Country and Western artist Johnny Heap was born in Geelong in 1941.During the 1950s he began playing guitar, entering talent quests and performing on local radio stations. By 1959 he was playing lead guitar, bass and singing in a rock band, The Teen Beats, but still appeared on radio and TV as a country artist. Heap reached the grand final of the Victorian Banjo Club Championships in 1960.
Johnny Heap joined Rick and Thel Carey’s touring show in 1962 and remained with them for four years. After he departed from the tour, he gained a residency at the famous Dodds Hotel in Cooma, with his band The Snowmen, which provided a welcome break from years of travelling on the road. The band worked Dodds until midnight then set up at the nearby Taboo Night Club to play until dawn. It was in Cooma that Johnny met and married his wife Val. An all-round entertainer he played bass, rhythm and lead guitar and sang. He could play the straight man in comedy routines as well as compere.
In 1966 he released his first EP on Hadley Records, and this followed by a split EP ‘Great Friends in Country Music’ in which Heap sang two songs and Eddie Tapp sang two. He rejoined the Rick and Thel Carey Show who had by then teamed up with Chad Morgan and undertook their first tour of WA. Whilst there he recorded a self-titled EP ‘Introducing Johnny Heap’ for Clarion with four tracks. In 1969 John & Val reckoned it was time to leave the road and settle down to raise a family. He worked as a vocalist and bass guitarist for seven years with Nev Nicholls’ Country Playboys virtually from beginning to end of their famous Texas Tavern residency. He recorded with Nev and the Playboys on some of their releases.
In 1972 he recorded the EP ‘Carroll County Accident’ with CM Records, Dubbo followed by an
album ‘Sunday Afternoon and Country Music’ on W&G. In 1980 he was inducted into the Hands of Fame, Tamworth. Johnny’s best-known album, ‘The Hordern Tree’, was released on Selection Records. Johnny moved to Tamworth and worked as an announcer on John Minson’s famous Hoedown radio program.
In 1987 the EP ‘Lonely Street’ was released on the Bunyip label. It featured the track ”Four Kinds of Roses”, a tribute to Johnny’s four daughters. In 1990s Johnny moved to Melbourne and formed his own record label, Smoky, with his first CD, ‘Lavender Blue and Other Love Songs’. He continued to tour and perform up until the early 2000s, when he retired from the stage. In 2014 Johnny was invited to record again by Paul Hazell from the UK, with assistance from the British Archive of CM. He put down four new tracks. These four new songs were released on the double CD, ‘Retrospectfully Yours’, a compilation of his earlier recordings.
References
JOHNNY HEAP; JOHNNY HEAP; HOF_1980_HEAP | eHive
