Word Podcast

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

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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Henry McCullough 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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 Get bonus content on Patreon 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.

Ed Tudor Pole entered punk rock from stage school and always felt he was playing a part. After being hired to act in the Great Rock'N'Roll Swindle, he formed Tenpole Tudor and had a brief and dramatic moment in the sun, all recorded in his rollicking memoir ‘The Pen Is Mightier.' He talks here about … … his “quite posh” ancestry and a great-grandfather bankrupted by the Wall Street Crash. … a “Damascene conversion” to the Rolling Stones and ten hours in the burning sun at their Hyde Park show, aged 14. … being at RADA with Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton and Juliet Stevenson. … The Great Rock'N'Roll Swindle audition and the “really horrid” Nancy Spungen's striptease. … how everyone's related to Edward 111. … the secret of a One-Man Show – adopt the voice of Will Hay and “let the audience do the work!” … why “most actors are awful people and all crippled in some way” and his time in theatre was “like being a cow in a field of sheep”. … how Stiff's Dave Robinson hated punk and wanted Tenpole Tudor to be a novelty act. … three months with five acts in a coach on the Stiff Tour. … how the success of Swords Of A Thousand Men didn't affect their ticket sales - “it was bought by 350,000 12 year-old boys who weren't old enough to go to gigs”. … why the Tenpole Tudor split broke his heart. … as Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear … surprise paydays like the use of Who Killed Bambi? in the Zero Day soundtrack to accompany Robert De Niro's nervous breakdown. Order ‘The Pen Is Mightier' here …https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pen-Mightier-Autobiography-Punk-Rocker/dp/0857306057 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scanning the rock and roll ether with our patent heat-seeking Ripple-Detector®️ to see what rings the bell. Which this week includes … … how reformed ‘90s pop groups all look like Paul Whitehouse characters from the Fast Show. … the mutual agony of parents taking kids to concerts. … “Tap! Tap! Tap!”, the “gacked up” sound of the Heartbreakers' at work in Fort Petty. … “Two old voices crack through the static/ Vinyl souls dissected so erratic”: AI's nerve-jangling interpretation of Word In Your Ear – in song! … the four stages of showbiz … and three stages of hearing music.… the miracle birth of Don Henley's ‘The Boys Of Summer'. … why we tend to run the other way when people insist we'd like something. … records that make sense 40 years later – and a message from Brian Eno. … EMF and the graffiti, Carter USM rugby tackling Phillip Schofield, Radiohead playing ‘My Iron Lung': bands “too cool” for the Smash Hits Poll Winners' Party. … how simpler music appeals as you get older.  Plus the new Patreon roll-call and, from Les, the unsettling AI-generated tribute to Word in Your Ear: https://suno.com/song/ba364f5a-1b39-4d77-8f5b-bcdb9bad6760?sh=N3TMfcz8YUIxPIylFind 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 super-trouper of scrutiny scans this week's events and lands upon … … the man who's played on 21,000 records. … how Joni Mitchell is still stirring it up aged 81 and why we love her for it. ... the impact of the stadium circuit on rock festivals. … the longest-surviving group in the world – bowing out at Glastonbury after 66 years! … “fake indignation” on social media. … the 40th anniversary of Dead Or Alive's stunning You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). … the most unlikely looking person to have ever become a rock star.  … the serial winner of the Bass Player Who Most Resembles An Old Testament Prophet contest. … why a record untouched for four decades – eg Day Of Radiance by electronic zither master Laraaji - seems to have matured like a fine wine. … how Donna Summer's I Feel Love was a new kind of music, one that made you one want endless repetition rather than change.  … “Kevin Ayers drank a pint of Pernod then drove me down a mountain”. Plus birthday guest Avi Chaudhiri on the connection between Buddy Holly, Mike Mills and Paul ‘Bonehead' Arthurs.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.

