The Polecats Are Go!

The Polecats, were a New Wave-ish Rockabilly band formed in 1977 by Tim Worman and Martin “Boz” Boorer when they were still in school, in the North London Area. They were involved in the early 80s UK rockabilly revival, and were one of the more successful bands of the time.

The original line-up being Tim “Tim Polecat” Worman  on vocals, Martin “Boz” Boorer on guitar and vocals, Phil Bloomberg on bass, and Chris Hawkes on drums. 

The band, originally playing under the name of “Cult Heroes,” an earlier name before the name The Polecats, found it hard to book gigs on the rockabilly circuit, because the name sounded “too punk”. Hawkes’ at one time suggested the name The Polecats, and so they changed the name and they started to play shows. The Polecats played rockabilly with a “punk sense of anarchy and helped revive the genre in the early ’80s”. Later as the band moved on Chris Hawkes was replaced by Neil Rooney on drums. For a short time in 1980 they toured and recorded with Robin Scott and were called Scotty Robbins & The Psychobillies.

The band signed to Mercury Records in 1980, and released their most successful LP, Polecats Are Go! was produced by Dave Edmunds. They had chart success in the UK with a cover of David Bowie’s song “John, I’m Only Dancing”, as well as a reworked “Rockabilly Guy” and another cover of the T-Rex song “Jeepster”. They hit the charts in the United States in 1983 with their song “Make a Circuit With Me.” After the successful charting in the US, Neil Rooney was replaced on drums by John Buck.

A 1986 movie named Joey, is about a father and son with a broken relationship. The plot is loosely based about how music helps to bring them back together and features two songs by the polecats. A cheesy movie but worth the watch for the music content.

Boz Boorer left The Polecats to work with Morrissey as a guitarist, musical director, and co-songwriter. In 1989, Boz put together a Polecats reunion and produced a live album and a new studio set. Tim Polecat formed the band 13 Cats after he moved to Los Angeles, California with drummer Slim Jim of the Stray Cats, stand-up bassist Smutty Smith of The Rockats, and guitarist Danny B. Harvey of The Swing Cats.

In November 2006 frontman Jarvis Cocker of the British band Pulp, along with bassist Steve Mackey, released a 2-CD compilation album, The Trip, which features a wide selection of tracks by artists as varied as The Fall, Gene Pitney, The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, Dion, Sonny Bono plus The Polecats with their hit “John, I’m Only Dancing”.

Disney Pixar film, WALL E, used The Polecats 1983 hit song, “Make a Circuit With Me” in their television trailers for the film in June 2008.

Currently and musically, Tim continues to work in film as a  composer as well as a solo singer-songwriter.

The Polecats Videos:

The 13 Cats Videos: