November 7, 2024 • 8 mins
Gavin Wood joins Clairsy & Lisa to celebrate the 50 Year Anniversary of Countdown!
Gavin shares all the insights on working with Molly, the real stories behind some of your favourite moments, and the impact Countdown had on putting Australian music on the world stage.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On What a way to start a Friday and head
towards the weekend celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
There were two amazing guys associated with Countdown, one of
course was Molly Meldrum and the other is the voice,
Gavin Wood. And we are so thrilled to have Gavin
join us this morning. Hello morning, there's the voice.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Can you believe it's been fifty years.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Oh, I'm so old. We're getting there.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You're all good, You're all good.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, I was lucky I joined in eight. Paul Turner
was the original voice over guy. Yeah, it started off.
It started off as a half hour show in November
Today with Grand Goldman, John O'Donnell and a couple of
the other DJs, And then they realized that they needed
to have it compare and a talent coordinator and Robbie
Weeks and Michael Shrimpton were having a beer at the
(01:05):
pub and all of a sudden, this green selika mounted
the curb and this mad guy with a hat ran
out into the bottle shop and picked up a bottle
and came back into the car and took off, and
Robbie Weeks said, there's you knew host to Countdown and
it was Molly Meldram.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is it true the original black and white episodes of Countdown?
Was that first series or whatever? Were raised, Gavin? Is
that myth or true?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, that's true. The ABC wanted wanted to reuse all
the tape and that Ted Emery who was running Trouble.
Ted Emory, who's probably one of the greatest comedy directors
in this country, he actually took episodes of Countdown and
hit them in the boot of his car and drove
around with them for about three months so they could
(01:51):
get over this purge that the ABC were doing.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh that is fantasticational there's a movie in that belt
in the boost.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well, it just goes to show the passion that everyone
had for this show. Absolutely, we were all into it
one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Being there on set each week was did you feel
sometimes like you were going to have to be herding
cats there with all the madness going on around you?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Lisia, I was terrified one because one because there were
big black curtains all around me, and then the stars
would come from the VIP dressing room across the hallway,
past my boots and up onto the stage, so at
any moment I could have Elton John or Boy George
behind me. But the most terrifying one was Bolly. He
had come in and put his hand over the mouth
in the middle of the reed.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Terah, Molly, There's no one like Bally, right. I remember
interviewing Molly about five or six years ago, and just
as an exercise, after we did the recorded interview, we
edited all the arms and ours out and it literally
sounded like a totally different human being. It was so weird.
He's like that right. No, No, it wasn't right. He's
like nobody else is he.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, I've got to stick up for him. Here. The
old ABC videotape machines took five to ten seconds to
sync up. So if he was going to if he
was going to say, here's the Boomtown rat, yep, you know,
there'd be another four or five seconds.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Because he had to feel.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Right, and that happens covering the old professional Well, there
you go.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
We've been We've been talking with our listeners this morning about,
you know, some of our favorite memories and a couple
that have come up a lot are Molly with Prince
Charles and and a rather excited, inebriated. Eggy Pop was
another that.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Was an actor. That was an actor. I can tell
you all about that.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Especially let's talk about Prince Charles. It's just flown back
from London, right, So those flights back then were brutal,
twenty four hours to get back to Melbourne and he
had to learn all this stuff for the Prince Charles. Trust. Yeah,
now you try sitting beside of you know, Prince Charles
and remembering what you've got to say. The ABC didn't
(04:06):
give him an autocue, remember it, so they threw the
poor bugger to the wolves. I'm going to stick up
for that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And then Eggy Pop he nearly decapitated one of the
girls in the audience of the mic stand after he
after he called Molly dog face, he jumped around, Yeah,
he said. He said, Oh, look, I'm on at Bombay
Rocks and I come down and see the show. So
Molly and I said, oh, we've got to go and
see this. So we walked backstage and here's Eggy Pop
sipping on a cup of tea and I've said, that's
(04:39):
not rock and roll, he said. He said, Gavin, if
I drank what everybody thought I drank. He said, I
would have died ten years ago. Yeah, exactly. It was
all in act.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, but like Georgie sorry good, I think he could
be a bit like that made the influence that Countdown
and Molly and all of the team had over careers,
like from Madonna to a lot of the Aussie acts.
It is incredible a lot of those international acts still
to this day, so that you helped to break them,
not just in Australia but internationally. It's pretty influential, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well, yeah, Martha, Martha Davis from the motel See you've
always credited Countdown and Soda Zabba. Yes, because because Molly
just played Mma mea non stop for five weeks and
they heard about it and then that's where that's that
was their platform to take off worldwide. You've got to
remember that. You know, if we back then, if we
(05:29):
got good, good chart positions because of Countdown, the rest
of the all the record companies around the world watch
the Australian charts so they can see what was happening
down here, what was hot and back then you know
you've got Elton John making eight hundred thousand dollars film clips,
you know, like I'm still standing and all that. And yes,
the record the record company would just fly them out
(05:51):
just to do Countdown. Yes, yeah, that's how influential it was.
But the good thing is, guys, Molly and I never
took the show for granted. He tried to work very
hard on making it a good show every week to
elevate the Australian music up to the international standard, and
it did.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Without Countdown, our industry would not would never have become,
you know, the force that it is. And Molly is
a national treasure. We love him and we you know,
sadly he did have that terrible accident a few years
ago and so we don't see so much of him.
Are you still in touch with him?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, Look, Molly's happily retired now. Yeah, you know, he's
eighty two and January. Yes, and he just wants to
I shouldn't say it, but he wants to favor Black.
I shouldn't say that, but he just wants to I
have a quiet He just wants to have a quiet
life and I think I think he deserves that. And
(06:52):
we're all there to support him. His a dear, dear friend.
He supported me. We supported each other. I was young.
I was a young DJ for in Brisbane when I
started at three, and I was too scared to talk
to him. It took me six months. It took me
six months to talk to him. Then we found out
we're both aquariums and both mad and that that was
(07:12):
the chemistry, that was the bond, and we just went
for it. Yeah, yeah, I never said I never said
that sounded a little bit different to the other.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
One's not surprising. It was a bit daunting, man, I mean,
he produced a real thing. For Russell Morrison, he'd done
so much in his career it would have been one.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Of those things maybe as a life force. There is
no one else in this country that could have done
what Molly has done. You know, no one had the passion,
the enthusiasm, the madness, the craziness as Molly. He He lived,
eat and breathes it well.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Gavin. We we also thank you Aynonymous with an amazing
show that we all grew up with and just love
to pieces. And I hope you're going to have a
little bit of a celebration today and we absolutely love
that you joined us as morning.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's my pleasure and look out for the live show
on the ABC Saturday Night. I've seen some of the
footage and it's just brilliant next weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
If I'm ever run in West Australia my past, I
know best to molly specting Bud because he's much loved.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I certainly will.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Guys, Thanks Kevin, say you about bye bye? Thanks by
bye Kevin. Good funny. You got to get the real
one just to hear his voice again.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Going
On What a way to start a Friday and head
towards the weekend celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of this show.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
There were two amazing guys associated with Countdown, one of
course was Molly Meldrum and the other is the voice,
Gavin Wood. And we are so thrilled to have Gavin
join us this morning. Hello morning, there's the voice.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Can you believe it's been fifty years.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Oh, I'm so old. We're getting there.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You're all good, You're all good.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Well, I was lucky I joined in eight. Paul Turner
was the original voice over guy. Yeah, it started off.
It started off as a half hour show in November
Today with Grand Goldman, John O'Donnell and a couple of
the other DJs, And then they realized that they needed
to have it compare and a talent coordinator and Robbie
Weeks and Michael Shrimpton were having a beer at the
(01:05):
pub and all of a sudden, this green selika mounted
the curb and this mad guy with a hat ran
out into the bottle shop and picked up a bottle
and came back into the car and took off, and
Robbie Weeks said, there's you knew host to Countdown and
it was Molly Meldram.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Is it true the original black and white episodes of Countdown?
Was that first series or whatever? Were raised, Gavin? Is
that myth or true?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, that's true. The ABC wanted wanted to reuse all
the tape and that Ted Emery who was running Trouble.
Ted Emory, who's probably one of the greatest comedy directors
in this country, he actually took episodes of Countdown and
hit them in the boot of his car and drove
around with them for about three months so they could
(01:51):
get over this purge that the ABC were doing.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Oh that is fantasticational there's a movie in that belt
in the boost.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Well, it just goes to show the passion that everyone
had for this show. Absolutely, we were all into it
one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Being there on set each week was did you feel
sometimes like you were going to have to be herding
cats there with all the madness going on around you?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Lisia, I was terrified one because one because there were
big black curtains all around me, and then the stars
would come from the VIP dressing room across the hallway,
past my boots and up onto the stage, so at
any moment I could have Elton John or Boy George
behind me. But the most terrifying one was Bolly. He
had come in and put his hand over the mouth
in the middle of the reed.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Terah, Molly, There's no one like Bally, right. I remember
interviewing Molly about five or six years ago, and just
as an exercise, after we did the recorded interview, we
edited all the arms and ours out and it literally
sounded like a totally different human being. It was so weird.