Kate's an old pal from our days at Word magazine. She was on the staff for six years before heading off to the New Statesman and has just put out a collection of the sizzling and revelatory profiles she wrote for us, them and the Observer about a particular sector of the musical landscape for whom she's always carried a torch. As she wonders in ‘Men Of A Certain Age: My Encounters with Rock Royalty', “how is it that in the presence of wrinkly rock stars twice my age I sometimes think I'm meeting … me?” This tremendous exchange is full of hard-won insight about the mind-set of musicians and stops off at the following …  … the fascinating appeal of rock stars' vulnerability, giant egos, oddness and obsessions – “they're often frozen at the emotional age they became famous”. … growing up with Britpop, the decade when “teenagers weren't allowed to like anything”. … things women notice and men often miss: the difference between male and female journalists. … being driven down a mountain by Kevin Ayers after he'd drunk a pint of Pernod. … why she's so drawn to the critically unfashionable acts like Bruce Hornsby, Kiss and Terence Trent D'Arby. … what she learnt from interviewing Joni Mitchell's old boyfriend Cary Raditz. … why the best route to understanding any rock star is via their parents. … her obsession with “the shamefully unfashionable” Queen, aged 11, and the appeal of these self-styled “fun ambassadors” against the grating irony of the ‘90s. … the “charming yet awful” Paul O'Neill of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra handing out $50,000 bundles of cash to the homeless. … why musicians are more interesting when they've peaked.   … “the cartoon characters” of Shaun Ryder and John Lydon. … “the only people at Jeff Beck's interment were his wife and Johnny Depp”. … and being refused an interview by Janelle Monae for not being sufficiently “queer or black”. Order ‘Men Of A Certain Age' here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Men-Certain-Age-Encounters-Royalty/dp/1788705645 Tickets for Kate's launch event on April 3:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/men-of-a-certain-age-kate-mossman-with-alexis-petridis-tickets-1270535970289Find 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.

John Harris is an old pal from our days in the music press. You might remember him from Sounds, the NME and Select (which he edited) and he's been one of the mainstays of the Guardian ever since, writing mostly about pop culture and politics. When his son James was diagnosed with autism and, looking for ways to connect with him and help his development, John began playing him various types of music. The results were life-changing for the family and recorded in his moving and revelatory book ‘Maybe I'm Amazed - A Story Of Love And Connection In 10 Songs'. With autism, John points out, “you can see the trees but seeing the wood is harder”. This fascinating conversation involves … … have we misread the eccentricities of John Coltrane or Van Morrison, Prince, David Byrne and Gary Numan? … how many musicians are outsiders in an industry requiring them to be the opposite of what they feel capable of. … how people with autism hear songs differently each time and “music is an endlessly replenishable source of wonder”. … why so many lead guitarists are loners. .. how James has perfect pitch and hears everything – birdsong, lawn-mowers, police sirens – as notes. And how music taught him to sight-read. … vivid, unforgettable, emotional recollections of the moment you first heard records – in John's case Sir Duke, Baker Street, Strange Town. … “blokes in black denim jackets drinking Becks”: the allure of working for the West End rock press. … “all records are novelty records when you're young”. … how 50-year-olds marvel at Spotify and 20-year-olds at vinyl. … the artistic rise and fall of Britpop. Order John's highly recommended book ‘Maybe I'm Amazed' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maybe-Im-Amazed-Story-Connection-ebook/dp/B0D6B7H5NYFind 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.

This one starts with memories of Genesis at Farnborough Tech in 1972 – Batwings? Fox heads? - looks back at school bands and the early ‘70s and ends with the current Mike & the Mechanics tour. But it mostly centres on the first live shows Mike Rutherford ever saw and played which features … … his mum making him wash the Brylcreem from his hair before seeing Cliff & the Shadows when he was 17. … buying an electric guitar before you realised it needed an amplifier. … playing the same theatres he played with Genesis when he was 19. … Cream at the Marquee Club - “the volume was like an atom bomb!” … supporting Mott the Hoople at Farx in Southall, “the moment I felt we were getting somewhere”. … the contract for their £7 fee he still has for Genesis on the Eel Pie Island, “like ancient fading parchment”. … the non-competitive days of Yes, King Crimson, Rare Bird and the rock underground when there was room for everyone. … making an album in three days with Jonathan King in Regent Sound (where the Stones recorded). … Peter Gabriel developing his on-stage theatre because no-one could hear the words. … ‘Man up!' Note to self after breaking a hip skiing with his grandchildren. Mike & the Mechanics tour dates and tickets:https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/mike-the-mechanics-tickets/artist/1673635 Pre-order Looking Back: Living The Years here:https://found.ee/MikeATM_LBLTYFind 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 Waterboys' new album comes with the magnificent title ‘Life, Death & Dennis Hopper' and the band start touring in May. Mike Scott looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played and the performers he watched closely, which involves … the Stones “when they were still dangerous” and the connective genius of Mick Jagger, Dennis Hopper's lost decade, Nazareth and Emerson Lake & Palmer at the Glasgow Apollo, a love affair with microphones, how not to look at the audience, the days when he wrote songs called ‘Freefall', Joe Strummer singing on his back and McCartney's crowd going “totally buck-mental”. Order Waterboys tickets here:https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/the-waterboys-tickets/artist/888869 Order the new Waterboys' album ‘Life, Death & Dennis Hopper' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Death-Dennis-Hopper-Waterboys/dp/B0DQSK48PCFind 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.

