Saturday July 28th
Celebrating 25 Years of rage: 1987 – 1990

YAAAAAY!!! I was a HUGGGGE watcher of rage during this period. Every Saturday night in p[articular I would record SOOOOO many 80s video clips and House music stuff from the UK. This should be a VERY interesting special HOPEFULLY... But I am not getting to excited yet as it could be full of generic rubbish but I am hoping not :-)

They have "lost" most of the rare clips from that period so it may be the stock standard material that survived.

If they had guest programmers then it would be interesting to see some footage of that. When Malcolm McLaren died they replayed his GP episode from the mid 90's so I wonder what else has survived from earlier periods.

When did they start with guest programmers? Nathan might know. I didn't recall seeing that for the first year or so, just some artist video clip specials like Prince or Madonna which they seemed to run each week. I have some footage of Ratcat and Yothu Yindi guestprogramming in early 1992 but that's as far back as I go with that material. The Rage site lists specials/guest programmers back to the start of their list in 1990 so it is fair to assume it went back further as well.

Maybe they could play a Top 50 again for old time's sake.

rage didn't have Guest Programmer's from 1987 or 1988 as I used to watch on most Saturday nights and record for houuuuurs.

I would say around 1990 the programmers started...

First GP was in Jan 1990. It was Andrew Denton

Thanks for that info. I just thought Rage had only bothered to list their guest programmers to Jan 1990 but that it may have gone back further so it is good to get confirmation of when it started. I guess if Rage had vision of Andrew Denton hosting as the first GP then that would be a good inclusion if their episode covers 1987-1990.

I KNEW it was 1990 as I wasn't recording so much from rage in 1990 as the Saturday nights weren't as good. 1987, 1988 and 1989 had great stuff on Saturday nights before the crappy programmer's!

I want heaps of videos from 1987 and some rare ones from the compilations of that year. I have been planning on putting together DVD's of all the '87 clips rage have played over the past 5 years and putting them in date release order. I think I will hold off until after this special.

G'day Michael

Do you only want Rage copies or clean laserdisc DVD Rips as well? I have plenty of '87 videos?

I hope they can dig up some vintage Top 50 content that is rare, but was popular back in the day. Or just any rare content in general. I really hope they don't bring out the same clips over and over again, such as Dimples D, Technotronic and Betty Boo. Great as they were, they seem to be lazy choices and have been played on quite a few occasions.

Hi Lee

I'm just after rage clips from '87 as I want to keep it consistant throughout the DVDs and be sure each video has the same picture quality and sound level.

But,...I'm still very keen to compile a couple of DVDs from a couple of the 80's compilation records. I remember your post from a while back and you listing how many videos you have from various 80's compilations. I will check the post again and contact you. Cheers.

Agreed, but I would love if they dug out some rare(r) Betty Boo clips, like '24 Hours' (though that was released as a single in 1991 here). Rage can be very lazy with picking the same retro clip selections.

I couldn't agree more. Betty Boo did have quite a few singles other than Doin' The Do. It's also a nice suprise to see another little known side of familiar artist, other than what they are mostly known for.

rage 1987-1990 Special this weekend is complete
S H I T E! It's doesn't at ALL represent what rage was on Saturday nights from 1987-1990. Half of these video's were NOT shown on Saturday nights on rage! All the House Music video's I used to record on rage aren't even being looked at!

It is a rather bland playlist, unfortunately. Some of the stuff isn't even from 1987-1990:

Paul Simon 'You Can Call Me Al' (1986)
Jane's Addiction 'Been Caught Stealing' (was released here around March/April 1991)
Europe 'The Final Countdown 2000' (1999)


The only 2 clips I'm interested in really are Phil Collins 'A Groovy Kind of Love', and Fairground Attraction's 'Perfect'. Neither are remotely 'rare', but rage haven't aired them probably since they were in the charts, and definitely haven't since 1997.

Been Caught Stealing was from 1990,but there are quite a few from 1986 that made it into what's supposedly a 1987-1990 special.
I knew the same old,same old would get played.It's times like these where I wonder why do I bother putting in requests to Rage.

