Jacques De Jongh, who was once a member of Hush and John Paul Young All-Stars has died in Melbourne.
Jacques was the rhythm guitarist for Hush in 1976 and 1977. He played on the fifth and final Hush album ‘Touché’. The album reached no 36 in 1977. Keith Lamb of Hush posted, ““Discovered” for Hush at Chequers by Geoffrey Schuhkraft when he was playing for Redhouse, Jacques de Jongh brought next-level harmonies, powerful rock-funk bass and a flamboyant presence to our band.
“Always committed to the music, his contributions made “Touche” our best album musically, if our least lauded. His thriller harmonies “Evah! Evah!” on “Nothing Stays the Same Forever” echo even more resonantly on this saddest day.
“Fly high my friend and may you reunite with your Fender Precision.”
After Hush, Jacques was the bass player for John Paul Young in 1978 and 1979. John released the two albums ‘Love Is In The Air’ (1978) and ‘Heaven Sent’ (1979). Jacques definitely played on ‘Heaven Sent’ and probably (but unconfirmed) on the ‘Love Is In The Air’ album.
Before Hush, Jacques was a member of Geelong’s Redhouse Roll Band. Redhouse were short-lived with an innings between 1975 and 1978. Jacques was an original member but left after a year to join Hush and did not play on their one album ‘One More Squeeze’ in 1976.
As a point of reference here is Redhouse ‘I Like Dancing’ from October 1976 which reached no 40 on the Australia chart.
Prior to Redhouse, Jacques was in a band called Shadowfax. On this YouTube video is says “They don’t seem to have released anything officially but a number of demos were recorded c.1973, ostensibly for a Mushroom recording contract that never eventuated.” What a shame Mushroom didn’t go with this. It sounds exactly like the music Gudinski was signing at the time so I can only assume Michael probably chose another act over Shadowfax and they fell by the wayside.
After JPY, My friend Ian Lovell tells me, “Jacques worked as a chef of some note. He had a restaurant. He also ran a Rehearsal studio and helped all sorts of Bands. He was very active up until his poor health stopped him working.”
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