Word In Your Ear

Kraftwerk, Cream, Nirvana, savage reviews, fantasy girlfriends and a naked Nick Cave ‘plush doll’ Nov 03, 2024

Our crack pair of inquisitors tackle the week’s events and sift out the good, the bad and the riveting, which includes …

… whatever happened to savage reviews?

… “For God’s sake, keep the robots out of music!”: the 50th birthday of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

… a Naked Nick Cave Plush Doll (£24) and some Jonny Greenwood olive oil.

… strange tales about the making of Disraeli Gears.

… what keeps Kamala Harris awake at night.

… the staggering bill at Murray the K’s ‘Music In The Fifth Dimension’ in 1967.

… Teri Garr, Diane Keaton and other fantasy girlfriends.

... “Twas nought but an skellington covered in skin”.

… rock stars never seen without shades.

… and birthday guest Cathal Chu cooks up another 45 ways to leave your lover – ‘Give two weeks’ notice, Otis’.

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Life with the Lennons, fame, friendship, the FBI and the Lost Weekend – by Elliot Mintz. Oct 30, 2024

Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them …

… “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …”

… how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment.

… being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.

… how he heard the news of Lennon’s death.

… booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’.

... the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days.

… how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions.

… abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.

… ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants.

… “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”.

… John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney.

… “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”.

Order Elliot’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Shine-extraordinary-friendship/dp/0857506072

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How Goth took over, farewell Phil Lesh and the curse of teenage stardom Oct 28, 2024

Brushing aside the cobweb spray and luminous flashing skulls, we ring rock and roll’s doorbell in pursuit of both tricks and treats. Among which you’ll find …

… the gothification of entertainment … Harry Potter, Creedence Clearwater and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

… Donald Trump dancing to Jeff Buckley.

… why Phil Lesh was the heart and soul of the Grateful Dead.

… John Cooper Clarke playing a 23,000-seater and the rise of Spoken Word.

… Bah! Humbug! The full horror of Halloween and its infernal TV specials.

… Allen Ginsberg’s International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965.

… Rihanna’s dietician, therapist, spiritual advisor and hospitality liaison manager.

… the auditions for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

… the curse of having everything you want.

… John Lennon imprisoned in the Dakota – without the internet! And his mishandling of an Austin Maxi.

… Helen Mirren’s thing about Kurt Cobain.

… why Phil Lesh, John Entwistle, Jack Casady and Paul McCartney were a breed apart.

… when Mark King’s father kicked him out of the family home.

… plus Abraham Lincoln, Fields of the Nephilim, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Eraserhead, the Batcave and birthday guest Matthew Elliot wonders if anyone had greater love songs written about them than Rosanna Arquette (by Toto and Peter Gabriel)?

Mama Tried by the Grateful Dead. Just LISTEN to Phil Lesh’s bass playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4gy0TBDfU

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When Mark King of Level 42 was the 11 year-old singing drummer in a novelty act Oct 25, 2024

Mark King and Level 42 have just announced 2025 tour dates and he talks to us here about …

… the value of what you learn in covers bands from being ignored.

… why being thrown out of home for being thrown out of school was the best thing that ever happened to him.

… Level 42’s first gig, kicked off after four songs.

… Chile, Turkey and other new markets on the “flatter world” tour circuit.

... supporting the Police, Tina Turner, Queen and Madonna in the ‘80s.

… how John McLaughlin (from Doncaster) and Allan Holdsworth (Bradford) inspired other people “from far-flung places like us”.

… Rockin’ Robin, Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and playing three nights a week in an Isle of Wight novelty act, aged 11.

… the onstage dynamic between Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.

… the complications of having to book big venues two years in advance.

… being the bassist in the Prince’s Trust house band backing Bowie and Mick Jagger.

… Billy Cobham, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and “the genius” of Steve Winwood.

Level 42s World Machine 40th Anniversary Tour here:

https://www.level42.com/

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King Crimson, red hair dye and a singing Jack Russell: the boisterous memoir of Jakko Jakszyk Oct 22, 2024

This is an extraordinary story on many levels – about the power and sanctuary of music, about what it took for bands to get noticed in the ‘70s, about how a teenager obsessed with King Crimson eventually joined the band and about the struggles of “a rabid Henry Cow fan trying to get on Top of the Pops”. Jakko Jakszyk is a fabulous storyteller, both in his memoir ‘Who’s the Boy With The Lovely Hair?’ and on this podcast with the two of us. Among the highlights …

… two things musicians need to know.

… why the divisive appeal of music and comedy is so similar.

… life in a band where “Stravinsky meets the Barron Knights”.

… “Who’ll be the singing Jack Russell?” Doing voice-overs as a piece of toast and a baked potato with a Yorkshire accent.

... the quaint Englishness of Soft Machine, Caravan and King Crimson and why they were like “a holiday resort no-one knew about”.

… why there are even more idiots in advertising than the music business.

… the rigours of the Melody Maker Folk Rock Contest, aged 17, judged by Tommy Vance, Bob Harris and Brian May of Queen.

… the militant wing of the Adrian Belew Fan Club.

… Dave Robinson’s sage advice after telling him he was “unfashionably heterosexual”.

... why Robert Fripp is more Miles Davis than Frank Zappa and the longest audition in history.

…the complications of the King Crimson reunion caused by one person who shall remain nameless – “though let’s call him Greg Lake”.

… “two screaming lead guitars and a trumpet, what could possibly go wrong?”

… and working with Pete Sinfield, Peter Hawkins, Sam Brown and Nigel Planer.

Order Jakko’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovely-Unlikely-Memoir-Jakko-Jakszyk/dp/1838491864

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Obsessive fans, Dylan’s reading list and how Taylor Swift tickets are the new codeword for wealth Oct 21, 2024

Applying our patent wheat-chaff separator to recent rock and roll events, we filter out the following …

… “They’ve got the guns but we got the numbers”: whatever happened to political songs?

… the life of Libby Titus and the afterlife of Love Has No Pride.

… when gigs become stalking with a musical component.

… how Taylor Swift Tickets became the new currency.

… the most disappointing album of all time (we know the answer).

… who’s the Zeppo Marx of rock and roll?

… the old music/football analogy revisited.

… when fans think they own a band.

… the New York Rock And Soul Revue that revived Steely Dan.

… has any American star beguiled Britain more than Taylor Swift?

… when Lennon failed to swing the vote.

… does anyone convey loneliness better than Bonnie Raitt?

… our own personal rock and roll fantasies – eg Dr John recycling and Bob Dylan in his Star Wars jim-jams.

… plus birthday guest Phil Turner - Bill Berry, Gene Clarke, Vince Clarke and the irreplaceable magic ingredient of one band member.

ROLLING STONE’S MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUMS OF ALL TIME:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/most-disappointing-albums-ever-1235111528/

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Britpop, its peaks and its spiritual godfather: a Golden Age rebooted by Miranda Sawyer Oct 17, 2024

You’ll know Miranda Sawyer from the Observer and the radio and, possibly, from her days at Smash Hits and Select magazines that form the foundation of her new book, Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs, a time spent watching, interviewing and hanging out with the collection of misfits and outsiders fast becoming the last great musical movement this country ever saw. This pans in on the period between April 1993, Select’s ‘Yanks Go Home’ cover, and August 1997 when Oasis released Be Here Now. A ton of highlights, among them …

… why bands hated the term Britpop – and who invented it.

… when your life in your 20s becomes history and period drama.

… are Oasis conservative or just “classically Northern”?

… why Britpop was the last hurrah of the traditional media.

… the long slow burn of Jarvis Cocker and the rise of the Beta Male.

… the impact of Select’s famous Union Jack ‘Yanks Go Home’ cover.

… why Edwyn Collins was the Godfather of Indie (and Britpop) and the song that never stopped selling.

… Ric Blaxill at Top of the Pops, Matthew Bannister at Radio One and other unsung architects of Britpop.

… lava lamps, swirly rugs, space hoppers and the charity shop tat that replaced the matt black shiny ‘80s.

… Jarvis v Jackson, Blur v Oasis and other great engines of the tabloid press.

… “Manchester had the bands and the mythmakers (Tony Wilson, Paul Morley) …”

… why the weekly music press was the Twitter of its time.

… comparing Blur in ‘90s clubs to Wembley Stadium in 2023.

… will Oasis be the last ‘household name’ band?

… could Britpop have happened without the press?

Order Miranda’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncommon-People-Britpop-Beyond-Songs/dp/1399816896

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Zappa and Elvis as fathers (!), Billy Joel’s house sale and the curse of too much choice Oct 14, 2024

Our record-breaking partnership faces a fresh set of spin bowlers on the rock and roll pitch but rifles a few shots over the pavilion roof, among them …

… the time Elvis let his daughter ride her pony through the house.

… when Moon Zappa (10) found naked hippies making candles in the garden.

… “Can you get that? It might be someone important.” The Queen when her mobile rang.

… Billy Joel’s daily commute to work by helicopter.

… John Peel, Elton John, Robert Christgau … who’s listened to the most music in the history of the planet?

… “Choice is a tax, a penalty”: the faint sense of nausea you get from Netflix’ fathomless sense of abundance.

… how Elvis became a hillbilly with an unlimited budget.

… are ChatGPT’s music recommendations actually quite useful? We test the Beatles, Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis.

… “what kind of a genius doesn’t have medical insurance?”

… old WW2 movies v the new Netflix series? There’s only one winner …

… plus Abba, Steampacket, Steeleye Span and Humble Pie: supergroups that worked.

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Hugh Cornwell on how the drummer has the best seat in the house Oct 10, 2024

Hugh Cornwell is preparing for his “All The Fun Of The Fair” tour which begins in November and here he talks to David Hepworth about:

….why rehearsals are best in bursts

….why he no longer carries keyboards

….the special magic of going to see Chuck Berry with Richard Thompson

….how the two of them have recorded “Tobacco Road” for an Alzheimers benefit record

…being at the Marquee when Clapton, Beck and Page all played with the Yardbirds

….playing the Golders Green Ionic with Helen Shapiro

….how there are nights when the guitarist think it’s been a disaster but the drummer knows it’s been a triumph

…the film podcast (http://mrdemillefm.com/) that started as a hobby

…what you can expect when his tour (http://www.hughcornwell.com/tour/) hits your town.

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Kris Kristofferson, a lost Tom Petty film and rock stars and the curse of the selfie Oct 07, 2024

We aimed the airgun of enquiry at this week’s rock and roll side-stall and dislodged the following coconuts …

… sports star, Rhodes scholar, bohemian: why Kris Kristofferson was a whole new breed of American hero.

… the letter his parents wrote disowning him.

… how he invented the crossover hit.

… echoes of his life in Five Easy Pieces.

… Fellini’s La Strada and the story of ‘Me And Bobby McGee’.

…. ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’ and other songs written to order.

… why the past is the age before mobile phones.

… Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, Carly Simon: the kiss and tell school of songwriting.

… why Tracey Thorn misses the age of the autograph.

… who’d be famous in the 21st Century?

… “What do you think about when you’re playing the drums?” Cameron Crowe’s lost 1983 time capsule.

… in a lift with Ken Barlow.

Plus birthday guest Paul Cook and the furthest you’ve ever travelled for a gig.

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How Christine McVie saw Fleetwood Mac and the real reason she left them – by Lesley-Ann Jones Oct 04, 2024

Christine McVie - one of only two British girl rock musicians in the ‘60s and part of the greatest pop soap opera of all time. Neither in the backline or the frontline but occupying a unique middle ground. Packed it in for 16 years then returned to the fold. Lesley-Ann Jones’ fresh and emotional memoir Songbird follows “the trajectory of a male rock star played by a woman”, the home she was keen to escape, the outer limits of life in Fleetwood Mac’s “toxic Camelot” and the rigours of holding her ground in a man’s world. We cover all sorts here including …

… the lasting effect of not having “an ordinary mother”.

… the night in Sunderland that made her think again.

… when your best friend sleeps with your fiancée.

… supporting the Shadows when she was 15 at the 2I’s in Soho.

… Etta James, Chicken Shack and playing the Reeperbahn.

… why rock stars can never be part of a village community.

… Fleetwood Mac’s West Coast Elysium: “they were all as bad as each other”.

… “cute and dangerous” meets “lifeline and anchor”: the love affair with Dennis Wilson.

… why she and John McVie both needed a wife.

… and her lifelong connection with the blues, “a sadness you can’t cure”.

Order Songbird here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songbird-Intimate-Biography-Christine-McVie/dp/1789467217

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Nick Heyward dressed like Cary Grant – then the Jam, XTC and Talking Heads. “It’s all about clothes, hair and shoes.” Oct 03, 2024

Nick Heyward was one of our favourite cover stars when we were at Smash Hits in the ‘80s, the days when hardcore Haircut One Hundred fans turned out in Fair Isle sweaters and Sou’Westers. He now lives mostly in Florida, he’s made nine solo albums – one magnificently titled Open Sesame Seed - and he’s toured again with his old band after ten years’ painful separation. Touring the UK in October, he couldn’t be more upbeat about the road ahead – “I can do anything!” – and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself. Which involves …

… seeing Count Basie, Ray Charles and Oscar Peterson on the same bill when he was 12.

… “if you stop playing music you’re like the boxer that gave up the fight”.

… pop dress codes, knock-off pop merchandise and trips to Shellys Shoes.

… growing up in Beckenham where Bowie was “the lighthouse beam that made being a pop star possible”.

… old schoolfriends and Haircut One Hundred members Les and Graham and how “we got our friendship back”.

… why seeing XTC was “like plugging into electricity”.

… Buzzcocks and Boomtown Rats at the Croydon Greyhound.

… how he was saved by management.

… singing Love Plus One in Salisbury Cathedral.

… and the lingering thrill of his first reviews (by Graham K Smith and Adrian Thrills).

Nick’s tour dates here:

https://nickheyward.com/

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In the studio with Nick Drake, Fairport, John Martyn & the String Band: John Wood remembers a golden age Oct 02, 2024

“There was no Command-Zed back then!” John Wood engineered or produced some of the most magical, timeless and affecting records ever made - by Nick Drake, John Martyn, the McGarrigles, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, John Cale, Squeeze and many more. He’s 85 now and looks back here at a luminous career that started with mastering singles at Decca and transferred to Sound Techniques, the mecca he co-founded in an old cowshed in Chelsea when takes were spontaneous and even the tape-op was part of the performance. He misses those days, when albums were organic and the labels had less control, and talks here about …

… “the age when sound had perspective and seemed three-dimensional”.

… Nick Drake’s confidence and his guiding lights - eg the Beach Boys and Randy Newman (“who I’d never heard of”). And his final nighttime sessions.

… the way Fairport recorded – “We’re only going to do it once” – and why they could make three albums a year.

…managing the girls in the Incredible String Band, “especially when Licorice played drums”.

… John Cale in “maniac mode” and his sudden and unexpected friendship with Nick Drake.

… Cale and Nico at the Chelsea Hotel.

… and why ‘Geoff Muldaur Is Having A Wonderful Time’ was the job he remembers the fondest.

Also mentioned: the Downliners Sect, Judy Collins, The Marmalade, Graham Gouldman and Squeeze.

John’s got nothing to plug and just wanted to talk to us. Thanks, John, and bless your cotton socks.

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Ian Hunter – joining Mott The Hoople, Bowie, Hamburg and being “enthused into craziness”. Oct 01, 2024

Ian Hunter – an image so familiar you’d recognise his silhouette - now lives in Connecticut and he’s just released expanded versions of two of his best-selling solo albums, You’re Never Alone With A Schizophrenic and Short Back N' Sides. He’s 85, born before any of the Beatles. We talk to him here about life growing up in the ‘40s and ‘50s when your father’s a copper and “music wasn’t allowed in the house”, and touch upon …

… the debt he owes Freddie ‘Fingers’ Lee.

… café jukeboxes full of Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.

… beating 165 acts at a talent contest at Butlins.

… the record that made the Beatles (which they didn’t write).

… “a two-piece corduroy suit, open-toed sandals, overweight …”: the Mott the Hoople audition.

… Bowie playing All The Young Dudes – “a monster” – cross-legged on the floor in Denmark Street after they’d turned down Suffragette City.

… why Hendrix was thrown out of Regent Sound studios.

… playing the Reeperbahn in 1963.

… recording ‘Schizophrenic’ with three members of the E Street Band.

… “Do you want a cuddle?” The Mick Ronson recording method.

… the good thing about Covid.

… watching punk bands with Mick Jones.

… plus a ‘dyed-black’ Ford Anglia and the Greatest Record Ever Made.

Order Ian’s re-released albums here:

Buy link: https://ianhunter.lnk.to/sbns

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Bryan Ferry, Maggie Smith and why Ian Hunter is a movie in waiting Sep 30, 2024

As the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness draws in, we poke the embers of this week’s rock and roll bonfire and rake out the following chestnuts …

… Maggie Smith on ‘70s chat shows.

… when Radiohead meets Shakespeare.

… the strange, circuitous and downright disgraceful launch of Francis Ford Coppola’s majestically bonkers Megalopolis.

… Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter: the slow ascent of two ‘overnight sensations’.

… is it big events anymore or just a low-level hum of distraction?

… Bryan Ferry as an interpreter: why we love his clubby renditions of Dylan, Amy, Frank, Elvis, Broadway ballads and old sea shanties.

… Movies In Waiting no 97: Butlin’s, skiffle, Hamburg and Ian Hunter’s 26-year clamber to the top.

... can any film still have instant world impact?

… the unsettling structure of the Graham Norton show.

… Simon Raymonde’s dad’s oceanic jazz adventure, 1949.

… plus birthday guest Matthew North sees Wayne Rooney doing Ring Of Fire at a Plymouth open mic night.

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When Cocteau Twins followed the Ramones onstage and why 1979 was the Golden Age - by Simon Raymonde Sep 27, 2024

Simon Raymonde’s affecting and beautifully written memoir ‘In One Ear’ records life in the ‘60s growing up with a father who wrote and arranged for Dusty Springfield, Helen Shapiro and the Walker Brothers, the impossibly shy promotional activities of the Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil and the struggles and eventual jackpot of the Bella Union record label he founded. He’s so perceptive, observant and self-mocking and we loved this energetic podcast which, among much else, lands upon …

... why 1979 was the Golden Year.

… the time Scott Walker came to his parents’ house.

… why the Cocteau Twins might have tanked in the current age of self-promotion.

… how a loathing for Phil Collins was a Sliding Doors moment.

… the problem with bands that don’t talk to each other.

… why they refused to appear on Top Of The Pops.

… following Rancid and the Ramones at Lollapalooza in 1996 and the sobering events that ensued.

… why the Old Grey Whistle Test was “not a happy experience”.

… the cryptic language of Elizabeth Fraser’s lyrics why he never asked her what they meant.

… “if I hadn’t worked at the Beggars record shop I wouldn’t be talking to you now”.

… why bands are “less naïve now”.

… and “Cocteau Twins - swirling sepulchral shards of sound that patter like raindrops against the windows of your mind” – ©️ the Music Press in 1985.

Order Simon’s book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Ear-Cocteau-Twins-Raymonde/dp/1788709381

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The deep secret of Abba’s “music without nostalgia” and the time they met the Pistols Sep 25, 2024

Abba’s biographer Jan Gradvall met and interviewed Abba many times and builds a fresh picture of their internal chemistry in his new book Melancholy Undercover. Highlights of this illuminating pod include …

… how Sweden rejected their early hits for not being sufficiently “socialist”.

…. the discomfiting early life of Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

… what Max Martin and Denniz Pop thought made Abba’s music so durable.

… Strindberg, Bergman, the climate, the eight months of darkness and the role of melancholia in Swedish pop culture.

… the influence of the Human League on their later catalogue.

… why manager Stig Anderson “became a burden”.

… “Norway has Grieg, Finland has Sibelius, Sweden has Benny …”

… the first band to write about divorce.

… the Abba song with 57 chords and the only two samples Abba ever approved.

… Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and Ian Dury backstage at a 1979 London show.

… when Sid Vicious ran into Abba at an airport on the Pistols’ 1977 Swedish tour.

… the role of the Lionesses football team, Kurt Cobain, Erasure, U2, Madonna and the Sydney gay community in the Abba revival.

… why the Abbatars are better than Abba.

… the myth of Agnetha as “the Greta Garbo of Pop”.

… and why The Day Before You Came is more than the Abba swansong.

Order Melancholy Undercover here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-ABBA-Melancholy-Undercover/dp/0571390986

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Fond memories of lost ‘80s London, Morrissey v Marr and the film they should make about Toyah Sep 23, 2024

A free-form spontaneous jam this week - the Dark Star of podcasts – which navigates the outer reaches of the rock and roll stratosphere by way of the following …

… was Michael Stipe’s father a military helicopter pilot in Korea?

… our fantasy Odd Couple tragi-comedy: Morrissey and Marr in a thin-skinned middle-aged flat share.

… how the Golden Egg launched Roxy Music.

… can anyone name more than one member of Coldplay?

… did Paddy McAloon’s mum make the sets for the Clangers?

… the ’80s version of the Internet.

… memories of lost London: international magazine shops, drinking in offices, Protein Man, roaming Hare Krishnas, “floating a curry”, wasp-covered sarnies in café windows, band flyers on derelict buildings, the romance of old Fleet Street.

… the tangled saga of Bonfire Of The Teenagers.

… “Oasis is the last of the household-name bands”.

… why Toyah is a movie waiting to happen.

… and birthday guest Jelltex on bands he thought had given up now filling stadiums.

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Swinging London & the Wombles seen from an electric-blue Rolls-Royce. Mike Batt looks back Sep 20, 2024

Mike Batt still wrestles with the emotional legacy of the Wombles, the act that simultaneously made him and cast a shadow over the rest of his career, not least his early days as a songwriter at Liberty Records, discussed here, hired after he’d answered the same ad as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, a time when A&R men wore kipper ties and had Picassos on their wall. He forged a path through psychedelia and into TV and films, taking huge financial risks with musicals, orchestral works and big-selling acts like Katie Melua, his Art Garfunkel hit ‘Bright Eyes’ eventually promoting him from the Haves to the Have-Yachts. Life, he says, has been “like running through traffic”. His memoir is just out, ‘The Closest Thing to Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’. All sorts discussed here including ...

… his brief satin-jacketed tenure in Hapshash & the Coloured Coat.

… parallels between record producers and traffic cops.

… Happy Jack and songs about outsiders.

… being in Savile Row when the Beatles played the Apple roof.

… life as “a square” during psychedelia.

… a snatch of abandoned teenage composition ‘The Man With The Purple Hand’.

… John D. Laudermilk and the magic of writing credits.

… how Bright Eyes “got me into the Officers’ Mess of Songwriters”.

… his publishers insisting there was a Womble on the book jacket.

… “circumcising” the world in a seven-crew yacht.

... and feeling simultaneously smug and guilty when driving a Roller.

Order ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Closest-Thing-Crazy-Musical-Adventures/dp/1785120840

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Joe Boyd – Little Richard, Nick Drake, Tight Fit and why everything sounds the way it does Sep 18, 2024

Joe Boyd produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others, released acts from all over the globe on his Hannibal label and has just written a mighty and definitive account of the history of popular music, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, tracing the way different sounds from different countries became interwoven. Nobody is better qualified to write this book as you’ll discover from this enthralling conversation. Among the highlights …

… “if Mick and Keith had had Spotify there’d have been no Rolling Stones.”

… the African roots of Little Richard’s horn section.

… how a Zulu folk tune from 1939 ended up on the Lion King soundtrack.

… “Western musicians are governed by keys, valves and frets but what matters is the notes in between”.

… the evolution of ska as rock and roll was too exhausting in the heat of Jamaican dancehalls.

… Alan Freed, the “Pied Piper” that led white American teenagers into black music.

… Duke Ellington and music “too complicated for white audiences to follow”.

… the bossa nova in Nick Drake’s River Man.

… Paul Simon’s Graceland and the meaning of authenticity.

… world music’s problem with drum machines.

.. the attraction of music whose origin you can hear before the vocal comes in.

Order Joe’s highly recommended book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Rhythm-Remain-Journey-Through/dp/0571360009

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Screaming Jay Hawkins 75, Dave Grohl 1 Sep 16, 2024

With Mark Ellen rambling in the West Country it’s left to David Hepworth to talk Alex Gold down from the ledge in the light of the Dave Grohl news and discuss:

•⁠ ⁠just how many offers come the way of rich and famous rock stars

•⁠ ⁠whether his recent admission will in any way detract from the most winning smile in rock

•⁠ ⁠is this an opportunity for Jon Bon Jovi to step up?

•⁠ ⁠how a quick word from Taylor Swift is worth all the five star reviews in the world

•⁠ ⁠Nick Lowe’s infallibly entertaining story of Jet Harris and seven pints of Kaliber

•⁠ ⁠When they organised a reunion of all the progeny of Screaming Jay Hawkins

•⁠ ⁠... and the greatest music book ever with Patreon supporter Ed Newman

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One Day author David Nicholls – prog rock, Live Aid and making tapes for girls Sep 13, 2024

The Netflix series of David Nicholls’ worldwide hit novel One Day was Top Ten in 89 countries and he’s been heavily involved in its soundtrack album, a process as enjoyable, he says, as devising the compilation tape the fictional Emma made for Dexter in 1989 featuring the Smiths, Prefab Sprout and Public Enemy. We talk to him here about the glorious pitfalls of using pop music to broadcast your personality. All bases covered, from the Geoff Love Orchestra to Joy Orbison, along with …

… prog rock drummer replacement fantasies.

… when a compilation tape is a Valentine’s card.

… music as a way of telegraphing a time.

… what the 1812 Overture does to a five year-old.

… the eternal impact of Shipbuilding and Running Up That Hill.

… “punk terrified me”.

… classic male musical taste paranoia.

… memories of Live Aid – Bowie onstage, Kiki Dee in the car park.

… buying a knock-off cassette of Sgt Pepper.

… remembering every note of a record you haven’t heard for 50 years.

… and the greatest record of all time!

Order the One Day Netflix soundtrack here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jessica-Jones-Morrish-Anne-Nikitin/dp/B0CXJNM4WV

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Nick Lowe – war stories, wise decisions and the event in 1970 that made him think again Sep 12, 2024

Old friend of the podcast, Nick Lowe has just released his 15th solo album, Indoor Safari, and he’s about to tour with Los Straitjackets. This absorbing conversation looks back at 60 years onstage and takes in the following …

… the secret of a long career.

… why he resolved “not to get that famous again”.

… touring Germany aged 15 in Brinsley Schwarz’s dad’s Dormobile.

… the Small Faces at the village hall in Hornchurch.

… to the Six Bells for seven pints with “photographer for all occasions” Jet Harris.

… playing Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent in the school band and wrestling with the chords to Cliff’s Living Doll.

… Kippington Lodge at Ally Pally, New Year’s Eve 1968, supporting Joe Cocker, the Bonzos and Amen Corner - “the Grand Canyon with a roof”.

… 270 dog walks with his son Roy during Covid and the things they discussed.

… the unique magic of working with “America’s premier instrumental surf band”.

… how ‘I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll’ is now a wedding staple.

… and the sole mention of ‘freakbeat’ vendors the Fleur De Lys in the history of our podcast.

Nick’s tour starts at the London Palladium on September 24:

https://nicklowe.com/tour-dates/

Order Indoor Safari here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indoor-Safari-Nick-Lowe/dp/B0D5TXRLDD

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The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”. Sep 10, 2024

Louis Armstrong, Wild Man Fischer, Irving Berlin and Lucinda Williams all started out as buskers and Cary Baker’s ‘Down On The Corner’ traces the romance and influence of street players from Ancient Rome via Chicago’s Maxwell Street to Elvis Costello outside the CBS conference and beyond. Cary, David and Mark chuck coins in the conversational hat, among them …

… the turban and rollerblades stagewear of Harry Perry aka “the Skating Sikh”.

… Blind Arvella Gray who took up busking because of a gun battle.

… the sight of Bongo Joe on his daily commute (a moped loaded with steel drums).

… what Mick Jagger learnt from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

… Ted Hawkins' journey from Venice Beach to Geffen Records.

… the time Cary met Moondog dressed as a Viking and why he was a symbol of old New York.

… how Billy Bragg learnt festival crowd control playing street corners.

… Madeleine Peyroux, aged 15, playing Paris subways.

… Jesse Fuller, father of the one-man band.

… do buskers now make it via Instagram?

… the only gig where you can play the same song repeatedly.

… and when is busking just noise pollution?

Order Cary Baker’s Down On The Corner here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Corner-Adventures-Busking-Street/dp/1916829104

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Who should follow John Lydon with a Spoken Word spectacular? Sep 09, 2024

We applied dynamic pricing to this week’s news and various stories trebled in value, among them …

… further adventures in the Oasis ticket fiasco.

… the greatest band name ever.

… the only rock star born under Adolf Hitler.

… Marianne Faithfull? Ian Anderson? Elvis Costello? Musicians you’d rather hear talk than play.

… rock stars telling jokes.

… “if it isn’t hard to get it’s not worth having.”

… is hype generated from above or below?

... the return of old-school analogue: David Gilmour’s Golden Ticket.

… the velvet rope and the repercussions of Clubbing.

… and has anyone seen Lobby Lud?

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David Hepworth on the glory, comedy and tragedy of rock stars who can't retire Sep 04, 2024

David’s seventh book in his ‘orange series’ is just out and you’re guaranteed to love it. He and Mark discussed ‘Hope I Get Old Before I Die’ at a sold-out launch event at Waterstones in Piccadilly on the evening of September 3, recorded here. Among the highlights you’ll find …

… the rock career as a three-act play.

… the tour that started the Age Of Spectacle.

… why Live Aid was the dawn of pop nostalgia.

… the rock star who retired from retirement.

… Woodstock – “the Somme with Santana”.

… the terrible fallout in the Byrds.

… why no act is ever forgotten.

… Nick Lowe and the few others who got even better as they got older.

… band reunions are about symbolism not music.

… how the rock generation took power.

… why Ron Wood’s memoir can be read as either comedy or tragedy.

… bands that will achieve immortality.

… why Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous seems like period drama.

… the worst group ever.

… and the only act that became bigger than the Beatles.

Order David’s new book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hope-Get-Old-Before-Die/dp/1787632784

https://linktr.ee/dhepworth

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The Oasis reunion – feuds, cash, symbolism and the desire to repair our imperfect lives Aug 31, 2024

David, Mark and our token bucket-hatted parka monkey Alex tackle the return of Oasis, its grip on the public imagination and why they’re the biggest band of the last 30 years, which includes …

… the Gallaghers’ mixed fortunes since 2009.

… who won the battle of the underdogs.

… “Noel has a thousand buttons, Liam has a thousand fingers”.

… why the ‘90s was just like the ‘60s, a golden age of British pop culture.

… no whizz-bangs required, no props, no choreography, no lasers, no extras … why Oasis is the cheapest stadium gig to stage imaginable.

… what happens to the ticket money between now and the tour.

… Noel, the media and the common touch.

… “a level of public demand that’s almost a sickness”.

… why “Oasis tickets are like utility bills”.

… the fate of bands that fall out with each other’s wives.

… how Liam was rescued by Debbie Gwyther and Noel’s ruinous divorce.

… the kind of watertight contracts and insurance required to ensure the band won’t fall apart again.

… “Liam, stay away from the fruit bowl!”.

… and Mark’s breakfast with Peggy Gallagher.

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Are comedians more competitive than rock stars? Aug 28, 2024

In a concerted effort to put the world to rights, David and Mark ruminate upon the following …

… Kylie and the Wiggles? Canned Heat and the Chipmunks? Real or invented pop star/childrens’ entertainer collaborations.

.. the charmed life of Greg Kihn.

… will the BBC have any archive left if it keeps cancelling presenters?

… why Inside Llewyn Davis works and so many other biopics fail.

… the full story of the statement Springsteen made with the Born To Run cover shoot.

… Stewart Lee’s long-running beef with Ricky Gervais.

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Johnny Beatle’, early Blondie, Led Zeppelin’s plane and seven fabulous years at the Melody Maker. Aug 22, 2024

Rock journalism as an occupation is rapidly heading in the direction of the watch-mender or lamplighter so Chris Charlesworth’s account of life at the Melody Maker in the ‘70s is already starting to feel like an historic document. ‘Just Backdated’ covers a time when the rock press set the agenda, sold over half a million copies a week and was courted by attention-seeking musicians of every rank, a lost world remembered in this conversation with Mark Ellen which includes …

… the unwritten rules of ‘70s rock journalism and its limitless access.

… the “homesick and slightly lost” John Lennon when living with May Pang.

… life at Melody Maker’s Fleet Street office and staff writer Max Jones’s fling with Billie Holiday.

… touring with Led Zeppelin alongside the 17 year-old Cameron Crowe (part of the inspiration for Almost Famous).

… “Beatles to reform?” and other coverline staples.

… the night Frank Zappa was thrown off the Rainbow stage – ‘people thought he’d been killed’.

… the first British interview with Steely Dan.

… Debbie Harry when she was still in the Stillettos and the day Blondie asked him to manage them.

... why the Bay City Rollers at an airport was “the nearest thing to a nightmare while being awake”.

… his time as MM’s West and East Coast correspondent aka “the best job in the world”.

Order ‘Just Backdated’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Just-Backdated-Melody-Maker-Seventies/dp/1915858224

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One-word rock star mimicry, bands who shouldn’t reform & the best thing about Taylor Swift Aug 19, 2024

With David asleep on a French sun-lounger beneath a copy of Summer Lightning, Alex and Mark pour themselves a cold drink and consider …

… the great ska floor-fillers.

… taking kids to rock concerts.

… the fate of all bands: “as musicianship improves, vocals decline”.

… left-field Beatles songs reworked as nursery rhymes.

… why 2-Tone had pop’s “triple threat” (and the genius of Mike Barson).

… of the five big acts with all original members intact, only one should reform.

… how “Tay-gating” became a thing.

… the secret life of Chris Ballew, former leader of minimal grunge trio the Presidents Of The United States of America.

… is the Jam a “young man’s concept”?

… the downside of “Cuddly Liam”.

… Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran: has normality replaced escapism?

… and Frank Carter as the new Johnny Rotten.

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The extraordinary story of Arthur Lee, Love and the 1966 flop which became a hit for the ages Aug 15, 2024

Love’s official biographer John Einarson tells David Hepworth the star-crossed tale of the band who made the least psychedelic album of the psychedelic era. Their conversation takes in:

….Lee’s growing up between Memphis and L.A., dealing with the problems of looking more like Johnny Mathis than Otis Redding.

….how being indulged as a youngster by his family made him a tyrant as a band leader.

….growing up with a prodigious musical talent but without the mastery of a single instrument.

….refusing to put up with the inconvenience of touring and bearing personal grudges which prevented him taking up life-changing offers.

….their competition with The Doors, who would do all the things that Love wouldn’t.

…how Arthur Lee heard Forever Changes in his head and how he transferred that knowledge to an arranger who’d never heard a pop record.

….why Brian Wilson, John Sebastian and Arthur Lee “never got past 1967”.

….the gun charges that put Arthur Lee in jail and the third act he enjoyed when he came out.

You can order the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forever-Changes-Authorized-Biography-Arthur/dp/1916829120/

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Buddy Holly airlines and the inimitable Bob Dylan Aug 12, 2024

As Mark Ellen goes shrimping at Frinton David Hepworth and Alex Gold links hands across the Atlantic to discuss:

….why a quick turn around Mount Hood in a Cessna should never be confused with pleasure

….why all the highly-rated albums are actually over-rated.

….why Timothee Chalamet has no hope of being able to capture more than one facet of Bob Dylan

….the name of the only music-related location in the whole of Oxford Street which has managed to survive the great hollowing-out

….why there really is no point corporations spending fortunes on renaming the places which were christened in our hearts

…the likelihood and desirability of Oasis getting back together

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“Pop music is 80 per cent about hair”, remaking classic albums and why CDs are so hard to love Aug 04, 2024

A small Pastis, a game of boules and a conversation putting the rock and roll world to rights, which this week includes …

… why Debbie Harry and Mick Jagger worked so well on the small screen.

… Elvin Pelvin on the Bilko Show and how Elvis was modelled on Tony Curtis.

… An American Werewolf In London, The Birds, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, Don’t Look Now, Nightmare On Elm Street and other old movies being rebooted.

… how Patti Smith based an entire career on looking like Keith Richards in 1972 and making records that sounded like they were produced by someone who looked like Keith Richards in 1972.

… a record separated from its sleeve ceases to exist.

… why doesn’t anyone remake classic albums?

… “Once we had something complete and perfect. And what happened? You spent it!”

… how CDs never have “materiality”.

… further proof that Oasis are the most conservative thing in pop music.

… primitive connections and how the album sleeve is the same size as a native American warrior’s shield.

… sounds that date records precisely - eg the syndrum.

Plus birthday guest Patrick Butler.

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Queen, Bowie and other residents of Rockfield Studios remembered by the cook’s daughter Aug 02, 2024

Rockfield is a converted farmhouse in the Welsh countryside where, for over 50 years, bands have lived while recording. In the ‘70s Tiffany Murray’s mum was the in-house cook, filling Motorhead to the brim with boeuf bourguignon and Black Sabbath with salmon en croute. Her touching memoir My Family And Other Rock Stars – hailed as “a rock and roll Cider With Rosie” – sees a succession of visiting bands though the wide eyes of a child and in a wholly new light - Freddie Mercury is the man who “smelt of sweet wood and oranges” and was nice to her dog, Julian Cope is “pretty and dressed in a white sheet”. It’s a movie waiting to happen. We loved this highly original and revealing book and our conversation with Tiff which involves …

… the ‘Saffy from Ab Fab’ relationship she had with her mum who began her professional life spying on the Duchess of Argyll from a wardrobe.

… floppy hats, Biba dresses and a purple beach buggy.

… the only woman who recorded at Rockfield in the ‘70s.

… the realisation that the men singing “Galileo” repeatedly in the stables were the same people later on Top Of The Pops.

… her mother’s Book Of Rules for visiting rock stars, “a matron in the body of Julie Christie in Darling”.

… ample proof that rock music allows a life of extended adolescence.

… shelved albums and unpaid bills.

… Tiff’s stepfather and in-house Rockfield producer Fritz Fryer.

… Nick Lowe through the eyes of a 10 year-old – “tall, kind and looked like a bird”.

... Graham Parker’s trout in almonds and how the cook was paid extra “just to get food into Lemmy”.

… and mentioned in despatches – Squeeze, the Tyla Gang, Showaddywaddy, Van Der Graaf Generator and Dr Feelgood.

Order ‘My Family And Other Rock Stars' here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Other-Rock-Stars-groundbreaking/dp/0349727538

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57 years of Fleetwood Mac: author Mark Blake's fond encounters and fresh revelations Jul 31, 2024

Mark Blake calls Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac a “mosaic biography”, their almost six-decade saga presented as a series of enthralling short stories with titles like ‘Mick Fleetwood’s Great Epiphany’ and ‘Rumours: A Doomed Romance in Six Acts’. It opens in fact with a “cast of characters”, the 18 one-time members, as if dramatis personae in a play, a play that gets more outlandish and dumbfounding with every new discovery and much of it based on his interviews and meetings with most of them (including Peter Green). A few highlights here …

… how Stevie Nicks arrived as the spare part of a package deal and rose to become indispensable.

… the fake Fleetwood Mac and the Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green impersonators (which involves an egg and potato farmer from Essex).

… why you should watch the Tusk video repeatedly (and its ruinous cost).

… Bill Clinton, Daisy Jones & the Six, the dancing pony, Guardians of the Galaxy and other key factors in the return of the Mac.

… from model to muse to psychotherapist, the story of the real life Black Magic Woman.

… “Oh Lord, she’s writing another song.”

… internal romantic tangles that give their music a poignancy.

… the horrors of Kiln House.

… Lyndsey Buckingham’s Armani/Clash episode.

… Stevie’s love affair with Derek Taylor who then had to promote a slow-selling album containing a secret song about it.

… Mick Fleetwood, “old ham”, drag act, compulsive show-off, unsuitable band manager.

Order ‘Dreams: the Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Many-Lives-Fleetwood-Mac/dp/1639367322

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Ron Sexsmith doesn’t need a teleprompter. He can do 40 Dylan songs at the drop of a hat Jul 30, 2024

Beloved Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith, old pal of the pod, is touring the UK in November, two of the nights at the Palladium, and looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself. Which delights include …

… what you learn playing Canadian bars aged 16.

… seeing Elton John in a 75,000-seater stadium when he was 12.

… early memories of the Kinks and the Who.

… why every gig is “a mini-battle”.

… Bob Dylan’s courage to do what the crowd don’t expect.

… original fans in middle-age: they’re back and they bring their kids!

… why a support tour with Robyn Hitchcock took him in a new direction.

… exotic wild ‘critters’ in his yard in Ontario.

… and how the UK launched his international career.

Tickets from: https://ronsexsmith.com/tours/

Ron’s ‘Cobblestone Runway’ and ‘Retriever’ albums have just been re-released.

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Without John Mayall … no Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Status Quo or Led Zeppelin? Jul 29, 2024

Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction …

… watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night.

… Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79.

… the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks.

… is Cerrone’s Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer?

… lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour.

… why do songwriters value suffering over joy?

… “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”.

… what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian?

… a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.

… and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”.

Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana.

The Beatles at Chiswick House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8

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Best album sleeves, what’s ruined singing and pop as ‘empowerment porn’ Jul 21, 2024

Once again the ping-pong ball of conversation is batted across the rock and roll net and these are the scores on the doors …

… how to wreck the national anthem.

… cover versions that are better than the original.

… the genius of Bob Newhart - "nutty Walt", Abraham Lincoln and that gag about country music.

… virtue signalling in rock magazines.

… why we connect with pop stars on the slide.

… how Tainted Love went from the Northern Clubs to the top of the American charts via a cloakroom in Leeds.

… Ingrid Andress and the curse of ‘cursive singing’.

… the comedy album that saved Warners Brothers Records.

… parenthood and Bruce Springsteen: “the world of love and the world of fear – and they’re the same world”.

… who’d rather Elvis Costello played (whisper it) other people’s songs?

… have there been any great album sleeves since the arrival of CDs?

… why Don Rickles and Bob Newhart’s friendship proves all showbiz is just an act.

... musicians, athletes, comedians, politicians and the addiction of adrenaline.

Rolling Stone’s 100 best album covers:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-album-covers-1235035232/#recipient_hashed=228eb87724435002888d7f82108650021cdb318bf64d1067e1ebef25cd1818de&recipient_salt=d0d82b7aaf06cd217ba5546bced15f5c8c98f6e3776c6c1b2145e79711b91e18

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Who is Lawrence and why did Will Hodgkinson write a whole book about him? Jul 18, 2024

There’s something romantic about glorious failure and Will nails it perfectly in ‘Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence’. Over 40 years plagued by bad luck and self-sabotage with Felt, Denim and Mozart Estate, Lawrence has pursued fame and success while refusing to do what’s required to achieve them. Will spent 12 months wandering the streets of London with him to paint a fond, touching and extremely entertaining portrait of the worst-equipped pop star attempting a comeback, a man on a holy, monastic mission in a book about “sacrifice and the price of a dream”. Among many highlights here, we talk about …

… where Lawrence fits in the pantheon of great underachievers like Syd Barrett, Nick Drake and Arthur Lee.

… and his similarity to Kevin Shields and Kevin Rowland.

… the wisdom of a former girlfriend: “stop trying to be the pop star you don’t want to be and you might get somewhere”.

… is lack of success the central dream of the indie world?

… why Denim were Britpop before Britpop happened and why EMI melted down all copies of their last single.

… his rules before the book began - “No anecdotes, no interviews with former members of Felt …”

… what his stalker planned to get his attention.

… fantasy girlfriends and “a fear of cheese”.

… why he didn’t go to his mother’s funeral.

… and why Truman Capote’s portrait of Marlon Brando, the Duke and His Domain, was a touchstone for this book.

Order ‘Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence’ here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Street-Level-Superstar-Lawrence-Will-Hodgkinson/dp/1785120220

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Backstage at Live Aid, the first Knebworth and bands that don’t get on Jul 15, 2024

Employing controversial VAR technology, we re-examine various events on the rock and roll pitch and suggest a new perspective. Those key moments include …

… the “bucolic frolic” at Knebworth 50 years ago as seen from 100 yards away just past the burger van and featuring Tim Buckley, Alex Harvey, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Van Morrison, the Doobie Brothers and the Allman Brothers Band. And a stark naked Jesus.

… when did the Age of Spectacle begin?

… how Two-Way Family Favourites helped start Live Aid.

… Waters v Gilmour, a feud way beyond candour and honesty.

… the moment Van Morrison first became ‘Captain Letdown’.

… memories of Wembley Stadium on July 13 1985 – Status Quo, U2, the non-appearance of Cat Stevens, the planned link with Ian Botham at Trent Bridge and swapping Tony Hancock lines with a man on Concorde.

... the three stages of rock and roll.

… life before mobile phones.

… The Revenant and Zone Of Interest, films that feel like the past without trying to make the past look cool.

… “the older I get, the older I wanna get”.

… Joni Mitchell and why we love an old curmudgeon.

… and birthday guest Andrew Stocks wonders why some bands can’t bury the hatchet.

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How Joni Mitchell joined the boys’ club and why we don’t need a comeback – by Ann Powers Jul 12, 2024

Broadcaster and music writer Ann Powers lives in Nashville and grew up listening to Kate Bush and Blondie. The siren call of Blue sparked a life-long and deep-rooted devotion and her new book Travelling: On The Path Of Joni Mitchell takes a different tack from the standard biographies, mapping the context of the songs, the forces that drove her, the steel will it took to succeed and the love affairs that shaped her and her music. All discussed here. As is this ...

… the scale of your ambition when your heroes are Nietzsche, Beethoven and Picasso.

… how she got her revenge for not being allowed to go to Woodstock.

… “she had to learn to walk three times”.

… the psychological impact of her “dynamic father and homemaker mother”.

… the love affairs with Leonard Cohen, David Crosby and Graham Nash.

… her capacity to turn disaster into triumph.

… the influence of Laurel Canyon neighbour Derek Taylor and the Beatles.

… the many reasons she declared the music business “a corrupt cesspool”.

… the tone of Rolling Stone’s ‘70s coverage and the letters she wrote to Mo Austin about the way she was marketed.

… David Crosby’s regret about not involving her in Crosby Stills & Nash.

… her reaction to the continued success of Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel and Don Henley in a world where mid-career women are “put out to pasture”.

… why the current renaissance seems “all legend, no bite”.

… and Laura Nyro, Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Patti Smith, Aretha Franklin, Maggie Roach, Stevie Wonder, Thomas Dolby.

Order Travelling: On the Path Of Joni Mitchell here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Travelling-Path-Mitchell-Ann-Powers/dp/0008332967

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Twist And Shout? Spiral Scratch? Corey duBrowa celebrates the best and rarest EPs ever made Jul 08, 2024

The first EPs appeared in the late ‘40s and ‘50s (Frank Sinatra, Elvis) hitting a magical sweet spot between the album and the single and they’ve cast a spell ever since, an exotic reminder that record labels are part of the packaged goods business. Music writer Corey duBrowa stumbled across one by Oingo Boingo in the original Licorice Pizza store in Long Beach, California, when he was 13 and began a lifelong collection that eventually led to ‘An Ideal For Living: a Celebration of the EP’, a book full of fabulous sleeve art and seven decades of 3- and 4-track classics. He talks here about every aspect of EP World and flags up some favourites, among them ones by the Goons, the Beatles, Donovan, Alice In Chains, Buzzcocks, the Clash, the Stones, Ice Cube, ‘A Factory Sample’, the Pogues, the EP that topped the album chart and a Joy Division disc worth $7,000.

Order ‘An Ideal For Living’ here:

https://hozacrecords.com/product/aifl/

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What songs should be longer or shorter? Jul 07, 2024

The rock and roll ballot-box is stuffed with votes and the exit polls suggest how this week’s debate might play out. Along these lines …

… is there still such a thing as British music?

… John Lennon as a lavatory attendant.

… Pink Floyd’s miming lessons.

.. how Neil Finn cheered up the All Blacks.

… the staggering difference in the UK album charts in the weeks the last two Labour Prime Ministers were elected (1997 and 2024) - male British bands v international female solo acts.

… ‘Starman’ on Top Of The Pops and the tricks it plays on the memory.

… “current chart acts are either in the spotlight or don’t seem to exist at all.”

… the wit and wisdom of James Blunt.

.. the Herd’s guest spot in the Tom Courtenay caper Otley.

… the Phil Collins syndrome: “when people are tired of duffing up pop stars, they tend to re-embrace them”.

… plus birthday guest Richard Lewis and songs that should be longer – eg Dancing the Night Away by the Motors, I Can Fly by the Herd (cue military bugle and church bell and choir).

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Dylan Jones – Clegg’s women, Hague’s pints and “the wiring behind celebrity culture” Jul 03, 2024

We’ve known Dylan since the days he was editing i-D, Arena and GQ and he’s been a regular on our podcasts talking about his books on Live Aid, the ‘80s, David Bowie and Wichita Lineman. And he’s finally written his memoir, These Foolish Things, full of insights and stories about glam rock, punk, the Blitz, four decades of the magazine world and the people he interviewed and shepherded into awards shows. You’ll hear the delightful clang of the odd dropped name here, along with …

… Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine and the power of fame when it was harder to achieve.

… seeing Leigh Bowery in daylight.

… the real story of Kylie’s “bare bum” tennis shoot.

… does every good memoir involve a degree of treachery?

… why Hollywood’s still obsessed with print.

… William Hague’s 14 pints, Nick Clegg’s 30 women and other self-selling GQ scoops.

… Piers Morgan and Alastair Campbell (“the rottweilers”) and other interrogators who’d always come back with a cover line, usually involving a number.

… how politicians make great interviews as they’re used to aggression.

… “not now, I’m filming!”: life in the Arena office.

… i-D, the Face, nightclubs and “intoxicating” London in the early ‘80s.

… magazine covers and the fine art of horse-trading.

Order These Foolish Things here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/These-Foolish-Things-Dylan-Jones/dp/1408719851

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Happy accidents, whooping at gigs and why the album review star system doesn’t work anymore Jun 30, 2024

In which we hoof a few balls round the rock and roll pitch and try to stick some in the net. Extracts from the live match commentary include ….

… “Whipping Post!” “Paint it black, you devil!”: when did the audience become part of the show?

… the special, unrepeatable thing about Bill Evans At The Village Vanguard.

… GambleGate and the most we’ve ever bet on anything.

… why young musicians today are so good. And why most Americans could outplay the British.

… ‘60s Jamaican ska, 2-Tone and other imperfect imitations of the original.

… does the mainstream exist anymore?

… did the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun invent folk-rock?

… the voice of Word In Your Ear, Kerry Shale: who is that masked man?

… the new Al Murray promotional tactic.

… and does anyone else remember Alice’s Restaurant?

Plus Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles playing Motown, Emily Roberts of the Last Dinner Party playing Gershwin and birthday guest Blaine Allan.

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Pop football chants, Reg ‘Reg’ Snipton sings Joni Mitchell & the tale of John Lennon’s watch Jun 24, 2024

The two-man tandem of curiosity wobbles its way down the rock and roll cyclepath pausing here to admire the view …

… “We’re captive on the carousel of TIME-AH!!”: tuneless Northern club singer Reg “Reg” Snipton performs Ver Greats.

… is going to gigs alone becoming a thing?

... why Phil Oakey was a better musician than any of ELP.

… Seven Nation Army in football stadiums - and does Jack White make any money from it?

… what rock stars spend their fortunes on.

… people who are ‘jewellery-blind’ (eg D Hepworth).

… the scariest intention a musician can announce.

… Dutch fans dancing.

… the poignancy of all John Lennon’s possessions.

… how to wreck the Great American Songbook (may involve xylophone solo).

… from the Euros to a trip on the tube: how selfies have invaded our space.

… the strange, unfinished story of John Lennon’s Patek, “the El Dorado of lost watches”.

… you’re never alone with an iPhone.

… and does virtuoso musicianship ruin pop music, asks birthday guest Guy Constant? (Answer: yes).

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Only Clare Grogan knows how it feels to burst onstage from a giant birthday cake Jun 21, 2024

Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more and talk here about the first gigs she ever went to and played herself, which involves …

… what she wore (aged 13) to see the Bay City Rollers at the Glasgow Apollo (includes “cork platform clogs”).

… winning the Alternative school beauty pageant dressed as Debbie Harry in a bin bag.

… her sister Margaret’s re-enactments of David Bowie, Leo Sayer and Roxy Music.

… why the furniture at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden was screwed to the floor.

… memories of 2-Tone, the Banshees, Madness, the Stranglers and the Blockheads.

… the riot at a Scottish festival when they ran out of alcohol.

… violence at early ‘80s gigs when your only security was “Ginge the Roadie”.

… Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs at the Bungalow Bar in Paisley.

… do you focus on the people in the crowd who are enjoying it or the ones that need winning over?

… horizontal rain when wearing a ballet dress and playing to “a sea of cagoules”.

… the best way to tell the audience you’re about to play a new song.

… David Hepworth’s Altered Images album review in Smash Hits: ouch!

… and her daughter watching old Altered Images clips on YouTube.

----------------

Altered Images autumn tour dates and tickets here: http://alteredimages.band/

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The wit and charisma of Kate Bush by Graeme Thomson: going too far makes you what you are Jun 18, 2024

Graeme is an old friend of the podcast. We’ve talked to him in the past about his books on Phil Lynott and John Martyn. ‘Under The Ivy: the Life And Music of Kate Bush’ first appeared in 2010, and was revised in 2015 after her Before the Dawn concerts and it’s now been updated again as, despite no new music or public appearances, her worldwide reputation has rocketed through the roof. We look back here at various key points in the story including ...

… why the way she made records was ahead of its time.

… the ‘70s footage and recordings that were “supressed”.

… the “reclusive” decade and how the press filled the vacuum.

… divinely daft and humorous TV appearances eg with Delia Smith: “Waldorf Salad – that’s got waldorfs in it!”

… her bohemian childhood and the powerful influence of male counterparts, particularly eldest brother and erotic poet John Carder Bush.

… the unconventional Smash Hits interview of 1981.

… the ‘Before the Dawn’ concerts and the reason she staged them.

… her seven-year stand-off with Top Of The Pops.

… her ‘70s rock group – the KT Bush Band (still going!) – and the songs they played eg The Stealer by Free, Brooklyn by Steely Dan, Shame Shame Shame by Johnny Winter.

… Danny Baker’s NME review – “nothing she writes about matters”.

… Pamela Stephenson’s vicious pastiche and Alan Partridge’s part in her comeback.

... Talk Talk, Blackadder, Monty Python, Powell & Pressburger, Oscar Wilde, Celtic folk, the Pre-Raphaelites and other early influences.

… and the advantage of never being cool.

Order 'Under The Ivy' here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Ivy-Music-Omnibus-Remastered/dp/1915841356

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For the love of Françoise Hardy, Ben Sidran and the TV comedy Twenty Twelve Jun 17, 2024

Among the logs tossed on the conversational bonfire this week to combat mid-June’s British winter you’ll find …

… ‘I Managed Van Morrison’ and other films screaming to be made.

… how it feels to watch someone play from the best seat in the house.

… Françoise Hardy, her unsmiling photos and legions of besotted male admirers (ie us and everyone else).

… the time she met Dylan and Nick Drake.

… Juliette Greco, Edith Piaf and the handful of French stars who made it across the Channel.

… the joy of small venues: “the bigger the gig, the smaller a component of the experience the actual performance is”.

… Elvis Costello’s photographic memory.

… Maria Muldaur with Earl Palmer and Amos Garrett.

… why Twenty Twelve says more about British life than any other TV show.

... the terrible jokes of Ronnie Scott.

… “Kate Bush grew up in a world without sarcasm.”

… Siobhan Sharpe, Bertie Wooster, the Artful Dodger, Basil Fawlty, Edina & Patsy and other deathless British fictional stereotypes.

… plus birthday guest Paul Thompson and books tracking down people who’ve played with Dexys and Dylan. And who should be next – Hawkwind, Van Morrison?

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Stewart Lee knows the rigours of ‘animal costume work’ and why great comedy is about shock Jun 15, 2024

Stewart Lee – beloved writer, columnist and stand-up - was on the podcast in 2022 talking about the first records he bought, immensely funny and fascinating, and we’ve been praying for an excuse to get him back since. And it’s here! - he’s on tour again and his ‘Basic Lee’ show is on Sky/Now TV on July 20. This covers his first memories of live entertainment - in the audience and as a performer – and the people who influenced him and stops off at the following stations …

… why the Wombles were just like Crass.

… how he writes and tests new material.

… why Ted Chippington inspired his stand-up career.

… television comedy is now “two-screen TV” as the viewer’s always watching something else at the same time.

… how Lockdown made audiences forget how to behave.

… “Comedian In Bum Phone Fury”: how he stopped people filming his gigs.

… deliberately using negative reaction shots in his TV edits.

… improvisation in music and comedy and why every night should be unique.

… the tense protocol of comedians at other comedians’ gigs.

… Mark E Smith doing things “out of necessity irrespective of how they were received” and his reaction to seeing Stewart in his audience.

… why festival crowds are a challenge.

… the Drifters, the Applejacks and Napalm Death and how they are related.

… the music playing when his son was born.

… arriving in full early Dexys rig - donkey jacket, woolly hat - to find they were now the “raggle-taggle gypsies”.

… the sole performance of Peter Richardson’s Mexican bandit act.

… Daniel Kitson, “the world’s greatest living stand-up”.

… plus the Nightingales, Chris Spedding, Clem Cattini, Kirk Brandon, the Bevis Frond, Geddy Lee, Throbbing Gristle and Brighton Psych Fest’s Secluded Bronte – “is it music or are they just moving furniture around?”

------------

All information about Stewart Lee tour dates here …

https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/

‘Basic Lee’ is on Sky/Now TV on July 20.

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How Springsteen went “six deep”, fictional rock hacks and who’s more conservative than Liam Gallagher? Jun 11, 2024

You’ll always find us in the kitchen at parties, near the hoppy summer ale and sausage rolls and, and this week discussing …

… he hasn't changed his look or sound for 30 years: is there a more conservative concept than Liam Gallagher? And how he became the one-man Oasis.

… the eye-watering sum Kevin Hart made from Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

… Loudermilk, Rob Gordon in High Fidelity and other Rock Snob stereotypes in fiction - “I’m a Rock Snob? It comes with the territory being right!” And how rock critics are always cast as cynical, joyless curmudgeons.

… why Courteney Cox was chosen for the Dancing In The Dark video and how Springsteen turned live performance into spectacle.

… the diplomatic skills of A&R men in pursuit of hit singles.

… why Born In The USA was a masterclass in branding.

… the Word in Your Ear podcast and Taylor Swift, both up and running since 2006!

… plus Abba, Peter ‘King Mod’ Meaden, Jon Savage’s book on LGBTQ pop culture, Liam Gallagher’s hair and Springsteen’s dancing lessons.

Great clip of Steve Harley on Australian TV sent by listener Brian Nankervis …

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154289171249235

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Jon Savage - Dusty’s wig, Bowie’s bombshell and how gay pop culture changed music Jun 09, 2024

“I thought Dave Davies of the Kinks was a girl. When I discovered he was a boy, that’s when I got interested.” Jon’s an old friend of the podcast and the author of some highly regarded and influential books about pop and its repercussions, ‘England’s Dreaming’ and ‘1966: the Year The Decade Exploded’ among them. His latest is ‘The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture 1955-1979’ which looks at five particular moments and the pivotal people in the mix at the time. We couldn’t recommend it more highly and cover seven decades in this conversation, stopping off at …

… how “homosexuality was a career-killer” until Bowie’s spectacular Melody Maker interview in 1972.

… new male identities - Valentino, Nureyev, Sinatra and the “subversive” stage act of Johnnie Ray.

… does pop drive change or reflect it?

… Andrew Loog Oldham, Kit Lambert, Simon Napier-Bell and the supposed “gay managers mafia” and how Oldham used camp as a weapon.

… Dusty Springfield and the Gateway Club.

… how Brian Epstein invented a new type of manager.

... Andy Warhol at the Factory, pop art, the launch of the Velvet Underground and his jukebox time-capsule of ‘60s gay pop taste.

… was Tom Robinson the first out gay British pop star?

… Mary Whitehouse v the Gay Times.

… the Clash (“hurt, vulnerable boys”), Siouxsie, Poly Styrene, the Slits, Vic Godard and punk’s other new stage identities.

