On a positive note glad that they played a "Countdown" with James Freud as guest host and some clips. Know it isn't everybody's cup of tea here though I did really enjoy seeing the "Dig We Must" show with "Ronnie Burns", "The Creations", "The Rondells" & "Bev Harrell" as have been waiting for the Bev Harrell clip to resurface. Great surprise to finally see the "Renee Geyer" performance of "It's A Man's Man's World" from the National Industry Awards" night in 1975. Had not seen the full clip in a very long time. I had part of it from an ep "Talking Heads" on Renee a couple of years back. Hope to see more classic rare clips like those and more "Countdown" of course as long as they are fresh shows that have not been aired since they first went to air at the time.

The James Freud ep was a good one. James seemed younger than he was and very polite and sweet.

I know it has been 15 years or so since the 10th anniversary show was aired (1996 according to my records) but with all those eps yet to be repeated surely there was something better to show?

I sometimes think in these 5 week retro months the countdown content tends to be a bit 'stretched'. Even so I wonder if we will get any more than 9-12 countdowns and some already shown?

I think Countdown eps will be few and far between from now on. Notice how the rage website now displays the 'rage goes retro' banner, rather than the Countdown logo/banner that was shown prior to this year and for many years prior?...Narelle, please come back!

Yes,

I thought the same!

rage even last year showed the Countdown banner!

I used to love how it wasn't called "rage retro" and it was just COUNTDOWN and then COUNTDOWN/ROCK ARENA!

I was thinking the same the other day wondering where oin earth the Countdown Banner was???

Yes, that Narelle was all behind the good stuff I think :-(

I am SO hoping for a SERIOUSLY good "retro 2" next weekend. I watched it all back again today after watching live last night and it seemed so short!

I feel like it isn't even January, do others feel the same?

It's seriously depressing!... Here's crossing fingers :-)

Kyron
I would be totally surprised if we got as many as 9-12 Countdowns, it normally went down hill after week one and we already seem to be in a valley. It would be great if we got that many but I suspect 3 hour episodes of Recovery would destroy any chance of that.

I am hoping for just one episode that I actually suggested. As Brett and Patrick also listed some of the same episodes there may be a slim hope, but Rage seem to go off on their own tangent and repeat episodes no one asked for.

I would have to rate their programming in general for variety as an "A" as they covered a bit of everything (Roy Orbison?? I have never seen anyone ever mention him on the forum - any fans of Roy would have missed it anyhow as they wouldn't have expected it) and the neutral occasional viewer would probably found something of interest. Repeating of Countdown is unforgivable, when I had even posted a list for them just last year, and the Media Hub problems just shouldn't occur, which drags it down to about a "C". All the footage was in the old format size so why would it adjust part way through a Countdown? Watermarks and overuse of the Rage logo on Countdown subtract further.

I suspect next week will be Recovery, Hitscene and a Boney M tribute for Bobby Farrell. Just pray for one decent Countdown that has no ratio faults.

As I am not into 70's concerts from overseas artists, neither Rolling Stones or Kinks were of much interest, although I believe that is the 1st ever episode of Rock Arena - correct me if I am wrong on that - but I didn't recall seeing the intro titles, did they lop that off, I hate it when they butcher episodes.

I am not a fan of Orbison or 10:30 Slot either, although at least 10:30 Slot had a lot of variety on it, just the wrong era for my taste. Dig We Must was interesting to see but not something I was keen for and I had copies of both Countdowns. So in the end there were about 3 clips...a very depressing start to retro, so personally for me I would rate it an "E".

Therefore I would be extremely happy if we did fluke 9-12 Countdowns.

@ Guru,

I TOTALLY 100% agree with the overall scoring would be an E for me as well.

There was NO any type on continuity at all!

Even the fact that rage played Modern Girl performance again!... Though better as it didn't have the Countdown date on it AND "Out Of Mind Out Of Sight" and "One Fine Day" when rage played them on the James Freud special!

The 4.3 to 16.9 on the REPEATED 10th Anniversary was POOR and that should NEVEr have happened. The Kinks on Rock Arena was plain un watchable and I tuned off! ... With Rock Arena I think various bands and artists programs are ALWAYS the best as there is something for everybody. Who on earth was the host at the end of Rock Arena???? ... Dear me!!!

The 60's thing was interesting as far as archival material but like you Guru NOT my cup of tea and 10:30 Slot is the 90s which is just NOT my decade.


I HOPE so much that the next few weeks we get more colour and more continuity as I said.

I dearly hope for another 10 Episodes of NON repeated 80s Countdown episodes HOPEFULLY from 1981 to 1985 :-)

Jason
I had no idea who the George Negus looking character at the end of Rock Arena was either. It would have probably been mentioned at the start but they edited that out for some reason.

I checked wikipedia under Australian TV music shows and there was very little information there, so I checked my old TV Weeks and for the first few months of Rock Arena in 1982 it mentions that Peter Holland was the host, so I guess it was him. Peter was on WA TV a lot so I am not sure if Rock Arena may have actually started in WA. It was filmed in South Australia by mid 1982 to 1983 when Andrew Peters hosted it.

When the filming moved to Melbourne Glenn Shorrock took over in 1984. Rock Arena then moved up a notch and became far more interesting once Suzanne Dowling took over in July 1984.

I ended up updating a lot of info on the wikipedia site, including Rock Arena, as they had no mention of quite a few other 1980's music shows. I added Countdown Friday and Countdown Flipside as they were spin off shows and not actually repeats of Countdown. They even had a different host in John Peters. Also added Wrok, Take 5, Trax, Music Express, Continental Drift, Freeze Frame, Antenna and Rockit as none of those were even mentioned. I should go through my episodes of Night Shift to find out who the hosts were.

Bob,


In terms of the number of Countdown repeats, 2009 retro season went 5, 4, 3, 1, 4 & 2010 went 2, 2, 3, 3, 2. which to me suggests that repeats levels on a week by week level are random but as a proportion of the entire retro content over a typical January, they are certainly declining in size.

Still, it looks as if by the end of week 2 we already have 6 eps of Countdown (which includes 2 repeats) with 3 weeks to go. Even if we only get one per week we are going to make 9 eps which is exactly what I predicted (9-12 - approximating last years quota). It's nowhere near 1990s levels of repeats but I suppose its better than nothing.

Do you think since the introduction of Foxtel and dedicated 80's music on Pay TV, that could be the decline in screenings of Countdown/80's these days? When you look at it, Countdown/80's was on rage all the time in the 90's because hardly anyone had Pay TV and commercial TV was their only source of this content. Looking at MTV Classic's programming this afternoon, they have 1 hour dedicated shows to 'This was 1981', 'This was 1983' and 'This was 1985' etc. So maybe the rage team think that those '80's freaks' can get their fix on Pay TV (and I know there are people here that don't have it and still very much rely solely on rage for their fix). I'm not justifying this at all and the 80's music on Foxtel is the same old stuff flogged to death. There maybe one rare video, but I'm not watching for an hour to get 4 minutes enjoyment! At times, they also play songs that weren't even released in that year - lazy researchers.

Getting off the topic a bit, TOTP 80's episode is being repeated again tonight around 7 on MTV Classic, which used to be VH1.

That's certainly a strong possiblity!