Alle afleveringen van Word In Your Ear

Richard Jobson on the Skids and the day Steve Jones burgled Francis Bacon

5 november 2026 · 35 min

Afspelen

A “feral child” from Fife gets recruited by a punk band who have five long years in the sun and split up. Until rebooted when U2 and Green Day cover one of their singles 25 years later. The Skids are back on tour again, a show “that leaves nothing in the dressing-room” and once disastrously involved a backflip, and Richard Jobson’s stories of those early days here are tremendously funny and engaging. On the menu … Lees meer

… Steve Jones, two members of Legs & Co and a stolen car (and the day Jones burgled Francis Bacon)

… “no member of Big Country was actually Scottish”

… Hugh Cornwell as his ‘designated teacher’ on the Stranglers/Skids tour, aged 16: “main lesson, biology”

… “my two heroes were Iggy Pop and Alex Harvey so I aimed for something in between”

… 500 people at the stage door “and none of them women!”

… how U2 and Green Day started the Skids revival

… “bands of my vintage milking as much as they can of the King’s Pound on their last hurrah”

… 1,000 miles on a stolen motorbike, aged 15, to buy a pair of leather trousers

… on Top Of the Pops with Diana Ross

… and the “natural melancholy and internal sadness” of Stuart Adamson

Plus his Hare Krishna brother and living with Steve Severin while besotted with Siouxsie of the Banshees.

Skids tickets here: www.skidsofficial.com

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

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Dick Taylor, the Pretty Things and the four months he spent in the Stones

4 november 2026 · 47 min

Afspelen

The Pretty Things were dead centre in the mid-‘60s underground and they’ve been mythologised ever since - for the sound of those singles, for their SF Sorrow masterpiece and for their delicious eccentricities and the way they looked. Co-founder and guitarist Dick Taylor relives life in the blues clubs with the Stones and the whole psychedelic adventure that followed, now captured - along with outtakes, rehearsal tapes and unreleased tracks - on the gorgeous 12-CD box-set ‘Pretty Rare’. In the mix here … Lees meer

… the band he formed with Mick and Keith and the night they met Brian and Charlie

… what his mother and sister thought of the teenage Jagger

… seeing Miles Davis in the ‘50s

… Arthur Brown’s plan to arrive at the Isle Of Wight festival by balloon “but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction”

… Pete Townshend’s legal threat about SF Sorrow and the party where the demo tape was playing

… “pink high-heeled shoes and Viv Prince with a crayfish on a lead”: when New Zealand said ‘never darken out shores again’

… driving Hendrix to the Speakeasy

… the pioneering sound of Rosalyn and Honey I Need

… and Phil May, Derek Boshier, Jimmy Reed, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the Dylan and Donovan songs they never recorded.

Order copies of ‘Pretty Rare’ here: https://theprettythings.lnk.to/Pretty_Rare

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

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Dylan Jones, past master of the long lunch, saw the music world from a restaurant table

3 november 2026 · 45 min

Afspelen

London restaurants were where musicians, actors, writers and TV stars were seen “and how you knew where they were in the days before social media”. They were a form of theatre with a shifting cast and a way of gauging celebrity status. Dylan Jones – who’s lunched long and hard in the heart of the media – sees that vanishing world as a measure of changing times and fashions in his toothsome new book ‘Table Hopping: the Secret History of London Restaurants’. And pulls up two chairs for us here to look back at … Lees meer

… the birth of pop culture at the Speakeasy, Ad Lib and the Bag O’ Nails

… Hockney, Jagger, Lucian Freud, the Sex Pistols and Ian Dury’s public beef with Omar Sharif

… “restaurants were about learning how to behave in public”

… Jeffrey Archer and Michael Winner fighting over Lady Di’s table

… Michael Caine and Peter Langan creating the first internationally known London restaurant

… the agony of celebrity hierarchy: “the Beckhams couldn’t get the top table as it was reserved for Harold Pinter”

… Alex James, Damien Hirst and Keith Allen’s “bar tab as long as a bog roll”

… Malcolm McLaren’s doomed Hammer of the Gods movie with Daniel Day-Lewis as Plant, Gary Oldman as Page and Robbie Coltrane as Peter Grant

… “AA Gill could close a restaurant”

… Anthony Bourdain, Marco Pierre White and the rise of the rock’n’roll chefs

… and how the ‘90s are the new ‘60s “where everyone felt they were in the Green Room”.

Order copies of ‘Table Hopping’ here:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/table-hopping/dylan-jones/9780349000725

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Table-Hopping-Restaurants-Brasserie-Wolseley/dp/0349000727

https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/table-hopping-the-secret-history-of-london-restaurants-from-langan-s-brasserie-to-the-wolseley-dylan-jones/2def4f36390c3026?

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

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What’s at the heart of Indie Rock? – plus Bowie rebooted and Patrick Stewart RIP

2 november 2026 · 54 min

Afspelen

‘To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations and to boldly go where no podcasters have been before!’ Which this week involves … Lees meer

… the lost 1978 Bowie footage about to tour arenas

… why Indie songs have such long intros

… Jagger’s great-granddaughter is three years older than one of his sons?!

… how Bill Wyman survived Brian Jones and the letter Jones sent Charlie asking him to join the band

… when Patrick Stewart worked for the Dewsbury Reporter

… what John Steinbeck wrote to Marilyn Monroe

... the two covers of Beatles songs that are better than the originals

… and the best gag ever printed in Viz.

Plus the Cure, Ed Sheeran’s daughter Antarctica and birthday guest Giles Fraser.

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.

Carl Palmer’s 64 years onstage and the ingenious way he’s touring as ELP

30 oktober 2026 · 54 min

Afspelen

Whenever Carl Palmer joined a band, he was head-hunted by a bigger one - the King Bees, Chris Farlowe & the Thunderbirds, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster and, eventually, Emerson Lake & Palmer. We get a vivid whirlwind tour here of six decades onstage – modest, very funny, barely pausing for breath – and a full account of how ‘An Evening with Emerson Lake & Palmer’ will work when he tours the show in 2027 (and the setlist). Tons of highlights, blink and you’ll miss them, these just a few … Lees meer

… “You can’t call the group Emerson Lake & Palmer! What if somebody leaves?”

… playing jazz and cabaret from the age of 12 and memories of “formation dancing night”

… the King Bees at a Birmingham All-Nighter with Chris Farlowe, Steampacket and “a few black bombers”

.. the one-eyed bassist who drove the van

… American 10,000-seaters with Arthur Brown

… the Who in 1965 – “never seen anything like it!”

… who owns the name Emerson Lake & Palmer?

… the day he got a job for John Bonham

… being choppered to the Isle of Wight in their stage gear

... Vincent Crane sawing his Hammond in half

… the ELP audition and “Ahmet Ertegun from NY” ringing to twist his arm

… playing the Palladium where his grandpa conducted a Palm Court Orchestra

… and drumming on a vegan diet.

Mentioned in passing: Cozy Powell, Graham Bond, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Ginger Baker, Roy Orbison and Bruce Forsyth.

Order ‘An Evening With ELP’ tickets here: https://crosstownconcerts.gigantic.com/carl-palmer-tickets

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

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Joni Mitchell’s fascinating treasure trove of lost interviews with the BBC

28 oktober 2026 · 37 min

Afspelen

Tom Hagler works at the BBC with access to every TV and radio programme involving Joni Mitchell for 50 years, all full of revelations about her songs and the times she spent in London. So he transcribed the interviews – even the bits off-camera - and talked to the people who’d watched them being recorded, now published as ‘River Of Words: Joni Mitchell At the BBC’. It’s full of fresh angles and good stories, like this podcast which touches on … Lees meer

… Joni living on cigarettes, coffee and chocolate in a Bayswater flat in 1968

… early exposure by John Peel and on Stanley Dorfman’s pioneering ‘In Concert’ (she was the first guest!)