Order ‘the Secret Public’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Public-Resistance-Popular-1955-1979/dp/0571358373

… and Jon’s 2-CD soundtrack here …

https://www.roughtrade.com/en-gb/product/various/jon-savages-the-secret-public-how-the-lgbtq-aesthetic-shaped-pop-culture-1955-1979?channable=409d9269640032313931333434ec&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvIWzBhAlEiwAHHWgvQetjeRXO03PVnpFYq75PMG_pmDd42hKBO8VytbDerJqZw3ycIY7pxoCFxIQAvD_BwE#cd-x2

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“Abba’s success is more about us than them”: Giles Smith looks back at a 50-year love affair Jun 08, 2024

Giles was 12 when he watched Abba win Eurovision in 1974 and was instantly besotted – and thus required to spend the next 20 years wrestling with The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name. His thunderingly funny, fond and illuminating book – My My!: Abba Through The Years – traces their story, looks at the snobbery and critical mauling they endured and figures out how they made records so universally popular and which still move him to tears 50 years later. It’s also the best example of any book we’ve read that can explain the mechanics of music to a non-musician. It’s highly recommended, as is this podcast which alights upon …

… a 50 year-old story – “for 42 of which they haven’t existed”.

.. the vicious early press reaction - “calculatingly commercial”, “dispassionate” …

… the divine clunkiness of their early TV appearances.

… the sense of the melancholy we’ve attached to their music - and why.

... the immense value of splitting up early and never reforming or publicly falling out.

… the immaculate construction of Dancing Queen (which opens with the second half of the chorus) and why “there are two types of wedding disco – ones that start with Dancing Queen and terrible ones.”

… the maturity of Abba’s lyrics – about marriages, relationships, children and other subjects pop music rarely tackles.

… why Abba Voyage is so affecting that he’s seen it three times.

… and Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and other key factors in The Comeback.

Order Giles Smith’s My My!: Abba Through The Ages here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-ABBA-Through-Ages-ebook/dp/B0CF73GNN4

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the Architect of Mod: how Peter Meaden restyled and launched the Who - by Steve Turner Jun 06, 2024

Peter Meaden was a key figure in the Mod movement. He changed the world view of Andrew Loog Oldham, which shaped the early Stones, and he managed the Who, remodelling their look and sound, writing their first single and turning them into Mod figureheads. Steve Turner interviewed him in 1975, an exchange that's now the centrepiece of his new book 'King Mod: the Story of Peter Meaden, the Who and the Birth of a British Subculture', and the NME's published extract in 1978 paved the way for the Mod Revival. It's an extraordinary story that would make a movie, discussed here with Steve and including ...

... the Scene Club in Windmill Street "when a band was a way of life".

... Angus McGill and the first press mention of 'the Modernists'.

… the tale of Sandra Blackstone, the DJ who vanished into thin air.

... the lifelong values of Mod culture for teenagers like Eric Clapton, Marc Bolan and David Bowie.

... the single Meaden wrote for the Who - Zoot Suit/I'm The Face - and where he stole the music from.

... police raids in Soho.

... doing press for Bob Dylan at the time of Madhouse on Castle Street.

... the Flamingo Club's dress policy, French and Italian film and fashion, boxing boots, cycle jackets and the origins of Mod style.

... Chuck Berry in suburban Edmonton!

... Meaden's disastrous attempt to bring Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band to London.

... and a typical weekend in 1964, a sleepless, Drinamyl-powered 48 hours from the Ready Steady Go! green room to the Scene Club via Carnaby Street.

£5 off copies of ‘King Mod’ here. Just type in the discount code which is:-

Podcast offer

https://redplanetmusicbooks.com/collections/full-catalogue/products/king-mod

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Great album trilogies, suing Madonna and "the pantheon of psychedelic heaviosity" Jun 03, 2024

This week the conversational Super-Trouper of Enquiry lights up the following …

... why care when "rock critics get it wrong"?

... the dreadful death of the Allman brothers' dad.

... is there any other branch of entertainment where you can be two hours late onstage?

... has any show got worse reviews than Eddie Izzard's one-woman Hamlet?

... the unlikely tale of how Iron Butterfly changed the course of Atlantic Records.

... three, the magic number: the accidental album trilogies of Scott Walker, Steely Dan, Blur, the Beatles, Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Nick Lowe ...

... the Deadhead who saw them 1,000 times.

... U2, Coldplay, Radiohead, the Kings of Leon ... bands who've never changed their line-up.

... Yes, Thin Lizzy, the Hollies ... bands with no original members.

... why it's less demanding seeing bands than solo acts.

... and Madonna being sued for lateness, lip-syncing and a "pornographic stage-act that was emotionally triggering".

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The spectacular Dead & Co, songs performed backwards & happy birthday Diamond Dogs! May 26, 2024

Tuning into this week's rock and roll soundwave to filter signal from noise, we cranked up the volume on the following ...

... 'Zuma Nester Rock' and the eternal curse of rock stars' kids' names.

... Bowie's spat with Robbie Williams at Netaid.

... celebrating awkward sods like Kevin Rowland.

... why Paul Carrack has seen it all.

... 'Lewis' Armstrong, 'Hoosker Doo' and others we've been pronouncing wrong.

... AI does David Hepworth and Mark Ellen!

... the Underground/Overground albums/singles divide of 1974: the Wombles and Paper Lace v Tubular Bells and Journey To The Centre of The Earth.

... Guy Chambers - a string quartet aged 11! - and other early achievers.

... the Stones' and Bowie's race to have a Guy Peeleart record cover and the 50th anniversary of Diamond Dogs.

... how the Dead & Co turned a stage show into a movie experience and bands - Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys? - who should play the Las Vegas Sphere.

... and "the wally with the brolly" and other fresh political PR catastrophes.

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Why They Might Be Giants now perform an entire song backwards May 22, 2024

They Might Be Giants – old school fiends John Flansburgh and John Linnell – have been making elliptical, funny and adventurous records for over 40 years and writing music for children, advertising and TV comedies. We talk to John Linnell here about songwriting, early shows in art spaces, the way you saw the world when a "wiseacrey teenager" and what you can expect from their autumn tour. Which, incidentally, will include the "pointlessy difficult exercise" of performing Sapphire Bullets Of Love every night in reverse which they'll film and run backwards and then send the clip to audience members so they can gauge its accuracy ("like watching people sing for whom English is a second language"). Some illuminating moments here ...

... the rich vein of '50s music outside of rock and roll.

... communicating by posting cassettes and how they built a following with an ansaphone.

... working in a record store in Massachussetts.

... playing on the same bill as Steve Buscemi at New York performance venues in the '80s and gigs involving papier mache hands and masks.

... why children are "a tough crowd" and the unsettling news that their albums for kids were outselling their usual records.

... the fine art of survival after a 1990 worldwide hit.

... and Yoko Ono, Pere Ubu, Elvis Costello and the disturbing effect of Frank Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh.

They Might Be Giants tickets here …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/they-might-be-giants-tickets/artist/945181

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Guy Chambers - writing with Robbie, a tangle with Bowie & half a bagel with Paul McCartney May 21, 2024

Guy Chambers was a teenager in Liverpool and at John Lennon’s old school - "same headmaster, Mister Pobjoy". He remembers the Beatles, Queen, Abba and Jesus Christ Superstar sparking his interest in the "perfect song package" and went on to work with Tina Turner, Rufus Wainwright, Kylie, Diana Ross and scores of others. He talks here about early shows he saw, records bought and his own tour in the autumn, "An Evening With Guy Chambers", stopping off at various points on the way, among them ...

... how YOU can write a song with him.

... Bowie's reaction on discovering he was third on the bill below George Michael and Robbie Williams at Netaid.

... seeing XTC and Generation X at the teen shows at Eric's.

... Benny Hill's Ernie, the Scaffold's Lily the Pink and other singles bought at Probe Records.

... "the great harmony bands" like the Eagles, Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas.

..."A Is For Banana", his song about dyslexia.

... writing a string quartet aged 11 and the magic of hearing four people bring his sheet music to life.

... "the wastage": composers who write 50 songs and throw 40 away.

.. the cinematic internal worlds of the Cocteau Twins and Lana Del Ray.

... the "subversive harmonies" on Strawberry Fields Forever and what makes Eleanor Rigby so perfect.

... everything that now needs to be in place to get a hit record.

... mass song-writing teams and how he can't operate with more than three people in the room.

... and what you can expect from his upcoming tour.

Tickets for An Evening With Guy Chambers here …

https://www.guychambers.co.uk/live

We've been podcasting since 2006 and every bit of support we receive helps us keep the conversation going. Find out more about how you can support Word In Your Ear into the future here: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Alan Edwards, pop PR – ‘Bowie was like King Arthur and the Spice Girls like the Pistols’ May 20, 2024

We’ve known Alan Edwards since the days when we’d ring him for a quote from Blondie or the Stranglers in the late ‘70s and he’s still one of the key figures in music PR. He’s looked after the Stones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Amy Winehouse, the Beckhams and many others. No-one is better positioned to see how that world has changed, from the pre-Google days when you could invent a story and the press would happily buy it to a 21st century where his flat was burgled in pursuit of lucrative celebrity leads. PRs, he believes, "are not messengers but storytellers” and his memoir ‘I Was There: Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll’ is full of them. He looks back here at …

… striking a £1m photo deal for the Beckhams’ wedding.

… Midge Ure, Gen X and other prime examples of fake news.

… hotel workers, waiters and airline pilots who sold stories to the press.

… the days when a battery-operated portable phone gave you the edge.

… why he was hired by Blondie.

… the chilly, manipulative and inscrutable Lou Reed.

… Bowie’s disappearance in Berlin in the ‘70s and other things that would be impossible in the age of social media.

… Keith Moon in mid-air.

… and how it feels to be hacked.

Order Alan’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-There-Dispatches-Life-Rock/dp/1398525243

The Outside Organisation …

https://outside-org.co.uk/

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Rock’s image-makers, men on dancefloors and why bands can’t act like bands anymore May 19, 2024

This week’s items slapped on the rock and roll barbecue and lightly grilled include …

… why Eurovision will never avoid political controversy.

… when AI does David Hepworth!

… what’s the secret of NTS radio?

… “there are two types of wedding disco, ones that start with Abba's Dancing Queen and terrible ones.”

… Tony Hall’s prophetic preview of Revolver in May '66 – “they shatter convention and may well have a far-reaching effect on the whole future of music”.

… when listening to the radio was a group activity.

… Daniel Kramer, Dezo Hoffman, Robert Freeman, Anton Corbijn and other photographers who shaped the way music looked.

... the rogue punctuation of "Paint It, Black".

… songs that start with the chorus.

… Elvis’s unrepeatable train journey from New York to Memphis in 1956.

… “there’s glass in the back of my head and my toenails don’t fit properly” – Dylan’s ’66 London press conference.

…. and hurry hurry hurry to Lot 71 in Danny Baker’s record auction, a snip at only £70!

Danny Baker’s record auction …

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/details/a230a-the-danny-baker-collection/?au=162&g=1

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Paul Carrack has seen it all – beat, soul, prog, pub rock, pop & the perfect ‘slow burn’ career. May 16, 2024

We’ve followed Paul Carrack for 50 years, a big hit single – How Long – when he was with Ace, 19 albums, countless sessions (the Smiths, Eagles and Pretenders among them) and a touring band member with Squeeze, Roxy Music, Roger Waters and Nick Lowe. He once put out an album called ‘I Know That Name’ as for so many people he’s still under the radar. His newsagent assumes he’s called “Mike” as he was the singer in Mike & the Mechanics. He's touring the UK in the autumn and looks back here at …

… seeing the Beatles, Chuck Berry, the Stones, Dylan and the Shadows at Sheffield Town Hall. And Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band at Mojos promoted by Pete Stringfellow.

… playing Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg clubs in the early ‘70s.

… his time with earnest prog adventurers Warm Dust – “please don’t look them up”.

… the value of having your own label in the world of streaming.

… when Elvis Costello got him to sing the vocal on Tempted by Squeeze.

… supporting Fleetwood Mac and Free.

… playing Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and Sinatra tunes with a big band.

… how it feels to be “dropped like a stone” by Radio Two when you no longer fit the demographic.

… the real meaning of the song How Long and what he has in common with Troy McClure of the Simpsons.

Paul Carrack tour dates here …

https://paulcarrack.net/

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Nige Tassell was so obsessed with Dexys he’s tracked down all 24 ex-members May 15, 2024

Nige Tassell used to go to school in full donkey-jacket-and-woolly-hat ensemble to express his boundless devotion to Dexys Midnight Runners. Forty years later he set out to find and interview everyone who’d ever been a member. For some, their time in the ranks was a joyful, career-launching delight. Others felt it was like a slightly chilly and controlling cult. They all took a while to recover and they all had extraordinary stories to tell in his latest book ‘Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners’. Here’s a flavour of what gets discussed …

… ‘No drugs or alcohol! No smiling! No eye contact with the audience!’ and other unsettling Dexys mantras.

… examples of Kevin Rowland ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’.

… the many ways the band made themselves deliberately different’.

… the event supporting Bowie that got their power cut onstage in Paris and had them thrown off the tour.

... the heavy-handed recruitment of Helen O’Hara.

… Geno Washington and other strands of the Dexys DNA.

… the ad they took in the NME that soured their relationship with the music press.

… and how Rowland’s approach today remains resolutely unchanged.

Order Nige’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Dexys-Midnight-Runners-Tassell/dp/178512059X

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Why Nick Mason’s “cottage industry” band plays just early Pink Floyd May 14, 2024

Missing being on tour and exasperated by internal disputes, Nick Mason set out to tour small-scale venues with his band Saucerful Of Secrets in 2018. They’re mid-way through another world tour (Gary Kemp’s the main singer and one of the guitarists). He doesn’t miss the stadium circuit where “you need a golf cart to get from one side of the stage to the other” and they play only the early psychedelic Floyd material, from their first singles up to (but not including) the Dark Side of the Moon, which audiences are less inclined to want to be note-perfect versions of the records. And he talks mid-set about the origins of the songs and his memories of Syd Barrett and life at the time. This podcast looks back at the first live shows he saw and played himself and how Saucerful of Secrets came about. Which includes …

… Tommy Steele at the Hackney Empire – “I came straight from school in short trousers with my satchel”.

… seeing the Rolling Stones on a ‘63 package tour.

… performing Beatles songs at parties in Cuban heels and Oliver Goldsmith shades.

… playing the International Times launch party at the Roundhouse in ‘66 on the back of a cart.

…. early gigs at the Countdown Club, Regent Street Poly and the Albert Hall (with Alan Price and Peter & Gordon).

… the difference between Saucerful of Secrets and the stadium circuit – and the time Roger Waters played with them in New York.

… and the ‘60s demos of unreleased Floyd songs they’re hoping to add to the set.

Saucerful of Secrets tour dates here …

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kjkhMKXv4wPaR2XVbZ6h3WVMJ4ivesVn/view?usp=drivesdk

Buy tickets here …

https://myticket.co.uk/artists/nick-mason-saucerful-of-secrets

Nick’s re-released solo albums here …

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uwB_CYLuszOUNqsfeiWQH3nXd2TxGVf7/view

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Let It Be revisited, the wisdom of Steve Albini and a woeful tale about Steve Marriott May 12, 2024

We were at the Curzon Mayfair on May 7 for the premier of the rebooted Let It Be in all its burnished finery and came away with a ton of things to unravel, among them …

… what we never knew when the film came out 54 years ago.

.. seeing it in the shadow of Peter Jackson’s Get Back.

… how the edit was overtaken by events and the tangled reasons it turned out the way it did.

… why Lindsay-Hogg’s amphitheatre concept would never have worked.

… the divine symbolism of the Beatles v the police.

… why it’s a perfect social document of late-’60s London.

… the band’s three-film film contract.

… was the world really as distraught about their break-up as the 21st Century assumes?

… herringbone coats, red plastic macs, hairy black jackets: why someone should open a Beatles ‘69 clothes emporium.

Plus … the noble philosophies of the late Steve Albini expressed in a letter to Nirvana in November 1992.

… and what happens when rock stars don’t leave wills: Exhibit A - Steve Marriott.

Read Steve Albini’s letter to Nirvana here: https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/nirvana

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The genius of Little Feat, the Man with the Twang & pop’s greatest scandal in the making May 05, 2024

We stuck a few coins in this week’s Wurlitzer and these were the tunes that got played …

… when records became all about sound not songs.

… Fonzworth Bentley, Puff Daddy’s butler, the man who held an umbrella over him on the beach at Cannes.

… what Henry Kissinger, Martha Stewart and Leonardo DiCaprio kept very quiet about.

… Manchester’s Co-Op, a tale of unprecedented hopelessness.

… what’s the definition of a song? And can you steal a record?

… the magical skill of Aston Barrett on I Shot The Sheriff and James Jamerson on You Can’t Hurry Love.

… ‘Duane Eddy Does Bob Dylan’ and its ingenious sleeve.

… does anybody still want pop posters?

… “I'd watch Jeremy Clarkson boil an egg.”

… Moneybagg Yo & DaBaby, Cigarettes After Sex and other acts playing the O2 and Wembley Arena we’ve ever heard of.

… the ultimate autograph.

… and New Whirl Odor, Road To Rouen, Sax And Violins, Lead Me Not Into Penn Station and other tortuous album titles.

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Steve Diggle of the Buzzcocks remembers the day “a terrible beauty was born” May 03, 2024

Steve Diggle met Pete Shelley when the Pistols played Manchester in 1976 and the Diggle-fronted Buzzcocks are now on a world tour that began in Mexico and takes in North and South America, Europe and Australasia before winding up at the 100 Club where they played the Punk Festival 48 years ago – “we’ve come full circle”. He looks back here at the first shows he saw and played himself and talks about Silverhead, Status Quo, Leo Sayer dressed as a clown, George Best, the Groundhogs, The History of Mr Polly by HG Wells, the Buzzcocks as “Lennon and McCartney in a blender”, “Led Zeppelin for Comprehensive schoolkids, Deep Purple for Grammar schoolkids” and a great story about Patrick Moraz of Yes with a bank of keyboards like a telephone exchange and an alpine horn.

Buzzcocks world tour dates here: https://www.buzzcocks.com/events

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Rock snobbery, the seven wives of Gregg Allman & the greatest solo on a pop record Apr 29, 2024

This week’s theories, rants, ruminations, recollections, weak gags and free and frank exchanges of view alight upon the following …

… is pop music now all about identity?

…. the recording of the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun and other apocryphal tales.

… has any act been as ubiquitous since Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984?

… or has anyone inspired a greater level of personal devotion than Taylor Swift?

… Peter Green, a shotgun and his accountant.

… books bought but never read.

.. re-reading Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and the changing benchmarks for good and bad musical taste.

… intriguing parallels between the book and record industries.

… and Neil Tennant braves the digital lynch-mob.

Plus Adam Clayton’s garden, Konstantin Chernenko, Richard Burton, Rebel Wilson, Dark Academia, creepy weepies and birthday guest John Montagna looks at singles by the same act that are ‘descendants’ – ie pretty much identical – eg the Monkees’ Teardrop City and Last Train To Clarksville, the Kinks’ You Really Got Me and All Day And All of the Night and Mark Knopfler’s Cannibals and Walk Of Life. Or just try the first few seconds of these four by the Inkspots – Maybe, I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire, If I Didn’t Care and Whispering Grass.

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Harold Bronson of Rhino Records kept a 40-year rock and roll diary… Apr 28, 2024

File this under ‘right place, right time’. Harold Bronson was a teenager in mid-60’s Los Angeles and saw every act imaginable. Then wrote for the Daily Bruin and Rolling Stone and interviewed everyone that interested him. Then managed a music store and co-founded Rhino Records, pretty much inventing the idea of the top-end reissue – “Sooner or later everyone ends up in a box.” All of this is in his memoir, ‘Time Has Come Today: Rock and Roll Diaries 1967 – 2007’, and many of its cast of thousands appear in this podcast, among them Johnny Horton and ‘the Battle of New Orleans’, the Purple People Eaters, the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra, the Doors at the Hollywood Bowl, the Stones supported by Ike & Tina (for $12), Ozzy Osbourne (“I’d never meet anybody with a tattoo before”), Hilton Valentine working at a Henry The Eighth-themed restaurant, Groucho Marx at a Led Zeppelin launch, a ‘Best of Louie Louie’ that sold 100,000 copies and a Ritchie Valens record made on a dictaphone.

You can order Harold’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Has-Come-Today-Diaries/dp/B0CGTX2YN8

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The “amniotic throb” of modern pop, the eternal life of the Top Gear theme and the Blue Nile’s lucky break Apr 21, 2024

With Mark Ellen in foreign parts David Hepworth and Alex Gold light cigars, pass the port in the correct direction and discuss…..

…..the fact that there is only one way to play a Beatles song and that is the way the Beatles did it.

…..the chances that Taylor Swift is reaching her imperial phase and nobody is prepared to tell her what she really needs to hear.

….the very good reason that all contemporary pop records do literally sound the same.

…the 50th anniversary of Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight”.

….the story of the Allman Brothers’ “Jessica”, a jam that turned into Dickey Betts’ pension.

….how the Blue Nile got a plug which is worth all the bought media in the world.

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Hollywood Babylon, the inspired gimmickry of Catch A Fire and the luck of Ron Wood Apr 15, 2024

We lobbed the feathered arrows of enquiry at the rock and roll dartboard this week and these got the highest scores …

… rock stars v the new league of the Super-Rich.

… package tours of the mid-‘60s – eight acts, an interval, a compere plus God Save the Queen.

… ‘Hits, Flops and Other Illusions’ by Edward Zwick and the fantastic tale about arrogance, money-squandering and Julia Roberts at the Halcyon Hotel.

... pop music used to be about persuading people to cut loose; now it’s about getting them to tighten up.

… why you can read Ron Wood’s memoir as either comedy or tragedy.

.. Chris Blackwell’s post-production trickery that sold Bob Marley to a rock audience.

… Master Tape Rescue: the arduous task of panning for gold.

... and why there should be a movie about the making of Shakespeare in Love.

Plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon in Savannah, Georgia – Neil Young v Spotify, Lady Antebellum, the Dixie Chicks and the tangled world of political correctness.

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Neil Tennant remembers life “with dyed red Bowie hair and clattering platforms” Apr 11, 2024

Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”. He’s always had a journalistic capacity for story-telling, remembering everything in famously entertaining detail, and we had so much material from this reunion we turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this second half ...

… “every group has to have an angle”.

… pop’s current obsession with identity.

… why Bronski Beat were so significant.

… David Bowie’s scathing one-word reviews of Michael Jackson and Oasis at the Brits.

… “the whole world of pop songs is a giant ever-expanding artwork”.

… meeting Frida from Abba, “a song waiting to happen”.

… the ‘Pits & Perverts’ gay benefit for the miners in 1984.

… London clubs in the early ‘80s - “we had a competition to see who could wear the highest heels”.

… how everyone at Smash Hits thought Michael Jackson’s Thriller was “a damp squib”.

… recording West End Girls.

… first hearing a 12-inch single.

… appearing on Soul Train with Don Cornelius – “like being on a different planet”.

… why Dusty Springfield gave Jerry Wexler a nervous breakdown.

… seeing the last Ziggy Stardust show.

… meeting Steven Spielberg, Micky Dolenz and Joni Mitchell.

… and Boy George's gag about George Michael.

-----------------------------------

PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852

Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF

-----------------------------------

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Richard Thompson – “you know it’s time to go when the audience starts throwing chairs” Apr 10, 2024

Richard Thompson first appeared onstage aged 14 playing Beatles covers in a school group “so bad we were pelted with pennies”. Sixty years later his range of operations includes touring solo and with his band, occasional reunions with Fairport Convention, residencies on Adriatic cruise ships and running a Guitar Camp in the Catskill Mountains (along with his sons and grandson). Much has he seen and learned about live entertainment along the way and he talks to us here from his home on the American East Coast on the day of the solar eclipse. Among the highlights …

… memories of the Marquee in 1965 – the Who, the Yardbirds, the Spencer Davis Group: “if you wanted to see both sets, you’d have to walk ten miles home”.

… seeing Nick Drake and the value of being “a silent, tortured genius”.

… life as a support act and how to “attack an audience”.

… Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry at the Finsbury Park Astoria in 1963 “when Chuck was at the height of his attention span”.

… Segovia at the Festival Hall.

… the perils of playing on sea cruises in rough weather.

… old and current album sleeves. “Dressed as a fly and now dressed as a fisherman … that’s progress.”

… how Ian Anderson and Captain Beefheart told the audience who’s boss.

… and watching the Band at the Albert Hall from a box with Fairport Convention.

----------------------

Richard Thompson tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/richard-thompson-tickets/artist/736296

Order the new album Ship To Shore here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ship-Shore-Richard-Thompson/dp/B0CVXHMFPB

-----------------------

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Neil Tennant remembers the pop press and “the last great era of forward-looking songs" Apr 09, 2024

Neil’s an old friend from our days back at Smash Hits in the early ‘80s. The first Pet Shop Boys demos were played on the office tape machine, though he was a bit self-conscious about “the one with the rap on it”, and he’s one of the few people who’s seen the music press from every angle - as a reader in the ‘70s, as a writer and interviewer and as a musician on its front covers. We had so much great material from this wide-ranging conversation that we’ve turned it into a two-part podcast. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in this first half ...

… the NME article he and his brother pinned to their bedroom wall.

… the event at a Sex Pistols show “which stopped me going to gigs for about three years”.

… the first time he saw his name in print.

… interviewing Marc Bolan in his “fat phase”.

… a barbed chat with Morrissey.

… the pop press shift from “super-showbiz to super-counter-culture”.

… Television, the Clash and other music he discovered through the NME.

… meeting John Taylor 35 years after interviewing him.

… the pop decade when “something extraordinary happened every day”.

… his mother’s horrified reaction when he left Smash Hits to start the Pet Shop Boys.

… the Human League in their Imperial Phase.

… Phil Collins showing him round Abba’s studio in Stockholm.

… and why ‘80s pop stars were “the most controlling”.

-------------------------------------

PSB tour dates: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/pet-shop-boys-tickets/artist/735852

Order the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Nonetheless’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/nonetheless-Deluxe-2CD-Shop-Boys/dp/B0CTKKBBVF

-------------------------------------

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The Stones’ clothes, our love affair with Abba & rock’s most appalling spectacle Apr 08, 2024

We lobbed the cracked wooden ball of enquiry at the rock and roll coconut shy this week and a few choice items dropped off their perch, among them …

… was Kate Bush ‘the Queen of Prog’?

… ELP, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple playing to 350,000 people on a Speedway track.

… the three things that sparked the Abba revival.

… the Further Adventures of Desmond and Molly Jones, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam, Father McKenzie, Rocky Raccoon, Maxwell Edison, Rose and Valerie, Sweet Loretta Martin, Vera, Chuck and Dave … Beatles characters awaiting development deals.

… was Britpop the moment the engine went into reverse?

… the two years went rock went ‘fancy dress’.

… why the Stones in 1964 were five walking fashion statements.

… Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel and its Yes connection.

… how the Beatles were in uniform on every album cover.

… David Vine at the 1974 Eurovision: “if all the judges were men, this lot would get a lot of votes and you’ll see why in a moment!”

… plus a birthday guest party - Al Hearton’s life in a Kate Bush tribute band and Stephen Lambe on the complicated birth of 90125 by Yes.

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Big Characters we have loved and why the Clash wouldn’t last ten minutes in 2024 Mar 31, 2024

We’ve applied our celebrated sheep/goats separation technique to the rock and roll pasture and shepherded the following into this week’s pod …

… Beyoncé and why it’s hard to connect with songs written by committee.

… are we too old for biopics?

… Marvel films, the Arctic Monkeys and other things you either love or avoid.

… reviewing Human Touch and Lucky Town in a high-security studio (and how you can only tell if an album’s any good if you’ve lived with it for two months).

… why Tony Blackburn is the greatest British DJ.

… “Bing was no more Bing than Sinatra was Sinatra”.

… hoary old tales that were the engine of the rock press - the Clash shooting pigeons, Kevin Rowland stealing his own master-tapes, Cliff v Elvis, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v the Pistols, Spandau v Duran, Oasis v Blur.

… are Oasis songs mostly about being Oasis?

… “fame is no longer enacted in the public space”.

… indie cliches – escaping the drudgery of the Man and mundanity of Small Town life.

… “the harder I practice, the luckier I get”.

… Scots punk act get movie soundtrack windfall!

… Alex is arranging a woke stag do - “you go to places where ladies put clothes ON”.

… plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury wonders if Country is more than “the three Ds - driving, dogs and divorce”.

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How Paul Cook broke into Hammersmith Odeon to see the Who, Slade, Queen & Alex Harvey Mar 28, 2024

Paul Cook’s post-Pistols band the Professionals were once, rather surprisingly, on the cover of Smash Hits - “the pinnacle of our success!” – and they’re including the 100 Club on their upcoming tour, the location of another career highlight. He talks to us here about how the first time he played live was also the Pistols’ first appearance (Saint Martin’s College of Art - “utter chaos”), how their old Denmark Street rehearsal room is now an AirBnB (Rotten’s cartoons still on the wall), old punks in the audience, Danny Boyle’s TV series and the very slim chance of a reunion (“never say never”). But much of this is about climbing through back windows to see bands in the early ‘70s, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Queen and Mott the Hoople among them. And seeing Alex Harvey on the day the whole of Scotland descended on London for the match against England at Wembley.

The Professionals are playing four UK dates (and often chuck in a couple of Pistols' tunes):

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/the-professionals-1-1

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Sharleen Spiteri saw Joe Strummer onstage and thought “that’s what I want to be” Mar 26, 2024

exas are touring in the autumn and she talks to us here about what’s required to make it all look easy, a conversation that includes …

… why working in a Glaswegian hair salon was the perfect preparation for pop stardom.

… the difference between the first second onstage and everything that follows.

… the advantage of being a singer with an instrument.

… seeing Jim Kerr in his mother’s blouse at Tiffany’s in Glasgow when she was 15.

… how Dusty Springfield remembered lyrics.

… Chrissie Hynde, Siouxsie, Depeche Mode, Cameo and the Clash.

… the overpowering spectacle of Prince’s Sign O’ The Times tour in Paris.

… playing racecourses and the unsettling sight of an audience wearing fascinator hats.

… supporting Fleetwood Mac (her second gig) and something useful learnt from Stevie Nicks.

… and the nocturnal sound of lions “going at it full swipe” near her house by Regents Park.

Texas tickets here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/texas-tickets/artist/742180

Texas & Spooner Oldham sessions: https://www.texas.uk.com/

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Album sleeves as lifestyle statements and 5 seconds that made Phil Manzanera a fortune Mar 25, 2024

The all-seeing telescope of truth scanned this week’s rock and roll heavens and noticed a few patterns emerge, among them …

… the real story of the writing of Layla and who nicked what from where. And who didn’t get paid.

… why Sally Grossman was on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home.

… album sleeves with overflowing ashtrays that screamed ‘welcome to my bohemian world!’ – Soft Machine’s Third, Man’s Rhinos, Winos + Lunatics, Back Street Crawler …

… album sleeves that said “meet my girlfriend!” – McDonald And Giles, the Madcap Laughs, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Love Chronicles, the Paul Simon Handbook …

… album sleeves suggesting the powerful aphrodisiac of music and the allure of ‘the bachelor pad’ …

.. our night out at a Leo Sidran show and what we’ll expect – indeed insist upon - at all gigs in the future.

… when rock stars read 12th Century Persian poetry.

…the time Lucinda Williams toured with Dylan and Van Morrison and never met either of them.

… the glorious squalor of ‘70s flats.

… “comedy is tragedy at a different speed”.

… mentioned in despatches: Sharleen Spiteri, John Mellencamp, James Burton, Bobby Whitlock, Daniel Kramer.

The Everly Brothers’ Walking The Dog. Is that the original Layla riff at 2.20? …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=072OpLw-l_s

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Phil Manzanera Part 2: an insider’s guide to Roxy Music (and a great Bob Dylan story) Mar 24, 2024

Phil Manzanera – who thought “every day in the band felt like Christmas” – has just published his memoir, Revolución to Roxy, and talked to us about it in front of a rammed and captivated audience at London’s 21Soho, an evening so full of detail, intrigue and revelation we’re putting it out as two podcasts. This is the second. He lifts the bonnet of the Roxy Music “art collective” in its various line-ups and shows you how the engine worked and why the idea of Eno onstage was “frightening”. He remembers working with a whole range of people – David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt, Heroes De Silencia, Quiet Sun, 801, David Bowie, Keith Richards, Jack Bruce and Tim Finn among them. He talks about the five seconds of guitar he knocked off in 1975 that’s made him “more money than all my Roxy earnings put together”. He reflects – and very poignantly – that bands never talk to each other and how he hopes the other members read his memoir as they’ll discover things about him they never knew. And he tells the fantastic story of the Guitar Legends festival in Seville and the way he managed Bob Dylan.

And you can order a copy of ‘Revolución to Roxy’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revoluci%C3%B3n-Roxy-Phil-Manzanera/dp/1783242817

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Phil Manzanera’s enviable life in Roxy Music and beyond Mar 22, 2024

Phil Manzanera – whose relatives include a Colombian pirate, a spy and an Italian opera musician - has just published his memoir, Revolución to Roxy, and talked to us about it in front of a packed and enthralled house at London’s 21Soho, a life so fascinating, detailed and colourful we’re releasing the conversation as a two-part podcast. Here’s Part One which looks back at an exotic childhood in Hawaii, Caracas and Cuba – with first-hand memories of Castro’s revolution in 1959 – and then his school days, early bands (the Drag Alley Beach Mob, Pooh & the Ostrich Feathers, Quiet Sun), the audition for Roxy Music, how they were styled, supporting David Bowie and their rapid and eventful ascent to the first hit single. When he joined the band, he said, “every day felt like Christmas”. Part Two to follow!

Order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revoluci%C3%B3n-Roxy-Phil-Manzanera/dp/1783242817

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Fish is bowing out to become a Hebridean shepherd. What’s he learnt in 45 years onstage? Mar 20, 2024

Fish has announced a Farewell Tour in 2025. “I’ve been there, done that and sold the t-shirt.” He’s moving to a croft on a remote Scottish island with nesting eagles, a flock of sheep named after the Hibernian FC team of 1972 and part-ownership of what’s just been voted “the best beach in the world”. Getting there is like the journey in Brigadoon. This covers a wide range of bases, among them …

… how the fall of the Berlin Wall changed the tour circuit.

… his first gig as “a big, gangly, geeky teenager” at the Golden Lion in Galashiels playing Steely Dan and Ry Cooder covers.

… the lies boys tell when trying to get into bands.

… supporting Queen for an audience of 200,000 and how he “over-toured” Europe.

… how it feels to be “the Anti-Christ in the Church of Marillion” and their very public divorce in 1988.

… seeing Yes at the Usher Hall in for £1.25 and Genesis on the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour.

… the music press v the New Wave of British Prog.

… girls called Kayleigh whose mothers fancied the singer from Marillion.

… irate fans on social media.

… the fine art of “guerrilla touring”.

… plus the Faces, Sven Hassel, Edgar Rice Burroughs and a curious analogy about Sioux Indians.

https://fishmusic.scot/

UK tour dates here …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/fish-tickets/artist/740885

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The extraordinary story of Steve Harley’s greatest hit Mar 18, 2024

Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) was a slow-paced, vicious dirge about the band members who forsook and betrayed him which magically evolved into what appeared to be an optimistic love song, a radio staple that never stopped selling. David and Mark remembered its transformation.

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Great divorce albums, Powerpop snobs and dark tales of 1999 Mar 17, 2024

Various items set off the alarm in the rock and roll bag-check this week and were hauled back for closer inspection, among them …

… when did records first try to sound like the past?

… why Karl Wallinger and Robbie Williams fell out over She’s the One.

... how Marillion and Chuck D changed the digital landscape.

… the only word for the sound of Free is “lascivious”.

… Blood on the Tracks, Here My Dear, Shoot Out The Lights, Tapestry, Tunnel of Love and other accounts of marital fracture.

… proof the mainstream no longer exists: Glastonbury headliner SZA has had 1.7b streams yet people claim they’ve never heard of her.

… the poignancy commercial failure lends to pop music.

… the Wire’s ‘100 Records That Set the World On Fire (While No-One was Listening)’.

… how Marvin Gaye married a woman 17 years older than him and left her for a 17 year-old.

… Eamonn Forde - in bed! - talking about his new book ‘1999: The Year the Record Industry Lost Control’, the people who knew the digital revolution was coming and the ones who didn’t believe it.

… Big Star, Dwight Twilley, the Raspberries, World Party and why Powerpop appeals to music snobs like us.

… “a Golden Age is when things behaved in such a way that you believed they’d behave that way forever”.

… plus Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Andy Fraser, Steve Winwood and the days when “music down a phoneline” felt like science fiction.

Order Eamonn Forde’s 1999: The Year the Record Industry Lost Control here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/1999-Year-Record-Industry-Control/dp/1913172775

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Stephen Fall’s reviewed 3,333 of his albums. Buy the book! Mar 14, 2024

Stephen Fall wrote reviews of his records, one a day, to make him a better listener. A decade later he published them in a book so colossal that we drop it on a desk to prove it’s passed the Boff Test. ‘Reviewing My Record Collection: 3,333 Albums from A to Zuma’ is a laudable labour of love, records he bought years ago and revisited, records he found in charity shops and took a punt on, records with reputations, records that deserve “a mauling”, records he wants the world to hear, records arranged alphabetically by title from A by Jethro Tull to Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. He’s evangelical about the album format and never skips a track. It’s an attractively personal view and often mentions when the relationship began – “I found Moon Pix by Cat Power for £1.50 in a Cancer Research in North Finchley”. This fascinating conversation about a love that knows no bounds touches on CDs you always find in charity shops (eg by REM, Dido and Travis), how strange it is that the same records you can pick up for 50p are often being repackaged as “top-end super-deluxe vinyl reissues” and how he felt a sense of bereavement when he finished the book. Which he’s why, oh yes, he’s begun Volume Two.

You can buy the first one for £17.99 from Amazon …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reviewing-My-Record-Collection-Albums/dp/B0CV53YD22#:~:text=Book%20overview,collecting%20records%2C%20tapes%20and%20CDs.

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It’s Arthur Brown, the god of hellfire … paging Health & Safety! Mar 12, 2024

Arthur Brown – enduring psychedelic godfather – is out on tour again 57 years after first performing Fire in a flaming metal crown. He’s nearly 82. This is the most old-school podcast we’ve ever done, talk of seeing Salvador Dali in his audience in a Paris nightclub, jazz bands on the back of trucks, his grandmother’s hotel being bombed in WW2, the birth of Flower Power, gigs at the UFO club, Palaeolithic art, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, panicked security personnel with fire blankets and memories of the key components of his incendiary headgear over the years among them cow gum, Army gaiters and a pie dish full of petrol. As you’ll discover – and this couldn’t be more old-school either – Zoot Money once had to extinguish the flames with two pints of Newcastle Brown.

Arthur’s keeping the home fires burning on a European tour. Dates here …

https://www.songkick.com/artists/333715-crazy-world-of-arthur-brown/calendar

Website - thegodofhellfire.com

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Suzi Ronson - Bowie’s stylist - knows why rock and roll is all about hair Mar 11, 2024

Suzi Ronson was working in a hairdressers in Beckenham in 1970 when a Mrs Jones dropped in for a shampoo and set talking gaily about her son, “an artistic boy who plays guitar and piano”. The same son who’d had a hit with Space Oddity and occasionally drifted down the High Road in a dress. Within weeks she’d become the first rock stylist, transforming Bowie’s hair, image and stage clothes and launching him in the direction of Ziggy Stardust and an international audience. She was a key part of his entourage that toured the UK, America and Japan and she talks about later life married to Spiders’ guitarist Mick Ronson, the role he played in Bowie’s success and the trials of his solo career in its aftermath. Both this podcast and her memoir (Me And Mr Jones: My Life With David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars) look at Bowie’s early career from a wholly new and original angle - in fact someone should base a film on it. A few highlights ...

… Haddon Hall and its exotic inhabitants.

… Schwarzkopf Red Hair Dye and other trade secrets.

.. how it feels to see an audience with the haircut you invented.

… expeditions to Liberty’s and Mr Fish with Angie Bowie.

… the Spiders’ northern sensibilities adjusting to the brave new world.

… how Tony Defries made Bowie mysterious and unreachable.

… why Lou Reed was a revelation.

… America’s Southern states reacting to the 1972 tour.

... and the magnetism of Bob Dylan and why Mick Ronson ended the Rolling Thunder tour with an invoice not a wage packet.

Order Suzi’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Me-Mr-Jones-Suzi-Ronson/dp/057137185X

Suzi’s the special guest on the Lust For Life tour reading extracts from the book …

https://www.lustforlifetour.com/special-guest-support

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How the Beatles invented pop video and acts we love who always sound the same Mar 10, 2024

Nutritious items on the rock and roll tasting menu this week include …

… the curious life of Tom Verlaine, his grocery cart and his 50,000 books.

… was March 9 1984 the worst week ever for the British album charts?

… what all great records have in common.

… Yesterday’s news today! ‘Soundies’ at the cinema and the Scopitone colour video jukebox.

… why A Hard Day’s Night was the greatest advert for the magical qualities of the Beatles and the scene that was the blueprint for the pop promotional clip.

… comforting acts with a narrow range – JJ Cale, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, U2 (“like getting into your parents’ car after a school trip”). And what made JJ Cale’s recordings so mesmerising.

… did Johnny Marr ever play a guitar solo?

… “I work in advertising but tell my mother I play piano in a brothel”.

… the link between JJ Cale’s Call Me The Breeze and Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone.

Mentioned in despatches … Cab Calloway and the Hondells, The Hoodoo Gurus, the Style Council, Jimmy Reed and the Inkspots.

Tom Verlaine’s 50,000 books …

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/march/at-the-tom-verlaine-book-sale?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240306blog&utm_content=20240306blog+CID_6b4a1bd19ed9ca733f5ffca04056ca8b&utm_source=LRB%20email&utm_term=Read%20more

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Is social media killing pop music? And where have all the bands gone? Mar 04, 2024

Caught in the piercing super-trouper of perusal this week …

... the BRITS 2024, a howling embarrassment.

… Medieval Beatles! She Came In Through the Privy Window, Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Kestrel, Comely Rita, I’m Happy Just To Joust With You …

… the wisdom of Tony Hancock.

… The Last Dinner Party and other ‘art concepts’.

… the Pattie Boyd/George Harrison/Eric Clapton love triangle.

… the days when “forming a band was a conspiracy against the tedium of life”.

… is it all over for young blokes in pop music? And is being in a band still considered sexy?

… the oldest musicians still touring: if Willie Nelson’s still going at 90, won’t Ed Sheeran be on the road at 100?

… “these days hanging a guitar round your neck insinuates that you might be homeless”.

.. and a whole range of facts that make starting groups seem less attractive (the cost, the likely profit, the decreasing appeal of ‘abroad’, digital gangs, how big ticket prices soak up all the live circuit cash).

... plus new patrons piped aboard!

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For Henry Normal comedy is like “sugar and salt” Mar 03, 2024

Henry Normal set up Baby Cow Productions with Steve Coogan, co-wrote the Royle Family, Coogan’s Run and Mrs Merton and produced Gavin & Stacy and Red Dwarf. He’s been a central plank in British comedy since the early ‘90s and, throughout it all, developed his own stage show built around poems and stories. He’s touring the UK with Brian Bilston. This podcast is full of hard-won insight into what makes comedy work and how the best poetry connects with “a greater truth”. And much besides including …

… what middle-class BBC execs wanted to change about the Royle Family and why it worked as it was.

… touring with John Cooper Clarke “who lived by a cemetery and had egg custard for breakfast”.

… putting on a Pensioners’ Disco, aged 14, that featured The March of The Mods played at 33.

... the influence of Roger McGough and the Liverpool poets.

… how, apart from the Office, American versions of British comedies mostly fail to get the point.

… seeing Juicy Lucy at the Nottingham Boat Club when he was 17.

… what made Spike Milligan’s Small Dreams Of A Scorpion so original.

… working with Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash and the Guardian’s first review – “three middle-class writers”.

… how to structure spoken word shows – “salad rather than soup”.

… and reflections about Mr Inbetween, Derry Girls, Clive James and Norman Gunston.

Get tickets for Henry Normal and Brian Bilston here: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/henry-normal

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Steve Howe of Yes tells a few tales from topographic oceans Feb 29, 2024

Steve Howe talks to us from the old house and studio in Devon where they rehearsed ‘The Yes Album’ in 1970. He’s been recording there for 54 years and is part of the current line-up about to set out around Europe. He looks back here on what he’s learnt from 60 years onstage and mentions …

… the effect of seeing Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and The Animals in 1964.

… playing old Shadows tunes at the Barnsbury Boys School in Holloway, aged 14.

… how Yes songs evolved and the cover versions they used to play (America by Paul Simon, Something’s Coming from West Side Story).

… “the dark 1968 that followed the rainbow 1967”.

... Duane Eddy, Hank Marvin, Chet Atkins, Alison Krauss and the Big Three.

… how Sgt Pepper – and blues, jazz and classical music - lit prog’s blue touchpaper.

… the value of “homework” and the hours of painstaking rehearsal that allowed them to play Fragile onstage.

… how Iron Butterfly helped transform the Yes stage show.

… Starship Trooper, Roundabout and other songs they’re guaranteed to play.

… old memories of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe.

… and the road ahead: “I’ll keep going while I can still do the twiddly bits”.

Yes tour dates: https://www.yesworld.com/

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The evergreen record that’s 50 years old & Jeremy Thorpe at a hippie commune Feb 25, 2024

As this week’s rock and roll steeplechase thunders out over the jumps, the following runners and riders make it past the post …

… “First he changed music. Then he changed the world!” and other over-cooked biopic sells.

… Billy Joel returns by the miracle of Artificial Ignorance.

… what you learn from visiting rock stars’ childhood homes.

… what’s Malta done to deserve a four-day Liam Gallagher festival?

… the one thing that’s never changed about Country Music.

… how Hotel California ended up in court.

… Sam Mendes’ Beatles project and the problem with actors playing very famous people.

… Beyoncé’s ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’: sampled banjo and other misdemeanours.

… from Watergate to Putin: the 50 year-old record so lean, smart and cynical that the world’s only just catching up.

… Don Henley on Irving Azoff: “He may be Satan but he’s OUR Satan.”

… Rock sea-cruises: “get your marital vows renewed by a member of Weezer!”

... why CD has ruined Jackson Browne’s For Everyman.

… what Hugh Grant superimposed on the character of Jeremy Thorpe.

… and birthday guest Adrian Ainsworth - Arse Curtains and other career-limiting band names.

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Richard Coles has faced every audience imaginable, one armed with pea-shooters Feb 23, 2024

The Reverend Richard Coles is back on tour with his ‘Borderline National Trinket’ show and talks to us from his home in Sussex where he’s “the only person in the village who hasn’t won a BAFTA”. This looks back at his life – “a CV like the work of a fantasist” - and what he’s learnt from 50 years of watching various types of stage entertainment and playing to audiences ranging from the Wollaston Over-‘60s Methodist Ladies Fellowship to a bunch of delinquent Spanish pop fans with catapults. And he talks fondly of the Communards and how ‘80s pop was a Golden Age. Among the highlights …

… Morecambe & Wise at the Kettering Granada with Arthur Tolcher on the mouth organ.

… finding your “pulpit voice”.

… Sir Robert Helpmann’s great gag about referees.

… why time is a healer.

… the “marble denim and mullets” of Legs & Co’s interactive dance to the Communards on Top Of The Pops.

… on the literary circuit sandwiched between John Lydon and Marti Pellow – “dreams do come true”.

… if he’s ever met a shy vicar.

… the stagecraft of Danny Baker, Adam Kay and Grayson Perry.

… standing on a chair to conduct the RPO, aged 8 and the time he wrote a Magnificat For Choir And Snare Drum in A Minor.

… seeing Bauhaus, John Otway and the 4-Be-2s.

… sitting between Lenny Henry and Torvill & Dean at a Kylie show.

… his teenage punk band Zerox playing Clash covers.

… and why there are never any forks in a Green Room.

Get ‘Borderline National Trinket’ tickets here, last date March 11 at London’s Shaftesbury Theatre …

https://www.seetickets.com/tour/reverend-richard-coles

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For Jah Wobble driving tube trains was even more thrilling than playing Glastonbury Feb 20, 2024

Jah Wobble - aka John Wardle - wrote ‘Dark Luminosity: Memoirs of a Geezer’ in 2009. It’s just been reworked, expanded and republished and it’s well worth reading, full of detail about growing up in the East End, unexploded bombs, pickling factories, grim schooldays, record shops and clubs, the bands he saw and his arrival at Kingsway College where he met John Lydon and Sid Vicious and became a cornerstone of the punk rock inner circle. And then two challenging years as the bassist of Public Image Ltd, the time he worked as a train driver and ticket collector for London Transport, a series of collaborations – Brian Eno, Baaba Maal, Holger Czukay, Sinead O’Connor, Chaka Demus – and some bold and original solo albums (you’ll enjoy Island Records' reaction when he pitches an album based on the poems of William Blake). Among this podcast's highlights …

… the Kafkaesque world of working for the London Underground in the days when you could “punch an area manager and not get sacked”.

… why great rhythm sections are like great football players.

… his dad, an El-Alamein survivor, on seeing Mick Jagger on Top of the Pops: “the Rolling Stones should be used for mine clearance.”

… Public Image Ltd – “three of the weirdest people you could ever meet”, the band that kept their cash in a shoebox.

… “you can’t go through life as a tourist”.

… the secret of the perfect bass sound.

… watching the first Sex Pistols’ rehearsal.

… seeing Bob Marley & the Wailers at the Lyceum.

… the record that reversed his dislike of the Beatles.

… why working with Pharoah Sanders was the highlight of his musical life.

… his 2023 album, ‘The Bus Routes of South London’.

… Jim Reeves, Burl Ives and further sounds of the family homestead.

... and a powerful aversion to hippies.

Order John’s memoir here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Luminosity-Memoirs-Geezer-expanded/dp/0571375359\

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Steve Wright and other great radioheads, McCartney’s bass & the non-profits of Python Feb 19, 2024

Pausing occasionally to spark a Senior Service and sink a milk stout, we kick cans down this week’s rock and roll boulevard stopping off at the following hotspots …

… the “Grunge Dripdown”: why Pearl Jam can play 60,000 seaters.

… the Elton Line, the Dury Line, the Bragg Line, the Kirsty Line …. What the London Overgrounds should have been called and why.

... how Steve Wright made radio and sowed the seeds of the Fast Show and Stella Street.

… actors who’ve joined the Choir Invisible but live on in voice-over.

… is any musician as closely linked to any instrument as McCartney to his Hofner bass? And the mysterious tale of its theft.

… J&M Studios (where Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti was recorded) is now a launderette with a jukebox. What became of Olympic, Town House, Motown and Bearsville?

… the Radio 2 v Greatest Hits ratings land-grab.

… does anyone under 60 still care about Monty Python?

… the latest glorious chapter in Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s 15-year “beef”.

… “All pop music is Strictly”: what David learnt from his six-year old granddaughters.

… the voice of Tommy Vance returns by the miracle of AI.

… “an elephant is a horse designed by a committee”.

... plus birthday guest Nick Foreman and why “underrated” is overrated.

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Max Décharné reboots the golden age of the Teddy Boys Feb 18, 2024

If a film director wanted to flag up incoming violence in the late ‘50s, the camera would fall upon a couple of Teds lurking in the street outside. The teenage Keith Richards remembers razors, bike chains and bloodshed at dance halls and there was an infamous Teddy Boy murder on Clapham Common that plunged the nation into frantic, media-led moral panic. Max Décharné sets out to reclaim the Teds from their “Cro-Magnon, knuckle-dragging cliché” in his new book Teddy Boys and relives this dangerously thrilling rock and roll revolution – the music, clothes, films, press stories, the birth of Ted, Peak Ted, its eventual demise and what’s kept the flame alive since. Things of note include …

… the full effect of Blackboard Jungle on a packed 4,000-seater cinema.

... that poignant sight of an old Ted pushing a pram with a woman with a beehive.

… Joan Collins in ‘Cosh Boy’.

… the first UK rock and roll gig, Bill Haley & the Comets at the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth in 1956.

… the crepe-soled, velvet-collared Duke of Edinburgh, unlikely ’50s fashion icon.

… Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis at the London Rock and Roll Show at Wembley in 1972, a key point in the Ted revival.

… Malcolm McLaren, Johnny Rotten, Wizzard and assorted Ted torch-carriers.

… Viv Stanshall and ‘Teddy Boys Don’t Knit’.

… fingertip drapes from Savile Row and how Teds subverted top-end fashion.

… Fleetwood Mac as Earl Vince & the Valiants doing ‘Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite’.

… and how the Beatles and James Bond helped kick the Teds into touch.

Order Max’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teddy-Boys-Post-War-Britain-Revolution-ebook/dp/B0C3SFMTFH

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Guy Garvey remembers the Grumbleweeds in panto, Santana fantasies & a song nicked from Roy Castle Feb 14, 2024

Guy Garvey and Elbow start touring the UK in May and he looks back here at the first shows he saw growing up in Bury in the ’70s - when his five elders introduced him to punk, prog, folk, soul and Elton John - and proudly admits he still doesn’t know the names of the guitar strings. Look out for …

… the secrets of the “Vanity Thrust” and other 21st Century stagecraft.

… the time they supported the Stones.

… being with the same band members for 34 years and each “wanting to be a different member of Santana”.

… what he’s learnt about live performance - “never announce new material”.

… his 6Music show, Guy Garvey’s Finest hour (“one hour too long” – Mrs Guy Garvey).

… the un-PC death of Roy Castle in the Peter Cushing movie Dr Terry’s House of Horrors.

… good things about Little Simz.

… the time a snowstorm doubled their audience.

… working with the BBC Concert Orchestra – “if it’s Wagner you’ll miss two tea breaks”.

… when Paul McCartney turned “Partridge-esque”.

… and the possible ‘star guests’ on the upcoming tour.

Elbow tour dates …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/elbow-tickets/artist/886289

Guy Garvey’s Finest hour …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0072q60

Elbow are on Radio 2’s Piano Room with the BBC Concert Orchestra on Feb 21…

https://elbow.co.uk/bbc-radio-2-piano-room-month/

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Lulu, when Prince did a bad thing and how the Beatles changed the shape of the human head Feb 12, 2024

This week the two-man kayak of curiosity tackles the following rock and roll rapids …

… when was the last time there was a truly universal hit?

… why Waylon Jennings walked out of We Are The World.

... the story of Everybody’s Talkin’ and Midnight Cowboy.

… why the Beatles’ 1964 American invasion was the biggest surprise party in the world and how the Maysles Brothers’ doc became the template for A Hard Day’s Night.

… the secret haikus of Wes Anderson.

… the best moments in Jaws.

... why Tracy Chapman stole the Grammys.

… how USA For Africa v Band Aid showed a fundamental difference in the British and American character.

… the inscrutable world of Spotify royalty payments.

… when Lulu, Dusty and Sandie Shaw were re-booted.

… Mojo Nixon RIP, a “corner on two wheels on fire” kinda guy.

… Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt’s hair.

… “Let me die a young man's death” - Adrian Henri.

… plus birthday guest Keith Adsley suggests cover versions in movie soundtracks that are better than the originals – eg Fiona Apple’s Across the Universe, the Gypsy Kings’ Hotel California and the Soggy Bottom Boys’ Man of Constant Sorrow.

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Musicians and their mothers and the records we could never sell Feb 04, 2024

We spun the week’s rock and roll roulette wheel and this is where the balls landed …

… why all rock biopics are worth seeing once.

… ‘demixing’: we spent ages perfecting records. Now we’re unperfecting them.

… the adorable hand-drawn flyer the 15 year-old Robert Plant made for his band Blacksnake Moan 60 years ago – “the weirdest, wildest sound in R&B!”

… are all musicians driven by the urge to please their mums?

… Pyjamarama, Crazy Diamond, Cigarettesnalcohol and other rock and roll racehorses.

… why “The Room” by Fabiano do Nascimento and Sam Gendel is “healing music”.

… has anyone been ‘bigger’ than Taylor Swift? And how can she be so universally popular and yet we can go through life without hearing a note of her music?

… the Pet Shop Boys at the London Palladium: “we don’t do waving”.

… “Something's lost but something's gained in living every day” – Joni Mitchell.

… are any possesions more precious than records?

... and birthday guest Kevin Rose recommends the Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy – and we talk about Control (Joy Division), Backbeat (the early Beatles), Rocket Man and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

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Tom Hibbert (the world’s funniest music writer) and why Madonna should be sued Jan 28, 2024

Our piercing Hubble Telescope Of Truth scans the rock and roll heavens to see what new patterns emerge, among them …

… running into Rod Stewart at a friend’s funeral.

… the priceless spectacle of rock critics dancing.

... Prefab Sprout and the fine art of bathos – “We were songbirds, we were Greek Gods, we were singled out by fate/We were quoted out of context - it was great!”

… the best songs about being in a band.

… Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty (and its hymn to self-love).

… King Kong, the most famous movie of all time - and why, like Jaws and Jurassic Park, the special effects now seem creaky but the drama still holds.

… our new pop star category: “dancer-singer”.

... how Tom Hibbert invented a whole new whole method of music journalism (and the only song that could get him on a dancefloor).

… “the crack of the backbeat on Vine Street”.

… and birthday guest Roger Millington on Heroes by David Bowie, the Archers theme tune and anything else that might make a new National Anthem.

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TV's greatest musical moment - and are we still allowed to laugh at hopeless old rock bands? Jan 22, 2024

Applying our patent ACME wheat/chaff separator to the rock and roll cornfield, this week’s podcast reaps the following harvest ….

… Stray, Budgie, Fat Mattress, Atomic Rooster … ropey bargain-bin fixtures reborn as costly and collectible vinyl classics.

… Neil Or No Neil: Let’s Impeach the President, The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight in Heaven … spot the fake Shakey song title.

… what they did with the Beatles’ Twist And Shout in the opening sequence of True Detective 4.

… the curious tale of the last line in Casablanca plus Dooley ‘Sam’ Wilson and his off-screen piano double.

… when the Dave Matthews Band tour bus tipped 800lbs of raw sewage onto a pleasure cruiser.

… why it’s hard to feel nostalgic about online magazines.

… “deep-end record-shop-haunting bores” (like us).

… the first three Robert Palmer albums and their old-school sleeves.

… life in the ‘70s without the NME: unimaginable.

… when Neil Young was sued for not sounding like Neil Young and John Fogerty for plagiarising his own material.

... and birthday guests Paul Knox and the biggest musical moments on TV, among them Magical Mystery Tour, John Martyn on Whistle Test, the Pistols on So It Goes ….

Is this the greatest musical moment on TV?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pKpfs5EK_s

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Graham Gouldman knows where to alphabetically file 10cc records Jan 21, 2024

In March Graham Gouldman and 10cc are coming your way and here he talks to David Hepworth about:

- seeing Cliff and the original Shadows at his first live show

- playing live in the sixties, when a band would plug all three guitars into the same amp

- where he keeps his fifty guitars

- what’s going on when it all goes quiet on the 10.c.c. tour bus

- the songs you have to play for the audience

- the ones you play for yourself

- what goes through his head every night when he’s standing in the wings

- the proper place to put 10 cc in an alphabetical record collection

Full tour dates here: https://www.10cc.world/events

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Annie Nightingale (“the great goth auntie”), choirs on pop records & the music they sent into space Jan 15, 2024

We stuck a coin in this week’s jukebox of news and cranked up the volume and these were the tracks that got played …

… fond memories of Annie Nightingale at Radio One and Whistle Test.

… the delicious melancholy of Sunday night pop radio.

… how David Gilmour writes songs.

… sex, clothes, gangsters: the eternal allure of Bonnie & Clyde.

… how the first Police album (including three hit singles) was recorded by a former doctor in a four-track studio above a dairy in Leatherhead for £1,500, and the band’s touching tribute when he died.

… the British Library hijack hack.

… the fantasy theme of so many ‘60s movies: ‘escape’.

… Ridley Scott’s Hovis ad.

… Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry … Blodwyn Pig? The five tracks you’d send into space to represent life on earth.

… how future wars will be started.

… plus birthday guest Sandra Austin on the best use of choirs on records among them Aretha Franklin’s You’ve Got A Friend, Blur’s Tender, the Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Roy Harper’s When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease.

