That's a segment from Countdown, the Australian popular music show hosted by Molly Meldrum. He was a rank amateur who's enthusiasm carried him to success and really brought rock music to the dusty corners of Australia. It was filmed live and there were some infamous moments (you can also search YouTube for his interview with Prince Charles that was amazingly painful). Anyway, on the 100th episode celebration, Molly was "tired and emotional":
I think I remember someone in the Hoodoo Gurus talking about them; back in the day they weren't something you could just go down to the record store and get. I have an Australian compilation somewhere, or used to, that had a Skyhooks track on it. I don't remember what song or if I even liked it.
That's a segment from Countdown, the Australian popular music show hosted by Molly Meldrum. He was a rank amateur who's enthusiasm carried him to success and really brought rock music to the dusty corners of Australia. It was filmed live and there were some infamous moments (you can also search YouTube for his interview with Prince Charles that was amazingly painful). Anyway, on the 100th episode celebration, Molly was "tired and emotional":
This was the record I was thinking of - it was a British import on Vertigo, which was connected with Mercury/Phonogram. Certainly an odd collection of artists:
N E W W A V E lol
Funny that I'd be looking up Little Bob Story at the same time as Plastic Bertrand is playing on RP... they're Fronch, from le Havre.
Well that sent me down a shameful rabbit hole. I have no idea where I heard the band, then, because the compilation I was thinking of was not Mercury; that much I knew. I did know that I bought it out of a bin of "Australia" imports at a shop on Haight St., and that's where my original idea that Wire were an Australian band came from (long since corrected, but it left a mark). So looking up "Dot Dash" on discogs, I found it was this compilation, with the Saints leading off the tracks so that's where the Aussie connection comes in. But the LP is on Harvest, and was a New Zealand promo. Close enough for the 80s, I guess.
This was the record I was thinking of - it was a British import on Vertigo, which was connected with Mercury/Phonogram. Certainly an odd collection of artists:
I had their second album - it was a promo copy with a press kit that I got in one of the quirky, little record shops in Greenwich Village - I never saw their stuff in "regular" record stores. They were on Mercury in the US - that label was notorious for not promoting their acts (i.e. Graham Parker). I also had a compilation album (Mercury) with a song of theirs before then. It was mostly sort of gimmicky, glam stuff with a lot of awkward tempo changes and multiple "sections" - which seemed to be a thing for a lot of bands like Styx and Kansas, etc. in the mid-1970s before punk and new wave came along. I remember one of the guys from INXS talking about their influence some time back in the mid-'80s.
Well that sent me down a shameful rabbit hole. I have no idea where I heard the band, then, because the compilation I was thinking of was not Mercury; that much I knew. I did know that I bought it out of a bin of "Australia" imports at a shop on Haight St., and that's where my original idea that Wire were an Australian band came from (long since corrected, but it left a mark). So looking up "Dot Dash" on discogs, I found it was this compilation, with the Saints leading off the tracks so that's where the Aussie connection comes in. But the LP is on Harvest, and was a New Zealand promo. Close enough for the 80s, I guess.
I think I remember someone in the Hoodoo Gurus talking about them; back in the day they weren't something you could just go down to the record store and get. I have an Australian compilation somewhere, or used to, that had a Skyhooks track on it. I don't remember what song or if I even liked it.
I had their second album - it was a promo copy with a press kit that I got in one of the quirky, little record shops in Greenwich Village - I never saw their stuff in "regular" record stores. They were on Mercury in the US - that label was notorious for not promoting their acts (i.e. Graham Parker). I also had a compilation album (Mercury) with a song of theirs before then. It was mostly sort of gimmicky, glam stuff with a lot of awkward tempo changes and multiple "sections" - which seemed to be a thing for a lot of bands like Styx and Kansas, etc. in the mid-1970s before punk and new wave came along. I remember one of the guys from INXS talking about their influence some time back in the mid-'80s.
Another band who had a major influence on Oz music during the 80's was Mondo Rock.
This song was underplayed by radio at the time due to it's salacious lyrics.
I think I remember someone in the Hoodoo Gurus talking about them; back in the day they weren't something you could just go down to the record store and get. I have an Australian compilation somewhere, or used to, that had a Skyhooks track on it. I don't remember what song or if I even liked it.
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