A black and white portrait of a 1970s teen dressed in an oversized blazer has transported Maitland’s middle aged back to a time when Tenambit tavern was a rockin’ on a Tuesday night.
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Within minutes of it being posted to Facebook, this photograph of 13-year-old Tony Gibbons had attracted dozens of likes and many comments.
“It’s amazing people recognised me. Fair enough if it had have been a picture of when I was playing [in pubs] but it was a childhood photo.”
Before he performed as Tony Johns, little Tony Gibbons was a public speaker who was snapped by a Mercury photographer.
“I remember doing the speech at Maitland Boys High just around the corner from my house,” Tony said.
“The speech was on the role of the ombudsman – it was the most boring speech. We must have had topics to choose from, I would not have come up with that one my own, must have been the best of a bad bunch.
“It’s funny because about year eight or nine, a year or two after I gave away public speaking I joined a rock band. I remember the Marist brother saying: ‘This is what you’re going to do with your ability – waste it on a rock ’n’ roll band’.”
The brothers’ words echoed in the 21-year-old’s head as he resigned from a secure job at BHP to pursue rock and roll in 1980.
“That was a scary move, I gave it all away,” Tony said.
“I just didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk.”
After playing every pub and club in Maitland it was a drink-driving charge that finally cemented him as one of Maitland’s favourite sons.
“What really kicked my career off, I got done for PCA drunk-driving and I wrote a song about it and included the copper’s name.
“It was a tongue-in-cheek song, just on the edge of when breathalysing came in.”
At a time when DUI was common the song rocketed up Newcastle’s top ten charts and got frequent airplay.
“People from Maitland still ask me to sing the song. It just set me up for the next 20 years.”
PCA the Easy Way was the beginning of a 20 year solo career that saw Tony write and record six albums.
His ’94 record The Valley was about people and places that shaped his childhood.
But in 1998, midway through recording an album “the wheels fell off.”
“Towards the end I developed a vocal disorder that means I can’t control my voice,” Tony said.
“It made it impossible to sing.”
He spent nearly two years trying to treat the problem with botox, relaxation and other therapies – nothing worked.
More than a decade on 12 mates have recorded the vocal tracks on Tony’s album that he hopes will be finished and available on iTunes next year.
