This is (H)it
John Otway Hit No. 2 - 25-years on
Twenty-five
years after John Otway scored his first and thus far only Hit with, Cor Baby That’s Really
Free, he is about to storm the
charts again with Bunsen Burner.
The
Hit was chosen by Otway’s legion of fans who voted for the song in a bizarre
‘hit or miss’ Eurovision style spectacular held at London’s Astoria on Saturday
27th July.
Released
on 30th September, Otway’s 50th birthday, Bunsen Burner
is the culmination of a 25 year quest to repeat his chart success of 1977.
Produced
by Steps co-writer and producer, Barry
Upton and cunningly using a sample from Disco Inferno, Bunsen
Burner will set the charts alight with its
mixture of dance, lyric and mayhem.
One
of the music industry’s true eccentrics, Otway has from the beginning chosen an
alternative path in his quest for recognition.
Despite only having the one hit, he has maintained a cult following over
the years of thousands of dedicated fans who attend his live shows and club
together annually to purchase a birthday present for him. When asked what he wanted this year, he
announced, “Another hit!”
With
a questionable track record of selecting his own material as potential Hits, he
took the unprecedented step of letting his fans decide one for
him. “They might as well,” he argued,
“They’ll be the ones who’ll have to buy it.”
Producing an 11-track CD of specially recorded songs he pressed 5,000 copies
and let the fans make their choice. Indeed one of his biggest fans, Barry Upton contacted Otway and
declared, ‘I‘ve just knocked Kylie off the number 1 spot, so I reckon I can
help you out’.
Otway
hired the
The
B-side, a cover of the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun was equally
novel as Otway invited 1,000 fans to Abbey Road Studios as backing singers,
arguably the biggest backing vocal group ever!
With
his legendary reckless abandon, and reasoning that he could become busy with
preparations for his return to his chart success, Otway, has already booked a
venue for his hit come-back, the London
Palladium on 6th October.
This huge gamble will, of course, turn out to be either a glorious triumph or a
spectacular disaster.
With
his popularity currently at a 25-year peak, legions of fans behind him, and renewed
public affection, John Otway is suddenly looking forward once again to chart
stardom. If you want to catch his manic
show while he’s still a one-hit wonder, there’s still time left. He’ll be touring throughout the
For further information contact:
Press:
Suzanne Noble @ Peter Noble PR
Tel:
0207 794 2302, e-mail: suzanne@noblepr.co.uk
TV/Radio: Matt Connolly @ Fleming Connolly Lander
Tel:
0207 482 9742, e-mail:
mat@fclpr.com