Red Symons
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Red Symons is an Australian musician, writer, and radio host, probably best known as the snide judge of "Red Faces", a The Gong Show-esque segment of the long-running Hey Hey It's Saturday variety television show.
Born in England, he emigrated to Australia (on the same boat as the members of the Bee Gees) as a child in 1958. Symons trained as a mathematician and computer scientist before joining seminal Australian rock band Skyhooks as a guitarist in the 1970s. He also worked in the theatre as a musical director for several organisations, including the Pram Factory, a famous 1970s Melbourne theatre group.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, he combined his on-air role on Hey Hey (also playing in the house band) with composing for various film and television shows, and jingle writing.
When the show was finally axed in 1999, he began writing for The Age newspaper and appearing in a weekly spot on a ABC Melbourne radio show, then began filling in on the breakfast program for that station where he was such a success he was retained permanently in that slot.
In February 2001, Red Symons hosted the game show flop Shafted, which was cancelled in April of the same year.