I Wanna Love You (D Richards) 1959 and (My) Little Lover (K Taylor) – Dig Richards and The R’Jays 1960 and A Little Piece of Peace (D Richards) 1971 and People Call Me Country (D Richards)- Digby Richards 1972
Digby George “Dig” Richards (1940) was born in the central western NSW town of Dunedoo, his father Gordon was a policeman and his mother Moira was a homemaker, his younger brother Douglas (1947) and Digby attended the Narooma Central School and later the Moruva High School, where Dig would complete his Leaving Certificate and in 1958, at the age of 17 head for a job with Waltons Department store in Sydney. Below – Dig Richards x2, Dig and The R’Jays centre.
A chance meeting at the Nock and Kirby record bar in George St (Syd) with drummer Barry Lewis and guitarist Jon Hayton in August 1958 set the young Dig on a date with destiny, when he was invited to try out with The R’Jays, a fledgling band who wanted to replace their lead singer and already had play dates booked in two weeks’ time. Dig impressed at the next band practice where he also met Kerry Konyard (rhythm guitar), Peter Marris (sax), and Roger Palfreyman (tea chest bass). His combination of James Dean-type good looks, soft charm, quiet demeanour, and spirted rock and roll vocals, earned his bandmates approval, and their first gig would be at the Castlecrag Community Hall, where they performed cover versions of Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Eddie Cochrane songs. Below- L-R Group Shot Col Joye, Johnny Rebb, Dig Richards, Johnny Devlin, and Johnny O’Keefe; centre JOK, Col Joye.
The three prominent rockers in Sydney at the time were Johnny O’Keefe, Col Joye, and Alan Dale, JOK and Col were already signed to Festival Records, and the R’Jays were competing with other young hopefuls like Johnny Rebb, Ray Hoff and the Offbeats, Barry Stanton and the Belairs, and The Stoneagers, on the local dance scene. In 1959 The R’Jays became the third R&R act to be signed to Festival after Joy and O’Keefe, and quickly gained exposure on TV shows including Bandstand where they became regular performers, Six O’Clock Rock, and from August 1959 became the regular house band on Teen Time, a music show that ran from 1959- 1962.
Their breakthrough hit in July 1959 was I Wanna Love You, penned by Dig’s 15- year-old brother Doug Richards, it was a midtempo soft rocker with few claims to stone cold rock credibility, the big hits of 58/59 were Peggy Sue (Buddy Holly), Hard-Headed Woman ( Elvis Presley), Bird Dog (Everly Brothers), Susie Darlin’ (Robin Luke), Just Married This Morning (Marty Robbins), When (Kalin Twins), A Fool Such As I (Elvis Presley), Personality (Lloyd Price), Mona Lisa (Conway Twitty), Shout (JOK), and Red River Rock (Johnny and the Hurricanes).
But Dig channeled Buddy Holly-style vocals with an endearing boyish smile, a Brylcreemed quiff, bushy eyebrows and limited stagecraft, to take the record to #15 for their first chart success. By now Palfreyman, Marris and Konyard had departed and Jay Boogie (piano) and Peter Baker (electric bass) had joined Richards (lead vocals), Jon Hayton (lead guitar), and Barry Lewis (drums) in the band. Below- Fabian paying Dig a “get-well” visit in Sydney after his car accident.
They were poised for success and booked to appear on the bill Fabian at a Lee Gordon Big Show in Sydney in October 1959 when Dig was involved in bad car accident on the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and hospitalized for several months, with a broken collarbone, dislocated hip and facial injuries that required 40 stitches. Road trauma was certainly taking its toll on rock singers around this time, earlier in 1957 Lonnie Lee had driven into a telegraph pole in Sydney and took months to recuperate back at his family’s country property. In 1959 Barry Stanton was almost decapitated when he drove under a truck, and on June 27, 1960 Johnny O’Keefe fell asleep at the wheel of his new cherry-red Plymouth Belvedere whilst returning to Sydney from Queensland, and side-swiped a gravel truck at Clybucca, north of Kempsey. He was seriously injured and required 90 stitches to his face and body as well as the replacement of teeth and reconstructive surgery on his gums and mouth. In 1962 Noel Weiderberg, the original lead singer for the Delltones died when he rolled his car on Grand Parade in the Sydney suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands, he was only 23 years old, with a young wife and baby. Below- L-R- JOK being assisted into an air ambulance, his Plymouth Belvedere at the Kempsey police station, news article re death of Noel Weiderberg.
