At Sid,

Before you start coming up with so called theories maybe you should come to me directly for my reason for requesting ROCK ARENA.

FIRSTLY: I don't know if you have seen my request list or not? ... There were 11 Countdown's on there, a Meldrum Tapes with Molly Meldrum with Bananarama and Pseudo Echo which is linked to Countdown plus some insert tape interview segments for Countdown interviews with madonna from 1984 for COUNTDOWN. I could have gone further and gone up to 20 COuntdown episode requests but realistically, rage wouldn't play 11 for me so why would I do 20? Even though I wish I could get 20 episodes more ....

SO ... the smart thing to do to stay in the Early to mid 80s is to request some Rock Arena's as well * Get it?

I have never had a problem with Rock Arena (up to a point and I also recorded from Rock Arena in the 80s as well as Countdown, The Noise, SOUNDS, Between The Teeth.

* NOW *
The reason why I requested some Rock Arena's is because I know they like to venture out of Countdown every few years ... SO ... In requesting ROCK ARENA ... the years of ROCK ARENA are generally in the same era of 80s Countdown. 1982 - 1987...

IN THIS: This means that least Rock Arena was still part of THE GOLDEN era and I get to add to my collection, some things like the Japan/David Sylvian special and The Dugites special. Those artists and bands were all featured in my favourite Countdown era but were NOT on The Factory, so they are still at least in twine with the Countdown era I love of 1979 to 1986.May I add, Countdown and Rock Arena worked with each other and advertised each other and Rock Arena had some of the Countdown people working on the Rock Arena. Countdown even featured Andrew Peters on a Countdown episode as they did Suzanne Dowling on a few episodes as well as the Countdown Awards ceremonies.

The Factory wasn't an exclusive MUSIC PROGRAM. One had to sit through endless hours of Tanya Lacey being a fool and having segments on pieces that had nothing to do with music and it went for a ghastly 3 hours.



May I add, I prefer Rock Arena up to 1986 the latest and the same applies for COUNTDOWN. After 1986, the 80s went to h e l l in general.

Saturday night 6 February 2021 on ABC 1

PLAYLIST

12:30am

SPACE INVADERS Player One (WEA)
DEVO - LIVE ON COUNTDOWN Workin' In A Coalmine (Warner)
SPLIT ENZ I Got You (Fest/Mush)
COUNTDOWN April 27, 1980 (237: Gil Tucker, Mental As Anything, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons) (ABC)
SIOUXSIE and THE BANSHEES Spellbound (Independent)
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY Nick The Stripper (Mushroom)

2:00am

COUNTDOWN December 13, 1981 (314: James Reyne, Australian Crawl, Joe Dulce) (ABC)

2:30am

THE CHURCH - LIVE ON COUNTDOWN Unguarded Moment (EMI)
THE CURE Charlotte Sometimes (Warner)

3:00am

COUNTDOWN May 28, 1982 (330: Dr Hook, Sardine) (ABC)

3:30am

DURAN DURAN Hungry Like The Wolf (EMI)
COUNTDOWN February 26, 1984 (405, Alex Smith from Moving Pictures) (ABC)
GARY NUMAN Down In The Park (Warner)

5:00am

DAVID BOWIE - LIVE China Girl (Virgin)
DAVID BOWIE Sorrow (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE - LIVE Fame (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE Valentine's Day (Universal)
DAVID BOWIE Fashion (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE D.J. (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE Life On Mars (EMI)
COUNTDOWN Interview with David Bowie, November 10th, 1978 ()

5:30am

DAVID BOWIE - LIVE Suffragette City (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE- LIVE Ziggy Stardust (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE Ashes To Ashes (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE Be My Wife (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE Strangers When We Meet (EMI)
DAVID BOWIE I'd Rather Be High (Sony)
DAVID BOWIE Little Wonder (BMG)
DAVID BOWIE Boys Keep Swinging (EMI)

I'm very happy with the Countdowns they have chosen - all from early 80s. I prefer them to later 80s. Disappointing that they are repeating film clips we've seen plenty of times already in between Countdowns. Still annoyed that they aren't showing more Countdowns, and that they aren't starting at an earlier time, say around 11pm like last year. The sad possibility is that they will show less Countdowns and more other shows as February progresses - let's hope not.

