Gene Wyatt (July 28, 1937 - January 16, 1979) was an American country and rockabilly singer.
Preston Eugene "Gene" Wyatt was born in Lake Village, Arkansas, to Bertie Wyatt and Arby lee Wyatt. When he was one year old his parents moved to Marthaville, Louisiana. From his earliest childhood he showed signs of his innate talent, becoming a magnificent guitarist and singer, especially of country and Cajun music. He amazed everyone by playing in church and at local dances, so that soon the town became too small for him and when he came of age he decided to try his luck in the neighbouring city of Shreveport. There he began to play in clubs and married Joereitia Stanford, with whom he had two children.
Moving from country to rockabilly. He recorded the good rockabilly "Lover boy" (1957) with James Burton on the modest Ebb label, although it went completely unnoticed. Also that year one of his first personal appearances was at the Louisiana Hayride. His next single "Pretiest Girl in the Dance" (1959) was released on the local label Lucky Seven, but wasn't until 1964 that he released "You bug me baby" on another modest Shreveport label, Aetna.
In 1966 Gene accepted the position as front man for David Houston. In addition to gaining knowledge, he also gained a lot of mileage. He toured with the Houston troupe throughout the United States, Canada, England and Germany. His highlight was a standing ovation at the London Palladium. After touring he decided to try it on his own as an artist. He recorded "I stole the flowers from your garden" for Mercury in 1967.This was a most rewarding effort for it was Gene's first record to make the National Charts. After Mercury Gene fulfilled a long time desire to record for Stan Lewis, owner of Paula Records.
Gene's first record on Paula " I Just Ain't Got As Much As He's Got Going For Me," proved to be highly successful, giving Gene two in a row to reach the National Charts. He released another five singles including "Little Liza Jane" (1968), "As long as I live" (1969) and his version of the classic "Let the good times roll" (1974), but still stardom illuded him.
During his later days Gene suffered from a deep depression. A close friend Randy Floyd said that nobody wanted musical success any more than Gene. He felt he had gotten so close and it slipped away, and how humiliating it was to have success and the fall to where he was just working the strip for whatever he could make. It seems nobody recognized how serious Gene's depression was until he tragically died of a self inflicted gunshot wound on January 16, 1979. David Houston paid tribute and sang at Gene's funeral.
At the time of Gene's death he was married to Joreita Andrea Stanford and they had two children Kimberly Rachelle Wyatt and Christopher Loren Wyatt who are both now deceased. Joreita Stanford Wyatt also passed after his death. Gene has two grandchildren Angel Wyatt and Dakota Wyatt.
Well music lovers Gene is hardly if at all mentioned in the annuls of Rock'n'roll or Country, in fact the only information I could find was mainly on Facebook & Last.fm website. Although Gene never reached "star" status he was one of hundreds of aspiring singers who need at least some recognition for their contribution to the genre.
Byron Lee OJ, CD, born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee (27 June 1935 – 4 November 2008), was a Jamaican musician, record producer, and entrepreneur, best known for his work as leader of Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.
Lee was born in Christiana, Manchester Parish, Jamaica, to a mixed-race Chinese-Jamaican mother, Evelyn Chung, and a Chinese father, Oscar Lee, a language teacher originally from Kowloon, Hong Kong. The family moved to the Mountain View Gardens area of Kingston when Lee was around 8 or 9 years old. He learned to play piano at a convent school in Mandeville, but put music on hold when he was selected to the Jamaica national football team. He taught himself to play bass on a homemade instrument, and around 1950, along with his friend Carl Brady, he formed the first incarnation of the Dragonaires, named after the college football team that they played for, at that time concentrating on mento. The band turned professional in 1956 and went on to become one of Jamaica's leading ska bands, continuing since and taking in other genres such as calypso, soca, and Mas.
Byron Lee is known to have introduced the electric bass guitar to Jamaica in late 1959 or 1960. However, the reason Lee began to use the electric bass as opposed to the double bass had nothing to do with sound. Rather, it was a way for Lee to avoid carrying the large and heavy double bass to the truck to move from gig to gig. The bass guitar gained popularity throughout the country and soon became the standard. The electric bass's louder, clearer, and more in-your-face sound soon changed the sound of Jamaican music entirely, especially after Skatalites bassist Lloyd Brevett took a liking to it.
