Music industry legend Molly Meldrum has undergone surgery overnight to relieve swelling on his brain after he fell from the roof while putting up Christmas decorations at his Richmond home.
I reckon for most Australian Gen-Xers with an interest in music, Molly Meldrum is just someone who’s always been there, as host of Countdown, then later on Hey Hey.
As a kid I used to regularly watch Countdown on a Sunday afternoon, always keen to see what had made it into the top ten. I can’t claim I liked all the music, but was fascinated by the music videos and live performances.
I remember watching the psychedelic music video to Ashes To Ashes. (Released August 1980, so I must have been about 10.) My mum looked at the TV and made some remark along the lines of how strange it was. I recall getting all self-righteous and saying back “you wouldn’t understand” — as if I had some deep, knowing connection with it.
Despite for a while living a short distance from the ABC’s Ripponlea studios, I never actually went along to a recording of Countdown, though my sister did once. She came home with a freebie LP of Cyndi Lauper.
Molly popped up on the Queen documentary recently aired by the ABC, in archival footage, interviewing Freddie Mercury. I know he’s still active as well, so his influence is still felt in the music industry, and I’m sure many will be wishing him a full and speedy recovery.
4 replies on “Get well soon, Molly”
I’ve never met Molly personally, but over the years I’ve met a few people who know him, and they all said the same thing: he is as friendly, warm, unpretentious, and thoroughly likeable offscreen as he is on. He’s loved by countless people, and no one has a bad word to say about him. In an industry that can be notoriously bitchy at times, that’s no small achievement.
Like Allen Jones he’s one of the gay celebrities in our midst who never felt obliged to come out publicly in support of others who would have been helped by the acknowledgment, I still wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.
He’s one of those Aussie blokes that you can truly call a ‘legend’. Countdown was essential Sunday night viewing – after all, what else was there to talk about at high school the next day? “Did you see Billy Idol at the awards – was he drunk or what?”
I went to the greater union gold class cinema when it first opened in Melbourne (was that at Crown Casino…?) and Molly joined us.
My claim to fame.