Slim Newton

Ralph Ernest Newton (22 October 1932 – 8 January 2023), professionally Slim Newton, was an Australian country music singer-songwriter. In June 1972 he issued an extended play, The Redback on the Toilet Seat, which peaked at No. 3 on the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles Chart and sold over 100,000 copies. In 1973 Newton won a Golden Guitar Trophy at the inaugural Country Music Awards of Australia for Top Selling Record for the EP. Newton continued his career as a part-time musician and released several albums while also working in his trade as a welder. In 1977 the Country Music Association of Australia inducted him into the Australasian Country Music Hands of Fame, and then in 2009 into the Australian Roll of Renown.

Early life Ralph Ernest Newton was born on 22 October 1932 and grew up in Perth with two brothers. At the age of 17 he was an apprentice welder when he started performing country and western music at week-ends. Newton was 19 when he had two motor bike accidents leaving him with "crockery teeth and one leg an inch shorter than the other". He returned to Perth in 1959.

1971–2023: "The Redback on the Toilet Seat" Newton had continued his songwriting and, in 1971, after contact from Eric Scott of Hadley Records, he and his family relocated to Tamworth, so that he could start recording his own material at their studios. According to David Kent in his Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 the EP appeared in the Kent Music Report Singles Chart on 19 June 1972, peaked at No. 5 for two weeks and remained in the top 100 for 28 weeks. Fellow country music artist, Slim Dusty, recalled in his autobiography, Another Day, Another Town (1996), how he had often been mistaken as the song's author.

In August 1972 Newton told Nan Musgrove of The Australian Women's Weekly of an occasion where a visiting friend used his outside toilet in Perth where the light globe had blown. The friend reported that he was lucky there were no redback spiders on the toilet seat. The phrase inspired Newton to write the track, "The Redback on the Toilet Seat", which he indicated was "easy to write, that most songs come fairly easy except when you have to write one on demand, then and there".

Newton received further recognition for his work from the Country Music Association of Australia: in 1977 he was inducted into the Australasian Country Music Hands of Fame, Newton attended with his partner, Mary Holdom, and the couple also provided some duets. In September 1958 he married Fay Edwards née Gill in Campsie and they returned to Perth the next year. The couple had five children: Eric (1959–1981), Stephen, Lisa, Linda and Jodi. In 1992 Stephen relocated Enrec Studios to Kurri Kurri and then on to Sydney.

Discography Albums + List of albums Title Details The Redback on the Toilet Seat Released: 1972 Label: Hadley Records (HLP 1210) Format: LP What is it That's 'Bleeping' Our Country Released: 1975 Label: Hadley Records (HLP 1222) Format: LP There are False Teeth in the Toilet Released: 1979 Label: Hadley Records (HLP 1238) Format: LP, Cassette I'm a 9 Stone Cowboy Released: 1980 Label: Hadley Records (HLP 1249) Format: LP, Cassette It Came from the Heart When He Sang Released: 1982 Label: Hadley Records (HLP 1269) Format: LP, Cassette The Waterbed Song Released: 1985 Label: Hadley Records (HLP 1283) Format: LP, Cassette Momma Your Guitar's Come Back Home Released: 1996 Label: Larrikin Records (LRF397) Format: CD It's Me Past And Present Released: 2001 Label: Dingo Track Records (DTRSN01CD) Format: CD From Bush Ballads T' Bulldust Released: 2006 Label: Dingo Track Records (DTRSN02CD) Format: CD

Extended plays + List of EP, with Australian chart positions

1977 Slim Newton Hands of Fame Tamworth Songwriters Awards The Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) is an annual songwriting contest for original country songs, awarded in January at the Tamworth Country Music Festival. They commenced in 1986. (wins only) 1992 Slim Newton Songmaker Award