Surprised there isn't a thread about this? Well besides the arena spectacular that happened the other year.
Mr Mathieson has written a opinion piece on its importance in the age today. which seems to have come from nowhere, but its a good read.
So lets talk countdown, or that article, even if you've only seen it on rage during summer (which is coming up soon as well)
Gavin Wood was irritating
The Cure replace their strings with twine
Phil Oakey broke up laughing and forgot to lipsync
We were also excited when The Go-Betwens did Cattle And Cane
Uncanny X-Men should never have been on
Pseudo Echo were the first unsigned act to appear
The Countdown Council was rubbish
My first encounters with the Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop, The Clash, The Ramones and The Scientists were on Countdown. Everyone remembers the crap, but there was, paradoxically, a reasonable amount of good stuff in the mix.
will anyone at the major networks or even abc be brave enough & find the finances to attemp something like this again? its got to be a more legit way to break artists than ''idol''
read it this morning. this para I found a bit 'funny'
countdown was 'hokey'. it traded on being 'hokey' having said that it was an 'outlet' for musicians but it was pretty silly really...cold chisel were good on countdown. I liked brown hornet man's show better. I liked it cos the bands were cooler and they rocked and it wasn't 'hokey' it was just a music show with some funny shit and some crap, but I think Dylan did a good job.
Just start a new music show on abc..big deal, with the economic downturn there will be a new one cos music always gets popular when people have no money.
I also watched 'sounds' as a kid. some chats remember 'sounds'..
Not completely from nowhere, there's a new stage musical comedy starring Brian Mannix's daughter opening soon based on Countdown
there was a ''countdown'' on pay tv recently - dunno if it was a one off or a return series, but it had the models and the angels semi live (yes semi as they all looked dead)
I did a job with Gavin Wood once. It was quite a trip.
Does anyone remember last gasp the ''revamp'' Countdown Revolution? No Molly!
Yes, _v, who can forget Chook?
One of my earliest memories is watching early 80s Countdown with my dad. I hold it (and him) entirely responsible for my love of Icehouse and the Thompson Twins.
The Countdown musical not only features B. Mannix's daughter but is written by him. Sensational.
It is a real shame that there isn't more music TV - whatever hokey form it may take.
It wasn't last gasp, there wasa gap of a few years between the end of original Countdown and CR.
The tania Lacey years were the best of that series.
Yes, although a few minutes in the company of the Channel V presenters makes me feel otherwise.
The original hosts were not particularly exciting, as I recall. Didn't she and Mark Little get sacked cos they complained about the miming? Or am I just making that up?
yeah. SCANDAL!!!
Just a one-off - and a disturbing one at that. It was for the launch of 111 Hits, a new Foxtel station, and was packed full of plugs for the station's shows - Friends, Will and Grace etc...
Controversial! From the Age letters page today:
No cringe here
I'M TIRED of articles claiming to speak for former Countdown fans, using terms like ''fond forgiveness, as if it's something we've all outgrown and can ruefully laugh about'' (Comment & Debate, 17/11).
Keep your cultural cringe to yourself. I loved Countdown, it was a terrific show and I am free from embarrassment in saying so as, I suspect, are most other children of the '70s in Australia. There is nothing to forgive.
Josephine Healy, Spotswood
Peter Wilmoth's book (Glad All Over) contains a great quotation from Deborah Conway about Countdown - something about getting frustrated with the content, Molly's incoherent rambling etc etc, but then sitting down to watch it all over again the next week.
i watched countdown right from the very start and i loved it even when i hated it.
even when you hated nearly everything on it, you'd still get one or two songs that you were interested in.
it was always worth watching.
i saw the boys next door do boots are made for walking; i saw the saints do Stranded; I saw the sex pistols, i saw the jam, the clash, siouxsie, x-ray spex.
You have to watch this. Countdown Revolution - the infamous on-air protest (1990). Did anyone see this when it first aired?
I didn't see it (I think I'd given up on the show by then, even as an eleven-year-old). I'll have to watch this over the weekend at home. But I thoroughly enjoyed watching that hilariously naff intro.
The Scientists were on last week's one. Kim was SO cute!!!
Ha ha! Was that the one when they were on straight after The Aliens Kez? Those guys looked like the biggest new wave bogans next to Kim...
And what about this one?
''Robot, robot, robot, robot..... WIZARDS!''
Why didn't that take off?
ah, Ward 13. What a great band they were....Monty and I had a discussion about them a while back. I don't think he liked 'em...
I'm still hanging out for 'Cicada! eep eep eep Cicada! eep eep eep'. Or did I dream that after a cheese blow-out?
(The Cicada That Ate Five Dock by Outline)
Yeah. It was a hot topic of conversation at school the next day, too.
The camps were divided between those who thought it was fake and those who thought it was awesome and real.
That was great viewing. They showed it last summer I think. I couldn't understand how it was possible for TV to be aired like that and not be cut off or something. Thoroughly entertaining!
countdown sherbet special on rage now.
started with some great 1970's melbourne footage.
how good were the '70s stage clothes?
Umm, not very? Unless you were Les Gock.
Fuck I HATED this music. Fer real.
A piece on the oft-lamented William Shakespeare.
just spooled through some old countdown clips
pure pure gold - when all this stuff is properly turned out of the vaults it will be world-shaking
highlights were kim wilde miming chequered love with a ''band'' of instrument-holding shop window dummies (painted with check patterns!!!)
and an indecently hot puppy-fat era belinda carlisle with the go-gos
Unfortunately a fair bit of it is NOT in the vaults. The ABC must have followed the BBC's Dr Who-eradicating economy drive, reused the tape and taped over a lot of the episodes. Where was the Cultural Heritage overlay?