The PopCulteer
January 27, 2023

Just like last Monday with Prognosis, this afternoon on The AIR Sydney Fileen reaches her one-hundredth episode of our New Wave Music showcase, Sydney’s Big Electric Cat on The AIR. We also have a new episode of MIRRORBALL, for you Disco fanatics.   The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

First, at 2 PM, Mel Larch uncorks a new MIRRORBALL! The AIR’s showcase of classic Disco music presents the first of two episodes devoted to the music of The Trammps.

Emerging from the ashes of the 1960’s R&B band, The Volcanos, vocalists Jimmy Ellis and Earl Young teamed up with the Wade brothers, from MFSB to form a Disco Music powerhouse. In this and the next episode of MIRRORBALL, Mel will bring you their hits along with important album tracks and a few oddities from their career. Disco wouldn’t have been the same without “Disco Inferno,” but there is so much more to The Trammps than that one iconic hit.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 067

The Trammps

“Trammps Disco Theme”
“Penguin At The Big Apple/ Zing Went The Strings of My Heart”
“Sixty Minute Man”
“Rubber Band”
“Disco Party”
“Can We Come Together”
“Starvin “
“People of The World, Rise”
“Disco Inferno (long mix)”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week.

At 3 PM, on Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, Sydney Fileen reaches her one-hundredth episode, keeping the New Wave Music flame burning brightly, and honoring a promise she’s made for years.

After opening show with her namesake song, Adrian Belew’s “Big Electric Cat,” Sydney assembles a playlist of “Quintessential New Wave Music” for her listeners.

As Sydney explains, “Some of these songs were major hits that defined the era, while others are deep album cuts by the artists who defined the genre. Either way, it’s going to be very New Wave-y here.”

Sydney don’t lie, as you can see from this playlist…

BEC 100

Adrian Belew “Big Electric Cat”
Toyah “Good Morning Universe”
XTC “Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)”
The Police “Spirits In The Material World”
Madness “Tomorrow’s (Just Another Day)”
Eurythmics “Right By Your Side”
Bronski Beat “Hit That Perfect Beat (12” Mix)”
Thompson Twins “Sister of Mercy”
Elvis Costello “Busy Bodies”
DEVO “Girl U Want”
Lene Lovich “Angels”
Klaus Nomi “Total Eclipse”
Mike Batt “Love Makes You Crazy”
Hazel O’Connor “Decadent Days”
The B-52s “Party Out Of Bounds”
Joe Jackson “Steppin’ Out”
Kate Bush “Army Dreamers”
ABC “Poison Arrow”
Ultravox “We Stand Alone”
Nina Hagen “Blood In The Streets”
Adam & The Ants “Killer In The House”
Pretenders “Birds of Paradise”
New Musik “Science”
Missing Persons “Tears”
Split Enz “I Got You”
Siouxsie and The Banshees “Take Me Back”
The Clash “Death Or Glory”
The Stranglers “Mean To Me”
Gary Numan “Music For Chameleons”
Blondie “Living In The Real World”
The Art of Noise “Close To The Edit”

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.

It’s been great to have such major deejays from the UK creating these labor-of-love programs for The AIR, and I want to thank Sydney, Herman, Nigel and all the crew at The Haversham Recording Institute for the hundreds of hours of quality radio programming they’ve given us over the past several years.

That’s what’s new on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back all weekend for fresh posts even though yours truly will be at GI Joe Winterfest in Louisville. We have internets blogging magic that lets me do this stuff.