All language subtitles for Rock.and.Rolls.Greatest.Failure.Otway.The.Movie.2013.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG2_English

af Afrikaans
sq Albanian
am Amharic
ar Arabic
hy Armenian
az Azerbaijani
eu Basque
be Belarusian
bn Bengali
bs Bosnian
bg Bulgarian
ca Catalan
ceb Cebuano
ny Chichewa
zh-CN Chinese (Simplified)
zh-TW Chinese (Traditional) Download
co Corsican
hr Croatian
cs Czech
da Danish
nl Dutch
en English
eo Esperanto
et Estonian
tl Filipino
fi Finnish
fr French
fy Frisian
gl Galician
ka Georgian
de German
el Greek
gu Gujarati
ht Haitian Creole
ha Hausa
haw Hawaiian
iw Hebrew
hi Hindi
hmn Hmong
hu Hungarian
is Icelandic
ig Igbo
id Indonesian
ga Irish
it Italian
ja Japanese
jw Javanese
kn Kannada
kk Kazakh
km Khmer
ko Korean
ku Kurdish (Kurmanji)
ky Kyrgyz
lo Lao
la Latin
lv Latvian
lt Lithuanian
lb Luxembourgish
mk Macedonian
mg Malagasy
ms Malay
ml Malayalam
mt Maltese
mi Maori
mr Marathi
mn Mongolian
my Myanmar (Burmese)
ne Nepali
no Norwegian
ps Pashto
fa Persian
pl Polish
pt Portuguese
pa Punjabi
ro Romanian
ru Russian
sm Samoan
gd Scots Gaelic
sr Serbian
st Sesotho
sn Shona
sd Sindhi
si Sinhala
sk Slovak
sl Slovenian
so Somali
es Spanish
su Sundanese
sw Swahili
sv Swedish
tg Tajik
ta Tamil
te Telugu
th Thai
tr Turkish
uk Ukrainian
ur Urdu
uz Uzbek
vi Vietnamese
cy Welsh
xh Xhosa
yi Yiddish
yo Yoruba
zu Zulu
or Odia (Oriya)
rw Kinyarwanda
tk Turkmen
tt Tatar
ug Uyghur
Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:00,960 --> 00:00:07,040 [guitar playing] 2 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,440 [crowd cheering] 3 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:31,560 ♪ Look out, baby ♪ 4 00:00:32,119 --> 00:00:34,960 [crowd cheering] 5 00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:37,280 ♪ Look out, pal ♪ 6 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:41,080 ♪ Here's the kid Who's going to get the blues ♪ 7 00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:43,000 ♪ When you go away ♪ 8 00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:47,080 ♪ I'm on fire ♪ 9 00:00:47,160 --> 00:00:48,920 ♪ 'Cause I'm in love ♪ 10 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,840 ♪ With a girl who's not the girl she was ♪ 11 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:53,280 ♪ When I was out with her ♪ 12 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:59,200 ♪ I saw you in the garden baby And you looked so debonair ♪ 13 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:02,880 ♪ But you were up the flowers ♪ 14 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,240 ♪ 'Cause I'm sure They're gonna get you yet ♪ 15 00:01:13,160 --> 00:01:14,960 ♪ I won't try to say goodbye ♪ 16 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:17,720 ♪ Maybe I'll just kick myself inside ♪ 17 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:19,600 ♪ I really wanted to go home ♪ 18 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:22,600 ♪ You might say that today ♪ 19 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,440 ♪ Was the very last time You walked this way ♪ 20 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,280 ♪ You're gonna tell him on your own ♪ 21 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:32,320 ♪ Well I'd tell him where to go to baby But you know I wouldn't dare ♪ 22 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,280 ♪ Beware of the flowers 'Cause I'm sure they're gonna get ♪ 23 00:01:39,960 --> 00:01:41,280 ♪ You ♪ 24 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:42,720 ♪ Yeah ♪ 25 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:27,040 {\an8}♪ She said it's hard for me To explain to you ♪ 26 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:28,440 {\an8}♪ The brightness of the light ♪ 27 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:31,560 {\an8}♪ I can still remember When my life was like that ♪ 28 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:34,160 One thing I'm doing this year which is nice 29 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:35,960 is I'm taking Deadly my roadie 30 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,640 back to my old school, The Grange County Secondary School in Aylesbury. 31 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,440 And we're taking a group of sixth formers on a course 32 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:46,280 on how you make a living and a career in the music industry. 33 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:49,880 Deadly, throw. 34 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,160 I wish someone had done that when I was at school. 35 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:59,240 I mean, no pop stars came to this school when I was there. 36 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:01,640 I mean, I've had to make it up as I've gone along. 37 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:03,920 -[whooping] -Okay. 38 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:05,160 Okay, I'll give you a note. 39 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,240 ♪ Ahhh ♪ 40 00:03:07,320 --> 00:03:09,320 -[Theremin trilling] -[laughing] 41 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:13,000 [John]I guess what my students wanted to know was how did I become successful? 42 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:14,080 [Theremin buzzing] 43 00:03:14,640 --> 00:03:17,720 This is 1977, the big year of punk rock. 44 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:21,120 I wanted to be a pop star since I was nine years old. 45 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:25,880 I was now 24, and this was my first experience of national television. 46 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:30,520 Me and Wild Willy Barrett were booked to play The Old Grey Whistle Test. 47 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:32,960 We were gonna make the most out of it. 48 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:35,360 Very simply, they're crazy. 