Countdown podcast to revive iconic Australian music era

A new podcast launching this Saturday will revive recollections of the influential Countdown music TV show and cast a spotlight on the golden era it represents.

Gavin Wood Countdown sees the show’s voice-over man host the 40-minute episodes, interviewing names from that era and analysing its impact on the Australian music industry.

The show’s host Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum will pop up on a Humdrum section.

The first episode features a lengthy interview with Daryl Braithwaite talking about his return to the charts after almost three decades with ‘Love Song’. The episode is out now.

Braithwaite also goes back to earlier years with his first band made up of fellow surfers and the days of Countdown when there’d be a mad rush after taping in the Melbourne ABC TV studios.

Meldrum recalls living around the corner from Baithwaite’s mum and grandmother in his younger days and he’d wander around to visit and innocently snuggle into bed with them.

“If not for Daryl, Shirley Strachan and JPY (John Paul Young), Countdown wouldn’t have lasted over a year,” he said. Future guests are thought to be Young, Russell Morris and Brian Cadd.

Production costs for the podcast were picked up by Apia, the insurance company for over-50s, which this year had to reschedule its annual baby boomer Good Times to next May and June.