Katie Puckrik Presents A Yacht Rock Odyssey

Record Collector
1 Sep 2024
Chris Roberts

★★★★ Edsel EDSL 0201 X (4CD, 2LP) Slick, subtle set rides like the wind

Broadcaster/ presenter by day, world-class channeller of Iggy Pop by night, Katie Puckrik is also head cheerleader for a genre once deemed terminally unfashionable but now a signifier of all things lightly soulful and heavily freighted with taciturn yearning. Her delicious selection of smooth West Coast 70s/80s sounds and session-pared grooves ranges from those which have already established their retro-cool (Boz Scaggs’ Lowdown, Toto’s Africa) to slinkers and smoochers which had tastemakers of yore clutching their pearls (Chicago, Robert Palmer, Average White Band). Christopher Cross still sounds like a whiny faun, but there’s strong female representation, including the divine Carly Simon. And Olivia Newton-john’s Magic, which, given a fair breeze and the right lighting, is the most irresistible pop record ever made.

ARTICLE

Stand and deliver: 1973 Dame for a laugh:

Coventry Telegraph
14 Aug 2024

**1982 It was hats off to British music star Adam Ant when he joined comedy duo Cannon And Ball for a TV sketch set in the sun.**

Performer Dame Olivia Newton-john looked sweet in her straw hat a few years before she went on to find fame in 1978 movie Grease with John Travolta. It led to a 44-year friendship between the pair that only ended when Olivia sadly lost her battle with breast cancer in 2022.