1927 |
Born in North Sydney on February 1. |
1941 |
First instrument: A combination banjo, mandolin and guitar with correspondence music lessons. |
1942 |
First guitar: Acoustic Hawaiian lap steel |
1942 |
Wrote first factual song, Lonesome Pal. |
1944 |
Took wool classing course at East Sydney Technical College. |
1944 |
Performed Lonesome Pal on nationally broadcast Australia’s Amateur Hour–came second. |
1946 |
Performed the Overlander Trail on Australia’s Amateur Hour–came first. |
1946 |
First recording: When I Waltzed My Matilda Away, a 78rpm for radio only. |
1946 |
First road shows: the Spastic Centre Show and Jerry Hartley and His Serenaders. |
1947 |
First major road show: the 2000-seat Great Levante Show, the biggest ever vaudeville outfit in Australia. |
1948 |
First overseas show: toured New Zealand with Varieties of 1948. |
1948 |
First radio production: Roundup Time, an 8-programme series rebroadcast for three years, aired through New Zealand’s National Radio Network emanating from 2YA Wellington. |
1948 |
Married first wife, New Zealander Shirley Williams. Three children–John, Tracey and Mark. |
Circa 1953 |
Wrote and performed series for ABC Radio, Songs of the Homestead, produced by Kay Kinane. |
1954 |
First commercial recordings: Six sides for Rodeo Records, recorded in Radio 2UE’s studios, Sydney. |
Circa 1954 |
Performed in first in-house experimental pre-TV test at Frenchs Forest, Sydney. |
1955 |
Toured the whole year with Slim Dusty's first national tour. |
1955 |
Wrote Australia’s first trucking song, Highway 31. |
1956 |
Released very first Australian vinyl micro-groove country and western album, Songs Of The Western Trail (Philips). |
1956 |
One of the first artists and the first country and western artist to appear on Australian television (ABC Channel 2 Sydney with Gordon Chater). Also wrote show’s theme, Crazy (Kings) Cross. |
1958 |
First Dixieland record, Dig That Dixie, with Graeme Bell. |
1958 |
Recorded his first R&B song Bouquet For The Bride and his first rock song Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. |
1958 |
First hit: They’re A Weird Mob recorded in skiffle style. |
1960 |
Wrote and recorded smash hit single, Little Boy Lost (with Nancy Eichhorn). |
1960 |
Little Boy Lost released in most other English-speaking countries throughout the world. Covered by overseas recording artists, including Jimmy Dean (USA) and Michael Holliday (UK). |
1960 |
First Australian 45rpm Gold Record issued for Little Boy Lost. |
1961 |
First New Zealand Gold Record issued for Little Boy Lost. |
1963 |
Recorded the Top 10 Changi prison-camp hit single, The Girl Behind The Bar. |
1964 |
With family, became the first non-Indigenes to be accepted as members of Sydney’s Foundation For Aboriginal Affairs. |
1964 |
Released One More Time Around, an album of previously released singles. |
1965 |
Released the album Mostly Folk, featuring folk version of Little Boy Lost. |
Circa 1967 |
Mostly Folk album re-released as Little Boy Lost. Went Gold. |
1968 |
Released You And I Country Style with Kathleen McCormack. |
1970 |
Worked from a pontoon in the middle of Sydney Harbour to 110 000 people gathered on the foreshores and Sydney Harbour Bridge (Bi-Centenary of Captain Cook claiming the east coast of Australia for England). |
1971 |
Suggested, at a triple Gold Record presentation in Tamworth NSW, that Tamworth should present Country Music Awards. Adopted in 1973. |
1973 |
Released Number One hit Playground In My Mind. |
1973 |
Life threatening melanoma removed. |
1974 |
Under the auspices of the Australian Festival of Performing Arts, starred with Gay Kayler in the first all-Australian country music show in the Sydney Opera House three months after it opened. When they headed up the Australian Variety Show in that same prestigious venue two months later, it established both artists as leaders in the popular arts. |