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Jim Gordon - the supernatural gift and tragic fate of “the greatest rock drummer” with Joel Selvin Jan 13, 2024

Jim Gordon played the drums on Wichita Lineman, Good Vibrations, the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man and hundreds of other recordings we all own and worked with pretty much everyone including Steely Dan, Tom Waits, Tom Petty, Randy Newman, John Lennon, Frank Zappa and the Everlys. He toured with Delaney & Bonnie and Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs And Englishmen package and was a member of Derek & the Dominos. He played with a “bounce, a lilt, a boiling undercurrent” that added a whole new melodic dimension and he saw two different worlds from the inside, the studio-based pop factories of the ‘60s singles boom and the big ‘70s tours of the heyday of the rock album. West Coast author and music columnist Joel Selvin considers his supreme talent and ultimately catastrophic story in his new book ‘Drums & Demons: the Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon’ alighting here at various points in detail, among them …

… the intersection between “rock and roll and true crime”.

… the secret of “a compositional drummer”.

… how he started at the top, aged 17, touring with the Everlys and the Rolling Stones.

… how Rita Coolidge was robbed of her royalties, twice.

… his appetite for fame and recognition at a time when “being a rock star was the most elevated position in the world”.

… why he turned down a Dylan tour.

… the long, tangled evolution of ‘Layla’ and what Jim added to You’re So Vain that transformed it.

… and why he was sentenced to 16 years (for the murder of his mother) and ended up doing 38.

Order Joel’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drums-Demons-Tragic-Journey-Gordon/dp/1635768993

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Great albums now 50 years old, the best gag ever & the haircut that launched folk-rock Jan 07, 2024

Leaping across puddles, walking between the raindrops, its collar turned to the cold and damp, our weekly podcast builds a defence against the rigours of the rock and roll weather and offers shelter from the storm. Remain warm and dry with the following …

… the 11 musicians who turned down a Knighthood, MBE etc.

… why Dylan & the Band’s 1974 tour set the template for all tours to follow.

… Rod Stewart minus the hair: unimaginable.

… the old duffers’ perfect New Year’s Eve.

… happy 50th to Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark, Van Morrison’s It’s Too Late To Stop Now, Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic, Gram Parsons’ Grievous Angel, Big Star’s Radio City, Todd Rundgren’s Todd and Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe.

… Mr Bates v the Post Office and why sad films and books get harder to process as you get older.

… the wit and wisdom of our old pal Rod Sopp, the Smash Hits ad man - “a roll of cash big enough to choke a donkey”; “he’s so thin he has to run around in the shower to get wet”.

… Sting, Debbie Harry, Elvis Presley: spot the natural blond.

… how Woody Allen uses music to “make films look better”.

… the story of Everybody’s Talkin’ in Midnight Cowboy.

… why movie dance sequences are often filmed in silence.

… and birthday guest Andrew Slattery: All Along the Watchtower in Withnail, Sanctus in If, Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby in O Brother Where Art Thou? and other great movie soundtrack moments.

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Noel Coward, Gallagher & Squire’s superpower summit & the art of the Bob Dylan backbeat Dec 31, 2023

Amid the detritus of tangerine peel, half-eaten chocolates, broken toys and jars of home-brewed chutney beneath the rock and roll Christmas tree we found various items still unwrapped and awaiting this week’s podcast, among them …

… how to create the Dylan Blonde On Blonde shuffle in under two minutes.

… “Middlesex Hepworth!” David’s triumph on University Challenge and an inside view of the whole experience.

… Noel Coward revisited through the 21st century lens in the ‘Mad About The Boy’ documentary.

… Liam Gallagher & John Squire’s super-duo: it’s the Mancunian nostalgia jackpot but are the days of pre-release hype now over?

… the most creative thing anyone can do.

… actors from humble backgrounds used to pretend to be posher, now the posher ones affect to be working class.

… how to listen to live albums: new Hepworth research reveals essential ingredient to enhance audio experience!

… ‘a mix is never finished, it’s merely abandoned’, ‘snapping to the grid’ plus the idiosyncrasies of a ‘smart drummer’.

This is the link to creating the Dylan shuffle: https://youtu.be/BMPoFYAwXQ0?t=78

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Hipgnosis album art, the hardest working man in showbiz & the moment the world went mad Dec 18, 2023

We check this week’s luggage on the rock and roll baggage carousel and remove the following items for inspection …

… The People v OJ Simpson and why it’s worth re-watching.

… the only two convincing films about magazines and journalism.

… bands that look like mini-cab drivers.

… David’s upcoming appearance on University Challenge (cue the voice of Roger Tilling: “Middlesex Hepworth!”)

... the source of the phrase “Bring on the empty horses!”

… why someone called Riley asked John McVie and Nick Mason for his life back.

… who was more prolific, Michael Curtiz, Barbara Cartland or Mozart?

… the eternal destination of all Peter Pan royalties.

… the man who saved Po Powell from a spell in the cooler.

… “Morning, Gentlemen. Nice day for murder!”

… writing bands’ names on school bags.

… ‘I need a sheep, a psychiatrist’s couch, a vet and a ticket to Hawaii!’

... the old Word magazine gang and what they’re doing now.

Mentioned in despatches – the Atom Heart Mother cow, a duff Barry Gibb movie, the Mark Leeman Five and Balaam And the Angel.

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Denny Laine, the Move’s catastrophic court case & the man who's made 700 albums in 2 years Dec 10, 2023

This week’s wheat/chaff separation process sifts the following from the rock and roll cornfield …

… Tony Secunda, his gangsterish suits and the publicity stunt that backfired spectacularly.

… our old Word magazine pal Rob Fitzpatrick talking about the Japanese composer Michiru Aoyama who's released an album a day since December 2021, each 20 minutes 20 seconds long. And the role of streaming in the ambient music boom.

… the life of Denny Laine and the great “chamber pop” hit he wrote.

... why the Move’s Flowers In The Rain has never earned the band a cent.

… how the death of John Lennon was the dawn of the ‘black border’ magazine tribute.

… Willie Nelson’s way with a middle eight.

… the last men standing in the Band On The Run album shoot.

… is there anyone still on the road older than “the French Bob Dylan” Hugues Aufray (94) and Marshall Allen 0f the Sun Ra Arkestra (99)?

… and mentioned in dispatches - Harold Wilson, Frank Ifield, Ginger Baker’s Air Force, ‘Ronnie & Clyde’ and birthday guest Rob Collis and the best rock and roll movies.

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The Beatles as seen by their roadie, co-conspirator & friend Mal Evans – and Kenneth Womack Dec 05, 2023

Mal Evans was the Beatles’ right-hand man, their bouncer, bodyguard, gofer, chauffeur, drug-runner, roadie, fellow party animal, confidante and friend. Along with Neil Aspinall he was the man who allowed the band to function daily and catered to their every need. He was such a central cog in the machine that Ringo declared, “now Mal’s left, the Beatles are really over.” Mal’s son delivered his archive of photos, manuscripts and memorabilia to the author, lecturer and world-renowned Beatles authority Kenneth Womack and asked him to write his father’s memoir, and the result – ‘Living The Beatles Legend: On the Road with the Fab Four – the Mal Evans Story’ – has just been published. It sees the whole story through a completely different lens. Among the highlights in this illuminating conversation with Ken you’ll find …

... Mal’s delicate relationships with the band and role as a peace-keeper.

… further proof that Allen Klein “caused despair”.

… why Lennon said life on the road “was like Satyricon”.

… Mal’s brief tenure as Apple’s MD.

… how Cynthia Lennon unknowingly shopped him to his wife.

… the internal world of “the eight outsiders” (the Fabs, Brian, George M, Neil and Mal).

… the reunion with John and Paul at a Harry Nilsson session and the Jesse Ed Davis incident on the Lost Weekend.

… echoes of Mal in John Junkin’s character in A Hard Day’s Night.

… and the tragic and complex circumstances of his death at the hands of the police in 1976.

Order Ken’s book here:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/living-the-beatles-legend/kenneth-womack//9780008551216?awaid=3787&utm_source=redbrain&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=css&sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=176013&awc=3787_1701449123_6949508e18ba11ed742bd07b0529cc8e

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A drink to Shane MacGowan, Spinal Tap rebooted and lunch with Randy Newman Dec 04, 2023

Belfast author and old pal of the pod Stuart Bailie joins us to remember the lost captain of the good ship Pogues and we touch on Shane’s “feral” early life and the character he constructed to keep the world at bay; his place in the Irish literary pantheon, his intelligence worn lightly and Joycean use of language; the night they drank the proceeds from Fairytale Of New York; why the band’s St Patrick’s Day shows were three-day events and a magnet for lost Celtic souls, and how they became good by stealth but were so divisive in Ireland. This alongside other savoury and invigorating ingredients in this week’s rock and roll hot-pot, among them …

… David’s five most-played tracks on Spotify in 2023.

… real or imaginary Xmas singles? De La Soul’s Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa? Sonic Youth’s Santa Doesn’t Cop Out On Dope? Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Santa’s In The Clan? ….

… the life and exceptional times of John Mayall, 90, and the people who passed through his blues academy.

… why Spinal Tap might be best left alone.

…and the song Randy Newman wrote about missing his ex-wife plus a tremulous joint recitation of Simon Smith & the Amazing Dancing Bear.

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Pauline Murray’s kids have finally found out what Mum did in the Punk Wars Dec 03, 2023

Pauline Murray kept a diary when she and Penetration were on the punk rock frontline and her vivid and emotional memories appear in a new memoir, Life’s A Gamble, beautifully illustrated with personal photos, press cuttings, late ‘70s gig listings and other lovingly archived memorabilia. It teleports you back to a time when pop music made daily headlines and battles were lost and won in fragrant dancehalls and knackered vans on motorways. As does this podcast, recorded with an audience at London’s 21Soho club in late November. Aged 14 she was travelling to London from County Durham and sleeping in railway stations to see the Pistols and the Clash. She formed Penetration in ‘76 and for two hectic years they were caught up in the whirlwind. This account of it all includes Alan Freeman, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Jonathan Richman, Tim Curry (as Dr Frank-N-Furter), why the deaths of Sid and Nancy has such symbolic significance, the female punk ‘sisterhood’ giving her the cold shoulder, her unwise marriage, and the profit and loss statement of the debt she still owes Virgin (the annual reminders have never stopped). And she talks movingly about the experience every group endures when their first flush of mutual love and enthusiasm turns to bitter inter-personal fall-out. One of her kids was in the audience. As was Gaye Advert!

Order ‘Life’s A Gamble’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lifes-Gamble-Penetration-Invisible-Stories/dp/1913172708

21Soho: https://www.21-soho.com/

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Glen Matlock and the ‘Sliding Doors moment’ that sparked the punk rock fuse Dec 01, 2023

Glen Matlock came to our live podcast recording at London’s 21Soho at the end of November and lit up the audience with tales from his new memoir ‘Triggers’, stories of his early life in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, his brief and riotous shift in the Sex Pistols and his colourful adventures since. The full cast list includes Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, the DJ Mike Raven, Gary Glitter, John Peel, Kenneth Horne, Malcolm McLaren, Nick Kent, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, Midge Ure, Wally Nightingale, Blondie and Bill Grundy.

You get a real sense of the fabric of London around Ted Carroll’s record stall in Ladbroke Grove and around Denmark Street when the Pistols lived and rehearsed there. And look out for the night they played a Conservative Club to a crowd of six, the time McLaren begged him to return as “it wasn’t working out with Sid”, the Filthy Lucre reunion and his luminous account of Johnny Rotten’s audition backed by a jukebox playing Alice Cooper.

Glen Matlock came to our live podcast recording at London’s 21Soho at the end of November and lit up the audience with tales from his new memoir ‘Triggers’, stories of his early life in the late ‘50s and ‘60s, his brief and riotous shift in the Sex Pistols and his colourful adventures since. The full cast list includes Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, the DJ Mike Raven, Gary Glitter, John Peel, Kenneth Horne, Malcolm McLaren, Nick Kent, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, Midge Ure, Wally Nightingale, Blondie and Bill Grundy.

You get a real sense of the fabric of London around Ted Carroll’s record stall in Ladbroke Grove and around Denmark Street when the Pistols lived and rehearsed there. And look out for the night they played a Conservative Club to a crowd of six, the time McLaren begged him to return as “it wasn’t working out with Sid”, the Filthy Lucre reunion and his luminous account of Johnny Rotten’s audition backed by a jukebox playing Alice Cooper.

Recorded in front of a live audience at 21Soho, London, on November 27th 2023.

Glen’s tour dates are here: http://www.glenmatlock.co.uk/

And you can order ‘Triggers’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/triggers/glen-matlock/9781788709446

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Does anyone know more about rock stars than Jenny Boyd? Nov 29, 2023

You wonder why her life hasn’t been made into a movie. Jenny Boyd’s mother had so many children she didn’t realise her daughter had quit school and become a model. The world of London clubs and fashion magazines was the start of 60 years’ close observation of rock stars in every context leading, eventually, to the publication of ‘Icons of Rock’, her interviews with 65 musicians. Among the highlights in this pod she talks about...

… what life’s like when your sister marries a Beatle.

… the day a besotted Donovan played her the song he’d written about her (‘Jennifer Juniper’).

… how the 16 year-old Cheynes’ drummer Mick Fleetwood took one look at her and declared “that’s the girl I’m going to marry”.

… the Crazy Elephant and the Scotch of St James.

… watching the Beatles write songs in Rishikesh.

… her transition from being “a dollybird” to "a searcher".

… modelling in California and the Monterey Pop Festival.

… the characteristics songwriters have in common and the meaning of “the peak experience”.

… being the only mum in the Fleetwood Mac orbit, life at their Kiln House commune and why Mick was “the pot of glue” that held the band together.

… “talent is inherited but stamina often isn’t”.

… and memories of Peter Green, Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, Graham Nash and “Magic” Alex.

Order ‘Icons of Rock’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Icons-Rock-Fleetwood-Mitchell-Harrison/dp/1789466717/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1700664733&refinements=p_27%3AJenny+Boyd&s=books&sr=1-1

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Who’s next for an AI movie, first use of sampling & rock stars in unsuitable clothes Nov 27, 2023

We ran our metal detector over this week’s rugged rock and roll terrain and dug deep when it beeped. Among those prime locations …

… the secret of Top Gear’s golden age.

… is Bob Dylan a “cold weather concept”?

… why Holger Czukay’s ‘Movies’ is a pivotal record.

… Daryl Hall’s restraining order on John Oates: inter-band fall-out scales brave new heights.

… the ground-breaking ingredient in ‘He’s Gonna Step On You Again’ by John Kongos.

… why Joni Mitchell, Lee Perry and Pink Floyd were early pioneers of sampling.

… the night some loon climbed the scaffolding above the E Street Band.

… pre-McLaren theft of the Burundi Beat.

… the irksome mob rule of the internet: “all bands are now sacred and anyone who says different is a heretic”.

… when an album cover is a “lifestyle statement”.

… plus birthday guests Kevin Walsh and Simon Poulter and best of this year’s rock books.

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Kanye West & the billion dollar gym pumps plus the album sleeve that changed the game Nov 21, 2023

The week’s rock and roll luggage was put through the scanner by our sharp-eyed security chiefs and the following items kept back for scrutiny …

… 82 year-old jazzer in lucrative samples windfall!

… is there a more excruciating ‘mum’ moment than the 12 year-old Elijah Blue Allman’s in the Cher video If I Could Turn Back Time?

…. the staggering sum total of what the Beatles did on 30 July 1963.

… “Mailbox money”: how Phil Manzanera made more from a hip hop record than from 15 years of Roxy Music

… why would anyone be a pop star these days?

… further proof that in the world of the internet nothing is forgotten.

… why the quantity of cash Kanye West pulled from the “athleisure” shoe market makes the music business look like toytown. And are “vintage trainers” the new rare vinyl?

… when was the first sample?

… and Christmas with David’s Uncle Stan.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on November 27th: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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The 2-Tone story - Daniel Rachel remembers the school playground “turning black and white” Nov 18, 2023

As if by some magical alignment of the planets, the Specials, Madness and the Beat were all listening to the same music and developing the same look at precisely the same time, though completely unaware of each other. And when they started releasing records, the 10 year-old Daniel Rachel was transfixed. What happen next is recorded in his hectic and engrossing book, Too Much Too Young: the 2-Tone Records Story, the huge characters, the daily dramas, “the dance sensation that’s sweeping the nation”, a period whose white heat really only lasted 18 months but had a massive cultural impact at the time (indeed its crucible, Coventry, now has a 2-Tone Village!). And the movement’s main architect, Jerry Dammers, was a middle-class, ex-hippie art student raised in the church. All sorts of points come up in this engaging pod, among them …

… the pivotal meeting between Suggs and Dammers at the Hope & Anchor.

… the significance of Walt Jabsco and the 2-Tone merchandise – “when the rag trade gets hold of you, you’re made”.

… the crossover between violence at gigs and football matches in the late ‘70s and the right-wing factions that attached themselves to Madness.

… how the music press adored 2-Tone then brutally turned the tables.

… Rico, Saxa and the revolutionary twin-generational line-ups of the Specials and the Beat.

.… why the Bodysnatchers only lasted 11 months.

… why 2-Tone failed in America until the Dance Craze movie arrived.

… how each member of the Specials thought they were in a different band.

… why there were so many “2-Tone casualties”.

… and the brief window between punk and electronic pop that helped 2-Tone take off.

Order ‘Too Much Too Young: the 2-Tone Records’ story here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Too-Much-Young-Soundtrack-Generation/dp/1399607480

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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Why Kirsty MacColl was so funny, honest, original and impossible to sell – by Jude Rogers Nov 14, 2023

Jude Rogers – writer, broadcaster, old pal of the pod - first heard Kirsty MacColl when she was nine and felt a connection ever since. She’s just written the sleevenotes for ‘See That Girl’, the best, most diverse and exquisitely packaged compilation of her music ever assembled, an eight CD box-set of singles, rarities, unheard songs, live and Glastonbury appearances, demos, BBC sessions and collaborations, along with an entire unreleased album.

As Jude points out she wasn’t overlooked, but all the things you applauded about her made her very hard to market. She wouldn’t play the game. She refused to be fashionable. She was funny and honest and wrote about an unvarnished, real world which robbed her of a sense of mystery, and a lot of her songs were about fallibility and failure. Among the highlights here …

… a long-running lyric thread that began with There’s a Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis.

… why what she wrote about men (and women) was so original.

… her strained relationship with her father.

… what Johnny Marr admired about her and the power of her “Elysian chorus”.

... why you’ll never find another song like ‘Autumnsoupgirl’.

… how she and Dave Robinson’s hairdresser launched Tracey Ullman’s career.

… and David Hepworth’s inspired idea for ‘In These Shoes?’, the West End Kirsty MacColl musical.

Order the 8CD box set ‘See That Girl’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/See-That-Girl-1979-2000-8CD/dp/B0C9GCDZST

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho in London on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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Mystery people on album sleeves, Elton dressed as a hornet and Leonard Cohen’s favourite song and why Nov 13, 2023

This week’s winning hand from the rock and roll card deck includes …

… a silver salute to musicians who don’t dye their hair.

… did Al Pacino play Phil Spector? Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt? Was Gary Oldman Joe Strummer?

… rock stars you’d swap lives with.

… the “theme-park-ification” of pop music.

… the mysteries of rock and roll are slowly evaporating. As Tom Waits said: “before the internet, we used to wonder. I miss the wondering.”

… the immortality of the Florida salesman who appears on the cover of Abbey Road (and had obituaries when he died).

… why Leonard Cohen thought his romance with Joni Mitchell was “like living with Beethoven”.

… how a split-second made and destroyed the lives of two photographers covering Lee Harvey Oswald at the Dallas Police Headquarters.

… musicians who look even better older.

… how Pink Floyd helped kick-start rock’s love affair with football.

… the unenviable world of Robbie Williams.

...and is Abba the only act that works as holograms?

Plus Led Zeppelin’s Victorian Wiltshire thatcher and birthday guests Mike Sketch and Peter Petyt.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho in London on November 27th: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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Slade, a rambunctious reminder of a vanished world by Daryl Easlea Nov 09, 2023

Slade were as revolutionary as T. Rex or Roxy Music, Daryl Easlea points out. At one stage they were outselling Bowie and Bolan. They were the band that hauled the sedentary early ‘70s audience to its feet. The sound of the Ramones was built around ‘Slade Alive!’ and you can feel them in the bones of the Pistols and Oasis. We talk here to Daryl about his funny, energetic, nostalgic and affectionate new book, ‘Whatever Happened to Slade?: When The Whole World Went Crazee’, stopping off at various stations on the route, among them …

… why there are “two tiers of Slade”.

… the drunken conversation that turned them into a skinhead band overnight.

… a key moment involving Crispian St Peters, Kim Fowley and the Tiles Club.

… what made them football terrace heroes.

… how these “smashers and grabbers” tore up the live circuit.

… the very ‘70s way they dealt with Don Powell’s accident.

… why American audiences had their “mellow harshed”.

… the publican’s son who styled them.

… the transformational moment at the '72 Lincoln Festival.

… the story of the ‘Give Us A Goal’ video filmed at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground.

… and why the main salesman in their line-up was the one “with tinsel in his veins”.

Slade were as revolutionary as T. Rex or Roxy Music, Daryl Easlea points out. At one stage they were outselling Bowie and Bolan. They were the band that hauled the sedentary early ‘70s audience to its feet. The sound of the Ramones was built around ‘Slade Alive!’ and you can feel them in the bones of the Pistols and Oasis. We talk here to Daryl about his funny, energetic, nostalgic and affectionate new book, ‘Whatever Happened to Slade?: When The Whole World Went Crazee’, stopping off at various stations on the route, among them …

… why there are “two tiers of Slade”.

… the drunken conversation that turned them into a skinhead band overnight.

… a key moment involving Crispian St Peters, Kim Fowley and the Tiles Club.

… what made them football terrace heroes.

… how these “smashers and grabbers” tore up the live circuit.

… the very ‘70s way they dealt with Don Powell’s accident.

… why American audiences had their “mellow harshed”.

… the publican’s son who styled them.

… the transformational moment at the '72 Lincoln Festival.

… the story of the ‘Give Us A Goal’ video filmed at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground.

… and why the main salesman in their line-up was the one “with tinsel in his veins”.

Order Daryl’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whatever-Happened-Slade-Whole-Crazee/dp/1783055545

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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The KLF torched £1m "and are haunted by it daily". John Higgs knows why Nov 07, 2023

John Higgs' brilliant and wide-ranging book 'The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds' came out ten years ago and just keeps on selling. It sold initially to the fans who bought their records. Then to those absorbed by the fringe figures in their mythology - Ken Campbell, Alan Moore, Robert Anton Wilson, the Discordians. And then to people who just wanted a staggering and barely believable story about the attacks by two free-wheeling cultural terrorists on the worlds of art and music at the end of the 20th century. It sold so well in fact that it's just been republished in a 10th Anniversary edition with additional material.

John Higgs is an exceptional speaker as this pod demonstrates and talks here about the outer reaches of their extravagantly lunatic strategies - the ABBA court case, the dead sheep, the pagan rituals on Jura, the collaboration with Tammy Wynette - and how many backfired on them and why Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty have barely seen each other in almost 30 years. This podcast was recorded in front of an enthralled audience at 21Soho in London on October 30th 2023.

Order the 10th anniversary edition here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/KLF-Chaos-Burned-Million-Pounds/dp/139961035X

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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What did we think of the Beatles' last hurrah? Nov 05, 2023

"The Beatles gave us a continuing soundtrack of unparalleled charm and reassurance", Derek Taylor said. "As long as they kept on delivering fresh songs along with the morning milk, everything was right in our optimistic world". It happened again on Thursday. Is the old magic still there?

Also on the menu in this week's podcast...

... Fact or fiction? The extravagant adventures of Bill Drummond and why burning £1m still haunts the KLF.

... does it matter if musicians falsify their past? Paging Buffy St. Marie, Sixto Rodriguez, Seasick Steve...

... why calling the Beatles "the original boy band" is so ridiculous and wrong and how their story fires our desire to believe.

... how Lucinda Williams beat the autocue system.

... Crowded House, the strange tale of 'Woodface' and the track that kept them off American radio for two years.

... why Peter Jackson's 'Now And Then' video is like "fan fiction".

... Giles Martin's theories about producing music the way people remember it sounding (and why he was sacked by Martin Scorsese and then re-hired a few weeks later).

... and - in other piping hot news - the man behind 'Manuel and His Music of the Mountains' and the tax problems of the Singing Nun!

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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For Ian Broudie & the Lightning Seeds, 'Three Lions' has been a blessing and a curse Nov 03, 2023

There are broadly three Ian Broudies in the public imagination. One is the songwriter with a catalogue of softly psychedelic left-field pop tunes. The second is the record producer behind Echo & the Bunnymen, the Fall, the Coral and Terry Hall. The third is the co-composer of our new national anthem. He talks here about early life in Liverpool and the records that enthralled him (See Emily Play, Autobahn), what he learned from his mentor Roger Eagle (who ran Eric's Club), a life-shifting moment with Steve Wright, what matters most in production, the disastrous time he introduced the Spice Girls on Top of the Pops and why the FA rejected the original version of Three Lions, wanted a new title and asked him to drop Skinner and Baddiel. He's funny, outspoken, candid, modest and affectionate and movingly philosophical on the rigours of composition: "as soon as you finish a song it becomes something - but it loses 90% of what it could have become".

This podcast was recorded in front of a live audience at 21Soho in London on October 30th, 2023 and Ian's new memoir is just out - 'Tomorrow's Here Today: Lightning Seeds, Football and Post-Punk'.

Order Ian's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tomorrows-Here-Today-Lightning-Post-Punk/dp/1788709020

21Soho: https://www.21-soho.com/

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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Billy Sloan, the man who interviewed Grace Jones in a bath Nov 02, 2023

Billy Sloan, Glaswegian broadcaster and music columnist, has written his memoir, ‘One Love, One Life’, about a career that’s allowed him to point his microphone at an astonishing array of musicians and started back in the old analogue world of tight-deadline newspaper journalism where you hammered out your Chuck Berry interview as the rolls of film were biked back to the office to be processed. This covers a lot of ground including …

… the moment that changed his life.

… why the London Press Corps were “a pack of hyenas”.

… Rod Stewart v Michelle Mone – a classic revenge saga that ticked every box.

… interviewing a naked Grace Jones (and how Dame Edna got involved).

… the exquisitely “horrible” Chuck Berry.

… queuing all night for 85p Who tickets, aged 15.

… the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, “boo-ed onstage, roared off”.

… a trip to the Reeperbahn via Rory Gallagher.

… life at the Sunday Mail and the Daily Record.

… the great Scottish rock boom of the early ‘80s “when if you had a floppy fringe and desert boots you’d expect to be flagged down by an A&R man with a chequebook”.

… and the star that made him feel and “you’re only one duff question away from getting a right hook”.

Order Billy’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Love-Life-Stories-Stars/dp/178530481X

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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The greatest guitarist & the strange tale of Mike Raven - plus a leaked Radio One memo! Oct 30, 2023

We spin the reels of the rock and roll fruit machine this week and get the following pay-outs …

… the preposterous present they gave Bobby Charlton when he retired.

... “the leaning man from Alabam”.

… ‘Skinny Minnie Shimmy’ by Lattie Moore And The Emperors and other apparently fictitious rock and roll hits.

… a Radio One DJ who was also an actor, erotic sculptor, travel writer, sheep farmer, flamenco guitarist and ballet dancer. Why has no-one made a film of the life of Mike Raven?

… why Born To Run was “a quantum leap”, the record where Springsteen wanted “to sing like Roy Orbison and write like Bob Dylan on an album that sounded like it was produced by Phil Spector”.

… a leaked 1982 Radio One memo of ground rules for DJs! “Don’t resort to ‘common talk’ in a pathetic attempt at humour.” “You can say Cornflakes but not Shredded Wheat …”

… how rock is adopting the Gilbert & Sullivan business model.

… Richard Thompson, Steve Cropper, John Fahey, Hubert Sumlin … : who’s the greatest guitarist of all time?

… the story-spinning genius of John Prine.

… the afterlife of the Love Affair.

… Ernest ‘Boom’ Carter’s brief but marvellous moment of glory.

… and birthday guest Giles Fraser wonders at what point a band shouldn’t use their original name.

Rolling Stone’s top 250 guitarists …

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-guitarists-1234814010/nile-rodgers-5-1234814197/

The amazing story of Mike Raven …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Raven

Everybody’s in the Mood by Howlin’ Wolf …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV0gDlzEnYU

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Pin-Ups’ 50th, Morrissey The Eternal Teenager and what the Stones should be writing songs about Oct 23, 2023

Toothsome hors d’ouvres, mains and ‘items from the trolley’ on the rock and roll menu this week include …

… Bowie’s Pin-Ups v Ferry’s These Foolish Things: who won?

… the worst band name in history and why.

… the fan who hired a plane to fly a message past Morrissey’s record label.

… the Stones’ Hackney Diamonds: best album since Black And Blue or tedious riff-less dirge?

… why only solo acts can tell stories onstage.

… why the Dutch love the Byrds.

… things we never imagined 50 years ago.

… Spanky McFarlane, Gloria Salt … country music siren or twinkle-eyed PG Wodehouse dame?

… the two main topics the Stones write songs about.

… how modern fandom is expressed.

… who ever thought they’d hear Dylan say the word ‘Wikipedia’ onstage?

… and has anyone got a copy of ‘Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamtown’ on Mick Hucknall’s Blood And Fire label? And who remembers the ‘Hard-Up Heroes’ album?

Plus cycling with an umbrella, Barbra Streisand’s autocue and birthday guest Cathal Chu on the best and worst onstage banter.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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The “gangsterish” charm of Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate Records, by Simon Spence Oct 21, 2023

The godfather of British independent labels, Immediate, was started in 1965 by the Stones’ manager Andrew Oldham and Tony Calder, its winning slogan: “happy to be part of the industry of human happiness”. As Simon Spence correctly puts it, “it all got very messy”. Oldham tended to fall out with people and then threaten to kill them. Simon’s excellent book, ‘Immediate: the Rise And Fall of the UK’s First Independent Record Label’ has the details (he also co-authored Oldham’s two memoirs, ‘Stoned’ and ‘2Stoned’). Immediate has been a touchstone ever since and their roster included the Small Faces, PP Arnold, the Nice, the Who, Fleetwood Mac, Twinkle, Scott Walker and various others discussed here. Also includes …

… “no Andrew Oldham, no Rolling Stones.”

… the part played by Tony Hancock’s doctor.

… “if you didn’t want to be ripped off, why are you in the music business?”

… the range of Immediate’s catalogue from Nico and Rod Stewart to the Turtles and Jimmy Tarbuck.

… an advert for the Nice involving three assassinated politicians.

… the time Oldham left his hairdresser in charge of A&R.

… Don Arden, the Small Faces and £25,000 in a paper bag.

… a secretly recorded blues album and why Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page fell out.

… why Oldham wanted to poison the Nice and murder Amen Corner.

… invaluable advice from Phil Spector.

… and why Immediate finally fell apart.

Order Simon’s book here …

https://www.backstage-books.co.uk/

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on Oct 30th: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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Denmark Street, London's Tin Pan Alley, where the Sex Pistols met Pink Floyd and a luverly bunch of coconuts, by Peter Watts Oct 19, 2023

As it emerges from the upheaval of Cross Rail, music historian Peter Watts looks at this densely-packed thoroughfare between Charing Cross Road and Covent Garden, which started off selling sheet music, grew into the place where many writers sold their tunes for a few quid while a wise minority hung on and made fortunes, a street that continues to provide a home for music businesses to this day. Includes....

...the Victorian "rookeries" of St Giles

...how a coal mining accident made the street's first big hit

...the true meaning of the Old Grey Whistle Test

...when every office boy played the piano

...how the Beatles changed music publishing

...how the Rolling Stones made their first (and best ?) album

...how the Sex Pistols and the Stones made their first music yards from each other

...what exactly are they doing with Denmark Street today?

Buy Denmark Street - London's Street Of Sound here: https://www.paradiseroad.co.uk/denmark-street-londons-street-of-sound

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on Oct 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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Madonna’s karaoke show, albums that sound their covers and whatever happened to protest music? Oct 17, 2023

Spicy and nutritious items in the rock and roll bouillabaisse this week include …

… Roger Waters at the Palladium: a masterclass in how to insult an audience.

… “without Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones would have been Manfred Mann.”

… the only rock star who can tell a story onstage.

… Nempnett Thrubwell, Hinton Blewett, Glaister Fagan … Leafy Somerset hamlet or venerable reggae dubmeister?

… the money Dave Grohl made from Nirvana (and it’s less than you’d imagine).

… why Barry McGuire’s Eve Of Destruction was so terrifying.

… please, someone, stage an exhibition of original paintings used on album sleeves!

… the rise and rise of the rock spectacle.

… Hogg, Fat Grapple, Makin’ Bacon? Real or fictitious pork-related acts from the Melody Maker Club Calendar 1971.

… has social media taken the place of protest music? Why has no-one made a statement the Israel/Hamas war?

… more smoking-themed album covers.

… what, in her darkest hour, Madonna must think about Taylor Swift’s movie triumph.

… and In The Court of the Crimson King and other albums that sound like their covers.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on November 27th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ZOthfatjxi

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Jarvis v Jacko and why drummers are like goalkeepers. Let Pulp’s Nick Banks be your guide Oct 12, 2023

Nick Banks - nephew of the great Gordon Banks – saw a note pinned by his favourite band to a wall in 1986, his Sliding Doors moment: ‘Pulp Want Drummer. Call Russell or Jarvis’. What happened next he records in his memoir ‘It Started There: From Punk To Pulp’. We talk to him about life in Sheffield in the ‘70s and ‘80 and why it took 15 long years for Pulp to crack it. Among the highlights …

… why punk rock was like “Harry Potter’s Sorting Hat”.

… what drummers bring to groups.

… Pulp’s stage act in 1982 – “trombones, backing singers, orange paper fish”.

… being denied a Number One by Robson & Jerome.

… the band’s response to Jarvis Cocker’s brave new direction – “Barry White meets the Pet Shop Boys”.

… what happened at the BRITS and who’s to blame.

… real life in what promised to be “the gilded palace of stardom with limousines and dancing girls”.

… the moment that caused “the raised eyebrows of disdain” in the Pulp story.

… and his first sighting of “that mesmerising, bespectacled, lanky streak of piss”.

Order Nick’s memoir here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Started-There-Punk-Pulp/dp/1915841100

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Smoking on album sleeves, Smash Hits The Musical and records you own but have never played Oct 09, 2023

Engaging blips on the rock and roll radar this week include:-

… Iron Maiden album title or novel by Jeffrey Archer?

… selling Ringo’s ashtray.

… the Blood Doner: the Hancock script that keeps on giving.

… “Terrible album title. Terrible album cover, too.” The start of Rolling Stone’s review of which immortal record?

… how come acting runs in families but writing and music don’t?

… Smash Hits: the Musical - you heard it here first. And why the Live Aid musical will work.

… A Salty Dog, Shades, Smokin’ OP’s – album sleeves based on fag packets.

… the curious tale of the Equinox and the imposters on their album cover.

… which pop stars are in the Barbie doll range?

… why smoking is part of the DNA of rock and roll. And who smoked what? Bob Hope (Chesterfield), Lennon (Woodbines), Bowie (Gauloises) …

… the significance of Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods of Atlanta, Georgia.

… and musicians who outsold their famous parents.

Plus birthday guests: Matthew Elliott on records you own but have never played, and Phil Turner “the Elton John album so bad it put me off him for 20 years.”

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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Echo & the Bunnymen, why the rock press were “divs” and the secret of good hair by Will Sergeant Oct 08, 2023

Will Sergeant’s just put out the second volume of his memoirs, both of them Sunday Times best-sellers, Echoes and the first edition, Bunnyman. Here he revisits the Liverpool of the ‘60s and ‘70s in extraordinary detail - the clothes, the records, the gangs, the school days, the early shows he saw - and the many reasons he wanted to form a band. On the agenda …

… ‘rockist’ cliches the Bunnymen detested.

… why America loved early ‘80s British groups.

… the powerful appeal of Jethro Tull, Status Quo, Slade, Roxy Music, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and rock and roll theatre.

… clothes bought from NME small ads in the ‘70s.

… absurd rivalries with Simple Minds and the Jesus & Mary Chain.

… fond memories of David Thomas of Pere Ubu smashing a pig iron spike with a lump hammer.

… the ‘Porcupine’ cover shoot in Iceland.

… the charisma of the teenage Mac McCulloch.

… bands that borrowed from the Bunnymen.

… why the Ramones were “Status Quo with drainpipes”.

… and the magic ingredient that held Mac’s hair aloft.

Order Bunnyman here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bunnyman-Memoir-Sunday-Times-bestseller/dp/1472135032

And Echoes here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Echoes-memoir-continued/dp/1408719304

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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An Insider’s Guide To Goth by Cathi Unsworth (via Cruella De Vil and the Cure) Oct 04, 2023

Crime novelist Cathi Unsworth turned Goth in her teens in rural Norfolk fired by a cocktail of Dennis Wheatley, the Damned on the Peel show and the dark arts of the York Festival “Gothtopia” bill in 1984. She devoted long hours to trying to construct Robert Smith’s “tarantula hair” and acquiring black lace garmentry. Something about its music and folklore chimed with a life marooned in the middle of an East Anglian beanfield pondering tales of Shuck, the fabled fire-eyed ghostly hound alleged to roam the neighbourhood at night. We talked to her about her marvellous ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ for a live podcast recorded at London’s 21Soho on 25 September, a very funny and wide-ranging exchange that included …

… why Goth is like no other tribe: you never make a full recovery – or ever want to.

… the part played in its family tree by Aleister Crowley, Aubrey Beardsley, the Brontes, Joy Division, Magazine, the Cramps, Jim Morrison and Bobby Gentry.

… why Leeds became one of Goth’s key spiritual centres.

… the shocking spectacle of Dave Vanian in full Stygian rig in broad daylight.

… “the three Goth Ians” - Astbury, Curtis, McCulloch.

… the significance of Cabaret and A Clockwork Orange.

... why Goths feel obliged to dress the part.

… the romantic allure of Robert Smith against that of Nick Cave.

… the curious link between Siouxsie and Margaret Thatcher.

… and how Goth keeps finding new recruits.

Order ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Season-Witch-Book-Cathi-Unsworth/dp/1788706242

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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Nick Drake – a whole new perspective by Richard Morton Jack Oct 03, 2023

Richard Morton Jack interviewed over 200 people when assembling what’s unquestionably the best, most colourful, comprehensive, revealing and accurate portrait of Nick Drake ever published. We talked to him about ‘Nick Drake: The Life’ at a live podcast recording at 21Soho on September 25 and explored various remote corners of this sad, surprising and eternally gripping story, among them ….

… the fate of the tape of the 20-year old Drake playing for the Stones in Morocco in 1969.

… what the press and public made of Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layer and Pink Moon when released and Joe Boyd’s reaction to their eventual success.

… the early school days of the head boy who won a cup for “General Efficiency”.

… his obsession with Francoise Hardy and the disastrous day he met her.

… the peaks and troughs of his live performances including the time he played an event for a Birmingham rugby team supporting Genesis (required to play the Hokey-Cokey).

… Kirstie Clegg, his on-off girlfriend from 1969.

… Drake’s uncelebrated fondness for TV sitcoms and Benny Hill.

… Peter Paul And Mary and other unlikely staples of his early repertoire.

… and the events that helped re-boot his legacy.

Order Richard’s highly recommended book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Drake-Richard-Morton-Jack/dp/1529308089

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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Gary Numan, unlikely sex symbols and U2’s £1,000 night in the desert Oct 02, 2023

Spice-filled items tossed into the conversational cooking-pot this week include:-

… our charming encounter with Gary Numan, possibly the world’s most contented man.

… the next step in the age of spectacle: the sensory bombardment of U2’s shows at the Las Vegas Sphere and the crippling cost of experiencing it.

… Taylor Swift’s genius for publicity and the subtle art of connecting with “Joe Six-Pack”.

… the shockingly unwise and unfathomable pronouncements of Roger Waters and how his fall-out with David Gilmour makes Lennon’s ‘How Do You Sleep?’ seem like a love letter.

… pop stars and their hair transplants.

… what do bands think of their tribute acts?

.. the ‘Austin Powers’ albums of David McCallum, a star so huge he needed a police motorcade.

… Hugh Laurie, James Gandolfini, Carrie Fisher, Colin Firth, Felicity Kendal and others whose TV roles made them sex symbols.

… and do rock stars really change people’s political views?

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho on October 30th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/ysY3FvyFae

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Does Gary Numan regret throwing the glo-stick that hit David Bowie? Oct 01, 2023

Gary Numan is about to set out on a UK acoustic tour, some of it in churches and one date in a cathedral. He talks here - from the Scottish estate house he’s just bought – about some of the first shows he saw and what he’s learnt about live performance. This includes ...

… the peculiar effect of seeing Nazareth at the Rainbow in 1973.

… the fate of the £5 note he’d asked Queen to autograph.

… why he doesn’t talk onstage, and why that’s about to change.

… what musicians take for granted.

… the church that insisted on his lyrics before they let him perform there.

… what happened when he dodged the security for Bowie at Wembley Arena.

.. what’s involved in creating a “relentless” live act.

… a fondness for the Monkees and Marc Bolan and the secret of his 1981 Bogart hat.

Gary Numan’s tour dates here ..

https://garynuman.com/tours/

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Why a sumptuous new book about the Island label is “like entering the record shop of your dreams”. Sep 27, 2023

Neil Storey is an old pal from our magazine days who worked in the press office at Island. He looked after U2, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, the B-52’s and many others. About 15 years ago he began the mammoth task of compiling a series of books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history, tracking down and talking to all those involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. The book’s almost a foot square so LP sleeves can be reproduced ‘actual size’. The first volume is just out, The Island Book Of Records 1959-1968, a thing of very great beauty. As David says, “it’s like entering the record shop of your dreams.” We talked to Neil at his home in France about this and much else besides …

… Chris Blackwell’s involvement in the making of Dr No and the single Jamaican beach shot that told them they had a hit movie.

… the album they released that no-one involved could remember.

… Shotgun Wedding by Roy ‘C’, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, Lance Hayward, Millie Small’s ‘My Boy Lollipop’ …

… the letter Blackwell sent to the workshy Spooky Tooth with threats of wage deductions.

… the lucrative ascent of Jethro Tull.

… the little-known compilations of Rugby songs, ‘Bawdy British Ballads’ and risqué adult comedy that “saved the label’s bacon” in the mid-‘60s.

… the time Neil stumbled across Traffic’s fabled Aston Tirrold cottage on a school camping trip.

… the highly collectable “Birth of Ska’ album that was never released.

… one immortal week at the Marquee Club.

… and why Island were banned for Olympic Studios.

Order the Island Book of Records Vol 1 here …

https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/product/neil-storey/the-island-book-of-records-volume-i-1959-68?channable=409d926964003230353632383608&gclid=Cj0KCQjw06-oBhC6ARIsAGuzdw1pbKtxLGkjgkiJfcAll84H65dVQ1r_h7obky-QWlVtpr21UgiQP54aAk1BEALw_wcB#hardback-signed-plus

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Mojo’s 30th birthday plus bands whose t-shirts you’d wear even if you didn’t have any of their records Sep 25, 2023

Both of us were involved in the launch of Mojo 30 years ago in the autumn of 1993 and we dug out our copies of the first issue. As editor Paul Du Noyer said on page 3, it was “our confirmed intention to pitch a wang-dang-doodle – all night long, if necessary.” The cover story was about a sequence from Eat The Document, the film by DA Pennebaker of Bob Dylan’s ’66 tour that was never released and could only be seen on bootleg VHS cassettes. And this bit was so rare and controversial it had even been deleted from most of the bootlegs - none more niche! – and featured Dylan and John Lennon’s stoned ramblings in a black cab after Bob had played the Albert Hall in May ‘66. The piece by Richard Williams also focused on 10 days in the life of Dylan and the Beatles at the time, the kind of specific, deep-end trawl that helped start a whole new wing of rock book publishing. You can see the seeds of the emerging ‘heritage rock’ in that first edition too. Mojo have a wonderful 30th anniversary issue out now, by the way.

Further logs on this week’s conversational fire include …

.. why people buy ‘vinyls’ when they don’t own a record player.

… David’s story about the HMV security guard who built a shrine to James Last.

… the brilliant – and fiercely competitive - mixtapes made and played in music magazines offices.

... the dreadful allegations about Russell Brand and the media rush to cut ties with him.

… the band t-shirt favoured by well-heeled businessmen to signify they were once a ‘wild card’.

… the Clones Roses, A Band Called Malice … the Dutiful South?

… mentioned in despatches: Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys.

… and birthday guest Steve Way on the avenues of discovery encouraged by his love of Paul Weller (including the ruinous pursuit of being a Blue Note completist).

Ps Dizzying pop facts: go back 30 years from the launch of Mojo and it’s ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. There are copies of that first issue on eBay for £44.99 amazingly.

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The “unknown woman” in McCartney’s photos, the Human League and a new U2 game Sep 18, 2023

This week’s pod was recorded just after we saw ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ at London’s National Portrait Gallery, a warm and winning show that starts with him as a wide-eyed fan trying to take pictures of his heroes and soon switches to his shots of the whole world trying to photograph him. We talk about his pictures of French jazzers, Paris boulevards, backstage rooms at TV shows, models, paparazzi, light entertainment stars, screaming fans, American police guns, Miami beaches, billboards, views from plane windows, hotel rooms, cocktails and a New York theatre showing “Christine Keeler Goes Nudist plus Playgirls”. And wonder how it feels to discover 60 years later you had your photo taken by a Beatle.

PLUS …

… the top-flight rock and roll star we passed in Soho.

… the record David tries every year to force himself to like.

… the wonderful Geoff Davies of Probe Records, the much-loved Liverpool figurehead who signed the Farm and Half Man Half Biscuit.

… bands who’ve had the most members.

… ‘Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times”. What’s not to love about the Human League’s Dare?

… the new U2 parlour game.

… why CDs sales are on the up.

… and what the police would know about you if they found your phone.

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

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Pulitzer Prize winner David Remnick takes the long view of Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Macca and more Sep 17, 2023

David Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of music’s legends during their final acts, some of which is gathered in “Holding The Note”, a collection of his writings on music. From his ill-lit Manhattan eyrie he talks to David Hepworth of many matters, including:

….what was in the handbag which remained on the piano during Aretha Franklin shows

….what it was like being on the receiving end of an almighty dressing-down from the elderly Leonard Cohen

….how Bruce Springsteen learned nothing at school but has picked up a great deal since

….how Bob Dylan reckons he’s in a “post-interview” phase of life - or is he?

….how his father took him to see Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and he has taken his own kids to see Radiohead

….how Keith Richards found a ghost writer who could throw his voice

….what was really the last good Stones album.

…why you should never try to get rock stars to like you.

Pre-order Holding The Note here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-remnick/holding-the-note/9781035023974

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The Stones return, rock’n’roll marriages and Freddie’s 50 kimonos Sep 12, 2023

Recorded together in Mark Ellen’s attic! Among the conversational footballs booted round the park this week you’ll find:-

… Freddie’s “exquisite clutter”: would YOU buy one of his bonzai plant-holders, his catsuit with ballet shoes and a $0.5m silver bangle?

… when did the story change from “the Stones are old, knackered and ought to give up!” to “the Stones are old, brilliant and should carry on forever!”?

... do all enduring legacies need an element of tragedy?

… who calls the Ezra Collective “a jazz band”?

… who’s been married the longest … Bono, Alice Cooper or Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits?

… 1984 was the annus mirabilis of the album? Birthday guest Matthew North has the records to prove it.

… the perils of celebrities chairing press conferences (QED Jimmy Fallon).

... how they’ve only gone and wrecked the Rugby World Cup anthems.

… and useful phrases to deploy when you didn’t much care for your mate’s band but don’t want to hurt their feelings – eg You’ve done it again! Only YOU could have put in a show like that! You took it to a whole new level!

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Plaid shirts? Brown ale? A smoke-stained pub rock special with Simon Matthews Sep 06, 2023

Fired by the rock and roll revival of 1970 and a post-Easy Rider taste for American music, a circuit of some 35 London pubs filled with bands playing fizzing, small-scale shows that never sounded quite the same on record, bands whose moment in the sun was ultimately wrecked by the arrival of punk rock. This pod – and Simon’s book ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ – raises a dimple jug to some of its forgotten heroes including Meal Ticket, Roogalator, Ducks Deluxe, the Winkies and the Kursaal Flyers. Be honest, when did YOU last hear mention of the Count Bishops or GT Moore & the Reggae Guitars? So what was it about Southend? How did Eggs Over Easy play such a pivotal role in it all? And Creedence Clearwater Revival? And Dave Edmunds? Why was this the perfect launchpad for Ian Dury? And what was the final nail in the pub rock coffin?

Order ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Went-Rotten-Londons-1972-1976/dp/0857305743/ref=sr_1_11?qid=1693561624&refinements=p_27%3ASimon+Matthews&s=books&sr=1-11

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What Kevin Armstrong learnt as the sideman for Bowie, McCartney, Morrissey, Sinead and Iggy Pop Sep 05, 2023

Kevin Armstrong was the guitarist in the band David Bowie asked him to assemble for Live Aid and toured and recorded with him many times. Playing the guitar intro to Rebel Rebel in a stadium, he says, is “like lighting a match”. Start the Passenger with Iggy Pop and you’re greeted with “a great mass of love”. His memoir, Absolute Beginner, is “a window onto the high table of rock and roll” and full of insights into life in studios and on the road and the fathomless levels of diplomacy often required to collaborate. This entertaining pod expands upon …

… why he turned down the offer to join the Smiths.

… how Jim Osterberg transforms himself into Iggy Pop.

… the Sinead O’Connor’s tour manager’s trick to speed the band through security.

… the song Bowie dropped from the Live Aid set.

… why Michael Hutchence is “terrified of small crowds”.

… Bowie’s ex-Navy Seal minder and the old decoys-under-blankets ruse.

… why Morrissey is “thin-skinned”.

… and the eternal curse of “Imposter Syndrome”.

Order ‘Absolute Beginner’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Beginner-Memoirs-least-known-guitarist/dp/1911036173

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Which acts will “go down in history” and what matters more than their music? Sep 03, 2023

We dipped the shrimping net of curiosity in the rock and roll rockpool this week and transferred the following items to the podcast bucket …

… who now regrets being the “little tyrant” that broke up their band 30 years ago?

… who was the real Bungalow Bill and how did the song about him change his life?

… Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman are almost forgotten. Are the Doors and the Kinks heading the same way?

… the unique and extraordinary Bill Wyman, “more a witness to the Rolling Stones than a member”, plus Nellcôte and the Birds’ Custard.

… is the ice finally melting in the Talking Heads camp?

… an everyday tale of Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash” on the mean streets of North London’s garden suburbs.

… was Lennon v the Maharishi an early example of “career cancelling”?

… is Life During Wartime from Stop Making Sense the greatest live performance ever filmed?

… the curse of the Budokan.

… and birthday guests Avi Chaudhuri and Jelltex (who strongly recommends The Mood Elevator's second album, Married Alive).

Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK

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Bob Dylan - why he signs autographs left-handed and other mysteries solved by Ray Padgett Sep 02, 2023

Ray Padgett lives in Vermont, first discovered Dylan when he was 16 in the 21st Century and was fascinated and besotted, later launching the newsletter ‘Flagging Down the Double E’s’ and now publishing the enthralling ‘Pledging My Time’, a collection of his interviews with over 40 people who’ve worked, performed and recorded with the inscrutable old rogue. Both the book and this fast-moving, whip-smart and very funny conversation are revelatory and highly recommended, the podcast shedding light on …

… the daily life of Bob Dylan – eg the piles of gifts he routinely receives and the security men who scour his vacated hotel rooms to remove anything that could be nicked and put on eBay.

… the only friend who seemed to co-exist with him on “an equal footing”.

... an eye-witness account of his first performance (aged 13) at a Jewish summer camp in Minnesota.

… the childhood friend who owned a fish business in Duluth and ended up running the Rolling Thunder Revue - as Dylan enigmatically put it, “if you can sell fish, you can sell tickets”.

... the time he went to a business conference and nobody recognised him.

… how he tells musicians to “never play the same thing twice”.

… the chance meeting with Scarlet Rivera – two hours later she was onstage as “my violinist” with Dylan and Muddy Waters.

… multiple examples of his love of spontaneity and the extraordinary way he hires musicians.

… a rare moment when his career seemed to stall.

… and honourable mentions of Richard Thompson, Paul Stookey, Jim Keltner, Stan Lynch and Jeff Bridges.

Pledging My Time …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pledging-My-Time-Conversations-Members/dp/B0C6VRBZQC

Flagging Down the Double E’s newsletter …

https://dylanlive.substack.com/about

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https://www.covermesongs.com/about-ray-padgett

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Achtung Baby, rock fantasy friends and the band that inspired the Bad News Tour Aug 29, 2023

Its tyres pumped, its engine tuned, its air-con still on the blink, the rock and roll charabanc trundles off on its circuit which, this week, makes the following stops …

… the singer who sold vials of her tears as part of a merchandise range.

… when Billy Bragg entered a Paul Simon lyric in his school poetry contest and only got 7 out of 10.

… why our favourite music still tends to be the stuff we heard in our teens.

… how Bill Graham’s “Electric Ballroom Experience” changed the landscape – “we were out there with no compass”.

… former Kursaal Flyers drummer Will Birch re-watches their ’76 TV film documentary: “There are only two good things about Scotland - the whisky and the road out of there.” “Five autographs? Wasn’t like this at the Carnegie Hall!”

… “creamy mousse with ripe stone fruits, bright citrus and a biscuity length”: home-brewing with Alex James.

… and how Wreckless Eric’s made a living for 46 years out of just one song.

That Bill Graham interview …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVeuDS0n3XI

Melvyn Bragg introduces the Kursaal Flyers on the BBC’s 2nd House in 1976 …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQKNeWlQzdI&t=11s

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Robbie Robertson, Billy Connolly, Bridge Over Troubled Water and the “fake history” of Punk Aug 21, 2023

Even podcasts take “annual leave” but we’re back and once again propelling the two-man Pedalo of Enquiry down the rock and roll seafront stopping off at sundry wave-rippled spots, among them …

… what Chuck Berry said about the Clash.

… a band whose keyboard player is the King’s second cousin.

… the song Art Garfunkel sang for years without realising it was about him.

… Billy Connolly’s bicycle gag and other things you couldn’t get away with now.

… Ian Hunter remembering “that little bloke from Beckenham”.

… why Punk was like a religious movement. Guest Paul Burke claims it was a “passing fad and its over-cooked legacy was fashioned by the middle-class media”.

… the Shakespearian echoes of ‘The Boxer’.

… what Bowie would have done if the Laughing Gnome had been a hit.

… how Robbie Robertson lived the life Bob Dylan claimed to have lived and never recaptured the spirit of the first two Band albums.

… Earl Shilton, Norbert Putnam … American session player or remote place in Leicestershire?

… lost TV documentaries about Gene Vincent and the Global Village Trucking Company.

That Global Village Trucking Company doc …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SNrBey7yQI

Punk’s fake history, Spectator column by Paul Burke …

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/punks-fake-history/

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Sinead O’Connor, that Morrissey outburst, over-long films and the pitiful plight of roadies Jul 31, 2023

The mellifluous melody and soaring counterpoint of this week’s podcast were comprised of the following notes …

… Morrissey’s broadside on the treatment of Sinead O’Connor – and her electrifying moment at Dylan’s 30th Anniversary tribute two weeks after she’d torn up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.

… two unsettling events in the later life of Randy Meisner.

… Adele revives the old Las Vegas business model (at about £8m a night).

… the eternal mystery of Bob Dylan’s motorcycle crash and his Shea Stadium and Russian shows that never happened.

… how long news took to travel: the Battle of Waterloo (three days), the death of Jim Morrison (two weeks).

… Oppenheimer and why so many films are so long.

… Things It’s Almost Impossible To Accept, No 97: Mick Jagger is 80!

… in 2006 BBC viewers voted Morrissey second in a Greatest Living British Icons poll (Sir David Attenborough was first, McCartney third). Where would he be if they ran they voted tomorrow?

… that photo of Pulp and their 57-strong entourage.

… the time the Troggs turned psychedelic.

… the endless value of the mantra “never apologise, never explain”.

… TV clips from the Lost World of Rock And Roll – Hush tour Australia in 1997 (and pay their road crew $1 an hour);

Quintessence in 1970, ‘the sound of Notting Hill Gate’.

-------------

Clips:-

Sinead O’Connor at Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert two weeks after she tore up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKeJifOXAnA

Glam-rock roadhogs Hush in 1977 …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Iyytr1AJ4

Getting It Straight In Notting Hill Gate …

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-getting-it-straight-in-notting-hill-gate-1970-online

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Tales of Hipgnosis sleeves (and the new film) and why the world needs Steely Dan more than ever Jul 24, 2023

Blips on the rock and roll radar this week include …

… Things You No Longer See, No 97: the celebrity airport arrival shot.

.. do we, in all honesty, need Roger Waters’ re-interpretation of the Dark Side Of The Moon for it is upon us on October 6?

… is there really an Edinburgh Fringe show called ‘Bald Man Sings Rihanna”, ‘A Shark Ate My Penis’ or ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Ting: Prog Rock in A Reggae Style’?

… a 1976 clip of Elton John as the jobbing pianist on the Morecambe & Wise Show. “Elton John? Sounds like an exit on the motorway.

… the poignant story of 1968’s lost psych-rock voyagers the Mike Stuart Span and what happened when they became Leviathan.

… the time Hipgnosis put a sheep on a psychiatrists’ couch in the Hawaiian surf and landed a chopper in the Alps to photograph a statue.

… the Scottish stately pile Bob Dylan’s just put on the market.

.. and – with birthday guest Patrick Butler - six theories as to why Steely Dan are hipper now than ever.

The Mike Stuart Span TV clip …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufD0e8tE-UY

Elton with Eric & Ernie …

https://twitter.com/eric_ernie_col/status/1673207024702636033

Roger Waters’ Money redux …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUVmeYgo1Iw

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PP Arnold remembers life in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue aged 17 Jul 19, 2023

Pat “PP” Arnold was hired as an Ikette by Ike & Tina’s Revue in 1965 and set off a 2,000 mile tour of America, coming to London a year later to support the Rolling Stones. Offered a record deal by Andrew Oldham, she lived in England for many years becoming “the First Lady Of Immediate” with a wide circle of friends and collaborators including the Small Faces, Cat Stevens, Hendrix, Rod Stewart, Nick Drake and the Bee Gees, all recorded in her memoir 'Soul Survivor'. Here she looks back at:-

… the rigours of the Ike & Tina tours where she was once fined $50 for crying onstage.

… the contrast between “the Chiltin’ Circuit and the Albert Hall.

... supporting the Stones in ’66 and her romance with Mick Jagger “who wanted to walk and talk like a black man”. She taught him how to do the Pony and the Mashed Potato.

… the success of The First Cut Is The Deepest.

… her unique American take on the Swinging London of the mid-‘60s and quaint English expressions like “taking the piss”, and how an “unsophisticated” girl from the Watts district of Los Angeles saw the bohemian world (eg Chelsea restaurants where you got three sets of cutlery).

… her time with “my brothers” the Small Faces who were “a lot more ghetto than the Stones”.

… and a mention of recent collaborations with Paul Weller and Ocean Colour Scene.

Order Soul Survivor here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soul-Survivor-Autobiography-P-P-Arnold/dp/1788705785

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The things Bruce and Bing have in common and the adventures of Punch in 1976 clubland Jul 17, 2023

As Mark Ellen had taken his shrimping net to the coast Alex Gold steps into the breach to talk to David Hepworth about

….how solo acts like Bing Crosby and Bruce Springsteen get to play the common man in a way they never could if they were in a band

….the extraordinary sight and sound of the band called Punch trying to make their name on “Opportunity Knocks” in the vanished land of 1976

….what to do with your wedding ring if you find yourself on the world’s largest cruise liner

….Cat Stevens’ “Father And Son” and a few less exalted things that Dads say.

