Saturday night - all right? (Eurovision day)
Pete Meets Olivia Newton-John
As you must all know by now, this Saturday is the big night for Olivia Newton-John the night she will represent Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Olivia had been doing interviews all day when I spoke to her late one afternoon recently, and she was beginning to feel a bit tired. But despite that.she was as charming as ever, and eager to talk about her part in the contest.
“It’s meant a lot of hard work over the past few months,” she told me, “but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it!”
The preparations for the contest began with the selection of the six songs from which the British entry would be chosen: “It was fun seeing what the six songs were. I spent a lot of time getting each one right, and becoming familiar with each one. Eventually I think all six will be gathered together on an album of mine.”
To introduce the songs to the public, who of course select the best song themselves, Olivia sang all six week by week on Jimmy Savile’s Saturday show, “Clunk Click”. “Jimmy is one of my favourite people.” she said. “He’s so super and funny. He kept calling me Oliver, all through the series!”
“One of the best things about it was that I was allowed to choose a different outfit for every song. It was great-six new sets of clothes!”
“What I wore depended very much on the song, whether it was a bright, bouncy one, or a ballad. If it was a fast song I wore a trouser suit, and if it was slow, a long dress.”
“It balanced quite well. I had three trouser suits, in satin, jersey and crepe, and three dresses, two in jersey and one in organza. It was suggested that I have one in Lurex, because it seems to be quite popular at the moment, but I said no because I don’t like it very much.”
I asked Olivia if she had a favourite style in dresses. “I love long, feminine dresses,” she said. “I like romantic things. I’ll tell you what I really thought was beautiful Princess Anne’s wedding dress!”
“I was in Australia at the time of her wedding and I could have cried because I was busy singing while it was happening, so I missed seeing it on TV. I saw plenty of pictures later on, though, and I thought she looked really lovely. I bet the Queen shed a tear or two! But it must be hard for royalty to be themselves at times like that.
“Mark’s terrific too he’s lovely! He looked so chuffed at the wedding, didn’t he? He has a gorgeous smile.
At this point, before Olivia got too carried away, I decided to change the subject! What had she been doing in her spare time?
“I’ve been busy watching lots of films,” she said, “I’ve seen “Jeremy” and “Papillon” which stars Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen and “Enter the Dragon”, the Kung Fu film.”
“And I do a lot of letter writing. I got into the habit during the power crisis, when the telly closed down early. My father lives in Australia now, so I write to him a lot to keep him informed about what I’m doing with myself.”
“The biggest thing happening in my life at the moment is that I’m moving house. It’s not too bad where I am just now, but I’m looking around for a place in North London.”
“I sometimes get people coming by my house and waving, and some boys and girls stand around and ask if they can do anything for me. It’s sweet of them.”
Although she’s getting a new house, Olivia doesn’t see herself spending much time there this summer. because, she says, she’s off to America very soon.
Noticing that I was carrying an American chart magazine, she said. “Can I have a look? Oh, look, my record Let Me Be There has gone up in the charts. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll reach the top. That would be marvellous.”
“I seem to be known as a country singer over in the U.S.A. I do enjoy country music, but I don’t like limiting myself to one kind of music. I’ve been over once before, and I’m really looking forward to going back.”
“Apart from that. I don’t have any definite plans for the summer yet. What I do will really all depend on how I do in the Eurovision Song Contest. I’m a bit nervous but I’m looking forward to it.”
We’ve got our fingers crossed for you, Olivia!