Ask most any 30-something Aussie what six o’clock Sunday evening meant back in the ’70s and they’re sure to enthusiastically squeal “Countdown!� – and if they don’t they must have either been dreadfully deprived as children, or were boring little nerds of no consequence who are probably now accountants, quantity surveyors or parking occifers. It was the religious experience of the week for the youth of the day, and the source of much playground conversation every Monday morning.

Dazza is a spunk rat!

Having dragged up the glorious spectre of Countdown via the higgledy-piggledy history of Australian pop music that is Love is in the Air, what better time to release a compilation of 20 tracks, most of which have been plucked from the hallowed show itself? Unfortunately, however, it’s all been done with little thought for quality or detail – well, save for plopping Australian Idol judges Marcia Hines and Mark Holden back to back. As such we jump back and forth about a time line from the early ‘70s through the mid-‘80s, much like your average bogan trying to do the Nutbush – in other words it’s quite jarring, but manages to raise the odd giggle regardless.

Classic Countdown idols such as Skyhooks, Sherbet, Hush, Dragon and TMG all make the cut from the early days, along with later hunks such as James Freud and… erm, well, Men at Work, the Mentals and Aussie Crawl also get guernseys. Strangely, there’s also one black and white old(er) fart aberration in Daddy Cool’s Come Back Again taken from Countdown precursor GTK.

Yes, it's that bloody song again...

The odd classic moment pops its head up – one of the earliest examples of crowd-surfing courtesy of the aforementioned Mr Holden (TWAT! Oh, excuse me – would you hand me a tissue please? Ta - bloody hayfever...), the shocking in so many respects that it’s riveting clip for Ted Mulry Gang’s Jump in My Car, Christie Allen looking like a bunny caught in headlights with her Goosebumps and Marty Rhone sucking up his three minutes of fame for the questionable ode to the equally as questionable combination of Denim and Lace. Some clips even feature original voiceovers - in fact the only presence of John Paul Young, or ‘Squeak’, is sadly an intro for Marcia - and William Shakespeare's little moment even carries the end credits from that particular episode (!).

Still, any Countdown kid will be in raptures over the selection of performers here, regardless of the fact that much of them were really, really crap. Ah, the power of childhood memories!

Track listing…

Ewwy! And that’s not a reaction to the hair “styles� on offer here. Sadly, the footage used has not been looked after and has aged about as well as a Paddle Pop left on the dashboard on a summer’s day. Video glitches of varying degrees are common, with some absolute whoppers at times, the image is generally quite fuzzy and un-detailed and if anything gets dark enough to require shadow detail you can forget about making anything out other than a glurky morass of blah. At least the shot-on-tape stuff exhibits decent colour for the most part, but generally everything – be they Countdown performances or video clips – looks quite decidedly crap. Still, better crap than not at all for such a chunk of our history, however…

…it isn’t helped by the anorexic sound. Somebody get this mix a gross of Chiko Rolls, stat! Delivered via Dolby Digital 2.0, but mono at the source, the original sound has been used without anything in the way of a wave of the magic remastering wand. As such we get hiss, distortion and the odd abrupt cut (was the fader broken at the end of Skyhooks’ inclusion?), not to mention fluctuations in volume and a general layer of aural sludge which leaves us with something only really useful for triggering those old “ah, when we was young� memories, rather than something to get down and grooving to. Shame.

The only thing remotely resembling extras here is, erm, nothing actually. Even the menus are just plain old perfunctory and boring, based around the Love is in the Air pink and mirrorbally theme, but without any mention of that show in sight.

Seemingly thrown together with little thought or effort, this is a great idea delivered badly. Dodgy edits, even dodgier quality clips and (somehow) even dodgier audio is hardly a recipe to get the party started – in fact neither is the inclusion of the likes of Peter Allen or Air Supply for that matter. In its own inimitable way Countdown had a lot of style – sadly it looks like we’re still waiting (waiting, waiting, waiting – oops, there goes another Chrissie Amphlett moment) for somebody to give it a decent celebration.