Well thats it for another year folks, back to sleep for another 11 months. Catch you all next January.

The Summer has proved to be a good one for Countdown, 15 shows shown with only the two ones from the 1970s shown on Rage previously. Also 8 totally new shows for those with the timecoded collection.

And 3 clips from the one remaining unseen 1970s episode with the damaged audio soundtrack (19/03/78).

Tallies of shows shown in the 1980s now as follows

1980 - Rage has screened 28, 17 not shown (with 9 of the 17 in the timecoded collection meaning 8 still unseen since broadcast). There are 2 missing and one show never made due to a strike)

1981 - Rage has screened 25, 19 not shown (with 13 of the 19 in the timecoded collection meaning 6 still unseen since broadcast). Episode 303 was replaced by a standby show due to a strike.

1982 - Rage has screened 29, 23 not shown (with 16 of the 23 in the timecoded collection meaning 7 still unseen since broadcast)

1983 - Rage has screened 22, 22 not shown (with 15 of the 23 in the timecoded collection meaning 8 still unseen since broadcast). One show is missing.

1984 - Rage has screened 35 (the year now by far the most productive for repeats) and 12 are unscreened since broadcast. There is one missing show now recovered in domestic NTSC format.

1985 - Rage has screened 19, 28 not shown (with 3 timecoded ones) meaning 25 have been unseen since original broadcast.

1986 - Rage has screened 14, 35 not shown. There are 2 missing.

1987 - Rage has screened 9, 14 not shown.

223 different Countdowns have now been shown by Rage since the repeats began 21 years ago in January 1993.

It has been a very good month for Countdown, and to a lesser extent Rock Arena which also had a few episodes shown.

Highlights:
13 Countdowns not previously shown on Rage
Rockturnal
3 clips from Adelaide Festival Countdown
3 clips of The Groove
5 Rock Arenas
2 Hitscenes
Johnny Nash GTK clip

Lowlights:
Hockey
common clips both Saturday morning and night
2 repeated Countdowns
repeated Hitscene
July 20 2013 programming slab repeated

The Elton John items (besides clips) had not been seen on Rage before. That was neither a highlight or lowlight, it was just there.

Overall, as a Countdown fan, I have been very happy with Retro.

The hockey was not the fault of those at Rage and the repeated Countdowns feeds the plebs (like Timmy Tiger who made usual uninformed comments on Facebook) who want to keep seeing the same 70's episodes over and over instead of just recording them and watching them whenever they want to or making an effort to track them down.

Not sure if they intended to repeat the Hitscene as they seemed unsure of the actual date themselves so therefore it was only the common clips which could have been replaced with Countdown Revolutions etc.

So overall, could have been better but happy with what we did get.

I have it as 2 shows missing from 1983, being episodes 367 & 368.

Episode 366 - hosted by Globos was shown April 10 1983
Episode 369 - hosted by Eurogliders was shown May 8 1983

The 1982 Countdown Awards were shown on April 17 but were not issued an episode number.

The missing 2 episodes are:
Episode 367 - April 24
Episode 368 - May 1

According to TV Week, they were both 55 minute episodes so they were not a repeat of the Awards.

What information do you have for April 24 and May 1?

Overall, a good rage goes retro season. A lot more Countdown's than I expected and rage did rather well

Countdown Highlights:

* April 20th, 1980 Harry Casey (KC and The Sunshine Band)* DELANEY VENN with "Prisoner" was THE THE THE Highlight studio performance for me and of course
EDITH BLISS with "Heart Of Stone"

* August 26th, 1984 Molly (live from Sydney)... One of my requested episodes
QED - 'This One ' performance!!!

* May 17th, 1981 Ignatius and Joylene (Jimmy and The Boys)
... Best hosting!

*August 5th, 1984 Rodney Rude (For OMD 'Locomotion performance' and RARE Nik Kershaw original video for 'I Won't Le The Sun Go Down On Me'

* Though I have a timer code of July 3rd, 1983 David Sterry and Richard Zatorski (Real Life)... It is one of my very FAV 1983 Countdown episodes ans d it was good to get a clean version :-)

* August 10th, 1980 Kim Hart episode for the Olivia interview, brilliant hosting from Kim and her performance...