Only one more sleep til ....

Starting off the night with a bang with Space Invaders. I enjoy Countdowns from every era so happy with whatever they play. The one hosted by dorky Constable Roy Baker from Cop Shop should be fun. A Rock Arena would be nice though hopefully we'll get a couple in the next few weeks.

I for one really enjoyed RockA rena in the 80s and still now. It's nostalgic for me and I got to record some AMAZING Dance and Alternative videos on RA in the 80s which Countdown didn't play.

COuntdown is my NUMBER ONE but I loved Rock Arena and The Noise on SBS desperately!

You can blame me for the 1986 Rock Arena as I requested it for the David Sylvian interview as I am a huge Japan and Sylvian fan and I LOVE that interview that Suzanne conducted with My Sylvian xxxx Sigh ...

I however HATED the 1989 ROck Arena and stopped the recorder and stopped watching, I LOATHE The Black Sorrows and 1989 is ****E.


I don';t have any high hopes for week 3 this weekend but live in hope that week 4, rage play some Countdown!

All four Countdown episodes on Week 1 were on ym request list and I got one of the Rock Arena's I want so I should shut up BUT I won't because let's face it. We all want as much Countdown as possible!!!!!!!!!!


I think lots of GTK this weekend coming which is of NO interest to me! It's VILE

At Gary,

Variety is not the spice of life when we are into week 3 and only 4 Countdown's!rage are opening with Kate Bush - Hammer Horror and it's the video, at least play the 1978 Countdown performance so one Countdown piece can be shown!

And variety? The so called RARE Flashez material ... The Alice Cooper Vox-Pops at concert is a repeat, rage have already played that insert and they have already played the Roy Orbison at Pentridge interview as they have Joy Division with Transmission.

If they are going to do 70s at least play more Flashez inserts that haven't been played.

The fact is that most people are requesting Countdown and rage are ignoring most people. If Countdown was played outside of rage as it should be on ABC then it would be fine but instead we have to wait all f u c k i n g year and 4 Countdown's in a matter of 3 weeks and one extra weekend lost because rage shifted their rage goes retro from January to February. Not to mention the WASTE of weekend two with an hour to spare from 4 - 5 am and they repeat the 1989 Top 10 when that could have been 2 Countdown Revolutions, if they really wanted to stick to the 1989 theme. So much for needing an extra month to 'dig into the vaults'.

Hello from Poland,
can you help me, please from 2 GEORDIE performances from GTK?
Will be very nice from you

I'd be okay with late 80's stuff like Countdown Revolution or the Factory but not Recovery blah. Would love more Hitscene and Flashez inserts but that's probably not likely. If we can make it through week 4 with no Recovery or anything Nick Cave related I'll be giving Retro 2021 a gold star

So, that's it for 2021 - six Countdowns in total. Not exactly the best year for Retro Month. I did enjoy watching all the early 80s Countdowns. I prefer them to later 80s. There were not many 'new' or rare videos in between Countdowns this year either. Hopefully we have some good VAULTs coming up this year. Oh well, two good things to look forward to next year. Firstly, we only have 10 more months to wait until January 2022. Secondly, January 2022 has another 5 weeks of Saturdays.

There were MEGA RARE videos on the 1982 Countdown last night with a different video for Kim Carnes 'Voyeur' which is not the video I know as the other got banned so that was something different as was Perfect Strangers and Big Red.

And on the 1984 Rock Arena with my beloved track and video from Peter Baumann is RAAAARE

A disappointing retro month, yeah. It felt weird being in February too. Usually I'm still very much in holiday mode during retro month. We'll have a big group over for an Australia Day BBQ and I'll have Countdowns on repeat on the TV, which always provides lots of conversation fodder.

Fingers crossed for a big 2022 redemption.

Didn't know who Peter Baumann was until they mentioned that he was a member of Tangerine Dream.