Countdown Episodes * 70s & 80s Australian Music Programs * Music Video * Molly Trading * Collecting * Archival Information * Record/CD releases and more .........
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COUNTDOWN IS BACK THIS JANUARY, 2019 ... ON rage !!!!! Stay tuned below with regular Countdown full archival information for each Countdown episode rage shall be airing every Saturday throughout January ...
I'd be okay with late 80's stuff like Countdown Revolution or the Factory but not Recovery blah. Would love more Hitscene and Flashez inserts but that's probably not likely. If we can make it through week 4 with no Recovery or anything Nick Cave related I'll be giving Retro 2021 a gold star
Tune in to the final instalment of Retro Month 2021this Saturday February 27 from 11am, and later that night from 12:20am on ABC TV.
It’s the final week of Retro Month, but before we leave the time machine, we’re bringing you one heck of a show that’s jam packed with a little bit of love for every retro viewer out there.
Suzanne Dowling will be back on your screens this Saturday night to take you back to the 1984 music scene with full episodes of Rock Arena featuring Hoodoo Gurus, The Dugites and more. And yes, Countdown fanatics, we’ve heard your cries and dug even deeper into the vault to drag out some extra dusty tapes just for you. So, do yourself a favour and tune in because we’ll be bringing you rare Countdown episodes from 1982 and 1986 featuring Tim Finn, Dragon, and Elton John.
But we haven't forgotten about you 1990s kids. This Saturday morning, we’ll be turning the clock back 30 years to bring you a collection of 1991 alt/indie music videos from the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, and Nirvana. Then, if you stay up late enough on Saturday night, you might even see some nostalgic 1990s throwbacks that’ll have you longing for the glory days of flannel shirts and combat boots.
So, tune in to the final instalment of Retro Month 2021 this Saturday February 27 from 11am, and later that night from 12:20am on ABC TV.
Hearing the phrase “rare countdowns from 1982 and 1986” is refreshing. I’m hoping that they really did stick to their word and dug deep into the archives.
In hindsight, I don’t believe many episodes from 1986 were aired as of yet... so this could be good :)
I'm looking forward to the 2 Countdowns, of course, but I'm also looking forward to seeing The Dugites on Rock Arena. They were a much underrated band, I think. I don't know why Rage have described that the two shows they're playing are "rare". How are they any more rare than any of the other un-aired shows from their archives?
I'm just happy that they are playing Rock Arena at all considering how few Rage have played in recent years. Throw in Hitscene GTK & Flashez & no Recovery and it's been an awesome month
Well, I sure hope Rage redeem themselves and play plenty of Countdowns next week, because 4 Countdowns is NOT enough in Retro Month. Sadly, my money is on them playing late 80s and 90s rubbish like The Factory, Recovery or Countdown Revolution. They usually do in the last week of Retro Month. I just hope it isn't the last week, and that Rage see sense and add an extra week in March to make up for the lost weekend in January ... and play COUNTDOWN!!!
when the nation's self-proclaimed biggest countdown fan starts requesting rock arenas for retro month then that sends a pretty clear message to the rage team that countdown has lost its appeal. having only a few countdowns per year will be the new normal I think. all those other shows mentioned and also the newer ones like recovery and the factory will get a better look in from now on. a little something for everyone.
SPLIT ENZ Late Last Night (Festival)
COUNTDOWN November 28, 1982 (355: Tim Finn) (ABC)
SPLIT ENZ I Hope I Never (Mushroom)
JEAN MICHEL JARRE Oxygene IV (Polydor)
ROCK ARENA July 10, 1984 (Ep 23: New Order, The Dugites) (ABC)
GARY NUMAN We Are Glass (Warner)
2:30am
ELTON JOHN I'm Still Standing (Polydor)
COUNTDOWN August 10, 1986 (521: I'm Talking, Dragon, Elton John) (ABC)
BOYS DON'T CRY I Wanna Be A Cowboy (Legacy Records)
MIDNIGHT OIL Beds Are Burning (Sony)
ROCK ARENA September 18, 1984 (Ep 33: Hoodoo Gurus, Frankie Goes To Hollywood) (ABC)
HOODOO GURUS What's My Scene (BMG)
SCIENTISTS, THE - LIVE ON COUNTDOWN Last Night (Universal (MCA))
BOYS NEXT DOOR Shivers (Mushroom)
KRAFTWERK The Robots (EMI)
ROXY MUSIC In Every Dream Home A Heartache (Polydor)
5:00am
NIRVANA Smells Like Teen Spirit (Universal (MCA))
SONIC YOUTH Teenage Riot (Universal (MCA))
PJ HARVEY Dress (Shock)
THE PIXIES Alec Eiffel (Mushroom)
THE CLOUDS Hieronymus (Polydor)
SMASHING PUMPKINS Rhinoceros (Virgin)
MY BLOODY VALENTINE Only Shallow (Creation / Shock)
MASSIVE ATTACK Unfinished Sympathy (Virgin)
5:30am
PRIMAL SCREAM Higher Than The Sun (Shock)
BEASTS OF BOURBON Chase The Dragon (Polydor)
BABY ANIMALS Ain't Gonna Get ()
DIED PRETTY DC (Festival)
SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES Kiss Them For Me (Polydor)
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS Give It Away (Warner)
RATCAT Don't Go Now (Warner)
Before you start coming up with so called theories maybe you should come to me directly for my reason for requesting ROCK ARENA.
