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{\an8}Top of the Pops,The Old Grey Whistle Test,
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{\an8}absolutely stunning, Barrett,
stunning guitarist,
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Otway, just this anarchistic,
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brilliant freestyle rock singer, um…
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And I think after those initial 1977
TV appearances,
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all the kids at school
were as into Otway and Barrett
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as they were as any other
serious fan at the time,
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Motörhead, The Clash, Led Zeppelin,
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we took Otway and Barrett
really seriously.
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And because of that people started
flocking to the shows,
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"Really Free" the single
went up into the charts,
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and within a couple of weeks
we were back here on top of the pops.
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{\an8}Really is excellent music, isn't it?
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{\an8}His record is coming to the charts
this week on number 27,
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{\an8}making its debut on top of the pops,
for the chart scene, anyway.
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{\an8}So here's John Otway
and Wild Willy Barrett.
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♪ Well I wake up in the morning ♪
100
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♪ Tell me baby what do you see ♪
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♪ I see my true love and she walks upAnd she kisses me and I say ♪
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♪ Cor baby that's really free ♪
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I was signed to Polydor the same
time that The Jam was signed to Polydor.
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It was fascinating because
we've had this hit
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and because I'd done my top of the pops
in the whistle test.
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Polydor gave me this huge advance worth…
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About a quarter of a million pounds,
I think, the deal was worth to John, then.
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And if you wanna put that in perspective,
we go six and a half grand to The Jam.
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Um… yes.
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One thing about being a pop star
and having all that money,
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it meant I could start
living like a pop star.
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I was able to move out
of my one bedroom flat in Fulham
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and move into this lovely pop star's flat
in Maida Vale.
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Les Gray lived next door,
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Dave Edmunds and Dave Stewart
lived just round here.
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But because I was now a pop star
and Polydor had given me this big advance
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I was able to join them.
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The other thing I was able to do
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was buy a nice car.
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I mean, I couldn't drive,
but I could buy a nice car.
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{\an8}John rang me one day and said,
"I want to get a car."
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{\an8}I said, "Okay, what sort of a car?"
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{\an8}He said, "A Bentley."
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I said, "John, you don't drive."
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He said, "Don't care, I want a Bentley."
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So I was given the job
to go find him a Bentley, which I did.
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And of course, after that,
either myself or Jeff Poulter,
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otherwise known as "Jeff Spotter"
what he used to be,
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had to drive it for him.
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[John] Yeah, but when I got back home
on my bike every night,
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it looked great parked outside the house.
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They advanced him so much money,
I built a recording studio,
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um, Otway bought a car,
134
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{\an8}he couldn't drive. [chuckles]
135
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{\an8}So I had a quick word with him, sort of.
136
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{\an8}Remind him that I could,
so what's the point of having a car?
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I had my bank make these checks up
with my photo on them, right?
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And the idea behind these checks was
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I'd go down to my local shop
and buy my eggs and milk with them.
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And the thing was, you knew, right,
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that the shop keeper wasn't
gonna cash that check.
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No, he was gonna frame it,
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and hang it on the wall, saying,
"John Otway buys his eggs and milk here."
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[sighs] It's great being a pop star.
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I think Otway has made it really big
in his own mind and it affected him,
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umm, terribly,
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and he had this thing for a while where
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he didn't go on the tube in case
nobody recognised him.
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[John] So Polydor were eagerly awaiting
what the next hit was gonna be.
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We did have one other good punk song.
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♪ Beware of the flowers'Cause I'm sure they're gonna get you ♪
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But we'd used that on the B side.
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I did have this rather lovely ballad
that I'd record go off on my own back,
154
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and we recorded a 100 piece orchestra
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to try and impress this girl
I really liked.
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And I thought wouldn't it be nice,
you know,
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if that was put out as a single
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'cause it'd go up in the charts
and she didn't like me that much
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but she was gonna be impressed,
wasn't she, with that song in the charts?
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And it's a lovely version
with 100 piece orchestra,
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and, yeah.
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If you're a girl, I mean…
you'd like that, wouldn't you?
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He had all this money and he always wanted
to do an orchestral version,
164
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but it came out sounding
like a Walt Disney film track.
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I mean, that was actually
the follow up single to "Really Free".
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And I didn't know about it,
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I was driving up the M1 to a gig,
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in between worked on that second album.
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And I heard Otway's new solo single
come on the radio.
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{\an8}"Geneve", yes, that was a record which had
strings on it, great big orchestra.
171
00:10:01,080 --> 00:10:04,040
{\an8}and I think the company as a whole
really liked John Otway
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{\an8}and they thought, here is the possibility.
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{\an8}Okay, punk's okay, but we don't really
like being flobbed at, you know,
174
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{\an8}and going into places
where there's a scrap every night.
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Um, and it was fairly conservative
management,
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in those days, myself included, you know,
that was running Polydor.
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And we thought,
"Well, yes, we can cross this boy over.
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"Really Free", "Beware of the Flowers",
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fantastic TV appearances with Barrett.
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What does Otway do?
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00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:33,920
He puts out "Geneve".
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And we all go to the record shops,
we buy "Geneve".
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Oh god, it's gonna be just like
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"Beware of the Flowers" or "Really Free",
and it's not.
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It's this awful over produced garbage.
186
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[upbeat orchestral music]
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There's Otway looking like
some sort of French folk guitarist on it,
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Not the sort of anarchistic punk
that we all greatly loved.
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God, what's wrong with the bloke?
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00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:09,480
{\an8}When he had Cor Baby,I mean,
the company went bananas after that.
191
00:11:09,560 --> 00:11:13,440
{\an8}I mean, they went ballistic, they were
talking about John as being a huge star.
192
00:11:13,520 --> 00:11:14,720
{\an8}He's gonna be mega.
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00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:19,160
♪ Really, really, really free ♪
194
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♪ Really, really, really, really free ♪
195
00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:37,960
Then they came out with "Geneve",
196
00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:40,840
which is a straight down the line,
197
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almost middle of the road single
198
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right smack dab in the middle
of the new wave thing.
199
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♪ For sittingOh yeah ♪
200
00:11:52,160 --> 00:11:53,840
♪ In my dreams ♪
201
00:11:56,280 --> 00:12:01,320
♪ Well things are flyingFor the screaming ladies of Los Angeles ♪
202
00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:08,360
♪ And when I decided that wouldBe my stage ♪
203
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,760
And he used to go to choir practise
on a Friday night,
204
00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:14,360
well, he'd lose his voice.
205
00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:17,400
Then he got scouts on a Thursday night,
206
00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:19,160
and shouted out
and he'd lose his voice again,
207
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:21,320
he used to be always losing his voice.
208
00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:23,320
{\an8}So I can't really think why he took
to singing
209
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:25,800
{\an8}because I thought, well,
if he's always gonna lose his voice
210
00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:27,440
{\an8}what a silly career to take.
211
00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:31,520
{\an8}It really was, because he used to
completely lose his voice with shouting.
212
00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,080
I mean, he sings better in tune now
than he did,
213
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:37,160
but he can't really sing, can he?
214
00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:40,360
[laughing] He hasn't got
a singing voice at all.
215
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:42,760
Don't know why they even
kept him in the choir.
216
00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:45,680
♪ I was 30 ♪
217
00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:52,680
♪ I rememberThat was the end of times for me ♪
218
00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:59,640
I think after "Geneve",
I'm pretty certain that…
219
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:03,080
there must've been a meeting somewhere
where everyone went,
220
00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:06,440
"I wonder, what if we'd
done the right thing?"
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00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:10,000
[John]Not the sort of hit,
not what I had in mind.
222
00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:11,800
It was the original floppy disc.
223
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:14,200
There was only one place
that record was going.
224
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:17,480
Willy threw a bit of a strap after that.
225
00:13:17,560 --> 00:13:19,040
He started doing solo things.
226
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:23,840
Willy found my favourite
guitar in the studio
227
00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:26,360
and used it to launch his solo career.
228
00:13:36,760 --> 00:13:39,840
It was surprising, really,
'cause "Geneve" wasn't just a flop,
229
00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:43,520
it was the start of a long series
of flops.
230
00:13:51,960 --> 00:13:55,800
For my next solo single,
I'd written this song
231
00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:58,440
about the worry of your girlfriend
getting pregnant.
232
00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,160
It was called "Babies In The Club".
233
00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:06,040
♪ Babies in the club ♪
234
00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:10,160
♪ B, B, B, Babies in the club ♪
235
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:13,520
♪ Babies in the club ♪
236
00:14:16,680 --> 00:14:18,560
[John] And that wasn't a hit, either.
237
00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:21,360
We had to try and find a way
to make all the people
238
00:14:21,440 --> 00:14:24,280
that were turning up to the shows
buy the records.
239
00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:28,760
The first idea we came up with was this
idea of live in your living room, right?
240
00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:31,720
Amongst all that records Polydor pressed,
241
00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:36,360
three copies didn't have any vocals
on 'em, just the backing track, right?
242
00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:39,360
and the idea was that the fans
would keep buying the record,
243
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,680
hoping that they get one of the ones
that had the singing on,
244
00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,280
because if they got one of those,
then I would turn up to their house,
245
00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:51,240
stand between their stereo speakers
and add the vocals live,
246
00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:52,400
in their living room.
247
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:56,720
But I mean, god, I love the live show.
248
00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:57,880
[shouting]
249
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:00,840
[crying]
250
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:03,280
[blabbering]
251
00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:09,160
But you wouldn't want him in your house,
252
00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:12,520
the last thing you'd want
is Otway in your house.
253
00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:14,480
[shouting]
254
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,280
[John] Well, two out of the three people
who got those copies
255
00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:20,600
actually had me around
their house singing.
256
00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:23,440
And wouldn't that have made
a great piece of television?
257
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:25,560
So we went up to Scotland to East Kilbride
258
00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:27,760
{\an8}where someone had bought the single
without any vocal on
259
00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:29,440
{\an8}and wanted John to come
and sing in their living room,
260
00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,280
{\an8}and we went up there
and we were very excited because
261
00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:34,320
{\an8}the BBC News had said
they wanted to film it,
262
00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:37,320
{\an8}and we thought, great this is it,
this has really worked, this idea.
263
00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:39,480
We're gonna be on the news,
this is gonna be a big hit.
264
00:15:39,560 --> 00:15:42,640
And we get all the way up to Scotland
to find out that the BBC
265
00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:45,000
had been stopped from filming John
266
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:49,520
because the Musician's Union wanted John
to rerecord the backing track,
267
00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:52,880
so which we'll see was pointless,
it defeated the whole thing.
268
00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,960
So we decided that if we weren't
gonna get into the charts by fair means,
269
00:15:57,040 --> 00:15:59,240
we'd get into the charts by foul.
270
00:15:59,320 --> 00:16:01,960
We'd cheat or we'd hype the charts.
271
00:16:02,840 --> 00:16:06,320
Compared to today,
only a small amount in shops
272
00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:08,080
contributed towards the charts.
273
00:16:08,160 --> 00:16:09,720
Well, we knew where they were,
274
00:16:09,800 --> 00:16:15,680
we had a 10-12 man strike force team
who could leave them in the stores, so…
275
00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:20,080
Logistical nightmare, no.
Very easy to do, actually.
276
00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:25,280
He worked how to make the people who were
coming to the live show buy the records.
277
00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:27,800
The only way you can get into a venue
278
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,960
on the tour that we were going to do
was to buy the record,
279
00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:33,160
so you got it for free,
as long as you have the single,
280
00:16:33,240 --> 00:16:35,400
you could come through the door
to see a gig.
281
00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:40,200
Turns out that a single at the time
was cheaper than a gig ticket,
282
00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:41,800
so the whole idea was really popular.
283
00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:45,240
{\an8}They had no intention
at ever playing the damn thing.
284
00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:48,520
{\an8}But as long as they had it with them,
they come along, we fold it in half,
285
00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:50,920
{\an8}broken, stuffed in the back pocket,
286
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,720
{\an8}most important thing
was they bought the record.
287
00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,400
These are selling tickets for the people
who wanted to come to the shows.
288
00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:03,080
And the idea was if we sold
enough of those gig ticket singles,
289
00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:05,240
we get into bottom end of the charts.
290
00:17:05,319 --> 00:17:07,839
If we got into bottom end of the charts
we'd probably get Top of the Pops,
291
00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:09,640
and then we'd have a huge hit.
292
00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,119
The reason why we came to it
was we suddenly realised,
293
00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:16,160
we're gonna go on the road with this band
and John, and we have no income.
294
00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:20,280
So the only way we could physically do it
was to actually not have hotels.
295
00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:22,960
I actually mentioned it to Otway three
or four years before
296
00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:26,839
that we should do a tent tour,
that it'd cut the cost down on touring.
297
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:29,080
It's just that…
298
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,320
Then, he didn't want to do it,
and at this particular time he did,
299
00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:34,200
because we weren't
getting paid for the gigs.
300
00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:36,760
So naturally we had two vehicles.
301
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:39,760
Right, we had a full transit van
with all the music equipment
302
00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:41,760
and the gear we used
to head off to the gigs,
303
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,560
and the Volkswagen camper van
304
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,480
that headed off with all the camping gear
305
00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,080
to the four star campsite.
306
00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:52,080
There were six or eight of us
sleeping in a car tent
307
00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:53,920
Mrs Otway provided for us.
308
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,080
We travelled around the country
from gig to gig to gig,
309
00:17:57,160 --> 00:17:59,960
putting this thing up, pulling it down,
it was freezing cold,
310
00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:02,440
raining most of the time,
it was a nightmare.
311
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:04,960
[John] This was a DK 50/80 tent tour.
312
00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:08,360
And it worked fantastically well,
we crammed all these…
313
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:11,880
gigs into one week so with his sort of
few sales that we pick up anyway,
314
00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:13,760
and then all these gigs we were doing,
315
00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:16,360
we sold enough singles
to get into the top 40.
316
00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,840
And, Top of the Pops, we knew
we were gonna get Top of the Pops.
317
00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:22,280
Except…
318
00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:24,160
the Musician's Union, again…
319
00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:27,440
[chuckles] Unfortunately,
decided to go on strike,
320
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:31,000
And so the Top of the Pops
was taken off the air
321
00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:33,240
the week that he would've had
that second hit.
322
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:37,480
So I had to try and find a way
to get on television despite the strike.
323
00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:40,200
{\an8}But when we went to do Fun Factory,
which was a TV thing,
324
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:41,400
{\an8}there was a strike then as well,
325
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:43,200
{\an8}I'm quite sure they were trying
to stop us.
326
00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:46,800
{\an8}We got in saying we were
a travelling theatre, I think.
327
00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:49,920
{\an8}'Cause it wasn't entirely music, was it?
It's quite theatrical, as well.
328
00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:51,440
The band, most unusual,
329
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:53,960
not like ordinary bands going
posh around the country.
330
00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:56,280
Oh, no, they live in tents.
331
00:18:56,360 --> 00:18:58,760
They're on tour,
camping in tents in fields,
332
00:18:58,840 --> 00:18:59,880
and having a good time.
333
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:01,280
and to get in the tour,
you don't pay money.
334
00:19:01,360 --> 00:19:02,600
Now, you might think that's different.
335
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:04,360
You do pay, but what you do is
you buy the record
336
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:05,680
and take it in with you.
337
00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:08,640
Who is it? It's Otway and Barrett.
338
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,560
♪ Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah ♪
339
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:18,840
♪ You've been more oh yeah yeah yeahYou've been more oh yeah yeah ♪
340
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:23,600
♪ Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh ♪
341
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:26,720
♪ Start ♪
342
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:32,680
♪ Bad bad bad bad sucker sucker bad badGo go down down all all way way ♪
343
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,200
♪ My ♪
344
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:52,360
♪ Sing it sing it bad badCome on come on come on ♪
345
00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:54,400
♪ He won't he won't go go ♪
346
00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:57,720
♪ Say ♪
347
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:04,560
[John] I now gather that the idea
behind doing Saturday morning telly
348
00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,840
is he had did this thing
got all these little kids watching go,
349
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:11,160
"Mum, mum, look at this. This is great.
Buy that record for me."
350
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:13,840
Ah, well, bad luck. Try again.
