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Ian Molly Meldrum
Ian
"Molly" Meldrum (born January 29, 1946)
is a popular Australian popular music critic, journalist,
record producer, and musical entrepreneur, best known
as talent co-ordinator, on-air interviewer and music
news presenter on the seminal popular music program
Countdown. He acted as talent co-ordinator for the
show's entire 1974 to 1987 run; his on-air role was
between the years of 1975 and 1986. Many consider
Meldrum to be an icon in the Australian music scene.
During
the Beatles' first tour of Australia in 1964, Meldrum
was captured in infamy by TV cameras as the person
climbing atop the bonnet of their car shortly after
their arrival at Melbourne airport. Later, he was
ejected from their Melbourne concert for being "too
enthusiastic".
Meldrum
began his music career in the late 1960s as a "roadie"
for a band named the Groop. Sharing a house with singer
Ronnie Burns, he was asked by a friend to write an
article for Go-Set magazine, a new Australian pop
music magazine. Soon he was writing for the magazine
on a regular basis. It was during this period that
he was given his nickname, "Molly", by his
friend and fellow Go-Set writer Stan Rofe, a famous
Melbourne radio DJ.
Around
this time, "Molly" also began hanging out
at a newly-opened Melbourne recording studio owned
by Bill Armstrong, which soon became the leading pop
studio in Australia. While he learned production and
engineering techniques, he became involved with producing
a number of artists including the Masters Apprentices,
as well as working on Kommotion, a teen-oriented pop
music "mime show" (where performers would
mime to the latest overseas hits), which ended soon
after when Actors Equity banned the practice.
In
1968 Meldrum became the manager and producer of solo
singer Russell Morris, who had recently quit his previous
band, Somebody's Image. Meldrum produced Morris' first
solo single, a Johnny Young-composed song "The
Real Thing". Young had written the song for Meldrum's
friend Ronnie Burns, but when Meldrum heard Young
playing it backstage during a taping of the TV pop
show Uptight, he determined to secure the song for
Morris, reportedly going to Young's home that evening
with a tape recorder and refusing to leave until Young
had taped a "demo" version of the song for
him.
In
collaboration with Armstrong's house engineer John
Sayers, Meldrum radically transformed "The Real
Thing" from Young's original vision of a simple
acoustic ballad backed by strings, into a highly produced
studio masterpiece, extending it to an unheard-of
six minutes in length (with much encouragement from
Stan Rofe) and overdubbing the basic track with many
additional instruments, vocals and sound effects.
To achieve this, they used the services of The Groop
as backing band, with contributions from vocalist
Maureen Elkner and Groop lead singer Ronnie Charles,
guitarist Roger Hicks from Zoot — who played
the song's distinctive acoustic guitar intro —
and arranger John Farrar. The single is reported to
have cost AU$10,000 — the most expensive ever
made in Australia up to that time — and features
one of the earliest uses of the studio technique known
as "phasing" on an Australian recording.
"The Real Thing" became a national #1 hit
for Morris in mid-1969 and is widely considered to
be one of the finest Australian pop-rock recordings
of the era.
Meldrum
also produced several other hits — including
Burns' #1 single "Smiley" — while continuing
to write for a variety of magazines. After splitting
with Morris in ca. 1970, he travelled to the United
Kingdom, where he began working for the The Beatles'
company, Apple Corps. During this time he met Paul
McCartney and John Lennon. One (possibly apocryphal)
story is that Meldrum fainted when he met Lennon for
the first time. His ssociation with The Beatles enabled
him to score a scoop interview with Lennon and Yoko
Ono, in which Lennon revealed publicly for the first
time that the Beatles were breaking up.
Countdown
years
After returning to Australia in the early 1970s, Meldrum
continued writing for the music press as well as venturing
back into television as the presenter of a shortlived
TV children's show, where he met producers Michael
Shrimpton and Rob Weekes.
Ca.
1974, Meldrum, Shrimpton and Weekes approached the
ABC with the concept for a new weekly pop music show,
based on the British show Top Of The Pops and on the
Australian pop show Kommotion, on which Meldrum had
appeared in the mid-1960s. Countdown premiered in
November 1974, with Meldrum as the show's talent coordinator.
