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

This week’s pod was recorded just after we saw ‘Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm’ at London’s National Portrait Gallery, a warm and winning show that starts with him as a wide-eyed fan trying to take pictures of his heroes and soon switches to his shots of the whole world trying to photograph him. We talk about his pictures of French jazzers, Paris boulevards, backstage rooms at TV shows, models, paparazzi, light entertainment stars, screaming fans, American police guns, Miami beaches, billboards, views from plane windows, hotel rooms, cocktails and a New York theatre showing “Christine Keeler Goes Nudist plus Playgirls”. And wonder how it feels to discover 60 years later you had your photo taken by a Beatle.
 
PLUS …
 
… the top-flight rock and roll star we passed in Soho.
 
… the record David tries every year to force himself to like.
 
… the wonderful Geoff Davies of Probe Records, the much-loved Liverpool figurehead who signed the Farm and Half Man Half Biscuit.  
 
… bands who’ve had the most members.
 
… ‘Norman Wisdom, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, good times”. What’s not to love about the Human League’s Dare?
 
… the new U2 parlour game.
 
… why CDs sales are on the up.
 
… and what the police would know about you if they found your phone.
Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK
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David Remnick got his Pulitzer for his reporting on Russia. These days he edits The New Yorker, in which capacity he has had close encounters with some of music’s legends during their final acts, some of which is gathered in “Holding The Note”, a collection of his writings on music. From his ill-lit Manhattan eyrie he talks to David Hepworth of many matters, including:
….what was in the handbag which remained on the piano during Aretha Franklin shows
….what it was like being on the receiving end of an almighty dressing-down from the elderly Leonard Cohen
….how Bruce Springsteen learned nothing at school but has picked up a great deal since
….how Bob Dylan reckons he’s in a “post-interview” phase of life - or is he?
….how his father took him to see Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald and he has taken his own kids to see Radiohead
….how Keith Richards found a ghost writer who could throw his voice
….what was really the last good Stones album.
…why you should never try to get rock stars to like you.
Pre-order Holding The Note here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/david-remnick/holding-the-note/9781035023974
Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK
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Recorded together in Mark Ellen’s attic! Among the conversational footballs booted round the park this week you’ll find:-
 
… Freddie’s “exquisite clutter”: would YOU buy one of his bonzai plant-holders, his catsuit with ballet shoes and a $0.5m silver bangle?
 
… when did the story change from “the Stones are old, knackered and ought to give up!” to “the Stones are old, brilliant and should carry on forever!”?
 
... do all enduring legacies need an element of tragedy?
 
… who calls the Ezra Collective “a jazz band”?
 … who’s been married the longest … Bono, Alice Cooper or Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits?
 
… 1984 was the annus mirabilis of the album? Birthday guest Matthew North has the records to prove it.
 
… the perils of celebrities chairing press conferences (QED Jimmy Fallon).
 
... how they’ve only gone and wrecked the Rugby World Cup anthems.  
 
… and useful phrases to deploy when you didn’t much care for your mate’s band but don’t want to hurt their feelings – eg You’ve done it again! Only YOU could have put in a show like that! You took it to a whole new level!
Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK
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Fired by the rock and roll revival of 1970 and a post-Easy Rider taste for American music, a circuit of some 35 London pubs filled with bands playing fizzing, small-scale shows that never sounded quite the same on record, bands whose moment in the sun was ultimately wrecked by the arrival of punk rock. This pod – and Simon’s book ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ – raises a dimple jug to some of its forgotten heroes including Meal Ticket, Roogalator, Ducks Deluxe, the Winkies and the Kursaal Flyers. Be honest, when did YOU last hear mention of the Count Bishops or GT Moore & the Reggae Guitars? So what was it about Southend? How did Eggs Over Easy play such a pivotal role in it all? And Creedence Clearwater Revival? And Dave Edmunds? Why was this the perfect launchpad for Ian Dury? And what was the final nail in the pub rock coffin?
 
Order ‘Before It Went Rotten: the Music That Rocked London Pubs 1972-1976’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Went-Rotten-Londons-1972-1976/dp/0857305743/ref=sr_1_11?qid=1693561624&refinements=p_27%3ASimon+Matthews&s=books&sr=1-11
Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK
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Kevin Armstrong was the guitarist in the band David Bowie asked him to assemble for Live Aid and toured and recorded with him many times. Playing the guitar intro to Rebel Rebel in a stadium, he says, is “like lighting a match”. Start the Passenger with Iggy Pop and you’re greeted with “a great mass of love”. His memoir, Absolute Beginner, is “a window onto the high table of rock and roll” and full of insights into life in studios and on the road and the fathomless levels of diplomacy often required to collaborate. This entertaining pod expands upon …
 
… why he turned down the offer to join the Smiths.
 
… how Jim Osterberg transforms himself into Iggy Pop.
 
… the Sinead O’Connor’s tour manager’s trick to speed the band through security.  
 
… the song Bowie dropped from the Live Aid set.
 
… why Michael Hutchence is “terrified of small crowds”.
 
… Bowie’s ex-Navy Seal minder and the old decoys-under-blankets ruse.
 
… why Morrissey is “thin-skinned”.
 
… and the eternal curse of “Imposter Syndrome”.
 
 
Order ‘Absolute Beginner’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Absolute-Beginner-Memoirs-least-known-guitarist/dp/1911036173
Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK
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We dipped the shrimping net of curiosity in the rock and roll rockpool this week and transferred the following items to the podcast bucket …
 
… who now regrets being the “little tyrant” that broke up their band 30 years ago?
 
… who was the real Bungalow Bill and how did the song about him change his life?
 
… Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman are almost forgotten. Are the Doors and the Kinks heading the same way?
 
… the unique and extraordinary Bill Wyman, “more a witness to the Rolling Stones than a member”, plus Nellcôte and the Birds’ Custard.
 
… is the ice finally melting in the Talking Heads camp?
 
… an everyday tale of Culture’s “Two Sevens Clash” on the mean streets of North London’s garden suburbs.  
 
… was Lennon v the Maharishi an early example of “career cancelling”?
 
… is Life During Wartime from Stop Making Sense the greatest live performance ever filmed?
 
… the curse of the Budokan.
 
… and birthday guests Avi Chaudhuri and Jelltex (who strongly recommends The Mood Elevator's second album, Married Alive).
Tickets for Word In Your Ear live at 21Soho on September 25th here: https://www.tickettext.co.uk/1SwIYJWoHK
Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free! - access to all of our content: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
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