This week’s video was originally posted here fourteen years ago. Since that time, the links in the post have gone dead. Flash video is no longer supported by most browsers, and the original post is a bit of a mess.  So in the spirit of recycling an old post, and also restoring this video to the blog, here it is again, all shined-up, and polished with a nifty new upgraded print.

Duck And Cover, is an infamous educational film from the Cold War era that teaches children how to survive a direct nuclear blast by covering up their head and hitting the ground.

Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli, inspired by this camp classic, wrote the song, “Duck And Cover” for their musical, “The Blob.” You can see that song in Radio Free Charleston episode 82, with will be The RFC Flashback next Saturday.

Duck and Cover is a Civil Defense film, demonstrating the “Duck and Cover” technique of minimizing harm from a nuclear blast. The techniques have been widely ridiculed, although experts still support them. Some critics believe the film was meant to serve a dual purpose of propagandizing against communism. That theory makes sense because this film is about as absurd as current GOP political ads.

If you’ve been following our chronological trip through the video episodes of Radio Free Charleston, you probably noticed that we have had to skip over the final two of our four missing episodes. Someday I may be able to retrieve and restore them, but for now we’ll just jump ahead to September, 2009, for the second Beatles tribute show that we produced. This one features a lot of Rubber Soul, and it’s a little bittersweet to see our late friend, Mark Scarpelli, but it’s also great to see him healthy and playing the music he loved.

In this episode we bring you rehearsal footage of Charleston’s Beatles tribute band, Rubber Soul tackling a pair of Fab Four songs, plus we captured Captain Crash and The Beauty Queen doing a Beatles tune at Taylor Books, and we have my animated take on Under The Radar’s version of “Eleanor Rigby.” Our animation is the promo video for Beatles Rockband, which was thing, back in the day.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

From now on the plan is to bring you the episodes of RFC in order, now that we’ve filled in the huge gap we had from a few years back when a big chunk of our online archives disappeared along with everybody else’s MySpace videos. After we finish the full run of video episodes of Radio Free Charleston (In late 2026, I think) I’ll dedicate this space to The RFC MINI SHOW, our spinoff show that featured a single artist each episode. That ought to take us into 2028.

The PopCulteer
May 3, 2024

Welcome to a stream-of-consciousness edition of The PopCulteer.

It’s been a while since I’ve flown into my weekly Friday columnish post (which I’ve been doing in this blog for fifteen years and four weeks now) with no plan, so I’m just sitting down on Thursday evening with a blank page to fill.

There are no detailed radio notes this week because we are about halfway through our four-day marathon of my wife’s much-loved music specialty show, MIRRORBALL. That’s happening on PopCult‘s sister internet station, The AIR, which you can listen to at the website, or on the nify little player embedded elsewhere on this page.  The marathon is to mark four years and one-hundred episodes of Mel Larch’s MIRRORBALL.  You can read all about it and see the playlist in THIS POST from Wednesday, and you can hear replays of episode 100 Friday at 2 PM, Saturday at 9 PM, Sunday at 10 PM, Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM, (all times Eastern) exclusively on The AIR.

But enough about our MIRRORBALLs…how about we talk a little bit about Myasthenia Gravis?

I have it. I was diagnosed with it just over eight years ago, although I had severe symptoms of it for eleven years before that. You can read all about that HERE.  The point being that it’s an auto-immune disorder that can be a bit of an impairment, and mine has been flaring up for a couple of months now.  Even with my mild case, it sucks. Hot weather makes it worse, so this has been a pretty miserable week for me. It affects my fingers so making art is more difficult. Typing is also a pain in the ass, so excuse any typos that get past me. I was hoping to get out to do some stuff this weekend, but I don’t know if I’ll manage more than a quick visit to the KVRA Model Railroad show at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum.

As for what this means for my loyal readers…well, I have a stack of books, toys and music to write reviews of for you, but I haven’t been able to do all things required to make that happen. Between MG and outside assignments (AKA “paying work”) I haven’t had time to do things like catch up on all the reading, or open and photograph the new MEGO DC figures or the Longbox Heroes or new Super Powers action figures.

So, consider that a preview of what you can expect in the coming weeks.

Hopefully.

Like all of us here in WV I pray for the sweet release of primary election day, when the constant barrage of hideous, repulsive, hateful and moronic campaign ads for Republican candidates will leave our airwaves.  It’s disheartening that in a state with SO MANY serious problems–crumbling infrastructure, myriad health problems, rampant pollution, underfunded health agencies, young people leaving in droves–the only selling point most GOP candidates have is “Hey, I hate vulnerable people and support the traitorous criminal who tried to overthrow the government!”

