Over 22 years since the first episode hit our screens, there’s a growing push from Aussie music fans to bring Recovery back to TV.
When Recovery was first broadcast in April of 1996, it gave countless fans of Australian music a chance to see their favourite bands in a relaxed and casual atmosphere, all while both viewers and bands were often recovering from a hectic evening the night before.
While 2016 saw the 20th anniversary of Recovery, former co-host Jane Gazzo even noted that she and Dylan Lewis had been approached about the possibility of a return to our screens. “We’ve been approached,” Gazzo explained to FasterLouder at the time. “We’ve got meetings on a potential TV return.”
While no concrete follow-up was ever announced, a newfound call for the show’s return has surfaced thanks to Adelaide rockers Bad//Dreems.
Just last year, Bad//Dreems hooked up with former host Dylan Lewis to recreate the iconic vibe of Recovery for their clip ‘Feeling Remains’. Needless to say, Aussie music fans were feeling pretty nostalgic after watching the video, and were undoubtedly hanging out to revisit the classic Saturday-morning staple.
Fast-forward to this week, and Bad//Dreems posted an image on Instagram of frontman Ben Marwe with Dylan Lewis, captioned with the phrase, “If this bags 500 likes we’re bringing back RECOVERY OK?!?”
The growing popularity of the post soon led to the group stating “1000 likes and we petition this beast”, with the photo having since risen to well over 1.5k likes, and gaining support from the likes of DMA’S, DZ Deathrays, and Violent Soho.
After having a bit of fun with the idea of the show returning, Jane Gazzo soon got in on the action, taking to Twitter to note that she had been flooded with fans petitioning for the return of the iconic program.
“Woke up to an abnormally large amount of tweets and insta’s regarding Recovery -the musicTV show I used to co-host on ABCTV with Dylan Lewis,” Gazzo wrote. “Seems the band Bad//Dreems are petitioning it to come back on TV.”
“If only Aunty had the guts to at least agree to a one-off spesh!”
https://twitter.com/JaneGazzo/status/1025605198394183680?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Calls for the return of the program happen to come just a couple of months after The Industry Observer noted that Australia badly needs a music show like Recovery once again. While the Adelaide-filmed music TV show Jam LIVE recently debuted on our screens, maybe now’s the time to bring back all those memorable live sets to our Saturday mornings once again?
“It’s well and truly time for a show like Recovery to be present on our televisions — with us would be best, but even without us, it needs a spot,” Dylan Lewis explained back in 2016. “There are no shows on TV for bands to play or promote their music.”
“It was a such a milestone, cult show. It had incredible reach, power and influence,” Jane Gazzo added.
While fans are happily enjoying calling for the return of Recovery, the next question would obviously have to be in regards to which bands would feature on the debut episode of the return.
Thankfully, good friends of Bad//Dreems, The Preatures, soon commented on the group’s post to note that “we’d do it if you did it”, meaning that not only could we have a long-awaited return of one of Australia’s best music TV shows on our screens once again, but we’d also manage to score a stunning lineup of Aussie rock on the debut episode of its return.
Now all we have to do is wait and see if we can petition the ABC to take a chance on the iconic show once again.
Check out Bad//Dreems’ Recovery-inspired ‘Feeling Remains’:
