Where it all began for pop music in this country is covered in this first up episode. Australia may well be known as the Antipodes and for many it certainly lived up to its name when they travelled to a place so far away from the centres of music in America and Europe it must have seemed like another planet. This episode looks at the music scene in Australia during the 1950s and early 1960s as many overseas acts such as Little Richard, Judy Garland, and various acts from promoter Lee Gordon made their way with often controversial results. The Beatles tour of 1964 is covered, as is the success of 'home-grown' talent The Bee Gees.
One of the criticisms of the Long Way To The Top series was the apparent lack of content dedicated to the women of the rock 'n' roll industry. This has been answered in this series with a whole episode dedicated to the talents of the female Australia pop artists. Early acts such as the immigrant Pilita paved the way for woman such as Helen Reddy, Olivia Newton-John, Debbie Byrne, Renee Geyer and Marcia Hines to shine (pun intended), though often not at home. Many, such as Helen Reddy, had to make it big overseas first before being accepted as talented back home and this strange phenomenon is covered in depth in this episode.
Nobody it seems writes a good quirky pop song quite like us and this episode is dedicated to the strange and the bizarre songs that often just took off and became hits despite the fact that they sounded so stupid and dumb. The likes of Lucky Starr and I've Been Everywhere, Rolf Harris complete with wobble-board and his various ditties such as Jake The Peg and Tie Me Kangaroo Down, John Williamson with Old Man Emu, through to the famous Shaddup You Face by Joe Dolce are all covered. Strange fruit indeed...
This episode covers some of the success stories of Australian music. Those that succeeded in one of the toughest businesses going around and conquered the world. The likes of Kylie Minogue, Little River Band, Dragon (yes they were a Kiwi band), James Freud (in his pre Models days), the mega-successful Air Supply, John Farnham, and the truly amazing rise of Savage Garden are all charted here. Interviews with most of the key players and those intimately involved during their rise to the top give this episode a real sense of authenticity.
Rounding out the series is a bit of a potted look at some of the biggest songs ever to appear from this country. The reasons they were written and the often misunderstood nature of their lyrics is covered in some detail. The likes of Richard Clapton's Girls On The Avenue (nothing to do with sex workers it seems), the genesis of Australian Crawl's Boys Light Up (nothing to do with smoking), and the technical reasons why Don't Dream It's Over is such a great song are all covered here.
First up is a series of run-ins that various pop idols had with the Australian press. This includes interviews with The Beatles, Mick Jagger, The Bee Gees, and Roy Orbison. There's also a 0:51 discussion of Frank Sinatra's famous visit to Melbourne, a 1:00 discussion about promoter Lee Gordon, and a rather silly 3:29 featurette on the visit to Australia by Abba.
Included here is more recent and archival interview footage with the likes of Helen Reddy (2:34), Debbie Byrne (2:02), Renee Geyer (1:12), The Moir Sisters (0:44), Marcia Hines (1:59), Olivia Newton-John (2:52), and Pilita (1:18).
Interviews with Kamahl (1:08), Chad Morgan (1:39), Frank Ifield (1:31), Rolf Harris (6:18), Barry Crocker (2:58), Jon English (1:31), Harry Vanda (3:43), Daryl Braithwaite and Sherbet (5:28), Tim and Neil Finn from Split Enz and three segments featuring the antics of Ian 'Molly' Meldrum and Countdown.
Interview footage with Todd Hunter from Dragon (2:53), Renee Geyer (2:30), James Freud (2:16), Johnny Young (0;50), Neil Finn (1:53), and Pete Waterman from Stock, Aitken, and Waterman (2:10).
Included here is Barry Crocker discussing the history of Waltzing Matilda which he affectionately calls Australia's first ever pop song (5:42). Neil Finn discusses the trauma of writing and discusses Don't Dream It's Over (3:09) further while Don Walker from Cold Chisel and James Reyne from Australian Crawl have more thoughts on the song writing process. Rounding out the selection is a 5:42 minute interview with Pseudo Echo's Brian Canham discussing his band's big hit Love An Adventure.