We're approaching the 20th anniversary of Michael Hutchence's death and the possibility of rage doing another INXS special (as they did on the 10th anniversary).

Most INXS videos are widely available on DVD etc and not rare, so no need to show those. But there are a few which have never made it to DVD or commercially released and are quite rare. These would be good to see in an INXS special:

"Simple Simon" (a rare video allegedly made for Simon Townsend's Wonder World - does it exist? Does it not? who knows...)

"To Look At You" (full uncut video, never been released on VHS or DVD)

"Spy Of Love" (released on VHS 27 years ago, never since)

"Melting In The Sun" (rare "London" version, only released on VHS 32 years ago)

"Full Moon Dirty Hearts" (the full uncut video album. rage has shown all the clips from this over the years, but not the whole video album uncut. The video album was only ever released as a promo VHS tape and has never been made commercially available)

"Don't Lose Your Head" (there is allegedly a non-film version - same as the film version but without the movie clips from "Face/Off" cut into it).

I thought rage aired the full 'Full Moon, Dirty Hearts' video album during the INXS special post-Richard Lowenstein's guest programming in 2009? At least, I've got several videos from it, like 'Viking Juice'... the videos were aired continuously, rather than as discrete videos. Only problem is, they enlarged some of the letterboxed clips to 16:9, and, as I was recording in 4:3, I missed those.

They also aired the 3 Max Q videos as part of it. Back in the days when the post-guest programmer playlist often ran through until the end of the show, rather than finishing before 5am.

Yes I recorded this special and they did play all the clips from FMDH, but they did not play the clips in the same order as they are on the original tape, nor the opening scene, the full "link" segments between the clips, or the end credits. I just think it would be nice to have the whole thing, uncut, given it has never been commercially released in any form. Not even as a bonus DVD with a "special edition" of the album, which would seem a very logical thing to do.

I could have sworn I caught the tail end of the 'Full Moon, Dirty Hearts' video album aired on rage in January 1994, while waiting for the top 60 to begin. I definitely remember credits rolling at the end. Pretty sure this was a Saturday morning airing.

That's possible... it's unlikely I would have seen it then. Back in those days I used to put in a 3 or 4 hour VHS tape and run it from the start of rage, rarely towards the chart end of the show unless I knew there was something on I wanted.

1994 might even have been before the old rage playlist automated telephone line started, when Stephanie Lewis pre-recorded the playlist and times to audio tape and you could ring the service up to find out what was on after 5pm on Friday and Saturdays (with pen handy!). Those were the days, eh.

The 0055 number had started by at least late December 1992. In my 'rage top 60 of 1992' video on YouTube, during #56 (Teen Queens' 'Love How You Love Me), I've included a segment where the spiel about the call 0055... no. to see what's coming up on rage thing runs across the bottom of the screen, as well as the notice that rage will be simulcast in stereo on Triple J from New Year's Eve. I recorded this top 60 chart on 26 December 1992.

I never called the 0055 no. I always assumed those things would be majorly expensive

I wish rage would put those pre-1998 playlists online some day, even if only as scans of the handwritten or typed text.

I remember Australian MTV showed the full feature back in the day. I remember Chrissie Hynde talking in between one of the videos as i think she was a guest vocalist on one of the tracks. I remember recording the whole special (including ads) and should have it somewhere amongst all my VHS tapes. I'll have a look for it. Stay tuned!

Nathan, I think the rage phone number to hear the playlists started mid '92. I remember ringing them up to hear the new release Friday night playlists. I remember the recording saying the first two videos were 'This Used To Be My Playground' - Madonna and 'Baby Don't Cry' - INXS. I was so hanging out to see these videos! It was this time that I left comments after the recording to play old 'Countdown' episodes and nagged them every week for about 3 months....the rest is history!

My memory on these things isn't always the best, it was a long time ago. . I rifled through my filing cabinet and found a letter to me from Stephanie Lewis dated 25 Sep 1990 (I wrote in requesting a few artist specials) and she advised me of the local Sydney number (instead of 0055) that I could call to get the playlists "on Fridays after 6.30pm".

So it seemed the number started even earlier than we both thought and really not that long after rage itself started.


Indeed. I wrote to rage about 5 years ago offering to transcribe their pre-1998 printed playlists to an electronic database for free. They turned down my offer! It would have been a huge amount of work, but so worth it.

I think I saw that episode of rage where those were the first 2 videos shown, actually, and it would have been July '92.

Wow, that is interesting.

And pity they didn't take up your offer of transcribing those playlists.

I've got scans of all the ARIA Reports from the 90s, and they list (though not comprehensively, generally, until about early 1994 after MTV has stopped) new release videos added to rage each week (though 1 or 2 weeks behind the air date), which gives some clue about which new release videos were shown when... but that's it.