Vale Jeff St John (1946 — 2018)
Jeff St John, the veteran Australian singer-songwriter whose hits included ‘Big Time Operator’ and ‘Teach Me How To Fly’, passed away in his home in Perth.
He was a month shy of turning 72.
Born in Newtown, Sydney as Jeffrey Leo Newton, he went on to a successful music career which included hit singles, relentless touring and becoming the first Australian to be signed to America’s Asylum Records, home to The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.
Something of a child prodigy, he recounted in his 72,000 word biography The Inside Outsider (2016) how he sang at a wedding at the age of five, and was on radio 2GB Sydney’s Master Rhythm competition at eight.
Wheelchair bound all his life as he was born with spina bifida, a debilitating condition which saw many hospital stays during his early days, St John was as much a role model for people with disabilities who wanted to achieve, as much as for his strong soulful vocals.
At 15, he went on TV talent show Opportunity Knocks, and came second, which gave him a taste for performance.
Two years later, the band The Syndicate saw him on The Don Lane Show and told them they needed a singer.
Around this time, the owners of Sydney’s first discotheque offered them a residency but on two conditions.
They had to change their name to The Id (because it was Freud’s idea of greatest motivation; and not as generally assumed from The Wizard of Id cartoon strip) and that the singer change his name to something more glamorous.
St John would later tell this writer, “Some of the band were upset for me that I’d been asked to change my name.
“But for a kid who lived this life which consisted mostly of going to hospital, getting a stage name, a stage persona, was fantastic, a way of living the dream.”
The Id, who were the first Australian band to be busted for possession of pot, broke up in 1967.
After that came Jeff St John & Yama (1967–68), Jeff St John & Copperwine (1969-72), Jeff St John Band (1972–73) and, Red Cloud (1975-76).
‘Big Time Operator’ (1967) reached #7, ‘Teach Me How To Fly’ (1970) peaked at #3, and ‘Fool In Love’ (1977) went up to #16.
It was hard work, In The Inside Outsider, he recalls he was riddled with pain and suffered depression, so much so that he contemplated suicide.
In 1983, as his back deteriorated, he retired from the road at 37.
He moved to Perth in the late 1990s and made one more album, of ‘30s and ‘40s standards, called Will The Real Jeff St John Please Stand Up? in 2001.
He educated Australians about the special needs of people with physical disabilities, and became a mentor.
In 2000 he was booked to open the Summer Paralympics in Sydney by singing the national anthem and the event’s theme song ‘The Greatest Challenge’ before a crowd of 110,000 and a global TV audience of 3 billion.
The Inside Outsider is full of details and anecdotes, a reflection of St John’s love for trivia and strange facts, and which led him to becoming a quiz master on Facebook.