Word In Your Ear

Alle afleveringen

1.029 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud

1. Has politics eaten entertainment? What’s ‘perfect sound’? Plus Brian James & how to make a speech

   10 maart 2025 · 56 min

   Afspelen
   Tyres pumped, engine cranked, chromework winking in the Springtime sun, the two-man conversational jalopy sets off on its weekly spin and visits … Lees meer

   … the day America broke the news and showed its dark side.

   … Brian James RIP and Stiff’s brilliant ad campaign for the first Damned album: “Play it at your sister!”

   … has entertainment been dwarfed by world events?

   … why the Oscars were invented and what it said about American life.

   … “negative publicity is the first response to everything”.

   … why Adrien Brody’s speech set back the cause of actors being taken seriously by about 40 years.

   … Will Smith v Chris Rock, Chumbawamba v John Prescott, David Niven and the streaker: Awards show bombshells and what today’s media would make of them.

   … The Wizard Of Vinyl and his mission to “save the world from bad sound”.

   … the days when Hi-Fi was considered a hobby.

   … are musical memories mostly about context? David relives ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ on a jukebox in the Shady Nook café in Wakefield.

   … how not to make a speech.

   … and the band that called Nick Lowe “granddad” (when he was 27).

   Plus birthday guest Adrian Ainsworth on the worst and most insulting Greatest Hits compilations of all time.

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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2. Film-maker Denny Tedesco on dad’s old band The Wrecking Crew and new doc “Immediate Family”

   6 maart 2025 · 24 min

   Afspelen
   We’re long-time admirers of Denny Tedesco’s “Wrecking Crew” doc which celebrated the studio musicians of 60s Hollywood, the unseen hands who can be heard on all those Beach Boys and Spector hits. Now he’s done something similar with the musicians who were so much part of the success of James Taylor, Carole King and Warren Zevon in the next decade in “The Immediate Family”. We’re delighted to have been able to organise a screening of the film at The Art House in Crouch End after which he spoke to David Hepworth about what it was like to grow up married to the music business, how the culture of session players changed over the years, what has kept the likes of Leland Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, Waddy Wachtel and Russ Kunkel at the top of their game for fifty years and whether anybody else is still keeping their craft alive. The film is streaming on a platform near you now! Lees meer

   The Immediate Family: https://www.immediatefamilyfilm.com/

   The Art House: https://www.arthousecrouchend.co.uk/

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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3. Lennon & McCartney seen in a fresh, stirring and original new light by Ian Leslie

   5 maart 2025 · 44 min

   Afspelen
   Ian Leslie posted his ‘64 Reasons To Celebrate Paul McCartney’ in 2020 and the viral reaction to its piercing and original points encouraged him to write ‘John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs’. Do we need another Beatles book? We do if it’s this one! It’s exceptionally good and highly recommended. The conventional wisdom for decades was that John was the tormented, anti-establishment genius and Paul the effortlessly tune-churning, bourgeois poser. Ian’s book points up that their deep devotion to each other and telepathic, close relationship was the root of the supernatural partnership that made those songs possible. The two of them were, as he puts it, “the bubble within the bubble – and the deeper you get, the more mysterious the story becomes.” He talks to us here about … Lees meer

   … their powerplays and their underlying rivalries for the leadership of the group.

   … why the Beatles were in another league - “like Shakespeare versus Johnson or Marlowe”.

   … how a songwriting duo where both wrote words and music gave them an extraordinary advantage.

   … the writing of Yesterday and John’s fear that Paul might no longer need the group and leave.

   … Paul’s discovery of his “superpowers” between ‘64 and ’66.

   … how current groups now have “intimacy councillors” and in any other band the unmanageable Lennon would have been ejected.

   … In My Life, Hey Jude and other songs they wrote about each other.

   … how there was “an element of their fathers about them, of stiff upper lip” and displays of physical affection were rare.

   … Paul as “the omnivorous culture-vore” in avant garde London while John was horizontal in suburbia.

   … why Paul’s pace and creativity must have been psychologically punishing for the others.

   … and how the emotional landscape shifted with the arrival of Yoko and Linda.

   Order Ian’s book here:

   https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Paul-Story-Beatles-decades/dp/0571376118

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyour…

4. The threat of AI, the appeal of Gene Hackman & the filthy glamour of Exile On Main St

   3 maart 2025 · 54 min

   Afspelen
   In which we pedal the conversational tandem uphill and down dale, like a rabbit through the pea-vine or a turkey through the corn, stopping for moments of reflection which include … Lees meer

   … “If someone wants to steal your music, it means your music’s worth stealing.”

   … cats, birdsong: spot the ‘silent track’ by Kate Bush.

   … when Gene Hackman smiles, be very afraid.

   … what was written on Walter Matthau’s funeral card.

   … “Home-Taping Is Killing Music!” and other threats that failed to sink the business.

   … double albums: never mind the quality, feel the width.

   … how Exile On Main St became a symbol of peak-Stones grimy decadence.

   … Hunter Davies, Mark Lewisohn, Ian Leslie, Richard DiLello?: the best Beatles book ever written?

   … “is genius worth the collateral damage?”: homelife in Frank Zappa’s house.

   … things we never say on the Word podcast.

   … when rock critics get it wrong.

   Plus birthday guest Nick Foreman flies the flag for Hunter Davies.

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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5. Graham Fellows, “the comedy of the underdog” and inventing John Shuttleworth and Jilted John

   28 februari 2025 · 26 min

   Afspelen
   We first saw Graham Fellows as Jilted John on Top of the Pops in 1978 and we’ve followed his characters ever since, especially drawn to the keyboard-prodding, car-coated John Shuttleworth and his deathless pop anthems ‘Pigeons In Flight’, ‘Up And Down Like A Bride’s Nightie’ and ‘I Can’t Go Back To Savoury Now’. Graham talks here about how and why he created them (and rock media studies lecturer Brian Appleton) and his new book ‘John Shuttleworth Takes The Biscuit’, along with … the allure of romantic punk rock (Patrik Fitzgerald, Buzzcocks, the Undertones), Sheffield mouse-breeders, comic melancholy, whether Northern humour is funnier than Southern, kissing Debbie Harry for a publicity shot, the advice his father gave him and the finer details of the Shuttleworth live experience. Lees meer

   Order 'John Shuttleworth Takes The Biscuit' here:

   https://www.amazon.co.uk/John-Shuttleworth-Takes-Biscuit-Selection/dp/1915841305

   John Shuttleworth tour dates:

   https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/john-shuttleworth

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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6. Eternally cool rock stars, the Bond takeover and remembering Rick Buckler

   24 februari 2025 · 58 min

   Afspelen
   As sinister autocrats stroke Persian cats in shark-pooled underground bunkers, their bony fingers reaching for the nuclear button, we shake another Vodka Martini and reflect on the week’s events, among them … Lees meer

   … Amazon buys Bond: but isn’t the essence of 007 its droll and unimpressible Britishness?

   … and haven’t the lunatics taken over the asylum? Can you still invent unhinged fantasy villains with real life versions in the Kremlin and White House?

   … why a Jam reunion would never have worked.

   … when did ‘cool’ change from meaning exotic and unconventional to being just like everyone else? And why do we picture the concept of ‘cool’ in black and white?

