Once teamed with Tony at the start of 1964, and with their name enhanced to the suitably glamorised Fabulous Blue Jays, they immediately set about creating a dynamic stage show, based around Tony's brash but appealing tenor voice, rough'n' tough stage presence and cheeky, boyish looks. Tony's undoubted stage presence was backed up by one of the tightest and most competent bands in the country and the Blue Jays trademark "fat" sound blended sax and guitar in a potent lead instrumental assault, giving them a much heavier attack than some of their contemporaries. From his recently purchased Brisbane base, the legendary Cloudland Ballroom (a Queensland landmark, sadly long since demolished), Dayman promoted the group on his popular "Bowl" dance circuit package extravaganzas. Tony & the Jays soon earned a reputation for upstaging the main acts with their riotous delivery.

There were more lineup changes during '64 as the frantic touring schedule took its toll, but by the end of the year the Blue Jays had settled into the first 'classic' lineup, each of whom earned their own nickname:  Ray 'Screamy' Eames (lead guitar), Mal 'Beaky' Clarke (rhythm guitar), Paul 'Bingo' Shannon (sax and keyboards), and Royce 'Baby' Nicholls (bass), completed by the return of original drummer Bobby 'Spider' Johnson.

In late 1964, Dayman's newly formed Sunshine label, distributed by Festival, released its first two singles. The first single, released in October, was an original instrumental by The Blue Jays called Jay Walker. The next (November) was the debut single by Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays, and it was a killer combination: the A-side was a  scorching version of  Sure Know A Lot About Love, backed by a terrific acoustic-driven original, Me You Gotta Teach, composed by what soon developed into the bands resident writing partnership of Beaky Clarke and Baby Nicholls.

Either with Tony, or under their own name, The Blue Jays were crucial to Sunshine's early success; Glenn Baker rightly says that in many respects they were Sunshine -- Tony Worsely/Blue Jays releases accounted for seven of the label's first thirteen singles. They also rank as one of the most prolific recording units of "the scream years", with three full albums, eight EPs and seven singles to their credit in less then two years. Their Sunshine tracks including many original tracks by Clarke and Nicholls, which was fairly unusual for bands of the time. The Easybeats were one of the only Australian outfits playing mainly original material, and most local beat groups relied on covers, typically covering blues or R&B songs by UK bands like The Beatles, The Stones, The Hollies or The Animals, which were themselves often covers of originals by American artists.

Naturally, the Blue Jays did their share of covers, but the choices showed their versatility and eclectic tastes. There were blues/R&B standards like The Kingsman's ever-popular Louie, Louie, John Lee Hooker's Dimples, Slim Harpo's King Bee, Smokey Robinson's All Over You and Etta James' Something's Got A Hold On Me, plus a wide range of other material: the Everly Brothers classic Raining In My Heart; Do You Mind, by "Oliver" composer Lionel Bart; Jagger & Richards' So Much In Love, How Can It Be (a cover of The Artwoods song, written by future Faces / Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood); Reaching Out, by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham (the writers of Do Right Woman for Aretha Franklin) and even a sprinkling of home-made covers like I'll Never Love You Again by Pogs member and future "Crocodile Dundee" composer Peter Best, and of course, Velvet Waters, co-written by The Megatrons' Walter Plunkett and prolific Aussie lyricist and songrwiter  Dorothy Dodd, a long-serving president of APRA and composer of the perennial standard Granada.

The Blue Jays maintained their own separate identity for recording, and over the next year Sunshine releases alternated between instrumental and vocal tracks by The Blue Jays, and the tracks they cut with Tony as lead singer. Although they were already very popular on their home turf and had gained some chart exposure in Queensland during 1964, it wasnít until early 1965 that they began to break through in other states, largely thanks to their relentless tour schedule, which culminated with crucial national exposure on the January '65 Big Show tour supporting The Kinks, Manfred Mann, The Honeycombs and Tony Sheveton.

