Six O'Clock Rock

Six O'Clock Rock is an Australian rock and roll television show broadcast on ABC Television from 28 February 1959 to 1962 at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

Program synopsis Inspired by the BBC program Six-Five Special, it had a similar format to its rival on TCN-9, Bandstand compered by Brian Henderson. This was ABC-TV's first youth-oriented music program, long before Countdown.

The show initially opened with American girl Ricki Merriman as compère and Johnny O'Keefe and his band The Dee Jays as guests. The Dee Jays consisted of Dave Owens (tenor sax), Johnny "Greeno" Greenan (baritone sax) 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, The Australian All-Stars, The Graduates, Terry King and Johnny Ball. 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 rock and roll and jazz. The jazz was supplied by the Australian All Stars, featuring Don Burrows 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 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.

Hosts It is unclear when Rickie (sometimes written Ricky or Ricki) Merriman was replaced by Johnny O'Keefe as host. Originally Merriman was announced as hosting, while some press claimed O'Keefe would be host. Later, in March 1959 Merriman and O'Keefe were both listed as hosts, or just Merriman. Merriman was listed as host until at least April 1959. Some sources list Merriman as having hosted "about six episodes". O'Keefe then became the permanent host from June 1959. Other host and co-hosts included Sydney DJ's Alan Lappan and Rhett Walker, singers Chet Clark, Johnny Rebb, Dig Richards, Lucky Starr, and ABC newsreader Tanya Halesworth.

Six O'Clock Rock

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