Our Livvy
IN March 1974, Olivia Newton- John was full of plans for the house she had just bought. It was in Hampstead, London, it was detached and it had a huge garden. The third bedroom, she had decided, would be converted into a dressing-room leading off the main bedroom. All the windows would be given Georgian frames. The kitchen would be fitted out. There were many other things that had to be done.
That house was but one solid sign that her future lay in Britain. The other signs were in her career. In a few weeks she’d be representing Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest. And it was virtually certain that, win or lose, her song “Long Live Love” would be a massive hit.
Beyond that lay lots of personal appearances, plus TV dates, plus recording plans. Yet less than a year later, Livvy was to find herself firmly based in America with little time having been spent in Britain, and the house hardly used at all. Such are the ways of show business!
I met Livvy recently when she was on a short visit to London. She had a Californian tan and looked as pretty as ever. She is now a seasoned American resident. “Life is fine,” she told me. “I have a lovely home at Malibu Beach, California. I own a cat, four dogs and five horses. Most of my career plans are in America. That’s why I went to live in the States because so much is happening for me there. “Obviously it’s always nice to make a visit home,” she went on. “It’s fine to see old friends and relatives and I also like recording with British musicians. When I do this at the EMI studios in London, it seems to bring out the best in my voice.”
THE rise to fame of Olivia Newton-John is a story of three countries: Britain, Australia and America. It starts in Cambridge, where Livvy was born on September 26, 1948. Her father is Welsh and when she was born he was a languages professor and head of King’s College, Cambridge. Her German- born mother is a daughter of scientist Max Born, one of the team which split the atom. Her older sister, Rona, is an actress, and her older brother, Hugh, a doctor. When Livvy was five the family moved to Australia, Professor Newton-John having taken the post as head of Ormond College, Melbourne. Though raised in an academic atmosphere, Livvy has confessed she has never been in the least academic.
From an early age, she liked dressing up. She remembers making her first public appearance as Big Ben at a fancy dress party, wearing a cardboard clock made by her mother. Not long after, she started appearing in school shows. “As a girl, I knew I wanted to be either a singer or an actress,” Livvy told me. “There was a period when I considered being a vet, since I’ve always been fond of animals. But when it came to the point, I found I just couldn’t discipline myself to the necessary studies. Both my parents were keen on music,” she continued. “Sadly, they divorced when I was ten. My father took a post as vice- chancellor of Newcastle University in New South Wales. My mother and we children stayed on in Melbourne.”
“My father then began sending me records, Joan Baez, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Ray Charles and all sorts of other people. They widened my interest in singing.” When she was 12, Livvy won a contest run by a local cinema for the girl who looked most like Hayley Mills. At 14, she began singing in a vocal group with three other girls. At 15, she went solo and quickly won a TV talent contest. “The prize was a trip to Britain,” Livvy recalled. “But my parents wanted me to carry on with my education I did for a while, but I wasn’t really concentrating.”
So it was over a year before Livvy took the trip to Britain, her parents having realised by then how intent she was on a showbiz career. She arrived with her mother in 1965, and in the spring of 1966, mode a record, Till You Say You’ll Be Mine,” for Decca. It wasn’t a hit. Then, not long after Pat Carroll came to Britain to try her luck. She and Livvy had been “friendly rivals” in Australia, and at a friend’s suggestion the girls formed a double act, Pat and Olivia. It was a simple enough idea, but it was to set in motion a chain of events which, years later, was to result in Livvy’s fantastic success in America.
PAT and Olivia had an up-and-down career. They appeared on TV, did stage shows, but they also had lean spells. During one, Livvy told me, they went on holiday to the Continent with £4O between them! Then in the summer of 1968 they were booked for a show at Bournemouth. When Livvy came into the theatre she saw a man she thought was one of the sound crew, cleaning gear. It was only when they started talking that she realised he was Bruce Welch of Cliff Richard’s Shadows, the stars of the show! Livvy and Bruce kept in touch for just a few weeks that summer. Then Pat had to return Down Under her work permit having run out. Livvy went with her and the two worked in Australian television for a while.