Internationally the reputation of rock and rollers who sometimes literally lived too fast, died young, and left a good-looking corpse, certainly gained momentum in 1960. Both Johnny Horton who collided with a truck on Nov 5 on Highway 79 at Little River Bridge, near Milano Texas, and Eddie Cochran (above) who met his fate on April 16th near Chippenham (UK), would both die in fatal car crashes. Coincidentally the first policeman to attend the scene of Cochrane’s death was young cadet officer David Harman (below), who would later become famous as the singer Dave Dee (Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich). Below- News of death of Eddie Cochrane, PC David Harman, Cochrane’s vehicle.
Dig Richards and The R’Jays second single, I’m Through, was also written by his brother Doug, and it climbed to #55 in October 1959, a more up-tempo rockabilly song with fine lead guitar by Jon Hayton and an intro that was reminiscent of Conway Twitty’s It’s Only Make Believe, Sydney group the New Notes provided effective backing vocals on this one. In 1960 Richards hit the charts with no less than three singles (Real Gone) Annie Laurie #35, a rocked up version of the old Scottish folk song, Comin’ Down With Love #48,a Sid Tepper /Roy Bennett pop composition that was originally recorded by UK’s Garry Mills and American Mel Gadsen in1960, and (My) Little Lover/Quarrels (Are A Sad Thing) #23, a gentle soft rocker that suited Dig’s crooning style of pop/rock. Dig and the R’Jsys were support act on Lee Gordon’s Big Show tour of Crash Craddock in January 1960, and supported Rick Nelson on his Australian tour later in November that year.
By now the R’Jays had become the Rajahs, and Dig had gone solo, he followed up in 1962 with a top 40 cover of Sammy Turner’s Raincoat in The River, which used strings, orchestration and female backing vocals to produce a more sophisticated record which indicated a future career direction for Dig towards more mature audiences. In 1964 Dig married Suzanne Clark (1943), a telephonist and they would have two children, Tim and Jenny, Dig continued to work the clubs and toured markets in South-East Asia until the late 60’s.
In 1970 Dig went to the UK to absorb new musical directions, he returned as Digby, complete with beard and a longer hair style, and recorded Harlequin, an album of original songs, from which he lifted the single, A Little Piece Of Peace in 1971. It was a soulful, contemplative ballad, produced by Roger Savage, the go-to expat UK producer who had already produced hits here for the Twilights, Bobby and Laurie, Spectrum, MPD Ltd, and Masters Apprentices. This was certainly one of Digby’s best records, piano-based orchestration, strings, backing choir, and the singer’s more dramatic, resonant, and convincing vocals, it deserved to hit top ten, but stopped at #28. He followed up with People Call Me Country in 1972, a #24 charter with a loping country beat, acoustic guitar picking, and haunting harmonica, and Dig’s easy-listening vocals, a quality song that deserved to do better than #24.
By 1973 Dig was recording with RCA Records in Los Angeles with top session musicians, who were attracted by the quality of his original songs as well as his distinctive Aussie accent, the end product was the 1974 self-titled album Digby Richards, which produced the hits New York City (Send My Baby Home), #35, and Do the Spunky Monkey #21, and My Daddy Was A Song And Dance Man was another underrated song on this album. Digby was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April 1983 and sadly passed away in February 1983 aged 42, he was survived by his wife and two children.
4The Record 