Exactly 20 years since they should have taken off, The John Otway Band is finally going around the world in 2026.
The man who had more UK hit singles than Led Zeppelin, performed more than five times the number of gigs the Beatles managed, appeared at Glastonbury more times than Beyonce, and starred in more lemonade commercials than Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift put together, will be performing at Memo Music Hall on March 31st 2026.
John Otway’s 2006 plans to fly a jet full of fans to witness him perform at the Sydney Opera House didn’t exactly take off, but 20 years later, over 50 veterans of the original Otway failed enterprise will be following the band on their world tour adventure.
To celebrate this achievement, and the thirty-three and a third anniversary of the band (which is something of a long-playing record), Otway is crowdfunding the band’s next album, “The World record”. The record will be a 12” picture disc – one side will be an image of the Northern hemisphere and will feature tracks recorded in London Vancouver and Tokyo, and the other side will display the Southern hemisphere and include tracks laid down in New Zealand and Australia. When you place the South side of the record on the turntable the spindle will represent the South Pole (and vice-versa).
But who is John Otway you ask?
Otway’s “Cor Baby That’s Really Free” was a UK Christmas Hit in 1977.
Pete Townshend produced four tracks on Otway’s first album (with Wild Willy Barrett).
Otway has performed over 5000 shows including a sold-out concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Otway’s song Beware Of The Flowers Cos I’m Sure They’re Going To Get You Yeh! was voted the 7th Favourite Lyric in a nationwide BBC Poll ahead of anything written by Bob Dylan or Paul Simon.
Otway appeared in The Young Ones’ episode Summer Holiday.
25 years after his first, Otway had a second hit with “Bunsen Burner” when loyal fans bought enough copies to have the single chart in the UK top ten.
Otway the Movie: The Story of Rock n Roll’s Greatest Failure was voted 2nd best film of 2012 in a Guardian newspaper readers poll beaten only by Gravity.
The 1978 album “Deep And Meaningless” was promoted extensively through Australia by current publicist Dianna O’Neill.
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