Late in 1968, shortly after returning to Britain, Livvy landed what seemed to be a sure passport to fame. Two very influential men teamed up in an enterprising project. They were James Bond film producer Harry Saltzman and America’s Don Kirschner. Kirschner had been associated with many top record stars and songwriters and had masterminded that pop phenomenon, The Monkees. And because of his shrewd instinct for recognising talent and likely hits, he had been dubbed “The Man With the Golden Ear.” Saltzman and Kirschner were to make a film called “Toomorrow” claimed to be “the first space musical.” And they were forming a group also called Toomorrow to appear in it and make records. After months of auditioning hundreds of hopefuls, they had the three men and a girl they wanted. Livvy was the girl. The project was widely publicised and Livvy with her eye-catching beauty had her picture in countless magazines. But then came the anti-climax. The film flopped and so did the records.
By now Livvy was engaged to Bruce Welch. Through him, she got to know Cliff Richard. After the disappointments of “Toomorrow,” it was Cliff who helped her get going with her solo career. She sang a duet with him on one of his records, appeared on his TV series and did a Continental tour with him. Meantime Livvy had kept in touch with Pat Carroll. Pat had married singer/guitarist John Farrar, and when the Shadows split up and Bruce Welch and Hank Marvin wanted to form a trio, Livvy mentioned John. After hearing some of his tapes, they asked him to join. He came to Britain with Pat. Not long after he began working with Bruce on the production of Livvy ‘s discs. And it was this that was to have a decisive effect on her career.
Livvy’s breakthrough as a recording star came in the spring on 1971 when she had an international hit with Bob Dylan’s “If Not For You.” She followed with such successes as “What Is Life “Banks Of The Ohio,” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Her career also flourished via TV and stage shows. Then in April 1972 the news broke that she hod ended her engagement to Bruce Welch. The romance was never mended but he continued to work on her recording sessions. If you remember, Livvy came second in that 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and then she went on a short tour of America. Her records had been selling well there, and she had become a great favourite among “country” fans there.
American country music centres on Nashville, Tennessee. It has stars, traditions and a music style of its own. For a foreigner to win acceptance in that field is a rarity indeed. But Livvy achieved such a distinction. In the spring of 1974 she won a coveted “Grammy” award as America’s Best Country Singer, the first non-American to have done so. On that opening 1974 tour she was such a hit with audiences offers of more work in America came flooding in.
As the months went by, she returned to Britain now and then but it was becoming increasingly clear that to live in America was the logical step. And Livvy was now prepared for it. Here was a girl who could make a tremendous impact in all sorts of shows, country gatherings, TV spectaculars, Las Vegas cabaret, college concerts and so on. But it was her flair for country music which most impressed people and the person who played a vital port in making the most of it was Pat’s husband, John Farrar. In the spring of 1975, when she had nipped back to Britain for recording sessions, Livvy declared: musicians in the States have asked, ‘How can you make a country record in England?’ “Well, a studio is a studio. What makes the difference is the musicians. We were lucky. John Farrar, my producer, is a big country fan and duplicated the sound he’d heard on his favourite records.” “How did you get interested in country music?” I asked. “It developed gradually,” Livvy told me. “It began when I was a girl, and later I found myself listening more and more to that sort of music. But I never thought I’d end up being a country star myself.”
In recent years Livvy’s constant companion has been a young -American showbiz executive, Lee Kramer. They met late in 1973 when on holiday in the South of France, and for a while, during the advance of her career in America, he was her manager. “But,” Livvy told me, “I have no immediate plans for marriage. I want to wait till I feel completely ready, and at the moment I am happy concentrating on my career. My spare time is taken up with causes which help animals. I hope to sing at concerts organised by Jacques Cousteau to aid his work in trying to present animal species and the environment.”
“My future? I’d like nothing better than to own a big farm in America or Australia and raise livestock.” So there you have the dream of Olivia Newton- John a country girl at heart, if ever there was one.