Rage (TV program)

"rage" is a popular all-night Australian music video program broadcast on ABC1 on Friday and Saturday nights. It was first screened on the weekend of Friday, April 17 1987. With "Soul Train" no longer being produced, it is the oldest television music program currently still in production. It is also the longest running "music video show" ever produced.

"rage" starts anywhere between 11pm and 1am and finishes at 9am on Saturdays and at 6:30am on Sundays.

On Friday new and recent releases are played, often including little heard of new names in the very early hours of Saturday morning. During his "John Safran's Music Jamboree" series, John Safran successfully demonstrated "...even a dog can get a video on rage.", by attaching a video camera to a dog, and editing the resulting footage together with simply produced looping music.

On Saturday it has specials and often has guest programmers, including local and international personalities from the music industry. In the past "rage" has shown the Australian Top 50 music chart on Saturday and Sunday mornings, however in mid 2006 this practice ceased and it now shows selected new release video clips and a one hour guest programming/special programming slot on Saturday morning, with new release videos on Sunday morning.

Between July 1993 and May 1995, "rage" aired a special New Releases program weekly from 2am until 4am on a Friday morning.

"rage" has a good reputation among viewers for its minimalist format which has remained largely unchanged for almost two decades. The only time a human is seen on "rage" delivering dialogue to the camera is when guest programmers appear on the Saturday night edition. Otherwise, the videos are run end-to-end with the occasional quick branding clip or the "rage" logo accompanied by a voice that simply says "Rage!" to break them up. A "crawl" is also used at times during the program, with details of upcoming Specials and Guest Programmers printed in text at the bottom of the screen during a short snippet of a selected clip. The titling on the videos is also very simple, with the artist and song name displayed briefly after the Rage logo near the beginning of each video. No other logos or watermarks appear over the clip as it plays.

Similar to ABC's Triple J radio station, "rage" tends to play more alternative genres of music. The Saturday night editions are themed. Often it's a simple dedication to an established artist by showing a large amount of their work. As an example of the other types of themes, in early 2004 edited highlights from "Countdown" (from the 70s and 80s) and "Recovery" (from the 90s) were shown over many weeks.

The first music video shown on "rage" was "Weirdo Libido" by the Lime Spiders. "(You Gotta) Fight For The Right (To Party)" by The Beastie Boys was the second.

On December 31, 1999, "rage" was off air for the night due to the ABC's commitment to the global telecast 2000 Today, which went for 26 hours. Ironically, "rage" was the first program on the ABC after 2000 Today.

Top Fifty

From around 7am to 10am on Saturday mornings and 4am to the end of show on Sundays it switches to the weekly Top Fifty from the ARIA Singles chart. "rage" aired the Top 60 chart from Sept 1990 to March 1991 and July 1991 to March 1994. If a video from the Top Fifty is unavailable, unsuitable or non-existent, it will be replaced by a splash screen of the "rage" logo with the position attained in the charts for the week, the artist's name and the track's title. Also, the videos shown until 6am are uncensored (after this, the rating is set back to G rated material). However, some clips are unavailable in this form, particularly due to heavier restrictions on clips which originate in the United States. Sometimes, two different video clips for the same song are shown in the one session. When this happens it is often a live (or sometimes remixed) version that is shown earlier in the night/morning, while the "mainstream" censored version shown after 6am is shown in the Top Fifty due to classification laws in Australia which prevent adult oriented material being shown in the after 6am timeslot.

"rage" has had to censor and remove videos which breach advertorial and editorial guidelines for ABC TV, for example in 1991 Adidas logos were blurred out in a music video by New Kids on the Block and in 2005 a music video by the Bratz Rock Angelz was removed due to its advertorial content. Post year 2000 "rage" is more liberal and lenient with censorship compared to the 90s. For example, "rage" by their own discretion opted to broadcast the Crazy Frog music video "Axel F" uncensored, showing the exposed penis of the frog, deeming it to be non-offensive.

