Can't believe retro month 2011 is only 4 and a bit months away...OMG !

Before I request a few Countdowns I was wondering if anyone knows, have these eps already been shown ?

4th July, 1982
16th Aug, 1981
12th July, 1981
2nd Aug, 1981
9th Aug, 1981

If any/all have been shown, any help in obtaining (highest quality possible) copies will be VERY much appreciated. I will of course cover ALL costs (and then some).

Unfortunately, and I'm ashamed to say this, up until I got a dvd recorder a couple of years ago I paid scant attention to the Countdowns on RAGE...and those I did record onto vhs were in LP with a sh|tty ghosty reception...and then I'd copy out only select performances and re-use the tapes. Boy am I regretting that now Consequently I'm largely starting from scratch

Any help is genuinely appreciated.

Abbaluke,

I am quite certain that:

16th August 1981 has NOT been shown on rage
12th July 1981 has NOT been shown on rage
9th August 1981 has NOT been shown
2nd August 1981 I can NOT find in my Archives so I do NOT know

4th July 1982 has INDEED been played on rage!

abbaluke,
In my opinion it is a crime to edit Countdown episodes to just take out the clips that you are after. The whole show just had such a vibe to it that even if you have the clips being shown, you can still sit back and enjoy it as part of a Countdown episode. I'm glad I never edited my recordings and was fortunate that others were able to help me out with the few episodes that I missed on rage - mainly 93-94 and an inopportune power failure in the late 90's - I hate summer thunderstorms on Saturday nights in January.

As CJ noted, the July 4 1982 episode was shown back in 1995. The other 4 have not been shown on Rage but I do have 3 of them as timecoded copies.

The only episode that you mentioned that I don't have is July 12 1981 which was an insert show with Molly at Mt Buller discussing music and then just throwing to clips. It is quite a good episode as it features the brilliant Dugites - Waiting (I've never seen a clip for it so it is probably the live performance shown on ep 287 May 31 1981), Landscape - Einstein A Go Go, Get Wet - So Lonely and Bureau - Only For Sheep. I have all those clips on other sources, although not pristine from intro to outro although these on this Countdown episode won't be either, so am probably not that keen to see this episode but it is not a bad one.

As I prefer to see episodes that I don't have I am happy to make copies for others so that they don't request those that I already have. If you can refrain from requesting those Luke, I am happy to make copies of the 4 that you are interested in that I have.

I have 252 Countdown episodes off rage and time-coded (some in both versions) including a Countdown Friday show from 1982 and a few Countdown Flipsides from 1983.

Definitely starting to look forward to Retro as it has been a fairly quiet year to date since last January. I was recently given copies of Dugites and I'm Talking in live concerts which were shown on Rock Arena in 1984 and a lady in Frankston got in contact saying she had many videos recorded off TV between 1984 and 1988 featuring Countdown, Sounds and early Rage which she is going to let me copy so hope there is something good amongst that.

OH MY GAWD!

You got I'm Talking live on Rock Arena???????

This woman in Frankston, how did you find her???


Could I have a copy of "I'm Talking?

I will pay you ANYTHING!

Will 50 bux do!!!!!!

CJ
$50 sounds tempting but there is no need for that, I am sure we can trade for something - I have sent you an email.

Thanks for your detailed reply Guru Bob, I really enjoyed it.

Rest assured I am suitably ashamed at my stupidity in editing out my old tapes of Countdown from RAGE and my lack of vigilence up until a couple of years ago in even recording them at all. Its well and truly come back to bite me on the ar$e now that I've realised how precious each second of every episode is.

I think I discovered and started to participate in the RAGE discussion boards mid way 2009. Reading the passionate and interesting discussions there about the Countdown eps contributed in taking me from being interested, to fanatical. Despite this I have refrained from requesting any Countdowns at all because I could see there were others who had been rallying the RAGE team for specific episodes for some time...and I went in batting for them as well. It became apparent pretty quickly that the more requests an episode got the more likely it would be shown, which made sense, so I was happy to support others requests. I was thrilled with ANY 70s & early 80s eps, so I was happy just to see what was delivered. The only thing I've really "requested"...or comments I made which resulted in something happening on RAGE was my disgust at Christie Allen's passing not being acknowledged. I wrote a measured but empassioned post on the RAGE boards, which was given much support by many people (which I was both grateful for and humbled by). Eventually it resulted in the Christie tribute during retro-month the following year. I was very happy and touched by that and I think the RAGE team deserve a LOT of credit for the way they responded to the obvious sense of loss that was expressed when we lost Christie.

