John Otway, The Informers.

Lev 2 Esquires Bedford. 6th March 2009.

I'm sure if you could take and mix the deoxyribonucleic acid of Billy Bragg, Iggy Pop and John Cleese it would probably create something akin to JOHN OTWAY, whose appearance here at Esquires will live long in the memory. Not since Howard Marks appeared here many years ago has so much laughter echoed around these old walls. But with two top thirty hits to his credit, John always makes time for his music. There is a good turnout. The inevitable middle age and older folks who have grown up with him are here, plus a healthy smattering of youngsters not born when John was starting his career. The song that launched him was, of course, "Really Free", and it's the starter for this evening's show. Without his familiar big band mates, John relies on his trusty fuzzbox and boy he's gonna use it, cor baby! He follows it with the B side called "Beware of the Flowers cause I'm Sure they're going to get you, Yeah!", which was apparently voted seventh all time best lyrics in a BBC poll. It's at this point that John's rather unique siamese guitar gets its first outing. As it hangs on his thin wiry frame he demonstrates that he can play adeptly either right or left handed. A spoken word cover of "Blockbuster" is very funny. The mood darkens for about the only time when firstly "21 Days" ( a song about prison life) and a cover of "Honey" are performed. The latter is, in John's opinion, the saddest song ever written. At it's end he reiterates "Bloody hell! That was sad"!

His deadpan tone of delivery fills the room with laughter. This doubles in volume when his composition about poor network mobile phone coverage is delivered. It's a pure Norman Collier moment! With Mr Otway now revelling in Bedford's warm atmosphere, he informs us that to give him total hands free freedom on stage, he "nicked a trick from Madonna". This involves attaching his mic to a coathanger that he puts over his head. He chuckles that fellow musician Wilco Johnson was so jealous when John showed him the DIY invention! With coathanger in place, John can perform "Riding on a Horse" with total ease. Just when the 'Otway virgins' couldn't believe it could get any more surreal, it was time for his electronic gadget to make it's mark. This is known as the theremin, a musical instrument that is played by moving the hands or, in his case, other parts of the body around two antennae to vary pitch and volume. Leon Theremin, its Russian inventor (1896-1993) has a lot to answer for tonight! A cover of "Body Talk" is totally self-explanatory.

With a quick rub down and an award from Rob for 'twat in the hat winner', it's time for part two! John resumes in much the same vein as the stories continue to come thick and fast. He tells us that when his daughter was very young he made up punk nursery rhymes such as "Rumpelstiltskin" to sing to her. She was also the inspiration for John's biggest chart hit to date, "Bunsen Burner". Chemistry homework led to his top ten hit of 2002. Although it's a disco record it still works well tonight. "Acidity rules, as you are the carbon I can date". Much to everyone's delight, the B side reworking of "House of the Rising Sun" is also reprised. He also pays tribute to the greatest living poet David Bowie, with his rendition of "Space Oddity" performed in the guise of his dad! Amongst all the madness and mayhem, probably the sight of this fifty-something 'kid' jumping off a pair of steps on stage and performing somersaults takes some beating! With "Josephine" and "Cheryl" bringing to an end this farce, fun and storytelling, there is still time for a double encore. According to John this is "the secret of a great gig". Thanks to a reappearance of the theremin, "Crazy Horses" is utterly crazy, while "Headbutts" probably gave sound engineer Caz a few worries as the mic took a fearful hammering! It certainly was that kind of evening!

The early arrivals were warmed up by THE INFORMERS. This trio ran through a variety of punk and new wave cover versions. They also used a lot of invention to spice up the well worn classics.