351
00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,880
But god there must be a limit to what
Barrett can put up with Otway
352
00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:20,720
and his attention seeking all the time.
353
00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,200
You can see why Barrett wrote "Headbutt",
354
00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:28,720
you know, it's just an opportunity
to hit Otway for all his stupidity
355
00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:29,880
and get his own back.
356
00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:31,920
[metal clanging]
357
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:35,040
{\an8}It was vicious, yeah.
It was really vicious, yeah.
358
00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:36,720
{\an8}John would draw blood every night.
359
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,080
{\an8}I don't know if
you've ever headbutted an SM58.
360
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,160
{\an8}But if you do, they cut you,
361
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:44,520
{\an8}especially when they've been batted around
the stage with the back of your guitar
362
00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,480
frequently, because they tend to have
little wire bits poking out
363
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:49,640
that will stab you in the head,
so you bleed.
364
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:51,200
So we would put
365
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,640
cigarette butts that had been stamped on
on the floor,
366
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:57,480
with gaffer tape over the end of the SM58,
367
00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:00,160
and silver gaffer tape
so it didn't show up quite so much
368
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,840
so that when John was forced to headbutt
it by Willy at the end of the night,
369
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,720
it wouldn't actually
cause too much damage.
370
00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:10,040
Of course, he still bled because
Willy would usually find the one
371
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:11,320
we hadn't gaffered up.
372
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,480
Last place, last place.
Dum de de dum de de dum de de dum.
373
00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,400
De de dum de de dum de de rum da da.
374
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:18,840
Got involved in a head on collision
with a tanker driver.
375
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:21,840
And I wondered what it is that went
through my windscreen.
376
00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:24,720
Through his windscreen.
377
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:28,080
There might've been
another one in between.
378
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:30,880
And I give 'em a headbutt,
I'll give ya headbutts.
379
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,400
Then another, give it headbutts.
380
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:34,600
-[metal clanging]
-Give it headbutts.
381
00:21:35,640 --> 00:21:38,000
I'll give it headbutts. Dum da da dum.
382
00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:42,200
[both] Dum da da dum da da dum da da dum
da da dum da da dum da da dum dum.
383
00:21:42,280 --> 00:21:44,520
Ow, ow.
384
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:46,280
Oh, another verse, another verse.
385
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,000
Met this fellow early in the sport
fifth and karate you know the sort.
386
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:52,840
-Cool, did you give him a headbutt?
-Yeah.
387
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:54,280
[metal banging]
388
00:21:54,360 --> 00:21:56,200
Just like that. I give him headbutts.
389
00:21:56,280 --> 00:21:57,720
Da da da da da. I give headbutts.
390
00:21:57,800 --> 00:21:59,640
-Whistle. I give headbutts.
- Ow!
391
00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:00,600
[audience laughing]
392
00:22:00,680 --> 00:22:02,720
Da da da da. I'll give him headbutts.
393
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:04,680
I gave him. Come on.
394
00:22:04,760 --> 00:22:07,920
-Headbutts.
-Headbutts.
395
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:09,560
[grunts]
396
00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,200
-Goodnight!
-[audience cheering]
397
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,760
"Headbutts" has got to be
one of the best live pieces
398
00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:19,400
of the Otway and Barrett sets.
399
00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:24,920
Um, you know, watching Barrett beating
Otway about the head with a microphone,
400
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,280
the bleeding forehead,
it was very, very funny.
401
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,680
Of course that doesn't
translate at all to vinyl.
402
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:33,320
[John]Ow, ah.
403
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:34,800
[Barrett] Went downtown for a cup of tea,
404
00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:37,400
and I saw two skinnies looking at me,I'll give 'em headbutts.
405
00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:40,880
Da da da da, I'll give 'em headbutts.I'll give 'em headbutts,
406
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,960
[whistles] I'll give 'em headbutts.Come on up, da da da.
407
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:47,800
And besides, the BBC certainly
aren't going to play it on radio.
408
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:49,600
[John] Then me and Willy split up.
409
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:52,440
But it wasn't because of the headbutts,
410
00:22:52,520 --> 00:22:56,080
it was because of this solo album
I'd recorded, as I'd called it,
411
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:58,240
All Balls And No Willy.
412
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:01,280
I thought it was really funny.
413
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:06,120
Eventually, we actually
got dropped from Polydor.
414
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:07,880
Thing is, if you're a rock star,
415
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:10,760
I mean, you want to be on
a major label, don't you?
416
00:23:10,840 --> 00:23:13,880
So I asked Chris France have you had
any ideas how we could, you know,
417
00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,240
get back in with the big record companies.
418
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:19,960
John decides to record
a version of "Jerusalem".
419
00:23:20,040 --> 00:23:23,360
So I sent a copy of it to Paul Conroy
who used to run Stiff Records,
420
00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,200
and signed him then,
and was now running Warner Brothers.
421
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:28,560
To my surprise,
Paul rung me back and said,
422
00:23:28,640 --> 00:23:31,480
"This would be great to put in
to the Christmas schedules."
423
00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:32,960
So I rang John up and said,
424
00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,840
"Hey, guess what? We've done it again.
We've pulled a major label."
425
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:37,560
And we went out and got drunk.
426
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:39,640
Then, for the next three weeks,
427
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,400
I tried to get hold of Paul Conroy
without success
428
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:44,600
because he'd obviously got into his
signing department,
429
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,040
the A&R department
of the record company, to his staff,
430
00:23:47,120 --> 00:23:49,680
and said, "We're gonna do this
for Christmas."
431
00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:51,920
And they'd all gone, "You must be mad."
432
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:55,120
So after that three weeks we decided
433
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,840
that it wasn't likely
that we were gonna be able to put it out.
434
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,760
So we decided,
"Let's put it out for them."
435
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:07,400
It turns out you can't get a factory
to make WEA records if you're not WEA.
436
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:13,000
But I found what you could do is you could
find a factory to press some white labels.
437
00:24:13,080 --> 00:24:16,640
And it wasn't that difficult
to find a dodgy printer
438
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,720
that'd make some WEA stickers for you.
439
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:22,600
I thought it would be
a fun thing to do was
440
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,120
see if I could get my sixth formers
to make some WEA records.
441
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:37,640
And they're pretty good.
442
00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:42,120
And if you actually look at one
of the records made by my sixth formers,
443
00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:43,200
a lot of people would say,
444
00:24:43,920 --> 00:24:47,680
"Yep, that does actually look
like a WEA record."
445
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:49,800
So we made up a press statement
446
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,880
and had one of John's personalised checks
drawn up to pay an advance of 200 pounds
447
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:55,640
'cause they'd had a bad year,
448
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,440
and they were very busy.
449
00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,800
And we buy the package
around the press statement
450
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:03,200
and the white labels
with the Warner Brothers label on them
451
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:05,480
to Radio One and Capital.
452
00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:07,640
And within an hour, Capital had played it,
453
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:09,880
within an hour and a half,
Radio One had played it,
454
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,200
and 20 minutes later,
Paul Conroy rang up and said,
455
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:14,640
"Okay, we give up, we'll put it out."
456
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:21,080
WEA didn't think it was quite as funny
as Capital Radio and Radio One did.
457
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:22,760
But they didn't want to be seen
as party poopers,
458
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:24,400
they wanted to keep in
with the radio station,
459
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:28,320
so they actually decided to lose money
on an Otway flop.
460
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:30,960
Problem with that is,
461
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:33,880
to be able to get on
a major label after that.
462
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:37,680
So the next few flops
were all on little labels.
463
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:40,200
Of course when Otway gets his head
around the fact that the career's
464
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,280
not going where he wants it to go to,
465
00:25:42,360 --> 00:25:45,680
in fact, he's failed, um…
466
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:50,240
Otway is going to be
rock and roll's greatest failure.
467
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:53,720
You know, he's going to do anything,
he's going to do it the best.
468
00:25:53,800 --> 00:25:55,400
And hats off to him,
469
00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,080
he's certainly becoming rock and roll's
greatest failure, undoubtedly.
470
00:25:59,160 --> 00:26:01,360
[John] So I wrote my autobiography.
471
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:07,360
Cor Baby, That's Really Me!Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure.
472
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,760
It had been great for my course 'cause
I was happy to get Deadly the Roadie
473
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:12,760
to hand them out as the textbook.
474
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:18,680
So I decided to go sell myself
as rock and roll's greatest failure.
475
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,400
A lot of people say
476
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:24,760
it's not a good idea to sell yourself
as a failure or call yourself a failure.
477
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:27,600
I didn't have much opportunity
to do anything else.
478
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:32,120
He had basically just written a book
about what a prat he was,
479
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,040
But I thought it was great
'cause we would write press releases
480
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:36,040
about how rubbish he was,
send them to the papers,
481
00:26:36,120 --> 00:26:37,920
instead of all the press releases
they're getting
482
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,360
saying how brilliant
a product or a person is.
483
00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:43,400
I would say, well, you know, John Otway
steadfastly refused to learn
484
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:45,640
to play the guitar, sing, dance,
485
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:47,680
or display any talent whatsoever.
486
00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:49,280
We started to get press again.
487
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,320
Tonight he'll be playing GlastonburyWill you please welcome…
488
00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,120
rock and roll's greatest failure,this is John Otway.
489
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,000
From superstars to super flop,
490
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,960
one of pop's greatest failures,John Otway.
491
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,200
Most spectacular failure in pop music.
492
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,080
Ladies and gentlemen,please welcome John Otway.
493
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:08,840
[audience cheering]
494
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,520
In fact when people came
to the merchandise stand,
495
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:18,920
they said, "Don't buy the records."
496
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:20,680
"They're terrible. Buy the book."
497
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:22,840
[John] Or buy the t-shirt.
498
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,280
"John Otway,
I can't believe it's not better."
499
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,760
[John] Around 1992, I was approaching 40.
500
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:38,520
Carol, my girlfriend and I,
501
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:41,720
had a daughter, Amy,
who is now two years old.
502
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:44,840
And everybody, myself included,
503
00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,960
thought I should take my career
a little more seriously.
504
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:49,640
And be a bit more responsible.
505
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:53,080
[audience laughing]
506
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,120
So I stopped putting it out records
that weren't doing very well
507
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,320
and concentrated on making my live show
as professional as possible.
508
00:28:02,160 --> 00:28:04,560
I also teamed up with Richard Holgarth.
509
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,160
A great guitarist,
probably the best in Harlow.
510
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:12,160
[audience laughing]
511
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,760
{\an8}I've played in bands before
that take things very seriously,
512
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:20,600
{\an8}and, you know, wanted to do all kinds
of strange things like
513
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:22,960
{\an8}play in time,
514
00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:25,480
same key, that sort of stuff,
515
00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:29,160
and with John it's very easy because…
516
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,320
most of the audiences don't remember,
don't know at the end of the day
517
00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:35,880
what key or what time
you're supposed to be in.
518
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:39,360
So as long as I'm doing something
which looks confident
519
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,040
and I know where I am, um…
it's really not a problem,
520
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:45,720
it's much easier than trying to do
anything sensible.
521
00:28:46,840 --> 00:28:48,920
[shouting]
522
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,320
Almost every gig
has got some moment which…
523
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:55,720
catches me out.
524
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:57,280
♪ Love me ♪
525
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:00,680
The longer it catches me out,
526
00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:02,880
the worse it gets
and the more memorable it gets.
527
00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:06,880
Sometimes there are times where I'm just
sort of standing afraid he's gonna…
528
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:08,560
You know, what is happening?
529
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:14,280
♪ As the storm clouds gatherHey look at Jim, I've made an umbrella ♪
530
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,040
Every single gig
has got something happening
531
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,560
which I know nothing about whatsoever.
532
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,760
♪ Hey Donpicture the three of us dancing ♪
533
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,000
♪ There's me and DavidAnd that's a character ♪
534
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,840
♪ Our clothes are soakingAnd they stick to our skin ♪
535
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,760
♪ We're laughing and laughingAnd bouncing and singing ♪
536
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:38,000
♪ Going yeah yeah yeah dancing around ♪
537
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,160
♪ Whoa whoa ♪
538
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:44,200
♪ Yeah ♪
539
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,280
♪ Dancing in the rain ♪
540
00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:57,000
♪ Dancing in the rain ♪
541
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:01,440
He ripped his shirt off and…
542
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,320
{\an8}sang the song and ate the shirt.
543
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:10,240
One of the great things
about working with Richard
544
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:14,040
was he'd been in lots and lots of bands,
and knew some really great musicians,
545
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,880
and I thought we'd get together
a really good Otway band.
546
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:20,800
I can remember him talking about
getting a band together.
547
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,200
And was thinking,
you earn 250 quid a night,
548
00:30:23,280 --> 00:30:25,640
and you're moaning about having
not enough money at the moment.
549
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:27,560
You must be a loony.
I said "Are you sure?"
550
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:29,400
Then I remember insisting
551
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:33,000
we took a camera crew
to actually film the occasion
552
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:34,440
when we actually got together.
553
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:37,240
'Cause I thought at some stage
in the future
554
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,320
a lot of people are gonna want to
see what it was like.
555
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:43,760
-Right.
-Right.
556
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:47,360
I just thought I'd quickly
introduce myself.
557
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:49,520
I'm John Otway.
558
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,720
I know you're probably a bit nervous
559
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:56,160
you know this being the first time we've
worked together and everything, but…
560
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:57,360
Um…
561
00:30:57,920 --> 00:30:59,400
Just remember,
even though I'm the star of this outfit,
562
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,600
I'm almost as like
to make mistakes as you are.
563
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:06,680
Um, okay, but anything you want to work?
Anyone who's had a hit before?
564
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:07,680
{\an8}[man] Yeah, I have, yeah.
565
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,760
{\an8}Oh, great, well, you'll know
just how much more exciting it is
566
00:31:10,840 --> 00:31:12,320
{\an8}than just doing pub gigs.
567
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:15,520
{\an8}[man] If you look at the list,
they are all pub gigs.
568
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,480
{\an8}It's like exciting pub gigs.
569
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,080
Um, right, um…
570
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:22,160
Who's the drummer?
571
00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:25,040
- I am.
-[John] Okay, well…
572
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:27,680
Okay, well, I thought you could do it.
573
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,600
So if you could sort of, like,
sort of keep the rhythm.
574
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:33,320
You're a bassist yeah?
575
00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,640
If you could work together, maybe sort of
get some full groove going,
576
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:39,200
maybe it's a good way to start.
577
00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:41,680
As ever with John, he was right.
578
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,960
Some idea that he comes up with
seems complete lunacy
579
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:47,440
turned out to be a stroke of genius,
absolutely.
580
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:49,480
The big band was really,
really significant
581
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:53,120
in helping him turn things around
and bring it back on course.
582
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:54,800
And of course, we just never
looked back after that.
583
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:56,480
You see him go up and up and up.
584
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:04,880
♪ You come over trip a pair ♪
585
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:07,040
♪ Acting like an introvert ♪
586
00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:11,120
♪ You treat me like a jerkYou made me do all the work ♪
587
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,760
♪ You're just a bog flirtA pretty girl in your skirt ♪
588
00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,160
♪ Rub my face in the dirtWhy don't you? ♪
589
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,680
♪ Just give us a babyGive us a baby ♪
590
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:22,760
♪ RumpelstiltskinRumpelstiltskin ♪
591
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:24,800
♪ Give us a baby, give us a baby ♪
592
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:26,560
♪ RumpelstiltskinRumpelstiltskin ♪
593
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:28,440
♪ Just give us the baby ♪
594
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:35,720
I said, "How many gigs have you done?"
He said, "About 2,000 gigs."
595
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:39,480
"Can you found out how many?", he said.
I said, "Well, we could do Gig 2000."
596
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:40,640
This was in the 1990s.
597
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:42,680
And the year 2000,
was still an emotive thing
598
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,720
and the number 2,000 still was.
599
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,680
He dug out his diaries
'cause he always keeps
600
00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,000
a serious record of everything
he's ever done.
601
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:52,160
Uh, and we managed
to make a t-shirt with all the gigs on,
602
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,520
all 2,000 gigs he done leading up
to this big event of the Astoria.