Guru Bob I am extremely grateful for your kind offer and your generosity in sharing what you have. I adopt a similar approach with the little I have managed to collect so far (although it is growing and I have many un-catalogued vhs tapes myself from the '80s which have sprinklings of Sounds & Countdown on them). I try to help out when I see someone is looking for something that I have, just as several people have very kindly done for me in the past...it's a nice way to operate and in the end I think it all balances out amongst those who are happy to share.

The 4 Countdowns I've mentioned above that haven't been shown on RAGE are very special to me for various reasons. I hope you can forgive me guru for requesting them over at the RAGE boards. Even though you have kindly offered to copy the ones you have for me, having them with a timecode on them would be very distracting and I wouldn't feel like I could watch them and feel they were a part of my "collection"...I know that sounds odd but I guess we all have our own benchmarks as to what we consider an acceptable level of intrusion. The introduction of the ABC watermark on RAGE is a perfect example of that. Personally, while I'm annoyed by it, I accept that it's now just part of the deal, whereas I know many others are annoyed by it to the point that they would perhaps feel the same way as I would about having a timecode on the screen. This is the first time I will ever have requested any Countdowns on RAGE so I hope that is some consolation and I think I'll be lucky if I get even one of them shown any way.

As for the July 4, 1982 episode...this is very special to me as I was at the taping of it. That one and the end of the decade one with Corey Hart and Berlin, the latter of which I do have a good copy. If you watch the Berlin performance, when Terri Nunn pulls someone up onto the stage during the last moments of the song, that's me ! I'm not fibbing here either. I LOVED Dancing In Berlin and had the 12" single of it with me that day along with some Corey Hart records...I got them all signed. Anyway, during Dancing In Berlin I was going nuts, singing along and jumping up and down and stuff and I could see Terri Nunn had noticed me...which just made me go nuts even more LOL. Then she reached out to me and grabbed my hand and pulled me up on the stage...I just flew up there without even thinking about it and danced with her...it was wild ! After the song ended and Berlin left the stage, as I was making my way back down into the crowd someone from the ABC crew grabbed my arm and pulled me down onto the ground. He was very aggressive and hostile and started screaming at me for getting up on the stage. I was absolutely terrified and yelled back at him that Terri Nunn had reached out to me and pulled me up onto the stage (which she absolutely did). Geez he scared me that guy. Anyway, when I told him she had pulled me up on the stage lots of other kids came to my defense and backed me up saying they'd seen her get me up on the stage, and the guy just backed right off and left me there sprawled on the ground. It was an awful end to what was otherwise an exciting experience. No doubt he was about to kick me out altogether but when he realised what had happened he just left me alone (to be continued)

(continued from previous post...can't believe I exceeded the maximum amount of characters in one message lol)

Another memory I have of Terri Nunn from that day, which just came to me...in the minutes before Berlin performed, when they were on the stage, Terri Nunn was very interactive with the crowd, signing records and stuff. One young girl was obviously a huge fan and started crying when Terri Nunn walked out. Terri walked straight to her, knelt down and they had a little chat...this girl was obviously a big fan because she had heaps of Berlin records. At one point Terri put her arms around this girl and just cuddled her, then pulled back a little while still holding her and continued to talk. Geez that's a nice memory...even 26 years later it gives me goosebumps the way Terri Nunn was so warm and attentive to that girl...just beautiful, what a gorgeous woman Terri was that day. I wonder if Madonna has EVER been that warm to a fan...hmmmm. Anyway I digress...I've sent Jason some photos I took in the studio that day too which are on his website :)

I don't have a complete copy of the July 4 1982 episode, just the Bucks Fizz songs from vh1. I was also at the taping of an episode that had Shakin' Stevens in the studio too. I only went to the taping of 3 ep's (I so wish I had gone to more). I wonder, has the Shakin' Stevens ep also been shown on RAGE ?

Guru Bob how do i get an email to you ? Can't see an email link at the bottom of your post...mine is there.

Cheers,
Luke

just read back through my previous message and I've got myself confused with a couple of things. I meant the 10th Anniversary show with Terri Nunn & Corey Hart of course (not the end of the decade show). Also, I meant I started reading & participating in the RAGE forums in mid 2008, not mid 2009. Just to clarify...I was typing that up at a million miles an hour while I was on my lunch break at work !