Word In Your Ear - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Word In Your Ear — Music
Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like “Rock On”, “Whistle Test” and VH-1.

Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.

Over these years they’ve produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they’ve produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: © Word In Your Ear

Latest Episodes:

Jimmy Cliff, unseen Beatles and the greatest bassline on record! Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

Twenty pounds of headlines plus rants, theories and the odd slice of old hokum: served hot. Which this week involves …

… Jimmy Cliff and how his versatility worked against him

… the Conjuror? Eyeball Tickler? The Concert in the Egg? Hieronymus Bosch painting or late-period Oasis B-side?

… Motown, Jacksons, Beatles, Chili Peppers? What’s the greatest bassline on record?

… what you notice watching the new Beatles’ Anthology 4

... why the leading edge of novelty is the internet

… from Eddie Cochran to the Bonzos, Can, Hawkwind, Costello and Stone Roses: the pioneering life of label-boss Andrew Lauder

… when did it become impossible to date records by their sound? And when did they stop sounding like glorious accidents?

… Joan Armatrading? Carole King? Dido? Which singer-songwriters are legends?

… what’s “stuck culture”?

… is Tomorrow Never Knows the only one-chord wonder?

… the link between Good Times, Another One Bites the Dust and Rapper’s Delight

… whalebone corsets, butchers’ knives: Nick Cave and the art of 18th century lyric-writing

… “Graham Coxon was a trumpet player and plays the guitar like a trumpet!”

Plus birthday guest Kevin Walsh: which musicians are freaks and which cheerleaders?

Hear Wilton Felder’s isolated bass on the Jackson 5’s’ I Want You Back’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z91l_lPz1oc

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boo Hewerdine’s funny and alarming account of real life on the road Nov 26, 2025

Show notes

Boo Hewerdine, beloved singer-songwriter, has been onstage for 40 years in venues of every type, shape and size. He thinks of himself as a “tradesman”, a world that’s immensely satisfying but a tough call. This very funny, poignant podcast paints a vivid picture of the best and worst of times. Which include …

… playing scout huts, libraries, churches, folk clubs and the Palladium

… the world’s best dressing-room (it’s in Stroud) and worst venue (Pittsburgh)

… “the engine inside you that makes you want to be onstage”

… places that only suit “a lute being played with a feather”

… a home birthday show with no audience and the chilling lyrics of Chris Difford’s ‘Round The Houses’

… the joy of writing for commission

… seeing Dr Feelgood in 1975

… what’s satisfying what gives you pause for thought

… the brilliant Ballad Of Wallis Island, streaky bacon as a bookmark and the kind of Travelodge with a bottle-opener attached to the desk.

All things Boo: https://boohewerdine.com / @boohewerdine

‘Things Found In Books’: https://yvonnelyon.bandcamp.com/album/things-found-in-books

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Legendary duos who met by chance, RIP Mani & ironing to gangsta rap Nov 23, 2025

Show notes

News, rants, theories and curios which this week includes ….

… how Mani made the Stone Roses swing

… Mick & Keith, Meg & Jack, Hall & Oates, Neil & Chris … ‘Sliding Doors’ encounters that changed the landscape

… the glorious sound of profanity on records!

… what makes you a legend in county music?

… the subtle genius of Nicky Hopkins’ session work

.. would Elvis have happened without Marion Keisker?

… Willie Nelson – “a face like Mount Rushmore, a voice like the whole hinterland of America”

… ever catch yourself listening to something and think ‘how would I explain this to an observer?’

… the music you hear when 14 stays with you all your life

… the singles charts of 1978 – Terry Wogan next to John Otway! Arthur Mullard and the Stranglers! Nick Lowe and Ally’s Tartan Army!

… why Lucinda Williams is an open book

… when XTC went pastoral

… 42 year-old hears Clear Spot and Raw Power for the first time!

... plus the Wrecking Crew, a Libertines Xmas sweater, birthday guest Dean Roderick and the time Emmylou Harris had two puddings.

