bec HORIZONTAL LOGOThe PopCulteer
July 29
, 2016

One of the programs that we’re very proud to feature on The AIR is Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, a two-hour blast of spectacular New Wave music presented by legendary DJ Sydney Fileen and produced at the Haversham Recording Institute in London, England. For a sample episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, give a listen to this special link/embedded player HERE.

You can hear a brand-new episode of Big Electric Cat every Friday at 3 PM on The AIR, which you can listen to at The AIR website or on this rad little radio player…

Today, as a special treat, The AIR will replay last week’s episode immediately before Sydney’s new show. So starting at 1 PM, you can settle in for four straight hours of gleaming futuristic music from between 1975 and 1985.

The 1 PM show features artists like ReFlex, Naked Eyes, DEVO, New Order, Hazel O’Connor, and The Cure, plus many other legendary New Wave acts.

The playlist for the new episode at 3 PM is posted below, after the jump:

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat for July 29, 2016

U2  “I Will Follow”
Moon Martin  “Rolene”
Nick Lowe  “Heart of the City”
Rachel Sweet  “Cruisin’ Love”
PM  “Green Velvet Splendor”
Simple Minds  “Promised You A Miracle”
Hysterica Passio  “Grey Over Life”
The Sensational Creed  “Nocturnal Operations”
Eurythmics  “Love Is A Stanger”
The Dickies  “Stukas Over Disneyland”
Wall of Voodoo  “Tomorrow”
Jona Lewie  “Stop The Cavalry”
Kirsty MacColl  “A New England”
The Beat  “Twist and Crawl”
Nina Hagen  “My Way”
Joe Jackson  “Steppin’ Out”
Ultravox  “The Voice”
The Electronic Circus  “Direct Lines”
XTC  “Senses Working Overtime”
M  “Maniac”
Dave Edmunds  “I Knew The Bride”
Talking Heads  “Psycho Killer”
The Jam  “This Modern World”
Gary Myrick and The Figures  “She Talks In Stereo”
The Police  “Message In A Bottle”
The Hitmen  “Private Eye”
The Stranglers  “Midnight Summer Dream”
The Ramones  “Judy Is A Punk”
Background music  “Garden of Poppies” by Ryuichi Sakamoto

Sydney 032Big Electric Cat is the brainchild of Sydney Fileen (seen right), who programs and presents the show, which is produced at Haversham Recording Institute, of which she is a partner. Rising to prominence as a DJ on London’s pirate radio station Radio Spike in 1982, Fileen was quickly snapped up by ITV and a couple of years later, began a voiceover career for BBC4. In the 1990’s, Fileen’s voice became one of the most recognized on British television due to a series of adverts for Harrod’s and Virgin Music Stores.

At the turn of the century, Sydney took on more behind the scenes administrative duties, producing a variety of award-winning radio programs and European advertising campaigns, before co-founding Haversham Recording Institute with Herman Linte and Nigel Pye in 2008.

Big Electric Cat sees Sydney Fileen returning to her first love, music of the New Wave era, spanning roughly from 1975 to 1985. With an encyclopedic knowledge of this music and a record collection that encompasses everything from timeless artists to one hit wonders to regional obscurities, each week, Sydney’s Big Electric Cat will present a two hour snapshot of what was one of the most exciting and experimental periods of popular music.

BEC raw 030

 

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat premieres a new episode every Friday at 3 PM as part of The AIR’s afternoon music mix. Her program is repeated several times throughout the week, notably Saturday afternoons at 2 PM and Monday morning at 7 AM. We are extremely proud to have this show on our airwaves as it’s a personal favorite of the station owners and it’s an honor to have a presenter of Ms. Fileen’s stature as part of the team on The AIR.

Remembering Jack Davis

davis,j_art_ofLegendary cartoonist Jack Davis passed away at his home in Georgia Wednesday at the age of 91. If you do not know his name, you should definitely recognize his style. Jack Davis was unquestionably the definitive pop culture cartoonist from the 1950’s until his semi-retirement just a few years ago.

After his first big break illustrating a training manual for Coca-Cola in his hometown of Atlanta during the 1940’s, Davis went on to a career in comic books, becoming a mainstay at the notorious EC Comics where he was an artist for Tales From The Crypt, where he redesigned the Crypt Keeper into the form we know today. He also worked for Harvey Kurtzman’s MAD, where he demonstrated his amazing ability as a caricaturist.

davis,j_mad52janDavis remained loyal to Kurtzman and left MAD Magazine for several years, during which he established himself as one of the leading advertising cartoonists in the world, had work published in many publications, including TIME Magazine, TV Guide, and Playboy, and became the most in-demand cartoonist among Hollywood studios who wanted a memorable poster for their hit comedies.

6096407998_476c8ba407_oAfter returning to MAD Magazine in the mid-60’s, Davis was a regular contributor, juggling his humor assignments with a heavy workload of advertising commitments and magazine and movie poster work (although, as prolific as Davis was, some obituaries have mistakenly credited him with the artwork on movie posters for American Graffiti, which was actually done by his MAD Magazine colleague Mort Drucker, and Animal House, which was drawn by National Lampoon‘s Rick Meyerowitz)..

Always reliable, Davis never lost a step as a cartoonist. When asked to provide additional illustrations for the Blu-Ray release of It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 2014, he delivered cartoons that perfectly matched the style he used to create the legendary movie poster for the film in 1964, despite being nearly 90 years old at the time.

Jack-Davis-Mad-World-poster

The legendary poster for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, which made Davis the most in-demand movie poster artist in Hollywood

Davis was, by all accounts, a kind and genial fellow who loved fishing, studying the Civil War, and palling around with his fellow cartoonists. Reportedly, he never had a harsh word for anybody. This was a man who drew everything from Woody Allen to Johnny West to Frankenstein to mascots for Major League Baseball and the National Football League and always captured exactly what he was supposed to draw, but always did it in his own inimitable style. Davis is survived by his wife, Dena, a daughter and a son.

I grew up admiring the work of Jack Davis. He may have the first cartoonist that I knew by name. I don’t know if we’ll ever see a cartoonist so talented, and whose work as so ubiquitous, again.

Davis Johnny 02

Davis’ take on Johnny West and The Best of The West action figure line for Marx Toys

d26192e75c4b1f94433ac2d18b3565e0

This famous Jack Davis drawing of Frankenstein’s Monster was sold as a six-foot-tall poster for years in the Warren Publishing Magazines