It all went very well. The videos were impressive and Johnny had a slide show ready. The talk started as a presentation but went into audience being able to ask questions and discuss things which in this instance really drew the audience in especially the lay folk. Overall everyone was very impressed - he is a very impressive character. - Mike Campbell, The William Deferrers School

Review of a lecture by Niall Grimes.

Johnny once said to me in exasperation, "I love climbing, but I hate the sport!" Johnny is not a sportsman, but despite his unique and individual approach to climbing, changed the sport in the 1980's in a way that only a handful of British climbers have done in this century. Imagination, movement and boldness were his trademarks, and in a way, no-one has yet matched him for these three characteristics. Johnny's show promised to let us in to his methods of achieving these qualities.

And in a way, he did. But not in an expected way. Dawes relaxed on stage, took the mike and asked what we wanted to hear. Nobody really knew what to say, so we looked at some slides of Kyrgystan. These were of various north Wales climbers, some landscapes that Johnny dismissed as boring, and looking too much like women. One shot was beside a boulder with a local boy. "This little boy came over to boulder with me, but he didn't have the £25 to join in my workshop, so I told him to £$%! off!" Other climbers came up in the verbal journey; "and Seb Grieve, who despite the fact he climbs E9 is really not such a bad climber. If you know what I mean."

We had video footage of a Nelson's Column incident, and then some really amazing footage; Stanage's The Asp on top rope, one handed, and then, wait for it, Downhill Racer, solo, one handed. Think of the horror of crimping two handed along those small edges a long way above the ground. Now imagine strolling, hand barely in use, in complete nonchalance, along the same edges. The top move, a necky 5c crimp move, miles up, is dispatched with an aggressive confidence, knowing no doubt as to the outcome. Pure Dawes. Pure inspiration.

Then we were treated to a recital of one of the greatest pieces of climbing writing ever, as far as I am concerned. The Dawes' article, Not Necessarily About the Indian Face, was written in the raw aftermath of his completion of the country's first E9, and is in turn inspirational, thrilling, chilling, and fatally desperate.

In the end, it was obvious that Johnny was not here for our entertainment. On stage, we weren't told how to maximize the training effect, angles of campus boards, how to Egyptian. We weren't told about numbers and hardest routes. What we got was one of climbing's great and important characters, open out for all to see. What there was after the fantastic footage, cynicisms, witticisms, sexisms, was a sense from John Dawes, of Fuck you and your expectations, this is what I am, and this is what I am going to do, which, ultimately, was the secret of why he went and added a good many of what were the country's hardest climbs. Hopefully we can all take some inspiration from his honesty

Another comment from the same lecture:

Went to see the Ape Index lecture in Sheffield on Sunday. All round it was hilarious, with Johnny coming across as a right nutter (strangely enough)......... The one-handed solo ascent of Downhill Racer is the most amazing thing you will ever see - makes you realise how far ahead he really is...

Other general comments:

The Pele of rock climbing. Rinaldo Colombi

There is a dynamic energy about Dawes and a lot of fun. He climbs for the fun of it and seems to bounce up a crag like an energetic rubber ball, with a series of 'dynos', almost leaping for holds.
Chris Bonnington

Romantic genius who brought his great charisma and personality to a raging series of first ascents.....made his bouncing, boyish presence felt with ballsy on-sights of others routes.
Climbing Magazine, June 2001