Olivia Newton-John. Yay or Nay?

I gotta say taking more time off is agreeing with her! She had worked so hard for so long it does my heart good to see her take time for herself. It's a shame she had to essentially make a "proof of life" video to quiet down the latest rumours but she is looking great.

It would have been funny If she sang a few lines from "The Rumour" in this video, but given she probably hasn't had to sing it in decades,she probably doesn't remember the words!

 

So nice that she can see the humour in it. Happy to hear she is OK.

 

He's right, it is hilarious. And that comment was his way to protect Olivia. He's putting them down. Dead? That's hilarious. It's just another way of saying it's ridiculous.
Granted, if they keep up with the stories, sadly, at some point they'll be right.

 

This woman has more grace and grit in her pinky finger than most of us have all over.

 

Right. He's not being insulting to Olivia. Hes insulting the tabloids.

In fact, knowing what we know about her sense of humor, I can imagine her trademark "dirty laugh" when she first heard the Australian media had her already dead.

As for your last comment, well as the old saying goes, a broken clock eventually is right. Hopefully that won't be for years.

 

Mmm, well you speak for yourself. Many people even on these forums will tell you that I am grace personified.....

 

Well, I did say most, which leaves room for your personification of grace!

 

A pro-shot concert from the Greek Theatre in September 2004 has surfaced on YouTube. There's a couple of rare performances in here, like 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' and 'Alfie' along with the medley of 'The Rumour', 'Heart Attack', 'Make A Move On Me' and 'Twist Of Fate'. This tour marked the first instance she had sung 'Heart Attack' since 1982 and the first concert performance of 'The Rumour' ever - note that she flubs the lyrics and invents brand new ones!




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This concert is fantastic!

ETA: Those Rumour lyrics might be the closest ONJ ever got to freestyling.

 

What a find! Thanks for sharing. Great set list with a few rarities. Her voice is in top form and she's absolutely ravishing here.

 

It looks like it is the footage from the screens at the venue, especially as it moves between what would have been projected on them as part of the show (the opening montage, the footage for 'Don't Cut Me Down', little 'Grease' and 'Xanadu' snippets) and the camera being focused on Olivia. I think the company that has uploaded it must have worked for the Greek Theatre as all their other footage appears to have come from there too. We are lucky to have some of Olivia's 2000s tours captured on film already, so it's especially nice that this one comes from an iteration of her live act that hasn't been documented elsewhere.

There's a moment around the 1 hour 4 minute mark where Olivia's voice gives out on her during 'Twist Of Fate'. Her humble response at the end of the song and then carrying on is indicative of why she is so loved - a total professional.


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Olivia’s absence from the public eye in the last few months is explained in the footnote of her revised Don’t Stop Believin’ memoir. She was suffering from a fractured pelvis. Something she wasn’t aware of when she tried to do the Wellness Walk in September! She was in so much pain she had to ride out the walk on a golf cart. She could barely move when she tried to film her cameo in the Paul Hogan movie and it was just after this the fracture was diagnosed. She didn’t say how she got the fracture but admitted her bones have become weak since her cancer metastasis.

She spent several weeks in bed after this. Unable to do much for herself. She used a walker when she was able to stand and had physio and more radiotherapy.

Typically Olivia, she manages to turn this monstrous happening into something positive and humorous. I hope she’s on the mend now.

 

Wow. She must have had some really great pain meds to be able to function at all with an undiagnosed pelvic fracture -- especially to be able to show up to a Wellness Walk! At least she's gotten herself treatment for it and seems to be in good spirits about it.

 

Yes, she’s pretty open about it too. I really enjoyed her book. For someone so guarded as Olivia there are a few surprises in there.

 

Oh my gosh. That also means she had the fractured pelvis when she did the interview back in September! You wouldn't have known there was anything further wrong with her.

That does explain a few things. Why the Ray Martin sit down stage interviews were cancelled back In August and the recent rumors her cancer had gotten worse. I imagine Olivia herself didn't know for sure what was going on and kept things quiet until she healed.

According to People magazine last week she was gearing up for a book tour in March here in the USA. Hopefully she is up to it and isn't pushing herself.

