Word In Your Ear

There's a widely accepted view of the relationship between Elvis and his manager Tom Parker, the one sustained by the recent Baz Luhrmann movie, but a new and fascinating archive of unseen letters makes you see it differently: it was warmer, deeper and infinitely more complicated. Peter Guralnick – rock book royalty! - met Parker towards the end of his life and has just published ‘The Colonel And The King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley and the Partnership That Rocked The World'. He talks to us here about separating the myth from reality which touches on … ... overturning the conventional wisdom “that Elvis was the puppet, Sam Phillips the genius and Tom Parker the manipulator”. ... how theirs was “a partnership of equals” – though Elvis was in charge, not the Colonel. … how Presley's “security risk” – carrying guns and drugs across borders – was a factor in his refusal to accept world tour offers. … two men powerfully motivated by money – Elvis liked spending it, Parker liked losing it. … humour, charisma, intelligence, a force of nature: how Parker's letters paint a different picture. … “he was an entirely self-invented man. And there was no-one more American – which was ironic as he was Dutch.” … the full story of the Elvis TV Christmas Special. … how Parker grossly undersold Presley's catalogue rights to RCA in 1973 for $5.4m. … the Colonel's Honesty game – “think of the number I'm thinking of and I'll pay you if you're right!” … how Parker tried to curb Presley's “smutty humour” and sell his “James Dean enigma” to the film industry after Dean's death in 1955. … how the only time he didn't carefully manage an Elvis appearance was the Steve Allen Show hound dog debacle. … why Parker couldn't control either his or Presley's self-destructive habits. … his gambling addiction and a miserable 72-hour stint in a Vegas casino. … and would the first internationally-known artist's manager have been as famous had he not called himself “the Colonel”? Order ‘The Colonel And the King' here: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/peter-guralnick/the-colonel-and-the-king/9780316399449/?lens=little-brownFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lowering the magnet of curiosity into the scrapyard of news and seeing what's attracted, which includes … … does anyone still write satirical songs? … Four Sides of the Circle, Margaret On The Guillotine, From Here To Infirmary … real or fictitious working album titles? … the rarity of hearing new music without knowing what the musician looks like … the Strokes, the Faces and other confident gangs you wanted to join … Poisoning Pigeons In The Park, the Vatican Rag and the moment Tom Lehrer claimed was the death of satire … the dwindling need to feel ‘contemporary' - Blur, Primal Scream and the Libertines have made one album in the last ten years … when MTV went ‘lifestyle' … how ‘a 60 year-old rock star' still feels young … bring on the ‘90s package tour! … “Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?” … and honorary mentions of Chappell Roan, Blink 182, Henry Kissinger, Wet Leg, Randy Newman, PP Arnold and ‘Kicking Pigeons' by Spunge.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Wedding Present formed 40 years ago – why does that seem astonishing? - and have a new box set and tour to celebrate. David Gedge digs out his old notes about the first gigs he ever saw and played and looks back at what four decades onstage might have taught him. Among the delights … … Rick Wakeman in full cape attire at Manchester Free Trade Hall in '76 and how Be-bop Deluxe pointed to the future … the bone-dry humour of the Ramones – “the only time I ever pogo-ed” – and memories of seeing Wire and Queen. … how Leeds' goth culture coloured his early band the Lost Pandas (who had the nerve to play “minor chords”) … ‘Reception: The Wedding Present Musical', about to open in Leeds and built around stories, characters and relationships in his songs. “Musicals are very divisive and I wasn't sure I liked them” … “meticulous and geeky”: how the set lists flow and the two songs he never omits … how John Peel playing Go Out And Get 'Em, Boy! ten times launched the Wedding Present: “he was like the Emperor Nero really, almost too powerful. If he didn't like you, you could vanish without trace” ... the unexpected challenge of band member manipulation … “if anything gets a laugh, repeat it” … and costly future visions of the Wedding Present plus orchestra! Order tickets to the Wedding Present 40th anniversary tour here: https://www.scopitones.co.uk/forthcomingconcerts And the box set here: https://www.scopitones.co.uk/post/the-wedding-present-to-release-career-spanning-40th-anniversary-compilationFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bret McKenzie now mainly works on movie soundtracks, the Simpsons, Minecraft and the Muppets among them, which brings the pure delight of hearing his songs sung by Lady Gaga, Benedict Cumberbatch, Miss Piggy and Tony Bennett. He talks here about his early life in Wellington (ballet teacher Mum, racehorse trainer Dad), narrative comedy, songwriting heroes and his new album Freak Out City, and unravels New Zealand's double-edged sense of humour. Along with … … how Randy Newman pitches songs for soundtracks … “the test of a good song works is if it works with just one instrument” … lyrics he loved growing up like 16 Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford – ‘Some people say a man is made out of mud/ A poor man's made out of muscle and blood' … Morrissey's wounded reaction to his sausage-firing Quilloughby on the Simpsons ‘Panic On The Streets Of Springfield' ... solving the “fun puzzles” of a song brief and writing for “donkeys who have a dream” … the ingenious humour of John Prine, Harry Nilsson and Leonard Cohen … the moment in his live shows where he asks the audience for a story and creates a song around it – “one woman suggested ‘falling out of love' with her husband standing right beside her” ... playing the local girls schools aged 15 as the drummer in a James Brown funk band … reworking rejected songs – “which was hard with one from Paddington with its multiple rhymes for marmalade and Peru” … Flight Of The Conchords lampooning the acts they loved (Bowie, Pet Shop Boys) and playing the O2 – “pretending to be a stadium band and the audience pretending to be a stadium audience” … live on-stage application of the John Lennon “pomegranate” lyric-solving technique … “Play like a used car salesman! I need a Steely Dan solo here!” Recording with LA session legends like Leland Sklar. Order Bret's ‘Freak Out City' album here: https://music.subpop.com/bretmckenzie_freakoutcityFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Tour dates and tickets …https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/bret-mckenzie-tickets/artist/5380913 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Justin Currie recorded and toured with Del Amitri and solo for 30 years and his travelogue The Tremolo Diaries perfectly captures the rhythm of life on the road. He talks to us here about combative crowds, the curious bubble you occupy and a recent shock diagnosis that's forced some adjustments. This includes … … hard-won rules for life on tour: “Never leave the boat, stay in the bubble, never interact with real life, always maintain low-level adrenaline.” … seeing Dr Feelgood in '77 “who passed the punk rock smell test”. … choreographed abuse from rugby club members; a Liberal Party benefit with his Beefheart-like school band; following rock antagonists Jackyl at Woodstock 2; being pelted with toilet rolls at an ice hockey stadium in Minneapolis. … the tensions between the Glasgow acts from the Gorbals and the “influx of enormous middle-class twats like us”. … bands who look exactly like they sound. … Edwyn Collins as style icon – fringe, corduroy, plaid – and how it took courage to walk round Glasgow dressed like that in the early ‘80s, “a scary place full of pitch battles and hooligans”. … the loss of the pop tribes when pop music was subsumed into the entertainment business. … Michael Stipe's advice about life on the road and how that changes when you're over 40. … “if an audience doesn't like you, the smaller that audience, the worse it is”. … and his medical diagnosis in 2022 “and my negotiations with the disease”. Order the Tremolo Diaries here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Tremolo-Diaries/Justin-Currie/9781917923002Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Just when you thought it was safe to listen to a weekly rock and roll podcast … … how Black Sabbath discovered the dark side … why Elvis went onstage with a pistol in both boots … rock stars out of their comfort zone … five perfect things about Jaws we'd never taken onboard … Ozzy Osbourne, the bungled burglary and the fingerless gloves … Tony Iommi's accident and how limitations are always strengths … beautiful men in military jackets and “an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon" … was Presley's Americanness the most appealing thing about him? … rock stars managed by their wives … “everything was derived from American R&B and then we were plunged into this medieval graveyard. How could that possibly be entertainment?” … Syd Barrett outtakes? Rare Nina Simone? Richly competitive tape-making in music magazine offices … Colonel Tom Parker's ‘Honesty' game – “think of the number I'm thinking of and I'll pay you if you're right!” … and birthday guest David Cook on how meeting musicians changes your view of their music.