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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:

The greatest duet, rock cameos in Miami Vice and the rebirth of Mississippi John Hurt May 05, 2025

Show notes

Passing the thermometer of conversation over the rock and roll news to see where the mercury rises, which this week includes …

… the new Barbra Streisand duets album. Duets are ‘playlets’, small intense dramas that depend on human interaction, but so many are recorded separately (including, tragically, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell).

… but … duets you HAVE to hear! eg Cash & Carter, Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, Ray Charles & Betty Carter, Siouxsie & Morrissey, Nick Cave & Kylie, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush.

… the extraordinary story of the rebirth and Indian Summer of Mississippi John Hurt after 40 years of invisibility.

… blues lyrics that now seem unimaginable.

… Frank Zappa as a drug dealer? Miles Davis as a pimp? Cyndi Lauper as a trophy wife? Real or made-up Miami Vice rock star cameos.

… great opening lines – “We got married in a fever …!”

… how you always learn something you never knew about someone from their obituary - like Mike Peters’ involvement in the highest altitude concert ever performed (on Everest with Glenn Tilbrook and Slim Jim Phantom).

… where people listen to the Word In Your Ear “poddy” – eg in the bath, in court, at wedding receptions, by the Allman Brothers’ graveside.

Plus birthday guest John Montagna on rock stars who should be in a TV series.

Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our Patreon community: 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.

Al Murray and James Holland talk the ending of the war in 1945 and the afterlife of The Beatles May 02, 2025

Show notes

In which comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland talk about their new book Victory ’45 and our twin national obsessions, the Second World War and The Beatles. Includes:

….how being emotionally shut down enabled Montgomery to collect the surrender at Luneburg Heath

….how a profound sense of duty helped Harry Truman make the most dreadful decisions anyone has ever faced

…how German soldiers could keep on invoicing right until the end

…what all this has to tell us about our present predicament

…why thousands of blokes in camo (and a surprising amount of women) attend their We Have Ways Fest every summer: https://wehavewaysfest.co.uk/

….what it is that continues to fascinate us about World War II.

….how its story is being told in new ways

…how they both came to The Beatles

Buy Victory '45 here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victory-45-history-bestselling-historians/dp/0857507958

Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our Patreon community: 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.

Derek Shulman – when Simon Dupree and Gentle Giant were “the darlings of the English Mafia” Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

Derek Shulman was at the heart of two great transformations – Simon Dupree & the Big Sound switching to psychedelia, and then sensing the prog-rock trade winds and becoming Gentle Giant. One minute he was singing Kites, the next Pantagruel’s Nativity (Gentle Giant’s rebooted ‘Playing The Fool: The Complete Live Experience’ is just out). After which he was a record label president signing Bon Jovi, Slipknot and Nickelback and rebooting AC/DC and Bad Company. It’s a phenomenal story and involves …

… three pieces of advice for any band today.

… playing the ‘64 circuit in his R&B band the Roadrunners.

… the fictitious character he invented as Simon Dupree.

… when Dudley Moore was their session pianist.

… memories of Marc Bolan (“flat on his back playing guitar”), Tony Iommi, Tony Visconti, Don Arden, Gerry Bron and “the English mob”.

… what they borrowed from Traffic in the Great Psychedelic Scare of 1967.

… auditioning for George Martin and the lab-coated sound engineers at Abbey Road.

… being phoned on a ship returning from Sweden to be told ‘Kites’ was Top Twenty and doing Top Of The Pops with Status Quo and the Kinks.

… “cars and bags of jewels”: the advantage of being “the darlings of the Isle of Wight Mafia” (which included the Krays).

… watching Bowie recording The Man Who Sold The World at Trident.

… Elton John’s advice that helped form Gentle Giant.

… the catastrophic US tour with Black Sabbath (on their “chemical romance”) where the audience threw cherry-bombs onstage: “you learnt how to work a crowd!”

… George Underwood’s cover for the first Gentle Giant album.

… what he saw in Slipknot and why he signed them.

You can order GENTLE GIANT – PLAYING THE FOOL: THE COMPLETE LIVE EXPERIENCE here: https://gentlegiantuk.lnk.to/PTF

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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 entertaining fictions of Max Romeo and Robert Smith and tech that actually works! Apr 29, 2025

Show notes

While Mark Ellen is hanging out with the other old ruins in Athens, David Hepworth and Alex Gold compare and contrast the organisation of the London Marathon with the Travellodge in Frimley and wonder…

…Rolling Stone cover stars or members of Trump’s clown cabinet?

