Olivia Newton John..

was born in Cambridge, England on September 26th 1948. Her family moved to Australia when she was 5. Her mother was German, daughter of the physicist Max Born, her father was Welsh, a professor of German at Cambridge and Melbourne.

Despite the academic background, early on Olivia showed an interest in singing, forming a band called the Sol Four with some schoolfriends, and later on singing at her brother in law's coffee bar in Australia. She also starred in a movie "Funny Things Happen Down Under" which was forgettable apart from some early promise shown in Olivia's delightful rendition of "Christmas Down Under".

A talent contest hosted by the Australian Johnny O'Keefe offered Olivia the prize of a trip to England, and she took this up in 1965. Her first introduction to making records was a one-off single deal with Decca Records. The single, Till You Say You'll Be Mine/For Ever, is extremely rare though these two songs were available (Oct 1994) on the British compilation CD Pop Inside the 60's.