"You saw the whole of the moon", Brisbane singer Alison St Ledger sang heartbreakingly on Monday morning at singer-songwriter Carol Lloyd's funeral, bringing a tear to the eyes of hundreds of people inside St John's Cathedral.

"Too high, too far, too soon; you saw the whole of the moon," she sang.

Lloyd's funeral was a celebration in song, the service bookended with two giant images of the flame-haired singer.

At the beginning of the service was a stage photo of the powerhouse voice of the 1970s who sent bands Railroad Gin and her own Carol Lloyd Band to No.1 in Australia and in Europe.

At the end was a calmer, gently smiling Lloyd 30 years on – still with a shock of shorter red hair – with immaculate red lips, bright blue paisley shirt with rainbow scarf.

Lloyd's life included many success stories, from her earliest days at Rocklea State School, to London in the swinging '60s, through her staggering career in music and advertising to her final show at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in 2016.

It was at the October Goodbye Ruby Tuesday benefit concert at QPAC where Carol Lloyd appeared on stage – in a balloon-covered wheelchair – to sing for the last time Ruby Tuesday, a Rolling Stones song she defined as one of her own.

Her brother Clive on Monday remembered proudly how she went well beyond her parent's – Edward and Dot's – wishes that she get a good factory job after school.

"She was too smart for that," Clive remembered.

Her musical career seemed natural, he said, "and she had talent by the bucket loads".

He told of a younger Carol "strutting her stuff" in skin-tight leather in the mid 1970s, walking across King George Square aware eyes were fixed upon her, to an older Carol sitting outside in Pottsville in 2016 as her health began to fade.

"I'd say, 'It's 5 o'clock, Carol. Time for a drink. Would you like one?" he said.

"She'd say, 'Is the Pope a Catholic?' "

As a singer-songwriter, Lloyd and Railroad Gin had the drawing power of Powderfinger, regularly drawing almost 30,000 people in the mid-'70s to gigs in Brisbane's Botanic Gardens.

The first three singles she wrote for Railroad Gin, A Matter of Time, Do Ya Love Me and You Told the World, all topped the charts.

Railroad Gin's songs were released in 27 countries. The first album A Matter of Time went No.1 in three weeks and the second, Mother was Asleep at the Time was No.1 in Germany, France, Japan, Holland and Indonesia.

Close friend and film producer Bob Blasdall met Lloyd when he made the film clip for Railroad Gin's A Matter of Time.

"She was the epitome of female passion and power," he said in his eulogy on Monday.

"The wild woman of rock became the first female singer-songwriter in Oz to gatecrash the testosterone-charged boy zone club that fronted successful bands," he said.

"And this was all seven years before those who followed, like Suzi Quatro, the American rock icon."

He told of a smart woman, with an "amazing presence, with piercing green eyes", who studied at business college, began work at 4KQ, before moving to London in 1969, eventually selling television contracts for cult TV shows such as Thunderbirds and The Saint across the world.

"In the swinging '60s and sensual '70s London was the place for Aussies to try to make it big-time," Mr Blasdall told the service.

Their friendship grew when she returned and her music career exploded.

"I recall the first time I met Carol in the editing suite," Mr Blasdall said.

"There was a knock on the door, which I opened and I was confronted by this amazing presence."

She introduced herself, Johnny Cash-style, he said.

"Hello, I'm Carol Lloyd.

"And I've got to tell you, she did much, much better than Johnny ever did."

He told stories of her passion and drive of early concerts at Brisbane's Red Orb club where the Masters Apprentices, Coloured Balls and Purple Hearts played.

He drew laughs when he told of a George Patterson advertising company's Christmas party when she slipped and fell overboard in Moreton Bay at night.

"Kapush. She drifted away from the cruiser and was certain she was a goner," he said.

Her boss at George Patterson dived in and saved her.

"And, at her party to celebrate her lifetime (August 2013) which she held to mark her diagnosis with pulmonary fibrosis, she presented him with a certificate for his life-saving achievements."

In advertising Lloyd was creative director for both Clemenger and George Patterson and co-wrote the World Expo '88 theme song, Together, We'll Show the World.

In her own agency, she represented clients as diverse as international actor Diane Cilento and Brisbane's the Kransky Sisters, and co-ordinated the Wool Parades at the Ekka, before becoming forever linked to Brisbane's Women in Voice production.

Lloyd also produced the Queensland Music Festival and the Brisbane Music Festival from 2003 to 2007.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Lloyd became a family friend, after first meeting her when Ms Palaszczuk as an advisor for the Department of Communities.

Lloyd was then an events co-ordinator with the department.

"Whenever she walked into the room you immediately felt her great warmth and charm," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"Carol had one, big, big heart."

Carol Lloyd passed away at Brisbane's Wesley Hospital on February 13.