Powerzone

28/01/2025

Happy Birthday to Ian “Molly” Meldrum, born in Orbost, Victoria, Australia, on 29 January, 1943.

Molly has been the most influential figure in Australian popular music in his time in the industry.

He had a trademark hat later in his career, but wore a stack of metaphorical hats in the music industry, like DJ, music critic, journalist, record producer, entrepreneur, tv host, interviewer, talent coordinator, and music news presenter among others.

For all the modern day influencers out there, Molly was the ultimate influencer in popular music back in the day.

We all tuned in religiously to the weekly ABC popular music show “Countdown” to see what latest news, bands, and music that Molly was going to break for us.

Back in the days where music news, releases, etc from overseas were not instantly available on the internet like today. No Spotify!

Molly was the conduit.
The Guru.

As a record producer he worked on top ten hits fir the likes of Russell Morris ("The Real Thing", "Part Three into Paper Walls", both 1969), Supernaut ("I Like It Both Ways", 1976) and The Ferrets ("Don't Fall in Love", 1977).

From the little country of Australia, Molly also kick-started the massive International success of a clutch of overseas stars such as Abba and Blondie, via Countdown.

His on-screen persona came across as a bumbling, “ummm…..aaah” type, but make no mistake, Molly was a shrewd operator.

I had the enjoyable experience of recording a number of TV ads for the Flamingo Nightclub in Rockhampton with Molly, and I got to see his work up close.
He struck me as being a smart, friendly and personable character.

In 2014, Meldrum was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, together with his TV show, Countdown; he became the first non-artist to receive the accolade.

And he still has time these days to appear as a regular on the Alex the Seal Podcast!

“Do yourself a favour” and click on the link below to have a chuckle at this series of out-takes from his famous interview with then Prince Charles:

https://youtu.be/a78mzQZPDAQ

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28/01/2025

On this day in 1984, it was the third (and what ended up being the last) day of the last ever Narara Music Festival (January 29)

In 1984 the Narara festival had returned for a second year, and also ran over the Australia Day weekend, this time from Friday 27th to Monday 30 January, in rainy weather.

The program for January 29 was:

From 11 am

Drop Bears
Deckchairs Overboard
Strange Tennants
The Expression
Dynamic Hepnotics
Little Heroes

Break from 5 pm

Sunnyboys
Jon English & The Foster Bros.
Def Leppard
The Radiators

The show was washed out at this point, and the following acts did not play:

Australian Crawl
Allniters

The last act to perform at Narrara 84 was the Radiators on Sunday night (29th).
There were no acts on Monday.
At that point it was decided that the stage was too dangerous as the water was washing away the soil under the scaffolding.

Reports from the day indicate that Def Leppard were less than popular with some sections of the dwindling crowd that was left.

According to Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, on worstgig.com:

“I could probably go on all day because we’ve done so many gigs over the years. The first one that springs to mind is the Narara Festival in Australia in ’84.
I’ve never seen rain like it. It was like biblical, Noah’s Ark, baseball-sized drops. It covered the place up.
There was a crowd of about 35,000.
Everyone left. There were only 3,000 people left in the mud, honestly, three-feet deep in this mud and rain.”

Click on the link below to watch Mondo Rock at Narara ‘84 doing “Come Said The Boy”

https://youtu.be/bdCKl7ldGK0

27/01/2025

27/01/2025

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Simple Minds’ momentous 1985, a milestone year in their legendary career, Simple Minds today release a special 9-track digital edition of their album Once Upon A Time. The release includes their Billboard Hot 100 #1 smash ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)' in the tracklist for the first time along with updated ‘Ruby Anniversary’ artwork.

"Hindsight is a glorious thing! 40 years on and it now feels right for Simple Minds to have ‘Don't You (Forget About Me)’ included in this classy new nine track edition of Once Upon A Time." - Jim

Now available to stream on all platforms: https://www.simpleminds.com/once-upon-a-time-40th-anniversary-ruby-edition/

27/01/2025

26/01/2025

doing the rounds on . Nice to hear some feedback and appreciation of the show. Makes it all worthwhile

25/01/2025

Audio from this weekend's has been uploaded to the Audio Archive. here https://buff.ly/3En5kdu

The first 2 hours of this week's features songs recorded live in , then in the final hour we crank it up to 11 with some hard and .

The first 2 hours of this week's live stream features songs recorded live in concert, then in the final hour we crank it up to 11 with some hard rock and metal.

25/01/2025

is right now! via https://buff.ly/3IL3ToJ

21/01/2025

We've been down and picked up a few , expect some stuff you've not heard before coming up on the 1 hour shows!

Check out the How To page for a station near you, or check out the Audio Archive each Friday night (Australian Eastern Time) for the latest episode. https://www.powerzone.me/home/how-to-listen/

19/01/2025

I've spent a bit of time catching the website up. I didn't have the chance to look at it since Xmas, so if you're chasing playlists for any of the shows that have broadcast this month, they're now on the site. I'll sort out the blog with the audio links tomorrow, but you can go directly the Audio Archive and find the show recordings there, or dig through the posts here on Facebook.

19/01/2025

I have a bit of a soft spot for the music of #1988, it'd been 18 months since getting my first cassette recorder and also about that same amount of time since I bought my first 7 inch single as well. I was in the thick of following the charts, listening to radio, watching Rage and Video Hits and buying , and magazines.

It's also probably why the years 1987 to 1989 often feature so much on . I now own a lot of these , and still regularly listen to tracks from them and also play them regularly on the show.

Despite still loving the hell out of this era, I am still busy consuming new music and featuring some of it on Powerzone too, despite being 7 months away from hitting 50. A lot does miss the show as much of it is electronic, but the and tracks and to occasional track make the cut and end up played either on the 1 hour show or the 3 hour .

18/01/2025

The Powerzone radio stream is on now! Listen live via

Broadcast live to your community of fans and tune in direct to creators from every genre

17/01/2025

is back on your tonight from 8 pm (AEDST) on SWR 99.9 FM in , and again tomorrow on 88.9FM - Braidwood in and the . Listen on their respective websites or wait for the audio to be added to Powerzone Audio Archive.

Plus the 3-hour is back again this Saturday from 8pm at

Broadcast live to your community of fans and tune in direct to creators from every genre

16/01/2025

With the recent passing of journalist and kids show host , former reporter has shared a video by which aired on the Wonder World in 1983, explaining how a recording session works, and how the show's theme song was put together. will be playing the song in full this Saturday night after 8 pm.

THANKS TO:SIMON TOWNSEND (Wonder World Founder)MAURICE PARKER (Reporter)All the Fiim Crew and Production Team - Thank You for 8 unforgettable years of Wonder...

15/01/2025

host and journalist has passed away. His show helped launch several bands during the 1980s including

Simon Townsend, best known for his role on the children's television show Wonder World, has died after recently being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.

12/01/2025

Audio from last night's 3-hour has now been added to the Audio Archive. here: https://www.mixcloud.com/paul0075/powerzone-live-stream-11-january-2025/

06/01/2025

The are preparing to release a new album, "Walk This Road", next year, marking their first collaboration with in over four decades. Founding member shared the exciting news in a year-end update on Facebook.

“Our goal for 2025 is set,” Simmons wrote. “This train keeps rollin’, and we’re almost ready to share our new album, Walk This Road, early in the year.” The album features 10 new songs performed by , Michael McDonald, and Pat Simmons.

The tracks were co-written by the three vocalists, and fans can expect a single soon, along with an announcement about the album’s release date.