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.
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1941 |
Wartime: Family moved to Sydney NSW. Father, George, was an aircraft inspector at the Qantas Flying Boat Base.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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1959
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First concert performance–Toowoomba’s Coronet Theatre.
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1959 |
First ball–the Bankers’ Ball.
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1959 |
Sang The Alexandra Waltz at the Centenary Royal Ball for Princess Alexandra who, by Royal Command, insisted that Gay sing three more songs.
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1959 |
First ‘live’ broadcast on Toowoomba radio in the Diggers’ Show.
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1960 |
First TV appearance–Sydney’s Keith Walsh Show.
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1960 |
First appearance on Channel 2 Brisbane. Performed with ABC personality Russ Tyson in an innovative split screen presentation.
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1960 |
First TCN Channel 9 appearance.
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1960 |
First appearance on BTQ Channel 7, both songs recorded on 331/3 rpm microgroove.
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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).
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1960 | Miss Darling Downs in the Miss Australia Quest. |
1960 |
First modelling engagement.
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Circa 1961
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Contracted 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.
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1961 |
An RSL Girl In A Million title holder.
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1962 |
First appearance on Johnny O’Keefe’s Sing, Sing, Sing.
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1962 | First appearance on Bandstand. |
1962 | First tour–opened at Brisbane’s Festival Hall with the Col Joye Show. |
1963 |
Worked with Graeme Bell on his national TV show, Trad Jazz.
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1963 |
Guest star on DDQ10’s Club Cabaret First Birthday Show.
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1963 | First 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.
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1964 | First commercial (with Bert Newton)–on location at Green Island on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. |
1965 |
First marriage televised by Channel 7.
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1968 |
Son, John McGuire, born.
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1970 |
Resident female vocalist at Brisbane’s historic Cloudland Ballroom until December, 1972.
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1971 |
Permanent out-front vocalist with Radio 4IP Brisbane’s 16-piece Show Band.
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1973 |
Moved to Sydney to work on the NSW Registered Club Entertainment Circuit.
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1973 |
First NSW tour (with the Johnny Ashcroft Show).
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1973
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First worked solo and in duo act with Johnny Ashcroft.
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1973 |
First appearance on John Williamson’s TV show, Travellin’ Out West.
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1973 |
Launched first LP, Faces of Love with Johnny Ashcroft.
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1973 | The 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.
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1975 |
Recorded first single for RCA.
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1976 |
Recorded Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal Song.
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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.
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1977 |
Recorded the award-winning Dream Away My Life.
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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.
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1978 |
Female vocalist on the sound track of the Little Boy Lost movie.
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1978 | Performed at the world premiere of the Little Boy Lost movie. |
1979 |
Elected Inaugural Secretary of the Professional Country Music Association of Australia (PCMAA).
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1979 | Designed 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.
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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.
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1980 |
Judges’ finalist for Best Female and Best Duo (with Johnny Ashcroft) categories in the Australasian Country Music Awards.
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1981 |
Married Johnny Ashcroft.
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1981 |
Received the Queensland Country Music National Female Award. Presented by the Hon Bill Hayden.
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1981 |
Alter ego, Lady Finflingkington–the Baron’s consort, appeared on record and in the Good Time Gotcha Show for the first time.
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1982 |
Major car crash with Johnny Ashcroft. Injuries brought an abrupt end to many projects.
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1982 |
Received the only ‘Fosters salute’ (standing ovation) from twenty thousand fans at Victoria’s Wandong Country Music Festival.
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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.
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1994 | Imprinted 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. |