HE died too young, but lived an awful lot over his 66 years, producer Coralea Cameron says of the late Jon English, her partner for the final 10 years of his life.

Cameron is co-producer of “The Rock Show Oz Edition”, which pays tribute to English’s life and work. It’s coming to the Bicentennial Hall, Queanbeyan during June, where they’ll be allowed to go at full capacity, with audiences, she says, encouraged to sing along.

It was the very last in a long line of rock shows that Cameron co-produced with English, who never got to actually perform this show before he died in Newcastle in March, 2016.

It’ll be led by Steve Mulry from the Ted Mulry Gang, along with band members from English’s show, “Trilogy of Rock”, and will cover classic Aussie rock from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s by artists as diverse as Billy Thorpe, Australian Crawl, INXS, the Divinyls and English himself.

Steve, the brother of Ted Mulry, now fronts the reformed original band in his brother’s place.

“It’s a bit of a sad fact that the rock ‘n’ roll and celebrity life takes its toll on some people, and Jon was one of those,” Cameron tells me by phone from her home in Coffs Harbour.

“Tall, dark and gruesome” was English’s favourite description of himself. With his unique looks and in-yer-face personality, he burst onto the stage in 1972 as Judas Iscariot in Jim Sharman’s production of “Jesus Christ Superstar”, blew people away and pretty well never left the limelight after that.

English sometimes felt he was stereotyped when, after finishing as Judas, he played many villain roles in TV cop shows, leading him to lament the fact that he was “like the Tasmanian devil, cute but misunderstood”.

But then in 1978 he scored the lead role as convict Jonathan Garrett, in the Australian historical television miniseries, “Against The Wind”.

“It was his first foray into real acting,” Cameron says, and he relished it, joking about the romantic aspects of his part, saying “there have to be some roles for ugly people in love”.

All the while he enjoyed a flourishing career putting down hit singles and albums.

One such was the 1976 song, “Hollywood Seven”, which looked at the dark side of life in Tinseltown, but that wasn’t one of his own.

“When you were with a record label you were often given songs,” Cameron says. 

“They gave this one to Jon – he always liked songs that told a story. We actually do that song in the show and we do it really well.

“He was definitely a chameleon, he was multifaceted and often said, ‘It makes me feel like a fly, one of those flies willing to give anything a go’.”

Another facet awaited him after his co-panellist on TV show “Blankety Blanks”, Noel Ferrier, told him he’d make a wonderful Pirate King. He put him in touch with Simon Gallaher, whose Gilbert and Sullivan productions “The Pirates of Penzance”, “The Mikado” and “H.M.S. Pinafore” had wowed the country from 1984 on.

“It couldn’t have been further from rock ‘n’ roll, performing with Simon Gallaher, Marina Prior and June Bronhill,” Cameron says, adding that in her opinion he became “the best Pirate King in the world”. 

Others shared her opinion. When she surprised English for his 60th birthday with a stay in the room at Colorado’s Stanley Hotel where Stephen King’s “The Shining” was set, he ran into a 10-year-old girl who was his great fan, having seen him on YouTube in his famous G&S pirate role.

It’s been five years now since English died, but Cameron still feels as if it were yesterday, “so this show is my way of honouring his legacy and keeping his music alive”.

Some people, she says, were sceptical as to whether she could do “The Rock Show Oz Edition” without English, but the band touring NSW venues including Tamworth, Coffs Harbour, Twin Towns, the Penrith Panthers and Queanbeyan, are the real deal.

“It took me a long while to pick up the pieces… I had to get my mojo back and I had to find the right person, but Steve Mulry is the right person. He does Jon’s songs really well.”

 “The Rock Show Oz Edition”, at Bicentennial Hall, Queanbeyan, 8pm, Saturday, June 5, book here or 6285 6290.