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
Revenge songs, Nick Drake and that sorry tale about Primal Scream
The super-trouper of gentle enquiry alights this week upon … … why bands are at their biggest when they’re over the hill. … Fats Waller v Morrissey song…
- Word In Your Ear
Word In The Park 2023 #4 – Clare Grogan's adventures in TV, film and music
Forty years ago Clare Grogan was on the cover of Smash Hits yet again and was the fourth guest at our garden party on June 3. Here she remembers the key events…
- Word In Your Ear
Word In The Park 2023: How the Beatles and James Bond shaped us all
The first record by the Beatles came out on the same day as the first James Bond film. Over sixty years later they still send their differing forms of…
- Word In Your Ear
Word In The Park 2023 #2 – 60 years of the Bee Gees with Bob Stanley
Author, DJ, member of St Etienne and a regular on our podcasts, Bob Stanley was the second guest at our sun-baked garden party in the auditorium of Opera…
- Word In Your Ear
Word In The Park 2023: 60 years of the Stones with Lesley-Ann Jones
It’s a barely believable sixty years since the Rolling Stones put out their first single, “Come On”, so we asked Lesley-Ann Jones, the author of “The Stone…
- Word In Your Ear
What bands are becoming unfashionable?
This week’s rock and roll gumbo includes the following spicy and nutritious ingredients … … “the internet is designed to let middle-aged men think they’ve had…
- Word In Your Ear
Which is the most two-faced world - movies, music or daytime TV?
Fond and appraising enquiry of recent events, this week featuring … … we now feel we have to approve of artists/musicians/writers before we can say we like…
- Word In Your Ear
Farewell Tina Turner – “all you needed was Nutbush City Limits and a Watneys Party 7”
A special extra podcast recorded just after hearing the news. We can barely remember a time when we weren’t aware of her. This looks back at the Ike & Tina R&B…
- Word In Your Ear
Robert Johnson, Shakespeare and the rock star image of Martin Amis
Put through the boil-wash of enquiry and hung upon the washing line of truth this week you’ll find the following one-size-fits-all garments … … which acts are…
- Word In Your Ear
Is there a more annoying rhyme than “arms” and “charms”?
Further nutritious items on the pod’s tasting menu this week include … … the story of Tubular Bells and how the Exorcist sent its sales through the roof. ……
- Word In Your Ear
How a nine-year-old boy kick-started Rock’n’Roll (and other stories)
Where the Gold Bracelets of Sincerity and Wisdom and the Rod of Equity and Mercy meet the piping hot music news agenda in a weekly podcast and alight upon the…
- Word In Your Ear
Groups that look like a check-out line at B&Q? We have a winner!
Encountering the cheerful ping-pong bats of conversation this week you’ll find … … the most unprepossessing rock band on God’s green earth. … Ed Sheeran v…
- Word In Your Ear
“Well I walked up to her and I asked her if she wanted to dance.”
Items run up the flagpole this week include … … our memories of the exquisite agony of teenage dances, especially Dave’s at the Mecca Ballroom in Wakefield…
- Word In Your Ear
Jack Nitzche, a “pleat-faced” guitarist and the time Sly Stone got married onstage
Dipping our shrimping nets this week into the ever-bountiful rock and roll rock pool we find … … Dylan, Madonna, Pharrell Williams, Michael Jackson, Nick Cave…
- Word In Your Ear
John Cooper Clarke reveals “the performing poet’s worst enemy”
The “bargain basement Baudelaire” is setting out on a UK tour in April and tells Mark Ellen here about the earliest shows he saw and played, memories which…
- Word In Your Ear
“Fred Flange”, Barry Cryer meets the Pretenders and what we’ve learnt about the Velvet Underground
This week’s trawl of the rock and roll outer limits alights, among others, on the following sizzling hot topics … ... a lost Beatles tape and the night they…
- Word In Your Ear
The inscrutable King Crimson exposed by their documentary-maker Toby Amies
“Being on tour with King Crimson,” in the words of their film director, “is like being with the school rugby team and, at the last minute, the games teacher…
- Word In Your Ear
Paul Weller as a songwriter? Dylan Jones unpacks his “Imperial Phase"
Paul Weller’s been writing songs for 50 years now and he’s chosen over 100 of his lyrics for the new and gorgeous, picture-packed publication ‘Paul Weller…
- Word In Your Ear
What’s Paul Jones of the Manfreds learnt from 60 years onstage?
The Manfreds start their 60th Anniversary Tour in September with Paul, Mike D’Abo and Tom McGuinnness in the line-up. He talks to us here about the first and…
- Word In Your Ear
Do we still need film and album reviews? Plus Seymour Stein and Keith Reid’s last fandangos
In which we cast a warm but appraising glance in the direction of the week’s news and alight upon the following sizzling topics … … the best media job in the…
- Word In Your Ear
Why Andrew Lauder is the unsung hero of the record business
Andrew Lauder started the Radar, F-Beat and Demon labels, worked at Liberty, Stiff and United Artists and signed (or licensed) and helped shape the careers of…
- Word In Your Ear
Is U2’s new Songs Of Surrender album just plain *wrong*?
