John Waters returns in his critically acclaimed production Looking Through A Glass Onion news.com.ag 20 September 2010 18:25 Written by Amber Forrest-Bisley
John Waters returns in his critically acclaimed production Looking Through A Glass Onion – a homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon – for the first time at the Sydney Opera House from 30 November.
John Lennon would have been 70 years old on October 9 this year and December 8th marks 30 years since he was tragically gunned down outside his New York City apartment.
Just a stone’s throw from where they first performed it at the Tilbury Hotel in 1992, John Waters and musical collaborator Stewart D’Arrietta with band will remount Glass Onion in a very special and intimate production at the Playhouse of the Sydney Opera House.
“Angry, wired and wiry… a powerfully recalled lament.” London Guardian
“A truly compelling performance that successfully delivers all the emotions, atmosphere and idealism to those who lived during that magical era.” The Morning Bulletin
According to Waters Looking Through A Glass Onion rather than being biographical, offers a refreshing experience for audiences who either grew up in the era or young people who can learn much from the philosophy of Lennon.
“His was one of the first voices to come from the world of pop music that was serious and had some intellectual content. He was extremely honest, and had a lot to say about the illusory nature of fame.”
This original production cleverly weaves together Lennon’s introspective, reflective philosophy, humour and observations with his songs (31 to be precise) including, to name just a few, A Day in The Life Strawberry Fields Forever, Revolution, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Working Class Hero, Imagine, and Glass Onion - a song which, Waters says , “reflects on the Beatles past and represents the imagery of somebody looking at a crystal ball – not at the future, but at the past.”
“It is not a tribute show that mimics the legend, neither does it attempt to dissect, interpret or analyse. Perhaps that’s as it should be.” The Age
It’s a show that stirs emotions, rekindles old memories, fuels passions and evokes Lennon’s honest, self critical, bitter-sweet humour, and disdain for pretentiousness and pomposity.
“John Waters encapsulates the essence of Lennon, the band makes Lennon’s music sound fresher than ever and Waters’ uncanny vocals makes it all the more poignant.. it’s a must see.” Leisure Time
QUOTES
“ if you shut your eyes you really can imagine you are listening to Lennon” Telegraph London
“a stirring celebration of genius orchestrated by Waters” Sydney Morning Herald
“Angry, wired and wiry ..a powerfully recalled lament for the more interesting and independent of the Beatles” London Guardian
"a remarkable celebration of a unique talent….Waters does it brilliantly" THE SPECTATOR, LONDON
"John Waters encapsulates the essence of Lennon" CAPITOL RADIO, LONDON
RSVP TO GIGS AND CHECK OUT SOME GREAT VIDEO'S ON THE GLASS ONION FACEBOOK PAGE
OR ON THE OFFICIAL FANSITE PAGE
Looking Through A Glass Onion: 2010/11. Reviews and Tour Dates.
John Lennon play returns to Sydney. ninemsn.com Fri Sep 24 2010 Ross Purdie, National Entertainment Writer
He can put on the accent but John Waters admits he looks nothing like John Lennon as he brings his one-man homage back to Sydney. The English-born actor plays the famous Beatle in his long-running play, Looking Through A Glass Onion, a tribute to the late singer's philosophy, humour and, of course, music.
The show returns to Sydney Opera House for the first time in eight years after it debuted at the nearby Tilbury Hotel.
Waters can sound like a proper Scouse but he has warned fans not to expect any visual resemblance to Liverpool's most famous face. "I'm not saying this is John Lennon on stage, I'm saying this is John Waters channelling him and his music," Waters told AAP. "The songs are timeless and the story it tells of a working class boy breaking through that barrier is always a relevant one."
On top of a nostalgia trip, the show's latest run will commemorate two major milestones in Lennon's history. The singer would have been 70 years old on October 9 and December 8 marks 30 years since he was tragically gunned down outside his New York City apartment. Waters grew up with The Beatles and remembers being stunned waking up to the news of the death in his Sydney home all those years ago.
"It was tragic for me personally but of course too for so many other people around the world," he said."Lennon gave a sense that it was okay to be different when I was growing up. Of course I loved his songs but it went deeper than that."
Looking Through A Glass Onion include songs spanning Lennon's career such as A Day in The Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, Revolution, Imagine and Glass Onion. The play has previously run in London's West End and Waters hopes it will one day reach New York. "John spent many years in New York so that would be the perfect place to take it to next," Waters said.
Looking Through A Glass Onion can be seen at the Sydney Opera House Playhouse from November 30.
John Lennon lives - John Waters imagines ABC ONLINE 7 October, 2010 2:32PM AEDT
Saturday 9 October would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday and someone who has been in and out of the world of the Beatle since 1992 is John Waters.
The day in 1980 when John Lennon was taken from the world, Waters lost someone who was something of an older brother figure "and that was very sad to me."
So, Waters helps to keep the Beatle's legacy alive through his long-running show, Looking through a glass onion.
"Desperation, really," is how Waters honestly appraises the inspiration for his Lennon performance.
A phone call from the Tilbury Hotel led him to expand on an idea he'd had about combining his love of music and acting.
"We journey, as much as I can try and achieve, in to John Lennon's head and explore the times in which he was living," Waters describes.
And, aware of the criticisms that fans may make, he notes, "I was aware of that myself because I would have the same criticism of somebody else doing this kind of thing.
"I thought, 'I'm not going to be a cover band but I'm not going to stray so far from the music you can't recognise it either and I'm not John Lennon so I'm not going to pretend to be him, dress up too look like him or put the glasses on'... it's my interpretation."
Lennon by name and nature Southern Courier 8 Oct 10 @ 04:01pm by By Leesa Smith
They are both named John and were born in England but the similarity doesn’t stop there.
John Waters may not look like John Lennon but he eerily slips into the famous Beatle’s Liverpudlian drawl with no trouble at all.
“It’s channelling I suppose because I’m John Waters standing there on stage but Lennon is sort of coming out of me,” he said. “It’s a weird effect but it works somehow.”
Waters is set to tour for the third time with his critically acclaimed production Looking Through A Glass Onion – a homage to the music, mystery and memory of Lennon, but it will be at the Sydney Opera House for the first time from November 30.
It all started in 1992 at the Tilbury Hotel in Wooloomooloo with musical collaborator Stewart D’Arrietta
“It was an idea I had been toying with about going back to my roots singing with bands and I incorporated what I had learned as an actor over the years,” he said. “The first shows were on a tiny little stage the size of a postage stamp and it was so successful we thought we had to put a band on a bigger stage, so it’s a rock show with words in it – it’s kind of a unique creature.”
Lennon would have been 70 years old on October 9 and December 8 marks 30 years since he was tragically gunned down outside his New York City apartment.
Waters performs an outstanding 31 Lennon songs in the show.
“He was a big influence on me,” he said. “I was in the music scene as a teenager with Beatle as the icons of the business in those days.”
In 1968, Waters took advantage of the ten pound scheme and arrived in Australia with his guitar and a few pounds in his pocket.
He worked on a sheep station before moving to Sydney where he got a job on a film set as a grip before landing the lead in the 1969 musical Hair and he has had a diverse successful career ever since.
The Lennon show has slightly evolved over the years.
“Last time it was a concert style version with a string quartet and this time I feel like putting some of its dramatic punch back in,” he said.
Waters enjoys the mixed audience of baby boomers and the younger generation who are ony just starting to discover Lennon’s music.
“People say they just had trip inside the mind of someone that they only knew peripherally by media reports and by the songs that they heard,” he said. “In some ways that is an illusion because I don’t know anymore than anyone else – it’s just my own version and people will take their own impressions and feelings from the show.”
Looking Through A Glass Onion is on at Sydney Opera Playhouse from Tuesday November 30. To book phone 9250 7777 or visit www.sydneyoperahouse.com
QTIX Publicity:
John Waters returns in his critically acclaimed production Looking Through A Glass Onion - a homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon.
Wednesday 8th December 2010 marks the 30th anniversary since he was tragically gunned down outside his New York City apartment. John Lennon would have been 70 years of age in October 2010.
Glass Onion was created by Waters and D'Arrietta back in January 1992 with a 5 week run in a small cabaret room at the Tilbury Hotel in Sydney's Woolloomooloo as a two man show and was an instant success. Since then, included more musicians it has toured London's West End and a further 2 Sold Out Australian tours.
