From the Early Years

Gay Kayler (Gay Kahler) began her showbusiness training at two years of age by singing to passengers on Sydney's buses and trams

1941
Born in Gatton Queensland on September 27. From a musical family. Gay’s singer/musician mother, Violet, played with her siblings in their father’s dance band on Queensland’s Darling Downs.
1941
Wartime: Family moved to Sydney NSW. Father, George, was an aircraft inspector at the Qantas Flying Boat Base.
1952
Aged ten, sang on the first reel-to-reel tape recorder in Australia–demonstrated by the Royal Australian Navy at Sydney’s Royal Easter Show.
1956 Passed Seventh Grade piano exam; also Theory and Musical Perception.
1958
First professional engagement–the New Year’s Eve Gala Dinner at Lennons Hotel Toowoomba, Queensland.
1958 Everybody Loves A Lover and Tom Dooley recorded by the legendary Arch Kerr on HMV recording equipment
1959
At seventeen worked as out-front vocalist for a leading Queensland orchestra.
1959
First concert performance–Toowoomba’s Coronet Theatre.
1959
First ball–the Bankers’ Ball.
1959
Sang The Alexandra Waltz at the Centenary Royal Ball for Princess Alexandra who, by Royal Command, insisted that Gay sing three more songs.
1959
First ‘live’ broadcast on Toowoomba radio in the Diggers’ Show.
1960
First TV appearance–Sydney’s Keith Walsh Show.
1960
First appearance on Channel 2 Brisbane. Performed with ABC personality Russ Tyson in an innovative split screen presentation.
1960
First TCN Channel 9 appearance.
1960
First appearance on BTQ Channel 7, both songs recorded on 331/3 rpm microgroove.
1960
Shared billing in the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers with ‘a trio of brothers including 9-year-olds’, who were misadvertised as the ‘Bee Bees’ (the Bee Gees).
1960 Miss Darling DownsMiss Darling Downs in the Miss Australia Quest.
1960
First modelling engagement.
Circa 1961
Black and White TV shot of Theatre Royal appearanceContracted to Channel 7 for three years. Sang in up to four of its five weekly variety shows–including George Wallace Junior’s Theatre Royal.
1961
The Sunday Mail’s Kirra Sun Girl.
1961
An RSL Girl In A Million title holder.
1962
First appearance on Johnny O’Keefe’s Sing, Sing, Sing.
1962 Shot live with Bandstand's Brian HendersonFirst appearance on Bandstand.
1962 An appreciative kiss from Col JoyeFirst tour–opened at Brisbane’s Festival Hall with the Col Joye Show.
1963
Worked with Graeme Bell on his national TV show, Trad Jazz.
1963
Guest star on DDQ10’s Club Cabaret First Birthday Show.
1963 Live on CameraFirst appearance on HSV 7 Melbourne’s Variety 7 with George Wallace Junior and Eddie Edwards.
1963
Elected as Inaugural President of the Toowoomba Bachelor Girls service club.
1964 Gay and Bert Newton during a breakFirst commercial (with Bert Newton)–on location at Green Island on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
1965
First marriage televised by Channel 7.
1968
Son, John McGuire, born.
1970
Resident female vocalist at Brisbane’s historic Cloudland Ballroom until December, 1972.
1971
Permanent out-front vocalist with Radio 4IP Brisbane’s 16-piece Show Band.
1973
Moved to Sydney to work on the NSW Registered Club Entertainment Circuit.
1973
First NSW tour (with the Johnny Ashcroft Show).
1973
First worked solo and in duo act with Johnny Ashcroft.
1973
First appearance on John Williamson’s TV show, Travellin’ Out West.
1973
Launched first LP, Faces of Love with Johnny Ashcroft.
1973 The White Magnolia TreeThe White Magnolia Tree, lifted from Faces Of Love and now identified with Gay Kayler, was available for more than thirty-three years
1974
One of the first Australian artists to appear in the Sydney Opera House. Starred with Johnny Ashcroft in the first country music show to be presented in that iconic setting (part of the Australian Festival of Performing Arts). First of eight appearances in this venue.
1975
Recorded first single for RCA.
1976
Recorded Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal Song.
1976 Opened and closed concert in the Sydney Opera House, backed by a massive Salvation Army band and 300 singers.
1977
Toured Papua New Guinea (with Johnny Ashcroft) sponsored by Air Niugini.
1977
Recorded the award-winning Dream Away My Life.
1978 Changed surname spelling from Kahler to Kayler when a leading Sydney radio personality pronounced Kahler as ‘Karler’ while introducing one of her recordings.
1978
Female voice on Johnny Ashcroft’s movie-version of RCA's Little Boy Lost.
1978
Female vocalist on the sound track of the Little Boy Lost movie.
1978 At Little Boy Lost Movie PremierePerformed at the world premiere of the Little Boy Lost movie.
1979
Elected Inaugural Secretary of the Professional Country Music Association of Australia (PCMAA).
1979 PCMAA Logo designDesigned PCMAA logo. Instrumental in having Country Music accepted as a separate entity in the Australian Variety Artists "Mo" Awards.
1979
Researched, scripted and produced (with Johnny Ashcroft) the Imagine That! Australiana Show series.
1980
Co-produced and performed in the inaugural Country Music Mo Awards segment with Tommy Tycho’s International Orchestra, which brought two thousand pros in Sydney’s Regent Theatre to their feet–the only standing ovation of the star-studded evening.
1980
Judges’ finalist for Best Female and Best Duo (with Johnny Ashcroft) categories in the Australasian Country Music Awards.
1981
Married Johnny Ashcroft.
1981
Received the Queensland Country Music National Female Award. Presented by the Hon Bill Hayden.
1981
Alter ego, Lady Finflingkington–the Baron’s consort, appeared on record and in the Good Time Gotcha Show for the first time.
1982
Major car crash with Johnny Ashcroft. Injuries brought an abrupt end to many projects.
1982
Received the only ‘Fosters salute’ (standing ovation) from twenty thousand fans at Victoria’s Wandong Country Music Festival.
1989
Recorded The Cross Of The Five Silver Stars album with Johnny Ashcroft, Bettybo and Shep Davis - an Australasian Country Music Heritage Award finalist at Tamworth.
1994 Australasian Country Music Hands Of FameImprinted in the Australasian Country Music Hands Of Fame (in the same ceremony as John Minson–Mr Hoedown).
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.
2022 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 were added to Gay’s and Johnny’s artefacts already in the Museum.


Throughout her career Gay Kayler was nominated many times in the Australian Variety Artists "Mo" Awards.

© copyright 2024, Johnny Ashcroft & Gay Kayler.