From 2005 the Top Fifty was added to the ABC2 digital channel programming schedule as well from 8am to 11am. The Top Fifty was also broadcast to Asia on ABC Asia Pacific and has a large cult audience in Asian countries due to the prevalence of pop music there.

The weekend of 22 and 23 July 2006 was "rage"'s last broadcast of the Top Fifty countdown. In its place at 8am to 9am on Saturday mornings is a preview of the upcoming guest programmer or special, followed by the jtv Saturday program. "rage" programming on Sunday mornings includes a mix of new and hit songs. The decision to remove the Top Fifty countdown was made by ABC management, not "rage" production staff.

Guest programmers

"rage" have had many bands and artists host the show on Saturday nights. They select and introduce their favourite music videos of all time. This gives an insight into the bands and artists influences which are highly regarded by fans. Tapings of "rage" guest programmers are not only valuable but highly sought after.

Tex Perkins and Mike Patton are the most frequent guest programmers with four appearances on the rage couch. The most frequently chosen videos by guest programmers include Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" , The Saints' "(I'm) Stranded" and Aphex Twin's "Windowlicker".

imulcast

From New Year's Eve 1992, Triple J had simulcast "rage" from 1am until 6am. This ended in 2003 when Triple J introduced their new dance show "The Club" in the same timeslot.

Considering televisions are increasingly stereo as opposed to older mono sets, the simulcast's advantage is now moot. Digital television was also becoming popular, and digital television broadcasts can not be precisely synchronised with FM radio transmissions.

Theme song

The theme song used to open the show is sampled from Iggy Pop's extended version of "Real Wild Child", with Pop's vocals and the word "rage" manipulated backwards throughout.

The song used during the closing credits of the show is "Speed Your Love to Me" by Simple Minds.

"Sleepless" by King Crimson has also been used as the theme song.

Several years ago, a third theme was produced (also based on Iggy Pop's "Real Wild Child") to break up the Guest Programmer or Special's clips on Saturday nights.

In the last few years the show has been using another theme specifically for the for Top Fifty - sampled from the song "She Said" by now-defunct Brisbane band Lavish. It is now used instead of the opening theme to begin the Top Fifty and replace any missing clips.

During TISM's appearance on the show, they described the theme as "...new and exciting..." and its repetition as "...always stimulating.. why see different songs when you can see this one four or five times?"

Recently, before the guest programmers' timeslot on Saturday mornings, there is a drawn out and high-pitched scream of "rage".

Day of broadcast

Because the show usually starts on one day and ends on the next, it is often unclear which day the show belongs to. The producers have decided that even if it begins after midnight, it belongs to the earlier day (Friday or Saturday) even though the majority of the show (if not all) will be on the later day. This is most likely because television guides in Australia start and end each day at 6am.

End of Year Specials

For the last weekend of each year, "rage" has two specials. On the Friday night, a selection of the preceding year's videos is played. On the Saturday night, they have a selection of the year's Guest Programmers. This show will start with a series of Guest Programmers introductions that were shown at the beginning of each of their shows and will then include them introducing a few of the videos they selected during their program, followed by one or two of their videos.

On Sunday December 31, 2006, "rage" had a New Year's Eve special starting from midnight and going until 4:30am. It played all the greatest party songs, to bring in the new year.

For the first weekend of each year, the Top 50 timeslot on "rage" is used for the Top 50 songs of the previous year. This will no longer be the case from 2007 (for the Top 50 songs of 2006).

"rage" usually broadcasts music videos of songs from the Triple J Hottest 100 over two nights, several weeks after the Hottest 100 broadcast in late January each year (usually sometime during March).

At the end of 2007, the ABC's satirical comedy group The Chaser hosted a New Year's Eve edition of Rage, the event being dubbed "The Chaser's War on Rage".

Anniversary specials

Tenth Anniversary special

On April 19 1997 a special episode was aired to celebrate "rage"'s tenth anniversary. It included a selection, by year, of some of the clips that had aired on "rage" in the past ten years. It also included some footage of Guest Programmers from over the years. It was repeated later that year on December 20.

