Word In Your Ear

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

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. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. The deep secret of Abba’s “music without nostalgia” and the time they met the Pistols

    21 HR AGO

    The deep secret of Abba’s “music without nostalgia” and the time they met the Pistols

    Abba’s biographer Jan Gradvall met and interviewed Abba many times and builds a fresh picture of their internal chemistry in his new book Melancholy Undercover. Highlights of this illuminating pod include …   … how Sweden rejected their early hits for not being sufficiently “socialist”.   …. the discomfiting early life of Anni-Frid Lyngstad.   … what Max Martin and Denniz Pop thought made Abba’s music so durable.    … Strindberg, Bergman, the climate, the eight months of darkness and the role of melancholia in Swedish pop culture.    … the influence of the Human League on their later catalogue.   … why manager Stig Anderson “became a burden”.   … “Norway has Grieg, Finland has Sibelius, Sweden has Benny …”   … the first band to write about divorce.   … the Abba song with 57 chords and the only two samples Abba ever approved.   … Elvis Costello, Joe Strummer and Ian Dury backstage at a 1979 London show.   … when Sid Vicious ran into Abba at an airport on the Pistols’ 1977 Swedish tour.    … the role of the Lionesses football team, Kurt Cobain, Erasure, U2, Madonna and the Sydney gay community in the Abba revival.    … why the Abbatars are better than Abba.    … the myth of Agnetha as “the Greta Garbo of Pop”.    … and why The Day Before You Came is more than the Abba swansong.   Order Melancholy Undercover here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-ABBA-Melancholy-Undercover/dp/0571390986 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min
  2. Swinging London & the Wombles seen from an electric-blue Rolls-Royce. Mike Batt looks back

    6 DAYS AGO

    Swinging London & the Wombles seen from an electric-blue Rolls-Royce. Mike Batt looks back

    Mike Batt still wrestles with the emotional legacy of the Wombles, the act that simultaneously made him and cast a shadow over the rest of his career, not least his early days as a songwriter at Liberty Records, discussed here, hired after he’d answered the same ad as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, a time when A&R men wore kipper ties and had Picassos on their wall. He forged a path through psychedelia and into TV and films, taking huge financial risks with musicals, orchestral works and big-selling acts like Katie Melua, his Art Garfunkel hit ‘Bright Eyes’ eventually promoting him from the Haves to the Have-Yachts. Life, he says, has been “like running through traffic”. His memoir is just out, ‘The Closest Thing to Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’. All sorts discussed here including ...    … his brief satin-jacketed tenure in Hapshash & the Coloured Coat.   … parallels between record producers and traffic cops.   … Happy Jack and songs about outsiders.   … being in Savile Row when the Beatles played the Apple roof.   … life as “a square” during psychedelia.   … a snatch of abandoned teenage composition ‘The Man With The Purple Hand’.   … John D. Laudermilk and the magic of writing credits.   … how Bright Eyes “got me into the Officers’ Mess of Songwriters”.   … his publishers insisting there was a Womble on the book jacket.   … “circumcising” the world in a seven-crew yacht.   ... and feeling simultaneously smug and guilty when driving a Roller.   Order ‘The Closest Thing To Crazy: My Life of Musical Adventures’ here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Closest-Thing-Crazy-Musical-Adventures/dp/1785120840 Find out mroe about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    30 min
  3. Joe Boyd – Little Richard, Nick Drake, Tight Fit and why everything sounds the way it does

    18 SEPT

    Joe Boyd – Little Richard, Nick Drake, Tight Fit and why everything sounds the way it does

    Joe Boyd produced Fairport Convention, Nick Drake and many others, released acts from all over the globe on his Hannibal label and has just written a mighty and definitive account of the history of popular music, And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain, tracing the way different sounds from different countries became interwoven. Nobody is better qualified to write this book as you’ll discover from this enthralling conversation. Among the highlights …   … “if Mick and Keith had had Spotify there’d have been no Rolling Stones.”   … the African roots of Little Richard’s horn section.   … how a Zulu folk tune from 1939 ended up on the Lion King soundtrack.   … “Western musicians are governed by keys, valves and frets but what matters is the notes in between”.   … the evolution of ska as rock and roll was too exhausting in the heat of Jamaican dancehalls.   … Alan Freed, the “Pied Piper” that led white American teenagers into black music.   … Duke Ellington and music “too complicated for white audiences to follow”.   … the bossa nova in Nick Drake’s River Man.   … Paul Simon’s Graceland and the meaning of authenticity.   … world music’s problem with drum machines.   .. the attraction of music whose origin you can hear before the vocal comes in.   Order Joe’s highly recommended book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Roots-Rhythm-Remain-Journey-Through/dp/0571360009 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    48 min
  4. Nick Lowe – war stories, wise decisions and the event in 1970 that made him think again

    12 SEPT

    Nick Lowe – war stories, wise decisions and the event in 1970 that made him think again

    Old friend of the podcast, Nick Lowe has just released his 15th solo album, Indoor Safari, and he’s about to tour with Los Straitjackets. This absorbing conversation looks back at 60 years onstage and takes in the following …   … the secret of a long career.   … why he resolved “not to get that famous again”.   … touring Germany aged 15 in Brinsley Schwarz’s dad’s Dormobile.   … the Small Faces at the village hall in Hornchurch.   … to the Six Bells for seven pints with “photographer for all occasions” Jet Harris.   … playing Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent in the school band and wrestling with the chords to Cliff’s Living Doll.   … Kippington Lodge at Ally Pally, New Year’s Eve 1968, supporting Joe Cocker, the Bonzos and Amen Corner - “the Grand Canyon with a roof”.   … 270 dog walks with his son Roy during Covid and the things they discussed.   … the unique magic of working with “America’s premier instrumental surf band”.   … how ‘I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll’ is now a wedding staple.   … and the sole mention of ‘freakbeat’ vendors the Fleur De Lys in the history of our podcast.   Nick’s tour starts at the London Palladium on September 24: https://nicklowe.com/tour-dates/   Order Indoor Safari here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indoor-Safari-Nick-Lowe/dp/B0D5TXRLDD Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    32 min
  5. The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”.

    10 SEPT

    The Buskers’ Hall of Fame – from Moondog and Billy Bragg to Don Partridge and “the skating Sikh”.

    Louis Armstrong, Wild Man Fischer, Irving Berlin and Lucinda Williams all started out as buskers and Cary Baker’s ‘Down On The Corner’ traces the romance and influence of street players from Ancient Rome via Chicago’s Maxwell Street to Elvis Costello outside the CBS conference and beyond. Cary, David and Mark chuck coins in the conversational hat, among them …   … the turban and rollerblades stagewear of Harry Perry aka “the Skating Sikh”. … Blind Arvella Gray who took up busking because of a gun battle.   … the sight of Bongo Joe on his daily commute (a moped loaded with steel drums).     … what Mick Jagger learnt from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.   … Ted Hawkins' journey from Venice Beach to Geffen Records.   … the time Cary met Moondog dressed as a Viking and why he was a symbol of old New York.   … how Billy Bragg learnt festival crowd control playing street corners.   … Madeleine Peyroux, aged 15, playing Paris subways.   … Jesse Fuller, father of the one-man band.   … do buskers now make it via Instagram?   … the only gig where you can play the same song repeatedly.   … and when is busking just noise pollution?   Order Cary Baker’s Down On The Corner here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Down-Corner-Adventures-Busking-Street/dp/1916829104 Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    39 min

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. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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