Fenny challenged me to explain why I like cats, UMRA and John Otway ...
Now, I'm not one of those people who believes that the world is divided into cat people and dog people. I love my dog Barney, the routine of walks, his obedience and the way he guards the house against postmen, window cleaners and Asda delivery drivers but I also love cats. I admire the way that they fit into a niche in our lives with a simple deal of a bit of companionship in exchange for food. Watching a cat snoozing somewhere is supremely calming, but they also remind us that nature is red in tooth and claw with occasional gifts of half chewed mice, birds and other assorted wild life. Oh, and they are very cute ....
It's oh so cute ... Way back in the heady days of punk, before all of the Fame Academy, Pop Idol and X Factor shows, any spotty oik who wanted to be famous would grab a guitar (regardless of talent), get up on the nearest stage and prat about for the sheer joy of it. John Otway was one such oik. He had a modest top 30 hit with 'Beware of the Flowers', rubbing shoulders with the likes of 'Mull of Kintire' and 'Grandma we love you', received a massive advance from the record company which he promptly blew on hiring a full orchestra to record a follow up love song to an ex girlfriend who had not only dumped him but moved to Geneva to get away from him. Needless to say, that song was the first of many flops over the next twenty five years, broken only by a concerted effort by fans to get him back into the charts for his fiftieth birthday. An attempt to get a world tour off the ground last year floundered due to John's legendary bad luck concerning anything to do with money.
I've seen Otway play live an average of once or twice a year over the last twenty years, in venues as diverse as student union bars, rock clubs, a hippie festival in a old quarry, folk clubs, city halls and an old time variety music hall, and he has never failed to make me smile. He's a genuinely nice bloke, hard working, humble and a true rock and roll micro star.
Martin Newell in the Independent summed it up nicely in this poem written when the second hit was in the charts:
A low autumn sun lit the beech trees
As Charlotte came strolling from school,
Past the pear-laden espalier
Where father was cleaning the pool,
A high skein of geese graced the skyline,
The drama unfolded below.
"Tell me who Otway was, Daddy.
My teacher said that you would know."
"Otway?" her father downed leaf-rake
Rheumy eyes brimming with tears.
Face now upturned, he sobbed softly,
"I haven't heard `Head-butts' for years.
Why do you ask me, my daughter?
Did you hear tales from rough men?
"No," said the girl, "but it's charted.
Straight in from nowhere to 10."
"Child, are you sure?" Her dad shouted.
"Hear'Say break up? Otway charts?
Unlock your mother, fetch brandy
These are great days for the arts!"
"But who were Otway?" asked Charlotte,
"Are they a `were', or an `are'?"
"Otway," her father said gravely
"Was, is and will be... a star."
"Otway, like Robin of Locksley
Robbed of his kingdom of pop,
Had to go to roaming the outlands,
Gigging for years without stop.
Otway had hits - well had one hit -
After which he was unseated.
But until now his best efforts
Witnessed the trick unrepeated."
Charlotte stared hard at her father.
Was it her tidings this night
Stripped him of decades in seconds -
Or was it the soft autumn light?
"Miracles happen," He told her.
"Dreams can come true - if a lot pray,
Flowers will bloom in the desert.
But only John... does it Otway."
Copyright 2002 Independent Newspapers UK LimitedI am a LionI remember when the internet was all fields, you know - none of your new fangled blogs, web forums and social networks. We had USENET and that was that. When I first went online twelve years ago or so, I saw a link to something called news groups and I followed it expecting to see news headlines or some such. It turned out to a collection of articles grouped by interests ranging from books, to music, to serious academic matters, to just about every sexual fetish under the sun, and somewhere amongst it all was 'uk.media.radio.archers' (known by the initals UMRA, making posters 'umrats'), a group described as being for the sort of people who might listen to 'The Archers'. Actually listening to the programme itself has always been sort of optional, with on topic threads being rare when the plotlines falter and picking up again when a decent writer takes control of the scripts.
I've met various people from the group over the years, at the annual UMRA BBQ and when interests cross over into other spheres of the internet, so I'll wave at Fenny, Niles, Rosie, Penny, Vicky and the McToodles to name but a few.
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