BRIAN Nankervis has been around the entertainment industry long enough to know that you're only as good as those writing the contracts say you are.
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But even he still sits back and wonders 'what if?' after cult music quiz program RocKwiz was taken off air after an 11 year run at SBS.
"We would do it again at the drop of the hat," Nankervis told The Courier
"It was never our decision. We had a good run, I don't deny that, but unfortunately the show was still really cooking.
"The last season was arguably our best, the look, the freshness, the pace, the guests. We were devastated when they said that's it.
"We approached the ABC and they had recently tried to bring back Spicks and Specs and it had failed, so they weren't keen and that was that."
RocKwiz was one of those cultural phenomenons that you either watched religiously or you came across at some point and were hooked.
The simple format of the pub music quiz where audience members at the pub actually became part of the show, coupled with special musical guests created an experience unlike any other on Australian television.
But while the TV show is gone - for now - the entire crew regularly gets back together, and will be coming to Ballarat on a tour on Easter Saturday, April 11.
Nankervis said the idea had its genesis in the 1990s.
"I used to do warm ups for a variety of TV shows," he said.
"One was the Jimeon show on 7, I was a cast member with the likes of Bob Franklin, Glenn Robbins, Shaun Micallef, it was a great group. One night our warm up guy had called in sick and we were asked if anyone could do the warm up, at that point I'd been doing Raymond J Bartholomeuz regularly on Hey Hey it's Saturday, so people knew me, I thought I'd do a few poems but I would always do a music quiz.
The last season was arguably our best ...we were devastated when they said that's it.
- Brian Nankervis
"Later on (RocKwiz executive producer) Peter Bain-Hogg rang and said he was putting together a TV show, so we nutted out the format and it is basically the same format as it appears."
Interestingly both SBS and the ABC passed on the format, but a change of management at SBS meant a changed of heart and the series was commissioned.
For the past few years, the crew has put on the Really Really Good Friday show each Easter.
"We toured first in 2010, we did shows at Moomba, the Myer Music Bowl. We've always done the big live shows and the work really well," Nankervis said.
"This show in Ballarat on the Saturday will be similar to the live shows we've been doing. It's like the TV show but bigger, longer, louder and looser. There's no cameras but more guests.
"Every Easter for the last four or five years we've done a Really Really good Friday.
"It started by us all confessing that Good Friday was always a very strange day, it gets dark early, for those of us brought up in a religious background, it was a day of sadness, we thought let's bust that open. For us it's a celebration now."
For contestants, the most common question asked is 'what was their first concert?' Nankervis knows very well this question is coming to him.
"The first band I ever saw was in a scout hall in Buchanan Avenue, Balwyn North," he said.
"It was a school fate and I wondered into the scout hall and there and I saw MPD Limited, which was Mike, Pete and Danny Limited.
"The Mike was Mike Brady. I was eight and I was with my pal Lauren who lied across the road. I remember very vividly the excitement, the boots, the guitar, Mike Brady twirling the microphone, it was remarkable.
"My first international band was The Kinks at Festival Hall, it was just after they'd released Lola and the government had banned it. I now have a 21-year-old named Lola, so make of that what you will."
Tickets to RocKwiz Live at Her Majesty's on April 11 are available from hermaj.com
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