The show is not a cut-and-paste biography of Lennon or an emulation of the original recordings. On stage, with shadows from the lighting arrangement fluttering over his face as he explores the essence of the man through song and spoken word, Waters becomes synonymous with Lennon. He shies away from imitating the artist, but so emotive is his performance, it lulls the audience into believing anything is possible. It's part concert and part biography though it doesn't seek to tell the full story of Lennon's life. For the audience this is either an emotional trip down memory lane or a wonderful introduction to the life and times of one of the most fascinating icons of our time.
With 31 songs performed including to name a few, A Day in The Life, Strawberry Fields Forever, Revolution, Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds, Working Class Hero, Imagine and more, this is a show for all ages. The music is delivered superbly by The Glass Onion Band that is lead by Stewart D'Arrietta.
www.artshub.com.au By Richard Watts ArtsHub | Wednesday, October 13, 2010
John Lennon would have turned 70 years old on October 9 this year.
Around the world, fans celebrated the birthday of the former Beatle turned solo singer/songwriter and peace activist with music, songs and film screenings. In New York City an estimated 20,000 people gathered in Central Park to watch a free screening of the new American Masters documentary, LENNONYC, which explores Lennon’s life in America from 1971 until his assassination on December 8th 1980. In the UK, a large public ceremony attended by Lennon’s son, Julian, was held in Liverpool, where John was born; and BBC radio aired a series of documentaries about Lennon’s life and music.
Clearly a passion for John Lennon’s music and an interest in the man himself still burns brightly in many people’s hearts.
One such fan is actor and performer John Waters, who first encountered Lennon’s music as a teenager, growing up in England.
“I’ve been doing an impersonation of Lennon’s voice since I was a kid in school, when they first came out, The Beatles,” Waters tells Arts Hub, slipping into a Liverpudlian accent as he does so. “I used to impersonate them because we thought they talked right funny.”
Waters first contemplated staging a one-man show about John Lennon while performing in the musical They’re Playing Our Song in 1980, shortly after Lennon was shot and killed by Mark Chapman.
“I’d been working as an actor for a while, but what I started out as was a singer with bands, and I thought perhaps I should combine the two, and try and tell Lennon’s story in words and music.”
The result was Looking Through A Glass Onion, a homage to the music and memory of John Lennon, which Waters first performed as a monologue with songs – with musical collaborator Stewart D’Arrietta on keyboards to back up Waters’ own guitar playing – at Sydney’s Tilbury Hotel in 1992.
Waters says that first production of Glass Onion – named after a Beatles song of the same name – came about partially from necessity, when the success he had experienced in the 1970s and 1980s through roles in the musicals Hair and Godspell, television programs including Rush and Play School, and the movie Breaker Morant, was on the wane.
“It was actually acted out and put on through necessity, because I didn’t have much else on in my life at that stage. You start looking inward and start fishing for ideas when that happens.”
Today Waters’ profile is once again on the rise, thanks to his role as an aging Lothario in the Network Ten drama series Offspring; success which Waters is happy to capitalize on with a new production of Looking Through A Glass Onion, which opens at the Sydney Opera House in late November. Thereafter, Waters and his old collaborator Stewart D’Arrietta will embark on a national tour in 2011.
Given that so many years have passed since Lennon’s heyday, does Waters have any concerns about attracting an audience to this remounted production?
“There are a couple of iconic images of Lennon peering out at the world through those porthole glasses of his on t-shirts; I was at the Camden Markets in London a few days ago and there was a row of them, and they’re being bought by teenagers. They know he is to be revered, they know he is iconic, but they’re not sure why. And I think what happens when I do this show is they come along and they almost, in a sense, find out a little bit more about the reason why.”
Waters chuckles when asked if he thinks John Lennon would detest the commodification of his image in this way.
“You know, I’m not sure he would. If it’s commodified in the sense that it makes people explore what he said, then I think he’d be saying ‘Well that’s all right’, you know? Because he used his fame to make a billboard out of himself. That’s what he said when he was doing his peace campaign.
“There aren’t many people who could get the world’s press to come and look at them. He invited them all to come and see him in bed with his wife, they didn’t know what was going on … and everyone arrives and they’re sitting in neck to knee nighties drinking cups of tea and talking about peace! Whether you thought it naïve or not, his publicity campaign for peace, as he called it, was something that he used his fame to get off the ground and generate interest in. So I don’t think he worried too much about his fame,” a thoughtful Waters explains.
“He did go to New York to escape the attentions of fame, which ultimately lead to his demise, I suppose. People did leave you alone in New York a lot more. There’s so many famous people in the streets of Manhattan that people walk past and go ‘Oh, that was Paul Newman’ or ‘That was Dustin Hoffman’. But occasionally they will shoot you.”
2010 / 2011 Tour Details
DURATION: 135 minutes (includes 1 x 20min interval)
2010
Tue 30 Nov 2010 to Dec 12, 7 performances now released for presale. VENUE: Sydney Opera Playhouse. BOOKINGS: (02) 9250 7777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com. PRICES: Sat Evening: All tickets $99.
All other $99 / $89 Concession $75 (***** 4 extra shows on sale now)
2011
Thu Jan 6: VENUE: Manning Entertainment Centre, Taree. DATE: Thursday 6 January 2011. BOOKINGS: GTCC PRICE: $65
Fri Jan 7: VENUE: The Glass House, Port Macquarie
Sat Jan 8: VENUE: Twin Towns, Tweed Heads
Sun Jan 9: VENUE: Nambour Civic Theatre, Nambour
Fri Jan 14: VENUE: Regal Theatre, Perth BOOKINGS: Ticketek PRICE: $70
Sat Jan 15: VENUE: Regal Theatre, Perth
Fri Jan 21: VENUE: Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide, BOOKINGS: BASS PRICE: $70
Sat Jan 22: VENUE: Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide
Fri Jan 28: VENUE: QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, PRICE: $70.00* *a $4.95 fee applies per transaction BOOKINGS: QTIX
Sat Jan 29: VENUE: QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane
Fri Feb 4: VENUE: Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre
Sat Feb 5: VENUE: The Playhouse Canberra Theatre
Fri Feb 11: VENUE: Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre
Sat Feb 12: VENUE: Albury Entertainment Centre
Sun Feb 13: VENUE: Griffith Regional Theatre - Auditorium, PRICE: All Tickets $65.00. BOOKINGS: Griffith Regional Theatre Ticketing
Fri Feb 18: VENUE: The Capital, Bendigo
Sat Feb 19: VENUE: Regent Theatre, Melbourne
Sun Feb 20: VENUE: West Gippsland Performing Arts Centre
Fri Feb 25: VENUE: Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat
Sat Feb 26: VENUE: Eastbank Centre, Shepparton
Sun Feb 27: VENUE: Geelong Performing Arts Centre
Interview: John Waters. Marie Claire Magazine November 29, 2010, 10:55 am Anna Tsekouras
In a year which would have seen John Lennon's 70th birthday, as well as the 30th anniversary of his death, John Waters brings back his theatrical masterpiece Looking Through A Glass Onion, showcasing a mix of Lennon's introspective philosophy, humour and observations with his songs. Waters, along with musical director and co-creator, Stewart "Stewy" D'Arrietta tell Anna Tsekouras why they wouldn't necessarily meet John Lennon if they had the chance.
You first performed the show at Sydney's Tilbury Hotel in 1992. What's it like bringing the show back in a year Lennon would have turned 70?
John: It makes me feel like it's a good time for me to be doing his songs because I am still younger than he would have been. It's always quite a special time when we bring the show back, and I guess this is, well, the second time we have brought it back. This will be the third life that the show has had. We first brought it out in 1992–1994, and then we brought it back in 2001–2004 and now, so it's six years since we last did it. My life has changed a bit in the past 10 years and I feel like I will be feeling fresh with this show. I'm not entirely sure I felt that the last time we did it, but I do now.
What has helped you feel fresher this time around?
John: I think a bit of rejuvenation in my life - a change of circumstances. I have young children that have brought colour into my life and I'm looking forward to doing a show that is really personal to me. Initially Stewy and I put it together with a mixture of love and desperation back in 1991 for an opening in 1992.
What made Lennon the most interesting Beatle do you think?
