The Racket (formerly 3 Hours of Power and Full Metal Racket) is an Australian heavy metal radio show airing on alternative youth broadcaster Triple J. The show currently airs between 9pm and 11pm on Tuesday nights and is hosted by Lochlan Watt.
The name was an allusion to the popular Kubrick war film Full Metal Jacket.
A notable, now former segment of the program is the 'Corpse Classic' - three songs played throughout the show off a pre-1987 heavy metal vinyl. Bands featured on this segment have been: Bathory, Suicidal Tendencies, Mötley Crüe, Spinal Tap, Iron Maiden among others. The 'Corpse Classic' was replaced with the similarly themed 'Heavy Metal Troopers' in 2008 because of 'running out of vinyl'. Heavy Metal Troopers involved playing songs by a band that had put out 6 or more albums, regardless of their activity. Artists to be featured included Deicide, Death and Australian figureheads Alchemist.
Other regular segments on the show were "Metal Gods" and "Living After Midnight - Priest Salute". Metal Gods (named after the song by Judas Priest and using the chorus from the song as its intro) is a trivia segment, where callers must correctly answer three questions to be crowned "Metal God". The all-time champion of Metal Gods is Chris Dare of Brisbane. Living After Midnight, also named after Judas Priest, occurs as the name suggests around midnight each week, and simply involves a Judas Priest track played. It replaced the similarly themed "2 Minutes to Midnight" (an Iron Maiden salute).
Hosts
editHosts of the show include:
- Helen Razer
- Francis Leach
- Costa Zouliou (?-2001)
- David McMillan (2001–2002)
- Andrew Haug (2002–2011)
- Lochlan Watt (2012-current)
Interviews
editThis section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: formatting and notability issues. (August 2012) |
The program broadcasts pre recorded interviews by Andrew Haug with members of leading international bands.
| Artist | Interviewee | Date(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Arch Enemy | Michael Amott | 13 October 2006 |
| Blind Guardian | Hansi Kürsch | 5 September 2006 |
| Black Label Society | Zakk Wylde | 21 September 2006 |
| Celtic Frost | Thomas Gabriel Fischer | 2 July 2007 |
| Cannibal Corpse | Alex Webster | 13 October 2006 |
| Dark Tranquillity | Mikael Stanne | 21 September 2006 |
| 10 May 2007 | ||
| Fear Factory | Raymond Herrera | 21 September 2006 |
| Killswitch Engage | Adam Dutkiewicz | 24 October 2006 |
| Lamb of God | Randy Blythe | 24 October 2006 |
| Megadeth | Dave Mustaine | 24 October 2006 |
| Nevermore | Jeff Loomis | 24 October 2006 |
| Nightwish | Tuomas Holopainen | 22 March 2005 |
| Psycroptic | Dave Haley | 28 March 2007 |
| Slayer | Dave Lombardo | 13 October 2006 |
| Kerry King | 24 April 2007 | |
| Sebastian Bach | Sebastian Bach | 5 September 2006 |
| Satyricon | Frost | 13 December 2006 |
| Satyr | 25 November 2007 | |
| The Haunted | Anders Björler | 24 November 2006 |
| Testament (band) | Chuck Billy | 13 February 2007 |
| Virgin Black | Rowan London | 25 July 2007 |
| Within Temptation | Sharon den Adel | 25 May 2007 |