Sweet and Sour (TV Series) - Countdown Links

Countdown Links

As an ABC TV show, there was a natural tie-in to Countdown, with guest appearance by Ian "Molly" Meldrum. "Sweet & Sour" (lead vocal: Conway) was shown on the 12 August 1984 episode of Countdown. The promo clip does not show The Takeaways 'bass player' George (Arky Michael); but does include a juggler, acrobat and stage magician. On the same Countdown episode were O'Neill performing "Power" and Stephen Cummings performing "Gynasium" (Armiger as producer/musician/songwriter). "Glam To Wham" (lead vocal: Conway, backing vocal: McQuade) was broadcast Countdown on 7 October 1984, with guest hosts Michael, Lillingston and Herbert of The Takeaways (during which Herbert refers to Arky Michael as "Spartels"!). It shows Lillingston miming to Conway's vocals, however in the "Sweet and Sour" TV series Lillingston's vocals were supplied by McQuade and she rarely sang lead. Also on the 7 October episode was Cummings performing "Another Kick to the Head" (Armiger as producer/musician/songwriter).

The pilot episode was directed by Grant Rule, an Executive Producer of Countdown, it was shot in an old warehouse in Pyrmont and starred Terry Serrio from the Elks and Joy Smithers, who would later star in Bangkok Hilton mini series with Nicole Kidman. The guitar player was Marty Shiel (Juggernaut) as well as many other fine support actors. Another link to Countdown was the briefing of songwriters by Countdown Awards co-producer Carolyn James and Graham Thorburn, who come up from producing and directing Countdown to direct 4 episodes. Together they negotiated a "No Favoured Nations" contract for songwriters to receive royalties over a limited time frame rather than ABC purchasing songs outright. This meant the music budget stretched much further, and that signed and unsigned writers received same revenue and so provided significant income to lesser-known songwriters such as David McComb of The Triffids.

New Zealand's TVNZ series, Heroes, released 21 October 1984 "is about a group of musicians just getting started as a rock 'n' roll band". It ran for 8 episodes in 1984 and 6 in 1986. Actors included: Michael Hurst, Jay Laga'aia, Margaret Umbers and John Gibson.

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