Same here, John.
Just a waste of time to bother posting suggestions or ideas most of the time these days.
What a completely disappointing and unimaginative playlist, on the whole.
Most of the clips are so bland and "commercial" and common as muck.

Was hoping for some rare gems from the early days but clearly must have been dreaming.

Rage has changed so much these days -getting more and nore like Video ****s all the time...

As an example of their unimaginativeness/laziness, I suggested Alannah Myles' 'Love Is' amongst a list of possible inclusions. I KNOW they have it in their library, as it was listed mistakenly amongst the list of videos you could vote for in one of the 'Rage 50' countdowns a couple of years back.

Lo and behold, they've decided to drag 'Black Velvet' out again instead

Several people have suggested Belinda Carlisle clips from this period, particularly 'Leave a Light On' (which isn't 'rare' by any means, but is for Rage). But they throw 'Summer Rain' on again instead. This and 'Heaven Is a Place on Earth' must be the only 2 Belinda Carlisle clips they have.

Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' is pulled out again, too, despite my suggestion of a few different clips of his.

Quite a few of the videos on the playlist have even been aired in the last few weeks/months. Why bother with a special when it's what they always air anyway?

INXS By My Side

was not released as a single until 1991, too.

Another missed opportunity and I let Rage know in a post that went something like this....

This special had the potential
To be essential viewing
But just my luck-it's common as muck
And Rage-you've left me spewing

I think it's clear that no-one on the current rage team is old enough to have watched/remember watching Rage back in the late 80's/early 90's... other than perhaps occasionally catching the top 10 on the rage top 50/60; hence the rather 'common' selections from this period.

Unfortunately I also think the common clips playlist is at least partially due to the massive amount of culling that has shrunk Rage's library of videos from that period. They don't even have some of the #1 hits from that time, I think.

They probably had to dig deep and hard to find the clips on the playlist that bizarrely have no record label written next to them (and haven't aired since at least 1997), such as Roxette's 'The Look', Sam Brown's 'Stop', and Texas's 'I Don't Want a Lover'.

Yes, most likely that all the Rage staff these days are really young. All the older ones have probably moved on years ago. A shame because Rage appears so less comprehensive than it used to be.

I fear that most of the clips played back in the early days have fallen victim to that unforgiveable early 90s cull.
But then again, Rage still surprises from time to time, when they play some rare, obscure clip that hasn't seen the light of day since it was first aired way back when.

I wonder if the new staff member they advertised for a few months back is possibly behind some of the changes too... like now the new release list is presented in alphabetical order, rather than the order they're airing it in. And 'from the vault' clips don't appear every week between 8-10am like they used to.

I'd love to also know why 'new' old clips they play are usually encoded in a lower resolution than they used to be, with slightly larger lettering on the artist/title super, and less-sharp picture/font.

Also, the ampersand (&) seems to be no longer appearing in the playlist, and instead has been replaced with lower case 'and' (e.g. Mel and Kim instead of Mel & Kim as it used to be). Quite a minor point, but noticeable nonetheless

They stuffed it up. From 5.30am they played Wil Anderson selections and not what was on the playlist.In Perth anyway.
I was only after the Dave Dobbyn song and they blew it.

Oh dear. I'm yet to go through all of last night's recording (from Vic), but the 2 main videos I was interested in (Phil Collins & Fairground Attraction) were aired after then.

I noticed they're even stuffing up the PLAYLIST now, mistakenly listing the recent-ish version of '(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)', and the Y2K version of Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing' - when they played the original videos for both.

I'm guessing that Europe's 'The Final Countdown 2000' is actually the 1987 version they played, too.

How hard can it be to put the right song on the playlist? Sure, the odd mistake can be made, but 3 glaring errors in one night?!

They aired 'Need You Tonight/Mediate' after a 1988 rage ad, when it was out in 1987.

Tone Loc's 'Wild Thing' was featured after the 1988 banner too. Although it was recorded (and I think released in the US) in 1988, it wasn't out in Oz until 1989.

Dexter, I just checked and they aired the last hour as normal in Vic (and presumably the other 'eastern states').

