Johnny Ashcroft

John Lewis Ashcroft FAIHA (1 February 1927 – 19 May 2021) was an Australian country music and folk entertainer, singer, songwriter, and musician, who also recorded pop, skiffle, jazz, and disco as his alter ego, the Baron.

He was married to fellow performer Gay Kayler, with whom he recorded on numerous occasions.

As a child growing up during the Great Depression in Australia, Ashcroft lived in a bag shack with a dirt floor.

An interest in Indigenous cultures, in particular Australian Aboriginal culture, was possibly influenced by these humble beginnings.

(See The Imagine That! Australiana Show example in Production Shows below.)

During World War II, Ashcroft began his career by playing guitar and singing mainly bush ballads.

In the mid-1940s he traveled with vaudeville shows.

While working in The Great Levante Show, he learned about show business traditions and the psychology of live performing from the Great Levante (Les Cole) and one of Australia's greatest vaudevillian comics, Bobby Lebrun.

Bobby Lebrun Mo Fellowship Award

Ashcroft's first recording took place in 1946.

It was "When I Waltzed My Matilda Away", and was distributed solely for radio airplay.

In 1954, Ashcroft laid down his first commercial recordings, six 78rpm sides for Rodeo Records.

This was followed by his debut album Songs of the Western Trail in 1956, which was Australia's and New Zealand's first country and western vinyl microgroove album.

It contained Highway 31, Australia's and New Zealand's first trucking song.

Ashcroft was the first Australian country artist to appear on Australian TV.

In 1956, as the Australian Broadcasting Commission began transmitting from its tiny Arcon Studio at Gore Hill, Sydney, Johnny wrote and sang the show's title theme, Crazy Cross.

He also performed in the show, which was set in Sydney's King's Cross, with actor Gordon Chater serving as its anchorman.

Pre-television Tests and Australia's First C&W Television Performer

In 1957, Ashcroft recorded Gordon Parsons's, A Pub with No Beer with Graeme Bell.

This 45rpm was also released in the US and during a beer strike in Canada.

It was not only available on vinyl but anecdotally sold 110,000 copies in Australia, on plastic-coated cardboard records.

They're a Weird Mob, recorded in late 1958, also included the doyens of Australian jazz: Graeme Bell, Don Burrows, John Sangster, George Thompson, Ron Falson together with Noel Smith from the Royal Ballet Orchestra.

This skiffle song became Ashcroft's first hit single.

Although the term had not yet been coined, Ashcroft's 1960 song, Little Boy Lost, was Australia's first country-rock song.

Again, it was arranged and recorded by jazzmen, including guitarist George Golla.

This song, written by Ashcroft from DJ Tony Withers's idea, tells the story of Steven Walls who became lost from his parents' property at Tubbamurra near Guyra, NSW.

Five thousand people and seven aircraft, together with Aboriginal tracker William Stanley, searched the rugged bush country, which was rife with dingos and deadly snakes.

He was found alive and well four days later.

The search for the Little Boy Lost continues to be Australia's biggest land and air search.

At the height of Little Boy Lost's success, Ashcroft withdrew his recording from airplay out of consideration for the family of 8-year old Graeme Thorne, the victim of Australia's first kidnapping.

Little Boy Lost was Australia's first 45rpm Gold Record, and New Zealand's first Gold Record.

The painting, Little Boy Lost by Sir Sidney Nolan, hangs in the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery.

His album Mostly Folk, recorded in the mid-1960s, was re-released under the title, Little Boy Lost and went Gold.

[https://www.johnnyashcroft.com.au/JA_Discography.htm Mostly Folk, Cat.

No.: Columbia 330SX 7734, and Little Boy Lost, Cat.

No.: Columbia OEX 9511 are identical]

The Little Boy Lost movie had its world premiere on 16 November 1978 at Armidale in the New England region of NSW.

Johnny Ashcroft recorded a new version of Little Boy Lost with Gay Kayler, which was played at the end.

They also recorded the voices on the movie sound track.

Accession No. 1984.0001