This episode last night - can anyone tell me how much I missed....when I turned to rage, i got Shirley performing, just before the rage logo came up on screen. I recall reading somewhere in a previous post that it probably would have the start of it missing. Did it, did it pretty much start with Shirl?

yes it started with Shirl - the Countdown titles came on and then straight to him.

The show was sourced from an old UMatic tape which had about the first few seconds of the show missing - otherwise the entire ep was complete.

Apart from a few video blips the show looked pretty good considering the age of the original tape.

Hopefully some more 'lost' shows will surface - although considering we're now over 30 years since they may have been recorded onto videotape one has to wonder how good the picture quality would be after so long.....

The initial Countdown opening titles were added before Shirls performance especially for the Rage screening - they must have had some 1977-era opening titles somewhere in the archive. The original titles would have included the voice-over announcing the show line-up,which is now gone to the graveyard in the sky forever, but other than that, at 52 minutes I think the show was more-or-less complete.

Also interestingly, this is the ONLY 1977 show that survives as a proper episode rather than a special - all others from that year are either specials (Silver Jubilee, 100th show) or best of 1976 installments etc.

I too watched with interest - the picture quality was not brilliant, but probably on a par with March 1st 1975 which also was sourced from a U-Matic tape.

The drop-outs of audio and video are there for all to see - in the segment with Bill Conti "Rocky" Theme from Chartbusters, plus the Feather studio performance - with a young John Swann up front I noticed.

It is a tragedy that no more missing episodes have been handed into the ABC as yet - someone out there must have something, especially industry people/show producers etc. I wonder if people associated with Countdown have been checked as the people associated with "Flashez" were.

Yes - I know the 70's were not a favorite of a few devotees in here, but this was a priceless Countdown artifact and not too many TV stations in the world would source and play shows from VHS quality tapes!!

I still weep when I think of all those wiped shows from 1975/76/77/78. So many priceless gems gone forever - shows with guests like Alice Cooper, Meatloaf, Foreigner, plus all those mighty local performances - gone forever!! But never say never.

On the Countdown yahoogroup a few years ago were the files of what exists in regards to Countdown episodes. Two zip files, one with 1975 to 1979 episodes that exist and the other a complete listing up to and including the 1987 final. A few of the years that are listed, some items refer to storage tapes where a lot of Countdown ID's and program breakers were put onto. Presumably the opening titles of this episode added last night were from one of these storage tapes.

I was thinking the same thing as I watched ,all those wonderful 70's moments lost forever. But we still have some so it could have been much worse. And there's still the other Jon English episode from 1978 and those four other 1970's episodes mentioned here last year.

As to the July 1977 episode it was in the shape you'd expect it to be but still quite watchable. It really is fantastic just to have another 70's episode in the collection.

I was SO happy to see Dance Little Lady!

FABULOUS!


Jo Tex and Thelma Houston was also goodies.

Liked the Disco stuff on this episode.

Molly's Humdrum was good to, the way Molly flew out of the screen when going to a video.

The picture was so foggy and tape in bad condition BUT it is still good rage played this Eipiside. I ain't a fan of 1977 Countdown too much but it is good for the Archives.

I NEED 1982 Rough Trade Episode, I MUST see it by retro 5!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought Tina Charles looked like a lovely pixie in her denim overalls - very Doreen or Bea from Prisoner!

The Joe Tex single was great - although I think the song title would be changed a bit in today's PC world....

Thinking about it - I think this episode features the first true Humdrum of the 70's that exists. The available 1975 eps only have him vaguely do something like that while the 76 eps don't have him do anything except interview people.

A very interesting episode to have - even the Dr. Hook song at the end was good.

PATRICK!

I was thinking the same thing!

Tina Charles looked BIG TIME very Doreen or Bea from Prisoner!

AND YAY TO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooo LOVED the Tina Charles video..soo adorable! The Joe Tex video was hilarious but yeh not really PC!

