Word In Your Ear

Latest Episodes:

Slade, a rambunctious reminder of a vanished world by Daryl Easlea Nov 09, 2023

Show notes

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”.

… 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

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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The KLF torched £1m "and are haunted by it daily". John Higgs knows why Nov 07, 2023

Show notes

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

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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What did we think of the Beatles' last hurrah? Nov 05, 2023

Show notes

"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

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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For Ian Broudie & the Lightning Seeds, 'Three Lions' has been a blessing and a curse Nov 03, 2023

Show notes

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

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.

Billy Sloan, the man who interviewed Grace Jones in a bath Nov 02, 2023

Show notes

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

Subscribe to Word In Your Ear 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 greatest guitarist & the strange tale of Mike Raven - plus a leaked Radio One memo! Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

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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Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21 Soho 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.

Pin-Ups’ 50th, Morrissey The Eternal Teenager and what the Stones should be writing songs about Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

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

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 “gangsterish” charm of Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate Records, by Simon Spence Oct 21, 2023

Show notes

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

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.

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

Show notes

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

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

Madonna’s karaoke show, albums that sound their covers and whatever happened to protest music? Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

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

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