My Favourite Photo John Hartley Countdown is an Australian cult classic music television show that revolutionised and ignited the Australian music industry. Broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from 8 November 1974 it became the most popular music program in Australian television history. Produced in the Melbourne ABC studios, Countdown was created by Executive Producer Michael Shrimpton, Producer and Director Robbie Weekes, Record Producer and Music Journalist Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and an enthusiastic team of young media professionals including Tattersall’s Club Member, John Hartley. Prior to its commencement ABC television management had decided they needed to get back into a younger audience. “One of the things that was beginning to happen at this time was that Australian music 16 Tattler Summer 2015 was starting to bubble up,” John explains. “Management decided they would do a new rock show and they wanted artists to do live performances. This would be paired with the radio show band, which embellished the sound with the orchestra and strings.” John was asked to join the team because he was one of the Senior Floor Managers and already had experience on dramas and children’s television shows like Treasure Island. “They asked me to join and I had no idea what the heck I was getting myself in for,” he reflects. “We had a meeting in the morning, sat down in a big office and Michael told us the concept and Tony Vuat and I sat there going this is going to be interesting. A live audience with teenagers in a studio is a bit of a nightmare. I thought gee ok. We did the pilot with a studio audience of 60 to 70 teenagers from a local high school. Sherbert and Sky Hooks had just surfaced on the radio and we booked them to perform. After the pilot aired we were commissioned to do 10 half hour episodes.” The revolution of Australian music had begun and the small young media team had no idea of the success and influence this humble show would have on both television and the music industry. However, the success did not sit well with everyone within the ABC as change aversion is a natural human reaction as John highlights, “It was a big challenge. It was challenging from an operations point of view, managing the audience of teenagers. Tony and I played a bit of a security guard role as well and we used to get kicked in the shins and end up covered in bruises by the end of the recording. It was also a challenge, challenging the organisation and engrained culture of the ABC. However, once they cottoned on as to what it was about and what we were doing we found everyone came on board. I suppose
Tattler Summer 2015
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