Johnny Chester

John Howard Chester was born on 26 December 1941 and grew up in Melbourne's suburb of Preston.[1][3][4] His father, Jack, was a mechanic who had a garage in Carlton, and his mother was Norma.[5] He has two younger sisters, Jill (born ca.1945) and Margaret (born ca. 1951).[6] Chester attended, North Fitzroy Primary School, Tyler Street Preston Primary school and Bell Primary, and followed with Preston Technical School.[5] At the age of 14, he left school and worked as a brake specialist for his father.[7] From the age of six, he learned to play the drums[8] and guitar.[1][7]

In October 1959, Chester formed a band, The Jaywoods, and organised dances at a West Preston church hall: "I could play the guitar ... but I was pretty useless at it. So I started singing – and the kids seemed to like my voice ... We used to get about 200 kids to these dances ... We had an old amplifier that distorted everything, but we thought we were mighty".[5][7] His idols were Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent and locally Johnny O'Keefe.[1] Music journalist, Ed Nimmervoll, noted "without really trying the Jaywoods' rehearsals were attracting a crowd to St. Cecilia's Hall in West Preston, which turned into regular Saturday night dance".[2] By 1960, The Jaywoods became Johnny Chester and The Chessmen, with Chester on lead vocals, Jeff Cason on Upright Acoustic Double bass, Huey Fry on lead guitar, Albert Stacpool on piano, Les Stacpool on saxophone, and Len Woodhouse on drums.[9] The following year the line-up was Bert Stacpool, Les Stacpool (then on guitar), Frank McMahon on bass guitar, and Graeme Trottman on drums.[9]

Chester was also backed by The Thunderbirds, which were an instrumental group formed in 1957 and, by the end of 1960, consisted of Henri Bource on saxophone and flute, Harold Frith on drums, Charles Gauld on guitar, Gordon Onley on bass guitar and Murray Robertson on piano.[10] Both backing bands maintained independent careers, released their own material and backed other artists.[9][10] In April 1961 Chester's first stadium performance was supporting Connie Francis and Johnny Burnette.[7]

One of his early fans was radio DJ, Stan Rofe, who promoted the artist on the 3KZ program, Platter Parade.[1] Rofe was highly supportive and introduced Chester to W&G Record's Ron Tudor.[1][2] Chester signed with the label and issued his debut single, "Hokey Pokey", in May 1961 with backing by The Thunderbirds.[1][10] The track became a top 10 hit in Melbourne.[1] His second single, "Can Can Ladies", appeared in July and reached the local top 5 in July.[1] In January 1962 a third single backed by The Thunderbirds, "Shakin' All Over", reached No. 4.[1] Johnny Chester and The Chessmen toured to Brisbane and Hobart but had less popularity in Sydney.[2]

From 1962 to 1964 his next eight singles for W&G were all recorded with backing by The Chessmen.[1] Of these, the highest charting was a cover version of Cochran's "Summertime Blues", which appeared at No. 6 in December 1962.[1] He had also issued his debut album, Wild and Warm in 1963 and two extended plays, Johnny Chester's Hit Parade and My Blues and I, with W&G.[1] In February that year he took over as host of Teen Time on Ten, on regional Gippsland channel GLV-10.[11] Australian Women's Weekly's Ainslie Baker declared he had "proved himself an easy, friendly talker" and predicted this could lead to his "having Melbourne's first teenage TV show".[11]

In June 1964, Chester supported the Australian tour by The Beatles with his backing by The Phantoms.[1][12] According to Chester "my only worry is that I mightn't live up to this honour and obligation to give the kids a good performance".[6] He was disappointed that The Chessmen were unavailable for the 19 gigs, through state capitals and to New Zealand, "As all the boys have day jobs ... they would not be able to get the time off".[6] The Phantoms were another instrumental group, which had formed in 1960, and by 1964 had the line-up of Alan Fenton on drums, Bob Garde on rhythm guitar, Dave Lincoln on lead guitar, and Pete Watson on bass guitar.[12] From October for two seasons, Chester was the host of ABC TV program, Teen Scene, with The Chessmen as the resident band.[1][9]

He recorded further material for W&G on their sub-label, In Records, but none charted, and by mid-1966 he parted with the W&G and The Chessmen.[1] Retaining Bert Stacpool, he formed the Johnny Chester Four with Johnny Marco on guitar and Tom Vigushin on bass guitar.[1] As well as maintaining his musical career, Chester was a DJ for eight years on Melbourne radio station, 3UZ.[1] In May 1968, Chester joined with a new backing band, Jigsaw, with Fenton, Ray Eames on lead guitar (ex-Tony Worsley and the Fabulous Blue Jays), Ron Gilby on rhythm guitar, Dennis Tucker on bass guitar (both Merv Benton and the Tamlas),[1][13] and later in 1968, they toured Vietnam performing for the Australian and American Forces. Jigsaw also had an independent career.[13] Chester's last pop single, "Heaven Help the Man", appeared in 1968 on Astor Records.[1] According to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, Chester is "one of Melbourne's first and best rock'n'roll singers of the early 1960s".[1] Music journalist, author and historian, Ed Nimmervoll, felt that in the early 1960s, Chester was an "essential inclusion on any major national rock package coming into Melbourne", and during the 1970s he "helped bring Australian country music to pop respectability".[2]

In 1969, Chester's first two country music singles, "Green Green" and "Highway 31", were issued on Phillips Records.[1] Johnny Chester and Jigsaw signed to Fable Records, owned by Tudor (ex-W&G Records). Fenton died in an industrial accident during the construction of the South Eastern Freeway in Melbourne and was replaced on drums by Eddie Chapel. At about that time, Eames was replaced by Jon Calderwood.[13] In August 1970, Jigsaw, without Chester, had a number-one hit with a cover version of United Kingdom group, Christie's "Yellow River". It was co-credited with Sydney-based band Autumn which also covered the track.[13][14] With Chester, Jigsaw had five hit singles on the Go-Set National Top 40: "Gwen (Congratulations)" (No. 26, October 1971), "Shame and Scandal" (No. 13, February 1972), "Midnight Bus" (No. 25, December), "The World's Greatest Mum" (No. 9, August 1973) and "She's My Kind of Woman" (No. 19, June 1974).[15]

Chester has won Golden Guitars at the Country Music Awards of Australia for best selling track in 1975.[16] In 1977, he toured nationally, backed by the Blue Denim Country Band, and also compered Country Road for ABC-TV.[1] In 1979, he formed Hotspur and continued to issue country music singles and albums into the 1980s.[1] From 1981 to 1983, at three successive Tamworth Country Music Festivals, he won Male Vocalist of the Year.[1][2][17] In 1994, he was awarded the Songmaker of the Year Award from the Tamworth Songwriters Association.

• Official website
• Johnny Chester, 3 June 1964, Australian Women's Weekly, p. 60, Supplement: Teenager's Weekly, archived at National Library of Australia.
• Johnny Chester, wedding photo, Herald and Weekly Times, ca. October 1964, archived at State Library of Victoria.