The late performer Jon English was farewelled on Monday night at the Capitol theatre, the Sydney stage where he conquered the role of Judas in the hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar four decades earlier.

English’s 1980s band mates the Foster Brothers took to the stage with an instrumental medley of his hits as the audience was handed sheet music of Six Ribbons. The song which he had penned in 1978 for the TV mini-series Against the Wind was a number-one hit in six countries.

His large family had wanted a very private funeral after English died last month aged 66, so this was one for the fans and the music industry: a big public send-off with TV vans parked outside the theatre, and legions of weeping women in the back rows. Many of them had queued since dawn for tickets.

English more than conquered the role of Judas in 1972, the 2,000-strong crowd was told by Trevor White, who played Jesus. With the voice of a raspy rock-god, the 22-year-old played over 2,000 performances on that stage, holding onto the record until he died.

In the 1980s came another signature role, the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, which delighted audiences and won English countless musical theatre awards.

Trevor White and fellow performers from English’s long and celebrated career, as well as friends and family, paid tribute to the London-born star in an emotional mix of speeches and music, punctuated by recordings of Jon singing and talking. Sitting to the right of the stage next to English’s guitar was a custom-made road box in silver and black, containing his ashes. A friend said it was Jon’s last performance.

White, who met him at the Superstar auditions, described English as “this enthusiastic gushing-with-excitement guy” who was “a dream to work with”. Everyone who spoke agreed with this sentiment, saying while he didn’t lack confidence he certainly wasn’t a diva.

Another Jesus Christ Superstar alumnus John Paul Young sang Handbags and Gladrags, and Pirates of Penzance star Simon Gallaher sang Six Ribbons.

But it was the presence of English himself, performing in old film clips projected on a giant screen, that packed the real emotional punch. Even 40 years could not dilute the emotional intensity of his tour-de-force black-body-suited performance as Judas Iscariot, or the passion of his more recent performance of Hollywood Seven on SBS TV’s Rockwiz.

The role of Judas made English a national star and he toured Australia and New Zealand for five years, managing to record four albums – including the hit songs Handbags and Gladrags and Turn the Page – along the way.

English’s manager, Peter Rix, said he was passionate about performing and devoted to his fans.

“Wherever Jonno went, he was always the star,” Rix said. “He was a singer, a composer, an actor, a musician, a television star; he was a titan of the stage and of film.

“But remember, always a husband and a father, and whether I liked it or not, always captain of the ship. He was so talented. He was so focused on his audience, so focused on the people that came to see him perform, that I found he could barely leave the stage without winning over every single audience member to the back row.

“I believe that’s Jon’s legacy and there’s unlikely to be another performer with so many of the skills that Jon mastered, nor will there ever be anyone who has left such a profound archive of outstanding achievement.”

His four adult children – Jonathan, Josephine, Jessamine and Julian – said their dad was a “very private person, with a very public job” who was most at home working on the farm and making them laugh.

“Jon English was great at so many, many things but to us his greatest role will always be ‘father’,” Josephine said.