Johnny Chester

Johnny Chester is Melbourne's pioneering rock star. When rock and roll hit Australia in the mid fifties Melbourne had the predictable human jukebox impersonators, its influential Thunderbirds group, and radio announcer Ernie Sigley became the first Melbourne 'pop' star, but it took Johnny Chester to really put Melbourne rock on the map with the general public.

'Chess' formed his first band The Jaywoods in 1959. There was no rhyme or reason about who played and did what. It was more a case of what had to be done and who could fill that role. Somehow eighteen year old Johnny ended up at the microphone. In the same ad-hoc fashion the band's rehearsals turned into a local event. Friends showed up at rehearsals to dance and appreciate the music, and without really trying the Jaywoods' rehearsals were attracting a crowd to St.Cecilias Hall in West Preston, which turned into regular Saturday night dance. When they outgrew St.Cecilias the group moved to the larger, more central, Preston Town Hall.

Suddenly a promoter, Johnny Chester realized moving to the larger venue held some responsibilities. He decided to consult Melbourne's influential radio personality Stan Rofe about the cost of advertising. Stan was unbelievably supportive. He put Johnny Chester straight on air to talk about his dance, offered his own services as compere, and from that moment took a strong interest in Chester's career. After assuring the Preston Town Hall shows' success Stan introduced Johnny Chester to Rod Tudor at W&G Records. When he sang at other venues Johnny had already started working with the Thunderbirds, and they now provided the backing for Johnny Chester's first single, 'Hokey Pokey', an instant Melbourne hit. The Jaywoods evolved into Johnny Chester and the Chessmen.

As more hits followed with his subsequent releases, 'Can Can Ladies' and 'Shaking All Over', Johnny Chester became an essential inclusion on any major national rock package coming into Melbourne. In between these performances, Johnny and the Chessmen made little forages to Tasmania and Brisbane where his records were also attracting attention. Sydney just didn't want to know. Not helping at all was W&G's woeful national distribution. By 1963 Johnny was also gaining valuable experience as compere of his own TV show on Victorian regional television and starting to find himself in demand as an independent record producer.

In 1964 Melbourne entrepreneur Ken Brodziac acknowledged Johnny Chester by adding him to the bill for the Beatles visit to Australia and New Zealand. On the same bill as the world's biggest and most popular attraction it was near impossible to expect anyone else to make any sort of impression, but Johnny came close, inventing his own personal lighting system for his brief encounter in front of the Beatles' fans. Later that year the ABC offered Johnny his own national television series, 'Teen Scene'.

Despite everything, Johnny's own recording and performing career entered the same malaise suffered by most of the pre-Beatles era rockers. John contributed to the new era by producing the Pink Fink's 'Louie Louie' but opted to spend the next eight and a half years behind the radio microphone. He continued to make records, slowly drifting into writing his own songs, and becoming one of the pioneers of another era of Australian music, the 'new' generation of country performers, part of the bridge between the Slim Dusty/Tex Morton era and the John Williamson/Lee Kernaghan era. Johnny Chester and his new group Jigsaw helped bring Australian country music to pop respectability. In 1977 he was back on ABC-TV fronting the national 'Country Road'. At the Tamworth Country Music Festival he won the Male Vocalist Of The Year three years in a row, 1981-83.

He still records and performs.