COUNTDOWN: Date:23/08/1981
Show no: 298
Summary:GUEST PRESENTER IS PAUL NORTHAM,LEAD SINGER FROM MEO245.
LIVE STUDIO ITEMS:
TOYSHOW 'THEN I KISSED HIM'
GILLIAN EASTOE 'ANYONE WHO HAD A HEART'
SERIOUS YOUNG INSECTS 'TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING WORDS'
LOCAL ARTISTS VIDEO CLIPS:
SWANEE 'IF I WERE A CARPENTER'
MEO245 'OTHER PLACES'
OVERSEAS ARTISTS VIDEO CLIPS:
TOYAH 'I WANT TO BE FREE'
RAINBOW 'IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE'
PHD 'I WON'T LET YOU DOWN'
QUICK 'YOUNG MEN DRIVE FAST'
KIMCARNES 'DRAW OF THE CARDS'
KIM WILDE 'CHEQUERED LOVE'
ATTACK 'DON'T YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC'
DEVO 'WHIP IT'
CHARTBUSTERS:
MONDO ROCK 'CHEMISTRY'
LENA LOVICH 'NEW TOY'
JONA LEWIE 'LOUISE'
TOP TEN ITEMS:
AIR SUPPLY 'THE ONE THAT YOU LOVE'
ADAM & THE ANTS 'STAND & DELIVER'
BUREAU 'ONLY FOR SHEEP'
RENEE GEYER 'SAY I LOVE YOU'
POINTER SISTERS 'SLOW HAND'
BUCKS FIZZ 'MAKIN YOUR MIND UP'
RICK SPRINGFIELD 'JESSIE'S GIRL'
MEN AT WORK 'WHO CAN IT BE NOW'
STARS ON 45 'STARS ON 45'


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Year:1986
Date:23/2/1986
Show no:497
Summary:THIS SHOW IS HOSTED BY MOLLY AND MARK KNOPFLER WHO IS IV BY MOLLY RE AUSTRALIA TOUR, SUCCESS AND SONG WRITING. NEW MEMBERS FROM BRONSKI BEAT ARE IV RE JOINING BAND AND TOUR.
VIDEO CLIPS:
EUROGLIDERS 'ABSOLUTELY'
THE CHURCH 'TANTALIZED'
INXS 'KISS THE DIRT (FALLING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN)'
ZZ TOP 'STAGES'
FEARGAL SHARKEY 'YOU LITTLE THIEF'
STEVIE NICKS 'I CAN'T WAIT'
BRONSKI BEAT 'HIT THAT PERFECT BEAT'
SCRITTI POLITTI 'PERFECT WAY'
WHITNEY HOUSTON 'HOW WILL I KNOW'
PAT BENATAR 'SEX AS A WEAPON'
DAVID BOWIE 'ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS'
DIRE STRAITS 'WALK OF LIFE' (ENDS SHOW)
CHARTBUSTERS (EXCERPTS):
JAMES BROWN 'LIVING IN AMERICA'
PET SHOP BOYS 'OPPORTUNITIES'
CLARENCE CLEMONS/JACKSON BROWNE 'YOU'RE A FRIEND OF MINE'
BILLY OCEAN 'WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING'
HUMDRUM (EXCERPTS):
AUSTRALIAN CRAWL 'TWO HEARTS'
STING 'RUSSIANS'
WALL OF VOODOO 'FAR SIDE OF CRAZY'
TOP TEN:
PRINCESS 'SAY I'M YOUR NO 1'
PETE TOWNSHEND 'FACE THE FACE'
VENETIANS 'SO MUCH FOR LOVE'
MR MISTER 'BROKEN WINGS'
DEE C LEE 'SEE THE DAY'
ARTISTS UNITED AGAINST APARTHEID 'SUN CITY'
WHAM I'M YOUR MAN'
DIONNE & FRIENDS 'THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR'
STARSHIP 'WE BUILT THIS CITY'
FEARGAL SHARKEY 'A GOOD HEART'


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Year:1987
Date:28/6/1987
Show no:560
Summary:SHOW HOSTED BY DAVE DOBBYN AND INCLS USA AND UK TOP 5'S. MELDRUM TALKS TO DOBBYN AT END OF SHOW RE FILM 'FOOTROT FLATS' SHOWING AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL AND RELEASE OF SINGLE IN AMERICA STUDIO PERFORMANCES:
DAVE DOBBYN 'YOU OUGHTA BE IN LOVE'
BOOM CRASH OPERA 'CITY FLAT'
THAT'S THAT 'GIVE ME RHYTHM'
PAINTERS AND DOCKERS 'NUDE SCHOOL' (MEMBERS OF BAND WEARING PLASTIC PIG NOSES)
VIDEO CLIPS:
CAROL HITCHCOCK 'GET READY'
THE CURE 'WHY CAN'T I BE YOU'
GO WEST 'I WANT TO HEAR IT FROM YOU'
BILLY IDOL 'SWEET SIXTEEN'
JIM KEAYS 'UNDECIDED'
THE BIG SUPREME 'PLEASE YOURSELF'
DAVID BOWIE 'TIME WILL CRAWL'
TOP TEN:
PARTY BOYS 'HE'S GONNA STEP ON YOU AGAIN'
SHONA LAING 'GLAD I'M NOT A KENNEDY'
CLUB NOUVEAU 'LEAN ON ME'
NOISEWORKS 'TAKE ME BACK'
BREAKFAST CLUB 'RIGHT ON TRACK'
WORLD PARTY 'SHIP OF FOOLS'
MEL AND KIM 'RESPECTABLE'
STARSHIP 'NOTHING'S GONNA STOP US NOW'
DAVE DOBBYN 'SLICE OF HEAVEN'
WHITNEY HOUSTON 'I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY'


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Year:1984
Date:19/02/1984
Show no:404
Summary:HOSTED BY DAVID STERRY AND RICHARD ZARTORSKI FROM REAL LIFE AND MOLLY INTERVIEWING DAVID AND RICHARD RE TOUR, SINGLE, SUCCESS, IMAGE INCLUDED FTG OF ELTON JOHN'S WEDDING.
VIDEO CLIPS:
REAL LIFE 'CATCH ME I'M FALLING';
EUROGLIDERS 'ANOTHER DAY IN THE BIG WORLD';
YES 'OWNER OF A LONELY HEART';
CYNDI LAUPER 'GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN';
ROMANTICS 'TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP';
BETTE MIDLER 'BEAST OF BURDEN';
PRETENDERS 'MIDDLE OF THE ROAD' AND IV RE SONGWRITER RAY DAVIS, ALBUM, MUSIC.
THOMAS DOLBY 'HYPERACTIVE';
VAN HALEN 'JUMP';
HUMDRUM:
PAUL MCCARTNEY 'PIPES OF PEACE';
U2 'NEW YEAR'S DAY';
JOHN COUGAR, LATER KNOWN AS JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP AND JOHN MELLENCAMP 'A LITTLE PINK HOUSE';
MOTELS 'REMEMBER THE NIGHTS';
TOP TEN:
LIONEL RICHIE 'ALL NIGHT LONG';
QUIET RIOT 'CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE';
JOHN LENNON 'NOBODY TOLD ME';
PARTON & ROGERS 'ISLAND IN THE STREAM';
IRENE CARA 'WHY ME';
MICHAEL JACKSON 'THRILLER';
CULTURE CLUB 'VICTIMS';
MONO ROCK 'COME SAID THE BOY';
INXS 'ORIGINAL SIN';
PAT BENATAR 'LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD'