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cally Colomon looks after the legacy of Nick Drake, who died in 1974 but attracts new teenage admirers all the time. Here he talks to David Hepworth about just some of what that involves, including: …chancers getting in touch with a bogus live recording when they've got a tax bill to pay … film producers wishing to superimpose their image of Nick Drake on everybody else's…spending months in the archives finding out exactly what is on every tape…listening to people who claim they know exactly what happened on a Tuesday sixty years ago…sorting out the real material from the bogus to put together a set which expands our understanding of the 1969 recording…responding to people who think all this work should somehow be available for free.The Making of Five Leaves Left: https://NickDrake.lnk.to/TMOFLLFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Suzi Quatro's been onstage from the age of 14 as the bassist in the all-girl showband the Pleasure Seekers and the rock act Cradle. And then moved to England in 1971 when signed by Mickie Most. This podcast is a testament to the power of self-belief – she's got more front than Woolworths! - and the two things her father told her. She's just started another world tour and talks to us here about … … how British “island humour” took a while to get used to. … two deals in a week: “Elektra wanted the second Janis Joplin. Mickie Most wanted the first Suzi Quatro.” … seeing Elvis on Ed Sullivan aged five and thinking “that's what I want to do”. And how his comeback changed the clothes she wore. … why playing a disastrous Sgt Pepper set at a ‘60s festival was a fork in the road. … knowing she had “the X-Factor, the charisma button”. … hard times in Crouch End while waiting for a hit and how Chinn & Chapman turned her sound in three-minute singles. … supporting Slade and Thin Lizzy – and being supported by Kiss and Blue Oyster Cult. … wise advice her father gave her. … playing Leather Tuscadero in Happy Days and reunions with Henry Winkler. … Michael Aspel wandering on from the wings for ‘This Is Your Life' at the Palladium.Order tickets here: http://www.suziquatro.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A rain-splashed, dub-filled, cash-scattering foray into this week's news and events which happily lands upon … … meeting Maddy Prior – a Prior engagement? – and the time Steeleye Span showered their audience with £8,000. … hearing Nick Drake's demos on a narrowboat in the pitch dark a few hundred feet below London. … Steve Miller's cancelled tour, absurdly blamed on the weather. … who's older, Lulu or the King? Kim Wilde or William Hague? Neil Tennant or Andy Fraser of Free? … Bob Marley at the Lyceum in 1975 – the confidence of their pace, the heft of their sound, what the audience wore. And David's backing vocal on No Woman No Cry. … the ugliest group in history – “they make Crabby Appleton look like the Walker Brothers”. … an imagined duet by Rick Astley and David Cameron. … is Bob Dylan the Tommy Cooper of rock and roll? … David Ackles and the curse of “the greatest album ever made”. … the Coldplay ‘Kiss-cam' clip – “either they're having an affair or just very shy”. … the crackle of crime at ‘70s gigs. … how someone could have seen the opening night of Charlie Chaplin's Gold Rush and – 50 years later - Bob Marley at the Lyceum. … why aren't there still fanzines with names like Ptolemaic Terrascope? … and birthday guest Gianluca Tramontagna claims Bob Dylan is neither sage, seer or prophet but an immensely comic “song and dance man”.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Picked up in the great singer-songwriter sweep of the late 60s and signed to Elektra Records, David Ackles made four albums which went over the heads of the record-buying public, attracted over-the-top reviews and earned the undying devotion of fans like Elvis Costello and Elton John. Now Mark Brend's book brings together an appreciation of his work with an account of his career before and after the three period when he was going to be the next big thing, taking in…….the night he found himself supporting his biggest fan Elton John at the Troubadour in Los Angeles….his year in Berkshire planning and recording “American Gothic”, an album about his distant homeland…how two different record companies took him to their hearts but had no earthly clue how to promote him…why it is that rock fans who boast of their eclectic tastes can't deal with anything which sounds like musical theatre…will he ever join the pantheon in which we have installed Nick Drake, Judee Sill and the other late musicians we are pleased to call a “lost genius”?Buy Down River: In Search of David Ackles: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-River-Search-David-Ackles/dp/1916829228Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our patent fact-from-fiction separator goes into overdrive this week though sometimes, as Robert Wyatt observed, Ruth is stranger than Richard. High in the mix … … FOMO (Fear Of Missing Oasis), Gen Z's love of queuing and has there ever been a greater outpouring of joy at a band reunion? …what's the greatest musical city? … Kevin Rowland – cheat, burglar, arsonist, menswear salesman – and his capacity for self-sabotage. … the harder to get tickets, the more people feel compelled to go. … Kylie Minogue is a year older than Jacob Rees-Mogg! … the best album to come out of New Orleans. … memoirs you can read as either comedy or tragedy. … Ed Sheeran turns Ipswich pink. … the Salt Path saga and the pursuit of profit over truth. … Mirrors In The Smoke, Dust On The Wind, Echoes Through the Pines: spot the AI-generated song title! … the Beatles' Tree in Chiswick: let's keep local landmarks a secret! … John Otway's 5,300 gigs: the hardest working man in showbiz. … and birthday guest Patrick Butler and cities with the greatest legacy – Liverpool, Birmingham, Nashville, New York, Chicago, New Orleans?Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Otway – self-billed as “Rock And Roll's Greatest Failure” - has played 5,260 gigs in 53 years, a record possibly only beaten by BB King. There are more this autumn of course. He simply can't stop. “People buying me drinks and telling me what a good bloke I am? Why would you stop?” We talk to him here about the art of shambling stagecraft and a life lived almost permanently on the road, which involves … ... a burning desire to perform from the age of nine. … “Don't think before opening your mouth!” … the rhythm of life when you play two gigs a week for five decades. And the value of ‘Micro-stardom' - “I'm at the bar when they walk in”. … seeing the Move, Free and Mott the Hoople in Aylesbury. … how people always noticed him – not least because “I was idiot-dancing by the bass speakers”. ... his first performance, a massively overwrought version of Peter Sarstedt's Where Do You Go To My Lovely. … best-selling Otway merch - “I Can't Believe It's Not Better! It's Nearly Rock And Roll But I Like It!” etc. … “You have to capture an audience in the first 20 seconds.” ... why playing the same size venues every night doesn't challenge you. … a recent three-month ‘trial retirement'. … when he estimates he'll play his 6,000th gig. … and his planned and bank-breaking 2026 World Tour. John Otway tour dates here: https://www.johnotway.com/gigs.htmlFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Hook, bold pioneer of the high, clambering, tune-filled bassline, is touring this autumn with Peter Hook & the Light. We talk to him in Prestatyn - about to deejay at mate's birthday - about the first gigs he ever saw and played, heavy-handed club owners, tough crowds on dance floors, the world audience for his two old bands and few key moments of a long life onstage, which involves … … why you should never read your reviews. … how Ian Curtis was precisely the opposite of how people imagined him. ... why deejaying is “the loneliest job in the world” and three tunes to play when it all goes wrong - “and I don't play Blue Monday for obvious reasons”. … seeing the Nolans at Salford Rugby Club, aged 15. … his bell bottoms, clogs and Heavy Metal phase. … seeing Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols the same week – “the Pistols were so bad they were relatable. I thought I could do that!” … Stiff Kittens' first gig: “a third-rate punk band aping all the others”. … how DJs need to be “belligerent” and why people find them hard to love – and the book he's writing, ‘How Not To Be A DJ'. … how Ian Curtis's vision of an international Joy Division following has finally been realised – “and with three generations in the crowd”. … radiogram-wrecking early adventures in bass guitar. … and the reasons he wanted to leave New Order and the thrill of maintaining their legacy. Peter Hook & The Light tickets here: https://peterhookandthelight.live/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 40th anniversary special with two of its presenters (Hepworth and Ellen) and old pal and TV critic Boyd Hilton who watched on the day aged 18 (“young, pretentious, idiotic”) and reviews the new BBC documentary. We look back at … … the ways Live Aid changed television – “not about music but spectacle and scale”. … would the idea of staging it have ever come about in the world of social media? … being in the room for the Geldof F-Bomb. … Ian Astbury smoking on live TV, the concrete mausoleum of the old Wembley Stadium, Concorde, Status Quo and other things that now seem so 1985. … how Live Aid was the death of the New Romantics – “they don't work in daylight” – and why Boy George turned it down. … the footage set to the Cars' video, the emotional pivot of the day, and the interview with the Ethiopian girl Birhan Woldu in the new documentary. … how the thin sound of '80s acts like the Style Council and Ultravox didn't have the impact of old-school guitar/bass/drums. … was Live Aid the first live televised rock concert event? …and fragments of our fading memories – the U2 drama, Adam Ant, Sade, the lost link to Ian Botham, Billy Connolly in tears, acts unwisely playing new singles, Noel Edmonds' helicopter shuttle, the BBC insisting it “mustn't feel like a Telethon” – and all achieved without mobile phones. Plus the return of Oasis, the BBC's tangle with Neil Young at Glastonbury and the fall-out from the Bob Vylan broadcast. … and a few Glastonbury moments - Rod Stewart's cocktail-dress cabaret girls and the 1975's Matt Healy stumbling on with a fag and a pint of Guinness.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ian Anderson is touring again in 2026 and talks to us here about tweed stage-wear, an audience of four, his teenage heroes and the first shows he ever saw and played. There's all sorts within, including …   … playing his first gig to Catholic schoolgirls at the Holy Family Youth Club in Blackpool – “we emptied the room”. … queues round the block at the Marquee in 1968 – “the moment I knew we'd arrived.” … how Joe Cocker nicked his breakfast. … seeing Cliff at the ABC in Blackpool – “he was our Elvis.” … guitarists who played “nicely”– Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Ritchie Blackmore. “Precise, accurate, they sang melodies.”  … the ceremonial christening of Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. … exotic clothes, stage names and parallels with Beefheart's Magic Band.  … recording Feel Like Makin' Love with the 90-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck. … learning Guitar Tango by the Shadows - “not blues or rock and roll - progressive pop!” … the fine art of dressing up: Jethro Tull in America – tweeds and deerstalkers v check shirts and denim.   … fund-raising shows for imperilled cathedrals.   … the allure of touring by train – “I'm Michael Portillo with a flute”. … the three songs Jethro Tull always play. Tickets for the Curiosity Tour 2026 here: jethrotull.com Ian Anderson presents Christmas With Jethro Tull:Thursday 18 December 2025 - Bath AbbeyFriday 19 December 2025 - Peterborough CathedralSaturday 20 December 2025 - Southwark Cathedral Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Happy Hour in the Rock and Roll Lounge of News and we're working our way through anything over 40 per cent proof. Which means ice, a slice and …. … how the F-Bomb lost its impact. … Mick Ralphs and Lalo Schifrin RIP – and chapeau to "There's A Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin' On'. … the Blush-o-meter! Album sleeves that'd get you lynched in the 21st Century – and that means you Roxy, UFO, BowWowWow, Blind Faith, Tom Waits and Supertramp! … why the TV comedy W1A was the last record of the world before Covid. … Irresistible song titles – eg Rikki Don't Lose That Number, Misty Morning Albert Bridge, Jeannie Needs A Shooter. … where was Instagram when Roxy Music started?! … the genius of Sabrina Carpenter's publicity machine. … “The oldest used to have the power. Now it's the youngest.” … Jeff Bezos v a canal full of inflatable crocodiles.  … I'm Getting Buried in the Morning, Paintball's Coming Home … the eternal joy of Half Man Half Biscuit. … “Meeting a man from the motor trade - like a line from a TS Eliot poem.” And birthday guest Guy Constant on the value of lyrics - plus ‘grollies, ‘70 supergroups and Theresa May swearing. Here's the link set up by Jon Hotten to help the rock writer (and former podcast guest) Mick Wall after he'd suffered a heart attack: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/jon-hotten-2Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bobby Bluebell remembers the “cuddly duffle-coat friendship” of Glasgow bands in the early ‘80s and the Bluebells' second act rebooted by the Volkswagen ad. The band are touring again and an even bigger part of the city's thriving musical community, and he looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played, along with … … singing “When I'm Dead And Gone' in an old folks home.   … on the town with Siobhan Fahey, her sisters and boyfriends Kevin Rowland and Gary Crowley. … buying Rocket Man and Wee Neil Reid's Mother Of Mine, aged 13. And Elton John at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall. … his side project The Golden Tree (with Grahame Skinner of Hipsway) playing ‘Scottish' songs by Marmalade, Strawberry Switchblade, Ewan MacColl, Coldplay, the Easybeats, Talking Heads and the Bay City Rollers. … “Glasgow had six gangs. You had to choose your route home carefully if wearing Kickers.” … Clare Grogan's sister's part in the Bluebells' fortunes. … Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne holding HIT and MISS signs in the front row of an Oxfam Warriors gig. … “A cuddly duffle-coat friendship”: the Glasgow bands of the early ‘80s and memories of Altered Images and Peter Capaldi's Dream Boys. … why Dolly Parton was ditched and ‘Young At Heart' chosen for the Volkswagen ad. … playing the Old Grey Whistle Test with the Psychedelic Furs. … “the best way to get an audience to stop talking is to entertain them.” … “All hits are luck”. … his Golden Rule when playing festivals. The Bluebells tickets here: https://www.songkick.com/artists/315250-bluebells/calendar The Golden Tree: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7HO0TGE0vgPgwDoaBUMAJF?si=LUsXAtrURVWYjEkzDpI0mQ&nd=1&dlsi=65dddbf6bf6c45e4Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dennis Bovell has worked his dub magic on everyone from Janet Kaye to the Slits, the Pop Group, Jarvis Cocker and Thom Yorke & Jonny Greenwood – and his own band Matumbi. He talks here about the thrill and freedom of making dub records, his new album Wise Music In Dub – which reworks ‘Pass The Dutchie', Minnie Riperton and the Stylistics – and how the phone never stops ringing with requests for an echo-filled clattery sonic re-boot. And about spending lockdown in a “dub bubble”, how recording has changed since his days with a one-track Phillips tape-machine, and recruiting Swizz The Panist (“who plays steel pans like a classical piano”) and Duke Baysee, the harmonica-playing Routemaster bus conductor. Pre-order Wise Music In Dub here: https://wiserecords.bandcamp.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rick Wakeman was onstage from the age of five and looks back with us here on a life of live performance – jazz and blues bands, the Strawbs, Yes – and ahead to this autumn's tour performing King Arthur and the Six Wives of Henry the Eighth. “I wake up every morning, throw off the duvet and – if nothing else has fallen off – have a great day!” There's more … ... how it feels when the rock press call you ‘Tomorrow's Superstar!' at the age of 24. … the contract he once had to sign that said “Mister Wakeman will wear at least one of his capes during the performance”. … seeing the Bonzos in 1965, “Viv Stanshall so paralytic he sang the entire set lying down”. … being on a packed tube to Gants Hill and suddenly realising he was on the cover of the Melody Maker he was reading. … Mrs Symes, his piano teacher, who launched his career (aged five). … his teenage band Atlantic Blues “who ended Wipe Out eight times faster than it started”. … the day his Strawbs' Hammond organ solos were applauded by the Telegraph and Times. … early piano sessions for Cat Stevens, Ralph McTell and Al Stewart. … aspects of touring that prove “financially non-viable”. … and how Wolf Hall rebooted the legend of Henry the Eighth. Plus Atomic Rooster, Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Brown, green PVC trousers and a cape collection that includes “four originals”. Buy tickets here: https://www.rwcc.com/live.php#ere2025Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chasing the shade and applying Factor 50 in the wilting heat of this week's rock and roll news turns the conversation to … … Kneecap v the Prime Minister.… will any openly anti-Trump musician find it hard to tour the States?… the girl who's listening to all 10,000 of her late father's albums, one 60-second Instagram reel at a time.… a bottle of Snoop Dogg rosé, anyone?   … why Carol Kaye turned down the Hall Of Fame. … Hollywood and “the genius of the system” v the current vogue for applauding individual genius. … Lottie Golden, Laurie Styvers, Jeannie Piersol and our love for High Moon Records, the Virago of the record business. … why self-sabotage is a British institution. … Nick Cave Unisex Clogs? Pet Shop Boys chrome pepper-grinder? Brave new frontiers in pop merchandise. … Genya Ravan's I Won't Sleep On The Wet Spot No More. … Beau Dommage, Dragon's Breath, Two Left Feet … Canadian band or voguish craft ale? Also in the mix … Dawn French, Phoebe Snow, Humphrey Ocean, Alan Bennett and Bridget St John.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Farm are touring again this summer and have just made their first album for 31 years (with the same-line-up). This sparky and wide-ranging conversation with Peter Hooton stops off at the following … … the advice Mark E Smith gave him when they were interviewed by Select magazine. … “Suedeheads v Trogs and Greebos”: early ‘70s tribal warfare in Bootle. … seeing Cockney Rebel, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Genesis at the Liverpool Empire. … the death of old heroes – “you imagined Bowie was always going to be there”. … backstage with the Clash in Paris and why they were the Farm's role models. … Bill Drummond's attempt to remodel them “in tracksuits with hard dogs”. … how the death of John Lennon made him start writing. … the use of All Together Now as a football anthem – from everyone to Everton to Euros 2004 to a disastrous campaign by the Labour Party - “but the Qatar World Cup was a bridge too far”. … touring with Mick Jones (“the Pied Piper”) for the Hillsborough 96 Campaign. … his school band, Breakwind - “the forerunners of Half Man Half Biscuit” – and being in the cast of Oliver!. …. his guided music tours of Liverpool and the places they visit. … and why The Farm has “omni-appeal – a band who look like they're from a street corner”. Also in the mix: Big Audio Dynamite, Deaf School, Nile Rodgers, Roger Eagle and Cliff Richard on Top Of The Pops. Buy tickets and the album Let The Music (Take Control) here: https://thefarmmusic.co.uk/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carol Decker - another Smash Hits cover star on the podcast! T'Pau are playing dates this summer and autumn and she talks here – hilariously - about life on the ‘80s package tour circuit and the first shows she ever saw and played, which stops off at …. … does any audience beat a Butlin's Mid-Weeker on their third pint? … from Black Mirror to PG Tips: the afterlife of a hit. … seeing Rod & the Faces in Stoke-On-Trent and Dire Straits in a Wrestling Hall. … “Appearing In An A&E Near You!”: accident-prone ‘80s stars, a sitcom waiting to happen. ... the arcane world of the backing vocalist – “don't distract, nothing too big”. … the grim tradition of headline bands' road crews making the support acts suffer. … ‘80s package tours with OMD, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Clare Grogan and Nik Kershaw. … playing working men's clubs with the Lazers in 1980 - “an unwelcome distraction from the Bingo”. … visits to Dusty Springfield's grave. … “Universal own the world”: when your songs appear in films and ads but you couldn't keep the rights. … more power to the Amnesty for Unrecouped Bands!Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversatiom going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the great Warren Zevon said, ‘Enjoy every sandwich'. The two-man canoe navigates this week's rock and roll rivulet which sadly entails reflections on a pair of towering musical giants ‘whose legend occupied the space where activity should have been'. Things considered include … …are you born with genius or does a set of circumstances allow it to flourish? … the impossible task of living up to people's expectations and the calamitous ways it led Sly and Brian Wilson to behave. … like Sly's plane landing at the moment he was meant to be onstage at Madison Square Garden. … the massive cultural contrast between Woodstock and ‘the Black Woodstock' a month earlier and how Sly & the Family Stone looked like they'd ‘come from Mars'. … how Derek Taylor, Tom Nolan and Nick Kent helped fashion the Beach Boys' myth. … Sly's impact on Miles Davis, Prince, Massive Attack and hip-hop and how a record as radical as There's A Riot Goin' On was a No 1 Christmas album. … In My Room, a completely new kind of teenage song. … David's five Beach Boys teenage moments … … and Mark's three examples of Brian Wilson's Greatest Bits – eg the overture to California Girls. … and 'Arise, Sir Roger Daltrey!'Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liam Gallagher calls Ted Kessler and Hamish MacBain “the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of music journalism”. Both worked at the NME (and Ted at Q), both interviewed the band many times and have just published ‘A Sound So Very Loud' which, in the grand tradition of Revolution In The Head, tells the story of every Oasis song ever recorded. They talk to Mark here about …   … why Oasis struck such an almighty chord and were the band the press were waiting for. … their dismantling of the notion of rock stardom. … “a visceral dislike”: why they were so socially divisive in the ‘90s. … Liam “waking up in police custody with two missing teeth”. … the Gallaghers' dependable flair for the Smiths-style “performative interview” and why it sold the rock press. … what Noel stole from Tony Blair's maiden speech for the lyrics of Magic Pie. … the turning point in the shift in the brothers' powerbase.   … Liam and the invention of “Stillism”.   … “70 per cent of a band is the singer's identity”. … Noel's blog and Liam's Twitter and how the split might have been avoided if their debate hadn't been played out in public. … Supersonic, Cigarettes and Alcohol and the admirable honesty of Noel's “brazen theft”. … how Stop Crying Your Heart Out became an X-Factor standard.   … and the 5am Liam Gallagher social media publicity machine. ‘A SOUND SO VERY LOUD' BY TED KESSLER AND HAMISH MACBAINPreorder link here!: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/ted-kessler/a-sound-so-very-loud/9781035078257Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elkie Brooks was on a package tour aged 15, supported the Beatles and the Animals, made a single when she was 19, joined the jazz-rock Dada, then Vinegar Joe (with Robert Palmer) and has since made 20 albums. She's now out on her ‘Long Farewell Tour' and looks back with us here from her home in Devon at … … supporting the Beatles in '64 and an audience already screaming for the headliners.   … memories of Dusty, Cilla and Maggie Bell and how few girl singers there were in the ‘60s and ‘70s. … singing Cliff Richard's ‘Pointed Toe Shoes', aged 15, at the Don Arden talent show that won her a tour with Conway Twitty and Wee Willie Harris. … supporting the Animals at the Paramount, New York. … the male-weighted music world and how long it took to win any respect. … seeing Ella Fitzgerald when she was 12 and being fired up by the range and phrasing of Billie Holiday. … what she learnt from Humphrey Lyttelton and Eric Delaney. … life on the scampi-in-the-basket cabaret circuit as a teenager. … trying to keep Vinegar Joe together after Robert Palmer left.   Book tickets to the Long Farewell Tour here: https://www.elkiebrooks.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facing down the leg spinners of rock and roll news while trying to wallop the odd shot across the pavilion roof. On the scoreboard this week … … has there ever been a rock feud as bitter as Trump v Musk? … what Ray Charles, Taylor Swift and Dave Clark have in common. … the 30-year golden age music video. … things Van Morrison can't forget. … how some songs about lying in hammocks necking cocktails ended up worth $275m.   … Beyoncé, Stetsons, pink Cadillacs and how all visiting American acts bring with them the aura of America. … the greatest and most influential video ever made. … the song Carly Simon wrote about Cat Stevens. … “Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)” … Nick Mason's menagerie: things your teenage self never imagined would happen. … Kraft Cheese slices, Kylie videos, the cut above David Beckham's eye and other things labelled ‘iconic'. … and Birthday guest Paul Thompson's night at the Music Video Preservation Society!Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stuart Maconie – broadcaster, prolific author – has a brilliant and original new perspective on the Beatles. His latest book With A Little Help From Their Friends identifies the 100 people who had the greatest impact on their story, from the inner circle to bit-part players – schoolfriends, girlfriends, managers, muses, support acts, advisors and exploiters. It's immensely entertaining – and revealing, even for obsessives like us. Look out for these in particular … … memories of his Mum taking him to see the Beatles in Wigan when he was three. … the Shakespearian supporting cast – “we know the Othellos and King Lears but there are a lot of Rosencrantz and Guildensterns” such as Marsha Albert, Melanie Coe, Pablo Fanque, Mr Mustard and the night with the poet Royston Ellis that inspired Polythene Pam. … villains of the piece who might have been misunderstood like the Maharishi and Allen Klein. … what Derek Taylor shouted at Peter Blake at the Q Awards. … the full extent of the Beatles' American merchandise catastrophe. … the “moving and spooky” sensation of standing on the spot in Woolton where John and Paul first met - and its repercussions. … the Sliding Doors moments and why no other band merits this kind of depth and detail. … the hoary redundant old saw about John v Paul – “guerilla genius v slick vaudevillian” and how Peter Jackson's Get Back made us all fall in love with them even harder and deeper than before..