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. Paul Weller – ‘gloriously chippy’ – as seen by friends, family, fans and collaborators

    -21 H

    Paul Weller – ‘gloriously chippy’ – as seen by friends, family, fans and collaborators

    Dan Jennings’ podcast ‘Desperately Seeking Paul’ is so successful he’s used 250 of the interviews in a best-selling oral history. ‘Dancing Through The Fire’ has voices from right across the spectrum – family members, band members, writers, pluggers, label bosses, collaborators and famous fans. He talks to us here about …   … Weller’s real name and when he changed it by deed poll   … a theory about bands formed in towns not cities   … the handbrake turn from the Jam to the Style Council – one minute the intense young man cutting out his press clippings, the next espadrilles, singing in French and “nibbling Mick’s ear on the River Cam”   … Weller’s “very English” need to be heard and respected - but not loved   … the role of his manager father in the Jam’s success, the days when the family phone number was in the Fan Club ads   ... how Noel Gallagher engineered a Bono/Weller photo op   … Paul’s glorious chippiness – Band Aid, the pop press, “offering a journalist out for a fight in Victoria Park”   ... John and Paul Weller and echoes of Only Fools And Horses   … when the Jam played ice rinks and swimming pools   … the cab-driver gossip grapevine   … cutting 1.5 million words to 250,000 and the book’s biggest revelations and surprises.   Order a copy of Dancing Through The Fire here: https://geni.us/dancingthroughthefire Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
  2. David Bowie and why we need him more than ever. Paul Morley looks back in wonder

    6 NOV.

    David Bowie and why we need him more than ever. Paul Morley looks back in wonder

    David Bowie’s significance just keeps expanding and the look and sound of him never age. Paul Morley has been gripped from the start and his new book ‘Far Above The World’ explores the many reasons why. These among them …   … Labyrinth, YouTube and the new ways people discover Bowie   … why he’s a figurehead of a vanishing world   … dressing up for radio interviews   … his almost fatal relationship with America and the 1971 promo tour that was his ‘On The Road’   … Haddon Hall and his first key collaborators   … writing a book about Bowie in public as part of the V&A exhibition – “I was an art installation!”   … Five Years, the internet, the studio as an instrument and other ways he was ahead of the curve   … “his YouTube reels are now part of his catalogue”   … his boundless curiosity about art, film, books and technology   … that unforgettable clip of TFI Friday: “every interview was performance art”   … a missed chance on the Marc Bolan Show   … “music to repel the Dark Ages”   … and why his look and sound never age.   Order ‘Far Above The World: The Time And Space of David Bowie’ here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/morley-paul-far-above-the-world-the-time-and-space-of-david-bowie Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    30 min
  3. ‘Bob Dylan is my father’ - and why Sam Sussman is convinced it’s true.

    5 NOV.

    ‘Bob Dylan is my father’ - and why Sam Sussman is convinced it’s true.

    Sam Sussman’s mother Fran had a year-long love affair with Dylan when he was working on Blood on the Tracks – she’s mentioned in Tangled Up In Blue – and they met again in 1990. What she told him about that relationship is mapped out in the book he’s just written, Boy From the North Country, along with the firm belief that he’s Dylan’s son. Imagine how that must feel. This extraordinary conversation takes a number of turns and these are among them …   … Norman Raeben’s art class where Dylan was trying break his creative block and met the 20-year old Fran Sussman     … details of their 12-month affair and how it ended: “he gave me love songs but not love”   … the verses of Tangled Up In Blue that relate to Fran and the philosophy, art and poetry woven into his songs at the time   … Dylan’s other women in 1974   … being told by a teacher that he looked like Dylan and how he’s played up that connection ever since   … how it feels to think you might have numerous Dylan siblings - and how many there might be(!)   … the kind of people Sam meets in his book-signing queues   ... and why his mother wouldn’t confirm who his father was.   Order copies of Boy From The North Country here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/boy-from-the-north-country/sam-sussman/9781804711286 Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    27 min
  4. Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey had a ‘manifesto for success’. Here’s how it worked

    4 NOV.

    Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey had a ‘manifesto for success’. Here’s how it worked

    Tom Bailey’s been based in New Zealand for the last 30 years, making records, DJing and avoiding British winters. He tours the UK in 2026 playing the Thompson Twins’ greatest hits and looks back here from Auckland at the first shows he ever saw and played, all this high in the mix …   ... dance music and the British Invasion of America   … the inspiring delights of Some Kind Of Mushroom, his local record shop in Chesterfield   … seeing Blodwyn Pig, Edgar Broughton and Principal Edwards Magic Theatre when he was 15   … “bass players go to bed last”   … when his folk-rock band the Witching Hour supported Mick Farren & the Deviants - and promptly split up   … living in Clapham squats with members of the Pop Group and the Slits   … the Thompson Twins - from “the young angry white-boy funk” to the MTV trio with a policy statement    .. their manifesto and division of labour – “Tom Bailey music, Alannah Currie lyrics, Joe Leeway the live show”   … Live Aid with Madonna when the David Letterman house band became the Thompson Twins   … “a miraculous palette of sound”: how affordable technology changed his life   … and the extravagant talent of his all-female band.   Tickets for Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey & Blancmange 2026 Tour here: https://www.alttickets.com/thompson-twins-tom-bailey-tickets Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
  5. The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on triumph, gladioli & Morrissey when he was still ‘Steve’

    2 NOV.

    The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on triumph, gladioli & Morrissey when he was still ‘Steve’

    Morrissey and Marr both wrote memoirs but Mike Joyce hasn’t read either, preferring to publish ‘The Drums’, his version of one of the great success stories of the ‘80s, a book about “the beauty we’d given to people – and to ourselves”. At one point he and Andy Rourke shout, ‘Where did it all go right?”. He looks back here at …   … the fateful meeting in Geales fish bar when Johnny told them he was leaving – “none of us, not even Morrissey, saw it coming”   … the first Smiths rehearsal and impressions of “Steve” the singer   … how the songs were written - “we never asked what they meant”   … and how they were arranged: “I locked with Johnny like Charlie with Keith, and Andy played a bass song over the top”   ... memories of Johnny at X Clothes in Manchester and Morrissey in ‘82 - “funny, dark, so Manc”   … the “almost anti-punk” appeal of the Buzzcocks and the urge for a John Maher red Premier drumkit   … “Morrissey’s articulacy was both his strength and his Achilles heel”   … echoes of Motown and James Honeyman-Scott in Marr’s guitar   … “Singers need to feel they’re the most important person in the room”   … on-stage gladioli versus “the austerity of the Hacienda”   … and Morrissey today - “very angry” - and the legacy of the Smiths.     Order copies of ‘The Drums here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/joyce-mike-the-drums Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    42 min

À propos

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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