OBITUARY: Vale Dick Hughes | Young reporters feared this ‘kind soul’

His mum died when he was 2. It must have had a life-lasting impact. He was barely a young man when he learnt his father was a spy, with connections to MI6 and Ian Fleming. And then he learnt said spy was in reality a double-agent.

His amazing life included a friendship with Louis Armstrong. He was the only journo to interview Billie Holiday for radio on her celebrated first London visit in 1954. His daughter Christa is the lead performer of Machine Gun Fellatio.

While working as a sub at Fairfax, his stories would roll on as he berated each of us for dangling our participles in public. He was extremely knowledgeable and eloquent, fastidious and fussy. Litrals would give him apoplexy. He never mastered the art of mincing his words. And he was always right. Even when he was wrong. We all respected him.

He was a member of several jazz bands, some of which were his own; in the 1960s it was The Chosen 3 and in the 1980s it was Dick Hughes’s Famous Five, whose music was thoroughly enjoyed by audiences.

He played in London’s Festival Hall in 1954. In later life he had his own fortnightly Sunday-afternoon radio show for jazz-lovers on the ABC, Speak Easy, Swing Hard.

Rather than say music and language will be the poorer for losing him, it’s more accurate to say music and language are the better for Dick having been here at all.

Dear, dear Dick. What a man. What a life! It was a pleasure working with him. His knowledge was wide, his heart was big. His understanding of the English language was without peer. 

Pity the reporter who transgressed the rules. Dick would be on the phone booming, “You do know what a split infinitive is, don't you?” Or “If you use a Shakespearean quote, please get it right!” He may have appeared to be on a short fuse but moments later he would be chuckling about something that tickled his fancy. 

With his formidable knowledge and direct manner he could appear intimidating to young reporters but behind the gruff facade was a kind, gentle soul. Away from the newsroom, in the pub or entertaining at home Dick was delightful company. He had so many stories and we had so many laughs. 

His knowledge of jazz was encyclopedic. His fortnightly program on what was then 2MBS FM, produced by his delightful and devoted wife Fay, made Sunday afternoons a joy. Wonderful music and fascinating commentary.

He will be remembered for his kindness, too. If a colleague was incapacitated he would promptly phone to check that everything was OK and ask if there was anything he could do.

Journalists occasionally have the good fortune to share a newsroom with a real character. Dick was a character who will be fondly remembered by all who worked with him. – Stephen Freed, former chief subeditor

Richard worked for a time from the Leader's Kogarah office on FCN titles throughout Sydney. He was an enormous presence in the newsroom and commanded great respect. Not a week would go by without the newsroom hearing Richard cautioning a young reporter over the phone on the dangers of dangling participles and split infinitives. – Albert Martinez, editor

Sad news. How odd that I was thinking of him only about a week ago and wondered how he was travelling. Well, astrally as it turns out.

Dick was a devout Roman Catholic and somehow managed to squeeze in a spot of worship at a church at Rushcutters Bay (St Canice’s) early of a morning en route from his flat at Vaucluse to wherever the FCN subs office was at the time, be it Liverpool, Bankstown or Kogarah.

He was a fighter and would plug on even though the mere act of walking became painful and made a staircase an ordeal. He never had a bad word for anyone, well, almost anyone. I was very fond of him. – Greg Newall, former subeditor

Dick was one of the extraordinary characters who took me under his wing as a young sub and gave me a great grounding in copy-tasting, subbing, layout, editing and so much more. Working with Dick was a joy. So sad to hear he has gone. – Alvin Stone, former reporter, subeditor, editor

Such sad news. I loved working with him. When Dick called, you listened. And learned. :-)  – Heloise Tolar, editor

The great Richard Hughes junior was a scholar and a gentleman of journalism – he was a wonderful gentleman to work with. Dick was a master of fact-checking without the internet. Think about that for a moment. – Robert Beadle and Paul Wiggins, former subeditors

What a man! He was the leader of the band. You never forget people of this calibre. – Paul Sanders-Pattinson, publicist​

