Spadge
1964 Olivia’s career starts when a 15-year old Melbourne schoolgirl wins trip to Britain
Early UK career - Duo with fellow Australian Pat Carroll
1967 Olivia teams up with Pat Carroll in the UK - the duo starts off as Liza and Jane
1968 Olivia and Pat - High up from Down Under
Toomorrow
Olivia starred in the movie Toomorrow, which bombs.
1970 Local girl makes good - Olivia finds fame in London
and a new start with Olivia’s first single, If Not For You
but her singing career starts to shine as Cliff Richard welcomes her to his TV shows
1971 Tomorrow looks bright for Olivia
and she is romantically linked with Bruce Welch of the Shadows who produced If Not For You, which did well in America
1972 Olivia opens for Sacha Distel and splits up with Bruce Welch. Fellow Shadows bandmate John Farrar starts to work with Olivia - the combination was to see great success as the 1970s progressed. Olivia appears in joint BBC/Swedish TV Cliff Richard movie The Case.
1973 Olivia interview with Record Mirror
Olivia does a lot of UK TV work - she appears with Georgie Fame on a TV special featuring several of her songs, and some other UK TV light entertainment shows.
Eurovision debacle
1974 Olivia represents the UK in the Europvision Song Contest with Long Live Love. The song is not a success - particularly when up against the nascent ABBA with Waterloo. This is the beginning of the end of Olivia’s UK period, but at the same time
America calling
America warms to Olivia with her single Take Me Home Country Roads, and If You Love Me Let Me Know, and soon after Eurovision she starts a US tour opening for Charlie Rich at Las Vegas.
1974 Olivia wins Top Female Country vocalist at the Country Music Awards, despite the Tennessean grousing that she couldn’t drawl with a mouthful of biscuits.
Olivia tours America extensively, and in
1975 she wins a Grammy Award for what was to become her 1970s signature song, I Honestly Love You. Olivia moves to the US to cement her success on a long tourign schedule. Olivia reprises the manager/boyfriend theme when Lee Kramer sweeps her off her feet in St Tropez, he moves to America to join her and manage her career, as Olivia embarks on her most successful period.
[1976 Olivia records album Don’t Stop Believin’ in Nashville(70s/76-08-22-us-the_news_and_observer.html), perhaps as a sop to some of the grouching from her earlier win - the American public seems to like her well enough.
1976 Country Music People from the UK has a nice article on Olivia’s success to date.
1977 Country Music in the US features Olivia on the cover.
1977 Only Olivia - Olivia has a TV special on UK TV, and we hear that Olivia is shooting a movie called Grease based on the stage play.
1978 Olivia tours the US and Europe with her album Totally Hot
1978 Grease Crawdaddy interview