Woo Hoo (She Came On) (also known as The Chatswood Youth Song) is an unidentified pop-punk song. It was featured in a 1997 ameteur documentary titled "Video Surveillance: Race Around Chatswood" (also known informally as “The Chatswood Youth Centre Video”).
Search History
2019
The song was discovered in late 2019, when Reddit user Chernyat and her sister were shopping at thrift stores in the Sydney surburb of Newtown. They purchased a tape stored in a commercial casing of the 1994 movie “The Little Rascals”, that was amongst a stack of CDs. The tape itself was a blank BASF tape that was labelled only with a Sony branded side label with the crudely written title “Chatswood Youth *Mono”.
The tape contained a 35-minute shot on video documentary[1] showing the daily lives of people at the Chatswood Youth Centre and surrounding community. A pop-punk song plays frequently during the tape, but the song wasn't credited, and could not be identified via common methods like Shazam or searching up the lyrics.
By mid-December 2019, Chernyat posted in several subreddits, including r/Lostwave and r/Sydney, adressing the search for the song. These posts included direct links to a crude reconstruction of the song[2] as well as the full documentary via Google Drive.
2020-2022
By early 2020, the song had gained enough traction to get placeholder names such as "Woo Hoo (She Came On)" and "The Chatswood Youth Song". The song was featured as a segment on a video by YouTuber C.W. Schultz titled “10 MORE Mysterious Songs”[3] which was published on September 25th, 2020.
Schultz made a follow up segment to the song in the video “Iceberg of Mysterious Songs and Lost Music”[4] published on May 9th, 2022.
On June 14th, 2021, the song got a channel on the Like The Wind Discord server. Two weeks later it got a channel on the Fond My Mind server, with it being in the "Main Unknowns" category. These channels act as a search/information hub for the song.
Over time, the song was reuploaded to YouTube by several users, such as Rain, Q, Revolutionary_War, 𝑀𝑟. 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑝𝑠, Ofrix, No Background, S2h, LostwaveFinder, Aero, AlianTheObscure, and multiple others, amassing over 35k views.
Between 2021-2022, Chernyat was able to locate an interviewer and interviewee featured in the documentary. Both individuals gave some context to the video’s existence, explaining that the video was made as part of a video project hosted by the Chatswood Youth Centre. It was believed to have been organized specifically by “a male staff member”, but both people could not recall who that male staff member was.
During this time, it was discovered that Chatswood Youth worker Harley Nathan, who was featured in the documentary, passed away in a motorcycle crash on September 11th, 1998, aged 44.
On September 2nd, 2022, the New Jersey radio station WFMU 91.1 FM (which is known for being the source of multiple lostwaves) played the song on their show Merrily We Roll Along with MHLee (which played many unknown songs on the same day, including Like The Wind, Curly Toes, etc.)[5] This broadcast coverage of the song would be the first known time an excerpt of the song would be featured on radio.
2024
On January 10th, 2024, the search for the song was featured as a segment on the radio show “2SerBreakfast” on 2SER 107.3 FM (Australian radio station)[6]. The station regularly does segments discussing various unidentified songs.
On March 27th, 2024, Strange Australian uploaded a video titled “The Lost Media of Australia Iceberg Explained”[7] which would feature a segment covering the song.
On April 15th, 2024, a former youth featured in the documentary reached out to Strange Australian via Facebook to provide further context to the video’s existence. He explains that the video was made as a response to a Northshore Times article that demonized the youth of Chatswood as “lawless thugs and criminals”. The aim of the video was to show an unfiltered look at what the Chatswood Youth were like in their everyday lives individually as well as a tightknit community.
Further research by Strange Australian found two Northern Times articles published on July 10th and July 31st, 1997 which centered on the local youths with antagonizing language, proving the Facebook user’s claims.
On May 3rd, 2024, Strange Australian obtained the full names of the staff members who worked at the Chatswood Youth Centre in 1997-1998, including the contact details leading to John (staff member frequently seen in the documentary). John was then contacted by Strange Australian, responding back with further details about the video explaining that the video project may have been part of a state government funded creative arts festive known as ArtStart.
Furthermore, he explained that a co-staff member with experience with video production would have helped to organize and produced the documentary directly. Despite having a lot of information, John didn’t know the identity of the song.
