Hello, my name is Jeffrey Garbutt from Western Australia. I am the squaredance caller for "Jay Gees" square dance club in Bunbury. I am also the current president of the "Callers Association of Western Australia" and have been the editor of the "Australia Callers Federation" magazine named "Callerlink" since June 2000.
Square dancing is a bit of a passion for me and I have been a square dancer and a caller for several years. I started square dancing in August 1973 at Sundowners Club at the White Gum Valley hall, learning from Kevin Kelly. I was still in my last year at High School at the time. That high school was "John Curtin Senior High School" which was actually the venue of the Australian 12th National Square Dance convention in 1971, (but at the time I did not know that this event was happening at my high school). I was, (of course), aware that square dancing existed and was exposed to it for many years of watching the Reg Lindsay country music TV show.
I started my career as a hydrohrapher in 1974 and was initially based in Albany. In Albany I met many friendly people and even used to board with family of the resident square dance caller (Alan Grogan). I was not initially interested in taking my hobby further, but events soon changed things. In my job I occasionally stayed a couple of days in Esperance, which meant missing the occasional club night. One of those club nights was an amateur caller night - which I wasn't too worried about missing it. But one night soon after Alan simply said that "Jeff is doing the next record", put on "Summer Sounds", and handed me the microphone. I could see that I couldn't avoid it - so gave it a go. No-one was more surprised than me about what came out. For the rest of the year I did the occasional record at club night that year, but didn't take it more seriously straight away.
In 1975 I was transferred to Perth but didn't pursue calling straight away. Eventually I subscribed to "Sets in Order" magazine for more information and "Robertson Dance Supplies" for their new release service and started building up a small collection of records. Towards the end on 1975 I built up enough courage to ask Kevin Kelly (Sundowners) and Graham Halliwell (Riversides) to give me a chance at calling. I must have made an impression and was encouraged to become a trainee caller at the Callers Association. In 1976 I was accepted as a trainee caller in CAWA. In 1976 I was also transferred to Harvey which enabled me to attend Circle-C in Bunbury under the guidance of Les Johnson at Circle-C. Over the next months I would learn the trade of calling from any callers I came in contact with. In 1977 Les decided it was too much work supporting Bunbury dancers from his new home in Coogee Beach near Perth. So he handed the club over to me.
In 1979 I was transferred back to Perth and said goodbye to the faithful dancers in Bunbury. In a short time I started Ace Squares in Kwinana/Rockingham area, met Tracie, got married, we started a family and I got serious about my day time career. So I gave up square dancing in 1982 and thought that was it for me as far as square dancing was concerned.
In 1990 I moved the family to the South West, dragged the kids to squaredancing, and in 1992 re-started Circle-C to supplement the dancing choice available in Bunbury. In 1995 another caller (Ross Henley) moved into Bunbury so that we had three clubs. I took over running a Perth club every week, (Riverside), from 1998. This was very a very busy time as I had to commute about 200 kilometres to get there. So I decided to join my club with Ross's club and give up my Bunbury club. In 2003 Ross had decided to move on and I started a new club known as "Jay Gees". In 2006 I ended my commitment to Riversides and applied my total commitment to Jay Gees. Of course the "Jay Gees" is based on my initials and represents the maxim that "if one really believes in something - they should put their own name it".
Positions held:
SECRETARY: Callers Association of Western Australia: 1977 to 1978 and 1999 to 2003
VICE PRESIDENT: Callers Association of Western Australia: 2010 to 2013
PRESIDENT: Callers Association of Western Australia: 2013 to current
EDITOR: Australian Callers Federation: 2000 to current
Personal website: http://jeffgarbutt.wix.com/jeffreygarbutt
Club website: http://jeffgarbutt.wix.com/jaygees