Fellow entertainer and friend of more than 30 years, Simon Gallaher, plans to address the audience as part of the tribute.

The pair became firm friends in the early 1980s when they starred in the highly-successful Australian production of The Pirates of Penzance for three years. They worked together across the following decades with the pair treading the boards in Brisbane not long before Mr English’s sudden death in March 2016.

“We’d done a new production of Spamalot alongside Julie Anthony,” Mr Gallaher said. “We had the best time and it was such a success. We were just in the throes of working out a national tour and unfortunately this happened. I lost my great professional compatriot and bosom buddy. It’s been a terribly tough year.”

The tribute will also include a performance by Peter Cupples, another “great mate” of the late singer and actor.

Jon English was a patron of the CAT Awards, as is currently Simon Gallaher. He will walk the red carpet in Dubbo with other patrons including actor John Wood, entrepreneur Michael Edgley, and TV stars Craig Bennett and Maggie Kirkpatrick.

In show business for 43 years, Mr Gallaher’s  desire to “nurture” up-and-coming performers and his professional connections to co-founder of the awards, publicist Coralie Wood OAM, prompted his involvement. “Every performer, even the ones who call themselves professional, have started at school, at college and in community theatre groups,” he said. “It’s so important to encourage them. I came through the same sort of ranks.” 

The 22-year-old awards acknowledge the work of non-professional performers in groups, schools and colleges in Canberra and dozens of NSW communities.

The February 18 gala event in Dubbo will be the first time the awards have been presented outside Canberra.

John Wood and Lieutenant Colonel Ian McLean of the Royal Military College Band will compere the awards ceremony that will be interspersed with “excerpts from different shows and companies that have been judged during 2016”.