It rained all day in Brisbane, so the half-kilometre walk from Boondall station to the Entertainment Centre was a puddle-dodging exercise. That didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd, which seemed to contain a few more people around my age than Newcastle. No-one was likely to assume we were here for an Eminem concert, though.

So [...]

The show started pretty promptly at 1935 — and given that Gavin Wood had to announce that Plastic Bertrand wouldn’t be appearing (not sure if that’s just Newcastle or the whole tour), I guess they could spare the time. So here’s the rundown:

ACT ONE

Katrina, ‘Walking On Sunshine’: A good upbeat opening, and Katrina was in [...]

I should have noted this much earlier (when I booked the tickets), but following the success of last year’s Countdown Spectacular, which I followed all around the country, the promoters are repeating the exercise this year. The new twist is we also get international performers this time around, although there’s still plenty of Aussies to [...]

Last night’s final show in Brisbane was excellent, with plenty of end-of-tour hijinks and a promise that there’ll be a second tour next year. However, it’s going to be a day or two before I get a chance to write it up and share the pics. In the meantime, enjoy this snap of Leo Sayer [...]

I always suspected that the whole Countdown tour was going to be recorded for subsequent commercial release, and that Melbourne was a likely candidate (given that it was also the location where the show itself was filmed). And last night’s performance at Rod Laver Arena is indeed destined for a DVD player near you sometime [...]

With a highly-staged show like the Countdown Spectacular, you don’t expect particularly large alterations from venue to venue. Nonetheless, there were indeed a few changes between the Newcastle and Sydney shows, summarised below:
We’re obviously going to get bad ‘local’ Molly jokes in each city. The Sydney tale was a shaggy dog story about Molly visiting [...]

The evenings always start off slowly when you go to a concert on your own in a place you’ve never visited before, especially if, like me, you’re hopelessly paranoid. It starts with the train. I’m staying at Wickham, just 5 minutes away from the Newcastle Entertainment Centre by train. The concert starts at 7:30pm, and [...]

Tonight, I’m off to the first Countdown Spectacular concert in Newcastle. I’m not being as obsessive about this show as I was about the superficially similar Here & Now tour — largely because Here & Now was a purely 80s show, while all of the top-of-the-bill acts from the Countdown setup have a 70s emphasis. [...]