Whistling, clicking our heels, swinging round lampposts and lobbing the odd shiny florin to a flaxen-haired child, this week’s free-wheeling navigation of the…
- Word In Your Ear
15 minutes with Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake: it all started on Blackpool Pier (aged two) …
Teenage Fanclub are touring the UK in November. Norman tells us here about some of the first and best shows he’s seen and played and life in the group's early…
- Word In Your Ear
Is U2’s new Songs Of Surrender album just plain wrong?
Whistling, clicking our heels, swinging round lampposts and lobbing the odd shiny florin to a flaxen-haired child, this week’s free-wheeling navigation of the…
- Word In Your Ear
Genuinely rotten albums by brilliant artists plus the band that started cancel culture
Sauntering in carefree, conversational mode down the rock and roll bridleway this week, pausing briefly to lean against a tree and tootle upon a mouth-organ…
- Word In Your Ear
For the love of Wayne Shorter & David Lindley - and are U2 really U2 without Larry Mullen?
Things in the crosshairs this week include … … why it took 34 years to get De La Soul on a streaming service. … Radio 2’s ham-fisted handling of the departure…
- Word In Your Ear
Is Karen Carpenter pop music’s saddest story?
Karen Carpenter died 40 years ago at the age of 32, a life mapped out in a new biography by Lucy O’Brien called Lead Sister. It’s a chilling, cautionary tale…
- Word In Your Ear
Was the pop boom of 1996-2006 a comedy or a tragedy?
The teenage Michael Cragg was obsessed with the “glorious shiny ludicrous pop” of the period that began with the Spice Girls, included Hear’Say, Five, Steps…
- Word In Your Ear
What the Beatles said about the Stones plus the most expensive live music in London
This week’s crackling logs on the conversational fire include … … the attractively unchanging sound of Joe Henry’s 15 albums (the man PRs still sell as…
- Word In Your Ear
Was Chuck Berry the strangest man in the history of rock?
Of all the figures who built rock and roll back in the 1950s, Chuck Berry was arguably the most influential and certainly the strangest. In a new biography…
- Word In Your Ear
Word Down Your Way: 15 minutes with Mark Everett – E from Eels - about shows he's seen and played
Eels are touring the UK in March/April and E talks here about what he’s learnt about live performance from being onstage or in the audience. And this includes…
- Word In Your Ear
What’s the best age to be and when are we at our most stupid?
Given the once-over this week in vigorous pursuit of edification and amusement … … should a Fawlty Towers sequel be illegal? … over-refreshed audiences…
- Word In Your Ear
Burt Bacharach, Waters v Gilmour and how to save the BRITS
The dazzling super-trouper of gentle enquiry is trained this week upon:- … Sam Smith’s inflatable suit. … “TV kills everything”. … What do producers actually…
- Word In Your Ear
15 minutes with Midge Ure about shows he's seen and played
Midge Ure starts a UK tour in April (with Band Electronica) and talks here about bands that left an impression and what he’s learnt about live performance…
- Word In Your Ear
George Harrison and the T-Bone steak, rock fantasy football teams & spot the AI lyrics!
Conversational footballs punted about the park this week include … … why George Harrison’s trip to Benton, Illinois, in 1963 would make a great Netflix drama –…
- Word In Your Ear
Ron Sexsmith - heading your way in April – remembers “life-changing” shows seen over the years
Ron Sexsmith starts a UK tour at the end of April and talks about what he’s learnt about live performance, which includes:- … “notes from girls” after winning…
Word In Your EarJoel De’ath, “the Indiana Jones of rare vinyl”, describes his hunt for the Holy Grail
Joel worked for various labels - Mushroom, Atlantic and Sony among them - and was the man who signed the Darkness. Training to become a psychotherapist, he…
- Word In Your Ear
Peter Asher: singer, producer, manager, main role model for Austin Powers
Peter Asher started out as a child actor in films with John Mills, Alastair Sim and Boris Karloff. He was in the Adventures of Robin Hood with his sister Jane…
- Word In Your Ear
Farewell Tom Verlaine – plus terrible records we can’t help loving
Things featured this week in hot pursuit of entertainment and enlightenment … … seeing Television in 1975 for £1.50 - support act, Blondie. … Kaleidoscope…
- Word In Your Ear
The Long Ryders are heading your way - and it all began with a “red negligee” …
The Long Ryders are touring in May and our old pal Sid Griffin tells us what to expect and looks back here at … … Herman’s Hermits and the Dave Clark Five…
- Word In Your Ear
Farewell David Crosby plus “classic” records that leave us cold
David Crosby was famous for nearly 60 years, a celebrity sustained by records, tours, brushes with the law and serial disagreements with old pals and…
- Word In Your Ear
Suzanne Vega: she started at Carnegie Hall and she's coming to a town near you in February
Suzannne Vega is touring throughout the UK in February. Here she talks to David Hepworth about what she’s learned about live in the course of:….starting off on…
- Word In Your Ear
Jeff Beck “had a boom-tish anecdote about every step of his life”
Our old pal from Word magazine Kate Mossman adored Jeff Beck and the whole range of his recordings and interviewed him recently for the New Statesman. This pod…
- Word In Your Ear
Tony King – friend, adviser and confidante: you can see why the Beatles, Stones and Elton thought he was the best company imaginable
Tony King was there when it all started, working for Decca in the late ‘50s, plugging records on Housewives’ Choice and Family Favourites and looking after…
- Word In Your Ear
The greatest singer of all time? (we know the answer)
… in which we amble fearlessly into the New Year in tireless pursuit of amusement, stopping off at various stations along the way, among them … … can any song…
- Word In Your Ear
The transformational role of the bus in ‘60s pop: discuss!