… her complete transparency in interviews – “I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes”

… the night she met Graham Nash

… the BBC failing to exploit their 1990 ‘scoop’ about her giving away her daughter for adoption, and the moment she thinks she met her (aged 3)

… how she held her own in the ‘70s rock Boys’ Club

… “save something of yourself”: when Kris Kristofferson heard Blue

… the Tracey MacLeod interview where she claims to be a reincarnated Arab rug dealer

… and the value of Big Yellow Taxi in the climate crisis.

Order copies of ‘River Of Words: Joni Mitchell at the BBC’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Words-Joni-Mitchell-interviews/dp/1035435780

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

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Which bands pass the three-year test? – plus the great live albums & rock stars’ alter egos

26 oktober 2026 · 1 uur 3 min

Afspelen

Stirring the spice-filled gumbo of news and turning the heat up. This week’s nutritious ingredients include …. Lees meer

… is everything better shorter?

… the greatest opening line in a book ever written

… did Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Joe Cocker, the Bee Gees, Cheap Trick, Sam Cooke, Talking Heads or Bill Evans make the greatest live album of all time?

… the worst beers Buster Poindexter ever had

… rock stars’ alter egos – Lady Gaga as Jo Calderone, Andy Partridge as Sir John Johns, George Clinton as Mr Wiggles, Justin Hawkins as Sir Voltage Blackthorn!

… Blur, Radiohead, Stones, Doors, Steely Dan, Bowie, Leonard Cohen … they all had a three-year golden streak

… “I’m writing a short letter as I don’t have time to write a long one”

… why the Matrix was a watershed moment

… the three stages of success – getting known, the magnum opus, basking in the glow

… and why we love August N'gutu Leibowitz-Clementine.

Plus Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Buckshot La Funke, birthday guest Phil Hopwood and how everyone at the BBC is a gossip.

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.

Dexys, their hits and flops and how I survived them by Helen O’Hara

21 oktober 2026 · 46 min

Afspelen

Helen’s violin at the start of Come On Eileen has filled a million wedding dancefloors. She was a member of Dexys Midnight Runners, later their musical director, at the boom time of Too Rye Ay (and its wobbly sequel) and captures the thrill of it all in her just-updated memoir, What’s She Like: A Violinist’s Tale. You’ll love this conversation - warm, candid, forgiving and touching on all the following … Lees meer

… the day the dungarees arrived

… the tribal nature of bands

… the social skills required in a group as tangled as Dexys who’d “go to the caff and just … not talk!"

… what she learnt from the memorabilia found in her shed

… the myth that she met Kevin Rowland at a bus-stop and her reinvention as “the belle from Ballymena”

… working with Nicky Hopkins (“my hero”), Tom Dowd, Woody Woodmansey and Tanita Tikaram

… Dexys studio method: “focus, discipline, tightness” and trying to record a 12-minute track in one take

… hearing hits by Rod Stewart and Slade that featured violins

… and her swansong: recording Because Of You for the TV sitcom Brush Strokes.

Order copies of ‘What’s She Like’ here: https://www.route-online.com/all-books/whats-she-like

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

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Nigel Dick shot videos for Band Aid, Guns N’Roses, Britney and Oasis by ‘failing upwards’

20 oktober 2026 · 49 min

Afspelen

We first met Nigel Dick in the late ‘70s when he was the motorbike messenger for Stiff Records and watched him rocket to success in the video boom, directing career-launching clips for Guns N’Roses, Tears for Fears and Britney Spears and working with Cher, Joni Mitchell and McCartney, all recorded in his memoir ‘Music Video Mischief’. He looks back here on that big-budget golden age and the rise of the amateurs from his home in Colorado and stops off at … Lees meer

… ‘You have to work out where the power lies’

… the story of the million dollar video

… how he finally found the Axl Rose charisma

… New Boots And Panties, ‘the most radical album to have that level of success’

… Stiff’s ‘frightening, lovable, devious’ Dave Robinson, characteristics every label boss requires

… ‘I’ll make sure you never work in this town again!’

… why the 16 year-old (ex-Mickey Mouse Club) Britney Spears was born for video

… working with his teenage heroes Yes: ‘the beautiful castles I’d built in my mind just collapsed to sand’

… the rise of AI – ‘best to check people haven’t got six fingers and a changing haircut’

… and working with McCartney, Cher, Band Aid, Oasis and Claude Van Damme.

Order copies of ‘Music Video Mischief’ in the UK from: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/music-video-mischief-ozzy-to-britney-oasis-to-gn-r-mccartney-to-cher-a-lifetime-of-rock-and-chaos-nigel-dick/619386081ce90352?ean=9798999048783

And in the U.S. from: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com

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

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Tall stories about towering and tiny rock stars, ‘50s jazz and Mick Jagger’s gym shoes

20 oktober 2026 · 50 min

Afspelen

Two fearless men journey to the Edge Of News so that you don’t have to. Some highlights of this week’s report … Lees meer

… when a gig’s all about the performer not the audience

… the power of singing other people’s songs

… can you ever trust a film critic?

… what connects Richard Thompson, Neil Tennant, Loudon Wainwright and Randy Newman?

… “bands can’t look like gangs if they’re not all the same height”

… can you picture ‘50s jazz without cigarette smoke?

… who – dear god – is “achingly cool” according to critics? Miles Davis? The Portico Quartet? Annie Lennox?!

… should we call time on the ailing Mike Love?

… biopics that can’t afford the music

… why Robert Evans hated the American Graffiti soundtrack

… people who perform sitting down

… plus BB King, Jack Bruce, Philip Roth, Woody Guthrie, Woody Allen, James McMurtry and the 15-year old “Michael” Jagger’s gym shoes.

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

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Another Word with … Richard Thompson: includes Fairport, Lennon, Schwarzenegger and a cast of thousands!

15 oktober 2026 · 36 min

Afspelen

Richard Thompson has a new album, ‘Hippies, Thugs and Heroes’, and he’s touring again in 2027, the perfect excuse to get another of our favourite guests back in the chair again. He joins us here for a brilliant, free-wheeling conversation with a cast list including … Lees meer

Arnold Schwarzenegger (and his son Wolfie)

William Shakespeare

Mandy Miller

Shostakovich

Fairport Convention

William Walton

Fellini

John Lennon

Louis Armstrong

Post-War Brighton gangsters

Nellie the Elephant

Les Paul

Harold Pinter

Booker T & the M.G.’s

Bix Beiderbecke

Stephane Grappelli

Ennio Morricone

John Coltrane

Django Reinhardt

My Fair Lady

‘50s radio show Journey Into Space

Once Upon A Time In The West

… his dad (a policeman) and his first girlfriend Deirdre.

Order copies of ‘HIPPIES, THUGS AND HEROES’ here: http://newwst.com/hippies

And tickets here: https://www.richardthompson-music.com/tour-dates/

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.

Rory Gallagher – Ireland’s first rock star remembered by the brother who managed him

14 oktober 2026 · 39 min

Afspelen

You forget how huge and ubiquitous Rory Gallagher was in the ‘70s, just 22 at the Isle of Wight and auditioning for the Stones four years later, an inspiration for Johnny Marr, Andy Partridge, the Edge, Slash and countless others. And for his brother and manager Dónal - “it was a big wide world I wasn’t going to see unless I hung onto his coattails”. He’s just published a memoir, ‘Edged In Blue, A Rock’n’Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher’, and looks back here at some of the highlights, these among them … Lees meer

… watching Six-Five Special through a closed TV shop window at night and adding vocals to entertain the crowd

… hearing jazz, Lonnie Donegan and Big Bill Broonzy on Forces Radio in Ireland

… auditioning for the Stones in 1974

… joining the Fontana Showband aged 15 playing ceilidh, Chuck Berry and Georgie Fame

… Taste on the chaotic Blind Faith US tour when Ginger Baker attacked the security

… when Johnny Marr and Joe Bonamassa asked to borrow his old guitars

… and “the BBC’s most recorded artist of the ‘70s” and managing his expanding legacy.

