Along with the likes of The Stray Cats and The Shaking Pyramids , The Polecats were part of a brief new wave of rockabilly towards the end of the seventies.
They are probably best known for their covers of John I'm Only Dancing and Jeepster and also having Boz Boorer the future guitarist, musical director and co-songwriter of Morrissey within their midst.
These songs are from Polecats Are Go! their 1981 debut album on the Mercury label.
They somehow lasted up to 1989
The Polecats - Red, Ready, Amber
The Polecats -All Night Long
I love me some rockabilly. In the US Polecats briefly surfaced on the indie scene with 'Make a Circuit with Me'. Until today, that was the only tune of theirs I ever heard. Had no idea they had any sort of career.
ReplyDeleteJTFL is right. For whatever reason, even today, "Make A Circuit With Me" is the one song by Polecats that receives play on this side of the Atlantic. Quite catchy.
ReplyDeleteJohn I'm Only Dancing is probably the only one that made any kind of an impression here
ReplyDeleteThe Polecats, Stray Cats etc were at the commercial end of a big underground UK rockabilly scene around this time. It was a very specialist market, a bit like Northern Soul and the hardcore fans really knew their stuff. Some of the indie rockabilly singles from that period are worth a small fortune now.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely going to have to check out the Bowie/T.Rex covers - bit surprised to hear they even tried those on. My friend Swede, I've heard about the brief UK rockabilly scene but never considered Stray Cats a part of it, even though the band had to go to England get noticed. As it turns out, all 3 of the Stray Cats are from Long Island, like me and Echorich. They went to high school in Massapequa with one of my cousins.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure some of the Psychobilly scooterists were into them.
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