Sacha Distel Concert appearance
When Olivia Newton-John came to Bristol in 1972
By Jeffrey Davies, Bristol Post
Dame Olivia Newton-John died peacefully at her ranch in Southern California on Monday morning at the age of 73. The British-born singer and actress, who grew up in Australia, was best known for her starring role as Sandy in the 1978 film Grease, in which she appeared opposite John Travolta.
As well as her hit role in the film, Dame Olivia was also a chart-topping singer, and represented the UK in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Long Live Love - the year Abba won with Waterloo. She is survived by her husband as well as her daughter.
In 1972 Post reviewer Jeffrey Davies interviewed Olivia after a show at the then Colston Hall. It was before the huge hits of ‘You’re The One That I Want’, ‘Summer Nights’, ‘Physical’ and ‘Xanadu’.
She was the ‘special guest’ on Sacha Distel’s show which also featured comedian Ted Rogers, violin virtuoso Stephane Grappelli and the pop group The Rockin’ Berries. This is what Jeffrey wrote in 1972:
LEAVING the stage to rapturous applause and calls for an encore from an ecstatic audience at the Colston Hall, Olivia Newton-John was all smiles. A ‘special guest’ on French crooner Sacha Distel’s show, one of the pop world’s nicest performers went down a storm.
A great performance, I remarked to the clearly delighted singer, 23, backstage at the venue, the incessant chattering of excited autograph hunters audible outside. “Thank you very much. It’s kind of you to say. The tour so has been really, really good so far. It’s been marvellous,” the delightful Olivia Newton-John told me with a wonderfully friendly and welcoming smile.
“At first Sacha and I weren’t sure how well we would be accepted because I am frequently seen on shows with Cliff [Richard] and Marvin, Welch and Farrar. But we needn’t have worried about it as it turned out because we have had such a good reception everywhere like here in Bristol tonight. We couldn’t really ask for anything more,” she added happily.
Picking up her on comment about ‘frequently’ appearing on shows with Cliff Richard, I wondered whether Olivia was aware that some critics were now claiming the shows were ‘a bit cliquey’. “Yes I have heard that. It really annoys me because they are not.
“Admittedly we are seen together on shows. And especially on Cliff’s shows. But why shouldn’t great friends who get on well together, be together?” she asked in an almost rhetorical way.
“Cliff was one of the first people I worked with. I enjoy working with him and he enjoys working with me. There’s nothing wrong with that.
“I think people who knock the show are in the minority. Cliff’s shows are always high in the popularity polls. And what’s more I think people like to see us together. We’re like a nice, happy family,” she said in a discernable soft Australian accent.”
With an appreciative audience and a burgeoning fan club, Olivia must be riding on the crest of a wave. Hard to imagine it, but has she ever had a poor reception in Britain? “No, not really. I have had some absolutely marvellous nights and then some not so good ones, as most performers do.
“That’s life, isn’t it? One must take the good with the bad and vice versa. That’s really what makes life worth living,” she replied philosophically.
“You know,” she said, wishing to put the record straight, “most reporters are under the impression that I am Australian and ask me what I think of England. It’s funny really, as I am as English or British as most people who were at the show tonight. Although I have lived in Australia for most of my life, I was actually born in Cambridge. And my father was born in Wales, where I still have relatives.”
Olivia was five when her family moved to Australia, her father taking up a university post in Melbourne. She said she loved living there because, amongst other things, it was ‘warm and sunny’. Unlike British weather, I interjected.
She laughed, remembering that just a couple of hours earlier she had arrived at the Colston Hall with the rain pouring down. Her parents must be very proud of her success, I remarked with a distinct hint of understatement.
“My father didn’t really want me to go into this business. He was afraid of what might happen to me if I didn’t succeed. I don’t think he minds too much now though,” she replied, acknowledging that, yes, she has done well for herself and has achieved what she had wanted to from a young age.
“It’s funny really because my father never planned an academic career for me, even though he was an ex-head of Cambridge University. Kings College to be precise.
“My parents were divorced some time ago so I don’t really know what my mother thinks of my success.” She went on: “I wanted to go to RADA but I didn’t in the end.
“I teamed up with a friend from Australia and we did a double act. That didn’t last very long as her visa was running out and she missed her boyfriend. So she went back home to Australia again.”
But that proverbial cloud had a silver lining for Olivia, as she was later chosen to be the lead singer of a new group called Toomorrow. “We were compared to The Monkees because we were a manufactured band as well.
“After that I went on to record Bob Dylan’s If Not For You. And that was a real winner for me,” she said with a big smile.
Since that massive hit, Olivia has gone from strength to strength. She has notched up a number of best-selling singles making her one of pop and country music’s biggest and most-respected artists.
If Not For You, Banks Of The Ohio and What Is Life amongst them. “Everybody has been so fantastic to me,” Olivia said gratefully.
“I love meeting and speaking to people. And now I can because of my position. You will mention that in your newspaper, Jeffrey, won’t you? I really want my audience to know that I appreciate them.
“And as long as they come to see me and listen to my music, I will promise not to let them down. As the song goes, if not for you I’d be nowhere at all. That happens to be my philosophy too.”
Photo: Olivia Newton-John, English-Australian singer, songwriter and actress, pictured in Savile Row, Mayfair London, UK, Tuesday 22nd August 1972.
Original article