One of the first ska bands, the Dragonaires were a 14-piece outfit whose line-up was always changing (and sometimes worked under the name the Ska Kings), toured throughout the Caribbean and into North America, spreading the ska sound. Lee opened a concert booking and promotion agency in the early '60s, Lee Enterprises Limited, as well as his own label, Dragon's Breath. He and his band, The Dragonaires, are featured in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, set in and around Kingston, Jamaica in 1962. They are prominently seen, playing "Jamaica Jump Up" on the bandstand at Pussfeller's calypso bar.
He brought American acts like the Drifters, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, and Fats Domino into Jamaica, booking them into the Carib and Regal Theaters, with local Jamaican acts opening for them. Lee's big year was 1964, when he and the Dragonaires played the New York World's Fair, in their own set and backing Prince Buster, Eric Morris, and Peter Tosh. They were all a sensation at the fair, and even managed to work in some major gigs at some of Manhattan's best nightclubs. It spread their names into the gossip columns and newspaper entertainment sections, and did wonders to boost Jamaica's tourism to even higher levels.
Lee also worked as a producer, producing many of the ska singles by The Maytals, and his entrepreneurial skills led to him setting up the Byron Lee's Spectacular Show tour, which involved several Jamaican acts (including The Maytals) touring the Caribbean. He also became the head of distribution in Jamaica for Atlantic Records. In 1969 Lee purchased the West Indies Records Limited (WIRL) recording studios from Edward Seaga after fire had destroyed the pressing plant on the same site, and renamed it Dynamic Sounds, soon having a new pressing facility built on the site. It soon became one of the best-equipped studios in the Caribbean, attracting both local and international recording artists, including Paul Simon and The Rolling Stones, who recorded their famous song "Angie" there. Lee's productions included Boris Gardiner's Reggae Happening, Hopeton Lewis's Grooving Out on Life, and The Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad". Dynamic also acts as one of Jamaica's leading record distributors.
Lee and the Dragonaires maintained a following right into the end of the twentieth century, their Jamaican dancehall-influenced sound delighting crowds at the annual Carnival celebration. In 1990, Lee inaugurated what became an annual event, Jamaica Carnival, held on Constant Spring Road, and attended by hundreds of thousands of people that united the "uptown" and "downtown" residents of Kingston, an event that Lee called "the happiest moment in my life". Lee had performed with the Dragonaires at carnivals around the Caribbean since the mid-1970s, and chose the location for the carnival to attract revellers from all of Jamaica's classes, stating: "The biggest problem was that most Jamaicans said it wouldn't work, that it isn't a carnival country, but I persisted 'cause I believed in it. I wanted carnival to go to the public. You always had other carnivals that were held mostly indoor, where persons had to pay to get in. I went to the people and choose Half-Way Tree where uptown and downtown meet. That is where the route will remain". In the early days of ska, Lee was credited in taking it from the ghettos and giving it appeal among Jamaica's "uptown" middle and upper classes.
Meanwhile, he continued making his own music, having evolved from ska to reggae and, by the late '70s, to the soca style. He has also been credited with taking soca in the opposite direction, popularising a genre that had previously only been enjoyed in Jamaica among the upper classes, with the island's working class.
Lee and the Dragonaires have maintained a following right into the end of the twentieth century, their Jamaican dancehall-influenced sound delighting crowds at the annual Carnival celebration. Lee missed the Jamaica Carnival in 2007 as he was receiving treatment for bladder cancer after having surgery in Florida, and no longer appeared on stage with the Dragonaires, although he was still involved in the band's management, and was involved with the festival again in 2008. A concert was held in his honour on 30 June 2007, to celebrate his 50 years in the music industry, with artists performing including fellow cancer survivors Myrna Hague and Pluto Shervington. Proceeds went to the Jamaica Cancer Society. Lee was awarded the Order of Distinction in 1982, upgraded to Commander level on 15 October 2007, in recognition of his "contribution in the fields of Music and Entertainment both locally and internationally".
