The PopCulteer
October 20, 2023

I’m still playing catch-up when it comes to reviewing toys (and comics and books), so this week our PopCulteer is devoted to three photo-reviews of cool new toys. We’ll be looking at an action figure, a slot car and a model railroad accessory, and all of them are still available for purchase. Details will be included with each review.

I’m trying to clear the decks a bit before we jump headfirst into The 2023 PopCult Gift Guide, which is going to be smaller this year than it has in previous years. The plan is to begin on November 1, with three-to-five gift suggestions each weekday, while flashback gift ideas from previous gift guides, plus general retailer spotlights will be offered up on the weekends.

And it’ll wrap up the day before Thanksgiving, so I can take some time to enjoy the holiday season without stressing myself out. The Master List will run on Black Friday.

But now, we dive back into…

The PopCult Toybox

Tura Satana Action Figure
by Odeon Toys and White Elephant Toyz
$25-$30

Tura Satana is a cult icon movie star, exotic dancer and feminist hero, famous for appearing as “Varla” in Russ Meyers’ 1965 exploitation classic, Faster Pussycat, Kil, Kill and the sci-fi shlock epic, The Astro Zombies.

With a life that at times seemed more exciting than the wild movies in which she starred, this martial-artist who took revenge on her rapists in Japan, danced burlesque at the famed Trocadero nightclub, posed nude for Harold Lloyd, turned down a marriage proposal from Elvis Presley and survived being shot and breaking her back in a car wreck managed to live life on her own terms and inspire independent women along the way.

She became an underground movie favorite and was sort of a Japanese-American Bettie Page who could easily kick your ass. Satana was popular at comic book and pop culture conventions, and enjoyed a huge resurgence in her popularity and acclaim before she passed away in 2011.

Odeon Toys, who are the toy company arm of our friends at Plaid Stallions, previously made the Brick Mantooth action figure, procured their first-ever license to produce a MEGO-scaled version of Tura Satana, dressed in her iconic Faster Pussycat outfit. They teamed with White Elephant Toyz, who are producing all kinds of terrific collectible toys right now, and they signed big-name artist, Joseph Michael Lisner, to create the package artwork.

The packaging, as you can see on the right, is a bit of a tribute to the Big Jim’s P.A.C.K. package artwork of the 1970s. Tura comes packaged in a top-opening box that will fit right in with your vintage or recent MEGO boxed figures.

The articulation is terrific. She bends and holds her poses very well. The rooted hair gets a little hard to tame, like Ms. Satana herself, and actually makes her look even more like she did in Faster Pussycat.

The end result is a killer action figure who seems ready to burst out of her package and beat the living crap out of your MEGO-sized Batman and Spider-man figures. You can order Tura from either of the links above.

Now the photos…

A close up of that face, an incredible likeness.

Continue reading

The PopCult Bookshelf

The Pacific Comics Companion
by Stephan Friedt, edited with additional writing by Jon B. Cooke
TwoMorrows Publishing
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1605491219
$29.95

The early 1980s was a great time to be a comic book fan. Although mainstream comics were disappearing from newsstands, as companies like Gold Key, Charlton and Harvey struggled through their final years, the rise of stores devoted to comic books and the direct market created a demand for more sophisticated storytelling and more creator-friendly contracts for the hottest artists and writers who’d sprung up in the previous decade.

The first company to meet that demand with independently-produced four-color comics in the traditional format was Pacific Comics. The Schanes Brothers, Bill and Steve (along with their eventual editorial director, Dave Scroggy), had been running a successful chain of comic shops and a distributor for the direct market, handling DC and Marvel as well as underground comix and “ground level” publishers like Star Reach and Eclipse, decided to take the plunge into publishing and make their own comic books.

They began by seeking out top-name talent who’d left comics for greener pastures. Their first book published was Captain Victory by Jack Kirby, who had famously been screwed out of full credit and fair pay for essentially creating most of Marvel Comics’ characters. The first artist signed, but the second published was Starslayer by Mike Grell, who had created the successful Warlord for DC, and who had become a fan favorite, but who had moved on to the Tarzan comic strip because the pay was better. By offering contracts where the creators retained ownership of their characters and received a more equitable split of the profits, Pacific Comics changed the way comics publishers did business.