603
00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:00,320
I promote Otway's 2,000th gig
at the Astoria, uh…
604
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:01,520
trying crossroad.
605
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,080
[Richard C.] Otway wants
a hydraulic crane.
606
00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:08,240
[Paul] That came from my partner,
this one.
607
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:12,000
She's running a construction company
that fitted sprinklers in buildings.
608
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:14,280
[Richard C.] The idea
of the hydraulic crane was, um…
609
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:15,680
It would lift him up
610
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:18,480
during Holgarth's guitar solo
in "Best Dream".
611
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:21,760
[rock music plays]
612
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,760
[Paul] A little bit of John went up high…
613
00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:29,160
[chuckles] …above the crowd,
instead of enjoying Richard's guitar solo.
614
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:32,240
He wasn't allowed to unplug him
halfway through, for one.
615
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:36,840
Holgarth had put together
a fantastic band for Gig 2000,
616
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,480
and for the tour
immediately before it, uh…
617
00:33:39,560 --> 00:33:41,760
with Murray, Seymour, and Adam.
618
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,920
And this band gave Otway
all his credibility back.
619
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:51,560
[Richard C.] In the end,
we got 2,483 people in the venue,
620
00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,960
which was, at least,
843 over the file limit
621
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:57,280
and we broke all bar records there, um…
622
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,120
There was more beers on that night
than they'd ever saw.
623
00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:03,400
[Paul] We really felt after Gig 2000
624
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:08,040
that Otway's career
was absolutely back on track.
625
00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:11,760
They thought it was a big landmark.
626
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,000
I mean, filling a huge
London theatre like that?
627
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:18,199
I remember thinking afterwards…
628
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:21,639
You know, if we can fill
a big London theatre like that,
629
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,040
how much bigger is somewhere like…
630
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:27,239
The Royal Albert Hall.
631
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:31,360
[John] And it turns out,
it's only twice as big.
632
00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,159
So, with a big promotional package,
633
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:37,960
I reckon we could actually do
The Royal Albert Hall.
634
00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:43,639
[audience chanting, singing]
635
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:46,080
[John] And as soon as I decided that,
I thought…
636
00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:48,840
you don't just wanna do
this gig with the band.
637
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:52,280
We're gonna do this gig like anybody else
would wanna do Albert Hall,
638
00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,320
with a huge great orchestra.
639
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,320
Normally, the price is a bit prohibitive
640
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,440
to use a whole symphony orchestra
for just one gig.
641
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,640
But I was in the Aylesbury Youth Orchestra
when I was a kid,
642
00:35:05,720 --> 00:35:08,160
and I take that,
and they were still going.
643
00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:13,560
[John] And I thought to myself,
"Wow, I could actually introduce them."
644
00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:17,480
Ladies and gentlemen,
they've gone through a few line of changes
645
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:22,720
but please welcome my first ever band,
the Aylesbury Youth Orchestra.
646
00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:26,280
[classical orchestrated music plays]
647
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,560
There's a lot of people I'm meeting today.
First of all…
648
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,640
…Hugh, who's the conductor
of the youth orchestra and, um…
649
00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:44,040
Basically runs
the Aylesbury Youth Orchestra.
650
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,960
He's meeting up with the guys
during the orchestration.
651
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:48,720
It's been an outrageous amount of time.
652
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,920
I'm basically all of a sudden
orchestrating the pieces for, um…
653
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:53,600
for the orchestra.
654
00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:56,440
And it's the first time,
Hugh's the chance to…
655
00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:58,080
will have a chance
to actually look at the score
656
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:00,520
or have any idea
what we're planning to do at all.
657
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:04,440
I think I can enjoy this.
658
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:06,480
They would enjoy it.
659
00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,320
[sighs] I mean, it looks to me
as if it's just perfect
660
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,760
because there's enough interest
for everybody.
661
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,960
Yet, it's not so complicated.
It's going to freak the life out of them.
662
00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:17,480
-Yeah.
-Yeah, I've been aware of that.
663
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:19,080
Great.
664
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:24,600
[Paul] So, Otway wants a full
50-piece orchestra
665
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:27,360
and three of his songs orchestrated.
666
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:29,120
He even wants flowers,
667
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,760
not that can be presented to Hugh
the conductor of the orchestra,
668
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:34,920
but flowers that can be presented to him.
669
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:36,920
He's organised his own flowers.
670
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:38,600
But worst of all,
671
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:40,840
he wants this black Thoroughbred stallion
672
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,600
that's supposed to come on stage
at the end of "The Highwayman" and…
673
00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:44,800
and rear up.
674
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:47,800
And, then, gallop off again.
675
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,680
[man] Have you asked them
seriously about it?
676
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:53,320
Yeah, yeah, that's why it be great,
just got a circus.
677
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:55,280
'Cause you gotta know when to say that.
Get a circus.
678
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:57,520
-Get a circus horse.
-[man] Okay, brilliant.
679
00:36:58,200 --> 00:37:00,160
Could easily, you know,
could easily manage those steps
680
00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:01,920
-[man laughs]
-…and sort of gallop across.
681
00:37:02,680 --> 00:37:04,200
I mean, despair.
682
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:06,320
But the Albert Hall said no horses.
683
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:09,920
[melodious acoustic music plays]
684
00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:13,760
[John] It was great taking the band down
to Aylesbury to meet the orchestra,
685
00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:16,960
and it sounded just like the record.
686
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,360
["Geneva" plays]
687
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:30,800
♪ Geneva, take her to yourself ♪
688
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:33,920
♪ And watch her while she rests ♪
689
00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,720
♪ As she talks of you as home ♪
690
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,400
[Paul] "The Highwayman" was different,
though.
691
00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:43,800
The bleak reality,
692
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:48,680
that Otway
has no musical ability whatsoever
693
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,760
becomes glaringly apparent.
694
00:37:51,440 --> 00:37:55,560
[Paul] The orchestra is brilliant.
Otway hadn't got a clue.
695
00:37:55,640 --> 00:37:58,880
He just couldn't sing with the orchestra.
696
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:03,760
[singing "The Highwayman"]
♪ And the highwayman comes in riding ♪
697
00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:06,240
♪ Riding, riding, riding ♪
698
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,200
♪ Up the old inn-door ♪
699
00:38:13,040 --> 00:38:17,400
[intense orchestrated music plays]
700
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:19,280
{\an8}[John] I think it's the wrong verse.
701
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:22,040
[Hugh talking indistinctly]
702
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:26,440
{\an8}Sounds great though, doesn't it?
703
00:38:27,760 --> 00:38:29,720
{\an8}-Do you know where you are in it?
-[John] No.
704
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:31,400
{\an8}That probably explains
why you got it all wrong, then.
705
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,400
{\an8}[John chuckles] Yeah, you're right.
706
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,120
I thought having these pieces written
707
00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:40,560
for Otway and orchestra
was a really good idea.
708
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:43,320
I thought the fans would love it,
which they did.
709
00:38:44,200 --> 00:38:49,600
Problem was, though, Otway and orchestra,
I wasn't very good at.
710
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:52,560
To hide the fact
that I was getting lost in the rehearsals
711
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:56,240
sort of by the humming or making notes.
712
00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:00,160
'Cause I never had any idea,
I hadn't got a clue where I was.
713
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:01,240
Boy, I really didn't.
714
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:05,680
[intense orchestrated music plays]
715
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,240
And it was frightening.
716
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:10,400
I mean, even at the dress rehearsal
717
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:13,280
at The Royal Albert Hall,
I was getting it wrong.
718
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:16,200
[singing "The Highwayman"]
719
00:39:28,360 --> 00:39:32,720
[orchestrated music plays]
720
00:39:33,560 --> 00:39:38,480
All I basically had to do was get up
in front of 4,000 people.
721
00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:42,120
And there are these beautiful arrangements
722
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:45,840
that John Paul has spent
six months working on.
723
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,120
And the orchestra, what are they gonna do?
724
00:39:48,200 --> 00:39:50,640
They spent three months rehearsing them,
725
00:39:50,720 --> 00:39:53,360
and they got it brilliantly right,
and they sounded great.
726
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:56,720
[classical orchestrated music plays]
727
00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,120
And there was this huge danger
728
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:02,040
that the whole thing had come
to a crashing halt
729
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,000
because I started the wrong verse.
730
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:07,040
[audience cheering]
731
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:10,560
Right, the next one's an epic.
It's, uh, got loads and loads of verses.
732
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:12,720
And apart from the ones here tonight,
733
00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,080
I've always got the verses
in the wrong order.
734
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:16,880
And an orchestra, they're like a tank.
735
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:18,160
You can't do what I do with the band.
736
00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:21,120
-Like, "Shut up!"
-[audience laughs]
737
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,160
'Cause they follow the conductor, not me.
738
00:40:23,240 --> 00:40:25,080
-Um…
-[audience laughs]
739
00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,200
So, uh…
I'll just say a little prayer. [laughs]
740
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:31,520
-[audience laughs]
-Okay, let's go for it.
741
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:40,280
[intense orchestrated music plays]
742
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:58,160
[sings "The Highwayman"]
♪ The wind was a torrent of darkness ♪
743
00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:00,320
♪ Among the gusty trees ♪
744
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:03,440
♪ The moon was a ghostly galleon ♪
745
00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:06,840
♪ Tossed upon cloudy seas ♪
746
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,640
♪ The road was a ribbon of moonlight ♪
747
00:41:10,720 --> 00:41:13,080
♪ Over the purple moor ♪
748
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:17,800
♪ And the highwayman come ridingRiding, riding, riding ♪
749
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:20,000
♪ Up to the old inn-door ♪
750
00:41:25,240 --> 00:41:27,840
And you can't hold back
on your performance.
751
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:29,960
You're gonna go for it.
752
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:32,920
♪ And dark in the dark old inn-yard ♪
753
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:34,840
♪ A stable wicket creaked ♪
754
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,320
♪ Where TimThe ostler listened ♪
755
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:41,360
♪ His face was white and weak ♪
756
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:43,800
♪ His eyes were hollows of madness ♪
757
00:41:43,880 --> 00:41:46,320
♪ And his hair was like mouldy hay ♪
758
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:49,520
[John] I remember
at each verse I passed thinking,
759
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:51,000
"Yes!"
760
00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:53,920
Yes, I… I've got over that one,
onto the next.
761
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:57,960
♪…he listenedAs he heard the robber say ♪
762
00:41:58,040 --> 00:41:59,640
[John] I started getting it right.
763
00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:02,080
I can't believe my luck.
764
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:04,880
♪ There was death at every window ♪
765
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,960
♪ There was hell at one dark window ♪
766
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,800
♪ 'Cause best could seeThrough the casement ♪
767
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,280
♪ The road that he would ride ♪
768
00:42:14,160 --> 00:42:18,680
And I kept on getting it right,
and I remember during the last line…
769
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:24,440
♪ Then a highwayman comes ridingRiding, riding, riding ♪
770
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:26,600
♪ Up the old inn-door ♪
771
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:29,080
[John] I remember thinking
after doing that line…
772
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:33,560
"I've done it!
I actually got to the end of this piece."
773
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,320
-[music stops]
-[audience cheers]
774
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:45,240
[John] And, then,
the band came on to do "Geneva",
775
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:48,520
and I knew how to do that
'cause that was the same as the record.
776
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:53,120
[John] And then something
really sweet happened.
777
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:57,000
Amy, my daughter,
came on stage with some flowers
778
00:42:57,080 --> 00:42:58,880
that some admirer got for me.
779
00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:00,240
With the Youth Orchestra!
780
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:03,920
Oh, sweet…
781
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:10,280
It's Amy.
782
00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:13,600
[audience cheering]
783
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,880
[John] The second half of The Albert Hall
was, basically, a band show.
784
00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:34,040
[people chanting, singing]
♪ Otway, Otway ♪
785
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:38,320
[announcer] Here you go!
Otway and the Big Band!
786
00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:41,760
And everybody really enjoyed that
'cause we were,
787
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,640
you know, up there,
doing what we knew how to do…
788
00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:47,400
which mainly involved, posing.
789
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:52,320
["Baby, It's The Real Thing" plays]
790
00:43:56,360 --> 00:43:57,880
[John] A great, great night.
791
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:01,520
♪ Baby, it's the real thing this time ♪
792
00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:03,400
♪ Baby, it's the real thing ♪
793
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:07,040
♪ Baby, it's the real thing this time ♪
794
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,200
♪ I know where I'm going tonight ♪
795
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:17,440
[John] One of the scariest,
but probably best nights of my life.
796
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:24,480
♪ You've been carried away amazing ♪
797
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:26,840
♪ And let her know time to go ♪
798
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:30,400
♪ And if absence is makingYour heart grow fonder ♪
799
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:32,800
♪ So you can wait longer, you know? ♪
800
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,240
♪ If your thoughts keep flyingThe planes of desire ♪
801
00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,560
♪ So you can feel the heat ♪
802
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,280
♪ Now warm yourselfAnd turn to the fire ♪
803
00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,600
♪ You know you got it rightAnd you can say ♪
804
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:48,640
♪ Baby, it's the real thing this time ♪
805
00:44:48,720 --> 00:44:51,840
♪ Baby, it's the real thing ♪
806
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,400
♪ Baby, it's the real thing this time ♪
807
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:57,520
♪ It's got to be fineBut I know what I'm doing ♪
808
00:44:57,600 --> 00:44:59,760
♪ I know where I'm going, baby ♪
809
00:45:01,720 --> 00:45:03,120
♪ Oh, baby ♪
810
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:08,040
♪ Hey, babyIt's the real thing this time ♪
811
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:10,400
♪ I know where I'm going tonight ♪
812
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:37,800
Thank you!
813
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,400
-Big Band!
-[audience cheering]
814
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:47,120
Coming up the millennium, the internet
started having a big impact.
815
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,280
I already got an email address
and a webpage.
816
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:53,640
But the thing that made
the biggest difference was
817
00:45:53,720 --> 00:45:57,760
a fan actually got me a news group,
which all the fans joined.
818
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:00,840
And it was great 'cause they can,
actually, start getting involved.
819
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:02,760
You know, help make me a bigger star.
820
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,400
{\an8}It was about that time
that the BBC were doing,
821
00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:08,160
{\an8}had started this Nation's Favourite Lyric.
822
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:09,720
The, um, vote.
823
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,560
This is the campaign
going into the millennium,
824
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:16,800
where people were invited
to write in their, or…
825
00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:21,200
or nominate the, you know, the…
the songs with the greatest lyrics.
826
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:24,880
It occurred to me that,
if you voted for The Beatles,
827
00:46:24,960 --> 00:46:27,840
you can vote for "Let It Be",
or "Hey, Jude".
828
00:46:27,920 --> 00:46:29,640
Lots and lots of different songs.
829
00:46:29,720 --> 00:46:32,600
And it occurred to me with the internet
that if we could galvanise people
830
00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:35,200
and get them to vote for one song,
and one song alone,
831
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:37,200
"Beware of the Flowers
'Cause I'm Sure They're Going to Get You",
832
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:40,040
we might have a chance of getting
somewhere in this chart.
833
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:44,680
Because John, of course, is a…
is a sort of lyric laureate, isn't he?
834
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:47,280
I mean, "Beware of the Flowers
835
00:46:47,360 --> 00:46:50,240
'Cause I'm Sure
They're Going to Get You, Yeah." [laughs]
836
00:46:50,320 --> 00:46:51,960
And it was also a phone-in poll.
837
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:54,000
So, they didn't have anybody
tracking the emails,
838
00:46:54,080 --> 00:46:56,000
where they come from,
or what have you there.
839
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:57,400
Um…
840
00:46:57,480 --> 00:46:59,760
So, we kinda got together,
and I went to that comment gig
841
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:01,280
with 50 bits of papers saying,
842
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:03,600
"Vote for Otway.
Vote for 'Beware Of The Flowers'."
843
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:08,080
And the fans, right, did this
absolutely brilliant job of voting.
844
00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:11,360
And at the end of Poetry Week,
this was on television,
845
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:15,360
{\an8}Let's begin the results with the lyric
voted the nation's most popular.
846
00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:18,160
{\an8}[woman host] At number ten,
"Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael.
