Jeff St John (born Jeffrey Leo Newton; 22 April 1946 – 6 March 2018), was an Australian musician best known for several Australian hits, such as ''"Teach Me How to Fly"'' (1970), ''"Big Time Operator"'' (1967) and ''"A Fool in Love"'' (1977).

Early life

St John was born Jeffrey Leo Newton on 22 April 1946, in Newtown,

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, and attended Cleveland Street Boys High School in

Surry Hills, New South Wales Surry Hills is an Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), inner-east suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local gover ...

. He was born with

spina bifida Spina bifida (SB; ; Latin for 'split spine') is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the vertebral column, spine and the meninges, membranes around the spinal cord during embryonic development, early development in pregnancy. T ...

and spent much of his life in a wheelchair.

Music career

St John appeared with a number of bands during the late 1960s and early 1970s including; John The Syndicate aka The Wild Oats (1965), The Id (1966–67) with

Bob Bertles Bob Bertles (6 March 1939 – 30 December 2024) was an Australian jazz alto, tenor and baritone saxophonist and bandleader. Life and career Bertles was born in Melbourne on 6 March 1939. A self-taught musician, Bertles in the late 1950s and earl ...

(tenor sax 1967), Jeff St John & Yama (1967–68), Jeff St John & Copperwine (1969–72), with Harry Brus (bass 1970–72) and Wendy Saddington (co-lead vocals 1970–71), Jeff St John Band (1972–73) and Red Cloud (1975–76) In 1980, St John was the subject of an episode of the documentary series ''The Australians'', presented by

Peter Luck Peter Anthony Luck (5 January 1944 – 6 September 2017) was an Australian author, TV journalist, producer and presenter. Career As a television personality, among the shows he worked on were ''This Day Tonight'', ''Four Corners'', ''Sunday'', ...

. The episode was titled "Jeff St. John – Rock 'n' Roll Man". In 1988, as part of

Australian Bicentenary The bicentenary of Australia was celebrated in 1988. It marked 200 years since the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. History The bicentennial year marked Captain Arthur Phillip's arrival with the 11 ships ...

celebrations along with many other Australian celebrities, St John took part in a video shoot at

Uluru Uluru (; ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone monolith. It outcrop, crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory, south-west of Alice Spri ...

(once called Ayers Rock), called ''Celebration of a Nation.'' 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 The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was the last time that the Summer Paralympics were organized by two different Organ ...

where he sang the

Australian National Anthem "Advance Australia Fair" is the national anthem of Australia. Written by Scottish-born Australian composer Peter Dodds McCormick, the song was first performed as a patriotic song in Australia in 1878. It replaced "God Save the Queen" as the of ...

., 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.

Discography

Albums

Charting singles

Death

Jeff St John died in the morning of 6 March 2018, at

Fiona Stanley Hospital Fiona Stanley Hospital (FSH) is a state government hospital and teaching facility in Murdoch, Western Australia. Completed in December 2013, the hospital is the largest building project ever undertaken for the Government of Western Australia. I ...

Perth, Western Australia Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. His death was caused by a bacterial infection following surgery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:St John, Jeff 1946 births 2018 deaths Australian male singers Singers from Sydney People with spina bifida