Pacific was a huge success, and following their lead, Eclipse jumped into color comics, as did Capitol Distribution, First Comics and eventually Comico, Malibu, Dark Horse and dozens of other smaller publishers. Sadly, Pacific Comics expanding too rapidly while trying to compete with all the new companies and with Marvel and DC who became much more aggressive in the direct market, and after only a few years of publishing some of the most interesting comics around, Pacific went belly-up. The Schanes Brothers and Scroggy remained in the industry as key players at Diamond Comics Distribution, Dark Horse Comics and other companies.

But those four years worth of Pacific Comics’ books are phenomenal. Not only did Pacific commission and publish Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer, but they also published early work by Peter Milligan and Brendon McCarthy, Mike Baron and Steve Rude, David Lloyd, Dave Campiti and others who would become legends in the field, they also hooked up with established creators besides Kirby and Grell, like Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, Jim Starlin, Sergio Aragones, Bernie Wrightson, P.Craig Russell, Roy Thomas, Al Williamson and more.

They also contracted with Warren, DC and Marvel veteran, Bruce Jones, who packaged titles for them that featured amazing writing and some of the best art in comics from the likes of Rich Corben, Nester Redondo, Ken Steacy, Bo Hampton, Roy Krenkel, George Pérez, Bret Blevins, Rand Holmes and so many more that I could devote a whole post to just listing the talent roster.

The Pacific Comics Companion is a comprehensive oral history of what went right and what went wrong with this maverick publisher. Stephen Friedt, with fresh interviews and quotes from contemporaneous interviews with the key players tells the entire story of the meteoric rise (and crater-inducing fall) of this pioneering comic book company which was the first successful publisher of the direct market comics era. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian Jon B. Cooke, this book is a vital examination of a key publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement.

Aside from the historical import, The Pacific Comics Companion is also a nostalgic goldmine for those of us who were lucky enough to live through those times. DC and Marvel were struggling to stay afloat on newsstands and had yet to fully take advantage of the direct market for comics. Creators were still leaving the industry in droves due to the lousy contracts, low pay and editorial interference. It was only due to the success of Pacific and other new publishers that DC and Marvel reformed their contacts and began to pay royalties, return original art and offer more flexible creator contracts.

I still remember the excitement of buying the first issues of Captain Victory and Starslayer, and I recall having my mind blown at the awesome artwork of Dave Stevens on The Rocketeer. The Bruce Jones’ books (Alien Worlds and Twisted Tales) remain among the finest anthology comics ever assembled and it’s nice to be reminded that for four brief years, there was one comic book company who was consistently entertaining. Even their missteps were worth looking at. I recommend The Pacific Comics Companion for any comics fan who lived through that era, and any younger fans who want to find out what they missed, and how much of a debt they owe to this company. It’s possible that, without Pacific Comics, we might be stuck with just Marvel, DC and Archie Comics today.

Available from TwoMorrows Pubishing, or from any bookseller by using the ISBN Code.

This week finds us even closer to Halloween, and there are several spooky events sprinkled in among the book festivals and other cool things for you to get into around the Mountain State and a few points beyond. In fact, it seems like a lot of folks are jumping the gun and getting their Halloween parties out of the way a week and a half early.  As I have been doing of late, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

ArtWalk happens in Downtown Charleston Thursday, October 19 from 5 PM to 8 PM, and as part of that they’ll be unveiling the new ART BUS at Slack Plaza at 5 PM.

This weekend at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center get ready for the annual West Virginia Book Festival.  Here’s the graphic below, and you can find all the details about it HERE.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday Chet Lowther takes the stage. Saturday Swingstein and Robin performs, along with Stefan Cotterat the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about.  Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.  Friday at 10 PM The Scott Bane Quartet return to The Empty Glass. We have graphics below for the rest of the weekend shows at The Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, Peruvian marching toads, stinky leaf peepers, gestacular mondamenments and other damned good reasons to be careful. Many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order, after the jump…

Continue reading

It’s “Milestone Week” on The AIR as we debut the 150th episode of Radio Free Charleston Volume Five and also episode number 150 of The Swing Shift on Tuesday! You simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with tons of replays throughout the week.  This week we have three full hours of glorious free-format radio with lots of local acts mixed in with independent artists from around the world and a few classic tracks from major artists, just to keep you on your toes. But that’s not all, even though this is not a huge milestone, since RFC has been around in four previous incarnations since 1989, it does mark 150 episodes in the three-hour format that we introduced in January, 2020.