And the backup singers in the Ferrets video

Michael,
can you tell me does the promotional film clips of Thelma Houston's Don't Leave Me This Way, Bill Conti's Theme from Rocky(Gonna Fly Now), Supercharge's You've Gotta Get Up & Dance, two Little River Band's singles, Curiosity Killed The Cat and It's A Long Way There, Alice Cooper's You & Me, Tina Charles'Dance Little Lady Dance, Bonnie Tyler's Lost In France, Air Supply's Do What You Do, three Supertramp singles, Dreamer, Lady and Give A Little Bit, Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner and Dr Hook's Walk Right In were all existed?

Thelma Houston - Dont Leave Me This Way - is the original 1977 promo - have never seen it on anything but this Countdown show.
Bill Conti "Gonna Fly Now" is only an excerpt from the "Rocky" Movie which would be available on DVD.

The complete Supercharge clip I have only ever seen in full on an old ABC 1986 series called "Rock Relics" which would still exist in the archives. Heaps of rare 1970s promo clips were shown in that series.
The 2 Little River Band promos are out there and available in full.
Alice Cooper is out there but hard to find - it rarely gets airplay even though it is probably his greatest song.
Tina Charles is from the British TV show Guys & Dolls but would have been the clip received for playing on Countdown in 1977.
Lost in France promo I have never seen in full anywhere.
Do What You do is available on Air Supply comps, the 3 Supertramp clips exist in full on compiles as does Jet Airliner, & Walk Right In has been screened a few times over the years.

Sigh ... I was so jelous to see just the glimpse of Bonnie's "Lost In France" .

I wish on that Episode they played the whole video.

It's my Favourite Bonnie Tyler song, so dreamy +

Hi everyone!
Lost In France I've only ever seen in full once and that was WAY BACK when I was a pup.The clip was what hooked me onto the song in the first place.To this day,it's my fave Bonnie Tyler song and correct me if I'm wrong,was the only hit she had where she doesn't have a husky voice.
Would've loved to have seen it again in full as well.
Likewise the Supercharge clip.

Rock Relics-was this the show that had biographies on each artist before one of their clips was shown?And if the ABC do have it in their archives,why don't Rage give that a go instead of torturing us with Recovery?

Even better-the suggestion I made a while back about dusting off Sweet And Sour,which continues to grow cobwebs while crap like Recovery is allowed to be brought back from the dead.It's just not fair!

I know John, it just isn't fair at all!

Bloody Recovery and 10:30 Slot all up so far is going to take up 4 and a half hours all up, and who knows what vile 90s 00s thing rage will play next weekend.

That's a lot of Countdown and Rock Arena time there.

Ah well, at least the Countdown's this year are TOP NOTCH!!!!!

I too would LOVE to see Sweet and Sour!!
But it's 20 x 30 min episodes so difficult to fit into retro month unless they play 4 episodes per week. And the ABC are restricted from releasing it on DVD

We all have to request 'Sweet & Sour' this year on the rage messageboard, for retro month Jan 2011.

It was only a couple of weeks ago, that I put on the CD (the first one - burnt from record) and got into it. Fave song is 'Too Tired To Think' - go Deborah!

Sorry - that should be 'Too Hot To Move'

I haven't bothered with requesting anything so far but will definately make the effort to put in a request for Sweet & Sour in 2011.

Yes quite enjoyed Rock Relics back in the day.Pretty sure they still have it as VH1 recently played a Skyhooks performance from Countdown which had the bio at the start.

Yes Brett, that is correct, I traced some Countdown graphics & stings from the year 1977 (checked them thoroughly, I might add), that we then had dropped in (to the ex umatic copy of this episode that was kindly donated to us) to give as close an approximation possible that we can have of a 'complete' presentation for the 3/07/77 episode (short of receiving a complete copy of the show of course).

Unfortunately, we have not received the missing Countdown episodes as mentioned by a poster in several forums last year (hopefully the shows will see the light of day one day) though a number of potential donors had a copy of the 3/07/77 to offer us (much thanks)

Cheers,
John ABC TV