Check this post out on the rage forum this morning:

Author Maz
Date/Time 21 Jan 2011 1:55:58am
Subject Egad sounds like mor boring eps in store this week:
Many Many time we have requested the 70s eps. Why so many 80s eps? I am so over these. Please play more 70s.


So interesting as most of us are so ECSTATIC about how FABULOUS the Countdown's are this weekend. FINALLY some 80s MAGIC :-) :-) *** Yet this guy above ain't to pleased.

It's interesting as I think rage have covered the 70s rather a lot this year! We have had 2 70s repeats PLUS the James Reyne hosted episode with all the same performances we have seen a trillion times from the 70s. What do people NOT get about how most 70s ones were destroyed and rage have played ALL the 70s there is to play!

Speaking of 70s... what happened to rage playing any "Flashez"? ...

Yes I've wondered about Flashez as well. If only those hadn't been wiped maybe an ep of that could have been included in a Sherbet special. It's times like these I curse the ABC Management of 1980/81 !

Rage do seem to be making this Retro season on the hop this year - it's been very unpredictable what they've been going to show - to the extent that what their previews released on Wednesday suddenly get changed in the days following.

As for that 70's person - did they not see the whole 90 minute End of Decade special last weekend devoted to - guess what? - the 70s?? Plus it was a 4th repeat at that! Not to mention the Marc Hunter ep and the 10th Anniversary special which had many clips from the 70's in it.

I think the ratio of 70s/80s era shows this season has been about down the middle really - a pretty fair mix - but then again you can please some people sometimes but not all people all the time, as the saying goes....

Yes, my jaw dropped reading that post on the Rage forum. My guess is that it's by someone who a) watches Rage retro month casually, thus missing a lot of 70s repeats/when they were originally aired, and b) also reads the Rage forum casually (if at all prior to making that post).

Sadly, I can see Rage pandering to this person, and showing yet more 70s repeats in future

Same with RETRO MAN posting '80s 80s 80s' and 'where are the 70s?' Music videos were in their infancy back then, and Rage can't magically create music videos that don't exist.

If these people had watched Rage regularly they would have seen every Countdown episode surviving from the 70's plus 23 repeats.

I can understand it though if they want more Hitscene, Flashez and GTK as that has been neglected. I would rather have seen those than Rolling Stones or Kinks concerts or the 3 repeated episodes. Could have had a lot of interesting 70's material.

And the thing that amazes me most of all was that posting of Mr Retro Man requesting clips for all those 70’s songs and then having the gall to ask me how do I know they are not in the Rage library?. At least half of those songs I can only wish I had in my own video clip library of 45,000 songs - ha ha - , whilst most of the others only exist as performances in overseas music shows which Rage would not be able to show even if they could!!

Being a 70’s afficiando myself, I agree that more GTK and Hitscene should probably be shown (they are only short shows anyway and would hardly encroach on Countdown) and the remaining Flashez shows should definitely be shown!!

Looks like you had a similar problem with Retro Man that I did. He just decides what he wants to see and says play it, doesn't matter if it doesn't actually exist. If only it were that easy to make material available. I guess he will learn the hard way of what is no longer - or never has been - available, at least until he does some research.

At the moment he is getting narky because Rage aren't playing something they haven't got. I could again try to explain but you can't legislate against stupidity and I don't want to fire him up again.

Choosing clips is not like buying records. All that stuff exists on vinyl, it doesn't mean it exists on film unfortunately as I would like to see that as well.

What a classic.

You guys are funny he actually has a lot of common sense in his new posting

Jimmy - I tried to list which of Retro Mans large song list the Rage library is likely to have and which they are not but my posting didn't get past the Rage guestbook moderators by the look of it. It was a long posting so it may have exceeded their character limits.

I am a big 70's fan myself Jimmy with the biggest collection of clips from the 60's and 70's of probably anyone in the known universe so I am well qualified to make comment. Rage has its own "Red Book" which is the "library" the guest programmers get to view when choosing their song line-ups. The ABC archives has a much greater selection of music clips again, but not all is in transmission format, so some conversions have to take place before the material even gets shown on Rage.

There is at most 3 to 4 songs in that list from the 70's that Retroman posted that the Rage library even have the remotest possibilty of having. I personally hope they do show those this week.

I am a massive 60s and 70s fan Jimmy - I personally prefer that era to the 80's. There is no Boys Club in here mate - just a lot of passionate Countdown fans whose personal taste is more 80's than 70's for many of the posters. Everyone is different in here mate - me and Gurubob love our sport, in particular football - but Jason who runs the forums here - despises it - we don't argue about it - we just make comments and have gentle digs at each other and move on. No-one gets nasty about it.

Many posters (including Gurubob) also have an appreciation of older music - and you can read the forums and see evidence of this - and that is why the discussions are always interesting in here. We often agree to disagree about things. That is what forums are about. I loved the 1960 episode of Six Oclock they showed on Saturday night as well - and many in here probably hated it. That is their right just as it is my right to love it!!

It may look like an "exclusive" club from an outsiders viewpoint, and some of us long term posters in here may get frustrated if someone demonstrates a lack of knowledge both here and in the Rage guestbook - but believe me - that is not the case at all.

I must admit I did not like Retromans response to my posting but as I came across as a bit of a "smart-arse" in my first response (which I definitely am not) I can understand his frustrations a bit.

If Retromans listing has the intention of giving the Rage team some song ideas that is great, but don't be disappointed if they cannot come up with the goods as I mentioned in the Rage guestbook.

I am also a great fan of Hitscene mate - as Gurubob said - I wish they would play more. I have made many arguments over the years in the Rage guestbook along those lines. We definitely do not get anywwhere near enough of that show or GTK.

As explained elsewhere, the vast majority of 1970's Countdownw were wiped in the early 1980''s. It is a tragedy - everyone agrees with that sentiment. This is the reason more 80's episodes are shown than 1970's. It is that simple.

Brett a man with commonsense

I would not mind requesting some 70's songs on rage myself but did not want to get hassled about my choices.

So can you help me out with some music clips Brett?

You gotta get Mr RETRO a nice response mate explain you sent a list but they did not publish it.

Look I would request lots like he did even the same songs plus more so there's plenty of 70's fans out here mate

There is no harm in posting any list of requests to the Rage guestbook. Just don't exceed their character limts (must be about 3000 words or something) And who knows - as Retroman has posted the same list about 3 times now, they just may pluck a few clips out of there - persistence sometimes pays off.

It will be a bit hard to send you my complete database (as it is on Excel and not compiled by me in the first place - I never would have had time - a friend compiled it) but if there are any songs in particular you do want I will see if I have them. There is also thousands of clips on videotapes I still need to convert to DVD and catalogue - I am miles behind in copying videos and discs at the moment so it may take time.

As I said earlier - there are many passionate Countdown fans in here - as they are mostly younger in age than me their priority lies in 80's episodes. Don't get me wrong - I love that era heaps, but as I was a teenager in the 70's I can identify with that era a bit more. The people in here are mostly a great bunch of blokes - believe me - the passion spills over a lot. Nothing wrong with that.

Brett leave your email details please so I can contact you about it

Thanks