FIRSTLY: I don't know if you have seen my request list or not? ... There were 11 Countdown's on there, a Meldrum Tapes with Molly Meldrum with Bananarama and Pseudo Echo which is linked to Countdown plus some insert tape interview segments for Countdown interviews with madonna from 1984 for COUNTDOWN. I could have gone further and gone up to 20 COuntdown episode requests but realistically, rage wouldn't play 11 for me so why would I do 20? Even though I wish I could get 20 episodes more ....
SO ... the smart thing to do to stay in the Early to mid 80s is to request some Rock Arena's as well * Get it?
I have never had a problem with Rock Arena (up to a point and I also recorded from Rock Arena in the 80s as well as Countdown, The Noise, SOUNDS, Between The Teeth.
* NOW *
The reason why I requested some Rock Arena's is because I know they like to venture out of Countdown every few years ... SO ... In requesting ROCK ARENA ... the years of ROCK ARENA are generally in the same era of 80s Countdown. 1982 - 1987...
IN THIS: This means that least Rock Arena was still part of THE GOLDEN era and I get to add to my collection, some things like the Japan/David Sylvian special and The Dugites special. Those artists and bands were all featured in my favourite Countdown era but were NOT on The Factory, so they are still at least in twine with the Countdown era I love of 1979 to 1986.May I add, Countdown and Rock Arena worked with each other and advertised each other and Rock Arena had some of the Countdown people working on the Rock Arena. Countdown even featured Andrew Peters on a Countdown episode as they did Suzanne Dowling on a few episodes as well as the Countdown Awards ceremonies.
The Factory wasn't an exclusive MUSIC PROGRAM. One had to sit through endless hours of Tanya Lacey being a fool and having segments on pieces that had nothing to do with music and it went for a ghastly 3 hours.
May I add, I prefer Rock Arena up to 1986 the latest and the same applies for COUNTDOWN. After 1986, the 80s went to h e l l in general.
I'm looking forward to the 1982 Countdown with Tim Finn. For me, the early 1980s Countdown was far better than the later 80s. Perhaps more was put into the music, rather than into the film clip which has certainly gotten out of hand today. So the 1986 episode with I'm Talking, Dragon and Elton John will still be good, don't get me wrong, but I just don't enjoy them quite as much. It's good to fill the gaps with unseen shows.
The 1984 Rock Arena with Dugites should be good. However, they aren't playing Juno & Me, which is from 1984. I have a feeling that Rage don't have it in their archives.
The singles in between Countdown and Rock Arena are ones which have aired plenty of times before, with the exception of Split Enz - Last Last Night. At least, I've never seen it.
rage did play a mini special on The Dugites on a VAULT in 2018 on a Monday night with some of their RARE videos and rage also played No Money recorded in the Countdown studio on one of their 1983 VAULT specials.
They never included Juno and Me, so maybe they don't have access to the video :-(
Lucky we at least have a copy from the 1984 Countdown episode as I LOVE that video :-)
I'm looking forward to the 1982 Countdown with Tim Finn. For me, the early 1980s Countdown was far better than the later 80s. Perhaps more was put into the music, rather than into the film clip which has certainly gotten out of hand today. So the 1986 episode with I'm Talking, Dragon and Elton John will still be good, don't get me wrong, but I just don't enjoy them quite as much. It's good to fill the gaps with unseen shows.
The 1984 Rock Arena with Dugites should be good. However, they aren't playing Juno & Me, which is from 1984. I have a feeling that Rage don't have it in their archives.
The singles in between Countdown and Rock Arena are ones which have aired plenty of times before, with the exception of Split Enz - Last Last Night. At least, I've never seen it.
1982 is a great year but I also enjoy the 1986 episodes, in fact I think I'm in a very small minority of Countdown fans who likes every year from 1974 - 1986. 1987 is not great obviously but I can sometimes still find stuff to like in the video clips
So, that's it for 2021 - six Countdowns in total. Not exactly the best year for Retro Month. I did enjoy watching all the early 80s Countdowns. I prefer them to later 80s. There were not many 'new' or rare videos in between Countdowns this year either. Hopefully we have some good VAULTs coming up this year. Oh well, two good things to look forward to next year. Firstly, we only have 10 more months to wait until January 2022. Secondly, January 2022 has another 5 weeks of Saturdays.
There were MEGA RARE videos on the 1982 Countdown last night with a different video for Kim Carnes 'Voyeur' which is not the video I know as the other got banned so that was something different as was Perfect Strangers and Big Red.
And on the 1984 Rock Arena with my beloved track and video from Peter Baumann is RAAAARE
A disappointing retro month, yeah. It felt weird being in February too. Usually I'm still very much in holiday mode during retro month. We'll have a big group over for an Australia Day BBQ and I'll have Countdowns on repeat on the TV, which always provides lots of conversation fodder.
Join us for the first instalment of Retro Month, Saturday February 6 from 11am, and later that night from 12:50am on ABC TV.
You’ve been hanging out for it for an entire year, and now, our long-awaited Retro Month is finally here.
We’ve spent countless hours combing through the vault and sifting through your requests to line up a month of unrivalled retro goodness – from vintage music videos, lives performances, rarely seen interviews, full episodes of Countdown, Rock Arena, and GTK, and more old school treats.
And now, we suggest you get your combs on standby, because in week one of Retro Month the hair is going to be as big as the hits. That’s right, we’re taking you back to the 1980s. At 11am we’ll be taking you back exactly 40 years to 1981, before heading even deeper into the hair-raising decade later that night with Countdown episodes featuring Australian Crawl, Dr. Hook and more.
So, clear your schedule, set the VCR to record and join us for the first instalment of Retro Month: Saturday February 6 from 11am, and later that night from 12:50am on ABC TV.
Such a great vintage photo of Dr Hook, immense history. Sigh ... time machine