   … in stout defence of the pilloried record reviewer!

   … why the Olympics was payday for Justine Frischmann.

   ... when Johnny Cash was on the Muppet Show and was photographed with Richard Nixon.

   … how come no-one complains about old online reviews but they do if they were physically printed?

   … how Lonnie Donegan made a fortune from Nights In White Satin.

   … hurrah for the silencing of the Pedicab boombox!

   … newspaper sellers, milkmen, shifty ‘hot goods’ vendors: whatever happened to the street cries of London?

   … plus birthday guest Paul Monaghan and rock stars who were architects – Art Garfunkel, Ice Cube, Pete Briquette, Chris Lowe, Ralf Hutter …– and teaching Damon Albarn and Justine Frischmann.

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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7. Justin Hayward – ‘60s package tours, lost profits & the highpoint of the Moody Blues

   20 februari 2025 · 29 min

   Afspelen
   Nights In White Satin - 260 million streams on Spotify - is still the central plank in the set Justin Hayward’s touring in October. He talks to us here about the first shows he ever saw and played, the ballroom circuit of the mid-’60s remembered in particularly vivid detail and involving the odd burst of song - “My kind of town, Great Yarmouth is …!”. Along with … Lees meer

   … the appeal of “a Moody Blues crowd”.

   ... “Name Singer seeks guitar player”: the Melody Maker ad that got him into the Marty Wilde band, aged 17.

   … playing a summer season on the same bill as a water feature – aka the Waltzing Waters.

   … his early band All Things Bright and their Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Coasters setlist.

   … the “onerous” publishing deal he signed with Lonnie Donegan that siphoned off the profits of Nights In White Satin.

   … seeing Tommy Cooper at the Bournemouth Pavilion and the Barron Knights at the Locarno in Swindon.

   … “Terry the Pill” in Eric Burdon’s office.

   … toying with the idea of “a rock version of Dvorak”.

   … the uncertain fate of Nights In White Satin and the plugger who threatened to resign over it.

   … how Days Of Future Passed was the “Deramic Sound” demo record.

   … and the highpoint of the Moody Blues story and their Second Coming.

   Justin Hayward tickets here: https://justinhayward.com/pages/current-tour-dates

   https://justinhayward.com/

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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8. Your guided tour of David Bowie’s London with Paul Gorman’s stories about its key locations

   18 februari 2025 · 55 min

   Afspelen
   No musician is more closely associated with London or left more footprints than Bowie, and you can trace its influence on his life and work (and vice versa) through a series of landmarks from the suburbs to the centre. Author and curator Paul Gorman has just published an annotated street-map – David Bowie’s London - listing the places that played a formative role in his world and music, the places he rehearsed, performed, filmed and recorded, the homes of friends and managers, his schools and the addresses where he lived, worked and was photographed, made connections, bought clothes and generally raised the temperature. We talk here about many of those old haunts and the stories attached to them, which include… Lees meer

   … mysterious manager Ralph Horton who got him to change his name to Bowie and then vanished from the face of the earth.

   … the fate of Heddon Street, home of K-West and the Ziggy phone-box.

   … Marc Bolan refusing to let him sing at an all-night benefit at Middle Earth.

   … “the Fairy Godmother of the New Romantics” at the WAG Club.

   … when Lionel Bart came to Haddon Hall.

   … Bowie and Steve Marriott auditioning for the Lower Third.

   … how he levered his way into a Fabulous magazine fashion shoot.

   … “the end of the age of Showbiz”: performing Chim Chim Cher-ee at the Marquee when at a crossroads between rock and roll and cabaret.

   … the magical piano at the Trident Studios.

   … a chance encounter with the otherworldly Vince Taylor whose ‘UFO map’ helped inspire the concept of Ziggy Stardust.

   … the legend of Mr Fish, creator of the man-dress on the cover of The Man Who Sold The World.

   … the days when people had a white Rolls Royce and matching Alsatian – and “the Great Sarong Scare of the ‘90s”.

   … and various fringe figures including his art teacher Owen Frampton, Konrads agents Bob Knight and Eric Easton, muse and heartbreaker Hermione Farthingale, producers Shel Talmy and Tony Hatch (“the original Mr Nasty from Opportunity Knocks”) and slum landlord and r…

9. Eddi Reader - busking, singing radio jingles and “men you put on the shoulder-pads for”

   18 februari 2025 · 40 min

   Afspelen
   We first saw Eddi Reader singing with the Gang Of Four on Whistle Test in 1982. This eventful pod traces her story from seven kids in a two-bedroom council flat (“me in the toilet with a guitar singing Your Cheating Heart”), to the Scottish folk clubs, busking with circus acrobats on the Left Bank, to radio jingles, life as a backing singer and the rapid rise of Fairground Attraction who reformed last year, 34 years after they split in 1990. It's highly entertaining from the kick-off, not least …. Lees meer

   … snogging the Earl of Moray’s son during Dylan at Blackbushe.

   … the jingles she sang on ‘80s radio ads.

   … what she learnt from Annie Lennox when touring with Eurythmics.

   … backing singer stage-wear etiquette.

   … performing Love Me Tender aged eight in the school classroom.

   … singing Three Drunken Maidens and Lord Franklin at the Irvine Folk Club, over the road from Amanda’s Wet T-Shirt Night.

   … busking in Paris and the songs that pulled the most money (eg Tupelo Honey and All Along the Watchtower).

   … “men you put on the shoulder-pads for.”

   … what Billy Bragg called “a civilian”.

   … Chou Pahrot, Cado Belle, Café Jacques, Stone the Crows and other great lost Scottish bands.

   … Hamish Imlach’s advice about how to project onstage.

   … how to use a pencil as a pop-shield.

   … and her Grandad “who loved his wife so much he nearly told her”.

   Eddi Reader tickets here: https://eddireader.co.uk/gigs/

   Fairground Attraction’s Beautiful Happening album: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beautiful-Happening-Fairground-Attraction/dp/B0CZ7NMJYV

   https://eddireader.co.uk/

   Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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

    17 februari 2025 · 46 min

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

    … that Drake v Kendrick Lamar beef in full!

    … was Bowie only as good as his collaborators?

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

    …… seeing the Jam at the Hope & Anchor.

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

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

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

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

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

    … the gripes of Taylor Swift.

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

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

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

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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11. Bob Marley in London, Chappell Roan’s outburst & records that sound best in the dark

    10 februari 2025 · 45 min

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

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

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

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

    … Beyonce? Best Country album? You sure?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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12. The rise of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars through the eyes of Woody Woodmansey

    6 februari 2025 · 37 min

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    … Yorkshire to London and the cultural collisions involved.

    … what Bowie realised was “the missing ingredient”.

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

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

    Order Holy Holy tickets here:

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

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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13. So Long, Marianne Faithfull plus the Shipping Forecast as read by Nick Cave

    4 februari 2025 · 54 min

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

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

    ... music that only works played loud.

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

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

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

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

    … which is musically more significant: punk or disco?

    … Tom Waits reading the weather forecast.

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

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

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

    … do slogans last longer than music?