1965 was without doubt the peak of their meteoric career. February saw the release of the second Tony Worsley & The Blue Jays single and perhaps their best recording, a raucous, syncopated cover of Rosco Gordon's Just A Little Bit, which broke through onto the national airwaves in early '65 and became a significant hit, charting particularly well in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Tony and the Blue Jays had picked up on the song from a version by English band The Undertakers, but it was coincidentally also covered at almost the same time by The Animals, under the title Don't Want Much. It was recorded during the sessions for their second album Animal Tracks but it didn't make the cut and remained unreleased until The Complete Animals 2CD set was issued in 1990. The Animals' version sounds disctinnctly anaemic compared to the red-hot Worsley-Blue Jays version. Lobby Loyde's Purple Hearts covered it later a year or so later, but even their version pales by comarison. It has to be said that the Worsley/Blue Jays recording is quite probably the definitive version. Led by Tony's sneering, proto-punk, double-tracked vocal, it's driven by what must be one of the fattest rhythm sounds ever captured on tape, with an in-your-face brass sound that harked back to the honking horns of classic '50s R&B but also anticipated the powerful overdriven brass of later productions like The Beatles' Lady Madonna and The Masters Apprentices' Turn Up Your Radio. It was produced, like most of the Sunshine releases, by another Dayman discovery, the illustrious Pat Aulton, who worked on many of the most important recordings of the mid-late 60s and early 70s, including classics by Normie Rowe, the Dave Miller Set and Kahvas Jute.

Unfortunately, it was around this time that Aulton and guitarist Ray Eames had a major falling-out in the studio, with the result that Eames was unceremoniously ousted  from the group and replaced by Jimmy Cerezo of The Pleazers. Jimmy fitted in well and also brought his own writing skills to the group, contributing the ska-flavoured I Dream Of You to the flip-side to their next single, a cover of Chuck Berry's Talkin' 'Bout You (April '65).

Over the course of 1965 Tony and the Blue Jays sold over 50,000 records, culminating in their biggest (and most identifiable) hit, a delicate cover of the ballad, Velvet Waters, which had been released a few years earlier, first by The Megatrons as an instrumental, and then and by Bruce Gillespie as a vocal, with lyrics by Dorothy Dodd. Although neither previous version had been a hit, The Blue Jays cover hit the spot. Released in September of that year, it shot into the national Top 5.

"We were going leave the studios in Sydney, at Festival at Pyrmont and weíd just recorded an album .. oh, about 20 songs, and we thought, "Oh, weíre gonna go home now". And Jimmy Cerezo, the guitarist said "What about this?" And we did it in about ten minutes and of course the rest is history. You could spend, like, days on a song - now they tend to spend years - but in those days we spent days on a song and it went nowhere, and youíd do something in ten minutes and it just catches the public ear, yíknow? It just took off; we were really thrilled about that!"

The fact that one of the "softest" of their recordings became their biggest hit for our hard-rocking heroes was an irony that wasn't lost on the group, as Tony recalled to the late Dean Mittelhauser, in his Born Loser fanzine:

"I remember getting back from a tour and hearing that it was number one somewhere, and I couldn't believe it. Our stage act was full of really wild tracks, both covers and originals, and I could never understand why our ballad records went so well."

With a hit of this magnitude coming out of nowhere, Sunshine sensed a winning formula and immediately followed it up with another finely-arranged ballad, Missing You, but this only managed to get into the lower reaches of the some charts, with its best placing being #28 in Sydney. But The Blue Jays continued to draw a healthy following, particularly among young female admirers, and Tony and pals developed a certain notoriety for their off-stage antics as well. (The old chestnut, "lock up your daughters!" should suffice as an explanation!)

During '65, the group won prestigious support slots with The Seekers, Johnny OíKeefe and Johnny Farham, as well as with overseas tourists, The Dave Clark Five. Probably the most famous of these was their appearance at the infamous 4BC Sound Spectacular in Brisbane in December 1965. The first half of the show, featuring MPD Ltd, went smoothly enough, but  when Tony and The Blue Jays hit the stage things had started to get out of hand, and by the time headliners The Easybeats came on a full-scale riot had broken out, with kids breaking down barriers, repeatedly storming the stage and smashing chairs and equipment. Police stopped the Easys after only 17 minutes and halted the show. In the melee that followed, the Easybeats only barely escaped the frantic fans, who stopped their 'getaway' car and stomped all over it, puncturing the roof and bonnet with their heels and doing  hundreds of pounds' worth of damage. Tony himself nominates the January '65 Kinks/Manfred Mann/The Honeycombs/Tony Sheveton tour with as the highlight of the bandís career -- even though he copped some abuse from the irascible Manfred Mann, who was apparently rather jealous of the frenzied fan reaction Tony & the Blue Jays were generating, both on and off stage.

