The PopCulteer
February 23, 2024

This week’s PopCulteer column once again reverts to radio notes mode. We have a great new episode of MIRRORBALL to tell you about, and a very special artist spotlight episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, both debuting Friday afternoon on The AIR.  The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear our shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes her hour of Disco to more club hits of the late 1970s, as MIRRORBALL shines its multicolored spotlight on the songs that were moving butts on the dancefloor and creating a huge club scene.

It’s a short list of long songs designed to make you want to sweat and groove. You’ll get everything from Disco Diva, Thelma Houston to Sylvester, Love and Kisses and even a Disco version of the Batman theme song.

Take an hour and dance your cares away. Don’t worry. They’ll still be there when you get done.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 092

Thelma Houston “I’m Here Again”
Sylvester “Over and Over”
Love and Kisses “I’ve Found Love”
First Choice “Let No Man Put Asunder”
Brainstorm “Lovin’ Is Really My Game”
Camoflage “You’ve Got The Power”
Bad City Band “Batman 77”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a mini-marathon Saturday nights at 9 PM

At 3 PM we bring you a two-hour salute to Douglas Colvin, John Cummings, Thomas Erdelyi, and Jeffrey Hyman, or as most people know them, Dee Dee, Johnny, Tommy and Joey Ramone.

Fifty years after The Ramones formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, and ten years after the last original member passed away, Sydney thought it was time to pay tribute to the group that just wanted to play music and have some kicks, and along the way inspired Punk and New Wave Music.

Sydney has chosen to focus on the band’s first six albums, and ingore their later descent into heavy metal, but you’ll still get the cream of the Ramones’ crop. Because this is The Ramones we’re talking about, Sydney was able to cram forty-nine songs into her two-hours. It’s fifty if you count the one playing backwards at low volume while she’s talking.

Not too shabby a legacy for four dead guys from Queens.

Check out the playlist…

BEC 113

The Ramones

“Blitzkrieg Bop”
“Beat on the Brat”
“Judy Is a Punk”
“I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend”
“Chain Saw”
“Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue”
“I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement”
“Loudmouth”
“53rd & 3rd”
“Let’s Dance”
“Glad to See You Go”
“Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment”
“Sheena Is A Punk Rocker”
“Suzy Is a Headbanger”
“Pinhead”
“Now I Wanna Be a Good Boy”
“Swallow My Pride”
“California Sun”
“Cretin Hop”
“Rockaway Beach”
“We’re a Happy Family”
“Teenage Lobotomy”
“Do You Wanna Dance?”
“I Don’t Want You”
“I Wanna Be Well”
“I Can’t Give You Anything”
“Ramona”
“Surfin’ Bird”
“I Wanna Be Sedated”
“I Just Want to Have Something to Do”
“Don’t Come Close”
“Needles and Pins”
“I’m Against It”
“Go Mental”
“She’s the One”
“Bad Brain”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”
“Do You Remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio?”
“I’m Affected”
“Chinese Rock”
“The Return of Jackie and Judy”
“Let’s Go”
“This Ain’t Havana”
“We Want the Airwaves”
“All’s Quiet on the Eastern Front”
“The KKK Took My Baby Away”
“Don’t Go”
“7-11”
“Sitting in My Room”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday morning at 10 AM.

That’s what’s new on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features every day.