Jeff St. John "Survivor" 1965-75: 1977 Compilation Australia Psych,Funk,Soul,Blues Rock
Will The Real Jeff St.John Please Stand Up
RAM Magazine #20 December 5, 1975 p12
by Felicity Surtees
Jeff St John ... the name swims around your head, "wasn't he ... didn't he ...?" Yep. He was and he did. Teach Me How To Fly is the song title you're searching for — the national Number One hit that Jeff put out with Copperwine in '71. It still stands as an example of just what first rate Oz bands are capable of putting out. After the demise of Copperwine, little was heard of Jeff St John, at least as far as the media was concerned.
"It was intentional," he says nowadays. "1 wanted it to be very low profile because I wanted to get into my writing and it's very hard to pull in and out of work if you re functioning on a very high profile level.'
Jeffs split from Copperwine came about when he started writing his own songs. He dug them, the rest of the band didn't. He continued working sporadically and then, in early '74, accompanied by his wife Pamela and pianist John A. Bird, he flew to England. The initial intention had been to "go and have a look". While he was there, he formed a band with John A. Bird on piano, Ace Follington, drums, Billy Twyman, bass and Vince Melouney (ex Bee Gees) guitar. Doing about 80% of original material, they played a few pubs and met enthusiastic audience reception. The tale's been told before, but it bears telling again: "We doubled the crowd and halved the bar take." They were sacked after a week.
So in August '74, he returned to Australia, happy to be back. "I kissed the tarmac. I like the place." he says emphatically. Home, sweet home and to work. The twelve months since returning have seen Jeff gigging in every State and reaching a much wider audience than is traditionally associated with rock and roll.
"I'm in the position at the moment," he explains, "that with only slight modification, I perform my show for music freaks, heads, hoppers, pub crowds and fifty year olds — and it works pretty effectively on all those levels."
The effort to reach a broader audience, as well as indicating good business sense, reflects Jeff's intense dislike of being categorized. "That s a bore," he says distastefully. "That's the thing I've been fighting against for the past five years. It's so easy to get slotted in this country —" he slips into a business drawl — "arr, that .boy s a soul singerrr — or a country singer or a folk singer. And that s a pain in the arse, it's so inhibiting. What happens if you want to diversify?"
Diverse — it's a word that figures prominently when Jeff St John talks about his music. He s been putting in time at Festivals studio recently. Seven tracks of a new album are down and of those seven, five are originals. "The working title of the album is Will The Real Jeff St John Stand Up?" He laughs and looks very pleased with himself. "It's an album that is delightfully incongruous. The musical scope we've covered in it is a little frightening ...."
Release dates are still a little vague. It depends on when Jeff gets some time off the road to put down the remaining tracks, and also on the reception to his current single Blood Brothers. Before the word "single" has dried on my lips, Jeff leaps in with his description — "Black," he says, "and funky. It's an American song that died a death in the States because of the racial implications in the story. My producer discovered it ... said have a listen. I did, and we did and we have. The other side is a lilting little thing that suffers under the auspicious title of Reach Out And Touch Me. It was written by Jeff and John A. Bird during their London sojourn.
"Again you have this thjng of two entirely different colours. See, I tend to think of music as colours. You can paint with music — the dark colours of the heavy aggressive kind of thing, the paste! colours of country music and the vibrant reds of rock and roll.... Most music appeals to me if it is performed well..." Felicity Surtees.
