The PopCulteer
July 10, 2020

We celebrate the part of the UK that was smart enough to avoid Brexit on a brand-new Sydney’s Big Electric Cat Friday afternoon on The AIR.  You can hear this show and more Friday on The AIR website, or just click on this embedded radio player…

For several months now Sydney Fileen has been promising me a special episode of her show devoted to the insane amount of Punk and New Wave music that came out of Scotland, and this week she has finally delivered.

This week Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is entirely sourced from a recent boxed set, which was inspired by a 2015 British television documentary. BIG GOLD DREAMS documents the vibrant independent music scene to emerge in Scotland across the late 70s and 80s. Initially ignited by punk, labels sprang up in Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere to give a voice to the explosion of new acts across the country. Named after Fire Engines’ memorable single and Grant McPhee’s 2015 TV and DVD documentary, BIG GOLD DREAMS includes many of the Scottish music scene’s most important names as well as countless obscurities.

Sydney has chosen the cream of the crop of what was already an incredible collection of music, to bring us two hours of fantastic Scottish New Wave. Sydney has chosen not to back-announce for this episode, so for those of you scoring at home, here’s the playlist:

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Johnny and The Self Abusers “Dead Vandals”
Fire Engines “Big Gold Dream”
The Rezillos “I Can’t Stand My Baby”
The Drive “Jerkin'”
Another Pretty Face “All The Boys Love Carrie”
Shake “Culture Shock”
Altered Images “Dead Pop Stars”
Josef K “Sorry For Laughing”
Cocteau Twins “Feathers Oar-Blades”
The Waterboys “A Girl Called Johnny”
Biff Bang Pow! “There Must Be A Better Life”
The Wee Cherubs “Dreaming”
The Pastels “Baby Honey”
Strawberry Switchblade “BMX Bandits”
The French Impressionists “Pick Up The Rhythm”
The Jesus and Mary Chain “Upside Down”
Simple Minds “Chelsea Girl
Edwynn Collins “Don’t Shilly Shally”
The Skids “Reasons”
Primal Scream “All Fall Down”
The Bluebells “Cath”
The Soup Dragons “Whole Wide World”
The Valves “Robot Love”
Fingerprintz “Dancing With Myself”
The Zips “Take Me Down”
The Visitors “Electric Heat”
Fire Exit “Time Wall”
The Prats “Die Todten Reyton Schnell”
The Cuban Heels “Walk On Water”
The Associates “Tell Me Easter’s On Friday”
The Shamen “Happy Days”
Revolving Paint Dream “Flowers In The Sky”
The Vaselines “Teenage Superstar”
Aztec Camera “All I need Is Everything”

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, Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM and Thursday at Noon, exclusively on The AIR. You can also hear select episodes of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat as part of the overnight Haversham Recording Institute marathon that starts every Monday at 11 PM. I believe we may expect one more new episode of each of our Haversham programms before the crew knocks off for a couple of weeks of quarantined summer holiday.

And that is it for this week’s PopCulteer. As always, check back for fresh content every day, including all our regular features.