Hmmm yes, ..after a great start last week, a bit of a letdown this week with all those same old,same old garden variety filler clips, repeated Rock Arena and 2 boring 1987 eps.(Countdown had passed its use by date by then, imo).
Though dumb as dogsh*t Capper will be good for a laugh I guess.

As others have said, what a waste when Rage could be airing other previously unseen eps and rare gems from the vault.

The highlight of the night will be Jason's requested 1982 ep and perhaps the Antenna footage.

Would much prefer wall to wall Countdowns for retro month to celebrate its 40th B'day.

You would definitely be right on the Capper and Queen episodes and I hope you are right about the 1982 Split Enz which hasn't aired.
Split Enz also hosted on November 20 1983 (shown 2011) and Sept 23 1984 (shown 2008) so I hope they don't repeat one of those, they also co-hosted the last show of 1980 which has been shown twice.

Overall if we get those three episodes I will be quite happy. Maybe we get Rock Arena, Hitscene and GTK for the other 3 hours as their earlier blurb said would be shown.

There would have been a couple better episodes from 1987 but as it hasn't been repeated I'm quite happy with it. I definitely missed seeing this episode at the time as I would have remembered Warwick.

Boom Crash Opera and Cattletruck live are good although I have copies of both performances.

My main interest will be Nikki Nicholls live - who was that?? I never heard of her.

Ooops Nathan,

I copied and pasted all over the place this time. Too late to fix, you get the gist

At Guru, I say that Split Enz episode from 1982 because I have been requesting it over and over so I am hoping they paid some attention (hehehe)

I hope it's back to 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984 Countdown's for the rest of January. Another 1985, not bad and it features the HEAVENLY Vitabeats with Boom Box, I have this performance on Countdown from VH1 ... BUT ... will be nice to have it without the VH1 logo! This Countdown 1987 business is terrible, I really hope it's the last of 1987 ...


I CROSS MY FINGERS FOR THIS xxx

Year:1982
Date:25/04/1982
Show no:325
Summary:THE SHOW IS HOSTED BY MEMBERS OF SPLIT ENZ AND OPENING TITLES FEATURE MONTAGE SEQUENCE OF COUNTDOWN
AWARDS.LIVE STUDIO ITEMS:
SPLIT ENZ 'DIRTY CREATURE','HELLO SANDY ALLEN'
HEE BEE GEE BEES 'BORING SONG'
NUMBERS 'BIG BEAT'
SILENT MOVIES 'I CAN'T SAY NO'
OVERSEAS ARTISTS VIDEO CLIPS:
ASIA 'HEAT OF THE MOMENT'
FUN BOY THREE 'THE LUNATICS'
J GEILS BAND 'FREEZE FRAME'
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS 'I LOVE ROCK N ROLL'
CHARTBUSTERS:
JO KENNEDY 'BODY & SOUL'
MEN AT WORK 'BE GOOD JOHNNY'
TIGHT FIT 'THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT'
TONI BASIL 'MICKEY'
STRANGLERS 'GOLDEN BROWN'
HUMDRUM ITEMS:
ANGELS 'LIVING ON THE OUTSIDE'
IGNATIUS JONES 'LIKE A GHOST'
SWANEE 'TEMPORARY HEARTACHE'
STING 'I SHALL BE RELEASED'
RED RIDER 'LUNATIC FRINGE'
TOP TEN ITEMS:
ROD STEWART 'YOUNG TURKS'
SPLIT ENZ 'DIRTY CREATURE'
SHAKIN STEVENS 'OH JULIE'
COLD CHISEL 'FOREVER NOW'
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS 'I LOVE ROCK N ROLL'
JOEY SCRABURY 'BELIEVE IT OR NOT'
J GEILS BAND 'CENTREFOLD'
ELTON JOHN 'BLUE EYES'
DEPECHE MODE 'JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH'
MOVING PICTURES 'WHAT ABOUT ME'

At Guru,

I have no idea who Nikki Nicholls is either. Is it a cover of the same track Peter Andre did years later, I wonder ... hmmmmmmm ... That should be interesting to find out who she is and if it's any good .

I WISH WISH WISH that Carol Hitchcock performed Get Ready in the Countdown studio though I know she didn't, darrrrrrrrn ... It would have made the 1987 episode much better

Yes that is only 3 hours. I hope we get 3 Rock Arena's all Suzanne Dowling ones. I love her episodes. They are fantastic.