John: He didn't set out to make himself be loved or liked he set out to say what he really thought. A result of that is that a lot of people really liked him for it and a lot of people really loved him for it. Other people found him rude and abrasive, but that's what he was. I think he was troubled and I think being troubled can sow some creative seeds in you, you know. There is a song we use as a theme for the show called "Isolation".
Lennon was born during the WWII to a mother was a bit of a good-time girl, and his father just joined the Merchant Navy and sailed off, so he never really knew him as a child. His mother wasn't able to bring him up, so he was raised by a rather strict aunt. So here is a little boy who hasn't had parental love, really. Today, we would say that this person needs loads and loads of therapy to get over this and that, but that was just his lot in life you know, when you think about it, it's a very severe situation to grow up in. You can sense it in his songs. He has a song called "Mother" where he just screams and cries for his mother. You know that makes him a standout performance artist to me.
Stewy: Yeah that's true that's a powerful tune that "Mother".
John: So yes, he wasn't just a peddler of sweet ditties, he wrote some beautiful tunes and some lyrical lovely tunes, but he wrote some hard-hitting, gut wrenching tunes as well.
You've faced your own personal challenges. Does going through something that is life-changing feed into your professional creativity and make you a better performer?
John: I think it does, if you can get through a tragedy in your life you can...
Stewy: It's good to be born Catholic or Jewish (laughs).
John: Give yourself some hurdles to overcome (laughs).
Stewy: It's more than that. You can get a bit fucked up and it gives you a chance to de-fuck yourself. In those days they didn’t have the ability to de-fuck themselves as well as we have today. It makes therapy not such a terrible thing if you go and see a psychologist about your woes. Which is a fabulous thing to do once a week I think.
Lennon threw his whole life on a map and put it in front of his audience. That was extraordinarily singular of an artist of that time. Everyone's singing, you know, love songs, but this guy's writing songs that are incredibly different to a normal love song in that period, and that's what sad about his life being taken from him at that age - at the ripe age of 40. He was doing some great work.
John: I particularly like his period of song writing after The Beatles split up. I mean I like the songs he wrote with The Beatles, too, but his solo albums never sold to the extent that The Beatles albums sold. They sold well, but they never had that general sort of mainstream acceptance, and I mean he was happy with that, because he never really wanted to be mainstream. As he said, it's a hard thing to balance because you love the money. Mainstream gives you lots of money and you would be lying if you said you hated the money, but then again there's something about your soul, and he stuck to what he wanted to do when The Beatles split up.
Don't they say about musicians that you don't need a huge amount of talent - you just have to have something to say. What do you think?
John: I think today's music is indicative of what you said.
Stewy: (Laughs) Yeah, you don’t need much talent!
You know he was a fashion person, too. Whatever he wore had a look about it. He was cutting edge on all fronts at all times. Like if you remember '68 - it was pretty wild stuff. He'd be wearing a white suit and really long Jesus-like hair and thongs, going out with a Japanese woman, and touring the world [with her], which everyone in the world hated because he’d left his British wife, Cynthia, behind. You know, lying in a bed in Amsterdam for three days with the press coming into your bedroom! Imagine you and your missus there in the cot, talking about world peace (laughs).
John: He said, "This was the only way we could get you to listen because you thought we were all going to have sex in front of you", but they are sitting up in bed neck to knee dressed having a cup of tea, [Lennon said], "I'm here to talk about peace, that's boring for you isn't it?" He got them in there by doing that stuff.
Stewy: She [Yoko Ono] was pretty whacky...
John: Yeah, Yoko is pretty amazing...
What's it like being part of a performance that is timeless, is that the beauty of doing this?
John: It's a gift and a pleasure to be able to do these songs because as a band you don't really put Beatles songs into your stage act. It's just something that people think, "Ooh don't go there," unless you're doing a really big re-working of a Beatles song, you just leave them alone. You leave it to The Beatles tributes bands, which will dress up in Sergeant Pepper clothes and do Beatles songs. Some of them do it quite well, but you know that's just another thing. We have the legitimacy to do these songs because we have concocted a work that requires these songs to be played and sang. So it's great to be able to do them.
When you took it to London's West End you had to deal with backlash and harsh reviews. Did those reviews shape how you will perform it this time around?
John: Not really, the truth is we got a couple of negative reviews in London, but most of our reviews were overwhelmingly positive. The only one that we got that was bad about the show was the very first one that came out in the Evening Standard.
Stewy: Remember that geezer's name? I do!
Waters: Yes I do, too!
Stewy: His name was Nick Curtis. "A bitter slice of Lennon."
John: Was that his heading? Oh yes, right...the "Anglo-Australian" - they accused me of being a deserter and moving to Australia.
Stewy: They accused you of looking like Steven Bourke!
John: The Evening Standard is the only afternoon paper in London, so it hits the stands first. And it has rather a big impact - a nasty impact in our case. The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph a lot of them had a lot of nice things to say about us, but this show has never actually responded to reviews. Overall, we know that we've got something that doesn't require too much messing with. If it ain't broke done fix it.
John, you once said that when you were in London, it would've been great if Paul McCartney had snuck in to one of your shows and had a look. Are you still hopeful of that happening?
John: I'll send him an invitation this time around. "Macca, get your ass over here!" (laughs).
The show runs according to answering unheard questions. What would be your question to John Lennon if you could have one?
John: Look if I ever met John Lennon...
Stewy: Oh I would love to go out with him for a drink...
John: Yeah, but I mean I don't drink anymore.
Stewy: Then we'd have a conversation. You know it's always terrible when you meet your hero and you feel let down. You're better not to meet them, if you've got this feeling about a guy whose got a great talent, whatever the case may be...don't meet him!
Destroys the fantasy?
John: You know the guys who you think are idiots are actually sometimes good company. But I never had a particular desire to meet him, I'd have loved to have met him, but I mean its not like, as Stewy said, it's not something you should have as an ambition - that's a thing for fans do and people who stalk people (laughs).
Stewy: Of course, that's not across the board, but you know what I mean.
Waters: Sadly, there are only two remaining members of The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and I wouldn't expect them to see our show. They would think, "Oh that was interesting, but that was my life I don't want to actually go and see it." I would understand them feeling that way, I wouldn't be disappointed, I'd expect it.
John Lennon has said he didn't believe in magic, but if you had to pick one song you thought was magical, what would it be?
John: A song called "How", it's from the Imagine album. That album is remembered mainly for the song "Imagine", but it has other great songs on it too.
Stewy: But "Imagine", itself too - we hear it so many times, but it's such an extraordinary song.
John: It's amazing in its simplicity, "Imagine" has been criticised for being naïve, but Lennon knew it was naïve, its not like he didn't know. It was naïve when he wrote it. But does that make it not worth imagining and dreaming? It's always worth imaging and dreaming, if we don't pursue the ultimate in beauty and excellence then what is we here for? That's why I love that song.
The performance is entitled Looking Through A Glass Onion. Are there any parts of yourself that you had to strip back?
Stewy: That period of life in your 30s–40s is an interesting part of life. If there's nothing happening to you, then you're a sick dude. Basically I think there is a time in a man and women's life at this stage, where a transition is happening, definitely defining your values, with Lennon before this time he was in LA and California getting seriously wasted.
John: Well prior to having Sean he had this wild year he called his "lost weekend".
Stewy: They had a floor on the Dakota Building it's a massive, massive building and to have one floor!
John: It's beautifully gothic...
Stewy: Gorgeous, gorgeous.
Is there anything else that you've learnt personally about yourselves?
John: Stewy and I have learnt a lot about ourselves.
Stewy: We've been through two marriages.
John: I was looking at some press coverage a few weeks ago, I saw a nasty article about us doing the show again, saying "Waters drags out his cash cow". I would love that journalist to see how much money we lost on our first show. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems, there have been high and lows-its all a big learning experience.
Stewy: Believing in yourself stuff like that.
What's both of yours relationship like?
Stewy: We don't see each other much but when we meet its like yesterday. We have had tough times together but we have a never-give-up philosophy!
John: Stewy has been a very influential person in my life. He was a big part of bringing back the significance of music into my life at a time when I was doing a lot of movies.
Were you destined to play Lennon?
John: Yes, I used to impersonate him at school for a bit of a laugh. I suppose it was sort of pre-destined in some sort of way. As a singer I don't sound exactly like him but I have a similar rock'n'roll voice. I suppose if there is anyone ideally suited to it - it's me!
This performance gives you the opportunities to both act and sing, but what is your first love, acting or music?
