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Top 25 Best Recovery Moments

Tue 5th Jul, 2011 in Features

With news breaking over night that Channel Ten’s long-running Video Hits has been canned, it may be time to consider the resuscitation of perennial ‘90s ABC music show Recovery.

Hosted by a spiky-haired Dylan Lewis and a hair-clip lovin’ Jane Gazzo, Recovery made Saturday mornings something special. For four years it entertained us with endless awkward interview moments and some genuinely amazing musical performances. From Rivers Cuomo’s jet-lagged interview disaster to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion smashing up the ABC studios, music television didn’t get much better.

So, in honour of another fallen TV program and in the hope that ABC starts re-running old Recoverys to fill the lag in Saturday morning music television viewing, we have put together out top 25 favourite Recovery moments – from musical performances to interviews gone awry.

25. MAVIS’ – CRY
No band better represents 1998 in Australia than The Mavis’s; Guys with spiky hair and chunky soled shoes, girls wearing lime-green with pig tails and far too many hair clips. Their performance of (possibly their only) hit Cry.

24. GRINSPOON – JUST ACE
Fresh from being unearthed by triple j a baby-faced, orange haired Phil Jamieson leads his equally baby-faced bandmates through 1998’s nonsensical summer anthem Just Ace.

23. YOU AM I INTERVIEW
Dylan Lewis’ ever awkward interview style meets a very young, dry-humoured Tim Rogers. It’s equal parts uncomfortable and interesting viewing.

22. DEFTONES Out in Australia promoting their hit album Around The Fur, Chino from the Deftones barely managed to keep his eyes open during the band’s performance of Be Quiet And Drive ( Far Away ), let alone the interview with Jane Gazzo that followed. Ah, the ‘90s, when being stoned on national TV was a-ok.

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daverh

daverh said on the 5th Jul, 2011

We'll see a revival of Pepsi Chart Live before we see one for Recovery.

Mattymatt

Mattymatt said on the 5th Jul, 2011

don't forget the time frenzal rhomb poured custard all over dave mccormack when he hosted one week.

sarahanne

sarahanne said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Amazing - I couldnt find any footage of it though!

berlinchair101

berlinchair101 said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Recovery was so awesome. My brother and I would tape it and watch again and again after school.

MorningAfterboy

MorningAfterboy said on the 5th Jul, 2011

I can't even begin to count how many times the word "awkward" is in this article.

batdan

batdan said on the 5th Jul, 2011

I have to wait a week to watch all of these clips. Great moments here for sure. Thanks for the reminder.

huck

huck said on the 5th Jul, 2011

What next the best 25 up-skirts of the Solid Gold Dancers???

(BTW this comment isn't funny if you have to Wiki it.)

Braveheart81

Braveheart81 said on the 5th Jul, 2011

That will be part of the upcoming 25 Best Pop Culture References of the '80s Huck.

Got any others?

sarahanne

sarahanne said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Haha that's because Recovery was ALL about awkward.

batdan

batdan said on the 5th Jul, 2011

What about the Factory? Alex Pappas and one of the Daddos were the coolest.

hellboy1975

hellboy1975 said on the 5th Jul, 2011

If I remember correctly, weren't The Melvins the house band one time? I remember that being pretty cool...

MorningAfterboy

MorningAfterboy said on the 5th Jul, 2011

The Chris Knox video is amazing. What a guy.

Stefan Beck

Stefan Beck said on the 5th Jul, 2011

What's the best Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album?
Been meaning to check them out for awhile.

batdan

batdan said on the 5th Jul, 2011

What's the best Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album?
Been meaning to check them out for awhile.

Orange. Hurry up already.

MissB

MissB said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Secret Chiefs 3 on Recovery = awesome.

huck

huck said on the 5th Jul, 2011

"Pity da fool", comes to mind BH.

mintos said on the 5th Jul, 2011

custard over mccormack all the way

DougieAndJayney

DougieAndJayney said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Bring back Ground Zero!!!