Don’t miss the amazing Punch doc

http://youtu.be/_DxLtuK3pD4

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Nick Drake - and what Richard Morton Jack learnt from 200 people who knew him Jul 14, 2023

In his new biography “Nick Drake: The Life”, Richard Morton Jack set out to correct the misconceptions spread by magazines and former biographies, some ending up on Wikipedia. This involved talking to as many people as he could track down who’d met and remembered him, from key players like Joe Boyd, Francoise Hardy and Drake’s sister Gabrielle to the girl who played the cello on ‘Cello Song and a childhood friend who wrote a poem about him in the school magazine. The result is, by some margin, the clearest and most comprehensive picture of him to date, far more accelerated and self-promotional in the early days than we’d been lead to believe – “not just sitting in his ivory tower singing to the moon” – though it’s still hard to think of a musician worse equipped for the rigours of the music business and having, as Richard perfectly puts it, “a personality fundamentally ill-suited to display”. This covers a wide landscape from his lack of support (no real manager, no agent, no proper PR), the unusual and often disastrous gigs he played, the luckless timing of his record releases (Five Leaves Left out the day Brian Jones died), the mysteries of his love life, his time with John Cale, playing for Mick Jagger in Marrakesh, an awkward Parisian dinner with Francoise Hardy and his eventual decline and withdrawal from the outside world. It’s also a charming portrait of what real life was like in the late ‘60s when evenings revolved around a record deck, overflowing ashtrays and games of Monopoly.

You can order Richard Morton Jack’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Drake-Richard-Morton-Jack/dp/1529308089

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Cathi Unsworth was a teenage goth. Think “Robert Smith’s tarantula hair” and “cider like turps” Jul 13, 2023

Growing up in remote rural Norfolk, crime writer Cathi Unsworth had a Goth conversion, a condition from which, she happily admits, you never fully recover. And never want to. She discovered Dennis Wheatley’s ‘To The Devil A Daughter’, heard Siouxsie & the Banshees on the Peel Show and saw a picture of Robert Smith in a magazine which she stuck by her bedroom mirror to help her construct his spectacular dishevelment. She’s just published ‘Season Of The Witch: the Book of Goth’, a highly entertaining account of the dark side of rock starting out with the Brontes, Edgar Allan Poe and Aubrey Beardsley and heading, via Jim Morrison, Jacques Brel and Nico, to Joy Division, the Cure and the Sisters of Mercy. This is a very funny and self-mocking pod in which you’ll find the following …

… why Yorkshire is “Goth’s Own Country”.

… the secret ingredient in Mac McCulloch’s vertical hair.

… Nick Cave - “the Dark Lord of Goth Music” (©️ the Daily Mail) – at the Coronation.

… Lee Hazlewood’s advice to Nancy Sinatra when recording Goth staple These Boots Are Made For Walking.

… “changing into fishnet tights in the bogs at school”, rival pop gangs, mooching about in graveyards and a mate “who used to sit up trees reading Dennis Wheatley and summoning Satan”.

.. the joy of crimpers and backcombing.

… “spreading the virus” at the Batcave.

… the inventor of the term Goth and the key Gothmothers and Gothfathers.

… local folklore about hellhounds in Norfolk.

… her first gig, the York Rock Festival in 1984 featuring the Bunnymen, Sisters of Mercy, Spear of Destiny and the Redskins: “Gothtopia”!

… “Beer Girls and Beer Boys” and why it was best to avoid them.

… dark Satanic mills.

… and the greatest Goth record ever made.

Order ‘Season of the Witch: the Book of Goth’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Season-Witch-Book-Cathi-Unsworth/dp/1788706242

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Wham!, Rock Follies and lost ‘70s prog foot-soldiers Renia – we will remember them! Jul 10, 2023

Filling the spinnaker of enquiry on the careering, two-mast schooner of rock and roll this week you will find …

… the prog drummer who made a fortune.

... did Brian Wilson bring a horse into a recording studio? Or write a symphony for drums? Or have an idea involving a hen in tennis shoes?

… why the New York Times review of the new Wham! documentary is ridiculous and wrong.

... the eternal allure of The Larry Sanders Show – “Madam, I killed a man like you in Korea!”

… the curse of identity journalism.

… the most influential British DJ of all time.

… Kenneth Tynan’s exquisite profile of Johnny Carson in the New Yorker and the dark art of being a TV chat show producer.

… the mathematical certainty that every review you ever write will eventually resurface. “Nothing will be forgotten - the afterlife is always longer than the first flush of success.”

… was there ever a briefer ‘fashionable’ moment than that of Guns N’ Roses?

… the great new expression for being drunk – “overserved”.

Watch that deathless Renia clip here …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv0VyHHEj2s&t=11s

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Cocteau Twins song or Farrow & Ball paint colour? plus the day Beatlemania began Jul 03, 2023

This week we paddle the two-man kayak of curiosity across the rock and roll seafront and make a few stops on the way, among them …

… “the future is always in the past”.

… the pure theatre of the E Street Band and its cast of characters – “our lives are repaired by the fact that they’re still together”.

… the growing appeal of Country & Western - and even “shronking” jazz – as you get older.

… Bless the Barn, Featherwash and Franny Wisp, Portlandia’s low-volume crowd-pleasers.

… the ‘Barry’ TV series (starring Bill Hader): that rare beast, a contract killer who’s a nice bloke.

… the 60th anniversary of the recording of She Loves You, why engineer Norman Smith predicted a flop and the fan break-in at Abbey Road that energised the session.

… is the success of Nick Drake partly an antidote to the age of technology?

… how our concept of ‘old’ has changed: McCartney at Live Aid was a coffin-dodging 43, same age as Kelis at Glastonbury.

… is cricket now the drunkest spectator sport? And which is the greater agony, seeing England doing badly when you’re there or watching at home with the commentary?

… and the Elton John Band have been together 53 years – but that’s only six years longer than Madness.

… plus birthday guests Andrew Stocks and Patrick Cleasby and a roll-call of new patreon supporters.

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Grotesque/brilliant sleeves plus does upping the price make a ticket more desirable? Jun 27, 2023

Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …

… the republishing of Giles Smith’s Lost In Music, one of the funniest books ever written about our real life relationship with pop stars, records and being in bands. Giles – and Nick Hornby – kick-started a whole new literary vogue.

… has Cate Blanchett won Glastonbury?

… why do we update book jackets but never change a record cover?

… how the Stones’ Steel Wheels tour changed the gig economy.

… the Stackwaddy game: song titles - George Formby or Frank Zappa?

… how gigs became a status symbol and tickets a statement purchase.

... did a record sleeve ever put you off buying the album?

… what are YOU going to do with your vinyl collection? Original new “estate plans” considered.

… amusing things said by George Melly (and who was Mucky Alice?).

… Recession? What recession? 650,000 people bought arena/stadium tickets in London last weekend.

Plus Toe Fat, Blind Faith, “the Larynx on Legs”, author Giles Smith and birthday guests Blaine Allen and Richard Lewis.

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Harvey Lisberg – managing 10cc, meeting Elvis and “Peter Noone’s extra tooth” Jun 23, 2023

Aged 21 in 1963, Harvey Lisberg wanted to be the next Brian Epstein and ended up managing Herman’s Hermits and 10cc, among others, before relaunching the snooker stars Jimmy White and Hurricane Higgins. We thoroughly recommend his just-published memoir ‘I’m Into Something Good’ and this wide-ranging encounter takes in …

... the unique division of labour in 10cc and the magnificently doomed invention of ‘the Gizmo’.

… the perils of $100,000’s credit in Las Vegas casinos.

… life for the wives of rock stars “in love with music”.

… his friendship with Colonel Tom Parker and a day spent with Elvis in Honolulu.

… a prickly relationship with Mickie Most.

… why America fell in love with Peter Noone.

… Herman’s Hermits’ US tours with the Stones and the Who.

… and how he changed the snooker world by remodelling the “Artful Dodger” Jimmy White.

Buy Harvey’s memoir here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Im-Into-Something-Good-Managing-ebook/dp/B0BSHGRN5V

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Record shops in movies and what Glenda Jackson did that no other actor ever dared try Jun 21, 2023

This week’s pod veers off the conversational highway to break out its picnic hamper at the following leafy locations ….

… the Stackwaddy game: metal band or clawed demon from Dante’s Inferno?

… when bands stopped being good-looking.

… Paul Simon’s Seven Psalms: how long can you give a record before it clicks?

… Tony ‘TS’ McPhee of the Groundhogs (RIP) and the great British blues underground: cue the scent of damp greatcoats.

… does anything capture the time better than a record shop in a movie?

… the hard-fought life of Glenda Jackson plus “All men are fools and what makes them so is having beauty like what I have got”.

… eternally recommended: the crestfallen, poignant, melancholy world of the Fountains of Wayne.

… the moment in A Clockwork Orange that gave us Heaven 17 and Fuzzy Warbles.

… streaming services are now editing the movies they carry (eg the French Connection): Doesn’t this infantilize the audience?

… We Are Family. Are Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh related? Is Suzi Quatro Sherilyn Fenn’s aunt?

… a unique literary double-act: Robert Caro and the late Bob Gottlieb.

… how subtitles change the way we watch.

… Paul McCartney, consummate press-wrangler.

… and the lost appeal of late-night movie screenings.

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Revenge songs, Nick Drake and that sorry tale about Primal Scream Jun 18, 2023

The super-trouper of gentle enquiry alights this week upon …

… why bands are at their biggest when they’re over the hill.

… Fats Waller v Morrissey song titles: can YOU tell your Waller from your Wallower?

… how could Dylan have written Queen Jane Approximately aged only 24?

… why you should hear Pieces Of Treasure by Rickie Lee Jones, particularly the track All The Way.

… the social media bin-fire that’s shredding the reputation of Bobby Gillespie and how Twitter loves a character assassination - “Pound shop Mick Jagger! Always a charlatan!”

… was anyone worse equipped for the rigours of the pop circus than Nick Drake?

… “big” 20-album record collections, board games and no telly: fond memories of real life in late ‘60s London.

… Richard Thompson and Nick Drake’s painfully awkward tube journey.

… what risible sum Astrud Gilberto was paid for The Girl From Ipanema.

… and why Springsteen was called “the Boss”.

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Word In The Park 2023 #4 – Clare Grogan's adventures in TV, film and music Jun 16, 2023

Forty years ago Clare Grogan was on the cover of Smash Hits yet again and was the fourth guest at our garden party on June 3. Here she remembers the key events that have happened since which include meeting Bill Forsyth and the success of Gregory’s Girl (and why she only saw it for the first time recently), touring with Siouxsie & the Banshees when still at school, life as a pop star in the golden age, being Kristine Kochanski in Red Dwarf and its obsessive fans, her time in Father Ted, Kim Wilde’s call to get her to join the Here And Now ‘80s pop package tour and a great story about Nik Kershaw and John Taylor. Listen to what happened when she told the audience how she loves and needs applause – and loves “loud cheering” even more. Spoiler alert: contains both laughter and tears.

Order the new Altered Images CD here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mascara-Streakz-Altered-Images/dp/B0B29LG9B3/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=altered+images+mascara+streakz+cd&qid=1686041285&sr=8-3

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Word In The Park 2023: How the Beatles and James Bond shaped us all Jun 15, 2023

The first record by the Beatles came out on the same day as the first James Bond film. Over sixty years later they still send their differing forms of Britishness out into the world. John Higgs has written a book, “Love And Let Die”, about how closely they have been intertwined over the years, about how they stood for very different sorts of masculinity, how they changed the way we wanted to dress and behave and how they have, between them, shaped the British psyche of today.

Love And Let Die: https://www.waterstones.com/book/love-and-let-die/john-higgs/9781399600163

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Word In The Park 2023 #2 – 60 years of the Bee Gees with Bob Stanley Jun 11, 2023

Author, DJ, member of St Etienne and a regular on our podcasts, Bob Stanley was the second guest at our sun-baked garden party in the auditorium of Opera Holland Park on June 3 talking about his new book “Bee Gees: Children Of the World”. He feels – and very rightly – that in some quarters they’re still the punchline to a heartless joke and deserve infinitely more critical respect. This illuminating conversation touches on the “teenage delinquent” years in Manchester, their struggles in Australia, signing with Robert Stigwood, success and how badly they handled it, what the press made of them, how they invented the sound of Jive Talkin’ and Night Fever, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, why they were known as “Pilly, Potty and Boozy” and the various people who’ve loudly sung their praises – Diana Ross, Pet Shop Boys, Take That and Noel Gallagher among them.

Order Bob's book ‘Bee Gees: Children of the World’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bee-Gees-Children-Bob-Stanley/dp/1788705424/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=]2502&hvtargid=pla-1945216255331&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

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Word In The Park 2023: 60 years of the Stones with Lesley-Ann Jones Jun 08, 2023

It’s a barely believable sixty years since the Rolling Stones put out their first single, “Come On”, so we asked Lesley-Ann Jones, the author of “The Stone Age", along to talk about them and how they have related to the women in their lives, from Brian Jones’s strange relationships with his Cheltenham girlfriends, Mick Jagger’s powerful attraction to women who look like him, the sexual competition that raged between him and Keith Richards and the mid-life crises of Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. As they say on the disclaimers this podcast contains adult themes.

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What bands are becoming unfashionable? Jun 06, 2023

This week’s rock and roll gumbo includes the following spicy and nutritious ingredients …

… “the internet is designed to let middle-aged men think they’ve had the last word”.

… will the Royal Blood storm-in-a-teacup do them more good than harm?

… Barry Gibbs’ beard.

… what ‘Three Lions’ did to the Lightning Seeds’ Scottish, Welsh and Irish fanbase.

… old memories of Kevin Coyne and Marjory Razorblade.

… why no band is ever “forgotten”.

… what’s so sacred about Love Will Tear Us Apart?

… can AI music ever work if you don’t feel a connection with the person making it?

… why are the Doors fading from view?

… there are only two degrees of adulation: too little or too much.

Plus Birthdays guests Ray Roscoe and Paul Thompson.

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Which is the most two-faced world - movies, music or daytime TV? May 28, 2023

Fond and appraising enquiry of recent events, this week featuring …

… we now feel we have to approve of artists/musicians/writers before we can say we like what they do. When did all this start?

… a new Stackwaddy game – Hari-Krishna Stomp Wagon? Starchelle Chicago Bear? Flaming Lips song title or exotically named winner of Crufts’ Best In Show?

… in defence of men with bad reputations eg Evelyn Waugh, Martin Amis, John Lennon …

… re-pressed versions of albums that were 70p in the late ‘60s now sell for £29.99. What fresh madness is this?

… Liam Gallagher’s son Lennon and Paul Weller’s daughter Dylan ‘toast the 20th anniversary of an iconic Mulberry bag’: an ‘It’s like punk never happened’ special!

.. how the Silicon Valley TV series tells the truth.

… Noel Gallagher’s magnificent use of the word ‘disingenuous’ (possibly to wrong-foot and baffle his brother). And why he wrote Acquiesce.

… the now comically over-the-top Cannes standing ovations and what’s behind them.

… and the weaselly worlds of film and daytime telly.

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Farewell Tina Turner – “all you needed was Nutbush City Limits and a Watneys Party 7” May 25, 2023

A special extra podcast recorded just after hearing the news. We can barely remember a time when we weren’t aware of her. This looks back at the Ike & Tina R&B hits of the ‘60s, the Ikettes dance routines and how he copyrighted her stage name, the story of the recording of River Deep Mountain High with Phil Spector, Proud Mary on the Ed Sullivan Show, supporting the Rolling Stones, her unique vocal style and the way she sold the drama of the songs … and then the greatest comeback imaginable: the arrival of manager Roger Davies, the B.E.F.’s recording of Ball Of Confusion at Abbey Road (and the impossible demands of James Brown), Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome, Private Dancer (and Bowie’s 1984) and the record-breaking 180,000-crowd show at Brazil’s Maracana Stadium in 1988. And the fine art of dancing in high heels.

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Robert Johnson, Shakespeare and the rock star image of Martin Amis May 24, 2023

Put through the boil-wash of enquiry and hung upon the washing line of truth this week you’ll find the following one-size-fits-all garments …

… which acts are fading from memory and who’ll be remembered in 50 years’ time?

… how Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen and Warren Zevon addressed mortality – (‘My Ride’s Here', ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich’ ...).

… actors who’ve made albums.

… the photo that changed the perception of Johnny Cash.

… why you should watch the Pet Shop Boys’ new BBC interview, Reel Stories.

… the prog star who stage-invaded Jacob Rees Mogg’s speech at the Conservative conference.

… “Nothing will ever beat the first time you hear yourself on the radio”: Sting and the law of diminishing returns.

.. how Will Self capsized his own career.

… how Shakespeare and Robert Johnson’s reputations were both made by a ‘Greatest Hits’.

… Brian Jones’s fall from grace.

... who invented the term ‘goth’?

.. and the genius of Andy Rourke.

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Is there a more annoying rhyme than “arms” and “charms”? May 15, 2023

Further nutritious items on the pod’s tasting menu this week include …

… the story of Tubular Bells and how the Exorcist sent its sales through the roof.

… beneath the surface of every band is a drama waiting to kick off: the View’s reunion gig was “a brotherly bust-up that went too far”.

… one of the following didn’t endorse a credit card, but which? – Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Kiss, the Wu-Tang Clan, U2 and the Sex Pistols.

… crimes in rhyme perpetrated by Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and Boney M - plus do YOU know a better one than ‘You told me love was too plebeian/ Told me you were through with me an’ …”?

… Beyoncé’s tour is “a celebration of black queer dance music” but that didn’t stop her playing a private gig in Dubai for $24m.

… plus stadium tour profits, singing bassists and 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Blue Danube.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/576193870377

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How a nine-year-old boy kick-started Rock’n’Roll (and other stories) May 09, 2023

Where the Gold Bracelets of Sincerity and Wisdom and the Rod of Equity and Mercy meet the piping hot music news agenda in a weekly podcast and alight upon the following ….

… the greatest singer of sad songs we’ve ever heard.

… the extraordinary tale of the B-side of ‘13 Women And Only One Man’.

… songs you couldn’t record these days.

… Rufus Wainwright’s re-recording of Neil Young’s Harvest – but CAN modern technology possibly make it sound any better?

… Noel Coward in the Italian Job.

... the mystifying UK pop charts at the time of the last Coronation.

… old records we’ve re-discovered: this week, Bonnie Raitt’s magnificent Give It Up (and especially Love Has No Pride).

… John Prine’s Angel From Montgomery.

… Gordon Lightfoot: why Dylan adored him and the tale of The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.

… the return of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the excellent current occupation of Brian ‘Nasher’ Nash.

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Groups that look like a check-out line at B&Q? We have a winner! May 02, 2023

Encountering the cheerful ping-pong bats of conversation this week you’ll find …

… the most unprepossessing rock band on God’s green earth.

… Ed Sheeran v Marvin Gaye – “the case continues”. But does anybody genuinely copy anyone else these days?

… Springsteen and Michelle Obama and their irresistible thirst for publicity.

… the return of the Stack Waddy game: Spencer Birtwistle? Wilfred Mott? … Bernard Cribbins sitcom character or former member of the Fall?

… Santana’s Caravanserai still sounds like it was made yesterday.

… what Paul McCartney and Coldplay were paid to play Glastonbury.

… if you tell people they’ll like things they tend to look for reasons to disagree but can we (cautiously) recommend the Australian comedy Colin From Accounts?

… Happy 70th, Bill Drummond. We remember his deafening ‘retirement’ exit at the BRITS in 1992 and his exotic activities since.

… the delicate rhythms of the funniest lines by PG Wodehouse.

… a chilling stat involving football academies.

… Harry Belafonte, the original “singer and activist”, and the time he was in a drama class with Walter Matthau and Marlon Brando.

… plus Shakespeare, a light-fingered Noel Gallagher and amplified busking.

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“Well I walked up to her and I asked her if she wanted to dance.” Apr 25, 2023

Items run up the flagpole this week include …

… our memories of the exquisite agony of teenage dances, especially Dave’s at the Mecca Ballroom in Wakefield, 1965.

... unforgettable things said and done by Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson.

… rock stars with Brian Jones’s hair.

… do we care more about the people who make music than the music itself?

… a point from Massive Attack – “is the discussion ‘should AI recreate music?’ or is it ‘Why is contemporary music so homogenised & formulaic that it’s really easy to copy?’”

… songs that never fail to fill dancefloors.

… a “Ladies’ Prosecco Afternoon” with a Robbie Williams impersonator.

… what’ll be the next music revival?

… when did you last see a Teddy Boy?

… Dave’s story about why Take It Easy by the Eagles meant so much to him.

… and the eternal appeal of Mod.

… plus birthday guest Andrew Newbury – “was We Can Work It Out the Beatles’ tipping point?”

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 3rd here!: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-happy-return-of-word-in-the-park-tickets-576193870377

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Jack Nitzche, a “pleat-faced” guitarist and the time Sly Stone got married onstage Apr 18, 2023

Dipping our shrimping nets this week into the ever-bountiful rock and roll rock pool we find …

… Dylan, Madonna, Pharrell Williams, Michael Jackson, Nick Cave and Keith Richards – which one didn’t write a children’s book?

… S Club 7, Miles Davis’s sessionmen and others apparently ripped off by the heartless, skinflint music industry.

… the unsung story of Jack Nitzsche, “the man with the golden touch”, his part in the Stones’ baroque period and the recordings he made in Barking Town Hall and St Giles Cripplegate.

… when Sly Stone got married onstage and the couple who got hitched at a Taylor Swift show.

… a “short-fingered vulgarian” and a “beaky, crow-coiffed, pleat-faced” guitarist.

… the Gershwin score to Woody Allen’s Manhattan.

… how two thirds of NBA players are bankrupt in 10 years.

... Jimmy Page’s Shirley Bassey session.

… Rlchard Branson picking up women.

… how Jay Craydon’s still living off a Steely Dan guitar solo.

… can any musician hope to make it if they start aged 37?

… and somewhat irritatingly Jamie Oliver attaches himself to the celebrity children’s author gravy train.

Plus birthday guests Stephen Lambe –“that adolescent moment when pop music stops being just a nice noise and becomes Something Important: discuss”. And Chuck Loncon recommends Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs’ Under The Covers compilations and the Stay Awake album of songs from Disney films.

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John Cooper Clarke reveals “the performing poet’s worst enemy” Apr 13, 2023

The “bargain basement Baudelaire” is setting out on a UK tour in April and tells Mark Ellen here about the earliest shows he saw and played, memories which happily include …

… the subtle art of crowd control.

… seeing Bob Hope when he was 9 and the strange impression of the adult world that suggested.

… the dress code that barred him from a Hendrix gig.

… auditioning for Bernard Manning at the Embassy Club and what he learnt from him.

… “I was Little Richard’s gear carrier (aged 11)”.

… why he based his look on Ronnie Wood.

… the perfect song for the hopeless bass player.

… the deathless advice his Dad gave him.

… why punk rock audiences were a breeze.

… the desperate fashion-chasing changes of tack of the Mafia, the band he formed in the ’60s. Who became the Vendettas. Who became the Lovely Flowers.

… “the last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it” and other comedy circuit one-liners.

… the life-changing inclusion of "Evidently Chickentown" in the Sopranos’ credits.

… and the greatest gig he ever saw “which may well have been cooked up in the playground of my imagination”.

John’s tour dates here ….

https://johncooperclarke.com/gigs/

And this is his highly recommended memoir, I Wanna Be Yours …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Yours-John-Cooper-Clarke/dp/1509896104

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“Fred Flange”, Barry Cryer meets the Pretenders and what we’ve learnt about the Velvet Underground Apr 10, 2023

This week’s trawl of the rock and roll outer limits alights, among others, on the following sizzling hot topics …

... a lost Beatles tape and the night they played Stowe School 60 years ago.

… the return of the Stackwaddy game: were there really ‘60s New Zealand pop groups called the Chapta, Hi-Revving Tongues and the Kal-Q-Lated Risk?

… Todd Haynes’ brilliant Velvet Underground documentary and how the band spawned pop’s greatest look- and sound-alike movement. And could Lou Reed have made it without Andy Warhol, John Cale or Nico?

… Tracie, Bowie, Bonnie Tyler, Tracey Ullman, the JoBoxers, Kenny Everett and other top-notch components of the singles chart in April ‘83.

… did A Hard Day’s Night invent the word “grotty” and Steely Dan the word “scam”?

… who was the mysterious “Fred Flange”? The story of the Goons, George Martin , Peter Sellers and Matt Monro.

… … and birthday guest Al Hearton remembers records you’d heard about before you heard them – eg Don’t Fear the Reaper, Bat Out Of Hell, Mother’s Little Helper, Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite and Eve Of Destruction.

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The inscrutable King Crimson exposed by their documentary-maker Toby Amies Apr 08, 2023

“Being on tour with King Crimson,” in the words of their film director, “is like being with the school rugby team and, at the last minute, the games teacher falls ill so they send them out with the maths master. But the team starts winning ...”

Is there another band remotely like them? Their leader believes in discipline and cold showers in the morning. He practices four hours a day. Life in the group was “wretched” from 1969 to 2013. Adrian Belew says it made his hair fall out. The running gag among its 22 one-time members is “you’re irreplaceable, just like the last bloke”. With great bravery and patience, Toby Amies has made a documentary about them, ‘In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson at 50’, and talks to us here about what he discovered. There’s much to be enjoyed, not least…

… the fact that Robert Fripp commissioned the film and for months refused to take part in it.

… the encounter with Sister Dana, the prog rock nun from Norway.

… the film’s reflections upon “the metronome of mortality”.

.. the thoughts and perspectives of current and former band members, particularly Bill Bruford, Bill Reiflin, Jakko Jakszyk and Ian McDonald who “broke Robert’s heart” in 1969 and is still touchingly apologetic.

… the religious ecstasy pursued by their audience.

… how King Crimson’s music feels like a deep-body tissue massage.

… and the extraordinary two-minute pause that a motionless Fripp leaves before answering one of the film’s questions.

It’s very entertaining, not least because it was made by someone who wasn’t a fan but simply curious and had questions he wanted answered. This original and idiosyncratic film suits them perfectly.

Screenings here …

https://www.itcotck.com/screenings

@TobyAmies

https://linktr.ee/tobyamies

@itcotckdoc

@ITCOTCKfilm

https://linktr.ee/itcotck

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Paul Weller as a songwriter? Dylan Jones unpacks his “Imperial Phase" Apr 07, 2023

Paul Weller’s been writing songs for 50 years now and he’s chosen over 100 of his lyrics for the new and gorgeous, picture-packed publication ‘Paul Weller: Magic – A Journal Of Song’, each accompanied by his memories of how and why he wrote it compiled from interviews with long-time admirer, multiple author and old pal of the podcast, Dylan Jones. No-one was better qualified for the job. The teenage Dylan saw the Jam countless times in London pubs and has followed Weller closely ever since, a songwriter, he says, “who’s proved he’s beyond reproach and, in some senses, possibly without equal”. This is full of stories and insights, among them …

… “you don’t tell Paul Weller what to do”.

… his unease about the sentimentality of English Rose.

… “the Style Council were a better group than the Jam”.

… the teenage Weller travelling to London to make cassette recordings of the traffic.

… his love of tabloid song titles and unrhyming lyrics.

… what saved him from being dropped by Polydor.

… Steve Winwood, the Liverpool Poets, the Beatles, Kinks and other key influences.

… the burden of being a hero.

… and the likelihood of a Jam reunion.

Order Paul Weller – Magic: A Journal Of Song here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Journal-Song-Paul-Weller/dp/1905662742

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What’s Paul Jones of the Manfreds learnt from 60 years onstage? Apr 06, 2023

The Manfreds start their 60th Anniversary Tour in September with Paul, Mike D’Abo and Tom McGuinnness in the line-up. He talks to us here about the first and best shows he’s seen and …

… being told “there’s a soul/R&B singer in Birmingham and if he ever comes to London you’re finished”.

… how Brian Jones “opened up a secret door”.

... “stealing from Tennyson” for the lyrics of 5-4-3-2-1.

… being with Mick Jagger and Long John Baldry watching Alexis Korner calling up guest “shouters” and all thinking “pick me!”

… what T-Bone Walker taught him.

… seeing Lonnie Donegan at the Kings Theatre, Southampton, and the absurdity of doing ‘It Takes A Worried Man’ in your skiffle band when you’re only 15.

… Bob Dylan at Earl’s Court.

… the earth-shifting impact of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

… and the early adventures of ‘Blues Boy’ Jones.

Tickets for the Manfreds’ 60 Anniversary tour here …

https://myticket.co.uk/artists/the-manfreds

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Do we still need film and album reviews? Plus Seymour Stein and Keith Reid’s last fandangos Apr 05, 2023

In which we cast a warm but appraising glance in the direction of the week’s news and alight upon the following sizzling topics …

… the best media job in the world.

… the most played record in the history of the BBC.

… the Avengers franchise “is just a giant ATM for Marvel and produces argument-proof movies”.

… the most influential thing about John Peel wasn’t the music he liked.

… found: the owner of the VW van on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

… Seymour Stein, the man who signed the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna - and met Buddy Holly. And only signed musicians if they had enough drive - “Ambition is basically dissatisfaction with where and who you are. You’re born with demons that you have to harness before they kill you.”

… Ben Sidran’s 34 albums and how Spotify saves everyone from disappearing.

… the return of the Stackwaddy game – Crushed Butler, Clog, Highly Inflammable and other deathless 1971 support acts.

… the attractively unfathomable lyrics of Keith Reid and the ‘Whiter Shade Of Pale’ court case.

… why AO Scott left the New York Times.

… and birthday guest Chris Lintott nominates his “prawn cocktail DJ”.

Our Seymour Stein podcast in 2018 …

https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee8319657

The campervan on the cover of the Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan …

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/mar/24/bob-dylan-iconic-vw-van-blue-camper-freewheelin-new-york

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Why Andrew Lauder is the unsung hero of the record business Apr 04, 2023

Andrew Lauder started the Radar, F-Beat and Demon labels, worked at Liberty, Stiff and United Artists and signed (or licensed) and helped shape the careers of countess acts we’ve loved over the years, among them the Bonzos, Hawkwind, Captain Beefheart, JJ Cale, Nick Lowe, Creedence Clearwater, Elvis Costello, Can, Dr Feelgood, Stranglers and the Stone Roses. He was one of the main architects of the whole world of independent labels. Mick Houghton has written his memoir – Happy Trails – and talked to us here about …

… the Denmark Street days when the music business was just a village.

… the complete list of journalists on Brinsley Schwarz’s famously catastrophic press trip to the Fillmore East in 1970.

… why ‘the Beat Merchants’ album was the UK Nuggets.

… the old world of the ‘70s rock and roll when the record industry was part of the packaged goods business and gigs got stopped for 20 minutes because of a power cut.

… the golden age of rock samplers – Gutbucket, Greasy Truckers Party etc.

… and the LIBERTY WANTS TALENT! ad that brought us the Bonzos, the Idle Race, Family and Elton John & Bernie Taupin.

Order Happy Trails here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Good-Clean-Mick-Houghton/dp/147462359X

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Is U2’s new Songs Of Surrender album just plain *wrong*? Mar 29, 2023

Whistling, clicking our heels, swinging round lampposts and lobbing the odd shiny florin to a flaxen-haired child, this week’s free-wheeling navigation of the rock and roll boulevard alights upon the following hot topics …

… why Indie music is like student drama.

… what the Beatles achieved in “the 585 most productive minutes in the history of recorded music" (aka the recording of Please Please Me) and the albums released the same day every decade after.

… Death & Vanilla, Frightened Rabbit and – to deafening applause – the welcome return of the Stackwaddy game.

… albums performed as ‘plays’ (by musicians who didn’t make them). A band featuring Clem Burke and Glen Matlock has just toured playing Lust For Life in its entirety. What others would work as well? The Band’s second album? Liege & Lief? The Ramones? Hot Rats?

… unappetising song titles.

… what Bob Dylan did so “my mother would finally think I'm somebody”. And how his Mum reacted to his success.

… and why bands end sets with Country Roads, Mustang Sally and Twist And Shout.

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15 minutes with Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake: it all started on Blackpool Pier (aged two) … Mar 22, 2023

Teenage Fanclub are touring the UK in November. Norman tells us here about some of the first and best shows he’s seen and played and life in the group's early days. Which involves …

… the band that made him want to start a band.

… the Wombles at a YMCA when he was 12.

… selling a fridge and a washing machine to buy recording time.

… the bouncing balcony of the Glasgow Apollo when the Clash played in ‘78.

… having a wee next to Steve Cropper.

… the age at which audiences “appreciate having a seat”.

… busking etiquette.

... his mum taking him to see the Kinks and Tom Jones.

… serving John Martyn at McCormack’s Music Shop – “Thanks, wee man!"

… a sweet story about a trombone, Terry Hall and the Specials.

… Neil Young with Booker T & the MGs.

… the fine art of “sprinkling” new material in a set list.

… watching the Smiths play the greatest show he’s ever seen, “the stage strewn with flowers”.

Dates and tickets here …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/teenage-fanclub-tickets/artist/736268

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Is U2’s new Songs Of Surrender album just plain wrong? Mar 20, 2023

Whistling, clicking our heels, swinging round lampposts and lobbing the odd shiny florin to a flaxen-haired child, this week’s free-wheeling navigation of the rock and roll boulevard alights upon the following hot topics …

… why Indie music is like student drama.

… what the Beatles achieved in “the 585 most productive minutes in the history of recorded music" (aka the recording of Please Please Me) and the albums released the same day every decade after.

… Death & Vanilla, Frightened Rabbit and – to deafening applause – the welcome return of the Stackwaddy game.

… albums performed as ‘plays’ (by musicians who didn’t make them). A band featuring Clem Burke and Glen Matlock has just toured playing Lust For Life in its entirety. What others would work as well? The Band’s second album? Liege & Lief? The Ramones? Hot Rats?

… unappetising song titles.

… what Bob Dylan did so “my mother would finally think I'm somebody”. And how his Mum reacted to his success.

… and why bands end sets with Country Roads, Mustang Sally and Twist And Shout.

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early and ad-free access to every future Word Podcast!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Genuinely rotten albums by brilliant artists plus the band that started cancel culture Mar 15, 2023

Sauntering in carefree, conversational mode down the rock and roll bridleway this week, pausing briefly to lean against a tree and tootle upon a mouth-organ, we came across the following …

… bands with no original members left - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Motorhead, the Crickets, the Ramones, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Drifters … any more?

… things musicians are obsessed with.

… albums by acts we love without a single redeeming feature – Blondie’s The Hunter? Bob Dylan’s Saved? The Dead’s Built To Last? It’s Hard by The Who?

… the night – exactly 20 years ago – we saw the Dixie Chicks make their career-capsizing comment about George Bush.

… the hilarious left-right shift in Russell Brand’s brand values.

… the main reason some people go to Glastonbury.

… can you love an act as much if you don’t own their records or CDs and just stream them?

… a Northern Soul DJ’s £250,000 box of singles being stolen from his home after a gig.

… and Mr Inbetween, the Australian crime drama that’s like Saxondale meets Reservoir Dogs.

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For the love of Wayne Shorter & David Lindley - and are U2 really U2 without Larry Mullen? Mar 09, 2023

Things in the crosshairs this week include …

… why it took 34 years to get De La Soul on a streaming service.

… Radio 2’s ham-fisted handling of the departure of Ken Bruce – and are R2 and Greatest Hits Radio two bald men fighting over a comb if music radio seems doomed to die?

… the new fun-sized Axl Rose.

… U2’s stand-in drummer Bram van den Berg is like “Jimmie Nicol on stilts”.

… the BBC and Glastonbury re John Peel: never name anything after a celebrity!

... “Jackson Browne would never have been anything without David Lindley”.

… what made the Spice Girls successful?

… Steely Dan’s Aja, Joni Mitchell’s Paprika Plains and other places to hear Wayne Shorter’s divine embroideries.

… comedy skits on records.

… plus David Lindley’s effortless fashion statements – “Jackson Browne could emerge from a plane crash looking like Cary Grant but Lindley could have had stylists working round the clock for three days and still looked like an unmade bed”.

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Is Karen Carpenter pop music’s saddest story? Mar 05, 2023

Karen Carpenter died 40 years ago at the age of 32, a life mapped out in a new biography by Lucy O’Brien called Lead Sister. It’s a chilling, cautionary tale of how she and her brother became international stars and the devastating personal repercussions that were the consequence. Our conversation with Lucy covers the waterfront and includes …

… the perils of “helicopter parents”.

… why Richard was “The Chosen One”.

… a disastrous association with Nixon.

… destabilising press comments about weight issues and her “milksop presence”.

… what Hal Blaine said about her mother.

... the night she met Elvis.

… what singers need to survive.

… the private bebop language she invented.

… “Drummers are like hockey goalies. No-one knows how to talk to them apart from another drummer.”

… the howling disaster of her solo album.

… and what she discovered about her husband three days before she was due to marry him.

Lead Sister by Lucy O’Brien …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lead-Sister-Story-Karen-Carpenter/dp/1788708245

The Carpenters’ first TV appearance, 1968 …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cz60nGaopM

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Was the pop boom of 1996-2006 a comedy or a tragedy? Mar 02, 2023

The teenage Michael Cragg was obsessed with the “glorious shiny ludicrous pop” of the period that began with the Spice Girls, included Hear’Say, Five, Steps, Atomic Kitten, Blue and countless others and ended with the closure of Popworld and Smash Hits ten years later, a tale less about music than the media that covered it and the machinations of the industry. All the key leading players – bands, managers, songwriters, critics – are interviewed in his sparkling and soon-to-be-published account of it all, Reach For the Stars, and our conversation with him includes …

….. why Chris Morris should make a film about it.

… why there are no groups anymore.

… Russell Brand auditioning for Five.

… the secret of the Spice Girls’ success.

… which is more cynical, the worlds of TV or music.

… why pop stars needed “bullet-proof exteriors”.

... the band that couldn’t go to gigs or football matches without security to protect them.

… why Blue would never have survived in the age of social media.

… why pop stars were like contract players in 1930s movies.

… how TV drained the fun and frivolity.

… whether girl groups appeal to 100 per cent of the audience and boybands to only 50?

… the extraordinary fall and rise of Whole Again by Atomic Kitten.

… and the band mistakenly delivered by private jet to Donatella Versace.

@MichaelCragg

Reach For The Stars …

https://www.waterstones.com/book/reach-for-the-stars/michael-cragg/9781788707244

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What the Beatles said about the Stones plus the most expensive live music in London Feb 28, 2023

This week’s crackling logs on the conversational fire include …

… the attractively unchanging sound of Joe Henry’s 15 albums (the man PRs still sell as “Madonna’s brother-in-law”).

… the 45th anniversary of David and Mark’s first meeting – at an Earth Quake gig at Salford University on February 10 1978.

… Neil Tennant’s letter to Janice Long.

… the recommended TV tribulations of Kleo, East German intelligence operative.

… “Is it a nut? Is it a boy? Is it a wino? No, just Wreckless Eric!” A flick through an old Record Mirror from 1978.

… where live music costs £3 a minute.

… did the Beatles and Stones ever sound remotely similar even when playing the same song?

… the Beatles on Juke Box Jury (and what they said about Elvis).

… Levon Helm’s drum kit.

… plus birthday guest David Messer on why everyone should love Bill Wyman.

… and birthday guest Adrian Ainsworth recommends three classical albums – Sean Shibe’s ‘Lost & Found’, ‘A Verlaine Songbook’ by Carolyn Simpson and Joseph Middleton, and John Adams’ ‘Shaker Loops’.

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Was Chuck Berry the strangest man in the history of rock? Feb 27, 2023

Of all the figures who built rock and roll back in the 1950s, Chuck Berry was arguably the most influential and certainly the strangest. In a new biography, which could never have been written when he was alive, R.J. Smith tells a story which is still hard to believe. His conversation with David Hepworth includes:

* how the nerd Charles Berry discovered the key to impressing women

* How a reckless streak a mile wide saw him put away as a teenager

* How a comic turn developed into the greatest act in rock and roll

* How he never listened to what his daddy told him about white women

* How his record company’s landlord ended up co-writing “Maybelline”

* His Mann Act conviction and imprisonment

* His rebirth in Britain with the help of the Beatles and Stones

* Why he needed a copy of the FT every day

* Why he never said thank-you

* The part played in his life by Lanchester Poly

* His last and most tawdry court case

* What was going on in his head all that time

Chuck Berry: An American Life by R.J. Smith is out now.

https://amzn.to/3IE7K7q

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Word Down Your Way: 15 minutes with Mark Everett – E from Eels - about shows he's seen and played Feb 26, 2023

Eels are touring the UK in March/April and E talks here about what he’s learnt about live performance from being onstage or in the audience. And this includes …

… a valuable lesson from watching Leon Russell’s deserted matinee at a racetrack in Maryland.

… his mum’s reaction to him singing Plastic Ono Band songs in the car when he was 10.

… seeing George Harrison (aged 11) with his sister.

… the fascination of formerly big bands now quietly on the way back down (like Steppenwolf).

… playing drums at his son’s school concert.

… the “crazy and theatrical spectacle” of Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps tour.

… and what fan footage on YouTube can tell you.

Eels tour dates …

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/eels

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What’s the best age to be and when are we at our most stupid? Feb 22, 2023

Given the once-over this week in vigorous pursuit of edification and amusement …

… should a Fawlty Towers sequel be illegal?

… over-refreshed audiences wrecking Jukebox Musicals.

… our hunt for the elusive album sleeve with the long-haired girl/Afghan hound.

… how acts signal their popularity now the charts no longer matter.

… critics who attacked people who attacked back.

… the Beatles and ‘the genius of personality’.

… how the parental credit card fuels the Springsteen ticket price inflation.

… U2 about to play the new Las Vegas venue with an LED screen the size of three football pitches.

… what’s the best age to be?

… when are we in our prime and when are we at our most stupid?

Plus birthday guest Nick Foreman and Danny Baker’s rare album hand-out.

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Burt Bacharach, Waters v Gilmour and how to save the BRITS Feb 16, 2023

The dazzling super-trouper of gentle enquiry is trained this week upon:-

… Sam Smith’s inflatable suit.

… “TV kills everything”.

… What do producers actually do? Old pal Kate Mossman joins us to talk about the inscrutable working methods of Rick Rubin, “the golden ratio”, the significance of his beard, the concept of being “Rubinised” and his transformation of Johnny Cash (and how the same thing worked later for Loretta Lynn, Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson).

… Lawyers will be the only winners in the Roger Waters v Gilmour/Samson spat – “bands tend to start on a whim in a scout hut with a bunch of 16 year-olds and generally end with someone wearing a wig”.

… Burt Bacharach’s magical eight-year run of hits from Three Wheels On My Wagon to Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.

… the mystifying story of the re-recording of The Dark Side Of The Moon.

… if the BRITS wants to attract a teenage audience, why put it on terrestrial telly on a Saturday night? We’ve got a better idea.

… “wearing the iron hat”.

--------

Cilla and Burt Bacharach recording Alfie …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glpIgnmKrZc

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15 minutes with Midge Ure about shows he's seen and played Feb 09, 2023

Midge Ure starts a UK tour in April (with Band Electronica) and talks here about bands that left an impression and what he’s learnt about live performance. This includes …

… audiences “wanting their pound of flesh”.

… lessons learned from watching Derek Nimmo in panto.

… “cheesy” stage effects - eg Bowie’s mirrorball in Space Oddity.

… Stan Webb of Chicken Shack charging offstage at Green’s Playhouse in Glasgow with a 100 foot guitar lead.

… being “a human jukebox” at Clouds discos playing Jo Jo Gunne and Sparks covers.

… seeing “The Marmalade” at a Radio 1 roadshow when he was 14.

… memories of Taj Mahal, Skid Row, Colosseum and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

… 10,000 people blocking Sauchiehall Street to get tickets for Deep Purple.

… and headliners who didn’t turn up.

Midge’s tours dates here: https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/midge-ure

@midgeure1

http://www.midgeure.co.uk/

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George Harrison and the T-Bone steak, rock fantasy football teams & spot the AI lyrics! Feb 07, 2023

Conversational footballs punted about the park this week include …

… why George Harrison’s trip to Benton, Illinois, in 1963 would make a great Netflix drama – the $400 Rickenbacker, the local gig billed as “the English Elvis”, the roller-skating waitresses. “I’m in a band called the Beatles back home and we’re doing quite well.”

… buskers being allowed to use amplification is a monstrous invasion of our private space: discuss.

… is Deliveroo the new generation gap?

… we asked some AI software to write lyrics in the style of certain bands. You need to hear the results.

… musicians and the positions they should play on the football pitch.

… a deathless picture of McCartney and all-girl crowd at the Cavern.

… plus birthday guest Keith Adsley flies the flag for ‘Jaguar Sound’ by Adrian Quesada.

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Ron Sexsmith - heading your way in April – remembers “life-changing” shows seen over the years Feb 06, 2023

Ron Sexsmith starts a UK tour at the end of April and talks about what he’s learnt about live performance, which includes:-

… “notes from girls” after winning the High School Variety Show.

… playing for drunks in his local bar when he was underage and being hidden when the police arrived.

… Elton John at the Rich Stadium in Buffalo (and being a member of the Fan Club).

… his first performance, singing ‘Ben’ by Michael Jackson.

… the influential low-key stagecraft of Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen, “people who just stood there”.

… the rigours of long tours.

… being “on Cloud Nine for a year” after seeing the Who.

… and watching Cat Stevens from the best seat in the house.

All details about Ron’s upcoming tour here …

https://ronsexsmith.com/tours/

@RonSexsmith

https://ronsexsmith.com/

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Joel De’ath, “the Indiana Jones of rare vinyl”, describes his hunt for the Holy Grail Feb 05, 2023

Joel worked for various labels - Mushroom, Atlantic and Sony among them - and was the man who signed the Darkness. Training to become a psychotherapist, he began trading in rare records, travelling all over the country to buy collections and, during Lockdown, starting a special “mystery vinyl” service where he’d send people albums he thought they’d like based on their musical taste.

He talks here in fascinating detail about what an emotionally charged world this is, seeing people’s entire life stories mapped out in records, becoming a “temporary custodian” of their past, learning about whole new areas of music and obscure genres that suddenly come into vogue and every aspect of what makes a record valuable. And the thrill of finding the odd “holy grail” (Vashti Bunyan’s Just Another Diamond Day, rare Bowie first pressings etc), a process that involves “kissing an awful lot of frogs”. He even pulled out an album by a band neither of us knew, the 1970 psych-folk act Justine. Also featured – buying Roger St. Pierre’s record collection, the magic “fallibility” of vinyl (eg personal messages on sleeves) and the Greatest Record Ever Made!

Brighter Day Vinyl runs a weekly Flick-Through Thursday - at the same time Top Of The Pops used to be on! - where you can get to see what’s currently on offer and you’ll find all details about Joel’s shop, its collection and what he buys and sells here …

https://linktr.ee/brighterdayvinyl

@Brighterdayvnl

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Peter Asher: singer, producer, manager, main role model for Austin Powers Feb 02, 2023

Peter Asher started out as a child actor in films with John Mills, Alastair Sim and Boris Karloff. He was in the Adventures of Robin Hood with his sister Jane but they were eventually “demoted to peasant children”. He then formed Peter & Gordon, had a global number one with A World Without Love (written by his sister’s boyfriend who was living in the family home) and then began a career in production and management that’s still thriving today. This is full of wonderful stories and features …

… playing the London club circuit in 1964.

… Paul McCartney adding the missing bridge to A World Without Love in eight minutes – “I have the handwritten lyrics and chords in a fireproof safe in case I ever need to run to Sotheby’s and Paul can save the day again!”).

… assembling the band for a Paul Jones session – Nicky Hopkins piano, Jeff Beck guitar, Paul Samwell-Smith bass, McCartney drums).

… appalling ‘60s royalty rates.

… life as head of A&R at Apple where people sent “100 pages of certifiably mental lyrics in the hope that John Lennon might put them to music”.

… signing and producing James Taylor and the album that changed the music business. And Taylor supporting the Who on US tours.

… the secret of being a great manager.

... Linda Ronstadt singing barefoot at the Bottom End.

… Apple recording artist Brute Force and his non-chart-troubling single The King Of Fuh.

… the other role model for Austin Powers.

… and why music today is just as good as the past.

David Jacks' memoir, Peter Asher: A Life In Music …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Asher-Music-David-Jacks/dp/1493061216

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Farewell Tom Verlaine – plus terrible records we can’t help loving Feb 01, 2023

Things featured this week in hot pursuit of entertainment and enlightenment …

… seeing Television in 1975 for £1.50 - support act, Blondie.

… Kaleidoscope, Country Joe & the Fish, Fairport Convention and other origins of the Tom Verlaine guitar sound.

… the mystery voices on The Dark Side Of The Moon, the Clare Torry story and how Pink Floyd used Abbey Road as an instrument.

… “It’s Not You It’s Me”: more classic records that leave us cold – eg Pet Sounds and Humble Pie’s Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore.

… “If Loving You Is Wrong I Don’t Wanna Be Right”: rotten records we’re devoted to – paging Jobriath, Oasis, Hello …

… how the Ashers became Paul McCartney’s adopted family.

… that Nick Kent review of Marque Moon – “Cut the crap, junior, he sez, and put the hyperbole on ice. I concur thus. Sometimes it takes but one record – one cocksure magical statement – to cold-cock all the crapola and all-purpose wheatchaff mix ‘n’ match, to set the whole schmear straight and get the current state of play down down down to stand or fall in one, dignified granite-hard focus!”

… songs with great intros.

… and birthday patron Kevin Rose flies the flag for ‘Simple Songs’ by Jim O'Rourke.

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The Long Ryders are heading your way - and it all began with a “red negligee” … Jan 29, 2023

The Long Ryders are touring in May and our old pal Sid Griffin tells us what to expect and looks back here at …

… Herman’s Hermits and the Dave Clark Five playing on a steamboat.

… his first live performance aged 16 in a glam-rock red dress at a barbecue in Kentucky (fee a colossal $100) playing Paul Revere, Kinks and Byrds covers.

… seeing Big Joe Turner with the Lee Allen Orchestra (11-piece horn section!).

… the Everly Brothers’ first reunion.

… a barely known Carole King onstage in The City in 1968.

… his local bluegrass sessions at the Landseer Arms in Archway (“very Greenwich Village 1961”).

… and the benefits of touring when you’re older – “the pressure’s off”.

Details and tickets here:

https://www.thelongryders.com/The-Long-Ryders-Tour-Dates.html

https://www.sidgriffin.com/

@SidCPsGriffin

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Farewell David Crosby plus “classic” records that leave us cold Jan 26, 2023

David Crosby was famous for nearly 60 years, a celebrity sustained by records, tours, brushes with the law and serial disagreements with old pals and collaborators (he was the very definition of a non-team player). We look back fondly at various stops along the way - his upscale background, his role in the Byrds, his ‘Will Scarlet in Robin Hood’ haircut and unsexy cape ensemble, CS&N as the soundtrack to a West Coast American fantasy, the time the Beatles played him the unreleased A Day In The Life, a public fallout with Neil Young and a tuxedoed Graham Nash’s last show with the Hollies with the piss-taking Crosby in the dressing-room.

Plus “It’s Not You It’s Me” – classic records that leave us cold: fight-starting suggestions include albums by Patti Smith (“that bawling harridan with her jive muse”), Nirvana, Love, Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Arctic Monkeys and the Beatles. Did the Who start to decline from the moment John Entwistle began growing facial hair? Discuss.

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———-

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Suzanne Vega: she started at Carnegie Hall and she's coming to a town near you in February Jan 24, 2023

Suzannne Vega is touring throughout the UK in February. Here she talks to David Hepworth about what she’s learned about live in the course of:

….starting off on stage with Pete Seeger at Carnegie Hall

….taking her sister to see Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden

…learning about communication from the jazz bassist Richard Davis

…laying in sufficient snacks for the rehearsal period

….playing your old hits again and again

….saying your prayers before going on stage

….watching Stan Ridgway do the best show she ever saw.

Full dates and tickets here.

https://www.suzannevega.com/tour

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Jeff Beck “had a boom-tish anecdote about every step of his life” Jan 18, 2023

Our old pal from Word magazine Kate Mossman adored Jeff Beck and the whole range of his recordings and interviewed him recently for the New Statesman. This pod features the outlandish techniques he developed, his cars and Afghan hounds, his “six wives”, his unchanging look (with occasion detours into “satin leggings and boxing boots”), the “Clapton is God” myth, his job offer from the Stones, falling out with the Yardbirds and the Jeff Beck Group, great musical ventures and occasional lapses of taste (like the recent tour with Johnny Depp). And our love of Hi Ho Silver Lining which he hated so much he said it was like “having a pink toilet seat hung around your neck for the rest of your life”.

Plus …

… the chillingly strange life of Lisa Marie Presley - “opulent neglect” - and her four marriages.

… best-ever B-sides (suggested by birthday patron Roger Millington who went for ‘Paris France’ by the Red Guitars). The greatest B-sides never appeared anywhere else “and were like secret messages to the hardcore fans” - eg the Stones’ The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man and the Spider And the Fly. Honourable mentions for Yes It Is, This Boy and You Know My Name (Look Up The Number).

… the White Lotus and that fabulous Jennifer Coolidge Golden Globes speech.

… what would you do if you were the new Radio 3 boss?

… haircut and knitwear issues in ‘the Banshees of Inisherin’.

… Peter Sellers in Only Two Can Play.

Plus birthday patron Paul Knox joins us with theories about impact of the Incredible String on the Beatles and the sad, mysterious tale of the disappearance of Licorice McKechnie.

Kate Mossman in the New Statesman

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2023/01/jeff-beck-interview-tribute-guitar-hero

The Yardbirds on Shindig!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn6q_jcc0uo

And on the Milton Berle Show, 1966

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oNDXsIulXw

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Tony King – friend, adviser and confidante: you can see why the Beatles, Stones and Elton thought he was the best company imaginable Jan 17, 2023

Tony King was there when it all started, working for Decca in the late ‘50s, plugging records on Housewives’ Choice and Family Favourites and looking after visiting Americans like the Ronettes, Roy Orbison and Phil Spector. He went on to become a close friend of many of the acts he worked with and his memoir ‘The Tastemaker’ is full of wonderful tales and revelations about all of them. As is this podcast which includes …

… the day Reg Dwight changed his name (and getting him session work with the Barron Knights).

… wearing “lime green trousers, blue moccasins and a kaftan” at the Beatles’ One World broadcast.

… the weekend with George and Pattie Harrison in Esher when the Daily Express turned up to tell them McCartney had admitted he’d taken acid.

… taking Brenda Lee to the pictures.

… holidays with Charlie Watts in France and memories of his wake.

… why he used to ring Elton up and ask, “what’s the weather like there, Jean?”

… seeing the Stones at the Scene club with Chrissie Shrimpton.

… the advice he gave John Lennon (and getting him on the Old Grey Whistle Test)

… and the qualities all stars need to be successful.

Buy ‘The Tastemaker: My Life With The Legends and Geniuses of Rock Music’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tastemaker-Life-Legends-Geniuses-Music/dp/0571371930

Tony dressed as the Queen in an ad for John Lennon’s Mind Games album …

https://www.facebook.com/johnlennon/videos/mind-games-advert/1009681682383878/

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The greatest singer of all time? (we know the answer) Jan 09, 2023

… in which we amble fearlessly into the New Year in tireless pursuit of amusement, stopping off at various stations along the way, among them …

… can any song be completely original?

… meeting Sun Ra.

… the time Gianluca Vialli kissed David’s wife’s hand.

… does streaming make us more adventurous?

… did Frank Zappa ever appear in Miami Vice?

… tortuous puns in music memoir titles.

... singers we’ve had enough of.

... Sam Cooke humming.

… some rare and rewarding records – eg Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones’ Foreverly and Mellow Candle’s Swaddling Songs plus Jorma Kaukonen, Jimmy Webb, the Pursuit of Happiness …

… powerful feelings of envy provoked by John McLaughlin.

.. the diminishing appeal of Jeff Buckley.

… why you have to hear Van Dyke Parks’ ‘Super Chief: Music For The Silver Screen’.

… and birthday guest (and magnificent repeat winner of our Friday night quiz) Andrew Slattery.

Sam Cooke humming …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cds8YQyFeTI

Rolling Stone’s Best 200 singers …

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-singers-all-time-1234642307/

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The transformational role of the bus in ‘60s pop: discuss! Jan 01, 2023

Things explored this week in pursuit of entertainment and diversion …

… Neil Tennant interviews Malcolm McLaren and other delights in Smash Hits, January 1983.

… “there’s no such thing as a finished record!”

… the link between Cliff & the Shadows and the Merry Pranksters.

… a touching interview with Jim Morrison’s father and sister about the son/brother who cut them off completely - plus would Jim Morrison have made it in the age of social media?

… pop stars’ school reports.

… when did the ‘60s turn from black and white to colour?

… and when did people start talking about old records as if they were like old books - “first pressings”, “imprints”?

… Muriel’s Wedding, Priscilla Queen Of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom and the return of Abba.

… the pure unalloyed joy of rubbing a shrink-wrapped box-set against your cheek.

… Jack Charlton’s high-rolling £100 spending spree.

… guess the ‘80s fan club from its address!

… and birthday guest Sandra Austin.

Smash Hits Jan 1983 …

https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Smash-Hits/1983/Smash-Hits-1983-01-06.pdf

Jim Morrison’ father and sister …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz63-q8otYM

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The deliciously eccentric life and art of Ivor Cutler by his biographer Bruce Lindsay Dec 28, 2022

The full and extraordinary story of “the Zelig-like” Cutler – poet, performer, broadcaster, playwright, surrealist, humorist – is mapped out in Bruce Lindsay’s exceptional new book, ‘Ivor Cutler: A Life Outside the Living Room’. Most of us discovered him through the patronage of fans like John Peel – or first saw him as part of the Magical Mystery Tour cast – but this fascinating conversation covers the early years too, his time as a progressive schoolteacher, the formative influence of Kafka and the Goons, his big break into TV via Ned Sherrin and his immediate adoption by the counter-culture. Has there ever been anyone remotely like him before or since? At one point Bruce reads a section of Life In A Scotch Sitting Room - with its echoes of Under Milk Wood and Sir Henry At Rawlinson End - and there are tales of gruts for tea, his fear of noise, the time he left an overheated hotel room to sleep on a station platform and a Denmark Street agent weeing in a sink.

Order Bruce’s book here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ivor-Cutler-Outside-Sitting-Popular/dp/180050294X/ref=sr_1_6?qid=1671698453&refinements=p_27%3ABruce+Lindsay&s=books&sr=1-6

@bruce956

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The things rock made us wear Dec 21, 2022

Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were acceptable because rock stars wore them is delightfully long and shameful.

Also in the crosshairs this week …

… the rudest line the Beatles ever wrote.

… Randy Newman – ‘the poet of the unworthy thought’.

… do bands with comic lyrics get the credit they deserve?

… a double Stackwaddy: real or invented Christmas singles.

… falling though a wormhole in time into a copy of the NME from February 1969: “The age of Supergroups! – set band members will be a thing of the past” – Klaus Voormann.

… “These days no two of us are on the same stream.” What we learn from discovering music separately.

… Dead Eyes: the Tom Hanks’ comment that sparked a three-series podcast.

… why scat-singing brings us out in hives.

… the magic of Seinfeld – ‘four shallow self-obsessed people’ in a world where there’s ‘no growing and no hugging’.

… why you should listen to Joachim Cooder’ Over That Road I'm Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon.

… and what birthday guest John Innes learnt from re-listening to his entire music collection in chronological order – and the bands he decided to abandon.

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Strokes producer Gordon Raphael on the serendipitous creation of 'Is This It' Dec 20, 2022

Gordon Raphael was the sonic architect of arguably the two most important and influential albums of the noughties - The Strokes' 'Is This It' and its follow-up 'Room On Fire', and in this special Word In Your Ear chat with 'Magic' Alex Gold he talks about the creation of those seminal records alongside other key moments in his life as told in his memoir 'The World Is Going To Love This: Up From The Basement With The Strokes', including working with Regina Spektor and the impact of seeing her perform at their first meeting, grunge-era Seattle and its legendary music store The Trading Musician, and his time with the pre-fame Libertines.

Buy 'The World Is Going To Love This: Up From The Basement With The Strokes' here: https://www.wordville.net/product-page/the-world-is-going-to-love-this

Gordon's website: https://www.gordotronic.com/

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Jet Black, exotic Americans and Oscar Hammerstein’s joke Dec 12, 2022

In which we boldly tackle the burning issues des nos jours in our restless forage for entertainment. Nutritious items on the tasting menu this week include …

… albums whose cover was over half the sell.

… was Jet Black older than all the Beatles and Stones? Dave Greenfield and Edgar Allan Poe – separated at birth.

… that brief moment when Creedence Clearwater were the biggest thing on the planet.

… what people paid for the wooden balls on the Rumours cover and one of Christine McVie’s dresses.

… Stackwaddy: Abba v Zappa song titles - spot the ringer!