Order ‘Edged in Blue: A Rock 'n' Roll Odyssey with Rory Gallagher’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edged-Blue-Rock-Odyssey-Gallagher/dp/1786052539

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

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Q Magazine’s 40th, Ariel Bender and the most unlistenable music ever made

11 oktober 2026 · 57 min

Afspelen

In this week’s extension of The Longest Conversation In Pop History™️ you’ll be happy to find … Lees meer

… the front row audience driving Gillian Anderson mad and why we feel for her

... can you still buy anything for £1.10?

… when did rock nostalgia begin?

… what Andy Partridge paid “the Hermit of Mink Hollow”

… the famous playwright who wrote a Beatles film script

… Spirit of Eden, Trout Mask Replica, Bitches Brew? Unlistenable?!

… whatever happened to the pop instrumental?

… My Bloody Valentine and bands who were “a challenge”

… Japanese noise pioneer Merzbow’s 53-hour marathon at Colchester Arts Centre

… Bricknasty, Tooth, Clutter, Sleepazoid … real or invented new bands?

… and memories of first hearing Sister Ray.

Plus Widowmaker, Stan Ridgway, the long-suffering hero who’s heard every one of our podcasts and birthday guest Matthew Elliott.

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

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Roxy, Traffic, Nick Drake, Mott the Hoople & the magic of Island Records

8 oktober 2026 · 40 min

Afspelen

The third instalment of ‘The Island Book of Records’ is out, another sumptuous, elegantly designed, LP-sized chronicle of every album released on this most fabled of labels, in this case between 1971-72. They’re edited by Neil Storey who worked in the press office for years, and they’re magnificent, a painstaking assembly of the memories of producers, musicians and label staff involved in those records with photo outtakes, press cuttings and concert bills to illustrate. We talked to Neil in Jamaica, on his way to present Chris Blackwell with a copy, and touched on the following … Lees meer

… why anything on Island still quickens the pulse

… how Blackwell understood “the packaged goods business” and only signed Roxy when he saw the shot they wanted on their first album cover

… Jess Roden, John Martyn, Tír na nÓg, John Wood, Jethro Tull, Hackensack and the record everyone forgot

… ‘the deification of Nick Drake is not a good thing”

… the misfortunes that derailed Bronco

… the ‘Renaissance’ look of Amazing Blondel and the member permanently dressed as an Elizabethan

… “Bless The Weather was the first John Martyn record where he didn’t want to be somebody else”

…. Spooky Tooth - “grunge before grunge was invented”

… and the Island albums that should have sold more.

Order ‘The Island Book of Records 1971-72’ here: https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781807072995/

And here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-III-1971-72/dp/1807072991/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_1/525-3021267-6645350?pd_rd_w=s0hPN&content-id=amzn1.sym.bb13d3fc-af40-4fff-a822-e0e4c415da96&pf_rd_p=bb13d3fc-af40-4fff-a822-e0e4c415da96&pf_rd_r=WV2V75TAD07MAYDF00D9&pd_rd_wg=6Znhw&pd_rd_r=94f67c6f-23f0-4a15-afc6-890c382a264d&pd_rd_i=1807072991&psc=1

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

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Gary Kemp bought Brian Epstein’s address book and discovered ‘the DNA of the Beatles’

7 oktober 2026 · 44 min

Afspelen

A lifelong Beatles obsessive, Gary Kemp bought Epstein’s black leather address book at auction and (with Simon Halfon) researched its 404 names to construct a picture of him, “a 360-degree look” built around musicians, managers, impresarios, hustlers, grifters, ‘walkers’, tricksters, writers, deejays, scene-makers and assorted fashion and media folk. It’s fascinating. As is this podcast where he talks about what he discovered compiling ‘1967: the World of Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ and how the contacts were like “an Advent Calendar leading to his death in August 1967”. We touch on … Lees meer

… what he paid for the address book (but couldn’t tell his wife!)

… the last person Brian spoke to

… how the Age of Innocence became the Age of Experience

… the legal, contractual and social problems overwhelming him in 1967

… cracking the code that hid the Beatles’ phone numbers

… “these days Lennon would be cancelled many times over”

… the crisis just before Shea Stadium in 1965

… why Brian missed the last Beatles show and his absurd idea for the Sgt Pepper cover

… and “how different all our lives would have been if he hadn’t walked down those steps to the Cavern”.

Order copies of ‘1967: the World of Brian Epstein and the Beatles’ here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/1967-the-world-of-brian-epstein-and-the-beatles-the-address-book-that-defined-an-era-gary-kempsimon-halfon?variant=56206336885115

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

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‘Metal Machine Music is a masterpiece!’ David Holzer has played it 1,000 times

6 oktober 2026 · 42 min

Afspelen

David Holzer was a Lou Reed fan from the moment he saw Walk On The Wild Side on Top Of The Pops but avoided Metal Machine Music for 42 years as it was supposedly unlistenable. He was transfixed when he finally heard it, began playing it daily and felt so strongly about “the most radical rock record ever made” he tracked down 60 fellow obsessives and wrote the enthralling ‘Lou Reed: Metal Machine Mystic’. And talks to us here from his home in Mallorca about … Lees meer

… why Reed released MMM. To escape a ruinous contract? To boost his avant garde status? To torpedo his career?

… how it was made with two guitars feeding back and a one-note ‘Ostrich’ tuning

… the multiple rumours – “Part 4 is Part 1 played backwards!”

… its inspirational ingredients – Judaism, spirituality, Alice Bailly and Iannis Xenakis

… how he hated the reviews of its forerunner Sally Can’t Dance and the people who bought it (and made it his biggest album)

… the vindication of its first live performance, in Berlin in 2002

… its brutal reception by rock critics who “thought they were hipper than Lou”

… “Reed spent money like a sailor on shore leave”

… and what the record reveals when you’ve heard it 1,000 times.

Order copies of ‘Lou Reed: Metal Machine Mystic’ here: http://jawbonepress.com/metal-machine-mystic/

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

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Todd Rundgren’s outbursts, ‘too old to mosh’ & the happiest and saddest songwriters

4 oktober 2026 · 54 min

Afspelen

A long-running conversation that shifts from major to minor, back to major and all notes inbetween, this week’s lyrics including … Lees meer

… can people who write ‘happy’ ever be cool?

… the best drummer who isn’t a drummer?

… when will Oasis buy Man City?

… why is Taylor Swift unmemorable?

… when’s “too old to mosh”?

… weird double-bills: Jimi Hendrix and the Monkees. Cat Stevens and Engelbert. Black Sabbath and … Neil Diamond?

… huge stars who barely had any hits

… what Todd Rundgren said about the New York Dolls, XTC and Bat Out Of Hell (“a parody of Springsteen”

… why black musicians had white gangster managers

… Mark paid £2.75 for six bands at Knebworth in 1974. What’s Alex getting for £500 in 2027?

… and “songs about Los Angeles are always about failure”

Plus Radiohead, Laughing Len, Kylie and birthday guest Phil Turner.

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

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Jon Savage loathed the 1976 singles chart so he’s made an album of should-have-been hits

29 september 2026 · 38 min

Afspelen

Jon Savage detested the UK’s mid-‘70s hits with a vengeance, “records so bad they made you want to strangle every deejay on Radio One, especially Dave Lee Travis”. Which is why he’s compiled ‘Jon Savage’s 1976: Something Was Going To Happen’, 24 ground-breaking tracks released the same year that paved the way to the future. He looks back here from his home in Anglesey at the thrill of hearing them the first time aged 22, the many highlights including … Lees meer

… hilarious memories of the nauseating Jeans On, Fernando, No Charge, Combine Harvester and Save Your Kisses For Me

… and his undying love for Eddie and the Hot Rods, Pere Ubu, Candi Station, Burning Spear, Miami and the Flamin’ Groovies

… cheap Ronco and K-Tel compilations and Radio One’s stranglehold on popular taste

… what happened at parties when you took off Steely Dan and played the Ramones

… “reggae records never seem to date”

… seeing the Runaways at the Roundhouse and the Clash at Fulham Town Hall with the future Poly Styrene

… the first review he ever had published

… the early ‘70s ‘underground’ - psychedelia, prog, metal, glam, reggae and disco

… and hunting for records at One Stop, Dobells and Harlequin.

Order copies of Jon Savage’s 1976 album here: https://www.acerecords.co.uk/jon-savages-1976-something-was-going-to-happen

And look out for Jon’s brilliant books, among them

England’s Dreaming (about to be republished with a new Derek Jarman cover), Teenage and 1966.

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

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Stevie Wonder’s masterpiece and the daft, chequered history of Ties In Rock!

28 september 2026 · 58 min

Afspelen

The two-man conversational canoe paddles the rock and roll tideway, stopping off this week at … Lees meer

… Van Morrison’s set-opener is Kidney Stew Blues by Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson. Do people have to play their big hits?

… what’s the key ingredient in success?

... “all great albums automatically have great sleeves. Bar one!”

… does Beyonce have a horsefly named after her? Is there a Jerry Garcia wood roach? A Sting tree-frog?

… U2’s new album cover is an Abbey Road pastiche. So … is this their swansong?

… “dress for the job you want, not the job you have”

… Elvis, Stones, psychedelia, Be Bop Deluxe, power pop, punk, Pete Doherty: rock stars in ‘statement’ ties

… the many ways Songs In The Key Of Life was a masterpiece

… plus “fibrous weaves, over-stuffed loons”, the Plimsouls, the Roaring Boys, Josh Rouse and birthday guest James Ewen.

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

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Why can’t brothers in bands ever get along?

21 september 2026 · 1 uur

Afspelen

While Mark Ellen visits his Scottish estates, David Hepworth and Alex Gold keep the home fires burning with a wide-ranging conversation, taking in: Lees meer

•⁠ ⁠why every band containing a pair of brothers seems to inevitably succumb to fraternal warfare

•⁠ ⁠how Ed Sheeran found himself caught in the cross-fire between a multi-millionaire and a bunch of support acts keen not to get caught on the wrong side of a social media war

•⁠ ⁠the fine line that divides a British cheese from a motorway service area

•⁠ ⁠what are the best cases of “mailbox money” in show business?

•⁠ ⁠does anybody else think gigs finish too early?

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.

Sid Griffin: the Long Ryders leader laughs at the absurdity of teenage life!

18 september 2026 · 37 min

Afspelen

A whole new format we’ve invented for people who’ve been guests before and were so entertaining we wanted them back. So we’ve devised some random questions to spark a few memories and revelations. First up, Sid Griffin of the Long Ryders, touring the UK this autumn, who looks back here at his early life before he “went to L.A. to quote-unquote make it”. You’ll love this as much as we did, especially … Lees meer

… the Beatles song he knew he’d understand when he was older

… his teenage band rehearsal when the drummer got a hammer in his head

… the rock star he always wanted to be

… what happens when you wear the bug-infested cap you find on a bus

… DJ Carl ‘Weird Beard’ Markert burping in Pepsi commercials on WAKY Radio

… Gregg Turner and the Angry Samoans – “bad songs in bad taste”

… things he can still recite from childhood

… the best use of music in a movie

… how arch-rival Norrie Paramor made George Martin even richer

… and the greatest B-side ever written.

Plus English teacher Mrs Atlas and his deathless crush on Mimi Babcock.

Long Ryders tickets here … thelongryders.com/tour

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.

An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys

16 september 2026 · 42 min

Afspelen

“Good hair, good shoes, something to say” were the requirements of Indie Sleaze whose vanguard lit up the fading music press in the first decade of the 21st Century – acts like Franz Ferdinand, the Rakes, the Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. Janine Warren saw the Strokes in Camden in 2001 and life took a whole new direction. Her book ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect’ looks back at old-school rock PR, unmanageable bands, and the summit and collapse of the last scene she thinks we’ll ever see. You’ll enjoy … Lees meer

… Morrissey at St George’s Hall, Blackburn

… deejaying at Liquidation in Liverpool playing psychedelia and Northern Soul

… the impossible task of being Pete Doherty’s PR: “like sand running through your fingers”

… the day its editor realised the NME was doomed

… the indie dilemma: wanting fame and publicity while appearing not to care

… the rise of Arctic Monkeys, the first big digital success story

… the financial crash, big label panic, illegal file-share and other woes of the 2010 music business

… why rock scenes are a thing of the past

… and the greatest Indie Sleaze record ever made.

Order copies of ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect: the Last Indie Music Scene 2000-2010’ here:

https://www.roughtrade.com/product/janine-warren-foreword-by-alex-kapranos/the-world-was-a-mess-but-his-hair-was-perfect-the-last-indie-music-scene-2000-2010?algolia_query_id=5510672a106c0f77be3b364fe1f570ce&algolia_object_id=57550933459275&algolia_index=shopify_prod_products&algolia_position=

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Nicky Hopkins’ hidden genius, the Oasis film and the best songs about rain

14 september 2026 · 59 min

Afspelen

This week’s news in three separate files - the Good, the Bad and the Befuddling. Which involves … Lees meer

… have Oasis created their own economy?

… are stadium gigs now like historical re-enactment?

… “people listen to music more intently in Manchester as they’re inside while it rains”

… ‘includes All Things Must Pass miniature garden gnomes!’ The mad money-draining joy of the luxury box-set

… when bands don’t change but audiences do

…Sun = Happiness, Rain = Sorrow: lyrics as an emotional weather forecast

… the pianist who wouldn’t play minor chords

… Nicky Hopkins on records by the Kinks, Beatles, Who and Stones (“She’s A Rainbow was like a music-box Mozart”): has any session player made a more vital contribution?

… “Lose two teeth in German nightclub brawl, go back to Burnage”: real and fictitious rock band Monopoly sets!

… Blue Nile, Ann Peebles, Beautiful South, Paul Simon? What’s the best song about rain?

Plus J Blackfoot, Paul Simon’s Kathy from Brentwood and birthday guest Matthew North.

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.

Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher

11 september 2026 · 38 min

Afspelen

Clint Boon was at the heart of “the two biggest musical revolutions of my lifetime” – as a teenager for Joy Division and Buzzcocks, and later the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Hacienda and onstage with Inspiral Carpets, a world of characters as big as his own. His memoir ‘The Manchester Chronicles’ is about obsessions, schoolteachers, purple winklepickers, mobile discos, good luck, catastrophe and being in the right place at the right time for 30 years. Along with … Lees meer

… why Manchester listens to music so intently: “we’re stuck inside while it rains”

… auditioning Noel Gallagher “as the Lockerbie plane flew directly overhead”

… the new economy: making a Number 2 album funded by t-shirt and cassette sales

… growing up on Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Little Richard and Gary Lewis & the Playboys

… Inspiral Carpets’ obsession with West Coast psychedelia

… when the band all got houses with their Mute advance “and I just bought some $800 sunglasses”

… great bowl-heads haircuts (Stones, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane) and why he got one too

… seeing the Pistols at the Electric Circus: “I left college the next morning”

… the sudden split: playing Glastonbury one minute, living on milk tokens and income support the next

… his 1975 disco playing Mud, the Rubettes and Showaddywaddy (“I was a 14 year-old Ted”)

… and how 24 Hour Party People captured “the spirit, chaos, colour and madness”.

Order copies of ‘The Manchester Chronicles: True Tales of Music, Madness and Mayhem 1976-2006’ here: https://geni.us/manchesterchronicles

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 Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!”

9 september 2026 · 40 min

Afspelen

The Slits burned very brightly – but briefly - and were gone, their bumpy and courageous tale crisply told in Zoë Howe’s updated ‘Typical Girls?’. She looks back here at the unforgettable things they wore, said and did as “outsiders in an outsider scene”, a band celebrated before they’d even played a note. And touches on … Lees meer

... how other all-girl groups got started - the Moodies, the Runaways, Fanny, the Shaggs, Goldie and the Gingerbreads

… Nora Forster – Ari’s mum, German print heiress, the “punk rock Baroness Nica” who bankrolled the Slits

… Ari was a 14 year-old schoolgirl, Viv Albertine was 21: “I couldn’t have a relationship with her. It was like a having a child in the band”

… Nick Kent’s account of the four of them “blazing down Oxford Street”

… producer Dennis Bovell’s dub reggae project with “the

Witches of West London”

… their fractious relationship with Island Records and Radio One

… “No birds on the stage!”: the author’s life as a female drummer

… and the Pop Group, Rip Rig + Panic, “humour, playfulness, the freedom to be childlike” and the long legacy of the Slits.

Order ‘Typical Girls?: the Story of the Slits’ here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/typical-girls-the-story-of-the-slits-omnibus-remastered?_pos=1&_psq=typical+girls&_psid=eb748e5dc&_ss=e

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.

Shawn Colvin – songwriter, storyteller, urban cowgirl, singing waitress

8 september 2026 · 28 min

Afspelen

Shawn Colvin was in the spotlight from the age of 10 playing her parents’ parties, singing in bars at college, acting off-Broadway and joining country swing bands before making 12 solo albums. She’s touring the UK and Ireland from late September and looks back on it all with us from her home in Austin, Texas. Lots of great moments here, these among them … Lees meer

… growing up on hymns, Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio with a Dad who tried to get stoned at a Judy Collins gig

… being a spoons-playing singing waitress with Maria Muldaur in an off-Broadway musical

… playing four sets a night of Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel for tips and beer on the Illinois bar circuit

… acting in the Simpsons and Larry Sanders

… life in dance halls in country swing bands

… her part in “the great ‘80s Urban Cowboy Scare”

… how to connect with festival crowds when it’s raining

… the Richard Thompson glass bowl requests system

… and covers she never tires of playing – Joan Baez, U2, Gnarls Barkley.

Shawn Colvin tickets here: https://tix.to/ShawnUK26

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 world’s greatest radio station! & things we loved about Dolly Parton

7 september 2026 · 1 uur

Afspelen

Passing the conversational Dutchie 'pon the left hand side, we fire up the following … Lees meer

… “speech, not music, brings people together”

… if music gets ever broader, why’s radio getting more niche?

… can YOU guess the NME’s 10 most influential bands in 2002?

… a doomed Dolly Parton kidnap attempt at the Hammersmith Odeon: we were there!

… ‘Voice-tracking’, ‘auditorium testing’ and other network radio secrets

... 61 year-old listener hears the Beatles for the first time and reports back. (Chapeau, Jelltex!)

… short-lived TV spin-offs from Fawlty Towers and Dad’s Army

… Madonna, 50 Cent and Courtney Love wrote children’s books? Anyone read Marcus Mumford’s ‘Barnaby and the Drumming Bear’?

… familiar acts doing unfamiliar songs and well-known tracks by obscure people

… and why Boom Radio is booming.

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

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Blur’s thrilling early years in words and pictures by Dave Rowntree

27 augustus 2026 · 37 min

Afspelen

Dave Rowntree had a camera with him as Blur took off in the early ‘90s and his book ‘No-One You Know’ distils the thrill of a band in ascent – backstage, in studios, with fans, on tour buses and their first trips to America and Japan. It bristles with joy and exhilaration. He looks back here at life in lift-off nearly 35 years ago and ahead to his spoken word tour promoting it, stopping off at … Lees meer

… two years busking in France in the mid-’80s

… why pictures taken on film are more like paintings than photographs

… Blur’s unique chemistry - “all four of us had one sister and no brothers”

… what he learnt from their label manager Dave Balfe

… the writer who discovered Blur and other game-changing moments

… how ‘the Fanerati radar’ and editor Miranda Sawyer encouraged him to publish the book

… Japan’s confusing, intoxicating new culture in the early ‘90s

… mile-melting on US tour buses in the days before social media and DVD

… and why Blur today are in “the dream position”.

Order tickets and copies of the book here: https://www.daverowntree.com/

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

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Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’

26 augustus 2026 · 30 min

Afspelen

Natalie Merchant joined 10,000 Maniacs when she was 17, had a long and successful solo career and then began teaching children in New York State. Realising the value of rhymes and theatre, her adaptation of Mother Goose (played by herself) was expanded into a multi-media performance with 150 four-year-olds and recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She even made most of the costumes. And she’s never had an audience reaction as enthusiastic and emotional. It’s a magnificent project to give children experiences that modern life rarely affords “right down to the thrill of seeing people play real instruments”. She talks to us here from her New York home about ‘Cabinet Of Wonder’, along with … Lees meer

… her first stage appearances, aged seven

… scanning record collections and thinking “if they don’t have a copy of Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girl’, we can’t be friends!”

… how improvising lyrics got her into 10,000 Maniacs (“who I wanted to call the Tunda Bunnies”)

… seeing Styx, the Cars and the Clash playing ‘Combat Rock’

… how she and her daughter grew up in homes without TV

… and the threat of future education run by avatars.

The Cabinet of Wonder website: https://cabinetofwonder.org

And the multi-retailer link for the album: https://cabinetofwonder.lnk.to/album

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

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The Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums

25 augustus 2026 · 28 min

Afspelen

The Proclaimers have only had a handful of hits but they’re songs that have kept expanding for nearly 40 years. And the World Cup was a reminder of how far they’ve reached. Craig and Charlie Reid talk to us here about first adventures onstage, talent shows, the tour circuit, the new album ‘You May Offend’ and … Lees meer

… the moment the Proclaimers took off

… first records bought in Woolworths in Fife (including the less-than-prophetic World Cup anthem Easy Easy)

… the fraternal voices of the Everly Brothers

… seeing Joy Division supporting Buzzcocks and feeling “the heat and charisma” of Ian Curtis

… the unique way they write songs

… getting royalties when your hits are sung in televised football stadiums

… their first gigs playing Stones, Kinks, Clash and Pistols covers plus a Talent Show in ’77 on a bill with “a lassie singing Scottish ballads and possibly a performing dog”

… recording at Rockfield and the ghost of Bohemian Rhapsody

... their new video imagining John & Yoko as they might be today

… how easy it is to offend Gen-Z

… and hitchhiking 60 miles to see Hibs and writing ‘The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues’ about it.

Order ‘You May Offend’ here: https://proclaimers.lnk.to/youmayoffend

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 are the great singles that have entered our bloodstream? “Nobody hums an album!”

24 augustus 2026 · 43 min

Afspelen

The original rock podcast - now in its 20th year! – knocks the week’s news across the conversational net. Amid the top-spin, rallies and double-faults, you’ll find … Lees meer

… farcical developments in the Tupac trial

… the shock-horror reaction to the Sam Mendes Beatles’ wigs!

… Dave Marsh’s ‘1001 Greatest Singles’ in 1989: what 45s released since would make his Top 10?

… ‘If the Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me’, ‘I’ve Been Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart’: real or made-up Country song titles?

… “People buy albums because they like the band. They buy singles because they like the song”

… musicians who wrote a second memoir as the first one wasn’t all true

… the Stones single that’s streets ahead of their others

… the Hank Marvin Challenge: the correct facial expression when playing instrumentals!

… are the greatest singles the ones with the most emotional depth?

… and the mystery of ‘No Way Out’ by Joyce Harris.

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.

