User:Jay B. Douglas/Jay B. Douglas

Born, Geoffrey Alan Colli, 20 July 1952 at Cape Town, South Africa into a musical family he started to learn the piano at the age of 11 and at age 14 took up teaching himself to play the guitar.His early guitar influences were Jimmie Rogers, Pete Seger,Burl Ives and Jim Reeves. In 1971 he and his family emigrated to Australia where he got involved with country music musicians.

Country music became a way of life for him and he took on the stage name of Jay B. Douglas in 1977. After winning an award for yodelling ( 1st South African to do so) he went on to record for Hadley Records of Tamworth and also tour Queensland, The Northern Territory and Western Australia with the Brian Young Show. Bush balladeer and song writer, Stan Coster, was also on that tour, and Jay was able to gain valuble tools from him for song writing. He went on to record a second album as an independent artist in 1993. 1991 saw Jay producing his first major show called "Frontline Country" in Canberra with a cast of the capitals finest country musicians and artists.This show was to tour Australia later that year under another name and also return Jay to Tamworth after an absence of 8 years.