In October 2008, after receiving treatment for several weeks in Florida, Lee returned to spend his final days in Jamaica. In a ceremony at the University Hospital of the West Indies on 26 October 2008, he was awarded the Order of Jamaica (OJ). Lee died from bladder cancer after a sustained period in Kingston on 4 November 2008, aged 73. In a statement on the day of Lee's death, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding, said: "Jamaica, and indeed the world, has lost another great music pioneer with the passing this morning of Byron Lee, one of the greatest band leaders ever to grace the entertainment stages of the world".
Casey Jones (July 26, 1939 – May 3, 2017) was an American drummer who recorded with blues artists such as Albert Collins, appearing on his Frostbite and Ice Pickin' albums and Johnny Winter appearing on Winters Serious Business, Guitar Slinger, True to the Blues: The Johnny Winter Story albums. He is also a singer and record producer.
Long recognized as one of the Chicago circuit's premier drummers, charismatic Casey Jones has moved out in front of his band over his last decade instead of hiding behind his kit. Casey discovered that beating his way through the world was fun while drilling with his high school marching band back in Greenville. He was born in Nitta Yuma, Mississippi and raised in Greenville. In 1956 he moved to Chicago to live with his sister. It was here that his sister and her husband bought him his first drum set. Before the end of the year, he was drumming professionally with an outfit called Otis Luke & the Rhythm Bombers for a whopping $5.
One auspicious 1959 night, Jones was forced to sing live for the first time when the pianist leading his band was tossed in jail. He imitated Little Richard and the crowd loved it. Soon he began singing in bands around town and gained a reputation for himself. Jones also had an occasional day job driving a bus. In 1961 he married Bernice who had come to hear his group play. Prior to being married by the minister they had attempted to get married by a priest who refused to marry them because he said they wouldn't last six months as Bernice was white and Casey was black. They raised their family in Morgan Park in a home filled with cats, dogs, fish, birds. He liked big dogs, including his favourite, a giant of a gray Great Dane called Soldier.
Early '60s session work behind Earl Hooker, A.C. Reed, McKinley Mitchell, and Muddy Waters (1962's "You Need Love") kept Jones busy, as did playing on the South and West sides with the likes of Otis Rush and Freddy King. His profile rose markedly in 1978 when he slid into the drum chair with Albert Collins's hand-picked combo, the Icebreakers. His impeccable timekeeping powered the band for six-and-a-half years, and he played on Collins's first six Alligator albums (notably Ice Pickin' and the '85 summit meeting Showdown! with Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland).
As a session drummer he has worked with artists such as Lou Rawls, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter. For six years he was a member of Albert Collins's band as his drummer. According to Maureen O'Donnell of the Chicago Sun Times and Living Blues contributor Justin O'Brien, Jones was a talented singer, an excellent R&B singer.
After his time with Albert Collins, Jones went to concentrate on his singing and fronting his own band. In 1983, he had the album Still Kickin' released on his own Airwax label. He had been holding down Sunday nights at Chicago's popular Kingston Mines nightclub for nearly a decade, a period that saw his own discography grow steadily. His 1987 album Solid Blue was released on Rooster Blues which preceded the next three albums on his own label, Airwax Records including 1990's The Chi-Town Boogie Man, 1993's The Crowd Pleaser and [I-94] On My Way to Chicago in 1995.
Jones was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died on May 3, 2017, in Chicago. In addition to his wife Bernice and three children, he was survived by four sisters. Friends of Casey will remember him through his music and his cheery disposition.
Johnny Wiggs (July 25, 1899 – October 10, 1977) was an American jazz musician, and leader and composer, and many of his tunes––“Congo Square,” “King Zulu Parade,” “Canal Street March” are now well known in the various jazz repertoires of New Orleans and beyond.