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

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

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

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

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

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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14. Did Britain invent the rock band? - plus our new laws about music & Garth Hudson RIP

    30 januari 2025 · 37 min

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

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

    … how Glyn Johns invented the sound of the Eagles.

    … Carrie Underwood’s Inauguration catastrophe.

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

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

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

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

    … how the Band hooked up with Dylan.

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

    … can any song called Visions ever be any good?

    … why there should be more Band tribute acts.

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

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

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

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

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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15. Howard Jones has ‘the best job in the world’

    28 januari 2025 · 21 min

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

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

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

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

    … rough treatment from the British “pundits”.

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

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

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

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

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

    Howard Jones tour dates here:

    http://howardjones.com/

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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16. Andy Fairweather Low’s teenage psychedelic stardom

    23 januari 2025 · 28 min

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

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

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

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

    … getting Otis Redding’s autograph.

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

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

    … buying magical soul singles at Spillers in Cardiff.

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

    … what people loved about Wide-Eyed And Legless.

    … recording 50 Words For Snow with Kate Bush.

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

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

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

    Andy Fairweather Low tour dates:

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

    Order Andy’s The Invisible Bluesman album here:

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

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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

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

    20 januari 2025 · 50 min

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

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

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

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

    … Melania Trump’s monstrous payday.

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

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

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

    … the three-word question all interviewers need.

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

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

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18. The unstoppable Francis Rossi – open the fridge door and he’ll do 30 minutes

    18 januari 2025 · 33 min

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

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

    Order tickets here:

    https://www.francisrossi.com/tour

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19. Graham Nash beat the Beatles in a talent contest

    14 januari 2025 · 13 min

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Order Graham Nash tickets here:

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

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20. The Dylan biopic, Sam & Dave and why 2025 is the most important year in our lives.

    13 januari 2025 · 46 min

    Afspelen
    Though you might hear laughing, spinning, swinging madly across the sun, it is in fact just two old lags reviewing the current events, which this week include … Lees meer

    … the made-up scene in A Complete Unknown which Dylan apparently insisted was included.

    … the Day of the Locust: do the LA fires spell the end of the Hollywood Dream?

    … why does no-one write songs about world events anymore?

    … the unwelcome return of AJ Weberman.

    … can you date records made between 2000 and 2025?

    … Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, the Stax horns, Isaac Hayes and David Porter and their purple patch from ‘65-‘68.

    … Led Zeppelin’s five song-stealing court cases – but hadn’t what they stole been stolen in the first place?

    … why most biopics would be better as a six-part TV series.

    … “where there’s a hit there’s a writ”.

    … plus birthday guest John Innes and the best and worst bands names – from Roxy Music to Prefab Sprout.

    Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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21. Johnnie Walker, pop’s golden year and what’s wrecking rock documentaries.

    5 januari 2025 · 37 min

    Afspelen
    It’s perishing cold in our frostbitten London HQ but we warmed our toes around a blazing conversational fire and roasted the following chestnuts … Lees meer

    … “the job of pop records is to be better than the year before”.

    … the real reason new music tends to sound the same.

    … Johnnie Walker – “his voice was his instrument”.

    … The Kinks, The Shangri-Las, the Beach Boys, the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Righteous Brothers and the relentless change and variety of “the annus mirabilis” of the pop single.

    … “Netflix rock documentaries are just there to stop the male member of the family cancelling their subscription”.

    … the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man, a cornerstone of psychedelia and indie rock.

    … the drum sound that “kicked open the door to your mind”.

    … when novelty was 70 per cent of the appeal.

    … the key moment in the career of Peter Waters Dingley was the day he changed his name.

    … making records defensively.

    … the only current match for the thrill and daily drama of the mid-‘60s pop charts is the Premiere League.

    … plus a Lego record-player and birthday guest Andrew Slattery.

    Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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22. How Dylan and Leonard Cohen punctured the Summer Of Love plus the birth of blockbuster album

    31 december 2024 · 45 min

    Afspelen
    Among the walnut shells, wrapping paper, dried tangerine peel and broken toys beneath the Christmas Tree Of News we found a few unopened presents, among them … Lees meer

    … Marine Homicide Unit solving murders in Scottish waters or former rock star dumping toxic waste? A crime drama Stackwaddy special.

    … Roy Bittan, Duke Ellington: how musical “professors” date back to ragtime.

    …’Suzanne’ and the other three songs Leonard Cohen gave away.

    … Mary Martin, unsung connector and catalyst of folk-rock.

    … how the spare, monochrome simplicity of John Wesley Harding flew against the prevailing wind of Disraeli Gears, Forever Changes and Magical Mystery Tour.

    … “I’d rather be dead than wet my bed”.

    … the invention of the “blockbuster album”.

    … she’s only human: what Judy Collins thought when she met Leonard Cohen.

    … Crowded House, John Fogerty, Ry Cooder, Ian Broudie, Patti Smith … when did having your kids in your band become almost compulsory?

    … producer Richard Perry’s journey from Beefheart to the “surrealistic vaudeville” of Tiny Tim to the pure genius of ‘You’re So Vain’.

    Plus a rare moment - something David Hepworth doesn’t know! - and birthday guest Sandra Austin.

    Tickets for Word In Your Ear live here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bowie-in-london-and-hollywood-tickets-1118845138929?aff=oddtdtcreator

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23. Why we have enough Christmas hits plus the greatest songs about money

    23 december 2024 · 40 min

    Afspelen
    Deck the halls with beers and Stoli! The nutcracker of scrutiny was applied to this week’s noisettes of news and the following discussed over a glass of port … Lees meer

    ... are a lot of new song catalogues just blogs set to music?

    … can any actor be convincing playing someone really famous?

    … Robbie Williams’ Better Man: it’s the way forward! Who can his CGI’s monkey play next?

    … why no-one writes songs with opinions anymore.

    … Lola Young’s ‘charming’ press release.

    ... when Elvis met Nixon (and was “crackling with drugs”).

    … why we miss the one pound note!

    … Dickens, Bing Crosby and why the concept of Christmas is rooted in the past.

    … is part of the joy of Powerpop that it’s doomed to commercial failure? Big Star, the Shoes – perfect; Blondie – too successful!

    … St James Infirmary, I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive, Stormy Monday – and other great songs about money - ‘These shabby shoes I'm wearing all the time/ Is full of holes and nails and brother if I stepped on a worn out dime/ I bet a nickel I could tell you if it was heads or tails’.

    … the return of “a bankroll big enough to choke a donkey”.

    … plus Hank Williams, Brenda Lee, Tom Waits and birthday guest Kevin Walsh wonders ‘what’s the classic Powerpop look and sound and who are its standard-bearers?’

    Happy Christmas, all! … from us and ‘Bob Dylan’:

    https://x.com/FallonTonight/status/1597460887446900736?lang=en

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24. Bill Bailey celebrates “the things that make us human”.