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Year:1987
Date:19/4/1987
Show no:550
Summary:THIS SHOW COMES FROM UNDER 18'S DISCO AT MELBOURNE NIGHSPOT 'THE UNDERGROUND' AND THERE IS NO HOST. MOLLY PRESENTS HUMDRUM WEARING A VERY BRIGHTLY COLOURED JACKET AND THERE IS A COMPILE OF B&W FTG PEOPLE JITTERBUGGING AND PEOPLE DANCING ON STAGE AT UNDERGROUND ;HUMDRUM EXCERPTS:;THE SMITHS 'AUNT';DAVE DOBIN 'SLICE OF HEAVEN';VIDEO EXCERPTS:;BON JOVI 'YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME';MICHAEL JACKSON 'THRILLER';BON JOVI 'LIVIN' ON A PRAYER'

VIDEO CLIPS:
PEPSI & SHIRLIE - HEARTACHE
BOY GEORGE - EVERYTHING I OWN (INTRODUCED BY BOY GEORGE FANS AT UNDERGROUND)
THE CULT - LOVE REMOVAL MACHINE
BANGLES - WALKING DOWN YOUR STREET
THE HOUSEMARTINS - CARAVAN OF LOVE
HOLIDAY WRAP/BUS STOP DANCE NUMBER (INC YOUTHS DANCING TO SONG AT UNDER 18'S DISCO)
FLEETWOOD MAC - BIG LOVE
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS - EVER FALLEN IN LOVE
TERENCE TRENT-D'ARBY - IF YOU LET ME STAY
U2 - WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
PAUL LEKAKIS - BOOM BOOM

NATIONAL TOP TEN:
BON JOVI 'LIVIN' ON A PRAYER';HOODOO GURUS 'WHAT'S MY SCENE';MAN 2 MAN MEET MAN PARRISH 'MALE STRIPPER';STACEY Q 'WE CONNECT';BOY GEORGE 'EVERYTHING I OWN';ROBBIE NEVIL 'C'EST LA VIE';CHANTOOZIES 'WITCH QUEEN';FRANKLIN/MICHAEL 'I KNEW YOU WERE WAITING';EUROPE 'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN'

I hope the Paul Lekakis 'video' is the Disco Ring Italian TV performance and not the Countdown dancers.

I was never really keen on the 1987 Countdowns, but the episode from The Underground Disco doesn't look too bad.

It certainly has been a great first 3 weeks of Retro Month, 15 un-repeated Countdown episodes so far. Hopefully a Rock Arena episode makes an appearance in the final week.

1987 Countdown's were never great, two 1987's in one night is simply boring beyond :-( But hey.

I so far have had one Countdown request of mine played on rage goes retro one and a further two Countdown episodes played from my request list this weekend, being:

March 16, 1980 (231: Steve Gilpin - Mi-Sex)

August 23, 1981 (238: Paul Northam - MEO 245)

June 28, 1987 (560: Dave Dobbyn)

As much as I loathe 1987 Countdown's, I did request the Dave Dobbyn episode as I figured if rage are to play any 1987 episodes, I may as well suggest one episode from that awful year with a little substance and with a bit more RARE content in the form of That's That with the FUNK brilliance of Give Me Rhythm in the Countdown studio and the London RARE brilliance of The Big Supreme with Please Yourself. At least it is one of the better 1987 episodes. If only Carol Hitchcock performed Get Ready in the studio on that episode instead of the video, it would have made it glorious, I don't know why Countdown didn't get Carol to perform on Countdown with Get Ready seeing Australia was it's highest charting position ...

As for the other 1987 episode, looking forward to the Underground nightclub in Melbourne and the Boy George fans but there are no studio performances and the videos are at least okay.


Thank goodness for the 1981 episode with Meo 245, I will finally have a good copy of this utterly AMA-ZZZZ-ING episode <3 <3 <3 The 1984 episode is all videos but at least it is 1984 so 1981 and 1984 will be great to stay up and watch live. A clean copy of The Quick with Young Men Drive Fast is going to be DELUXE, what a stunning 1981 episode xxxxxx

1986 episode at least features some good videos and a Bronski Beat interview but yeah ...