One of the few Jewish cornet players of his time, Johnny Wiggs, also known as John Hyman, was a traditional jazz cornetist from New Orleans. Early in his career Wiggs distinguished himself for his talents as an instrumentalist. he also taught music to many future New Orleans musicians, including Jack Delaney, George Girard, Milton Scheurmann, and Pete Fountain. A founder of the New Orleans Jazz Club, Wiggs was a central figure in the post-World War II jazz revival.
Wiggs was born John Wiggington Hyman on July 25, 1899, in New Orleans to John Meleton Hyman (who was the son of the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, William Bryan Hyman) and Alice Wood Wigginton, Wiggs came from a prominent Jewish New Orleans family. Wiggs’s uncle drafted the ordinance that created Storyville, the red-light district that would play a central role in the history of jazz.
A childhood friend of Joseph “Wingy” Manone, Wiggs began his musical career on violin but soon switched to cornet after hearing King Oliver perform. Along with Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver would become one of Wiggs’s primary musical influences. He studied music at Loyola University in Chicago. The family also moved to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, for a time, thus exposing Wiggs to live musical traditions outside New Orleans.
He began playing around 1920 with Earl Crumb, then worked with Norman Brownlee (1924-5) and Happy Schilling (1926). Inn 1927 he toured with a vaudeville troupe and recorded as John Hyman, with his Bayou Stompers for the Victor label. Due to the Orleans Parish School Board’s unfavourable attitude toward jazz during that time, he changed his performing name to Johnny Wiggs. Even in the 1920s, when Wiggs gigged the most, he also worked as a journalist and merchant seaman. He would lead the Stompers as well as a number of other groups during his long career. During 1928 he performed and recorded with Tony Parenti. During the early 1930's Wiggs took a job as a teacher in Louisiana including as a high school architectural drawing teacher and as a musical tutor. Long after Wiggs had stopped teaching, many locals continued to refer to him as “Professor Hyman.” He taught during the day and at night played in New Orleans jazz clubs.
In the 1940s he again became a full-time musician, leading several bands and recording many songs. From 1946 on, Wiggs was a central figure in the post-World War II jazz revival, as he was a founder of the New Orleans Jazz Club and helped to bring many great jazzmen out of involuntary retirement. He convinced Radio WSMB to form an all-star band (with Julian Laine, Bujie Centobie, Armand Hug, Chink Martin, and Monk Hazel) to work weekly for the station for 18 months. He participated in the jazz revival by recording with Snoozer Quinn (Melancholy Baby), Santo Pecora, Raymond Burke and Doc Souchon, among others; Under his own name, he recorded four tracks for the small label New Orleans Records in 1948, Ultra Canal, Two Wing Temple in the Sky, Bourbon Street Bounce and Congo Square. In 1950, he recorded the standard Baby Won't You Please Come Home for Commodore Records. The 1950s are usually said to be Wiggs’s most prolific time, as he recorded frequently and played an important local role in the jazz community.
Johnny Wiggs & Wallace 1971
By the '60s he appeared only intermittently, but he still recorded and found time to work with Maxine Sullivan on her material. From 1969 to 1974, he performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and the Manassas Jazz Fest. He was a mentor to younger musicians such as George Finola, and helped found the New Orleans Jazz Club. Among his most famous students were Pete Fountain and George Girard.
He stopped playing during 1974 due to deteriorating health, and on the 9th October of 1977 he passed away in New Orleans, a relatively unknown figure in the genre, despite his impressive body of work.
(Edited from The New Grove Dictionary Of Jazz, 64 Parishes, Wikipedia & AllMusic)
Here's a rare clip of Johnny Wiggs Bayou Stompers at the Manassas Jazz Festival at the Stonewall Jackson High School in Manasss, VA, December 2, 1972. Be warned, this is what a much-transferred fifty four years-old videotape looks like, but the audio is loud and clear. Johnny Wiggs, Cornet - Raymond Burke, Clarinet - Graham Stewart, Trombone - Bob Greene, Piano - Danny Barker, Guitar - Freddie Moore - Drums.