I do have to wonder, would Kristi Noem have shot Babydog if given the chance?

On the bright side, come primary day, at least three god-awful candidates for governor and one absolutely horrid candidate for senate may be out of politics for good…regardless of who wins.

To lighten the column up after that dark dip into politics, we could see a major change in the entertainment landscape as SONY and Apollo (the private equity firm, not the Roman God of rocketships) have teamed up to make a bid to buy Paramount, which includes the movie studio, tons of cable channels, the CBS Network, Star Trek, Paramount + and SpongeBob Squarepants.  Paramount has been in play for a few months, but there are weird ownership issues stemming from the daughter of the late Sumner Redstone, who ran the company until his recent death at the age of 132.

Even though we are talking about a merger/acquisition worth tens of billions of dollars, the most important point here is that finally…FINALLY…somebody might restore and exploit and make available to the public the vast animation libraries of Terrytoons (Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle) and Screen Gems (Lil’ Abner, Krazy Kat). Those cartoons hardly ever get shown anymore. Even if they don’t do that, they’d be hard-pressed to mess up Paramount as bad as David Zaslav did with Warner Brothers.

{IMPORTANT EDITORIAL NOTE: After proof-reading this column and putting it to bed, I found out that METV is launching a new digital sub-channel called METV TOONS, which will be programmed with classic animation from Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbera, MGM, Paramount and…Terrytoons and Columbia Pictures.  More details can be found HERE. Ask and ye shall receive, I guess.}

Now how about a couple of  quick recommendations?

The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is streaming on AppleTV +, and it’s loads of fun. Absurd, hilarious and anachronistic adventures of the famed 18th-century highwayman, this series, starring Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd) is a real treat.

Fielding is surrounded by a top-notch cast of the UK’s top young comedic talents.  It’s right up the alley of fans of What We Do In The Shadows and Year of the Rabbit. All six episodes of the first season are streaming now at the evil empire’s streaming channel.

The EC Archives, published by Dark Horse, is a new series of trade paperback collections of previously-published hardback collections of classic runs of EC Comics, now at a much more affordable (and readable) price of twenty bucks. Each volume contains six issues of a classic EC Comic like Tales From the Crypt, Weird Science, Shock Suspensestories or Vault of Horror, and you can order them from any bookseller, or directly from Dark Horse.  These contain comic book stories that moved the artform forward dramatically with stories by Al Feldstein, Harry Harrison, Jack Oleck and adaptations of Ray Bradbury, and art by Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Frank Frazetta and many other giants of the industry.  We are still seeing the influence of EC Comics in comics, movies and television today, and…since most of the stories are under nine pages, these make great bathroom reading!

BTW, both Apple and Dark Horse stole their names from record labels started by The Beatles and George Harrison, respectively. That’s my nerdy Beatles trivia for the day.

With that pleasant note, Imma gonna wrap this up and head out. With any luck I’ll be able to rest up over the weekend a bit and finally get around to writing some reviews for you folks next week, along with all our regular features, notes on our radio shows, and lists of STUFF TO DO. Remember, even with Myasthenia Gravis, PopCult has fresh content every day.

Shockingly enough, we are at the start a new month. It seems like this happens every few weeks now. This particular month kicks off with two big events that irritate the piss out of me, so we will largely ignore them, but aside from those, there is still plenty of STUFF TO DO in Charleston and all over the Mountain State and beyond as we avoid fake holidays based on unfunny puns and giant celebrations of animal cruelty.

As I have been copying and pasting 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.

The Bridge Road Bistro is closing this weekend, and our old friend, Brian Diller will be there Saturday to provide the music for their closing night of this Charleston  restaurant institution. The msuic begins at 6PM, and Brian will be like a one man dance band on the Titanic…only the restaurant isn’t sinking or anything.