* Though I have a timer code copy of March 21st, 1982 Molly interviews Duran Duran, as a Duran lover it was brilliant to get a crisp copy of the interview with nick and Simon :-)

*BRILLIANT White X-Mas performance ONLY on October 12th, 1986

* Dec 16th, 1984 Tina Turner (Another of my Countdown requested episodes, so 2 all up from my list)

* April 22nd, 1984 Limahl, finally seeing Limahl host

* Though I have a timer code of this episode, it's always good to see 1981 Countdown episodes that rage haven't played yet as it's a good episode overall... March 15th, 1981 Jermaine Jackson

* 1978 Adelaide Festical material

* Bob Marley Countdown interview

* ROCK ARENA 3rd July, 1984 was a great episode and SO good to see Suzanne Dowling on her first hosting


* ROCTURNAL was fantastic to see as I never heard about this program and Stiletto was WOW



Low Lights:


HOCKEY interruptions and no extra rage goes retro week (even if it could be 2 hrs next Saturday) to make up for Hockey...

2 repeated 70s episodes, as Guru said, not hard to obtain from others who recorded the 70s Episodes in the 90s as it's a waste of un played 80s Countdown's that still need repeating

Elton John material taking up 50% of rage goes retro 3 when rage could have easily done an Elton Special on his Birthday during the year as a 'Feature Special' like previous artist special rage have done out of January...

Too many music videos on Saturday nights during rage goes retro which takes up time for ABC Music programs!

Too many COMMON as muck music videos, more RARE videos should have been played as January is THE perfect opportunity

25: A HISTORY OF ATLANTIC RECORDS repeat (Didn't keep it either time rage played it but this could have easily been avoided and replaced with more Countdown (etc)

1987 Countdown episode, not great.... Just there



Overall it could have been more dynamic but one of the better rage goes retro season's over the past few years as more Countdown's were screened

AMAZING work Brett regarding all above (Timer code's and the numbers of each year rage have played and have yet to play all in one document) Nice

I thought the first 2 Saturday nights were decent; the 3rd quite poor, and I'm yet to watch all of last night's (though the repeated slab from last July was appalling).

Highlights for me were:

- No watermark in the 4:3 area again, finally
- The Nik Kershaw 'I Won't Let the Sun Go Down On Me' original video
- Flowers 'Can't Help Myself' on Countdown (although maybe that's on their White Heat DVD, as I know it has some TV appearances at the end, and I haven't watched them )
- Kim Hart's hosting skills

I always look forward to the Saturday morning hour slot during retro month, but this year's selections were absolutely abysmal, with the repeated music videos (many from just a few months ago) and common as muck clips. The worst retro Saturday mornings in January in memory by far.

Also, there was no Countdown Revolution or The Factory. Sure, I don't expect them to be a big part of retro month while there are many unaired Countdowns in the vault, but Rage could have easily aired some of this footage instead of the long slabs of common/repeated music videos during Saturday night. Also, there hasn't been any of this stuff now for 2 years. I hope they can air some late 80s/early 90's non-Recovery retro stuff during at least one of the weekends next January.

Nathan, YES!!!! No Watermark on 4.3. A HUGE Highlight of this years rage goes retro, NOT having to see that hideous Watermark on the screen was BLISS!!!! A PURE Highlight!!!!!!!!

Flowers 'Can't Help Myself' on Countdown is on the Flowers DVD Re-issue but was great to see it in it's right 4.3 ratio as it's in 16.90 on the dvd

I forgot about that, that was ridiculous!

the 11pm starts!
Kim hosting
rare vids in the Elton Meldrum Tapes
This One (studio performance)
Show Some Respect (studio performance)
Locomotion (studio performance)
Chartbusters (love 'em every year)
Dancing with tears in my eyes vid
Catch my fall vid
Sun go down on me vid
Fade To Grey vid - amazing vid and song for it's time
For all the tea in china vid

I finished watching the 1984 episodes today, which were great. I loved Tina's 'What's equity got to do with it' improv

Reviving Brett's thread from last year and updating information.

Highlights include 19 episodes of Countdown (should have been 20 if Sept 21 1986 had been shown) with only one repeat - last year was 15 with 2 repeats over 4 weeks. This includes 12 new ones for those with the timecoded ones as 7 of those were shown but these are fantastic to upgrade at any rate, particularly the Camilleri/Clifton one that had faults.

1980 - 45 episodes exist - Rage has screened 29, 15 not shown (with 8 of the 15 in the timecoded collection meaning 7 still unseen since broadcast). There are 2 missing (ep 240 and 241) and one show never made due to a strike(ep 262).

1981 - 45 episodes exist - Rage has screened 28, 17 not shown (with 10 of the 17 in the timecoded collection meaning 7 still unseen since broadcast). Episode 279 is missing, Episode 303 was replaced by a standby show due to a strike and Ep 275 was an insert show only due to a strike.