1975 |
Wrote first Australian female trucking song, My Home-coming Trucker's Coming Home. Recorded by Gay Kayler. |
1975 |
First record production–My Homecoming Trucker’s Coming Home/Nobody’s Child. |
1975 |
Wrote and recorded the Red Shield Appeal’s hit song, Holy Joe The Salvo. Thereafter the 'Sallys’ were known as the‘Salvos’. |
1975 |
Toured Papua New Guinea with Gay Kayler–auspices Niugini Airways. |
1975 |
Inaugural President of Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA). |
1977 |
Imprinted in the inaugural Australasian Country Music Hands Of Fame. |
1978 |
Recorded the movie version of Little Boy Lost with Gay Kayler. |
1978 |
Supported Gay Kayler on soundtrack of Little Boy Lost movie. Cameo appearance with the real Little Boy Lost, Stevens Walls. |
1978 |
Performed at world premiere of Little Boy Lost movie, with child star Nathan Dawes. Movie received Catholic Award For Decency in Germany. Later released world-wide on DVD. |
1979 |
Elected Inaugural Vice-President of the Professional Country Music Association of Australia (PCMAA). |
1979 |
After two approaches by others, successfully represented PCMAA to have country music accepted as separate entity in the Australian Variety Artists Mo Awards. |
1979 |
With Gay Kayler, wrote, researched and produced the highly successful Australiana series called The Imagine That! Australiana Show, which ran for eleven years. |
1980 |
Recorded Beyond His Best on the sound track of Des Renford’s Logie-Award-winning Sports Documentary, Ironmen Of The Sea. |
1980 |
Received the first Australian Variety Artists Mo Award for Male Country Entertainer. |
1981 |
Queensland Country Music National Male Award presented by the Hon Bill Hayden. |
1981 |
Married second wife, Gay Kayler. |
1981 |
Wrote and recorded (with Gay Kayler) the David Callan At Your Club commercial–played over 31 000 times on Sydney radio stations 2GB, 2WS and 2CH. |
1981 |
Created his disco-singing alter ego, the Baron. |
1981 |
Released A Time For Change album on RCA. |
1981 |
Released the Baron’s 12-inch disco single of Sixteen Tons Of Hit The Road Jack. |
Circa 1981 |
Recorded multiple tongue-twisting sound tracks for the Castlereagh Line–the Grace Gibson big-hit radio serial broadcast Australia wide. Still being re-broadcast. |
1982 |
Badly injured (with Gay Kayler) in major road accident. |
1986 |
Elevated to the Australasian Country Music Roll Of Renown. |
1987 |
Formed Heritage Productions P/L with Gay Kayler, Bettybo and Kevin Reiman–the last true theatrical company to appear on the Registered Club Circuit. |
1990 |
Heritage Productions released best-selling album, The Cross Of The Five Silver Stars. |
1990 |
Awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM). |
1990 |
Educational performances of the Imagine That! Australiana Perspectives disbanded. Previously seen by over half a million children. |
1991 |
Heritage Productions also disbanded due to death of a key shareholder. |
1995 |
Appointed a Fellow of the Australian Institute of History and Arts (FAIHA). |
2004 |
Adopted into the Gamilaraay Nation by Gamilaraay elder, Centennial Medal holder and United Nations keynote speaker, Barbara Flick, because of 'ground-breaking' presentations of Australia's First Nations people, both traditional and present day. |
2021 |
Johnny Ashcroft died peacefully in Sydney on 19 May 2021, aged 94 years. |
2022 |
Gay Kayler presented The Johnny Ashcroft and Gay Kayler Legacy Collection to the Australian Country Music Hall of Fame, Tamworth (Gamilaraay Country). 977 items, 79 recordings, multiple posters and 18 recorded backgrounds joined Johnny’s and Gay’s artefacts already in the Museum. |