49 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:37,480 Anyway, you'll see it all now as we hear two numbers 50 00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:39,280 from this latest chart bound recording, 51 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:41,680 John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett in "Really Free". 52 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:42,760 Bye-bye, now. 53 00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:55,400 ♪ I go walking down to your house ♪ 54 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:57,560 ♪ Tell me baby is it good for me ♪ 55 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:00,000 ♪ Your ma and pa They just wanna kick me ♪ 56 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:03,240 ♪ I say Cor baby that's really free ♪ 57 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:04,720 ♪ Really free, really free ♪ 58 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:07,400 ♪ Really, really, really, really free Kick me ♪ 59 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:13,800 [Bob] Yeah, I mean, there wasn't a lot of music on TV in those days 60 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,160 it wasn't multi-channel like it is now. 61 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,920 I mean, we had BBC One, BBC Two, and ITV. 62 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:23,160 So at the point that John 63 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,040 appeared on the show in 1977 64 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,320 {\an8}he would've been seen on that show 65 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,160 {\an8}by about five and a half million people, probably. 66 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,960 {\an8}Yeah, so, and the impact of his performance was incredible, as we know. 67 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:38,360 That moment in that performance 68 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,040 changed his life like forever. 69 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:43,760 ♪ Just so damn sad ♪ 70 00:04:43,840 --> 00:04:45,480 [Bob] He crushed his testicles… 71 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:49,360 [Bob laughs] …on the amplifier. 72 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:52,760 ♪ Oh you say-- ♪ Ow! 73 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:54,000 Who would've ever known? 74 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:56,800 One foot went one side of the amplifier, 75 00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:58,960 the other foot went the other side of the amplifier, 76 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,040 and the whole weight of my body 77 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:04,920 came piling down on the most delicate parts of my anatomy. 78 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:06,160 And did it hurt. 79 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:09,560 [John]Well, it's still regarded as a pretty impressive performance. 80 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:11,000 ♪ Oh you say-- ♪ Ow! 81 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:13,640 [laughing] 82 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:18,440 {\an8}First time I saw Otway and Barrett was on the telly in 1977, 83 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,040 {\an8}Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test, 84 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:25,680 {\an8}absolutely stunning, Barrett, stunning guitarist, 85 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:29,240 Otway, just this anarchistic, 86 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:33,160 brilliant freestyle rock singer, um… 87 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:37,520 And I think after those initial 1977 TV appearances, 88 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:41,960 all the kids at school were as into Otway and Barrett 89 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:45,400 as they were as any other serious fan at the time, 90 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,360 Motörhead, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, 91 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,280 we took Otway and Barrett really seriously. 92 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:55,000 And because of that people started flocking to the shows, 93 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:57,840 "Really Free" the single went up into the charts, 94 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,520 and within a couple of weeks we were back here on top of the pops. 95 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:03,080 {\an8}Really is excellent music, isn't it? 96 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:05,800 {\an8}His record is coming to the charts this week on number 27, 97 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:09,120 {\an8}making its debut on top of the pops, for the chart scene, anyway. 98 00:06:09,200 --> 00:06:11,400 {\an8}So here's John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett. 99 00:06:18,640 --> 00:06:21,120 ♪ Well I wake up in the morning ♪ 100 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:23,280 ♪ Tell me baby what do you see ♪ 101 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:26,840 ♪ I see my true love and she walks up And she kisses me and I say ♪ 102 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:29,360 ♪ Cor baby that's really free ♪ 103 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:34,080 I was signed to Polydor the same time that The Jam was signed to Polydor. 