The PopCulteer
August 16, 2024

The year keeps zooming by this Friday as we offer up a classic episode of MIRRORBALL and a BRAND NEW edition of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat.  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 on this very page.

First, at 2 PM, Mel Larch goes back to January, 2023 for a classic MIRRORBALL. This was the week that 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 following episode of MIRRORBALL(running in this space in two weeks, following next week’s new episode), Mel brings 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 Saturday at  9 PM (kicking off a mini-marathon), Sunday at 11 PM, Monday at 9 AM, and Tuesday at 1 PM  exclusively on The AIR.

At 3 PM, it’s Big Electric Cat time as Sydney Fileen delivers a special mixtape edition of her show that pays tribute to a classic New Wave band that we’ve been talking about a lot in PopCult lately, Thompson Twins.

You may remember from all the way earlier this week that I posted video of Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins fame recorded in Chicago at the end of July.  As Sydney reveals in this episode of Big Electric Cat, the day before we were to see the show, Sydney told me that this mixtape edition of BEC was in the works. Be it kismet, coincidence or wayward Karma from a Magic Eight Ball, it worked out that her show featuring the band would be ready to run now.

Thompson Twins were one of the definitive New Wave acts, primarily as a trio consisting of Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway. Their hits were numerous and legion and you can’t really talk about the music of the 1980s without mentioning their name.

With Leeway leaving in 1987 to eventually become a hypnotherapist, and the remaining duo mutating into the Dub band, Babble before splitting up, Sydney decided to stick with the hit albums of their peak. She does start out with their first album, from when they were a seven-piece band, and throws in a few post-Leeway hits. You can expect a few deep album cuts and extended remixes along the way.

This episode of BEC is a great reminding of one of the lost treasures of New Wave. It’s time for a fresh appreciation of Thompson Twins.

Check out this killer playlist…

BEC 119

Thompson Twins
“Squares and Triangles”
“She’s In Love With Mystery”
“Perfect Game”
“In The Name of Love”
“Living In Europe”
“The Rowe”
“Lay Your Hands On Me”
“King For A Day”
“Roll Over”
“Doctor Doctor”
“You Take Me Up”
“Sister of Mercy”
“Storm On The Sea”
“Hold Me Now”
“The Gap”
“Funeral Dance”
“Passion Planet:
“Love On Your Side”
“Lies”
“If You Were Here”
“Fast Food”
“Love Lies Bleeding”
“All Fall Out”
“Long Beach Culture”
“Get That Love”
“”Dancing In Your Shoes”
“Bombers In The Sky (12″ Remix)”
“Sugar Daddy”

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.

That’s what’s on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer.

Check PopCult for all our regular features, with fresh content every day.