Johnny Ashcroft | Public figure
Johnny Ashcroft
Reviews
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25.01.2022 During that previous event a knock on the front door of our Gold Coast home found our precious neighbours, Huseyin and Barbara, with their sons little Gem and Dilan by their side. Along with their eldest son Aydin, they all played no small role in creating that birthday gift I’m wearing. This involvement was also due to interest in my birthday stirred up by media folk, too numerous to mention individually. But they know who they are true and trusted friends who, throughout the years, gave me a leg up when I needed it most; they who asked for nothing in return but who shall dwell in my heart forever and a day!
25.01.2022 This late 60s 12inch album-cover was a miniscule part of many image-changes during my long career of changes that occurred after I sang my hillbilly songs in Slim Dusty’s first national tour during the whole of 1955. The cover shows my producer Eric Dunn sitting at a piano he couldn’t play, while I was actually clean-shaven with a theatrical make-up ‘beard’. Then I hastily grew an identical one. This was all part of announcing a dramatic musical and visual change to my career on an album that went Gold in record time.
23.01.2022 On 1 February 2017 I was involved in a double celebration my birthday and the recently lauded overseas and Australian release of Jenny Ashcroft’s second novel.This event also involved close family members, including my eldest grandson Matthew Ashcroft (Jen’s entrepreneurial husband), who shared a wonderful day with us.
23.01.2022 Introductions to most hit records fascinate me. For instance Don Burrows and Noel Smith from the Royal Ballet Orchestra combined to create instant recognition in the intro of my first Top 40 hit, They’re a Weird Mob. In some of my other Top 40 hits, Joy Batty’s voice saying ‘What do you want with your scotch love?’ spearheaded the Girl Behind The Bar, along with the ‘Boo-pa boo-paapa’ of little children introducing Playground In My Mind. Australian jazz-guitarist-legend George Golla AM (pictured in his golden years) single-handedly captured the attention of millions of listeners world-wide with a few guitar notes to intro my 1960 hit Little Boy Lost, Australia’s and New Zealand’s first 45rpm Gold records.
22.01.2022 The partially ruined photo in picture one shows thousands upon thousands of Queenslanders awaiting the crowning of the 1961 Sungirl. One contestant, 19-year-old Gay Kayler who already held the title of Kirra Sungirl, not only sang in most musical styles but also had jazz, country, ‘pop’ and rock in her repertoire. But that aside, after Gay was crowned Miss Darling Downs in the 1960 Miss Australia Quest, Brisbane’s new TV channel BTQ 7 suddenly became so interested in this ...youngster’s breadth of talent they tied her up for more than three years, doing TV appearances up to four times a week, on 7’s many shows. In later life, Gay had almost forgotten that old photo until two avid fans, working under the umbrella of Presto Photographics, discovered it. Their expertise lies in restoring such pictures to perfection and this resurrected shot reeks of that! See more
19.01.2022 I bought this print at a nursing home’s fund-raising event. The circling eagle and bisons browsing the prairie indicated the unknown artist had artistically depicted the Suquamish and Duwamish people’s Chief Seattle’s stunning environmental speech upon surrendering his land to Governor Isaac Stevens in 1854. Now, more than 164 years later, Chief Seattle’s speech (please, please Google a few of its versions) was and still is uncannily in concert with the oldest living culture on the planet the First Australians. And why countries world-wide queued to sign an attempt to control what currently appears uncontrollable global warming!
