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Why Countdown wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be

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Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum is unquestionably the single most significant player in contemporary Australian music.

But that’s not who we’re seeing on TV or in his memoir. What we’re getting is another version of the Countdown myth – the idea that a cheesy TV show played a significant part in Australian music.

Meldrum was a journalist, a manager, talent scout, record producer, TV performer and a tireless shill for Australian music at a time when there was no money in it and no one really wanted to know.

Then came Countdown, beamed into a thousand homes at the same time as rock music became a boom industry.

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The ABC and its minions such as Michael Shrimpton (portrayed in turtleneck on Molly) have claimed massive credit for a show that had a negligible impact on Australian music.

Countdown probably did get a million views – but claiming that it changed the culture is like saying that Australian literacy was advanced by Wheel of Fortune.

When Meldrum arrived on the scene managing the Flies in the early ‘60s Australian music was essentially derivative and, with a few notable exceptions, amateurish.

molly meldrum

Meldrum was a memorable face and personality. Photo: ABC

Somewhere in the very early 1970s, Australians began to shuffle off their cultural cringe and write songs that directly referenced Australia.

There was also a one-in-a-lifetime confluence of exceptionally talented live bands – Cold Chisel, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, the Sports, the Angels, Icehouse, Divinyls, Split Enz, Australian Crawl, Midnight Oil, Hoodoo Gurus and fifty others put on shows night after night that would blow your head, as Clint Eastwood might say, clean off.

Australian music was an extreme sport; hundreds of miles travelled in dodgy vans, rivers of beer and the promise of romance or violence was always there.

This golden age was created by the artist’s managers. These were vicious, hard-headed businessmen.

They restructured the music industry so that it was a thriving, heaving, cash-on-the-night circuit playing to hundreds of thousands of kids every week.

Live music moves to the radio waves

midnight oil

Midnight Oil did not owe their success to Countdown, Toby Creswell argues. Photo: AFP

It was radio finally that really broke Australian rock.

Countdown could play Dragon’s ‘April Sun in Cuba’ once a week with a possible repeat. Meanwhile, commercial radio played the song five times a day, seven days a week and then put the band in front of 40,000 people in Victoria Park.

Absolutely none of the rock superstars of the ‘80s owed their success to Countdown. The two monster acts of the era: Midnight Oil and Cold Chisel barely appeared.

Countdown, being a pop show, was keen on bands who were already established.

The format of a shiny-floor TV show is ideal for presenting pop that doesn’t lend itself especially to live performance.

Pseudo Echo were the perfect Countdown band – discovered by Meldrum and signed on his enthusiasm, Pseudo Echo went all the way to the top of the US charts. Countdown gave us Christie Allen and Sharon O’Neil and Air Supply.

The show was a fondue of bubbling cheesy pop and that’s why we loved it.

The man, the myth, the Molly

Ian Meldrum is a lot more intriguing than the Countdown story.

molly series

Australian actor Samuel Johnson plays Molly in the new mini-series. Photo: Twitter

Molly’s impact on Australia goes way beyond Countdown. Inextricably connected to the recording industry, Molly’s opinion could get an act signed or a record prioritised.

It would be fair to say that he is responsible for more hit records than anyone else in the country.

Some of the records he championed like ABBA and Blondie went on to international fame while others like Roger Vodouris, the Members and the Motels faded away.

In the end what mattered was Molly’s enthusiasm.

Meldrum actually knew what he was talking about and he wouldn’t shut up.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe the point of pop is to create myths and hang the reality and it’s all just chasing a train in your underwear and another pratfall.

Relive one of Meldrum’s most memorable interviews below

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