| Club Veg | |
| Other Names: | The Morning After Show |
| Format: | Comedy, talk radio |
| Country: | Australia |
| Home Station: | Triple J, 2SM, Triple M |
| Presenter: | Vic Davies, Mal Lees |
| Creator: | Vic Davies, Mal Lees |
| First Aired: | 1984 |
| Last Aired: | 2002 |
Club Veg (initially called The Morning After Show on Triple J) was an Australian radio show created and presented by the comedian duo Vic Davies and Mal Lees (with writing contributions in the early years from Stephen Quinn). The show started on Triple J (1984–86), followed by a stint on 2SM (1986–1988), and then the duo's first run on Triple M Sydney (1988–1994) saw them hosting nights and then breakfast, before leaving the station for Triple M Perth (1994–95). After a few years apart, the duo returned to Triple M Sydney again in 1998 and remained there until 2002.
A typical show featured their song parodies and comic sketches. Later, the duo also released two albums, Members and Guests & Things (1988) and We Suck (2000). Both were nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release in the relevant years. The show was canceled at the end of 2002 and the two split.
The duo started working together when Vic Davies (copywriter) and Mal Lees (then the afternoon announcer and music director) met at radio station, 2KA, Katoomba in the mid-1970s. Both were fans of The Beatles and Monty Python. They then worked at 2WS, Sydney; writing and producing comedy for Mad Mel but felt that they had a great partnership and could write better for themselves than for others. Armed with some tapes from 2WS, Lees called Marius Webb at Triple J and introduced him to a new form of radio comedy. It resulted in them being hired – they started with The Morning After Show in 1984.
While at Triple J, the duo also hosted a theme night at The Tivoli in George Street, Sydney and because their listeners referred to them as "The Vegies" (due to their mock-vegetative presenting style) they called the nights Club Veg. When their Saturday breakfast show was moved to drive time, the name The Morning After Show, could no longer fit so, they changed the name to Club Veg.[1]
The duo parodied several people including radio presenter, John Laws, and Jack Jones (who sang the Love Boat theme). After 18 months rival station, 2SM, offered the Club Veg team the drive shift and soon after the breakfast slot, before Triple M Sydney offered them a contract for the nighttime show late in 1987.[1]
With Club Veg, Triple M introduced the first FM nightly countdown, "Rock Poll". It was during this period when Club Veg recorded the highest 7 pm –10 pm results in Australian radio history and on their second stint at Triple M Sydney (1998–99), Club Veg was the first show to break Laws' long reign over the 9 am-12 noon slot.
The show was awarded 1987 New York Radio Comedy Award, and the Australian Radio Award (later known as an ACRA) in 1990 for Best On-Air Team. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1989 their debut album, Members and Guests and Things was nominated for Best Comedy Release. Their second album, We Suck, was nominated in the same category in 2000.[2]
The partnership ended in 2002 after their contract was not renewed by Triple M Sydney.[3] [4] Lees continued with his career in radio, initially at C91.3.[3] On 7 November 2009 Vic Davies died of lung cancer—he had been diagnosed six months earlier—he was 55 years old and was survived by his wife, six children and four grandchildren.
| Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [6] [7] | ||||
| Members and Guests & Things | 72 | |||
| We Suck | The Best of Sucked in Calls |
| 53 |
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music.
|-| 1989| Members and Guests & Things|rowspan="2"| Best Comedy Release| |-| 2000| We Suck – The Best of Sucked in Calls| |-
. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 67.