Martin Simpson’s 60 years on the folk circuit ‘making people cry for a living’

19 augustus 2026 · 50 min

Afspelen

Martin Simpson got backstage when he was 15 and met Jimmy Reed and Big Joe Williams and it changed his life forever. He’s been on the folk circuit ever since, still at the top of his game and with the wealth of knowledge and experience reflected in this extremely entertaining podcast. His ‘Some Kind Of Jubilee’ album celebrates 50 years since his first record and he’s on tour in September. And talks to us here about … Lees meer

… his operatic Dad born in the 19th Century

… the message carved with a knife on the door of the Bodmin Trad Music Club

… hearing Paul Robeson aged four and thinking “I want to make people cry for a living”

… ‘60s folk circuit snobbery and its disdain for “foreign songs”

… signing Big Joe Williams’ walking stick in a space between Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

… memories of Alex Campbell, Matin Carthy, Dave & Jo Ann Kelly and “that swarthy bunch of lunatics from Hull, the Watersons”

… the Nun & Ice Cream Cone, the Frog & Afterbirth: imaginary pub venues cooked up with June Tabor

… being managed by Tony Secunda, “an extremely unpleasant human being”

… “the only damage you can do to a folk song is to not sing it”

… supporting Steeleye Span and the night cash rained from the heavens

… Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right, These Days by Jackson Browne, Mississippi John Hurt and other songs that never let you down onstage

… second-lining at a New Orleans jazz funeral: “the slow drag and the racing return”

… and how folk songs travel abroad and evolve.

Order copies of ‘Some Kind Of Jubilee’ here: https://martinsimpsonmusic.com/pre-order-the-new-album/

Martin Simpson tickets here: https://martinsimpsonmusic.com/

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 Shadows and the chequered tale of the first British rock’n’roll band

18 augustus 2026 · 43 min

Afspelen

The Shadows were the strongest brand in British pop, adored and widely imitated. When they went out of fashion, no-one wanted them to change. Bob Stanley salutes their enormous influence and creation of the guitar hero and unravels their rapid post-Beatles decline in his superb new book, ‘The Shadows: the Definitive Story’. And talks to us here about … Lees meer

… Hank and Bruce arriving in London aged 15 when the 2i’s coffee bar was a labour exchange and a social club

… entering a talent contest won by a Malayan opera singer

… the magic of cowboy culture transported to British suburbia and their four cartoonish stage names

… meeting Jacques Tati at the Paris Olympia and being asked to write a song for his upcoming movie

… the rapid post-Beatles crash – bow-ties, panto and Cliff announcing his Christianity

… “being thrown through a mangle twice a night by Arthur Askey in Stockton-on-Tees is not why they joined the music business”

… getting Hipgnosis to design their album sleeve while stuck playing Batley Variety Club

… the return of instrumentals with Albatross and the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

… when Hank was asked to join the Move

.. the Swedish vogue for “barbed wire groups”

… and Neil Young’s ‘From Hank to Hendrix’ – which everyone assumed was about Hank Williams.

Order copies of Bob’s book here: https://tr.ee/rSilFTJwfO

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

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Stiff Records’ 50th birthday! – the farcical magnificent record label and why we adored it

16 augustus 2026 · 45 min

Afspelen

Stuff, nonsense, the white heat of debate and yesterday’s news today! Which this week involves … Lees meer

… which of these didn’t host a TV chat show – Ian Botham, Charlotte Church, Lily Allen or Harold Wilson?

… if you’d paid £102 to see two-thirds of the Fugees show up an hour late, wouldn’t you SCREAM for a refund?

… Britain’s most rock’n’roll hotel and why the idea of “excess” seems purely American

… Dave and Stephane Grappelli at the Sunset Marquis

… Reversing Into Tomorrow! We Came, We Saw, We Left! The genius of Stiff Records, “the Motown of Bayswater”, and the oddballs and misfits they signed

… “there are only two types of record demand: too little and too much”

… “Artistic breakthrough, the first double B-side!” The single that started the Indie boom

… and why naked ballet doesn’t work.

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.

Elliott Smith, his life, his afterlife and the friends who believed in him

14 augustus 2026 · 33 min

Afspelen

A sense of melancholy hangs over the music of songwriters whose lives were tragically short – Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Eva Cassidy, Judee Sill - and we’re left knowing very little about them. Jamie Fisher, writer and New York Times researcher, discovered Elliott Smith 12 years after he’d died and contacted 40 of his friends and fellow musicians to build a picture of him for her memoir Nobody Broke Your Heart. She looks back here at his background and ascent from the Portland club circuit to the Oscars, and touches on … Lees meer

… the emotional impact of first hearing his music walking round Central Park in Lockdown

… “goofy, stubborn, wildly smart, addictively listenable”

… early life in Omaha and Texas (and the telling tattoo on his arm)

… the shy collegiate kid reading Dostoevsky who thought promotion was “distasteful”

… how a singer-writer broke through in Portland during the Grunge boom

… rejected stage-names - Johnny Panic, Elliott Stillwater-Rotter - and the pivotal moment when Steven became ‘Elliott’

.. his sense of humour – “a garbage truck passed him and he said, ‘there’s my ride!’”

… the archive of unreleased recordings she’d heard

… the Oscars appearance and signing to DreamWorks and Nirvana’s PR

… the root of his eventual unhappiness

… “he would have been more shielded if he’d been in a band”

… and his expanding legacy and adoption by Gen-Z.

Order ‘Nobody Broke Your Heart’ here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/jamie-fisher/nobody-broke-your-heart-an-intimate-biography-of-elliott-smith

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

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How Kylie became the whole world’s sweetheart

12 augustus 2026 · 39 min

Afspelen

Michael Cragg’s devotion to all things Kylie once led him to Melbourne in search of the actual carousel horse she rode in a pop video. He got a tattoo a day later. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head is a funny and fondly detailed personal account of the risk-taking variety of her records, the mystery of her private life and the irresistible nature of her appeal, a girl who, were there a war on, would be painted on the tail fins of aircraft. He looks back here at … Lees meer

… her ‘90s reinvention by association – with Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence and Bobby Gillespie

… how records about joy never get enough credit

… wrestling back control after life with Stock Aitken & Waterman

… the root of her appeal as a gay icon

... being vilified by the press for any public pronouncement

… a capacity to charm her detractors when she meets them

… reciting I Should Be So Lucky at the Poetry Olympics alongside Patti Smith and Allen Ginsberg

… a mixture of the ordinary and the exotic and the ‘Carry On’ sexuality of her videos

… only Queen Elizabeth 11 has had more waxworks at Madame Tussauds

… and Michael’s meeting with her – “I’m six foot eight, she’s five foot one” - and the resulting photo.

Order copies of ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571392766-cant-get-you-out-of-my-head-in-search-of-kylie/

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

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Sandy Denny’s life and luminous talent celebrated by Linda Thompson

11 augustus 2026 · 29 min

Afspelen

‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ has just been published, memories from fellow musicians, old friends, producers, writers, fans and admirers. Linda Thompson met her when they were both 16 and was devoted to her ‘til she died in 1978 – “she’s still with me, I talk to her all the time”. She looks back here at their lives in Soho bars, folk clubs and studios, the world they inhabited and the musicians they both knew. Among the many highlights … Lees meer

… meeting Sandy in 1966, onstage doing Jackson Frank’s You Never Wanted Me. “Eight million cigarettes a day but such breath control!”

… why her singing and songwriting were unique

… high times at the Colony Club with Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon - “famously grumpy”

… “she didn’t put up with bullshit. Cross her and she’d deck you”

… memories of Nick Drake – “spectral and gorgeous”

… the repercussions of the Fairport car crash

… memories of her family home in Wimbledon (on the cover of Unhalfbricking)

… recording ad jingles for Ski Yoghurt and ‘flour so fine, it flows and it flows’ - £15 an hour, “a fortune”

… making demos of Nick Drake songs with Elton John, “so full of Valium I had to be held up to the mic”

… sharing a flat with Tim Buckley in Holland Park

… “anyone who can bear to listen to their own records must be no bloody good”

… and the script Nick Hornby started about the life of Richard and Linda Thompson.