He's like that right. No, No, it wasn't right. He's
like nobody else is he.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Well, I've got to stick up for him. Here. The
old ABC videotape machines took five to ten seconds to
sync up. So if he was going to if he
was going to say, here's the Boomtown rat, yep, you know,
there'd be another four or five seconds.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Because he had to feel.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Right, and that happens covering the old professional Well, there
you go.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
We've been We've been talking with our listeners this morning about,
you know, some of our favorite memories and a couple
that have come up a lot are Molly with Prince
Charles and and a rather excited, inebriated. Eggy Pop was
another that.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Was an actor. That was an actor. I can tell
you all about that.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh yeah, pretty good.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Especially let's talk about Prince Charles. It's just flown back
from London, right, So those flights back then were brutal,
twenty four hours to get back to Melbourne and he
had to learn all this stuff for the Prince Charles. Trust. Yeah,
now you try sitting beside of you know, Prince Charles
and remembering what you've got to say. The ABC didn't
(04:06):
give him an autocue, remember it, so they threw the
poor bugger to the wolves. I'm going to stick up
for that.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And then Eggy Pop he nearly decapitated one of the
girls in the audience of the mic stand after he
after he called Molly dog face, he jumped around, Yeah,
he said. He said, Oh, look, I'm on at Bombay
Rocks and I come down and see the show. So
Molly and I said, oh, we've got to go and
see this. So we walked backstage and here's Eggy Pop
sipping on a cup of tea and I've said, that's
(04:39):
not rock and roll, he said. He said, Gavin, if
I drank what everybody thought I drank. He said, I
would have died ten years ago. Yeah, exactly. It was
all in act.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, but like Georgie sorry good, I think he could
be a bit like that made the influence that Countdown
and Molly and all of the team had over careers,
like from Madonna to a lot of the Aussie acts.
It is incredible a lot of those international acts still
to this day, so that you helped to break them,
not just in Australia but internationally. It's pretty influential, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Well, yeah, Martha, Martha Davis from the motel See you've
always credited Countdown and Soda Zabba. Yes, because because Molly
just played Mma mea non stop for five weeks and
they heard about it and then that's where that's that
was their platform to take off worldwide. You've got to
remember that. You know, if we back then, if we
(05:29):
got good, good chart positions because of Countdown, the rest
of the all the record companies around the world watch
the Australian charts so they can see what was happening
down here, what was hot and back then you know
you've got Elton John making eight hundred thousand dollars film clips,
you know, like I'm still standing and all that. And yes,
the record the record company would just fly them out
(05:51):
just to do Countdown. Yes, yeah, that's how influential it was.
But the good thing is, guys, Molly and I never
took the show for granted. He tried to work very
hard on making it a good show every week to
elevate the Australian music up to the international standard, and
it did.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Without Countdown, our industry would not would never have become,
you know, the force that it is. And Molly is
a national treasure. We love him and we you know,
sadly he did have that terrible accident a few years
ago and so we don't see so much of him.
Are you still in touch with him?
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, Look, Molly's happily retired now. Yeah, you know, he's
eighty two and January. Yes, and he just wants to
I shouldn't say it, but he wants to favor Black.
I shouldn't say that, but he just wants to I
have a quiet He just wants to have a quiet
life and I think I think he deserves that. And
(06:52):
we're all there to support him. His a dear, dear friend.
He supported me. We supported each other. I was young.
I was a young DJ for in Brisbane when I
started at three, and I was too scared to talk
to him. It took me six months. It took me
six months to talk to him. Then we found out
we're both aquariums and both mad and that that was
(07:12):
the chemistry, that was the bond, and we just went
for it. Yeah, yeah, I never said I never said
that sounded a little bit different to the other.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
One's not surprising. It was a bit daunting, man, I mean,
he produced a real thing. For Russell Morrison, he'd done
so much in his career it would have been one.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Of those things maybe as a life force. There is
no one else in this country that could have done
what Molly has done. You know, no one had the passion,
the enthusiasm, the madness, the craziness as Molly. He He lived,
eat and breathes it well.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Gavin. We we also thank you Aynonymous with an amazing
show that we all grew up with and just love
to pieces. And I hope you're going to have a
little bit of a celebration today and we absolutely love
that you joined us as morning.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It's my pleasure and look out for the live show
on the ABC Saturday Night. I've seen some of the
footage and it's just brilliant next weekend.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
If I'm ever run in West Australia my past, I
know best to molly specting Bud because he's much loved.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I certainly will.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Guys, Thanks Kevin, say you about bye bye? Thanks by
bye Kevin. Good funny. You got to get the real
one just to hear his voice again.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Going
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.