Last year, I think, a female caller requested a Black Sabbath song...and it got played! That was the first time I'd ever heard a Black Sabbath song on commercial radio. Granted, it wasn't a very rock song ("Changes"), but it was cool that a band called Black Sabbath got played on mainstream radio.

Seeing as Vega play hard rock music sometimes, what other acts or songs would you like to see the station play?

In their current poll for the rock 500, I thought Aussie bands would do really well, so I voted for some songs I'd like to see get airplay on Vega. I went with:


Pixies: River Euphrates
Metallica: Fade to black
Black Sabbath: Iron man


Pixies have never been played on commercial radio over here but I think that they should. There are numerous pop or rock songs that would easily qualify as Classic Rock, I think. E.g. "Monkey gone to Heaven", "Where is my mind" and "The happening". Metallica too aren't just heavy metal...Fade To Black is a beautiful song, which has a classic riff later on in it.

What songs/acts would you guys like to see added to the playlist?

Hi dfle3,

I don't want to sound to negative but i don't think it's worth getting your hopes up to high of hearing a requested song on Vega. Myself and numerous others have posted on these boards reqesting and suggesting possible songs and artists to play but you never get anywhere or even get a response from any of the staff or moderators that look after this site.

I had high hopes a while ago that this station may of been different to the rest in that they would listen to and consider what listeners had to say but i'm sorry to say that's not the case.

Anyway, good luck!

Cheers
Bunga.

You may be right, but it really was gobsmacking that they played ANYTHING by Black Sabbath in the first place. Recently heard Triple M play a real rock song by Sabbath, but it was after midnight. Song was "Paranoid", which is a good 'un. Be good to hear "Iron man" too.

To me, it's a bit of a tragedy than a band like Pixies never got played here...they're definitely worthy of songs on a classic rock station.

Hmmm...I was wondering whether most of the posters on this board were actually Vega staff! You definitely don't sound like a Vega stooge!

P.S. what kind of songs have you requested?

Pixies have a variety of songs, so they should have something that Vega would be comfortable playing.

P.P.S. can you view Vega's top 500 rock songs online? Can't seem to find it here.

Cheers.

Hi dfle3,

I'm a bit of a Sabbath fan myself and would certainly like to hear them more on the radio. In fact any of the good old rock/metal bands, we simply just don't hear any where near enough of it.

Although i have made a few requests for songs and never had them played, the one i am really peeved about is the new KISS album. As a Sabbath fan you would be familiar with Eric Singer who nowdays is the drummer for KISS.

This album as i have said in other posts on the subject debut at No 1 on the Billboard rock chart in the States and even one of our own Herald Sun music writers voted it in his top ten albums of the year yet we still don't get to hear any tracks here on Vega. They're happy to roll with the typical mainstream stuff that you can hear on any other radio station. Sure they play a couple of Kiss songs every now and then but they play the same stuff as everybody else does ie; I was made for lovin you or Rock n Roll all night. Kiss have a great new album with a late 70's sound and i'm sure a lot of people would enjoy listening to a bit of that old school type of stuff if it was given a chance!

Anyway thats my bit...

Cheers
Bunga.

re Sabbath...just listened to Never Say Die...had heard it was crappe, but I quite liked it. It's got at least one song worthy of commercial play, I think...the Hard Road song, for starters.

re playlists and KISS etc...commercial stations with a mixed format, like Vega, don't play new KISS because it isn't a hit. And it's not a hit because stations like them don't play it. Bit of a catch 22.

re Vega...found it funny when Vega starting playing The Plain White Tees "Delilah" as a "new" song, when it had been and gone in the charts months ago!

Triple M seem to be changing their format a bit, which their polls are meant to do, I think. Hearing some Black Sabbath played now by them. But do agree that in the past lots of great bands were getting only one of their songs played...usually to death. It's why "You shook me all night long" by AC/DC went from being perhaps my favourite AC/DC song to one I tune out of once the singing starts. Just flogged to death. When Gold and Triple M had their own polls a while back. "It's a long way to the top" came out #1, and since then there's been some variety in what you hear by bands...thankfully.

Triple M seem to be doing better, variety wise...e.g they played Zep's "Living maid", which was out of left field. Not a fave of mine, but not predictable.

