Shows / Word In Your Ear
Word In Your Ear
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth have been talking about and writing about music together and individually for a collective eighty years in magazines like Smash Hits, Mojo and The Word and on radio and TV programmes like "Rock On", "Whistle Test" and VH-1.Over thirteen years ago, when working on the late magazine The Word, they began producing podcasts. Some listeners have been kind enough to say these have been very special to them. When the magazine folded in 2012 they kept the spirit of those…
Episodes
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 274 - Chris Difford
"My Dad said that if I joined a rock band I would be an alcoholic, a drug addict and skint. Turns out he was right." So writes Chris Difford in "Some Fantastic…
- Word In Your Ear
Word podcast 273 - with Daniel Rachel
The guest on our snug Chesterfield was Daniel Rachel, who won the Penderyn Prize for best music book of 2017 for his "Walls Come Tumbling Down", a triumphant…
- Word In Your Ear
Word podcast 272 - Johnny Rogan and Sid Griffin
Johnny Rogan almost didn't make it to this Word In Your Ear. He was so absorbed in a discussion about biography with friend of the podcast Mark Lewisohn that…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 271 - with Sarfraz Manzoor
Usually our guests are talking about freshly-published books. It's actually ten years since Sarfraz Manzoor put out Greetings From Bury Park, his memoir about…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 270 - Uncommon People
We loved them because they could do things we could never do. We adopted them as our fantasy friends when we were teenagers and were still measuring ourselves…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 269 - Thomas Dolby
Thomas Dolby’s career has seen him sharing a helicopter with a terrified David Bowie over Wembley Stadium, labouring on the nightshift at a New York studio in…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 268 - John Ingham
John Ingham used to sign himself Jonh Ingham when he covered the very early stirrings of punk rock in 1976 for Sounds. Although he was a writer by trade he…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 267 - Miranda Sawyer and Barry McIlheney
David Hepworth started at Smash Hits in the late 70s, Mark Ellen joined in the early 80s, Barry McIlheney arrived in the middle of the decade and Miranda…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 266 - Tom Doyle on Elton Hercules John
“Captain Fantastic” is Tom Doyle’s account of Elton’s most tumultuous decade, the 70s, during which time he assumed every role from bedsitter poet to…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 265 - David “Ram Jam” Rodigan
There’s a rich British tradition of well brought up young men from the leafier suburbs developing a fixation on music from a very different culture and somehow…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 264 - Tessa Niles and Gina Foster talking BVs
We were delighted to be joined by two of the UK’s most respected providers of backing vocals and harmonies, who between them have sung with everybody from…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 263 - Jon Savage shortcast
In this shortcast Jon Savage talks to David Hepworth about his new compilation album, “1967 - The Year Pop Divided”. Forty-eight tracks of psych-flavoured pop…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 262 - Tony Fletcher
In Which Tony Fletcher tells us about Wilson Pickett, who was impossible as a child, inimitable as a singer and incorrigible as a success, and how he came to…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 261 - Barney Hoskyns
In which Barney Hoskyns talks to us about Woodstock and the part it played in the lives of Dylan, the Band, Albert Grossman and Van Morrison, as related in his…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 260 - Jeff Evans
In which Jeff Evans returns from researching the full history of "Rock and Pop On TV" for his new book and talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about not…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 259 - with Paul Gambaccini
In which Paul Gambaccini, that son of New York who became an institution of British broadcasting, talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about how the Beatles…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 258 - Mick Houghton & Adam White
In which Mick Houghton, the author of a book about the legendary folk-rock label Elektra, and Adam White, the man behind a huge tome about the history of…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 257 - Richard Houghton
In which Richard Houghton, the author of “I Was There”, a collection of first-hand reminiscences from people who saw the Beatles back in the sixties, from…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 256 - Paul Morley on David Bowie
In which David Hepworth talks to legendary journalist and author Paul Morley about how David Bowie inflamed his young imagination and his new book The Age Of…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 255 - Hunter Davies
In which David Hepworth talks to legendary journalist and author Hunter Davies about his time as a fly on the wall with the Beatles in the middle sixties and…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 254 - Sylvia Patterson
In which we talk to the irrepressible Sylvia Patterson on how music provided some much needed structure in her chaotic teenage life and her career as a writer…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 253 - Derek Ridgers
In which we talk to Derek Ridgers, who began taking pictures at Eric Clapton’s Rainbow concert and was there to document the brief moment when punk was…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 252 - David and Caroline Stafford
In which we talked to the husband and wife team behind Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong: The Life And Times Of Randy Newman about this uniquely fascinating artist and…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 251 - Alan Shypton on Harry Nilsson
In which Harry Nilsson biographer Alan Shypton reflects on the man with the voice of an angel and the thirst of a medium-sized nation. We're a bit late with…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 250: 1971 - Never A Dull Moment
In which David Hepworth instructs Mark Ellen in the theory behind his best-selling book about the the annus mirabilis of the rock album, “1971: Never A Dull…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 249 - with Zoë Howe
In which friend of Word In Your Ear and Essex correspondent Zoë Howe talks about the Doctor Feelgood frontman, subject of her new book Lee Brilleaux…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 248 - with Graeme Thompson
In which Word contributor and biographer of George Harrison Graeme Thomson talks about the short but action-packed passage of the “literally clubbable” Phil…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 247 - with Jon Savage
Jon Savage has written celebrated histories of Punk Rock and the Teenager. Now he turns his attention to 1966, the year when pop went fuzzy at the edges, when…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 246 - with Howard Sounes
