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INDUSTRY REPORT # 42
Catching up with Tim Polecat
September 10, 2025 by Traci Turner
The debut of the new O.C. Rewind Fest is mere weeks away and we cannot wait! So many of our ‘80s (and beyond!) favorites are on the bill: Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, Men Without Hats, Annabella Lwin’s Bow Wow Wow, Naked Eyes, Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel, Animotion, Clive Farrington from When in Rome, Dale Bozzio from Missing Persons, and the man like no other, Tim Polecat!
The Polecats delivered a special brand of rockabilly that set them apart, earning a place in our musical libraries thanks to a brilliant version of David Bowie’s “John, I’m Only Dancing,” and the track that defined them to many, “Make a Circuit With Me.”
After decades of albums, the London band remains a staple in the rockabilly genre with Tim Polecat still fronting the gang. He will grace the O.C. Rewind Fest with his presence since he now resides in the USA, making the trip to HB an easy one!
In addition to his appearance, it seems there is some new music on the way from the legendary band and the man himself gave us the scoop!
Traci: I have learned all sorts of things about you the past few days! For instance, I saw that you are obsessed with the moon landing?
Tim: I’m obsessed with a lot of things. I’m obsessed with sci-fi, comic books, vintage music, toys. I have all kinds of stuff. I am interested in the moon landing, but not obsessed, but I did I watch it. I think that there’s a very good chance – knowing the nature of film and knowing the nature of set design – I’m seeing some big mistakes there, but I don’t want to have the FBI on my door. (laughing)
Traci: I just thought it was funny because my husband is a few days older than you, and he’s all about space and guitars. And I was like, “What’s with you 1963 babies?”
Tim: With the guitar, it’s because it was so hard. They didn’t have a lot of money, and it was very hard to get that first guitar. I wasn’t rich. When I was a kid, I had a little pile of records, a little pile of comic books, and my guitar, and a pencil and some paper. The TV went off at eight o’clock at night or whatever. So that was it. That was the full creative kit. Now I have an embarrassment of riches.
Traci: Do you remember the first record you bought?
Tim: The first record I actually bought was a glam rock record, “Hell Raiser” by Sweet, and then some punk records, rockabilly reissue records. I have them all, actually. I don’t have the “Hell Raiser,” but I have all the punk records and I have all the rockabilly records I bought in the ‘70s.
Traci: Then, did you get your first guitar at 12?
Tim: Yeah. Well, that’s first electric guitar. First acoustic guitar was when I was 10. Then I got the first electric one when I was 12. And a couple of days later, my friend, I used to go to Scouts, and a kid from the Scouts that I didn’t know came and knocked on the door and said, “You’re the kid with the electric guitar. Can I come and have a go?” And it was Boz Boorer, who I ended up playing with for many, many years. So, yeah, that’s all true. Where else did you find it in your research? I’ll debunk it or say it’s true.
Traci: Actually, wait. I read that wrong. “I remember the World Cup final as well as the Moon landing. I grew obsessed by comic books.” That’s my fault.
Tim: I was going to say it’s my comic books!
Traci: Moved to L.A. in the mid ‘80s. English rockabilly band formed in 1977. You got your guitar at 12, and Boz showed up at your door. “Make a Circuit With Me” was used in a “Wall-E” trailer.
Tim: It was. It’s been used in a bunch of stuff, actually. And they don’t tell us when they’re going to use it; it’s owned by a massive corporation. It’s been used on numerous things and The Polecats in general get used on TV a lot, and we don’t ever find out about it until a little check comes or someone tells us. But I liked that it was in “Wall-E” because I really did think that was a good film.
Traci: That’s one of my favorites and I did sit and listen to all the commercials so I could hear “Make a Circuit With Me.” I was like, “There it is!”
Tim: Yeah, it was only a few seconds, but it all counts. So it’s been in a bunch of stuff, and I’m happy because we wrote that. I wrote all the tune and lyrics, and the bass player wrote the arrangement and the music for it. It’s our song, so I want that to be in things.
Traci: I did my college internship at KROQ in Los Angeles in the ‘90s. Any time “Make a Circuit With Me” was played, the phones would go crazy – no internet then – with people asking, “What’s that ‘generator oscillator’ song?”
Tim: I’ve just been with Richard Blade for a month and that was on one of his records; his compilation album. It was one of the things he championed. We met him back in the ‘80s. We were in England and he came over and he was doing interviews for this MTV thing. Actually, I got asked the other day, what was it like to be on MTV all the time? I don’t know! We didn’t have it in England!
Traci: I saw him last week for the first time in 30 years, which was very cool.
Tim: He is so good at what he does; I didn’t really realize. Five thousand people, he’s talking to them as if he was in the living room like we’re talking now, and he’s totally got their attention. I’ve only ever met one other person that’s like that, and that’s Casey Kasem. I worked with Casey Kasem. I don’t know if in your research, it told you that I did work for over 20 years in film and television.