…if you were interviewed as often as a rock star would you too make stuff up?

…was Max Romeo’s innocent explanation of “Wet Dream" convincing?

…where do you listen to the Word In Your Ear Podcast?

All this and more in your favourite podcast.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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.

Moon Zappa remembers life with her father Frank. ‘Pagan absurdists’ aren’t great parents Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

Moon Zappa grew up in what appeared, on the outside, to be an enviably free-wheeling and creative household in Laurel Canyon. On the inside, not so much. Her extremely funny, soul-baring and colourful account of dysfunctional family life in her memoir Earth To Moon is as gripping as it’s unsettling. A typical day: “Your mother’s on the rampage, I need you to hide the gun!” Only other children with famous parents can fully gauge the emotional turmoil. She talks here about her memoir Earth To Moon – just out in paperback – and the impact of Frank’s work and tours on the frail domestic set-up and the years they all spent “stewarding his genius”. Along with …

… “is genius worth the collateral damage?”

… fond memories of rare moments with her workaholic father.

… the Zappa family’s perilous finances: “Could he write a pop song or did he just choose not to?”

... how she was shut out of the control of Frank’s estate “plus a clause saying if I found religion I’d get no money at all”.

… the nurses’ reaction when they discovered her new-born brother was named ‘Dweezil’.

... recording Valley Girl, the song that made her a teenage star and changed the family fortunes but got no gratitude from her parents.

… why Frank found Valley Girl’s success “mortifying”. And how her one catastrophic live version put her off stage performance for life.

… and that unique bond you have with other celebrity offspring: “Jakob Dylan and I just cackle with laughter. ‘That happened to you too?’”

Order ‘Earth To Moon’ in paperback here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Earth-Moon-Unit-Zappa/dp/1474623859/ref=asc_df_1474623859?mcid=ae11e321cea83f4486c71a35dd95a9ea&th=1&psc=1&hvocijid=15982814295882496701-1474623859-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15982814295882496701&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9072502&hvtargid=pla-2281435176458&psc=1&gad_source=1

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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.

Daryl Hall - ‘60s soul session work, the right shoes and a barge trip with Bob Dylan Apr 21, 2025

Show notes

We like to think of Daryl Hall as a kindred spirit, his home-recorded Live At Daryl’s House series with its magnificent roster of guests now racking up 90 episodes. He’s about to tour in May and talks to us here from his house in the Bahamas – straw hat, roosters crowing! – looking back at the first gigs he ever saw and played and other delights such as …

… travelling with his mother’s Broadway dance band when he was three.

… seeing the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle and the Bluetones in the Uptown Theater, Philadelphia, in the early ‘60s.

… Three Men In A Boat: a barge trip through London with Dave Stewart and Bob Dylan.

… “My teenage rule: I will only wear dark green or black and needlepoint shoes. I had balls in those days!”

… why Hall & Oates is “in the past” - “He initiated the split and neither of us want to resolve it”.

… songs he always plays - Sara Smile, I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) – and why you’ll never hear She’s Gone again.

… making his first records on a four-track in Virtue Studios, Philadelphia, and recording with MFSB. “I still like to keep it lean and mean.”

… playing session piano with the Delfonics and making a single with Chubby Checker.

… his first cheque for songwriting - $15.

… “I brought rock and roll to my High School!”

… the success of Live At Daryl’s House and the episodes with Todd Rundgren, Smokey Robinson and Glenn Tilbrook.

… his sideline in restoring 18th Century houses.

Live From Daryl’s House here: https://livefromdarylshouse.com/

Daryl Hall tour dates and tickets here: https://hallandoates.com/tour/

Buy/stream the ‘D’ album here: https://ingrv.es/DarylHallD

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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 star pilots, sacking Zak Starkey and bold pioneers of the psychedelic moustache Apr 20, 2025

Show notes

The chocolate Easter bunny of rock and roll news in highly nutritious and digestible fragments, such as …

… the Who’s very public sacking of Zak Starkey.

… why no band ever wants to play quietly.

