Oakley-Smith was the musical director for productions of And Green And Golden,[1] Cop-Out,[2] Torch Song Trilogy,[3] Madame Butterfly,[4] Twelfth Night, or What You Will[5] and performed in Ain't We Got Fun.
[6] John Oakley-Smith was born in 1950 in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and lived a short time in Angola before coming to Cape Town, South Africa in 1970.
[8] Before he could complete his degree, he was offered a job to write music for a witches' dance in a very obscure ballet production of "Dark of the Moon.
Muff Andersson lists these ventures ""People" ... , "Stephan Bouwer's film "'n Bars Loop Deur die Wasbak" and "Katinka Heyns "'n Rand 'n Droom", "Story Time", "Lysistrata""[9][7] In 1976, he released his début album entitled Matinees on Saturdays, which was according to Leigh Hitchcock "met with wide acclaim even though it failed to get much airplay because the SABC placed a restriction on six of the songs.
"[8] It is very difficult to categorise John Oakley-Smith's music, but Mike Waddacor attempted by stating that he "executes a hybrid folk style divorced from mainstream contemporary idioms.
[8] Three years later, Oakley-Smith signed a songwriting contract with Warner Brothers and even performed at an international music convention on the Virgin Islands.
His last two draft works focused on at corruption in and around his hometown of Mutare Zimbabwe ("Diamond City Blues") as well as a biographical looking at a prominent Rhodesian family he was commissioned to assist with as a non credited author.