He shared stages with the Rolling Stones and once called Russell Crowe a son-in-law. But at 89, Don Spencer’s most powerful legacy doesn’t stem from his 70 years as a pop singer, his three decades on Playschool, or the albums that soundtracked millions of Australian family road trips.
His true gift has been a lifelong quest to share the healing power of song with kids growing up without music in their lives and hope in their hearts.
“I was a sensitive kid, and I witnessed a lot of stuff that upset me,” he confides. “Music brought me solace and I know its magic can change lives. Music inspires creativity and imagination, which you really need in this world, whatever you do. Music also teaches discipline and teamwork, and it’s great for numeracy and literacy too. Most of all, music gives these kids joy and hope and if you don’t have any hope, you don’t have a future.”
Don’s own future looked pretty bleak growing up in Tamworth in Depression-era NSW. So, he left Australia as a teenager where his skills as a hockey player saw him train with the Kenyan Olympic hockey squad until a chance meeting in Nairobi with songwriter Roger Whittaker – who wrote The Last Farewell and went on to sell 60 million records – changed the course of his life.
“I was writing nonsense poems home to my Mum instead of letters but after seeing Roger on stage I started taking music seriously,” he explains.
In London, Don released ‘Fireball XL5’ for the titular TV science fiction series. It shot up the UK charts and got Don support slots with the Stones, The Hollies, Marianne Faithfull and the Four Seasons. As he gigged across the country, Don also became a TV star, hosting the pop show Gangway! and a popular radio DJ. But his most enduring UK role was as a presenter on Play School, a role he’d already begun back in Australia in 1968.
“When I eventually came home, people asked: ‘You’re doing so well in England, what are you doing here? Because I wanted to raise my kids as Aussies, I travelled between England and Australia for the next five years, doing Play School in both, to make a living. Eventually Don landed a successful tonight show in Perth but even then, he had to defy the stigma that went with being an entertainer who worked for adults and children.
“A TV producer told me: ‘You’ve got to give up this kid stuff. We can’t have you dressed up at night with a great band, interviewing celebrities as this suave dude, and then in the morning have people see you singing as an elephant or pretending to be a balloon. You lose all credibility.’ I said, ‘Mate, I bet I’m still doing children’s stuff long after this show.’ It was part of a big cultural cringe we had. Everything was better from everywhere else.”
Don then doubled down on his belief that Australian kids deserved better. “I sang a lot of songs on the ABC, but none about Australia,” he says.
“It was the same English nursery rhymes. So, me and a mate of mine, Alan Caswell – a great country singer-songwriter – wrote Feathers, Fur or Fins. At first nobody would release it. They told us: ‘This isn’t a kids’ album. The music is too sophisticated, and every song’s got a different rhythm.”
That detail was deliberate, says Don. “We wanted the kids to be curious, so we made sure all the facts were true. Like, on ‘Please Don’t Call Me a Koala Bear’ I sing, ‘I’m a marsupial and proud of it/ there can be no doubt of it, I’m closer to a kangaroo than I am to a bear’. And on Aussie Mozzy, ‘it’s the female of the species biting us to pieces ‘cos the Aussie Mozzy’s brother doesn’t bite at all’. Little things that made a big difference.”
Don was a firm Playschool favourite so in 1986, the ABC finally released the album. “Surprise, surprise, everybody loved it,” Don laughs.
“It became incredibly successful and I did a dozen children’s albums after that, all about Australia and its animals. I travelled everywhere playing these songs. And 40 years later I’ve still got kids coming up to me saying how they travelled all over Australia with my songs on their car stereo.”
It’s why ABC Music is releasing a 40th anniversary edition of Feathers, Fur or Fins this week featuring Don’s originals alongside new versions from The Wiggles, Justine Clarke, Tim Freedman, Rob Mills, Emma Memma, and Don’s daughter, Danielle Spencer.
“But the most beautiful thing that came from the album’s success,” says Don, “was that it gave me the finances to kick off the Australian Children’s Music Foundation in 2002.”
Despite having written over 300 songs and done 32 years on Playschool, Don considers the ACMF his greatest legacy. The charity offers free tuition and instruments to schools, provides music programs in juvenile detention centres and disadvantaged communities in remote regions of Australia. The ACMF also provides music therapy for sick kids in hospital. In fact, over 3000 Aussie kids benefit from Don’s charity every single week.
Incarcerated youth will be the latest to benefit when ACMF launches Hear Me Out: Music Behind Bars in September. It’s an initiative close to Don’s heart.
“I always wanted to work in juvenile justice centres because these kids have had tough upbringings like I did. This teaches them songwriting as a form of self-expression and offers a second chance. One girl told us, ‘Since I started writing songs, I’ve stopped cutting myself.’”
Another ACMF initiative is the National Songwriting competition open to every school in Australia and now in its 24th year.
“We’ve discovered some astonishing talent among kids in jail and the music therapy programs in the hospitals,” Don says proudly. Sounds like an all-star band? “Yeah, we’ve been talking about bring them all together next year in a combined concert for my 90th birthday and the 25th anniversary of the Foundation.”
Feathers, Fur or Fins 40th anniversary is out this week. Entries for the ACMF Songwriting Competition close September 21. Read about the great work of Don Spencer and the ACMF and donate here.
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