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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:

Why all great pop stars are cartoons, Bowie doing mime and people whose voices we’ve never heard Feb 17, 2025

Show notes

Passing the Dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, we sift through this week’s events, rants and theories which absorbingly include …

… that Drake v Kendrick Lamar beef in full!

… was Bowie only as good as his collaborators?

… Kingmaker, Toploader, Feeder, Slayer, Longdancer, Widowmaker …. has there ever been a good band with a name ending ‘-er’?

…… seeing the Jam at the Hope & Anchor.

… John Lennon was not a working-class hero. Bob Marley shot no sheriffs. Joe Strummer’s daddy wasn’t a bankrobber. Starship patently never built any cities on rock and roll. Monstrous rock and roll untruths exposed!

… why Film Star Good-Looking is different from Rock Star Good-Looking.

… one glove, a swan dress, comedy specs, a snake, a bat …. Pop stars with a cartoonable signature.

… Woody Allen, Lisa Kudrow, Scarlett Johansson and the Kanye West clip that was never sanctioned.

… JD Salinger, Scott Joplin, Thomas Pynchon, Banksy – people whose voices we’ve never heard.

… the gripes of Taylor Swift.

… ‘An Interminable Appetite For Spite’ and other album titles in waiting.

… and Buffy Sainte-Marie and the perils of misrepresentation.

Plus birthday guest Chris Lintott remembers seeing Bowie as a mime artist.

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.

Bob Marley in London, Chappell Roan’s outburst & records that sound best in the dark Feb 10, 2025

Show notes

Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them …

… how Bob Marley, the Walker Brothers, the Byrds, Hendrix, Ramones, Blondie and Nirvana “got the dust of England on their boots”.

… Chappell Roan’s demands for “a living wage” in a business built on inequity.

… why audio books surprise you in ways the print edition can’t.

… Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure?

… “separate immediately”: Marsha Hunt and the secret of a successful marriage.

… Bowie, Queen, the Velvet Underground: how the most streamed songs are rarely what you’d expect.

… when London, New York and LA were the centres of the universe.

… Bookends, Randy Newman’s Good Old Boys and other albums with a narrative.

… when the Police, Pistols and Clash tried to conquer America.

… Miles Copeland Senior in Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends.

… “the film world is constructed around 100 actors, eight of whom are celebrated every year”.

… plus birthday guest Keith Adsley turns the lights out for Pitchblack Playback – albums you should hear in the dark.

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 rise of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars through the eyes of Woody Woodmansey Feb 06, 2025

Show notes

The teenage Woody Woodmansey was offered the job of under-foreman in the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull but then got a call from Bowie inviting him to move to London and play drums on his new album - “plus food and somewhere to stay”. It took him all weekend to decide. And involved some cultural readjustment when he did. 56 years later he’s a founding member of Holy Holy and touring the UK in May – along with Tony Visconti and Glenn Gregory – performing songs from Bowie’s breakthrough early ‘70s albums. He talks here about …

… the life-changing sound behind the silver door of an air-raid shelter in Driffield.

… supporting the Kinks in Bridlington and the Herd at Leeds University - and why Peter Frampton told him, “I’ll see you at the top”.

... his first paid gig at the local girls’ school.

… the Spiders’ instructional group outings to see ballet, mime and theatre.

... “never more than three takes”: how Bowie wrote and recorded and the sketches he drew for their stage gear.

… life at Haddon Hall and its “Gone With The Wind staircase”.

… Yorkshire to London and the cultural collisions involved.

… what Bowie realised was “the missing ingredient”.

… Woody’s checklist to assess Bowie’s talents when he met him: “He wasn’t Paul Rodgers or Roger Daltrey. He could write. He could communicate.”

… “I’m not wearing that!” The day Mick Ronson packed his bags and left.

Order Holy Holy tickets here:

https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/tony-visconti-tickets/artist/2003254

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.

So Long, Marianne Faithfull plus the Shipping Forecast as read by Nick Cave Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

In a courageous stand against AI technology, a pair of old lags communing via two cocoa tins and a piece of string attempt to put the rock and roll world to rights. Which this week involves …

… what David saw in the HMV record store in Oxford Street “that shook me to the ground”.

