Eurovision Turning Point

70s

thanks to Kay

Ed - the photo discussed in this article has now materialised!

THE QUEEN’s photographer cousin, the Earl of Lichfield, was holding a magnifying glass to his eye and closely examining some colour photos. Peering over his shoulder, I saw these amazing studies of a girl who looked like the freshest hottest starlet to come before a photographer's lens since Blow-Up. The face was tanned and vaguely familiar. The lips, perfectly bowed, were moistly parted, and her blue eyes matched the faded denim shirt she wore unbuttoned almost down to the waist. Her arms were slackly crossed and her clean pink nails each had little white moons.

Olivia Newton-John was standing with her legs slightly apart, stunningly clad in faded denim hotpants. And yes, the sun was catching the breeze fluffing out the shoulder-length blond hair.

Unfortunately the public were denied the full impact of this photo for when it appeared on the cover of the album Music Makes My Day it had been chastely cropped just below her navel. But then the only facet of Olivia that's been heavily promoted in England is the fair impersonation she can give of Cliff Richard, aged 15, in drag.

Whoever’s been responsible for Olivia's image isn't complaining though. She's a star from whatever angle you look at her, and in the UK she became the perfect carbon copy, alter ego for all that finger-snapping, teeth-baring, toe-tapping zeal and fervent energy which had been channelled into the various combinations of Cliff Richard and the Shadows in their heyday.

Olivia slipped into the well-trodden rut of family entertainment and it almost choked her. When she was bundled onto the stage at Brighton to represent Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest, dressed like an Esher matron in her nightdress, anyone who knew what she was really capable of must have done their nut.

There are songs on her Music Makes My Day” album, although not half as deep and heart-tearing as anything Joni Mitchell sings, which catch at you all the same, and it was nothing short of murderous to hear her fine control and phrasing (almost Streisandish in a song like Leaving) buried beneath the devouring chomping noise of Long Love Love.

If you wonder why we have so few talented women singers in the United Kingdom, then you could start by asking who makes the decisions which smother the real personality of an Olivia Newton-John. However, it’s one thing to have a fantasy about an artist and get hot under the collar about her being coerced into doing this or that when the reality might be quite different. Perhaps Olivia has been just as happy with the baby food image of her that we have been served up over here. But now that she is in London to promote her monster American hit, If You Love Me (Let Me Know), I wondered what image I would be allowed to see. Would it be Miss Britain Buttons & Bows or the Earl of Lichﬁeld's L.A. Lady?

Olivia was sitting on a large sofa in the office of her manager, Peter Gormley - not a pretty little~girl-next-door touch in sight. She stretched out those censored legs across the carpet. She wore a yellow T shirt and embroidered jeans, skin-tight and intricately patched.

Do I feel that in England I have to be the nice girl-next-door? Yes, slightly. I feel that’s what people expect of me because up till now that's the image I’ve had. I don't find it a pressure — except if I want to sing a different type of song here. I don’t know what sort of reaction it will get. I like singing country songs and they suit my voice, but I get most pleasure out of doing ballads — I think most singers do actually. In America my image is completely opposite to what it is here. They think of me quite differently as an artist. I’m able to be more myself. I not only have different songs, but I look different too.

As they didn’t know what to expect of me when I did my last concert tour I felt I could go on and just be myself. The first show I did in America I wore jeans and that was exciting enough. And I thought, My God, they still clap and I'm wearing jeans. You suddenly realise in that environment that it's the music they come for, the glamour bit just doesn’t come into it. The audience are just there to hear you.

I started singing when I was fifteen, and from 15 to 25 is a bit of a jump. As I get older I'm finding it more difficult to be what people expect me to be. I feel sometimes that I want to say something about something...

Olivia trails off, looking concerned. You feel you want to say something about what, for instance? Well Eurovision was probably a very difficult time...” and she trails off again, slightly inclining her head towards Hazel, Peter Gormley's assistant, who is sitting at her desk behind us. That's all right, can I say that? Olivia asks. Hazel nods. It was a turning point for me, Olivia continues cautiously, I had to keep shtumm about something. I wasn't happy with the song but I couldn’t say or do anything about it. Honestly, I wouldn’t have chosen that song, but then it wasn't up to me, so I had to keep an open mind about the whole thing. The public chose the song and I did the best I could.

It was down to me what I wore and I was going to wear trousers but the public sent in a lot of votes asking whether, I would wear a dress. So I sort of felt a slight obligation that as I was representing England, and singing the song they wanted, then I may as well dress as they expected me to. Looking back on it that dress could have been a mistake. But whatever I wore wouldn't have saved the song, she says, as if she now has the whole event in perspective, adding: Please be kind about this Eurovision thing, cause I got myself into a lot of hot water after the contest. The press had a terrible go at me saying that my criticisms were sour grapes at not winning. But it wasn’t until after the contest that I could say what I felt.

It's not difficult to emphasise with Olivia's instinctive premonition about the results of the contest and her subsequent frustration at being gagged and propelled towards that charade, but she has come through unscathed, but with a little more sense of her own identity and potential. She is also beginning to feel the effects of her huge popularity in America as both a pop and country artist, which is giving her still more confidence in her own judgment.

Although her first hit single in America wasn't a country song, the DJs in Tennessee, the heart of Country & Western music, liked the sound, and now she’s becoming as big a country queen in the States as Dolly Parton, Skeeter Davis and Dottie West. When I was in Tennessee, she said, I was told that it’s usually impossible to be accepted as a country artist unless you’re born and bred in Nashville. People told me that I should realise how lucky I was.

The country fans are very much more loyal than the pop fans, who'll forget about you if you’re not there. If you have one single and don't have a hit for about a year, they'll still keep buying your albums.

Judging by the 30,000 turnout for the Country Music Festival this year, country music is really starting to get popular here but they still don’t give it enough radio time, and if you want to see it live in this country you have to go to special clubs. Olivia's hoping she'll be allowed to put Eurovision well behind her. Now I'm back with a song I love singing and it's just a matter of waiting to see what people feel about me going back to my own songs. It's taken me a long time to find what direction I want to go in and what I really want to do, but I'm getting more of an idea of what I like best.

But the songs which Olivia likes best are, invariably, the ones she chooses with Peter Gormley and John Farrar, her co-producer with Bruce Welch. I trust John Farrar implicitly. I think you have to have a certain amount of guidance. I have to have some faith in my own judgment in as far as I know what I can sing and what suits me and what doesn't, but if I'd had to pick my own singles I probably wouldn’t’ve had a hit record.

Now that,Olivia has made a conquest of both the pop and country charts in America, and looks ready to show us over here what she's really made of, what would her next step be? Two weeks in Las Vegas, she said, as if she could hardly believe her ears. And that's quite a hurdle. In two records it seems just unbelievable that I’ll be working with Charlie Rich in Las Vegas. I mean, if I sit down and actually think about it I just giggle.

Basically I'm going to be doing the same act that I've been breaking in around America the last two months. I'll be in America until mid-September, then I’m coming back to do a concert tour. It'll be the first time I've ever topped the bill here.