The day I got to program 'Rage'... for an hour

Back in 2010, Rage held a competition to program an hour of music videos.  To enter, you had to guess the missing songs/videos on a playlist, using cryptic clues from a playlist published on their website.  Each video was related in some way to the videos coming before and after it (e.g. a 'Choose Life' t-shirt appears in both Wham's 'Wake Me Up Before You Go Go' video and Queen's 'Hammer To Fall' video).

After many hours of using google, wikipedia, and youtube to assist with deciphering the clues, I submitted my entry.  It was generally very difficult; even if you guessed the right artist, there wasn't always a clear way to tell which song/video of theirs it would be.  Thankfully, entrants into the competition could submit multiple entries.  I think I only guessed 7 or 8 correct out of the 12 missing videos, but it was enough to win the competition.  I was quite pleasantly surprised when one of the staff at rage called me to inform that I'd won.  It was a long-time dream of mine to program an episode of Rage.  Although I would have liked to choose the videos for a full episode, I couldn't turn my nose up at an hour.

The videos I chose weren't necessarily my favourite songs or videos.  Sure, I like them all, but I had to be strategic with my selections.  Firstly, it was no good choosing videos that Rage were unlikely to have, so most (but not all) of the videos I picked I had seen on Rage before... but not for a very long time.  I chose videos that hadn't aired on Rage for some time, also because what's the point of picking something they always play?  Several of the videos I chose were also in the hope of obtaining better quality versions of the videos than I currently had in my collection.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see Rage's 'big red book', which guest programmers normally get to see, listing all of the music videos currently in their library.  I did receive a call, however, from someone at Rage a few days later, asking if I could choose two additional videos, because some of the selections I made (Yazz's 'Where Has All the Love Gone?', Voice of the Beehive's 'Monsters and Angels', and Sabrina's 'Sexy Girl' - though they've since located that one) could not be readily located in their library/archives.  I asked the woman I spoke to if she could tell me what videos they had in the library by particular artists, and she looked this up on a computer while I was talking to her... so an electronic catalogue exists.  In their place, I chose Yazz's 'Never Can Say Goodbye' (a song I don't mind, though not a favourite - but the only other non-common video of hers listed) and Deee-Lite's 'Runaway'.

Here's some of the videos I chose that went to air:

Transvision Vamp 'Revolution Baby':

I always liked this song, and hadn't seen it on Rage since it left the top 50 in March 1989.  An aunt of mine bore (and probably still bears) a resemblance to Wendy James... in both looks and clothing choices, ha ha.  I remember telling her at the time that she reminds me of Wendy James, which I think she was flattered by.

Mel & Kim 'That's the Way It Is' (version 2):

Much better than the 'dancers' version of this video (which doesn't feature Mel & Kim at all).  I remember seeing this video on TV when it was in the charts.  I didn't realise at the time (probably because 'Respectable' was the only video I was then familiar with, though I'd seen 'FLM' once, and part of 'Showing Out' in a TV ad) that the video just re-used footage from previous Mel & Kim videos.  I read in Smash Hits a few weeks later that Mel was ill with cancer, and this was the reason they couldn't film a proper video.

Bananarama 'Love In the First Degree':

I hadn't seen this one on Rage either since 1988, one of my favourite years in music.

Bangles 'Hazy Shade of Winter':

Another clip from 1988 that I hadn't seen on Rage since.  I also chose this video because it's not on the Bangles 'Greatest Hits' DVD (presumably because they couldn't clear, or didn't want to pay for, the 'Less Than Zero' movie footage featured in the clip).  I remember taping this off the radio when it was a new release. 

Nik Kershaw 'I Won't Let the Sun Go Down On Me' (version 2):

I hadn't seen this one on Rage before.  I was hoping they had the original 1983 'concept' version of the video, but alas, 'twas not to be.  Still, it was good to get a copy of this video with the original audience cheer/sing-a-long (which was edited out on Nik's DVD)... er, I think.  Yes, it kind of detracts from the song a bit.  This song reminds me of when I lived in New Zealand for a few months as a kid.

Deborah Harry 'Strike Me Pink':

An unusual video (Debbie watches by as a man 'drowns' in a tank of water) that I wanted a digital copy of.  I also like the song.  I remember seeing the video as a new release on Rage, just before going on a trip to Hong Kong.

Yazz 'Never Can Say Goodbye':

An OK, if not a tad... bland, cover of 'Never Can Say Goodbye'.  It was great to get a better copy of this than my second generation VHS copy from Rage in 1997 (which was also missing the last 7 seconds of the video, as it was edited out).  I remember catching the video on Rage once - probably its only airing, in May 1997, and being surprised that a new Yazz single was being released in Australia, as the previous one released here was in 1990 (Treat Me Good).  Not surprisingly, it flopped.  You would never have guessed that this was the same peroxide blonde spiky hair Yazz from 'The Only Way Is Up' in the video.