... music that only works played loud.

… Marianne Faithfull - there’s no middle ground between Sacred Figure and Outrageous Diva.

… why ‘60s fame is like no other fame.

… is there a more enduring example of bad press than Sting’s tantric sex?

… John Mendelssohn’s West Coast adventure with David Bowie.

… which is musically more significant: punk or disco?

… Tom Waits reading the weather forecast.

… which musicians make convincing actors - Sinatra, Lady Gaga, Elvis, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Costello, Mick Jagger?

… Bowie singing Jacques Brel songs on a waterbed in Hollywood.

… why we miss the great press ‘hatchet jobs’.

… do slogans last longer than music?

… what kind of world plays When The Levee Breaks softly and in a Chelsea café?

… why rock music is like the Catholic Church before the Reformation.

… plus birthday guest Kevin Rose wonders which musicians made the best actors.

Order John Mendelssohn’s ‘Peculiar To Mr Bowie’ here:

https://www.nortonrecords.com/a4-peculiar-to-mr-bowie-by-john-mendelssohn/

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.

Did Britain invent the rock band? - plus our new laws about music & Garth Hudson RIP Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

When we get off of this mountain, you know where we want to go? Straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. While surveying the week’s events as we paddle, which involves …

… the genius of Garth Hudson and the magnificent way he looked - “part lumberjack, part Old Testament prophet, part Brahms.”

… how Glyn Johns invented the sound of the Eagles.

… Carrie Underwood’s Inauguration catastrophe.

… only male voice choirs or gospel groups should be allowed to perform National Anthems!

… fiery, magnificent, sexy, vaguely threatening – the appeal of the great British rock bands.

… does a protest track have to be a good song to be effective?

… “screw up your eyes and Guns N’Roses, Aerosmith and Van Halen all look preposterous”.

… how the Band hooked up with Dylan.

… was there ever a more dramatic drop-off from hit singles to album filler than in the Eagles?

… can any song called Visions ever be any good?

… why there should be more Band tribute acts.

... “any busker within 35 yards is noise pollution!”

... plus birthday guest Roger Millington wonders why we love the Band Aid single but not We Are The World.

That touching clip of Garth Hudson playing and singing in 2023:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BtfvpS0EyO8

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.

Howard Jones has ‘the best job in the world’ Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

We put Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1983 billed as ‘the Most Promising New Act’ and, 15 albums and 42 years later, he’s about to set out on another tour, a double-bill with ABC. He looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played which involves …

… rehearsing his Live Aid slot backstage to an audience of one: David Bowie.

… pioneering the “one-man show” in the early days of Moogs and drum machines.

… Emerson Lake & Palmer firing cannons onstage at the Isle of Wight in 1970 (his first gig, aged 15).

… rough treatment from the British “pundits”.

… school band Warrior – sample track title, Squashed Cat’s Intestines.

… being in Ringo’s All-Starr Band and the ELP number he’d play with Sheila E and Greg Lake.

… “bad spectacles, terrible haircut”: early solo gigs in Oxford pubs.

… the current tour with ABC: “lifting people’s spirits, the best job in the world”.

Mentioned in passing: China Crisis, Hendrix, Bill Payne of Little Feat.

Howard Jones tour dates here:

http://howardjones.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.

Andy Fairweather Low’s teenage psychedelic stardom Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

Another great hero on the podcast! We first heard Andy Fairweather Low with Amen Corner on jukeboxes in the late ‘60s and he’s touring the UK from February. Ten albums and countless collaborations later, he looks back here at teenage life on the psychedelic circuit and the first shows he saw and played, stopping off at …

… the Stones in Cardiff in ’64 - “they opened with Talkin’ ‘Bout You and it hit me like a virus.”

… Amen Corner – “you gauged how good a gig was by how many people fainted.”

… being The Face of ’69 when Peter Frampton was the Face of ‘68.

… getting Otis Redding’s autograph.

… the package tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, The Move, Eire Apparent and the Nice “all in one charabanc together”.

… his first band the Firebrands playing to “literally no audience”.