… a Marshall Crenshaw 40th anniversary covers album? The race to find the next bizarre obscurity.

… Little Feat, Fragonard and a cake on a swing.

… plus Anthony Blunt, Elton John will never retire and new Patreon supporters (and their fictional jobs).

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Word Down Your Way: Danny Baker with a taste of his thunderous one-man stand-up circus, back on the road in 2023 Dec 11, 2022

Danny’s done two hysterically funny, cartwheeling canters round the UK in the last few years and sets out again in February for 49 nights with ‘At Last …The Sausage Sandwich Tour’, another ‘panjandrum of unstoppable anecdote’. His memories of old rock and roll and theatre shows are high in the mix in this crackling exchange. Among the highlights …

… Anita Harris at the ABC in Yarmouth.

… appearing with the Millwall squad and Jimmy Tarbuck singing ‘New York New York’ in top hat and tails.

… the joy of Keef Hartley’s Half-Breed.

… arriving to see Frank Zappa to discover he’d been thrown offstage in the afternoon show “but Cochise were still appearing!”

… his dad Spud’s amateur doctor who did a good sideline in racing tips.

… why selling his 14,000 albums is like being “unchained from a lunatic”.

… Black Sabbath playing ‘unplugged’ in a powercut at the Albert Hall.

… and an honorary mention of the pith helmet full of saveloys.

Tickets here: Danny Baker: At Last… The Sausage Sandwich Tour

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/danny-baker

@prodnose

https://www.dannybakerstore.com/

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Stories Christine McVie told us - including “Freddie King fixed my puncture” Dec 05, 2022

In which the piercing searchlight of conversational scrutiny points in the direction of …

… Christine McVie’s early adventures, our burning love for Chicken Shack’s ‘40 Blue Fingers’, her Sliding Doors moment in a Dickins & Jones window display, supporting the Shadows at the 2I’s coffee bar in ‘59, writing Songbird, the forgotten years of Kiln House and two film clips that point up Fleetwood Mac’s luckless mid-‘70s slog with the bank-breaking success to come.

… records you never connected with that suddenly make sense 50 years later.

… the deep-seated, underrated pleasure of ‘Electric Arguments’ by the Fireman (aka Youth and McCartney).

… what your InstaFest line-up reveals about your listening habits.

… and a rare mention of ‘Deed I Do’ by Blossom Dearie!

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Phil Jump tells the story of the legendary Badlands - and the day he took Steve Van Zandt to Brian Jones’s grave Dec 03, 2022

Phil and his brother Steven started a market stall in Cheltenham in the mid-‘80s and made enough money selling rare records to open the world-famous Badlands (now occupying three floors of an old coach house). It’s been thriving ever since specialising in Springsteen and Dylan, collectible vinyl, books and box-sets and branching out into concert package tours all over Europe. Here he talks about the first records he ever bought, XTC at Cheltenham Town Hall, the cassette and CD booms, the return of vinyl, new threats to the record shop world, taking Steve Van Zandt round Cheltenham (in full Little Steven attire) and the Greatest Record Ever Made.

https://badlands.co.uk/

@BadlandsUK

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A farewell to Wilko – “Dr Feelgood didn’t play the music, the music played them.” Nov 28, 2022

… in which we remember watching and talking to the magnificent Wilko Johnson and look back at extraordinary moments in his life – the hippie trail to India, his appearance on Question Time, the three albums the Feelgoods made in a year, how they discovered what made them unique and the effect on everyone from Television to the Clash, Gang of Four, Blur and Franz Ferdinand of the band “who could start a fight in an empty room”.

Plus … Pet Shop Boys on the Archers.

… the 40th anniversary of Thriller and Quincy Jones’ speech about how “we’re here to save the music business”.

… the extraordinary - possiby incendiary - story of Bob Dylan and the faked autographs.

… Lil Peep, Lil Flip, Lil Plum, Lil Dicky … spot the fictional rapper!

... and birthday guest Kevin Walsh on why everyone should hear ‘Electric Arguments’ by the Fireman (aka McCartney and Youth).

And here’s our Word podcast with Wilko Johnson (plus guitar) from 2010 …

https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/5fe229acf896715ee83196ea

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Kenneth Womack – author of 12 Beatles books – dives “back through the looking glass” Nov 27, 2022

Ken’s a world authority and he’s been on the pod twice before, talking about his books about George Martin and the last days of John Lennon. He’s just revised and updated the one he wrote in 2007, ‘Long And Winding Roads’, partly to add new observations and material, especially in the light of Peter Jackson’s Get Back, and partly because the beleaguered world now needs the Beatles more than ever. It’s written like a literary biography, as much about the art as the story. This covers the waterfront - thoughts about their deal with EMI, pivotal events in their trajectory, the recent re-evaluation of McCartney (“the convenor”), the gorgeous “guitar embroideries in the margins of their music”, the key role of Mal Evans (“found crying in McCartney’s garden when he heard it was all over”), the artistic touchstones of I Am The Walrus and the sheer and comforting delight in hearing the Beatles’ music - “returning to the font” - when the world finds itself in times of trouble. As well as being a writer and historian, Ken is Professor of Popular Music at Monmouth University in New Jersey and you’d kill to be in his class. The revamped ‘Long And Winding Roads: the Evolving Artistry of The Beatles’ is just out and he’s working on a new book about Mal Evans which should appear in June 2023.

Long And Winding Roads …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Winding-Roads-Evolving-Artistry/dp/0826417469

The Mal Evans book ...

https://kennethwomack.com/mal-evans-the-biography-archives/

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If you could only listen to one act all week who would you choose? Nov 23, 2022

Further free-wheeling conversational detours include …

… “like the consequences of mating Patti Smith with a Hoover vacuum cleaner”: barbed reviews in the Rolling Stone Record Guide.

… ‘Bowie and Bing in a bauble’? The Taylor Swift ‘Merry Swiftmas’ t-shirt? Real or fictional Christmas accessories.

… the four tracks by women - and there are only four! – among the 66 records Bob Dylan considers in The Philosophy Of Modern Song.

… “and any eye for detail caught a little lace along the seams”: exquisite descriptions of clothes in Joni Mitchell songs.

… the NME Encyclopedia Of Rock revisited, that well-thumbed, much-loved and indispensable bible from the world before the internet.

… who were Sons of Champlin, the Butts Band and Michael Fennelly?

… magnificent rock books, Nik Cohn’s A Wop Bop A Loo Bop A Lop Bam Boom and Barney Hoskyns’ Hotel California among them.

… and playing Mozart on a ukulele. Plus birthday guest Simon Poulter.

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Dylan’s love letters and the one album that never lets you down Nov 17, 2022

Things run up the flagpole this week in pursuit of entertainment …

… Irish/American punk rock group or 19th Century criminal gang?

… the eternal dependability of the first Stones album.

… does ANYONE not like ska?

…. seven “legends” you can still see for under £30.

... the now-for-sale cache of ‘50s love letters by a besotted Bob Dylan (and would you want anyone reading your teenage correspondence?).

… the story of Bill Wyman trying to leave the Stones 30 years ago and the rest of them refusing to take him seriously.

… do audio books with a stellar cast really work?

… why Elvis and the Beatles never did encores.

… butt-dialling Boo Hewerdine.

… and if you want to know why rock stars keep in touring read ‘No More Champagne: Winston Churchill And His Money’.

… plus birthday guests Mike Sketch and Peter Petyt.

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Twitter and World Cup chaos, Jaco Pastorius, gruesome 18th C combat and other matters of high import Nov 09, 2022

On the radar this week in an enquiring, celebratory or goat-getting capacity …

… has the World Cup balloon already been unmendably punctured?

… and is the same thing happening to Twitter?

… “if social media had come along earlier would Sergeant Pepper exist?”

… Richard Osman-created fictional sleuth or rock stars’ real names: you decide.

… a chance meeting with Jaco Pastorius.

… speaker-testing moments of bass guitar brilliance.

… the general public armed with a mouse are infinitely crueller and more aggressive than the very worst journalists: discuss.

… plus two thousand years of gruesome mortal combat.

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Trevor Horn’s adventures in modern recording with ABC, Frankie, Yes and Rod Stewart Nov 04, 2022

The teenage Trevor Horn could be found playing bass in dance bands on the Top Rank circuit supporting acts like Tommy Cooper (and singing Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and Hi-Ho Silver Lining). He began writing songs for Tina Charles, had a worldwide hit with Buggles and went on to produce Dollar, ABC, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Malcolm McLaren, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys and countless others. In this terrific exchange he talks about life in covers bands (“big money, £150 a week”), how the Fairlight changed the landscape, the diplomacy all producers require, his “pictorial sense” of how ABC should sound, his regrets about Frankie, bands’ paranoia about their record companies, Rod Stewart and the “farting post”, why he’d like to work with Bob Dylan and the drama of making Owner Of A Lonely Heart. Worth it for his uncanny impersonations of Dylan and Rod Stewart alone, and further stories from his just-out memoir ‘Adventures in Modern Recording: From ABC to ZTT’.

Which you can buy here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Modern-Recording-ABC-ZTT/dp/178870603X

@Trevor_Horn_

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Farewell Jerry Lee Lewis and is ‘Talking Book’ the most influential record ever made? Nov 01, 2022

… in which we remember the luminous music and diabolical life of the last of the old rock and roll guard standing. And this includes … the weird old America he came from (backwoods country, religious sects with their transporting songs), the career-cancelling British tour in 1958, the electrifying Live at The Star Club album, the Steve Allen Show breakthrough and the Seven Wives of Jerry Lee Lewis. Much to applaud, much to deplore.

… and some of his deathless lyrics eg ‘39 And Holding’ – ‘Dim lights hide the mileage line/ Clairol hides the grey/ And he won't mention anything to give his old age away’.

Stevie Wonder’s ‘Talking Book’ was released 50 years ago this week. How did it change the landscape of electronic music forever?

Jockstrap, First Aid Kit, Dry Cleaning, Small Feet, Thermos and Diarrhea Planet. One of these is not a real band. But which?

The new ‘Revolver’ remix. A technological masterpiece but don’t we prefer music to sound the way we first heard it on the equipment at the time?

The Giles Fraser parlour game. You have to go back to school and can appoint all the staff yourself but they have to be from the music world. Who’s headmistress (Dolly Parton? Annie Lennox?). Head of Art (Ferry? Eno?). Head of English (Richard Thompson?). Head of Science (Tom Dolby?). Matron (Clare Grogan? Lulu?).

Plus birthday guests Giles Fraser and Ian Martin and new patrons recast as TV presenters.

Jerry Lee Lewis on the Steve Allen Show in 1957: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw7SBF-35Es

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Why did Sheila Rock walk out of a New Order shoot? Oct 28, 2022

Sheila’s portraits of ‘80s musicians and the club circuit filled the pages of magazines like the Face and Smash Hits at the time and now feature in her book ‘80s: Sound And Vision’. You’ll know a few from album sleeves too. She talks here about some favourites – Nick Logan in the Face office, Bryan Ferry, Bowie with Marc Bolan, Martin Fry in the famous gold lamé suit, Siouxsie in ‘Japanese chic’, Steve Strange and the day Frankie Goes To Hollywood turned up dressed as cowboys and swinging a lasso. The description of Leigh Bowery bursting out of a cab, festooned with piercings and painted blue, is worth the price of admission alone.

‘80s: Sound and Vision’ by Sheila Rock …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/80s-Sound-Vision-Nilgin-Yusuf/dp/0711278776

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What’s the connection between Liz Truss, Bruce Springsteen and Revolver? Oct 27, 2022

In the crosshairs this week …

Sampha, Skepta? Mercury Prize winner or Italian sports-shoe brand?

Was Revolver really the Beatles’ most “consequential” album?

James Corden v Balthazar: fame in the age of social media.

Liz Truss, Steven Gerrard, Bruce Springsteen and knowing “what it’s like to have failed with the whole world looking on”.

Danny Baker’s selling 12,000 records: unsettling life-stage moments when you put your foot on the ball and look around the pitch.

The joy of old books and finding pencil marks in the margin by other readers.

Noel Coward in ‘In Which We Serve’ and were the Mountbattens “the orginal hot couple”?

… and Simon Sebag Montefiore’s brilliant 213-song playlist of songs to accompany his new book “The World: A Family History” …

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0bXOS1k3hGKmfQCmbg21W4?si=CbdtROxeQie0rZyg_KA-SQ&nd=1

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Craig Brown - our greatest living satirist – has a theory about Keith Richards Oct 26, 2022

Craig was on the pod last year talking about his glorious Beatles book ‘One Two Three Four’ and he’s just published a collection of his writing called ‘Haywire: the Best of Craig Brown’ – Private Eye diaries, columns, reviews, essays and other assorted comic gems. It’s very good indeed. “Satirists,” he reminds you, “are on the side of things going wrong.” Here are just a few of the topics that stumble into view in this very funny and illuminating ramble – John Stonehouse, the strange life of Arthur Lowe, “all entertainers are disturbed”, Bruce Springsteen as dictatorial bandleader, Liz Truss’s speech patterns, meeting people he’s lampooned in print, Kenneth Williams, Bruce Robinson’s preposterous Jack the Ripper book and how Lieutenant Pigeon is anagram (but of what?).

Buy ‘Haywire: the Best Of Craig Brown’ and his other wonderful books here … https://www.amazon.co.uk/Craig-Brown/e/B001HCVLIU%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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Simon Sebag Montefiore knows the five best songs about history ever written Oct 24, 2022

One of them is Sympathy For The Devil. The Stranglers are in the Top Five too, as are the Strawbs. The best-selling historian and documentary-maker has spent the last three years working on his monumental, all-encompassing new book, ‘The World: A Family History’, much of it hammered out to the sound of very loud music. And he’s made a playlist to accompany it that connects with this vast human drama – Billie Holiday, Billy Bragg, Ava Max and Elvis Costello all in the mix.

He talks here about songwriters who are obsessed with history (Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen, Dylan, Elton John), global events immortalised in song (“he got an ice pick that made his ears burn”) and about hangmen and papists, murderous 15th Century Moroccan pirate-queens, the “underrated” Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and the mystery of “the great Elmyra”. It’s well worth a listen. And do send suggestions for any other great pop songs about history he could include.

Simon’s playlist for ‘The World’ …

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0bXOS1k3hGKmfQCmbg21W4?si=CbdtROxeQie0rZyg_KA-SQ&nd=1

Order ‘The World’ here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3ASimon+Sebag+Montefiore

http://www.simonsebagmontefiore.com/

@simonmontefiore

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All of your rock heroes have had work done Oct 19, 2022

In which we waspishly suggest the odd nip and tuck is now standard practice - and name a few obvious suspects. And alight upon …

… Nick Hornby’s new book and the connections he’s found between Dickens and Prince.

… support acts we’ve seen who became household names.

… David’s dinner with Jess Phillips MP and what happened the day JK Rowling got a tour of the House of Commons.

… the former hospital orderly who walked into Muscle Shoals studios and had a worldwide hit with his first recording.

… the real identities of S. Flavius Mercurius and Bijou Drains.

… the all-round wonderfulness of the London Palladium.

… extracts from Bob Dylan’s new book and some of the songs he’ll be exploring.

… and a query from birthday guest Cathal Chu.

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King Crimson, Dave Vanian’s shoe and seeing one of the world’s most famous women on a train Oct 12, 2022

Things picked up by the ankles this week and given a light shaking to see what falls out of their pockets …

… why King Crimson is like no other band on God’s green earth.

... a sweet story about a Let It Rock writer David's just met at a book event.

… a McCartney Stackwaddy game.

… when did rock souvenir posters become a thing?

... why Robert Crumb didn’t apologise.

... how we scored on the new life Questionnaire.

… “the longer I practice, the luckier I get”.

… Burke Shelley, poet laureate.

… and an almost encounter with Colin Firth.

Plus birthday guests Paul Cook and Steve Cadman.

These are Paul Cook’s excellent Furlough Fashion posts and videos …

https://furloughfashion.co.uk/

And a trailer for the new King Crimson doc ...

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4222272025/?playlistId=tt10148150&ref_=vp_rv_2

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50 years of Nuggets, Ian Brown’s karaoke and is there a band name worse than Jealous Nostril? Oct 05, 2022

Things given a grilling this week in hot pursuit of revelation and entertainment …

.. would YOU pay £45 to see Ian Brown and some backing tracks?

… the life of the late Joe Bussard, collector of 25,000 78s “who partied like it was 1929”. Joe thought real jazz ended in 1933 and the last great country record was Jimmy Murphy’s I’m Looking For A Mustard Patch. We love this man.

... career-shrinking band names.

… Chunkz, Pieface and the Beast: new adventures in stadium-filling entertainment.

… is Nuggets the most famous and influential compilation ever released?

… best albums of cover versions – among them Moondog Matinee, the Seeger Sessions, Irish Heartbeat, McCartney’s Back In The USSR, Pin-Ups, These Foolish Things.

… Paul Scholes meets Gary Neville.

… rock stars separated by a single letter.

… and more songs about seagulls and chips.

A short film about Joe Bussard here …

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OPhtR09p6zM&feature=share&utm_source=EKLEiJECCKjOmKnC5IiRIQ

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/arts/a-loving-obsession-with-oldtime-jazz.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Desperate Man Blues …

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375702/

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Hilary Mantel, Zappa track or ad slogan and the day Beefheart sold Aldous Huxley a vacuum-cleaner Sep 28, 2022

In powerful pursuit of amusement and distraction we aim the piercing supertrouper of scrutiny this week in the direction of …

… why Ry Cooder MUST write a memoir.

… records that sounded like nothing you’d ever heard before, eg the Message by Grandmaster Flash and Donna Summer’s I Feel Love.

... nighttime footage of the State Funeral rehearsal.

… why ‘Delhi Crime’ on TV makes the Wire’s Baltimore look like Stoke Poges.

… dinner with the “fantastically indiscreet” Tony King.

… why Hilary Mantel was such a phenomenal writer – and an extract that demonstrates it.

… the return of the Stackwaddy game: James Brown/Frank Zappa track or advertising slogan?

… Beefheart selling Aldous Huxley a vacuum cleaner.

Plus … birthday patron Ed Newman beams in from his shift at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary with thoughts about Ravel’s Bolero, Dylan and Beatles podcasts and an inspired music book idea with a medical twist that someone must – MUST! – publish!

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Our farewell to the most famous person in the world (and the story of a brief encounter) Sep 09, 2022

The Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights, the radio played “music for a solemn occasion” and this week’s pod is a reflection about the woman who’s been Queen all our lives (and we’re old enough to remember the national anthem being played in cinemas), why she looked so heroically bored, her diplomatic approach to clapping, whether she viewed life “through binoculars held the wrong way round” and how hard it will be – and how long it will take - to adjust to a world without her. And the wonderful tale of Dave’s personal wave.

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You’re not going to Duran Duran’s Halloween party dressed like that! Sep 05, 2022

Among the thoughts, theories and assorted old hokey in the firing line this week you will happily find …

… rock biopics someone ought to be making

… memories of Drummie Zeb and Aswad at Nottingham Boat Club

… the time British Forces radio turned down Whitney Houston

… the “awful fat man that spoilt Lady Di’s memorial for everyone”

… the slight return of the Stackwaddy game - Prince’s pseudonyms!

… Louis Armstrong at Batley Variety Club

… Pete Drummond’s hilariously goofy intro to Tim Buckley’s Dream Letter live album

... Townes Van Zandt reissued on 8-track: bizarre technology twist or inspired-but-fictional PR stunt?

... ‘70s festivals that made the tent-torching Reading of 2022 look like a picnic

… why even Pitbull, U2 and Usher are playing residencies in Las Vegas

… the extraordinary early life Anni-Frid of Abba

… movies under construction – Martin Scorsese and the Grateful Dead, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Amy Winehouse

... and a birthday encounter with cornerstone Word In Your Ear supporter Jelltex.

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Celebrity mash-ups! An afternoon with Billy Joel, Ivanka Trump, Bono, Geldof and Rupert Murdoch Aug 31, 2022

Welcome to this week’s pod in which various white-hot topics are brought in for questioning, among them …

… Whatever happened to Dando Shaft?

… Alastair Sim, Terry-Thomas and flowsy saxophones in The Belles of St Trinian’s

… Does it matter if music-making acts are fictitious or that rappers are artificial and produced by computer graphics and AI?

… how many people were in Keith Tippett’s Centipede (the clue’s in the name)?

… Titus Groan and Demon Fuzz

… is there anything the lily-livered music business is prepared to defend?

… puddings delivered by Deliveroo

… Jann Wenner and the caviar spoons

… the ‘greening’ of Reading Festival

… and what kind of sane world allows pop music at hotel breakfasts?

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The horror, the horror! Why you MUST see the new Woodstock ’99 documentary Aug 10, 2022

In bold and vigorous pursuit of entertainment we steer via the following topics …

… Thora Hird with a rifle.

… acts who wrote rejected songs for Bond movies.

… the legend of Van Duren.

… hilariously awful revelations about the private plane use of Taylor Swift, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg etc on @CelebJets.

… is pop music now largely about an old thing re-discovered?

… the late Judith Durham of the Seekers and other great ‘stirring’ voices of our time.

… a record we haven’t played for 44 years.

… Beyoncé and her re-written lyric (and can it really need 25 people to write a song?).

… exploding gas cylinders, toppled lighting towers, mass arson and looting, State troopers … the new Netflix three-part doc ‘Trainwreck: Woodstock 99’, the gripping – genuinely shocking – chronicle of one of the lowest points in entertainment history.

… and BJ Cole in an ale shop.

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In praise of Bernard Cribbins, Clive James and the noble art of guitar-smashing Aug 03, 2022

Our weekly stroll through the sunlit uplands of rock and roll visits the following topics …

… Bob Dylan’s worst lyrics

… musicians in movies, actors who made albums (Judi Dench?) and the slight return of the Stackwaddy game

… why Hole in The Ground is the greatest comedy record ever made, plus the staggering versatility of Bernard Cribbins

… the contents of the basket at the beginning of Two-Way Stretch

… the incomparable comic genius of Clive James

… the achingly self-conscious Barack Obama summer reading and playlist. Kendrick Lamar? Bad Bunny & Bomba Estéreo? You sure?

… the night at the Railway Tavern in 1964 that Pete Townshend accidently invented “auto-destruction”

… and live consumption of fruity summer ale from the Ink Spot micropub in Newbiggin by the Sea (thanks to Simon and Ange).

‘Hole In The Ground’ by Bernard Cribbins …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-JVnlB7Onk

The Ink Spot microbrewery …

https://www.theinkspot49.co.uk/

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Why half the people at a gig don't really want to be there Jul 24, 2022

While Mark Ellen is away in his French chateau, David Hepworth goes off on one about Bruce Springsteen tours and why you can't use "dynamic pricing" in the world of live music and why the concert-going audience can always be divided into the bringer and the brung.

Plus Alex Gold explains why he chose to go to southern Italy in the middle of an unprecedented heat wave with not one but two pairs of Doc Martens while also throwing light on the eternal mystery of why young men will put up with discomfort and privation on a medieval scale as long as they're in a band.

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Dave Grohl reaches ‘Meldrew age’, Be Here Now’s 25th birthday and the sex life of Dave Davies Jul 21, 2022

In which we paddle our conversational canoe through the rock and roll backwaters, stopping off this week at …

… the closure of Word magazine ten years ago and what we miss – and don’t miss - about it.

… who in their right mind in this day and age would possibly want to be famous?

… Bruce Findlay, the country’s only famous record store owner.

… the energetic sexual activities of Dave Davies in his new memoir and the uniquely mid-‘60s British concept of ‘kinkiness’.

… Dave Grohl reaches ‘the Meldrew Point’ – as old as Richard Wilson when he first played Victor Meldrew (who was a year older than Wilfred Brambell when he played Paul’s grandad).

.. the documentary someone should make about the Rubettes.

… Manny Charlton of Nazareth RIP and the bizarre pop fact that one of their biggest hits was a Joni Mitchell cover.

… handcuffed men in court for stealing rare Eagles artefacts.

… whether the legendarily awful Be Here Now album deserves a gentler appraisal 25 years later. Don’t forget it starts with “a minute of helicopter noise and morse code”.

… and birthday patron Allan Williams’ collection of Hipgnosis album sleeves – paging Picnic, Helloe’en and Music From Free Creek!

You can buy Dave Davies’ memoir Living On A Thin Line here …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Thin-Line-Dave-Davies/dp/1472289773

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How much of ‘Indie’ is just shoes and hair? Jul 11, 2022

High in the conversational mix this week …

… the return the Stackwaddy game! - do Ben & Jerry’s do a Bohemian Raspberry? Are there really Apple Music genres called Pillow Talk and Countrypolitan?

… Errol Flynn and his dachshund water-skiing.

… James Caan’s opening scene in Misery.

… is Nick Kyrgios the first ‘rap’ tennis star?

… why ‘Indie’ doesn’t tolerate non-conformity (or success) – plus Razorlight and other bands who let you down.

… bizarre combinations of celebrities we’ve bumped into at the BBC – eg Ronnie Corbett and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

.. the vital importance of communal suffering at rock festivals.

… and can you get your money’s worth from a £1.5m one-off original Bob Dylan musical ‘artwork’?

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Chris Blackwell remembers the “underdogs, rejects and misfits” he signed to Island Records Jul 08, 2022

Nearly every Island act seemed impossibly hip, characterful and charismatic and much of that was down to the vision and long-term belief of the man who founded the label and ran it for 30 years. Chris Blackwell beams in from Goldeneye, the Ian Fleming estate he bought in Jamaica, to remember Errol Flynn and his dachshund waterskiing, the wit and charm of Noel Coward, record-buying trips for the local jukeboxes and sound-systems and the story of Millie’s My Boy Lollipop, and talks about his relationship with Free, Traffic, Tom Waits, U2 and Roxy Music (also the ones that got away like Madonna). At one point he explains how he and Bob Marley modified Jamaican reggae to give it international appeal and there’s a great moment where he relives the overpowering effect of first hearing Trevor Horn’s production of Two Tribes. Chris’s memoir The Islander is published by Bonnier Books.

The Islander by Chris Blackwell …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Islander-My-Life-Music-Beyond/dp/1788705750\1

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Danny Baker and Graham Gouldman at our live McCartney 80th birthday special! Jul 04, 2022

On June 18, along with four guests, we held a party for Paul McCartney on his 80th in front of a big crowd in the magical tented arena at Opera Holland Park in West London. This was a lot of fun from start to finish, fond memories, forgotten songs, new angles, personal meetings, fresh theories and fascinating unknown tales.

In this second part of the show Danny Baker talks about a lost masterpiece, does the McCartney walk, fights the corner for some of his least loved songs, puts him in perspective, sings impressively and tells the Besame Mucho/TFI Friday story.

And our last guest is Graham Gouldman who was writing big hits for the Hollies, the Yardbirds and many others in the ‘60s before he co-founded 10cc. How did songwriters react to a new Beatles single? What did he nick from Things We Said Today? What are the McCartney signatures? How is it humanly possible to play those bass parts and sing at the same time?

This episode comes rammed with revelations about McCartney’s life and songs and what he’s meant to us over the years.

Part One - https://shows.acast.com/word-in-your-ear-2/episodes/word-podcast-459-word-in-the-park-1 - features the broadcaster Geoff Lloyd and the writer Andy Miller.

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Paul McCartney in the Park: our 80th birthday special (Part One!) Jul 02, 2022

On June 18 we laid on a celebration of all things McCartney on his 80th in the magical tented arena at Opera Holland Park in West London. People came from all corners of the globe. It turned out to be a feast of fond memories, forgotten songs, fresh perspectives, personal encounters, original theories and fascinating unknown tales.

In this first half, David and Mark talk to the broadcaster Geoff Lloyd – who once had him on his radio show and gave him random instruments to see if he could get a tune out of them and part-written songs to finish off. Geoff was born in ‘73 and pieced together the McCartney story via an interesting route. His account of meeting him is electrifying.

Our second guest is the writer, star of the literary world and co-host of the Backlisted podcast Andy Miller, onstage wearing very special McCartney-related clothes for a very special reason. Like all of us, he watched Get Back and was astonished by what he learnt about the way the band worked.

Also in this episode… the effect of All My Loving on a 13 year-old, what our parents thought of the Beatles, Cynthia Lennon’s lost letter and four of our favourite songs and why.

Find a sunhat, fix a cold drink, pull up an imaginary deckchair and get stuck in …

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What links The Day Of The Jackal, Supertramp, the Sun and James Callaghan? Jun 28, 2022

Appetising items on our lavish tray of conversational hors d'oeuvres this week include:-

Billie Eilish, 20, (“the youngest at headliner at Glastonbury”) and pop stars who started even younger – “Little” Stevie Winwood, Stevie Wonder, Ranking Roger, Annabella Lwin, Alex Chilton and Peter Frampton.

“The poison of criminal violence and gang warfare” (supposedly Brighton in 1948) and other highlights of Brighton Rock.

The Stones – what they heard when the screaming stopped and the Hyde Park show 53 years ago.

Kate Bush on Woman’s Hour.

Found in the attic: an old copy of Smash Hits from 1982 and the rich variety on offer - the Belle Stars, Monsoon, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, The Teardrop Explodes on a bill with Queen, Vic Godard goes swing, Scritti Politti, Neil Tennant on Hambi & The Dance.

A did-they-play-day-or-night-at-Woodstock parlour game.

TLC v Sam Fender in the Glastonbury highlights. One of them was "monumentally boring".

Famous quotes that were invented – “Let them eat cake”, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes on”, “Ringo isn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles” etc.

… and the winner(s) of this month’s quiz.

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The new Elvis movie and why we loved it Jun 20, 2022

Among the things of great import we ran up the flagpole this week:-

Why Baz Lurhmann’s new movie will do for Elvis what Get Back’s done for the Beatles.

Highlights of our Word In Your Park show – what happened on Geoff Lloyd’s McCartney radio special involving a flugelhorn? What was Andy Miller wearing and why? What obscure McCartney track did Danny Baker say was a masterpiece? What did Graham Gouldman nick from Things We Said Today when writing hits for the Hollies?

The John Peel auction and the prices people paid for an Oz Obscenity Trial vest, copies of Sniffin’ Glue and a postcard from John Lennon.

Is punk the new pop memorabilia sweet spot?

Why gigs are getting longer.

How music hall shaped the first pop package tours.

Dads and daughters at concerts.

Plus patron birthday guest Andrew Stocks and a Fava’s Day gift from Keith Adsley.

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Why music is largely about everything but music Jun 14, 2022

Topics off the leash this week include …

The Talent v Charisma pie chart you can apply to any act.

“Double-concentrated Liam” versus “diluted Noel”, an update on the Oasis land-grab.

A second helping of the “Pete Doherty swaps crack for Camembert” story.

Liverpool taxi-driver, 25, claims to have never heard of the Rolling Stones: could this be possible?

Pop stars infinitely older (or younger) than you imagined.

Learning to speak fluent tabloid – “the Here Comes The Sun hit-makers”, “the Paint It Black chart-busters” etc …

Marc Bolan is a “thin” concept. Bolan + Pies/Booze doesn’t work.

Plus Petula Clark, Andy Summers, Japan, Michael Owen and Toni Basil.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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Jeff Beck, Johnny Depp and how to ‘rockwash’ your tarnished reputation Jun 07, 2022

We give the week a spirited shakedown to see what falls out of its pockets. And this includes …

The late Ronnie Hawkins – road hog, stunt diver, bootleg liquor smuggler!

Who’s the only original rock and roller now still alive?

If you went to see Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp lumbered on to “jam”, how monumentally hacked off would you be?

Kiss have handed in their lunchpails and eyebrow pencils. Shouldn’t more hoary old rock acts “retire out of self-respect”?

What Danny Boyle’s Pistol mini-series explains about the band’s urge to succeed – and its corniest moments revisited.

Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga ... any other musicians who cut it on-screen?

What are the great songs about communal experience along with Thanks For The Memory, I Will Survive, Born To Run, Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) and Airhead’s Funny How?

What Americans call “hiking” we call “walking”.

Sir Tim Rice, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Ian Rankin … our expanding list of beknighted podcast guests.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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Has any actor played a rock star convincingly? May 31, 2022

Framed in the piercing super-trouper of perusal this week …

The highs and lows of Danny Boyle’s new Sex Pistols biopic.

The best in-car music for road trips (Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Rufus Wainwright …).

How do Thom Yorke’s children feel about their father’s brilliant new album (the Smile) still sounding like the work of a bleating teenager?

The late Alan White (of Yes), a working drummer since the age of 13.

Has social media destroyed the celebrity interview by revealing how star-struck we all are?

The joy of never googling an artist and allowing them to remain a glorious mystery.

The unusual position in Depeche Mode occupied by Andy Fletcher.

Can classical musicians understand pop music?

When Pink Floyd met Yehudi Menuhin.

The Common ground between cricket and Spinal Tap.

Irritating scenes in the new Operation Mincemeat movie.

… and birthday patreon guests Ann Kember, Paul Thompson and Ray Roscoe.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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You spent HOW MUCH on speakers? May 23, 2022

This week we've been mainly talking about....

Could The Smile be the first side-project to eclipse the mothership?

Is the kitchen the place we mainly listen to music these days?

Bob Neuwirth - the man who helped Dylan become Dylan

Vangelis - the man whose music was more famous than the film

Why do American newspapers make pop records sound as dull as set books?

Here's friend of the pod Owen Parker.

https://www.owenparker.co.uk

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Can bands still “sell out”? - plus 50 years of Exile On Main Street and RIP the iPod May 17, 2022

Entertainments, thrills and diversions at the end of the rock and roll seaside pier this week include …

Things we want to see in a Bob Dylan museum.

Why the upcoming Spinal Tap sequel fills us with excitement and dread in equal measure.

The pub in Cornwall that Vogue magazine tried to sue.

Is ‘Exile’ the best Stones album or just their most fashionable? And a new book about Nellcôte – “urchins living in wealth and splendour”.

The brief return of the Stackwaddy game - Springsteen or Taylor Swift lyric? YOU be the judge!

The fizzing cacophony of the Smash Hits office.

Why do most TV series (apart from Breaking Bad) start well and fizzle out?

A trailer for ‘The Curious Chronicles of Villa Nellcôte’ by Geir Hornes here …

http://www.nellcotechronicles.com

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The world’s rarest records and the sartorial splendour of the satin tour jacket May 12, 2022

The dazzling super trouper of gentle enquiry is trained this week upon:-

Our recent encounter with John Lydon – his high viz shirt, his smoking habit and his usefully commercial righteous indignation about the upcoming Danny Boyle-directed ‘Pistol’ TV series.

Why Spinal Tap was a blessing and a curse for their real-life drummer Ric Parnell (RIP).

The magnificent bucolic frolic held in the memory of the Old Grey Whistle Test producer Mike Appleton.

The sad fate of Jackie Wilson.

The “pleasant illness” of record collecting.

Musicians who died onstage.

Why comedians might start to need bodyguards

The curious meaning of a “stone fox chase”.

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Kate Rusby (12) bought Bon Jovi tapes on hire purchase from Casa Disco in Barnsley May 11, 2022

Folk deity, songwriter and festival figurehead, Kate Rusby was raised on Planxty and De Dannan but staged a rebellion with Smash Hits and “storytelling songs” by A-ha. High in the mix in this splendid pod are “people who sing like a bird”, Nanci Griffith, Nic Jones’ Penguin Eggs, being on Top Of The Pops with Ronan Keating, “2p bus rides anywhere in Yorkshire”, Lyle Lovett, stage fright in Hyde Park, winning a folk competition aged 15, Dan Tyminski as George Clooney and why she’s evangelical about Bob Fox and Stu Luckly.

30th Anniversary album …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/30-Happy-Returns-Kate-Rusby/dp/B09VPMYB1F

Tour dates …

https://katerusby.com/gigs/

Underneath the Stars Festival …

https://underneaththestarsfest.co.uk/

https://katerusby.com/

@katerusby

Tickets for Word In The Park on Saturday June 18th in London here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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It’s our fantasy seven-decade Queen’s Jubilee line -up! May 03, 2022

… which may or may not feature Noel Coward, Slade, the KLF and the Spice Girls.

Other key items in pursuit of entertainment this week include:-

When did British pop turn female?

The glorious notion that boyfriends who don’t work out are “Near Mrs”.

The best band this decade! (clue: it’s Wet Leg).

The endlessly rewatchable qualities of Moneyball and The Big Short.

Cary Grant: “All men want to be Cary Grant? I want to be Cary Grant!”

The singular magic of the Hot Club of Cowtown.

Who invented the term “rock and roll”?

Who bought a song called Real Ugly Woman from the teenage Leiber & Stoller?

Band members who slept with each other.

Alan Freed being sued by Moondog.

And the certifiable fact that only one person was ever better as a solo artist than in their original band (and we name him).

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You’re either a t-shirt act or a non t-shirt act: discuss Apr 26, 2022

White-hot topics examined this week include:-

The sweeping return of Britpop (Shed Seven, Reverend and the Makers, how did they get so huge?)

Has Nick Mason won Pink Floyd? Has Liam Gallagher won Oasis?

Record shops that shaped our lives like the Record Bar in Wakefield.

The amazing Nick Cave merchandise range (now encompassing tea-sets, crockery, tiles, wallpaper, jewellery and “the Warren Ellis Pure Exploitation Egg Cup”).

What Frank Sinatra claimed was a “filthy Communist lie”.

Is there a better chronicler of the shades of middle age than Nick Lowe?

Can the current Little Feat line-up really be called Little Feat?

Acts that stand for something.

Happy 40th birthday to Moon Zappa’s Valley Girl!

Is there a more irritating adjective than “awesome”?

‘Dogs with fleas, allergies/A book of Greek antiquities …’

Plus birthday patron John Montagna gets to call a meeting.

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Which band played the Old Grey Whistle Test and was then completely forgotten? Apr 22, 2022

Among the key questions being booted round the block this week in hot pursuit of entertainment:-

Why is the billing of the Rolling Stones as just “Stones” on the current tour posters a monstrous affront to human decency?

Why are Mozart and PG Wodehouse “like two peas in a pod”?

Is there a better literary simile than “the drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded like GK Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin”?

Would pub rock, punk and the ‘80s club boom have ever happened if it hadn’t been for the mighty Time Out?

What’s the howling error in all the Battle of Britain movies?

And what pitiful fee did Yvonne Elliman choose to accept instead of royalties for the Jesus Christ Superstar album?

And birthday patron guest Stephen Lambe has a couple of questions for the panel.

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Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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‘Streaming Killed the Skit Track’ plus Toastface Grillah and the Sgt Peppermill Apr 13, 2022

Among the delights this week:-

Pink Floyd’s single for Ukraine (the best peace anthem ever?) and the song Bruce Springsteen played the night Saddam Hussein’s statue came down in Baghdad.

A man who has 227 Kiss albums.

Warners’ talent scout Andy Wickham (RIP), the house hippy who opened the door for Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Gram Parsons and a-ha (a movie waiting to happen).

The members of Big In Japan (a book and documentary waiting to happen).

The snack bar Brimful Of Rasher, the Greek restaurant I Should Be Souvlaki and other sparkling retail puns.

The welcome return of “What gets my goat?”

And birthday patron Chuck Loncon on the comedy classics of Kinky Friedman and Bob Newhart.

--------

Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox singing the WW1 folk protest song "The Red Viburnum In The Meadow" by St Sofia Cathedral in central Kyiv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYpOrwksgbA

Pink Floyd’s video for Hey Hey Rise Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saEpkcVi1d4

--------

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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We spot Will “Slapper” Smith’s biggest mistake at the Oscars and salute Ben Sidran’s foot Apr 04, 2022

Will Smith did something at the Academy Awards which showed what he cared about most - did you notice it too? Our blow-by-blow account of the moment everyone missed.

* Plus … a man who has 25 Big Country albums (and other unlikey acts whose records we obsessively collect).

* Is there any band still going after 50 years with more original members than Roxy Music?

* The enduring joy of Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp! and Night And Day.

* And the kind of thing they let you put on an album cover 50 years ago.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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No Top Of The Pops. No NME or Smash Hits covers. What do bands dream of now? Mar 28, 2022

In which we salute the charismatic Taylor Hawkins – and the magnetic appeal of brothers in arms (Taylor & Dave, Pete and Carl, Bruce and Clarence, John and Paul) - invent some rock and roll retirement homes (Itchycoo Park, Barrytown, In The Land Of Grey And Pink), stage an album sleeve style-off and wonder if ‘80s hair will ever make a comeback. Other things mentioned in despatches include Cruising With Ruben & the Jets, the Wailing Wailers, Broadcast News, Working Girl and whether Strawberry Switchblade and Pete Wylie have their Smash Hits covers on their living room walls.

Steve Lamacq’s Drumming Masterclass with Taylor Hawkins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwjEc8S0PRo

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on Saturday June 18th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/were-throwing-a-party-for-paul-mccartneys-80th-and-youre-invited-tickets-259008229587

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How did ‘New Boots And Panties!!’ get released without a parental advisory sticker? Mar 24, 2022

Entertaining things subjected to wry and rigorous scrutiny this week include:-

* The most bizarre and tenuous rock autobiographies – eg the tell-all revelations of Elvis Presley’s nurse, Primal Scream’s tambourine player, Sinatra’s valet and the girl who made John Lennon a cheese sandwich.

* How Roger Daltrey wound up living in a van.

* Aimee Mann v Steely Dan and the curious world of support acts.

* Would you rather see a “legend” or the next big thing?

* The noble tradition of song stealing in reggae.

* “Your bus leaves in ten minutes, be under it!” and other inspired ways of dealing with hecklers.

* If you mailed a letter to 'Andy Partridge, Swindon' or 'Rod Stewart, Essex', would they get it?

* And Dolly Parton’s dignified escape from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Plus there’s a ceremonial reading of Bono’s piss-poor poem about Ukraine.

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There’s only been one truly original group and we know who they are Mar 14, 2022

Have you ever heard a band but couldn’t work out where their sound came from? We’re saying: only once. What connects the Sweet’s Blockbuster! to Willie Dixon’s Hoochie Coochie Man? How can Noel Gallagher complain that musicians can’t afford instruments when instruments have never been cheaper? Why is songwriting now like VAR? Has anyone had more preposterous names than the offspring of Grimes and Elon Musk? How did Nile Rodgers transform Let’s Dance? … plus literary theft, smoking in films, Eno’s Music For Airports, Dylan’s new book, NordVPN and the movies you can watch endless times and why (Master And Commander and Brief Encounter among them).

Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going tonordvpn.com/yourear or use the code yourear to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!

And it’s our anniversary! We started our Word In Your Attic Zoomcasts exactly two years ago and we’ve now done 159 of them. Here’s a little taste of what you might have been missing …

Edgar Wright

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUePw4TUvEY

Andy Partridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvQiDJ3vwi0

Shamira Ahmed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6nLk50vR6Y

Bob Geldof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ssIPRMrYzU

Ian Rankin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pawySOxKUAk

Stewart Lee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7lOJUYSY9c&list=PL4BuS5rDGKiPB8-eIUxSPTbajC-l2FyuE&index=141

Laura Barton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD7815zq9yc&list=PL4BuS5rDGKiPB8-eIUxSPTbajC-l2FyuE&index=93

Alexis Petridis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsKuIjlMBrs

Jon Ronson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqiMN2QKVZE&list=PL4BuS5rDGKiPB8-eIUxSPTbajC-l2FyuE&index=159

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Which bands were ALL good–looking? 15 contenders considered... Mar 07, 2022

There’s “pop star good looks” - as opposed to “film star good looks” - and there’s “indie good looks” ... but which acts were a hundred per cent hot? Plus … is there any such thing as an original pop song? How did the Linn Drum make us accept the mechanical? What’s the source of a lot of canned laughter? What was Springsteen’s great act of betrayal? And we explore the benefits of Nord VPN by way of South Korea’s favourite comedy and Peter Sellers and Bernard Cribbins in Two-Way Stretch. And birthday patron Jon Collins gets to call a meeting.

Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going tonordvpn.com/yourear or use the code yourear to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 1 additional month for free + a bonus gift! It’s completely risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!

Maximum pulchritude: the Small Faces and PP Arnold doing Tin Soldier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vWTtx_PxPo

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Why $15m for Britney Spears’ memoir is “a bargain” and the curious tale of A Whiter Shade Of Pale Feb 28, 2022

In which we skip the light fandango through live recordings full of extraneous noise – hecklers on a Lou Reed track, barking dogs on a Joe Henry album, the audience chatter on Bill Evans at the Village Vanguard – remember why Gary Brooker’s voice was so affecting and applaud PJ O’Rourke’s wisdom about the art of childrearing. And turn cartwheels in the direction of a guesthouse run by a member of Horslips, an early sighting of “Little” Stevie Winwood, the Queen track not to play at funerals and a touching encounter with Dave Clark. Plus birthday patron guest Avi Chaudhuri gets to set the agenda.

PJ O’Rourke …

https://youtu.be/n775HebQKMI?t=197

Joe Henry and barking dog …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0KmtMgiTuo

Dylan’s Every Grain Of Sand with barking dog …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPzXz-N1NaM

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Why do all bands seem ludicrous apart from the ones you personally like? Feb 21, 2022

Piping hot topics fondly booted round the park this week include … are any actors ever convincing when playing a famous rock star? Does it matter if movies “based on a true story” are largely fiction? Why David’s never got on with Love’s Forever Changes. Did Entertainment Weekly exist just to provide a pleasant lifestyle for the people who worked on it? Plus … the connection between Captain Beefheart and blue cheese, Eddie Izzard’s drilling cats, memorable art theft, tambourine players in rock and another great story about ‘Under My Thumb’ being played at a wedding reception. And birthday-partying patrons David Carroll and Adrian Ainsworth put their questions to the panel and flag up Japan and ‘Strange Kind of Love’ by Love And Money.

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis …

https://youtu.be/OWi2lFLe4Cg

Inventing Anna …

https://youtu.be/65xa8TG2G8o

The Duke …

https://youtu.be/65xa8TG2G8o

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Does anyone capture the spirit of a place better than Van Morrison’s Belfast? – plus some underrated ‘70s tracks Feb 14, 2022

Among the items for your distraction and entertainment this week … Do people still form bands? The tangled story of the Aqualung artwork. The skull-cracking number of albums released every day. Instructions on record sleeves – “Horslips: “file under reasonably popular”. The Atom Heart Mother cow. The Wagatha Christie legal costs. Art critics’ lofty pronouncements about the fate of “the average band”. The link between the 12-inch sleeve and the shield of the native American warrior. And the thrilling and imminent arrival of David Hepworth’s 4-CD compilation ‘Deep 70s: Underrated Cuts From A Misunderstood Decade’ and the monstrous fun he had compiling it (paging Patto, Sharks, Bridget St John …). Plus birthday patreon guest Nick Foreman calls a meeting.

David Hepworth’s Deep ‘70s compilation …

https://www.demonmusicgroup.co.uk/catalogue/releases/david-hepworth-deep-70s-underrated-cuts-from-a-misunderstood-decade-signed-edition/

https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

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The story of Don Henley’s the Boys of Summer, £10k headphones and ‘I’m Getting Buried In The Morning’ … Feb 08, 2022

In the crosshairs this week … how Mike Campbell’s masterpiece was almost eaten by machinery, who made five great albums in five years?, “a mix is never finished it’s merely abandoned”, Robert Plant at Kidderminster Harriers, hand-written notes from Half Man Half Biscuit, god bless Alex Harvey, the expulsion of the vax-free Woody Woodmansey and birthday guest Keith Adsley explains the Temple of Seitan.

Mike Campbell talks about the Boys Of Summer …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxBYBnPJfGQ

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Morrissey v Marr, Neil Young v Spotify, Albarn v Swift – it’s a Pop Tiffs special! Jan 31, 2022

Who invented the rock spectacle? Has Adele got a touch of Imposter Syndrome? What was Barry Cryer’s gag about the Pretenders? Which bands devised their own mottos? Who’s Floating Points? How did they mic up the bagpipes on the Jeff Beck’s Truth? What the juggins is “paralinguistics”? Where did the Velvet Underground reunion go wrong? Plus a birthday visit from patreon supporter Kevin Rose, aka the manager of Athenlay Park U12.

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The pleasing eccentricities of Jonathan Richman plus Natalie Umbrella-Stand, Christina Aqualibra and “Neil Aspinall: The Movie” Jan 24, 2022

A candlelit episode boldly addressing the burning issues du jour, among which you’ll find … Is old music killing new music?; actors that should play rock stars (Keeley Hawes IS Kirsty MacColl, Martin Freeman IS Noel Gallagher); legendary Procol Harum roadie and whistle-blower Kelloggs; a riot at a Dutch Stones gig in '64; fast songs done as ballads; a roll-call of Smash Hits’ pop nicknames; Magic Alex in a strip club in High Wycombe (cue the old gag “my mother doesn’t know I’m in advertising, I told her I play piano in a brothel”); selling your children to see the Who; roadies who should be immortalised on film; and our advice to the BBC re the licence fee farrago.

https://tedgioia.substack.com/p/is-old-music-killing-new-music

The riot at the Stones’ gig in 1964 …

https://mobile.twitter.com/songsphilosophy/status/1483276093939458048?s=10

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Ronnie Spector, the Day Of The Jackal and why no-one screams at musicians with beards Jan 17, 2022

What’s the difference between “chin music and beard music”? What’s the most you’d pay for a ticket? What happened when the Pope went record shopping? Will the Beatles’ Get Back be used in management instruction videos? What 45s sound good at 33? Who’s the classic Dad Rock band? ... these and other burning issues are addressed in this episode along with Fleetwood Mac: The Rugby Shirt Years, Brian Epstein’s A Cellarful Of Noise and the powerful romantic fantasies of the Ronettes’ first album. Plus self-isolating birthday guest Paul Knox beams in from Hong Kong.

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The inventor of the rock logo and why Rick Wakeman’s owed a fortune Jan 10, 2022

In which we choose a new National Anthem, tell the story of Hamish Grimes and the Clapton graffito, salute the best moments in Frasier and feel the powerful effect of the 'You Can All Join In' sampler on male fashion. Plus … swearing, albums to test your hi-fi and David Hepworth’s fantasy rock band in 1963.

Our Spotify playlist of new National Anthems …

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ZGUB014llDjmDyH1nPK7K?si=ox2lqc5IRW6-c-efaZdKaQ

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The Summer Of Soul movie, Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense and listening to 1,000 albums a year Jan 03, 2022

In which we look at Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, the Staple Singers and Gladys Knight in the fabulous Harlem concert film from 1969. And think what possessions we might bother to keep in a house fire. And wonder if Stop Making Sense is the greatest live performance ever filmed. And talk to someone – birthday patron Andrew Slattery, no less! – who listened to 1,000 albums in 2021. Plus ... Coldplay's recording retirement and the short list of acts who still make good records after 25 years.

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Rock memoirs that need to be written, the Porridge Christmas Special and Hunky Dory’s 50th birthday Dec 19, 2021

In which we salute the comic genius of Ronnie “Fletcher” Barker and Fulton “Mackay” Mackay, fantasise about autobiographies still to come (Neil Tennant, Pet Clark, John Paul Jones, Noel Gallagher), are mildly appalled by the new My Sweet Lord video and play two bracing rounds of Spot the Genuine Christmas single (Beck’s Little Drum-Machine Boy? Half Man Half Biscuit’s Deck The Halls With Buddy Holly?). Gary Chrimble to all, and a gear New Year!

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Mike Nesmith, Don’t You Want Me and Sly Stone’s drum machine Dec 13, 2021

In which we remember the lightness of touch and winning gallows humour of Mike Nesmith and the interesting ways he made and spent his fortunes. And it’s 50 years since There’s A Riot Goin’ On, the most radical record to ever top the US charts, and 40 years since the girls transformed the Human League. Plus Hepworth’s “confessions of an amateur weed smoker”, the less you pay for records the better they are, and the gloriously daft reason ELO’s first album was called “No Answer” in the States. New patrons are literally piped aboard with a bosun’s whistle!

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Alternative Xmas songs, Zappa’s worst year, Milk Almond and the Happy Mung Beans Dec 07, 2021

In which we remember the “Smoke On The Water” fire at Montreux Casino, the soft melancholy of some underrated Christmas records, wonder which documentaries could get a Get Back remake and address the burning issues of the day: eg worst perms in rock, Ed Sheeran & Elton John, vegan bands in waiting, legendary pop recluses and what our ‘most played’ Spotify tracklist says about us.

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Sex In The Sixties - let Peter Doggett be your guide Dec 04, 2021

Peter’s been on the pod before talking about the Beatles and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, and he’s just published a fascinating account of the ‘60s sexual revolution, a time when a new and unimaginable freedom collided spectacularly with the hand-wringing Victorian values of the media. We talked to him at the West Hampstead Arts Club about Mick Jagger v Mary Whitehouse, the Avengers, Jenny Fabian’s Groupie, Bond movies, Germaine Greer, the Killing of Sister George, Dirk Bogarde, Cliff Richard as an unconvincing sex symbol, Jane Birkin, Michael Caine in Alfie, John & Yoko, the concept of ‘Kinkiness’ and the pop records that sailed close to the wind.

@Peter_Doggett

Growing Up: Sex In The Sixties …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Growing-Up-Sixties-Peter-Doggett/dp/184792428X

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John Illsley tells the Dire Straits story Dec 02, 2021

Recorded at the West Hampstead Arts Club - we're back in the outside world! - the band’s bassist remembers their label’s hopes of selling 5,000 copies of their first album in the autumn of ’77. His just-published memoir recounts the rollercoaster that followed, from the London pub circuit to Compass Point, Live Aid, the gigantic world tours that took in the Eastern Bloc, the sales-boosting arrival of MTV and the CD boom, and how it felt to land back on earth when they called a halt in the mid-‘90s. The early days are fascinating too, a friendship forged with Mark Knopfler over Little Feat, JJ Cale and Ry Cooder albums and the dream-like events of their record deal and rapid ascent.

@John_Illsley

My Life In Dire Straits …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Life-Dire-Straits-Biggest-ebook/dp/B08WBXZCQ1

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Sondheim, the Band Aid recording and the first F-word on record Nov 30, 2021

In which we remember being at Sarm Studios 37 years ago as Bob Geldof and Midge Ure marshalled the troops, and look at the reaction to the Get Back movie, Alan Hull, Al Stewart’s energetic love life, Billy Preston and others flown in to keep bands together, Lenny Kaye’s record-filing ruse and why John Illsey had the best job in the world. Plus the return of the Stackwaddy Game - spot the made up musical genre (Skweee, Simpsonwave, Soyabilly etc).

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Lenny Kaye nails some moments “when the universe shifted” Nov 26, 2021

Lenny Kaye’s just published ‘Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments In Rock And Roll’, events in particular times and places that changed the landscape, among them (and discussed here) Liverpool in 1962, New York in 1975 and Seattle in 1991. In the digital world, will we ever have that kind of local music scene again? His fascinating observations include driving to San Francisco for the Love-In, the world of CBGBs, Norwegian Black Metal, life in the Patti Smith Group and some of “the eccentric characters I feel naturally drawn to” which include Joe Meek, Stiv Bators and the Ramones. Among the questions: what’s the correct way to file Captain Beefheart, under ‘C’ or ‘B’? This is a man whose record collection is divided into “food groups” and includes “a wacko section”. He’s wonderful company.

Lightning Striking …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lightning-Striking-Lenny-Kaye/dp/1474615074

https://lpr.com/lpr_artists/lenny-kaye/

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Elvis Costello, aka rock’s “greatest communicator” Nov 24, 2021

In which we watch a breathtaking 40-minute piece of oratory by EC that takes in David Hockney, TikTok, Laurel & Hardy, what Pete Thomas did during Lockdown and how to avoid your new album being “just another bucket of herring tossed into the stream”. And go to the Premiere of Peter Jackson’s Get Back. And remember some slightly hopeless second albums (ABC, Stones, Arctic Monkeys, Tracy Chapman) and some prime examples of the “front-loaded” LP (Let’s Dance, the Joshua Tree etc). And delight in discovering the snobbery of people who work in record shops is still apparent when you’re trying to buy an Ornette Coleman CD.

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Inscrutable album covers and Hunky Dory’s 50th birthday Nov 18, 2021

In which we salute the great ‘60s pop writer and Beatles associate Maureen Cleave, find a copy of Melody Maker from the week Hunky Dory was released (the Rainbow opens, Lindisfarne banned from Brighton Dome after fans dance in aisles! etc), talk to Chris Topham of the Plane Groovy label about the vinyl crisis (there’s a seven-month wait to get a record pressed), check the map of the biggest-selling music acts from each UK county and get to the root of the old Sounds headline “My naked bath-nights with Olivia Newton-John”.

Chris Topham’s Plane Groovy Records …

https://www.planegroovy.com/toppo.html

Maureen Cleave’s famous ‘How Does A Beatle Live?’ piece …

http://headsup.freeshell.org/beatles-articles/standard.html

Map of the biggest-selling music acts from each UK county …

https://brilliantmaps.com/best-selling-england/

Word In Your Ear live in London on November 22: https://john-ilsley-more-tba.eventbrite.co.uk

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McCartney’s lyrics & the Tom Tom Club plus Lionel Blair and other rhyming slang immortals Nov 10, 2021

In which we kick about with music at weddings, spin-off groups, the bracing challenge of Trout Mask Replica, why pop music needs no awards, the Lionel Blair gag on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, a 42-disc boxset, skippable album tracks, the Stones still playing Midnight Rambler, McCartney on LP Hartley, Hamlet and Dylan Thomas, and rhyming slang we’d never heard – eg lunch: “a pint of Shaun Ryder, two Bills and a Giorgio Armani”. Plus the tragedy of the Astroworld Festival.

That Lionel Blair and Sammy Davis tap-off in 1961:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrS_XEBuFSU

Bob Lefsetz on the rock festival safety crisis:

https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2021/11/06/astroworld/

Word In Your Ear live in London on November 22nd:

https://john-ilsley-more-tba.eventbrite.co.uk

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Happy 50th to the Pink Moon recording sessions! Nov 04, 2021

In which we debunk the eye-watering Adele Hyde Park ticket prices, note the crowd-losing absence of choruses in Nick Drake songs, remember the strangest onstage guests, marvel at McCartney’s childhood memories and applaud Steve Van Zandt’s theory about the beginning and end of rock music. And birthday patron Giles Fraser is piped aboard plus his proposition about rock and roll legacy.

Giles Fraser's Let's Fly: https://www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/contemporary/lets-fly/

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Daniel Rachel hears 100 hours of Beatles audio – “it’s like the DNA in a crime scene”. Nov 01, 2021

Daniel Rachel, old pal of the pod, has just published ‘Like Some Forgotten Dream: What If The Beatles Hadn’t Split Up?’, much of it drawn from his access to the Let It Be tapes and full of enthralling details about the highs and lows of the band’s last year. This includes precisely what happened after George stormed out in Jan ’69, the stories of Gimme Some Truth, Cold Turkey and All Things Must Pass, missed press news opportunities, the Scottish car crash, the Toronto Peace Concert and a fantasy tracklist for the double album they could have made in 1970. And much fond talk of their personal chemistry. “There was no showboating, everybody served the song and the idea of making music surpassed everything.”

@DanielRachel69

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Like-Some-Forgotten-Dream-Beatles/dp/1788403207

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Tim Burgess: how Tim’s Twitter Listening Party raised the sum of human happiness Oct 24, 2021

One of the great Lockdown success stories now has a book attached. This magnificent invention started in March last year and, at one point, Tim was hosting 10 Listening Parties a day. He looks back here at some of the ones he loved the most and how the Four Lions movie got the ball rolling. And talks about the Beach Boys, Iggy Pop, Discharge, Vashti Bunyan’s horse-drawn trip to the Hebrides and (aged 13) seeing Crass in a scout hut in Winsford.

https://timstwitterlisteningparty.com/

All past editions … …

https://timstwitterlisteningparty.com/pages/all.html

@LlSTENlNG_PARTY

The Listening Party book …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Listening-Party-Artists-Reflect-Favourite/dp/0241514894

Charlatans tour dates …

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/the-charlatans-tickets/artist/1328349

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The best five tracks of the ‘70s and massive applause for Paul Simon (80) Oct 20, 2021

In which we watch the Harmony Game (the fabulous doc about the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water), wonder if the British are qualified to play Country, hear the new Let It Be outtakes (the Fabs playing ‘Fancy My Chances With You’ and George ordering cauliflower cheese), consider the genius of Every Breath You Take, the Stones dropping Brown Sugar and the moment dance music changed from songs to grooves, and salute the Apple Scruff who sang on Across the Universe.

The new Let It Be outtakes on Spotify …

https://open.spotify.com/album/1BdxbYp1FaNejpDgtDo25V?si=SDCZXciQRUqQTG0dcsP2dA

Paul Simon and fan …

https://youtu.be/AXBlY5CImUU

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Kacey Musgraves’ naked TV appearance restaged by Alex Gold Oct 14, 2021

In which we remember when one of the Stones was in the Air Force, the agony of loons pants, the genius of Irene Handl (and her screen roles: Mrs Crumbling, Miss Harker-Parker, Miss Slenderparts) and Bowie as the Goblin King in Labyrinth. Plus Cliff Richards’ new ‘perv breeks’, Steve Van Zandt visits Brian Jones’ grave, the best short songs, when haircuts wreck a band and Ian Martin’s live review of Rick Astley doing the Smiths.

Irene Handl and Peter Sellers in Shadows on The Grass: https://open.spotify.com/track/5cdRF3u4UsywY4dZ2g0imJ?si=3967f42723834402

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Richard Balls: the intoxicating songs and chaotic life of Shane MacGowan Oct 11, 2021

‘A Furious Devotion' is just out, written by Richard Balls after long conversations and nights spent with Shane and interviews with members of the Pogues, old girlfriends, former teachers and collaborators (Nick Cave, Sinead O’Connor and Christy Moore among them). This covers childhood times in Tipperary, his ‘genius’ school years, fierce debates about his Irish identity, the full story of Fairytale of New York, his marriage, how the band put up with him and the cussed old curmudgeon he is today (a taste: this is a man who shuns computers, mobiles and email and won’t turn the TV down when being interviewed). A revelation from start to finish.

@RichardBalls

https://omnibuspress.com/products/a-furious-devotion-the-life-of-shane-macgowan-published-on-7th-october-2021

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Furious-Devotion-Life-Shane-MacGowan/dp/1787601080

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Balls/e/B0034Q6Q8C%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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The late Commander Cody and other enthusiastic smokers Oct 05, 2021

White-hot, pressing topics kicked around the rock and roll park this week include … can heavy metal ever be sexy?, why the Beatles would have made the greatest Unplugged act, the return of Scritti Politti, good deals in charity shops, what made Status Quo swing, how Jim Morrison wrecked the legacy of the Doors, the Floyd and the Stones discovering disco, Barry Ryan RIP and why Best Record polls in old music papers still get our goat.

Rock stars smoking: https://art-sheep.com/old-photographs-of-musicians-smoking-their-cigarettes/

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"Mrs Robinson, you're trying to seduce me!" Sep 30, 2021

In which we re-watch the Graduate, wonder when Yes songs stopped making sense, salute the best rock stage names and the Björn Ulvaeus song credit campaign, ponder the curious UK launch of Rolling Stone, note the bands who never did cover versions and wonder if - and this may be stressful - Queen could become more popular than the Beatles.

Keith Adsley's beard-losing fund-raiser: https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/new-recovery-home-opens-in-city-8344686?fbclid=IwAR2R1AlZgV2qsTqYh9JrWSdMlw3yhB-ztYDsvm05MDGhqHAjhbixHqrPkts

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Tony Fletcher and a rock press version of “the Beano Christmas Annual” Sep 27, 2021

‘The Best Of Jamming!’ is a powerfully nostalgic collection of extracts from the fanzine Tony launched in 1977 when he was 13, born of the lost age of spraymount, cow gum, Tippex, typewriters and cut-and-paste issues stapled together on the bedroom floor. He looks back at the hand-drawn covers, letters from Paul Weller, cash loans from his Mum, in-office debates (“Can we have American acts on the cover?”) and the magazine’s eight glorious years on the edge of insolvency, a story someone really ought to make into a movie. Copies of Jamming! now fetch £50 on eBay.

@tonyfletcher

Best of Jamming!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Jamming-Tony-Fletcher/dp/1913172309

Tony’s books …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Tony-Fletcher/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3ATony+Fletcher

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A Rock Snobbery Special plus 50 years of the Old Grey Whistle Test Sep 21, 2021

.. where we consider the brave new world in which Rick Astley plays the Smiths, a documentary explores the reasons people detest Kenny G and Rolling Stone rather self-consciously revise their list of the Best 500 Songs Of All Time (should they declare 2001 the new Year Zero and just reset the clock?). And featuring ... worst supergroups, acts who've never put out any cover versions, bands who arrived at the venue but never played and Morrissey answering the phones on Rock Around the Clock.

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Acts with embarrassingly duff names and the absurd notion of “a real fan” Sep 14, 2021

Among the white-hot news items fondly examined this week you’ll find … the eternal wars in Fleetwood Mac, how we broadcast our love of bands before the rock t-shirt arrived (involves a canvas bag, a biro and the words ‘Chicken Shack’), Michael Chapman, Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts, the one good thing about the pandemic, albums that were too long and a night featuring a navy surplus greatcoat and the non-appearance of the Move’s Ace “The Singing Skull” Kefford.

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"Pop music + distance = sadness" Sep 07, 2021

In which we consider the melancholy of Abba (and find a 45 year-old bar of Abba soap), applaud the hidden message in Lee Perry's Cow Thief Skank, wonder how Judee Sill would be marketed today, remember the Beach Boys' purple patch and note the only two things of any worth ever achieved by Iron Butterfly.

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For the love of Charlie Watts Aug 31, 2021

In which we wonder if it's the Stones without the drummer, tell the whole story of the "work five years and 20 years hanging around" interview, salute the great Charlie album sleeve moments and investigate "the Rolling Stones wobble". And there's Reading Festival '79, the Nirvana Nevermind saga and other random folk on record sleeves (the US marine on a Smiths cover, the Russian presidential candidate on a Pulp album, Supertramp's singing waitress, the Bauls of Bengal) and a search for the origins of Prog.

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John Cooper Clarke’s wonderfully unvarnished memories of real life in the ‘50s and 60s Aug 27, 2021

‘I Wanna Be Yours’, the superb memoir by “the bargain basement Baudelaire”, is now out in paperback, much of it an account of growing up in Salford. Here he looks back at the days when “the Rialto cinema was my babysitter”, seeing Little Richard aged 11, the fine details of the Beatles’ tailoring, old TV ads, Stanley Holloway, Joe Loss, “Woodman, Spare That Tree”, the Mecca ballrooms, the Bernard Manning audition that launched his career, the pure sensory overload of hearing rock and roll in fairgrounds and life in a flat with two members of the Velvet Underground. It’s extremely funny and revealing – and, for anyone old enough to remember those times, exquisitely nostalgic.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Yours-John-Cooper-Clarke/dp/1509896104

@official_jcc

http://johncooperclarke.com/gigs/

https://johncooperclarke.com/

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From Tom T Hall to the Weeley Festival by way of Una Stubbs Aug 24, 2021

Topics this week given a vigorous shakedown include ... the magical story-telling of the late Tom T Hall, best-preserved '80s rock stars, the construction of John Cooper Clarke's pickled onion "pork pie doorstep", the line-up and health risk of the 1971 Weeley Festival (Gnidrolog! Tir Na Nog! Castle!), a chance meeting with Una Stubbs, how Spotify changes your Greatest Hit, best opening songs on a debut album and what's the annual miserabilis of rock?

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Summer in the City: Word in The Park presents ... Danny Baker Aug 13, 2021

The fourth and last guest at our sun-roasted live event in Holland Park on July 17 was the ever-supercharged Danny Baker. Straw-hatted, drink-toting and delighted audience members were treated to a series of superb comic monologues which featured his idea for a Beatles movie, the South London promoter who locked himself in a portakabin to evade the wrath of his acts and a magnificent riff about how the music-hall legend Bud Flanagan conned his way onto an ocean liner (aged 14) and joined a travelling show in America.

@prodnose

Tour dates with Bob Harris …

https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/danny-baker

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The extraordinary life of Louis Armstrong plus George Harrison rebooted Aug 09, 2021

Topics subjected to the usual forensic scrutiny this week include ... Jan & Dean's role in the kidnap of Frank Sinatra Jnr, is it still the Stones without Charlie?, the Offspring drummer kicked out for being an anti-vaxxer, buying Revolver 55 years ago, Bobby Whitlock's roasting of the All Things Must Pass remix, how Tot Taylor gatecrashed the music industry in '73 and the least rock and roll leisure pursuits.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/introducing-the-grand-scheme-snatching-sinatra/id1435516849?i=1000530258036

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Summer in the City: Word in The Park presents ... Mark Lewisohn Aug 06, 2021

We staged our first live event for 18 months on July 17, a sun-baked day at a spectacular outdoor venue kindly lent us by Opera Holland Park. A vast amount of fun was had. We’re putting up podcasts of all four of our guests, this one featuring the world’s pre-eminent fount of all Beatles knowledge and wisdom, the great Mark Lewisohn and including his thoughts about Peter Jackson’s upcoming Get Back movie, why Brian Epstein is underrated, a pivotal moment in the Beatles story (1961), the treasures you find when leafing through old magazines (as opposed to googling), and the revelation that Mean Mr Mustard was based on a real life character whose wife has numerous grounds for divorce.

@marklewisohn

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Lewisohn/e/B00J6BJQYK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Tune In (paperback)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beatles-All-These-Years-Tune/dp/1408705753/ref=asc_df_1408705753/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=311328387040&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14467137111273568288&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045943&hvtargid=pla-525100023999&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

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The mysterious connection between Zappa and Sparks Aug 03, 2021

Topics plumbed to their very depths this week include .... are tears for Olympic athletes now compulsory? The absurd names of Usain Bolt's children. The backstage chaos of the Concert For Bangladesh. Dusty Hill's mid-ZZ Top job at an airport. Can Ryan Adams ever get another record deal? Why the Sparks story is unique and extraordinary. Can you ever feel as attached to music you don't own in physical form? Bands you hated when young. Plus ... Magic Alex on impersonating members of the Stones for a living.

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Amy Winehouse, XTC and the joy of "re-loved CDs" Jul 30, 2021

Matters of high import thrashed out this week include Dylan's Shadow Kingdom livestream, the Thunder Road lyric farrago, Apple Venus and Wasp Star - separated at birth!, the best reggae album ever, laughter on records, underwhelming follow-up albums and why Hot Rats makes the perfect crime thriller soundtrack. Supporting cast includes Kevin Turvey, Philip Glass, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express and Dave "Bucket" Colwell of Humble Pie.

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Word in The Park #2: Lesley-Ann Jones remembers John Entwistle’s riotous funeral Jul 25, 2021

We had our first live event for 18 months on a fabulous, sun-baked afternoon in Holland Park on July 17 and the writer and former Fleet Street columnist Lesley-Ann Jones was one of the four guests (there’ll be a podcast of each of them). These are her crowd-pleasing, colourful memories of Queen backstage at Live Aid, living with Raquel Welch and tea with Bowie at Haddon Hall. The Stones are in there too.

@LAJwriter

LAJ’s books …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Lesley-Ann-Jones/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3ALesley-Ann+Jones

Podcast …

https://podcasts.apple.com/sn/podcast/11-porkys-pals-lesley-ann-jones/id1463527178?i=1000442129335

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Summer in the City: Word in The Park presents ... Gary Crowley Jul 21, 2021

In our sun-baked return to live events on July 17, we had four guests onstage at a spectacular outdoor venue kindly lent us by Opera Holland Park in West London, the first our old pal the shy, retiring, hard-to-prise-a-word-out-of-him broadcaster Gary Crowley. Stories here include the time he was invited round to the Clash HQ for an interview (when still at school), the giddying sensation of meeting Paul McCartney and some unsung heroes of '80s pop.

@CrowleyOnAir

Radio London …

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7z2

Gary's 'Lost '80s' CD box-sets … …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gary-Crowleys-Lost-Various-Artists/dp/B07L51CSKH

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gary-Crowley-Lost-80s-2/dp/B093XGSJKW

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How do songs become terrace anthems? Jul 13, 2021

Sports writer and old pal Nige Tassell traces the story of Sweet Caroline, You’ll Never Walk Alone and Yes Sir I Can Boogie – with fond memories of the Tranmere Rovers’ spontaneous vegan chant moment. Other piping hot topics include Dua Lipa and the stolen photo, have you ever booed a band?, the exact number of onstage hours Dylan’s played All Along The Watchtower, the magic of Freddie King and the Jayhawks, does Richard Branson like music?, indie weddings and are there any rap covers bands?

@nigetassell

Nige’s books …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Nige-Tassell/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3ANige+Tassell

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Flat Rabbit, Mandible Rumpus ... what makes a band name work? Jul 06, 2021

In which we salute Frogspawn Candy, Lord Snooty & his Pals and Steppenwolf, rejoice in the Onion's coverage of Lorde, applaud the return of the Siffleur and pop tunes that feature whistling, back Elvis Costello on song-stealing, have a CD Date Night with the Decemberists and A Tribe Called Quest (while unravelling their Lou Reed court case), and inspect a new theory about the Manson murders.

Elvis Costello on song stealing …

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/elvis-costello-defends-olivia-rodrigo-150635978.html

Lorde in the Onion …

https://www.theonion.com/lorde-slammed-and-condemned-because-it-seems-like-it-s-1847175966

Chris Pratt’s former band names …

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x9obbpaVIvw&feature=youtu.be

Tickets for Word In The Park on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Bob Geldof: an unmissable hour of insight into rock stardom Jul 03, 2021

Nobody is better qualified to talk about music as he's seen it from every angle. Bob Geldof broke into the Beatles' hotel room aged 12. He saw Dylan and the Stones when he was 13. Radio Luxembourg sent him messages from the ether. He worked out why the great lyrics work ("and the best opening line"). He studied the stagecraft of a host of musicians and formed a band of his own. He felt the lure of "screaming stadium whores and sex on tap". He staged Live Aid. And he ended up a close friend of many of "the people at the top of pop's Mount Olympus". This extraordinary interview has revelations about what's required to be a rock star you may never have imagined. And he nominates some Greatest Records Ever Made.

https://www.theboomtownratsofficial.com/

Citizens of Boomtown …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Citizens-Boomtown-Rats/dp/B083MVDKMW

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Rock band gangs you want to join Jun 29, 2021

Matters of high import discussed this week include ... having a 'date night' with your old CDs. Can the one-piece jumpsuit ever return? The whole Billie Eilish apology saga. Do all first girlfriends have names like Deidre Birchwood? What pop location deserves a blue plaque? Why Court And Spark outranks Blue. The Foo Fighters' Bee Gees moment. Rock's second best year. And would you pay $998 to get some All Things Must Pass garden gnomes? Plus James Brown, Black Grape, Chicken Shack, Duckworth Lewis, Tom Petty and Robert Plant's Band Of Joy. And David's mist-filled 30-second reverie about a romance in summer '67.

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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If the England Squad were a rock band which would they be? Jun 21, 2021

In which we shake down the piping hot topics du jour, among them ... the 50th anniversary of Glastonbury, the genius of Miles Copeland's management method, the new six-hour Beatles movie, Bob Geldof on what it takes to be a rock star, would Oasis have worked in the '70s, why current songwriters are afraid to experiment, and whatever happened to Terry Reid?

Terry Reid at the first Glastonbury in 1971 ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFtPnpDMxyI

Tickets for Word In The Park in London's Holland Park on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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DJ Princess Diana Jun 14, 2021

In this week's pod we explore whether Apple's new spatial audio is actually worth it, ponder urgent listener questions such as "is pop music all about cymbals?" and "should we be paying attention to Van Morrison right now?" and chat to old pal Paul Burke about advertising in music and why the art of discotheque DJing is a little bit like foreplay.

http://www.paulburkecreative.com/

Tickets for Word In The Park in London on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Joni Mitchell's golden month remembered Jun 08, 2021

This week's burning hot topics include .... the 50th birthday of Joni Mitchell's 'Blue’. Songs about the joy of spending "a bankroll big enough to choke a donkey". When Whistle Test went all Tomorrow's World. Books or records: which could you survive without? Is there the Who without Pete Townshend? Films we've watched the most. Music that's unfailingly cheerful. Is "Play Loud" the daftest thing ever put on an album cover? Was there ever a posher musician than James Lascelles of Global Village Trucking Company (in line of succesion to the British throne)? And the sweet story of Gravesend's own rock gods Kinky Machine and their 50-year anniversary video.

Kinky Machine's reunion ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn8MyQH-gu0

Whistle Test tackles the new technology, 1983 ...

https://youtu.be/iQ76xlMF8r4

Tickets for Word In The Park in London's Holland Park on Saturday July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Favourite critics and pop star stamps May 31, 2021

In which we salute some much-loved writers (Clive James on Rod Stewart: "he was hopping about like a bifurcated marrow"), investigate the Friends Reunion, predict the next pop acts on postage stamps (a round of Stamp Waddy, anyone?) and tackle the burning issues of the day - aka What's the longest you've ever waited for a band to appear? And who's best: Britney Spears or Taylor Swift (and which would you want to organise your bungee jump)?

Tickets for Word In The Park on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Bernie Marsden on the blues boom, "mailbox money", UFO and Whitesnake May 26, 2021

Bernie's memoir - 'Where's My Guitar?' - is just out in paperback and this highly entertaining encounter with the old rock and roll trouper features his early bands (Clockwork Mousetrap, Skinny Cat), Cream and Fleetwood Mac at Dunstable's California Ballroom, auditioning for Renaissance and East Of Eden (then turning the job down), 'secret police' on the Wild Turkey tour, thumping Phil Mogg, Mickie Most's butler and Rolls Royce car phone, sessions for Hot Chocolate, the Spinal Tap moment of Whitesnake's Lovehunter sleeve, the extraordinary tale of his co-writing Here I Go Again and the perils of trying to prise Tony "Dear Boy" Ashton out of a pub.

@Bernie_Marsden

https://berniemarsden.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wheres-My-Guitar-Inside-British/dp/0008356556

Tickets for Word In The Park on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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The Bob Dylan million dollar 80th birthday bash May 24, 2021

In which three old lags who've been following Dylan most of their lives - David Hepworth, Sid Griffin and Mark Ellen - offload a passionate personal theory and fly the flag for a favourite track. As Sid points, "How many times do you find yourself saying, 'Who does that? Only Bob Dylan!'" Includes 'Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues' as a quiz and the three albums sleeves where he wears the same jacket. Also .... the John Lydon/Pistols/Danny Boyle legal stand-off and memories of the much-loved Fred Dellar, the Rock Wikipedia of his day.

Sid's books about Dylan ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Million-Dollar-bash-Dylan-Basement/dp/1908279699

Tickets for Word In The Park on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

Support Word In Your Ear on Patreon for a smorgasbord of benefits: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Richard Thompson on Fairport and Sandy Denny's "Gustav Mahler emotional see-saw" May 19, 2021

In which the beloved entertainer talks about his memoir 'Beeswing: Fairport, Folk and Finding My Voice 1967-1975', a rich and circuitous ramble that features Jimmy Shand, Louis Armstrong, a school band with Hugh Cornwell, sitar lessons with Andy Summers, the word game that invented 'Unhalfbricking', the genius of Sandy Denny, the 'backstabbing' folk community, the perils of the British stiff upper lip, a cardboard cut-out of Nick Drake, the Henry the Human Fly photoshoot, disinfecting sheep, the writing of Meet on the Ledge and the enduring mystery of the best song lyrics.

@RthompsonMusic

https://www.richardthompson-music.com/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beeswing-Fairport-Finding-Voice-1967-75/dp/0571348165

Tickets for Word In The Park on July 17th here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Burglary and bluebeat in a brilliant new Madness documentary May 18, 2021

In which we look at the light-fingered early lives of Camden's Magnificent Seven and the soundtrack of the Pursuit of Love, note the collapse of the BRITs and the Oscars and tell the extraordinary tale of the writer who thinks Bob Dylan's his dad. Plus ... Never Mind The Quality, Feel the Length (long things that only work because they're long - eg the Irishman, the Dead's Dark Star, Lawrence Of Arabia). And... what items of girls' clothing is Alex wearing this week?

The Madness doc ...

https://www.bt.com/tv/documentary/madness-before-we-was-we-channel-amc-date-music-band-history-trailer

Bob Dylan Knew My Mother: Sam Sussman's piece in Harpers ...

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/05/the-silent-type-on-possibly-being-bob-dylans-son/

Word In Your Ear is back and in the great outdoors, tickets here ...

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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Joel Selvin on "a sylvan moment in Hollywood history" May 13, 2021

The great Joel Selvin has just published 'Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars and the Myth of the California Paradise', a thumping account of the West Coast pop revolution between 1958-1968 beginning with the rise of Jan & Dean and ending with "the greatest record ever made", Good Vibrations. He beams in from San Francisco, a substantial cigar on the go, to talk about the shamefully uncelebrated Nancy Sinatra's pioneering records (and '57 pink Thunderbird), the Beach Boy who invented the surf market, the "poisonous" Kim Fowley, the genius of Phil Spector and Lou Adler and the rise of Sunset Strip.

@Joelselvin

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hollywood-Eden-Electric-California-Paradise/dp/1487007213

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Bob Marley RIP (who died 40 years ago on May 11) May 11, 2021

In which we remember the Wailers' London shows and what made them unique, salute the fond but sceptical rock photographs of our old friend Ken Sharp, unravel the brilliant mechanics of Jerry Seinfeld's 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee', discover why Steve Martin gave up comedy, tell an old Barry Cryer gag and play a bracing round of 'Irritating Electoral Candidate or Fun-Loving Calypso Songbird?' (Lord Buckethead? Attila the Hun? etc).

Tickets for Word In The Park here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast, and in full audio-visual glory? Of course you do, you're only human! Make sure you're subscribed to our fabulous Patreon for this and much more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Rickie Lee Jones promotes "thumping good read"! May 06, 2021

Forty-two years after her meteoric ascent, Rickie Lee Jones has put out a memoir, 'Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of a Troubadour'. And this we strongly recommend, a candid, salty, high-octane account of her breakthrough and early adventures criss-crossing America, many of which were turned into songs. Among her cast of fellow travellers are her Vaudevillian song-and-dance grandparents, Tom Waits, Dr John, Lowell George, Lenny Waronker and Chuck E Weiss, all of whom feature in this delightful pod. As do tales of her famous Saturday Night Live slot, West Side Story, her Beatles obsession (aged 8), the Damon Runyan world of late '70s L.A., current life in New Orleans and the "firece fire of fans who've stayed with me".

@RickieLeeJones

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Chance-Texaco-Chronicles-Troubadour/dp/1611856469

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Does every act have a gimmick? May 04, 2021

In which we're joined by old pal Kate Mossman who's had a colourful encounter with Tom Jones, we look at the legal battle for Nirvana's logo and the bands who sell more t-shirts than records, we're convinced we know why the England Squad don't make football singles any more, we dig out some surely bank-busting white labels and play a round of Hip Hop Star or Character From A '60s Comic?

Kate's terrific piece about Tom Jones in the New Statesman ...

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2021/04/tom-jones-interview-i-wanted-be-man-desperately

Word In Your Ear is back and in the great outdoors, tickets here ...

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

To contribute to WIYE Patron Jeff Rees' time capsule project, email us your suggestions at wiye.london@gmail.com

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The eternal battles between Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf Apr 27, 2021

In which we shake down the Bat Out Of Hell saga and Morrissey v the Simpsons, wonder what happened to the Bay City Rollers billions, explore Richard Thompson's theory of folk-rock snobbery, salute pop memoirs that end early and remember how people reacted when Kraftwerk and the Ramones first appeared. And announce our Word in the Park live event in July! ...

WORD IN THE PARK TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-word-in-the-park-a-summer-afternoon-of-socially-distanced-storytelling-tickets-152091141699

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On Jagger's ropey new single and what made the Stones a dance band Apr 22, 2021

A world-put-to-rights-special that tells the story of the man who hid in a crate on a three-day flight with only a book of Beatles song lyrics for entertainment, looks at the stupidity of 19 year-olds, considers Rob Lowe’s belief that "there's no point in being famous today", predicts that CDs will become as treasured and collectable as vinyl, and wonders if musicians could still play if as pissed as they claimed to be. Also includes Shit-faced Shakespeare and a round of Song Title By the World's Most Pretentious Band or Artwork By Damien Hirst?

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - plus LOTS more? Of course you do, you're only human! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Tessa Norton and Bob Stanley on the folklore of the Fall Apr 17, 2021

Tessa and Bob are lifelong Mark E Smith devotees and have just published 'Excavate: the Wonderful And Frightening World of The Fall', a collection of essays inspired by the band’s unique and eternally beguiling back catalogue and divinely cranky modus operandi - along with artwork, ephemera, lyrics sheets, letters to fans and self-written press releases. It's an atlas that navigates the Fall’s outer reaches rather than an investigation of the man himself "as you can't look directly at the sun". This terrific free-wheeling conversation touches on football, architecture, working men's clubs, self-made mythology, the nature of Fall fans, the powerful impact of Kenny Everett's World's Worst Records Show album and the plastic carrier-bag left onstage that Tessa still has 25 years later.

@rocking_bob

@tessanorton

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Excavate-Wonderful-Frightening-World-Fall-ebook/dp/B0873XZ21B

Yeah Yeah Yeah by Bob Stanley …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yeah-Story-Modern-Pop/dp/0571322409/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&qid=1617954172&refinements=p_27%3ABob+Stanley&s=books&sr=1-4

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Original gangs that are still together Apr 12, 2021

In which David delivers a tremulous rant about the curse of the two-minutes' silence at sport events, we note the Duke of Edinburgh's Beatles connection, rummage through the BBC's 'black box', salute the longest-lasting line-ups (Damned, Golden Earring, ZZ Top, Blind Boys of Alabama?), weep at the worst rock and roll tattoos, remember the Bowie album with three different covers and play 'Oi! band member or friend of the Krays?' and 'no-frills Seventies drummer or cast member of Corrie?'

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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What pop music will still be around in 200 years' time? Apr 06, 2021

In which we applaud Paul Simon's light-fingered songwriting skills, delight in the fake Roxy Music rejection letter, trace the origins of rock's black uniform (which Keith Richards reckons has it roots in cowboy movies), discover powerful new chemical benefits from being in bands, reveal the Spandau Ballet hit based on If I Had A Hammer, hear Philip Roth's advice to an aspiring novelist and play rock band or children's entertainment option (Angry Beavers?).

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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"It ain’t 'alf been a gas this time!" Mar 29, 2021

In which we play theatrical moments from great live albums - Humble Pie, ELP, the Stones, James Brown, Sinatra & Count Basie, Free, the Who, the Allman Brothers ("Whipping Post!") - relive the wit and wisdom of James Blunt on Twitter, examine the raw agony of having a rock star as a parent (warning: Eve Hewson's Bono story involves public dancing to the Backstreet Boys in a dressing-gown) and reveal whose tour rider includes "oxygen tanks and a doctor available to give mid-set B-12 injections".

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A 1971 Special on Nick Drake and Led Zeppelin at the Nottingham Boat Club Mar 25, 2021

In which we're joined by old pal Trevor Dann who was one of the 200 people sitting on the floor of the Nottingham Boat Club 50 years ago hearing the unreleased Stairway To Heaven ("maximum volume as it was on the river and there were no houses next door"). Plus memories of Nick Drake in 1971 (Trevor wrote the memoir Darker Than The Deepest Sea) - the underwhelming live shows, the mistakes on his album sleeves, the family tensions, why his legend is still expanding and what he might be doing if he was still with us today. And ... the Stack Waddy game: real or fake Half Man Half Biscuit tracks (Eamonn Holmes Under The Hammer?) and Indie Rock Band or lower league football team?

@TrevorDann

Trevor's excellent Nick Drake memoir ...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Darker-Than-Deepest-Sea-Search/dp/0749951338

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The enduring magic of the mixtape Mar 15, 2021

In which we relive the joys of cassette mixtape pop snobbery, discover a rock star's mum who was a WW2 secret agent, name the best songs about mothers, salute Tony "Ian Faith" Hendra RIP and his part in Spinal Tap (and his National Lampoon gags eg 'Yoko Is A Concept By Which We Measure our Pain'), note the coded messages in Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' sleeve and play 'Lee Perry Tune or Item of Jamaican Cuisine?'

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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The undignified history of the Ponytail In Rock Mar 08, 2021

In which we salute Chris Barber and Bunny Wailer, listen to Robert Fripp's £80-a-pop personal message service, marvel at the Kings Of Leon's new crypto-currency, relive the agony of the Bob Harris vinyl flood, wonder if Bob Weir's was the only decent rock ponytail, reconnect with the Drifters, Lonnie Donegan and Lewis Taylor ("the great undiscovered jewel of 20th C popular music"), and play 'Van Morrison song or Richard Littlejohn headline?', 'Oasis track or children's book?' and '50s wrestler or member of the Bonzo Dog Band?'.

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast (and in full audio-visual glory!) alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Happy 50th, Nick Drake and the Stones 'farewell' tour! Mar 01, 2021

In which we try the Obama/Springsteen pod, view astonishing footage of Sinatra recording in 1965, watch films we've never seen (eg "Life Of Brian" - merchandise at the stoning scene? "Two rocks and a bag of gravel"), remember the Stones' satin-clad tax-dodging flit to the south of France, applaud the greatest one-man albums ever made, and play 'Children's book or rare psychedelic single?', 'European rave palace or Gwyneth Paltrow lifestyle accessory' and 'Spot the fake DJ' (Spinston Churchill?).

WIYE Merch: http://www.wiyelondon.com/merch

Frank Sinatra recording in 1965 ...

https://www.openculture.com/2017/04/watch-frank-sinatra-record-it-was-a-very-good-year-in-the-studio-in-1965.html

Working with Frank ...

https://youtu.be/ogC-D3jneGE

Cilla recording with Burt Bacharach ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj7-saWB4eQ

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A guided tour chez Dolly Parton! Feb 23, 2021

In the event of the temporary indisposition of Mr Mark Henry Ellen his part is taken for today's podcast by Mr Alexander Karl Gold and he and David Hepworth talk on the subject of which other songwriter-band leaders might arguably give Ray Davies a run for his money when it comes to sustained creation of brilliant singles, what it's like to go to Dolly Parton's home town and the contrasting accounts of the popular song experience which are available in the films "Framing Britney" and "Travelling For A Living" (https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-travelling-for-a-living-1966-online), a 1966 film of life with the Watersons. Plus, of course, the Stackwaddy Game.

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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The Greatest Love Songs Ever Written Feb 15, 2021

... a Valentine's Day Special (which naturally involves Jackie DeShannon and Lucinda Williams), the curious case of Bruce Springsteen, the Jeep ad and the shot of tequila, and the 50th birthday of Tapestry. Plus Stack Waddy: 'leafy English village or colourful minor celebrity?' and 'Tom Waits track or story by Damon Runyon?'

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Tom Lehrer, payola and the Midnight Train to Georgia Feb 08, 2021

In which we navigate by way of pay-for-play bribery, Elvis Costello's mum, the songs the Bonzos taught us, the man who helped cook the Beatles' books, the eternal trials of posh pop stars, and Farrah Fawcett-Majors and the story of the Midnight Plane To Houston. And play 'Pulp song or episode of Are You Being Served?'

The Bee Gees record a message for Pete Paphides' ansaphone in 1997 ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcKi3-pYutQ&lc=UgwqHWpFK3w9utgLeH54AaABAg&feature=em-comments

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The story about Phil Collins, George Harrison and the congas ... Feb 01, 2021

In which the conversational spotlight alights upon the great Hilton Valentine (RIP), adventures with the KLF, Phil Collins' disastrous session for All Things Must Pass, DJ EZ's marathon, Clare Torry on the Great Gig In The Sky, Carey Mulligan v Variety magazine and John Otway's version of House of the Rising Sun. Plus be prepared to play ... "Rave DJ or Household Cleaning Product?" and "Queen track or fantasy novel by George RR 'Games Of Thrones' Martin?".

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast (and in full audio-visual glory!) alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Where Dolly and Phil Spector meet PG Wodehouse ... Jan 27, 2021

A snow-filled scenic ramble featuring the appeal of Dolly Parton for the under-fives, the Cilla Black/Phil Spector chart battle of '65 (and Phil's unsettling appearance at the Q Awards), a John Lennon birthday lunch in Paris, the post-Brexit future for musicians on tour, Midge Ure, Tucky Buzzard and Eddie Izzard ... plus a bracing round of 'Wodehouse character or rock musician?' and 'Morrissey song title or quote from Oscar Wilde?'.

Midge Ure on the impact of Brexit on touring the EU

https://twitter.com/BBCSounds/status/1352594601434099716

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It's all gone Sea Shanty! Jan 18, 2021

In which we're joined by Sam Pope - the man who shantyised Eminem - on the new mass appeal of seafaring folk tunes, applaud the value of Happy Music (and name the tracks that never let you down), wonder why no-one's made a biopic about Fleetwood Mac, Blondie or the Ramones, and watch Fran Lebowitz in Pretend It's A City and wish we could have had breakfast with Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington. And play 'Film noir or Springsteen song?' and 'Reggae soundsystem or Marvel superhero?'.

Sam Pope on Tik Tok and Instagram - @sampopemusic

Want exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast (and in full audio-visual glory!) alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Neil Young and the concert that invented 'the whoop' Jan 11, 2021

In which we tell the story of James Taylor's tattoo, Bowie's coded message to Hermione, Tracy Chapman v Nicki Ninaj, Gerry Marsden stealing George Harrison's girlfriend, and the real life girls from Valerie and My Sharona - plus bracing rounds of 'Republican Senator or Country Music star?' and 'Joanna Newsom song title or vegetarian restaurant in Brighton?'. And the lost Wombles-style Oasis tribute album (What's the Story) Tobermory?.

James Taylor's tattoo story is at 4.20 ...

https://youtu.be/ouR_PDffp40

Want exclusive early access to each and every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do! Make sure you're signed up to our fabulous Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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The priceless mishaps of Fleetwood Mac Jan 07, 2021

Surely the only podcast on God’s Earth that covers Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, Pulp’s Disco 2000, Zulu, voter fraud in Citizen Kane, Mother’s club in Birmingham, Prudence Farrow, the Alan Parsons Project, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly!, the Maharishi, ‘Lennon Remembers’, Gothmog (lieutenant of Morgul) and ‘Is it a craft beer or a Mercury Prize Nominee?’

The Beatles recording of ‘There You Go Eddy’, a song about Hunter Davies …

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=beatles+there+you+are+eddy+youtube&docid=608013219034040298&mid=427E49A4B90193F58E80427E49A4B90193F58E80&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

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To the sunlit uplands of the new Let It Be movie! Dec 28, 2020

Surely the only podcast that's ever included tantalising Beatles film outtakes, the knock-down sale of Michael Jackson's Neverland, 'the Great Fatsby' by Leslie West, Frank Sinatra, E17 with sleigh bells and and Ladbaby's We Built This City On Sausage Rolls. Plus we play energetic rounds of 'Farrow & Ball paint colour or Tyrannosaurus Rex track?' and 'Lilith Fair acoustic act or Lush beauty product'?

Want exclusive early access to this - and every future - Word Podcast, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more.

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 365 - to the sunlit uplands of the new Let It Be movie! Dec 27, 2020

Surely the only podcast that's ever included tantalising Beatles film outtakes, the knock-down sale of Michael Jackson's Neverland, 'the Great Fatsby' by Leslie West, Frank Sinatra, E17 with sleigh bells and and Ladbaby's We Built This City On Sausage Rolls. Plus we play energetic rounds of 'Farrow & Ball paint colour or Tyrannosaurus Rex track?' and 'Lilith Fair acoustic act or Lush beauty product'?

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Word Podcast 364 - in stout defence of the Bee Gees Dec 21, 2020

In which we dust down a great new Bee Gees doc (How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?), applaud Bill Bailey, remember the absurdity of the Best Guitarist polls (and then name our favourite guitarists), mine the folklore of John Le Carre for possible band names (the Scalphunters, Madame Ostrakova), shake down the ‘river of dimes’ world of music copyright, and play a bracing round of ‘Black Metal Band or Item Of IKEA Furniture? Bill Bailey doing U2 having a Catastrophic Technical Failure …https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bill+bailey+impression+of+U2++youtube&docid=608004010494658780&mid=093D1A58807BF3F7B1D8093D1A58807BF3F7B1D8&view=detail&FORM=VIRE And his impression of Billy Bragg …https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bill+bailey+billy+bragg+youtbe&docid=608046294460467055&mid=933388ED5A44F42CF025933388ED5A44F42CF025&view=detail&FORM=VIREWant exclusive early access to every future Word Podcast - and in full audio-visual glory! - alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining content and benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 364 - in stout defence of the Bee Gees Dec 20, 2020

In which we dust down a great new Bee Gees doc (How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?), applaud Bill Bailey, remember the absurdity of the Best Guitarist polls (and then name our favourite guitarists), mine the folklore of John Le Carre for possible band names (the Scalphunters, Madame Ostrakova), shake down the ‘river of dimes’ world of music copyright, and play a bracing round of ‘Black Metal Band or Item Of IKEA Furniture?

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Word Podcast 363 - $300m for Dylan catalogue "a bargain" Dec 14, 2020

In which we salute the Taylor Swift publicity machine and the "sixth Stone" Ian Stewart, marvel at the money-spinning value of song copyrights (Dylan, Gershwin, Third Man Theme etc), listen to albums in the dark, point up McCartney's superhuman achievement on June 14 1965 and spot fictitious music magazines (the Amazing Pudding?) and emo bands (Moose Blood?). Ian Leslie's 64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney ...https://ianleslie.substack.com/p/64-reasons-to-celebrate-paul-mccartneyWant exclusive early access to this - and every future - Word Podcast alongside a whole host of additional exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're subscribed to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 363 - $300m for Dylan catalogue officially "a bargain" Dec 13, 2020

In which we salute the Taylor Swift publicity machine and the "sixth Stone" Ian Stewart, marvel at the money-spinning value of song copyrights (Dylan, Gershwin, Third Man Theme etc), listen to albums in the dark, point up McCartney's superhuman achievement on June 14 1965 and spot fictitious music magazines (the Amazing Pudding?) and emo bands (Moose Blood?).

Ian Leslie's 64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney ...

https://ianleslie.substack.com/p/64-reasons-to-celebrate-paul-mccartney

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Word Podcast 362 - does anyone form a band any more? Dec 07, 2020

Choice items discussed include Dua Lipa's 5-million-tickets-sold online show, the full list of Altamont catastrophes, the magic of the rock press 'on the road' feature, Maslow's hierarchy of needs (oh yes!), Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter's move into military defence and US Spy Satellites, David's disastrous cinema outing, whether going to gigs is now largely about the 'being there' on social media, cult Xmas singles and the mystery of Griselda Pugh & the Horses of Instruction.Want to receive this - and every future - Word podcast before the rest of the word, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole host of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 362 (audio version) - does anyone form a band any more? Dec 06, 2020

Choice items discussed include Dua Lipa's 5-million-tickets-sold online show, the full list of Altamont catastrophes, the magic of the rock press 'on the road' feature, Maslow's hierarchy of needs (oh yes!), Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter's move into military defence and US Spy Satellites, David's disastrous cinema outing, whether going to gigs is now largely about the 'being there' on social media, cult Xmas singles and the mystery of Griselda Pugh & the Horses of Instruction.

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Word Podcast 361 - & when did YOU last listen to Apple Jam? Nov 30, 2020

In which we look at pop conspiracy theories (eg Britney Spears), the Christmas songs that work for 2020, the 36 different versions of the new McCartney album, the howling mundanity of Arsene Wenger's Desert Island Discs, folk box-sets made in China, Gary Barlow in Sainsbury's, "America's truth crisis" and mangled celebrity band names. And the time David spent Christmas alone. The #FreeBritney story in Vanity Fair …https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/11/the-oracle-of-britney-spears The ‘Harry Smith B Sides’ in the New York Times ...https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/arts/music/anthology-of-american-folk-music.html Nick Lowe’s ‘Christmas At The Airport’ …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQoVB3Rd28E Davitt Sigerson’s It’s A Big Country … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDXZsydJU2cWant to receive this - and every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole host of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 361 - and when did YOU last listen to 'Apple Jam'? Nov 29, 2020

In which we look at pop conspiracy theories (Britney Spears!), the Christmas songs that work for 2020, the 36 versions of the new McCartney album, the howling mundanity of Arsene Wenger's Desert Island Discs, folk box-sets made in China, Gary Barlow in Sainsbury's, "America's truth crisis" and mangled celebrity band names.

The #FreeBritney story in Vanity Fair …

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/11/the-oracle-of-britney-spears

The ‘Harry Smith B Sides’ in the New York Times ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/arts/music/anthology-of-american-folk-music.html

Nick Lowe’s ‘Christmas At The Airport’ …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQoVB3Rd28E

Davitt Sigerson’s It’s A Big Country …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDXZsydJU2c

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Word Podcast 360 - George Clooney's $14m hand-out: the Movie Nov 23, 2020

In which we fantasise about what happened after Clooney gave 14 friends $1m in cash, note the sale of Dylan's private letters, miss the great North London record shops, unravel Radio 1 v the Pogues, pitch pop stars' dogs against Nigerian Highlife entertainers and name the second greatest Christmas record ever made.--------------Want to receive this - and every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, in addition to a whole host of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 360 - 'George Clooney's $14m hand-out: the Movie!' Nov 22, 2020

In which we fantasise about what happened after Clooney gave 14 friends $1m in cash, note the sale of Dylan's private letters, miss the great North London record shops, unravel Radio 1 v the Pogues, pitch pop stars' dogs against Nigerian Highlife entertainers and name the second greatest Christmas record ever made.

Bob Dylan chronological playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4yakVhk1BBXS3nXUEMh1RR?si=qRSBLUjPRzCdC97yreie_g

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Word Podcast 359 - for the love of Bo Diddley Nov 17, 2020

Acts that wrote songs about themselves (Animals, Monkees, Manfreds, Devo, NWA, Ants etc), Lloyd Cole does handwritten lyrics to order, the welding of Bob Dylan, Des O'Connor's UK tour with Buddy Holly, the West Wing v The Thick Of It, amusingly named skate-punk bands and does Terminator X own a black ostrich stud farm in North Carolina?Want to receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole host of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 359 - for the love of Bo Diddley Nov 16, 2020

Acts that wrote songs about themselves (Animals, Monkees, Manfreds, Devo, NWA, Ants etc), Lloyd Cole does handwritten lyrics to order, the welding of Bob Dylan, Des O'Connor's UK tour with Buddy Holly, the West Wing v The Thick Of It, amusingly named skate-punk bands and does Terminator X own a black ostrich stud farm in North Carolina?

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Word Podcast 358 - best track on the Beatles' #1 revealed! Nov 09, 2020

On the menu this week - the genius of the late Geoffrey Palmer in the Kipper And The Corpse and Reginald Perrin ('rum cove, Johnny Woman' etc), four anniversary albums - Badfinger's No Dice (Nov '70), Prince's Dirty Mind ('80), the Traveling Wilburys' Vol 3 ('90) and the Beatles' #1 (2000), pop careers that kicked off early, fictitious new age groups, pseudonymous secret gigs, the joy of CNN and the entertaining notion of Trump fleeing to a secret bunker to evade ruinous lawsuits.Want to receive this - and every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole host of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're subscribed to our magnificent Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 358 - best track on the Beatles' #1 revealed! Nov 08, 2020

On the menu this week - the genius of the late Geoffrey Palmer in the Kipper And The Corpse and Reginald Perrin ('rum cove, Johnny Woman' etc), four anniversary albums - Badfinger's No Dice (Nov '70), Prince's Dirty Mind ('80), the Traveling Wilburys' Vol 3 ('90) and the Beatles' #1 (2000), pop careers that kicked off early, fictitious new age groups, pseudonymous secret gigs, the joy of CNN and the entertaining notion of Trump fleeing to a secret bunker to evade ruinous lawsuits.

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Word Podcast 357 - Andy Neill on Ready, Steady, Go! Nov 07, 2020

In which the author of 'Ready Steady Go!: the Weekend Starts Here' talks about the show that revolutionised pop TV - the people who made it, the acts that appeared, the dancers, the clothes, the James Brown shock-the-nation-special, the Troggs auditioning in reception, the '60s scene-makers packing its Green Room and how it captured what Mick Jagger calls "the wonderful chaos of the times". Andy's book is the most detailed and affectionate tribute imaginable and you're strongly advised to take a look at it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ready-Steady-Weekend-Starts-Here/dp/1947026348Want to be 'in the room' when we record these special guest podcasts? Sign up to our fabulous Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 356 - when Sean Connery met Carly Simon Nov 02, 2020

In which we tell the real story of Stardust (the new Bowie biopic), lampoon Kanye West's Kardashian hologram, brace ourselves for the arrival of 'synthetic media', dream up the fictional indie band generator, name some great autumnal albums (eg the Finn Brothers' Everyone Is Here) and remember Roger Moore and Dorothy Squires' cavalier mistreatment of records. The Kardashian hologram ...https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54731382Computer inventions of fictitious people ...https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/Want to receive this - and every future - Word Podcast - before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole host of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for all this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 356 - when Sean Connery met Carly Simon and her sister ... Nov 01, 2020

In which we tell the real story of Stardust (the new Bowie biopic), lampoon Kanye West's Kardashian hologram, brace ourselves for the arrival of 'synthetic media', dream up the fictional indie band generator, name some great autumnal albums (eg the Finn Brothers' Everyone Is Here) and remember Roger Moore and Dorothy Squires' cavalier mistreatment of records.

The Kardashian hologram ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54731382

Computer inventions of fictitious people ...

https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/

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Word Podcast 355 - it was 40 years ago today ... Oct 27, 2020

In which we salute Jerry Jeff 'Mr Bojangles' Walker and Spencer Davis (at the ABC in Wakefield!), comedians with catchphrase singles, the marketing genius of Lily Allen and the grand tradition of pop songs about - how can we put this? - "self-love".Want to receive this - and every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, alongside a whole load of other exciting, enlightening and entertaining benefits? Of course you do. Make sure you're signed up to our fantastic Patreon for this and more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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*EARLY ACCESS* Word Podcast 355 - it was 40 years ago today... Oct 26, 2020

In which we salute Jerry Jeff 'Mr Bojangles' Walker and Spencer Davis (at the ABC in Wakefield!), comedians with catchphrase singles, the marketing genius of Lily Allen and the grand tradition of pop songs about - how can we put this? - "self-love".

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Word Podcast 354 - Rob Halford Oct 23, 2020

Rob Halford - still proudly "a big daft kid" - remembers old music hall acts at the Wolverhampton Grand, wearing polyester suits and kipper ties when the manager of Harry Fenton's, slogging round Europe in a Transit van, booze, drugs, bullwhips, "being head-to-toe in leather", standing in for Ozzy, coming out on MTV and "wearing my sister's purple top Old Grey Whistle Test". Rob's memoir Confess ...https://www.amazon.co.uk/Confess-Rob-Halford-ebook/dp/B07ZL2ZQSFRob on Instagram@robhalfordlegacy@judaspriestWhistle Test ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=957N7EAtpY4&list=PL5jPQshWo8ry-36NEo4AudZMn2iP9CW8P&index=61 Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 353 - can you be too handsome for rock & roll? Oct 19, 2020

In which we remember Peter Frampton and the second golden age of the Scream Idols (and his hard-nosed manager Dee Anthony), are weirdly gripped by the recent screening of Cliff's Summer Holiday, look at rock stars' cars, Krautrock acts and rejected album titles, and name "the shabbiest sleeve notes ever written".Want to receive this - and indeed every future - Word podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory? Course you do. Make sure you sign up to our fantastic Patreon for this and much more: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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EARLY ACCESS: Word Podcast 353 - can you be too good looking for rock and roll? Oct 18, 2020

In which we remember Peter Frampton and the second golden age of the Scream Idols (and his hard-nosed manager Dee Anthony), are weirdly gripped by the recent screening of Cliff's Summer Holiday, look at rock stars' cars, Krautrock acts and rejected album titles, and name "the shabbiest sleeve notes ever written".

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Word Podcast 352 - our favourite '80s albums Oct 11, 2020

In which we salute National Album Day by digging out some much loved '80s LPs, the Telegraph’s Neil McCormick tells us about the tyranny critics now endure from aggrieved pop fans and we invent fictitious Emo bands and live album titles.To receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in glorious audio-visual magnificence - make sure you're subscribed to our brilliant Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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EARLY ACCESS: Word Podcast 352 - our favourite '80s albums Oct 10, 2020

In which we salute National Album Day by digging out some much loved '80s LPs, the Telegraph’s Neil McCormick tells us about the tyranny critics now endure from aggrieved pop fans and we invent fictitious Emo bands and live album titles.

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Word Podcast 351 - Lennon at 80 Oct 05, 2020

In which we unearth NME's best albums and singles polls from the '70s (Jethro Tull? Spirit? Country Joe?), invent fictitious Calypso and Blues stars, rave about Call My Agent, remember Lennon's Aunt Mimi and Steve Strange versus Mick Jagger, wonder if it's curtains for the age of the movie star and hear our producer Magic Alex on the joys of "flying and explosions" as he binge-watches all 23 Marvel movies.Want to receive this - and indeed every future - Word podcast before anyone else, and in glorious audio-visual splendour? Course you do. Make sure you sign up to our marvellous Patreon to make this dream a reality: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 351 - Lennon at 80 and the mystifying mysteries of the mysterious Marvel movies Oct 04, 2020

In which we unearth NME's best albums and singles polls from the '70s (Jethro Tull? Spirit? Country Joe?), invent fictitious Calypso and Blues stars, rave about Call My Agent, remember Lennon's Aunt Mimi and Steve Strange versus Mick Jagger, wonder if it's curtains for the age of the movie star and hear our producer Magic Alex on the joys of "flying and explosions" as he binge-watches all 23 Marvel movies.

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Word Podcast 350 - do we still need Greatest Album lists? Sep 29, 2020

We look at Rolling Stone's new Best 500 Albums update and think ... where's the 80s? Where's the British stuff? Where's the jazz, country, dance music, electronic, heavy metal? Is it just the classics plus hip-hop? Is it as useful as Elvis Costello's Best 500 albums in Vanity Fair or Dave Marsh's 1001 singles? Plus Michael Kiwanuka, the Mercury Prize and the Booker. And '80s Peel Show acts with amusing names.If you'd like to receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full glorious audio-visual splendour, make sure you're subscribed to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 350 - do we still need these Greatest Album lists? Sep 28, 2020

We look at Rolling Stone's new Best 500 Albums update and think ... where's the 80s? Where's the British stuff? Where's the jazz, country, dance music, electronic, heavy metal? Is it just the classics plus hip-hop? Is it as useful as Elvis Costello's Best 500 albums in Vanity Fair or Dave Marsh's 1001 singles? Plus Michael Kiwanuka, the Mercury Prize and the Booker. And '80s Peel Show acts with amusing names.

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Word Podcast 349 - famous records whose timing speeds up Sep 22, 2020

Old pal Owen Parker on Street Life, Message In A Bottle, Superstition and other recordings that accelerate and the nightmarish complexity of playing stadiums to a click-track. Plus we predict the fate of CDs, invent 'record collection wallpaper' and look at Vertigo label landfill prog bands and the songs of John Shuttleworth.If you'd like to receive this - and indeed every future - Word podcast before the rest of the world, plus a veritable treasure trove of other benefits, make sure you sign up to our marvellous Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 349 - famous records whose timing speeds up Sep 21, 2020

Old pal Owen Parker on Street Life, Message In A Bottle, Superstition and other recordings that accelerate and the nightmarish complexity of playing stadiums to a click-track. Plus we predict the fate of CDs, invent 'record collection wallpaper' and look at Vertigo label landfill prog bands and the songs of John Shuttleworth.

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Word Podcast 348 - David Hepworth book launch Crowdcast Sep 18, 2020

Mark Ellen talks to David Hepworth about his new book "Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There" which describes how British imitations came out from under the shadow of American originators in the early 60s, how a handful of acts from the UK went on to command the heights of the worldwide music industry, the things they learned, the things they taught and the transatlantic traffic in sounds and styles which led from the Beatles to Boy George. Also includes: the amazing story of the Dave Clark Five, the strange genius of the Animals, how the British invented the guitar hero, what the Stones learned in America, the bands that were built in the UK with the US in mind, why punk rock took years to detonate in America, the one thing that makes American music stars different from their British counterparts and the reason 2020 may turn out to be just like 1961. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 347 - ‘Emma Peel’, ‘Sandie Shaw’ and other puns Sep 16, 2020

In which we rope in a real musician – aka our producer Magic Alex – to discover why bands always play their big hits too fast (‘are you a dragger or a pusher?’), decode stage names (Perry Farrell, Lipps Inc, Fay Fife ...), delight in Trump’s recent campaign trail faux pas with John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son and remember pop exploitation films (Gonks Go Beat!) and ill-advised rock star advertising capers.If you'd like to receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and if you so wish in full audio-visual glory, then make sure you're subscribed to our Patreon: https://www/patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 347 - ‘Emma Peel’, ‘Sandie Shaw’ and other puns we missed Sep 15, 2020

In which we rope in a real musician – aka our producer Magic Alex – to discover why bands always play their big hits too fast (‘are you a dragger or a pusher?’), decode stage names (Perry Farrell, Lipps Inc, Fay Fife ...), delight in Trump’s recent campaign trail faux pas with John Fogerty’s Fortunate Son and remember pop exploitation films (Gonks Go Beat!) and ill-advised rock star advertising capers.

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Word Podcast 346 - when punk rock stars are pensioners Sep 08, 2020

In which we dig out a Smash Hits from ‘79 (entirely written by D Hepworth), wonder if Ian Brown’s gone stir crazy, watch it kick off between Dylan and the Beatles (in ’66), navigate the enriching waters of NTS Radio, remember when Kevin and Perry went Mancunian and stage a stand-off between ‘60s folk revivalists and punning rock memoir titles (‘Kiss And Make-Up’ – Gene Simmons’; ‘I Did It Otway!’ etc). Smash Hits, Sept ‘79https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157622155198859/ NTS Radio…https://www.nts.live/If you'd like to receive this - and indeed every future - Word Podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual glory, please subscribe to the marvel that is the Word In Your Ear Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 346 - when punk rock stars are pensioners Sep 07, 2020

In which we dig out a Smash Hits from ‘79 (entirely written by D Hepworth), wonder if Ian Brown’s gone stir crazy, watch it kick off between Dylan and the Beatles (in ’66), navigate the enriching waters of NTS Radio, remember when Kevin and Perry went Mancunian and stage a stand-off between ‘60s folk revivalists and punning rock memoir titles (‘Kiss And Make-Up’ – Gene Simmons’; ‘I Did It Otway!’ etc).

Smash Hits, Sept ‘79

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/sets/72157622155198859/

NTS Radio…

https://www.nts.live/

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Word Podcast 345 - Justin Quirk on glam metal Sep 04, 2020

Author Justin Quirk on ‘the direct link between Kiss and Trump’. Writer and highly entertaining metal connoisseur Justin Quirk – the man behind Nothin’ But A Good Time: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Glam Metal – on the age of big hair, frocks coats, cowboy boots and fabulously cartoonish stage acts that began with MTV in ’83, developed a ‘slow puncture’ with Guns N’Roses and was killed off by Nirvana in ‘91 - includes the WWF Wrestling connection, the ‘branding exercise and pyramid selling scheme’ of Kiss, the key role of Ozzy Osbourne (‘the world’s least convincing werewolf’), the Thiller-like construction of Def Leppard’s Hysteria, the highs of Wasp and Motley Crue, the lows of Tigertailz and Wrathchild, and Glam Metal’s last hurrah before the arrival of the age of irony. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nothin-But-Good-Time-Spectacular-ebook/dp/B08CGJN334 @justindquirkTo be 'in the room' as these podcast interviews are recorded, subscribe to our brilliant Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Born To Run's 45th birthday starts here Sep 01, 2020

In which we're joined by our producer Magic Alex for a scenic tour of 'Landfill Indie' ("the Libertines were our Beatles!"), check the musicians incensed by Trump's use of their music, applaud the best wearers of Shorts In Pop (where Andrew Ridgeley meets Bob Weir), navigate the mob-handed hook-and-track systems of 21st Century songwriting, and invent fake psychobilly bands and rock star film cameos.If you'd like to receive this - and indeed every future - Word podcast before the rest of the world, and in full audio-visual splendour, subscribe to our frankly marvellous Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 344: Born To Run's 45th birthday starts here Aug 31, 2020

In which we're joined by our producer Magic Alex for a scenic tour of 'Landfill Indie' ("the Libertines were our Beatles!"), check the musicians incensed by Trump's use of their music, applaud the best wearers of Shorts In Pop (where Andrew Ridgeley meets Bob Weir), navigate the mob-handed hook-and-track systems of 21st Century songwriting, and invent fake psychobilly bands and rock star film cameos.

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Word Podcast 343 - Kenneth Womack on Lennon's last days Aug 30, 2020

Author, renowned Beatles authority, 'Pop Professor' and old pal of the pod Kenneth Womack talks about 'John Lennon 1980: the Last Days In The Life', his riveting account of events in the Dakota and beyond. Things covered in fascinating detail: the fond and complex relationship with McCartney, the tangled friendship with Dylan, TV watched, stuff bought and sold, the return to the studio and not-so-secret recordings, the withering album reviews, the future plans and the trials of a life lived at this level of celebrity. @KennethAWomack https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Lennon-1980-Last-Days/dp/1787601366 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Kenneth-Womack/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3AKenneth+Womack https://kennethwomack.com/ Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 342 - a close inspection of Bowie's dentalwork Aug 26, 2020

In which we look at Chris Frantz's memoir and its exasperated take on David Byrne (bang goes the Talking Heads reunion), revisit late '60s Laurel Canyon, unravel some Zappa album titles, marvel at brave new adventures in vinyl sales and how Freddie Mercury's teeth got the Pistols their big break, and get Hilary Mantel's tilt on Madonna ("the plain girl's revenge").To receive this podcast - and every future one - before the rest of the world, and in glorious audio-visual splendour, subscribe to our frankly fantastic Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 342 - a close inspection of David Bowie's dentalwork Aug 25, 2020

In which we look at Chris Frantz's memoir and its exasperated take on David Byrne (bang goes the Talking Heads reunion), revisit late '60s Laurel Canyon, unravel some Zappa album titles, marvel at brave new adventures in vinyl sales and how Freddie Mercury's teeth got the Pistols their big break, and get Hilary Mantel's tilt on Madonna ("the plain girl's revenge").

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Word Podcast 341 - Joe Banks Aug 22, 2020

Writer and counter-cultural connoisseur Joe Banks joins us to talk about Hawkwind: Days Of The Underground, his sparkling account of the rise and 51 year trajectory of the unsung revolutionary heroes. All the following are entertainingly included - their 'creation myth' in the white heat of Ladbroke Grove and days as the house band of Radical Politics, the sci-fi adventure with Michael Moorcock and Robert Calvert, the Silver Machine saga, the pioneering rock theatre of Space Ritual, their roles in punk and Krautrock and the saucer-eyed cast members who've kept them "the alternative to the alternative". Key fact: Joe has a Labrador puppy called Lemmy. @JoeBanksWriterhttps://www.daysoftheunderground.com/The famous Hawkwind clip that was shown on TOTP ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NysxdHSIs4I Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 340 - power shift in favour of rock audience! Aug 19, 2020

In which we salute the game-changing inventions of the Stones, Kinks and Louis Armstrong, watch the song catalogue sales boom, wonder if the age of spectacle is over, spot the fake alt.country and dark metal bands and take a closer look at the Williams twins v Phil Collins.To receive this Word Podcast - and indeed all future ones - before the rest of the world, subscribe to our marvellous Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 340 - the power shift in favour of the rock audience has begun! Aug 18, 2020

In which we salute the game-changing inventions of the Stones, Kinks and Louis Armstrong, watch the song catalogue sales boom, wonder if the age of spectacle is over, spot the fake alt.country and dark metal bands and take a closer look at the Williams twins v Phil Collins.

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Word Podcast 339 - David's day at Donna Summer's house Aug 13, 2020

In which we applaud the great rock and roll name changes (eg the late Wayne Fontana), get unsettled by 'Stan' culture and over-zealous Taylor Swift supporters, take the temperature of the Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, remember some footballers' hits and wonder how any rock star could be gauche enough to display their gold discs.To receive this - and every - Word Podcast ahead of the rest of the world, subscribe to our frankly marvellous Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 339 - David's day at Donna Summer's house Aug 12, 2020

In which we applaud the great rock and roll name changes (eg the late Wayne Fontana), get unsettled by 'Stan' culture and over-zealous Taylor Swift supporters, take the temperature of the Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, remember some footballers' hits and wonder how any rock star could be gauche enough to display their gold discs.