… how a magazine in a shop window sparked the Neil Tennant/Mark Springer album.

… Katy Perry’s space ‘mission’ and the trenchant observations by her and the ‘crew’ – “I can’t put it into words but I looked out the window and we got to see the moon!”

… The Thing In The Cellar, Dogs Are Everywhere, Roadkill … Pulp song or episode of The Good Life?

… the brilliant new ‘One To One: John & Yoko’ documentary and how we miss the days when rock stars went on live chat shows and said the first thing that came into their heads.

… why musicians are fundamentally different from other entertainers.

... perilous domestic gadgets of the ‘60s.

… the allure of songs about space.

… “Ray’s at the controls!” When Ray Charles went walkabout on the band’s private plane.

… Pete Townshend: “We need bigger weapons!”

… Ben Watt DJ-ing in ear defenders.

… Ray Davies, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman …? Who grew the first psychedelic moustache?

Plus birthday guest Al Hearton on Kris Kristofferson, John Travolta, Bruce Dickinson, Gary Numan and the rock and roll/aviation crossover.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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.

Dave Pegg, Fairport’s “longest-serving member” (fnarr!) looks back at hippie chaos and old heroes Apr 17, 2025

Show notes

Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They’re playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves …

… the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork.

… an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis.

… memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine.

… the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick’s bedroom”.

… the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure.

… what not to do when you meet McCartney.

… a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital.

… how a band lasts 58 years without falling out.

… the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money.

… unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race.

… narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.

… Dave Swarbrick’s “small holding” and further assorted knob gags.

Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/

Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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.

Withering reviews of famous albums, Jaws versus Jeeves and the genius of Blondie’s Clem Burke Apr 15, 2025

Show notes

Boldly pursuing tariff-free trade in rock and roll news, nostalgia, gossip and old hokum since 2007 and, this week, featuring …

… the romantic allure of life as a critic.

… Sting’s part in the success of ‘Adolescence’.

… Mick Jagger’s long engagement to Melanie Hamrick (born when Steel Wheels came out!)

… "Contained within these grooves are twelve convincing arguments against the capitalist system" and other vicious reviews revisited.

… when Bob Marley recorded ‘Sugar Sugar’ by the Archies.

… Al Bowlly’s menacing ‘Midnight, The Stars And You’ and how film soundtracks change your relationship with music.

… what Mike Chapman had to tell Blondie to make ‘Parallel Lines’ a hit.

… little-known pop fact no 97: Dave Pegg was at the same school as the man who invented the internet!

… "I can lose weight but you will always be the director of Brown Bunny” – cracking film review one-liners from Roger Ebert.

… the Jaws film and the Jeeves musical: both came out 50 years ago, both riddled with catastrophe. One broke box office records, the other died like a louse in a Russian’s beard.

… Gabrielle Drake - “If you’re going to be in a flop, best it be a huge one.”

… why Elvis Costello and Al Stewart should hit the lecture circuit.

… and David Hemmings, inconsolable, in a shower.

Plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon stages a quiz.

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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.

Why Sparks’ Russell Mael preferred British acts to the ‘faux honesty’ of Laurel Canyon Apr 08, 2025

Show notes

Sparks are touring – playing dates in the UK and Ireland in June and July – and with a new (and 28th) album, Mad!. Russell Mael looks back at the first shows he ever saw and played which entails …

… sitting on the floors of LA clubs watching Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Move, the Faces, the Who and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

… his Mum taking him to see the Beatles in the Hollywood Bowl among “10,000 screaming girls”.

… “there was a faux honesty about the Laurel Canyon bands – ‘it’s just me and my guitar’ – whereas the British acts had the clothes and put on a performance. Which is just as honest.”

… what Todd Rundgren saw in the early Sparks.

… Edgar Wright’s “love letter” movie ‘The Sparks Brothers’ and how it’s expanded their audience.

… rehearsing for four months to perform all 21 of their albums in their entirety in 2008 (in Islington) and the people who came every night.

… playing pizza parlours in the ‘60s – “we were paid in pizza”.

… and how the Mael brothers’ creative relationship has worked - indeed thrived – for over 60 years.

Sparks tour dates and tickets: https://allsparks.com/

Order Sparks’ new album Mad! here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MAD-Sparks/dp/B0DY9JD1TX

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation 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.

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