847
00:47:18,240 --> 00:47:20,520
{\an8}[male host] At number nine,
"Nights In White Satin" by Justin Hayward.
848
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:22,840
{\an8}[woman host] At number eight,
"Sit Down" by James.
849
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:25,760
{\an8}[man host] At number seven,
"Beware Of The Flowers" by John Otway.
850
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:28,120
{\an8}[woman host] At number six,
"Yesterday" by Paul McCartney.
851
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:30,040
Yeah, just below Paul McCartney.
852
00:47:30,120 --> 00:47:32,840
It's fantastic, what an…
what an amazing achievement.
853
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:36,120
{\an8}Cuegot up and arms
about the whole thing, didn't they?
854
00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:37,440
{\an8}[Ali] They reckon we fixed this.
855
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:39,720
[John] Okay, let's make thisthe big one thought way.
856
00:47:39,800 --> 00:47:43,320
It was then that we realised
just how powerful this one group
857
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:45,840
and this internet presence could be.
858
00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:48,760
It's an amazing thing,
but we won miles ahead of anybody.
859
00:47:48,840 --> 00:47:51,600
Absolutely miles ahead of anybody,
pioneers.
860
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:54,120
{\an8}It's people like Otway
that do these things that…
861
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:57,000
{\an8}that really make you think,
"Yeah, come on. Let's do this."
862
00:47:57,080 --> 00:47:58,200
{\an8}You know?
863
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:03,200
Again, with John, with his fans,
I think people genuinely love him.
864
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:08,560
So, he can mobilise this fan base
to help him achieve stuff.
865
00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:10,880
One really sweet thing
the fans did was they,
866
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:13,560
they clubbed together
and bought me a birthday present.
867
00:48:14,240 --> 00:48:16,280
It was a really,
really good birthday present.
868
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:17,640
The initial thing with ONElist
869
00:48:17,720 --> 00:48:20,680
is we started buying him
birthday presents.
870
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:21,600
Um…
871
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,480
And one of those,
possibly the second year that the list
872
00:48:24,560 --> 00:48:26,440
come together and started to grow, um…
873
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:32,440
somebody, some foolish, foolish person
suggested we buy him the Theremin.
874
00:48:32,520 --> 00:48:35,360
[Theremin plays]
875
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:39,520
{\an8}But, I have to say,
Otway is a really good Theremin player.
876
00:48:39,600 --> 00:48:40,960
{\an8}He, actually, you know…
877
00:48:41,040 --> 00:48:44,040
{\an8}He, actually, can do it quite well.
Maybe, that's nature's way.
878
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:47,200
{\an8}Fuddling all that musicality
into one thing.
879
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,640
[Theremin plays a melodious tune]
880
00:48:49,720 --> 00:48:51,760
{\an8}Over the years,
I've been watching John's music.
881
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:56,160
{\an8}He's blossomed from like,
sort of, a kid playing with it
882
00:48:56,240 --> 00:48:59,040
{\an8}to a really quite a masterful musician.
[laughs]
883
00:48:59,960 --> 00:49:03,600
-[Chris D.] He flounces around it.
-[Theremin playing a comedic tune]
884
00:49:04,320 --> 00:49:06,640
[Ali laughing]
I think Otway looks like a twat.
885
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:12,240
A totally uncoordinated…
It's incredibly funny.
886
00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:14,280
It's amazingly funny watching him do it.
887
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:15,480
I mean, he's just…
888
00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:20,000
He's turned un-coordination
into a very, very fine and amusing art.
889
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:23,760
It's, um… It was a great present, yeah.
890
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:26,440
[Theremin plays]
891
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,600
[upbeat acoustic music plays]
892
00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:51,640
[audience laughs, applauds]
893
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:54,160
By using the internet and the news group,
894
00:49:54,240 --> 00:49:57,280
the fans sent a couple
of really, really good things.
895
00:49:57,360 --> 00:49:59,760
And they bought me a really nice
birthday present,
896
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:01,640
and they t got me into this chart.
897
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:04,840
And it was Morris, my old manager,
898
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,120
that thought of something really clever.
899
00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:09,960
He put those two things together,
900
00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:13,840
and managed to have think of something
that I really, really, really wanted.
901
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:19,000
Maybe, you could get them all to buy you,
go out and buy your record
902
00:50:19,080 --> 00:50:20,800
put out a single for your 50th birthday.
903
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:22,720
They'll go and buy the record
and make it a hit.
904
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:27,000
And John, of course, the word "hit" just
hit home as it would with Otway.
905
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:28,040
He got very excited.
906
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:30,160
As soon as you realise
you can have another hit,
907
00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:32,840
you start planning a big party
to celebrate.
908
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,160
I thought of somewhere really good.
909
00:50:35,240 --> 00:50:38,400
The London Palladium at that time
were running Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,
910
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:40,320
but just for Monday till Saturday.
911
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,160
They had Sundays free, and that was
the night the charts came out.
912
00:50:44,240 --> 00:50:46,800
So you could book the London Palladium
block and we'll have a big party
913
00:50:46,880 --> 00:50:49,360
to celebrate being back in the charts.
914
00:50:50,200 --> 00:50:52,480
It's just so typically
Otway though, isn't it?
915
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,680
"Um, right, well,
I'm having a birthday so, um…
916
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:57,320
I'll have a hit single, um…
917
00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:01,640
So Paul, you go and book the Palladium
to celebrate the hits in, right?"
918
00:51:01,720 --> 00:51:05,640
I noticed, whenever you play
"House Of The Rising Sun",
919
00:51:05,720 --> 00:51:06,760
people would heckle.
920
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:08,640
[bass riff plays]
921
00:51:08,720 --> 00:51:09,680
Well, there is…
922
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:11,720
{\an8}-[audience] What?
-A house.
923
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:14,080
{\an8}-[audience] Where?
-Down in New Orleans.
924
00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:17,640
{\an8}-[in unison] What's it called?
-Well, they call it…
925
00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:20,960
[sings] ♪ The rising sun ♪
926
00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:22,960
{\an8}[in unison] What's it been?
927
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:25,360
Well, it's been the ruin
of many a poor boy.
928
00:51:25,440 --> 00:51:29,600
{\an8}-[audience] How do you know?
-Ah! Well, God, I know.
929
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:32,760
{\an8}-[audience] Who's a Prat?
-I'm one.
930
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:35,960
So, I had this idea.
931
00:51:36,040 --> 00:51:39,680
I thought, why not book
a really big concert
932
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:43,240
and we'd record everybody's heckle
so they can all be on the B-side.
933
00:51:43,720 --> 00:51:46,000
And then Paul came up with
an absolutely brilliant idea.
934
00:51:46,080 --> 00:51:49,040
Instead of booking up
a huge great concert hall,
935
00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:52,640
why not book a really good studio
like Abbey Road?
936
00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:55,480
So, we actually booked Abbey Road Studios
937
00:51:55,560 --> 00:51:58,280
'cause our fans would absolutely love
recording there.
938
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:02,080
And I go along with the studio with…
with Otway for a recce.
939
00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,800
Iconic studio. Incredible history.
940
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:11,480
But all Otway's interested in
is which studio Benny Hill
941
00:52:11,560 --> 00:52:14,400
has recorded
"Ernie, The Fastest Milkman in the West".
942
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:16,960
[John] And that got to number one.
943
00:52:17,040 --> 00:52:21,920
Perhaps, Abbey Road weren't completely
in faith with what Otway was.
944
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:26,400
So to get the project
under the Abbey Road radar,
945
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:28,280
we told the studio, um…
946
00:52:28,360 --> 00:52:32,320
that he was an artist who needed to record
a thousand piece choir.
947
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:34,280
So, we got in touched with the press,
948
00:52:34,360 --> 00:52:36,240
and I put out this press release,
and told them,
949
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:38,320
"How are we able gonna get
thousands of hecklers
950
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:41,840
to come to Abbey Road Studios
to yell at me?"
951
00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:44,680
He phoned-up and he said, "I think
I'm a bit in trouble with Abbey Road."
952
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:46,680
They sort of got wind of what we're doing,
953
00:52:46,760 --> 00:52:48,560
and they're not really
very happy about it.
954
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:52,000
I mean, they're pretty sniffy, Abbey Road.
It's quite an iconic place.
955
00:52:52,080 --> 00:52:54,360
I don't really want 900 new-borns
turning up
956
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:56,600
and turn the place to shreds, of course.
957
00:52:56,680 --> 00:52:58,720
Um, and because, I think,
958
00:52:58,800 --> 00:53:02,080
Paul hadn't quite been honest with them
about what was going on,
959
00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:04,240
they were getting very,
very nervous about it.
960
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:06,360
I said come, "Come on, mate,
we need to smooth this out."
961
00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:08,120
So, I had to put the suit on, and go down,
962
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:10,760
and be reassuring,
and smooth everything out.
963
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:15,320
[John] But no one needed to worry.
It was quite odd.
964
00:53:16,000 --> 00:53:18,120
It was like you were in somewhere sacred.
965
00:53:18,200 --> 00:53:22,920
["House Of The Rising Sun"
By John Otway playing]
966
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:25,560
[John] 'Cause as soon
as the red light went on,
967
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:27,400
here's all the fans are thinking
968
00:53:27,480 --> 00:53:30,680
"Wow, we're recording
in Abbey Road Studios."
969
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:33,760
And it was really, really special.
970
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:38,520
[sings] ♪ In the house of the rising sun ♪
971
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:42,160
[John] One thing that struck me was,
972
00:53:42,240 --> 00:53:45,600
this is really special
for the band as well.
973
00:53:45,680 --> 00:53:48,680
And Richard, my guitarist,
why he loved it!
974
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:50,320
And he did this solo, right?
975
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:52,480
And I've never ever learned it,
976
00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:57,440
but quite so many notes
into one short solo ever.
977
00:54:07,520 --> 00:54:08,960
Where's your foot?
978
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:13,120
[choir sings]
♪ Well, I got one foot on the platform ♪
979
00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:15,400
[John] And where's your other foot?
980
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:20,080
[choir sings]
♪ The other foot on the train ♪
981
00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:21,320
Where are you going?
982
00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:28,040
[choir sings]
♪ I'm goin' back to New Orleans ♪
983
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:29,040
[John] What're you gonna wear?
984
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:34,160
[choir sings]
♪ To wear that ball and chain ♪
985
00:54:36,160 --> 00:54:38,520
♪ There is a house… ♪
986
00:54:38,600 --> 00:54:41,720
[John] So, what we did was
when they came in to the studio,
987
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:45,120
we got them to sign
a proper recording contract.
988
00:54:46,240 --> 00:54:50,920
{\an8}So when the record came out,
they could be credited as artists.
989
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:52,600
{\an8}All of them.
990
00:54:54,320 --> 00:54:56,760
{\an8}But if you're an Otway fan being credited,
991
00:54:56,840 --> 00:54:59,600
{\an8}on a big hit record,
you're gonna love that, aren't you?
992
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:06,320
♪ And God, I know ♪
993
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:09,520
[in unison] Who's the prat?
994
00:55:09,600 --> 00:55:11,040
I'm one.
995
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:14,960
[rock music plays continuously]
996
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:22,440
[all cheering]
997
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:29,880
"I've decided to have a hit
for my 50th birthday."
998
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:33,120
And I thought, "Ah, you're a genius.
Brilliant. Yeah." It worked.
999
00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:35,960
Because we got the fan club in shape.
They're enough of them.
1000
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:39,400
Probably, to buy him a hit,
which we'd get him in the top 40.
1001
00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:40,960
[Richard C.]And he said, "Good,
you got some time in your hand."
1002
00:55:41,040 --> 00:55:43,480
I said, "Yeah." He said,
"Oh, you can help me with the hit, then."
1003
00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:45,840
[Richard C.] 'Cause I've already booked
the Palladium at Sunday night,
1004
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:47,240
at the week my birthday to celebrate.
1005
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,960
I went, "John, that's a hundred
thousand pound gig. Uh, what's the song?"
1006
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:53,720
He went, "Oh, don't worry about that."
And put the phone down.
1007
00:55:53,800 --> 00:55:55,400
A lot of people were saying that.
1008
00:55:55,480 --> 00:55:58,400
They were saying to me, "Look,
you got your party, you got your B-side.
1009
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:00,680
Now, what's the hit going to be?"
1010
00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:06,160
We decided, or rather John decided,
that the fans would pick the hit.
1011
00:56:06,240 --> 00:56:10,080
John said, "I spent 21 years picking hits
and they've all been flops."
1012
00:56:10,160 --> 00:56:12,680
"It's about time somebody else had a go
and they're buying it."
1013
00:56:12,760 --> 00:56:14,360
"Why don't we let them choose it?"
1014
00:56:14,440 --> 00:56:15,760
I thought, what a good idea.
1015
00:56:15,840 --> 00:56:19,080
The fans could actually pick
what the hit was gonna be.
1016
00:56:19,160 --> 00:56:23,240
Not only were they singing on the B-side,
they're also choosing the hit itself.
1017
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:27,840
So, we produced a CD with 12 tracks on,
1018
00:56:27,920 --> 00:56:29,760
and the fans are gonna actually vote
1019
00:56:29,840 --> 00:56:32,480
for which one they thought
would be the biggest hit.
1020
00:56:32,560 --> 00:56:35,640
[rock music plays]
1021
00:56:39,360 --> 00:56:42,160
Most people in music
just thought it was absolutely crazy.
1022
00:56:42,240 --> 00:56:44,480
I mean, you can't let the fans
pick the hit, you can't.
1023
00:56:44,560 --> 00:56:46,120
The music industry
doesn't think like that.
1024
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:49,160
And this was the whole point of,
of the campaign in some respects.
1025
00:56:49,240 --> 00:56:50,920
That everybody said,
"You're not supposed to do this.
1026
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:52,920
"You're not supposed to do that."
But, why not?
1027
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:56,720
The problem we had, well, my fans,
actually, knew quite a lot about voting.
1028
00:56:57,280 --> 00:57:00,520
And some of them thought
it might not be quite fair.
1029
00:57:01,120 --> 00:57:04,160
Because even when I said,
"No, I'm not gonna fix this."
1030
00:57:04,240 --> 00:57:06,040
I wish I'd-- Yeah, you sure. Yeah.
1031
00:57:06,120 --> 00:57:07,520
Of course, you're not rich.
Of course, you're not.
1032
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,400
So I thought, "Well, like, you know,
it was not gonna be credible
1033
00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:12,240
everyone was gonna think it is a fix."
1034
00:57:13,000 --> 00:57:15,560
[Richard C.] So, we got the Electoral
Reform Society involved.
1035
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:18,280
[John] And they can actually
count the votes for us.
1036
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:21,840
So I couldn't throw in a flop,
neither could Courtney.
1037
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:27,680
And because the fans were voting
for what they thought was the biggest hit,
1038
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:29,720
it wasn't my responsibility.
1039
00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:31,600
And I can put on some punk rock stuff.
1040
00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:34,200
["Rumpelstiltskin" plays]
1041
00:57:35,080 --> 00:57:36,240
We put on some pop stuff.
1042
00:57:36,320 --> 00:57:40,240
["We Know What She's Doing
(She's In Love)" by John Otway playing]
1043
00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:44,800
I thought, "We could put on
the orchestral version of 'Geneve'."
1044
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:48,120
In case the fans thought
that I deserved a second chance.
1045
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:52,160
["Geneve" plays]
1046
00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:55,000
Richard Holgarth produced some tracks.
1047
00:57:55,080 --> 00:57:57,640
And an old mate Barry Upton got in touch
1048
00:57:57,720 --> 00:57:59,720
and offered to produce
some tracks as well.
1049
00:57:59,800 --> 00:58:03,760
{\an8}It was obvious to me that the reason
for his one-hit-wonder status
1050
00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:06,080
{\an8}was the lack of production value.
1051
00:58:06,160 --> 00:58:09,440
{\an8}So, I called him after a gig on
the Isle of Wight and told him bluntly,
1052
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:12,560
"Your records are crap.
Now, let me have a go."
1053
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:16,240
It's impossible to exaggerate
the difference between the two producers.
1054
00:58:16,320 --> 00:58:19,840
[rock music plays]
1055
00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:22,080
[John] Now, here we have Richard Holgarth,
right?