The fact that there were NO smiley faces on last night's show is a DISGRACE to me. As an avid watcher on rage every Saturday night in the late 80s the fact that NO UK Dance Acid House music was presented last night has disgusted me!

I discovered bands like Krush, Gene And Jim Are Into Shakes, Bomb The Bass, Adamski ans SOHO on rage and NONE of them were played! No S Express, Baby Ford, Hithouse, D MOB or ANYTHING!... The late 80s were all about Smiley's and Acid House! And no YAZZ!!!

And as far as Australian pop content: NO Indecent Obsession, Kate Ceberano, Jenny Morris, Wa Wa Nee, Big Pig...

rage are CLUELESS! None of the people there even watched rage in the late 80s so they wouldn't know JACK S H I T and it shows!

Only video I recorded was Hummingbirds with Blush...

I saw the playlist on TV Tonight and I couldn't believe it. One of the worst playlists I have ever seen. A once in 25 years opportunity to put the best of Rage on display and they blew it. I didn't even bother watching it. And you know it's the ABC when Beds Are Burning gets dragged out yet again. No doubt Treaty and My Island Home will pop up this week.

They played Ice Ice Baby then Midnight oil - Blue Sky Mining and so on. Can anyone upload the Dave Dobbyn video? I've been looking for this one for ages and I got my hopes up but Perth always gets stiffed by the Networks.

I wish they'd played 'Put Down That Weapon' instead... or just something DIFFERENT for a change!

What's the point of a 25 year 'special' when 95%+ of the playlist is what already gets aired every week.

One of the worst playlists I have ever seen. A once in 25 years opportunity to put the best of Rage on display and they blew it. I didn't even bother watching.

I agree !! Was really looking forward to this but was bitterly disappointed. Was such a shocker that I ended up fast forwarding through most of it ,so ended up watching a 7 1/2 hour show in around 50 mins.

What's the point of a 25 year 'special' when 95%+ of the playlist is what already gets aired every week ?

I used to love watching Rage and listening to 3RRR in the early days as a welcome alternative to all the bland, middle of the road, mainstream crap aired on the other music video shows and radio stations.
Back then , watching Rage, I was introduced to a whole new world of music and so many great new underground,"alternative bands" and artists.

Their so called special the other night definitely did not reflect the alternative, often obscure flavour of RAge back in its heyday. Missed the mark by a mile.

And what a waste playing multiple common Madonna, Michael Jackson and Kylie clips, when they could have fitted in more artists instead!

The highlight for me during this special was the graphic they did for the years! Probably a good special to represent the Top 50's they used to play during those years, but def. not a representation of rage Saturday nights of this period.

How come they didn't play 'Real Wild Child' which was to kick things off and was listed on the playlist? esp. since it's their anthem? I only recorded to 1am and went to bed very disappointed.

What they do at many TV stations is rotate their staff, so that they don't get stuck in just one position.

It appears that Rage is one of the shows where new starters get their breaks and initial broadcast training (interchangeable with JJJ). After a few years at most they will get opportunities for promotions or transfers to other productions. If you look at the list of names that scroll along at the end of the show you will see people coming and going as a regular occurrence. Narelle Gee was one of the few long term constants.

In a major re-shuffle in the Rage crew around 2008, it left them with little idea of what to do for Retro. I was told that they asked other staff what they should be showing and in turn were advised to play items that were requested by viewers if the material was available. For the last four years a lot of Retro material has been shown through viewer input. It will be interesting to see what they show this year as they have another new crew at the reins.

Every time a new crew come along they will have their own take on programming. The Rage 1987-90 special is about what I expected to have occur. I imagine that many of the crew are early 20's, so would have only been born around 1990 and the programming is in line with what I would expect from such a situation.

I had no issue with the programming of the 1987-90 episode as your general music fan, that they cater for, would have been targeted with that material. Us long term connoisseurs with our lesser known personal interests of rarities from the period were not going to be catered for here.

Yes, I guess it's inevitable that this changing of the guard, several times over, would happen. Just a shame that they couldn't hold onto a couple of their older,experienced original staff who are actually familiar with some of the music/artists played on Rage and the "essence" of what Rage stood for back then.



Sadly, this definitely seems to be the case now.
Wasn't all that long ago that Rage did quite often try to cater to some of our more obscure requests but that was no doubt due to some of the original staff still being around then.

Maybe the staff (in their early 20's) at rage headquarters were looking at their Video Hits retro DVD while putting together this program. Shame they really had no rage footage from '87-'90 to show, as there were no guest programmers back then and the videos were culled in the 90's.

BTW - I went through my rage recordings over the past 5 years and I counted just over 100 videos from 1987. Will look at other years in due time.

Maybe you should donate them to Rage to add to their limited collection ,Michael.

Spot on Gurubob. I just went on to the Rage guestbook to put in a belated request for a Daryl Cotton/Zoot tribute (as we all will be aware Daryl lost his battle with cancer last Friday) but I feel this will all be in vain. The staff will not even know who the man was. And apart from all the Zoot-era material, Daryl was a regular Countdown host and would often get called in at short-notice when the planned host fell through for whatever reason.

I see I have not missed a thing in the 6 months since I visited the Rage website - same old boring material repeated over and over,same time devoted to bands and artists who were not anywhere near as important in the scheme of things as to how Rage makes them out to be, same tired format, same waste of time and space.

Still - only 5 months now till it will be worth watching again - doesn't time fly!!

Brett, It seems that they will be playing a Daryl Cotton special this week, which will be much appreciated:

"We pay tribute to former Zoot member and solo performer Darryl Cotton.

DARRYL COTTON – Here Comes Another Heartache (Live on Countdown)
DARRYL COTTON – Same Old Girl (Live on Countdown)
DARRYL COTTON and HEATHER FAVELL – Baby You’re Changing
ZOOT – Medley (Live in Sydney, 1969)
ZOOT – Turn Your Head (Live on Hitscene, 1970)"

I guess I can understand the young staff at rage probably not knowing who Darryl Cotton is...First time I came across Darryl Cotton was when he hosted that Saturday morning breakfast show back in the late 80's. Only being 14 then, I had no idea of his history in music. I think it was around 1992 when I discovered 'Same Old Girl' (& 80's music in general) and his contribution to Australian music.

I'm interested in seeing what the number with Heather Favell is like as I can't remember ever seeing it before.

It is from 1983. I remember Heather appeared on Countdown in 1982 with a song called Holiday and from memory I think she was from New Zealand, although that could be a safe bet as every second girl in NZ is called Heather.

I am sure this clip has never aired on Rage before. A pity that it takes someone to die for these clips to be shown.

G'day Dexter

If you are still around, send me an email mate and I will give you an upload link. I have a nice clean DVD Rip for you and it is PAL. No Rage symbols anywhere.

Why were the Darryl Cotton Countdown studio peformanes shown in widescreen on Saturday morning? I had the TV set to 4:3 and the text was off the screen! and the same with the video with the NZ chick. I hope rage haven't started doing what VH1 Classic on Foxtel have. If the video is 4:3 the text will run off the screen as it will be shown in widescreen. You then have to set your TV to 16:9 to get the text, but then you get the vertical black bars, but they make the song title and artist text go over the black bars to make it look normal. I have stopped watching/recording VH1 Classic because of this. If rage go down this track, that's it. A partnership that will be dissolved after 25 years. Not happy.

On a more lighter note, I've just discovered on the rage website that you can type in a song title in the search field and it will come up with entries if the song has been played before and a link to the playlist! Very nice!

DARRYL COTTON Nice Girls (Live On Countdown) (Rage)
DARRYL COTTON Little Red Book (Live On Countdown) (Rage)
DARRYL COTTON Same Old Girl (Live On Countdown) (EMI)
DARRYL COTTON Here Comes Another Heartache (Live On Countdown) (Rage)

Have all of these performances been shown on rage Countdown? I would be really grateful if someone could list which Countdown episode each of these come from.

