Tony Johns (Gibbons) to launch book 'A Larrikin's Life in Lyrics' at Studio Amsterdam

A Larrikin's Life in Lyrics features stories of growing up in Tenambit, of travelling the world playing music in the 80s, and of the end of his singing career due to a voice disorder.

Released earlier this month, the book will be officially launched on Saturday, September 22 at Studio Amsterdam as part of IF Maitland.

Tony said when going through the long catalogue of songs he has written over the years, he realised they tell the story of his life.

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"It's my memoirs, the story of my life and my career in music and songwriting," he said.

"It's written using the lyrics of all the songs I wrote to describe those parts of my life; the lyrics tell the story.

"My life and career wasn't anything extraordinary of spectacular, but I think it was just an artistic way of writing a book."

Tony said it will be very special to launch the book in Maitland at Studio Amsterdam, just metres from where he went to school at Marist Brothers (now All Saints College).

"A lot of areas in that part of Maitland, in High Street are mentioned in the book," he said.

"And life growing up in Tenambit in the early 1960s before Tenambit became a sprawling suburb.

"As I was a kid running around the paddocks in Tenambit that are all housing estates now, things like that are in it."

Tony wrote the book for his children, family and friends as a way of recording his life in his own words, but has found a lot of old friends and fans from the 80s music scene have been keen to have a read as well.

"I started in the late 70s professionally and I was a solo singer, songwriter, performer, just a guitar and harmonica singing in pubs and clubs around Maitland - I started in Maitland, I grew up in Maitland," he said.

"Then I moved to Newcastle, then it took me up and down the east coast of Australia and Sydney, and then it took me across to Europe and England, performing resident gigs in London, Austria and Greece in the mid 1980s."

Tony released two albums and had started on a third before his career as a singer met an abrupt end in the 90s.

He developed a voice disorder called spasmodic dysphonia, and it shattered his idea of what his career would look like.

"I can still talk but I just couldn't control my vocal cords enough to sing anymore," he said.

"So that album got shelved until 2015."

The album Natural ended up being recorded, more than 15 years later with vocals from Tony's friends and peers in the music industry, in a very special show of support.

When that album launched in 2017 with a special concert at Lizotte's, Tony saw how much interest there still was for his music and story, an observation that planted the seed for his book.

"It's pretty personal, it's mainly aimed at close friends and people who have followed my career," he said.

"It was cathartic for me to write it, to come to terms with my career ending when I was really in full flight, and the chapter that I wrote on that was pretty hard to write.

"It was sort of a cleansing process to get it all out, and there was still a lot of people years later saying 'how come you disappeared off the scene' so it answers all those questions."

Fellow local musician and Maitland boy Mark Tinson will be compering Tony's book launch.

The book's official launch event is at Studio Amsterdam on Saturday, October 22 at 3pm as part of the Rack and Rune Showcase at IF Maitland. Register to attend the free event at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/rack-and-rune-publishing-showcase-part-1-tickets-432934046387.

Purchase a copy of A Larrikin's Life in Lyrics by Tony Gibbons (Johns) on amazon here.