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John Otway is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter famed for his surreal humour, manic stage antics, and enduring cult following.
Known for unpredictable live shows and self‑deprecating wit, his career spans over 5,000 gigs, acclaimed albums like Montserrat, two autobiographies, the documentary Otway the Movie, and an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University.
After early success with WIld Willy Barrett, catching the eye of Pete Townsend of the Who,Otway had to wait until 1977 and the rise of punk before achieving Chart success and true fame.
Having caught the eye of the producers of the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, Otway's performance on that show would grab the attention of the watching audience. Otway, decided to jump on the amplifier of his colleague during a performance of Bob Lind's "Cheryl's Going Home". Otway misjudged his leap and sent Wild Willy Barrett's amplifier tumbling as he crashed down straddling the box under the amp. The full force of the impact was absorbed by the most tender of his body parts, live on mainstream television.
Sales of Otway's sixth single, the half-spoken love song "Really Free" released by Polydor Records increased dramatically and reached No. 27 on the UK singles chart. An appearance on the BBC's flagship music programme Top of the Pops (TOTP), where Otway and Barrett were introduced by Elton John. It would however, be his only success for quite some time.
In 1990, Otway wrote the autobiography Cor Baby, That's Really Me: Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure[16] and his touring continued to sustain him. He also teamed up with Attila the Stockbroker performing as Headbutts and Halibuts at the 1990 Edinburgh Fringe. They followed this a year later, with a rock opera based around Otway's version of Bob Lind's "Cheryl's Going Home" simply entitled "Cheryl"
In 1999, with the help of his fans, a grassroots campaign saw his song "Beware of the Flowers Cause I'm Sure They're Going To Get You, Yeah" - the B-side to his first hit - voted the seventh greatest lyric of all-time in a BBC poll.
Buoyed by this success, and with his 50th birthday coming in 2002, when asked what he wanted for the occasion, Otway requested "a second hit". A concerted drive and fan-led campaign, including a poll to select the track, saw "Bunsen Burner" - with music sampled from The Trammps song "Disco Inferno" and lyrics devised to help his daughter with her chemistry homework - reach number nine in the UK Singles Chart on 6 October,[23] earning Otway an appearance back on Top of the Pops. To encourage his fans to buy more than one copy of the single, he released three different versions. The B-side of "Bunsen Burner - The Hit Mix" was a cover of "The House of the Rising Sun", recorded at Abbey Road Studios and featuring over 900 of his fans on backing vocals, each of whom were credited by name on the single's sleeve. A video for this version was recorded with another sellout crowd at the London Astoria.[26] Otway's chart success caused major problems for the High Street retail chain Woolworths who, despite the single's success steadfastly refused to stock or acknowledge Otway's chart position.
By 2010, Otway had re-united with Wild Willy Barrett for a UK tour, with the duo regularly performing together since. They recorded a new album 40-Odd Years of Otway and Barrett in 2011.
In October 2012, to celebrate his 60th birthday, Otway booked the Odeon Leicester Square to show a documentary of his life titled Rock and Roll's Greatest Failure: Otway the Movie.
The constant gigging over the years meant that on 2 April 2022, Otway celebrated his 5,000th career gig. Held at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire as a milestone event, he played the first set with long-time musical partner Wild Willy Barrett and a second set with his band.
John has built a reputation of a unique, quirky and brilliant entertainer who if you have never seen before, you really should at least once in your life!
