How many rockabilly bands can boast that they’ve appeared on Top Of The Pops AND had their song included in a Disney soundtrack? The Polecats must be the only band to have that unique honour, on top of spearheading the rockabilly revival in the UK. Unlike many of the bands on our retrospectives list, they’re still rock n rollin today (in fact, we saw them live at Psychobilly Meeting less than a month ago), which makes their debut album even more important. ‘Polecats Are Go!’ was the foundation for the sound that stretched from North London across the world.

It wasn’t recorded by the Polecats we know today though. It was an album by four guys barely out of school, who’d only been making music for a couple of years. They’d released one single, the iconic ‘Rockabilly Guy’, and briefly signed to Nervous Records before making the jump to Mercury in 1980. ‘Polecats Are Go!’ led to chart success with ‘Rockabilly Guy’ and their cover of David Bowie’s ‘John, I’m Only Dancing’ charting at number thirty five in the UK. While we can look back and say as a matter of historical fact that ‘this is an important and very influential album, which was hugely exciting when it was released’, that’s not what our Retrospectives are all about. We’ve got to decide: does ‘Polecats Are Go!’ still rock and roll in 2026?

The first thing that strikes you on a re-listen, especially if you’ve seen the Polecats live recently, is how raw they are. This is an album that screams potential from the very opening of ‘How High The Moon’. There’s no lead in, and no warning: it’s pure neo joy from the first second. Yet for all the rough edges, there’s a simultaneous reverence for the classics and a sweetness but also a cheeky, punk attitude. It’s a heady mix.

It’s also an album that offers all the guilty pleasure cliches that we adore but with a gleeful self awareness. We’ve got a car song, ‘Red Ready Amber’, and a song for the girls, ‘Don’t Cry Baby’. The whole of ‘Polecats Are Go!’ just bursts with a fresh understanding of Rock n Roll.

Obviously we love ‘Rockabilly Guy’, which never gets stale no matter how many times we hear it, but there’s so much charm on this debut. ‘Black Magic’ is so simple but it just works, and ‘Don’t Push’ is ripe for a cover from a younger act today to remind us just how much cool is crammed in there. ‘Big Green Car’ is such an iconic blend of all the things we love about Neo – the jangle, the back-to-basics energy and endless bass slap – and it’s stood the test of time just as mightily as the big singles this album spawned like ‘John I’m Only Dancing’. Considering the genius of T-Rex has only been rediscovered recently, a re-listen to Polecats’ cover of ‘Jeepster’ seems to be even more proof that Marc Bolan can be transposed into any genre and still be amazing, especially when there’s twice as much guitar and three times as much shuffle as the original in this version.

So, does ‘Polecats Are Go!’ still rock n roll in 2026? Absolutely, and not only because it’s the genesis moment for an awesome band. It’s also a record that’ll put a fire under you, and send you out to be more rockin’ in your daily life, just like the Polecats did in 1981.

Kate Allvey

Buy a copy of ‘Polecats Are Go!’ here