1056
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:25,720
A serious musician who's working
with Eddie and the Hot Rods.
1057
00:58:27,600 --> 00:58:31,400
And Barry Upton,
who's not very much a pop producer,
1058
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:33,560
who's probably most famous for writing
1059
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:37,400
and producing five,
six to seven, eight for Steps.
1060
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:38,600
[laughs]
1061
00:58:39,160 --> 00:58:43,000
It's fair to say they were a little,
you know, incompatible, really.
1062
00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:45,760
John went down to do some demos
with Barry Upton,
1063
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:46,840
and the first time he came back
1064
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:49,160
I said, "Let's have a listen."
He sat in my office.
1065
00:58:49,240 --> 00:58:51,080
And I went,
"Well, that's it. That's the hit."
1066
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:52,440
It was just obvious.
1067
00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:54,680
It was brilliant. The demos are fantastic.
1068
00:58:54,760 --> 00:58:57,760
I couldn't believe how fast this guy's
working and turn things out.
1069
00:58:57,840 --> 00:58:58,960
It was sheer genius.
1070
00:59:00,040 --> 00:59:01,440
Then, we had to sell it to the band.
1071
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:02,560
[laughs]
1072
00:59:02,640 --> 00:59:05,760
Seymour threatened to leave the band
if "Beware of the Flowers" won it.
1073
00:59:05,840 --> 00:59:09,000
Now, this is a new version
that I'd done a bit, a disco version.
1074
00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:11,640
And the bass just goes…
[imitates upbeat bass tune]
1075
00:59:11,720 --> 00:59:14,040
Like this.
He said, "If that wins, I'm out."
1076
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:16,040
"I'm not playing that
for the rest of my career with Otway."
1077
00:59:16,120 --> 00:59:19,960
♪ Beware of the flowersBeware of the flowers ♪
1078
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:21,800
♪ Beware of the flowers ♪
1079
00:59:21,880 --> 00:59:23,560
♪ They're coming' to get you ♪
1080
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:26,240
♪ Look out, babyLook out, pet ♪
1081
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:29,120
♪ Here's the kidWho's gonna get the blues ♪
1082
00:59:29,200 --> 00:59:31,040
♪ When you go away ♪
1083
00:59:32,320 --> 00:59:35,040
[John] We actually had this big party,right?
1084
00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:39,600
For the night, we were going to announcewhat the hit was actually going to be.
1085
00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:42,800
Well, we had the guyfrom the Electoral Reform Society
1086
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:45,400
come down,and tell us what the results were,
1087
00:59:46,040 --> 00:59:49,000
and he would come on stageafter we played each song.
1088
00:59:49,560 --> 00:59:52,880
And if it had enough votes,he would tell us that it was…
1089
00:59:52,960 --> 00:59:55,600
-A potential hit.
-[all cheering]
1090
00:59:55,680 --> 00:59:57,240
[John] And if it didn't have enough votes,
1091
00:59:57,320 --> 01:00:00,080
he would tell us how many votes it got.
1092
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:03,520
-Thirteen votes.
-[crowd clamours]
1093
01:00:03,600 --> 01:00:08,400
[John]And we had two girls,Miss Hit and Miss Miss.
1094
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:11,360
Come, we couldn't call her"Miss Flop", could we?[laughs]
1095
01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:15,560
[crowd cheering, clamouring]
1096
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:17,680
[John] And after each announcement,
1097
01:00:17,760 --> 01:00:23,000
either Miss Hit or Miss Misswould take the sign for the song
1098
01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:25,280
to the relevant side of the stage.
1099
01:00:26,880 --> 01:00:29,120
[host speaking indistinctly]
1100
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:32,880
[John] But what started happeningthroughout the evening was
1101
01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:38,360
all the stuff on the hit sideof the stage was all the pop stuff
1102
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:39,920
produced by Barry Upton.
1103
01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:42,520
And on my flop side of the stage
1104
01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:47,120
was the big orchestra version of "Geneve",and everything else.
1105
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:53,320
Voting night was quite tense
for those of us that were involved in it
1106
01:00:53,400 --> 01:00:56,960
especially myself, I had a bit
of reputation to keep up as a producer.
1107
01:00:57,040 --> 01:01:00,880
So, I just hope that
I was gonna be on the hit side.
1108
01:01:00,960 --> 01:01:04,240
Luckily, four out of five
of my productions were on the hit side.
1109
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:05,200
I was okay.
1110
01:01:05,280 --> 01:01:07,320
It was very worrying for Seymour.
1111
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:12,840
You know, 'cause when we done the disco
version of "Beware of the Flowers",
1112
01:01:13,400 --> 01:01:16,000
off it went to the hit side of the stage.
1113
01:01:17,000 --> 01:01:19,840
[John] Then, Jamie Lee Grace came onto announce the hit.
1114
01:01:19,920 --> 01:01:21,200
Thank you.
1115
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:24,640
I'm absolutely honoured and privileged
1116
01:01:24,720 --> 01:01:27,040
to be able to be the person
to announce the hit.
1117
01:01:27,120 --> 01:01:29,960
-[audience clamours]
-[Jenny] Oh!
1118
01:01:30,040 --> 01:01:31,640
[John] It was scary
1119
01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:36,120
'cause if "Beware of The Flowers" had won,Seymour will be leaving the band.
1120
01:01:36,200 --> 01:01:38,160
It could barely be the same, so…
1121
01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:40,880
-Number two!
-[firecracker explodes]
1122
01:01:41,760 --> 01:01:47,080
"Beware of The Flowers", with 345 points.
1123
01:01:47,160 --> 01:01:50,360
[all cheering]
1124
01:01:50,440 --> 01:01:53,360
I thought we go up the listings?
Are we ready?
1125
01:01:53,440 --> 01:01:56,040
-[all cheering]
-[shouts] Number one!
1126
01:01:56,120 --> 01:02:00,000
-[firecracker explodes]
-With 378 points…
1127
01:02:00,080 --> 01:02:02,880
-"Bunsen Burner"!
-[all cheering]
1128
01:02:05,560 --> 01:02:08,880
["Bunsen Burner" by John Otway playing]
1129
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:12,800
♪ It's a molecular structure of new DNA ♪
1130
01:02:12,880 --> 01:02:14,920
♪ It's basic organic chemistry ♪
1131
01:02:16,840 --> 01:02:18,640
♪ I'm an Alchemist baby ♪
1132
01:02:20,200 --> 01:02:22,640
♪ I can turn heavy metal into gold ♪
1133
01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:30,160
♪ I can make unstable compoundsOf mercury explode ♪
1134
01:02:31,640 --> 01:02:32,920
♪ I can make you glow ♪
1135
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:36,240
♪ I can make you phosphoresce ♪
1136
01:02:38,280 --> 01:02:40,000
♪ I can burst your bubble ♪
1137
01:02:42,160 --> 01:02:43,840
♪ I can make you effervesce ♪
1138
01:02:45,680 --> 01:02:48,440
♪ Science tells you loveA chemical reaction in the brain ♪
1139
01:02:48,520 --> 01:02:52,600
♪ So let me be your Bunsen burner, babyLet me be your naked flame ♪
1140
01:02:52,680 --> 01:02:53,840
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1141
01:02:53,920 --> 01:02:56,480
♪ Let me be your Bunsen burner ♪
1142
01:02:56,560 --> 01:02:58,000
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1143
01:02:58,080 --> 01:02:59,840
♪ Let me be your naked flame ♪
1144
01:02:59,920 --> 01:03:01,480
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1145
01:03:01,560 --> 01:03:03,440
♪ Let me be your Bunsen burner ♪
1146
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:05,240
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1147
01:03:05,320 --> 01:03:07,120
♪ Let me be your naked flame ♪
1148
01:03:07,200 --> 01:03:09,760
♪ You're going to turn bright red ♪
1149
01:03:11,120 --> 01:03:13,640
♪ When I do my litmus test on you ♪
1150
01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:17,680
♪ Acid it was, acid it is ♪
1151
01:03:18,360 --> 01:03:20,280
♪ And what acid was true ♪
1152
01:03:22,080 --> 01:03:26,520
{\an8}I remember the time when
"Bunsen Burner" first came to be, uh…
1153
01:03:26,600 --> 01:03:28,360
{\an8}We're also singing in the car and, um…
1154
01:03:28,440 --> 01:03:30,280
{\an8}I was telling dad about this chemistry
homework
1155
01:03:30,360 --> 01:03:33,000
{\an8}that we've been set by Miss Inbanafo.
1156
01:03:33,080 --> 01:03:36,440
Um, we had to write this piece
on a Bunsen burner.
1157
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:41,320
And I remembered dad suddenly put on
this stupid Elvis Presley impression voice
1158
01:03:41,400 --> 01:03:44,600
and started going,
"Hey, hey, I'm a Bunsen burner."
1159
01:03:44,680 --> 01:03:46,240
And I told him, "Stop being silly."
1160
01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:47,840
And, um… [laughs]
1161
01:03:47,920 --> 01:03:51,240
When Barry Upton came around
to talk with dad about the hit, uh…
1162
01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:54,280
dad brought out this
Bunsen burner things he'd reckon.
1163
01:03:54,360 --> 01:03:57,840
Yeah, I went for the song-writing
brain-storming session in his kitchen.
1164
01:03:57,920 --> 01:04:00,600
He recited this poem down
for his daughter's homework
1165
01:04:00,680 --> 01:04:02,760
and I actually thought,
"Hey, this sounds like a hit."
1166
01:04:02,840 --> 01:04:06,280
Well, at that time, the Sugarbabes
had nicked a riff off of Gary Numan
1167
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:08,040
and it as all over the radio.
1168
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:11,400
I thought, "Maybe we could do
the same thing with a disco classic."
1169
01:04:11,480 --> 01:04:13,560
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1170
01:04:13,640 --> 01:04:15,200
♪ Let me be your naked flame ♪
1171
01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:18,360
[John] We've got a hit,
so we're gonna get it into the charts.
1172
01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:20,160
Four thousand fans
went to Royal Albert Hall,
1173
01:04:20,240 --> 01:04:24,480
and I knew at least as twice
as many of them wanted to attend.
1174
01:04:24,560 --> 01:04:26,320
We were doing
three different versions of it.
1175
01:04:26,400 --> 01:04:29,160
At that time, you could do
three different mixes
1176
01:04:29,240 --> 01:04:30,840
and put different B-sides on.
1177
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:33,800
So I thought, ten thousand fans
bought the three versions.
1178
01:04:34,560 --> 01:04:38,720
Thirty thousand sales, we should
be able to have a Top Ten new record.
1179
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:41,920
The problem is,
if you wanna sell your 30,000 records,
1180
01:04:42,000 --> 01:04:43,120
you're gonna sell them all in one week
1181
01:04:43,200 --> 01:04:46,840
so you need to get
three times that amount in the shops.
1182
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:49,120
Now, you gotta remember
this is pre-iTunes.
1183
01:04:49,200 --> 01:04:50,680
Downloads didn't count for the charts.
1184
01:04:50,760 --> 01:04:52,440
Amazon Online didn't count either.
1185
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:54,760
So basically, it's gonna cost you
a hundred thousand pounds
1186
01:04:54,840 --> 01:04:56,720
to start with to get into the charts.
1187
01:04:57,400 --> 01:04:59,720
Most independent records,
actually fell on that hurdle
1188
01:04:59,800 --> 01:05:02,960
because that is a huge
amount of money to find.
1189
01:05:03,040 --> 01:05:04,440
No one would be able to do it.
1190
01:05:04,520 --> 01:05:07,720
Had it not been for two big fans
Andy Wood and Andy Paine
1191
01:05:07,800 --> 01:05:11,200
who came in and offered
to fund the whole project,
1192
01:05:11,880 --> 01:05:16,240
which meant all we needed then was
a distributor to get them into the shops.
1193
01:05:17,320 --> 01:05:18,320
I knew him, really.
1194
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:21,560
A good one from my appalling old days,
a chap called Nigel Reveler.
1195
01:05:21,640 --> 01:05:24,920
Nigel Reveler. Great character.
Great distributor.
1196
01:05:25,000 --> 01:05:26,840
Great party animal.
1197
01:05:27,400 --> 01:05:30,640
Chris and Nigel, together,
had had a number one hit
1198
01:05:30,720 --> 01:05:33,840
with Prince's "The Most Beautiful Girl
In The World".
1199
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:35,480
I go, "Well, they must know what they're
doing."
1200
01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:37,640
"You know, they're the ones to go in."
1201
01:05:37,720 --> 01:05:39,000
{\an8}He basically said to John,
1202
01:05:39,080 --> 01:05:42,920
{\an8}"Call Nigel, if he's got stomach for it,
then we might get a hit."
1203
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:45,600
{\an8}Well, I did have a stomach for it
and I enjoy working with John
1204
01:05:45,680 --> 01:05:47,800
and I like a good sense of humour.
1205
01:05:47,880 --> 01:05:49,120
And he got the backers.
1206
01:05:49,200 --> 01:05:52,720
So I said, "To hell, let's go.
Let's have a crack at it, you know."
1207
01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:55,680
I remember Nigel Reveler saying to me,
1208
01:05:56,720 --> 01:06:01,640
at one point, "Cor, you've got top 20.
What else do you want?"
1209
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:05,600
And I thought, "Well, Top Ten." [laughs]
1210
01:06:05,680 --> 01:06:09,160
Yeah, I think I did fair,
might get you top 20, but top 10…
1211
01:06:09,240 --> 01:06:12,120
Unless we get Willy,
so Entertainment UK involved.
1212
01:06:12,200 --> 01:06:15,760
Before the internet, you had to get
your record into the supermarkets
1213
01:06:15,840 --> 01:06:19,080
because they had 62 percent of the charts.
1214
01:06:19,160 --> 01:06:20,680
There was a big company called EUK
1215
01:06:20,760 --> 01:06:24,120
who used to buy for Woolworths
and Asda, who were the other supermarkets.
1216
01:06:24,200 --> 01:06:27,080
So it was absolutely vital
to get them on board,
1217
01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:29,240
to get records stocked in their stores.
1218
01:06:29,320 --> 01:06:30,520
They wouldn't stock it at all
1219
01:06:30,600 --> 01:06:32,920
so it was half the music business
was really cut out.
1220
01:06:33,640 --> 01:06:36,360
But I think in John's case,
the weakness was…
1221
01:06:36,920 --> 01:06:41,840
that since "Cor Baby, That's Really Free"
and records from the late 70s,
1222
01:06:41,920 --> 01:06:45,200
um, there weren't many buyers
who were around in the '70s,
1223
01:06:45,280 --> 01:06:47,120
who are around in the '90s.
1224
01:06:47,200 --> 01:06:49,680
We setup a great campaign for John Otway
1225
01:06:49,760 --> 01:06:52,080
and you'd get the proverbial, "Who?"
1226
01:06:52,160 --> 01:06:53,600
Because they control the charts,
1227
01:06:53,680 --> 01:06:57,360
they were deciding whether or not
I could have a hit for my 50th birthday.
1228
01:06:58,280 --> 01:06:59,680
And they decided I couldn't.
1229
01:07:00,440 --> 01:07:02,720
And I thought, "That's not fair."
1230
01:07:03,240 --> 01:07:06,680
I mean, I hated that idea
and the fans hated it even more.
1231
01:07:07,480 --> 01:07:10,280
And I decided it was a battle.
I mean, it was war.
1232
01:07:11,200 --> 01:07:13,360
And retail was our enemy.
1233
01:07:14,280 --> 01:07:15,560
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1234
01:07:15,640 --> 01:07:17,800
♪ Let me be your Bunsen burner ♪
1235
01:07:17,880 --> 01:07:19,400
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1236
01:07:19,480 --> 01:07:20,960
♪ Let me be your naked flame ♪
1237
01:07:21,040 --> 01:07:23,800
[Ali] The hit basically
came out of the one list.
1238
01:07:24,360 --> 01:07:26,880
And it, basically,
they split this into sort of groups,
1239
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:28,280
squads, around the country.
1240
01:07:28,360 --> 01:07:32,280
And we all had to go out there
and promote, um, "Bunsen Burner".
