Music and festival supremo Ignatius Jones dies, aged 67

Ignatius Jones and his band Jimmy and the Boys were literally a shocking live act, attracting a hardcore audience and ­adventurous music fans who went along to see what the fuss was about.

Ignatius Jones was the creative director for the Sydney Vivid festival. Picture: John Appleyard

Ignatius Jones Singer, performer.
Born Manila, The Philippines, 1957; died in The Philippines, May 7, aged 67

Sydney’s prestigious Saint Ignatius’ College, Riverview, has produced countless leaders, ­including former prime minister Tony Abbott, and a single rock star: Juan Ignacio Rafaelo Lorenzo Trapaga y Esteban.

We knew him as Ignatius Jones, a wild-eyed, possibly ­demented frontman for the wild-eyed, definitely demented shock rockers Jimmy and the Boys. Their first charting single was 1979’s I’m Not Like Everybody Else. No one said they were.

Following the UK-driven punk rock earthquake of 1976-77, the cutting edge of music settled on less confronting post-punk, New Wave aftershocks featuring acts such as Joy Division, Elvis Cost­ello, The Cure and Talking Heads.

Jones was having none of it. Jimmy and the Boys were a literally shocking live act, attracting a hardcore audience and more ­adventurous music fans who went along to see what the fuss was about. It must have been quite a concession for these out-there theatrical punks to agree to host Countdown in May 1981. Mind you, Jones was wheeled out by drag queen keyboards bandmate Joylene Thornbird Hairmouth and was gagged and tied to a chair. (Joylene – born Billy O’Riordan – died last November).

Jimmy and the Boys’ live act pulled crowds, but the raw music did not fit with Australian radio formats of the day. At least not until the band chanced upon a rejected Split Enz song They Won’t Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me. The video was all punk cabaret apparently set in a mental asylum, but its glorious, 50s-style chorus proved a winner and Jimmy and the Boys soared to No. 8 on the Australian charts in 1981.

Jones and his sister Monica Trapaga.

Jones worked as Vivid creative director. Picture: John Appleyard

The band broke up and Jones released two solo singles – Like A Ghost and Whispering Your Name – that scraped into the charts. Soon Jones had put together the jazz cabaret band Pardon Me Boys with his younger sister Monica Trapaga who sometimes presented Play School and sang the Bananas in Pyjamas theme. The Pardon Me Boys theme song was a minor his in 1986.

Trapaga announced his passing in a statement on X on Tuesday, revealing he had been battling a “short illness” before his death.

“We are absolutely devastated by the passing of my brother, Juan Ignacio Trapaga, the formidable Ignatius Jones,” she said. “His friends and family will remember Iggy as a bon-vivant, a lively ­raconteur and a real Renaissance man, immensely and passionately knowledgeable in history and the arts.

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

Jones wrote for Rock Australia Magazine (RAM), edited Stiletto and was a youth affairs reporter for SBS. He appeared in several films and it was his voice you heard in Strictly Ballroom singing Yesterday’s Hero. With David Atkins he worked on the Sydney Olympics opening and closing ceremonies. The pair wrote and directed The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular in 2002. Jones directed that year’s Gay Games opening ceremony and later on other international events, as well as directing the Sydney New Year’s Fireworks display from 1996 to 2002.

He was awarded an Order of Australia in 2019.

He is survived by his husband, Novy, his mother, Margot Martin, brother Luis Miguel, sisters, Rocio and Monica, and “a gaggle of ­nieces and nephews”.