It was twenty years ago, Trash Disco started to play… yes, I’ve slightly ruined those lyrics. We’re up to 2015 now, if you want to read the show’s history from the beginning, click here.
It’s early 2015, and while I’ve been keeping the Trash Disco flame alive on social media for a while, the opportunity to do another broadcasting course appeared. I emailed Plenty Valley FM and I attended the course. You’re never guaranteed a who at the end of these courses, but I applied. The people were (and still are) marvellous. They liked the idea of the show and I was allowed to run riot on the air. The first show back on air was on October 3, 2015. The first song played was Adam And The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier. The show has been on almost every Saturday since.
From time to time in the early days I filled in on other shows – Let’s Rock, The Heat Is On, Those Were The Days.
Initially it was very similar to the original Trash Disco – except that Weekly Weird Al was now at the first half hour instead of on the hour. Very soon the “New-ish” half hour became a thing. The 90s were now fifteen years ago, so new stuff from 80s & 90s people was more important as it was a bit rarer. Theme nights became a regular fixture.
Some time during 2016, Christine did the broadcasting course and has been guesting and occasionally taking over the show ever since.
From early 2020, just before COVID became a thing, the Super Happy Fun Nights also became a thing. These occur whenever there are five Saturdays in a month – the fifth being the Super Happy Fun Night, which is three hours of dance party tunes from the 70s onwards. Groovy.
In 2017, I took a trip to the UK, and I was luck enough to get interviews with both Howard Jones and Right Said Fred. Howard Jones was via phone, but Right Said Fred was an in person interview while they were having lunch. Later on, back on home turf in 2018 I interviewed Maggie Dunne of Fuzzbox and Simon Raymonde of the Cocteau Twins. Since then it’s been a bit quiet on the interview front.
The main difference between Trash Disco version 1 and the current version is the advent of social media. Listeners can actively engage with the show via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and sometimes even by the conventional landline! It makes the show a lot of fun to do and listeners have made new online friendships out of it.
COVID saw me out of a job and launching a podcast – Trash Disco Words Edition – in which Christine and I (and sometimes me and a different person) would review an 80s album track by track. This is currently dormant, but hopefully will be resurrected soon.
So here we are in 2022. Twenty years since the first Trash Disco, and about to have our seventh birthday at Plenty Valley FM in early October. Raise a glass to the regulars – DeeDee, Andrew, Phil, Frankie, Soula, Sooz, Timo and Lissanne – and also everyone else who listens in when they can.
One day I would love to DJ in a real venue and bring Trash Disco to life. I got a small taste of that recently when I DJed at Alternative 80s in Toorak and some listeners who knew each other online met in real life for the first time. Hoping to do more of that in the future.
So thank you to all the listeners, for keeping Trash Disco alive. Without you there would be no show at all.
Trash Disco 