The group continued performing into 1966 with their popularity unabated, and for their first single of the year they got back to business in a big way with a barnstorming cover of Etta James' Something's Got A Hold On Me, featuring the umnistakeable sounds of Sunshine stalwarts Marcie & The Cookies on backing vocals. (The Reels' also covered this song in the 80's in tribute to Tony & The Blue Jays' effort). Regrettably, it was to be the last single billed to Tony and The Blue Jays. Just as he did with Mike Furber and The Bowery Boys, Ivan Dayman was intent on promoting the singer at the expense of the group. He pushed  the Blue Jays further and further into the background and it wasn't long before the "original" Blue Jays split, although this was also partly due to family pressures on some of the members:

Bobby Johnson and Ray Eames left... they were married and when Beatlemania spread to Australia, of course weíd be gettiní publicity with girls in your rooms and all that -- their wives called ëem home so they left the band.

Over the next few months, Tony's brief solo career took shape as Sunshine released a string of solo singles -- a lovely version of Buddy Holly's Raining In My Heart (May '66), No Worries/Humpy Dumpy (Jan. '67) the soulful Penn-Oldham number Reaching Out (October '67). While touring in Adelaide in '66, Tony also cut a cover of Jagger and Richards So Much In Love, which featured Terry Britten of The Twilights, providing the distinctive 12-string Rickenbacker riff.

Late in 1966 Tony put together a "New" Blue Jays, which included such future OzRock luminaries as Vince Maloney (ex-Aztec and future Bee Gee), John A. Bird (Country Radio) and Phil Manning (Chain). In December, they played at a huge Dayman-promoted event, The Johnny Young Show, at Brisbane Festival Hall, sharing the bill with virtually the entire Sunshine roster -- Johnny Young, Ronnie Burns, Peter Doyle, Mike Furber, Ross D. Wylie, Thursday's Children, Graham Chpaman, Greg Anderson, The Escorts, Marcie & The Cookies, The Pleazers, and Julien Jones & The Breed. Tony managed to steal the show with his version of James Brown's famous fainting routine. in which he pretended to collapse and have to be led off-stage, only to only to be doused with water, revive and return for encore after encore.

By early 1967 the beat boom was petering out and many of the original groups had already split. Tony was reather the worse for wear -- he was using drugs heavily (which he spoke about quite openly, even then) and his weight had dropped by almost half:

"I was pretty messed up by 1966. I was addicted to Methedrine and stuff and weighed about 8 stone. I'd started singing at about 14 stone and went down from there. I'd say I was pretty anorexic -- I used to have one toasted sandwich all day and I even cut the crusts off that! ... If the Beatles went off and took two months of trips then we'd do it too, y'know? Our bands based what we did on the British bands. Well I know I did. I doubt guys like Normie did -- I can imagine him having a beer but nothing worse. Probably a reason I didn't go anywhere was because I was too much of a rebel"."

One of his last major public appearances was at the 1967 Sydney Royal Easter Show, performing in a Sunshine Records tent show with Mike Furber. Not long after, Tony dropped oout of performing for a couple of years, resurfacing in 1969 when he joined Brisbane's Hands Down, a band which aimed for a Small Faces sound, and rivalled teen-pop outfit, The (Brisbane) Avengers for popular acceptance. After Tony left, they changed their name to Burke & Wills in 1969. Tony completed a short solo tour in Germany which was well-received by punters, but failed to make any significant inroads in Europe. He also visited the US in the early seventies but was somewhat dispirited by having to tackle it alone and quickly returned to safe home turf.

