The PopCulteer
February 7, 2020

The big show in town this weekend, at least for your PopCulteer, is at Sam’s Uptown Cafe (28 Capitol St. in Charleston). The Swivel Rockers, one of the original bands that I played over thirty years ago on the broadcast version of Radio Free Charleston, have reunited, and are hitting up Capitol Street for a special show.

Well, it’s special for me, because the Radio Free Charleston cameras will be on hand to record part of the evening, and the plan is to do a full-length video episode of RFC, featuring the music and words of The Swivel Rockers. We’ll tell the story of how the band formed in the 1980s in Boone County, and how they recently reunited to make music together again.

I haven’t done this very often on the RFC video show. Back in 2008 I devoted an entire show to a one-night-only reunion of Feast of Stephen (who coincidentally share vocalist Bob MIller with The Swivels), and in the intervening years, I think I only did three or four other in-depth, documentary-style shows. I know I featured CYAC, Rubber Soul, and 4tet, but that’s not much out of over two-hundred full-length shows.

So we’re going to talk to the guys, and record the show, and with any luck, I’ll be able to get it all mixed and edited and posted here before the end of the month. I’m a bit out of practice when it comes to making video, but I’m confident that I can create a special show for longtime fans of the local music scene.

The Swivel Rockers still hail from Boone County and proudly carry the mantle of Hasil Adkins. I don’t do too many involved big-deal RFC shoots these days, so this will be a real treat for me, and I hope for the many PopCult readers who make it out for the show.

I even took one of their old flyers from the early 90s and updated it for the event…

That is our shortened PopCulteer for this week. We’re taking time today to gear up for the shoot, but you can still check PopCult every day for fresh content, even in the snow.