Yes please to a Suzanne Dowling episode...or 3.

I would LOVE some Rock Arena this weekend outside of Countdown, but it will be filled with GTK, I guarantee

Some Rock Arena's with Suzanne D would be very welcome. A repeat of The Smiths episode would be great - had it on video but it's long gone

It is the 1982 episode of Countdown with Split Enz, so all three episodes of Countdown are good as none have aired on Rage before. A bonus one from 1987 thrown in as well so 4 Countdowns.

They are playing a brilliant episode of Rock Arena....but it is a REPEAT!!! This episode was shown just a few years ago in 2010. Don't they keep records of what they have shown? So many good episodes in the archives and we keep getting repeats.

I asked for some episodes of Antenna a few years back as I had some clips that had been taped from there, which is the only reason I knew of the show as I couldn't recall seeing it at the time. I'm probably the only one who will enjoy the Uncanny X-Men though as there is not a lot of love for them here.

Another repeat What a waste.

I suspect they don't have the same person/people putting retro together each year, and/or the rage team may have changed (my guess is it's likely) since then... and any lists they make of what's already been aired may not be passed on to the next employee.

.....and we get a 4th Countdown from 12 April 1987 hosted by Peter O'Brien I see - so 2 1987 eps in 1 night - lucky us (?!). At least it isn't a repeat though.

Seems like a good evening although I'm a little tired of them playing video clips in between shows - and common ones at that. Why not just slot in some Flashez segments or other small curios from the archives? Seems a shame they do so little with what they have.

Oh well, we've done well with Countdowns thus far - looks like with the 87 eps we'll be in a mullet meltdown....

Yes, the repeated common videos are so . They aired Tina Turner's 'Let's Stay Together' TWICE during retro month last year, and 'Break Ev'ry Rule' during retro month in 2009 from memory.

Both 'Message To My Girl' and 'History Never Repeats' have also been aired in previous retro months. And 'Horror Movie' about umpteen times, several of which during previous retro months as well.

It's almost like they dig out previous retro months playlists and go 'hmmm... what common videos can we repeat this time?'

Expect Pseudo Echo's 'Listening', 'Fooled Again', and 'Funky Town' to get yet another airing in the final weeks of retro month this year

I didnt even know the Rock Arena was a repeat but that is pretty silly if so.

There are so many unscreened rare video clips on archival segment tapes that could be screened during Retro Season, we havent had anything decent for a couple of years now, since the days of Mark Holden, Bonnie Tyler and David Essex. Not to mention all the film clips from within episodes of GTK. They just go with the same tired old stuff, which is the main reason I dont go near Rage for 11 months of the year.

Still, the Countdowns are all useful, 1987 not one of my favorite years and none are repeats. There are better episodes even from that year that they could have chosen.

4 new Countdowns and still 3 more weeks so overall we should be happy. The Rock Arena repeat is somewhat annoying though when there is so many that could be played.

^ Yep, and those videos you mentioned were aired in retro month 2013.

I too have felt that the last few years of retro month have been pretty underwhelming with the music video selections. It's obvious they're sticking to the 'play videos by artists hosting programs on Saturday night' theme for Saturday morning's retro hour, so expect more common-as-muck clips to come.

The 70's seem to be ignored more than ever now.

Obviously RAGE cannot locate the remaining Top100 episodes of Countdown from 76, or the tapes are damaged etc.

Only repeats of rage repeats of early countdowns in recent memory.

Isn't there more flashez and shows of that ilk.

I could care less for GTK, Hitscence etc, as I didn't really like the artists that appeared on those shows. Only a youngster at time anyway.

Unfortunately Rage have showed every available 70's Countdown episodes they have. I still like them to air the March 1978 Adelaide Festival episode though - even with the sound damage.

It would be wonderful if some lost Countdowns suddenly surfaced in the archives somewhere but it's highly unlikely by now.

Would love to see more Flashez though. I think there are 2 full Flashez episodes Rage have yet to air - they've played 4 so far over the years. But there are many individual Flashez segments they could easily show in place of the common music clips - would be far more interesting to watch.....

Nikki Nicholls is a Melbourne based female artist who has toured & recorded with many bands & artists like John Farnham. In recent years she toured the Girls Girls Girls! music show with both Debra Byrne & Wendy Stapleton. I too never seen this Countdown but know of Nikki. She has often appeared on The Midday Show & Don Lane Show and had a couple or so one off singles during the 1980s which I'm guessing is what will be performed on this Countdown from 1987.