    21 december 2024 · 30 min

    Afspelen
    The tremendous Bill Bailey is staging “a magical, musical mystery tour of the mind, along with other pressing matters” for 42 nights in London from December 28, a celebration of what makes us human in an age threatened by AI. There'll be “a laser harp”. There’ll be electronic drum balls played by audience members. There'll be extracts from Kraftwerk’s lost album of children’s songs. He talks to Mark here about the first live entertainment he ever saw and first shows he played himself, which happily involves … Lees meer

    … “a lightbulb moment”, James Robertson Justice breaking the fourth wall, the genius of Les Dawson’s deadpan piano playing, OMD, the Cure, the Banshees, how TikTok changed song writing, Jean-Jacques Burnel whacking a skinhead with his bass, A Flock of Seagulls, the Undertones, seeing John Hegley’s mandolin-driven comedy act and thinking “I could do that”, Victor Borge and the invention of the disco bass line by a 17th century German composer.

    Order tickets for Bill Bailey’s Thoughtifier show here:

    https://www.billbailey.co.uk/live

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25. How Al Stewart struck gold, the folk boom and a flat-share with Paul Simon

    19 december 2024 · 40 min

    Afspelen
    The 17 year-old Al Stewart played electric guitar in a dance band in Bournemouth in 1963. When he borrowed an acoustic and sang Masters Of War in the break, he heard the sweet sound of applause. The next night he played three Dylan songs and sensed which way the wind was blowing. He talks here about moving to London, playing at Bunjies and becoming the compere at Les Cousins as his now 60-year career began to lift off. And about his Farewell Tour which kicks off in the UK in October 2025, a combination of songs and story-telling coloured by two great heroes, Peter Ustinov and Alistair Cooke. Lees meer

    This cracking exchange steers by way of Bert Jansch, Bob Dylan, Helen of Troy, Stalin, Hitler and the Battle of Moscow, the Weeley Festival of 1971, the three songs he always plays, the young Cat Stevens and what he told Paul Simon he should do with the just-composed Homeward Bound.

    Order Al Stewart tickets here:

    https://www.ents24.com/uk/tour-dates/al-stewart

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26. ‘Mystique is dead’: what Gary Kemp learnt in 40 years of making and selling records

    18 december 2024 · 50 min

    Afspelen
    Gary Kemp has been posting reels of his recent visits to old haunts in Soho where he and his early bands used to rehearse, this in the run-up to releasing a third solo album, ‘This Destination’, in January. We talk to him here about how records were made and promoted in the ‘80s and how radically that’s changed today. Which includes … Lees meer

    … “all media is now about getting and keeping people’s attention”.

    … the first time he heard one of his songs on the radio.

    … Bowie, Bolan, Queen and Elton John at Trident Studios.

    … how bands copy the groove of a track.

    … technology and the curse of too much choice.

    … why TikTok’s changed the way songs are written.

    … how the first Spandau Ballet album was made.

    … the phone call from Richard Hawley that kick-started a song.

    … the craft of 10cc and Steely Dan and why it doesn’t work on 2024 radio.

    … the male attitude to bands who are largely followed by women.

    … cunning ways to infiltrate the NME in the early ‘80s.

    … plus Robert Elms in jodhpurs and “fly dentists” in the Saucerful Of Secrets audience.

    Pre-order This Destination here:

    https://lnk.to/GaryKempThisDestination

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27. The afterlife of Hallelujah and the day David sold his old singles

    17 december 2024 · 52 min

    Afspelen
    We ran our patent heat-sensing Scrutiniser®️ over the week’s news and here’s what set the bells off … Lees meer

    … are buskers now more expensive live entertainment than Taylor Swift?

    … a Dickensian oik in Chapel Market and other riddles of modern etiquette.

    … ‘Holiness and horniness’: how Hallelujah rebooted Leonard Cohen and became a one-song industry.

    … the teenage self-promotional flair of Robert Plant and Marc Bolan.

    … are singles a social experience and albums a solitary one?

    … “Would you like a fruit gum?”: the 1950s in a single phrase.

    … highly recommended: Wendy Waldman, Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band and ‘The Room’ by Fabiano do Nascimento.

    … rock snobs’ alarm about the revelations of their Spotify Wrapped.

    … why the Sherman Brothers are as enduring as Lennon-McCartney.

    … Hallelujah cover versions - from kd lang and Rufus Wainwright to Johnny Mathis and the Osmonds.

    ... how King David removed ‘love rival’ Uriah the Hittite.

    … reconnecting with records you haven’t heard for 40 years.

    … whatever happened to She Sherriff?!

    … Loudon Wainwright’s early inference about the YMCA.

    … plus Lindsey Buckingham, Hugh Lloyd, Tony Hancock and fond memories of “stolen cheese guy”.

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28. The greatest sax solo, YMCA, musical one-night stands and Tom Hanks’ wise advice

    9 december 2024 · 41 min

    Afspelen
    Paddling the three-man conversational kayak across the rock and roll rapids this week involved … Lees meer

    … Olive Mess, Candied Yams, Gorilla Biscuits …? Challenging indie act or seasonal vegan recipe?

    … the amount YMCA earned through Donald Trump and why the man who wrote it is complaining.

    … Tom Hanks’ valuable words of wisdom.

    … Neil Tennant’s favourite bridge in a pop song (and it’s not We Can Work It Out or I Will).

    … musicians and the modern world of the “one-night stand” circuit.

    … Baker Street, Money, Careless Whisper, Giant Steps, Jungleland … and the sax solo that outranks them all.

    … the genius of Henry Mancini and the powerful DNA of film music.

    … the lost world of small ads – eg this pasted by Roxy Music: “The perfect guitarist for avant rock group: original, creative, adaptable, melodic, fast, slow, elegant, witty, scary, stable, tricky. Quality musicians only.”

    … Beatles ’64 - “randomly assembled and directionless”, a listener declares!

    Here’s Plas Johnson playing the Pink Panther theme with Henry Mancini:

    https://youtu.be/jBupII3LH_Q?si=brjVwsPlmcnii1Md

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29. How ‘60s pop was sold and the first news stories launching the hits

    8 december 2024 · 45 min

    Afspelen
    Joni Mitchell called it “stoking the star-maker machinery behind the popular song”. Every record sent out for review used to come with a press release knocked together by an over-excited PR before terms like “psychedelia” or “prog” had been invented. They were scanned once for the odd fact or quote and usually chucked in the bin. Richard Morton Jack has tracked down scores of these handouts from 1962-1972, and the news stories they sparked, and published them in the sumptuous ‘Pressing News’, a fascinating window into how acts were sold in the days when pop stars liked rump steak, sports cars and “sincere people” but disliked “bad music, traffic wardens and people who say I look like a girl”. We leaf through his book here and talk about …. Lees meer

    ... the ingenuity of '60s PRs and why Marc Bolan was a turning point.

    … Robert Plant and David Bowie’s genius for self-promotion.

    … the pop hopeful whose favourite tipple was tooth-rotting, crystal-based ‘Creamola Foam’.

    … how PRs sold rebels and outsiders.

    … a £900 Olivia Newton-John press release.

    … Beta Male pin-ups Nick Drake and Scott Walker.

    … confected outrage over the Small Faces’ Lord’s Prayer.

    … Joe Cocker, eternally a gas-fitter from Sheffield with “a face like the back of a Sheffield Corporation bus”.

    … mysterious pop acts that never made it like the Virgin Sleep, the Accent, Bread Love & Dreams, Fresh Maggots and the Tickle whose songs were supposedly chosen by computer.

