R.I.P. Nathan Robertson

I got to know Nathan through the comments section of Gavin Scott's blog Chart Beats (now a full-blown website), when Gavin was recapping charts of the early 1990s. Often Nathan and I would be the only two people commenting. Although we never met personally, I got to know him and we communicated by email now and then, usually about music or chart-related stuff. (Actually I think we might have exchanged comments on Youtube years before that, but anyway...)

Nathan and I were born in the same year, so although our musical tastes were not the same, the early-to-mid-'80s through to the mid-to-late '90s were the heyday of our music listening. We both used to write the chart listings down each week, although his were more detailed than mine. Our interest in the charts also waned at the same time, at the end of the '90s.

As well as a music lover, Nathan was a charts man. Specifically, the Australian charts – as compiled by the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) – was his thing. He had a contact at ARIA who he regularly asked for chart stats for particular artists, a few at a time, until he had amassed a sizeable database.

He added me to a mailing list where fellow chart nerds shared their findings, and he shared with me heaps of chart info — albums and singles charts spreadsheets, scans of the Kent Music Report (who compiled the charts prior to ARIA) charts, lists of new releases, and ARIA's own music reports.

Nathan was also a fan of the music video as an art form. He had thousands in his collection, digitized from recording hours and hours of the music video show Rage, many peoples' videotape sources (including mine) and VHS compilations, and was dedicated to preserving the best quality versions of little-known and obscure videos on his Youtube channels. While record company neglect let certain artists and videos fall into obscurity, Nathan and his archives kept their memories alive.

He once said to user AcerBenII on the PopJustice forum, "I think music videos really capture a moment in time; more than just listening to the song. A song can be 'timeless', but a music video rarely is – they're usually quite of their time, which adds a nostalgic element." 

If there's an Australian pop song that exists, chances are Nathan uploaded its video to Youtube at some point. He once won a competition to guest-program an hour of Rage, which went to air on May 1, 2010. Although he wasn't seen on screen like a previous winner, the Rage chyrons included the line "Playlisted by Nathan fron Highton, VIC".

In 2020, Nathan started his own chart recap blog, called Bubbling Down Under, where he recapped only releases that peaked outside the top 100. I designed the logo and background image for the blog. He described it as something of a companion blog to Chart Beats, whose tagline was "A journey through pop", and made his tagline "A journey through flop".

I've never known anyone else with as much knowledge of pop music, chart stats, single releases and music videos as Nathan had. Sadly he lost his battle with cancer on August 9th 2025 at the age of 46, and we are poorer for his loss. My condolences to all of the members of his family. May he rest in peace.