John: My first love was doing the British rock scene as an adolescent. Acting came after that, I was fortunate to be in Australia during a renaissance of the film industry in the 1970s. As a performer I like everything that is work, if someone was to say they are going to take one of those things away from me, performing live is not something I want to give up - it's my life blood!
BEST OF...
Best song my iPod:
Stewy: If you'd asked me last night it would have been "An Affair To Remember".
John: Johnny Nash. Right now I'm listening to his best of album. He's an African-American from Texas who sings reggae, my favourite song is "Birds Of A Feather". It's about friendship.
Best lesson learnt the hard way:
John: Don't let other people make decisions for you.
Best review:
John: A recent review from The Canberra Times it was the most glowing review! I want it in on my tombstone! I'm not that egotistical that I've memorised it but it said things like, "You haven't lived until you've seen this performance."
Best piece of advice I've been given:
John: My English teacher said to never dismiss something I've never properly investigated. I've spent my life investigating everything I've ever done. My generation in the 1960s thought no-one over 30 was worth listening to. We found out later that we just weren't in the right generation to have a voice.
Stewy: Let go of your ego, it's good in your 20s but you have to let go of it in your 40s. That's the thing about Lennon, he was starting to let go of his.
John: I had the privilege of working with Harry Neilson, who was friends with Lennon during the "lost weekend" phase of his life. Lennon could handle drugs but not alcohol, he embarrassed himself when he drank - he was a cheap drunk! It's good to find out these things early!
Best childhood memory:
John: Living on Alderney, a rocky outcrop among the Channel Islands. I lived there with my grandparents and it was joyous. My parents separated for two years, which they hid from us, and I lived there with my brother and sister. There was a town crier who used to yell out the news. It wasn't a tourist attraction, it was genuine.
Stewy: Sitting on the lawn with my father when my mother was at church. I didn't have the closest relationship with my father, so I remember that moment strangely - even though I probably wasn't enjoying myself at the time.
Best item in my wardrobe:
Stewy: A Yamaha jacket. I've had it for 20 years.
John: These Mexican boots I’m wearing. I bought them from a Polish man in Chapel Street in Melbourne. I've always worn cowboy boots.
Looking Through A Glass Onion plays at the Sydney Opera Playhouse, from Tuesday 30 November. Visit: www.sydneyoperahouse.com.
Visit www.johnwaters.com.au for national tour dates.
A lifetime of Lennon Wentworth Courier 24 Nov 10 @ 03:55pm by Margaret Rice
AS actor John Waters, 61, stood in front of his children’s cubbyhouse, images of Play School flooded back.
His Heathcliff good looks, both rugged and gentle, have helped give him the range to present Play School for nearly 20 years, play the cruel Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar and appear as the hero in countless musicals and dramas since his first Australian performance in 1969.
On November 30 Waters will reprise his musical tribute to John Lennon, Looking Through A Glass Onion, a tribute Waters co-wrote and performed with friend and musician Stewart D’Arrietta to wide critical acclaim.
The duo first performed the show in 1992 and took it to London in 1995.
Waters said he wants to bring a new generation to John Lennon, not just the baby boomers who know and love him so well, and this time around he wants the show to be slightly different.
“We did it with a string quartet last time which sweetened the sound and gave it a concert vibe,” he said.
“But in the Playhouse we’ll achieve the sort of intimacy which will take it back to its roots.
“I think the message can be highlighted a bit more by me being a bit stiller,” he said.
Lennon would have been 70 on October 9 this year, and December 8 is the 30 year anniversary of his murder.
The Beatle made a big impression on the young Waters who grew up in England before migrating to Australia when he was 20.
“There was a Royal Command performance one year and he was performing for royalty. He told the people in the cheap seats to clap your hands and the rest just to rattle their jewellery.
“It was a bolshie statement made by a cheeky lad from up north but he got away with it,” Waters said.
Looking Through A Glass Onion - starring John Waters as John Lennon, will open at the Playhouse, Sydney Opera House on November 30.
Waters resurrects Lennon tribute. Balmain Village Voice 1 Nov 10 @ 09:13am by Mark Gertskis
Actor, musician and Balmain local John Waters is bringing his tribute to John Lennon back to the stage to mark 30 years since the former Beatle’s tragic death. First performed in 1992, Looking Through A Glass Onion is part concert, part play and part homage that weaves Lennon’s philosophy together with his music. John Waters spoke to Mark Gertskis.
What drew you to writing a musical on John Lennon and the Beatles?
A need to go back to music as a performer and a sense of Lennon as a kind of muse for me, as I’m sure he was for many others.
How much of an influence did the Beatles have on you, musically or personally?
I was 15 years old and an angst-ridden South London schoolboy when the Beatles burst onto the scene with a message that said ‘we’re British, we don’t give a toss about the establishment and we rock like sex on a stick.’ What’s not to be influenced by?!
What to you has been John Lennon’s greatest legacy?
He used music to speak from his heart, when ordinary words failed him. That’s rock.
In what way is this legacy still alive today, 30 years after his death?
Well, the establishment still wages obscene wars and the majority of people, especially the young, still hate it. Yet the voices of dissent are today weirdly muted. We need John Lennon more than ever.
Looking Through A Glass Onion opens on November 30 at the Sydney Opera House
From www.thepublicreviews.com This entry was posted on December 13th, 2010 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Musical, Revue.
Reviewer: David Kary
In ‘Looking Through A Glass Onion’, John Waters puts on his best Liverpuddlian accent, takes centre stage, backed by piano maestro Stewart D’Arrietta and the hot Glass Onion Band, (Paul Berton- guitar, Greg Henson-drums, Tony Mitchell -bass), and charts John Lennon’s story through Lennon’s own words and music.
Over 2 hour plus, Waters covers over 30 Lennon songs, some songs in truncated form, others get the full treatment, and Waters fills in the Lennon story in between songs. As well as banging away at the keys, D’Arrietta does a wonderful job impersonating a variety of characters that Lennon comes across.
This is An Evening with show that genuinely works. Waters’s show, first performed at the Tilbury Hotel in 1992, achieves a vivid portrait of one of rock music’s most iconic figures. The real John Lennon does stand up…above all, and that’s why he was so loved, Lennon was ‘out there’, a straight shooter, calling things the way he saw them, intent on making ‘real life music’. Aided by Waters’s strong delivery, the striking candour, intimacy and intensity of Lennon’s songs shine through. What also comes through strongly is the breadth of his musical legacy and how he successfully straddled so many genres.
A few of my favourite moments from the night…The way the show cuts straight into ‘Sexy Sadie’ after Lennon’s acerbic comments, ‘The Maharishi was just like me, he just wanted to screw as many as women as he could’…Waters’s haunting delivery of one of Lennon’s most painfully honest songs, ‘How can I give love when I don’t know what it is I’m giving? How can I give love when I just don’t know how to give? How can I give love when love is something I ain’t ever had?’
This year, Wednesday 9th December to be exact, marks the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death. For the first time, John Waters has brought his show to the Sydney Opera House, his first stop on a national tour.
A timely and apt tribute to a unique and great artist, ‘Looking Through A Glass Onion’ opened at the Playhouse theatre on Wednesday 1st December and plays until Sunday 12th December 12, 2010. The national tour is scheduled to finish at the Wrest Point Showdown, Hobart on Saturday 9th April, 2011.
Perth Xpress magazine 13Jan2011. JOHN WATERS Everything Flows
The ever-popular John Waters returns with his celebration of the life and music of John Lennon, Looking Through A Glass Onion, at the Regal Theatre this Friday-Saturday, January 14-15. Bookings available through Ticketek.
Not many people have more first-hand experience of the enduring legacy of John Lennon than John Waters.
In 1992 he and musician Stewart D’Arrietta created Looking Through A Glass Onion, a two-man show paying homage to Lennon for a five-week run in a cabaret room at the Tilbury Hotel in Woolloomooloo. By 1994 it had toured theatre venues nationally and went on to a three-week run in London’s West End. It has since toured Australia again in 2000-01 and 2004.
It’s been six years between drinks, but Waters is now enjoying a return to the show, which began its current run six weeks ago at the Sydney Opera House. He clearly has deep respect for Lennon and for the show itself, given that it now has a near-20 year history but its theatrical runs are sporadic.