104 00:06:34,160 --> 00:06:36,680 It was fascinating because we've had this hit 105 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:39,720 and because I'd done my top of the pops in the whistle test. 106 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,800 Polydor gave me this huge advance worth… 107 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,840 About a quarter of a million pounds, I think, the deal was worth to John, then. 108 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:53,560 And if you wanna put that in perspective, we go six and a half grand to The Jam. 109 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:56,400 Um… yes. 110 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,560 One thing about being a pop star and having all that money, 111 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:02,880 it meant I could start living like a pop star. 112 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,960 I was able to move out of my one bedroom flat in Fulham 113 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,440 and move into this lovely pop star's flat in Maida Vale. 114 00:07:10,480 --> 00:07:12,480 Les Gray lived next door, 115 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,600 Dave Edmunds and Dave Stewart lived just round here. 116 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:20,080 But because I was now a pop star and Polydor had given me this big advance 117 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:21,720 I was able to join them. 118 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:23,880 The other thing I was able to do 119 00:07:24,520 --> 00:07:26,320 was buy a nice car. 120 00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,040 I mean, I couldn't drive, but I could buy a nice car. 121 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,200 {\an8}John rang me one day and said, "I want to get a car." 122 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:34,520 {\an8}I said, "Okay, what sort of a car?" 123 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:35,920 {\an8}He said, "A Bentley." 124 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:38,200 I said, "John, you don't drive." 125 00:07:38,280 --> 00:07:39,920 He said, "Don't care, I want a Bentley." 126 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,560 So I was given the job to go find him a Bentley, which I did. 127 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,240 And of course, after that, either myself or Jeff Poulter, 128 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,560 otherwise known as "Jeff Spotter" what he used to be, 129 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:50,840 had to drive it for him. 130 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,840 [John] Yeah, but when I got back home on my bike every night, 131 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,240 it looked great parked outside the house. 132 00:07:56,320 --> 00:07:59,760 They advanced him so much money, I built a recording studio, 133 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:02,440 um, Otway bought a car, 134 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:04,720 {\an8}he couldn't drive. [chuckles] 135 00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:06,800 {\an8}So I had a quick word with him, sort of. 136 00:08:07,400 --> 00:08:10,520 {\an8}Remind him that I could, so what's the point of having a car? 137 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:14,800 I had my bank make these checks up with my photo on them, right? 138 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:16,760 And the idea behind these checks was 139 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:21,000 I'd go down to my local shop and buy my eggs and milk with them. 140 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:23,240 And the thing was, you knew, right, 141 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:25,440 that the shop keeper wasn't gonna cash that check. 142 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:27,440 No, he was gonna frame it, 143 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,080 and hang it on the wall, saying, "John Otway buys his eggs and milk here." 144 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:33,440 [sighs] It's great being a pop star. 145 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:39,360 I think Otway has made it really big in his own mind and it affected him, 146 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:41,760 umm, terribly, 147 00:08:41,840 --> 00:08:44,120 and he had this thing for a while where 148 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:48,080 he didn't go on the tube in case nobody recognised him. 149 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,840 [John] So Polydor were eagerly awaiting what the next hit was gonna be. 150 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:54,880 We did have one other good punk song. 151 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:58,960 ♪ Beware of the flowers 'Cause I'm sure they're gonna get you ♪ 152 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,160 But we'd used that on the B side. 153 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:05,680 I did have this rather lovely ballad that I'd record go off on my own back, 154 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:07,880 and we recorded a 100 piece orchestra 155 00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:10,120 to try and impress this girl I really liked. 156 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:13,640 And I thought wouldn't it be nice, you know, 157 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:15,000 if that was put out as a single 158 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,600 'cause it'd go up in the charts and she didn't like me that much 159 00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:22,120 but she was gonna be impressed, wasn't she, with that song in the charts? 