In eager pursuit of dance and merriment, we dust down the current events. Which this week involves …. … are teenagers no longer in love? And what does this mean for pop music? … are people better musicians now than 40 years ago? And is that because you can get online tutorials explaining how to play everything? … Paul McCartney taking two buses across Liverpool just to learn the chord of B7. … how the best pop songs start with someone walking into a room. … Ghana! India! New Zealand! The Caribbean! The King's Spotify Playlist, a carefully chiselled love letter to the Commonwealth. … do couples still have “Our Tune”? And do they still request songs for each other on radio shows? … Neil Tennant's memories of pre-Putin Russia – “we swept into Moscow in Gorbachev's limousine”. … Thunder Road, And Then He Kissed Me, Wouldn't It Be Nice and other magical songs about dating. … Amanda Seyfried does Joni Mitchell! … the best pop song ever written - and we know the answer! Plus birthday guest David Messer and two great Lou Reed live albums (“he heckles the hecklers!”). David and Mark's One-Man Show in Wareham on April 4: https://loveitlocalmagazine.co.uk/events/one-man-show/ Neil Tennant's piece about pre-Putin Russia: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/12/neil-tennant-pet-shop-boys-russia-putin-gay-club-mtvHelp us to find out more about how 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.

Someone else we put on the cover of Smash Hits 40 years ago who's touring in 2025! He's playing European festivals, ‘80s packages, dates with his band and a string of solo shows billed as ‘Musings & Lyrics With Nik Kershaw', and talks to us here about the first gigs he ever saw and played, which involves … … a bad case of Imposter Syndrome. … how the relationship with your audience changes over 40 years. … “it all seemed so important back then. I was in this little bubble where I thought the world was waiting for my next statement.” … seeing Rory Gallagher, Wishbone Ash, Lindisfarne, Slade, T Rex, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band – and Vinegar Joe at St Matthew's Baths in Ipswich. … the sole appearance of his first band Thor at Rushmere Village Hall.  … instant success in 1983: four nights at Hammersmith Odeon without playing clubs first - “We're going to need a bigger PA!” … playing Steely Dan and Weather Report one night and The Birdy Song and Country Roads at a wedding the next.   ... appearing between Elvis Costello and Sade at Live Aid – “quite a sandwich” - and forgetting the words. …and the ‘80s festival circuit: “one big club”.   NIK KERSHAW TOUR DATES HERE: https://www.nikkershaw.net/tour-dates/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.

Gang Of Four's moment was dramatic but brief. It was littered with times when the future seemed impossibly bright before disaster crept up with a cosh in their relentless “refusal to do the obvious”. Being a musician, he points out, is a ridiculous life best not taken seriously. His memoir ‘To Hell With Poverty!' rightly describes itself as “rich with stories”, many remembered in this spirited exchange with David and Mark, among them … … the transformational effect of a scholarship to the boarding school where he met GO4 guitarist Andy Gill and future film-makers Adam Curtis and Paul Greengrass. … life-changing records he heard in the school art department – Highway 61 Revisited, the Stooges, the MC5. … “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”. … aged 11, bumping into John Lennon in Sevenoaks who'd just bought his Mr Kite poster. … signing a contract with the manager that robbed them and whose busy and efficient office of “ripped and buffed” staff turned out to be hired actors. … being thrown off Top Of The Pops for not changing an ‘offensive' song lyric – “EMI were “mortified”. … the old hippy world of the ‘70s – Hawkwind, the Whole Earth Catalog and “a Withnailesque flat where we had an airgun to shoot the mice”. … hopeless online misinterpretations of his song lyrics - “there may be soil under fuck all” (aka “there may be oil under Rockall”). … the rigours of trying to promote “outsider music”. … reaching “the point where the game is up”. … the Bourgeois Brothers, the ‘comedy' duo he formed with Andy Gill at Leeds University and why they returned to England to form a band in the mould of Talking Heads, the Ramones and Richard Hell. … and why recording the audiobook moved him to tears. Order ‘To Hell With Poverty!' here:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hell-Poverty-Class-Inside-Gang/dp/1636142346 Gang Of Four tour dates:https://www.songkick.com/artists/393675-gang-of-four/calendarFind 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.

Tyres pumped, engine cranked, chromework winking in the Springtime sun, the two-man conversational jalopy sets off on its weekly spin and visits … … 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 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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!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 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 …  … 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/0571376118Find 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.

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 … … “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 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.   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-shuttleworthFind 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.

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 … … 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 Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.