This is also due in part to the constant demand for Waters’ acting talents. From the time he arrived in Australia from England in the early-‘70s, he has been a constant presence on our screens from Play School to Rush (the ABC-TV’s bushranger show, not 10’s current overwrought cop drama), Homicide to Breaker Morant, All The Rivers Run to All Saints, and a full CV of heater work betwixt and between. He currently features in Network 10’s lovelorn series, Offspring, which films its second series next month.
Waters also has an autobiography due out this year, as well as a new album of original material, Cloudland. As ever, music is never far away and certainly not that of John Lennon’s.
By BOB GORDON
Going into a run of Looking Through A Glass Onion must be quite poignant at the best of times, but given that recent months have marked John Lennon’s 70th birthday and the 30th anniversary of his passing, is it especially so doing it now?
I think there is a bit of a special feeling in the air. There’s an awareness out there in the world of what we lost when we lost John Lennon; it seems to have peaked. So it feels like a good time to be doing a show, to be reliving certain memories.
We’ve had a great reception so far. I’m finding a lot of new people are coming to the show. I get a lot of feedback when we bring the show back - there’s quite a few return people; there’s always new people, of course, but I do think there’s a newer, younger demographic that is really keen on the idea of knowing more about John Lennon, people who are really intrigued by the music and the man behind it.
There are so many things regarding Lennon and The Beatles that allow that discovery, aside from the quality and the timelessness of the music itself. The Love remixes a few years back; the 2009 Beatles remasters; the recent Lennon remasters…
And the release on iTunes of The Beatles’ music…
Indeed. They may be commercially-based gestures, but they are welcome and worthy. Do you notice how these opportunities to discover The Beatles’ music impacts on the show’s audiences?
Certainly. The slow, staggering out of these new things – the remasters and the whole anthology that was reissued in mono and stereo… why the hell anyone would buy them in mono I don’t know, but anyway (laughs). Those boxed sets; I guess the mono ones are for purists. And the timing of the releases on iTunes, that’s all music publishers’ decision-making, but it’s prompted by the constant knowledge-seeking about The Beatles and Lennon; they’re responding to the feelings and trends out there. They have this idea that every few years there’s a new generation of teenagers or 18 year-olds that are intrigued by the music and want to know more. And I find that when I do the show.
So yeah, I think these things are motivated by other things, but it works both ways. It’s a strange phenomenon that The Beatles are always going to be an important part of what makes up contemporary music and people want to know more about it.
Going back to when you first collaborated on the show with Stewart D’Arrietta, I’m not imagining that you were thinking that it would still have legs approaching two decades later?
Oh, no way (laughs).
Has there been a shift in how you approach it or are the core values still the same?
I think the intensity of the show and the integrity of everything that surrounds it remains intact. That’s one of the beautiful things about it. It’s six years since we last performed it and in spite of all the anniversaries and everything, I had a feeling – in my waters, as it were (laughs) – I just knew that I was going to be doing the show again sometime. The guys in the band have all played the show before; luckily we can always reassemble the same musicians. It’s the same crew, same lighting and sound; it’s like a family. We got to the Opera House a couple of weeks ago and all embraced each other and said, ‘it’s great to be back again’. And it is, you know? It genuinely is. I’m very glad to be on the road with the show again.
I’m glad to be going back to the Regal in Subi, too. I mean the Regal is one of the homes that the show has found. It’s one of the venues that broke the show, on the national front. I think when we first did the Regal we had a four-week season of packed out houses. You know people hear about these things, they get to know about it. We’re on more of a whistle-stop tour now, these isolated gigs. We won’t be doing a long stay this time, but it’s good to go back.
Do you think people appreciate the show because it’s not something that you’ve been out flogging every six months… although I guess it would be possible if you had been prepared to compromise?
Yeah, it could probably get a residency in a casino and run non-stop, but that’s not what the show’s about. That would kill it, in my mind. Therefore it would be impossible to do. We have to do it fresh again. We don’t change the show, so we have to be fresh to do it and as I say, there are a significant number of people who may only have been, say, 14, when we last did it and they didn’t want to come and see it, but now they’re 20 and they do want to come and see it. So it’s going to be a new experience for my audience and that makes it new for me.
Is doing the show like catching up with an old friend?
It is. It’s a celebration for us, we all go off and do other things. I mean I do a series for Channel 10 called Offspring and I’ll be shooting that in February-March while I’m doing more gigs with Glass Onion. I’ll be in Melbourne three-quarters of the week and off on weekends doing Glass Onion. I’ll be coming off work and I’ll be fairly knackered, but I’ll be celebrating something that I find very hard to leave forever.
I recall seeing a documentary about Cirque de Soleil’s Love performances where Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison stopped by to see the work-in-progress and were very protective and vocal about what they thought wasn’t appropriate. I believe you gained Yoko’s approval for your show; what was that process like?
Yeah we had dealings with Yoko. The copyright issues were different in those days; it was different in one territory to another. We spoke in London to Yoko through our promoter, Michael White, and found she was very accepting of what we were doing. I think we probably passed muster in terms of being playful and dignified. Her job is to protect John Lennon’s memory and I think she does a very good job of that. Luckily we passed muster on that occasion.
You were in the TV series, All Saints, which was cancelled in 2009 after more than a decade on-air. By 2010 you were working on Offspring, starring in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of The Singing Club as well as working on your soon-to-be released album, Cloudland. You must be well-used to that scenario of one door closing and another opening…
That’s all part of being a jobbing actor. I mean, I’d just been with All Saints for three-and-a-half years of the show, which even that is a long time for me to be doing one show. It’s the longest-running job I’ve ever had, actually. When it finished I just resumed my normal jobbing around activities, which I’ve always done. I’m pretty versatile; I’m involved in all forms of being an entertainer. I do live stage work; I do music and recording; I do guest appearances; I do straight acting in guest roles on film and television. I knew that I had to be versatile, had to be busy in order to survive in this industry and nothing seems to have changed.
Do you enjoy your Offspring role because the character, D’Arcy, is also musical?
Yeah, I like that aspect to it, including the fact that D’Arcy is a musician. We worked out that he probably was in a band years ago that had one record that was #28 on the charts and he was on Countdown once and was interviewed by Molly Meldrum. He never had a full career but music still remains his love even though he’s found out his charm works in real estate.
It’s a good series isn’t it? Kind of like an older Secret Life Of Us…
Yeah, it is. Well John Edwards is the producer of both and he does do a great job with these stories that are about groups of people – in this case the family and the people who surround that family. It’s a great cast and the writing is really responsible and with the concept of seeing what Nina (Asher Keddie) fantasises about; it’s a lot of fun to be involved with. With the character of D’Arcy he’s a very eager, willing, charming, happy man who looks at the positive side of life and I’ve always played rather dark and depressing characters on television before. So I really like the fact that D’Arcy is a departure from that, he’s someone who always puts a positive spin on everything because it makes life easier that way.
That said, the New Year looks busy for you, what’s your philosophy going into it?
(Laughs) To use the words of Bob Dylan, ‘may you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung; and may you stay forever young’.
Peeling back the layers of Lennon. Sally Browne From: Sunday Mail (SA) January 16, 2011 12:01AM
AFTER the recent 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death, John Waters' tribute show takes on a new depth.
PERFORMER JOHN WATERS' SHOW HONOURS JOHN LENNON, WRITES SALLY BROWNE
IF JOHN Lennon were alive now, he would still be making music and would be a big fan of WikiLeaks, according to John Waters.
And Waters should know. The singer and actor is a big fan of Lennon - to the point that he crafted a show in his honour, Looking through a Glass Onion, which he will be performing in Adelaide this month.
"I think he'd be at the cutting edge of political comment," says Waters, "and yet still doing music because that was his main vehicle. I think he'd be thrilled with WikiLeaks."
Lennon's life had a definite impact on Waters. As a young music lover living in swinging London (he was more of a mod than a rocker), Waters was a big admirer of the Beatles.
"I remember hearing John Lennon's vocal on Please Please Me. I just loved it. It was not like the pop singing we'd heard before."
Waters embraced the 1960s lifestyle, becoming a regular hippie, "listening to psychedelic music and smoking pot". When he moved to Australia, he and a bunch of appropriately dressed nobodies - who had the right hair and the right width of flares - became the cast of Hair.
Living in various sharehouses around inner Sydney, the cast used to rock up to work and hit the stage in whatever outfits they were wearing that day.