Staying up the whole night this weekend will be a bit difficult going from 1981 to 1986, how bitter ...

I think one 1985 Episode would have been so much better than two 1987 Episodes. At least 1985 Countdown's were still quite good, especially for Australian content Live in the studio ...

The rage goes retro half hour segment on Saturday morning is the usual Real Life videos Send Me An Angel and God Tonight ... Face To Face would have been welcomed as well as the RARE Babies which is their most UNDERRATED single !!!!! sigh

Would have also been great to have some Meo 245 videos after the 1981 episode seeing Dire Straits get 3 video's played after the 1986 Episode ...

Overall, 5 Countdown episodes played every weekend is a high amount and the most in a very long time :-)

I had a quick look through the playlists for past Retro Months, if we get another 5 episodes of Countdown played next weekend, that will be the most episodes played in a Retro Month since 1999 when 20 episodes were also shown, and this year we only had the 4 Saturdays.

1985 episodes were brilliant! Do agree though - don't mind 1987 shows and there are a couple of videos to look forward to. One of them the Bangles :heart: Take away a 1987 and replace with a 1985 and much better. Or a Rock Arena. Not happy with zero Rock Arenas so far. Overall happy with the variety and looking forward to the Quick video as I don't think I've heard it.

Not that I'm asking for it, but didn't the original blurb for retro month this year mention 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s? So far it has only been 80s, with just one week to go.

It is odd that they haven't played any Rock Arena yet.

Does anyone know if Rage has shown any Rock Arenas from the first year of the show going to air (1982)?
I know a few shows from 1983 have been played, or is it a case that those 1982 episodes may no longer exist?

No Rock Arenas and I Am Sad.

Personally, I'd like to see some The Factory (though the 3 hour shows would need to be edited with the non-music stuff taken out). The 1989 episodes were 'only' 2 hours, so they'd be alright. And some 1989 Countdown Revolutions (or 1990 ones with rare clips).

Anything but Recovery.

Just Countdown alone is perfect but I love Rock Arena and have missed seeing a few episodes this year but I guess it means more Countdown so YAY

I'd be okay with more CR's - good to have a variety of shows from different eras. Not really my cup of tea although I do like the music from the late 80's.

They played the first episode of Rock Arena - Feb 23 1982 - in 2011 which was a Kinks concert from 1979.

In Aug 2013 they had a JJ Cale tribute and showed 25min of the Nov 7 1982 episode.

I think most of the 1982 episodes were predominantly concert footage when the show was made in Adelaide and hosted by Andrew Peters or Peter Holland.

2 hours to go :heart_eyes:

First episode's aspect ratio looks OK.

VIDEO CLIPS:
REAL LIFE 'CATCH ME I'M FALLING'

So I wasn't going mad... I was pretty sure Countdown only ever showed this clip once and indeed that's the case. In this show (19 Feb 1984) Real Life 'perform' this song 'live' in the Countdown studio, it is not a video clip. Incorrectly categorised!

As Nathan noted, some episodes were "stretched" last night but others weren't. Beyond that, only the first episode was deinterlaced, all the others were not. So they are getting there...

Meo245 and their lead singer was a strange choice to host Countdown back in 1981.

It was great new acts got a shot through Countdown, but MEO245 were not even a blip on the radar.

I was in high school at the time, and I only vaguely recall them at best.

They only recorded that one album, which only reached No 69, and their highest charting single made it to No43.

They broke up in 1983 after their EP 'rights of passage' also failed to make an impact.

On the one hand I agree, don't remember them at all and he was pretty boring as a host. On the other hand I enjoy seeing obscure bands that never quite made it.

MEO 245 were based in Melbourne and a fairly well known band in that city during 1981 but they had little impact in the rest of Australia. It probably helped that Countdown was predominantly produced in Melbourne and Molly was always making efforts to break new bands. You could name many other bands that had similar chart success yet hosted Countdown - Annalise Morrow from The Numbers last week is an example.

