Album Notes

‘The Lady from the Odeon’ was originally written for theatre audiences at the time when John Oakley-Smith was a member of what was to become the founding company Johannesburg’s Market Theatre. During that time John also wrote scores for film and television and ‘Matinees on Saturdays’ was recorded and released in an attempt to consolidate his solo career as a songwriter and performer.

The haunting opening track on ‘Matinees on Saturdays' rephrases the observation that the mirage of screen glamour is a snare and a delusion, told this time from the viewpoint of a small town girl who, though her dreams of a Hollywood career evaporate cruelly in a cheap hotel, at least finds wisdom and an unlikely soul mate.

‘Matinees on Saturdays’ was restricted from airplay on the state controlled radio service two weeks after its release. In an interview with the Sunday Times, John questioned the logic of banning two instrumental pieces on the basis of their lyrical content and expressed an interest in meeting the person responsible. There was no response at the time but later, during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings during the dismantling of the apartheid regime, a woman who had worked in the SABC record library revealed that her job had entailed the mutilation of restricted discs by gouging them with a nail file.

Soon after the banning of ‘Matinees on Saturdays’, John was contracted to Warner Bros Music (USA) as a composer and lyricist and left South Africa. His music has subsequently acquired cult status with several bootleg recordings still in circulation of his live performances in various cities in South Africa. This version of 'The Lady from the Odeon’ was first released through WEA Records (Warner Elektra Asylum) as the result of an agreement reached between Richard Sassoon of WEA Records and David Marks of Third Ear Music. Notoriously reclusive, John is currently embarked on recording ‘Songs from the Cafe Desperado’ due for release in 2012.

Built during the 1930s, the now demolished Odeon Cinema was in Sea Point near to where John lived while he was a student at the University of Cape Town.


The Lady from the Odeon

Did you see her there with her dyed blonde hair
drinking on her own by the bar?
Alone with her dreams of black limousines
deep inside she's a star
though her rave reviews never kind of made the news
if you buy her a drink you'll hear her say
how it's funny how your dreams become real
and though you think you're holding on
they always fade away...

She was just a small town girl with stars in her eyes
who grew up in the Odeon at matinees on Saturdays
knowing to go as far as to be a proper movie star
you really can't remain as you are.
So if staying at home every night on your own
is the only thing you ever seem to do
you get your hair styled, you get your teeth fixed
and you cover up your tattoo
because you can't compete until you're set up and complete
with a nose job and silica it's true.
Oh I can sing and I can dance, and if you give me half a chance
I'll show you anything I have to do, to be in the movies too...

And she'll tell you how she fell in a cheap hotel
to a movie man and when he was through
he said “Okay, thanks a lot - I really like what you got
but don't you call me, I'll call you.”

So she waited and she waited and she never heard a word
so she moved back to where she lived before
with a man called Maxi who drives a taxi, and treats her like a queen
and drives her in a yellow limousine, though she’s just a
small town girl with stars in her eyes
who grew up in the Odeon at matinees on Saturdays
knowing to go as far as to become a proper movie star
you really can't remain as you are...