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Word Podcast 338 - Shea Stadium revisited Aug 05, 2020

In which we we marvel at the Beatles' 12-song set 55 years ago (four of them covers), applaud a virtual gig in the Natural History Museum, ponder Alan Bennett and Ellen DeGeneres, wonder when musicians became "creative artists", spot the fake band (Canadian rock acts v 1972's 'Giants of Tomorrow'), and remember Fame, Bugsy Malone and the great Alan Parker. I'm Down at Shea Stadium ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6D11NTWwUBackstage at Shea Stadium ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElpSMJiLv0To receive this podcast before anyone else, subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 338 - Shea Stadium revisited Aug 04, 2020

In which we we marvel at the Beatles' 12-song set 55 years ago (four of them covers), applaud a virtual gig in the Natural History Museum, ponder Alan Bennett and Ellen DeGeneres, wonder when musicians became "creative artists", spot the fake band (Canadian rock acts v 1972's 'Giants of Tomorrow'), and remember Fame, Bugsy Malone and the great Alan Parker.

I'm Down at Shea Stadium ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6D11NTWwU

Backstage at Shea Stadium ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElpSMJiLv0

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 337 - David Mitchell Aug 03, 2020

Novelist David Mitchell on Utopia Avenue, his fictional account of life in a band (Sunday Times No 1 best-seller!) - plus Bucks Fizz at the Malvern Winter Gardens, the lure of Marillion, the effect of Abba on tooth enamel, "the high register vocabulary" of Rush, the novelistic tangles of the White Album and Tales From Topographic Oceans, and Bowie's piercing predictions about the internet in 1999 - plus "the Greatest Record Ever Made".@david_mitchell Utopia Avenue …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Utopia-Avenue-David-Mitchell/dp/1444799428 https://www.davidmitchellbooks.com/books/ Bowie talks to Jeremy Paxman about the internet …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsgReceive each Word Podcast before anybody else by subscribing to our brilliant Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 337 - David Mitchell on why writing about the rock boom of 1967 is "an open goal" Jul 31, 2020

Novelist David Mitchell on Utopia Avenue, his fictional account of life in a band (Sunday Times No 1 best-seller!) - plus Bucks Fizz at the Malvern Winter Gardens, the lure of Marillion, the effect of Abba on tooth enamel, "the high register vocabulary" of Rush, the novelistic tangles of the White Album and Tales From Topographic Oceans, and Bowie's piercing predictions about the internet in 1999 - plus "the Greatest Record Ever Made".

@david_mitchell

Utopia Avenue …

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Utopia-Avenue-David-Mitchell/dp/1444799428

https://www.davidmitchellbooks.com/books/

Bowie talks to Jeremy Paxman about the internet …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsg

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Word Podcast 336 - Happy Anniversary... Jul 27, 2020

... 50 and 40 years ago this week! In which we salute the magnificent Peter Green (and hear Owen Parker's memories of recording with him in the '90s), look back at the great Q headlines - CarelessTalk Costs Wives! The Hoarse Foreman of the Apocalypse! - flick through a Melody Maker from 1970, spot the fake deejay, applaud the recent Springsteen radio shows and find Bob Marley & the Wailers photographed in lift.To receive this podcast early - and in full audio-visual glory - subscribe to our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 336 - Happy Anniversary: 50 and 40 years ago this week! Jul 26, 2020

In which we salute the magnificent Peter Green (and hear Owen Parker's memories of recording with him in the '90s), look back at the great Q headlines - CarelessTalk Costs Wives! The Hoarse Foreman of the Apocalypse! - flick through a Melody Maker from 1970, spot the fake deejay, applaud the recent Springsteen radio shows and find Bob Marley & the Wailers photographed in lift.

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 335 Jul 17, 2020

Live Aid's "2,000 million global audience": surely some mistake? In which we remember Lady Di rollerskating in Kensington Palace with Duran Duran on her Walkman, invent fake rap stars and Mod Revival bands, applaud the world's first DJ, light a candle for Judy Dyble, relive a Nick Lowe parlour game and watch a sensationally dreadful pop documentary.Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 335 - Live Aid's "2,000 million global audience": surely some mistake? Jul 16, 2020

In which we remember Lady Di rollerskating in Kensington Palace with Duran Duran on her Walkman, invent fake rap stars and Mod Revival bands, applaud the world's first DJ, light a candle for Judy Dyble, relive a Nick Lowe parlour game and watch a sensationally dreadful pop documentary.

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 334 - Graeme Thomson on John Martyn Jul 13, 2020

Graeme Thomson on John Martyn's "lifelong grudges and huge, messy explosion of records"Music writer, author and old pal from Word magazine, Graeme Thomson on his spledid new book, "Small Hours: the Long Night of John Martyn", a tale involving immaculately delicate music, dark undercurrents, Glaswegian folk clubs, Nick Drake, Lee Perry, Joe Boyd, countless chaotic relationships, oceans of booze and a manager with two broken ribs. @GraemeAThomson https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Hours-Long-Night-Martyn/dp/178760019X https://www.amazon.co.uk/Graeme-Thomson/e/B001JS877A%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share https://www.graemethomson.net/Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 334 - Graeme Thomson on John Martyn's "lifelong grudges and huge, messy explosion of records" Jul 12, 2020

Music writer, author and old pal from Word magazine, Graeme Thomson on his spledid new book, "Small Hours: the Long Night of John Martyn", a tale involving immaculately delicate music, dark undercurrents, Glaswegian folk clubs, Nick Drake, Lee Perry, Joe Boyd, countless chaotic relationships, oceans of booze and a manager with two broken ribs.

@GraemeAThomson

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Small-Hours-Long-Night-Martyn/dp/178760019X

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Graeme-Thomson/e/B001JS877A%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

https://www.graemethomson.net/

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Word Podcast 333: when band members go "off brand" Jul 10, 2020

In which we shudder to imagine life in a group with Brian Jones, David Crosby, Dennis Wilson etc, chew tobacco with Charlie Daniels, invent reggae acts, ponder the predicament of Kasabian and Lady Antebellum, remember Garry Shandling and Hitchcock's Rear Window and tell the hoary old Richard Pryor story.Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 333: when band members go "off brand" Jul 09, 2020

In which we shudder to imagine life in a group with Brian Jones, David Crosby, Dennis Wilson etc, chew tobacco with Charlie Daniels, invent reggae acts, ponder the predicament of Kasabian and Lady Antebellum, remember Garry Shandling and Hitchcock's Rear Window and tell the hoary old Richard Pryor story.

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 332: what makes an album cover 'classic'? Jul 03, 2020

In which we ponder American pop showbiz v shambling British charm, bands v solos acts, Will Farrell's Eurovision movie, Ed Sheeran's bank balance, Beyoncé at Glastonbury, which rock star will live the longest and Disco v Grunge in the Stack Waddy game.Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 332: what makes an album cover 'classic'? Jul 02, 2020

In which we ponder American pop showbiz v shambling British charm, bands v solos acts, Will Farrell's Eurovision movie, Ed Sheeran's bank balance, Beyoncé at Glastonbury, which rock star will live the longest and Disco v Grunge in the Stack Waddy game.

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 331 - It's the Bob Dylan Lyric Generator! Jun 27, 2020

In which we ponder rock and roll stage names, the immortal gag that launched Billy Connolly, KT Tunstall versus the streaming system and best guests on chat shows - and the only British Prime Minister to ever host one. That PM and his chat show ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4kS15y5MDEKT Tunstall on the Broken Record Campaign ...https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08hw0xlSubscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 331 - It's the Bob Dylan Lyric Generator! Jun 25, 2020

In which we ponder rock and roll stage names, the immortal gag that launched Billy Connolly, KT Tunstall versus the streaming system and best guests on chat shows - and the only British Prime Minister to ever host one.

That PM and his chat show ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4kS15y5MDE

KT Tunstall on the Broken Record Campaign ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08hw0xl

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 330 Jun 20, 2020

In which we contemplate pop stars' statues, 50th anniversary albums, excruciating things actors do in Lockdown, fictitious Monsters of Rock, the curious tale of Madonna's Ray Of Light and the best/worst things about Oasis. The Southsea Alternative Choir with Love’s Johnny Echols doing Alone Again Or …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Oeg5J028uI ... and (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding with Nick Lowe …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1yfkye_qR4The London Symphony demonstrating their instruments: https://youtu.be/TMUwtGuOzFMSubscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: http://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 330 Jun 18, 2020

In which we contemplate pop stars' statues, 50th anniversary albums, excruciating things actors do in Lockdown, fictitious Monsters of Rock, the curious tale of Madonna's Ray Of Light and the best/worst things about Oasis.

The Southsea Alternative Choir with Love’s Johnny Echols doing Alone Again Or …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Oeg5J028uI

... and (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding with Nick Lowe …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1yfkye_qR4

The London Symphony demonstrating their instruments. https://youtu.be/TMUwtGuOzFM

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Word Podcast 329 Jun 12, 2020

In which we spot the fake Country & Western song titles and ponder the man who launched the Undertones, Classics that leave us cold, eternally comforting sitcoms and the analogue childhood of Andy Partridge.Subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive content and benefits: http://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 329 Jun 11, 2020

In which we spot the fake Country & Western song titles and ponder the man who launched the Undertones, Classics that leave us cold, eternally comforting sitcoms and the analogue childhood of Andy Partridge.

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 328 - There's no fame like LP cover fame! Jun 06, 2020

In which we play the Stackwaddy Game with power pop and the UFO club, wonder how come artists remake their classic albums, explain why nobody truly wanted Little Feat to be massive, ponder the one relationship in a rock star's which matters more than marriage and look at a bunch of album covers which accidentally made a few members of the public famous.Get access to each podcast before it goes public (and in vision as well as sound) by becoming a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 328 - There's no fame like LP cover fame! Jun 05, 2020

In which we play the Stackwaddy Game with power pop and the UFO club, wonder how come artists remake their classic albums, explain why nobody truly wanted Little Feat to be massive, ponder the one relationship in a rock star's which matters more than marriage and look at a bunch of album covers which accidentally made a few members of the public famous.

To experience this podcast in its full audio-visual glory please see our brand new Classic Tier.

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Word Podcast 327 - It's three lemons in a row... May 29, 2020

... for Richard Thompson!In which we ponder the hellhounds on Robert Johnson's trail, the song Randy Newman's second wife let him write about his first, the BBC's upcoming re-run of Live Aid and the longest-running rock and roll marriages.Get early access to every Word Podcast via our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 327: It's three lemons in a row for Richard Thompson! May 28, 2020

In which we ponder the hellhounds on Robert Johnson's trail, the song Randy Newman's second wife let him write about his first, the BBC's upcoming re-run of Live Aid and the longest-running rock and roll marriages.

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 326 - the Sony Walkman's 40th birthday... May 22, 2020

... and how Astrid Kirchherr invented Indie.In which we update the Pink Floyd wars, remember launching Q and marinade in the calming qualities of Lee Sklar's lockdown bass adventures.Lee Sklar – on bass guitar!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSNv41kVJs0 Curt Smith and daughter …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSf5-TelBuw Astrid Kirchherr’s portraits of the Beatles …https://www.invaluable.com/artist/kirchherr-astrid-4euya6a1cw/sold-at-auction-prices/ Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 326: the Sony Walkman's 40th birthday and how Astrid Kirchherr invented Indie May 21, 2020

In which we update the Pink Floyd wars, remember launching Q and marinade in the calming qualities of Lee Sklar's lockdown bass adventures.

Lee Sklar – on bass guitar!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSNv41kVJs0

Curt Smith and daughter …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSf5-TelBuw

Astrid Kirchherr’s portraits of the Beatles …

https://www.invaluable.com/artist/kirchherr-astrid-4euya6a1cw/sold-at-auction-prices/

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Word Podcast 325 - Fairport's momentous year... May 15, 2020

... and the curious tale of the Beatles-busting Sgt 'Nobby' Pilcher.In which we play the Stack Waddy game, ponder the fate of live rock and roll and investigate the B-side that gave Joan Jett a career and "the power ballad that ended the Cold War". The Arrows’ I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT_Pbtyid0 Pyewackett – they exist!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaiU4OAnf-o Scorpions’ Wind Of Change …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ Little Richard …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj059o9OwqY Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 325 May 14, 2020

Fairport's momentous year and the curious tale of the Beatles-busting Sgt 'Nobby' Pilcher.

In which we play the Stack Waddy game, ponder the fate of live rock and roll and investigate the B-side that gave Joan Jett a career and "the power ballad that ended the Cold War".

The Arrows’ I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AT_Pbtyid0

Pyewackett – they exist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaiU4OAnf-o

Scorpions’ Wind Of Change …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4RjJKxsamQ

Little Richard …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj059o9OwqY

Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 324 - How to impersonate Roy Orbison... May 08, 2020

... and other pop parlour games.In which we get Alexa to play Stack Waddy, Carly Simon meets James Bond, we wonder if girls make passes at rock stars in glasses, and remember Millie, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider and the first edition of the Face.Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpr0kvlQpx0 John Fogerty’s back garden …https://www.loudersound.com/news/marshmallows-a-golden-retriever-and-a-view-john-fogerty-raises-the-bar-on-lockdown-videos Doobie Brothers in lockdown …https://www.ktlo.com/2020/05/04/watch-doobie-brothers-members-virtually-perform-black-water-with-fans-while-in-lockdown/ Bugger Off by Stack Waddyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBxhbAOdPY The Stranglers’ version of Walk On By with stunning Dave Greenfield keyboard solo …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqfqVDHNW6c Meryl Streep (aged 16) at Shea Stadium …https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x6aNSHLg18Y Creedence Clearwater playing I Put A Spell On You …https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeXqtzusIU0 Get bonus content on Patreon

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EARLY ACCESS Word Podcast 324 - How to impersonate Roy Orbison and other pop parlour games May 07, 2020

In which we get Alexa to play Stack Waddy, Carly Simon meets James Bond, we wonder if girls make passes at rock stars in glasses, and remember Millie, Dave Greenfield, Florian Schneider and the first edition of the Face.

Made exclusively available early to you, dear Patron. Thanks for your continued support.

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Word Podcast 323 - this week's lockdown winners are... Apr 30, 2020

... the Incredible String Band, Mr Chalk and Mrs CheeseIn which we celebrate the 50th birthday of The Who's "Live At Leeds", wonder why the Incredible String Band suddenly sound so right and talk about what all those living room performances tell us about Rock Star's Homes.The case of the missing hit.https://tinyurl.com/y9ymj7saToyah and Robert Fripp dance in the kitchenhttps://youtu.be/gIPuHzCvXMMCat Stevens somewhere warm enough to leave the door openhttps://youtu.be/yXuq6XpoasESupport us via our Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 322 - playing Pink Floyd Snap... Apr 23, 2020

... reading old music papers, and telling Alexa to button it.In a packed programme David and Mark continue their quest to second-guess Amazon's mysterious lady DJ, remember the man who used to buy the Beatles' cars, look at how Pink Floyd's investment problems led to their embrace of disco, read out some small ads from old music papers, wonder whether rock music without an audience is really worth the trouble and recite the names of our new Patreons in a very exciting new way. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 321 - How long does lockdown have to last... Apr 16, 2020

... before we play unplayable albums?Just how desperate do you have to be before you give John and Yoko’s “Two Virgins” or Michael Nesmith’s “The Prison” a spin? Also in this episode, another round of Alexa’s Favourites, more people sign up to be Patreon patrons, getting Lene Lovich’s autograph on a train ticket, exactly when people started having their pictures taken on the Abbey Road zebra, and travel back in time to when Bob Dylan played Earls Court and the compact disc was about to make the LP redundant.LinksThe Sound Of The Hound is the new podcast from the EMI Archive Trusthttps://www.emiarchivetrust.org/the-sound-of-the-hound-a-new-podcast-series-about-the-birth-of-recorded-sound/Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/wordinyourearWord In Your Attic on YouTube: www.youtube.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 320 - paying tribute... Apr 08, 2020

... to the special talents of John Prine & Adam SchlesingerAlso in the episode: pink moon over London, waking up to birdsong, Brinsley Schwarz at the Fillmore and the strange majesty of old Melody Maker headlines. Plus name-checks for our inaugural patrons. If you'd like to joint them see below. And don't forget to catch up with our brand new "Word In Your Attic" with Mark Billingham at https://youtu.be/JQoTS0mKeVM.John Prine and Iris DeMent doing "In Spite Of Ourselves"https://youtu.be/P8tTwXv4glYFountains of Wayne doing "Hackensack"https://youtu.be/S6N2KYq8q14Word In Your Ear Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 319 - another unashamedly trivial podcast... Apr 01, 2020

... in which Mark Ellen and David Hepworth discuss milk in rock, read your correspondence and invent a game you can play with Alexa.Massively encouraged by the fact that nobody tried to physically stop them doing it again, Mark and David podcast from their lofts to anyone who has nothing better to do for the next half an hour. Subjects covered include: the musical tastes of "Parks And Recreation"'s April Ludgate, when dad bought his hifi on hire purchase, why the current lockdown is good news for the Abbey Road zebra and a really funny list from an old copy of Word.Bono doing "Let Your Love Be Known"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlA8p3O1C-UPaul Simon singing "American Tune"https://youtu.be/wVYPVvS-mI4The Roots and Jimmy Fallon performing "Stuck In The Middle With You"https://youtu.be/JKYiTg6_J-MIt's the 19-piece Rotterdam Philharmonic playing Beethoven's Ode To Joy on lockdown.https://youtu.be/nNBtwsPigccKevin Ayers Whatevershebringswesing with Robert Wyatt on backing vocals and Mike Oldfield playing bass and guitar…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j7AIUnRf4wFollow David on https://www.instagram.com/dhepworth/Please leave a comment on iTunes or anywhere else that allows you to post. We read all of them and really appreciate it. If you’ve got any particular favourites among the old Word podcasts please let us know which at wiye.london@gmail.comAnd watch our "Word In Your Attic" video.https://youtu.be/qXm4DyPPwI0 Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 318 - A "for the duration" podcast Mar 26, 2020

In which Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk about Joni Mitchell, Krakatoa and the importance of dressing properly while WFH.Since they're spending a proportion of the Current Unpleasantness talking to each other anyway. Mark Ellen and David Hepworth thought they may as well record some of it, explaining what's happening with Word In Your Ear in the light of the current situation, how they're getting by at home, what they're reading, what they've been listening to and what it might all mean for the return of long form listening. Well, it's not as if they've got anything else to do.Joni Mitchell in concert at the BBC in 1970https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAxjPfWOiqIJoni Mitchell doing "Me And My Uncle" i n 1965https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k6OYIvLLcAHere's a good place to start on the books of Simon Winchester.http://www.simonwinchester.com/And here's an introduction to Anthony Powell.http://anthonypowell.org/David's book "A Fabulous Creation" is out in paperback.https://amzn.to/39gVWmOPlease leave a comment on iTunes or anywhere else that allows you to post. We read all of them and really appreciate it. If you've got any particular favourites among the old Word podcasts please let us know which at wiye.london@gmail.comP.S. Here's Ronnie Lane and Pete Townshend singing "Annie"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYoqT-RJLDo Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 317 - Pete Paphides Mar 13, 2020

Pete Paphides' acclaimed "Broken Greek" is, as David says when introducing him, the best book written by a former Smash Hits reader and looks set to do for unjustly uncelebrated popular music what Nick Hornby did for football in "Fever Pitch". This chat encompasses: Abba, West Brom, the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Mind Your Language, shopping for singles at Woolworths, living above a chip shop, hoping to be adopted by the Brotherhood Of Man and making the amazing discovery that John Lennon and Paul McCartney actually used to be in the same band! Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 316 - Dan Franklin Mar 13, 2020

Dan Franklin's first book "Heavy" chronicles his life-long love affair with heavy music in all its different manifestations, from Meat Loaf to Sunn 0))), and argues that it deserves a lot more respect than it gets as a rule. It's a story that takes us from a cassette copy of a Guns N' Roses album thrust into the hands of a puzzled eight-year-old, via the fields of Donington and the mosh pits of Camden to the lengths a new father will go to free a Type O Negative CD from the mangled remnants of a family car. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 315 - John Mitchinson and Andy Miller Feb 24, 2020

John Mitchinson and Andy Miller do the award-winning Backlisted podcast which, as they like to say on the tin, "brings new life to old books". They're also big music fans so we thought they would be the ideal people to come along and talk in their own inimitable style about what they feel are some of the best and sometimes overlooked examples of the genre. That's how come, in a wide-ranging discussion we came to touch on "Dino: Living High In The Dirty Business Of Dreams" by Nick Tosches, "Black Vinyl, White Powder" by Simon Napier Bell and Levon Helm's "This Wheel's On Fire", "Nico: Songs They Never Play On The Radio" by James Young, Julian Cope's "Krautrock Sampler", Stephen Sondheim's "Look: I Made A Hat" and "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon" by Crystal Zevon, all of which are in their different ways recommended. Conversation covers: how much a rock star gets for their memoirs, how to tell if an anecdote is made up or not, why Julian Cope doesn't mind you downloading his book for free and how you, yes you, can easily increase the amount of reading you do. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 314 - Bethan Roberts Feb 18, 2020

We were delighted to welcome Bethan Roberts to Word In Your Ear to talk about her novel “Graceland”. This is based on the most important relationship in the life of Elvis Presley. His mother Gladys brought him up single-handedly when his father went into prison, she encouraged his singing, she feared for what the girls would do to him and what the managers might take from him, wished he didn’t have to go away so often and would have preferred him to be a furniture salesman married to a nice local girl with some grandchildren on the way. Then, when he was undergoing basic training in the army, she died.People say that Elvis was never the same after he went in the army. In fact he was never the same after his mother died. Bethan tells us about how she got the idea for the book, what fascinates her about the intense relationship between mother and son and while, as she explains, the odd incident may have been embroidered, the basic facts of her narrative are not in dispute. What’s most amazing, when you read “Graceland”, is that nobody’s written this story before. This book is highly recommended, not merely to fans of Elvis, but for anyone who wants to understand what sudden dramatic fame does to the nearest and dearest of the Famous One. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 312 - Mike Barnes Jan 22, 2020

In his new book "A New Day Yesterday", an account of progressive rock in the 1970s, Mike Barnes tells the story of how this peculiarly British musical form was born out of the Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" and the Graham Bond Organisation and went on to flourish throughout the 70s in the universities of Britain and the arenas of the United States. He talks to Mark and David about all the issues that matter: capes, mellotrons, seated audiences, prolonged soloing, the real names of the members of Quintessence and whatever happened to Egg. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 313 - Sid Smith Jan 22, 2020

When Sid Smith first finished his definitive biography of King Crimson in 2001 he thought, not unreasonable that would be that. But then Robert Fripp reactivated the band and so Sid had to take up his pen once more. This has resulted in an even more definitive work "In The Court Of King Crimson". He came to Word In Your Ear to run Mark and David through the key facts of their extraordinary rise and their exceptional longevity, what it's like to spend six weeks on the road with a bunch of musical gentlemen of a certain age and why he's not planning to put down his pen just yet. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 311 - Alexis Petridis Dec 05, 2019

Alexis Petridis was very lucky Elton John chose him to help tell the story in his best-selling memoir "Me". Elton John's equally lucky Alexis agreed because without him it probably wouldn't be half as good as it is. In fact it's two stories: the first is the story of a musical career that seems to be headed nowhere until a chance meeting with a lyricist began a partnership which operated in an unprecedented way and led to unprecedented success; the other is a personal story of how a very tense little boy from Pinner grew to be able to afford all the addictions on a Pharaonic scale, managed to conquer them and belatedly found contentment in a state that wasn't even invented when he was first a superstar. Every home should have a copy because everyone in that home would find at least some of it jaw-dropping. Alexis told us what it was like to write and what he learned about life in the process. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 310 - Barney Hoskyns Dec 05, 2019

On December 7th Thomas Alan Waits celebrates his 70th birthday and to mark that occasion we asked Barney Hoskyns, the author of his biography "Lowside Of The Road", to talk about what makes Waits one of the rare examples of a misfit who has prospered on his own terms. It's all here: developing his shtick entertaining the line of customers outside, choosing to dress in a way that had gone out of style twenty years before, living his character twenty four hours a day, being taken in hand both personally and professionally somewhat late in the day and eventually becoming a success on his own terms. Barney thinks he as important an artist as the 20th century has produced. He came along to explain why. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 309 - Andrew Collins Oct 18, 2019

It's always good to welcome Andrew Collins back to the pod. Andrew was with us most recently to talk about the new edition of his official biography of Billy Bragg. This time he's got his movie hat on, as befits the man who writes about films for the Radio Times and presents "Saturday Night At The Movies" on Classic FM. Since 2019 has been such a bumper year for music biopics we asked him to remind us what are the best of breed in ten categories ranging from fiction to festivals and everything inbetween. You probably won't agree with it all but it will probably leave you determined to have a look on Netflix and search out some overlooked classic. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 308 - Graham Parker Oct 18, 2019

Graham Parker had an unusual career trajectory. "I didn't pay my dues until after I had some success," he says. In the wake of his greatest triumph, 1979's "Squeezing Out Sparks", he broke up his partnership with the Rumour and moved to America. Here he was the unwitting beneficiary of a record business which had difficulty adapting to a changed world. In the 80s and 90s, he says, they actually gave him too much money. A few years back he resumed his partnership with the Rumour, who were all present and correct and all got on with each other, a state of affairs almost unique in rock and roll. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 307 - Dylan Jones Sep 15, 2019

The big hit records of today are assembled. The great records of 1968 were made. In a few cases they just happened, seemingly brought into being by some higher power over and above the efforts of any one individual. In his new book “Wichita Lineman: Searching In The Sun For The World's Greatest Unfinished Song” Dylan Jones traces the combination of inspiration and chance which makes this “the world’s greatest unfinished song” and, more to the point, arguably the greatest pop record ever made. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 306 - Daniel Rachel Sep 15, 2019

Daniel Rachel talked to everyone from Noel Gallagher to Tony Blair for his new book “Don’t Look Back In Anger” and he came in to Word In Your Ear to talk about how Kate Moss, David Beckham, Alan Macgee, Damien Hirst, Alastair Campbell and many others, knowingly or otherwise, managed to shape Britain’s last feelgood decade, which began with Spike Island and finished with the death of Diana. We guarantee, this will change the way you think about the era you lived through. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 305 - Dave Lewis Aug 21, 2019

When Dave Lewis first went to see Led Zeppelin at the Empire Pool, Wembley in 1971 it cost him 75p. When they played their final show at the O2 in 2007 he was on Robert Plant's guest list. From the germ of his teenage scrapbook he built a small empire, based on his fanzine "Tight But Loose", which has produced a staggering range of titles dedicated to every aspect of Led Zeppelin's career. His book "Evenings With Led Zeppelin" has the distinction of being literally the heaviest book ever to feature on "Word In Your Ear". Dave came in to the Islington to talk about what got him excited in 1971 and, as you'll hear, still excites him today. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 304 - Ian Penman Aug 21, 2019

For more than forty years Ian Penman has been one of the best writers about music in the country. His new book, "It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track", is made up of essays about James Brown, Prince, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Fahey and other musicians who have a strange fascination for him. Ian came to the Islington to talk about his career as a writer, the book and his plan to write a book about searching for music in charity shops. Be warned. This is the kind of book that will send you straight back to your records to listen for things that you've been missing. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 303 - Will Birch Jul 24, 2019

Is Nick Lowe the only musician of his generation who has actually got better as he’s got older? How did he survive the Famepushers hype? How did England’s most laid-back musician become the Midas of the punk era? What’s the secret of his success as a producer? What does he understand that most other musicians don’t? Will Birch, a musician himself, has known him a long time, and has written “Cruel To Be Kind”, the definitive biography of one of our great musical institutions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 302 - Peter Doggett Jul 24, 2019

Fifty years ago to the week the first Crosby, Stills and Nash LP was released in the UK, holding out the prospect of brotherly love in close harmony. Thus begun half a century of bitter infighting, chemical and sexual excess, regular break-ups and tearful reunions, all of which is documented in lip-smacking detail in “Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young” by one of our favourite authors Peter Doggett. He came along to the Islington to talk to Mark and David about it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 301 - The Analogues Jul 02, 2019

On Sunday the Dutch group The Analogues, who have set out to play the Beatles songs that the Beatles never played live, using the same equipment that was used fifty years ago, recreated the whole of "Abbey Road" in Studio 1 at Abbey Road. Mark and David were there and they haven't stopped babbling about it since. Hence we thought they should share their enthusiasm with the wider public. This conversation was recorded via Skype which is prone to the odd drop-out but we trust you'll find it worth listening round. If you want to get an idea of why they considered it so remarkable, watch this clip from a recent Dutch TV show. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 300 - Mick Houghton May 15, 2019

In his new book "Fried and Justified", veteran PR Mick Houghton writes about his experience as the man whose job it was to get these bands and many others written about in the NME and Melody Maker, back in the days when thousands of bands formed, toured and split up purely in order to achieve their ultimate ambition, which was getting on the cover of a weekly music paper. Have we really seen the last of all those mad haircuts, all those dramatic break-ups, all those madly controversial interviews in budget hotels in the Benelux countries? Mick came along to Word In Your Ear to tell us. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 299 - Anne Dudley May 15, 2019

In a departure from our usual way of doing things we were delighted to welcome Art Of Noise-nik, ABC arranger and purveyor of fine soundtrack music for everything from "Poldark" to "The Hustle" Anne Dudley to talk about a career that has been largely spent behind the scenes. Subjects covered include: the surprising things you can learn from working with people with no musical talent, why everything in a film is provisional, how to suggest a chord to Paul McCartney, the uncanny ear of George Michael and what it's like to stand in front of an orchestra with a baton. Plus, for the first time ever, we're delighted to introduce actual musical illustrations. Let us know what you think. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 298 - Gary Crowley Apr 17, 2019

Gary Crowley has just put together “Gary Crowley’s Lost 80s”, a lovingly-curated four CD set of the kind of oldies that the radio station computer doesn’t automatically reach for. It’s the kind of stuff that might have soundtracked his teenage discos, his nights at the Wag, his shows on Capital Radio and GLR or served to warm up the crowd as he presided over shows by Wham or the Style Council. He came along to Word In Your Ear to talk to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his extraordinary career, which began with meeting Joe Strummer in the street, climaxed with introducing Oasis at Knebworth and involved everybody from Elton John to the Wonder Stuff. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 297 - Eamonn Forde Apr 17, 2019

In 2007 private equity firm Terra Firma borrowed a lot of money from Citibank to buy EMI, the UK’s most venerable music company. Their plan was to transform this most traditional of companies to meet the challenges of a new age. A year later the economic crash came along to make what was already a difficult job even harder. Eamonn Forde covered what was going on at EMI for The Word as the smart guys from the city tried to grapple with the idiosyncrasies of a business which is strangely touchy-feely and utterly unscientific. And now that the Terra Firma misadventure is over and EMI has been divided up among the other major comglomerates he’s brought it together into The Final Days Of EMI: Selling The Pig, a uniquely authoritative insider account of an industry that was losing an empire and was yet to find a role. He came along to Word In Your Ear to talk about it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 296 - A Fabulous Creation Mar 26, 2019

David Hepworth's new book "A Fabulous Creation" is about the era of the LP, from "Sgt Pepper" in 1967 to "Thriller" in 1982. The book was launched at Foyles in Charing Cross Road with a chat between David and Mark Ellen in front of a packed house. This was illustrated with the usual magic lantern show which you can probably reproduce in your head. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 295 - Midge Ure Feb 16, 2019

We were delighted to welcome Midge Ure to the Islington to talk about growing up in Glasgow, becoming a teen idol by accident, being offered a slot in the Sex Pistols, almost becoming the Next Big Thing, assisting at the birth of the Cult With No Name, becoming a temporary rock star with Thin Lizzy, becoming a genuine rock star with Ultravox, writing the biggest hit in chart history, getting his slot at Live Aid pinched by his mate Bob Geldof, appearing on "This If Your Life", "Celebrity Masterchef" and playing the blues on the porch with Eric Clapton. Truly all human life is here. Midge is touring twice in the next year. In the first jaunt, beginning in March, he'll be playing and also taking questions from the audience. In the second he'll be supported by a full band and reprising many of the Ultravox and Visage songs which are about to celebrate their 40th birthday. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 294 - David Hepworth & Friends Nov 10, 2018

In introducing this session, which was inspired by David Hepworth's new book "Nothing Is Real" Mark Ellen said "I've know this man for over forty years and I've never won an argument with him". On this occasion the two of them were joined by old friends, writer Jude Rogers and broadcaster/podcaster Geoff Lloyd, to chew over some of David's theories, such as why the Beatles were underrated and why you should never play pop records at funerals, and to add a few of their own, which cover such topics as the girlfriend who changed the direction of popular music, the redundancy of the live album and the records that you should and shouldn't play at a wedding disco. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 293 - Mark Blake Nov 09, 2018

Peter Grant was the former all-in wrestler turned manager whose reputation was built on his knack for making sure his bands got paid. In this respect didn't hurt to have the build of a screen heavy and the reputation of a gangster. When Led Zeppelin got paid it was in quantities so large that they had to be taken away from the venues in carrier bags from supermarkets. In "Bring It All Back Home" Pink Floyd and Queen biographer Mark Blake tells the full story of Peter Grant from his time as a wartime tearaway through road managing Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent to his meeting with Jimmy Page, with whom he formed what was probably the key relationship in the Led Zeppelin camp through their rampages across America in the 70s to a very dark period holed up in his moated house in the country taking cocaine in immense quantities and harbouring dark thoughts about the world outside. As we told Mark Blake when he came to the Islington to talk about it, this one really should be a movie. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 292 - Kenneth Womack Oct 17, 2018

Kenneth Womack, who actually teaches a course in the Beatles at Monmouth University in New Jersey, has just published "Sound Pictures", the second part of his mammoth biography of Beatles producer George Martin, and he came to Word In Your Ear to talk about it. There was plenty to cover: from his childhood in the Depression through a transformation thanks to the Fleet Air Arm and the Guildhall School of Music to an apprenticeship at EMI which led him to produce everyone from Flanders and Swann to Peter Sellers and then confronted him with the challenge of making something of the four boys from Liverpool that the publishing division were keen on signing. He wasn't convinced at first but as soon as they did something he thought was good he was the first to recognise it and he was the only person apart from Brian Epstein who believed they were going to be huge and helped make sure they were. Kenneth provides a gripping account of what was arguably the most productive creative partnership of the 20th century. How does he think they would have fared if they had ended up with some other producer at EMI rather than George Martin? "I think they would have had a few hits and then faded away," he says. "What make it all work was that they came at everything sideways." Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 291 - Billy Bragg Oct 11, 2018

Billy Bragg joins us to talk about Izal medicated toilet paper, the Beatles, Joe Henry, the restorative effects of finishing the evening signing tea towels, Bovingdon tank museum, an old copy of the East London Advertiser, meeting Bob Dylan, watching old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, the importance of accountability, what the Clash could do and what they couldn't do, meeting Ray Galton in the pub, what poems could each of us recite from memory, Lead Belly, the cultural importance of TV cowboys, how many of the Quarrymen are still alive, and much more besides... Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 215 - Chas Hodges Sep 23, 2018

For all the people who have been asking to hear the long version of our chat with Chas Hodges, who was our guest in the podcast on June 1st 2012, here it is. It's all here: growing up in Edmonton, playing in Joe Meek's house band, hearing "Revolver" on acetate, playing with Heads, Hands and Feet, the amazing story of Chas and Dave and much more. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 290 - Mark King Sep 20, 2018

In the entire firmament of those who busted the charts in the 1980s there was nobody more reliably sane than Mark King of Level 42. Before they start on their 2018 tour he came in to the Islington to entertain an enthralled house with his account of importing the first Mahavishnu Orchestra album into the Isle Of Wight, turning up on Lenny White's doorstep in America at the age of seventeen, treating the bass as a percussion instrument, his ride on the giddy carousel of chart success in the 80s, prodding Sean Penn in the chest at Madonna's party, appearing with Elton John and Eric Clapton at the Prince's Trust and a recent run-in with Ginger Baker. One of the best evenings we've ever had at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 289 - Mark Kermode Sep 18, 2018

Ever since first hearing the siren call of The Rubettes' "Sugar Baby Love", Mark Kermode, TV and Radio's Mr Movie, has been possessed by a determination to find out how it feels to be on stage with a band and to make the noise that bands made. His new book "How Does It Feel?" recounts every step on that journey, from making his own guitar while at school through leading his own bands The Bottlers and The Dodge Brothers and masquerading as the musical director of Danny Baker's late-night chat show to trying to learn the chromatic harmonica on stage in front of a large orchestra and an even larger audience. It has been a life devoted to the noble objective of getting some kind of noise out of just about anything he has been confronted with and being prepared to treat the twin impostors of approval and derision both the same. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 288 - Seymour Stein Jun 28, 2018

We couldn't get over the fact that Seymour Stein actually met Buddy Holly. It shouldn't surprise us really because after all he is 76 and his first job in the music business was at Billboard when he was a teenager. It's well known that as the boss of the Sire label he signed the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, the Undertones and Madonna. What's less well-known is the part played in the Sire story by Focus, the Deviants and the Climax Blues Band. The full story is written in "Siren Song" which he's written with Gareth Murphy. He came to Word In Your Ear to talk about it. We let him get on with it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 287 - Stuart Baillie Jun 28, 2018

Stuart Baillie's book, "Trouble Songs" is, as he told us at this Word In Your Ear, his personal story as well as the story of music and the Troubles. Born in Belfast in 1961, Stuart came to London to work on the NME, returning to Belfast in the late 90s to run a music project in the city. His book paints a rich picture of a place with unique virtues as well as unique problems. It's the story of how entertainment has reflected both and how live music re-emerged from behind the ring of steel and came blinking in the daylight following the Good Friday agreement. It's the story of Christy Moore, the Miami Showband, Stiff Little Fingers, Rudi, Van Morrison, the Undertones, Terri Hooley and scores of others, many of whom were interviewed specifically for the book. It's also the story of the part played in the events of the time by outsiders like Lennon and McCartney, U2 and The Clash. It's the story of how music both brings people together and sometimes drives them apart. It's one of the best books we've ever covered in Word In Your Ear. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 286 - Kenney Jones Jun 12, 2018

Drummer with the Small Faces, the Faces and the Who, supplier of the distinctive drum sound on the Rolling Stones' "It's Only 'N' Roll", guest at Mick Jagger's wedding in 1971, Kenney Jones is one of the few people born in Stepney in 1948 who wound up owning his own polo club. It's all in his newly-published autobiography "Let The Good Times Roll". He came to the Islington to talk to David and Mark about it. The new air conditioning was working and a splendid time was had by all. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 285 - Simon Mayo Jun 07, 2018

Award-winning broadcaster and podcaster, successful novelist and former Word subscriber Simon Mayo makes his debut on the pod to talk about his ascent of the greasy pole of broadcasting, his experience fronting the Radio One Roadshow in the days when that was a very big deal, his radio husband Mark Kermode, his radio wife Jo Whiley, his first adult novel "Mad Blood Stirring", soon to be a major motion picture, and the real reason why Dave Lee Travis always got the biggest cheer. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 284 - Andrew Collins Jun 07, 2018

It was a delight to catch up with Andrew Collins on the occasion of the publication of "Still Suitable For Miners", his biography of Billy Bragg which was initially published in 1998 and is now updated with additional material. He talked to David and Mark about the days when a biographer had a carrier bag of clippings instead of the internet, how the self-described big-nosed bastard from Barking managed to turn himself into a national institution and kept his brand burning bright for the best part of forty years and also tells us the one about the stripper and the banana. All this and an education too! Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 283 - Neil Innes May 05, 2018

In the sixties Neil Innes wrote and sang many of the deathless masterpieces of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. In the late 70s he was the leading light of the pre-fab four, The Rutles, still the greatest and most affectionate of Beatles parodies. He lives in France now. On a visit to the UK to take part in a tour marking the 40th anniversary of the Rutles, he dropped in to the Islington to talk to old skool fans Mark and David about wooing women with fruit, meeting the Beatles on the stairs at Abbey Road, doing a weekly children's programme live on TV with the one and only Viv Stanshall, helping George Harrison with his garden and not suing Oasis. A delightful guest. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 282 - Garth Cartwright May 04, 2018

Virgin, Harlequin, One Stop, Dobells, Rock On, HMV, Cheapo Cheapo, Disci, Andy's, Woolies, Our Price and a million and one places called The Spinning Disc. It doesn't matter where you did your record shopping in the far long-ago, they're all in "Going For A Song", Garth Cartwright's information-packed survey of UK record shops past and present. In this podcast he talks to Mark and David about record retailing in this country from the days of the cylinder through the danceband boom of the thirties and the madness of Beatlemania to the recent rebirth of very specialist indies. It's a road we've all trodden one way or another and it's good to have it recognised. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 281 - Sir Tim Rice Apr 12, 2018

Tim Rice didn't particularly like musicals. He was a rock and roll fan turned junior exec. In fact when Tim Rice met Andrew Lloyd Webber in the late 60s he had his eyes on a nice job running one of EMI's overseas outposts. But then there was Jesus Christ Superstar which was performed by the Grease Band and recorded at Olympic and sold in quantities nobody knew anything could sell and the next thing he knew he was a giant of the musical theatre and was writing with and for everyone. The perspective he's acquired in the course of a fifty-plus year career is unique and he's already distilled a lot of it into one volume of memoirs. He came along to The Islington so that Mark and David could encourage him to get on with the next volume. It was a delight to talk to him. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 280 - Richard Newman Apr 11, 2018

It was born in an unpromising flat in Tottenham, came to fruition in an old manor house in Oxfordshire, became, by accident, the soundtrack of a horror film that is still frightening people 45 years later and led, also by accident, to the foundation of one of the few British brands that's still a household name. It changed the lives of everybody who had anything to do with it. Richard Newman is the only person to have spent time talking to all the people who were involved and his book, 'The Making Of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells', has been re-published to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of the record's original release. He came to the Islington to talk to David and Mark about it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 279 - Ian Anderson Feb 14, 2018

When Ian Anderson left the family home in Blackpool to make his name in the music business his father flung him hid old overcoat. "It'll be cold out there," he said. That was more than fifty years ago. 2018 sees the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the first Tull album "This Was". This anniversary is being marked by a special tour which begins in April. When Ian was our guest at Word In Your Ear he talked about: going to the police station as a 15-year-old because he wanted to be a copper, how the name of his band was as much a surprise to him as anyone else, what it was like to go on before Hendrix at the Isle of Wight in 1969, how The Who outshone the Rolling Stones during the filming of "The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus", why any idiot can manage his own band and why so few do, the secret of breaking America and why this tour is definitely the last. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 278 - Danny Baker Dec 14, 2017

In the course of a packed conversation with David Hepworth the Damon Runyon of Bermondsey touches upon Keith Chegwin and the Third Ear Band, carrying a coffin and recovering from cancer, the breathtaking profanity of Hughie Green and the staggering stupidity of certain BBC executives, the difficulty of dealing with 12-year-old TV producers who are labouring under the misapprehension that they understand pop history and what happened when he and Danny Kelly decided it was finally time to try getting stoned. As ever, all human life is there – as it is in his latest autobiographical volume, "Going On The Turn". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 277 - Robert Forster Nov 23, 2017

Robert Forster's new book 'Grant And I' features strongly in many people's lists of the music book of the year. He came to WIYE to talk to Mark and David about growing up in Brisbane, bonding with Grant McLennan over their shared affection for Ry Cooder, forming a band with like-minded people rather than people who could play, getting near enough to success to be able to taste it and why no band has anything new to say after twenty minutes. Robert's been on the podcast before and remains one of our favourites. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 276 - Armando Iannucci Nov 18, 2017

Armando Iannucci's Hear Me Out is a collection of pieces about his first love, classical music. He decided early on that the Deep Purple and Lou Reed records favoured by his older brother didn't speak to him in the way that Holsts's Planet Suite did. His book explains why. In this wide ranging chat with Mark and David Armando talks about how it felt to not share the general enthusiasm for the sound of now and what he says to people when they try to get him on the dance floor at parties. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 275 - Dylan Jones Oct 23, 2017

As a teenager Dylan Jones was one of that generation who saw David Bowie on “Top Of The Pops” in 1972 and felt he was talking directly to them. As an art student he worked as an extra on a Bowie film and even gave him a light for his cigarette. As the editor of such magazines as Arena and GQ he went on to interview Bowie numerous times. Now he’s put together “David Bowie: A Life”, a massive oral history of the man’s life and brilliant career. It draws on the recollections of everyone from old school friends like George Underwood through fellow musicians like Rick Wakeman to the artists, film makers and fashion leaders whose direction he affected. In this special extended chat with Mark Ellen and David Hepworth Dylan talks about everything Bowie, including how small he was in some directions and yet how big in others. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 274 - Chris Difford Sep 17, 2017

"My Dad said that if I joined a rock band I would be an alcoholic, a drug addict and skint. Turns out he was right." So writes Chris Difford in "Some Fantastic Place", a startlingly candid autobiography. An old friend of the pod he came along to Word In Your Ear to talk to Mark and David about the strange dynamics within bands, the reason musicians don't talk to each other, the attractions of relaxants and stimulants and the challenges of managing Bryan Ferry. Amazing stuff. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 273 - with Daniel Rachel Sep 16, 2017

The guest on our snug Chesterfield was Daniel Rachel, who won the Penderyn Prize for best music book of 2017 for his "Walls Come Tumbling Down", a triumphant oral history of the story of Rock Against Racism, 2-Tone and Red Wedge. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 272 - Johnny Rogan and Sid Griffin Jul 23, 2017

Johnny Rogan almost didn't make it to this Word In Your Ear. He was so absorbed in a discussion about biography with friend of the podcast Mark Lewisohn that he had a small traffic accident that almost sidelined him for the evening. Anyway, he made it and brought along both volumes of his mammoth new account of their complex career. To help tell their story we were also delighted to welcome another friend of the pod Sid Griffin. It's all here: the folk revival, Swinging London, psychedelia, square glasses, country music, personality conflicts and some very sad ends. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 271 - with Sarfraz Manzoor Jul 18, 2017

Usually our guests are talking about freshly-published books. It's actually ten years since Sarfraz Manzoor put out Greetings From Bury Park, his memoir about growing up in a traditional Pakistani family in Luton with an obsession with Bruce Springsteen. With the prospect of the story being transferred to the screen in the offing, Sarfraz came along to talk to David Hepworth about how he found parallels between Springsteen's songs and the challenges he faced in his life and how his desire to identify with the Boss led him into the odd unfortunate fashion choice. At the same time the two of them talk about Bruce Springsteen's autobiography Born To Run as it comes out in paperback, because, face it, he could use the royalties. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 270 - Uncommon People Jun 07, 2017

We loved them because they could do things we could never do. We adopted them as our fantasy friends when we were teenagers and were still measuring ourselves against them forty years after. David Hepworth talks about his best-selling book "Uncommon People" which traces the history of the cult of the rock star from Little Richard to Kurt Cobain. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 269 - Thomas Dolby May 25, 2017

Thomas Dolby’s career has seen him sharing a helicopter with a terrified David Bowie over Wembley Stadium, labouring on the nightshift at a New York studio in search of noises that Foreigner might like and dropping in on Michael Jackson at home in the days before scandal consumed him. All this and a good deal more is in his memoir The Speed Of Sound, which also covers his pop success and his adventures at the heart of the great Internet revolution. He came to Islington to talk to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth all about it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 268 - John Ingham May 21, 2017

John Ingham used to sign himself Jonh Ingham when he covered the very early stirrings of punk rock in 1976 for Sounds. Although he was a writer by trade he took along his camera because literally nobody else was taking pictures and he recognised that early punk was above all things colourful. Forty years later he’s got those pictures out from storage and published them in a fabulous new book called Siprit Of 76: London Punk Eyewitness, which has pictures of all the key players - the Sex Pistols, Clash, Siouxsie, Generation X and Subway Sect - in the last days before they were household names. It’s an extraordinary document. The book comes with an introduction from Jon Savage and a commentary from John himself. He came along to the Islington to tell us about the year it all happened. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 267 - Miranda Sawyer and Barry McIlheney Apr 30, 2017

David Hepworth started at Smash Hits in the late 70s, Mark Ellen joined in the early 80s, Barry McIlheney arrived in the middle of the decade and Miranda Sawyer came along in the late 80s. Therefore they were well placed to talk about such key Smash Hits experiences as being pinned to a door by Jimmy Pursey, taking Bananarama to Burger King, asking U2 to draw a duck and getting a bit tired and going home halfway through a Stone Roses interview. All this and more in this bumper ish. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 266 - Tom Doyle on Elton Hercules John Apr 30, 2017

“Captain Fantastic” is Tom Doyle’s account of Elton’s most tumultuous decade, the 70s, during which time he assumed every role from bedsitter poet to intercontinental hell raiser, from singing frontiersman to singing hornet, from Pinner to Philly and back. He came along to Word In Your Ear to talk to us about the eternal puzzle that is Elton. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 265 - David “Ram Jam” Rodigan Apr 06, 2017

There’s a rich British tradition of well brought up young men from the leafier suburbs developing a fixation on music from a very different culture and somehow getting themselves a job playing said music on the radio. Nobody has done it more successfully and more unexpectedly than David Rodigan. For a part of the career he’s run it alongside his work as an actor. No wonder there’s so much interest in turning his book “My Life In Reggae” into a film. It’s a story rich in humour and packed with incident, some of which he recounted to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 264 - Tessa Niles and Gina Foster talking BVs Mar 29, 2017

We were delighted to be joined by two of the UK’s most respected providers of backing vocals and harmonies, who between them have sung with everybody from David Bowie at Live Aid on down. They showed us aspects of their vocal techniques, instructed us in the diplomatic arts required to rub along on tour when the members of the band aren’t speaking to each other and explain why the wordless refrain has gone the way of the whalebone corset. You can find the full story in Tessa’s book “Backtrack”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 263 - Jon Savage shortcast Mar 07, 2017

In this shortcast Jon Savage talks to David Hepworth about his new compilation album, “1967 - The Year Pop Divided”. Forty-eight tracks of psych-flavoured pop, rock and soul from the last year before music went off into its own ghettoes, from the Byrds to Captain Beefheart, from Rex Garvin and the Mighty Cravers to the Shag, from the Thirteenth Floor Elevators to Gladys Knight and the Pips, from the Monkees to The Mickey Finn. “Do the lyrics have anything in common? Yes. Drugs." Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 262 - Tony Fletcher Feb 19, 2017

In Which Tony Fletcher tells us about Wilson Pickett, who was impossible as a child, inimitable as a singer and incorrigible as a success, and how he came to write “In The Midnight Hour”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 261 - Barney Hoskyns Feb 13, 2017

In which Barney Hoskyns talks to us about Woodstock and the part it played in the lives of Dylan, the Band, Albert Grossman and Van Morrison, as related in his book “Small Town Talk”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 260 - Jeff Evans Feb 09, 2017

In which Jeff Evans returns from researching the full history of "Rock and Pop On TV" for his new book and talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about not just "Six Five Special" but also "Cool For Cats", not just Legs and Co but also Ruby Flipper, not just "The Tube" but also "The White Room", and wonders whether, now that we have You Tube, we have finally come to the end of music television as a genre. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 259 - with Paul Gambaccini Jan 29, 2017

In which Paul Gambaccini, that son of New York who became an institution of British broadcasting, talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about how the Beatles changed his life, how he got into broadcasting, what brought him to Britain, his experience of Radio One in the 70s, his recent ordeal at the hands of the Metropolitan police – fully documented in an amazing book "Love, Paul Gambaccini" – and how this experience has changed his view of the BBC and the Labour Party but not the British people. It's an extraordinary listen, one that goes the full distance from hilarity to horror. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 258 - Mick Houghton & Adam White Dec 11, 2016

In which Mick Houghton, the author of a book about the legendary folk-rock label Elektra, and Adam White, the man behind a huge tome about the history of Motown, talk to David Hepworth about the unique challenges faced by independent labels, the charismatic men who founded them, the occasionally difficult stars they had to deal with and what keeps both Jac Holzman and Berry Gordy going at an age when most people are happy just to look at their great-grandchildren. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 257 - Richard Houghton Dec 09, 2016

In which Richard Houghton, the author of “I Was There”, a collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who saw the Beatles back in the sixties, from under-attended dance halls in England to over flowing stadia in the United States, talks to David Hepworth about how he wrinkled out their stories. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 256 - Paul Morley on David Bowie Sep 22, 2016

In which David Hepworth talks to legendary journalist and author Paul Morley about how David Bowie inflamed his young imagination and his new book The Age Of Bowie. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 255 - Hunter Davies Sep 17, 2016

In which David Hepworth talks to legendary journalist and author Hunter Davies about his time as a fly on the wall with the Beatles in the middle sixties and his newly-published Beatles Book. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 254 - Sylvia Patterson Jun 26, 2016

In which we talk to the irrepressible Sylvia Patterson on how music provided some much needed structure in her chaotic teenage life and her career as a writer on Smash Hits, NME and beyond. Contains: Manics, Mick Hucknall, Happy Mondays, Blur and many more. Sylvia’s book is “I’m Not With The Band”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 253 - Derek Ridgers Jun 25, 2016

In which we talk to Derek Ridgers, who began taking pictures at Eric Clapton’s Rainbow concert and was there to document the brief moment when punk was invented in London. Some of these pictures are collected in his new book “Punk London 1977”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 252 - David and Caroline Stafford May 22, 2016

In which we talked to the husband and wife team behind Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong: The Life And Times Of Randy Newman about this uniquely fascinating artist and whether he'll be remembered for"Short People" or "Toy Story". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 251 - Alan Shypton on Harry Nilsson May 13, 2016

In which Harry Nilsson biographer Alan Shypton reflects on the man with the voice of an angel and the thirst of a medium-sized nation. We're a bit late with this, but Alan's book 'Nilsson: The Life Of A Singer-Songwriter' is such an absorbing account of a life packed with incident that it's better late than never. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 250: 1971 - Never A Dull Moment Apr 23, 2016

In which David Hepworth instructs Mark Ellen in the theory behind his best-selling book about the the annus mirabilis of the rock album, “1971: Never A Dull Moment”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 249 - with Zoë Howe Apr 17, 2016

In which friend of Word In Your Ear and Essex correspondent Zoë Howe talks about the Doctor Feelgood frontman, subject of her new book Lee Brilleaux: Rock’n’Roll Gentleman.