… the regrettable question he asked McCartney about Gerry & the Pacemakers. … the tragedy of Jimmie Nicol – “being a member of the Beatles, even briefly, was the nearest equivalent to going to the Moon”. … the impact of Paul's life with the Ashers on the band's intersections with art, theatre and poetry. … how the ‘Oldies But Goldies' album broke the band beyond the Iron Curtain. .. why Penny Lane is like a Play for Today. … and the greatest song the Beatles recorded. Order With A Little Help From Our Friends here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/with-a-little-help-from-their-friends-the-beatles-changed-the-world-but-who-changed-theirs-stuart-maconie?variant=54870051815803Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rob Caiger is one of those special people who turned their teenage obsession with music into a job … from being the only one in ELO's office who knew where the old tapes were … to learning that what it says on the outside of the box isn't always what's on the tape … through embarking on a ten-year project to put out the last Small Faces album from 1970 in its proper form   … via blindfolded journeys to mysterious destinations with the promise of finding some long-lost jewels … and hearing a Rolling Stones out-take bleeding through a multi-track by the Move … through the vault under Smithfield Market out of which tapes would sometimes emerge covered in blood … to preparing for a future where nobody who was there will be able to explain how and why things were recorded … this is the world as seen by the remarkably dedicated people who put together the box sets we all hanker for. The Small Faces: The Autumn Stone record and CD - https://www.thesmallfaces.com/shop/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hoary old tales retold – ideally in an Irish accent - and new ones prized from the giddy carousel of rock and roll news which, this week, features … … was there a better stage name than Rick Derringer? … Linda Ronstadt, Ronnie Spector, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and other new biopics under construction. … genuinely ‘iconic' rock images – the Ziggy lightning stipe, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, Elvis dancing in Jailhouse Rock, Dylan and Suze Rotolo in Jones Street … … our old pal Barry McIlheney, his Belfast band Shock Treatment and the time he asked U2 to draw a duck. … the thin wall that separates hilarity and grief. … how TikTok and a 1962 B-side booted the 87-year old Connie Francis.   … Banned words! – ‘iconic, circle back, reach out, Ramones-esque, eponymous sophomore effort' and other clichés that MUST be banished! … “Sgt Pepper: it's like the Beatles on acid!” … why 80 per cent of the stadium experience is beyond our control. ... how Freddie Mercury still makes headlines beyond the grave. … the real Rikki in ‘Rikki Don't Lose that Number'. … and when you find yourself at a Springsteen gig next to a Trump supporter. Watch the Barry McIlheney podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjw-6HZWa-EFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Martha Wainwright is a key member of the Wainwright/McGarrigle clan, all of them big favourites of ours. She's currently on her 20th anniversary tour and looks back here at the first shows she ever saw and played which involves … … growing up in a folk dynasty in Montreal.   … the sight of Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen, backing singers on Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man tour, “who made me want to be onstage too”. … the story of ‘Matapedia', the song Kate McGarrigle wrote when an old boyfriend thought she was her teenage daughter.   … her first shows playing Elvis, Dylan and Woody Guthrie songs on the coffeehouse circuit. … singing with her brother Rufus and her cousins with Kate & Anna McGarrigle at folk festivals. … onstage at the Roches' Christmas shows in New York. … the time her brother stole the show over Emmylou Harris: “I thought I want that kind of attention!” … seeing Pink Floyd's The Wall in a Montreal hockey stadium, aged 9 – “a very marking experience”. … the songs of her mother's she always plays: “I'm obsessed with her legacy”. Martha Wainwright 20th Anniversary tour tickets here: https://marthawainwright.com/showsFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Small boy begins breeding budgerigars in Liverpool, makes enough to buy a drum kit and becomes the power behind Big In Japan, the Slits, the Creatures and Siouxsie and the Banshees. And one half of punk rock's most famous couples. The immensely engaging Budgie has finally written his memoir, ‘The Absence', and talks to us from Berlin about … … are bands only as good as their drummers? … Siouxsie, the Ice Queen goth-in-waiting who was actually “a cackling crazy tomboy from Chiselhurst”.    … playing Shadows instruments in a nightclub cabaret, aged 13. … the gnawing pain of not being asked to play Live Aid – “we just weren't part of that all-pals-together-in-the-wonderful word of music”. … “World Exclusive!”: seeing Bill Nighy in a band in the ‘70s singing Rosalita. … the Apache and Wipeout drum patterns in the rhythms of the Slits and Banshees.   … in praise of drummers: Bill Buford, Phil Collins, the Glitter Band, Humble Pie's Jerry Shirley. … the peculiar world of the teenage budgerigar breeder. … the dynamic of the Slits – “Palmolive, off-the-scale crazy”. … ‘You're The Biggest Thing Since Powdered Milk' by Burke Shelley's Budgie, Humble Pie's ‘Rockin' the Fillmore' and when you only have one cassette in your car and it's ‘Wonderworld' by Uriah Heep. … Siouxsie's Jim Morrison fixation and lack of ambition. … the advantage of being in a band with a girl singer. … and the likelihood of a Banshees' reunion. Order Budgie's memoir ‘the Absence' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absence-Memoirs-Banshee-Drummer/dp/1399621564Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The two-man pedalo of enquiry sets out on the Bank Holiday boating lake of news pausing to consider …   … Florence Welch, Dua Lipa and the rise of the rock and roll book club. … the 92 year-old that Bob Dylan supported at the Cascades Amphitheatre, Ridgefield. … the Beatles had 18 drummers! … the sad end to Billy Joel's tour schedule. … is Hollywood dead? … what's your relationship with reading if your first experience of literature is dressing up as a wizard on World Book Day? … why is there something unfailingly comic about drummers being fired? … “No nudity! No voluminous outfits!”: Cannes new red carpet ruling. … is Chimes Of Freedom Bob Dylan at ‘peak wordage'? … are books and record sleeves the new antiques, items to furnish a room? … Sherlock Holmes, Hunter S Thompson: Corey Hart of Slipknot's recommended reading. … and how Springsteen is taunting Trump. Plus Starry Eyed And Laughing, old drummer gags and who the hell's seen Ne Zha 2 or Mickey 17?Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dylan Jones – writer, former editor of i-D, Arena and GQ - was 15 in 1975 and dressed like Jimmy McCulloch of Wings (“a lot of denim and silk scarves”), a time he thinks had enormous influence on the following five decades. There are many highlights in his latest book ‘1975: The Year The World Forgot', a lot of them discussed here with David and Mark, including … … the lasting impact of the cover of Patti Smith's Horses. … the “frightening” Millie Jackson, 50 years ahead of her time. … why Blood On The Tracks was the first middle-aged rock album.  … the information black-out and the value of the ‘70s rock press - particularly Street Life – for such experimental music. … how the sarcasm of Steely Dan still feels contemporary – “Donald Trump is a figure they could have made up 50 years ago”. … the three key rhythms of the ‘70s – Fela Kuti's afro-beat, James Brown's funk and Klaus Dinger's Neu!-beat. … the reason Donna Summer's Love To Love You Baby is 17 minutes long. … how Brian Eno's accident led to the birth of ambient music.  … “writing about pop music allows you to write about anything”. … how the sophistication and intellect of the mid-‘70s was pilloried in Punk's Year Zero. … the Quiet Storm genre - aka “foreplay music” – from Sade to Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. ... the unrecognised power of the female record-buyer and the sexism of the rock press. … and the greatest record of 1975! Pre-order ‘1975: The Year The World Forgot' here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/1975-World-Forgot-Dylan-Jones/dp/1408721988Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Beach Boys' SMiLE was abandoned by Brian Wilson in 1967 and eventually performed at an emotional gathering of the faithful in London 37 years later. For writer and lecturer David Leaf it became an obsession. He made a documentary about it in 2004 and has just published ‘SMiLE: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson' drawn from detailed conversations with the people involved. He talks to us here about his discoveries, which include … ... the Rolling Stone story that kick-started his obsession. … “a bicycle ride from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii” and other early plans for the album. … how Leonard Bernstein, the Beatles and Derek Taylor racked up the pressure in the studio. … why the other Beach Boys – and Capitol and Murry Wilson - felt the new music was a threat to their livelihood. … how Brian composed the “teenage symphony for God” that became an albatross around his neck. ... “Ray Davies needed a deadline”: the perils of endless recording time. … the magnetism of Van Dyke Parks, a man who “talks in paragraphs”. ... the imagined impact on the world and the band's career if SMiLE had come out in 1967. … the birth of “art rock” versus the strictures of the music business. … the value of the SMiLE myth in the eventual rebirth of the Beach Boys. … the reaction to its long-awaited performance at the Festival Hall in 2004. ... why Brian thought shelving the album would save the group yet “they went from a No 1 single to an act nobody cared about in under a year”. ... and the greatest Beach Boys record of all time. Order SMiLE: the Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/smile-the-rise-fall-and-resurrection-of-brian-wilson-published-10th-october-2024?_pos=1&_psq=smile&_ss=e&_v=1.0Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Slapping the beanburger of news on the sizzling grill of scrutiny and served with relish by Alex Gold and Mark Ellen (David's in Spain with his bucket and spade). This week's specials include … … Springsteen's unprecedented speech onstage in Manchester about his nation's “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration” and the Dixie Chicks' career-popping anti-Trump manoeuvre of 2003. … John Niven's upcoming play ‘The Battle' and the Blur/Oasis soundclash it celebrates.   … the 50th anniversary of the Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction: from motel bed to finished recording in six days. … “Lennon's all about the legs”: the art of playing the Beatles, Keith Richards and all four of the Small Faces onstage (involves “ducking, bobbing and dipping”). … brilliant songs written in seconds – by Lady Gaga, the Beastie Boys, James Brown and the White Stripes.   … the tour circuit and the trouble at borders. … “the sound of dental floss being pinged by a squirrel”: Bill Bailey's impression of the Edge with a power failure. … Elvis v Cliff, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v Pistols, Duran v Spandau, Blur v Oasis: what was the last great rock rivalry? ... and Elvis Costello's inspired use of the Ansaphone.Fast Show clip ‘Mr Wells':https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FRAeFyBX1wHelp us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dennis Greaves took a week off from Nine Below Zero in 1980 but otherwise kept his nose firmly applied to the grindstone. They broke up in 1983 when he formed the Truth, who broke up in 1989 when he rebooted the old band. He looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played – a world with the attractive scent of spilt beer and tobacco – stopping off at various points, among them … … why blues and R&B flourished in South London, police and villains drinking together at the Thomas A Becket and the folklore of the Old Kent Road. ... the great advantage of never having a hit. … taking his parents to see Chuck Berry in 1972. ... the lasting appeal of R&B in a world of processed music. … what he learnt from Glyn Johns when he produced them at Olympic Studios, “the man who invented phasing with Itchycoo Park”. … buying singles at A1 Records in Walworth – “Progressive, Reggae, Artists A-Z …” … seeing Blackfoot Sue and Scarecrow on the pub circuit, and the Groundhogs and Rory Gallagher at the Rainbow. … Pete Townshend watching Nine Below Zero from the wings - “you remind me of us in the ‘60s”. … seeing the Jam 11 times – “900 people in a 400 capacity venue!” … “getting gyp is good as you learn how to control an audience.” … 2am service station food and how touring has changed in 45 years. ... performing in the pilot for The Young Ones in 1982. … “the song you should study for A-Level Pop”. … memories of Mylone LeFevre, Capability Brown, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, BB King, Muhammad Ali, Henry Cooper, Uriah Heep, The Little Roosters, Deep Purple, Gary Moore, Greg Lake, Love Sculpture, Free, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Alvin Lee, Dr Feelgood and Charlie McCoy playing Lady Madonna on the harmonica on the Val Doonican Show …  … and the greatest record ever made! Nine Below Zero tickets and tour dates here: https://www.ninebelowzero.com/tourHelp us to keep the conversation going by joining our worldwide Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Capaldi – aka Malcolm Tucker, Dr Who, the universal screen delight and an Oscar-winning film director – was the singer in the punk band the Dreamboys in the late ‘70s who put out a single when he was at the art school in Glasgow. And then became an actor. And then - in the grand tradition of actors who've made albums, Hugh Laurie, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Bridges and Keanu Reeves among them – released St Christopher in 2021. He's just recorded a second, Sweet Illusions, and talks to us in this extremely funny and entertaining pod about … … how his sole motivation was “a burning desire to be on the telly”. … the difference between fronting bands and being in plays. … how he grievously stitched up support band the Cocteau Twins at a gig in Grangemouth. … a teenage love of Slade - “a bit terrifying but still a bit safe”. … first-hand evidence of the connection between Blakey from On the Buses, Adolph Hitler and Beatles. … “you have to write a hundred songs before you can write a good one”. … arriving at art school in '76 a Neil Young fan and his overnight transformation – “peroxide hair, PVC trousers and bright red crepe sole shoes”. … seeing Simple Minds at the Mars Bar in Glasgow, Jim Kerr with his Shakespearian haircut, “strange, powerful, imaginative, post-glam”. … forming the Dreamboys and “trying to be big, clever and Kafka-esque”. … the stigma of being virtually the only band in Glasgow not to get a John Peel session. … writing the “bizarro pulp” lyrics for the Dreamboys – “we couldn't decide if we were the Cramps or Talking Heads”. … what's required, “apart from a terrible Scouse accent”, in playing John Lennon onstage and George Harrison onscreen. … auditioning (comedian, actor, TV host) Craig Ferguson as the band's drummer.   … how Bill Forsyth launched his acting career: “one minute you're supporting Altered Images, the next in a movie with Burt Lancaster”. … forming a duo with Keanu Reeves when filming Dangerous Liaisons in Paris – powdered wigs in the daytime, guitar/bass punk-thrash at night. .. the romantic Edward Hopper charm of Glasgow in the ‘70s - proto-goths, street lights, rain. … how Dr Robert of the Blow Monkeys and four months filming The Suicide Squad in Atlanta spurred him into writing songs.   … the greatest record of all time. Order the Sweet Illusions album here:https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/products/peter-capaldi-sweet-illusions-vinyl-lp-cd-lossless-dlHelp us to keep the conversation going by joining our global Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The teenage Alan Parsons was hired as a tape op by EMI and worked with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Steve Harley, orchestras, comedians, Pinky And Perky and countless others in the control room at Abbey Road, and saw almost 60 years of technical revolution. He's just finished a 50th anniversary box set of Harley's the Best Years Of Our Lives and talks here from his Santa Monica home studio about …   … the things you find buried in old recordings.  … how AI will allow anyone to remix their favourite record.  … the miraculous transformation of Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) from a vindictive dirge to a No 1 pop hit, its backing vocalists and its DJ-baffling false ending. … cutting the tape with John Lennon to end I Want You (She's So Heavy). … seeing himself - ‘in an orange shirt and black knitted tie' - in the Get Back movie 52 years later. ‘It proves I was there!' … recording the clocks, footsteps and airport announcer for The Dark Side Of The Moon - ‘playing Abbey Road studios as an instrument'. … recording He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother with Reg Dwight on piano. … the magical ‘60s technology that made Pinky And Perky. … opening the door at Savile Row and first seeing the Beatles and all their girlfriends. … recording Pilot, the Hollies and the Joe Loss Orchestra. … the story of Clare Torry and The Great Gig In The Sky.  … Abbey Road recordings stored at a nearby squash court. … working with David Gilmour on an Earls Court show from the 1990s. … touring with the Alan Parsons Project (who never toured originally). … why Papa Was A Rollin' Stone is the greatest record of all time (clue: the hi-hat and bass figure). Pre-order Steve Harley's ‘The Best Years of Our Lives' here:https://SteveHarley.lnk.to/TBYFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Perched outside the Vatican Of News awaiting puffs of white smoke, which this week arrive in the following fashion … … Brandi Carlile's Mothership Weekend and her genius for publicity. … Jim Morrison is alive and living in Syracuse, New York!: barrel-scraping new rock documentary incoming. … Hip Hop Wealth v Rock Wealth: the $57m house Kayne West bought, gutted and left to disintegrate. … real or fictional ‘religious' musicians – Saint Pepsi, Cardinal Rex, Pope Plastique, the Reverend Horton Heat? …. Lady Gaga at Cobacabana Beach and is there anywhere in the UK you could feasibly hold a concert for two million people? … “Crafting smiles for today's legends': Kayne West's devious dentist. … is Elvis still ‘sighted in Brent Cross Shopping Centre'? … the Noel Gallagher sunglasses range! The ‘She's Electric' train route to Wembley!: the eternal churn of the Oasis rumour mill. … the life and luck of Peter Capaldi, one minute supporting Altered Images, the next in a movie with Burt Lancaster. … is there music for everyone anymore or is it all repackaged for subsects of the population? … ‘the towering gates of Sean Combs' estate have flaming torches burning day and night'.Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dennis McNally was the Grateful Dead's publicist in the mid-‘80s, one of many reasons why he's supremely qualified to write his new book about the birth of the counterculture in America's West and East Coast and Britain. ‘The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies And Created the Sixties', a celebration of music, beat poetry, radical thinking, free speech and artistic liberty, seems even more precious now in the light of recent events. All sorts are discussed here, these being some of the highlights …  … how the Summer of Love of ‘67 actually happened in the Fall of ‘66 in Haight-Ashbury. … “rigid, stagnant, terrifying”: early ‘60s America before the revolution.  … the three key cities that “experimented with freedom”. ... how San Francisco “cherished strangeness” and had a self-proclaimed ruler, Emperor Norton, who created his own currency. … how the Grateful Dead - “the ultimate example of the bohemian pulse writ large in music” – spent $1m building a sound system when they were earning $125 a week. … the influence of Private Eye, Beyond The Fringe and That Was The Week That Was on British culture. And of Lenny Bruce, the Hungry I club, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Mort Sahl in America. … how Rebel Without A Cause and the Wild One helped establish the West Coast as rebellious. … “there are two flags of freedom – one to make as much money as possible, the other to be as open-minded and thoughtful about everything”. … Eisenhower said “in God we trust!” But which God? … the entire security for the 25,000 crowd at the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park was two mounted policemen. … “nothing is more fun than researching”. ... how the counter-culture was created with very little money or technology. Order the Last Great Dream here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Great-Dream-Bohemians-Hippies/dp/0306835665Help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Passing the thermometer of conversation over the rock and roll news to see where the mercury rises, which this week includes … … the new Barbra Streisand duets album. Duets are ‘playlets', small intense dramas that depend on human interaction, but so many are recorded separately (including, tragically, Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell). … but … duets you HAVE to hear! eg Cash & Carter, Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, Ray Charles & Betty Carter, Siouxsie & Morrissey, Nick Cave & Kylie, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush. … the extraordinary story of the rebirth and Indian Summer of Mississippi John Hurt after 40 years of invisibility.   … blues lyrics that now seem unimaginable. … Frank Zappa as a drug dealer? Miles Davis as a pimp? Cyndi Lauper as a trophy wife? Real or made-up Miami Vice rock star cameos.  … great opening lines – “We got married in a fever …!” … how you always learn something you never knew about someone from their obituary - like Mike Peters' involvement in the highest altitude concert ever performed (on Everest with Glenn Tilbrook and Slim Jim Phantom). … where people listen to the Word In Your Ear “poddy” – eg in the bath, in court, at wedding receptions, by the Allman Brothers' graveside. Plus birthday guest John Montagna on rock stars who should be in a TV series.Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In which comedian Al Murray and historian James Holland talk about their new book Victory '45 and our twin national obsessions, the Second World War and The Beatles. Includes:….how being emotionally shut down enabled Montgomery to collect the surrender at Luneburg Heath….how a profound sense of duty helped Harry Truman make the most dreadful decisions anyone has ever faced…how German soldiers could keep on invoicing right until the end…what all this has to tell us about our present predicament…why thousands of blokes in camo (and a surprising amount of women) attend their We Have Ways Fest every summer: https://wehavewaysfest.co.uk/….what it is that continues to fascinate us about World War II.….how its story is being told in new ways…how they both came to The BeatlesBuy Victory '45 here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Victory-45-history-bestselling-historians/dp/0857507958Help us to keep the conversation going by joining our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Derek Shulman was at the heart of two great transformations – Simon Dupree & the Big Sound switching to psychedelia, and then sensing the prog-rock trade winds and becoming Gentle Giant. One minute he was singing Kites, the next Pantagruel's Nativity (Gentle Giant's rebooted ‘Playing The Fool: The Complete Live Experience' is just out). After which he was a record label president signing Bon Jovi, Slipknot and Nickelback and rebooting AC/DC and Bad Company. It's a phenomenal story and involves …   … three pieces of advice for any band today. … playing the ‘64 circuit in his R&B band the Roadrunners. … the fictitious character he invented as Simon Dupree. … when Dudley Moore was their session pianist. … memories of Marc Bolan (“flat on his back playing guitar”), Tony Iommi, Tony Visconti, Don Arden, Gerry Bron and “the English mob”. … what they borrowed from Traffic in the Great Psychedelic Scare of 1967.  … auditioning for George Martin and the lab-coated sound engineers at Abbey Road. … being phoned on a ship returning from Sweden to be told ‘Kites' was Top Twenty and doing Top Of The Pops with Status Quo and the Kinks. … “cars and bags of jewels”: the advantage of being “the darlings of the Isle of Wight Mafia” (which included the Krays). … watching Bowie recording The Man Who Sold The World at Trident. … Elton John's advice that helped form Gentle Giant. … the catastrophic US tour with Black Sabbath (on their “chemical romance”) where the audience threw cherry-bombs onstage: “you learnt how to work a crowd!” … George Underwood's cover for the first Gentle Giant album. … what he saw in Slipknot and why he signed them. You can order GENTLE GIANT – PLAYING THE FOOL: THE COMPLETE LIVE EXPERIENCE here: https://gentlegiantuk.lnk.to/PTFFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While Mark Ellen is hanging out with the other old ruins in Athens, David Hepworth and Alex Gold compare and contrast the organisation of the London Marathon with the Travellodge in Frimley and wonder……Rolling Stone cover stars or members of Trump's clown cabinet?…if you were interviewed as often as a rock star would you too make stuff up?…was Max Romeo's innocent explanation of “Wet Dream" convincing?…where do you listen to the Word In Your Ear Podcast?All this and more in your favourite podcast.