Traci: Yes, and I wanted to ask you about writing songs for you versus movies. How do you take somebody else’s movie and make the music for that?
Tim: Well, actually, so that’s two different things. I have actually done soundtracks, two movies. That is relatively easy because doing a soundtrack for a film, and I did a bunch of it. I’ve done a bunch of uncredited stuff, and I’ve even done a full-length feature film that never came out because it was so crazy, horror-orientated. They killed the film. They literally destroyed the film. So you just watch the picture and there’ll be something in your mind that already exists. You don’t have to come up with, “Oh, is this going to be a hit?” And then once you’ve got a couple of themes, you just repeat that over with different instrumentation. It’s a little bit of a production process. It’s not as creative as writing a hit record. That is inspirational. The rest is, I could sit down and do a film score now, but tell me to write a hit record, well, that’s tricky.
He went on: To be honest, The Polecats have got a new record, “Crepe Soul,” and it’s been going down really, really well. It’s very hard when you’re a legacy band to write new stuff that people like. We think we’ve done that now after a few years. But yeah, doing the music for films is one thing. But when I was doing the visuals, so I’m a production designer, so I designed the look of music video. I’d sit with the director and help write the script of what they going to see in the music videos.
Traci: Does your brain ever shut off? (laughing)
Tim: No! It doesn’t, sadly. I’m very hyperactive. I was a hyperactive child until I found an outlet. No, because I’m either doing one or the other.
Traci: You just did an ‘80s tour with several other acts. What are those crowds like?
Tim: It’s a very different crowd. For many years, we’ve been playing with The Polecats to counterculture audiences. They’ve all been punk rockers or rockabilly types or that thing. It’s a small but dedicated audience. But this tour was an eye opener because there was between 3,000 and 7,000 people every night. I looked out and they It didn’t all wear clothes exactly like me. These were radio listening, down the shops going, people that just love music. That was fantastic, and I couldn’t believe it. I could see which people singing along with the the lyrics. Well, they know the music, they’re not all covered in tattoos like the normal people that see us. So there was an eye opener, and the reception was fantastic.
Traci: You can’t be in a bad mood listening to your music!
Tim: No. I mean, tell that to the other band members when it’s raining, it’s in the ‘80s, and it’s cold, and we didn’t get paid for a gig and we’re in sleeping bags in the back. (chuckling) Actually, we paid our dues quite heavily. I mean, we were going in the ‘70s and we were kids. We did that when it was very hard to do. We were doing shows in England, and I had to sometimes wait outside in the rain because I wasn’t old enough to go into the club I was playing. I was a year younger than the other members of The Polecats. They just made it. They were just 18, but I was 17 when we had a record deal. So that was a stolen childhood or something.
Traci: I knew you had several records, but I didn’t know how many until I started looking. You guys were busy!
Tim: Yeah, we’ve had a lot. That was the thing on this tour. Most people in America just know “Make a Circuit With Me” in that mini-album. But obviously in England, we were much more well known. And not just in the New Musical Express, a cutting edge [magazine]. We were in the little girl, what you’d call Tiger Beat, but in all of those.
Traci: Yea, I saw your nipple.
Tim: Oh, you saw that one? (laughing) There was a few. I was on the cover of NME topless. I was in lots of pin-up shots. That was fun. It’s something to say. People said, “What did you do when you were a teen?” I just said, “Well, for want of a better word, I was a pop star. I was a rock and roll performer. I was in little girls’ magazines and I’d get fan mail with flowers.”
Traci: You mentioned a new album.
Tim: Yeah, actually it’s The Polecats. We’ve been recording it off and on when we can, and we decided to issue four tracks from it on an EP. We put it on pink vinyl, 10-inch. They’re all original tracks. One of the songs is called “Crepe Soul,” and it’s a contemporary track, but it’s about growing up. It’s about things I’m telling you, actually. It’s about growing up in the 1970s in England, pre-punk. One of the songs is called “Devil on the Radio,” and that is about all of the British TV personalities that let us down very badly. We’re just doing it bit by bit. But because we have an embarrassment of riches, it’s taking so much longer because when we had our original recording deal, it was costing us £40 an hour and we were panicking to get it done! What else did you find out in your research?
Traci: I think I stopped when I got to the nipple. (laughing)
Tim: Yeah, that would do it. (laughing) Where did you find that?
Traci: Actually, that was your Instagram.
Tim: Oh, yeah. So that would be the cover of the NME then? So you haven’t seen the little girls’ magazines where I’ve got my shirt off and doing the list business?
Traci: Now I know what I’m going to go look for!
Tim: Maybe I’ll put it up on Instagram for fun…
It will never be boring with Tim Polecat! Catch him for yourself along with all the ‘80s music you love, host for the day will be Freddy Snakeskin AND unlimited beer tastings. It all goes down at O.C. Rewind Fest at the HB Sports Complex on September 27th.
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SID 250908 | TRACI TURNER | EDITOR