Order ‘Sandy Denny: A People’s History’ here: https://burningshed.com/georgia-rose-lucas_sandy-denny-a-peoples-history_book

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 Abbey Road photo miracle, Glen Hansard and TV we’d pay to watch

10 augustus 2026 · 54 min

Afspelen

The news slapped on the conversational barbecue and served with a side of old hokum. This week’s mixed grill includes … Lees meer

… our favourite story in the whole of popular music!

… Lisa Marie Presley & Michael Jackson, Neil Young & Daryl Hannah and other weird celebrity weddings

… how Glen Hansard got hired for the Commitments

… “Everybody has a plan ‘til they’re punched in the face”

… Linda Thompson and the million reasons singers hate listening to their old albums

… the fabulous life and times of Vicki Wickham in the days when 24 year-olds ran the business

… Luke Combs, Nate Bargatze and the rising appeal of Mr Nice Guy

… how David Bowie recorded

… Mick Jagger’s only marriage

… “Kingsley Amis Introduces Us To Pop Stars!” and other doomed TV ideas

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.

Bowie, the Cure, Neil Young and the golden age of the video shoot

6 augustus 2026 · 34 min

Afspelen

Tim Pope caught the video wave in 1981 and made hundreds of promotional clips, often three or four a week, edited at night and on-air days later. You’ll have seen them, singles for the Style Council, The The, Iggy Pop, Hall & Oates and many others. For 15 years he was the man to call – inventive, caffeinated, risk-loving, clubbable – and “nothing was too mad or stupid”. He celebrates that magic age of big budgets and creative freedom in his story-filled memoir ‘I Shoot Rock Stars’, just out, and looks back here at … Lees meer

… the video that made his reputation

… MTV showing six of his clips in a row

… the thrill of Bowie’s silhouette as he walked across the Rainbow stage in 1977: “there was so little footage back then, you’d rarely seen people move”

… his teenage love of Dusty, ELP, King Crimson and Pink Floyd

… shooting seven clips a fortnight and the one time a record label tried to interfere

… Neil Young’s 2,000-acre Broken Arrow Ranch and the “burning fires of his eyes”

… Iggy Pop singing I Wanna Be Your Dog in the John Snow pub in Soho

… “German sausages, lumps of lamb, maggots, a whole party”: the Soft Cell clip that caused a walk-out

... “You’re a funny little arsehole!”: breaking the ice with Bowie

… what he learnt from Mark Hollis of Talk Talk and spending time with his ashes.

Order ‘I Shoot Rock Stars’ here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-shoot-rock-stars/tim-pope/9781035426959

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Pauline Black of the Selecter, the girl who invented the Rude Girl

5 augustus 2026 · 34 min

Afspelen

Pauline Black was seen singing Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell songs in Coventry folk clubs and recruited by a local reggae band. Then converted to ska and joined the Selecter - back on tour this summer and with a box-set of live recordings, ‘The Selecter at the BBC’. She looks back here at … Lees meer

… their first gig with Madness for 47 years in Brighton – “very red fezzy!”

… her Sliding Doors moment supporting Bert Jansch

... discovering the Pioneers, Prince Buster and the Skatalites through white skinheads in Coventry

… the famous 2-Tone Brighton Beach photo of 1979 with the Specials and Madness

… “there were three looks for a black girl singer back then – Tina Turner, the I-Threes Earth Mother … or invent something new. So I invented the Rude Girl”

… seeing Pentangle playing the theme from ‘Take Three Girls’ in 1971 and then the MC5 and Arthur Brown with his “papier-mâché brain”

… training as a bio-chemist and radiographer – “there isn’t an orifice I haven’t inspected”

… the first Selecter gig – “flares, safari suits and me in pink spandex trousers like the girls from Chic”

.. how Jerry Dammers created the cartoon 2-Tone look and the night radio played the first single

… and “a black man with a gun and a stage invasion” on the BBC’s Pebble Mill.

Order copies of ‘The Selecter At The BBC: The Complete Recordings 1979-1981’ here: https://theselecter.lnk.to/AtTheBBC

Tickets here: https://theselecter.net/live-dates/

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Tony Fletcher - teenage label boss! – remembers the Jam, the Tube and the ‘80s pop explosion

4 augustus 2026 · 46 min

Afspelen

Tony Fletcher launched Jamming! when he was 13, wrote for the Face at 16, ran a label with Paul Weller at 17 and a year later was presenting the Tube. And was in a band signed to EMI. If anyone did more as a teenager, we want to meet them. It’s all in his coming-of-age memoir ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ - discussed here - which touches on … Lees meer

…the speed, the possibilities and the riches of success in the early ‘80s – and how it felt to be at the heart of it

… “I knew nothing about running a label – and then discovered Paul Weller didn’t either”

… Madness being interviewed by “spiky-haired, Harrington-jacketed, Ben-Sherman-shirted me”

… when confidence meets ignorance

… when bands went from selling 2,000 records to 20,000 and, in America, 200,000: “Phil Oakey always carried £500 in cash”

… the research meetings that launched the Tube and his two-minute audition

… the day Leslie Ash called in sick and he covered for her on live TV

… Pete Townshend, 35, convinced the Who were finished

... discovering the inner circle within the inner circle

… “to the Rainbow for the Mod Revival all-dayer!”

… and memories of Wham!, Paula Yates and Pete Wylie and what he learnt from running labels and magazines.

Order copies of ‘Pow! When UK Punk Went Pop 1980-84’ here:

US: https://www.trouserpressbooks.com/pow

UK: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pow-when-uk-punk-went-pop-1980-84-tony-fletcher/74b193de4c1dee68

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

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Is AI wrecking rock history? – plus festivals in heatwaves and Kate Bush dancing

3 augustus 2026 · 47 min

Afspelen

Testing the temperature of this week’s news to see what trips the fire-alarm, which includes … Lees meer

… does having a Number One still matter?

… Pauline Black’s sliding doors moment

… rock stars you can’t imagine dancing

… heatwaves, fire, rain, dust and thunderstorms: how extreme weather’s changing the festival circuit

… when Jarvis Cocker was a fishmonger and Bryan Ferry taught pottery

… is AI erasing our love of rock history?

… Wuthering Heights Day: the lone fabulous amateur appeal of Kate Bush v the polished mass choreography of the 21st Century

… all bands vividly remember first hearing themselves on the radio … and then rang their mothers

… digital native or digital immigrant?

… and when Mark met the Hells Angels in a Kentucky Fried Chicken.

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

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Jonathan Richman, on-the-road songs and the best-known solo ever recorded

27 juli 2026 · 43 min

Afspelen

This week’s news in a conversational cocktail-shaker and served with ice and a little paper parasol. Those Happy Hour highlights include … Lees meer

… six musicians who keep getting better looking

… Plas Johnson RIP, a part of everyone’s life for 60 years

… the Odyssey and how Hollywood thinks the rest of the world has a foreign accent

… why you couldn’t make Bugsy Malone today

… Jonathan Richman’s genuine wide-eyed love of the modern world

… Clare Torry’s Pink Floyd payday

… “Styrofoam ice buckets full of ice”: the greatest song ever written about life on the road

… Mick Jagger, the art of evasion and the exquisite boredom of Stones’ B-sides about America

… the four rock stars who played the Artful Dodger

… and what John Wayne said to ‘Jesus’.

