Great news posted on the RAGE guestbook that three seventies episodes of Countdown may have been located. The episodes apparently are (as most would know already who read the guestbook)from May and July 1976 and June 1977. The ABC archive does not list any episodes from those years and months of the show - so if its true... WOW!!!

They were apparently recorded on Betamax video. The question is could they be broadcast if they are not officialy broadcast quality. Could they be restored? Also, who were the guest hosts for those eps??? Any theories?

I did hear mutterings a few years ago that there was a Jon English hosted episode from the late seventies floating about as well...

Actually as I was catching up with the last few weeks of posts I've noticed the Guru posted the following information on two episodes in the hands of a collector (perhaps a Jon English fan?!).

Countdown July 3 1977

Host - Jon English

Live performances:
Shirley Strachan - Tracks Of My Tears
Marcia Hines - What I Did For Love
Ferretts - Don't Fall In Love
John English - Behind Blue Eyes
Feather - Girl Trouble

Video Clips:
Thelma Houston - Don't Leave Me This Way
Joe Tex - Ain't Gonna Bump No More
Alice Cooper - You And Me
Tina Charles - Dance Little Lady Dance
Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner
No.1 Dr Hook - Walk Right In

Chartbusters:
Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now
Supercharge - You Better Get Up And Dance

Humdrum discusses Jon English, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply and Supertramp

July 16 1978

Host - Jon English

Live Performances:
Russell Morris - On The Wings Of An Eagle
The Angels - Take A Long Line
The Cloud - Marion
Jon English - Words Are Not Enough
Frankie Valli - Grease (special Countdown performance at US Grease premiere)

Video Clips:
Graham Bonnet - Warm Ride
Genesis - Follow You Follow Me
Flash & The Pan - Down Among The Dead Men
Bryan Ferry - What Goes On
No.1 Boney M - Rivers Of Babylon

Humdrum interviews guests at US Grease premiere, discusses the movie and interview with John Farrer.

This is fantastic news! There are far too few '70s episodes around so hopefully Rage will get hold of these and air them next year

Perhaps if any of these 5 episodes which are meant to exist, if returned to the ABC archives and if not up to technical broadcast quality, they could be webcast instead on the official Countdown website?

It is good if some 70s eps are preserved and found BUT I am not as excited as most. I am a 1981 to 1984 Countdowner 110%!!!

Perhaps the ABC should better promote the problem of missing archival material in tehhope that more people with domestic recordings of that material might come forward?

The fact that copies of such material would be forwarded on to the National Archives is again recognition that there is not just a commercial value to the programs but also (and more so now) a cultural value.

Oh kewl that era is right up my alley too. Sad to think so many eps are still missing..fingers crossed they find many more able to restore them and broadcast at a date soon...

Also just read that it was Ray "Touch Me" Burgess who was generous enough to give copies of 4 complete episodes of Flashez back to the ABC. I take it that the last epsiode is the first to be played in its entirity? Therefore over summers to come we might look forward to see three more of these lost gems. I personally thought that the Flashex episode was the highlight of the night from a broader retro perspective.

It's a Miracle, looking Forward to 2010 already.

The ABC holds six full episodes of Flashez thus far & I'm pleased to say that we have obtained another copy of the final episode of Flashez with good quality audio...

I make time between my official assignments to track down missing material out of a genuine sense of wanting to preserve our cultural heritage and hopefully have it broadcast for all to enjoy. It would be great to be able do this on a full time basis ...but for the meantime...

So there are a few of us at the ABC looking out for rare material.

I have seen some previously missing material that I have recovered (that was recorded on a domestic video format) brought up to a somewhere-near-approaching broadcast standard (not bad given that the tapes were circa 1981) before they were put in to our online storage system...so there is a good chance that reasonable standard pictures can be improved & the liklihood of broadcast from recovered material is not as remote as some might think...

This sounds all fantastic and I appreciate your posts on here "Other John" , hehehe...

I know ABC2 could be trying to work on this and it is ESSENTIAL that it does work. As we all know that we need another outlet besuides rage to see all this classic footage. As it is strictly a January thing, which as we all know is not enough time in one year!

Anything to get some classic progies back on the air again (& I'm a happy chappy)

Once a year is most certainly not enough for sure.

I'm still surprised Foxtel hasn't had a dedicated classic Aussie channel.

We need to preserve what we have onto digital format soon otherwise the stuff in the vaults now will be gone forever.

I was somewhat alarmed to see even a few of the 80's Countdown eps looking in somewhat ragged state compared to some of the 70's eps - particularly the 86 Boy George ep played this year.

Hopefully that was an isolated case and that those shows get the attention they deserve to present them in the best possible condition.

I could drone on for hours about this, but in the end the archives isn't my property, just my beloved concern.