Twentieth Anniversary special

"rage"'s 20th anniversary occurred during April of 2007. Each Saturday night they played videos from an era in rage's history as well as "immortals" (clips that weren't around during the particular years) some of which were introduced by Guest programmers. Each week was introduced by some special footage and ended with a Star Wars style crawl saying which years would be featured the next week (except obviously the last week in which the crawl thanked everyone), and then an exploding birthday cake. It also featured stock footage of each year featured, summurising that year. It also featured a special theme song. The following is a breakdown of what was shown week by week: -
* Week 1 (7th April)
** Tex Perkins, the only man to Guest Program "rage" four time introduces the special
** clips from 1987 to 1991
* Week 2 (14th April)
** The "Godfather" of "rage" (its original Executive Producer Fact|date=May 2007) explains how the show got started and explains the theme song
** Clips from 1992 to 1996
* Week 3 (21st April)
** Current Executive producer Narrelle Gee explains "a week at "rage""
** clips from 1997 to 2001
* Week 4 (28th April)
** The new "rage" website is shown (as of 2007-10-07 is up and running) and the original one, which uses Shockwave is explained
** clips from 2002 to 2006
** this week also featured celebrities and festival goers throughout endorsing "rage" and wishing it a happy birthday.

CDs

Rage has released two double compilation albums, composed of songs that are popular with the programmers. The albums contain the following tracks:

CD One

;Disc one
# Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
# The Killing Moon – Echo & the Bunnymen
# Golden Brown – The Stranglers
# Venus In Furs – The Velvet Underground
# Fools Gold – The Stone Roses
# Just – Radiohead
# Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely – Hüsker Dü
# Monkey Gone to Heaven – The Pixies
# Los Angeles – Frank Black
# Cannonball – The Breeders
# Heart of Glass – Blondie
# Groove Is In the Heart – Deee-Lite
# Paid In Full – Eric B & Rakim
# Television, The Drug Of The Nation – Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
# The Message – Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five.

;Disc two
# (I'm) Stranded – The Saints
# Anarchy in the UK – Sex Pistols
# Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) – The Buzzcocks
# London Calling – The Clash
# Ghost Town – The Specials
# Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie
# Under The Milky Way – The Church
# Wide Open Road – The Triffids
# Alone With You – The Sunnyboys
# Sorry – The Easybeats
# Berlin Chair – You Am I
# Paranoid – Black Sabbath
# Chase The Dragon – Beasts of Bourbon
# Nick The Stripper – The Birthday Party
# The Mercy Seat – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
# Rise – Public Image Ltd

CD two

;Disc one
# That's Entertainment – The Jam
# The Cutter – Echo & The Bunnymen
# Train in Vain – The Clash
# Could You Be The One? – Hüsker Dü
# Know Your Product – The Saints
# Pretty Vacant – The Sex Pistols
# I Wanna Be Sedated – The Ramones
# Antmusic – Adam & the Ants
# Virginia Plain – Roxy Music
# Loaded – Primal Scream
# Sidewalking – The Jesus and Mary Chain
# Come To Daddy – Aphex Twin
# Blue Monday – New Order

;Disc two
# Last Goodbye – Jeff Buckley
# Everything's Fucked – The Dirty Three
# Atmosphere – Joy Division
# Pets – Porno for Pyros
# Mexican Radio-Edit – Wall of Voodoo
# The Majesty of Rock – Spinal Tap
# Kung Foo Sing – Regurgitator
# Bittersweet – Hoodoo Gurus
# Friday I'm in Love – The Cure
# Praise You – Fatboy Slim
# Can I Get a Witness – Marvin Gaye
# A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays" – De La Soul
# Jump Around – House of Pain
# Don't Believe the Hype – Public Enemy

DVDs

Two DVDs have been released, entitled "The Chosen Ones". These DVDs contain music videos popular with the programmers. On Saturday, 17 November 2007, Rage released their first themed DVD, entitled "Rage Gets Animated", released in response to the popularity of the animated special of 2006 (although the DVD features videos that were either omitted from the special, or were released after the special had been aired).