Say one will about Olivia's music or acting ( which of course aren't to everyone's tastes) but there is no denying she is one tough lady. Me

Edit: I just did a Google search but found no new headline or story. Where did you find this @Bobby Morrow ?

 

She’s certainly still a very beautiful woman, imo. I’ve never heard any of her albums, but I am fond of a lot of her singles. I remember when Cliff Richard had his TV show she was a regular guest, and I fell in love with her then . Seems like a genuinely lovely person, and I really hope she gets through this dark time and beats the big C

 

It’s a strange one..

Someone on Instagram tipped me off about the story saying it was from the afterword in the revised edition of her book. It was available to read on the product page on Amazon US (one of those ‘read it now’ things). A fair bit of the book was there to be sampled, including, oddly, the whole afterword part! This has since been taken down. There was also a new video interview with Olivia uploaded somewhere (which I didn’t see) that was also taken down.

Perhaps the reason for the above is because Olivia plans to make this story part of her book tour in March and doesn’t want it ‘leaking’ before then? Luckily with the press being crap and still unable to get her cancer diagnoses in the right order this is unlikely to happen.

 

You remember the Cliff shows?

You must be terribly old.

 

Watch it ! Junior.

 

I discovered her through the HBO concert. My sister had the two GH tapes, too. It was then a slow discovery process. We used to rent the Twist of Fate VHS all the time, but beyond that, it was just the hits collections and the HBO show. I remember being very, very surprised that there was a chunk of the second verse of Deeper Than the Night that I’d never heard before once I finally got the Totally Hot album.

 

I can vaguely remember them. My parents used to watch the shows and sometimes I was allowed to stay up and watch as well as they were so wholesome and family friendly

 

I'm gobsmacked - her temerity and determination continues to astound me! Olivia appeared in pain by the end of the Wellness Walk that day in September, but remained gracious and happy to speak to everyone. I can't imagine what she was feeling. That 'show must go on' mentality that she has referred to a few times in recent years seems to be stronger now than ever.

How can anyone not love this woman?!


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She did mention that she (understandably!) wouldn’t be touring again. Also making reference to her hopes to ride horses and play tennis one day, added that she’d now settle for table tennis and miniature horses.

 

It's really amazing that for someone that didn't like touring and performing live during the peak of her career she spent the vast majority of the past 20 years doing some level of touring or long stretches of performing live with only a few months of breaks in between, and usually only because of urgent personal stuff. She's long earned a rest.

I'm no doctor or cancer expert by any means but I still wonder if her constant drive record/tour/perform in the last decade have something to do with her reoccurrence so long after being in remission. From around the time of the Sorrid Lives series up until her 2017 health issues she seemed to be constantly working to some degree.

I do wonder that if Olivia's health improves or further stablizes if she will ever perform again in some fashion? She's said recently as this past year that she enjoys performing for audiences immensely and that singing was her soul. With technology being what it is now she really doesn't need to tour or even leave one place. She did say over the summer she thinks she has one more "rah rah" in her. I could see her do a short term residency either back in Vegas or even a venue closer to home, or even a one off "farewell" concert engagement either here or a venue like the Sydney Opera House that could be livestreamed for donations to her centre.

I personally hope that if indeed her touring and performing career is ending that she will eventually do something with her back catalogue. With the vinyl revival in full swing and the fact her classic albums haven't had a remastering or proper physical or digital release in over a decade,its due for an overhaul. I know the rights and things are a bit unclear ( I've heard conflicting accounts that Olivia owns most of her masters dating back to the early 70s or that she only owns her post Physical era stuff and the rest is tied up elsewhere) but if Olivia wants to generate proceeds to her Cancer charity work, she could do much worse than a proper box set or at least a rerelease of her big albums.

In any case whatever she does next I do hope she puts herself and her health both mental and physical first.

 

I’m sure her catalogue will get a re-release one day. Before the 2017 diagnosis Olivia mentioned a box set (again) claiming to have lots of unheard things in the vaults. It would be nice if this came to be.

As for CDs, owning the best of the US, UK and Japanese titles, I wonder if it’s possible to improve on them much? I know it’s possible to not improve on them. Personally, I’d like as much of the unreleased stuff as possible to come out. It would great to hear ‘new’ Olivia songs from her golden years.