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 EarLulu, when Prince did a bad thing and how the Beatles changed the shape of the human head
This week the two-man kayak of curiosity tackles the following rock and roll rapids … … when was the last time there was a truly universal hit? … why Waylon…
Word In Your EarMusicians and their mothers and the records we could never sell
We spun the week’s rock and roll roulette wheel and this is where the balls landed … … why all rock biopics are worth seeing once. … ‘demixing’: we spent ages…
Word In Your EarTom Hibbert (the world’s funniest music writer) and why Madonna should be sued
Our piercing Hubble Telescope Of Truth scans the rock and roll heavens to see what new patterns emerge, among them … … running into Rod Stewart at a friend’s…
Word In Your EarTV's greatest musical moment - and are we still allowed to laugh at hopeless old rock bands?
Applying our patent ACME wheat/chaff separator to the rock and roll cornfield, this week’s podcast reaps the following harvest …. … Stray, Budgie, Fat…
Word In Your EarGraham Gouldman knows where to alphabetically file 10cc records
In March Graham Gouldman and 10cc are coming your way and here he talks to David Hepworth about:- seeing Cliff and the original Shadows at his first live show-…
Word In Your EarAnnie Nightingale (“the great goth auntie”), choirs on pop records & the music they sent into space
We stuck a coin in this week’s jukebox of news and cranked up the volume and these were the tracks that got played … … fond memories of Annie Nightingale at…
Word In Your EarJim Gordon - the supernatural gift and tragic fate of “the greatest rock drummer” with Joel Selvin
Jim Gordon played the drums on Wichita Lineman, Good Vibrations, the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man and hundreds of other recordings we all own and worked with…
Word In Your EarGreat albums now 50 years old, the best gag ever & the haircut that launched folk-rock
Leaping across puddles, walking between the raindrops, its collar turned to the cold and damp, our weekly podcast builds a defence against the rigours of the…
Word In Your EarNoel Coward, Gallagher & Squire’s superpower summit & the art of the Bob Dylan backbeat
Amid the detritus of tangerine peel, half-eaten chocolates, broken toys and jars of home-brewed chutney beneath the rock and roll Christmas tree we found…
Word In Your EarHipgnosis album art, the hardest working man in showbiz & the moment the world went mad
We check this week’s luggage on the rock and roll baggage carousel and remove the following items for inspection … … The People v OJ Simpson and why it’s worth…
Word In Your EarDenny Laine, the Move’s catastrophic court case & the man who's made 700 albums in 2 years
This week’s wheat/chaff separation process sifts the following from the rock and roll cornfield … … Tony Secunda, his gangsterish suits and the publicity stunt…
Word In Your EarThe Beatles as seen by their roadie, co-conspirator & friend Mal Evans – and Kenneth Womack
Mal Evans was the Beatles’ right-hand man, their bouncer, bodyguard, gofer, chauffeur, drug-runner, roadie, fellow party animal, confidante and friend. Along…
Word In Your EarA drink to Shane MacGowan, Spinal Tap rebooted and lunch with Randy Newman
Belfast author and old pal of the pod Stuart Bailie joins us to remember the lost captain of the good ship Pogues and we touch on Shane’s “feral” early life…
Word In Your EarPauline Murray’s kids have finally found out what Mum did in the Punk Wars
Pauline Murray kept a diary when she and Penetration were on the punk rock frontline and her vivid and emotional memories appear in a new memoir, Life’s A…
Word In Your EarGlen Matlock and the ‘Sliding Doors moment’ that sparked the punk rock fuse
Glen Matlock came to our live podcast recording at London’s 21Soho at the end of November and lit up the audience with tales from his new memoir ‘Triggers’…
Word In Your EarDoes anyone know more about rock stars than Jenny Boyd?
You wonder why her life hasn’t been made into a movie. Jenny Boyd’s mother had so many children she didn’t realise her daughter had quit school and become a…
Word In Your EarWho’s next for an AI movie, first use of sampling & rock stars in unsuitable clothes
We ran our metal detector over this week’s rugged rock and roll terrain and dug deep when it beeped. Among those prime locations … … the secret of Top Gear’s…
Word In Your EarKanye West & the billion dollar gym pumps plus the album sleeve that changed the game
The week’s rock and roll luggage was put through the scanner by our sharp-eyed security chiefs and the following items kept back for scrutiny …… 82 year-old…
Word In Your EarThe 2-Tone story - Daniel Rachel remembers the school playground “turning black and white”
As if by some magical alignment of the planets, the Specials, Madness and the Beat were all listening to the same music and developing the same look at…
Word In Your EarWhy Kirsty MacColl was so funny, honest, original and impossible to sell – by Jude Rogers
Jude Rogers – writer, broadcaster, old pal of the pod - first heard Kirsty MacColl when she was nine and felt a connection ever since. She’s just written the…
Word In Your EarMystery people on album sleeves, Elton dressed as a hornet and Leonard Cohen’s favourite song and why
This week’s winning hand from the rock and roll card deck includes … … a silver salute to musicians who don’t dye their hair. … did Al Pacino play Phil…
Word In Your EarSlade, a rambunctious reminder of a vanished world by Daryl Easlea
Slade were as revolutionary as T. Rex or Roxy Music, Daryl Easlea points out. At one stage they were outselling Bowie and Bolan. They were the band that hauled…
Word In Your EarThe KLF torched £1m "and are haunted by it daily". John Higgs knows why
John Higgs' brilliant and wide-ranging book 'The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds' came out ten years ago and just keeps on selling…
Word In Your EarWhat did we think of the Beatles' last hurrah?