Nina Hagen 'Smack Jack':

I caught this once or twice on Rage in the early-mid 00's, and remember thinking 'WTF is this?!'  It was crazy... in a good way.  I think the second time I caught it I was half-asleep on the couch, and it woke me up.  I'd nearly wondered afterwards if I dreamt the whole thing, as the vocals and the video were just so out there!  I'm glad this got an airing at about 10:45am on Saturday morning as part of my playlist.  As someone later said to me, "I'm sure a few people spat out their Cornflakes watching that video on Saturday morning Rage".


The other videos I chose, but haven't linked here (as blogger won't allow them to be embedded, I haven't uploaded them to youtube myself, or I have uploaded them but youtube has blocked them worldwide):

Oingo Boingo 'Stay'
Eighth Wonder 'I'm Not Scared'
Monaco 'Sweet Lips'
Coldcut featuring Yazz & The Plastic Population 'Doctorin' the House'
Youssou N'Dour 'Undecided'
The The featuring Neneh Cherry 'Slow Train To Dawn'
Deee-Lite 'Runaway'

A few people on the Rage facebook page and website forum expressed an appreciation for my selections... but only a few, ha ha.

Where it began...

Although I'd been a 'casual' music follower for a few years (e.g. watching Countdown from age 5), it wasn't until 1987 that I started to follow music more intently... perhaps inspired by listening to my sister's various artists 'hits' compilation cassettes on my Walkman.  '87 Hots Up was the first one I bought myself, though; then Smash Hits '87 a few months later (A$16.99 at my local K-Mart).

 
I didn't realise that Smash Hits was a magazine as well until visiting a relative of my parents' friends' in January 1988, where their daughter had a copy (the local Australian version).

Of course, I soon began buying Smash Hits myself.  The first edition I bought featured Michael Hutchence on the cover, and retailed for A$1.75 from memory.  I continued to buy Smash Hits until 1994 (even though I thought it had gone downhill from '92 when it started to focus more on TV shows, and ones I didn't watch such as 90210).  I threw them all out though during a house move in 1995.  Initially, I was most interested in the section where they printed a copy of the top 50 singles chart, and soon after became an avid chart-follower.  I wanted to know how well the songs I liked performed on the charts.

I soon discovered the Take 40 Australia radio show, and began writing the list of songs down each week.  Around the same time, I also discovered the local music video shows Video Hits, and Rage - which played the videos for the top 50 songs each week.  Eventually, I noticed that Rage played the chart a week before it aired on Take 40 Australia, and so switched to using Rage for my weekly chart fix.

Just after Christmas 1988, while visiting a cousin's house, we watched some music videos she had recorded from Rage.  I remember thinking 'what a great idea!' at recording music videos to watch later on.  Even though I had been watching Rage for almost a year, somehow I'd never thought to record the videos I liked.  It probably didn't help that I didn't yet own any of my own blank VHS tapes (which were quite expensive at the time, especially for someone still relying on pocket money).

The first music video I recorded was Enya's 'Orinoco Flow', from the Rage top 50 in early February 1989.  I also recorded the top 5 songs from that week.  I still have that 4-hour video tape today, though converted it to DVD in 2005.  Some other videos I recorded onto it were Neneh Cherry's 'Buffalo Stance', Tanita Tikaram's 'Twist InMy Sobriety', and Paul Kelly's 'Dumb Things' (yes, that video is a direct upload from this VHS tape).  Quite diverse tastes for a 10 year-old ;)

And so I've continued to record/keep music videos I like ever since... and er, even a few I don't like so much.  My interest in new chart music severely waned though towards the end of the 90's, and hasn't recovered since.  But there's still lots of 'old' new music I missed the first time around that I'm discovering now, and finding new, obscure-ish music videos on VHS compilations from the 80's/90's I acquire helps with that.  "When you can't find the music to get down and boogie, all you can do is step back in time" indeed.  I do find some new music that I like, but it usually requires effort to find it.

I've always tended to like the less-successful artists/songs the most.  Through youtube and this blog, I hope to give some of these tracks exposure to a new audience.  I always get a buzz from reading comments on my youtube videos from people who've liked the song for years but have never seen the video before; or from people discovering an 'old' song they like but didn't previously know.  I try to upload videos for songs that aren't already on youtube; or better-quality versions of videos that are already there.