Did You Know?

Young Talent Time was not expected to do well on its debut in 1971, it was up against the Victorian Football League.

Jamie Redfern was the first member to leave the show, he was chosen by Liberace to tour America, he would come back to Australia in 1972, and his support acts were the Young Talent Team and John Farnham (then known as Johnny Farnham).

The short film Caravan Holiday was filmed in colour and was screened in theatres but most originally saw it on their Black & White TV as colour TV did not arrive until 1975 and they had to wait for Caravan Holiday to reappear on the DVD special edition of the YTT documentary.

Greg Mills and Julie Ryles were the first two new team members.

Greg Mills and Julie Ryles don’t have a song on the first Young Talent Time album.

Joe Perrone released ‘Don’t Stop‘ with Sebastian Krieg in 2012.

Young Talent Time was revived in 1990 in a direct-to-video format, this format brought back the last team members and Beven Addinsall, this format lasted only the one video.

YTT 1971-88’s first song was ‘Up, Up and Away’, a song made famous by The Fifth Dimension.

YTT 2012’s last song was ‘Without You’.

Rod Kirkham hosted Rod’s Fun Palace on Channel Nine.

The first two singles to chart for Jamie Redfern were ‘Little White Cloud (That Cried)’ which peaked at No. 39 after charting in July 1971 and ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ peaked at No. 31 after charting in December 1971.

Jamie’s Redfern’s double A-side release ‘Rainbow on the River’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’ was a No. 5 hit in 1972 and they were the 53rd ranked songs for the year.

Johnny Young’s ‘Reach for the Sun’ peaked at No. 80 in 1972; the Young Talent Team sang background vocals on it.

Jamie’s ‘Venus’ peaked at No. 5 in 1973, it entered the charts in May that year, it was the 54th ranked song for the year.

Rod Kirkham’s ‘I Can’t Get Sunday Out of My Mind’ peaked at No. 37 after charted from April 1973.

Both Derek and Jamie Redfern charted in 1974, Jamie got the highest chart position as ‘Hitch a ride on a Smile’ peaked at No. 20 and ‘Put Your Head on My Shoulder’ peaked at No. 71.

Debra Byrne charted twice in 1974, ‘He’s A Rebel’ peaked at No. 25 and the Double A-Side single Boogie Man/Da Do Ron Ron peaked at No. 29.

Philip Gould’s ‘Centre Fold’ peaked at No. 94 in 1975; it charted from October that year.

Vicki Broughton’s ‘Good Good Morning’ peaked at No. 99 in 1975; it charted in August that year.

Joey Dee was successful on The Voice; he made it to the knockout rounds in Season 8 (2019).

Tia got the music video to her single ‘Stranded‘ to air on Rage, an impressive feat as it was released independently, the music video has over 15,000 views on YouTube.

‘Beven the Musical‘ was aired in 1999 and was performed by Peter Helliar and Tripod, songs parodied included ‘Heaven must be there’, ‘Tears in Heaven’ and ‘Heaven is a place on Earth’.

Natalie & Vince recorded the single ‘Just Don’t Wanna Be Lonely‘ and performed it on several TV shows, it charted in May 1989 and peaked at #75.

Plans were made towards the end of the 1971-88 run for Johnny Young to retire and the show handed off to a new host; the show was cancelled before that could take place.

Jamie Redfern referred ‘The Rain, The Park and Other Things’ as ‘The Rain, The Park and You know the rest’.

Beven Addinsall was a hit on Australia’s Got Talent in 2022, the only problem was that when he was up for the next round, he couldn’t go and had to leave the competition.

Tim and Vince made the pilot episode of a talent show called Evolution, while it was not picked up by any TV networks it did have a pre-fame Havana Brown as well as The Veronicas which shows that they knew what they were doing.

A Young Talent Time reboot was also planned at the same time as Evolution, but no pilot was done, the press reportedly played up a feud between the two camps.