We have dueling model railroading events this weekend. The KVRA Model Train and Craft Show happens 10 AM. to 6 PM Saturday and 10 AM to 4 PM Sunday at the Charleston Coliseum. Tickets are $6 for adults, children 12 and younger admitted free. For more information, visit The KVRA website. We’ll probably be there to shoot some video on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in Saint Albans, The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society will be showing off their new O Scale layout at the Historic Saint Albans Depot at 400 4th Avenue. Visitors can see the progress being made on the operating layout and new interpretive museum constructed inside the one-of-a-kind depot. Visitors can also take home books for $1 or own a unique piece of history with the Blenko Glass Company suncatchers manufactured in Cobalt Blue to represent St. Albans Junior High School. In addition, other railroad books and memorabilia will be available in support of the St. Albans Depot. The first Saturday of each month, the Depot will be open to the public from 10 AM to 2 PM so folks can see the progress on the layout and the museum.

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It’s a big day for fans of Disco Music today on The AIR.  Mel Larch’s MIRRORBALL marks four years of flying her freak flag high while shaking her groove thing with her 100th episode, airing on a special day and time.  To mark the occasion, The AIR will debut new, Disco-themed episodes of Beatles Blast and Curtain Call this afternoon, leading into MIRRORBALL 100, which will kick off a four-day marathon of every episode of Mel Larch’s Disco showcase to date.

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 of Disco-tinged Beatles music, including Disco turns from Paul and Ringo, and a variety of Disco and Soul covers of classic Beatles tunes from  Earth Wind & Fire, The Main Ingredient, John Holt and more.

Check out the playlist…

Beatles Blast 110

Wings “Goodnight Tonight”
Earth, Wind & Fire “Got To Get You Into My Life”
The Main Ingredient “Get Back”
Stars On 45 “Beatles Medley”
Ringo Starr “Simple Love Song”
John Holt “I Will”
Sarah Vaughan “I Want You”
Cafe Creme “Beatles Disco Medley”
David Porter “Help”
Ringo Starr “Drowning In The Sea of Love”

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays most Thursdays at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon. However, this week the MIRRORBALL Marathon will bump those replays to next week.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch mixes her love of Disco with her love of Musical Theatre. Mel presents a mixtape of bizarre Disco takes on Musical Theatre classics. You’ll hear Disco versions of several Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes. Stephen Sondheim gets intepreted by Liza Minelli with The Pet Shop Boys. Ethel Merman shows up, and Mel has songs from Disco-based musicals, Here Lies Love and Summer. The hidden gem may be the opening track: Pattie Brooks, from the legendary flop attempt at melding Disco with Broadway in 1979 Got Tu Go Disco.

Check out this playlist…

Curtain Call 143

“Got Tu Go Disco” sung by Pattie Brooks from Got Tu Go Disco
“Don’t You Agree” sung by Róisín Murphy, from Here Lies Love
“Buenos Aires” from Festival: Evita by Boris Midney
“Memory” from Cats (Disco Version)
“MacArthur Park” sung by Ariana DuBose from Summer: A Donna Summer Musical
“Something For The Boys” by Ethel Merman
“Losing My Mind” by Liza Minelli & The Pet Shop Boys from Follies
“Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” from Festival: Evita by Boris Midney
“I Am What I Am” sung by Gloria Gaynor, from La Cage aux Folles
“Ladies In Blue” sung by Theresa Anderson, from Here Lies Love
“Nights On Broadway” by The Bee Gees

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, Most weeks you can hear replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. All of those replays will be bumped to next week due to the MIRRORBALL Marathon.

Finally, Wednesday at 4 PM (EDT), Mel marks four years (to the day) of her Disco Music showcase, MIRRORBALL with its 100th episode.

For an “Air Music Special” that nobody involved thought would ever get a second episode, MIRRORBALL proved to be a hugely successful surprise, and is one of The AIR’s most-listened-to programs.

To mark one hundred episodes of MIRRORBALL, Mel decided to bring you a solid hour of her all-time favorite Disco classics. You’ll hear Donna Summer, The Bee Gees, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chic and many other classic Disco artists.

It’s been an amazing journey getting here with what we thought was just a throwaway music special that nobody would listen to. We were wrong, and here we are celebrating with thousands of listeners and a worldwide audience. It was during the late summer of 2019 when Mr. and Mrs. PopCulteer were careenig through Eastern Pennsylvania, listening to The Rialto Report podcast about Andrea True, when Mel remarked on how much she loved classic Disco music, and we began to talk about doing a Disco show for The AIR. The show didn’t happen until the pandemic shut everything down and gave us more free time, and the first MIRRORBALL debuted as an AIR Music Special on May 1, 2020.

Of course, we had to include The Andrea True Connection in this anniversary show. Every song you’ll hear this week is a favorite of Mel’s AND is a certifieable Disco classic!

Check out this all-star playlist…

MIRRORBALL 100

“Bad Girls” Donna Summer
“Dance Across The Floor” Jimmy “Bo” Horne
“Knock On Wood” Amii Stewart
“Let’s All Chant” Michael Zager Band
“That’s The Way (I Like It)” KC & the Sunshine Band
“Do The Boogaloo” Quango & Sparky
“Native New Yorker” Odyssey
“Le Freak” Chic
“At Midnight” T-Connection
“Bourgie Bourgie” Ashford & Simpson
“More, More, More” Andrea True Connection
“Stayin’ Alive” Bee Gees

Following this special Wednesday edition of MIRRORBALL, we hope you’re still in the mood to dance. Beginning at 5 PM (EDT) we will play every episode, from the first to the latest, with a few breaks in between for replays of the special 100th episode. It’s a four-day-plus MIRRORBALL Marathon on The AIR, wrapping up Sunday at Midnight.

We have another fun new RFC today on The AIR.  Just like with last week, our new episode of  Radio Free Charleston features one hour of new stuff, followed by two hours of a vintage RFC International that will make fans of Swing Music very happy.  To listen to The AIR, 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.

We open our show with the new single from Frenchy & The Punk. Let me stop right here and tell you to go to THIS POST and follow the link to their Kickstarter campaign so that they can fund their new album. The campaign just funded, but it ends Tuesday evening. You still have time to get in on it.

Okay, now that you did that, we also have a great tune to kick off a hard rock/heavy metal set. From the Chicago connection comes a Nashville band, OmenBringer. These guys are inspired by the classic doom and rock of Black Sabbath, Pentagram, and Thin Lizzy, and you’ll hear the first single off of their debut album, Thicc Darkness.

We bring you some heavier music in the first hour this week, with new tunes from The Dread Crew of Oddwood and Unmanned, and archive tracks from Wolves of The Calla, Membrane Cell, Science of The Mind, HARRAH and more.

Just to jar your senses, our second and third hours this week (just like last week) will bring back an episode of Radio Free Charleston International that served as one of the pilot shows for The Swing Shift.  Since I could play anything I wanted on RFC International, I devoted two early episodes to Swing music, which has been a passion of mine for over forty years. These shows proved so popular that they inspired me to create The Swing Shift, and the rest, as they say, is history. In this week’s RFC, we bring back the first of the two pilots, which has not been heard since I launched The Swing Shift in July, 2016. Now you get to re-live this important artifact of internet radio trivia!

Links in the artist’s names in the first hour of our playlist below will take you to a website where you can find our more about them and maybe buy their music.

Check out the playlist.

Radio Free Charleston V5 174

hour one
Frenchy & The Punk “Hypnotize”
OmenBringer “Tungs”
Wolves Of The Calla “Carpetbagger”
Membrane Cell  “Insignificant Other”
Science of the Mind “Rat”
Mother Nang “Peel”
HARRAH “Get Outta My Face”
The Dread Crew of Oddwood “Leather Ship”
Unmanned “Light The Beacons”
Lords of Atlantis “Barbary Corsairs”
The Paranoid Style “Last Night In Chickentown”
Adam & The Ants “Stand and Deliver (Demo)”
Astrodot “The Victor”

hour two
Raymond Scott “Powerhouse”
Royal Crown Revue “Zip Gun Bop”
Cab Calloway “Minnie The Moocher”
Lionel Hampton “Hamp’s Boogie”
Gene Krupa “Drumboogie”
Joe Jackson’s Jumpin’ Jive “Jack You Dead”
Orchestra Baobab “El Son Te Llama”
Kid Creole and the Cocounts “There’s Something Wrong In Paradise”
Royal Crown Revue “Brazil”
Sergio Caputo “Bibidin Babidin Bibidi Boo”
The Stranglers “Sanfte Kuss”
Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos Postizos ” Como Se Goza en el Barrio”
Stan Kenton “The Peanut Vendor”
Brian Setzer Orchestra “Let’s Live It Up”
Louis Prima “Angelina/Zooma Zooma”
David Lee Roth “Just A Gigalo/I Ain’t Got Nobody”

hour three
Squirrel Nut Zippers “Hell”
Sam Butera “Night Train”
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy “Save My Soul”
Fletcher Henderson “Happy as the Day Is Long”
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies “Brown Derby Jump”
Woody Herman “23 Red”
Royal Crown Revue “El Toro”
Erskine Hawkins “Bear Mash Blues”
Oingo Boingo “Don’t Go In The Basement”
Earl Hines “Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues”
The Atomic Fireballs “Hit By A Brick”
John Cale “I Wanna Be Around”
Jools Holland “Well All Right”
Dean Martin “You’re Nobody ’til Somebody Loves You”

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, like last week, we give you an encore of two recent episodes of The Swing Shift since we have two bonus hours of Swing on RFC, I thought it might be overkill to crank out a whole new episode this week. The Swing Shift will return with a new show next week.

