30 Facts About Greg Quill

Gregory Raymond Quill was an Australian-born musician, singer-songwriter and journalist.

Greg Quill lived in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and was an entertainment columnist at the Toronto Star newspaper from the mid-1980s until his death in May 2013.

Greg Quill died on 5 May 2013, at the age of 66, from "complications due to pneumonia".

Gregory Raymond Quill was born on 18 April 1947 to Raymond and Doris Quill.

Greg Quill grew up in Sydney with a younger brother, Christopher.

Greg Quill began his musical career in the 1960s as a solo performer on the Sydney folk scene clustered around the University of Sydney, where he graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature.

Greg Quill worked briefly as a history teacher at a Catholic boys high school in Bankstown.

Greg Quill was hired by David Elfick, then the local editor of the national weekly pop music magazine, Go-Set.

Greg Quill worked as a writer from 1969, then feature writer and Sydney regional editor for the Melbourne-based publication.

In 2002 Greg Quill recalled that editing Go-Set had prepared him for his later work in journalism.

From 1967, Greg Quill ran The Shack, a folk music venue at Narrabeen on Sydney's northern beaches, where he performed.

In 1969 Greg Quill handed over the running of the venue to his younger brother, Christopher.

Greg Quill dissolved the group in December 1973 and decided to return to his solo music career.

Greg Quill worked for a year as general features writer and news reporter for The Sunday Telegraph, then as editor of the suburban weekly newspaper, The Peninsula News.

In 1974, Greg Quill, performing solo, opened for Fairport Convention in several Australian cities.

In May 1975 Greg Quill promoted the release of The Outlaw's Reply by a performance at the Sydney Opera House, backed by the musicians who had contributed to the album.

Greg Quill was one of the first Australian rock musicians to be awarded a grant by the Australian Council for the Arts, alongside Margret RoadKnight and guitarist Rob MacKenzie.

In September 1999, an impromptu reunion in Melbourne with former bandmates Tolhurst and Stockley led to Greg Quill's returning to performing music.

From 2003, Greg Quill became a regular performer in Canada's roots music scene, as both a solo act and with members of a loose collective that included Bucky Berger on drums, Anne Lindsay on violin, Denis Keldie on accordion, Cam MacInnes on guitar, and Dennis Pinhorn on bass guitar.

From June 2006 to March 2008 Greg Quill compiled and hosted the hour-long weekly Canadian roots music speciality program, River of Song, on Sirius Canada satellite radio.

Greg Quill returned to Australia in July 2009, and played two shows in his home town, one at the revived Shack in Narrabeen, and another at the Excelsior Hotel in Sydney, where he was joined for several songs by former bandmates Agostino and Blanchflower.

In January and February 2011 Greg Quill toured Australia's east coast, playing 15 dates with Toronto singer-songwriter, Jon Brooks.

Greg Quill started recording an album of new material during 2012.

Greg Quill performed with fellow expatriate Australian Terry Wilkins on bass guitar, in the band, Ironbark, which featured Berger and MacInnes, with Mitchell Lewis on drums, guitar, and stringed instruments.

On his website, Greg Quill described Ironbark as "an extension of the traditional bush music and country-rock roots of core members Greg Quill and Wilkins, whose musical kinship extends even further back than their time with fabled Australian country-rock bands Country Radio and Flying Circus, respectively, to Sydney's folk, blues and jug band haunts in the late 1960s".

Greg Quill died on 5 May 2013 at his home in Hamilton.

Greg Quill's family announced that he had "passed away suddenly but peacefully this afternoon from complications due to pneumonia and a recently diagnosed case of sleep apnea".

Greg Quill was survived by his wife, Ellen Davidson, their daughter Kaya, a grandson, and his two stepdaughters.

Greg Quill had said that the album was being restored from a safety master that had recently come to light, and that it would include bonus material, recorded around the same time in Canada for radio broadcasts, with his bands, Hot Knives and Southern Cross.

Greg Quill had been set to release a new solo album of acoustic material that he had been working on over the previous few years.