Thursday 24th September
John Otway (Full Band Show)
John Otway is a legendary English singer-songwriter and cult hero, celebrated for his surreal humour, underdog spirit and wildly entertaining live shows.
Inspired by Bob Dylan as a child and later swept up in the energy of punk, Otway finally found fame in 1977 with an unforgettable appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test – a gloriously chaotic performance that cemented his reputation as one of Britain’s great eccentric performers.
John Otway: Hits, Films and Glorious Failure
John Otway’s breakthrough came when his sixth single, the half-spoken love song Cor Baby That’s Really Free, reached number 27 in the UK Singles Chart. Introduced by Elton John on Top of the Pops, Otway briefly became a pop star — though it would be 25 years before he returned to the charts.
In the years between hits, Otway built a remarkable cult career: acting, writing his autobiography Cor Baby That’s Really Me: Rock and Roll’s Greatest Failure, selling out shows at London’s Astoria and Royal Albert Hall, appearing regularly at Glastonbury and Edinburgh, and even writing the nation’s seventh favourite lyric of all time.
In 2002, a fan-led campaign helped Otway score his long-awaited second hit with the disco pastiche Bunsen Burner, which reached number 9 and earned him another Top of the Pops appearance. He continued touring extensively, later releasing a second autobiography, I Did It Otway: Regrets I’ve Had a Few.
To mark his 60th birthday in 2012, Otway made Otway the Movie: Rock n Roll’s Greatest Failure, premiered in Leicester Square before touring cinemas in the UK and North America. The film was later voted The Guardian readers’ second-best film of the year.
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Otway recorded a new album in Montserrat, becoming the first international artist to record on the island since The Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels in 1989. Produced by Grammy-winner Chris Birkett, the album was released to acclaim in 2017.
During lockdown, Otway’s Facebook live shows attracted regular audiences of around 10,000 viewers. In 2022, he celebrated his 5,000th gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Oxford Brookes University. His band later released The Set Remains The Same, a live album featuring performances from venues including Glastonbury, the Royal Albert Hall, the London Palladium and Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
In 2026, Otway and his band finally set out to achieve one of his long-held ambitions: a world tour. Marking the band’s thirty-three-and-a-third anniversary, they will play Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Japan while making a new album and documentary film.