Tony spent most of the 70s getting his life and health back in order, working variously as a water ski instructor, a waiter, and occasionally performing on the club circuit before he took up an enviable existence singing at major resorts in the South Pacific, Hawaii, and America. Heading down to Sydney, he put together a new band called Tony Worsley and The Decades in the late 80s, and he has recorded sporadically over the years, releasing three singles on the Enrec imprint in the early 90s. Plans are afoot for a fresh spate of recording in 2000, this time in the currently in-vogue Latin style. He seems to have lost none of the magic or charisma and still performs regularly in club shows whenever he is not busy as "mine host" and number one entertainer at his own Sunshine Coast restaurant called -- of course -- "Velvet Waters", and decked out, appropriately, with rock memorabilia. Judging by the warm, friendly vibe of our interview, Tony would be the first to invite nostalgic 'baby-boomers' and newcomers alike to "drop in, say hello and stay for a meal next time you're in Caloundra!" Could be a real hoot, just like the man himself!

Various members of The Blue Jays went on to other notable gigs. Besides Tony, the Blue Jays also worked with Ricky & Tammy, and they backed Brisbane R&B singer Toni McCann on her highly regarded recordings, inlcuding her garage-punk classic No/My Baby. Bingo Shannon, Spider Johnson and Ray Houston formed Grandma's Tonic, who backed fellow Sunshine singer Peter Doyle as well as recording under their own name. Mal Clarke recorded a solo single on the Downunder label, and later played with Ray Brown & Moonstone, the Ray Burton Band, Chariot and Bullamakanka. Phil Manning joined the Laurie Allen Revue in the late 60s, before he leaping to fame as lead guitarist of the legendary Chain.

For more on the Tony Worsley story, please go to our exclusive interview transcript to read Tony's fascinating chat with the ABC's David Kilby about those wondrous salad days of Tony Worsley & the Blue Jays (bon appetit!). But for the last word, it's over to the man himself:

"I really can't remember being paid but I can remember having a great time and never having to pay for anything. Anything you wanted was there, which was quite a powerful feeling. We really caused some riots on tour -- halls being completely wrecked, that sort of thing. I've still got my dream and it's as fresh and vivd as it was when I was 14. I just want to stay an entertainer. I don't care about making money. I learned in the 60's how exciting it all was."

Paul Culnane, 1999

[Singles] [Extended Play]  [Albums]

Singles

1/64 I Sure Know A Lot About Love / Me You Gotta Teach  [Sunshine QK 778] 2/65 Just A Little Bit / If I [Sunshine QK 903]  4/65 Talking About You / I Dream Of You [Sunshine QK 983]  9/65 Velvet Waters / Rock A Billy [Sunshine QK 1087]  12/65 Missing You / Lonely City [Sunshine QK 1169] 2/66 Something's Got A Hold On Me / Something [Sunshine QK 1241] 5/66 Raining In My Heart / Knocking On Wood [Sunshine QK 1366] 1/67 No Worries / Humpy Dumpy [Sunshine QK 1556] 10/67 Reaching Out / Do You Mind [Sunshine QK 2014]

EPs

Tony Worsley & The Fabulous Blue Jays: Sure Know A Lot About Love [Sunshine; cat # unknown] Velvet Waters [Sunshine QX 11092] Missing You [Sunshine QX 11132]  Something's Got A Hold On Me [Sunshine QX 11164]  Raining In My Heart [Sunshine QX 11197]  The Fabulous Blue Jays: Pathfinder [Sunshine cat # unknown] Jaywalk [Sunshine cat # unknown] Motivate [Sunshine cat # unknown]