"We were all the real deal, we weren't theatrical people, taken from music theatre," recalls Waters. "We were street kids who were musicians, singers, and those who were discovered to have talent were put into that show. There were no names in that show at all.
"It was quite a phenomenon really and it was completely feral. It was anarchistic in the extreme and we lived the life."
Waters had a reunion with his fellow Hair cast members last year. And not many of them have continued on in the entertainment industry, he reports, most of them continuing to live the hippie lifestyle in places like Byron Bay. "Making leather belts as hippies do," he says.
Waters continued to have an acting career, appearing in stage musicals, as well as shows like Fireflies and All Saints. It's his present role as dysfunctional dad Darcy in Channel 10's Offspring for which he gets the most attention.
"It's the thing that most people have talked to me about," he says. "Being in All Saints people would say, `Oh, I've seen you in All Saints,' but with this people say, `Oh, I just love it. My Sunday nights I take the phone off the hook, I've got to watch Offspring. It's brilliant'."
Waters will be continuing to shoot episodes of Offspring later in the year after his Glass Onion tour.
Waters first conceived doing a show about Lennon's life in the 1990s and Through a Glass Onion has had several outings since.
When he first performed it in London, he got the seal of approval from Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono.
"The general feedback I got from Yoko was that she felt that we'd done something that was properly respectful," Waters says.
While he does do Lennon's voice on stage, Waters says it is very much him up on stage and it's not a tribute show or biography.
"I suppose it's a bit like channelling," he says.
"John Lennon comes out of me in a sense, and through me and the band, the music and a taste of some of the thoughts and philosophies, it's just grabs and bits and pieces. It's not a story told in any chronological order, it's just a collage of things that go together to give an overall impression of Lennon and the times in which he lived."
With the anniversary of Lennon's death in December last year, his memory has been brought to the fore for many.
For Waters it has an extra personal memory as December 8 - the day Lennon was killed - is also Waters' birthday.
"The news came through on the morning of December the 9th in Sydney, being evening in New York when it took place," he recalls.
"I remember pottering around my house in the late morning, listening to a radio bulletin saying John Lennon has been shot in New York City and I remember thinking, `Oh dear, I hope he's all right'. You don't think dead, you think shot, wounded or something. New York's a dangerous place.
"And then only about 20 minutes later, he's dead, he's been shot dead. I then had to stare into space for God knows how long, thinking `Really, what the f... is going on in this world? How can this happen?' And I'm still left with that feeling when I think about it."
Even now, Lennon's memory triggers things for many people who were affected by his music and his philosophies.
Waters does a meet-and-greet after his shows, and many people tell him that they "have more feelings about John Lennon than they ever knew they did".
For Waters as a performer, Lennon's legacy was as an example of honesty in art.
"To me, for a performer and an artist he set the example of being truthful and not caring about how he came out looking," Waters says. "He did it because he really wanted to get the message across. The message was everything."
- John Waters, Adelaide Festival Centre, January 21-22. Book at BASS.
John Waters is looking at Lennon BY Sally Browne From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) January 16, 2011 12:01AM
IF JOHN Lennon were alive now, he would still be making music and would be a big fan of WikiLeaks, according to John Waters.
And Waters should know. The singer and actor is a big fan of Lennon to the point he has crafted a special show in his honour, Looking Through a Glass Onion, which he will be performing in Brisbane this month.
"I think he'd be at the cutting edge of political comment," says Waters, who made his name with classics such as the film Breaker Morant and the musical Hair.
"I think even more so because he was heading more and more that way, and yet still doing music because that was his main vehicle. I think he would have allied himself to all sorts of causes.
"He'd be speaking out today because there's a move towards a new kind of right wing politics that is worldwide and it's been happening gradually and I think he would have been doing his best to speak out against that. To speak for greater disclosure. "I think he'd be thrilled with WikiLeaks. Because it's hysterical that we have a guy who, make no mistake, is going to be one of the great folk heroes of all time, (and he) happens to be Australian, Julian Assange. "I think the internet has always been potentially a force for freedom of speech and it's proving itself right now. And Lennon would have been just loving that."
Lennon's life had a definite impact on Waters. As a young music lover living in swinging London (he was more of a mod than a rocker), Waters was a big admirer of the Beatles. He remembers the excitement he and fellow fans would feel anticipating every new musical adventure the band had to offer.
"I remember hearing John Lennon's vocal on Please Please Me, which was the second Beatles single. I just loved it. It was not like the pop singing we'd heard before. "They're the biggest band that's ever been or will be. Their later stuff became more sophisticated. I followed everything as did everybody else. As it came out, you waited for the next Beatles recording thinking, 'What are they going to do now? How can they top what they've just done?'."
Waters embraced the 1960s lifestyle, becoming a regular hippie, "listening to psychedelic music and smoking pot".
When he moved to Australia, he and a bunch of appropriately dressed nobodies with the right hair and the right width of flares became the cast of Hair. Living in various sharehouses around inner Sydney, the performers used to rock up to work and hit the stage in whatever outfits they were wearing that day. "We were all the real deal, we weren't theatrical people, taken from music theatre," Waters says. "We were street kids who were musicians and singers, and those who were discovered to have talent were put into that show. There were no names in that show at all. "It was quite a phenomenon really and it was completely feral. It was anarchistic in the extreme and we lived the life."
Waters had a reunion with his fellow Hair cast members last year. And not many of them have continued on in the entertainment industry, he reports, most of them continuing to live the hippie lifestyle in places like Byron Bay. "Making leather belts as hippies do, he says.
While few of his contemporaries continued in the industry, Waters has enjoyed a blossoming acting career, appearing in stage musicals as well as shows like Fireflies and All Saints. It's his current role as dysfunctional dad Darcy in Channel 10's Offspring for which he gets the most attention.
"It's the thing that most people have talked to me about. Being in All Saints people would say, 'Oh, I've seen you in All Saints', but with this people say," he says with emphasis, " 'Oh, I just love it'. "My Sunday nights I take the phone off the hook I've got to watch Offspring. Its brilliant."
Waters will be continuing to shoot episodes of Offspring later in the year after his Glass Onion tour.
Waters first conceived doing a show about Lennon's life in the 1990s, and Through a Glass Onion has had a number of outings since. When he first performed it in London, he got the seal of approval from none other than Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. "The general feedback I got from Yoko was that she felt that we'd done something that was properly respectful," he says.
While he does do Lennon's voice on stage, Waters says it is very much him up on stage and it's not a tribute show or biography. "I suppose it's a bit like channelling," he says. John Lennon comes out of me in a sense, and through me and the band, the music and a taste of some of the thoughts and philosophies, its just grabs and bits and pieces. "It's not a story told in any chronological order, it's just a collage of things that go together to give an overall impression of Lennon and the times in which he lived."
While the show generally attracts a baby boomer audience, Waters is keen to reveal aspects of the man to a generation who may only know surface details of Lennons life, or indeed were born after his death.
With the anniversary of Lennon's death in December last year, his memory has been brought to the fore for many. For Waters it has an extra personal memory as December 8 the day Lennon was killed is also his birthday. "The news came through on the morning of December the 9th in Sydney, being evening in New York when it took place, he recalls. "I remember pottering around my house in the late morning, listening to a radio bulletin saying John Lennon has been shot in New York City and I remember thinking, 'Oh dear, I hope he's all right'. You don't think dead, you think shot, wounded or something. New York's a dangerous place."And then only about 20 minutes later, he's dead, he's been shot dead. I then had to stare into space for God knows how long, thinking, 'Really, what the f*** is going on in this world? How can this happen?' And I'm still left with that feeling when I think about it."
Even now, Lennon's memory triggers things for many people who were affected by his music and his philosophies.
Waters does a meet-and-greet after his shows, and many people tell him that they "have more feelings about John Lennon than they ever knew they did.
For Waters, Lennon's legacy is an example of truth in art. "To me, for a performer and an artist, he set the example of being truthful and not caring about he came out looking," he says. "If people were going to think of him as an eccentric lunatic or a loser because of his peace campaigns and lying in bed. Hed do anything to draw attention to a message. "Then hed do it without any fear of how it would reflect on him personally. He did it because he really wanted to get the message across. The message was everything."
And, after his long career, Waters is year will this year be releasing his first album of original material.