You can hear in Wiggs, who was 73 at the time of this video, a sweet, sad evocation of what Bix might have sounded like had he lived on this long. Wiggs’ music plunges forward while looking over its shoulder in a melancholy, ruminative way. And although Wiggs recorded early (1927) and from 1949 into the fifties, his late work fully expresses a kind of autumnal sensibility, delicate without being timid or maudlin — the sweet voice of an elder who has seen a great deal and knows that life is sadly finite but celebrates that life with his cornet.(Jazz Lives)
Bobby Angelo (born July 24, 1941) was a British Rock 'n' Roll singer whose brief career was more successful in Sweden than in the UK, where he produced just one top 30 entry with Baby Sittin'.
Bobby Angelo, was born as Robert Hemmings in Ham, South West London, England. He first performed in 1960, as Bobby Vincent & the Shadows, and then as Bobby Angelo & the Tuxedos in 1961. The group The Shadows consisted of Peter Cresswell lead guitar, John Kent rhythm guitar, Jack Fry electric bass and Tony O'Toole drums, while the Tuxedos consisted of Roger Brown lead guitar, Colin Giffin rhythm guitar and sax, Dave Brown electric bass and Roger Groome drums. They started the band in 1960 in Surrey, England and it disbanded in 1963 and became the Innocents who backed the singers Mike Sarne & Mike Berry. The group later reformed in 1965 as "The End".
Bobby Angelo and the Tuxedos were on the UK charts in the autumn of 1961 with Baby Sittin', which peaked at number 30. The single became a European hit, reaching #1 in Germany and in Sweden, he came in sixth place on Tio i Topp and in thirteenth place on Radio Nord's top list in the spring of 1962. The single HMV POP 892 was released in July 1961 in England, but not until January 17, 1962 in Sweden. On the B-side was Skinny Lizzie.
When they were in the Abbey Road studio in the summer of 1961, they thought it was an audition and did spontaneous guitar solos in the songs, which they only took in one take. Imagine their surprise when a few weeks later a single with Baby Sittin' and Skinny Lizzie came out from their audition!
Pictured with Bobby Angelo and the Tuxedos is singer Susan Terry. She performed locally in Dorking with various bands until she was 16. Then she became part of the Tuxedos, who accompanied Bobby Angelo, and helped him make his first recording, Baby Sittin'. In 1961, a strong friendship developed between Susan and Bobby, even after Susan left the Tuxedos.
In 1964, two singles were released in Sweden on Sonet, in March with Staying Up Late and Broken Dreams and in April with Talk and Taste Of The Blues. The four songs were also released on an EP, Bobby Angelo. The same year, a third single was released in Sweden, with I Like The Way You Do It and Rip It Up, where Bobby was accompanied by the Hi-Grades.
By the mid‑1960s, the British music scene had shifted dramatically, dominated by The Beatles, Merseybeat, and later rock groups. Angelo’s style, rooted in early rock ’n’ roll, fell out of fashion and he quit after his last single in 1967.Mr. Love / I Got Wise was released in Sweden. It was recorded in R G Jones Studio in London with the group the End, which was actually his old backing group the Tuxedos. The producer was Bill Wyman, then a member of the Rolling Stones.
He reportedly worked with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page during his final years in the industry (likely in session or club contexts). He later became a qualified engineer in London. And that dear friends is all I can muster. Any other information or corrections will be gladly accepted. If "Bobby Angelo" is still with us he will be 85 years old today!
(Edited from Facebook Music groups, rocky52, Rate Your Music, Last.fm & Discogs)
Kid Dynamite (July 23, 1911 - December 14th, 1963) was a pioneering Surinamese-Dutch jazz saxophonist. He is celebrated for being one of the first Black musicians to bring swing jazz mixed with Afro-Surinamese traditional music (kaseko) to the Netherlands during the 1930s. His performances were never officially released on record, leaving behind a legacy mainly in the form of written compositions and lyrics.