    .. the Kinks – “four art students who dress like characters from Dickens”.

    … the promotion of pre-psychedelia Pink Floyd – “a lyrical atmosphere whose words express a feeling rather than tell a story.”

    … “the Zombies have 50 GCSE passes between them!” and other press release fiction trotted out in the papers.

    … the mass 1966 adoption of the kaftan and Charlie Chan moustache.

    Order copies of Pressing News here:

    https://lansdownebooks.com/products/pressing-news

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30. The Beatles ’64 movie - one of us loves it, the other doesn’t. Plus Rod’s tweets & Trump’s guitars

    2 december 2024 · 49 min

    Afspelen
    Reversing into tomorrow! This week’s news events given a vigorous once-over include … Lees meer

    … what will a Trump guitar be worth in 30 years’ time?

    … the average age of a Glastonbury goer and how it sells its TV coverage.

    … “the Beatles in America was like Cortez arriving in South America, the clash of two civilizations. How did this film manage to balls the story up so catastrophically?”

    … Leonard Bernstein’s daughter’s dreams about George Harrison and the Fabs v the all-American alpha male.

    … who should be next for a rock and roll blue plaque?

    … the Beatles’ Ed Sullivan support act who became almost as famous as they did.

    … why Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater is the most-streamed ‘60s track.

    … Hendrix and the Isley brothers’ night in watching telly.

    … and Rod Stewart’s genius for generating publicity.

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31. How R.E.M. changed the game and why there’ll never be another band like them

    1 december 2024 · 36 min

    Afspelen
    R.E.M. considered themselves missionaries against the prevailing pop culture – no solos, no old-school stagecraft, no printed lyrics, no lip-syncing, no hard-sell videos, no obvious leader – and mapped out a whole new route to international success. Peter Ames Carlin, whose books include biographies of Springsteen, Brian Wilson and Paul Simon, talks to us here about ‘The Name of this Band is R.E.M.’, what they pioneered and how it rearranged the rock and roll furniture. Which involves … Lees meer

    … why their Letterman Show was a statement of intent.

    … “rather than bending to the mainstream, they did what they wanted ‘til the mainstream bent to them.”

    … where you can see “the R.E.M. model” - from Sleater-Kinney to Taylor Swift.

    … when ‘Mike Stipe’ became Michael.

    … Stipe’s first TV appearance, dressed as Frank-N-Furter at a Rocky Horror Show screening.

    … why rock critics connected with them.

    … the strategies they share with U2, Radiohead and Coldplay.

    … “Springsteen = Elvis + Dylan”.

    … what was in the water in Athens, Georgia, that produced such unconventional

    acts - R.E.M., the B-52’s, Pylon, Love Tractor.

    … their ‘straight’ but supportive parents – Stipe’s dad in the military, Mills’ dad a marine helicopter pilot.

    … how R.E.M. “channelled popular culture”.

    … their pioneering approach to record deals, royalties, videos, mixing and song-writing.

    … and which of them most wants a reunion.

    Order ‘The Name Of This Band Is R.E.M.’ here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-This-Band-M-Biography/dp/0385546947

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32. Fairport, Nick Drake, Traffic and why Island Records was a sumptuous visual delight

    29 november 2024 · 33 min

    Afspelen
    Neil Storey worked in the Island press office in the ‘70s and ‘80s and has set out on mammoth undertaking, to compile a series of gorgeous, album-sleeve-sized books telling the story of virtually every record the label released in its pioneering history and talking to all involved - musicians, producers, designers, photographers, label staff – and collecting old music press ads and ephemera from the time. This latest edition, ‘the Island Book Of Records 1969-1970’, has transported us back to our teenage selves when albums by Fairport, Nick Drake, Jethro Tull, Free, King Crimson etc were unmissable. We talked to Neil at his home in France which happily involved … Lees meer

    … the extraordinary story of the Unhalfbricking album shoot.

    … when album sleeves were assembled by hand.

    … how Island pioneered the ‘underground’ aesthetic and the cheap sampler album.

    … the mystery of Ian Anderson’s 11 fingers.

    … the “worst sleeve” in the label’s history (which involved a trip to the butchers).

    .. the day the Island roster met in Hyde Park at six in the morning.

    ... the curious marketing of Nick Drake – “who doesn’t have a telephone and will disappear for four days at a time”.

    … and Roxy Music, Sparks, Head Hands & Feet and what else to expect in Volume 3.

    Order the Island Book Of Records Volume 2 here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Island-Book-Records-II-1969-70/dp/1526182246

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33. Danny Baker - the panjandrum of unstoppable anecdote with a taste of his upcoming tour

    27 november 2024 · 51 min

    Afspelen
    Danny Baker, the act you’ve known for all these years, is kicking his legs up again in 2025 on a thundering new theatre tour, ‘Aye Aye! Ahoy Hoy!’ “Dead men tell no tales,” he points out, “so we might might as well get ‘em all told now.” This will be another barnstorming one-man circus - as, naturally, is this barrelling conversation with the two of us which collides with the following … Lees meer

    … being shot, Welsh cake, an olive green Humber, goldfish, when videos were the size of a loaf of bread, why half his Maidstone audience got up and left, stolen gear being hustled over Waterloo Bridge, bad things done by Rod Stewart and Britt Ekland, ELP, the Average White Band, Max Miller, Kenneth Williams’ loathing for Michael Aspel, when records become like furniture, getting £4k for a Ziggy Stardust white label, why he doesn’t miss the 14,000 albums he sold, and the record that came out the same day as Sgt Pepper and Bowie’s first album but is better than both.

    The podcast includes an extract from Ronnie Barker’s “A Pint Of Old And Filthy” and Terry Thomas reading PG Wodehouse.

    Order tickets for Danny’s 2025 tour here:

    https://www.dannybakerstore.com/

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34. The Band Aid recording, the birth of the tape loop and the power of the movie theme tune

    25 november 2024 · 58 min

    Afspelen
    This week’s events piled into a pipe and enthusiastically smoked include … Lees meer

    … our memories of being at the Band Aid recording in Sarm studios, November 25 1984.

    … why it was the last dance of the mass media and why nothing could have the same impact now.

    … the “household name” that made all the difference.

    … the real reason Bob Geldof could be involved.

    … James Bond, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Spaghetti Westerns … how music is the real DNA of film franchises, the fingerprint that connects you with the original.

    … why should a teenager know what a radio is?

    … “Live vivid! Delete ordinary! Break moulds! Copy nothing!” The tortuous rebranding of Jaguar.

    … what the BBC spends 95 per cent of its time doing.

    … how Bee Gees’ drummer Dennis Byron unwittingly invented the tape loop.

    … the appeal of inconvenient technology.

    … David’s second Deep ‘70s compilation, “a dream fulfilment” – Americana, Skinny Tie music, cover versions, the outer limits of Island Records.

    … plus birthday guest Mike Sketch on discovering music late in life (Dylan, Tom Waits etc).