Our first two hours are a sort of normal RFC, with a mix of local, independent and big fancy-ass musical artists, while our final hour is an all-local mixtape.

We open with a newly-remastered song by The Tunesmiths. This band was Mark Beckner, from Go Van Gogh, and Mark Mingrone, and it was around back in the original RFC days. Mark has been cleaning up his archives, and I hope he’ll be putting it up on Bandcamp soon. This song was recorded by The Tunesmiths right before they left to form Hitchcock Circus in Nashville, and I don’t think I’d heard it before.

We also have great new tunes from Hello June, Corduroy Brown, Todd Burge, Ringo Starr, The Dollyrots, Jerks, Hawthorn Heights and more. Plus we play another track from Sideshow Villains, who have a very cool show coming up next Sunday in Chicago. You can find ticket details on that show HERE.

The third hour this week is a mixtape with a solid uninterrupted hour of local artists (or expatriot artists) and it’s a deep-dive into the RFC archives, with some tracks being more than thirty years old.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store. Live links will take you to the local and indie artist’s pages (where possible)  so you can find out more about them, buy their music and find out where to see them perform live…

RFC V5 150

hour one
The Tunesmiths “Farewell”
Hello June “23”
Corduroy Brown “I Think I Like When It Rains (live)”
Todd Burge “Weed”
boygenius “Powers”
Mapped By A Forest “Even We Are Wrong’
Ringo Starr “Rewind Forward”
The Dollyrots “Hot Mom With The Skinny Pants On”
Jerks “ESA”
Golden “I Want To Run”
The Living End “Prisoner of Society”
Stereophonics “Roll Up And Shine”
Hawthorne Heights “Storm”
Sideshow Villains “Monsters”
Galen and Paul “Room At The Top”
Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands  “Drowned Out”

hour two
Aaron Emerson and Friends “Lucky Man”
The Paranoid Style “Print The Legend”
Miniature Giant “Leave Me Out”
Sgt. Van and the Highway Dogs “Exit Only”
Astrodot “The Impossible Mission”
Backstreet Girls “Too Cool For You”
R.E.M. “Radio Free Europe”
Human League “Love Is All That Matters”
Klaus Nomi “The Cold Song”
Abandon The Ship “Bottom Feeder”
Bane Star “The Thrall”
Guitarmy of One “Top Secret Agent Man On A Wire”
The Madeira “Into The Deep”

hour three
Ann Magnuson “It’s A Great Feeling”
Farnsworth “Erased”
Feast of Stephen “Forbidden Dance”
Mother Nang “Knee Deep In Wine”
The Amazing Delores “Love Magic”
Three Bodies “Shingles And Tar”
Strawfyssh “Graveyard Shift”
Mad Scientist Club “Save The Whales”
dog Soldier “Blanket”
Joe Vallina “Suzy Said So”
HARRAH “Gotta Get Out”
Emmalea Deal “Ghost”
Brian Diller & The Ride “Caroline”
Go Van Gogh “Shut Up I Love You”
Stark Raven “Why Can’t White Boys Dance”
The Tom McGees “Country Roads”
The Panucci Brothers “Dancing Midget Spider-man Fantasia”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight,  and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM we offer up a brand-new episode of The Swing Shift.  This week our showcase of more than a century’s worth of Swing Music also hits episode 150, which is a teensy bit embarrassing since I’ve been doing this show for more than seven years, but have had to take a lot of weeks off.  However, I did pull out the stops and assemble a killer show will full announcing and I think it’s a good example of what The Swing Shift should be.

Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 150

Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers “It Don’t Mean A Thing”
Artie Shaw “Special Delivery Stomp”
The Gentlemen’s Anti-Temperance League “Stella”
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Pay Me Now (Or Pay Me Later)”
Lil Hardin Armstrong & Her Orchestra “Harlem on a Saturday Night”
Megan & Her Goody Goodies “Do Your Duty”
Tyler Pederson “53”
Woody Herman “Who Dat Down Dere”
Marcella Puppini “I Do (Do I?)”
Louis Prima “You Rascal You”
Lester’s Blues “The Goon Drag”
Slim & Slam “The Flat Feet Floogie”
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies “Dr. Bones”
Brain Setzer Orchestra “My Baby Only Cares For Me”
Royal Crown Revue “I Love The Life I Live”
Lionel Hampton “It Don’t Mean A Thing (Electro Swing Remix)”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.