Pig’s Boogie by the Jerry Garcia Band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0357IsE9k

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kula Shaker’s Crispian Mills had a colourful childhood Nov 19, 2025

Show notes

Crispian Mills knew he’d be onstage as he’s from a “family of professional show-offs” but they begged him not to be an actor. He talks here about his extraordinary showbusiness childhood and the band that emerged from it full of psychedelia, echoes of the East and warm invitations to join the First Congregational Church of Eternal Love and Free Hugs. Along with …

… his mother Hayley Mills playing him Tubular Bells to get him to sleep - “profoundly scary”

… Roman Polanski’s ‘special’ Marlboro cigarettes when filming Tess in Brittany

… grandfather John Mills being “discovered” by Noel Coward in Singapore and memories of him playing Gershwin and Cole Porter on the piano

… “you need talent and hard work but nobody makes it without luck”

… what the record store hippie told him when he bought Deep Purple In Rock aged 12

… leather jacket, polka dot shirt, Brian Jones bowl haircut, My Bloody Valentine gig – “I’d found my tribe!”

… supporting Oasis at Knebworth – “I couldn’t see how they were going to cut it”

… Adam and the Ants, Rock Me Amadeus and playing Ramones songs in the school band

… returning from Rishikesh in 1995 and watching the Beatles’ Super-8 clips: “as if we’d been on the same holiday”

… nostalgia for the big TV and radio events of the ‘90s

… Shirley Manson’s speech about the “tragedy” of the 21st C music business

… and Kula Shaker’s Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show – “oil slides, pure analogue!”

Tickets for their 2026 tour here: https://kulashaker.co.uk/pages/live

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Beach Boys’ story gets more tangled by the minute Nov 18, 2025

Show notes

“All bands are sad stories,” Peter Doggett points out, but is there a more woven, moving and, at times, farcical tale than that of the Beach Boys? It gives the sound of them a greater melancholy and resonance with every passing year. As his fascinating new book Surf’s Up reveals, nothing that happened is straightforward and very little as simple as it sounds. We talk here about …

… Dennis Wilson and the Beach Boys’ creation myth

… what started their revival

… why they’d never have survived beyond 1962 without Mike Love

… was Derek Taylor’s ‘Brian is a genius’ campaign partly to explain his procrastination and eccentricity?

… the chaos of SMiLE and the long shadow of the Beatles

… Murry Wilson’s “superstar” ambitions and original plan for the group

… the days when they looked like Old Testament prophets or hippies from Central Casting

… Dennis and Manson, Carl v the draft, Mike Love’s arrest … scandals that would have sunk them in the days of social media

… the “Brian as victim trope” and his extraordinary appearance on “The Tension Behind the Music”

… when Bart Simpson turned them down

… can anyone name a good Beach Boys album cover?

… and the band’s future, a controlled touring franchise with no original members

Order Peter Doggett’s ‘Surf’s Up: Brian Wilson & the Beach Boys’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Surfs-Up-Brian-Wilson-Beach/dp/1917923341

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes a rock star a ‘ledge’ & the daft rituals of the ‘70s disco Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

Five decades of rock and roll with none of the names redacted. In the despatches this week …

… Kevin Rowland? Adam Ant? Toyah? Morrissey? Which Smash Hits cover stars are now ‘legends’?

… a classic encounter with Van Morrison down a Bristol alley

… the boy who mailed dead rodents and Boomtown Rats singles to radio stations became Pope Leo XIV!

… 25 recent big-name Hollywood films all flopped. Are robots the new movie stars?

… was Sticky Fingers the last Stones album with songs?

… best nights out for a tenner

… RIP Gilson Lavis and Donna Godchaux

... the daft rituals of the ’70s ‘slow dance’

… when Percy Sledge was a hospital porter

… “Run for your life, it’s Eater!”

… Tom Waits’ on-brand luggage, Boo Hewerdine and birthday guest Mike Sketch on the joy of gigs on your own (and in a scout hut in Staveley).

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rock’s fascination with the Third Reich exposed by Daniel Rachel Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

Musicians have flirted with Nazi imagery since the ‘60s, lampooning its theatre, absorbing its style, exploiting its shock value, even promoting its ideology. Daniel Rachel’s new book ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll’ points up extraordinary examples – “from Tommy Steele to Kanye West” - and how our reaction intensified over the years. Which leads us to …

… parallels between stadium rock and the Nuremberg rallies

… hearing the Sex Pistols’ Belsen Was A Gas and seeing their Nazi insignia at the age of 12

… David Bowie’s German memorabilia and belief that “Hitler was the first rock and roll superstar” – and the doctored photo of his “Nazi salute” at Victoria Station

… Bernie Rhodes versus Malcolm McLaren on the “reclaiming of the swastika”

… the lyrics and imagery of the Siouxsie & the Banshees

… Viv Stanshall and Keith Moon’s atrocious visit to Golders Green

... the German invention of the tape machine that started the record business

… “I’m not the Simon Wiesenthal of rock and roll!”