160 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,480 And it's a lovely version with 100 piece orchestra, 161 00:09:25,560 --> 00:09:26,840 and, yeah. 162 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:31,760 If you're a girl, I mean… you'd like that, wouldn't you? 163 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:36,240 He had all this money and he always wanted to do an orchestral version, 164 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:38,640 but it came out sounding like a Walt Disney film track. 165 00:09:38,720 --> 00:09:41,720 I mean, that was actually the follow up single to "Really Free". 166 00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:43,560 And I didn't know about it, 167 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:47,800 I was driving up the M1 to a gig, 168 00:09:47,880 --> 00:09:50,800 in between worked on that second album. 169 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:53,840 And I heard Otway's new solo single come on the radio. 170 00:09:55,560 --> 00:10:01,000 {\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 172 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:06,600 {\an8}and they thought, here is the possibility. 173 00:10:06,680 --> 00:10:11,600 {\an8}Okay, punk's okay, but we don't really like being flobbed at, you know, 174 00:10:11,680 --> 00:10:14,520 {\an8}and going into places where there's a scrap every night. 175 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:17,440 Um, and it was fairly conservative management, 176 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:21,360 in those days, myself included, you know, that was running Polydor. 177 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:24,280 And we thought, "Well, yes, we can cross this boy over. 178 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:26,880 "Really Free", "Beware of the Flowers", 179 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:29,640 fantastic TV appearances with Barrett. 180 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:31,200 What does Otway do? 181 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:33,920 He puts out "Geneve". 182 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,880 And we all go to the record shops, we buy "Geneve". 183 00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:38,360 Oh god, it's gonna be just like 184 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:41,560 "Beware of the Flowers" or "Really Free", and it's not. 185 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:46,040 It's this awful over produced garbage. 186 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:51,040 [upbeat orchestral music] 187 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:58,520 There's Otway looking like some sort of French folk guitarist on it, 188 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:01,720 Not the sort of anarchistic punk that we all greatly loved. 189 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:03,760 God, what's wrong with the bloke? 190 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. 193 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:19,160 ♪ Really, really, really free ♪ 194 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,760 ♪ 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 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:42,640 almost middle of the road single 198 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:47,360 right smack dab in the middle of the new wave thing. 199 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:50,680 ♪ For sitting Oh 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 flying For the screaming ladies of Los Angeles ♪ 202 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:08,360 ♪ And when I decided that would Be 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 remember That 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?" 221 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 yeah You'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 bad Go 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 bad Come 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 Glastonbury Will 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 gather Hey 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 Don picture the three of us dancing ♪ 533 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,000 ♪ There's me and David And that's a character ♪ 534 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,840 ♪ Our clothes are soaking And they stick to our skin ♪ 535 00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:35,760 ♪ We're laughing and laughing And 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 jerk You made me do all the work ♪ 587 00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,760 ♪ You're just a bog flirt A pretty girl in your skirt ♪ 588 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:18,160 ♪ Rub my face in the dirt Why don't you? ♪ 589 00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,680 ♪ Just give us a baby Give us a baby ♪ 590 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:22,760 ♪ Rumpelstiltskin Rumpelstiltskin ♪ 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 ♪ Rumpelstiltskin Rumpelstiltskin ♪ 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 riding Riding, 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 Tim The 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 listened As 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 see Through 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 riding Riding, 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 making Your 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 flying The 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 yourself And turn to the fire ♪ 803 00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,600 ♪ You know you got it right And 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 fine But 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, baby It'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 this the 