Michael, I have them on the IQ and can change them to 16.9 with no titles cut off and no black bars. Would you like them on disc for you if you need them without titles cut off! It is TRULY ridiculous that rage played them in 16.9! They had better NOT play Countdown's in January in 16.9! Let me knwo if you need copies Michael

Michael
Only the performance of Nice Girls had previously been shown on a Rage Countdown repeat (Jan 22 2011) on the Australian Made episode 20/12/1981. Interestingly they didn't show his 2 1979 performances (even though they had aired on Rage before) and they chose 3 clips from episodes that had never been seen on Rage.

Nice Girls only ever appeared on that Dec 20 1981 show and didn't appear on any other episode. It was released in Nov 1981 and it looks like they did a clip especially for that special in the Countdown studios for this song - note there was no audience.

Using an ABC database of live Countdown performances (from existing episodes or clips), the following is a list of Darryl's appearances on Countdown (which may be of interest):

DARRYL COTTON I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU 23-Mar-79
DARRYL COTTON GLAMOUR GIRL 22-Jul-79 (HOSTED BY DARRYL COTTON)
DARRYL COTTON INTERVIEW 22-Jul-79 (HOSTED BY DARRYL COTTON)
DARRYL COTTON SAME OLD GIRL 24-Feb-80 (HOSTED BY DARRYL COTTON)
DARRYL COTTON INTERVIEW 24-Feb-80 (HOSTED BY DARRYL COTTON)
DARRYL COTTON SAME OLD GIRL 16-Mar-80
DARRYL COTTON SAME OLD GIRL 20-Apr-80
DARRYL COTTON HERE COMES ANOTHER HEARTACHE 8-Jun-80
DARRYL COTTON HERE COMES ANOTHER HEARTACHE 3-Aug-80
DARRYL COTTON & THE DIVERS LITTLE RED BOOK 28-Jun-81
DARRYL COTTON NICE GIRLS 20-Dec-81

Although the Cotton/Favell number was a quite forgettable song I was happy to see some rare 80's footage make an appearance.

Thanks Guru. I will put together a mini Darryl Cotton special on disc from what you've listed of his Countdown performances.

Jason, that would be great if you could put Darryl's Countdown performances and video with Heather from Sat. morning rage on disc for me. (no need for Zoot).
Cheers.

A better way (IMO) to search is via google, type:

site:www.abc.net.au/rage

then the song title/artist you're searching for, e.g.:

site:www.abc.net.au/rage eurythmics shame

and it lists only the rage playlists that contain the artist or song.

Were they actual 16:9 though (stretched across the screen), or just the titles starting in the black bar area?

The reason I ask is, recently rage aired Fini Scad's 'It's Not Real' in 16:9, with part of the title cut off viewing it 4:3. It looked actual widescreen too - i.e. not a grainy super-magnified close up like when they air old 80's clips that weren't actual widescreen in 16:9. Yet, on my VHS sourced copy of this clip from Rage in 1998, the clip is fullscreen 4:3, with no horizontal bars suggesting it was letterboxed widescreen.

Either Rage have since sourced a proper 16:9 copy, or something fishy is going on with the titles.

I don't know what's going on. When 'You Weren't In Love With Me' came up later on Sat. morning, I thought I better switch it back to 16:9 since the Darryl Cotton Countdown performances and the music video looked like they were in widescreen, cause the text was cut off, but when Billy came on, the black vertical bars appeared, so I put it back to 4:3. I get the feeling that rage are stuffing around with the ratios and the text on the screen. I guess it will be more trial and error for me in the weeks to come when they play some older videos.

They always play Grace Jones' 'Slave To the Rhythm' (Countdown performance) in 16:9. Possibly the original airing of this (and those Darryl Cotton clips taken from Countdown) had horizontal bars top and bottom of screen, which is why whatever stupid system Rage uses automatically enlarged these clips to full 16:9?

'Baby You're Changing' is up on YouTube with the text cut off? Does that mean regardless of the ratio it was in, the text was cut off?

Unless it's 16:9 on youtube like that, no. If you record a 16:9 clip in 4:3, the text will be cut off still when you view on a 16:9 TV.