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moon Zappa grew up in what appeared, on the outside, to be an enviably free-wheeling and creative household in Laurel Canyon. On the inside, not so much. Her extremely funny, soul-baring and colourful account of dysfunctional family life in her memoir Earth To Moon is as gripping as it's unsettling. A typical day: “Your mother's on the rampage, I need you to hide the gun!” Only other children with famous parents can fully gauge the emotional turmoil. She talks here about her memoir Earth To Moon – just out in paperback – and the impact of Frank's work and tours on the frail domestic set-up and the years they all spent “stewarding his genius”. Along with … … “is genius worth the collateral damage?” … fond memories of rare moments with her workaholic father. … the Zappa family's perilous finances: “Could he write a pop song or did he just choose not to?” ... how she was shut out of the control of Frank's estate “plus a clause saying if I found religion I'd get no money at all”. … the nurses' reaction when they discovered her new-born brother was named ‘Dweezil'. ... recording Valley Girl, the song that made her a teenage star and changed the family fortunes but got no gratitude from her parents. … why Frank found Valley Girl's success “mortifying”. And how her one catastrophic live version put her off stage performance for life. … and that unique bond you have with other celebrity offspring: “Jakob Dylan and I just cackle with laughter. ‘That happened to you too?'” Order ‘Earth To Moon' in paperback here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Earth-Moon-Unit-Zappa/dp/1474623859/ref=asc_df_1474623859?mcid=ae11e321cea83f4486c71a35dd95a9ea&th=1&psc=1&hvocijid=15982814295882496701-1474623859-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15982814295882496701&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9072502&hvtargid=pla-2281435176458&psc=1&gad_source=1Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We like to think of Daryl Hall as a kindred spirit, his home-recorded Live At Daryl's House series with its magnificent roster of guests now racking up 90 episodes. He's about to tour in May and talks to us here from his house in the Bahamas – straw hat, roosters crowing! – looking back at the first gigs he ever saw and played and other delights such as …  … travelling with his mother's Broadway dance band when he was three. … seeing the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Patti LaBelle and the Bluetones in the Uptown Theater, Philadelphia, in the early ‘60s. … Three Men In A Boat: a barge trip through London with Dave Stewart and Bob Dylan. … “My teenage rule: I will only wear dark green or black and needlepoint shoes. I had balls in those days!” … why Hall & Oates is “in the past” - “He initiated the split and neither of us want to resolve it”. … songs he always plays - Sara Smile, I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) – and why you'll never hear She's Gone again. … making his first records on a four-track in Virtue Studios, Philadelphia, and recording with MFSB. “I still like to keep it lean and mean.” … playing session piano with the Delfonics and making a single with Chubby Checker. … his first cheque for songwriting - $15. … “I brought rock and roll to my High School!” … the success of Live At Daryl's House and the episodes with Todd Rundgren, Smokey Robinson and Glenn Tilbrook.   … his sideline in restoring 18th Century houses. Live From Daryl's House here: https://livefromdarylshouse.com/ Daryl Hall tour dates and tickets here: https://hallandoates.com/tour/ Buy/stream the ‘D' album here: https://ingrv.es/DarylHallDFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The chocolate Easter bunny of rock and roll news in highly nutritious and digestible fragments, such as …  … the Who's very public sacking of Zak Starkey. … why no band ever wants to play quietly. … how a magazine in a shop window sparked the Neil Tennant/Mark Springer album. … Katy Perry's space ‘mission' and the trenchant observations by her and the ‘crew' – “I can't put it into words but I looked out the window and we got to see the moon!” … The Thing In The Cellar, Dogs Are Everywhere, Roadkill … Pulp song or episode of The Good Life? … the brilliant new ‘One To One: John & Yoko' documentary and how we miss the days when rock stars went on live chat shows and said the first thing that came into their heads. … why musicians are fundamentally different from other entertainers. ... perilous domestic gadgets of the ‘60s. … the allure of songs about space. … “Ray's at the controls!” When Ray Charles went walkabout on the band's private plane.  … Pete Townshend: “We need bigger weapons!” … Ben Watt DJ-ing in ear defenders. … Ray Davies, Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman …? Who grew the first psychedelic moustache? Plus birthday guest Al Hearton on Kris Kristofferson, John Travolta, Bruce Dickinson, Gary Numan and the rock and roll/aviation crossover.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Pegg joined Fairport Convention 56 years ago and fully deserves some sort of medal. They're playing their 49th Cropredy in August and touring the UK later in the year. He talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played which, delightfully, involves … … the night Hank Marvin took him to see Bjork. … an all-nighter in Birmingham with John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Chris Farlowe and Spencer Davis.   … memories of his “school hero” Denny Laine. … the fine art of getting it together in the country: life at the Angel pub in Little Hadham – “flea-bitten, enough hot water for one person and a lorry crashed through the wall into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom”. … the link between ticket sales and high blood pressure. … what not to do when you meet McCartney. … a night on the whisky with Rick Danko that ended in hospital. … how a band lasts 58 years without falling out. … the Island albums that made their reputation but never earned them any money. … unsung Birmingham acts: Denny Laine & the Diplomats (Bev Bevan on drums), Steve Gibbons in the Uglys, Jeff Lynne in the Idle Race. … narrowboats, pewter ale jugs, outdoor settees, Matty Groves, Meet On The Ledge and other cornerstones of the Cropredy experience.… Dave Swarbrick's “small holding” and further assorted knob gags. Fairport Convention tickets here: https://www.davepegg.co.uk/gigs/fairportgigs/ Cropredy tickets here: https://www.fairportconvention.com/Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boldly pursuing tariff-free trade in rock and roll news, nostalgia, gossip and old hokum since 2007 and, this week, featuring … … the romantic allure of life as a critic. … Sting's part in the success of ‘Adolescence'. … Mick Jagger's long engagement to Melanie Hamrick (born when Steel Wheels came out!) … "Contained within these grooves are twelve convincing arguments against the capitalist system" and other vicious reviews revisited. … when Bob Marley recorded ‘Sugar Sugar' by the Archies. … Al Bowlly's menacing ‘Midnight, The Stars And You' and how film soundtracks change your relationship with music. … what Mike Chapman had to tell Blondie to make ‘Parallel Lines' a hit. … little-known pop fact no 97: Dave Pegg was at the same school as the man who invented the internet! … "I can lose weight but you will always be the director of Brown Bunny” – cracking film review one-liners from Roger Ebert. … the Jaws film and the Jeeves musical: both came out 50 years ago, both riddled with catastrophe. One broke box office records, the other died like a louse in a Russian's beard. … Gabrielle Drake - “If you're going to be in a flop, best it be a huge one.” … why Elvis Costello and Al Stewart should hit the lecture circuit. … and David Hemmings, inconsolable, in a shower.   Plus birthday guest Chuck Loncon stages a quiz.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sparks are touring – playing dates in the UK and Ireland in June and July – and with a new (and 28th) album, Mad!. Russell Mael looks back at the first shows he ever saw and played which entails … … sitting on the floors of LA clubs watching Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Move, the Faces, the Who and Tyrannosaurus Rex.   … his Mum taking him to see the Beatles in the Hollywood Bowl among “10,000 screaming girls”. … “there was a faux honesty about the Laurel Canyon bands – ‘it's just me and my guitar' – whereas the British acts had the clothes and put on a performance. Which is just as honest.” … what Todd Rundgren saw in the early Sparks. … Edgar Wright's “love letter” movie ‘The Sparks Brothers' and how it's expanded their audience. … rehearsing for four months to perform all 21 of their albums in their entirety in 2008 (in Islington) and the people who came every night. … playing pizza parlours in the ‘60s – “we were paid in pizza”.   … and how the Mael brothers' creative relationship has worked - indeed thrived – for over 60 years. Sparks tour dates and tickets: https://allsparks.com/ Order Sparks' new album Mad! here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MAD-Sparks/dp/B0DY9JD1TXFind out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The runners and riders in the rock and roll steeplechase first past the post this week include … … how Ed Sheeran protects himself against song theft claims. … ‘lost' Hendrix, Beach Boys, Amy Winehouse and Jeff Buckley records: is anything unfinished ever any good? … “The Unauthorised Breakfast Item”: can YOU tell a Bob Newhart sketch title from a Caravan song? … US Office versus the UK original and the genius of Steve Carrell. … The West Wing, Frasier, the Good Life and how romance is the root of all great sitcoms. … rock and roll lighting: “you can do whatever you want now but that doesn't mean you should”. … Judge claims busking is “noise pollution”! . … Pink Floyd: “it's not going to work without the gong!” … and a giant poster of David Hepworth and Mark Ellen pinned to a tree outside Wareham. Plus birthday guest Stephen Lambe on the downside of the age of spectacle.Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.