 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.

Just like last week, I was bedeviled by Myasthenia Gravis while working on today’s art. Inspired by last week’s results, I did a small study on watercolor paper using spent watercolor brush pens, only this time, instead of using them with inks, I used acrylic paints, watered down a bit. I was still able to get the atmospheric perspective that I’ve been struggling with, but the rest of the piece leaves a bit to be desired.

The subject matter is the massive Merchandise Mart building in Chicago, and at some point I will revisit this behemoth on canvas, probably in full-tilt Hopper mode.

But this study is smaller, and foreshortened a bit in ways I’m not really happy with. I’m also not crazy about the lack of line control. Until my fingers come back I may switch to digital art for a while. Still, I think it came out okay.

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. All times listed are Eastern, so if you’re in another timezone, adjust accordingly.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of strange narration by Rik Mayall on a recent episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM for the Monday Marathon We bring you ten hours of The Swing Shift. The usual Thursday night marathon will be pre-empted this week, so I figured I’d drop some Swing here.

Ten years and one day ago, in this space, we brought you the video you see above. It’s one of my favorite video productions, and I wanted to share it again,  roughly on its anniversary. Here’s what I wrote at the time:

As promised, today we present the entire Kanawha Forum performance from April 9, 2014, by The Terra Firma Ensemble. We have brought you two-thirds of this performance on Radio Free Charleston and the RFC MINI SHOW, but this video collects the entire concert, in order, complete with the entrance and applause.

The Terra Firma Ensemble was recorded at The Kanawha Forum at Kanawha United Presbyterian Church on Quarrier Street. The Terra Firma Ensemble is Jim Lange, David Porter, J. Scott Milam, Lisa Peery, John Inghram and Ryan Kennedy. The Kanawha Forum is a series of Wednesday concerts that offer up free half-hour lunch performances at the church, which are followed by a paid gourmet meal, which is optional.

At this particular edition of The Kanawha Forum, The Terra Firma Ensemble performed three pieces: “Innocente,” by Ralph Towner and Gary Burton; “Invocation,” by Robert Fripp and the world premiere of “Brambles and Briers,” a piece composed by Jim Lange. In this video wel bring you the entire program from The Terra Firma Ensemble’s Kanawha Forum peformance, with all three pieces presented in order.

It was an honor to be present for the world premiere of Jim’s piece, and it is also our honor to bring you the entire concert as our Sunday Evening Video

This week we bring you a really cool episode of Radio Free Charleston from August, 2009. Despite debuting in the summer, it has a huge element of April Fool’s Day in it. “Kirby Captain America Shirt” is loaded with great stuff. Our 78th episode included music by Tofujitsu and Deni Bonet, plus brilliant animation by Nina Paley.

The April Foolish part of the show is the fact that the host segments, in which I claim to be on Charleston’s West Side, were actually shot in Pittsburgh. Although many people thought that this was a sly comment on the number of movies set in West Virginia that are actually filmed elsewhere, the truth is that we shot these during a last-minute surprise birthday week trip to visit my sister who lives in the Pittsburgh area. If we hadn’t shot our host segments while we were up there, the show would have been delayed.

That wasn’t really an option. Deni Bonet was included on the show to promote an appearance at the late, lamented LiveMix Studio, and delaying the show would have meant that the show and the accompanying notes in the Charleston Gazette would have hit after her performance. So we sort of had to multi-task and turn a quick fun trip into a host segment shoot.

Note that, next week we have to jump ahead two shows because episodes 79 and 80 are currently missing in action. One of these days we will find and restore those missing gems to the online line-up.

Original production notes are HERE.

The PopCulteer
April 26, 2024

Your PopCulteer is hitting the road for a quick trip this weekend, and if you behave yourselves I may come back with some news and photos and stuff. In the meantime, we have a very special episode of MIRRORBALL and other radio notes to tell you about.