*crickets*

DougieAndJayney

DougieAndJayney said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Also, Screamfeeder playing "Bridge Over Nothing", featuring the Enforcer (is that right? I was usually hung over during recovery) bursting through a wall of fake marshall stacks. gold.

nomadiquemc

nomadiquemc said on the 5th Jul, 2011

so much happy here. i feel so old. get off my lawn.

daveyac8881

daveyac8881 said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Those last 2 videos are awesome. I only vaguely remember this show.

squagz

squagz said on the 5th Jul, 2011

Still got the Recovery BDO 2000 special recorded on VHS. Was incredible to have access to that footage at the time, specially living in regional WA. Let's not forget Angus Sampson's Recovery stint in his pre-Saw days. The show was all about The Ripping Friends by that stage. Just bring back Vidiot I say...

bucketboy63

bucketboy63 said on the 5th Jul, 2011

It's strange seeing Burke Reid with long head hair and no facial hair. I can only think of him as the long-haired, producer extraordinaire, beardy Canada-living Burke Reid that he is now.

themhumm

themhumm said on the 5th Jul, 2011

man jon spencer looks young in that

MorningAfterboy

MorningAfterboy said on the 5th Jul, 2011

THE BLUES!
THE BLUES IS NUMBER ONE!

HelloSailor

HelloSailor said on the 6th Jul, 2011

Oh how I miss the 90's *sigh*

psymon

psymon said on the 6th Jul, 2011

so being stoned on tv in 1998 was no big thing? ....you're just making stuff up. romanticising.

MorningAfterboy

MorningAfterboy said on the 6th Jul, 2011

What the fuck are you talking about

sarahanne

sarahanne said on the 6th Jul, 2011

I was just having a laugh mate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SK3y1a8TYs

berlinchair101

berlinchair101 said on the 6th Jul, 2011

Oh sorry Sarah, I don't think you've heard...

http://spongeist.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/11h4hnd1.jpg

sarahanne

sarahanne said on the 6th Jul, 2011

LOL how have I never seen that before

anthony martin

anthony martin said on the 6th Jul, 2011

the jon spencer bit was awesome...i remember it vividly...it got me into them it was so good...and cranking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anthony martin

anthony martin said on the 6th Jul, 2011

midnight oil are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RubyCharade

RubyCharade said on the 6th Jul, 2011

where is frenzal's custard prank?

k-rad

k-rad said on the 6th Jul, 2011

i remember when i got my first job (at woolworths) in 1996, i was upset i wouldn't be able to watch recovery on saturday mornings..

HelloSailor

HelloSailor said on the 6th Jul, 2011

My best Dylan moment!! :D

Dylan Lewis at BDO
http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g351/sailorette83/P1301274.jpg

berlinchair101

berlinchair101 said on the 6th Jul, 2011

I was looking at this on my phone and I could only see that guy in the background with the cowboy hat. I was thinking "man, Dylan Lewis really let himself go."

Then I saw the whole photo. There are a couple of reasons why this is better than all of Lukey and Deenos' celeb mug shots.

SlowerQuieter

SlowerQuieter said on the 6th Jul, 2011

You're hacking everyone's accounts these days, Gregg.

HelloSailor

HelloSailor said on the 6th Jul, 2011

Looking back at the recovery footage he looked a bit skinny!!

Looks better here!

bigval said on the 7th Jul, 2011

recovery and it's cousin the 10:30 slot were awesome. i would've had silverchair's performance of no association in the top five moments all-time for how hard they rocked out, back when sc were a good band. secret chiefs 3 doing renunciation would be up there too along with fireballs doing life takes too long.

coxy from the fauves was hilarious as fill in host, both the melvins and fireballs did great stints as the house band and long forgotten sin dog jellyroll were awesome on there too.

the real top five moments on recovery:

5. deftones-my own summer
4. secret chiefs 3-renunciation
3. silverchair-no association
2. jsbx-2 kindsa love

and for whatever reason left off this person's list but clearly the best/most awkward/awesome moment in recovery history was when after their interview green day grabbed the house band's gear and belted out an unannounced and expeltive riddled the grouch.

dylan was apologising and clearly pissed off about it too.

that green day clip has only got more than 600,000 views and would be in the top performances in oz tv history.