Yeah, I’m still doing Chicago-inspired art. This week it’s a pastel crayon tiny sketch that I may take up as a watercolor study at some point, and consider as a candidate for canvas. I’m still undecided. This was done on textured paper, scanned, color-corrected and cropped. It’s based on a blurry photo taken from the Brown Line on the L, as it was crossing the Chicago River, leaving the loop.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you encores of a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM a recent edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM. You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of The National Lampoon Comedy Hour on last week’s episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM the Monday Marathon presents ten hours of Halloween themed programming, to get you in the mood for the season. 

Above is an appropriately creepy for the spooky season short film.

2088 was made by Toni V. Genov, a Bulgarian filmmaker based in Denmark. This short film is a wonderful and brief bit of paranoia-inducing creepiness, but aside from the high quality of this project, it has another characteristic that makes it a great film to share with you today. You can read a terrific essay and watch a “making of” video with full details on the creation of this Six-and-a-half minute film HERE, but the key takeway is that all the video in this production was shot with a fifteen-dollar toy camera.

And today, October 15, is World Toy Camera Day.

Enjoy the movie!

Radio Free Charleston 48 was our tribute to the Randy Lee Walden, the lead singer and bass player for Quick And Dirty, who appeared on RFC 44 in June, 2008.  This was a pretty somber show, the first time that RFC had to deal with death. Sadly it was not the last.

Randy was found dead in Quick And Dirty’s rehearsal space before a scheduled show by the band on June 30.  It was an apparent cardiac arrest.  Randy was only 30. This tribute show originally ran in July, 2008. The original production notes are HERE.

The PopCulteer
October 13, 2023

Your PopCulteer is still riding a Ringo high from Monday night, so this week’s PopCulteer column reverts to radio notes mode. We have a hot new episode of MIRRORBALL to tell you about, and a recent and terrific encore of an episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes a full hour to intricately curated classics of the Disco era.  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.

The Ohio Players make their long-awaited debut on MIRRORBALL this week with the classic, “Love Rollercoaster.” We also have some European Disco hits from Dina Carroll, Hot Chocolate and Tony Holiday, some massive hits by the top Divas of Disco and a song by The Average White Band, sung by Hamish Stuart, who was one of Ringo’s All-Starrs when they hit Charleston earlier this week.

It’s a cool collection of dance classics from the Golden Age of Disco.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 084

The Ohio Players “Love Rollercoaster”
Dina Carroll “Ain’t No Man”
Hot Chocolate “No Doubt About It”
Grace Jones “Pride”
Average White Band “Let’s Go Round Again”
The Blackbyrds “Walking In Rhythm”
Tavares “It Only Takes A Minute”
Tony Holiday “Tanze Samba mit mir”
Donna Summer “Love’s Unkind”
The Spinners “Are You Ready For Love”
Sister Sledge “Lost In Music”
George Benson “Never Give Up On A Good Thing”
The Three Degrees “You’re The One”
Gloria Gaynor “(If You Want It) Do It Yourself”

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 an encore of the one-hundred-and-first episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat from eariler this year.  This is a mixtape presentatio of tracks from the boxed set, Steven Wilson Presents: Intrigue-Progressive Sounds In Uk Alternative Music 1979-89.

Though Wilson is usually associated with progressive rock, he grew up on the New Wave era and Intrigue is a collection of some great music from the New Wave era, with a focus on deep album cuts and b-sides.