    David’s ‘More Deep 70s’ 4-CD compilation is available for pre-order now:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Hepworths-More-Deep-Misunderstood/dp/B0DCGGQDNK

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35. How Toyah & Robert’s kitchen show became an Xmas rock’n’roll ding-dong

    23 november 2024 · 24 min

    Afspelen
    One of our rays of sunshine in the dark days of Lockdown was Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch, fizzing clips of the two of them in their Dorset kitchen, him playing off-brand rock and roll, her singing in extravagant finery, occasionally on an exercise bike. Their version of Metallica’s Enter Sandman got 8.6m views alone. One time they were dressed as bees, another re-staging Swan Lake wearing tutus. This has now flowered into an all-the-trimmings Christmas show with a full rock band touring in December. They look back here at how it started and where it’s ended up, which includes … Lees meer

    … the teenage Fripp doing the twist at the Cellar Club, Poole.

    … Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood’s reaction when Robert booed him on set.

    … when the “elite newspapers” declared their kitchen shows were “genius”.

    … where their two different audiences meet.

    … plans for an upcoming Fripp memoir and his 1981 King Crimson diary.

    … things you find in old boxes in the attic.

    … how the grumpier end of King Crimson’s supporters regard the “other Robert Fripp”.

    … what Tony Iommi and Robert Plant thought of their lockdown clips.

    … and what you can expect from their Christmas Party show – which involves Bowie, Blondie, Neil Young, Slade, Metallica and an inflatable penguin.

    Toyah and Robert’s Christmas Party tickets here:

    https://toyahwillcox.com/gigs/

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

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36. John Lydon on the genius of Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper and the fine art of Spoken Word

    20 november 2024 · 37 min

    Afspelen
    John Lydon is among us in 2025 - with Public Image in May and on his Spoken Word tour in September. Entertainment is guaranteed, as it is in this podcast with Mark where he considers … Norman Wisdom, Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper and the “sadness in all comedians”, stage fright, the day his dad threw him out of the house, why PiL is like opera, Ray Davies, Bryan Ferry, the “crippled emotions” of youth, why people open their hearts to him, the ghost of Johnny Rotten in Gladiator 11, the lost world of conversation in pubs, and missing his wife, best friend Rambo and Sid Vicious. Lees meer

    Order tickets for his spoken word tour here:

    https://www.johnlydon.com/tour-dates/

    PiL tickets here:

    https://www.ticketmaster.com/public-image-limited-tickets/artist/241

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37. The poshest pop star ever, music in Xmas ads and song lyrics we can still recite

    18 november 2024 · 43 min

    Afspelen
    In which we feed the week’s events through our heat-seeking Fun-Filter®️ to see what makes the bell ring. Which includes … Lees meer

    … Richard Ashcroft in the new John Lewis Christmas ad.

    … U2 v Coldplay, the Beatles v Pink Floyd – rock bands and the “diploma divide”.

    … why can we still recite entire song lyrics we learnt when teenagers but can’t remember the shopping list we wrote this morning?

    … “they couldn’t find their backside with the flashlight”.

    … the new form of tribute group: the Fall, Thin Lizzy and Talk Talk and the bands made up of ex-members who are recording their ‘new music’.

    … Elvis, Noel Coward, Churchill, Dylan, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Bowie, the Stones, Frank Sinatra … who should Craig Brown write about next?

    … the very few people more famous than Paul McCartney.

    … our search for the poshest pop star.

    … Beatles fans v the National Anthem.

    … is this the only podcast on God’s green earth to mention the Wars Of Spanish Succession?

    … and birthday guest Giles Fraser on Phil Manzanera, Neil Tennant, Clare Grogan, Midge Ure and other musicians with fabulous speaking voices.

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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38. Robert Hilburn on the lifetime achievement of Randy Newman

    13 november 2024 · 30 min

    Afspelen
    He’s written some of the darkest entries in the American songbook but became world famous with a sunny celebration of friendship on the soundtrack of “Toy Story”. Inbetween can be found a staggering range of songs dealing with everything from short people to Vladimir Putin, from performing bears to the Louisiana Flood., from ELO to the Great Nations Of Europe, all of which show up in this authoritative new biography from Robert Hilburn, for years the rock writer of the Los Angeles Times. Topics touched on in his chat with David Hepworth: Lees meer

    … when you called your book “A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country”, did you know it was coming out in Election week?

    … why Robert’s review of Elton John at the Troubadour in 1970 transformed the life of one piano player from Pinner while his review of Randy in the same same venue in the same year didn’t have the same effect on this local hero.

    … how Randy finds his inspiration by sitting in front of the TV with a big stack of hardback books.

    … what his famous uncles taught him and how he has spent a lifetime trying to follow their lead.

    … how he got his first break from Cilla Black, Alan Price and the British chart,

    … what he said when he finally got as Oscar after years of nominations.

    … why he can write quickly when commissioned but moves agonisingly slowly when relying on inspiration.

    … why he’s the only biographical subject to insist his children are interviewed.

    … what he thinks of Donald Trump.

    Order Robert’s book here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Few-Words-Defense-Our-Country/dp/1408720361

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39. Peter Perrett of the Only Ones – teenage life, a wondrous return and a 35-year lost weekend.

    12 november 2024 · 29 min

    Afspelen
    After many years of invisibility, Peter Perrett of the Only Ones is out, about and on tour again and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves … Lees meer

    … what time he goes to bed.

    … “he writes better lyrics than Elvis Costello and is prettier than Billy Idol”: why Nick Kent’s review was an insult.

    … seeing the Small Faces in 1966, the Floyd with Syd at Middle Earth, Dylan at the Isle of Wight, Fairport Convention, Geno Washington, Lou Reed in 1972 (“a hero”), Sex Pistols in 1975.

    … the Ally Pally Love-In in 1967 with Pink Floyd, the Animals, Julie Driscoll and Arthur Brown (“doing Alice Cooper five years before Alice Cooper”).

    … supporting Global Village Trucking Company at the Marquee in 1975 with Glenn Tilbrook and Jools Holland.

    … memories of Vivienne Westwood, the Bromley Contingent and leopardskin vinyl trousers.

    … the first gig he ever played, doing the Velvet Underground’s What Goes On with a four-string guitar at a college dance.

    … the tangled tale of Another Girl Another Planet.

    … “I never thought I’d retire at 28 and come back as a septuagenarian’.

    … the role reversal of being produced by your own son.

    … and how the Snow Station Vadsø festival in Norway – with Peter Buck, Lenny Kaye, Fritz Catlin and Mark Bedford – gave him the courage to go back on tour.

    Peter Perrett tour dates here:

    https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/peter-perrett-tickets/artist/5238432

    Order his new album The Cleansing here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cleansing-Peter-Perrett/dp/B0DB8VMBDL

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40. Does ‘celebrity endorsement’ still work? - and how Quincy Jones invented the blockbuster

    11 november 2024 · 50 min

    Afspelen
    Things this week that sent the needle into the red included … Lees meer

    … the last dance craze the whole world noticed.

    ... “Rock stars used to be anti-establishment. Now they ARE the establishment.”

    … artworks, flags, bespoke I-Ching Coins … would YOU pay £1,350 for a box set?

    … why Quincy Jones made records like a movie director.

    ... how Dylan’s Biograph and Springsteen’s live box started a gold rush.

    … “an unprecedented event in popular recording".

    … Hot Night, Starlight, Give Me Some Time, Lights Out and other working titles for Thriller.