Called Cloudland, after the iconic Brisbane venue, it will be officially released in August, though will be for sale at his Glass Onion shows. When Waters first arrived in Australia as a 20-year-old working on stations in the Outback, he got a job delivering fruit and vegetables to various restaurants around Brisbane. One of their customers was the Cloudland ballroom. "I remember going to Cloudland - you could see it from below, it was all sort of lit up and powder blue - it was an amazing looking place. "I remember going with these crates of fruit and vegetables and seeing kids arriving for a dance," he says, " and the girls were dressed in hooped petticoats and they had long white gloves. "It was very exotic, it looked like a debs ball or something. "I remember thinking I wish I was there meeting those chicks and not just being the guy delivering the fruit and vegetables."
The title song named after the venue is a work of fiction he says, but is inspired by the time in a young person's life when they go to their school formal or debutante's ball. "It's the last thing they do before they enter the world of adulthood and children and mortgages just have a big party with dancing and turn the rock 'n' roll up loud."
Cloudland is released in August.
John Waters performs Through a Glass Onion at QPAC, Brisbane, January 29. Tickets: www.qtix.com.au or 136 246.
Waters knows his onions. BY Helene Sobolewski and Antimo Iannella. From: The Advertiser January 15, 2011 12:00AM
IT'S as simple as flicking a switch for versatile leading man John Waters.
Now touring with his critically acclaimed homage to John Lennon, Looking Through a Glass Onion, he's about to reprise his role as Darcy Proudman on hit Channel 10 series Offspring.
"I'm touring on the weekend and during the week I'm in Melbourne shooting the second series (of Offspring )," John says.
"I just have to have a little switch in my mind that goes from one to the other and constantly go back and forth." John first performed Glass Onion 18 years ago and the combination of powerful, introspective monologue and Lennon's classic songs continues to draw audiences of all generations. "His music is just timeless," John says.
"Baby boomers always come to the shows and now their children and even their grandchildren are attending.
"It's a different experience every time ... when you're a performer, you live and breathe it every night with a different set of people." An accomplished performer on the stage and screen, John has recently released his first solo album, Cloudland.
"It's a great thing for me to finally have my own album. I've been on everyone else's album in the past," John says.
Looking Through a Glass Onion is at the Adelaide Festival Centre next Friday and Saturday.
John Waters revisits music of John Lennon in Looking Through a Glass Onion. BY Suzanna Clarke From: The Courier-Mail January 21, 2011 2:55PM
AT THE age of 20, Australian actor and musician John Waters spent four formative months in Brisbane.
As well as singing folk songs in coffee shops, he delivered fruit and vegetables to make ends meet. Among his customers was a place that captured his imagination - Cloudland. "It was a beautiful, powder-blue structure perched on top of a hill and it was flood-lit," he says from his Sydney home. "I saw teenagers going into a debutante's ball and I wanted to be one of them." He recalls pretty girls with long white gloves, young men in tuxedos and Cadillac de Villes with white wall tires. The image of this "palace of dreams" was the inspiration behind his album of original material, Cloudland, which will be released shortly.
Waters may be better known for acting in TV shows such as All Saints and Offspring, and film roles such as Breaker Morant, but music is his first love.
Since 1991, he has been refining a show Looking Through a Glass Onion, inspired by the music, mystery and memories of John Lennon. Waters returns to Brisbane on January 29 to perform the show at QPAC.
Waters developed an affection for Lennon later in life. When he was growing up in swinging London, "the Beatles were a famous band at the time, but no more than that".
"As a teenager, I had played in a band in London (The Riots) and I was more into the Blues." It wasn't until 10 years after Lennon's death "that I realised how much I missed him", he says.
"Of all the Beatles, Lennon was the most wickedly, satirically funny. He had this slightly bent attitude that came out in his lyric writing . . . Many people had come to ridicule him, and his activities with Yoko, but I wasn't one of them. He wanted to talk about peace and he had his own way of doing that."
Rather than being a tribute show, in Looking Through a Glass Onion, Waters has chosen his favourite songs from the Beatles catalogue, such as A Day in The Life, Strawberry Fields Forever and Revolution, and crafted them into a series of impressions evoking the spirit of Lennon.
"One of the most important things he did for us as performer is to have honesty in your professional career. He worked on himself in public - he screamed about the loss of his mother in a song; espoused his love for his unconventional lover, and talked about cheating on his wife. He was startlingly unconventional, which made him a performer whose work would resound for generations to come.
"With the song Isolation, it is about being in a sphere of our own the way two-year-olds are the centre of their own universe. In a way we never escape that. I think it was something Lennon felt very deeply."
From an early age, Waters was determined to forge his own path. Born in 1948, he was the middle of five children of Scottish character actor, Russell Waters.
"He enthused us with a sense of egalitarianism and he detested bigotry," Waters says.
In 1969, Waters emigrated to Queensland as a "ten pound Pom". He had the name of a manager of outback properties scrawled on a piece of paper, courtesy of his Uncle Tom, who had been a bookkeeper for the man. "Three weeks after I left snowy London, I stepped out of a train in Longreach and it was 40C," says Waters. "It was an incredible culture shock." He tried working as a station hand, but found shooting bogged sheep too difficult. "I couldn't really do it, so I drove around pretending I couldn't find any sheep." Instead he headed for Brisbane and later Sydney. "Then I gatecrashed my way into a movie (Adam's Woman) being made on the south coast of NSW." The actor Philip Lacock had worked with Water's father in 1950s, and offered Waters a job as a gopher on set.
"Through that I met the actors. We hung out and sang songs around the campfire." Actor Helen Morse told him producer Jim Sharman was holding auditions for the musical Hair, so he tried out for it.
"I had no acting training, and getting into Hair was my first experience of being on a stage and talking. "I was given role of Claude, after first guy who played it couldn't do eight shows a week. It was a genuinely anarchistic experience . . . We weren't pretending to be stoned we took a lot of pot and LSD and lived the life."
After working on the show for two years, Waters returned to England along with his wife and young child. "I landed back in southwest London, thinking what the hell am I doing here? I found myself rather depressed and after six months, felt compelled to fight my way back to Australia."
When he returned, Waters did "esoteric musical" Lassiter, by Reg Livermore, with Old Tote theatre company. A succession of roles followed including Judas in Godspell, the movies End Play and Breaker Morant as well as lots of television work in Homicide, Division 4, Matlock Police and Certain Women.
One of his most memorable roles was as the lead in the ABC series Rush. "It was fantastic . . . There I was riding a horse and drinking; a moody, rebellious kind of guy. There is something in me that makes me good at playing those roles."
Yet Waters was also one of the longest-running presenters on the ABC's Playschool.
"I remember being with a girlfriend in Brisbane, walking along the street, when a five-year-old boy shot his (toy) gun at me," he says. Waters staggered and collapsed, to the horror of passers-by. "I spontaneously react to the imagination of children I like to inhabit that world. Being a performer is finding the child within you. After all, we are playing a highly structured game."
In 1988, Waters won an AFI award for best actor for Boulevard of Broken Dreams. More recently, it's his role in Channel 10's Offspring that has drawn attention.
Despite his love of acting, "I wanted to go back to my roots as someone who played and sang in bands and Looking Through a Glass Onion was an ideal vehicle," he says. "The idea was that I would never dress up, or directly play John Lennon. I wanted to be palpably me, no costume orround glasses, but to give a sense of John Lennon."
Judging from the reaction of critics, Waters succeeds admirably.
"Recently there were two 16-year-olds in the audience, who knew all the lyrics to I am the Walrus. Not only is it not their parents' generation's music, it is probably their grandparents'. They were absolutely thirsty for knowledge, so hopefully I filled in a few gaps."
John Waters in Looking Through a Glass Onion, January 29, Queensland Performing Arts Centre. www.qpac.com.au or 136 246 to book.