Saxophonist and clarinetist Kid Dynamite was born Lodewijk Rudolph Arthur Parisius, in the Para District of Suriname. He spent his formative years immersed in the Afro-Surinamese traditional religion winti, which deeply influenced his musical style. He arrived in The Netherlands in 1928 as a stowaway on board the Royal Netherlands Steamship Company ship The Cottica. His friends Frits Blijd (1907-1992) and Frans Vroom (1905-1989) had preceded him earlier. After their arrival in the Netherlands, the three men almost immediately found employment in the entertainment sector, the only industry where their different skin colour worked to their advantage. Frans Vroom called himself Prince Kaya from then on and became a well-known figure in the capital's nightclub scene as a doorman, contortionist and percussionist. Frits Blijd hid behind the stage names Freddy Blythe, Jackie Blue and Rico Fernando, worked as a drummer and dancer, posed as a 'negro model' for students of the Rietveld Academy and opened a 'tap dance school' on the Frederiksplein in Amsterdam in the fifties.
Arthur Parisius would manifest himself as the most successful artist of the trio and amassed his start-up capital by performing as a fire-eater at a fair, which was an activity from which he is said to have derived the name Kid Dynamite. A frugal spending pattern enabled him to save enough within ten months to be able to afford the purchase of a second-hand alto saxophone. He picked up jazz during his first years in the Netherlands and learnt to play jazz by listening and playing along with records he bought in the port of Rotterdam. The music of the American jazz giants Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong were his greatest heroes in this respect.
In addition he was blessed with a good singing voice and was an excellent percussionist. He became the first prominent Afro-Surinam tenor saxophonist, who was respected by many colleague-musicians. When the great Coleman Hawkins heard him play for the first time, he said "tell the people, this guy is alright". Later they would make music together and Kid considered Hawkins to be his musical father. In many pubs where Kid Dynamite could be heard, his Coleman Hawkins-like improvisations were appreciated. Fortunately, he was able to play something that no Dutch saxophonist had in house: 'Surinamese jazz'. He focused on the bigi pokoe, which means both big drum and big music. The ideal line-up consists of alto sax, possibly trumpet, string drum, bass drum and double bass. Cheerful dance music from a bigi pokoe band is called kaseko.
Throughout World War II, the occupying forces banned jazz and targeted Black performers. It was a dangerous time for Kid Dynamite, as a Surinamese in a white society. However, the Rotterdam neighbourhood of Katendrecht became a notable safe haven. Kid Dynamite was able to continue playing, keeping the swing and jazz scenes alive in the Netherlands while the rest of the country was under strict occupation.
After the war, he was increasingly asked to play with Dutch jazz orchestras, such as The Grasshoppers conducted by Cor van Peperzeel. Bebop, Latin jazz, Dixieland, dance or party music, Kid Dynamite mastered all genres. In 1947 he was on the road with The Grasshoppers through Switzerland and Spain practically all year round. He later formed his own combo, Kid Dynamite and his Jungle Rhythms, while at the same time playing with bands like The Black and White Stars and Bonanza Boys. He subsequently enjoyed great fame in the 1950s as a musician at the Casablanca Jazz Club on Amsterdam's Zeedijk.
When following the rise of rock-'n-roll, jazz declines in popularity in the early 1960s, so Kid Dynamite started to focus on a Latin American repertoire. In December of 1963 Kid Dynamite was touring Germany with Rico Fernando, when his taxi is involved in a major accident near Hamburg. Kid Dynamite died due to his injuries a week later on December 14th, 1963. His legacy has been preserved and revived by later generations of Dutch-Surinamese musicians.
(Edited from the Dutch sites Rebel Base, Historiek & Jonge Historici)
Gray Bartlett (born July 22nd, 1942) is a Guitarist, Musical Director, Composer, Producer, and Concert Promoter who has been picking his way to success for over many years. Through 30 albums and 20 singles, Gray has sold well in excess of a million units of his music.
He was born Graeme Neil Bartlett in Auckland, New Zealand. Gray's first musical experience was at age 15 after leaving Auckland Grammar School. One of his four brothers, Barry (he also has three sisters), taught him to play the guitar, and after answering an advertisement, he joined a band called "The Phantoms". They performed at local dances and came runner-up in a radio competition called "Have A Shot". Gray was offered his chance to record by Zodiac Records in 1961; the result was his first single, "Last Stage West". Between that single and 1965, he began his road to success with offers to tour the country with some well-known international artists of the day, including British singing star Vera Lynn, Tom Jones, and the group Herman's Hermits.