From John’s information, Strange Australian and Chernyat discovered on September 13th, 2024 archived webpages from the official ArtStart ’97 website[8] listing the Video Surveillance Workshop as an official program of the festival. The website also confirmed the filming/production dates of the documentary (July 16th, 23rd, 29th and August 6th, 13th, 20th, 1997).
Additional details on the website showed that the film production coordinator mentioned by John also worked on another ArtStart project at the same time as the video project in the Sydney council of Ku-ring-gai which is located right next to Willoughby Council where Chatswood is situated.
This separate ArtStart program was a competition for unsigned young and local musicians to send in demo tracks which 4 to 5 bands would be picked from the entries to have their demo recorded professionally and released on a Compilation CD.
The launch of the CD would coincide with a live concert hosted in mid-August at the St Ives Youth Service Centre. A Sydney Morning Herald article published on July 17th, 1997 (found by Strange Australian) corroborates the existence of this Compilation CD Competition.
On October 17th, 2024, Strange Australian would get in contact with a former Youth Worker of Ku-ring-gai council who mentioned that many of the unreleased demos sent in by local bands for these ArtStart projects were stored by them during that time in hopes that some of the bands might reach success. Currently, it is not known if they kept these demos.
This former youth worker also mentioned that many neighboring councils like North Sydney, Lane Cove, Ku-ring-gai, Warringah, Manly Hornsby Shire and Pittwater all collaborated on these ArtStart Projects.
On October 28th, 2024, YouTube user PersonOfDistraction interviewed Chernyat about lostwave and music in general.[9]
On December 3rd, 2024, FBi Radio released their 616th episode of their podcast "All The Best" to their official website. Titled "Lost Media", it went over everything from the search, from the start to the present. In it, Chernyat and Strange Australian were interviewed, discussing the most recent updates. The next day, FBi Radio's Morning Show discussed the search and other cases of lost media. A snippet of this song was played.
2025
In mid-January 2025, Chernyat got in contact with former Chatswood producer DJ Spellbound regarding the search. DJ Spellbound stated that while he did not recognize the song, he theorized that it may have been made by a youth band at the time and would have been featured at local Battle of the Bands competitions. "Where the Wild Things Are: and "Shoreshocked" are just two examples of youth-orientated Battle of the Bands competitions being hosted in North Sydney during the mid to late 90s.
In early February of 2025, Strange Australian obtained contact details for two people. Luke, a podcaster and archivist for Noise Reels, which is an online multimedia organization that aims to preserve alternative Sydney music from the 80s to 2000s. The other contact was Anthony Dang, the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Sydney punk band Infringement.
Both Luke and Anthony did not recognize the song. However, Luke advised that he’d make a post about the search on his Facebook page and Anthony verified that all songs included on the documentary's soundtrack were not made by Infringement.
On February 10th, 2025, Luke advised Chernyat that responses from his recent post about the search suggest that the song may have been made by a band called Box-144, a Chatswood youth ska-punk band active in 1997. Unfortunately, Box-144 band member David Gustafson confirmed that the band did not make the song. But further suggestions theorize that another local band called Odd One Out may have had a hand in this song's production.
Despite this lead, Anthony is sure that Odd One Out isn't the band behind this song. While the leads for Box-144 and Odd One Out were not successful, this would mark a first in the search's history where specific bands were suggested as the song's creator.
On June 2nd, 2025, Andrew Yule (the bassist of Australian band Mourning After) made a comment on Chernyat's YouTube upload of If It Fitz. He was glad to see the album uploaded and shared a correction in the track listing that occurred due to a printing error. Chernyat responded back to Andrew, thanking him for the comment and asking if he recognized the Chatswood Song, which he did not.
The following day, Chernyat received a message from Andrew’s son on Reddit providing scans of the original CD packaging. This would be the first time images of the physical CD would surface online. Additionally, the liner notes of the CD’s booklet contained a large list of bands and musicians that didn’t make the final cut on the album.
On June 7th, 2025, Adam Walsh, guitarist and vocalist of Mourning After reached out to Chernyat via reddit. Adam discussed behind the scenes information about the production of If It Fitz.
On August 7th, 2025, popular YouTuber Professor Of Rock released a video covering 5 unknown songs,[10] including this one, bringing the song to a new audience of his million subcribers.
Leads and Theories
Shoreshocked Festival
Shoreshocked is a music concert centered on young up-and-coming local musicians in the North Sydney area. The concert has been hosted every year at St Leonards Park since 1996 as part of the statewide Youth Week Festivals hosted during April.
