Remembering Ignatius Jones: ‘Outrageous, Cheeky, Brilliant’

There was no other Australian performer quite like Ignatius Jones. At the height of pub rock, Jones fronted Jimmy And The Boys, bringing flamboyance, shock theatrics and a sense of humour to the pubs – and they became one of our most popular live bands.

Rock writer Jenny Brown called them “a high-voltage package of filth, glorious filth”. The band’s debut album, Not Like Everybody Else, was delayed because the record company believed the material was “too obscene”.

Ignatius Jones – who went to Sydney’s St Ignatius College, in the same year as future PM Tony Abbott – has died in the Philippines after a short illness. His sister, Monica Trapaga, issued a statement: “His friends and family will remember Iggy as a bon vivant, a lively raconteur and a real Renaissance man.

“Known professionally as Ignatius Jones, by his friends as Iggy, and by his family as Nacho, Juan Ignacio Trápaga y Esteban was born in the Philippines in 1957, before the family moved to Wahroonga, Sydney.

“The arts community in Australia has lost a champion, and dinner parties will now be less interesting.”

Jimmy And The Boys’ debut single was a cover of The Kinks’ I’m Not Like Everybody Else.

They scored their biggest hit with They Won’t Let My Girlfriend Talk To Me, written by Tim Finn. It hit the Top 10 in 1981.

The Music once asked Jones what he remembered about the band’s first appearance on the top-rating Countdown. “We were very young when we rocked up for our first appearance,” he recalled. “We were also Australia’s most notorious and outrageous punk band, and everyone was very nervous – especially Countdown.

“The floor manager, Kris Noble, was practically shaking with fear at meeting these blood-drinking monsters, came into our dressing-room and told us that if we did anything – anything – violent, weird or pornographic we’d be off air in a flash.”

Jones laughed when recounting the story. “Little did he know that we were all very well-mannered private schoolboys and conservatorium graduates, who’d probably been discussing Bach or Brubeck when he burst in and had no intention of burning down the studio or dropping our strides.”

That episode of Countdown was hosted by Bob Geldof and Elton John. “Elton was very complimentary about my shirt, which was made entirely of safety pins. I remember it was very cold and unpleasant to wear, as it had to be regularly sprayed with WD-40 to stop it from rusting.”

That Countdown appearance was without incident. “We didn’t get the plug pulled on us until our last appearance,” Jones said. “By this time we’d had a few hits and appeared on the show so often, I started helping the staging and wardrobe people design our sets and costumes.”

For what would prove to be Jimmy And The Boys’ final single – a cover of The Rolling Stones’ Get Off My Cloud – “we created this fabulous sort of apocalyptic ‘Heaven’ set; all cotton-wool and white grand pianos, with plaster cherubs hanging from the ceiling. We’d given all the cherubs these long cigarette-holders, with cigarettes in them, naturally, as a kind of decadent touch, and we were all dressed in schoolboy uniforms I’d completely trashed with a blowtorch.”

Just before filming was about to start, word came from above – the cigarettes had to go. “Apparently, you couldn’t show cigarettes on television before 7pm or something. We all thought this was rather amusing, and rather than wait around for a stagehand, I climbed up on the piano and removed the offending fags from the cherubs’ cigarette-holders. The place went nuts – I was a performer, I couldn’t touch the sets, I’d broken every union demarcation rule, and the crew downed tools and went on strike!”

Countdown’s Ian “Molly” Meldrum admired Jones’ style. “Iggy was outrageous, cheeky and brilliant,” Molly says. “One of a kind.”

Jones celebrated the music guru in his live act. “As part of my onstage schtick I would perform mock-fellatio on my transvestite keyboard player Joylene Hairmouth and I would also do a long and truly outrageous stand-up routine about Molly every night.

“The first time we performed at Bombay Rock – it was our first big tour of Melbourne and we’d sold the place out – I was onstage in full bondage gear doing the Molly number. It was utterly OTT and particularly obscene that night and then the audience kind of went all quiet and started pointing behind me.”

There, onstage, was Molly himself.

“Anything could have happened, but for some reason I counted the band into our S&M anthem Butchy Boys, picked Molly up, turned him upside down and did the mock headjob on him. Crowd went nuts, and Molly and I were great mates ever since.”

After Jimmy And The Boys split, Ignatius Jones started Pardon Me Boys, with his sister on lead vocals. They made an album with legendary Australian producer Charles Fisher. “I loved it,” Fisher recalls. “It was all about bringing back the swing era. I loved Ignatius, he was a fabulous person to be around. And Monica is such a great singer. I like everything about that record.”

Jones was a regular contributor to rock publications such as RAM and he also released the book The 1992 True Hip Manual.

Jones’ music career continued into the ’90s when he covered John Paul Young’s Yesterday’s Hero for Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom.

Jones also became one of the world’s leading artistic directors, being one of the creative forces behind the Sydney Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies.

Ignatius Jones was awarded the Order of Australia in 2019 for his contribution to the arts and entertainment.

He retired to the Philippines with his husband Novy in 2022.