Molly Meldrum

Generations of us have grown up with Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum beaming into our lounge rooms, signature cowboy hat on head – first on the ground-breaking music show Countdown which ran for 13 years, then on Hey Hey It’s Saturday (where his co-stars included a plucky duck and a puppet on a stick).

His music knowledge is encyclopaedic, but his real genius has always been his affable interviewing style, gentle anarchy and his genuine passion for pop music and those who make it. He king-hit Johnny Rotten, interviewed Madonna while Sean Penn sprawled on his bed, was buddies with Elton John and Kylie Minogue, and received a get-well card from the White House after the fall that landed him in a coma.

His connections with Australian music culture predate his on-screen days, though – he was a central fixture at pioneering music magazine Go-Set, which famously kickstarted Lily Brett’s writing career (she calls Molly ‘enduringly endearing’) and employed renowned music critic Robert Forster (also a Molly fan). At Go-Set, his first interview was with a little-known Johnny Young. And Molly produced Russell Morris’s pop classic The Real Thing.

In his autobiography, The Never Um … Ever Ending Story, Molly looks back over an extraordinary, eccentric and action-packed life – one filled with friendship, parties, outrageous anecdotes and colourful characters.

Join this beloved national treasure and sit back and be entertained, Molly-style, as he shares the highlights (and maybe the occasional lowlight) of his glittering career. Molly speaks with Triple M radio presenter/producer and former Nightmoves host Lee Simon.