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Friday Flashback: What’s Equity Got To Do With It?

When Tina Turner appeared on Countdown in 1984, it wasn't without a dig at a ban enforced on her by Actors Equity.

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Back in 1984 the legendary Tina Turner made one of her various Countdown appearances… over the years she sang, hosted and chatted with the equally legendary Molly Meldrum.

At the time Turner was performing at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney and Melbourne in dinner+show concerts which had been booked prior to her enjoying renewed global success with Private Dancer. 

Actors Equity also allowed her to perform in Mad Max III: Beyond Thunderdome -but they drew the line at further concerts which Tina had wanted to for her many younger fans who couldn’t afford the Hilton tix at a steep $56 per head (yes really).

Under visa rules, Tina was banned from doing further work during her Australian visit. Even a floated charity concert was knocked back with the controversy attracting front page headlines.

Check the video of this Countdown moment, where a young fan’s t-shirt protest led to Tina, singing “What’s Equity Got To Do With It?”

3 Responses

  1. I went to those shows before she became famous again – with my mother – she was brilliant. It was great seeing her in small venues. I never felt the need to go to those big concerts of hers. Same with John Farnham I saw him before he got famous again at Billboard for a New Years show again brilliant never thought was better than those days.

  2. I cant really say I was a Tina Turner fan but do like some of her better known songs, watching her in action at concerts you cant help thinking she was a workaholic which is a legacy of all those who worked in the music industry in the 60’s and 70’s, so a newspaper article today that said she regretted not being more conscious of her own health problems, especially regarding her liver when she was younger is probably a message for all of us.

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