This annual event has commonly been a collaborative venture between the councils of Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby with the 1998 event having direct organizational contributions from John, the former Chatswood Youth worker.
A couple of the bands like Bluebeard and Sodasm that were featured in the 1998 Shoreshocked lineup also had some tracks included on the ArtStart funded compilation CD Northern Composure: Sound Waves from the Northern Beaches (1998).
Northern Composure
A long running music compilation CD series funded by ArtStart which features young and unsigned bands from the North Shore Region of Sydney. The project first began in 1997-1998 with the first instalment Northern Composure: Sound Waves from the Northern Beaches being released sometime in November of 1998.
Despite the Chatswood Youth Song not being featured on the first CD instalment, a couple of featured bands like Bluebeard and Sodasm also performed at the Willougbhy Council organized concert Shoreshocked ’98.
Rock the Nation Studios
An independent recording studio that was known to provide recording sessions for various ArtStart funded compilation albums. It is unknown if the studio did record sessions for ArtStart courses in Metropolitan Sydney, as it’s located in the Newcastle region.
Song 2 Theory
The Song 2 Theory derives from speculation by the Lostwave Community that the Chatswood Youth Song could have been heavily inspired by Blur’s popular rock single “Song 2”. Not only do both tracks share similar rhythmic structures, genre styles and the phrase “Woo Hoo” in their chorus but Song 2 itself was released physically on 7th April 1997, the release date of the track being 3 months prior to the commencement of the Video Surveillance Workshop.
If It Fitz (Ku-ring-gai Compilation CD) [1997]
There's a music compilation CD released sometime in mid-August 1997 for the ArtStart ’97 Festival as part of the Ku-ring-gai Councils initiative to the festival. A part of a competition beginning in July and entries closing on July 25, the CD would contain 4 to 5 bands who were unsigned, band members under 21 with one member being a resident of the Ku-ring-gai Council. Music genres weren’t limited. Selected bands would have their 2 to 3 submitted demo tracks produced professionally. The launch of the album would coincide with a live concert at the St. Ives Youth Service Centre.
One of the project’s coordinators also did coordination work for Chatswood’s Video Surveillance Project at the same time.
On October 13, 2024, reddit user DJ_Acclaim and Chernyat were able to locate and upload the CD in its entirety. However, the Chatswood Song was found to be not on it.
Blind Records
A lead first discovered by Discord user Saber when finding an archived article from “Maximum Rocknroll” in 1997[11] that referenced a compilation release by “Blind Records”, a Chatswood based independent record label which operated from 1994-2000. Initial interest in this lead came from the fact that the label’s headquarters was just a 15-minute walk from the Chatswood Youth Centre. Whilst various obscure and lost albums were found with the lead, many former talents signed to Blind Records confirmed that they didn’t recognize the Chatswood Song.Lyrics
Well she came on fast, she came on strong
She came hot, now [I'm thinking of living long]
Woo hoo
[When it comes she leaves you hard]
You think that she's not thinking wrong
Woo hoo
I don't know what I’ve been told
But that think love is worth it's weight in gold
Woo hoo
Find it hard to just get along
Can't think straight, [but I'm thinking of living long]
Alright Ah hoo
…
I know how to behave
[Do you fulfil] your midnight fantasy
The madness act is the one that's hyper
The world's gonna be getting better, oh yeah
Said, I don't know without being told
But that think love is worth it's weight in gold
Woo hoo
But I find it hard to get along
Can't think straight, [but I'm thinking of living long]
Ah hoo
I'm ice cold in a way
I know how to behave
[Do you fulfill] your midnight fantasy
The madness act is the one that's hyper
The world's gonna be getting better, oh yeah
Gallery
References
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSq9nUrVK0U
- ↑ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XIUrWfmLV8rxzpjRFxE5pcxh56DyGceZ/view
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9VrIHQLtw
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBtx44k5NBM
- ↑ https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=119114&archive=223383&starttime=0:31:32
- ↑ https://2ser.com/the-chatswood-youth-unknown-song-mystery/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cFU6s4XS_E
- ↑ https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/19980701090851/http://www.youth.nsw.gov.au/artstart/progmetr.html
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfdpsx9WRIM
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iGmuh_SlGI
- ↑ https://archive.org/stream/mrr_170/mrr_170_djvu.txt