… Joy Division, New Order, K-Pop, Brian Jones and his SS uniform, Ron Asheton of the Stooges, John Lennon, Lemmy, Blue Oyster Cult, “Adolf Hitler on vibes”

… “Rock and Roll has a duty to recognise its downfalls”.

Order ‘This Ain’t Rock ‘N’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/this-aint-rock-n-roll/daniel-rachel/9781399635721

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Weller – ‘gloriously chippy’ – as seen by friends, family, fans and collaborators Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

Dan Jennings’ podcast ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ is so successful he’s used 250 of the interviews in a best-selling oral history. ‘Dancing Through The Fire’ has voices from right across the spectrum – family members, band members, writers, pluggers, label bosses, collaborators and famous fans. He talks to us here about …

… Weller’s real name and when he changed it by deed poll

… a theory about bands formed in towns not cities

… the handbrake turn from the Jam to the Style Council – one minute the intense young man cutting out his press clippings, the next espadrilles, singing in French and “nibbling Mick’s ear on the River Cam”

… Weller’s “very English” need to be heard and respected - but not loved

… the role of his manager father in the Jam’s success, the days when the family phone number was in the Fan Club ads

... how Noel Gallagher engineered a Bono/Weller photo op

… Paul’s glorious chippiness – Band Aid, the pop press, “offering a journalist out for a fight in Victoria Park”

... John and Paul Weller and echoes of Only Fools And Horses

… when the Jam played ice rinks and swimming pools

… the cab-driver gossip grapevine

… cutting 1.5 million words to 250,000 and the book’s biggest revelations and surprises.

Order a copy of Dancing Through The Fire here: https://geni.us/dancingthroughthefire

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did rave kill dancing in couples? Stars seen in strange places? Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

Marking our dance card at the rock and roll hop this week you’ll find …

… And Then He Kissed Me, I Saw Her Standing There, Springsteen’s All The Way Home: songs about the theatre of dancing

… is there a more influential sleeve than Patti Smith’s Horses?

… did Dylan invent the box-set?

… records you wish you liked

… when the Beach Boys were so off the boil they covered Dylan and three by the Beatles

… when did we stop dancing in couples?

… Jagger queueing for a sandwich, Beckham in a farm shop, Lady Di in Holland Park and other stars we’ve spotted

… Brown Sugar, All Right Now and the daft etiquette of the late ‘60s dancefloor

… Like A Virgin: 42-year-old hears Stairway To Heaven for the first time!

… “Are you dancin’? Are you askin’? I’m askin’! I’m dancin’!

… plus George Faith, train songs, records you’ve not played for years, the anthem Zohran Mamdani was stopped from using, and birthday guest Giles Fraser on stars in unusual places.

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Bowie and why we need him more than ever. Paul Morley looks back in wonder Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

David Bowie’s significance just keeps expanding and the look and sound of him never age. Paul Morley has been gripped from the start and his new book ‘Far Above The World’ explores the many reasons why. These among them …

… Labyrinth, YouTube and the new ways people discover Bowie

… why he’s a figurehead of a vanishing world

… dressing up for radio interviews

… his almost fatal relationship with America and the 1971 promo tour that was his ‘On The Road’

… Haddon Hall and his first key collaborators

… writing a book about Bowie in public as part of the V&A exhibition – “I was an art installation!”

… Five Years, the internet, the studio as an instrument and other ways he was ahead of the curve

… “his YouTube reels are now part of his catalogue”

… his boundless curiosity about art, film, books and technology

… that unforgettable clip of TFI Friday: “every interview was performance art”

… a missed chance on the Marc Bolan Show

… “music to repel the Dark Ages”

… and why his look and sound never age.

Order ‘Far Above The World: The Time And Space of David Bowie’ here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/morley-paul-far-above-the-world-the-time-and-space-of-david-bowie

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Related Podcasts