Stocky76 said on the 7th Jul, 2011

i tried to find a video of the time public enemy were on recovery and they didn't know it was a show recorded live. as they thought they were in rehearsal, their performance consisted of them mucking around including while dylan was trying to introduce them.

mark2712 said on the 8th Jul, 2011

i still have my recovery cd's with all the awesome live performances, rage was for when you got home from the pub and were stil pissed, and recovery was for the hangover the next morning

matt666

matt666 said on the 8th Jul, 2011

the world needs more rock n roll moments like the jsbe performance. too much ga ga-ing and biebering these days...

pistola said on the 8th Jul, 2011

cj bolland doing 'sugar is sweeter' was memorable.

Cooky said on the 8th Jul, 2011

for those of us of a certain age we have fond memories of "beatbox" on the abc in the late 80's which was the precursor to recovery and excellent in its own way but not as gloriously shambolic. one high/low-light from memory was getting rock stars of the day to divulge their masturbatory habits with angry anderson being particularly straightforward and amusing. hmmmmm - how about bringing this back!

Stuo

Stuo said on the 9th Jul, 2011

Ah I remembered watching that Greenday interview at the time, its was so funny!

RustyinBondi

RustyinBondi said on the 10th Jul, 2011

TISM - Belting out Ol' Man River and Dylan joining in on the spectacle AWESOME

Ronny

Ronny said on the 11th Jul, 2011

Leigh has just posted a new blog entry about his time at Recovery. FL gets a mention at the bottom too.

[URL="http://thewordinthestone.com/#!110"]Here

MissB

MissB said on the 12th Jul, 2011

Actually another one of my fav moments was when Imogen Heap performed 'Come Here Boy' on the show. She was only here for a promo tour.

DinkiDIDude

DinkiDIDude said on the 17th Jul, 2011

'No band better represents 1998 in Australia than The Mavis%u2019s', really?, these guys scream 2010.

TnkA said on the 22nd Jul, 2011

he is just a shit interviewer all together! i can't stand him! just look at the interview with rise against at big day out last time...

BennyBoop

BennyBoop said on the 3rd Apr, 2012

did you see the one with the interview between dandy warhols & jane gazzo wow did she had a tough job that morning...still have heaps of videotaped recovery packed away,my favourite probably when jarvis cocker was one of the hosts along with dylan & pulp drummer whatsisname. livid was on that day so there was alot of great bands there too

hedonism gibbon

hedonism gibbon said on the 4th Apr, 2012

What's the best Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album?
Been meaning to check them out for awhile.

THE BLUES IS NUMBER ONE!!!!

god that was so excellent seeing one of my favorite band ever tear that studio apart

just found this thread so i'm a bit slow on thw uptake.... but yep "orange" is great and their most successful album released, but for pure blues-drenched punk-rock you can't go past "now I got worry" ..from go-to-whoa it's always been my favorite, each song follows the previous so well and the guitar tone is sublimely garage and in your face

i just love "plastic fang" too.. and "extra width" + "extra acme" are well worth a few listens also

but like most great rock bands, seeing them LIVE is where it's at!

P.S. the show BEATBOX was excellent in the 80s.... whoever mentioned that, thumbs up

LeadMagnet

LeadMagnet said on the 17th Oct, 2012

This was a great trip down memory lane! I love that you had the Chris Knox moment in there :)

Was this GBV clip from recovery? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODK0MXIXkk0
If so then it should have been on the list too!

OrdinaryInfidel

OrdinaryInfidel said on the 19th Oct, 2012

Some real nostalgia there, mostly a reminder that the good thing about Recovery was the music and the thing that made it borderline unwatchable was the presenters.

grattan

grattan said on the 20th Oct, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BNPqyJR4Is

Piko

Piko said on the 20th Oct, 2012

Hrmm i missed this thread. Poor Mavis's. Their album Venus Returning (pre Cry) was one of my favourites when it came out *sigh*. Still don't mind it to be honest.

As for being stoned on the show?? I feel like I remember Jane Gazzo saying "oh yes you are looking tired this morning" or alike, almost every week. I always thought she did a good job trying to keep everything from going haywire. Like holding up the list of whats on next week because she knew she couldn't be heard in the John Spencer vid.

MorningAfterboy

MorningAfterboy said on the 22nd Oct, 2012

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loz70tlfki1qeqnvao1_500.gif

"On closer inspection, that was a figure of speech."