He did not originally appear in the series, which
had a different guest host each week; his first on-screen
appearances were in the "Humdrum" music
news segment in mid-1975, but by the end of that year
he had become the 'face' of the series.
Originally
broadcast weekly, early on Saturday evening for 30
minutes, Countdown was fortunate to have begun just
before the introduction of colour television in Australia
in March 1975. Equally crucial to its success was
the move in January that year to the 6pm Sunday timeslot,
with the show being extended to 60 minutes. Its reach
was further enhanced by the fact that the Saturday
timeslot was also retained and used to repeat the
previous week's show. The combination of the ABC's
nationwide reach, the novelty of colour broadcasting
and the show's dual timeslot enabled Countdown to
reach an unprecedented number of viewers. It soon
became the most successful and popular music program
ever made in Australia and exerted a massive influence
on Australian music over the next decade.
The
advent of colour TV coincided with a major change
in the direction of Australian popular music, and
it was vital in breaking the pop band Skyhooks among
others, and making national stars of pop bands such
as Sherbet.
Countdown
benefited from the fact that it appeared just as the
music video genre was taking off. Indeed, the show
was instrumental in popularising the use of purpose-made
promotional videos — which had previously only
been a minor part of pop show programming — and
its extensive use of film-clips and videos by both
established and emerging overseas acts (who at that
time toured Australia only rarely) made Countdown
an important venue for breaking new songs and new
groups.
The
series is credited with giving early exposure to,
and generating breakthrough Australian hits for, a
number of major international acts including ABBA,
Meat Loaf, Blondie, Boz Scaggs, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna.
Meldrum made many overseas trips and became personally
friendly with many of the top pop and rock stars of
the period, enabling Countdown to gain many international
exclusives.
Meldrum's
notoriety was at odds with his (oft-criticised) on-screen
performances, and he became legendary for his rambling
and sometimes incomprehensible commentaries and interview
questions. He was also noted for several famous on-screen
gaffes, including one famous incident during an interview
with Prince Charles in which the clearly terrified
Meldrum repeatedly bungled his lines and famously
told the prince "I saw your Mum in her car the
other day" — to which the prince is reported
to have replied coolly, "Oh, you mean Her Majesty
the Queen?".
Despite
his apparent ineptitude, Meldrum soon became a major
star in his own right and is now inextricably linked
with Countdown. He was also notable as a tireless
champion of local Australian talent and for his regular
use of the show to pressure local radio to play more
Australian music. As a result of his efforts, Countdown
was soon in a position to make overnight hits with
songs and performers it featured, and through the
late 1970s and early 1980s it was arguably the key
factor in determining the direction of Australian
popular music.
After
Countdown
After Countdown finished its run, Meldrum presented
a regular segment for the popular but now defunct
Australian variety show, Hey Hey It's Saturday through
the 1990s, managed and produced a number of Australian
artists, founded the Melodian label and continued
to write for the music press.
Signing
onto the Seven Network, he became a judge on Popstars
Live, a variety program in the style of Pop Idol.
As part of his contract to the network, he appears
regularly on popular breakfast show Sunrise.
Meldrum's
trademark headwear, still-rabid enthusiasm for popular
music, and remarkably incoherent interviewing style
remain well known. He is an amateur Egyptologist and
a former member of Mensa. That his extensive general
knowledge extended beyond popular music was perhaps
less well-known until, as a contestant on a celebrity
edition Who Wants to be a Millionaire, he won $500,000
for a charity, the equal biggest win on the Australian
version of the program until October 2005. He appeared
on the 4th series of the Australian version of Dancing
with the Stars in 2006 and was voted off after the
first round. He was also on an episode of Deal or
No Deal (Dancing with the Deals) on the 13th of February
2006.
Meldrum
is a prominent supporter of the St Kilda Football
Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) and the
Melbourne Storm in the National Rugby League (NRL).
Meldrum
has long been open about his homosexuality; he lives
with his long-time partner Rui in Melbourne. He is
also close friends with Elton John and Michael Jackson.
(Credit:
Wikipedia)
Website
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