Hi Patrick, So there are no more 1979 episodes left to show? I was assuming that nearly all '79 episodes still existed or were some of them deleted also?

Roughly half of the '79 episodes exist. I see this as a glass half full situation - at least we have 20 or so '79 episodes. It could have been a handful of episodes as it is with '75-'78.

All the 1970's episodes that are known to exist and are in broadcast quality have been shown on Rage, they are:

Ep Date Hosted By (in brackets dates Rage repeats)
1 February 22 1975 John Farnham (1997, 2005)
36 August 31 1975 Sherbet (1994, 1996, 1998, 2002)
37 September 7 1975 Marty Rhone (1997, 2000)
? December 15 1975 Sherbet Special (2009)

90 December 5 1976 John Paul Young (1997, 1999)
91 December 12 1976 Daryl Braithwaite (1995, 1996, 2007)
December 26 1976 - (insert only Top 100 78-64 + P ussyfoot and M.Hines Hit Picks)

? January 9 1977 JPY and Molly (Top 100 50-33) (2003)
? January 9 1977 - (inserts only Top 100 50-33)
? January 16 1977 JPY and Molly (Top 100 32-17) (2002)
? January 23 1977 John Paul Young and Molly (Top 100 16-1) (1995,1998)
100 April 2 1977 Leo Sayer (UK) JPY and Molly (Melb) 100th show (1997, 2014)
113 July 3 1977 Jon English (2010)
132 November 13 1977 Mark Holden and Glenn Shorrock (Silver Jubilee) (1994, 1999)
? December 11 1977 - (video inserts only) (Top 100 style show)
138 December 17/24 1977 Molly (Christmas Special) (1997, 2014)

142 March 19 1978 Molly (Adelaide festival - sound faults)
148 April 29 1978 JPY and Molly (Saturday Night Fever Dance Contest) (1997)
159 July 16 1978 Jon English (TV recording not suitable for broadcast)
160 July 23 1978 Dame Edna Everage (1998)
169 September 24 1978 Marc Hunter (2000)
170 October 1 1978 Rocktober State DJ’s (2005)
172 October 15 1978 Leif Garrett and Kate Bush (1998)
175 November 4 1978 Peter Frampton (1994, 1998)
180 December 10 1978 Elton and Molly review 1978 (top 5 songs for year) (1997, 2009)

181 February 18 1979 Molly (Tom Baker interview) (1994)
182
183
184 March 11 1979 Shirley Strachan (1997)
185
186 March 23 1979 Shirley Strachan (standby program) (2004)
187
188 April 7 1979 Bob Welch (1997)
189
190
191
192 May 5 1979 Smokie (1997)
193
194
195
196
197
198 June 17 1979 Eric Oldfield (Young Doctors actor) (1997)
199 June 24 1979 Russell Morris (1997)
200
201 July 8 1979 Glenn Shorrock (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000)
202 July 15 1979 Dolly Parton (1994, 1998)
203 July 22 1979 Daryl Cotton (2010)
204 July 29 1979 Shirley Strachan (2002)
205 August 4 1979 Tim Finn (Split Enz) (1997, 2000)
206 August 11 1979 Garth Porter (Highway/Sherbet) (1999)
207 August 18 1979 Roger Voudouris (1997, 2001)
208 August 25 1979 Peter Mockery (Restless Years actor) (2000)
209
210
211 September 15 1979 John Paul Young (1997)
212
213
214 October 7 1979 Shirley Strachan (2007)
215
216 October 20 1979 James Reyne (Australian Crawl) (1997, 2003)
217 October 28 1979 Steve Gilpin (Mi-Sex) (1997)
218 November 4 1979 Russell Hitchcock (Air Supply) and Christie Allen (1997, 2009)
219 November 11 1979 Graham Parker (2003)
220 November 18 1979 Molly with Boomtown Rats (1997)
221 November 25 1979 Marc Hunter (Dragon) (1997, 2011)
222 December 2 1979 Elton John (1998)
223
224 December 16 1979 Molly (End Of the Decade episode) also 11/10/80 (1994, 1996, 2011)

Hi Matt - All I can say is - 'what Gary and Guru have just said!'.

A great pity that any episode of Countdown is gone but that's that and we all have to live with it unfortunately. I always live in hope someone somewhere will find one on an old UMatic/VCR tape so who knows.......