1241
01:07:32,360 --> 01:07:35,360
And it was fantastic
because these Otway people,
1242
01:07:35,440 --> 01:07:40,600
I mean, the fairly normal, really nice
decent people, you know, um…
1243
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:43,680
Not really up to causing a fuss
and what have you,
1244
01:07:43,760 --> 01:07:48,640
but suddenly we became the--
we were fighting the whole music industry.
1245
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:51,440
So we started off a military campaign.
1246
01:07:51,960 --> 01:07:54,960
The idea was we had to get
the 30,000 records
1247
01:07:55,040 --> 01:07:57,360
through the shops that would sell it
in one week
1248
01:07:57,440 --> 01:07:59,560
so we could get our Top Ten hit.
1249
01:08:00,960 --> 01:08:03,880
[John] First day of release.We did the show in Sheffield.
1250
01:08:04,600 --> 01:08:06,080
And the show finished at midnight.
1251
01:08:06,160 --> 01:08:07,240
And what we did when the show finished,
1252
01:08:07,320 --> 01:08:09,640
we took the whole audienceout of the venue,
1253
01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:11,880
down the road, down the cornerto the local HMV,
1254
01:08:11,960 --> 01:08:15,120
and got them to buy copiesof "Bunsen Burner".
1255
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:18,880
Starting last night
with a shop opening at midnight,
1256
01:08:18,960 --> 01:08:21,279
which is very nice because it meant
that five to nine this morning
1257
01:08:21,359 --> 01:08:22,920
I was number one in the charts
1258
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:24,800
because nobody has sold any records
up to that point.
1259
01:08:24,880 --> 01:08:26,760
Yes, hit. Hit. [laughs]
1260
01:08:26,840 --> 01:08:29,479
[John] Next stop, Aylesbury, my hometown,
1261
01:08:29,560 --> 01:08:33,760
where I was to do a Monday lunch timerecord signing.
1262
01:08:35,000 --> 01:08:36,960
The great thing about record signings was
1263
01:08:37,040 --> 01:08:39,439
you could make surethat the shops had enough stock
1264
01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:43,920
'cause you could take the stock with youand fill up the shelves for them.
1265
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:45,560
[indistinct chatter]
1266
01:08:48,680 --> 01:08:49,760
[indistinct chatter]
1267
01:08:52,840 --> 01:08:54,960
[man] Could you sign both of your hits
for me, please?
1268
01:08:55,040 --> 01:08:57,000
-Oh, wow, the first…
-[man] Yes.
1269
01:08:57,840 --> 01:09:00,479
-A vintage copy.
-That's the first hit.
1270
01:09:01,160 --> 01:09:02,439
That's the second.
1271
01:09:03,000 --> 01:09:07,439
[laughs] This two… That's two hits.
1272
01:09:07,520 --> 01:09:09,920
[John] And because they thoughtI was gonna have two hits,
1273
01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:13,479
the local railway companyactually gave me my own train,
1274
01:09:13,560 --> 01:09:15,600
The Otway Hit Express.
1275
01:09:15,680 --> 01:09:19,359
Yes. It's that word I like the best.
1276
01:09:19,439 --> 01:09:23,279
[John]I was so me and my fanscould travel to London in style.
1277
01:09:23,359 --> 01:09:25,640
[man] Ladies and gentlemen,this is The John Otway Hit Express
1278
01:09:25,720 --> 01:09:26,600
to London, Marylebone.
1279
01:09:26,680 --> 01:09:28,600
[guitar playing]
1280
01:09:28,680 --> 01:09:30,680
-Well, there is.
-[all] Was!
1281
01:09:31,279 --> 01:09:33,520
-[John] A house.
-[all] Where?
1282
01:09:33,600 --> 01:09:36,800
[crowd cheering, applauding]
1283
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:40,359
[John] And when we got there,it was really sweet.
1284
01:09:40,920 --> 01:09:45,040
Because two of my fans,Billy and Catherine got engaged
1285
01:09:45,120 --> 01:09:50,200
at Marylebone Station in frontof the television cameras, the TV news.
1286
01:09:50,279 --> 01:09:53,640
I said when Otway has a second hit,
we'll get married.
1287
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:57,000
And I thought there wasn't a chance
in hell of it happening.
1288
01:09:57,080 --> 01:09:59,400
It's plainly obvious now
Otway gonna have the second hit.
1289
01:09:59,480 --> 01:10:03,040
-So Katherine, will you marry me?
-Yes, I will.
1290
01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:05,600
-[laughs]
-[all cheering]
1291
01:10:05,680 --> 01:10:08,000
[Richard] We then did Virgin Mega Store
in the afternoon
1292
01:10:08,080 --> 01:10:09,600
which was packed, and sold hundreds more.
1293
01:10:09,680 --> 01:10:12,240
So soon we were number one
at the beginning of the week.
1294
01:10:12,320 --> 01:10:16,320
After a long day,
we went down the pub to celebrate.
1295
01:10:17,040 --> 01:10:20,480
And I was talking with a guy
called Steve Barker, actually.
1296
01:10:20,560 --> 01:10:22,800
I remember looking up at the TV and seeing
1297
01:10:22,880 --> 01:10:25,480
the thing we done in London tonight
at seven o'clock.
1298
01:10:25,560 --> 01:10:26,800
Suddenly, appearing again, I said,
1299
01:10:26,880 --> 01:10:28,680
"They're showing the London tonight
piece again."
1300
01:10:28,760 --> 01:10:31,920
And Steve said to me,
"That's News at Ten."
1301
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:34,640
And sure enough, there was Trevor
McDonald in the "And Finally".
1302
01:10:34,720 --> 01:10:37,520
And I thought, "Blimey, we made the Newsat Ten on Monday night."
1303
01:10:38,080 --> 01:10:40,440
[John] But we had a big, big problem.
1304
01:10:40,520 --> 01:10:44,680
With only having that amount of, um,
coverages on the stores…
1305
01:10:45,320 --> 01:10:47,040
[John] In order to stay in the Top Ten,
1306
01:10:47,120 --> 01:10:51,600
we needed to sell pretty much every singlecopy that was in every shop in the UK.
1307
01:10:51,680 --> 01:10:53,240
And Johnnie Walker was aware
of what was happening.
1308
01:10:53,320 --> 01:10:55,760
He'd said he would go on national radio
1309
01:10:56,600 --> 01:10:59,800
and back us up and say we were being
prevented from having a hit.
1310
01:11:00,360 --> 01:11:02,160
He was really on our side,
which was great.
1311
01:11:02,240 --> 01:11:04,360
{\an8}Of all the worst,
wouldn't start the record.
1312
01:11:04,440 --> 01:11:07,760
{\an8}And I remember going on air
doing a bit of number about that.
1313
01:11:07,840 --> 01:11:11,160
In those days, you couldn't just sell
5,000 records in one town
1314
01:11:11,240 --> 01:11:14,240
because it would be considered hyping
by the chart authorities.
1315
01:11:14,320 --> 01:11:18,160
And so gradually, over the years,
they increase the security of the chart.
1316
01:11:18,240 --> 01:11:20,440
[John] I remember chatting to the guyfrom the chart company.
1317
01:11:20,520 --> 01:11:22,960
And he said thatthis amazing piece of software
1318
01:11:23,040 --> 01:11:25,880
that show when people are tryingto cheat and hype the charts.
1319
01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:29,560
He said usually big sale of recordsin one shop,
1320
01:11:30,200 --> 01:11:34,880
and then a few minutes later, a big salein another shop just down the road.
1321
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:37,080
-And alarm bells rang.
-[alarm beeping]
1322
01:11:37,160 --> 01:11:39,160
But our record was completely different.
1323
01:11:39,720 --> 01:11:42,000
Our big sales were all over the place.
1324
01:11:42,520 --> 01:11:44,720
It was like election night.
1325
01:11:44,800 --> 01:11:47,600
You know, we're now going over
to Bradford East.
1326
01:11:47,680 --> 01:11:51,560
And it was kinda like
we're not going to Chelmsford HMV.
1327
01:11:51,640 --> 01:11:56,120
Three copies left in this shop, at the top
of Church Road or what have you.
1328
01:11:56,200 --> 01:11:58,960
And everybody was just scouring
every shop in town.
1329
01:11:59,040 --> 01:12:02,720
These messages just kept coming in on
the internet on this ONElist all the time.
1330
01:12:02,800 --> 01:12:06,760
Saying, "Look, there's four left
in Bromsgrove Central or something."
1331
01:12:06,840 --> 01:12:10,240
Um, "I bought 45 copies
of the bloody thing that sell it."
1332
01:12:10,320 --> 01:12:12,680
And everybody just bought into this.
And we were watching, saying,
1333
01:12:12,760 --> 01:12:16,080
"I just bought another ten in Chelmsford."
"I just bought five in Brighton."
1334
01:12:16,160 --> 01:12:19,680
"Six in East Sussex somewhere."
1335
01:12:19,760 --> 01:12:23,680
{\an8}It was fantastic, it was like a wildfire
just out of control.
1336
01:12:26,400 --> 01:12:28,600
[John] I knew something really excitingwas happening.
1337
01:12:28,680 --> 01:12:30,920
'Cause the morning the chart came out,
1338
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:34,280
there was a BBC van, you know,parked outside of the house.
1339
01:12:36,520 --> 01:12:40,200
I was always avoiding, you know,showing Amy the trappings of stardom
1340
01:12:40,280 --> 01:12:42,600
but that morning, I couldn't resist.
1341
01:12:43,680 --> 01:12:45,080
[John] There you are. Look.
1342
01:12:45,160 --> 01:12:47,760
So it's all inspired
by my chemistry homework.
1343
01:12:48,480 --> 01:12:51,760
[John] And Helen was saying lots and lots
of famous people have sat on there.
1344
01:12:51,840 --> 01:12:53,520
[Helen] Yeah, we've had lots of bums
on there.
1345
01:12:53,600 --> 01:12:55,080
-[gasps] Oh.
-[John] Yes, go on.
1346
01:12:55,160 --> 01:12:56,720
[Helen laughs]
1347
01:12:57,760 --> 01:13:00,600
[Paul] It's, I don't know,
6:30 outside the Palladium
1348
01:13:00,680 --> 01:13:03,600
and the fans are all listening
to the chart countdown.
1349
01:13:04,080 --> 01:13:05,840
And it's not in the top 30.
1350
01:13:05,920 --> 01:13:11,160
And you can just sense this whole kind
of atmosphere of concern and worry.
1351
01:13:11,240 --> 01:13:13,360
And then it's not in the top 20.
1352
01:13:13,920 --> 01:13:16,520
And Otway's gone outside
with the transistor radio.
1353
01:13:16,600 --> 01:13:17,640
[crowd cheering]
1354
01:13:17,720 --> 01:13:20,480
And it's not number 11.
And it's not number ten.
1355
01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:26,520
Straight in at number nine.
Outside the Palladium went berserk.
1356
01:13:26,600 --> 01:13:28,280
Nobody cared
what the rest of the chart was.
1357
01:13:28,360 --> 01:13:31,200
They all loaded into the Palladium.
1358
01:13:31,280 --> 01:13:34,120
And, hey, we had a brilliant gig
that night.
1359
01:13:34,800 --> 01:13:37,760
I remember that great night
at The London Palladium.
1360
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:39,800
I mean, the last time
there was such excitement there
1361
01:13:39,880 --> 01:13:41,200
was when the Beatles were on
1362
01:13:41,280 --> 01:13:44,480
and John Lennon said, "I want all you
at the back to clap your hands,
1363
01:13:44,560 --> 01:13:47,440
and everybody down the front,
you just rattle your jewellery."
1364
01:13:48,520 --> 01:13:50,120
[John] What an incredible night.
1365
01:13:50,200 --> 01:13:54,040
I remember talking to somebodyfrom the chart company, and they told me,
1366
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:58,920
"No fan base had ever managedto get a record that high in charts
1367
01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:01,840
without the helpof the major record retail."
1368
01:14:02,760 --> 01:14:03,840
Unbelievably.
1369
01:14:03,920 --> 01:14:09,600
The fans had pretty much got their handson every single record that was out there.
1370
01:14:10,880 --> 01:14:11,880
Brilliant.
1371
01:14:13,080 --> 01:14:15,560
On number 12, never really did mind her.
1372
01:14:15,640 --> 01:14:16,920
[audience cheering]
1373
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:19,640
Number 11-- I don't know who that is.
1374
01:14:19,720 --> 01:14:20,640
[audience cheering]
1375
01:14:20,720 --> 01:14:23,520
Number ten, another pile of rubbish.
1376
01:14:23,600 --> 01:14:24,800
[audience cheering]
1377
01:14:24,880 --> 01:14:26,760
-And…
-[audience cheering]
1378
01:14:26,840 --> 01:14:28,200
At number nine…
1379
01:14:28,680 --> 01:14:31,480
[audience cheering]
1380
01:14:32,360 --> 01:14:33,600
[man] John Otway!
1381
01:14:36,040 --> 01:14:40,440
And the song called "Bunsen Burner"!
1382
01:14:44,520 --> 01:14:47,400
[man] Here is our Top Ten…
1383
01:14:47,480 --> 01:14:50,960
[Nigel] He had the power to move
those fans into the shops.
1384
01:14:51,040 --> 01:14:52,280
which was great.
1385
01:14:52,360 --> 01:14:54,800
And he got a number nine record.
Amazing, really.
1386
01:14:55,440 --> 01:14:58,720
I wouldn't have put money on it,
but there you go. [laughs]
1387
01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:02,040
Now, has this bloke got fans or what?
1388
01:15:02,120 --> 01:15:03,920
They chose a single, they marketed it,
1389
01:15:04,000 --> 01:15:06,480
and they bought it enough to make it go
to number nine.
1390
01:15:06,560 --> 01:15:11,400
Twenty-five years after "Really Free",
welcome back to John Otway!
1391
01:15:11,480 --> 01:15:14,440
[audience cheering]
1392
01:15:14,520 --> 01:15:21,400
{\an8}There's a rare isotope of hydrogen
that gets us into heavy water.
1393
01:15:21,480 --> 01:15:24,440
["Bunsen Burner" by John Otway playing]
1394
01:15:25,520 --> 01:15:28,360
♪ It's a molecular structure of new DNA ♪
1395
01:15:28,840 --> 01:15:31,520
♪ It's basic organic chemistry ♪
1396
01:15:31,600 --> 01:15:34,920
[John] Well, what about Woolworth refusing
to stock a Top Ten hit record?
1397
01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:38,360
If we hadn't have Willies, I think,
I mean, and if maybe they had…
1398
01:15:38,840 --> 01:15:41,320
As I said, that's normally worth
another ten places
1399
01:15:41,400 --> 01:15:44,520
so going at number nine,
we would've gone in at minus one.
1400
01:15:44,600 --> 01:15:48,560
And our group basically felt
that they had control of the charts.
1401
01:15:49,120 --> 01:15:51,440
And if they didn't have complete control
of the charts,
1402
01:15:51,520 --> 01:15:54,240
if you had managed to get a hit record
past them,
1403
01:15:54,320 --> 01:15:57,640
you wouldn't complain
to the media about it
1404
01:15:57,720 --> 01:15:59,840
because you want them
to take your next record.
1405
01:16:00,320 --> 01:16:03,160
But I was in a different situation.
I hadn't had a hit for 25 years.
1406
01:16:03,240 --> 01:16:06,400
And I was unlikely to have another hit
for another 25 years.
1407
01:16:06,480 --> 01:16:08,360
And I wanted all the publicity,
you know, I could get.
1408
01:16:08,440 --> 01:16:10,680
So I did complain to the media.
1409
01:16:10,760 --> 01:16:12,840
And, um, it was great. Look at this.
1410
01:16:12,920 --> 01:16:13,880
Earlier this week,
1411
01:16:13,960 --> 01:16:17,280
we reported on the return
of cult music hero John Otway
1412
01:16:17,360 --> 01:16:20,400
to the charts after 25 years
in the wilderness.
1413
01:16:20,480 --> 01:16:25,120
Well, today the success was sad when he
discovered that having a Top Ten record
1414
01:16:25,200 --> 01:16:28,080
doesn't necessarily mean
all shops will stock it.