This week, as we prepare for a big-deal Fourth Anniversary/100th Episode of The AIR’s Disco Showcase next week, we have one more new episode of MIRRORBALL 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 goes back to ground zero and explores the Disco scene of 1975 that inspired the movie, Saturday Night Fever.

It was 1974 and 75 when writer Nik Cohn investigated the discotheque scene in Brooklyn for New York Magazine. His article, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night,” was published in July, 1976, made national news as a human interest story and was later turned into the movie, Saturday Night Fever. Cohn later claimed to have fabricated the entire article, but he did provide detailed notes at the time, and may have just been saying that to fend off any lawsuits from the people mentioned in the piece.

The importance of this article cannot be denied.  In 1998 The New York Times, in a profile of Cohn, wrote:

Without Cohn’s original story, it’s possible that disco would be a dimly remembered fad from the days of the Ford administration: no Bee Gees megahits, no Travolta superstardom, no nostalgic polyester parties for decades ever after. Barry Gibb reportedly once said to Cohn, “It’s all your bloody fault, isn’t it?” He may have been right.

In this week’s MIRRORBALL you’ll find sixty minutes of the records that Nik Cohn mentioned in his notes for the article. This formed a playlist that was copied in clubs worldwide as Disco became a thing and made the leap from the dimly lit dancehall dens of the day to a multi-million-dollar industry that took the underground Gay and Black club scene into the mainstream and made “Disco” a household name.

Back then, this was just the most danceable Soul and R&B available, but the iconic elements that became Disco are all present: The strings, the backing vocals, the postive lyrics and most of all, the beat. These are the quintessential songs that “have a good beat that you can dance to.”

Mel wanted to take a dip back into the origins of Disco as she prepares for her 100th episode, which will premiere next Wednesday, and kick off a four-plus day marathon of every episode of MIRRORBALL on The AIR.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 099

Blue Magic “Welcome To The Club”
The Major Harris Boogie Blues Band “Each Morning I Wake Up”
Faith, Hope & Charity “Mellow Man”
Ecstasy, Passion & Pain “Good Things Don’t Last Forever”
Jimmy Ruffin “Tell Me What You Want”
Sons Of Robin Stone “Got To Get You Back”
Satyr “Free And Easy”
Richard ‘popcorn’ Wylie “Georgia’s After Hours”
Ivano Fossati “Night Of The Wolf (Tema Del Lupo)”
Gloria Scott “Just As Long As We’re Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another)”
Eddie Kendricks “Date With The Rain”
The Intrepids “After You’ve Had Your Fling (Get Down To The Real Thing)”
Margie Joseph “I Can’t Move No Mountains”
Act 1 “It’s The Same Old Story”
Creative Source “You Can’t Hide Love”
John Gary Williams “The Whole Damn World Is Going Crazy”
Moment of Truth “Helplessly”

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, speaking of anniversaries, we bring you an encore of an episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat from 2022.  This was the show where Sydney Fileen celebrated six years of bringing you classic New Wave Music on The AIR by producing a new show that had every artist from her pilot episode, in the same exact order, only those artists were all represented by different songs.

In case you missed it the first time around, here’s the playlist…

Big Electric Cat 093

M “Neutron”
Bow Wow Wow “Mile High Club”
The Humans “Pipeline”
The Fixx “Stand Or Fall”
Adam Ant “Dog Eat Dog”
Kim Wilde “2-6-5-8-0”
The Buggles “I Love You Miss Robot”
The Human League “The Lebanon”
Romeo Void “A Girl In Trouble”
Split Enz “Shark Attack”
Yazoo “Situation”
Pete Shelley “Telephone Operator”
The Waitresses “Wasn’t Tomorrow Wonderful”
Elvis Costello “Secondary Modern”
Ultravox “The Ascent”
Depeche Mode “Wrong”
XTC “Meccanic Dancing”
Martha and the Muffins “This Is The Ice Age”
Missing Persons “Hello I Love You”
Trio “Hearts Are Trump”
Wall of Voodoo “Two Minutes To Lunch”
The Go Gos “We Got The Beat”
Animotion “Let Him Go”
Gary Numan “I Nearly Married A Human”
Orchestral Manuevers In The Dark “The Punishment of Luxury”
The Beat “Rough Rider”
ABC “4 Ever 2 Gether”
Heaven 17 “Who’ll Stop The Rain”
Thompson Twins “No Peace For The Wicked”

 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.