Howard Sounes has already written revelatory biographies of Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney. Most recently he’s turned his attention to Lou Reed. In Notes from…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 245 - Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello joins us to talk about his blockbusting memoir "Unfaithful Music And Disappearing Ink". The conversation takes in such vital issues as: growing…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 244 - The Skypecast
David Hepworth and Mark Ellen talk bout Tracey Thorn’s Naked At The Albert Hall: The Inside Story Of Singing and John Seabrook’s The Song Machine: Inside The…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 243 - The Peelcast
David Cavanagh, the author of “Good Night and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years Of John Peel Help Shape Modern Britain”, and Trevor Dann, WIYE’s go-to guy…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 242 - Chris Salewicz
Chris Salewicz joined us to talk about “Dead Gods: The 27 Club” which deals with the rock stars who never got past their twenty-seventh birthday. His list…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 241 - The McCartneycast
WIYE McCartney Special. Paul Du Noyer, who’s interviewed him more than anyone (much of which is reflected in his new book, “Conversations With McCartney), and…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 240 - with Patrick Woodroffe
Patrick Woodroffe is the world's foremost live show lighting designer. He's the man the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and many others ask for by…
- Word In Your Ear
Podcast 239 - with Peter Doggett
Peter Doggett is one of the most respected authors in the music field, with highly-praised works devoted to David Bowie and the Beatles to his name. Here he…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 238 - Mick Wall
Mick Wall has been a leading light of rock journalism at the heavier end for over thirty years, playing an important role in the development of Black Sabbath…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 237 - Live Aid
On the 30th anniversary of the day four people who were there — Janice Long, Dylan Jones, Mark Ellen and David Hepworth — talk about what it was like, how it…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 236 - Clare Grogan
One of our oldest pals talks about Altered Images, Gregory's Girl, the joys of the oldies circuit and how motherhood led her to write Tallulah and the Teen…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 235 - Johnnie Walker
In this special Word In Your Era recording the UK's most legendary disc jockey talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about playing records on the radio in the…
- Word In Your Ear
Podcast 234 - Johnny Rogan
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Johnny Rogan, biographer of Morrissey and Van Morrison, about Ray Davies, the subject of his latest book, “A Complicated…
- Word In Your Ear
Podcast 233: Mick Taylor’s got the shits…
Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry talk to “Magic” Alex Gold about his playing ukulele in Alaska, schlepping the length and breadth of Britain to play…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 232 - Rick Buckler
Rick Buckler was the drummer of The Jam. His book "That's Entertainment" tells the story of how a teenage covers band from Woking became Britain's most popular…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 231 - Richard Goldstein
Richard Goldstein was the world's first rock critic. He wrote the "Popeye" column for the Village Voice during the British invasion of New York, rubbing…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 230 - Norman Jopling
Norman Jopling worked for Record Mirror in the 60s. He wrote the first story about the Rolling Stones, he took competition winners to meet the Beatles on the…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 229 - Fairport Convention
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to founder members of Fairport Convention Ashley Hutchings and Simon Nicol about Sandy Denny, the subject of "I've Always…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 228 - The Bobcast
On the day Bob Dylan's album "Shadows In The Night" was released, top Dylan interpreter Barb Jungr and musician and writer Sid Griffin, talked to Mark Ellen…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Pod 227 - Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites about Great Lost Albums which celebrates some of the records which you may not have…
- Word In Your Ear
Richard Balls and Mark Lewisohn
Mark Ellen and David Hepworth talk to Richard Balls, the author of Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story about that label’s unique contribution to the iconography…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 225 - Remembering Smash Hits
Mark Frith and Sylvia Patterson join Mark Ellen and David Hepworth to remember Britain's brightest - includes extremely rare 1982 Christmas flex.Help us to…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 223 — Danny Baker
Part of Danny Baker’s epic November performance at The Islington in which he talked about his new book “Going Off Alarming”. Believe it or not, Mark Ellen and…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 223
In which Mark Ellen, Fraser Lewry and David Hepworth consider U2's album, the rum work done in the name of the "rock doc" and the proper duties of a household…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 222 — Zoe Howe
Zoe Howe, author of a new book about Stevie Nicks, talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth in front of an audience at the Islington.Help us to keep The Longest…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 221 — Ben Watt
In an interview recorded in front of an audience at The Islington, Ben Watt talks to David Hepworth and Mark Ellen about "Romany and Tom", his acclaimed memoir…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 220
Legendary artist manager, entrepreneur and speaker on all things music business Simon Napier-Bell talks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth about his new book…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 219
Includes: world debut of enthralling new parlour game Rock Poker; Neil Finn’s Two-Way Family Favourites; the two tribes of Adam Ant Nation; Justin Timberlake’s…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 218 - Where's The Crisps?
March 2014: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Fraser Lewry convene over cakes to discuss: why all rock docs are legally bound to feature Bono, the touching story…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 217 - with Bob Harris
Men kicking stars! Smoking on TV! Having to introduce music you didn't like! Getting picked on in public! All this and more in our Whispering Bobcast in which…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 216
This week we're joined by Jude Rogers and Eamonn Forde to kick around the following subjects: the stylistic chasm between Grace Jones and Ed Sheeran at the…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Podcast 215 - with Chas Hodges
We're joined in the pod by Chas Hodges, who you'll know from such hits as "Gertcha" and "Ain't No Pleasing You". But you ought to also know him from his time…