John Otway
The Books
Otway has written two autobiographies and also published a book containing all his lyrics.
Cor Baby That's Really Me (1990)
There was a time when John Otway looked forward to platinum albums, stadium gigs, and a squad of bodyguards to see him safely aboard his private jet. Unfortunately it didn't happen that way. A series of dreadful career decisions, financial blunders and bad records left Otway down but not out. This is his true story in his own words. It is the story of a man who has never repaid a record company advance in his life, once put on a benefit concert for his record company after they had cancelled his contract, and signed himself to the mighty Warner Bros label simply by pressing his own records with the WB logo. This book is Otway's hilarious yet moving account of his insane assault on the music industry, a tale of blind ambition and rank incompetence, and a salutary lesson for aspiring musicians on how not to achieve greatness.
Subtitled Rock & Roll's Greatest Failure, this autobiography was originally published by Cherry Red Records. A new edition was published in 2010 by Karen Lawrence Glass.
I Did It Otway: Regrets I've Had A Few (2010)
The second installment of Rock & Roll's Greatest Failure, published by Karen Lawrence Glass in 2010.
After a stunning One-Hit career filled with chaos and disasters of his own making, John Otway sold himself to the nation as Rock and Roll s Greatest Failure. It was a successful campaign because John was very good at doing this.
But Otway had a plan to make a come-back as Rock and Roll s Greatest Success.
He started off well …
He filled The Royal Albert Hall on the proceeds of his own jumble sale. He was voted a better writer than either Bob Dylan or Paul Simon in a nationwide BBC poll, becoming the nation's 7th favourite lyricist in the past two thousand years. He got his fans to give him a Top Ten Hit for his 50th Birthday. He recorded the B-side at The Abbey Road Studios with a thousand piece choir of hecklers, and…
He was the only artist ever to rise from the 'Where are they now?' line-up of has-beens to the panel of current celebrities on TV's Never Mind The Buzzcocks.
But it was not to last. The success went to his head and Otway embarked on a project he hoped would put his name indelibly into the pages of rock and roll history. He would get his own OT-AIR 747 jet and circumnavigate the globe with 300 fans, playing at venues including The Royal Albert Hall, The Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. Sadly for Otway this book tells another story of failure and it isn't funny it's hilarious!
Deep & Meaningless: The Complete Lyrics Of John Otway (1996)
Every single lyric that Otway has ever written in one handy book. First published in 1996 by The Do-Not Press. An updated edition to include his second hit and also his latest album Montserrat was published by Karen Lawrence Glass in 2019.