INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS OF POP – Trefpunt, Ghent, Belgium – 20 April 2019

Adrian Anthony Flanagan and Dean Honer, the key figures behind Sheffield‘s electro oddity The Eccentric Research Counsil and also co-writers/producers of one of the best albums of 2017, Interplanetary Class Classics by kooky dance punk outfit The Moonlandingz with Fat White Family‘s Lias Saoudi screaming his head off, are back with some new flashing electro firework.

Last year Flanagan and Honer teamed up with sensual I Feel Love voice Leonore Wheatley to give birth to a new radiant synth project called INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS OF POP . Wheatley describes the new band as “Grace Slick on the raz with Donna Summer and the Pet Shop Boys, legging it over to Kraftwerk’s gaff for a quick synth-sesh before getting a cab round to All Saints gaff to sing at the telly til the sun comes up!”. For those who have no clue what this colorful clarification is all about let’s keep it simple: watch/hear this crackerjack…

Got it now? Yes indeed, this is 21st Century atomic Blondie disco injected with tons of that characteristic British sense of humor, that over-confident British islander’s flair, and that peculiar British waywardness you recognise from far away. Add some sonic influence of Sheffield‘s icons Pulp and The Human League and what you end up with at midnight is your new favorite Saturday Night Fever act. Check their debut LP (Spotify-link below) and all your sweaty wishes will be answered from the get-go.

Yesterday the band played the last gig of their first European concerts in my hometown Ghent in Belgium. Due to the fact that it was the first summer day of the year (meaning that everybody was drunk by noon) and mostly due to the fact that the gig was programmed way too early not many spectators showed up to dance their socks off. Whatever, it gave me much room to enjoy myself which I definitely did.

This was BIG FUN! Infectious disco ball humdingers with the volume turned up to create the desired live experience. Facetious dance moves by the gloriously cool girls in the middle who parodied famous little dances by 70s cheesy pop combo The Brotherhood Of Man and Brylcreem Grease tandem Travolta/Olivia Newton-John while lighting up the club with their big luminous kitsch finger-rings. Solid Gold British Disco Revue! Within six months, after these teachers have become a global international success, hundreds of (still drunk) people will claim they were there yesterday night.

Debut album in full right here…

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INTERNATIONAL PREACHERS OF POP: Facebook

The Brotherhood Of Woman…

Saturday Night Fever…

(pics by Turn Up The Volume!)