NFSA launches a celebration of Australian music television

Published Wednesday 16 April 2025

The National Film and Sound Archive has launched a new online collection celebrating the power and popular impact of Australian music television, including rarely seen footage of major international artists, and a glimpse into the early careers of some Australian music icons.  

The collection charts key moments in the rise and fall of music television, including Australia’s first major late-night music program Nightmoves, which was created by Mushroom Records’ Michael Gudinski, the fledgling 0-10 network’s forerunner to 1970s teen pop programs, Go!!, hosted by Johnny Young and  represented by its one surviving complete episode, and the ABC’s launch of The Lorrae Desmond Show (1960–64) which featured a rare female host at its helm.  

Early performances from Kylie and Dannii Minogue feature, as does the launch of Songlines from the ABC’s Indigenous Programs Unit, which brought First Nations music and culture to national TV screens, an early appearance by John Farnham on Happening ’72, and a teen Olivia Newton-John featuring on an episode of Channel 9’s Boomeride. 

The content collection explores the NFSA’s accidental discovery of long-lost Countdown material when it digitised a student documentary and found an episode containing two live performances from 1976 – Ted Mulry Gang’s ‘It’s All Over Now’ and John Paul Young’s ‘Keep On Smiling’. Unseen since its original broadcast, this footage captures Countdown before it morphed into the phenomenon that defined what music tv could be.   

Other standout footage unearthed by NFSA curators includes the single surviving preview tape of Channel TEN’s 1978 time capsule of disco’s last dance - Thank God It’s Friday at the Zoo, a 1964 clip from the Seven Network’s Sing Sing Sing, in which Roy Orbison performs ‘Crying’ following the wrap of his Australian tour, and Skyhooks guitarist Bob ‘Bongo’ Starkie interviewing Japanese new wave singer Sandii in 1986 in a segment for The Noise – an SBS series known for championing non-mainstream music.  

Collection content from music television’s later heyday includes Channel V’s Yumi Stynes on the hunt for Iggy Pop at the 2006 Big Day Out, and an interview with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2000’s House of Hits, plus clips showcasing the enduring ability of the ABC’s Rage  - the world’s longest running music TV show - to rule the music airwaves.  

‘This collection explores music tv as a cultural phenomenon, from the 1960s, when Australia was just learning to groove, to the Noughties when the line between backstage and broadcast blurred,’ said Meagan Loader, the NFSA’s Chief Curator. ‘It really celebrates that pre-streaming era when music television was the heartbeat of pop culture.’  

Find the collection: nfsa.gov.au/AusMusicTV 

Media enquiries and curator interviews:  

Louise Alley | Communications Manager | 0422 348 652 | louise.alley@nfsa.gov.au