1982 - 52 episodes exist - Rage has screened 32, 20 not shown (with 13 of the 20 in the timecoded collection meaning 7 still unseen since broadcast)

1983 - 42 episodes exist (+2 standby programs) - Rage has screened 23, 19 not shown (with 13 of the 19 in the timecoded collection meaning 6 still unseen since broadcast). Episodes 367 and 368 missing.

1984 - 45 episodes exist (+ 2 specials on Boy George and U2) - Rage has screened 36 and 9 are unscreened since broadcast. Thriller Dance comp Sept 2 only exists in off air recording now recovered in domestic NTSC format.

1985 - 47 episodes exist - Rage has screened 23, 24 not shown (with 3 timecoded ones meaning 21 have been unseen since original broadcast).

1986 - 50 episodes exist - Rage has screened 16, 34 not shown. There is one missing episode (515) and episode 520 was not shown due to Commonwealth Games.

1987 - 24 episodes exist - Rage has screened 13, 11 not shown.

From the 1980's Rage have now screened 200 different Countdowns and still have another 150 in their archives that have yet to be shown since original transmission.

All 45 surviving 1970's episodes that exist in broadcast quality have been screened meaning that 245 different Countdowns have now been shown by Rage since the repeats began 22 years ago in January 1993.

Next year there are another 5 Saturdays so we can hope that they play around 20 of those 150 episodes.

Thanks for the updated summary, Guru.

So if things continue as they currently are with retro month (with regard to the approximate average of about 15 new episodes shown each year), they might get through the rest in another 10 years (provided no repeats)? Though, if retro month continues after that, there's still a truckload of The Factory and Countdown Revolution episodes to get through.

5 weeks again next year, but the leap day means there won't be 5 in 2017. I remember posting a projection into how many weeks of retro months there'll be for the next 10 years or thereabouts last year

Hey Guru - do you happen to have any idea on how many Rock Arena & Hitscene episodes there are that Rage haven't shown?

Well done Guru, thanks for the very concise and excellent update. Taking into account the timecoded material, the other 7 shows from 1980, 81, 82 and the 6 from 1983 that have not been seen since transmission at all are things that eat away at me, as it would be great to be able to complete an entire years Countdown, especially from this period when the show was at its peak. I just hope we dont have to wait at least another 10 years for all that. That "sub-list" from the years 1980 to 1983 only shrunk by one episode this year, the very first one of the Summer with Hall & Oates from 1980. I would not complain about updgrading timecoded material for identical episodes without one as well, and this Summer was a major step forward for that with some really good episodes shown.

I think overall it was a big success, Rage would have been happy with the feedback, everyone was very enthusiastic and talkative (both here and in facebook) and it was another excellent month.

From what Rage has indicated and with Jasons posting in here it looks as if the 1986 show that was missed may well get an airing during the week as well. I will look out for that, but otherwise it is back into hibernation for me for another 11 months - I wish everyone well and catch you all next January!!

Cheers

Regards

Brett

There is an old thread here somewhere where I listed everything that was shown on Rage over the years, it does need updating though. There were 165 Hitscenes made between 1969 and 1972, and up to and including 2012 21 of them had been shown on Rage including 8 on the one night in 2012. I would have to check on 2013 & 2014 but I know this year there were 3, and maybe one or two in 2014 (but none in 2013?)

Gurubob may be able to assist further there - and with Rock Arena as well. I dont collect episodes of the latter show.

The Hitscenes are fairly easy to work out through a process of elimination as we know the full list that they have got and what they have played. There were 165 episodes and a few are missing and they have played 31 episodes so that would leave about 130 still to air.

The ones that have been shown are:
May 24 1969
May 31 1969
July 12 1969
July 26 1969
Aug 2 1969
Aug 16 1969
Sept 13 1969
Sept 20 1969
Nov 8 1969
Dec 6 1969
Dec 13 1969
Dec 20 1969
March 14 1970
March 21 1970
May 2 1970
May 16 1970
May 23 1970
May 30 1970
June 13 1970
July 11 1970
Oct 10 1970
Nov 14 1970
Dec 5 1970
March 20 1971
April 3 1971
April 24 1971
May 8 1971
May 29 1971
July 31 1971
Aug 21 1971
Oct 2 1971

For Rock Arena I have had more difficulty finding information as the ABC have only archived about half of them. I assume that they have all the later episodes from 1984 onwards when the show moved to Melbourne with Glen Shorrock hosting but I think there may be a fair few of the earlier Andrew Peters episodes 1982-83 missing - these were produced in Adelaide.

The ABC have archived 228 episodes, although some are just segment tapes (I contacted them about two years ago to buy their lists) and they must have made about 400 episodes all up so only about half of them are known. On the weekend they showed the May 4 1986 episode (which they advertised as March 4) and I had no information on that episode on either date so there must be many more still in storage.

