JOHN PAUL YOUNG

In 1972 John Paul Young put his fishing trips & his job at Clyde Engineering on hold because his single “Pasadena” was a massive hit. Working in the company of the Vanda and Young team, JPY became one of the biggest Australian stars of the 70’s and his career has progressed through the 80’s, 90’s and into the 21 Century.

There’s not much of John’s career that hasn’t already been documented: a string of hits spawned over 4 million record sales, a couple of King of Pop awards (The ARIA of their day), a Logie and a bunch of radio and TV awards from around the country and overseas.

JPY’s signature tune “Love Is In The Air” came back as an international hit in the 90’s after it was included on the soundtrack for the movie “Strictly Ballroom”. John’s been back in the charts in Europe since with “…Air” on a Milk&Sugar Vs JPY mix, and also with an IRS Vs JPY remake of “Can’t Take My Eyes Of You”.

JPY’s ability to vary from a light pop to an edgy rock pop voice and his sparkling personality gave a particular stamp to a special type of Australian pop – one that found hits throughout Europe and South Africa. As a performer John was hard to beat, and remains so.

There are few people who enjoy playing music as much and who give the audience their all. After featuring in the TV Series “Long Way To The Top” John and The Allstar Band climbed aboard for the 2002 National Tour of the same name in the company of the cream of Australian talent to celebrate the music and its Stars of the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s.

John was also a feature artist on the hugely successful 2006 Countdown Arena Spectacular, again joining forces with the best of the best Australian talent to appear on the ground breaking TV series. In 2003 and again in 2005 John took to the stage in the musical “Leader of the Pack – The Ellie Greenwich Musical” playing fast talking record producer Gus Sharkey - a character based on the legendary team of Leiber & Stoller and later Phil Spector with whom Ellie spawned massive worldwide hits.

This was John’s first musical since “Jesus Christ Superstar” and he relished the part. In 2006 John was back with the old firm of songwriters, Vanda & Young, to record & release a new studio album titled “In too Deep”. The 12 track offering of all new songs produced by Harry Vanda sees the pair reunite after more than 25 years and the magic is definitely still there.

The Countdown Spectacular 2 took to the road again in ’07 featuring 12 international and 12 Australian acts including John, this time with an expanded co-host role along side Molly Meldrum.

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