Such a character. So glad to have known him, albeit briefly. – Alison Adams, journalist

RIP Dick. You have won a place to play your music in the highest place. – Nick Soon, former reporter

A great man and a wonderful friend and colleague. I am away from Sydney so, sadly, I missed Dick’s funeral. At least I will have my unlimited memories of Dick and his autographed CDs and autobiography. We have all lost a dear friend and a wonderful and witty human being. – Sandy Savos, former production editor

A few years ago Dick rebroadcast his interview with the legendary Billie Holiday. The ABC urged him to write his own media release, reproduced here, without his permission but certainly with his blessing:

Whereas Dick Hughes begs to inform all who may or may not be interested in jazz singer Billie Holiday that this Sunday, April 1 (no fooling!), the Speak Easy, Swing Hard program, noon to 1pm, will consist entirely of records by Holiday, with two exceptions. The exceptions are interviews with Teddy Wilson, the pianist who accompanied Holiday on some of her greatest sessions, and with Holiday herself. So far as is known, Dick Hughes was the only person who scored a radio interview with Billie Holiday on her first visit to London in February 1954.

Dick Hughes worked in Frank Packer's London office from 1952 to 1954. He also did radio interviews with jazz musicians and personalities on the ABC. The date of his Billie Holiday interview, which, to repeat, will be broadcast towards the end of his noon-to-1pm program this Sunday April 1 (It's Palm Sunday, too, so make it a date) was February 11, 1954. This interview preceded by exactly two years the world scoop in Moscow on Saturday, February 11, 1956, of his father Richard Hughes (CBE, RIP) when he wrung, metaphorically speaking, from Khruschev and Bulganin, the British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.

Normally of tractable and docile (not to say obsequious and servile) disposition, Dick Hughes can (to quote The Australian Jazz Explosion) "be moved to fiery scorn by those who practise artistic barbarism and grammatical mutilation, and can be moved to towering if brief rage by those who change so little [Hughes would say 'so much'] as a comma in his own evocative, stylish and idiosyncratic prose".

No Luddite, he is notoriously incompetent with computers, which may well be the reason for the presumed spiking – without word of acknowledgement, apology or regret – of his obituary (commissioned) of Alan Geddes, one of Australia's best jazz drummers, that "led" (why is that word now so frequently misspelt "lead"?) with a hitherto unpublished story of a tribute Geddes was to have paid to Gene Krupa in Sydney in 1954.

Column 8 asked before Christmas if any reader could explain the provenance of the phrase "talking turkey". I have done so twice, but have not seen my answer published.

I hesitate to ring again the admirable and amiable incumbent Column 8 man Pat Sheil (he be a very busy man) but I was saddened as much as angered to learn that Pat had not received two classic Ross Campbell pieces I had sent him. Ross Campbell, one of Australia's greatest writers, who, better than anyone else I can call to mind, knew the art of concealing art. A Rhodes scholar, he was 43 before he was awarded a byline.

His autobiography An Urge to Laugh, republished as The Road to Oxalis Cottage, is, for me, a desert-island book. I quote from it as follows: "I have never made use of any of the following words or phrases except in fun: Husky, rangy, raunchy, plush, prideful, lissome, tripartite, open-ended, ongoing or pint-size: credibility, viability, charisma, insights, heritage, subculture, scenario, or media (as a singular noun); in-depth, nitty gritty, that's what [whatever] is all about, the name of the game, this day and age, keeping your cool, taking a long hard look, coming to the crunch, soft underbelly, raises eyebrows, low-profile, search for identity, area of dialogue, human condition, moment of truth or a whole new game."

Bravo, Ross. You rank with James Thurber and P.G. Wodehouse, and sometimes surpass them.

Don't let things go to your heads, folks, or mine (one at a time please), but Steve Freed reckons our papers to be superior in written and sub-edited quality to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Be that as it may, I loathe, detest, despise and abhor The Australian's constant use of the horrible "spike" and the hideous "hike".

Thanks, ladies and gentlemen. I have an appointment with a photographer – or is it video artist?