Check out this intriguing playlist…

BEC 101

Wire “I Should Have Known Better”
Gang of Four “Contract”
The Associates “White Car In Germany”
Cocteau Twins “Donimo”
Dalis Car “Dalis Car”
Thomas Dolby “Airwaves”
Cardiacs “R.E.S.”
No-Man “Night Sky, Sweet Earth”
Art Nouveau “Enemies”
New Musik “They All Run After The Carviing Knife”
Magazine “Back To Nature”
Slab “Gutter Busting”
Echo and The Bunnymen “All My Colours”
Joy Division “The Eternal”
Kate Bush “Waking The Witch”
The Sisters of Mercy “Corrosion”
XTC “Complicated Game”
This Heat “Health and Efficiency”
The The “Good Morning, Beautiful”
Momus “Murderers, The Hope Of Women”
Kitchens of Distinction “The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule”
The Stranglers “The Raven”

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. Two classic episodes can also be heard every Sunday, starting at 10 AM.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content.

We are creeping toward Halloween, and we have a few early-spooky events sprinkled in among the fall festivals and other cool things for you to get into around the Mountain State and a few points beyond. As I have been doing of late, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

VoidCon happens this weekend at the DoubleTree Hotel on 3rd Avenue in Huntington.  This con is dedicated to the underground horror community and independent creators. Guests include Brian Keene, author of The Rising, Terminal, Ghoul and more; Mary SanGiovanni, author Alien: Enemy of My Enemy, Beyond the Gate, and more; underground filmmaker, Scooter McCrea; Kerry St. Laurent and much, much more. Plus Gringo Fantastico of TromaNow’s Fantastico Disasterpiece Theater will be filming a special LIVE screening of the classic Troma SOV flick REDNECK ZOMBIES! It kicks off at 5 PM on Saturday and Sunday, and you can find more info HERE.

Saturday at noon, the first annual Freedom Car Show happens at Haddad Riverfront Park. The Freedom Car Show features vehicles that have been modified with adaptive equipment to help people with disabilities be mobile. You can expect to see vehicle related vendors, first responders, food vendors, live music, and  trophies. You’ll be able to see cars that have been modified in ways you’ve never seen before.

The purpose of the car show is to educate first responders and the public, provide awareness, and raise money to help people with disabilities get the vehicle modifications they need to be mobile.

There are currently 28 people with disabilities on the wait list for accessible vehicle equipment totaling approximately $178,400. The goal of this event is to clear the wait visit and get these people mobile. The show is open to cool cars of all kinds.  Music will be provided by The Amos Steele Co., Travis Ranson and The Honey Bees, and that will start at 1:30 PM.

October 13 to 15 sees the Hinton Railroad Days, as the historic WV town (and lovely Amtrak stop) celebrates its railroad heritage with a big festival and lots of music, as you can see here…

Friday from 7:30 PM to 9 PM Children’s Home Society sponsors a showing of the Vincent Price classic, House on Haunted Hill at The Alban Arts Center in Saint Albans, WV.  Admssion is free with a non-perishable food donation. See the graphics block below for another cool film event at The Alban on Saturday.

Sunday From 4 PM to 7 PM at Chesapeke Town Hall, Lady D hosts the premiere of the 3rd installment of her video series, “Those Who Came Before” celebrating W.Va’s Black music makers and culture bearers. This episode features, Osage, WV native and singer, Al Anderson, The Gospel Family Affair and Multi-fest founder, Stephen Starks.

Live music will be provided by songstress, Angie Richardson and a panel discussion on the importance of “Keeping Our History Alive” will follow the video. Heavy hors d’oerves will be served. Admission – $5.00 at the door

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday Emily Burdette takes the stage. Saturday Brandon Costello performs at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this week  to tell you about.  Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause. Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.  Friday at 10 PM YAWNi is slated to appear, YAWNi is a femme-grunge-punk with yallternative country sensibilities from Asheville, NC.  We have graphics below for the rest of the weekend shows at The Glass.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, pumpkin spice murder hornets, really heavy falling leaves, tiny squirrels with human heads and hands and other damned good reasons to be careful. Many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out.

Keep in mind that all shows are subject to change or be cancelled at the last minute.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order, after the jump…

Continue reading

Monday night, I got to see Ringo Starr perform in Charleston.  It’s something I never thought I’d be able to do. I had my doubts that I’d ever see a Beatle perform live. The show was fantastic, and I will be talking about it for years. Tuesday morning, riding this musical high, it was my job to assemble the one-hundredth episode of Beatles Blast.

Serendipity and Euphoria.

