Today's Better Than Toomorrow
If variety is the spice of life, then Olivia Newton-John must be absolutely FULL of spice (not to mention the sugar). When I chatted with her last week, she was as lively and lovely as ever, but with an even brighter twinkle in her eyes than usual.
“Everything seems to be going so well now, I just can’t believe it! Right now, I’m doing cabaret at the Savoy, and also waiting to do some recording for a new album when I’ve finished there. I’ve been so lucky, I feel like a little girl in a sweet shop I just can’t decide what I like best!”
“It’s all so different, cabaret, recordings, concerts… and television is even more demanding! It’s wonderful, because I love to sing and when I become bored with one way of presenting songs, I do something completely different.”
It isn’t just luck that got Olivia where she is today! It may have been at first, when Olivia won a Hayley Mills look-alike contest in Australia, but even then she had the talent to make good use of the opportunity, And what did she want to be, a singing star, an actress? When I asked her, she laughed at the question.
“Neither one! I really wanted to be a vet! Ever since I was very young, I’ve been absolutely mad about animals, When I was nine, I joined the R.S.P.C.A. and spent half my time finding stray dogs and bringing them home. It used to look like a kennel around our house!”
At first, music was just a favourite hobby for Olivia. Her family had a piano, and “Livvy” used to sit for hours, making up tunes as she went. By the time she was fourteen, she and three other friends formed a group called The Sol Four. “We thought we were really something! We ran around in Levis and look-alike jackets, and even managed to get some gigs in pubs. But it didn’t last long; I stopped doing my schoolwork, and my mother put her foot down. So I guess that’s the moment when I chose to become a singer.. ‘cos I knew I didn’t want to do the homework!”
“I made an agreement with my parents. My sister’s husband was managing a coffee lounge, and my mother said that if I would perform only on weekends - AND do my lessons, I could sing there.”
It was there that Olivia was discovered. She entered a talent contest, and won a trip to London. So she made her final break and left school a year early.
Success wasn’t immediate, but she did get some breaks along the way, and of course the biggest was with the group and film called Toomorrow, where she really made her reputation, as both an actress and a singer.
I asked Livvy if she had any desire to do more films. “Yes, I’d love to do a film, but I’ve got a lot of commitments right now. If there is a drawback to being a singer, I guess it’s that not being able to do exactly what you want to do when you want to. Sometimes it even gets a bit frustrating…. especially around holiday time!”
“The solution to that is really pretty easy, though. I just try to arrange to be working some place like Los Angeles, where I can be sure of some absolutely gorgeous sunny weather!”
I would have thought Livvy could be sure of gorgeous weather wherever she went she radiates enough sunshine to last the whole year round!