The Chosen Ones

# The Chemical Brothers – Let Forever Be
# Deee-Lite – Groove Is in the Heart
# Supergrass – Pumping on Your Stereo
# The Dissociatives – Somewhere Down The Barrel
# 1200 Techniques - Karma
# Outkast – Hey Ya!
# Moby – Bodyrock: The Auditions
# Bomfunk MC's - Freestyler
# Basement Jaxx – Where's Your Head At?
# The Prodigy - Breathe
# Jamiroquai – Virtual Insanity
# Eskimo Joe – From the Sea
# The Vines – Ride
# The Saints – (I’m) Stranded
# The Stranglers – Golden Brown
# Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Do You Love Me?
# Air – All I Need
# The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize?
# The Avalanches – Since I Left You
# Interpol – Evil
# Radiohead – Just
# Silverchair – Freak
# Faith No More – Epic
# Jet – Are You Gonna Be My Girl

The Chosen Ones, Volume 2

# Blur - Coffee & TV
# New Order – World (The Price of Love)
# Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence
# Placebo – Infra-Red
# P.I.L. - Rise
# Devo - Whip It
# Korn - Freak on a Leash
# Hilltop Hoods - Clown Prince
# Junkie XL - Today
# Neneh Cherry - Buddy X
# Kelis - Caught Out There
# Kylie Minogue - Confide in Me
# Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends
# Tiga - (Far From) Home
# Custard - Girls Like That (Don't Go For Guys Like Us)
# You Am I - Cathy's Clown
# The Flaming Lips - The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
# Badly Drawn Boy - Disillusion
# John Butler Trio - Zebra
# Youth Group - Forever Young
# We Are Scientists - The Great Escape
# Run-DMC - Walk This Way

Rage Gets Animated

# The Dissociatives - Horror With Eyeballs
# Radiohead - Paranoid Android
# Josh Pyke - Middle Of The Hill
# John Butler Trio - Good Excuse
# Red Hot Chili Peppers - Behind the Sun
# A-Ha - Take On Me
# 1990s - See You At The Lights
# Steriogram - Walkie Talkie Man
# Regurgitator - Black Bugs
# Klaxons - Atlantis To Interzone
# Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
# M.I.A. - Boyz
# Audio Bullys Featuring Nancy Sinatra - Shot You Down
# Cassius - The Sound Of Violence
# Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks
# Emiliana Torrini - Sunny Road
# José González - Heartbeats
# Nizlopi - JCB Song
# Angus and Julia Stone - The Beast
# Gotye - Hearts A Mess
# 1200 Techniques - Karma
# Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At
# The Vines - Anysound
# Grinspoon - Bleed You Dry
# Shihad - General Electric
# The Living End - What's On Your Radio
# Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit of the Summer
# Linkin Park - Pts.OF.Athrty
# Placebo - Special K
# Silverchair - Luv Your Life
# The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost
# Death Cab for Cutie - Crooked Teeth
# Blur - Coffee And TV
# Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
# Badly Drawn Boy - You Were Right
# The Presets - Girl And The Sea
# Royksopp - Eple
# Happyland - Hello!

20th Birthday CD and DVD

"rage" released a four-disc CD and a DVD celebrating its 20th birthday on May 21st 2007.