I invite you to tune in Wednesday afternoon, as The AIR brings you a very special episode of Beatles Blast.  You can tune in at the website, or just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast brings you an hour that celebrates the euphoria that the music of The Beatles instills in the folks who choose to listen. I didn’t set out to do a huge milestone theme show, instead preferring to bring you a collection of solo tracks by The Beatles and a selection of other artists covering their tunes. In fact, this episode of the show doesn’t include any music by The Beatles as a group.

We do have one live track from each Beatle, performing a group song, but we also have some of the most upbeat solo tracks that they released. We also have a set of female vocalists singing Beatle songs, and a set of diverse and eclectic covers in a variety of styles.

Check out the playlist:

Beatles Blast 100

Ringo Starr and The All-Starr Band “With A Little Help From My Friends”
Paul McCartney “Hello Goodbye”
John Lennon “Come Together”
George Harrison “If I Needed Someone”
Tina Turner “Get Back”
Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet “And Your Bird Can Sing”
Lulu “Day Tripper”
Alison Moorer “Here Comes The Sun”
Mick Kolassa & Mark Telesca “You Can’t Do That”
Nellie McKay “If I Needed Someone”
The String Quartet “Penny Lane”
The Pixies “Wild Honey Pie”
John Lennon “Whatever Gets You Through The Night”
George Harrison “My Sweet Lord”
Paul McCartney “Coming Up”
Ringo Starr “It Don’t Come Easy”

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

Back to Ringo and his All-Starr Band: The show Monday night was awesome. An incredible collection of top-notch musicians from around the world came together and just had fun delivering hit songs to a loving audience.

I’m almost at a loss for words myself. As a life-long Beatles fan living in a state where no member of the band had ever performed, I’m still finding it hard to believe that I really got see Ringo perform.  And having fourth-row seats meant that I was probably just thirty or forty feet away from the musical legend. The night was nearly perfect. We got there early. The seat in front of me was empty so I could sit down and enjoy the show without wearing out my ailing knee. The performances were just amazing.

I had made the decision weeks ago that I was not going to spend the evening with my phone in my hand trying to take photos. With my Myasthenia Gravis and phones not being terribly ergnomically-shaped, most of my phone photos suck. So I snapped a few blurry shots, took about a minute of video, and stuck the camera in my pocket for the rest of the night. I can’t explain how happy I am that I did that. I actually got to enjoy the music.

At some point they’ll probably release a Blu ray of one of the dates on this tour, and I’ll get that when it comes out.

The only blight on the evening was the horrible woman in seat nine, row three, who despite the repeated announcements, insisted on vaping throughout the first half of the show. I will give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she was extremely drunk and thought she was at a performance of Beetlejuice. I don’t know if she was making out with her date, because I wasn’t looking her way most of the night. I can avert my eyes, but not my nose.

Ringo’s band, all of whom are stars in their own right, were charming and hilarious when they took the mic for intros.  Edgar Winter, in particular was part carnival barker, part Rick Wakeman on a bender, and helped make the show tons of fun. Ringo, being Ringo, had no problems sharing the spotlight, and every member of the band had their chance to shine, whether they were singing one of their big hits, or just showing off an incredible level of virtuosity.

Edgar Winter handled lead vocals on a couple of songs, and treated the crowd to an epic rendition of “Frankenstein,” in which he not only played synthesizer, saxophone and drums, but also stepped aside to let Greg Bissonette fire off a nuclear drum solo.  Steve Lukather steered the band and sang lead on three hits by Toto.  He also ripped loose with a guitar solo so hot that a guitar tech ran out on stage right after and carried the guitar offstage, probably to dunk it in a tank of water to cool it off.

Hamish Stuart played bass most of the night (trading off with Lukather a couple of times) and sang lead on a couple of AWB songs, plus an Isley Brothers classic. Colin Hay delivered three classic Men At Work numbers.  Special note has to be made of Warren Ham, the utility man who handled vocals, percussion, harmonica, saxophone, English horn, keyboards and whatever other instruments he had tucked away on his riser. I think he might’ve had a cello and a slow cooker up there.

It was a night that I will remember the rest of my life. This show was pretty much Mel’s birthday gift to me (my birthday was back in August, but that’s when she got the tickets), and this was obstensibly a “Rudy thing,” but…after it ended, Mel looked at me, beaming, and said, “I want to see them again!”

I hope we get the chance.