Word In Your Ear

Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

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 podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.  Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2 days ago

    An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys

    “Good hair, good shoes, something to say” were the requirements of Indie Sleaze whose vanguard lit up the fading music press in the first decade of the 21st Century – acts like Franz Ferdinand, the Rakes, the Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. Janine Warren saw the Strokes in Camden in 2001 and life took a whole new direction. Her book ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect’ looks back at old-school rock PR, unmanageable bands, and the summit and collapse of the last scene she thinks we’ll ever see. You’ll enjoy …   … Morrissey at St George’s Hall, Blackburn   … deejaying at Liquidation in Liverpool playing psychedelia and Northern Soul   … the impossible task of being Pete Doherty’s PR: “like sand running through your fingers”   … the day its editor realised the NME was doomed   … the indie dilemma: wanting fame and publicity while appearing not to care   … the rise of Arctic Monkeys, the first big digital success story   … the financial crash, big label panic, illegal file-share and other woes of the 2010 music business   … why rock scenes are a thing of the past   … and the greatest Indie Sleaze record ever made.   Order copies of ‘The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect: the Last Indie Music Scene 2000-2010’ here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/janine-warren-foreword-by-alex-kapranos/the-world-was-a-mess-but-his-hair-was-perfect-the-last-indie-music-scene-2000-2010?algolia_query_id=5510672a106c0f77be3b364fe1f570ce&algolia_object_id=57550933459275&algolia_index=shopify_prod_products&algolia_position= Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    An Indie Sleaze special! – up and down with the Strokes, Libertines and Arctic Monkeys
  2. 11 Sept

    Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher

    Clint Boon was at the heart of “the two biggest musical revolutions of my lifetime” – as a teenager for Joy Division and Buzzcocks, and later the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Hacienda and onstage with Inspiral Carpets, a world of characters as big as his own. His memoir ‘The Manchester Chronicles’ is about obsessions, schoolteachers, purple winklepickers, mobile discos, good luck, catastrophe and being in the right place at the right time for 30 years. Along with …   … why Manchester listens to music so intently: “we’re stuck inside while it rains”   … auditioning Noel Gallagher “as the Lockerbie plane flew directly overhead”   … the new economy: making a Number 2 album funded by t-shirt and cassette sales   … growing up on Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Little Richard and Gary Lewis & the Playboys   … Inspiral Carpets’ obsession with West Coast psychedelia   … when the band all got houses with their Mute advance “and I just bought some $800 sunglasses”   … great bowl-heads haircuts (Stones, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane) and why he got one too   … seeing the Pistols at the Electric Circus: “I left college the next morning”   … the sudden split: playing Glastonbury one minute, living on milk tokens and income support the next   … his 1975 disco playing Mud, the Rubettes and Showaddywaddy (“I was a 14 year-old Ted”)   … and how 24 Hour Party People captured “the spirit, chaos, colour and madness”.   Order copies of ‘The Manchester Chronicles: True Tales of Music, Madness and Mayhem 1976-2006’ here: https://geni.us/manchesterchronicles Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Clint Boon saw Manchester lift off twice and auditioned the young Noel Gallagher
  3. 9 Sept

    The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!”

    The Slits burned very brightly – but briefly - and were gone, their bumpy and courageous tale crisply told in Zoë Howe’s updated ‘Typical Girls?’. She looks back here at the unforgettable things they wore, said and did as “outsiders in an outsider scene”, a band celebrated before they’d even played a note. And touches on …   ... how other all-girl groups got started - the Moodies, the Runaways, Fanny, the Shaggs, Goldie and the Gingerbreads   … Nora Forster – Ari’s mum, German print heiress, the “punk rock Baroness Nica” who bankrolled the Slits   … Ari was a 14 year-old schoolgirl, Viv Albertine was 21: “I couldn’t have a relationship with her. It was like a having a child in the band” … Nick Kent’s account of the four of them “blazing down Oxford Street”   … producer Dennis Bovell’s dub reggae project with “the Witches of West London”   … their fractious relationship with Island Records and Radio One   … “No birds on the stage!”: the author’s life as a female drummer   … and the Pop Group, Rip Rig + Panic, “humour, playfulness, the freedom to be childlike” and the long legacy of the Slits.   Order ‘Typical Girls?: the Story of the Slits’ here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/typical-girls-the-story-of-the-slits-omnibus-remastered?_pos=1&_psq=typical+girls&_psid=eb748e5dc&_ss=e Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    The Slits, a movie in waiting - “Marvel superheroes with their pants on the outside!”

About

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 podcasts alive in regular Word In Your Ear evenings in which they spoke to musicians and authors in front of an audience.  Over these years they've produced hundreds of hours of material. As of the Current Unpleasantness of 2020, they've produced yet hundreds of hours more with a little help from guests kind enough to digitally show them around their attics such as Danny Baker, Andy Partridge, Sir Tim Rice and Mark Lewisohn. For the full span of the Word In Your Ear world, visit wiyelondon.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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