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. 8 hr ago

    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
  2. 2 days ago

    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!”
  3. 26 Aug

    Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’

    Natalie Merchant joined 10,000 Maniacs when she was 17, had a long and successful solo career and then began teaching children in New York State. Realising the value of rhymes and theatre, her adaptation of Mother Goose (played by herself) was expanded into a multi-media performance with 150 four-year-olds and recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She even made most of the costumes. And she’s never had an audience reaction as enthusiastic and emotional. It’s a magnificent project to give children experiences that modern life rarely affords “right down to the thrill of seeing people play real instruments”. She talks to us here from her New York home about ‘Cabinet Of Wonder’, along with …   … her first stage appearances, aged seven   … scanning record collections and thinking “if they don’t have a copy of Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girl’, we can’t be friends!”    … how improvising lyrics got her into 10,000 Maniacs (“who I wanted to call the Tunda Bunnies”)   … seeing Styx, the Cars and the Clash playing ‘Combat Rock’   … how she and her daughter grew up in homes without TV   … and the threat of future education run by avatars.    The Cabinet of Wonder website: https://cabinetofwonder.org   And the multi-retailer link for the album: https://cabinetofwonder.lnk.to/album 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.

    Natalie Merchant returns playing ‘Mother Goose as an 18th Century feminist’
  4. 25 Aug

    The Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums

    The Proclaimers have only had a handful of hits but they’re songs that have kept expanding for nearly 40 years. And the World Cup was a reminder of how far they’ve reached. Craig and Charlie Reid talk to us here about first adventures onstage, talent shows, the tour circuit, the new album ‘You May Offend’ and …   … the moment the Proclaimers took off   … first records bought in Woolworths in Fife (including the less-than-prophetic World Cup anthem Easy Easy)   … the fraternal voices of the Everly Brothers   … seeing Joy Division supporting Buzzcocks and feeling “the heat and charisma” of Ian Curtis   … the unique way they write songs   … getting royalties when your hits are sung in televised football stadiums   … their first gigs playing Stones, Kinks, Clash and Pistols covers plus a Talent Show in ’77 on a bill with “a lassie singing Scottish ballads and possibly a performing dog”   … recording at Rockfield and the ghost of Bohemian Rhapsody   ... their new video imagining John & Yoko as they might be today   … how easy it is to offend Gen-Z   … and hitchhiking 60 miles to see Hibs and writing ‘The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues’ about it.   Order ‘You May Offend’ here: https://proclaimers.lnk.to/youmayoffend 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 Proclaimers know the exquisite delight of your songs being sung in football stadiums

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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