Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

The rock and roll ballot-box is stuffed with votes and the exit polls suggest how this week’s debate might play out. Along these lines …
 
… is there still such a thing as British music?
 
… John Lennon as a lavatory attendant.
 
… Pink Floyd’s miming lessons.
 
.. how Neil Finn cheered up the All Blacks.
 
… the staggering difference in the UK album charts in the weeks the last two Labour Prime Ministers were elected (1997 and 2024) - male British bands v international female solo acts.
 
… ‘Starman’ on Top Of The Pops and the tricks it plays on the memory.
 
… “current chart acts are either in the spotlight or don’t seem to exist at all.”
 
… the wit and wisdom of James Blunt.
 
.. the Herd’s guest spot in the Tom Courtenay caper Otley.
 
… the Phil Collins syndrome: “when people are tired of duffing up pop stars, they tend to re-embrace them”.
 
… plus birthday guest Richard Lewis and songs that should be longer – eg Dancing the Night Away by the Motors, I Can Fly by the Herd (cue military bugle and church bell and choir).
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We’ve known Dylan since the days he was editing i-D, Arena and GQ and he’s been a regular on our podcasts talking about his books on Live Aid, the ‘80s, David Bowie and Wichita Lineman. And he’s finally written his memoir, These Foolish Things, full of insights and stories about glam rock, punk, the Blitz, four decades of the magazine world and the people he interviewed and shepherded into awards shows. You’ll hear the delightful clang of the odd dropped name here, along with …
 
… Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine and the power of fame when it was harder to achieve.
 
… seeing Leigh Bowery in daylight.
 
 … the real story of Kylie’s “bare bum” tennis shoot.
 
… does every good memoir involve a degree of treachery?
 
… why Hollywood’s still obsessed with print.
 
… William Hague’s 14 pints, Nick Clegg’s 30 women and other self-selling GQ scoops.
 
… Piers Morgan and Alastair Campbell (“the rottweilers”) and other interrogators who’d always come back with a cover line, usually involving a number.
 
… how politicians make great interviews as they’re used to aggression.
 
… “not now, I’m filming!”: life in the Arena office.
 
… i-D, the Face, nightclubs and “intoxicating” London in the early ‘80s.
 
… magazine covers and the fine art of horse-trading.
 
Order These Foolish Things here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/These-Foolish-Things-Dylan-Jones/dp/1408719851
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In which we hoof a few balls round the rock and roll pitch and try to stick some in the net. Extracts from the live match commentary include ….
 
… “Whipping Post!” “Paint it black, you devil!”: when did the audience become part of the show?
 
… the special, unrepeatable thing about Bill Evans At The Village Vanguard.
 
… GambleGate and the most we’ve ever bet on anything.
 
… why young musicians today are so good. And why most Americans could outplay the British.
 
… ‘60s Jamaican ska, 2-Tone and other imperfect imitations of the original.
 
 … does the mainstream exist anymore?
 
… did the Animals’ House of the Rising Sun invent folk-rock?
 
… the voice of Word In Your Ear, Kerry Shale: who is that masked man?
 
… the new Al Murray promotional tactic.
 
… and does anyone else remember Alice’s Restaurant?
 
Plus Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles playing Motown, Emily Roberts of the Last Dinner Party playing Gershwin and birthday guest Blaine Allan.
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The two-man tandem of curiosity wobbles its way down the rock and roll cyclepath pausing here to admire the view …
 
… “We’re captive on the carousel of TIME-AH!!”: tuneless Northern club singer Reg “Reg” Snipton performs Ver Greats.
 
… is going to gigs alone becoming a thing?
 
... why Phil Oakey was a better musician than any of ELP.
 
… Seven Nation Army in football stadiums - and does Jack White make any money from it?
 
… what rock stars spend their fortunes on.
 
… people who are ‘jewellery-blind’ (eg D Hepworth).
 
… the scariest intention a musician can announce.  
 
… Dutch fans dancing.
 
… the poignancy of all John Lennon’s possessions.
 
… how to wreck the Great American Songbook (may involve xylophone solo).
 
… from the Euros to a trip on the tube: how selfies have invaded our space.
 
… the strange, unfinished story of John Lennon’s Patek, “the El Dorado of lost watches”.
 
… you’re never alone with an iPhone.
 
… and does virtuoso musicianship ruin pop music, asks birthday guest Guy Constant? (Answer: yes).
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Clare Grogan, a regular on our podcasts and rarely off the cover when we were at Smash Hits, is on tour again with Altered Images and playing festivals in the summer – indeed her fabulous description of the bus ferrying her, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kim Wilde and Living in A Box to the stage at Rewind sounds like an old Smash Hits cartoon come to life. As she points out, “the ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the decade itself.” We don’t know anyone who enjoys and appreciates being a pop star more and talk here about the first gigs she ever went to and played herself, which involves …
 
… what she wore (aged 13) to see the Bay City Rollers at the Glasgow Apollo (includes “cork platform clogs”).
 
… winning the Alternative school beauty pageant dressed as Debbie Harry in a bin bag.
 
… her sister Margaret’s re-enactments of David Bowie, Leo Sayer and Roxy Music.
 
… why the furniture at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden was screwed to the floor.
 
… memories of 2-Tone, the Banshees, Madness, the Stranglers and the Blockheads.
 
… the riot at a Scottish festival when they ran out of alcohol.
 
… violence at early ‘80s gigs when your only security was “Ginge the Roadie”.
 
… Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs at the Bungalow Bar in Paisley.
 
… do you focus on the people in the crowd who are enjoying it or the ones that need winning over?
 
… horizontal rain when wearing a ballet dress and playing to “a sea of cagoules”.
 
… the best way to tell the audience you’re about to play a new song.
 
… David Hepworth’s Altered Images album review in Smash Hits: ouch!
 
… and her daughter watching old Altered Images clips on YouTube.  
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Altered Images autumn tour dates and tickets here: http://alteredimages.band/
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Graeme is an old friend of the podcast. We’ve talked to him in the past about his books on Phil Lynott and John Martyn. ‘Under The Ivy: the Life And Music of Kate Bush’ first appeared in 2010, and was revised in 2015 after her Before the Dawn concerts and it’s now been updated again as, despite no new music or public appearances, her worldwide reputation has rocketed through the roof. We look back here at various key points in the story including ...  
 
… why the way she made records was ahead of its time.
 
… the ‘70s footage and recordings that were “supressed”.
 
… the “reclusive” decade and how the press filled the vacuum.
 
… divinely daft and humorous TV appearances eg with Delia Smith: “Waldorf Salad – that’s got waldorfs in it!”
 
… her bohemian childhood and the powerful influence of male counterparts, particularly eldest brother and erotic poet John Carder Bush.
 
… the unconventional Smash Hits interview of 1981.
 
… the ‘Before the Dawn’ concerts and the reason she staged them.
 
… her seven-year stand-off with Top Of The Pops.
 
… her ‘70s rock group – the KT Bush Band (still going!) – and the songs they played eg The Stealer by Free, Brooklyn by Steely Dan, Shame Shame Shame by Johnny Winter.
 
… Danny Baker’s NME review – “nothing she writes about matters”.
 
… Pamela Stephenson’s vicious pastiche and Alan Partridge’s part in her comeback.
 
... Talk Talk, Blackadder, Monty Python, Powell & Pressburger, Oscar Wilde, Celtic folk, the Pre-Raphaelites and other early influences.
 
… and the advantage of never being cool.
 
Order 'Under The Ivy' here …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Ivy-Music-Omnibus-Remastered/dp/1915841356
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