Jeff St. John born 22 April 1946

Jeff St John (born Jeffrey Leo Newton; 22 April 1946 – 6 March 2018), was an Australian musician, singer and songwriter. 

St John was born Jeffrey Leo Newton on 22 April 1946, in Newtown, Sydney, Australia, and attended Cleveland Street Boys High School in Surry Hills, New South Wales. He was born with spina bifida and spent much of his life in a wheelchair. He had been singing since the age of eight in talent quests staged by radio station 2GB. At 15 he had a role as a featured vocalist on the Nine Network's Opportunity Knocks and was seen often on television. 

A chance meeting at the Sydney Musician's Club in 1965 marked the beginning of St. John’s  professional singing career. The product of that meeting at the Muso's Club was The Syndicate, later renamed The Wild Oats and eventually The Id – hailed then as the "finest soul/rhythm & blues outfit that Sydney had been blessed to contain".

They opened at the city's first real discotheque, Rhubarbs, and cut their debut single Lindy Lou. There was little commercial success forthcoming for that and two subsequent singles and it was not until 1967, after they had accepted a three-month residency at North Sydney's Here Disco, that waves began to build. 

Word soon spread about this mind-blowing funky band and their freak-voiced singer who could scorch the paint off walls with his high notes. Every night the venue would be packed to the gunwales and each night the roaring, finely-controlled voice of Jeff St John would win more converts for life. A fourth Id single, Big Time Operator, exploded in February 1967, streaking to number seven nationally. They opened for the Roy Orbison/Walker Brothers/Yardbirds tour and undertook a riotous season at Melbourne's Thumpin' Tum. 

After a second hit with You Got Me Hummin', The Id splintered. St John continued on with a new band, Yama, a single called Nothing Comes Easy, and a four-month bout in hospital which proved that title correct. Afflicted with congenital spina bifida since birth, he underwent a leg operation that proved a failure. Whereas he had been able to appear on stage with the use of calipers which gave him a reasonable amount of mobility, he was now consigned forever to what he saw as a dreaded wheelchair. 

                               

Down but certainly not out, he would come to use his wheelchair with a level of speed and aggressive determination that had many feel they were watching a basketball match at the Paralympics. He assembled a new band in Perth in 1969. Jeff St John's Copperwine was hailed as "a truly magical outfit", with an exhilarating mixture of fine musicianship, intense emotional vocals and a definite uncompromising direction. They soon trekked across the continent to become founding fathers, with Tully and Tamam Shud, of a flowering Sydney progressive concert scene. 

At the end of 1970 the band was riding high with the national hit Teach Me How To Fly. For many of his devoted followers there was something symbolic about that particular song and their memories of the man. There was a second, lesser hit with Hummingbird and then, like the Id and Yama, the band, at least with St John out front, was no longer there. It is said there were bitter arguments about his songwriting aspirations. Plainly, St John wanted things done his way and, throughout the Seventies that is basically how it unfolded. With his new Jeff St John Group he took second place to Sherbet in the 1972 National Battle of the Sounds, then entered the studios to cut his first solo single, Yesterday's Music. He also landed the support role on national tours by Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. 

St.John & Bo Diddley

On the eve of a seven-month working visit to Britain, on December 27, 1973, St John bade a dynamic farewell to an exceptional year, one which had seen him collect an Outstanding Vocalist of the Year gong, with a concert at Sydney Opera House. For a decade, St John had spoken hopefully of a solo album. After a couple of quiet years, he returned to prominence with the album So Far So Good. 

In 1983, at the age of 37, Jeff surprised the industry when he announced his retirement. He moved to Perth in the late 90s. It was there, 15 years after retirement that a friend invited him onstage in Fremantle. That inspired Jeff to make one more album, the 30s and 40s standards record ‘Will The Real Jeff St John Please Stand Up?’ in 2001. 

St John was involved in educating people about disabilities and was a member of spina bifida support group MOSAIC. He appeared at the opening of the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney where he sang the Australian National Anthem., and a song written for the opening ceremony called The Challenge. St John's autobiography, The Jeff St John Story: The Inside Outsider, edited by James Anfuso, was published by Starman Books in 2015. 

He died in the morning of 6 March 2018, at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. His death was caused by a bacterial infection following surgery. 

(Edited from Glenn A. Baker obit @ The Sydney Morning Heraald)