biography of g.wayne thomas
Arriving in Australia from New Zealand in 1966, Wayne attended NIDA (National Institute of Dramatic Art) where he studied Theatre Production, working at night as Stage Manager for Frank Strains Theatre Restaurants.
In 1967 Wayne went to the Australian Theatre Trust Opera Company, now Opera Australia, joining the technical staff with Gordon Weaver under creative direction of Stephen Hall.
In 1968 he moved from Opera Australia and spent a short time at Channel 7 in Sydney from where he was retained by Bryce Courtenay the then Creative Director of the Advertising Agency J. Walter Thompson.
At J. Walter Thompson he worked with a number of creative people including John Fawcett, Ken Done, and Llewellyn Thomas (son of the playwright/poet Dylan Thomas). Due to having the same surname they were often confused as being brothers.
While at Thompson's he wrote produced and performed a number of commercial jingles, in association with the then Musical Director of “Hair” and later “Jesus Christ Superstar”, Patrick Flynn. With Patrick he also worked for a number of other advertising agencies, which attracted interest from record companies, particularly EMI and Warner Bros.
In 1970, Wayne joined Warner Bros as Managing Director of their existing 14 publishing companies and headed A (Artists and Repertoire), but always retained ownership of his own music label, Music Masters.
In 1971, he produced the soundtrack of “Morning of the Earth” for David Elfick and Albe Falzon. G. Wayne wrote and performed three of the songs for the album which was released in 1972, notably the title track “Morning of the Earth”, “Day Comes”, and also the famous “Open up your Heart”, which was lifted off as the single and shot to No.1. Ironically this song was one of &those moments' in history where Elfick and Falzon were close to the final edit of the movie, and quickly needed just one more song for the closing credits. Wayne sat down and in 10-15mins he wrote “Open Up Your Heart”. As the movie was almost complete it was put over the closing credits. “Open Up Your Heart” stayed at No.1 for approximately 18 weeks finally being knocked off No.1 spot by John Lennon's “Imagine” “Morning of the Earth” was to becomethe first Gold soundtrack in the history of Australia.
In 1972, although at first Wayne was reluctant when approached by Albe Falzon & David Elfick to write and produce the soundtrack for their new movie “Crystal Voyager”.
1973, he eventually agreed. The whole soundtrack was written, performed and produced in TEN DAYS, with the help of the specially formed Studio Band consisting of Bobby Gibbert (piano), Mick Liber (guitar), Rod Coe (bass), and John Proud (drums) with assistance from Michael Carlos (keyboards), and Wayne sang and played rhythm guitar.
Much to G.Wayne and David's surprise “Crystal Voyager” won that years ARIA award for best Australian Soundtrack. According to Albe Toms the film historian, because of its European release it went on to become the highest grossing surf movie of all time.
During the period with Warner's and Polygram he produced a number of No1 and top 10 records for various artists such as Allison McCallum, Rumor, John English (with hit “Turn the Page”), Shona Lang, Autumn, and Himself.
In 1978 Wayne moved back to writing and producing commercials. He won many International and Australian awards for his work, some notable ones being a Gold Australian Advertising Award for “Spirit of Australia” for Qantas, a “Gold Lion” at Cannes, and a “Mobius” in Europefor his “Can't Say No” for CCs, a “Clios” in New York for “Coke Teardrop” Levi's “Leaving” and also “Get Your Body” for Reebok, an “International Radio Award” for “Eveready Red” and various runners up for “Toyota” and “Marantz” etc.
He Produced the hit play “No Good Boyo” from an original script by Ray Henwood for the Sydney Festival, about the missing last three hours of Dylan Thomas's life.
Wayne is also Co-Inventor, co- international patent holder and founding director of Pinranger Australia for “a satellite distance measuring system” which has been licensed to over 1,000 golf courses world wide before it's recent sale to GPS Industries, a public company listed in the US, Canada, Germany.
He recently wrote, sang and produced the soundtracks for 6 one hour television specials on the “History of the Davis Cup” produced for the Wimbledon Tennis and Croquet Club by Barry Williams.
G Wayne was executive producer of “Day Comes” the theatrical production, which was produced by Grant Drinkwater and Chris O'Callaghan. “Day Comes” was inspired by G Wayne's songs and the music of Morning of the Earth and was written and directed by Daniel Di Masi, Jonathan Andrews and Jay James Moody. It previewed at Fox Studios sound stage in 2006 and was well received by the audience. It is a work in progress.
Wayne recently performed in the LIVE Stage Production of the “Morning of the Earth” Soundtrack at the State Theatre in Sydney.