Post by Troy Walters on Nov 11, 2003 1:59:50 GMT
Hi all. Whilst this site is dedicated to British shows, I'd thought I'd add something about Australian shows anyway seeing we're in the same vote when it comes to missing shows.
Anyhow I myself am an Aussie whom collects vintage video equipment and old tapes hoping to find long lost episodes of the Australian pop music show "Countdown".
Countdown is an Australian version of Top Of The Pops but with a few differences. Countdown has various segments such as "Chartbusters", "National Top 10", "Humdrum" which Molly Meldrum highlights the news on artists/songs showing excerpts and records, plus a number of other segments. Countdown has a mixture of studio performances and music videos sometimes. Countdown is usually hosted by guest artists whom appear on the show. The audience is made up (especially in the early days) of teenage girls and when male artists such as John Paul Young, Sherbet, AC/DC, Hush, Skyhooks, Ray Burgess, Stevie Wright etc. appear on the show the girls really misbehave and often jump up and grab the lead singer for example when AC/DC performed "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" on Countdown in late 1976 one of the girls jump onto Bon Scott and Bon got his lyrics mixed up hehehe. Countdown was a wild show which many of the standard behaviour rules were purposely broken. Countdown ran from late 1974 to about early/mid 1987, it didn't survive like Top Of The Pops because in the mid/late 80s Countdown showed more music videos than studio performances and Rage and Video Hits came out which I assume made Countdown redundant which caused the show to be axed.
Anyhow my favourite era of Countdown is from 1974 to 1976 because of the glam fashion and hard Aussie rock with legends such as AC/DC, Hush, Skyhooks, Sherbet, Stevie Wright, Ray Burgess just to name a few. AC/DC made many appearences on Countdown during 1974, 1975 and 1976 before becoming successful overseas as they are an Australian band and were local to the Countdown studio in Melbourne.
Sadly in the late 1970s and early 1980s 90% of the Countdown episodes from 1974 to 1978 were wiped from ABC archives to save money by overwriting the tapes with other shows, also half the 1979 episodes were gone too. So I'm looking at early domestic and semi-professional videos of the 1970s such as Philips VCR cassettes, National colour cartridges, 1/4" and 1/2" reel-reel, Umatic and a few other formats hoping to find Countdown episodes on them. So far some lost footage has been found. I've received a VHS copy of some Countdown bits from November 1975 recorded on B&W 1/2" reel-reel VTR which Molly Meldrum was introducing some Wings clips and interview. Also a couple of years ago I got a VHS copy of a 1978 Countdown episode which at the time I thought it was taped from the Rage January repeats but found out that it's a missing episode, unfortunately my copy is a 5th or 6th generation copy. Anyhow I'm really stoked that I've had some success in this Countdown hunt and hope to find more episodes or clips in the near future.
I've put up a website about my Countdown hunt, it's at balder.prohosting.com/funkydud/ . There you'll see all the details about Countdown including some video snaps and photos including the 1974/75 Countdown logo. I've put up the details of exactly what early episodes are left at ABC archives which there aren't many and am trying to build up an episode guide of all the episodes (both existing and non-existing) too. I've also featured my old video equipment which includes a 1967 Sony CV-2100CE reel-reel VTR, a few Philips VCR machines including a N1500, plus other gear I've acquired over the past year and a half.
Anyhow if there's a remote chance anyone here might have or know of some early Countdown footage please contact me at ac_dc_rocks_1998@yahoo.com or ac_dc_rocks@hotmail.com .
Cheers
Troy
Anyhow I myself am an Aussie whom collects vintage video equipment and old tapes hoping to find long lost episodes of the Australian pop music show "Countdown".
Countdown is an Australian version of Top Of The Pops but with a few differences. Countdown has various segments such as "Chartbusters", "National Top 10", "Humdrum" which Molly Meldrum highlights the news on artists/songs showing excerpts and records, plus a number of other segments. Countdown has a mixture of studio performances and music videos sometimes. Countdown is usually hosted by guest artists whom appear on the show. The audience is made up (especially in the early days) of teenage girls and when male artists such as John Paul Young, Sherbet, AC/DC, Hush, Skyhooks, Ray Burgess, Stevie Wright etc. appear on the show the girls really misbehave and often jump up and grab the lead singer for example when AC/DC performed "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" on Countdown in late 1976 one of the girls jump onto Bon Scott and Bon got his lyrics mixed up hehehe. Countdown was a wild show which many of the standard behaviour rules were purposely broken. Countdown ran from late 1974 to about early/mid 1987, it didn't survive like Top Of The Pops because in the mid/late 80s Countdown showed more music videos than studio performances and Rage and Video Hits came out which I assume made Countdown redundant which caused the show to be axed.
Anyhow my favourite era of Countdown is from 1974 to 1976 because of the glam fashion and hard Aussie rock with legends such as AC/DC, Hush, Skyhooks, Sherbet, Stevie Wright, Ray Burgess just to name a few. AC/DC made many appearences on Countdown during 1974, 1975 and 1976 before becoming successful overseas as they are an Australian band and were local to the Countdown studio in Melbourne.
Sadly in the late 1970s and early 1980s 90% of the Countdown episodes from 1974 to 1978 were wiped from ABC archives to save money by overwriting the tapes with other shows, also half the 1979 episodes were gone too. So I'm looking at early domestic and semi-professional videos of the 1970s such as Philips VCR cassettes, National colour cartridges, 1/4" and 1/2" reel-reel, Umatic and a few other formats hoping to find Countdown episodes on them. So far some lost footage has been found. I've received a VHS copy of some Countdown bits from November 1975 recorded on B&W 1/2" reel-reel VTR which Molly Meldrum was introducing some Wings clips and interview. Also a couple of years ago I got a VHS copy of a 1978 Countdown episode which at the time I thought it was taped from the Rage January repeats but found out that it's a missing episode, unfortunately my copy is a 5th or 6th generation copy. Anyhow I'm really stoked that I've had some success in this Countdown hunt and hope to find more episodes or clips in the near future.
I've put up a website about my Countdown hunt, it's at balder.prohosting.com/funkydud/ . There you'll see all the details about Countdown including some video snaps and photos including the 1974/75 Countdown logo. I've put up the details of exactly what early episodes are left at ABC archives which there aren't many and am trying to build up an episode guide of all the episodes (both existing and non-existing) too. I've also featured my old video equipment which includes a 1967 Sony CV-2100CE reel-reel VTR, a few Philips VCR machines including a N1500, plus other gear I've acquired over the past year and a half.
Anyhow if there's a remote chance anyone here might have or know of some early Countdown footage please contact me at ac_dc_rocks_1998@yahoo.com or ac_dc_rocks@hotmail.com .
Cheers
Troy
. Unfortunately I've heard more sad cases like this too, someone whom I do video trades with said that his mate had a Philips VCR in the 1970s and taped Countdown but he threw his VCR and tapes out years ago 