Albums

1965 Tony Worsley .and Fabulous The Blue Jays [Sunshine QL 31646; later Calendar R66-499] (also known as Tony Worsley Sings And Plays) Hey Jack (Trad: arr. Clarke-Nicholls) I'm So Glad (Clarke ñ Nicholls) If I (Clarke-Nicholls) If You See My Baby (Clarke-Nicholls) Jay Walker (Mal Clarke-Nicholls) Just A Little Bit (D. Gordon) King Bee (James Moore, aka Slim Harpo) Louie Louie (Richard Berry) Me You Gotta Teach (Mal Clarke ñ Royce Nicholls)  Motivate (Clarke-Nicholls) Pathfinder (The Blue Jays) So Much In Love (Jagger-Richards) Sure Know A Lot About Love (Mize)  Tell Me Why (Rozier-Brown) We're Friends (Clarke-Nicholls) Zoom Gonk (Clarke-Nichols) Velvet Waters and other great songs [Sunshine QL 31863; later Calendar R66-108] 1965  All Over You (Robinson)  Dimples (John Lee Hooker)  I Don't Need Nobody (Clarke ñ Nicholls) Velvet Waters (Plunkett-Dodd) (complete tracklisting unavailable at this stage) 1965  My Time Of Day [Sunshine QL 32046; later Calendar R66-506] 500 Miles Get Back How Can It Be I'll Never Love Again Knocking On Wood Raining In My Heart Ready, Steady, Let's Go Something Something's Got A Hold On Me Talk About Love Tell Me Why Five From Four [Raven RVLP-03] 1981  Compilation shared with The Allusions, Mike Furber and Steve & the Board, featuring the following Tony Worsley & the Blue Jays tracks: Talkin' 'Bout You (Chuck Berry)  Ready Steady Let's Go (Geoff Brown)  Get Back (Jimmy McCracklin)  Just A Little Bit (D Gordon) Something's Got A Hold On Me (Kirkland - James)  1999 Ready, Steady, Let's Go! [Festival/Spin D46071] 2CD The complete Sunshine/Spin recordings, lovingly remastered by Warren Barnett and Albert Zychowski, with extensive liner notes by Glenn A. Baker, plus vintage photographs. CD1 Velvet Waters (Plunkett-Dodd) Missing You (Noe-Savine) Rock A Billy (Harris-Deane) Just A Little Bit (D. Gordon) If I (Clarke-Nicholls) Talkin' 'Bout You (Chuck Berry) I Dream Of You (Jimmy Cerezo) Me You Gotta Teach (Clarke-Nicholls) I Sure Know A Lot About Love (Mize)  Lonely City (Goddard) Something's Got A Hold On Me (Pearl Woods-Leroy Kirkland-Etta James) Something (Anayall) Raining In My Heart (F & B Bryant) Knocking On Wood (Leroy Van Dyke) No Worries (Tait) Humpy Dumpy (Chan Romero) Reaching Out (Dan Penn-Spooner Oldham) Do You Mind (Lionel Bart) I'm So Glad (Clarke -Nicholls) If You See My Baby (Clarke-Nicholls) King Bee (James Moore, aka Slim Harpo) So Much In Love (Jagger-Richards) I Don't Need Nobody (Clarke-Nicholls) Dimples (John Lee Hooker)  CD2 Talk About Love (Andrews) The Kind (Clarke-Nicholls) My Friend (Clarke-Nicholls) I'll Be There (Clarke-Nicholls) When You Go (Clarke-Nicholls) How Can It Be (Ronnie Wood) Ready, Steady, Let's Go (Geoff Brown) I'll Never Love You Again (Peter Best) With You By My Side (Clarke-Nicholls) Tell Me Why (Rozier/Brown) All Over You (Robinson) 500 Miles (Hedy-West) Jay Walker (Clarke-Nicholls) Pathfinder (The Blue Jays) Motivate (Clarke-Nicholls) We're Friends (Clarke-Nicholls) Louie Louie (Richard Berry) Tell Me When (Reed-Stephens) Zoom Gonk (Clarke-Nichols) Beat Out That Rhythm On A Drum (Bizet-Hammerstein) I'll Make You Cry Too (Clarke-Nichols) Hey Jack (Trad: arr. Clarke-Nicholls) Original producer on most cuts: Pat Aulton. No Worries and Humpy Dumpy produced by Steve Neale

Glenn A. Baker -- liner notes for Ready, Steady, Let's Go! CD
Ian McFarlane -- Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop (1999)
Noel McGrath -- Encyclopedia of Australian Rock (1978)
Chris Spencer/Zbig Nowara -- Whoís Who of Australian Rock & Roll (1993)
Wintersun Festival website
Tony Worsley/David Kilby -- ABC Radio 2CN-666 "Sundays" program ñ interview transcript (1999)