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 flowers Beware 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, baby Look out, pet ♪ 1081 00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:29,120 ♪ Here's the kid Who'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 announce what the hit was actually going to be. 1085 00:59:39,680 --> 00:59:42,800 Well, we had the guy from 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 stage after 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 Miss would 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 happening throughout the evening was 1101 01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:38,360 all the stuff on the hit side of 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 on to 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 compounds Of 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 love A chemical reaction in the brain ♪ 1139 01:02:48,520 --> 01:02:52,600 ♪ So let me be your Bunsen burner, baby Let 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 audience out of the venue, 1253 01:08:09,720 --> 01:08:11,880 down the road, down the corner to the local HMV, 1254 01:08:11,960 --> 01:08:15,120 and got them to buy copies of "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 time record 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 sure that the shops had enough stock 1264 01:08:39,520 --> 01:08:43,920 'cause you could take the stock with you and 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 thought I was gonna have two hits, 1273 01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:13,479 the local railway company actually 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 fans could 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 front of 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 News at 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 single copy 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 guy from the chart company. 1317 01:11:20,520 --> 01:11:22,960 And he said that this amazing piece of software 1318 01:11:23,040 --> 01:11:25,880 that show when people are trying to cheat and hype the charts. 1319 01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:29,560 He said usually big sale of records in one shop, 1320 01:11:30,200 --> 01:11:34,880 and then a few minutes later, a big sale in 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 exciting was 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 somebody from the chart company, and they told me, 1366 01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:58,920 "No fan base had ever managed to get a record that high in charts 1367 01:13:59,000 --> 01:14:01,840 without the help of 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 hands on 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 shocked the industry by reaching number nine. 1421 01:16:42,240 --> 01:16:47,320 But walk into Willies or WH Smiths or Asda and it's not their number nine. 1422 01:16:47,840 --> 01:16:52,000 They refuse to stock a joke single from 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 passengers from Ot-Air Flight 2006. 1509 01:21:13,600 --> 01:21:17,160 ♪ Please report at the check-in desk We're going to be travelling west ♪ 1510 01:21:17,240 --> 01:21:21,080 ♪ Going across the north Atlantic The USA, and the Pacific ♪ 1511 01:21:21,160 --> 01:21:24,560 ♪ Gonna fly across Eurasia And back to Europe, via Asia ♪ 1512 01:21:24,640 --> 01:21:28,400 ♪ Make your way to the departure gate We'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 producing the Cheeky Flamenco for the Cheeky Girls. 1559 01:23:41,640 --> 01:23:44,560 And they agreed to do the 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 formers have learned from me is 1642 01:28:51,840 --> 01:28:56,840 you don't let a cock-up, not even a 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 this really 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 building And 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 me To 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 remember When my life was like that ♪ 1719 01:33:58,560 --> 01:34:01,960 ♪ A real and painless beauty I remember as a kid ♪ 1720 01:34:02,040 --> 01:34:05,080 ♪ When I thought that I knew everything And in a way I did ♪ 1721 01:34:05,160 --> 01:34:09,080 ♪ She was a virgin then A child in a million ♪ 1722 01:34:09,160 --> 01:34:12,640 ♪ With deep round hazel eyes Of blazing intuition ♪ 1723 01:34:12,720 --> 01:34:16,280 ♪ She called me over to her side And said, Will you please listen ♪ 1724 01:34:16,360 --> 01:34:19,400 ♪ I wanna show you something And 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 turn To a broken home ♪ 1727 01:34:29,680 --> 01:34:33,120 ♪ Her father left with someone else Her mother on her own ♪ 1728 01:34:33,200 --> 01:34:36,720 ♪ Her fourteenth birthday Her mother spent in tears ♪ 1729 01:34:36,800 --> 01:34:40,080 ♪ She celebrated on her own Her adolescent years ♪ 1730 01:34:40,160 --> 01:34:43,880 ♪ It was hell then Caught in the crossfire ♪ 1731 01:34:43,960 --> 01:34:47,200 ♪ Of an emotional triangle She couldn't keep together ♪ 1732 01:34:47,920 --> 01:34:50,840 ♪ I heard her softly A she sobbed upon my shoulder ♪ 1733 01:34:50,920 --> 01:34:54,120 ♪ Saying As you are the closest thing I'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 boyfriend Come on get out of bed ♪ 1738 01:35:11,520 --> 01:35:14,560 ♪ Look, its three o clock in the afternoon And my mother's coming back ♪ 1739 01:35:14,640 --> 01:35:18,440 ♪ And she smiled then Her eyes filled with laughter ♪ 1740 01:35:18,520 --> 01:35:22,080 ♪ She didn't know if it was love But it didn't really matter ♪ 1741 01:35:22,160 --> 01:35:25,640 ♪ She called me on the phone and said Hey, get this big brother ♪ 1742 01:35:25,720 --> 01:35:28,840 ♪ I just got rid of one boyfriend And 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

Can't find what you're looking for?
Get subtitles in any language from opensubtitles.com, and translate them here.