Six O'Clock Rock


Six O'Clock Rock was an Australian Rock and Roll television show which showed on ABC from 28 February 1959 to 1962 and was broadcast at 6PM on Saturday evenings.

Program synopsis

Inspired by the BBC program 6.5 Special, it had a similar format to its rival on the TCN9 network, Bandstand compered by Brian Henderson. This was ABC-TV's very first youth oriented music program, long before the start of 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 Greeno and Bluto on saxes, Johnny '"Catfish" Purser on Drums, Keith Williams on Bass, and Lou Katz on Guitar. After six shows O'Keefe had taken over the hosting role. The show usually opened with O'Keefe singing "Weeeeeell, come on everybody it's 6 o'clock, uh huh huh huh", with the Graduates providing the "bap bap bap bap" background.
The first episode also 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.
Many entertainers got their first big exposure on 6 O'Clock Rock and these included Lonnie Lee, Barry Stanton and Warren Williams. The Delltones also debuted on this show. The show 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, Terry Wilkinson on piano, Ron Webber on drums, Fred Logan on bass, and tenor player Dave Rutledge. The jazz guys were always a bit uncomfortable with their role, and since Okeefe 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 and Roll, hence the title, so the Jazz content dwindled for a time.
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 & Chet Clark, as seen in an existing 1961 edition. 6 O'Clock Rock closed in 1962 after having moved to a 'softer' format with O'Keefe's departure, suffering from greater competition from O'Keefe's new show on 7 and Bandstand on 9.