17.01.2022 John Minson’s passing! This 1994 photo of Gay Kayler, me, Ann Minson and her husband John (Mr Hoedown) was taken long before any of us imagined the day would come when John would bid adieu to this world on 10-3-2017. Many years beforehand, after completing a whirlwind tour of southern Queensland with my son Mark, we headed for home one Christmas Day. Along the way we called on our old Tamworth friends, the Minsons, completely unannounced. You can only do that with real fa...ir dinkum friendsespecially on Christmas Day! After being treated to one of the best Christmas Dinners ever, cooked by Ann, we were still tripping over the welcome mat when Mark and I reluctantly left their hospitable home, two days later. But although John Minson may be best known to some for his many legendary Radio 2TM Tamworth broadcasts, hiding in the shadows behind this remarkable man’s career lay some exceptional attributes, including his expertise with many forms of glass-blowinga talent inherited by his son James. James ultimately became the object of numerous glossy journals published in the USA as they eulogised his remarkable skills at transforming glass into exotic masterpieces. James’s brother Lawrie inherited his father’s skill with musical electronics and the building of fine guitars and every skill required to support such talent. He has made his way handsomely in the Country-music world, while their sister Kathleen added to the family’s reputation by providing the ladies of Tamworth, and elsewhere, with up to the minute hairstyles; a talent sometimes overlooked for its artistry but not by some of my grandchildren. But the massive Minson background contribution to this equation belongs to John’s wife, Ann. Her quiet achievements, with others involved in the vast spectrum of country-music activities too numerous to mention here, could hardly, if ever, be equaled by anybody here or overseas. All that aside, there is at least one more thing to be said about this remarkable man, John Minson. During the many decades of our close friendship, not once did I hear one critical word fall from John Minson’s lips about any Aussie artist, or group, with whom he came in contact. Such was this great Australian’s passion to lift the profile of those fortunate enough to fall under his influence, his legacy will live in all those wise enough to follow his lead. So rest in peace our giving, lovable and totally unselfish friend. Rest in perfect peace forevermore! See more
15.01.2022 Greetings to all and apologies for the prolonged gap in posts. There are some interesting stories to relate further down the track. In the meantime, the Christmas season is a magic time of song and love that wraps itself about you like a shawl. But it warms more than your body, It warms your heart. Gay and I hope it will fill you, too, with a melody that will last forever.
12.01.2022 Johnny Ashcroft and Gay Kayler, with other artists and identities, signed this guitar as part of Gold Coast Radio 4CRB’s annual radiothon ending soon.
11.01.2022 There is no joy in revealing how some of my ancestors participated in the First Australians being cast out of country. After arriving in 1788 on the Sirius, the flagship of the First Fleet, Great, Great, Great Grandfather Marine Corporal John Gowen received four grants of Aboriginal land. Great, Great, Grandfather John Ashcroft, having cheated death on the convict hell-ship Surry in 1814, was freed and granted some Dharug land in 1829. After fathering a family known for its cattle barons my great grandfather (a son of convict John) owned this heritage-listed homestead built on Wiradjuri traditional land near The Rock in NSW. In 1827, 100 years before my birth, Australia’s first Parliament House was built on Ngunnawal/Wiradjuri land.
06.01.2022 Enactment: This action shot I took of ‘bushranger’ Ken Reiman’s flight from ‘troopers’ is among 2000 pics taken for the Imagine That! Australiana Show and its educational offshoots a series Gay and I commenced in 1979 (ref. pic and background in my FB album ‘Johnny Ashcroft Sings Country and Then Some’). Meanwhile, had you participated in any of those programmes as teachers or children during its approximate 12-year run, thanks for staying with us during the most successful, gratifying and challenging period of our showbusiness careers. And may all our friends and supporters over the years, including those reading this now or on the Australian Country Music Public Group’s FB page, enjoy the best of best Christmases ever.
05.01.2022 Vale Coral Dasey. I have known my beautiful friend Coral Dasey since she was 5 years old. Throughout the years I have been associated with and followed her career, especially in song writing, as she charmed me with her ‘effective simplicity’ skills in the field of Australiana. Her father George Dasey (pictured with Coral) also lifted the spirits of Aussie thespians when, in 1946, he won Ealing Studios’s competition to write a song using the title of the forthcoming Australian movie, The Overlanders, starring Chips Rafferty. George’s song was recorded by Ronald Jackson and the Abe Romaine Orchestra. Coral will be farewelled at 2:00pm on Monday, 3 July 2017, at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 81 Vivian Street, Inverell.
04.01.2022 Gay and I wish you golden days in the coming year, filled with beauty like this golden sunrise over the Coral Sea (photo by Gay Kayler Ashcroft).
04.01.2022 There’s an untold story behind what’s said to be Australia’s most popular Radio Series of all time. It began in 1982 when top Musical Director Bob (Beatles) Young, Little Boy Lost’s movie MD who also backed my Bandstand performances, phoned in a panic asking how fast I could record tongue twisters for a new serial called the Castlereagh Line. Beatles then rushed its melody and lyrics to me on a tape that seemingly named every city, town and whistle stop in Australia. Although... my wife and singing partner Gay Kayler and I were totally booked out, he persuaded me to crash-record that series days later, a hell of a call. But after showing hours from Sydney in Ulladulla, the night prior to recording Castlereagh Line’s tongue-twisters, I was still rehearsing it by the car’s cabin light, with Gay at the wheel, before facing the mike the next day, half asleep! See more
03.01.2022 To everyone who has liked my page. My profile in Messenger was cloned. Someone was sending messages impersonating me. Do NOT respond. It’s a scam! As already mentioned, the authorities were notified and at last check the false me is no longer active.