He also performed shows in Tokyo, and in 1965, the break came. Gray released the single "Lay Playa" and it made the charts in New Zealand and in Japan (reaching No. 2 there), selling an unprecedented 410,000 copies. He had his own show at the Tokyo Hilton in 1967, and was resident guitarist on Rolf Harris shows in England and Australia from 1968 to 1973. Bartlett has toured and supported many international acts including Connie Francis, Bobby Vee, The Ventures, Tom Jones, Herman's Hermits, Michael Crawford.
Gray with Tom Jones
With so much achieved by Gray in his long musical career, one of his greatest highlights was being awarded an MBE in the 1987 Queen's New Years Honours list, for his service to entertainment. Another was being accepted by the Chinese Government in 1986 to perform in China, a first for a New Zealand entertainer. This led to numerous concert tours, fourteen to date and the release of his albums has seen him become very popular in China, winning the "Foreign Artist of the Year" Golden Plume Award in 1987. Also that year Bartlett was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1987 New Year Honours, for services to entertainment.
His numerous awards include the NZCMA Hands of Fame in 1981, Top NZ Country Band in 1983, NZ Country Instrumentalist of the Year in 1984 and 1986, Top Country Group of the Year 1984, Country Music Industry Golden Tribute Award for services to country music in 1988, and the Guangzhou (China) Golden Plume Award for Top Foreign Artist Sales in 1988. He was named New Zealand Country Music Artist of the Year 1990, Patron of the New Zealand Country Music Association from 1987, and was New Zealand Cultural Ambassador 1985–86.
Gray with Roy Orbison
Gray's style is uniquely his own with such a diverse range of musical directions. In the mid 80's and early '90s, he recorded several very successful Country Albums including a Double Gospel Album, for which he received a Gold Album, and huge country music following came from that and others that followed. His 1990 Together Again national tour was named the Biggest Selling Concert Tour by New Zealand Artists and the companion album attained Gold status in seven days, making it the fastest selling album in New Zealand history. He has also recorded both Popular and Classical and had huge album and concert tour successes with his fellow entertainer's country music stars Brendan Dugan and Jodi Vaughan. The trio celebrated 25 years in 2002 with a sell-out star of British TV Soap drama, Kevin Kennedy (who plays Curly Watts) who is also a recording artist. The concerts received rave reviews and counted as another huge success for Gray who not only performed but put the concept and tour in place as well. As well as his music career, Gray was also an Auckland City Councillor for nine years until retiring from his position in 2001.
Gray's skills as a promoter in the entertainment industry have not gone unrecognized and he has been involved in touring many of the big names in show business, from Pavarotti, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Boney M from the UK, to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Band. Gray has an eye for young and talented artists, and it was he who discovered young songstress Hayley Westenra, who went on, under Gray's guidance, to have her first solo album release go triple platinum in New Zealand. Gray arranged the concept strategy, media planning, and recording contract with Universal Music (NZ) Ltd for the talented 14-year-old, which led to the fastest-selling CD in New Zealand history. Gray is Patron of the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand Inc and in 2001 he received their prestigious Benny Award, the highest honour for a New Zealand entertainer.
In February 2002 Gray arranged for Hayley Westenra to appear in the McCallum Theatre, Palm Desert, USA, and was able to introduce another of his talented discoveries at the same concert, 15-year-old violinist Ben Morrison. The concert was a sell-out, and Ben Morrison received a standing ovation, much to Gray's delight. Ben is now on the verge of success in the music industry following the success of his first recording in 2003. (No 15 New Zealand national charts.) Bartlett received his New Zealand Boulevard Star on the 31st March 2012.
In October 2017 he was presented with the President's Medallion from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand in recognition of his services as Patron. Gray is in the fortunate position of not only being a success story himself but also being able to share some of his vast experience in designing the careers of new talent. This gives him a great deal of pleasure as well as finding the time to do charity concerts for many good causes, including the SPCA, which is a favourite for him.
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