You heard any Pixies? US band, inspired Nirvana. Had some hits in the UK, but nothing here, I don't think. Have toured recently. Touring her

Whoops...word limit...cont:

You heard any Pixies? US band, inspired Nirvana. Had some hits in the UK, but nothing here, I don't think. Have toured recently. Touring here this year to play their Doolittle album in full. Sounds good. Excellent album. Hard to see why "Monkey gone to Heaven" didn't chart off of it here, or their earlier "River Euphrates"...great alt rock songs.

Cheers.

I have heard of the Pixies, havn't heard much of their stuff but it sounds like i should make the effort and get hold of some of their tunes and sit down for a proper listen. I have heard the song about the "monkey" or something like that, sorry can't remember exactly which one, i'm sure you will know. But yes i really do like their sound. Is their stuff available at JB-HIFI or is it special import stuff???
As for KISS, as you say, it won't be a hit here unless they play it. Radio stations are so backward in this country, no wonder people tune into the likes of PBS and JJJ etc, they may have to liten through some stuff that their not right into but at least they don't get their ears bashed by the same old stuff.
Speaking of AC/DC, now don't get me wrong i'm a massive AC/DC fan and i'll be at Etihad Stadium on the first night they play in Melbourne..should be awesome. But remember when they released Black Ice, Australian radio couldn't jump onto it quick enough, and of course that wasn't a hit yet!!!
This dumb arse/blinkers on mentality radio stations have in this country has got to change, we have to catch up with whats going on! If someone would have the balls to stand up and have a crack at playing a lot more variety they might be very suprised at the results. A lot of this classic rock/alternative music we are talking about is followed by people in their 30's/40's and beyond, the're the ones that go out and spend money on buying cd's and at gigs unlike others that spend stuff all and do stuff all for the overall music industry by downloading songs for free and only drinking water when they go out! Cheers... Bunga.

re Pixies, I was watching a docu on them on ABCd and the snatches of songs I heard sounded interesting. Had come across their name too in relation to being an influence on Nirvana/Cobain etc. So, I checked out their first cd and I liked it enough to check out everything else of theirs too. Managed to buy their cds at JB Hi Fi, so they're not special import. Speaking of which, wanted to rebuy some Billy Joel studio albums on cd as I'd ditched my cassette collection. Joel only seems to have compilations in stores now, so have to Amazon him!

Anyway, back to Pixies...their 'essential' albums are Surfer Rosa (that now comes with their EP "Come on pilgrim') and Doolittle. Both albums are excellent. My fave songs from SR are "River Euphrates", "Where is my mind" and "Bone machine". Faves from Doolittle are "Monkey gone to Heaven", "Tame" and more...memory foggy. Love "The happening" from another album, but the album isn't that good, in my view.

re Black Ice...might have to get that one of these days. Love "War machine" off of that, but it never gets played...not a fan of "Rock'n'roll train".

Had a phase many years ago of listening to alt radio but to me it's no different to chart music...very little of it is actually killer. So I just switch between stations like Vega, Gold and Triple M fishing for songs I like. Often they're not playing anything I like so I got more chart music stations. Then I try the alt stations...might check out briefly some m

Cont...

Had a phase many years ago of listening to alt radio but to me it's no different to chart music...very little of it is actually killer. So I just switch between stations like Vega, Gold and Triple M fishing for songs I like. Often they're not playing anything I like so I got more chart music stations. Then I try the alt stations...might check out briefly some metal music if it's playing, before going back to the classic hit stations.

If a classic hit station can play "Smells like teen spirit" then I don't think it's a great leap to play something like "River Euphrates" or "Monkey gone to Heaven"...Cobain had songs like that in mind when he wrote Teen Spirit.

P.S. re Vega's format...maybe they should call themselves "Vaguer"?

*** P.P.S. just noticed that Pixies videos are up on the homepage here...I suppose they've picked 'predictable' songs to post, but maybe it's a first step to actually playing them? For something easylistening to play on the radio by them, I'd go "The happening", and for some grunge classics I'd go "River Euphrates" and "Monkey gone to heaven". "Tame" might be a little too hardcore for mainstream radio, but it's a fun song.

N.B. Just added some of my own picks in the Videos section on the homepage...the Pixies songs I like, plus one Metallica song that I love. Damn...wanted to post up a new thread, but can't find my way to doing that...geez, this site isn't that easy!

Cheers.