If you weren't from Melbourne you probably never heard of MEO 245 but their first single Lady Love reached No.18 on the Melbourne 3XY charts and they received a number of mentions in Juke magazine. They performed 4 different songs live on Countdown so if you watched the show you would have been well aware of them from that as well.
Lady Love - November 9 1980
Marching Feet - March 29 1981
Other Places - July 19 1981
Jewels - November 18 1981

Looking at Countdown now I appreciate the more obscure stuff so it is great that this made it regularly on Countdown.

3XY chart from Dec 26 1980 with MEO 245 at No.18

I think Meo 245 are one of THE best bands to come out of Australia and Molly was right in Humdrum, their debut album is a GEM. They had such a great production and should have been bigger.

Like Armin said, bands like The Numbers, Jimmy & The Boys, Serious Young Insects etc all appeared on the show and many bands hosted Countdown who were not huge. That was the whole appeal of Countdown and why I love the era 1979 to 1984 so much, because they really featured a lot of Australia bands like Liquid Engineers, Dropbears, Sardine V e.t.c..

My favourite Australian band ever is I'm Talking and they only made one album and what a masterpiece it always will be <3

GO MEO 245 !!!! xoxoxoxo I am lucky to have the Mushroom re issue CD as well :-)

Jewels is my favourite Meo 245 track, the Countdown performance from 1981 is their best X

I guess being from Melbourne I never thought of MEO 245 as a virtually unknown band despite their overall lack of chart success. They appeared to get a lot of mentions at the time along with their 4 appearances on Countdown, which I think was the most by any band in that 12 month period.

The 3XY music charts would feature a band/artist of the week on the reverse side and between Dec 1980 and Nov 1981 featured acts such as Kim Wilde, Talking Heads, Mondo Rock, AC/DC, The Angels, Spandau Ballet, Devo etc but there were only two acts that featured twice in that time - Adam & The Ants and MEO 245.




I thought they were a great band that somehow managed to elude success similar to The Expression, Geisha, Venetians etc despite numerous quality releases.

That's part of the fun in watching these Countdown airings on Rage that I now pick up some other artists that seemed to completely escape my attention at the time.

The bottom line is great pop songs and a dash of luck. Take Pseudo Echo - "Listening" is a world class synth pop song and was a huge hit.

V-Capri were another band who had more regional success than nationally, and probably could or should have made it.

Armin, do you know what radio stations based these charts on? I'm thinking it can't have solely been requests, or otherwise there would presumably be a heap of old stuff in there too. It couldn't have been 'songs we like' picked by the radio station staff, either, as the same would apply. Surely it couldn't have been sales, either.... so what, then?

Apparently they were based on sales but the figures of most charts seemed a bit dodgy in those days until ARIA/Kent Report put in greater research from more sources.

Each radio station seemed to have had links to some record selling stores and compiled a list combined from the information that they received from the various stores although the overall information they received was limited.

In the 80's EON FM (started a chart in May 1982) and 3XY both had Melbourne charts that were predominantly similar but occasionally featured some wildly varying results. They appeared to be fairly genuine charts rather than follow a stations' playlist

Taking a random week in March 1985 here are the EON FM and 3XY charts which are fairly similar.



It got more interesting when independent charts were issued:

Thanks for the info, Armin. It does seem a bit puzzling to me that record stores reported sales to radio stations... and (presumably) the Kent Report (and later ARIA) as well.

What was the Countdown chart based on, do you know, before they switched to using the Kent Music Report chart in mid-1983?

The Countdown charts were seemingly a combination of radio station charts from around the country. They would often mention where a single was charting well.

It was also common for Molly to try to get an extra Australian act into the top 10 which would result in songs tying for positions and allowing the 11th song to be ranked No.10. It is funny that whenever this happened the 10th song was almost always an Australian song.

It was after a lot of people seemed to query the Countdown charts that they decided to combine with the Kent Report in July 1983 and provide a better respected chart.