Molly Meldrum

His father was Robert Meldrum (7 April 1907 – 1978), a farmer from Caniambo (25 km from Shepparton) and then a World War II army sergeant (Service No. VX25722)—who served with the A.I.F. in Port Moresby—and his mother was Isobel Elizabeth (née Geer) (1912–1969) from Orbost.

The couple married on 17 August 1940, two months after Robert's enlistment.

Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM (born 29 January 1943)

is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur.

Ian Alexander Meldrum was born in Orbost, Victoria, on 29 January 1943.

Meldrum's younger brothers are Brian (born 1946, Mildura) and Robert (born 1950, Kerang).

Meldrum moved around during childhood and grew up largely with one of his grandmothers in Quambatook, where he attended the local primary school alongside future country music artist John Williamson.

He also stayed with a number of aunts and was raised in the traditions of the Church of England.

He developed a musical interest in Gilbert & Sullivan and Verdi.

Meldrum's father later ran a hardware store in Kyabram.

Meldrum has featured on the Australian music scene since the mid-1960s, first with his writing for Go-Set (1966–74), a weekly teen newspaper, then during his tenure with Countdown and subsequent media contributions.

His mother had periodic hospitalisations for mental illness including some years at Larundel Mental Asylum, Bundoora in the mid-1960s.

In the early 1960s Meldrum arrived in Melbourne where he briefly attended Taylors College.

Initially intending to become a disc jockey he studied at a radio school.

He would go to University of Melbourne without formally enrolling, carrying law books, to eat lunch with the law students: "I hung around, I wouldn't even say I got into a course."

Soon after, he had moved in with the family of his close friend, Ronnie Burns, who became a pop star: first as a member of The Flies (1964–65) and then as a solo artist.

Meldrum had followed Burns to the latter's home and asked, "Is there any chance I could come and live with you and your family?"

What had started as a two-week stay with the Burns family became nine years.

During The Beatles' tour of Australia in June 1964, Meldrum was captured by TV cameras climbing atop the bonnet of their car shortly after arrival at Melbourne airport.

Later, he and Burns were ejected from The Beatles' Melbourne concert for being "too enthusiastic".

While on a surfing holiday at a Victorian coastal resort in Lorne in 1964, Meldrum befriended Lynne Randell, who became a pop star in the mid-1960s and later worked as Meldrum's personal assistant in the 1980s.

Also in 1964, Meldrum began his music career as a roadie for his friends' band, The Groop, which had early performances in Anglesea.

Go-Set was a weekly pop music newspaper started in February 1966 by Phillip Frazer, Tony Schauble, and their Monash University friends.

Meldrum started writing for the paper in July that year after befriending its editor, Frazer.

Frazer said "As I recall it, Ian was sweeping the floor... I said to [Schauble], 'Who's this guy? Where'd he come from?' and Tony said, 'I dunno, he just came in and wanted to do something.'" Meldrum's first story was on Burns, "Ronnie Meets the Barrett Brothers".

His first printed interview was with Johnny Young, a singer-songwriter from Perth.

Soon Meldrum was writing a weekly gossip column and regular feature stories.

As a record producer he worked on top ten hits for Russell Morris ("The Real Thing", "Part Three into Paper Walls", both 1969), Ronnie Burns ("Smiley", 1970), Colleen Hewett ("Day by Day", 1971), Supernaut ("I Like It Both Ways", 1976) and The Ferrets ("Don't Fall in Love", 1977).

He was the talent coordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the former popular music program Countdown (1974–87) and is widely recognised for his trademark Stetson hat, which he has regularly worn in public since the 1980s (it is commonly mistaken for an Akubra).

He continued until the paper folded in August 1974.

By social networking and building a list of industry contacts, Meldrum was able to cover many facets of the local scene; his gossip columns informed not only general readers but also other musicians and, according to Frazer, they were the major reason people continued reading Go-Set.

Meldrum hosted Oz for Africa in July 1985, the Australian leg of Live Aid.

In January of the following year he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, with the citation for "service to the fostering of international relief and to youth".

Meldrum has earned a reputation as a champion of Australian popular music both in Australia and internationally; his contributions have been acknowledged with an Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Award for Special Achievement in 1993, and the "Ted Albert Award" in 1994 at the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Awards.

Music journalists, Toby Creswell and Samantha Chenoweth describe him as "the single most important person in the Australian pop industry for forty years" in their 2006 book, 1001 Australians You Should Know.

On 15 December 2011, Meldrum had a life-threatening fall from a ladder in the backyard of his Melbourne home.

He was placed under intensive care in a critical condition at the Alfred Hospital and had surgery for his head and spinal injuries.

By April 2012 he had recovered enough to give interviews and resume work duties.

In 2014, Meldrum was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, together with his TV show Countdown; he became the first non-artist to receive the accolade.

Earlier that year he published his autobiography, The Never, Um... Ever Ending Story: Life, Countdown and Everything in Between.