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Word Podcast 248 - with Graeme Thompson Apr 13, 2016

In which Word contributor and biographer of George Harrison Graeme Thomson talks about the short but action-packed passage of the “literally clubbable” Phil Lynott, the subject of his authorised biography “Cowboy Song”. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 247 - with Jon Savage Nov 20, 2015

Jon Savage has written celebrated histories of Punk Rock and the Teenager. Now he turns his attention to 1966, the year when pop went fuzzy at the edges, when psychedelic drugs, protest about Vietnam and anxiety about nuclear war helped inspire some of the greatest pop music ever made, by everyone from Bob Dylan to the Stones to Norma Tanega. He talked to David Hepworth about it in front of an audience at The Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 246 - with Howard Sounes Nov 19, 2015

Howard Sounes has already written revelatory biographies of Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney. Most recently he’s turned his attention to Lou Reed. In Notes from the Velvet Underground he recounts the extraordinary life and career of one of rock’s most memorably irascible characters, someone who occasionally pulled a gun on even close friends and allies. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 245 - Elvis Costello Oct 31, 2015

Elvis Costello joins us to talk about his blockbusting memoir "Unfaithful Music And Disappearing Ink". The conversation takes in such vital issues as: growing up in a house full of acetates and publishers demos, the reason The Attractions ran on to the stage in 1977, Nick Kent’s tackle on display in the garden of the pub opposite Island Records, playing support to the Natural Acoustic Band in 1971, listening to the radio in the 60s, what he learned from Burt Bacharach and why the White House is the ideal place to play “Penny Lane”. Cheers, Elvis. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 244 - The Skypecast Oct 22, 2015

David Hepworth and Mark Ellen talk bout Tracey Thorn’s Naked At The Albert Hall: The Inside Story Of Singing and John Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside The Hit Factory via the miracle of Skype. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 243 - The Peelcast Oct 17, 2015

David Cavanagh, the author of “Good Night and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years Of John Peel Help Shape Modern Britain”, and Trevor Dann, WIYE’s go-to guy on all matters radio, talk about John Peel: his radio style, his complicated personality, his contribution to the national heritage and where he would be broadcasting today if he were still around. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 242 - Chris Salewicz Oct 17, 2015

Chris Salewicz joined us to talk about “Dead Gods: The 27 Club” which deals with the rock stars who never got past their twenty-seventh birthday. His list includes: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and others. What they all had in common was a family background not as happy as you would like and a sub-conscious fear of dealing with adult life. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 241 - The McCartneycast Sep 25, 2015

WIYE McCartney Special. Paul Du Noyer, who’s interviewed him more than anyone (much of which is reflected in his new book, “Conversations With McCartney), and Laura Barton, who need her cat after him, discuss a national institution with Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. Best look, best song, best story, it’s all here, including the answer to the perennial question - what was Paul McCartney’s best song for The Beatles? Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 240 - with Patrick Woodroffe Sep 24, 2015

Patrick Woodroffe is the world's foremost live show lighting designer. He's the man the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and many others ask for by name. He's been behind some of the most ambitious and technically demanding stage presentations, from vast crowds on Copacabana Beach to a world TV audience for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. He talked to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his work in front of an audience at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 239 - with Peter Doggett Sep 13, 2015

Peter Doggett is one of the most respected authors in the music field, with highly-praised works devoted to David Bowie and the Beatles to his name. Here he talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his magnum opus “Electric Shock”, a panoramic history of popular music from the gramophone to the iPhone. This was recorded in front of an audience at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 238 - Mick Wall Aug 30, 2015

Mick Wall has been a leading light of rock journalism at the heavier end for over thirty years, playing an important role in the development of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses and many others. Here he talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his experiences, as recorded in his new book “Getcha Rocks Off”. This was recorded in front of an audience at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 237 - Live Aid Jul 11, 2015

On the 30th anniversary of the day four people who were there — Janice Long, Dylan Jones, Mark Ellen and David Hepworth — talk about what it was like, how it didn't quite happen as planned, how people and press reacted at the time and what it changed about music and media. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 236 - Clare Grogan Jul 11, 2015

One of our oldest pals talks about Altered Images, Gregory's Girl, the joys of the oldies circuit and how motherhood led her to write Tallulah and the Teen Stars, the latest in a series of Young Adult books about the adventures of thinly-disguised versions of Smash Hits favourites. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 235 - Johnnie Walker May 24, 2015

In this special Word In Your Era recording the UK's most legendary disc jockey talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about playing records on the radio in the 70s, about sneaking Lou Reed up Auntie's skirt, avoiding the Bay City Rollers and going to an authentic record company sponsored orgy. Happy days. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 234 - Johnny Rogan May 08, 2015

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Johnny Rogan, biographer of Morrissey and Van Morrison, about Ray Davies, the subject of his latest book, “A Complicated Life”. Recorded at the Islington in front of an audience at Word In Your Ear. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 233: Mick Taylor’s got the shits… Apr 30, 2015

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry talk to “Magic” Alex Gold about his playing ukulele in Alaska, schlepping the length and breadth of Britain to play to one man and Fido and learning the entire repertoire of the Rolling Stones in just one day. Plus: Tidal, Rick Buckler, the unquiet life of AC/DC and how to leave your records in your will. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 232 - Rick Buckler Apr 23, 2015

Rick Buckler was the drummer of The Jam. His book "That's Entertainment" tells the story of how a teenage covers band from Woking became Britain's most popular group of the late 70s and early 80s, how it all came to an end and the likelihood of it being started again. He talked about it to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth at a Word In Your Ear event at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 231 - Richard Goldstein Apr 09, 2015

Richard Goldstein was the world's first rock critic. He wrote the "Popeye" column for the Village Voice during the British invasion of New York, rubbing shoulders with the Stones, Dylan, Janis Joplin and Brian Wilson. His book "Another Little Piece Of My Heart" is a unique record of a tumultuous era seen up-close. He talked about it to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth at Word In Your Ear is Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 230 - Norman Jopling Apr 08, 2015

Norman Jopling worked for Record Mirror in the 60s. He wrote the first story about the Rolling Stones, he took competition winners to meet the Beatles on the set of Help!, he saw the arrival of a new world at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1969. His book "Shake It Up Baby!" is a vivid diary of that frenetic decade. He talked about it to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth at Word In Your Ear is Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 229 - Fairport Convention Mar 13, 2015

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to founder members of Fairport Convention Ashley Hutchings and Simon Nicol about Sandy Denny, the subject of "I've Always Had A Unicorn", a new biography by Mick Houghton. Recorded in front of an audience at the Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 228 - The Bobcast Feb 07, 2015

On the day Bob Dylan's album "Shadows In The Night" was released, top Dylan interpreter Barb Jungr and musician and writer Sid Griffin, talked to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about how they first came to Bob Dylan, their favourite Dylan look, their favourite album and song and what it is about his music that keeps them coming back. This was recorded in front of a live audience. You'll just have to imagine the pictures. Next time make sure you're there. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Pod 227 - Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites Jan 04, 2015

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites about Great Lost Albums which celebrates some of the records which you may not have actually heard but surely nonetheless exist in some fold of rock’s rich tapestry. We’re talking of course of David Icke & Tina Turner’s collaboration, the first Velvet Underground and Lulu album and Bob Dylan’s legendary collaboration with Liberace. This was recorded in front of an audience at the Islington in London’s swinging Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Richard Balls and Mark Lewisohn Jan 04, 2015

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Richard Balls, the author of Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story about that label’s unique contribution to the iconography, lore and humour of the British record scene. Plus Mark Lewisohn pauses in the middle of the sisyphean task of writing his mammoth history of the Beatles to tell us how he’s getting on. This was recorded in front of an audience at the Islington in London’s swinging Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 225 - Remembering Smash Hits Dec 07, 2014

Mark Frith and Sylvia Patterson join Mark Ellen and David Hepworth to remember Britain's brightest - includes extremely rare 1982 Christmas flex. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 223 — Danny Baker Nov 23, 2014

Part of Danny Baker’s epic November performance at The Islington in which he talked about his new book “Going Off Alarming”. Believe it or not, Mark Ellen and David Hepworth are in there as well. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 223 Oct 08, 2014

In which Mark Ellen, Fraser Lewry and David Hepworth consider U2's album, the rum work done in the name of the "rock doc" and the proper duties of a household cat Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 222 — Zoe Howe Sep 29, 2014

Zoe Howe, author of a new book about Stevie Nicks, talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in front of an audience at the Islington. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 221 — Ben Watt Sep 24, 2014

In an interview recorded in front of an audience at The Islington, Ben Watt talks to David Hepworth and Mark Ellen about "Romany and Tom", his acclaimed memoir of his parents, and his award winning solo album "Hendra". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 220 Aug 25, 2014

Legendary artist manager, entrepreneur and speaker on all things music business Simon Napier-Bell talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his new book “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay” (the dodgy business of popular music) in front of a packed house at The Islington. Includes: Lottie Collins, Wham, Irvin Berlin, The Beatles, Japan, the Yardbirds, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, One Direction, Pet Shop Boys and just about everybody else in the music business. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 219 May 05, 2014

Includes: world debut of enthralling new parlour game Rock Poker; Neil Finn’s Two-Way Family Favourites; the two tribes of Adam Ant Nation; Justin Timberlake’s moveable feast; why long-form TV is a sinister plot to steal our lives; a pathetic attempt to read a whole paragraph of Mark Ellen’s book “Rock Stars Stole My Life” without laughing; plusuncalled for interjections from Fraser Lewry’s amazing wi-fi rabbit and your questions answered. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 218 - Where's The Crisps? Mar 10, 2014

March 2014: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry convene over cakes to discuss: why all rock docs are legally bound to feature Bono, the touching story of Harry Nilsson's last marriage, what Jimi Hendrix really got up to in Marrakesh, whether Ginger Baker is in fact a bit of a bore, Fraser's day trip to North Korea and the book what Mark wrote. And Vikings. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 217 - with Bob Harris Jun 22, 2012

Men kicking stars! Smoking on TV! Having to introduce music you didn't like! Getting picked on in public! All this and more in our Whispering Bobcast in which the great man plays 70s Rock Bingo, recalls cramped sessions with the Wailers in tiny continuity studios, the years when he couldn't go out for fear of being set upon by punk rockers, his memories of eating celery with Van Dyke Parks and making friends with John Lennon, his sacking from Radio One, his re-hiring by Radio Two and the launch of a new compilation of live sessions from Old Grey Whistle Test. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 216 Jun 08, 2012

This week we're joined by Jude Rogers and Eamonn Forde to kick around the following subjects: the stylistic chasm between Grace Jones and Ed Sheeran at the Jubilee concert, the desirability of Macca finishing with Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, whether Madness playing Our House on top of the Palace was the most spectacular bit of staging ever seen at a pop show, what we have learned from Twitter about Nick Heyward, Richard Coles and "the girls side of the playground", the sounds and smells our children will never know and the big question - do records smell? Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 215 - with Chas Hodges Jun 01, 2012

We're joined in the pod by Chas Hodges, who you'll know from such hits as "Gertcha" and "Ain't No Pleasing You". But you ought to also know him from his time in Joe Meek's house band, his stint on tour with the Beatles as a member of Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers, his time with pioneering country-rock band Heads, Hands and Feet and his manifold and honourable contributions to sessions galore. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 214 - with Graham Gouldman May 19, 2012

Graham Gouldman wrote For Your Love for The Yardbirds, Bus Stop for The Hollies, Tallyman for Jeff Beck, No Milk Today for Herman's Hermits and I"m Not In Love and lots of others for 10cc. He has worked with Kirsty MacColl, Kasenetz-Katz, Andrew Gold, Gary Barlow, The Ramones, Mickie Most, John Paul Jones, Neil Sedaka and the Manchester City FA Cup squad of 1972. He's got a new record coming out called Love & Work. You think we ran out of things to talk about? Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Shortcast - The Blockheads May 11, 2012

Chaz Jankel - co-author of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Sweet Gene Vincent and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick - looks back at the rollicking rise of the Blockheads, and Derek "The Draw" Hussey contemplates Ian Dury, the man whose shoes he fills in the current Blockheads line-up. Contains their charming performance of A Little Knowledge, the greatest piece of music recording in Word podcast history, we're saying. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 213 May 04, 2012

Kate Mossman, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry go through John Peel's Record Collection and ponder what you can tell about personality type from flicking through anyone's accumulated spines. We also wonder whether Alabama Shakes anxiety indicates the impossibility of trying to like things just because other people do, discuss rock's vanishing instruments, and attempt to come up with preferable alternatives to the big Duran Duran/Stereophonics/Paolo Nutini/Snow Patrol Olympic showdown. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 212 Apr 27, 2012

Over the last week we've welcomed three authors into the pod: Stanley Booth went on the road and down to Muscle Shoals with the Rolling Stones in 1969 and eventually wrote all about it in the ultimate access all areas on tour book, The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones; Paul Charles is one of the UK's leading live music agents and he's also the author of The Last Dance, a new novel set against the background of the Irish showband scene of the 60s; Andrew Martin is a journalist and author who's taken his fascination with railways of all kinds into fiction as well as fact. His new book is Underground Overground, a passenger's history of the tube. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 211 - with Andrew Collins Apr 21, 2012

This bumper edition covers: the only other person called Levon, why celebrities always feel the need to put one over on interviewers in public forums, who Record Store Day is supposed to be benefiting, the upsides and downsides of travelling in south-east Asia and podcasts about farming and Shakespeare. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 210 Mar 31, 2012

Things we've been talking about this week include the great NME mis-selling scandal of the 90s, the grisly details of MC Hammer's 1998 bankruptcy, and the days when you could see Neil Young and have enough change to buy a bag of chips on the way home. Also: Pugwash drop in to talk about getting fan mail from Jeff Lynne and play a song from their new album, and we discuss an amazing documentary called Dreams Of A Life. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 209 - with Melvin Benn Mar 22, 2012

Latitude and Reading/Leeds promoter Melvin Benn remembers his first event - an anti-Thatcher gig in ’79 - while elsewhere there’s the unadulterated chaos of Axl Rose and girlfriend at Reading (the festival he helped save from bankruptcy), memories of Nirvana, the time he and Michael Eavis defended Worthy Farm against anarchists with petrol bombs, and the revelation that promoters can “play God” with the weather conditions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 208 Mar 17, 2012

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry debate whether there really is such a thing as a ropey Beatles record, the best food they've ever had at a gig, and the ethics of flying in samples during live performances. Plus Mike Doughty, talking about his career and his extraordinary memoir The Book Of Drugs. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 207 - with Mark Billingham Mar 09, 2012

The UK’s premier crime-thriller writer Mark Billingham enters the pod and subjects his obsessions to forensic enquiry - among them The Smiths, Genesis, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. There’s some sound advice – "if you get caught shoplifting, at least nick something fashionable". There’s his four minutes dancing onstage with Elvis Costello and the time Morrissey let him to use some Smiths lyrics in one of his novels. And the fatwa from furious Phil Collins supporters. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 206 - with Scritti Politti Mar 02, 2012

We talk about great unexpected shows. David Hepworth goes to see Randy Newman and finds himself sitting behind some people who are clinically incapable of resisting the temptation to talk. Plus Green Gartside and Rhodri Marsden of Scritti Politti drop in to sing a couple of songs and talk about buying old Little Feat albums in the 70s. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 205 - with Robin Hitchcock Feb 25, 2012

The wildly prolific songwriter – and leader of The Soft Boys, Egyptians, Venus 3 and, currently, The Floating Palace collective – tackles life’s big issues. Such as why The Beatles were doomed as solo projects, the magic twin poles of the Syd Barrett lyric method, and the rigours of playing an entire set of David Bowie classics. Plus some riveting stuff on the ‘78 gig circuit and the Battle Of The Somme. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 204 Feb 19, 2012

Nige Tassell comes up from Somerset and (fatally) brings us something to drink. Before it takes effect we cover the following stuff: David Hepworth wonders why the best venues for rock and roll are always the ones built long before rock and roll was ever thought of. We ask when did school choirs start singing Adele songs and is this entirely a good idea? We have a quick chat and a song from Band Of Skulls, and Nige shares some of his most treasured old cassettes with us. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Shortcast - Eliza Carthy Feb 15, 2012

On February 27th Eliza Carthy plays the pub across the road in one of our Word In Your Ear series of live shows. In this special shortcast she tells David Hepworth what kind of music was playing in the house when she was growing up, how she had a thing for Rick Astley and how her boyfriend made her give her Barbies away to the charity shop. Bastard. A few tickets for the show, which features Eliza plus full five piece band, supported by Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo plus Left With Pictures, are still available. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 203 Feb 11, 2012

This podcast has lots in it: Mark Ellen taking a blunt instrument to his phone, the debt Madonna’s half-time Superbowl show owed to Elizabeth Taylor’s quiet entrance into Rome in the movie Cleopatra, the feminizing of pop, the people who’ve made more than one great album, how we know Lady Gaga isn’t a real blonde and the likelihood of a movement like punk getting swallowed up by Facebook. Plus a visit from Dodgy to talk up their new record Stand Upright In A Cool Place, Fraser’s recipe for a warming soup and the cat on the pitch at Anfield. Should be enough to get you home through the snow. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 202 - with Nick Coleman and Phantom Limb Jan 29, 2012

This podcast features interviews with two fascinating guests: Nick Coleman talks to David Hepworth about his excellent new book The Train in The Night, which touches on all kinds of things: why boys feel the need to define themselves by their tastes, what it’s like listening to a Nazareth album with your dad, how the brain eventually rewires itself to make up for the information it’s missing and the fact that people like us actually have far more records in our heads than even the biggest jukeboxes. We’ve also been visited by Yolanda Quartey, the sensational singer with Bristol’s Phantom Limb, whose new album The Pines is out now and who will be featured in the CD with the next issue. She brought with her a couple of live recordings made especially for the Word podcast. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 201: The Basscast Jan 18, 2012

In celebration of James Medd’s stupendous piece in Word 108 on the secret world of the bass guitarist, Medd and Mark Ellen present a podcast with session wizard and bon viveur Guy Pratt – who tells tales of working with Pink Floyd, The Smiths, Jimmy Page, the dictatorial Madonna and David Coverdale (who he impersonates immaculately). And explains the correct pronunciation of “Whitesnake” and how he did a Sophie Ellis-Bextor hit in 17 minutes. He also peels off the world’s greatest bottom lines on the office bass guitar. Our story starts on an aeroplane piloted by Floyd drummer Nick Mason experiencing strange and artificial turbulence... Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Shortcast: Neil Cowley Jan 13, 2012

Neil Cowley dropped by the office the other day to talk about the Neil Cowley Trio, their new album The Face Of Mount Molehill, his time as a sideman with everyone from The Pasadenas to the Brand New Heavies, his part in the musical career of Sue Perkins and how the best place to learn to play jazz is in your local garden centre. We liked him so much we’ve put it out as a short podcast on its own. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 200 Jan 07, 2012

We celebrate 200 editions of the Word Podcast in the room upstairs in The King and Queen in Foley Street, W1, scene of Bob Dylan's first ever appearance in the UK. Subjects covered included: the on and off wedding arrangements of Sinead O'Connor; Kate Mossman being pursued the house Benny Hill-style by Kevin Ayers and Fraser's legendary misdirection of the Princess Of Wales. The audience lines up to compete in our legendary Rock and Roll Spelling test and plays thirty seconds of a rock classic on an unusual instrument. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 199 Dec 21, 2011

The Word helicopter takes off from just the battlements of Graeme Thomson’s castle in Edinburgh, hugs the coastline on its way south, dropping off at the massive Victorian folly occupied by Mark Hodkinson on the borders or Yorkshire and Lancashire and then makes a detour into Berkshire where it lands on the vast rolling lawns of John Naughton’s massive country seat. Finally it hovers over Cast Iron Studios in Caledonian Road to record two tunes and some chat with The Miserable Rich. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 198 Dec 15, 2011

In a seasonal departure from our usual routine we bring you at this special time the voices of some of our valued contributors from all over the country, picking the books, DVDs and records that they have found most interesting this year. In this first instalment David Hepworth talks to Jim Irvin, Andrew Collins and Jude Rogers. In addition we've got The Rifles in the pod, performing songs from and talking about their new album Long Walk Home. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 197 Dec 02, 2011

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry range across: a star-studded carol service, what Verdi could do that Dylan couldn't, and story of "Wally!" In addition Kate Mossman joins us to talk to folkie Jackie Oates who also plays a couple of songs from her new record "Saturnine". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 196 - with Richard Strange Nov 26, 2011

This week we welcome to the pod Renaissance Man, art rock avatar, club pioneer, movie actor and very tall man Richard Strange. As Kid Strange he fronted the 70s rock band the Doctors of Madness, who were supported by everyone from the Sex Pistols to Joy Division. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 195 Nov 18, 2011

In this podcast: the legit release of the Rolling Stones’ “Brussels Affair”, the things that Jimmy Savile did and did not do, Paul Du Noyer remembering Jackie Leven, your misinterpreted songs thread, Fraser explaining why he features on a Guns N’Roses b-side, the Black Sabbath reunion(s) and a couple of songs from Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 194 - with Nile Rodgers Nov 12, 2011

Nile Rodgers enters the pod to talk us through his story: the man who created the only triple platinum single in the history of Atlantic Records, led Chic through the ups and downs of disco and went on to produce Diana Ross, David Bowie, Duran Duran and Madonna. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 193 - the Smilecast Oct 31, 2011

Andy Gill joins us to recount the full story of The Beach Boys' Smile, recounting Brian Wilson's odd partnership with the ever-voluble Van Dyke Parks, the stubbornness and luxuriant chest hair of Mike Love, the underwater misadventures of Dennis Wilson, the often misrepresented Dr Eugene Landy and the trans-Atlantic battle for supremacy between the former Pendletons and the Beatles. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 192 - with Steve Lillywhite Oct 25, 2011

Sitting in the home studio where he recorded the vocals for Fairy Tale Of New York, Steve Lillywhite talks about working with Eddie & The Hot Rods, the Pretenders, U2, Simple Minds, Brian Eno and Jared Leto and almost everybody else. He also advances his case as the judge that American Idol really needs. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 191 Oct 08, 2011

David Hepworth and Mark Ellen remember the Tom Hibbert cookery course, talk about what was in the George Harrison film and what should have been in it, what Tony Bennett does that rock bands don't and the correct way to pronounce Yngwie Malmsteen. Plus we're announcing how you'll be able to get the full podcast in future only if you're a subscriber to the magazine. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 190 - the Gastropodcast Oct 05, 2011

Our own Andrew Harrison and celebrated food photographer Patrice de Villiers join us to talk about Love Music Love Food: The Rock Star Cookbook, a mammoth undertaking published in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. It features the likes of Brett Anderson, Noel Gallagher, Mick Hucknall, Cliff Richard, Tinie Tempah, Paul Weller and many others talking about and being photographed with their favourite food. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 189 - with Jonathan Coe Sep 27, 2011

We're joined in the pod by author Jonathan Coe, he of The Rotter's Club. We talk prog in riveting detail, look back at his days as a rock hack at The Wire, explain the use of music in Billy Wilder movies, and hear a a newly recorded track from his reformed college loungecore act The Peer Group. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 188 - the Bowiecast Sep 22, 2011

We're joined in the pod by two card-carrying Bowie experts – Peter Doggett - author of the superb new book "The Man Who Sold The World: David Bowie And The ‘70" and Word’s long-serving associate editor Paul Du Noyer. On the way we learn Bowie’s tortuously complicated childhood, his unproduced rock opera, the lost recordings and the four times Paul got to interview him. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 187 - The 40 Noises That Built Pop Sep 15, 2011

Rhodri Marsden visits us in the cupboard to talk about his "40 Noises That Built Pop" feature, to reveal how some of the sounds in the list were arrived at and the instruments that gave birth to them. Also up for discussion: Rhodri's first date hell Twitter sensation. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 186 - The Queencast Sep 10, 2011

Kate Mossman joins us in the pod to talk about being obsessed with Queen when her classmates were into Nirvana, and how you can never assume that young people go along with what their generation appears to be going along with. Plus: is picking the music for your own funeral the poor man's Desert Island Discs? Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 185 - with Thomas Dolby Sep 03, 2011

Thomas Dolby joins us to talk about working with Trevor Horn, David Bowie, Prefab Sprout and Joni Mitchell; operating as musical director of TED, spending an evening at Michael Jackson's, making money through polyphonic ringtones and just generally trying to do things in a different way. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 184 - with David Ford Aug 17, 2011

David Ford joins us in the podcast to talk about his terrific new book, I Choose This, which proves there's no success like failure, and to reveal how Jeff Buckley's influence on an entire generation of musicians wasn't entirely benign. Also: Kate Mossman introduces Amy LaVere. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 183 - Amy Winehouse, and our boat trip Jul 26, 2011

Jude Rogers and Kate Mossman join us in the podcast to talk about the short life and sad death of Amy Winehouse. Also in this edition: our Sunday afternoon cruise down the Thames with Neil Finn & C.W. Stoneking. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 182 - The Britpopcast Jul 19, 2011

Our final Latitude recording: Andrew Harrison is joined by Stuart Maconie and Louise Wener to look back at Britpop: why it happened, what is was like, and where it all went wrong. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 180 - Latitude Day Two, with Robin Ince & TMBG Jul 19, 2011

Robin Ince joins us in the Word lounge to talk about Mills & Boon and why Robert Smith should never be a crowd marshall, and the chaps from They Might Be Giants talk to David Hepworth and answer audience questions about set lists. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 181 - Latitude Day Three Jul 18, 2011

In the third of this year's Latitude podcasts, Absolute Radio's Geoff Lloyd talks David Hepworth and Mark Ellen through the pain of losing his record collection and reveals a genuine piece of backsgage gossip, and we hear from I Am Kloot and C.W. Stoneking. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 179 - Latitude Day One, with Simon Armitage Jul 16, 2011

In the first of a few podcasts recorded in the Word "Lounge" at Latitude, Britain's premier poet Simon Armitage talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about why Bob Dylan is not actually a poet, and K.T. Tunstall talks about the challenges of playing festivals and her time as Anne Frank. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 178 - with John Hiatt Jul 13, 2011

The 40 Noises That Made Pop, our upcoming riverboat cruise featuring C.W. Stoneking and his Primitive Horn Orchestra, what's going on in The Word Lounge at this weekend's Latitude Festival, and the great John Hiatt joins David Hepworth to talk and sing songs from his new album. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 177 - The Beatlecast Jul 05, 2011

We're joined by Peter Doggett, author of "You Never Give Me Your Money" to discuss discuss what the Beatles wanted after the Beatles, why they could never get it, and how the four young men who shook the world turned into four middle-aged men who had to deal with the aftermath. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 176 - with Tony Wadsworth Jun 22, 2011

In this podcast Tony Wadsworth reviews his career at EMI, from the days when older employees still recalled visits from "Mr Lennon" through the reformation of the Parlophone label and the high noon of Britpop to 360-degree deals with Robbie Williams up to the uncertain future faced by traditional record labels today. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 175 - with Brett Anderson Jun 18, 2011

Suede's Brett Anderson clambers into the pod with Andrew Harrison and Eamonn Forde to discuss the band's successful return, how rehearsals can be difficult when your drummer lives in Thailand, why locking your 17-year-old guitarist in a room until he comes up with a song is a good idea, and the truth about the small role played by Ricky Gervais. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 174 - with Danny Baker Jun 15, 2011

Danny Baker returns to the pod – with David Hepworth and Mark Ellen – having just got “the green light” after months of particularly unsavoury hospitalisation. Discover how he celebrated this news, marvel at his rant against the "pinheads, nitwits and souless creeps" at the BBC, and remembers John Mayall’s tight-fitting loin-cloth and his almost-encounter with Bob Dylan. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 173 Jun 04, 2011

Adrift in the pod this week are Mark Ellen, Kate Mossman and Fraser Lewry, who discuss a night out at Desert Island Discs, interviews that went wrong, and take Qs from The Massive about 100 issues of Word. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 172 - The Bobcast May 24, 2011

Now Bob Dylan's seventy so it seems only decent to dedicate a podcast to him, his enduring fascination and his work. In this we're joined by Andy Gill, our resident Dylan scholar, author of Bob Dylan: Stories Behind The Songs. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 171 - with Van Dyke Parks May 12, 2011

The magnificent Van Dyke Parks enters the pod to deliver wry and extremely fond and funny memories of working with Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Randy Newman, Brian Wilson, Joanna Newsom and his brief membership of Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 170 - with Neil Tennant May 05, 2011

Neil Tennant joins the Word podcast where he reminisces about the days when he was "Doctor Bitz", talks about the most ridiculous things the Pet Shop Boys have been asked to do, discloses why they're going on tour with Take That, reveals the name of the best song ever written and answers some of your questions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 169 - with Delta Maid and Daniel Tashian Apr 21, 2011

This week's 'cast features guest appearance from Delta Maid, who talks to Mark Ellen and Kate Mossman about how you can get the blues in Liverpool, and Daniel Tashian, the leader of The Silver Seas from Nashville, Tennessee, described by Danny Baker this week as "the best band in the world." Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 168 - with Nick Lowe Apr 15, 2011

Nick Lowe on meeting Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson and recalling – in agonising detail – the moment the fresh-out-of-jail Keith Richards joined Rockpile at New York’s Bottom Line. Includes “World Premiere” performance of a new Nick Lowe tune! Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 167: Top Of The Pops Special Apr 08, 2011

Janice Long, Jude Rogers and Andrew Harrison convene in the pod to discuss Top Of The Pops, that Michael Jackson statue, and the t-shirts of rock. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 166 - with Christian Ward Mar 25, 2011

Christian Ward joins us this week to discuss what happened to singers who can enunciate, work out what the deuce Elton John is singing about in "Sacrifice", talk about the links between British pop and comedy, remember Pinetop Perkins and Elizabeth Taylor and answer your questions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 165 - with Ian McMillan Mar 17, 2011

Ian McMillan joins us in the pod to talk about: playing John Cage’s silence on Desert Island Discs, the only way to be a football supporter and stay sane, the lyrics of Pete Sinfield and the usefulness of being able to make that whistling sound between your teeth. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 164: Precious Memories and Inky Fingers Mar 11, 2011

Pete Paphides joins David Hepworth and Mark Ellen in the pod with a load of old music papers. It's all here: bad puns, mistaken critical judgements, and momentous news announcements tucked away at the bottom of the page. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 163: cough buttons in Japanese toilets Feb 25, 2011

Andrew Collins drops in to help kick around a few thoughts about comedians doing karaoke, the new Radiohead album, whether Krautrock would be more popular if it had happened 40 years later, and tips for the Oscars. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 162: From the Brits to Beechams Feb 17, 2011

Mark Ellen, Fraser Lewry and David Hepworth on the effective apartheid between the r&b and folkie factions currently making up British pop, why British acts can't make speeches, and why people hate Mumford & Sons. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 161: Gary Moore remembered Feb 10, 2011

Rob Fitzpatrick talks about meeting Elton John in the flesh, Roy Wilkinson describes his father's role in the family business, which is British Sea Power, and we talk to people who worked with Gary Moore, who died last weekend. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 160: what does a Wichita Lineman actually do? Feb 04, 2011

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry wonder whether anybody is really heartbroken when bands break up, wonder what a Wichita Lineman does and why bands pick such uncommercial names, and answer your questions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 159: Keith Moon & good spelling Jan 28, 2011

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry on Iron Maiden: Flight 666, your questions, class and pop, "Seventies" Mike Johnson's fiendishly difficult rock and roll spelling test and the drumming genius of Keith Moon. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 158: Is rock dead? Jan 14, 2011

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry chew on the big topics de jour: is rock dead? And did the 80s kill proper music? Plus, David Hepworth comes up with a list of great records made in that unjustly maligned decade. Warning: contains an unexpected intrusion and a controversial opinion about Morrissey. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 157: Elton's sunglasses & Richard Thompson's beret Jan 07, 2011

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Fraser Lewry feature in the first podcast of 2011 which includes: Captain Beefheart remembered and mis-remembered, the likelihood of anyone with four drawers devoted to sunglasses finding room in their lives for a child, the terrible choice between Spandau Ballet versus Duran Duran and why Richard Thompson really should be cast in any remake of "It Ain"t Half Hot Mum". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 156 Dec 03, 2010

This week's guest was snowed in and so David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Fraser Lewry sort out previously unfinished business. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 155 - with Will MacDonald Nov 16, 2010

This week we're joined by Will "Wiiill" Macdonald, who talksl about his time as the producer of TFI Friday at the height of Britpop. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 154 Nov 09, 2010

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry review last week's brilliant "Word In Your Ear" gig, report back from viewings of Bruce Springsteen's "The Promise" and Rush's "Beyond The Lighted Stage". Plus Matt Priest talks to the Charlatans' Jon Brookes. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 153 - with Darrell Scott Oct 29, 2010

Joining Kate Mossman and Mark Ellen in the pod is songwriter and session guitarist Darrell Scott, currently touring as a member of Robert Plant's band. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podscast 152 - with Jac Holzman Oct 21, 2010

David Hepworth talks to Jac Holzman, who signed Judy Collins, Tom Paxton, Love, The Doors, the Incredible String Band, Carly Simon and The Stooges, on the occasion of Elektra's 60th anniversary. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 151 - with Dougie Anderson Oct 12, 2010

Dougie Anderson joins Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in the pod to mount a stout defence of Belle and Sebastian, Alex Harvey, John Gordon Sinclair and more. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 150 - with Devon Sproule & Paul Curreri Oct 05, 2010

Devon Sproule and Paul Curreri join Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in the pod, while David talks to the men at De Wolde music about the joys of production music. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 149 - with Sean Wilentz Sep 23, 2010

David Hepworth speaks to Sean Wilentz on the phone from Los Angeles. Wilentz is professor of history at Princeton University, resident historian on Bob Dylan's website, and the author of 'Bob Dylan in America'. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 148 - with Dom Joly Sep 16, 2010

Dom Joly joins us in the pod to talk about his new book The Dark Tourist, Kate Mossman describes what it's like to share an ocean liner with a load of people who just want to boogie, and we talk to Andrew Losowsky about "Stranded", the magazine he put together when he was stuck in Ireland because of the Icelandic ash cloud. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 147 - with Phill Jupitus and Trevor Dann Sep 09, 2010

Two old radio hands join us in the pod this week to talk about what’s been did and what’s been hid in the world of radio. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 146 - a quick chat with Andrew Harrison re: iTunes Sep 02, 2010

Andrew Harrison reports back from last night's Apple unveiling. What does it all mean? Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 145 - with CW Stoneking Aug 27, 2010

This week's podcast features CW Stoneking, who arrived straight from the airport to play and talk to Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry, plus concert industry watcher James Drury about the likelihood of the UK live business experiencing a meltdown such as has apparently occurred in America this summer. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 144 - with Wilko Johnson Aug 11, 2010

Wilko Johnson joins Mark Ellen, "Seventies" Mike Johnson and Fraser Lewry in the pod, with tales of the false economy of cheap suits, speed versus alcohol, going round to Strummer's house, seeing The MC5's Wayne Kramer sprayed gold, being left-handed before Hendrix, and the still painful story of his ejection from Dr Feelgood. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 143 - with Robin Ince Aug 04, 2010

Robin Ince joins Kate Mossman and Mark Ellen to impersonate John Peel, discuss Mills & Boon, crab opera, 1970s stag films, Darwin's Origin Of Species and the Edinburgh Fringe, and eat Victoria sponge cake live. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Latitude Podcast II Jul 18, 2010

In the second podcast direct from the Latitude site Kate Mossman talks to John Grant and Mark Ellen talks to promoter Melvin Benn. Subjects covered include: the importance of putting your poetry tent in the right place, translating in a New York hospital, Christmas discos in August, presenting a birthday cake on stage and why you can take Tom Jones out of showbiz but you can never take showbiz out of Tom Jones. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Latitude Podcast Jul 17, 2010

Our first podcast from the site at Latitude features Rob Young writer of Electric Eden, and Geoff Lloyd, who's here broadcasting from the site for Absolute Radio. Recorded in the luxurious surroundings of our Portkabin audio suite, it covers Vaughan Williams, Mark's posh digs in Worbleswick, the correct response to a fellow camper who sings the blues in the middle of the night, The National, how to distinguish between a real beard and a fashion beard, how Tom Jones lets himself go at Christmas and the dark pact forged between Florence + The Machine and Claire's Accessories. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 140 with Robert Forster Jul 12, 2010

Former Go-Between Robert Forster joins us in the Word podcast to play a couple of songs and talk about hair care, bridge-opening, the likelihood of Mick Taylor rejoining the Rolling Stones, the statistical jiggery-pokery that meant Spain pinched what should by rights be New Zealand's World Cup and the 48th anniversary of the Rollin' Stones first ever gig. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 139 with Jim White and Mat Priest Jul 07, 2010

In which we welcome our man Jim White back from the World Cup to deliver a first person account of the cack-handedness of FIFA, the inability of England players to hold instructions in their head for more than two minutes, and the irresistible attraction of 40 blondes in orange mini skirts. We also mark Ringo Starr's 70th birthday today with Mat Priest of Dodgy, a drummer who knows what's involved in being Ringo in a Beatles tribute band. Happy Birthday, Ringo, from all of us. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 138 with Laura Barton Jun 30, 2010

Author and journalist Laura Barton joins us to talk about her novel "Twenty-one Locks" and the huge subject of music at weddings. Plus: Glastonbury, Engerland and London sight-seeing tips. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 137 with Mary Gauthier Jun 25, 2010

David Hepworth talks to Mary Gauthier about her search for her birth mother and how it led to her new album "The Foundling". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 136 Jun 17, 2010

We're joined by Ian McMillan and James Medd. Features: live vuvuzela performances, actual impressions of Keats, the ethics of Kindie rock, how many free tickets is too many tickets and why we all miss Hovis Presley. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 135 Jun 10, 2010

The singer and songwriter brings his guitar and uke to talk about writing, co-writing, winning prizes and not winning prizes, getting caught short at a Bob Dylan concert and glancing encounters with superstars. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 134 May 28, 2010

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Fraser Lewry marvel at the myth of Exile On Main Street, and are joined by Kate Mossman for an impromptu review of the new Sex and the City movie. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 133: with Neil Hannon May 20, 2010

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry are joined in the pod this week by a be-suited Neil Hannon, who popped into Word Towers on his way to the Ivor Novello awards and played us a few songs. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 132 May 13, 2010

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry are joined in the pod by returning guest Andy Murray, where we talk about Andy's time at Stiff Records and look back at the election, while Mark receives some genuine David Gilmour guitar strings and joins Fraser singing a short song about horses. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 131 May 05, 2010

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry play Rock Trumps™ and reveal which music festival does a roaring trade in meat cleavers, discuss what Billy Preston was up to as an 11-year-old, marvel at a bunch of session men playing The Beatles with mind-boggling precision, and recall Louise Wener's days as a singing waitress aboard a floating restaurant in Boston. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 130 - with Eamonn Forde Apr 09, 2010

Eamonn Forde joins us in the pod to talk about: a childhood without music in the wilds of Norn Iron, the worst jobs we've ever had, how to stop a circus mule, the legacy of Malcolm Maclaren, Lyndon Johnson ringing up to order some trousers, legendary penises in rock and who, if anyone, really killed rock journalism. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 129 - with Andrew Collins Mar 30, 2010

Andrew Collins joins us in the pod to mark Rolf Harris Day and take part in talks about: Erykah Badu's bottom, International Record Store Day, and the likelihood of the cassette making a return. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 128 - with Jude Rogers Mar 24, 2010

The do's and don'ts of wedding dances, how to crowd surf and things we don't do anymore. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 126 with Philip Ball Mar 17, 2010

Philip Ball, author of "The Music Instinct: how music works and why we can't do without it", entertains and instructs Kate Mossman and David Hepworth (with examples at the pianoforte). Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 127 Mar 05, 2010

Includes: Mike "Seventies" Johnson's rock spelling test, Rob Fitzpatrick on promo copies, Mark Ellen on medieval pop groups and "Magic" Alex Gold with details of our upcoming A Word In Your Ear gig. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 125 Feb 24, 2010

Mark Hodkinson from Pamona Publishing joins David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry to talk about how bands were formed in the years after punk, the inevitable power struggles that take place within the ranks of those bands, the effect that fame has on personality, what it takes to succeed, and the economics and practicalities of running a small independent publishing house in the era of Amazon. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 124 Feb 12, 2010

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry head to Gold Top studios in north London to talk to Neil Brockbank, producer of Nick Lowe. A believer in recording live with the musicians, he describes the changes that have taken place in the way music is recorded from the Beatles through Frank Sinatra to Ricky Martin and beyond and looks at the implications that has for what we listen to. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 123 Feb 05, 2010

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry enter the pod to examine the new, more-words-than-ever edition of The Word as it arrives - minty fresh - from the presses. They also do their best to answer your questions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 122 - with Idris Elba Jan 25, 2010

Fraser Lewry, Andrew Harrison and David Hepworth take the pod to meet the man you know as "The Wire"'s Stringer Bell and may soon know as Driis. Plus a report from last Friday's social, some reflections on the Word's One Hit Wonders Playlist and a discussion of what it's like to be with really, really good-looking people. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 121 - Phil Smee, reissue man Jan 22, 2010

Reissues consultant and designer Phil Smee joins us to talk about what records are *really* rare. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 120 with Steve Lamacq Jan 12, 2010

Steve Lamacq joins us in the pod to improvise on a theme of indie. In a wide-ranging conversation we cover what it's like to listen to spend your Sunday afternoon listening to demos, have Richey Manic carve his arm in front of you, "discover" Coldplay, talk to the parents of 17-year-olds with stars in their eyes, hang about backstage and live on a diet of cider and crisps. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 119 - The Christmas Special Dec 18, 2009

David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Fraser Lewry on X Factor, The Thick of It, Porky Peckham, why vinyl should be French and the difference between real Christmas and Christmas according to pop records and TV shows. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 118 - All about swearing Dec 03, 2009

WARNING! THIS PODCAST CONCERNS SWEARING AND CONTAINS LOTS OF EXAMPLES. AVOID IF LIKELY TO OFFEND. Peter Silverton talks about his book "Filthy English" with Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 117 with Mark Hagen Nov 24, 2009

The man who puts together special music stuff for BBC radio and TV talks about how he gets what he wants and why he can't get all of it. With Mark Ellen and David Hepworth. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 116 Nov 12, 2009

Special guests Thomas Walsh and the guys from Pugwash/Duckworth Lewis Method join Mark Ellen and David Hepworth to talk about: cricket, taping The Move off Whistle Test, how U2 own Dublin and how the average musician has more chance of sleeping with Five Star than travelling five star. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 115 with Danny Baker Oct 20, 2009

Danny Baker talks about touring with Ian Dury, record shopping with Elton John, when Virgin used to be above a shoe shop, the trick David Bowie uses to avoid answering questions, what happened when a salesman called on Viv Stanshall, the greater glory of King Crimson and the fallacy peddled by punk. Mark Ellen and David Hepworth listen. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 114 Oct 14, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry discuss Amy Winehouse's bosom problems, Carly Simon's pension and Bob Dylan's winter wonderland. Plus your questions answered. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 113 Oct 07, 2009

Andrew Harrison, Eamonn Forde and Fraser Lewry on Letterman, live albums, death metal, and why Lily Allen wins at the internet. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 112 - the smell of record shops Sep 17, 2009

David Hepworth, Rob Fitzpatrick and Fraser Lewry on the things they'll miss about record shops and the things they won't. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 111 (The Nelson) Sep 01, 2009

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry talk about: D-Day, the Gallagher family spat and the best place to get a rotary-valve flugelhorn. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word Podcast is back from its holidays Aug 20, 2009

Mark Ellen, Barry McIlheney, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry on Annie Leibowitz's mortgage difficulties, Bob Dylan's wandering around New Jersey and all sorts of other things. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 109 Jul 30, 2009

Andrew Collins joins David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry to discuss our teenage TV crushes, classic cartoon images, what to do with an old VCR and what book not to take on a holiday in North Korea. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 108 Jul 23, 2009

The Mercury Music Prize shortlist: an enticing menu of thrilling new listening or the musical equivalent of geography homework? Eamonn Forde, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry exchange their prejudices about the shortlist, look at the effect that Twitter has had on the opening weekends of movies and wonder how we'd feel if we were confronted by the paparazzi. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 107: College Ents Special Jul 15, 2009

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and the real Andy Murray talk about the days when the big bands played colleges, why everybody's so obsessed with 1969 and the sheer strangeness of a 19 year old without a mobile. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 106: At war with the iPod generation Jul 13, 2009

David Hepworth talks to Patrick Hennessey, the author of "The Junior Officers Reading Club: Killing Time And Fighting Wars". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 105 Jul 09, 2009

David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry on the distractions of the Great Outdoors, the strange noises made by Australians and the agony of 24/7 sports coverage. Plus Amy Pickard reports from inside Michael Jackson's memorial service. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 103: Paul Du Noyer on London's music Jul 01, 2009

To mark the publication of his book "In The City: A Celebration Of London Music" Paul du Noyer talks to David Hepworth about the ties that bind Marie Lloyd and Dizzee Rascal, the blues that came up from Richmond and the line from Gilbert & Sullivan to the Sex Pistols. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word's Legendary Glastonburycast Jun 27, 2009

Mark Ellen, Kate Mossman, Caitlin Moran, Andrew Harrison and Fraser Lewry report direct from Glastonbury 2009. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 102 Jun 16, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Barry McIlheney and Paul Du Noyer on: Father's Day, what to do if your daughter wants to be a bloke, the disappearance of local papers and that meeting at the BBC. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 101 Jun 12, 2009

David Hepworth, Fraser Lewry, Rob Fitzpatrick and Greg Milner, author of "Perfect Sound Forever", chew over: why Def Leppard records sound the way they do, how popular culture has got too popular, how to get back from Wembley on your bike during a tube strike and the trial and execution of Charles I. Recorded from Skype. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 100 Jun 03, 2009

Live from Abbey Road with Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison, Kate Mossman and Fraser Lewry. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 99: it's question time May 28, 2009

We answer your questions (when is Rod Liddle's column starting?) and you answer ours (can any fictional hero talk about a record without sounding like a knob?). Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 98: talking Monkey Tennis May 20, 2009

David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry are joined by Word's TV critic Barry McIlheney and TV producer Aris Roussinos to talk about why popular TV is the way it is. Plus: why albums are so-called, Fraser's sacred harp singing weekend and how *you* can be on our 100th podcast. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 97 May 12, 2009

Andrew Harrison, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry on: the relationship between reggae and specialty meats, the return of Danny Baker to 5Live, the 2008/9 season's best clichés and more bands who were just a laugh; plus a bonus Motown shopcast. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 96 May 05, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry on: customised gigs, the last music news man and the cost of Brewers Droop in 1975. Plus special preview of the Kinks Shopcast. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 95 Apr 28, 2009

David Hepworth, Jude Rogers, Eamonn Forde and Fraser Lewry take the Bob Dylan argument into extra time. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 94 Apr 21, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry provide a warm hand on Peter O'Toole's entrance, discuss the challenges of karaoke, the stupid things boys do and whether Morrissey should just get over it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 93 Apr 08, 2009

David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry run a skeleton service during the holiday period. Includes: your letters, Hair Metal and, girls, what men are really thinking about. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 92: happy birthday, 45 Apr 02, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Kate Mossman pick at random from a bag o' wax, wonder whether Sting has lost his looks and answer readers tropical fish questions. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 91 Mar 27, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry on: forming bands in Stoke Newington, the reunion of Spandau Ballet, people who can sing and people who can't plus a plug for Luke Haines' book. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 90 - St Patrick's Day Special Mar 17, 2009

Barry McIlheney joins Andrew Harrison and David Hepworth to talk about the marketing of irishness, the triumphs and embarrassments of Comic Relief, what we would do with Mick Jones's lock-up and your memorable examples of onstage bad behaviour. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 89 Mar 09, 2009

Kate Mossman, Mark Ellen and David Hepworth on: reviewing albums, what we really think of the BBC, getting obsessed with Bob Dylan and Glenn Campbell, visiting the Decemberists and what not to do in a snowstorm. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 88 Mar 03, 2009

Andrew Collins, Mark Ellen and David Hepworth on: Neil Young's car, U2 getting the BBC into bed, the future of the album review, the only sensible way to set the prices of concert tickets, the most uncalled-for reprises in entertainment history and the sheer pointlessness of roof-top concerts. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 87 Feb 24, 2009

Special podcast in which David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry talk to our music business specialist Eamonn Forde about how 2009's winds of change will affect you, the music fan. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 86 Feb 17, 2009

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth welcome Barry Mcilheney to discuss the largest gathering of men over 35 since the AGM of Fathers For Justice, Van Morrison's spectacular new teeth and lots more. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 85 Feb 10, 2009

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth listen spellbound as Andrew Harrison explains Spotify, Twitter and other contemporary marvels. Plus, instrumental filler tracks padding out albums and what we can all learn from Christian Bale and Pilot Sully. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Magazine Podcast 84 Feb 03, 2009

In which Mark Ellen, Matt Hall and David Hepworth revisit the Editor's mauling at the hands of Alvin "Get Some" Stardust, pick over the Radio Two Folk Awards and predict a comeback for the package tour. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 83 - remember Diamond White? Jan 23, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on: Diamond White and the other poisons we used to take; Aretha Franklin's unfortunate way of chopping words into syllables; Kenneth Williams lavatory and other important issues. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 82 - Amy loses a contact lens Jan 16, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on the history of applause, the lonesome death of William Zantzinger and the remaking of Minder. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 81 Jan 07, 2009

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall treat an enthralled nation to the details of what they did on Christmas Day, how they wish they had a Christmas like Paul Weller's, Gwyneth Paltrow's top diet tips, a key lesson about parenthood, whether we would buy insurance from Iggy Pop and the things that the British are good at apart from soldiering, tailoring and character acting. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word's Hidden Track Dec 30, 2008

Editor Mark Ellen and his ukulele make late bid for Christmas number one. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word Christmas Podcast 2008 Dec 23, 2008

This brief 'cast was recorded live at the office Christmas Party and features members of the editorial team revealing what was in Secret Santa's sack. Merry Christmas. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The 80th Birthday of the Word Podcast Dec 17, 2008

In honour of which David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall mislay their glasses, lose their train of thought, repeat themselves and let the irascible side of their natures rip. This podcast is also known as "do you want a biscuit?" Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 78 Dec 11, 2008

David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall on: why Jerry Dammers is not joining the Specials reunion and what you should watch after "The Wire". Plus Arwa Haider on learning about Britain through 70s sitcoms. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 78 Dec 03, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on: Brian Eno's acapella evenings, the magic of song titles and a solution to the problem of chattering punters. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 77 Nov 26, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall welcome Jude Rogers to talk about: Michael Jackson's bank account, how monkeys talk, what Bono is buying Brian Eno for Christmas, the startling mediocrity of Simon Cowell and what it's like to share an elevator with Bubbles. This podcast features a cameo appearance from Janet with some toast. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 76 Nov 20, 2008

David Hepworth, Barry Mclheney and Matt Hall on Big Bill Broonzy in Belfast, the year 1972 in gigs, Brian Eno and the Singing Postman, Kanye West versus Leonard Cohen at the O2, your thoughts on Prog, the Enid at the Marquee, Reg Varney's real claim to fame, what Martina Navratilova is doing on "I'm A Celebrity...", the dirty secret of Stephen Fry's cab and finally have a guess how much money big TV stars are getting paid. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 75 Nov 14, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on listening to Prog Rock in your living room, the late Mitch Mitchell, the people who have strangely not been given a Brit and boiling an egg on the San Andreas fault. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 74 Nov 06, 2008

David Hepworth, Rob Fitzpatrick and Matt Hall on: what's going to happen at Obama's inauguration, what it's like to "jam" with Earl Slick and how to get from 1 to 106 in band names. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 73 Oct 29, 2008

Andrew Collins, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall on Manuelgate, the search for a band whose name contains every number between 1 and 100 and more. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 72 Oct 24, 2008

David Hepworth and Matt Hall with Jonathon Green, the editor of the Chambers Dictionary of Slang. If you think you might be in any way offended by the ripeness of the language used in this podcast, please don't listen. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 71 Oct 16, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on: why Ringo won't sign, how to pass yourself off in the Mob, premiership footballers who look like characters in "The Wire", members of bands who did nothing and Graeme Thomson's book about death in popular song. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 70 Oct 09, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall read your mail re: quadraphonic, eight-track, Hollywood stars using cheap hair colour and the dumbest things in entertainment. Plus: how Peter Mandelson got out of listening to one of Mark Ellen's stories. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Podcast 69 Oct 02, 2008

David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall on: sons and daughters of Grantham, the madness of the eight-track tape, great local radio disasters, the joy of hearing unmixed session recordings and the morality of forcing a senior citizen to listen to Ten Years After. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 68 Sep 18, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on Rick Wright and other musicians who didn't get their fair share of credit, a brilliant TV film about pre-adolescent heavy metal and Mark's early adventures as a pop video extra. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 67 Sep 09, 2008

David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall attempt to define music, ponder the rights and wrongs of pop music at funerals and wonder whether all fans are nutcases. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 66 Sep 02, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall report on their holidays, remember the Olympics and wonder about the connections between the Beatles and the Space Race. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 65 Aug 01, 2008

In which the "Indie Professor", Dr Wendy Fonarow, talks to David Hepworth and Matt Hall about "audience zones", guest list checking, backstage pass-wearing and many other aspects of the highly ritualised world of indie. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 64 Jul 23, 2008

Martin Fry joins Mark Ellen and David Hepworth to talk about 80s production techniques, the bitter antipathy in the "Top Of The Pops" Green Room back in the day, his new album "Traffic" and who exactly he should expect to meet when his wife takes him to the Cartier Polo this weekend. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 63 - Two Drummers Chatting Jul 15, 2008

David Hepworth talks to Mathew Priest from Dodgy and Maurice Bacon from the Love Affair about their plans to right ancient wrongs on behalf of the drumming fraternity. Warning: contains paradiddles.http://www.twodrummers.com/ Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 62 Jul 09, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on new rules for festivals, the wonders of the Album Cover Atlas, ideas for the Hard Rock Park and the slight return of the HORA Get bonus content on Patreon

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Glastonbury Podcast! with extra crackle! Jun 28, 2008

Andrew Harrison, Kate Mossman, Mark Ellen and Caitlin Moran report from the site. They're having a good time so listen round the crackle. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 60 Jun 25, 2008

David Hepworth, Matt Hall and Rob Fitzpatrick on what Google has done to our memories, having your picture taken with a rock star, lunchtime showcases in strip clubs, being up to here with Stuff, why we don't want the bonus track and naming streets after rock stars. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 59 Jun 18, 2008

In which Mark Ellen, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall talk about Chris Martin's interview flounce, how girls can make any instrument attractive, how you can't retire in pop, the disappearance of John Deacon and Dostoevsky in pop. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 58 Jun 11, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on the smallest groups in rock, musical ringtones, Bob Dylan's paintings and the nightmare of broken broadband.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 57 Jun 03, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall on how the late, great Bo Diddley invented rock and roll, soul legends living in British provincial towns, Amy Winehouse's embarrassment in Rio and the more controversial lyrics of Rolf Harris. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 56 May 28, 2008

David Hepworth, Paul Du Noyer, Rob Fitzpatrick and Matt Hall on the great Eurovision debate, the inventor of the mobile disco and the great days of Woolworths. Plus Ron and Russell Mael talk to Andrew Harrison about the challenges of doing "a season" of your own work. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 55 May 19, 2008

Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions lets us in on the secrets of the mash-up; Andrew Harrison, Matt Hall and David Hepworth discuss Paul Weller and private education, the Amy Winemouse video and the bizarre things we found on YouTube. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 54 May 14, 2008

Kate Mossman reports back from the N'awlins Jazz and Heritage Festival, Hugh Phillimore of Cornbury explains why you wouldn't want to run your own festival and Mark Ellen is left reeling after a close encounter with Jonathan Richman. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 53 May 07, 2008

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall discuss the impossibilty of bad behaviour in the age of the phonecam, truly anal ways of cataloguing your records, the real reason that actors don't come out in Hollywood and Andrew's Radiohead feature.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 52 Apr 29, 2008

Clare Grogan joins David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall to talk about: what it's like to be inside a cake on stage at Wembley, the sad loss of Humphrey Lyttelton, what the stagehands thought of Tommy Steele and what to do if your daughter says "Daddy work, Mummy wine". Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word Podcast 51 Apr 23, 2008

Andrew Collins, David Hepworth, Matt Hall and Fraser Lewry on being a heavy metal teenager, the magic of "Gavin and Stacey", hacking Mark Ellen's Wikipedia entry and how to see 50 species of bird in a day. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast number 50! Apr 16, 2008

In which David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall discuss Wikipedia with Steve Bowbrick. Plus rock stars who look like old lesbians, Bjork live and the Chinese representative at the World Music Awards. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 49 Apr 08, 2008

The things Arthur Brown could do with the brazier on his head, the genius of "Gavin & Stacey", the prissiness of indieboys and the sexual discoveries of James Brown - all chewed over by Jude Rogers, Mark Ellen, Matt Hall and David Hepworth.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 48 Apr 01, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall talks about the ticketing controversy with writer James Medd and Joe Cohen of seatwave.com; the squad system of rock bands; the inaccurate chording of Keith Richards; the God-like genius of Bernard Cribbins; the correct spelling of Shakespear's Sister; and the hunting and gathering role of Digital Dad. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 47 Mar 25, 2008

Danny Goffey and Gaz Coombes of Supergrass talk to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth on the eve of the release of "Diamond Hoo Ha". Includes: the difference between busking and begging, the importance of a right hand man and studios you can only get to by boat. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 46 Mar 19, 2008

In which David Hepworth. Matt Hall and Mark Ellen are joined by Chris Difford to talk about DJ-ing in pubs, tunes on TV ads, songwriting summer schools, the new Word tee shirts and "The Last Temptation Of Chris".www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 45 Mar 11, 2008

In which Mark Ellen and Rob Fitzpatrick talk to John Niven about the vicious, mad world of the a&r man as depicted in his new book "Kill Your Friends". Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 44 Mar 03, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Kate Mossman and Matt Hall argue about whether you need to listen to records to review them and tell some brilliant jokes. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 43 Feb 26, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Matt Hall and Tom Whitwell explore the secrets of the click track, Autotune and Pro Tools to work out why records sound the way they do, talk about the groups they thought would make it but didn't and tell the one about the dead man who helped Madonna write a hit. www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 42 (the Brits) Feb 21, 2008

9.30 the morning after the Brits - Mark Ellen, Andrew Harrison and Rob Fitzpatrick take apart the annual prize giving. Contains strong feelings. www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 41 Feb 13, 2008

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall invite their country cousin John Naughton to speculate about why people insist on shooting pop records into space, which was the swearingest show in TV history and what it's like to take a rock star out for dinner on Valentine's Day.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word podcast 40 Feb 07, 2008

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Matt Hall and Rob Fitzpatrick on tidy beards in show business, the Great Steve Harley Speech incident, John Martyn's powerful thirst and Phil Collins and the interior decorator. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 39 Jan 31, 2008

Andrew Harrison, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Matt Hall talk about Morrissey's throat and the death of celebrity, the pioneering days of the UB40 fan club, the irritating sound of Alex James first thing in the morning and why rock stars can't make speeches.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 38 Jan 24, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Rob Fitzpatrick and Matt Hall discuss the record players their parents had, white men in reggae, old codgers in bands and Wreckless Eric's only item of furniture. www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word Weekly Podcast 37 Jan 16, 2008

Mark Ellen, Andrew Collins, Matt Hall and David Hepworth talk about the future of EMI, the merchandising of books and disguising yourself as a member of Carter USM in order to gain sexual favours - after necking half a can of an energy drink. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly Podcast 36 Jan 09, 2008

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Matt Hall and Trevor Dann on Elvis's birthday, Michael Jackson at Fulham and why radio plays the music it does.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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The best of the HORA Dec 30, 2007

Like everybody else we fill up our New Year's schedules with repeats: here we present a handful of our favourite apocryphal rock anecdotes, featuring Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Elton and more.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Live from the Word office party! Dec 24, 2007

The only media organisation to podcast on Christmas Day brings you this brief, alcohol-laced missive from the Word Christmas party. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 33 Dec 21, 2007

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Barry McIlheney and Matt Hall prepare for Christmas. What it's like to be on the front row, why short people can't win at gigs and why it's a mistake to dance to a drum solo. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Zepcast (Word Weekly Podcast #32) Dec 11, 2007

It's the Zepcast!Our man Mark Ellen wetfoots it back from the O2 to deliver every last detail of what was really going on when Led Zeppelin played the most anticipated gig of the year. How they got on stage, what they were wearing, what they played, how they played it, what it all meant, what they're likely to do next and what Liam Gallagher thought of it. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 31 Dec 06, 2007

Mark Ellen, Matt Hall, David Hepworth and special guest Jim White discuss what DVD's the Word reader might like for Christmas, how not to enjoy the hospitality on an Easyjet, and where to go clubbing in Mali.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 30 Nov 27, 2007

From "...Englishmen giggling..." to "...he operated a crow...", encompassing Amy Winehouse, the mysterious ukulele fiends of old London town and a man who took miming to insane lengths. With David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 29 Nov 20, 2007

Mark Ellen, Matt Hall, Andrew Harrison and David Hepworth 'fess up about miming to records in their bedrooms, ponder the magical ability of rock stars to regrow their hair, and wonder if gigs should have a 'clapping section'. www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 28 Nov 13, 2007

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Matt Hall and Paul Du Noyer talk ukuleles once more, piano players who are only loved by their mothers, and why you should never roadie for Budgie.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 27 Nov 06, 2007

Ukulele action from Ellen, together with loads of stuff from the boards, and memories of seedy rented accommodation in north London sometime in the early seventies. To find out more go to www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 26 Oct 31, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Andrew Harrison and Matt Hall on goats for Christmas, why the kids do need an education actually, and is TV the new rock n' roll? www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 25 Oct 23, 2007

David, Mark, Rob and Matt discuss Ronnie Wood's autobiography, a rock 'What If?' and why Blind Faith wouldn't be welcome in our brave new world.www.wordmagazine.co.uk Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 24 Oct 17, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Andrew Collins and Matt Hall discuss Kenny Rogers's effect on the English rugby team, great live introductions and the one about Primal Scream and Luton Airport. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 23 Oct 09, 2007

Brought to you in association with Ikon Films release "Once". Tell us which Irish band the film's star Glen Hansard is associated with and which song you never wish to hear from a busker again and the Gibson Epiphone guitar that Mark Ellen is "playing" can be yours. Answers to - competition@wordmagazine.co.uk. Details at www.wordmagazine.co.uk/once Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 22 Oct 02, 2007

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Andrew Harrison on how not to DJ at a party, how much to pay for a Radiohead album and the saddest life in the history of pop. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 21 Sep 26, 2007

In which David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Rob Fitzpatrick talk James Brown's will, Eric Clapton's autobiography and Ozzy Osbourne's chickens. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 20 Sep 20, 2007

In which Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Andrew Harrison read their fanmail and design their ideal record shop. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 19 Sep 12, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Jude Rogers ask 'what was Britney Spears doing?' at the VMA awards, continue collating the definitive list of records to clear a room, and hear a testimonial from a reader in Scotland explaining how the podcast banishes the worst of heebie jeebies. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 18 Sep 06, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Matt Hall on unlistenable records, the enduring appeal of bootlegs and why the Rolling Stones should get a MOBO Get bonus content on Patreon

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Wordcast Best Of #1 Aug 26, 2007

Less a repeat, more a chance to meet up with old friends, and hopefully some new ones you missed first time round. Includes evidence of a worrying obsession with Jeremy Clarkeson, instructions on what not to do when swimming with sharks, and Mark Ellen's not very successful dinner date with Chrissie Hynde. Get bonus content on Patreon

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The Word Weekly 17 Aug 22, 2007

In which David Hepworth, Rob Fitzpatrick and Matt Hall discuss the passing of Tony Wilson, the crap groups you like and the good ones you don't. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 16 Aug 06, 2007

David Hepworth and Mark Ellen talk to Jim Irvin, who reports back from what could be the most disastrous live show in the history of pop Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 15 Aug 01, 2007

Brought to you in association with the Rolling Stones "Biggest Bang" DVD, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Paul Du Noyer discuss Charlie Watts's sock drawer, the least promising names for a rock star and the story of Van Morrison and the level crossing. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 14 Jul 17, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Barry McIlheney on double acts, rock oxymorons and the liberties that TV producers take Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 13 Jul 09, 2007

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Rob Fitzpatrick lounge around at Cornbury and raise a cinnamon twist to the memory of George Melly. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 12 Jul 04, 2007

David Hepworth and Mark Ellen are joined by Andrew Collins to talk about the Concert for Diana, Prince's plan to give away his new album and the strange thing about the Spice Girls reunion. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 11 Jun 25, 2007

Glastonbury special with Mark Ellen, Andrew Harrison and Jude Rogers reporting from the site while David Hepworth stays in the dry and wonders about Big Gigs Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 10 Jun 18, 2007

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth & Andrew Harrison contemplate George Michael's piano, famous people that we didn't recognise and the one about the rock star and the paté de foie gras. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 9 Jun 12, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Rob Fitzpatrick talk about the man we call Laughing Len, what makes a great rock and roll venues and one man's terrible Elvis Costello faux pas. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 8 Jun 05, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Andrew Harrison on Paris Hilton in chokey, DJs who pretend to play records, movie stars who can't sing and rock stars who can't act. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 7 May 30, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Jude Rogers sing the praises of vinyl, talk about failed comebacks and the etiquette of demo tapes while Nick Lowe is our first guest anecdotist. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 6 May 24, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Andrew Harrison see if they've got enough dosh to by EMI and contemplate the most expensive gig in the history of the world Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 5 May 15, 2007

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Trevor Dann about what - if anything - is the matter with music radio Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 4 May 09, 2007

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, Rob Fitzpatrick and Kerry Shale on Prince's curious plans for the Millennium Dome, the indecipherable Bob Dylan and the strange things boys do to pay tribute to their favourites. Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Podcast 3 May 02, 2007

Neil Aspinall's extraordinary life with the Beatles, Rock Stars Kids and the story about Elton and the parachutists Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly 2 Apr 25, 2007

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and Andrew Harrison on great rock names, the strange tale of Van Morrison's harmonica and why Live Earth will not end global warming Get bonus content on Patreon

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Word Weekly Podcast 1 Apr 18, 2007

In the first weekly podcast from The Word, Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Andrew Harrison discuss summer festivals, the worst rock hacks' clichés and Mark talks about what it's like to deal with Phil Spector. Get bonus content on Patreon

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