Things explored this week in pursuit of entertainment and diversion … … Neil Tennant interviews Malcolm McLaren and other delights in Smash Hits, January 1983…
- Word In Your Ear
The deliciously eccentric life and art of Ivor Cutler by his biographer Bruce Lindsay
The full and extraordinary story of “the Zelig-like” Cutler – poet, performer, broadcaster, playwright, surrealist, humorist – is mapped out in Bruce Lindsay’s…
- Word In Your Ear
The things rock made us wear
Army greatcoats, plastic trousers, cowboy boots, scoop-neck t-shirts with bell sleeves … the list of laughable clobber and accessories we briefly thought were…
- Word In Your Ear
Strokes producer Gordon Raphael on the serendipitous creation of 'Is This It'
Gordon Raphael was the sonic architect of arguably the two most important and influential albums of the noughties - The Strokes' 'Is This It' and its follow-up…
- Word In Your Ear
Jet Black, exotic Americans and Oscar Hammerstein’s joke
In which we boldly tackle the burning issues des nos jours in our restless forage for entertainment. Nutritious items on the tasting menu this week include … ……
- Word In Your Ear
Word Down Your Way: Danny Baker with a taste of his thunderous one-man stand-up circus, back on the road in 2023
Danny’s done two hysterically funny, cartwheeling canters round the UK in the last few years and sets out again in February for 49 nights with ‘At Last …The…
- Word In Your Ear
Stories Christine McVie told us - including “Freddie King fixed my puncture”
In which the piercing searchlight of conversational scrutiny points in the direction of … … Christine McVie’s early adventures, our burning love for Chicken…
- Word In Your Ear
Phil Jump tells the story of the legendary Badlands - and the day he took Steve Van Zandt to Brian Jones’s grave
Phil and his brother Steven started a market stall in Cheltenham in the mid-‘80s and made enough money selling rare records to open the world-famous Badlands…
- Word In Your Ear
A farewell to Wilko – “Dr Feelgood didn’t play the music, the music played them.”
… in which we remember watching and talking to the magnificent Wilko Johnson and look back at extraordinary moments in his life – the hippie trail to India…
- Word In Your Ear
Kenneth Womack – author of 12 Beatles books – dives “back through the looking glass”
Ken’s a world authority and he’s been on the pod twice before, talking about his books about George Martin and the last days of John Lennon. He’s just revised…
- Word In Your Ear
If you could only listen to one act all week who would you choose?
Further free-wheeling conversational detours include … … “like the consequences of mating Patti Smith with a Hoover vacuum cleaner”: barbed reviews in the…
- Word In Your Ear
Dylan’s love letters and the one album that never lets you down
Things run up the flagpole this week in pursuit of entertainment … … Irish/American punk rock group or 19th Century criminal gang? … the eternal dependability…
- Word In Your Ear
Twitter and World Cup chaos, Jaco Pastorius, gruesome 18th C combat and other matters of high import
On the radar this week in an enquiring, celebratory or goat-getting capacity … … has the World Cup balloon already been unmendably punctured? … and is the same…
- Word In Your Ear
Trevor Horn’s adventures in modern recording with ABC, Frankie, Yes and Rod Stewart
The teenage Trevor Horn could be found playing bass in dance bands on the Top Rank circuit supporting acts like Tommy Cooper (and singing Long-Haired Lover…
- Word In Your Ear
Farewell Jerry Lee Lewis and is ‘Talking Book’ the most influential record ever made?
… in which we remember the luminous music and diabolical life of the last of the old rock and roll guard standing. And this includes … the weird old America he…