… buying magical soul singles at Spillers in Cardiff.

… the days when you had a 26-inch waist and played Knock On Wood eight times a night.

… what people loved about Wide-Eyed And Legless.

… recording 50 Words For Snow with Kate Bush.

… the songs that “make the phones come out”.

… the rigours of getting old: “halfway through the set she asked, when’s Andy Fairweather Low coming on?”

... and Don Arden, Andrew Loog Oldham, disappearing cash and the significance of the Spider Jiving sleeve.

Andy Fairweather Low tour dates:

https://andyfairweatherlow.com/about-us/

Order Andy’s The Invisible Bluesman album here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invisible-Bluesman-Andy-Fairweather-Low/dp/B0DKSN2CDZ

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.

A 3-part rant about LPs sold as ‘antiques’, TikTok & the shameful AI Michael Parkinson Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

David feels a rant coming on. Mark lights the blue touchpaper, pulls on a tin hat and retires to a safe distance as they consider …

… the US closure of TikTok: has a single governmental act ever had such impact on the music business?

… film posters, Dinky Toys, “obscure vinyls”: the new record stores that are effectively antique shops.

.. why Virtually Parkinson is breath-takingly awful and an insult to the interviewers’ art.

… Melania Trump’s monstrous payday.

… Bob Dylan joining TikTok - “Good God, I must leave right away.”

… radio deejays: “the things they hate you for are the same things they love you for.”

… 50 per cent of people “looking for a vinyl fix” don’t have a record player.

… the three-word question all interviewers need.

… Blood on the Carpet: DLT, Danny Baker and the 30-year anniversary of Radio One’s “revolution”.

Plus birthday guest Paul Knox and the value of soundtracks, samplers, tribute albums and compilations “with a point of view” from Nice Enough To Eat and Stardust to the Pet Shop Boys’ Twentieth Century Blues.

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 unstoppable Francis Rossi – open the fridge door and he’ll do 30 minutes Jan 18, 2025

Show notes

Something happens when he walks out under the lights. He can never predict what but he’s programmed to perform. As he has for over 60 years and will again when he sets out on a 63-date tour in April peppered with stories of an extravagant life and billed as ‘an evening of Francis Rossi songs from the Status Quo songbook and more’.

He looks back here at the acts that showed him the way (Gene Pitney, Slade, ZZ Top, Mott the Hoople and “my uncles, the Stones”), Butlins in Clacton, the “elfin” David Bowie, the value of “dying on your arse”, the evolution of the Status Quo shuffle, the sight of a sea of denim, opening Live Aid (and why the other acts were envious) and memories of Dog Of Two Head and Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon. “There’s a handful who are talented,” he says, “and the rest of us are just winging it and getting by.”

Order tickets here:

https://www.francisrossi.com/tour

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.

Graham Nash beat the Beatles in a talent contest Jan 14, 2025

Show notes

We both first heard Graham Nash just over 60 years ago when the Hollies’ Just One Look was on the BBC’s swinging Light Programme and we’ve followed him ever since, not least his transformational shift in the late-‘60s from suburban Salford to the wood cabins of Laurel Canyon. He’s touring the UK in October, An Evening of Songs and Stories with Peter Asher in support, and looks back here at the first shows he ever saw and played, which involves …

… Bill Haley in 1958 – “he opened the curtains and said ‘See yer later, alligator!’, and I’ve never been the same since.”

… meeting his heroes the Everly Brothers when he was 18.

… the talent contest he won with Allan Clarke in 1959 beating Freddie Garrity, the future Billy Fury and Johnny And the Moondogs.

... the early days of the Hollies – “my acoustic was never plugged in”.

… supporting Little Richard the night he screamed at his soon-to-be-famous guitarist, “never play the guitar behind the back of your head again!”

…. making ‘Two Yanks in England’ with the Everlys, Reg Dwight, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

… playing Woodstock – “it’s hard to reach the back row when it’s raining and two miles away.”

… the songs he always plays and talks about onstage, Marrakesh Express, Our House and Teach Your Children among them.

Order Graham Nash tickets here:

https://grahamnash.com/tour-dates/page/2/

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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