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 Ear10cc’s I’m Not In Love is still weird & wonderful! - plus Kneecap & Carol Kaye
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.……
Word In Your EarWhen Peter Hooton, the Farm & Eric Cantona played Clash songs in an amphitheatre
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…
Word In Your EarCarol Decker of T’Pau and the ocean-going world of the 80s package tour
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…
Word In Your EarThe magnificent Sly Stone & Brian Wilson and the curse of our expectations
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…
Word In Your EarWhy Oasis were God’s gift to the rock press and the story of two missing teeth
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…
Word In Your EarElkie Brooks once opened for the Beatles. A lot happened in the next 65 years …
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…
Word In Your EarWhy they MUST make the Cat Stevens movie + rock feuds, the best video & Beyoncé in a Stetson
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…
Word In Your EarStuart Maconie – every character in the Beatles’ story has a story of their own
Stuart Maconie – broadcaster, prolific author – has a brilliant and original new perspective on the Beatles. His latest book With A Little Help From Their…
Word In Your EarInside the world of reissues with producer Rob Caiger
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…
Word In Your EarGenuinely ‘iconic’ rock pictures, words we should ban and how Freddie Mercury still makes headlines
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…
Word In Your EarMartha Wainwright - ‘never nervous, always ballsy’ and onstage from the age of eight
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…
Word In Your EarBudgie of Siouxsie And The Banshees started out in nightclub cabaret acts, aged 13
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…
Word In Your EarBooks rock stars want you to read, sacked drummers and how Dylan spent his birthday
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…
Word In Your EarDylan Jones bangs the drum for 1975, an explosion of talent and creativity
Dylan Jones – writer, former editor of i-D, Arena and GQ - was 15 in 1975 and dressed like Jimmy McCulloch of Wings (“a lot of denim and silk scarves”), a time…
Word In Your EarThe great lost Beach Boys SMiLE album – David Leaf unravels rock’s Holy Grail
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…
Word In Your EarThe best songs written in seconds, Lennon’s legs and Springsteen’s chimes of freedom.
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…
Word In Your EarDennis Greaves, Nine Below Zero – old-school R&B, police and thieves and the agony of white clogs
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…
Word In Your EarPeter Capaldi’s life in a teenage Glasgow punk band and a public apology to the Cocteau Twins
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…
Word In Your EarAlan Parsons – from the rooftop of Savile Row to Pink Floyd, Steve Harley and some singing pigs
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…
Word In Your EarMom Rock v Dad Rock, the Oasis rumour mill and Kanye West’s devious dentist.
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…
Word In Your EarDennis McNally saw the Summer Of Love in London, New York and California
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…
Word In Your EarThe greatest duet, rock cameos in Miami Vice and the rebirth of Mississippi John Hurt
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…
Word In Your EarAl Murray and James Holland talk the ending of the war in 1945 and the afterlife of The Beatles
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…
Word In Your EarDerek Shulman – when Simon Dupree and Gentle Giant were “the darlings of the English Mafia”
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…
Word In Your EarThe entertaining fictions of Max Romeo and Robert Smith and tech that actually works!
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…
Word In Your EarMoon Zappa remembers life with her father Frank. ‘Pagan absurdists’ aren’t great parents
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…
Word In Your EarDaryl Hall - ‘60s soul session work, the right shoes and a barge trip with Bob Dylan
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…
Word In Your EarRock star pilots, sacking Zak Starkey and bold pioneers of the psychedelic moustache
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…
Word In Your EarDave Pegg, Fairport’s “longest-serving member” (fnarr!) looks back at hippie chaos and old heroes
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…
Word In Your EarWithering reviews of famous albums, Jaws versus Jeeves and the genius of Blondie’s Clem Burke
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…
Word In Your EarWhy Sparks’ Russell Mael preferred British acts to the ‘faux honesty’ of Laurel Canyon
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…
Word In Your EarSeven ‘lost’ Springsteen albums, romance in sitcoms and the age of spectacle
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. ……
Word In Your EarEd Tudor Pole – singer, actor, serial showman – saw the pop and punk wars as ‘pure theatre’.