"The Beatles gave us a continuing soundtrack of unparalleled charm and reassurance", Derek Taylor said. "As long as they kept on delivering fresh songs along…
Word In Your EarFor Ian Broudie & the Lightning Seeds, 'Three Lions' has been a blessing and a curse
There are broadly three Ian Broudies in the public imagination. One is the songwriter with a catalogue of softly psychedelic left-field pop tunes. The second…
Word In Your EarBilly Sloan, the man who interviewed Grace Jones in a bath
Billy Sloan, Glaswegian broadcaster and music columnist, has written his memoir, ‘One Love, One Life’, about a career that’s allowed him to point his…
Word In Your EarThe greatest guitarist & the strange tale of Mike Raven - plus a leaked Radio One memo!
We spin the reels of the rock and roll fruit machine this week and get the following pay-outs … … the preposterous present they gave Bobby Charlton when he…
Word In Your EarPin-Ups’ 50th, Morrissey The Eternal Teenager and what the Stones should be writing songs about
Toothsome hors d’ouvres, mains and ‘items from the trolley’ on the rock and roll menu this week include … … Bowie’s Pin-Ups v Ferry’s These Foolish Things: who…
Word In Your EarThe “gangsterish” charm of Andrew Loog Oldham and Immediate Records, by Simon Spence
The godfather of British independent labels, Immediate, was started in 1965 by the Stones’ manager Andrew Oldham and Tony Calder, its winning slogan: “happy to…
Word In Your EarDenmark Street, London's Tin Pan Alley, where the Sex Pistols met Pink Floyd and a luverly bunch of coconuts, by Peter Watts
As it emerges from the upheaval of Cross Rail, music historian Peter Watts looks at this densely-packed thoroughfare between Charing Cross Road and Covent…
Word In Your EarMadonna’s karaoke show, albums that sound their covers and whatever happened to protest music?
Spicy and nutritious items in the rock and roll bouillabaisse this week include … … Roger Waters at the Palladium: a masterclass in how to insult an audience…
Word In Your EarJarvis v Jacko and why drummers are like goalkeepers. Let Pulp’s Nick Banks be your guide
Nick Banks - nephew of the great Gordon Banks – saw a note pinned by his favourite band to a wall in 1986, his Sliding Doors moment: ‘Pulp Want Drummer. Call…
Word In Your EarSmoking on album sleeves, Smash Hits The Musical and records you own but have never played
Engaging blips on the rock and roll radar this week include:- … Iron Maiden album title or novel by Jeffrey Archer? … selling Ringo’s ashtray. … the Blood…
Word In Your EarEcho & the Bunnymen, why the rock press were “divs” and the secret of good hair by Will Sergeant
Will Sergeant’s just put out the second volume of his memoirs, both of them Sunday Times best-sellers, Echoes and the first edition, Bunnyman. Here he revisits…
Word In Your EarAn Insider’s Guide To Goth by Cathi Unsworth (via Cruella De Vil and the Cure)
Crime novelist Cathi Unsworth turned Goth in her teens in rural Norfolk fired by a cocktail of Dennis Wheatley, the Damned on the Peel show and the dark arts…
Word In Your EarNick Drake – a whole new perspective by Richard Morton Jack
Richard Morton Jack interviewed over 200 people when assembling what’s unquestionably the best, most colourful, comprehensive, revealing and accurate portrait…
Word In Your EarGary Numan, unlikely sex symbols and U2’s £1,000 night in the desert
Spice-filled items tossed into the conversational cooking-pot this week include:- … our charming encounter with Gary Numan, possibly the world’s most contented…
- Word In Your Ear
Does Gary Numan regret throwing the glo-stick that hit David Bowie?
Gary Numan is about to set out on a UK acoustic tour, some of it in churches and one date in a cathedral. He talks here - from the Scottish estate house he’s…
Word In Your EarWhy a sumptuous new book about the Island label is “like entering the record shop of your dreams”.
