In
honour of Chris's birthday on December 4th 1999, our local Superstar, John Otway,
appeared at Aylesbury's Civic CentreIn
honour of Chris's birthday on December 4th 1999, our local Superstar, John Otway,
appeared at Aylesbury's Civic Centre
Chris, resplendent in birthday badges, was right at the
front to catch some terrific action shots of Otway's ever-hilarious act. Some
of the stage crew attached to other bands on the bill had clearly never before
experienced an Otway extravaganza. They stood, stage left, with their mouths
hanging open! The way the man abuses his microphones is enough to make a hardened
roadie weep. These guys should have been at the Civic twenty years back, when
our hero was death-diving off expensive speaker stacks. Nowadays, he just uses
a step-ladder.
How Richard, the other half of Otway's minimalist 'band', holds the performance
together, and how he puts up with seeing Otway half-naked each night, is beyond
comprehension. It's bad enough for the audience.
John's long-suffering mother still sews his buttons back on for him after his
regular shirt-busting antics.
Someone had had the brainwave of buying Otway a Theremin, to go with the drum-sound
trigger-pads he has long been attaching to his skeletal frame for the purpose
of enhancing his 'Body Talk' number. (Otway's stature can be aptly summed-up
by the lyrics of one of his famous piss-takes - Bobby Goldsbo's death-ditty,
'Honey' - as "Just a twig".) The Theremin and Otway were a marriage made in
Aylesbury and destined to live daffily ever after. We always knew there was
a use for the instrument other than making sci-fi sound effects for 50s 'B'
movies!
As usual, we left the twig-man's performance with clapped-out hands and laughter-aching
faces.
PS – Thanks for the birthday dedication, John.
If you've never seen John Otway on stage and think you want to, well, you really are missing something... A few screws perhaps? If you're still determined to attend a gig, have a look at www.doremi.co.uk/otway/.
Find out even more about Otway at www.compsoc.man.ac.uk/~xav/otway_home.php3
along with the story of how some idiots decided John needed a Theremin...
