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Stay tuned below with regular Countdown full archival information for each Countdown episode rage shall be airing every Saturday throughout January ...

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My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

I'm the one who posted on RAGE Guestbook with the lost Countdowns that I found (I just stumbled across this forum today). I'm awaiting a response from RAGE, but for now I can say that both 1976 shows are perfect quality (which surprised me). I remember being a kid and watching these 2 shows as my folks recorded them. I remember them well because the number 1 song at the time was ABBA's Fernando which had an amazing run at number 1 - total of 15 weeks, which is the record still in this country. The 1977 show is in good condition, 2 parts of the show are shaky for about 45 seconds, but that is all. I also have a December 1974 which I believe might be the only 1974 show in existence? I have not viewed this tape yet but it appears to be in the same excellent condition as the other 3 tapes.

I will post on the RAGE Guestbook next week the details of each show, I've confirmed that all 4 of these shows (Dec '74, May '76, July '76, June '77) are no longer in existence with the ABC and National Archives. I hope there are others out there with old recordings? But probably unlikely. Will advise next week of plan of attack to have these shows restored, copied and possibly aired on RAGE. Regards, KC.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Welcome KC,

I have seen your many controversial guestbook posts on r a g e ... Your parents were obviously VERY smart to tape these episodes of Countdown from the 70s. They are indeed worth a lot of cash...

Hope you enjoy not only this Forum but this website run by I (Jason/CJ)

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Thanks for the welcome J. Yes, my posts on the RAGE forum are sometimes confronting, but as a lover of music and of Countdown, I'm just giving RAGE a little push to open up their vault and play some video material that is rare or not played very often. January only comes around once a year, and seeing Bohemian Rhapsody played the other weekend (we've all seen it a 100 times) was too much! But maybe they took my advice this weekend when they played the Countdown Promos from 74/75. Well done RAGE!

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

I'd like to express gratitude to you as well K. C., as thanks to you (and your parents!) we may now all have the opportunity to enjoy a 1974 episode of Countdown!!! How fantastic!

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Excellent thanks KC & lets hope RAGE air them next January

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

KC
I am glad that a comment I put on the Rage guestbook about surviving episodes got you to reveal the incredible treasure you have in your collection and amazing that you kept it for all these years.

Look forward to seeing your episode rundowns of the episodes in the next few weeks.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Thanks to Guru Bob for your post on RAGE detailing the missing Countdowns. Yes, when I saw your post I was prompted to check my own archives. I'm very excited about having the December 1974 show. It appears so far that it may be the only 1974 show still in existence. You can't put a price on that!

I'm copying all 4 tapes onto DVD before sending them to the ABC next week. I would guess that RAGE will play them next January? You think they might let me be a guest programmer for 1 night in return? Start sending me your requests..... :)

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

I think a guest programmer is the least they could offer you!

I cant wait to see the missing eps and thanks to you and your folks for holding onto them all these years.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

GREAT... we have 1974 to 1976 COuntdown's to look forward to next year, crap!

I now willnever get my 1982 missing episodess or my 1984 and 1985 missing episodes...

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Thumbs up from me for you KC as a guest programmer on RAGE for sure.

We should campaign it as a reward for the incredible...and it is incredible...gift you're giving to the ABC...as well as all the Countdown fans.

The wiping of so many '70s Countdowns is a shameful and tragic event. If any TV show captured Australian youth culture in the '70s...it's Countdown. Nothing else can come close to it...so every remaining second of it from the '70s is incredibly historic and IMPORTANT !

Your willingness to share these episodes with the ABC so willingly says a lot about you KC. Thanks for being so kind and for reminding us of the Aussie spirit of mateship and decency that seems to have faded so much over the past 20 years.

Three cheers for KC...you bet mate !

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

KC,

I find it interesting that you have just checked your parents old Beta Tapes now. Geez, if I had parents who had old Beta Tapes, I would have been checking them agggggges ago!

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Old beta (and VHS) tapes can be gold mines. I was a tad miffed when my dad threw out a bunch of old Beta tapes not so long ago. I often go to Ebay to see if there are any old tapes for sale as you never know.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Verry true Gary,

I sometimes look in Opp shops for Beta videos. I came across some recently that were used Beta's, I hoped to death that there were some Countdown's and Sounds on them. But there was just some rubbish on them. Hopefully some people out there have some gems on Beta!

