John Paul Young reminisces about the night he had Ian Molly Meldrum arrested

AFTER stepping in to finish hosting the 100th episode of Countdown for a ‘maniacal’ Molly Meldrum, John Paul Young convinced the police to arrest him.

ONE of the artists inextricably linked to the Countdown legend is Love Is In The Airpop superstar John Paul Young.

The nightly music show was hugely influential in making JPY our King Of Pop, kicking off with the infamous performance of Yesterday’s Hero when screaming teenagers dragged him off stage and ripped his shirt to shreds.

But another chaotic night at the ABC studios during the show ended with Young getting his old mate Molly Meldrum arrested.

Young said he was quite surprised the producers of the Molly series hadn’t hit up for this vintage moment in Meldrum’s illustrious career.

It was Countdown’s 100th show in April 1977 and Molly Meldrum was tired and emotional.

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Best mates ... JPY and Meldrum has been close friends for four decades. Picture Attila Szilvasi

A long distance flight to get back to Australia in time for the broadcast, combined with some celebratory drinks backstage made him unfit to finish hosting the live show so superstars John Paul Young and Daryl Braithwaite had to step in.

Sparring partners ... John Paul Young convinced police to take a drunk Molly Meldrum to the station after the 100th show. Picture: Supplied

“After the show, we went to the Elsternwick Hotel and everyone was getting juiced up,” JPY recalled.

“Molly by this stage was a seething mess of madness, an absolute pest and I think he had a poke at a couple of people including Daryl.

“I was standing at the bar and I could feel these eyes burning through the back of my head. I turned around and it was (Molly) with this maniacal look on his face. So I asked him ‘Are you going to f!@#ing hit me now?’

“He went away seething.”

Young and his manager relocated to the drive-through bottle store and shortly after, the door from the bar slams open with Meldrum on the back of producer and director Robbie Weekes “bitch-slapping him”.

“What Molly didn’t see was the divvy van (police paddy wagon) and they get out to try to calm the melee,” Young said.

After recognising the mad man in the middle of the mess, the police headed back to their van. Young wasn’t satisfied his mate — and regular sparring partner — had been sufficiently admonished by the authorities and complained to the police officers that enough was enough.

“I had a word with the police and asked them if they were going to do anything about him because he had been a huge pain in the arse,” he said.

“So they put him in the back and drove off with him.”

John Paul Young and Ian 'Molly' Meldrum at the Countdown Spectacular at Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne.

Young then headed back into the city to Pelligrini’s, another favourite haunt and spotted Meldrum’s manager at the time Brian de Courcy.

“I sat next to him and asked if he wanted to know where his client was. I told him ‘He’s in jail where he belongs’ and off he went,” he said.

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