Pump Up D'Angelo: April 2011

Shazam! was an 80s TV show that played pop music and screened midweek, in the afternoon... about 5pm from memory? It was a simple format: play some music videos and chat to which ever pop star was visiting that week. If there were no international artists in town they'd talk to a local, who invariably had a new single and video to push. For local musicians one midweek screening on Shazam! and Radio With Pictures on Sunday night was all you'd get, since your record wouldn't chart (we didn't buy our own music back then) and therefore wouldn't screen on the very very popular Saturday evening Ready To Roll show.

In the early 80s I managed a synth-pop band called Katango (taking the job over from Mark Phillips) who managed to break into the NZ Top 20 twice. Meaning we were on Shazam! twice. Well, I was only on once since I wasn't actually in the band - but I did manage to be in one clip. I played the manager - franticly trying to get the band out of the dressing room and onto the Shazam! stage. I became infamous for clearly mouthing the word "Fuck!" on air as I looked at my watch, franticly. Truth be told I didn't actually say that at all, but if people thought I did... good, Katango were now edgy synth-pop.

Anyway, this was the early 80s and this was New Zealand so even at the tender age of 21 I had no problem wandering into the Shazam! office when I felt like pitching an idea. Usually I was trying to hustle my band. The show was hosted by the affable Phillip Schofield who stayed for about two years before going back to the UK with his TVNZ show reel and landing a job there. He went on to become a huge star in Britain, and I don't think he's ever been back.

In 1984 I pitched this idea to Shazam!...
I would run a nationwide breakdancing competition, and they would film the winning teams in each region, and viewers could vote and decide who was NZ's Next Top Breakdancing Crew! Or something like that. Schofield loved the idea, and so did Shazam! producer Peter Grattan. We had some meetings, exchanged a few letters, agreed to do it, and I got the whole she-bang underway.

Naturally it didn't go as smoothly as that, and I'll tell you what went wrong in Part Two...