''Six O'Clock Rock'' was an Australian

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

show broadcast on ABC from 28 February 1959 to 1962 at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

Program synopsis

Inspired by the BBC program '' 6.5 Special'', it had a similar format to its rival on the

TCN9 TCN is the flagship television station of the Nine Network in Australia. The station is currently located at 1 Denison Street, North Sydney. The licence, issued to a company named Television Corporation Ltd headed by Sir Frank Packer, was one o ...

network, ''

Bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...

'' compered by Brian Henderson. This was ABC-TV's first youth-oriented music program, long before ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

''. The show initially opened with American girl Ricki Merriman as compère and

Johnny O'Keefe John Michael O'Keefe (19 January 1935 – 6 October 1978) was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s. Some of his hits include " Wild One" (1958), " Shout!" and "She's My Baby". In his twenty-year career, O'Keefe rel ...

and his band The Dee Jays as guests. The Dee Jays consisted of Dave Owens (

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the Alto saxophone, alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key ...

), Johnny "Greeno" Greenan (

baritone sax The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

) and Johnny "Catfish" Purser on drums, Keith Williams on bass guitar, and Lou Casch on guitar, Bob "Bluto" Bertles, later a leading jazz player, substituted as the second saxophone. After six shows O'Keefe took over the hosting role. The show usually opened with O'Keefe singing ''"Weeeeeell, come on everybody it's six o'clock, uh huh huh huh"'', with The Graduates providing the "bap bap bap bap" background. The first episode featured

Reg Lindsay Reginald John Lindsay OAM (7 July 1929 – 5 August 2008) was an Australian country music singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and radio and television personality. He won three Golden Guitar Awards and wrote more than 500 ...

, The Australian All-Stars, The Graduates, Terry King and

Johnny Ball Johnny Ball (born Graham Thalben Ball; 23 May 1938) is an English television personality, a populariser of mathematics and the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball. Early life Ball was born in Bristol and attended Kingswood Primary School on th ...

. The dancers in the opening title sequence were Lee Nielson and Milton Mitchell. Entertainers who got their first big exposure on ''Six O'Clock Rock'' include Lonnie Lee, Barry Stanton and Warren Williams. The Delltones also debuted on this show, which was produced by Peter Page. The show originally contained a mixture of

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. The jazz was supplied by the Australian All Stars, featuring

Don Burrows Donald Vernon Burrows (8 August 1928 – 12 March 2020) was an Australian jazz and swing musician who played clarinet, saxophone and flute. Life and career Donald Vernon Burrows was born on 8 August 1928, the only child of Vernon and Beryl and ...

on alto and baritone sax, Terry Wilkinson on piano, Ron Webber on drums, Fred Logan on bass, and tenor player Dave Rutledge. The jazz musicians were always a bit uncomfortable with their role, and since O'Keefe insisted on deciding who should be on the show, the jazz numbers were few and far between. O'Keefe wanted the show to be all rock music. O'Keefe left the show in 1961 to move to

ATN-7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, ...

to compère the more elaborately produced '' Johnny O'Keefe Show''. These later shows were compered by Tanya Halesworth and Chet Clark, as seen in an existing 1961 edition. ''Six O'Clock Rock'' closed in 1962 after changing to a 'softer' format with O'Keefe's departure, and suffered from competition from O'Keefe's new show on Channel 7 and ''Bandstand'' on Channel 9.

References

Sources

*http://www.johnnyokeefe.com/joktv.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20070125214125/http://www.whiteroom.com.au/howlspace/en/okeefejohnny/okeefejohnny.htm
Photo of Lonnie Lee on Six O'Clock Rock
*"JO'K The Official Johnny O'Keefe Story" Chapter "Terror on TV"

External links

Six O'Clock Rock at the National Film and Sound Archive''Six O'Clock Rock'' at IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Six O'clock Rock Australian non-fiction television series Australian music television series Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 1959 Australian television series debuts 1962 Australian television series endings Black-and-white Australian television shows

Program synopsis

See also

References

Sources

External links