Neil Storey is an old pal from our magazine days who worked in the press office at Island. He looked after U2, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, the B-52’s and many…
Word In Your EarMojo’s 30th birthday plus bands whose t-shirts you’d wear even if you didn’t have any of their records
Both of us were involved in the launch of Mojo 30 years ago in the autumn of 1993 and we dug out our copies of the first issue. As editor Paul Du Noyer said on…
Word In Your EarThe “unknown woman” in McCartney’s photos, the Human League and a new U2 game
This week’s pod was recorded just after we saw ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ at London’s National Portrait Gallery, a warm and…
Word In Your EarPulitzer Prize winner David Remnick takes the long view of Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Macca and more
David Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of…
Word In Your EarThe Stones return, rock’n’roll marriages and Freddie’s 50 kimonos
Recorded together in Mark Ellen’s attic! Among the conversational footballs booted round the park this week you’ll find:- … Freddie’s “exquisite clutter”…
Word In Your EarPlaid shirts? Brown ale? A smoke-stained pub rock special with Simon Matthews
Fired by the rock and roll revival of 1970 and a post-Easy Rider taste for American music, a circuit of some 35 London pubs filled with bands playing fizzing…
Word In Your EarWhat Kevin Armstrong learnt as the sideman for Bowie, McCartney, Morrissey, Sinead and Iggy Pop
Kevin Armstrong was the guitarist in the band David Bowie asked him to assemble for Live Aid and toured and recorded with him many times. Playing the guitar…
Word In Your EarWhich acts will “go down in history” and what matters more than their music?
We dipped the shrimping net of curiosity in the rock and roll rockpool this week and transferred the following items to the podcast bucket … … who now regrets…
Word In Your EarBob Dylan - why he signs autographs left-handed and other mysteries solved by Ray Padgett
Ray Padgett lives in Vermont, first discovered Dylan when he was 16 in the 21st Century and was fascinated and besotted, later launching the newsletter…
Word In Your EarAchtung Baby, rock fantasy friends and the band that inspired the Bad News Tour
Its tyres pumped, its engine tuned, its air-con still on the blink, the rock and roll charabanc trundles off on its circuit which, this week, makes the…
Word In Your EarRobbie Robertson, Billy Connolly, Bridge Over Troubled Water and the “fake history” of Punk
Even podcasts take “annual leave” but we’re back and once again propelling the two-man Pedalo of Enquiry down the rock and roll seafront stopping off at sundry…
Word In Your EarSinead O’Connor, that Morrissey outburst, over-long films and the pitiful plight of roadies
The mellifluous melody and soaring counterpoint of this week’s podcast were comprised of the following notes … … Morrissey’s broadside on the treatment of…
Word In Your EarTales of Hipgnosis sleeves (and the new film) and why the world needs Steely Dan more than ever
Blips on the rock and roll radar this week include … … Things You No Longer See, No 97: the celebrity airport arrival shot. .. do we, in all honesty, need…
Word In Your EarPP Arnold remembers life in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue aged 17
Pat “PP” Arnold was hired as an Ikette by Ike & Tina’s Revue in 1965 and set off a 2,000 mile tour of America, coming to London a year later to support the…
Word In Your EarThe things Bruce and Bing have in common and the adventures of Punch in 1976 clubland
As Mark Ellen had taken his shrimping net to the coast Alex Gold steps into the breach to talk to David Hepworth about….how solo acts like Bing Crosby and…
Word In Your EarNick Drake - and what Richard Morton Jack learnt from 200 people who knew him
In his new biography “Nick Drake: The Life”, Richard Morton Jack set out to correct the misconceptions spread by magazines and former biographies, some ending…
Word In Your EarCathi Unsworth was a teenage goth. Think “Robert Smith’s tarantula hair” and “cider like turps”
Growing up in remote rural Norfolk, crime writer Cathi Unsworth had a Goth conversion, a condition from which, she happily admits, you never fully recover. And…
Word In Your EarWham!, Rock Follies and lost ‘70s prog foot-soldiers Renia – we will remember them!
Filling the spinnaker of enquiry on the careering, two-mast schooner of rock and roll this week you will find … … the prog drummer who made a fortune. ... did…
- Word In Your Ear
Cocteau Twins song or Farrow & Ball paint colour? plus the day Beatlemania began
This week we paddle the two-man kayak of curiosity across the rock and roll seafront and make a few stops on the way, among them … … “the future is always in…
- Word In Your Ear
Grotesque/brilliant sleeves plus does upping the price make a ticket more desirable?
Sizzling hot topics patted back and forth across the ping-pong net of conversation this week include …… the republishing of Giles Smith’s Lost In Music, one of…
- Word In Your Ear
Harvey Lisberg – managing 10cc, meeting Elvis and “Peter Noone’s extra tooth”
Aged 21 in 1963, Harvey Lisberg wanted to be the next Brian Epstein and ended up managing Herman’s Hermits and 10cc, among others, before relaunching the…
- Word In Your Ear
Record shops in movies and what Glenda Jackson did that no other actor ever dared try
This week’s pod veers off the conversational highway to break out its picnic hamper at the following leafy locations …. … the Stackwaddy game: metal band or…