Jon English

Jon English was an Australian songwriter, singer, actor, and musician who is very well known for his tracks such as Hot Town, Six Ribbons, Turn the Page, Words are Not Enough, and Hollywood Seven. He has been a part of television series like Against the Wind for which he was awarded the TV Week Logie Award for the nomination for Best New Talent in Australia. For the series, he had even contributed as a writer and worked on the background score along with ‘Mario Millo’. The series was even launched in Swedish as Mot alla vindar where “Against the Wind” and “Six Ribbons” songs were released as singles and both the songs were appreciated and were the No.1 position on the Norwegian charts. His first single album Six Ribbons remained in the No.4 position on the Swedish charts.

He was born in London. His parents were Sheila and Sydney English and he had three siblings, Jill, Janet, and Jeremy. His mother worked as a teacher and father worked in the department of Air Cargo for KLM. In 1961, they shifted to Fremantle. He started his career in 1965 with the band “Zenith”, which was formed at the Cabramatta High School. The band included ‘Graham Ford’ as the Guitarist, ‘Richard Lillico’ as the Drummer, and English served in the band as the Beat Guitarist and the Vocalist. Jon gave most of his Chartbuster hits in the 70s. His songs used to be of all genres including Stage Music, Rock, and Cabaret and Television series.  In 1972, he became part of Australian Stage Production of ‘Tim Rice’, and ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber’. During 1972 - 1974, he gave more than 704 performances and even made an appearance for the Original Cast album. Alongside studio band “Duck” he gave some hit tracks like Ned Kelly and released his first album “Wine Dark Sea”. His next album was “It’s All a Game” and the song Turn the Page from the album ranked on the seventh position on Australia charts in the year 1975. He released his third album Hollywood Seven when he joined Jesus Christ Superstar Production House. Songs like Words Are Not Enough, Nights in Paradise are considered as one of his best numbers as Words Are Not Enough ranked on the fifth position and Nights in Paradise ranked at number 21.

He next tried his hand on small screens with Against the Wind and even worked as a composer, producer and even recorded the album with Mario Millo. His single track Six Ribbons was a huge hit and ranked at the fifth position and has even considered as the Best-Selling Male Pop Single of the year 1979. He won the Best New Talent Award at the Logie Awards in 1979. In the same year, he toured Australia with his new band “Baxter Funt”.  The band delivered two albums. In 1980, they gave “Calm before the Storm”, and in 1981 they gave “Inroads”. His famous single Against the Wind became the number one song in Sweden and it sold over 100,000 copies. In 1982, he released “Beating the Boards” album and mini-album with ‘Marcia Hines’ named “Jokers and Queens”. His next solo “Every Beat of My Heart” released in 1984. In the same year, he joined as the Pirate King to “The Pirates of Penzance” movie.  

He had released an album in 1990 which was named as Always the Busker. The album was made in collaboration with ‘David McKay’. He even acted in television series “All Together Now” in the character of Bobby Rivers. In his whole career span, he won many awards. He won four Mo Awards, and three Entertainer of the Year Award. In 1985, he won the Male Vocal Performer Award. In February 2016, he was hospitalized due to bad health problems and had even canceled many of his performances. He even went through a surgery, but unfortunately, he died on 9 March 2016. A memorial was kept on 4 April and as a tribute to him. ‘John Waters’, ‘John Paul Young’, ‘Simon Gallagher’, and many others performed in a concert.