The Rock Arena episodes that Rage have shown so far are:
Feb 23 1982 Kinks concert from 1979 (2011)
Nov 7 1982 J J Cale segment 25min shown on Rage 2/8/2013
June 7 1983 10CC, Godley & Crème, Split Enz
July 5 1983 Psychedelic Furs, The Jam, Echo & The Bunnymen
July 26 1983 Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, INXS (live)
August 2 1983 Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols, Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow
August 23 1983? Rock ‘n’ Roll Girls – Sharon O’Neill, Divinyls, Marianne Faithful, Grace Jones
September 6 1983 Los Angeles - Little Feat, Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, The Eagles
September 13 1983 Ska - The Specials, Fun Boy Three, The Beat, Madness
September 27 1983 Heavy Metal – AC/DC, Def Leppard, Motorhead, Iron Maiden
November 15 1983 David Bowie special
Dec 27 1983 Some Girls – Kim Wilde, Wendy & The Rocketts, Eurythmics, Pat Benatar (2010)
March 6 1984 Bernie Taupin (2014)
March 27 1984 Midnight Oil, Billy Idol, Euryhtmics, Cold Chisel
April 24 1984 Phil Collins. Mink DeVille (2014)
May 29 1984 Sunnyboys, David Bowie, Human League, Tom Petty
June 26 1984 Lou Reed, Manfred Mann, Bob Dylan (shown Rage 31/1/04)
July 3 1984 Pretenders + various - Suzanne Dowling’s first show (2014)
July 17 1984 Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Stephen Cummings, Style Council, Cold Chisel
September 4 1984 Howard Jones (concert), Cold Chisel, Siouxsie & The Banshees
October 9 1984 The Police, Elvis Costello
October 23 1984 Hunters & Collectors, Grace Jones, The Cars (2014)
November 13 1984 Chaka Khan, Jefferson Starship, UB 40, Kane Gang
December 11 1984 Lou Reed + various (2014)
December 18 1984 Australian clips, Machinations live (2010 + 2015)
January 8 1985 Various acts
January 19 1985 Midnight Oil live on Goat Island – Oils On The Water concert
February 12 1985 Talking Heads
February 19 1985 The Angels, Aswad (live)
May 12 1985 Talking Heads
July 30 1985 Do Re Mi live (2010)
September 3 1985 Eurythmics plus various acts (2011)
November 26 1985 Sade, Ganggajang live in Rock Arena studios (2010)
March 15 1986 Blondie, INXS, Neil Young, PIL, Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop
March 16 1986 Blondie, INXS, Neil Young, PIL, Sex Pistols. Iggy Pop
March 25 1986 Todd Rundgren, Talk Talk, The Cult, Prince, The ****ed
March 29 1986 Eurogliders, Joni Mitchell, B52’s, Simple Minds
May 4 1986 The Church, The Cars, Sade, Mink DeVille (2015)
May 17 1986 Food, Trucks & Rock ‘n’ Roll – Live Aid documentary
July 22 1986 Hunters & Collectors live, Stephen Cummings, Tim Finn (2011)
August 9 1986 Cold Chisel, Violent Femmes, Emmerson Lake and Palmer
October 4 1986 Frankie Goes To Hollywood, John Fogerty, Severed Heads
January 1 1987 Crowded House live performance
January 3 1987 Various acts
February 7 1987 Ed Kuepper, Paul Kelly, Ganggajang, Warumpi Band, Radio Birdman
February 14 1987 Hunters & Collectors, The Angels, Vince Jones
May 30 1987 The Smiths
August 8 1987 Thrashing Doves, New Order, Chris Isaak, The Angels, Iggy Pop
September 5 1987 Marianne Faithful, Robyn Hitchcock, Tom Waits, Kids In The Kitchen
September 8 1987 Go-Betweens live, Machinations, Del Fuegos
December 19 1987 The Smiths, Prince, Not Drowning Waving, Dream Academy (Rage 10/1/04)
January 26 1988 Brisbane Bands – Ed Kuepper/The Saints, Riptides/Ganggajang,Go-Betweens
December 27 1988 Living Colour, Jimi Hendrix documentary
February 16 1988 Bo Deans, Robbie Robertson, Housemartins, Miles Davis (Rage 31/1/2004)

Don't go into hibernation too quickly, there may be some rare Moir Sisters clips next week which could include GTK not shown before which may be of interest to you.

Thanks for the info Guru - much appreciated.Throw in all the hundreds of Flashez segments and Countdown Revolution episodes & it looks like there's plenty in the vaults for future retro nights.

and 'Antenna'.