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

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Georgie Fame, Ben Sidran and the golden age of ‘60s Soho

23 juli 2026 · 37 min

Afspelen

Ben Sidran was in a teenage band with Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs, a session pianist with the Stones in 1969 and carved a brilliant career as a jazz musician, producer, author and broadcaster. He’s just written ‘Cool Cat Blues’ about his old friend and collaborator Georgie Fame and the brief, luminous, pre-rock London blues and jazz scene that launched him. This enthralling conversation looks at the “heavy lift” of being a piano player and Georgie’s unique position in the organic, unhyped, pre-youth scene before the arrival of rock. And covers … Lees meer

… the “coal smoke” London of the late ‘60s and Ben recording with the Stones at Olympic

… the romance and “elephant paths” of the great jazz legends

… why British musicians were more sophisticated than Americans obsessed with authenticity

... the influence of Mose Allison, “a white jazz and blues intellectual with storytelling and social commentary”

… GI’s bringing black American records to the Flamingo Club

… how Georgie Fame was “raised by wolves” and the Larry Parnes and Light Entertainment worlds that helped shape him

… and Yeh Yeh, Get Away and the Ballad Of Bonnie and Clyde, the hits that damaged his reputation.

Order ‘Cool Cat Blues’ here: https://www.equinoxpub.com/projects/cool-cat-blues

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Steve Hackett remembers batwings, blues clubs and Genesis on £15 a week

22 juli 2026 · 38 min

Afspelen

Steve Hackett’s seven years in Genesis get re-explored when he tours in October, along with ‘solo gems’ from the records he’s made since, the latest ‘the Roaring Waves’, a collaboration with old pal Steve Rothery. He looks back here at defining moments in the Genesis story such as the stage props, the early American tours and Phil Collins when he met him having just auditioned for Zeffirelli and being “all fur coats and girlfriends”. Along with … Lees meer

… when bands stood on fishboxes if there wasn’t a stage

… playing harmonica through his nose and “open wounds” from American guitars

.. Cream, John Mayall and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on Eel Pie Island

... what Lennon said about Genesis “in the days before we could tweet it, sadly”

… Apache, Man Of Mystery and the guitarists Hank Marvin inspired

… how Phil Collins got to be the band’s singer and the days when Phil and Peter Gabriel did Alan Whicker impressions onstage

... Guy Garvey at the Prog Proms

… the last time the five of them were together and the chance of a reunion

… and the new album with Steve Rothery, inspired by Whitby and the legend of Dracula.

Order copies of ‘The Roaring Wave’ here: https://stevehackettsteverothery.lnk.to/TheRoaringWaves-Album

Order Steve Hackett tickets here: https://myticket.co.uk/artists/steve-hackett and https://www.hackettsongs.com/tours

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

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Mari Wilson, our favourite girl about town, takes Neasden to Chelsea

21 juli 2026 · 35 min

Afspelen

Mari Wilson has drunk deep of all that London nightlife has to offer, from a London Transport social club in Wembley to a posh venue in Chelsea via the Cooks Ferry Inn in Edmonton, and she remembers it well. Here she marks the release of her new album “Girl About Town” by talking about: Lees meer

•⁠ ⁠making bacon sandwiches for Mott The Hoople

•⁠ ⁠entertaining her dad’s mates with her Alma Cogan impression

•⁠ ⁠Half of Scotland coming to stay for the Home Internationals

•⁠ ⁠touring in a Commer van

•⁠ ⁠taking her “Klute” hairstyle to watch Stray and the Pink Fairies

•⁠ ⁠playing Dusty Springfield on the musical stage

•⁠ ⁠audiences who want to get home in time for Antiques Road Show

•⁠ ⁠bringing it all back home to the Cadogan Hall, Chelsea, on October 4th:⁠ ⁠https://cadoganhall.com/whats-on/mari-wilson-girl-about-town/

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

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All music is dance music! – and the best stage name ever

20 juli 2026 · 53 min

Afspelen

Another over-heated week put through the conversational air-conditioner, which involves … Lees meer

… the man who got rich writing words that could never be sung

… Anna Bullock? Stefani Germanotta? People who’d never have made it if they hadn’t changed their names

… and the best stage name ever!

… Marco Pirroni’s jukebox

… when the Rock'n’Roll rulebook declared ‘Thou Shalt Not Dance!’

… how David Dundas made a fortune from just four notes

… Ringo, Dylan, Hank Marvin, Bill Wyman and the magic of cowboy culture

… who lost out on ‘It’s Only Rock’n’Roll’ and ‘Jessica’?

… and the biggest star of the 20th Century and how he got his name

Plus the Bingville Bugle and birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana looks back at when dance music came in for a kicking.

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

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Adam & the Ants, pop stardom and Marco Pirroni’s brief spell in the spotlight

15 juli 2026 · 38 min

Afspelen

Marco Pirroni’s moment in the sun was big, lucrative but incredibly short. It was under a year from Adam & the Ants’ first hit to their last and immediate break-up. Adam, he remembers, was the perfect writing partner – driven, intensely competitive and with “a pathological fear of only being Number 2”. He’s got no regrets, hasn’t had to do day’s work since, and looks back here at … Lees meer

… being the first band writing songs for the video age

… “you can’t confuse fans buying records with love, it’s nothing personal”

… Telstar, Fireball XL5, Roxy Music and the “moon-stomping hits of Slade”

… playing covers of songs they didn’t like with Siouxsie at the 100 Club: “punk rock and my part in its downfall”

… Adam’s “Shakespearian tirade” at the legal meeting with Rolf Harris when he sued over Prince Charming and War Canoe

… Malcolm McLaren’s jukebox: the Flamin’ Groovies, Alice Cooper, the Troggs, “songs that weren’t very good”

… “we stopped being a punk band or a pop band or a glam band – or any sort of band at all”

… never tour America when you don’t have a bank account.

Order ‘Your Money Or Your Life’ here: https://tr.ee/P2_qxNZ6jC

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

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The Specials are no more! Horace Panter remembers days when it was ‘like walking on air’

14 juli 2026 · 23 min

Afspelen

The Specials have officially disbanded, bowing out with a swansong album recorded in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral in 2019. Horace Panter looks back at the first shows they played - when Jim Callaghan was still PM! - and the rigours of mastering ska when some of the group thought it was “old man’s music”. Along with … Lees meer

… the dignified way for any band to retire

… the 2-Tone tour of 1979 – “like a school trip with no teachers”

… bonding with Terry Hall over comedian Ken Platt: ‘I won't take me coat off, I'm not stoppin'!"

… the day Jerry Dammers came to rehearsal with Prince Buster’s Greatest Hits – “for all your rebellious needs!”

… the poignancy of playing in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral when you start the set with an air-raid siren

… seeing the Faces and Mott the Hoople, “once in my school uniform”

… the sensory overload - “The space! The volume!” - of Led Zeppelin at the Albert Hall when you’re 15 and from Kettering

… “strange to think few people under 60 have ever seen the Specials”

… the bassist he pretended to be when posing in the mirror

... the Bilzen Festival in 1979 “when the chain-link fence was broken down and I came offstage like I was walking on air”

… and creating the 2-Tone look with ex-Mod tonic suits

Order ‘Live From The Cathedral’ here: https://shop.thespecials.islandrecords.com/

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

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Is Indie the new Good Old Days? And why are there no British country stars?

13 juli 2026 · 52 min

Afspelen

As this week’s news hurtles over the net, we sort the aces from the double-faults. The final score … Lees meer

… Madonna, Shakira, Chris Martin and World Cup 11-minute half-time overload!

… how many Stones albums were “the best since Exile On Main Street”?

… Kevin Rowland’s heart-breaking songs about Life’s Third Act

… 10 good reasons to miss the Nineties

… Country & Western is about travelling through the vast geography of America. “Go 200 miles in Britain and you fall off the edge”

… Florian Pilkington-Miksa, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond: rock’s real (or invented?) double-barrelled names

… how “travel and never arrive” is the new entertainment experience

… plus Sly Stone’s Babies Makin’ Babies, the comforting cry of “Gambo’s in the building!” and birthday guest Patrick Butler.

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

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