Word In Your Ear

Latest Episodes:

The Beatles as seen by their roadie, co-conspirator & friend Mal Evans – and Kenneth Womack Dec 05, 2023

Show notes

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

Show notes

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.

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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Pauline Murray’s kids have finally found out what Mum did in the Punk Wars Dec 03, 2023

Show notes

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/

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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Glen Matlock and the ‘Sliding Doors moment’ that sparked the punk rock fuse Dec 01, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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Does anyone know more about rock stars than Jenny Boyd? Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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Who’s next for an AI movie, first use of sampling & rock stars in unsuitable clothes Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

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.

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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Kanye West & the billion dollar gym pumps plus the album sleeve that changed the game Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: 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 2-Tone story - Daniel Rachel remembers the school playground “turning black and white” Nov 18, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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Why Kirsty MacColl was so funny, honest, original and impossible to sell – by Jude Rogers Nov 14, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: 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.

Mystery people on album sleeves, Elton dressed as a hornet and Leonard Cohen’s favourite song and why Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content!: 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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