ARTICLES, REVIEWS & RADIO INTERVIEW LINKS
2011 Tour Details
DURATION: 135 minutes (includes 1 x 20min interval)
Fri 4th Mar Mounties, Mt Pritchard www.mounties.com.au, Ph: 9822 3566, $45, 8pm
Sat 5th Mar Cronulla Sharks Leagues Club www.sharkies.com.au, Ph: 9523 0222, $45, 8pm
Fri 11th Mar Penrith Panthers www.penrith.panthers.com.au Ph: 02 4720 5555, $45, 8pm
Fri 18th Mar South Sydney Juniors www.thejuniors.com.au, Ph: 9349 7555, $45, 8pm
Sat 19th Mar North Sydney Leagues www.norths.com.au, Ph: 9245 3000, $45, 8pm
Fri 25th Mar Campbelltown RSL www.campbelltownrsl.com.au, Ph: 02 4625 1408, $45, 8pm
Sat 26th Mar Castle Hill RSL www.castlehillrsl.com.au, Ph: 8858 4800
Fri 1st Apr Canberra Southern Cross Club www.cscc.com.au, Ph: 02 6283 7288, $45, 8pm
Sat 2nd Apr Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre, www.shoalhavenentertainment.com.au , 1300 788 503
Fri 8th Apr Launceston Country Club, www.countryclubtasmania.com.au, 1300 795 257
Sat 9th Apr Wrestpoint Showroom, Hobart, www.wrestpoint.com.au, 1300 795 257
Thu 1st Sep Cairns Civic Theatre www.ticketlink.com.au , 1300 855 835, $65, 8pm
Fri 2nd Sep Townsville Civic Theatre 07 4727 9797, $65, 8pm
Sat 3rd Sep Mackay Theatre
Thu 22nd Sep Brolga Theatre, Maryborough www.brolgatheatre.org, 07 4122 6060, $65, 8pm
Fri 23rd Sep Moncrieff Theatre, Bundaberg www.bundaberg.qld.gov.au, 07 4130 4100, $65, 8pm
Thu 6 Oct Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre www.bunburyentertainment.com, $65, 8pm
Fri 7 Oct Mandurah Performing Arts Centre www.manpac.com.au / 08 9550 3900, $65, 8pm
Sat 8 Oct The Astor Theatre, Perth www.BOCSticketing.com.au, $70, 8pm
Fri 14 Oct Newcastle Civic Theatre www.ticketek.com.au / 132 849, $65, 8pm
Sat 15 Oct WIN Entertainment Centre Wollongong (02) 4220 2800 www.ticketek.com.au 132 849, $65, 8pm
Fri 21st Oct Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide www.bass.net.au / 131 246, $70, 8pm
Fri 4 Nov Griffith Regional Theatre www.griffith.nsw.gov.au, Ph: 02 6962 8444, $65, 8pm
Fri 25 Nov QPAC, Concert Hall www.qpac.com.au, 136 246 $70, 8pm
Sat 26th Nov Twin Towns, Tweed Heads www.twintowns.com.au, Ph: 1800 014 014, $65, 8pm
http://www.beat.com.au/ John Waters : Looking Through A Glass Onion
When I think tribute band, I think 50-something-year-old geezers with beer and nostalgia pulsing through their varicose veins, trying to experience some illusive sense of glamour that their now washed-up idols would have had in days gone by. The irony is lost on them as they plug along to an audience of boozy, swaying punters at the local RSL.
So how is Looking Through a Glass Onion, John Waters’ tribute show to John Lennon, any different? Besides costing $70 to see and being performed at reputable venues such as the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, it’s a dignified representation of one of the most revered musicians of the past century.
“I was trying very much to shy away from the Elvis Impersonator kind of vibe,” says Waters as his latte sits on the table of a restaurant in Melbourne’s swanky Langham hotel. “This isn’t John Lennon up there, it’s John waters. I don’t dress up to look like him or anything.”
He talks fondly and carefully about the revolutionary rock legend and it’s quickly evident that Lennon’s image is in safe hands. It has to be, otherwise the show wouldn’t have been given Yoko Ono’s seal of approval.
It was twelve years after Lennon’s death in 1992 that Waters conceived of the show with musician Stewart D’Arrietta. The name, a lyric from a song off the influential White Album, is a “sort of retrospective on the whole Beatles era. I’ve been berated by a few promoters for the title being rather obscure, but I didn’t think it was,” he laughs. “Don’t you know the double White Album for God’s sake?”
Since its inception, the one-man (and band) production has toured on the 20th anniversary of Lennon’s death and is now filling up the theatres yet again with Adelaide and Canberra shows sold out and others heading in a similar direction. “Our first audience is obviously baby boomers in general because they’re the people who kind of lived through the actual time, but the music itself just keeps going and spreads to all the subsequent generations.
It’s just a concert of songs with a little bit of extra that helps you maybe understand the background of the songs, because the songs themselves are a text of Lennon’s life.”
The “extra” comes as a monologue “which is kind of interwoven within the songs.” Which begs the question – how authentic is the monologue? Does it consist of Lennon’s actual words? “Not really. I take a cue from some of the things John Lennon has actually said. Maybe like one line or something as a quote of his and I expand on it as if it was him talking.”
The monologue is presented in a brilliant Liverpudlian accent, which can’t be too difficult for Waters as he spent his formative years in London where he played bass in a rock ‘n’ roll band called The Riots. So why not a show about fellow bass player Paul McCartney? “I think Paul McCartney is a fantastic musician and songwriter and is an equally important part of that era of music as Lennon really, but when you think about the MAN, he [Lennon] is more interesting. It’s a no-brainer.
“Lennon had a lot of grit in his voice, which I liked. White guys can sometimes try too hard to sound black but white people have soul of their own anyway. When they just do it naturally, it comes out like John Lennon.”
Unlike the aforementioned geezers, Waters doesn’t need to draw on the fame of John Lennon for a counterfeit sense of self worth. We already know and love the guy – from his 1988 AFI Best Actor performance in Boulevard of Broken Dreams to his more recent roles in TV’s All Saints and Offspring.
“I just love the fact that I was able to come up with something that enabled me to go back to my roots as a singer with bands and to add to that something that I learned over the intervening years about being an actor, being on a stage and communicating with the audience. So I sorta put all these elements together in a show.”
After meeting with Waters, I think it’s safe to say that Lennon is not turning in his 30-year-old grave.
* Looking Through A Glass Onion will be performed at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on February 19. Waters is chucking in a few country shows as well and as mentioned before, tickets are fast disappearing so get in there quick! Tickets through ticketek, or check out johnwaters.com.au for more info.
John Lennon tribute show set for Melbourne's Regent Theatre. Arts & Entertainment 5 Feb 11 @ 08:00am by Damien Ractliffe http://melbourne-leader.whereilive.com.au
MUSICIAN and actor John Waters pays homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon in the latest production of his show Looking Through A Glass Onion, to take the stage at the Regent Theatre on February19.
Performances began in Sydney in November, during a year in which Lennon would have turned 70, and 30 years since his assassination.
Waters originally performed the production in Wollongong in the early 1990s, completing a dream he always had, which was his “appalling fascination to do a one-man show”.
The show toured Australia in the early to mid ‘90s, as well as Europe and America, and was put on ice in 1994.
In the early 2000s, with the release of a new Beatles album, the fire rekindled and Waters brought the show back with a bigger band.
It toured from 2001 until 2004, but with requests to again hear the beautiful music of one of Britain’s greats, Waters is back to enthrall audiences across Australia.
“It’s six years on from the last tour, but I always knew it was going to come back,” Waters said.
“With the 30-year anniversary of his death, there were people asking for it.
“I feel very refreshed.”
It was in an interview in 1983 with TV Week’s Garry Shelley, that Waters was asked “Is there anything else John Waters would like to do in the future which might show us another facet of his diversity?”
At the time, Waters was in his 12th season on Play School, had played the role of Sgt McKellar in the ABC TV series Rush, and had starred in numerous films including the 1981 movie Attack Force Z alongside Mel Gibson, John Phillip Law and Sam Neill.
Asked the same question these days, Waters is not short on goals.
“I’d love to do a tour of my own material,” he said.
“I have an album that hasn’t received a launch yet, called Cloudland. It would be a big thrill to tour with material from my own album.”
Waters is recording for the second series of Channel 10’s Offspring, which was a huge hit in 2010.
He said it always had a good vibe.
“I knew it was going to be a good series when I read the script, but you’re never really sure,” he said.
This tour of Looking Through A Glass Onion takes Waters on over 30 shows around the country, but just one in Melbourne’s CBD.
Waters encourages music lovers to experience the unique show.
“Come and see the show and let it affect you on a number of different levels,” Waters said.
“It’s a kick-ass band, but the show might get you sentimental about John Lennon. You’ll definitely learn a bit more about Lennon than you think you know.”
>>Looking Through a Glass Onion will be at the Regent Theatre, 191 Collins St, Melbourne on Saturday, February 19, at 8pm. Tickets: ticketmaster.com.au