20 Years of Rage CD

CD 1: 1987-1991:
#Beastie Boys - (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
#Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full
#Gang Starr - Love Sick
#LL Cool J. - I Need Love
#Elvis Costello – Veronica
#Crowded House - Better Be Home Soon
#The Go-Betweens - Streets of Your Town
#The Stone Roses - Fools Gold
#New Order – True Faith
#S'Express - Theme From S'Express
#Jesus Jones - Right Here Right Now
#Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground
#Faith No More – Epic
#Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat
#Primal Scream - Loaded
#Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
#A Tribe Called Quest - Bonita Applebum
#De La Soul - Say No Go
#Sonic Youth - Kool Thing

CD 2: 1992-1996:
#Hole - Miss World
#Alice in Chains - Would?
#Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
#Urge Overkill - Positive Bleeding
#Butthole Surfers - Pepper
#The Cruel Sea - The Honeymoon Is Over
#Spiderbait - Buy Me A Pony
#Regurgitator – Couldn’t Do It
#King Missile – Detachable Penis
#Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks
#Porno for Pyros – Pets
#Kylie Minogue – Confide in Me
#Portishead - Sour Times
#Jesus and Mary Chain – Sometimes Always
#Oasis – Wonderwall
#Stereo MC's - Step It Up
#Underworld – Born Slippy Nuxx
#Suede - The Drowners
#Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds + Kylie Minogue - Where the Wild Roses Grow
#Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
#The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray

CD 3: 1997-2001:
#Radiohead - Paranoid Android
#The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You
#blink-182 - All The Small Things
#Supergrass - Pumping on Your Stereo
#The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl
#The Avalanches - Since I Left You
#Everything But The Girl – Missing
#Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me?
#Mercury Rev - Goddess On A Hiway
#Sugar Ray – Every Morning
#Custard - Girls Like That (Don't Go For Guys Like Us)
#Powderfinger - Like a Dog
#The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Smash It Up
#Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
#System of a Down - Chop Suey!
#Unwritten Law - Lonesome

CD 4: 2002-2006:
#Eskimo Joe – Liar
#Grinspoon - Chemical Heart
#The Sleepy Jackson - Good Dancers
#Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
#The Dissociatives - Somewhere Down The Barrel
#1200 Techniques – Karma
#OutKast - Hey Ya!
#Lily Allen - Smile
#LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
#Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks
#Josh Pyke – Middle of the Hill
#Bernard Fanning - Wish You Well
#Bloc Party - Banquet
#The Killers - Somebody Told Me
#The Vines - Get Free
#Wolfmother - Mind's Eye
#AFI - Miss Murder
#The Hives - Walk Idiot Walk
#Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl?

20 Years of Rage DVD

1987-1991:
#Beastie Boys - (You Gotta ) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
#Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full
#New Order - True Faith
#Hoodoo Gurus - What’s My Scene
#Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck
#The Stone Roses - Fools Gold
#Primal Scream - Loaded
#Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Mercy Seat
#Faith No More – Epic
#Sonic Youth - Kool Thing (revised audio)

1992-1996:
#Kylie Minogue – Confide in Me
#Pulp – Common People
#Weezer – Buddy Holly
#Oasis - Wonderwall
#Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
#Portishead – Sour Times
#Tricky – Black Steel
#Suede - The Drowners
#Butthole Surfers - Pepper
#Fun Lovin’ Criminals - Scooby Snacks

1997-2001:
#Air - All I Need
#Gomez - Get Myself Arrested
#Placebo - Pure Morning
#Hole – Celebrity Skin
#blink-182 - All The Small Things
#Supergrass - Pumping On Your Stereo
#Radiohead - Paranoid Android
#The Avalanches – Since I Left You
#Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me

2002-2006:
#Eskimo Joe – Liar
#Grinspoon - Chemical Heart
#Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Maps
#The Sleepy Jackson - Good Dancers
#The Dandy Warhols - We Used To Be Friends
#The Vines - Ride
#The Killers – Somebody Told Me
#Bernard Fanning - Wish You Well
#The Dissociatives - Somewhere Down The Barrel
#The Hilltop Hoods – The Clown Prince
#OutKast - Hey Ya!

ee also

* List of Australian music television shows

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/rage Official rage website]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/broadband/ ABC Broadband] (Includes rage videos on demand)
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rage/guest/archive/1990.htm 1990 Guest List] (Rage Guest's Of 1990, not linked on official site)