1415
01:16:28,160 --> 01:16:31,520
They say he's not cool enough.
Here, Gordon reports.
1416
01:16:31,600 --> 01:16:33,560
♪ Let me be your Bunsen burner ♪
1417
01:16:33,640 --> 01:16:34,880
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1418
01:16:34,960 --> 01:16:37,040
♪ Let me be your naked flame ♪
1419
01:16:37,120 --> 01:16:38,160
♪ Burn, baby, burn ♪
1420
01:16:38,240 --> 01:16:42,160
[reporter] "Bunsen Burner" has shockedthe industry by reaching number nine.
1421
01:16:42,240 --> 01:16:47,320
But walk into Willies or WH Smiths or Asdaand it's not their number nine.
1422
01:16:47,840 --> 01:16:52,000
They refuse to stock a joke singlefrom a bald 50-year-old.
1423
01:16:52,080 --> 01:16:54,680
Our cool customers
are 11 and 12-year-old girls.
1424
01:16:54,760 --> 01:16:57,760
Love Gareth Gates.
They love Will, they love Robin Williams.
1425
01:16:57,840 --> 01:17:01,720
But I'm afraid, they don't have
a particular keenness for John's single.
1426
01:17:01,800 --> 01:17:03,360
And this is going on
past buying experience.
1427
01:17:03,440 --> 01:17:05,440
This is why Woolworths went bloody bust.
1428
01:17:05,520 --> 01:17:08,600
They wouldn't stock "Bunsen Burner".
It deserves a bloody rate.
1429
01:17:08,680 --> 01:17:12,520
And we suddenly reaping huge amounts
of publicity. It was amazing.
1430
01:17:12,600 --> 01:17:15,320
They were interviewing the buyer
at Woolworths about "ageism"
1431
01:17:15,400 --> 01:17:16,720
on the Channel 4 News.
1432
01:17:16,800 --> 01:17:20,000
It's broken through into the Top Ten.
It's in number nine.
1433
01:17:21,320 --> 01:17:23,520
Well, how it works is,
like all, um, retailers,
1434
01:17:23,600 --> 01:17:25,440
we could offer the singles
about two months
1435
01:17:25,520 --> 01:17:27,600
before they actually put
on January release
1436
01:17:27,680 --> 01:17:30,320
so we made a commercial decision about it
two months ago.
1437
01:17:30,400 --> 01:17:33,200
Because, of course, the Woolworths' chart
what was on the wall
1438
01:17:33,280 --> 01:17:36,000
was that they decided weeks and weeks
before it would be in the chart.
1439
01:17:36,080 --> 01:17:38,960
It has nothing to do with actual sales.
It was stitched up.
1440
01:17:39,040 --> 01:17:41,720
Um, but, that had to end.
They ended up supporting the Pepsi Chart.
1441
01:17:41,800 --> 01:17:42,960
Cost them one and a half million pounds.
1442
01:17:43,040 --> 01:17:45,640
They went bust about
three to four years later, I believe.
1443
01:17:45,720 --> 01:17:48,800
I remember playing "Bunsen Burner"
on radio 2 and then I think,
1444
01:17:48,880 --> 01:17:50,560
"What a brilliant record it was, you know.
1445
01:17:50,640 --> 01:17:53,640
Not only the great chorus of,
"Burn, baby, burn"…
1446
01:17:53,720 --> 01:17:56,960
And then I think there's some
dreadful fire with fatalities.
1447
01:17:57,040 --> 01:17:58,640
Typical Otway's luck.
1448
01:17:58,720 --> 01:18:03,000
So then the memo went on radio 2,
"You cannot play 'Bunsen Burner'"
1449
01:18:03,080 --> 01:18:05,560
with the chorus of "burn, baby, burn,"
you know.
1450
01:18:05,640 --> 01:18:10,440
And it's just like, you know,
the universe has conspired against John.
1451
01:18:10,520 --> 01:18:13,200
Which has been good
for his character building.
1452
01:18:13,280 --> 01:18:15,960
And it just means he's got to try that
little bit harder.
1453
01:18:16,680 --> 01:18:19,120
So with the Rage Against The Machine idea
1454
01:18:19,200 --> 01:18:23,680
that really stemmed from same what Otway
did with the "Bunsen Burner" campaign
1455
01:18:23,760 --> 01:18:26,520
and how successful that was.
1456
01:18:26,600 --> 01:18:29,200
Because to get a Top Ten hit, uh,
1457
01:18:29,280 --> 01:18:32,120
in the way-- in the fashion
that that was done was brilliant.
1458
01:18:32,200 --> 01:18:34,120
I thought it was a fantastic idea.
1459
01:18:34,200 --> 01:18:39,800
And, yeah, it was definitely part
inspiration for me getting my finger out
1460
01:18:39,880 --> 01:18:44,160
and trying to see if the
Rage Against Machine campaign will work.
1461
01:18:44,240 --> 01:18:47,280
And, um, I'm eternally thankful for it.
1462
01:18:48,280 --> 01:18:51,040
Now, what I want in my sixth formers
to understand was
1463
01:18:51,560 --> 01:18:55,280
if you get a bit of success like that,
don't let it go to your head.
1464
01:18:56,080 --> 01:18:59,440
Now, all people don't understand
what going into your head means.
1465
01:18:59,520 --> 01:19:01,560
But it doesn't mean that, you know,
1466
01:19:01,640 --> 01:19:04,040
you become a horrid person
or something like that.
1467
01:19:04,120 --> 01:19:09,000
It just means you sometimes get ideas
that are possibly a bit too ambitious.
1468
01:19:09,080 --> 01:19:10,760
John phone up and said,
"I've got an idea."
1469
01:19:10,840 --> 01:19:12,480
"I want you to come down to London."
1470
01:19:12,560 --> 01:19:14,080
And he wants to announce something to us.
1471
01:19:14,160 --> 01:19:15,720
[chuckles] We were indeed.
We were summoned.
1472
01:19:15,800 --> 01:19:18,720
All the way from Newcastle
I was summoned, yeah.
1473
01:19:18,800 --> 01:19:19,880
At Otway's behest.
1474
01:19:20,760 --> 01:19:27,040
We went down to a pub in Putney,
and he got out a rather small globe.
1475
01:19:27,680 --> 01:19:32,680
[John] I remember lying in bed one morning
and thinking , "Now I've cracked the UK."
1476
01:19:33,200 --> 01:19:34,840
"What's next?"
1477
01:19:34,920 --> 01:19:39,160
Then I had a brainwave.
The 2006 World Tour."
1478
01:19:39,240 --> 01:19:42,080
[rock music playing]
1479
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:46,640
[John] I liked it,
wouldn't it be a good idea
1480
01:19:46,720 --> 01:19:49,000
that if we took our own plane?
1481
01:19:49,640 --> 01:19:53,160
'Cause I know when Led Zeppelin went
on tour they took their own plane.
1482
01:19:55,040 --> 01:19:57,040
I thought at that time I was as big
1483
01:19:57,120 --> 01:19:59,240
as Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones.
1484
01:19:59,800 --> 01:20:01,840
And I thought we could have our own jet
1485
01:20:01,920 --> 01:20:05,040
and we could fly around the world
with our fans in it.
1486
01:20:05,120 --> 01:20:08,320
So I asked Ali to find out
how much a jet would cost.
1487
01:20:09,120 --> 01:20:10,720
It was quite expensive.
1488
01:20:10,800 --> 01:20:14,480
You know, some 900,000 pounds.
1489
01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:15,800
[record screeches]
1490
01:20:16,520 --> 01:20:19,560
I know 900,000 pounds
sounds like a lot of money.
1491
01:20:19,640 --> 01:20:21,720
Which, I mean, it is.
1492
01:20:22,360 --> 01:20:28,040
But I thought if you take 300 pounds,
that's only 3,000 pounds each.
1493
01:20:28,120 --> 01:20:30,040
This was my main objection to it.
1494
01:20:30,120 --> 01:20:33,880
And to get 300 people paying 3,000 pounds
is a hell of an undertaking.
1495
01:20:33,960 --> 01:20:37,600
[Ali] But after a few drinks,
all those inhibitions just disappeared.
1496
01:20:37,680 --> 01:20:41,000
So I think by the time we had the fifth
or sixth pint, we were in Hawaii.
1497
01:20:41,080 --> 01:20:44,080
{\an8}We were all onboard and it's just that
bloody Otway enthusiasm isn't it?
1498
01:20:44,160 --> 01:20:45,640
{\an8}It gets the best of…
1499
01:20:46,720 --> 01:20:49,600
{\an8}the most prudent minds, I guess it is.
1500
01:20:49,680 --> 01:20:52,000
{\an8}Um, you do just get carried away.
1501
01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:55,640
Feverishly excited, grabbing this globe
and pointing to…
1502
01:20:55,720 --> 01:20:57,520
"We'll go here, we'll go here,
we'll go here."
1503
01:20:57,600 --> 01:21:01,360
[John] You could have
air-stewardesses in Ot Air uniforms.
1504
01:21:01,440 --> 01:21:03,520
And you get your own check-in desks.
1505
01:21:03,600 --> 01:21:06,040
So I started putting a tour together
in my head.
1506
01:21:06,520 --> 01:21:08,560
What a great tour it was.
1507
01:21:08,640 --> 01:21:09,600
[lively music playing]
1508
01:21:09,680 --> 01:21:13,520
[woman] Will any passengersfrom Ot-Air Flight 2006.
1509
01:21:13,600 --> 01:21:17,160
♪ Please report at the check-in deskWe're going to be travelling west ♪
1510
01:21:17,240 --> 01:21:21,080
♪ Going across the north AtlanticThe USA, and the Pacific ♪
1511
01:21:21,160 --> 01:21:24,560
♪ Gonna fly across EurasiaAnd back to Europe, via Asia ♪
1512
01:21:24,640 --> 01:21:28,400
♪ Make your way to the departure gateWe're gonna circumnavigate ♪
1513
01:21:29,400 --> 01:21:32,440
This magnificent trip around the world
involving playing Carnegie Hall,
1514
01:21:32,520 --> 01:21:37,800
playing Sydney Opera House,
playing Whiskey A Go-Go somewhere in LA.
1515
01:21:37,880 --> 01:21:39,880
And it just became
more and more fantastic.
1516
01:21:40,840 --> 01:21:41,800
Otway.
1517
01:21:42,400 --> 01:21:44,560
So I phoned up Sydney Opera House
and asked them
1518
01:21:44,640 --> 01:21:47,640
if any of their smaller theatres
were available for the tour.
1519
01:21:48,280 --> 01:21:49,280
And they weren't.
1520
01:21:49,760 --> 01:21:54,200
However, the big concert hall, you know,
the one that host ten jet-loads of people,
1521
01:21:54,280 --> 01:21:55,720
that was available.
1522
01:21:55,800 --> 01:21:58,480
Okay, so you pay the deposit
of 10,000 pounds
1523
01:21:58,560 --> 01:22:00,840
for this Sydney Opera House gig.
1524
01:22:01,560 --> 01:22:04,360
How much is the gig? I don't know.
I just paid the deposit.
1525
01:22:04,440 --> 01:22:07,640
[chuckles] I said, "But, is it 50,000
pounds? I mean, what are you doing?"
1526
01:22:07,720 --> 01:22:09,200
It was quite expensive.
1527
01:22:09,800 --> 01:22:13,440
But not in comparison
to price of a jet expensive.
1528
01:22:14,040 --> 01:22:15,360
So we could do that.
1529
01:22:16,200 --> 01:22:18,560
And hotels on the side,
but I remember checking out
1530
01:22:18,640 --> 01:22:20,560
the most luxurious hotel in the world.
1531
01:22:23,360 --> 01:22:24,920
[John]Normally,
if you're going on a tour,
1532
01:22:25,000 --> 01:22:28,360
you won't be able to stay
somewhere like that.
1533
01:22:28,440 --> 01:22:30,920
As I said,
compared to the price of the jet,
1534
01:22:31,000 --> 01:22:33,200
I mean, this seemed quite reasonable.
1535
01:22:33,280 --> 01:22:34,520
[Richard] I must've had to cringe
a little bit
1536
01:22:34,600 --> 01:22:36,920
and I thought, well, it's feasible, yes,
but it's a lot of money.
1537
01:22:37,000 --> 01:22:38,840
You're looking at a million quid,
1538
01:22:38,920 --> 01:22:41,320
and we haven't really done
anything that big. [laughs]
1539
01:22:41,400 --> 01:22:44,640
[John] And it turns out,
2006 we were going,
1540
01:22:44,720 --> 01:22:47,440
there's gonna be
a total eclipse of the sun.
1541
01:22:47,520 --> 01:22:48,520
And it was great.
1542
01:22:48,600 --> 01:22:50,960
And even if it was cloudy,
it didn't matter.
1543
01:22:51,040 --> 01:22:54,360
We could go to a pub back into the jet
right above the clouds
1544
01:22:54,440 --> 01:22:56,600
and, you know, catch the eclipse anyway.
1545
01:22:56,680 --> 01:22:59,880
[Paul] And the two of them,
Otway and Cotton embark on a pub tour
1546
01:22:59,960 --> 01:23:03,760
where they go around pubs with a little
plastic model of a jumbo jet
1547
01:23:03,840 --> 01:23:05,720
with Ot-Air written on it.
1548
01:23:05,800 --> 01:23:10,440
Um, and talked excitedly about
the world tour to the handful of fans
1549
01:23:11,000 --> 01:23:13,480
that come along to see the two twats.
1550
01:23:14,640 --> 01:23:15,880
It's interesting, you know.
1551
01:23:16,360 --> 01:23:18,840
When you get up on the stars
and you tell 'em you got your own jet,
1552
01:23:18,920 --> 01:23:21,400
and you're flying around the world,
you're doing Sydney Opera House,
1553
01:23:21,480 --> 01:23:23,040
yeah, they're pretty impressed.
1554
01:23:23,880 --> 01:23:26,280
I remember Glen Telvil was from Squeeze
1555
01:23:26,360 --> 01:23:29,360
and he offered to come along
on the tour and do some numbers.
1556
01:23:31,160 --> 01:23:34,040
[John] And so did Steve Harley,and he got a number one hit record.
1557
01:23:34,120 --> 01:23:36,560
-[upbeat disco music play]
-And The Cheeky Girls.
1558
01:23:36,640 --> 01:23:41,560
Barry Upton was actually producingthe Cheeky Flamenco for the Cheeky Girls.
1559
01:23:41,640 --> 01:23:44,560
And they agreed to dothe Las Vegas Cabaret Show.
1560
01:23:45,120 --> 01:23:46,520
The Cheeky Girls.
1561
01:23:47,760 --> 01:23:53,680
Oh, I thought it'd be lovely was we could
actually finish the tour here in Geneva.
1562
01:23:54,560 --> 01:23:55,400
And that'd be great.
1563
01:23:55,480 --> 01:23:59,040
'Cause there's a boat that goes right
across the lake comes in from Montrose.
1564
01:23:59,520 --> 01:24:02,600
And I thought we could have
a string quartet on the boat,
1565
01:24:02,680 --> 01:24:04,840
and as we came in to Geneva harbour,
1566
01:24:04,920 --> 01:24:07,440
they could actually play the song
and I could sing.
1567
01:24:08,880 --> 01:24:09,880
That'd be lovely.
1568
01:24:29,280 --> 01:24:30,560
♪ Geneva ♪
1569
01:24:30,640 --> 01:24:33,200
We've got to about 150 people signed up.
1570
01:24:33,280 --> 01:24:35,520
But it didn't really go much further
from that.
1571
01:24:35,600 --> 01:24:39,600
Everything else John has ever done
was inclusive.
1572
01:24:39,680 --> 01:24:44,600
So all the fans, if they wanted to,
could join in.
1573
01:24:44,680 --> 01:24:47,120
For the world tour, financially, um,
1574
01:24:47,200 --> 01:24:50,680
prohibited most fans
from being able to play.
1575
01:24:50,760 --> 01:24:52,440
It was too expensive.
1576
01:24:53,160 --> 01:24:57,240
And I said, "John, look,
I really don't think we should carry on
1577
01:24:57,320 --> 01:24:59,920
because you're gonna have
to put a plane deposit down
1578
01:25:00,680 --> 01:25:03,880
very soon, for at least 50,000 pounds."