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…
Word In Your EarAI’s Word In Your Ear theme tune (!!), the four stages of showbiz & taking kids to concerts
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…
Word In Your EarHearing 45 year-old records you’d never played & the least likely-looking person to become a rock star
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…
Word In Your EarWhat Kate Mossman discovered about rock’s elder statesmen
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…
Word In Your EarHow John Harris and his son found a life-changing connection through music
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…
Word In Your EarMike Rutherford looks back at 60 years onstage and the art of cheap rock theatre
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…
Word In Your EarMike Scott of the Waterboys remembers the shows that inspired him
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…
Word In Your EarThe lost world of teenage love songs – and the best pop song ever written!
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…
Word In Your EarNik Kershaw remembers Live Aid, snoods, fingerless gloves & a sudden male-female audience shift
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…
Word In Your EarGang Of Four’s Jon King now sees the comedy in their endless self-sabotage
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…
Word In Your EarHas politics eaten entertainment? What’s ‘perfect sound’? Plus Brian James & how to make a speech
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…
Word In Your EarFilm-maker Denny Tedesco on dad’s old band The Wrecking Crew and new doc “Immediate Family”
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…
Word In Your EarLennon & McCartney seen in a fresh, stirring and original new light by Ian Leslie
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…
Word In Your EarThe threat of AI, the appeal of Gene Hackman & the filthy glamour of Exile On Main St
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…
Word In Your EarGraham Fellows, “the comedy of the underdog” and inventing John Shuttleworth and Jilted John
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…
Word In Your EarEternally cool rock stars, the Bond takeover and remembering Rick Buckler
As sinister autocrats stroke Persian cats in shark-pooled underground bunkers, their bony fingers reaching for the nuclear button, we shake another Vodka…
Word In Your EarJustin Hayward – ‘60s package tours, lost profits & the highpoint of the Moody Blues
Nights In White Satin - 260 million streams on Spotify - is still the central plank in the set Justin Hayward’s touring in October. He talks to us here about…
Word In Your EarYour guided tour of David Bowie’s London with Paul Gorman’s stories about its key locations
No musician is more closely associated with London or left more footprints than Bowie, and you can trace its influence on his life and work (and vice versa)…
Word In Your EarEddi Reader - busking, singing radio jingles and “men you put on the shoulder-pads for”
We first saw Eddi Reader singing with the Gang Of Four on Whistle Test in 1982. This eventful pod traces her story from seven kids in a two-bedroom council…
Word In Your EarWhy all great pop stars are cartoons, Bowie doing mime and people whose voices we’ve never heard
Passing the Dutchie 'pon the left-hand side, we sift through this week’s events, rants and theories which absorbingly include … … that Drake v Kendrick Lamar…
Word In Your EarBob Marley in London, Chappell Roan’s outburst & records that sound best in the dark
Direct from the Government Yard in Trenchtown where, over cornmeal porridge by a log wood fire, the events of the week are gently appraised, among them … … how…
Word In Your EarThe rise of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars through the eyes of Woody Woodmansey
The teenage Woody Woodmansey was offered the job of under-foreman in the Vertex spectacle factory in Hull but then got a call from Bowie inviting him to move…
Word In Your EarSo Long, Marianne Faithfull plus the Shipping Forecast as read by Nick Cave
In a courageous stand against AI technology, a pair of old lags communing via two cocoa tins and a piece of string attempt to put the rock and roll world to…
Word In Your EarDid Britain invent the rock band? - plus our new laws about music & Garth Hudson RIP
When we get off of this mountain, you know where we want to go? Straight down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. While surveying the week’s events as…
Word In Your EarHoward Jones has ‘the best job in the world’
We put Howard Jones on the cover of Smash Hits in 1983 billed as ‘the Most Promising New Act’ and, 15 albums and 42 years later, he’s about to set out on…
Word In Your EarAndy Fairweather Low’s teenage psychedelic stardom
Another great hero on the podcast! We first heard Andy Fairweather Low with Amen Corner on jukeboxes in the late ‘60s and he’s touring the UK from February…
Word In Your EarA 3-part rant about LPs sold as ‘antiques’, TikTok & the shameful AI Michael Parkinson
David feels a rant coming on. Mark lights the blue touchpaper, pulls on a tin hat and retires to a safe distance as they consider … … the US closure of TikTok…
Word In Your EarThe unstoppable Francis Rossi – open the fridge door and he’ll do 30 minutes
Something happens when he walks out under the lights. He can never predict what but he’s programmed to perform. As he has for over 60 years and will again when…