    … “We’re here to save the record business!”

    … the speed of the Beatles: two years between Ed Sullivan and Tomorrow Never Knows; two years from the Cavern to Shea Stadium.

    Plus birthday guest Phil Hopwood: moments in rock history you’d like to have witnessed to see what really happened.

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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41. The genius of George Harrison and why he’s still underrated

    9 november 2024 · 40 min

    Afspelen
    The most streamed Beatles song – 700 million plays more than any other – is not by Lennon/McCartney but George who, as author Seth Rogovoy points out, is still widely considered “an economy-class Beatle” though his contributions were central to the success of their records. Seth’s new book ‘Within You Without You: Listening to George Harrison’ sets out to right this monstrous wrong! As does this conversation with the two of us which covers … Lees meer

    … did My Sweet Lord’s court case puncture his sense of ambition?

    … how he changed Taxman for American audiences.

    … the statement made by starting All Things Must Pass with a Dylan/Harrison composition.

    … how he was fleeced by not one but two managers - Allen Klein and Denis O’Brien.

    … what we learnt from watching ‘Get Back’.

    … Broadway ballads, Vaudeville, jazz and the solo on ‘Til There Was You.

    … remortgaging Friar Park for Life Of Brian and pushing for the Anthology “payday”.

    … his glorious spiritual/material contradiction – “the Pisces sign is two fish going in opposite directions”.

    … a social mobility that John and Paul both envied.

    … falling out of love with live performance.

    … the beliefs of his early ‘20s he sustained all his life.

    … and the staples of George Harrison’s Jukebox.

    Order Seth’s book here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Within-You-Without-Listening-Harrison/dp/019762782X

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42. Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds - his Year Zero moment, Imposter Syndrome and seeing the Beatles (aged 7)

    4 november 2024 · 31 min

    Afspelen
    Ian Broudie and the Lightning Seeds are about to set out on their 35th Anniversary Greatest Hits Tour – aka “beery parties”. He talks to us here about the first bands he ever saw and played in, which involves … Lees meer

    … memories of the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun.

    … the secret of seeming enigmatic: “Never finish your sentences …”

    … how Three Lions brought a whole new audience and the irony of a singer who didn’t front his biggest hit.

    … why the Ramones and Talking Heads made him sell his old records.

    … first requirement for success: “being able to make a fool of yourself”.

    … when Captain Beefheart forgot he was booked for an art show and painted all the pictures the night before.

    … how a part in a Ken Campbell play launched his career.

    … seeing the Beatles, aged seven – “Shut your eyes and put your fingers in your ears”.

    … when Eric’s in Mathew Street seemed the centre of the universe.

    … “for the first time ever I’m not suffering from Imposter Syndrome – I AM THE SINGER!”

    … Free, Pink Floyd, Elvis Costello, XTC, Big In Japan and the Sausages From Mars.

    … making records that are “an Andy Warhol pop-art splash of colour on a wall”.

    Lightning Seeds tickets here:

    https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/lightning-seeds-tickets/artist/735512

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43. Kraftwerk, Cream, Nirvana, savage reviews, fantasy girlfriends and a naked Nick Cave ‘plush doll’

    3 november 2024 · 48 min

    Afspelen
    Our crack pair of inquisitors tackle the week’s events and sift out the good, the bad and the riveting, which includes … Lees meer

    … whatever happened to savage reviews?

    … “For God’s sake, keep the robots out of music!”: the 50th birthday of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

    … a Naked Nick Cave Plush Doll (£24) and some Jonny Greenwood olive oil.

    … strange tales about the making of Disraeli Gears.

    … what keeps Kamala Harris awake at night.

    … the staggering bill at Murray the K’s ‘Music In The Fifth Dimension’ in 1967.

    … Teri Garr, Diane Keaton and other fantasy girlfriends.

    ... “Twas nought but an skellington covered in skin”.

    … rock stars never seen without shades.

    … and birthday guest Cathal Chu cooks up another 45 ways to leave your lover – ‘Give two weeks’ notice, Otis’.

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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44. Life with the Lennons, fame, friendship, the FBI and the Lost Weekend – by Elliot Mintz.

    30 oktober 2024 · 44 min

    Afspelen
    Elliot Mintz, then a West Coast radio presenter, met the Lennons in 1971, the start of a close, unique and extraordinary friendship and hours of late-night phone calls. And he’s finally written a book about it, We All Shine On: John, Yoko & Me, which records the isolated, complicated life they led imprisoned by their celebrity, at times joyous and outlandish, at others bleak and uncomfortably revealing. All bases covered here, among them … Lees meer

    … “his view of Paul changed with days and temperature – brotherly love, jealousy, discomfort …”

    … how they dealt with the FBI bugging their apartment.

    … being present at John and Paul’s eventual reunion and what might have happened if they’d picked up guitars.

    … how he heard the news of Lennon’s death.

    … booking hotels as ‘Fred and Ada Gherkin’.

    ... the Lost Weekend and Lennon reverting to his Hamburg days.

    … how it felt to sort and catalogue John’s possessions.

    … abandoned by his father, abandoning his son: Lennon going on holiday with Brian Epstein two weeks after the birth of Julian.

    … ordering in pizzas from across the road in New York’s most exclusive restaurants.

    … “all he could see onstage was McCartney’s face when they shared a microphone”.

    … John’s thoughts about the competition – Dylan, the Stones, McCartney.

    … “a friendship to the exclusion of all else”.

    Order Elliot’s book here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-All-Shine-extraordinary-friendship/dp/0857506072

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45. How Goth took over, farewell Phil Lesh and the curse of teenage stardom

    28 oktober 2024 · 52 min

    Afspelen
    Brushing aside the cobweb spray and luminous flashing skulls, we ring rock and roll’s doorbell in pursuit of both tricks and treats. Among which you’ll find … Lees meer

    … the gothification of entertainment … Harry Potter, Creedence Clearwater and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings.

    … Donald Trump dancing to Jeff Buckley.

    … why Phil Lesh was the heart and soul of the Grateful Dead.

    … John Cooper Clarke playing a 23,000-seater and the rise of Spoken Word.

    … Bah! Humbug! The full horror of Halloween and its infernal TV specials.

    … Allen Ginsberg’s International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in 1965.

    … Rihanna’s dietician, therapist, spiritual advisor and hospitality liaison manager.

    … the auditions for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

    … the curse of having everything you want.

    … John Lennon imprisoned in the Dakota – without the internet! And his mishandling of an Austin Maxi.

    … Helen Mirren’s thing about Kurt Cobain.

    … why Phil Lesh, John Entwistle, Jack Casady and Paul McCartney were a breed apart.

    … when Mark King’s father kicked him out of the family home.

    … plus Abraham Lincoln, Fields of the Nephilim, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Eraserhead, the Batcave and birthday guest Matthew Elliot wonders if anyone had greater love songs written about them than Rosanna Arquette (by Toto and Peter Gabriel)?

    Mama Tried by the Grateful Dead. Just LISTEN to Phil Lesh’s bass playing:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4gy0TBDfU

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46. When Mark King of Level 42 was the 11 year-old singing drummer in a novelty act

    25 oktober 2024 · 46 min

    Afspelen
    Mark King and Level 42 have just announced 2025 tour dates and he talks to us here about … Lees meer

    … the value of what you learn in covers bands from being ignored.

