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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

What Not To Do Onstage

This is so funny and so painful at the same time. It's a video of John Otway from the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test back in 1977 where he goes to jump on an amp, but doesn't quite get the jump right, and ends up crushing his testicles.

Otway was an artist who was short on talent, but he had a vibe, which is sometimes enough to get you noticed. This led to the appearance on one of the major music shows for its time.

The interesting thing is the mishap actually managed to land him a record deal with Polydor, who gave him an amazing $380,000 advance (worth $1.4 million in today's dollars). It also shot the song up to #27 on the UK charts, which would never happen for Otway again.

So to all you frontmen out there, learn the lesson of the video. Don't jump on small combo amps!



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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Otway is of course still touring (saw him this year at Glastonbury) and still includes pretty daring stunts in his act (such as somersaults whilst wearing his guitar). Also, he had a no.9 hit with Bunsen Burner in 2002! Long live Otway!

MichaelWSStone said...

Hello Bobby,
Although Otway's musical talent can be doubted, his talent to entertain is another matter. The musical stuff was handled by Wild Willy Barrett who was, and probably still is, an excellent guitarist who often played a pedal-steel mounted on wheels so that the fretting hand remained still while the guitar moved. Great stuff. Brings back memories of Friar's, Aylesbury.
Mike

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