28/11/2023
Rock ‘n’ Roll George (AKA: George Kyprios) was born in the Brisbane suburb of West End in 1927, and eventually became an iconic image of Brisbane's days of bodgies and widgees, of milk bars and cafes, of dances at Cloudland, and of course, Rock ‘n’ Roll.
George attended West End State School and played rugby league for Souths Magpies at Davies Park. He never married, but he loved his car, loved cruising around, and loved talking to people.
One of George’s closest friends was his barber Bill Diacos, who cut his hair at his West End barber shop for more than 30 years. Mr Diacos painted five pictures of George standing in front of his FX Holden, which was a birthday gift from his mother in 1952. He said, “The main variation in the paintings is the colour of the pants George wore. The green, brown, purple, red, and blue. George wore a different colour for each day of the week.”
According to Mr Diacos, the rock 'n' roll image was down to his 1950s friends.
"He had a group of friends who used to drive their cars from New Farm Park up to Cloudland on Friday and Saturday nights. George was the dancer. He used to love dancing, and one day they turned up at New Farm Park and one of his mates had made a Rock ‘n’ Roll number plate. So they took the original front number plate off George’s car and put on the one that read Rock 'n' Roll. From then on, he was known throughout Brisbane as Rock ‘n’ Roll George.”
George lived in a Brisbane of the past when Queen Street ruled, and virtually every Friday and Saturday night from the 1950s to 1970s, he could be seen driving his car through town, windows down and radio blasting out Rock and Roll.
During the week he worked as a presser in a suit factory, a luggage manufacturer at Albion, and at the Golden Circle cannery before finishing his working life at the Government Printing Office.
Sadly, the 1982 opening of the Queen Street Mall was the end of Rock 'n' Roll George's time, but he did have the honour of being the last person officially permitted to drive the full length of Queen Street before it was closed.
However, he would still go into the city every day. Sometimes he would just sit outside what was once the Black Cat Newsagents (now Hungry Jacks) on the corner of Queen & Albert Streets and talk to people about the old times, the good times. He knew lots of people, and lots of people knew him and identified with him, and they could remember the sixties and seventies when he was cruising around town.
It was rumoured that because George was such a great ambassador for Holden Motor Cars, GMH once offered him any new Holden of his choice in exchange for his beloved 1952 FX. He declined.
After George’s death, his faded cream car was eventually bought by a Mr Scott Hutchinson who had it restored, then donated it to the Queensland Museum. But Mr Hutchinson wanted to keep the dream alive, so he also had a replica made that he could drive around the streets of his hometown of Perth, WA. It is an exact reproduction, from the girlie stickers and baubles on the windows to the fake whitewall tyres, and of course, the number plate.
George Kyprios passed away on the 29th November 2009, aged 82. The following day the headlines read, “Rock 'n' Roll George is dead. Long Live Rock 'n' Roll.”
