Released 4th of August, 2007

Johnny Ashcroft - Little Boy Lost - declared, at 8-years old, that when he grew up he would write songs and sing them to people

FROM THE EARLY YEARS
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 one-sided 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 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 (Phillips).


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: 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 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 During the Festival of Performing Arts, which was presented within the first three months of the opening of the Sydney Opera House, starred with Gay Kayler in the first all-Australian country music show. Both artists also headed up the Australian Variety Show in the Opera House two months later.
1975 Wrote first Australian female trucking song. 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 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

Steven, the real life Little Boy Lost, receives a kiss from Mum, Dorrie Walls.

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 National Award presented by the Hon Bill Hayden for Service to Australian Country Music.
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 altar ego, the Baron.
1981 Released A Time For Change album on RCA.
1981 Released the Baron’s 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 rebroadcast.
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  


Johnny Ashcroft, Gay Kayler, Bettybo & Shep Davis
Click to Enlarge
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).