Olivia at the Rainbow London, strange concert review
Olivia Newton-John, Rainbow
By Paul Morley
Olivia Newton-John’s last night of an eight-week trundle through Japan, Australia and Europe was pretty poor.
I felt sorry for her. On this occasion she had the presence and wit of an obscure, badly-placed obscure, performer from a 1971 Opportunity Knocks. It was pretty pitiful. Pretty uneventful. Pretty vacant.
Her climb to superstardom has not been kind to her. She is just not equipped to cope with live performance, although at the moment no-one notices. One day, they will, these drunks and football fans, jealous of Travolta and the boys in her band, these padded suburbanites appreciative of the colour in Livvy’s cheek and scornful of the state of the Rainbow. They’ll notice her limited stage choreography, her terrible linking, her overscrubbed artificial look of perfection and polish.
She is just not real enough. It’s difficult to go on. I’m an old fan.
Her seven-piece band plus three girl back up singers were spread over a triple-layered, covered stage construction that looked like a particularly severe crazy golf course. These people played their instruments and sang.
Livvy (a female Val Doonican) skipped, smiled, shuffled, giggled nervously, chattering about water, age, moms and dads. We all had to clap for Cliff ‘cos he gave Livvy her first break.
Conspiracy conspiracy, choke.
Livvy’s set was predominantly soapy COW tunes - she sang and looked like a dehydrated, deflated Dolly Parton with a bare ballad or two and a threat of raunch. For the greasy tune Labi Siffre played Travolta (at least it wasn’t Cliff) - twice they ran through “You’re The One That I Want” and the first time round was by default a highlight.
Other “highspots” were a surprising version of “Jolene” where Livvy actually let herself go, and a boppy “If Not For You” which I actually bought an Pye blue label, when Livvy was not far right of Lesley Duncan and Clair Hammill.
It was pretty unamazing. The best thing that happened to me all night was that I got rid of a nasty pimple on the side of my nose.
More from Olivia’s 1978 European tour.