    … why being thrown out of home for being thrown out of school was the best thing that ever happened to him.

    … Level 42’s first gig, kicked off after four songs.

    … Chile, Turkey and other new markets on the “flatter world” tour circuit.

    ... supporting the Police, Tina Turner, Queen and Madonna in the ‘80s.

    … how John McLaughlin (from Doncaster) and Allan Holdsworth (Bradford) inspired other people “from far-flung places like us”.

    … Rockin’ Robin, Long-Haired Lover From Liverpool and playing three nights a week in an Isle of Wight novelty act, aged 11.

    … the onstage dynamic between Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.

    … the complications of having to book big venues two years in advance.

    … being the bassist in the Prince’s Trust house band backing Bowie and Mick Jagger.

    … Billy Cobham, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and “the genius” of Steve Winwood.

    Level 42s World Machine 40th Anniversary Tour here:

    https://www.level42.com/

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47. King Crimson, red hair dye and a singing Jack Russell: the boisterous memoir of Jakko Jakszyk

    22 oktober 2024 · 39 min

    Afspelen
    This is an extraordinary story on many levels – about the power and sanctuary of music, about what it took for bands to get noticed in the ‘70s, about how a teenager obsessed with King Crimson eventually joined the band and about the struggles of “a rabid Henry Cow fan trying to get on Top of the Pops”. Jakko Jakszyk is a fabulous storyteller, both in his memoir ‘Who’s the Boy With The Lovely Hair?’ and on this podcast with the two of us. Among the highlights … Lees meer

    … two things musicians need to know.

    … why the divisive appeal of music and comedy is so similar.

    … life in a band where “Stravinsky meets the Barron Knights”.

    … “Who’ll be the singing Jack Russell?” Doing voice-overs as a piece of toast and a baked potato with a Yorkshire accent.

    ... the quaint Englishness of Soft Machine, Caravan and King Crimson and why they were like “a holiday resort no-one knew about”.

    … why there are even more idiots in advertising than the music business.

    … the rigours of the Melody Maker Folk Rock Contest, aged 17, judged by Tommy Vance, Bob Harris and Brian May of Queen.

    … the militant wing of the Adrian Belew Fan Club.

    … Dave Robinson’s sage advice after telling him he was “unfashionably heterosexual”.

    ... why Robert Fripp is more Miles Davis than Frank Zappa and the longest audition in history.

    …the complications of the King Crimson reunion caused by one person who shall remain nameless – “though let’s call him Greg Lake”.

    … “two screaming lead guitars and a trumpet, what could possibly go wrong?”

    … and working with Pete Sinfield, Peter Hawkins, Sam Brown and Nigel Planer.

    Order Jakko’s book here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lovely-Unlikely-Memoir-Jakko-Jakszyk/dp/1838491864

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48. Obsessive fans, Dylan’s reading list and how Taylor Swift tickets are the new codeword for wealth

    21 oktober 2024 · 51 min

    Afspelen
    Applying our patent wheat-chaff separator to recent rock and roll events, we filter out the following … Lees meer

    … “They’ve got the guns but we got the numbers”: whatever happened to political songs?

    … the life of Libby Titus and the afterlife of Love Has No Pride.

    … when gigs become stalking with a musical component.

    … how Taylor Swift Tickets became the new currency.

    … the most disappointing album of all time (we know the answer).

    … who’s the Zeppo Marx of rock and roll?

    … the old music/football analogy revisited.

    … when fans think they own a band.

    … the New York Rock And Soul Revue that revived Steely Dan.

    … has any American star beguiled Britain more than Taylor Swift?

    … when Lennon failed to swing the vote.

    … does anyone convey loneliness better than Bonnie Raitt?

    … our own personal rock and roll fantasies – eg Dr John recycling and Bob Dylan in his Star Wars jim-jams.

    … plus birthday guest Phil Turner - Bill Berry, Gene Clarke, Vince Clarke and the irreplaceable magic ingredient of one band member.

    ROLLING STONE’S MOST DISAPPOINTING ALBUMS OF ALL TIME:

    https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/most-disappointing-albums-ever-1235111528/

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49. Britpop, its peaks and its spiritual godfather: a Golden Age rebooted by Miranda Sawyer

    17 oktober 2024 · 42 min

    Afspelen
    You’ll know Miranda Sawyer from the Observer and the radio and, possibly, from her days at Smash Hits and Select magazines that form the foundation of her new book, Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs, a time spent watching, interviewing and hanging out with the collection of misfits and outsiders fast becoming the last great musical movement this country ever saw. This pans in on the period between April 1993, Select’s ‘Yanks Go Home’ cover, and August 1997 when Oasis released Be Here Now. A ton of highlights, among them … Lees meer

    … why bands hated the term Britpop – and who invented it.

    … when your life in your 20s becomes history and period drama.

    … are Oasis conservative or just “classically Northern”?

    … why Britpop was the last hurrah of the traditional media.

    … the long slow burn of Jarvis Cocker and the rise of the Beta Male.

    … the impact of Select’s famous Union Jack ‘Yanks Go Home’ cover.

    … why Edwyn Collins was the Godfather of Indie (and Britpop) and the song that never stopped selling.

    … Ric Blaxill at Top of the Pops, Matthew Bannister at Radio One and other unsung architects of Britpop.

    … lava lamps, swirly rugs, space hoppers and the charity shop tat that replaced the matt black shiny ‘80s.

    … Jarvis v Jackson, Blur v Oasis and other great engines of the tabloid press.

    … “Manchester had the bands and the mythmakers (Tony Wilson, Paul Morley) …”

    … why the weekly music press was the Twitter of its time.

    … comparing Blur in ‘90s clubs to Wembley Stadium in 2023.

    … will Oasis be the last ‘household name’ band?

    … could Britpop have happened without the press?

    Order Miranda’s book here:

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Uncommon-People-Britpop-Beyond-Songs/dp/1399816896

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50. Zappa and Elvis as fathers (!), Billy Joel’s house sale and the curse of too much choice

    14 oktober 2024 · 44 min

    Afspelen
    Our record-breaking partnership faces a fresh set of spin bowlers on the rock and roll pitch but rifles a few shots over the pavilion roof, among them … Lees meer

    … the time Elvis let his daughter ride her pony through the house.

    … when Moon Zappa (10) found naked hippies making candles in the garden.

    … “Can you get that? It might be someone important.” The Queen when her mobile rang.

    … Billy Joel’s daily commute to work by helicopter.

    … John Peel, Elton John, Robert Christgau … who’s listened to the most music in the history of the planet?

    … “Choice is a tax, a penalty”: the faint sense of nausea you get from Netflix’ fathomless sense of abundance.

    … how Elvis became a hillbilly with an unlimited budget.

    … are ChatGPT’s music recommendations actually quite useful? We test the Beatles, Joni Mitchell and Miles Davis.

    … “what kind of a genius doesn’t have medical insurance?”

    … old WW2 movies v the new Netflix series? There’s only one winner …

    … plus Abba, Steampacket, Steeleye Span and Humble Pie: supergroups that worked.

    Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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