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

I find weekend trash markets were the best for finding old tapes, although I only started looking at blank tapes in the last few years.

I found a couple of tapes that had recorded full 3 hour episodes of Channel Ten's Night Shift from the late 80's, one that had 3 hours of Rage from May 1988 and another that had an hour of Channel 10's John Torv's Video Music from 1984. Unfortunately no Countdown's yet.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Keep up to date on how well the 4 lost Episodes dating from 1974-77 fared by the ABC Archives coz i think January 2010 is going to be a rare occasion if they're aired on Rage.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Hi KC,

My name is John & I am an archivist/researcher at ABC TV.
Hopefully, Rage have managed to get in contact with you with my details, if not, feel free to contact me via this site if you wish

cheers,
john

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Any further news or developments on this?

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

I have also been wondering what development there has been in this. Is there any update otherjohn?

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Have just read on the Rage guestbook that KC is providing the copies of 4 lost Countdowns to the ABC archives. A big thumbs up for otherjohn who has made the effort to facilitate this as the ABC in general don't seem to appreciate the value of some of our cultural history.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

A bit of lost Countdown footage has surfaced on YouTube with Split Enz performing No Bother To Me live on May 11 1975 (episode 12).

Check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMqzZuRWGnk&feature=sdig&et=1251568762.02

Good to know some of this stuff is still out there.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Congratulations KC on unearthing these lost episodes!!! I'm so over the moon and totally cheerin !!!, I've also sent you an email in regards of those episodes.

In reagards of that Split Enz clip from episode 12, that clip was uploaded by me and I've got clips from other lost Countdowns on my channel http://www.youtube.com/user/typicalaussiebloke for everyones enjoyment. I obtained this clip in a Split Enz DVD trade I made with a Split Enz fan in USA. I'm currently trying to trace the source of this clip as I am wanting to find it in best quality possible and find out if whoever has the original tapes has other Countdown footage too.

On YouTube 3 years ago I found this clip and another 1975 Split Enz Countdown clip called "Maybe" which can be viewed here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFa0_qqjNDI . I've emailed the user but never got a reply and he/she hasn't signed in in 3 years.

Anyways I'm consistently on the lookout for 70s Countdown footage and am keeping my website http://1970scountdown.atspace.com/ up to date on any great finds I come across or hear about.

Cheers
Troy

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Hi Troy - a lot of us are also hoping that these famous 4 "missing Countdowns" have made it safely to the ABC archives. The silence is deafening with regards to this for the past 7 months or so.

Unless someone can confirm one way or another, either KC or someone from the archives then I am afraid it is just another dead end in the recovery process. Besides the missing complete 1977 episode that I helped recover some years ago on videotape has anyone else come through with anything concrete? Sorry for being so sceptical - and I am very happy to be proven wrong as well. I will be the first to apologise for doubting anyone.

It is very disappointing that the July 1977 episode has not been repeated on Rage - I know the opening titles are missing (hardly a big deal) but the quality of the original is certainly better than the U-Matic source used to restore the 1st March 1975 show that has been repeated many times. And a great restoration job was done on that. Maybe the 1977 show is not important enough to restore to transmission quality.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Troy alerted me to this lost Countdown footage having been recently uploaded on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dED7CrXg2k

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Did anything concrete come from the above KC finds, and are they safe and well in the archives awaiting an air date sometime soon? If so then they would in all likelyhood be my requests for this year, or make a significant part thereof.

Re: My Lost&Found 70's Countowns

Last I heard of that it was just a hoax from someone in Tasmania. Apparently they actually went to the ABC, were given some copies of some Countdown footage in good faith and then were never heard of again but I can't confirm that as I only got that info second hand. If anything had surfaced then you would think we would have heard about it by now.

Anyhow, that 1976 Steve Groves footage, which appears to have been uploaded by his son, is amazing footage to have survived and in such good condition. If the ABC have any more stand alone performances from episodes that no longer exist such as we saw on some of those recent Classic Countdown shows then I hope they air all of those. There must be some great compile tapes still in the archives.