John Joseph Jones, Hovea Music Press poet, playwright, lyricist
A well-known West Australian poet and playwright, John
Joseph Jones (1930-2000) trained as a journalist with The Albany
Advertiser, and for twenty years lectured in English and
Communications at TAFE. Five recordings are available of his poetry
and folk-style music (he has a lovely tenor voice), including all of
the songs he performed at the 1964 Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Most of his major plays address Australian themes. They include The Hamburger Man, The Undivided, Harvest, Bitter Grapes, Sturt, and Loving Lady. Nearly all were produced at The Parkerville Amphitheatre, which he built in 1966-69 with the inspiring help of many volunteers, including aboriginal and white prison inmates. The amphitheatre, which he operated until his death, was the first built in WA and incorporates five stages and two theatres.
John staged the first open-air rock shows, wine festivals, children's creativity weeks, and environmental creativity weeks in WA. A major preoccupation at present is an opera, based on an idea of his composer child Matthew Margaret (an androgyne), concerning the construction of the Eastern Goldfields pipeline by C. Y. O'Connor. John's libretto for Pipedream has been set to music by another WA composer, Kevin Fenner. Three Poems of Celebration were written for the occasion of Kevin's marriage to Fumie Koike.
John passed away in August 2000 after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife Derry and four children.
© Hovea Music Press 2002
For other links for John Joseph Jones see the HMP Links Page.