1579
01:25:04,480 --> 01:25:07,960
"And I haven't got the money,
and we can't use the client money."
1580
01:25:08,040 --> 01:25:11,560
"So, I don't see
how we can actually take this risk."
1581
01:25:12,240 --> 01:25:15,640
"Um, they're not gonna let us carry on
without putting deposit on the plane."
1582
01:25:15,720 --> 01:25:19,600
So I said I wanna quit
and I think we should wind it up.
1583
01:25:19,680 --> 01:25:22,360
Now, you've hired an air bus, an… an A34C…
1584
01:25:22,440 --> 01:25:23,680
-…quite a big plane.
-Yeah.
1585
01:25:23,760 --> 01:25:25,760
Uh, how many seats are being bought?
1586
01:25:25,840 --> 01:25:28,040
-Uh, we got just over half the jet load.
-Really?
1587
01:25:28,120 --> 01:25:31,240
-Yes. I'm confident enough--
-That's family. [laughs]
1588
01:25:31,320 --> 01:25:34,440
I'm confident enough to put, um,
put the deposit down on the jet today.
1589
01:25:34,520 --> 01:25:36,080
-So we definitely--
-You put the deposit down today?
1590
01:25:36,160 --> 01:25:37,600
-How much was that?
-60,000 pounds.
1591
01:25:37,680 --> 01:25:39,400
Good grief. You are bonkers.
1592
01:25:40,080 --> 01:25:41,880
But what happens
if you don't fill the plane?
1593
01:25:41,960 --> 01:25:45,200
You're gonna lose an awful lot of money.
It is a massive risk, isn't it?
1594
01:25:45,280 --> 01:25:47,480
No, there are, trust me, there are people
1595
01:25:47,560 --> 01:25:49,920
who have the same rock n' roll dreams
that do out there.
1596
01:25:50,000 --> 01:25:51,240
Right.
1597
01:25:51,320 --> 01:25:54,560
[John] Yes, right. The press loved
the idea of the world tour.
1598
01:25:54,640 --> 01:25:57,280
This is the word, "I'm Otway, fly me."
1599
01:25:58,000 --> 01:26:01,560
The Independent. The Daily Telegraph.
1600
01:26:03,080 --> 01:26:05,680
And The Sunday Independent magazine.
1601
01:26:06,200 --> 01:26:08,760
Five whole pages.
1602
01:26:09,400 --> 01:26:11,320
And the front cover.
1603
01:26:11,880 --> 01:26:15,040
Even Viz magazine
had something to say about it.
1604
01:26:15,880 --> 01:26:18,280
[Chris] Um, complete load of shite it was.
1605
01:26:18,360 --> 01:26:23,400
And the public recognise that
despite all the promotion we could do.
1606
01:26:23,480 --> 01:26:24,800
So basically, if something shit,
1607
01:26:24,880 --> 01:26:26,880
we can't help it by promoting it
in the coming.
1608
01:26:26,960 --> 01:26:29,120
It's a recipe for disaster.
1609
01:26:29,200 --> 01:26:30,680
You know it's not gonna work.
1610
01:26:31,480 --> 01:26:33,400
The world tour did not stand a chance.
1611
01:26:36,760 --> 01:26:40,320
♪ Dreams that perish by morning ♪
1612
01:26:40,920 --> 01:26:43,760
♪ Before they see the light of day ♪
1613
01:26:46,560 --> 01:26:50,280
♪ Great flashes of inspiration ♪
1614
01:26:50,360 --> 01:26:53,520
♪ When you just get carried away ♪
1615
01:26:56,120 --> 01:27:00,040
In hindsight,
I suppose I should've stopped
1616
01:27:00,120 --> 01:27:02,280
when Richard Cotton told me to stop,
1617
01:27:02,360 --> 01:27:04,120
but people love the idea
of the world tour.
1618
01:27:04,200 --> 01:27:06,640
I kept talking to fans at gigs
and telling them about it.
1619
01:27:06,720 --> 01:27:10,440
And they thought, "Wow,
what a great idea. What a great tour."
1620
01:27:10,520 --> 01:27:13,080
They can't come,
but they thought it was wonderful.
1621
01:27:14,560 --> 01:27:21,080
But they did seem, a limit to the amount
of people that could come.
1622
01:27:21,160 --> 01:27:24,520
And that seemed just under the amount
that made the tour viable.
1623
01:27:30,440 --> 01:27:32,040
But, um…
1624
01:27:36,040 --> 01:27:38,400
So I'm not quite sure
what I've got to say, um…
1625
01:27:40,240 --> 01:27:42,440
I'm not quite sure if I'm supposed to say.
1626
01:27:45,240 --> 01:27:48,080
There wasn't enough people
so the tour collapsed.
1627
01:27:49,640 --> 01:27:52,640
Or, we nearly made the world tour.
1628
01:27:54,160 --> 01:27:55,160
Um…
1629
01:27:59,320 --> 01:28:01,560
Or, it was so close but…
1630
01:28:02,400 --> 01:28:04,920
Close wasn't really good enough
for the investors.
1631
01:28:05,760 --> 01:28:11,480
And it wasn't good enough for the people
who were gonna get married on the tour.
1632
01:28:12,280 --> 01:28:15,960
And it wasn't close enough
to get my investment back or…
1633
01:28:16,880 --> 01:28:20,320
anybody else that invested
in the Ot-Air jet.
1634
01:28:22,880 --> 01:28:23,960
Their money back.
1635
01:28:25,000 --> 01:28:27,200
We tried to do our best
to salvage the tour.
1636
01:28:27,760 --> 01:28:31,360
We really salvaged the date
at The Cavern in Liverpool.
1637
01:28:33,120 --> 01:28:35,160
And, then, Glen Toblum did it.
It was sweet of him.
1638
01:28:35,240 --> 01:28:37,880
He came and sang "Leaving on A Jet Plane".
1639
01:28:40,560 --> 01:28:43,640
Might it seemed funny now,
but it was heart-breaking at that time.
1640
01:28:43,720 --> 01:28:46,240
-Alright, I won't, then.
-[laughter]
1641
01:28:46,320 --> 01:28:50,800
[John] One thing I hope my sixth formershave learned from me is
1642
01:28:51,840 --> 01:28:56,840
you don't let a cock-up, not evena really big cock-up, set you back.
1643
01:28:58,080 --> 01:29:00,000
You make the most of it.
1644
01:29:00,080 --> 01:29:02,400
So I phoned Paul Cerenhugh,
1645
01:29:02,480 --> 01:29:07,520
Chris France, Ali,Nigel Reveler, and Richard Cotton.
1646
01:29:07,600 --> 01:29:10,720
I said, "Look, I got thisreally great idea."
1647
01:29:10,800 --> 01:29:12,080
A bloody movie.
1648
01:29:13,600 --> 01:29:18,680
Well, it started off
as a simple enough idea.
1649
01:29:19,600 --> 01:29:22,040
I did end up the whole footage.
1650
01:29:22,120 --> 01:29:23,440
And I showed Adam the drummer.
1651
01:29:24,880 --> 01:29:29,240
And he said, "Tell you what,
why not book a cinema?"
1652
01:29:29,840 --> 01:29:33,960
Loads of fans would actually enjoy
watching that on the big screen.
1653
01:29:35,560 --> 01:29:38,040
So I went away and thought about it,
and I thought,
1654
01:29:38,120 --> 01:29:39,680
"Hang on, I've got lots of footage."
1655
01:29:40,800 --> 01:29:42,160
I mean, tons of it.
1656
01:29:42,240 --> 01:29:45,800
I mean, every time I've done something
I thought was quite clever,
1657
01:29:45,880 --> 01:29:48,200
I made sure somebody had a camera
following me.
1658
01:29:49,400 --> 01:29:54,600
So I thought, "Why not make
Otway: the Movie?"
1659
01:29:55,520 --> 01:29:57,040
For my 50th birthday.
1660
01:29:57,800 --> 01:29:59,880
And a hit for my 60th.
1661
01:30:00,880 --> 01:30:02,000
We could have a movie.
1662
01:30:03,160 --> 01:30:04,480
So I slept on it.
1663
01:30:04,560 --> 01:30:07,480
[laughs] It actually wasn't
a very good idea
1664
01:30:07,560 --> 01:30:10,680
because by the time I woke up,
I was thinking,
1665
01:30:11,400 --> 01:30:13,360
where do they premiere things like,
1666
01:30:13,440 --> 01:30:17,080
the big Harry Potter films
or the James Bond films?
1667
01:30:17,960 --> 01:30:20,680
And it turns out,
it's the Odeon Leicester Square,
1668
01:30:20,760 --> 01:30:22,840
the biggest cinema in the country.
1669
01:30:23,600 --> 01:30:25,640
So I went down to check it out.
1670
01:30:26,480 --> 01:30:29,760
The first thing I noticed
was this balcony.
1671
01:30:31,000 --> 01:30:32,720
I went up and looked down and I thought,
1672
01:30:32,800 --> 01:30:36,440
"I could wave to the fans
turning up to my premiere from here."
1673
01:30:38,600 --> 01:30:42,400
And I went downstairs to have a look
at where I would be waving from.
1674
01:30:43,680 --> 01:30:45,760
And then this great poster.
1675
01:30:45,840 --> 01:30:50,080
And I thought, you can't wave
in front of somebody else's poster,
1676
01:30:51,280 --> 01:30:52,320
and with Odeon.
1677
01:30:53,560 --> 01:30:58,720
Look, you can actually just change
the four letters to make it spell "Otway".
1678
01:31:01,240 --> 01:31:06,360
I know a lot of people are thinking a lot
of my ideas for Otway: The Movie
1679
01:31:06,440 --> 01:31:08,280
were getting a bit ambitious.
1680
01:31:08,360 --> 01:31:10,920
[laughs] They just kept coming.
1681
01:31:12,240 --> 01:31:15,440
I know over a couple pints
when my mates said,
1682
01:31:15,920 --> 01:31:20,320
"This movie's probably gonna be
the biggest thing in your career so far."
1683
01:31:20,400 --> 01:31:23,720
"So why not make that
the end of the film?"
1684
01:31:24,760 --> 01:31:28,040
"Just film yourself arriving on the red
carpet and all the fans,
1685
01:31:28,120 --> 01:31:29,640
and you're waving and things."
1686
01:31:30,160 --> 01:31:32,080
"And get the director to edit it up."
1687
01:31:32,640 --> 01:31:35,680
"And get him to tack it all
the end of the film
1688
01:31:35,760 --> 01:31:38,760
while the audience are watching the film!"
1689
01:31:39,520 --> 01:31:41,560
[chuckles] That would work, wouldn't it?
1690
01:31:43,320 --> 01:31:45,680
There I was, sat in the dark watching.
1691
01:31:46,560 --> 01:31:48,600
Soon it went all black.
1692
01:31:50,000 --> 01:31:51,440
And out of the darkness…
1693
01:31:52,040 --> 01:31:54,960
["We Rock" by John Otway plays]
1694
01:32:10,320 --> 01:32:12,600
♪ These are rights of passage ♪
1695
01:32:13,400 --> 01:32:15,520
♪ These ugly days ♪
1696
01:32:17,240 --> 01:32:21,520
♪ Everything's changing in so many ways ♪
1697
01:32:22,960 --> 01:32:26,600
♪ From the listed buildingAnd from the tower of love ♪
1698
01:32:26,680 --> 01:32:28,000
[audience cheering]
1699
01:32:28,080 --> 01:32:31,080
♪ We hear the same two words ♪
1700
01:32:32,560 --> 01:32:33,840
♪ We are rock ♪
1701
01:32:38,640 --> 01:32:40,080
♪ We are rock ♪
1702
01:32:44,240 --> 01:32:45,640
♪ We are rock ♪
1703
01:32:50,120 --> 01:32:51,560
♪ We are rock ♪
1704
01:32:56,000 --> 01:32:57,280
♪ We are rock ♪
1705
01:32:57,360 --> 01:32:58,640
[crowd chanting]
1706
01:33:05,800 --> 01:33:09,120
[crowd continues chanting]
1707
01:33:12,320 --> 01:33:13,880
[John] All these people
are buying the tickets
1708
01:33:13,960 --> 01:33:16,560
so that we can actually make the movie.
1709
01:33:16,640 --> 01:33:20,400
They're not just cinema goers, are they?
They're producers.
1710
01:33:21,360 --> 01:33:22,760
And I thought it would be nice,
1711
01:33:22,840 --> 01:33:25,640
they're sort of sitting there
and at the end of the film,
1712
01:33:26,400 --> 01:33:30,480
up comes all their names as producers.
1713
01:33:32,480 --> 01:33:33,920
And if you're an Otway fan,
1714
01:33:35,160 --> 01:33:36,560
you'd love that, wouldn't you?
1715
01:33:36,640 --> 01:33:40,400
["Poetry And Jazz" by John Otway playing]
1716
01:33:50,840 --> 01:33:53,080
♪ She said it's hard for meTo explain to you ♪
1717
01:33:53,160 --> 01:33:54,640
♪ The brightness of the light ♪
1718
01:33:54,720 --> 01:33:58,480
♪ I can still rememberWhen my life was like that ♪
1719
01:33:58,560 --> 01:34:01,960
♪ A real and painless beautyI remember as a kid ♪
1720
01:34:02,040 --> 01:34:05,080
♪ When I thought that I knew everythingAnd in a way I did ♪
1721
01:34:05,160 --> 01:34:09,080
♪ She was a virgin thenA child in a million ♪
1722
01:34:09,160 --> 01:34:12,640
♪ With deep round hazel eyesOf blazing intuition ♪
1723
01:34:12,720 --> 01:34:16,280
♪ She called me over to her sideAnd said, Will you please listen ♪
1724
01:34:16,360 --> 01:34:19,400
♪ I wanna show you somethingAnd it's something I've just written ♪
1725
01:34:19,480 --> 01:34:23,400
♪ And I'm calling it Poetry and Jazz ♪
1726
01:34:26,080 --> 01:34:29,600
♪ She watched her happy family turnTo a broken home ♪
1727
01:34:29,680 --> 01:34:33,120
♪ Her father left with someone elseHer mother on her own ♪
1728
01:34:33,200 --> 01:34:36,720
♪ Her fourteenth birthdayHer mother spent in tears ♪
1729
01:34:36,800 --> 01:34:40,080
♪ She celebrated on her ownHer adolescent years ♪
1730
01:34:40,160 --> 01:34:43,880
♪ It was hell thenCaught in the crossfire ♪
1731
01:34:43,960 --> 01:34:47,200
♪ Of an emotional triangleShe couldn't keep together ♪
1732
01:34:47,920 --> 01:34:50,840
♪ I heard her softlyA she sobbed upon my shoulder ♪
1733
01:34:50,920 --> 01:34:54,120
♪ Saying As you are the closest thingI've got to a brother ♪
1734
01:34:54,200 --> 01:34:58,080
♪ Explain to me why is life so sad ♪
1735
01:35:00,960 --> 01:35:04,520
♪ Sixteen was better'Cause sixteen was boys ♪
1736
01:35:04,600 --> 01:35:08,120
♪ Make-up parties alcohol and clothes ♪
1737
01:35:08,200 --> 01:35:11,440
♪ And saying to your boyfriendCome on get out of bed ♪
1738
01:35:11,520 --> 01:35:14,560
♪ Look, its three o clock in the afternoonAnd my mother's coming back ♪
1739
01:35:14,640 --> 01:35:18,440
♪ And she smiled thenHer eyes filled with laughter ♪
1740
01:35:18,520 --> 01:35:22,080
♪ She didn't know if it was loveBut it didn't really matter ♪
1741
01:35:22,160 --> 01:35:25,640
♪ She called me on the phone and saidHey, get this big brother ♪
1742
01:35:25,720 --> 01:35:28,840
♪ I just got rid of one boyfriendAnd got myself another ♪
1743
01:35:28,920 --> 01:35:32,840
♪ And listen, this one drives a Jag ♪
1744
01:36:13,760 --> 01:36:16,600
[music fades]
146964
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