Olivia getting hits with a little help form her friends - nice interview
OLIVIA Newton-John, nestling cross-legged in a black leather armchair in Carlin Music’s Savile Row offices, looked very much just-back from St. Tropez, wearing white trousers, sleeve-less brown crocheted top, and an unbelievable suntan.
But no she hasn’t been on holiday. “I’ve just come from doing a Dean Martin show in America and managed to do some sunbathing there,” she explained.
Olivia, disarmingly modest about her success - “I’m still only just starting out really,” - has been lucky right from the day she first set foot in Britain. It’s been a story of new doors opening as others closed.
She came here from Australia in 1966 as one half of a girl duo “Pat and Olivia”, toured around, did some TV work with Dick Emery, played Army bases on the Continent and went to South Africa before the other half of the duo, Pat Carroll, unable to get her work permit renewed, had to go home. Olivia stayed on and was all set to record solo when she went to audition for the role of a girl singer in a film about a pop group. She got the job and the group and film named “Toomorrow” were born. Both were short-lived.
The film, released amid a blaze of publicity, flopped dismally. “It just wasn’t a good film and the music wasn’t good enough either,” she recalls without rancour. The members of the group were released from their contracts; Olivia resumed her solo career, recorded Bob Dylan’s “If Not For You” and it took off.
Now with two more hit singles behind her (“What Is Life” and “Banks Of The Ohio”) and one flop (“Love Song”), plus an album, which sold quite nicely without exactly setting the world on fire, she has a new single “Just A Little Too Much,” a second album “Olivia” ready for release on September 6 and is planning to make another film.
“I’m off to Japan soon for a three-week tour,” she explained, “then it’s virtually certain that I’ll go on to Australia to do the film. I don’t know very much about it, because I haven’t seen the script yet, but it’s fairly definite. It’ll be a musical, of course, and I suppose it’s a comedy.”
She’s looking forward to seeing her family again but doesn’t get homesick for Australia. “I did feel homesick for Britain though when I was in America,” she confessed.
Olivia is obviously conscious of the knockers who dismiss her music as inconsequential but doesn’t let them worry her.
“Well, people have said Led Zeppelin’s music is inconsequential, and they are heavy enough! It’s all a matter of taste and everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. I don’t mind constructive criticism but where it’s just silly, I don’t take any notice.”
Her own tastes, perhaps, hold few surprises. She enjoys listening to Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Ray Charles …oh, and Blood, Sweat and Tears.
She’s not very confident about choosing her own material, she says, and is much influenced by her manager, Peter Gormley and friends Bruce Welch and John Farrar. On her new album there are a number of old favourites, including “Angel Of The Morning” and “Why Don’t You Write Me” plus several new songs.
“This album is different from the last. I hope it’s an improvement. I think my voice has matured.” She doesn’t like the word, frowns a moment, then adds: “Well, as you get older, your voice gets stronger, I feel I can do more with it.”
In common with many other girl singers, Olivia has difficulty in finding new songs to record. “Original songs are hard to find. This is the age of the singer/songwriter and I think people tend to keep their songs to themselves,” she says.
The “B” side of her new single, called “Changes,” is the first of her own compositions she has recorded. Is she joining the ranks of the singer/songwriters? “No, I don’t think I’m good enough. I never used to get anywhere with songwriting. When I tried, nothing happened. Then one day I sat down and in about ten minutes I had written this song.”
“Of course I’d love to record one of my own songs as an “A” side one day, but if there are better songs around, I’ll do them instead. I never know what my next single is going to be before I go into the studio. We record several tracks and then make a choice. The only time I went into the studio with a song that I felt certain would be my next single, it just didn’t work, so Cliff (Richard) did it instead.”
It has been widely rumoured that, after having a group this year, Britain will be represented by a solo artist at next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. Olivia, one would have thought, must be a strong contender to follow in Sandie Shaw’s and Clodagh Rodgers’ footsteps.
“It’s funny, a lot of people have said that recently,” Olivia murmured, seeming genuinely puzzled about it “I don’t know whether I’d really like to do it. It would depend on the songs and I don’t know whether you find out anything about them until you’ve agreed to do it… anyway it’s all over for this year.”
Olivia doesn’t like to plan too far ahead. “I’ve only been working here solo for about two years and it s a bit early to start thinking what I’d to be doing in ten years time. I’ve done a British tour this year with Sacha Distel and I think one a year is enough. Anyway the film will probably take me up almost till the end of the year. After that I don’t know.”
She says she hasn’t tried to analyse just what kind of people make up her following. “I think they range from about ten to fifty years old but I can’t really be sure. You see, I’ve never been top of the bill so it’s not me they’ve really been coming to see…” It’s refreshing to meet someone so unassuming.