John Otway at the Baby Blue. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Originally published by L.S. Media. October 14th 2009.

Both John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett remain enigmas to the vast majority of the British public, but for those who know they are amongst the top ten of favourite artists to see live. The show is a wonderful eclectic mix of bizarre humour, superb visual effects, fine guitar playing and the best use of a Theremin anywhere.

The two men released their first collaboration in 1977, the year of the advent of punk and even the spiky coloured haired ones were confused by this odd couple who were told that John Otway was one of them but who you can see by his performances to date that he is completely genre-less. This didn’t deter him as he played, amongst others, the wonderful The Last of the Mohicans. Wild Willy Barrett joined in the absurdity and general excellence of the night with some superb acoustic sounds from his array of guitars and the help of a well tuned in wheelie-bin!

Even though the two men have not been together much over the last few years, the confidence  in and respect for each other was very much in evidence as they played their way through songs such as Cheryl’s Going Home, the jazzed up version of Rolf Harris’s classic Two Little Boys and Bluey Green. The main set was bought to a fantastic finish with the song that contained the 7th best lyric in the BBC 2002 poll, the fabulous Beware of the Flowers.

The evening’s entertainment was bought to end in fine style with the encores of Racing Cars (Jet Spotter of the Track) and Geneve. For both these songs the irreplaceable John Otway went off stage to await the calls for more whilst Wild Willy nonchalantly started packing things away. The best was kept for last though as Wild Willy took a saw and hammer to his guitar during the finale and completely destroyed it in time to the music-fabulous!

Ian D. Hall