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

They Might Be Giants – old school fiends John Flansburgh and John Linnell – have been making elliptical, funny and adventurous records for over 40 years and writing music for children, advertising and TV comedies. We talk to John Linnell here about songwriting, early shows in art spaces, the way you saw the world when a "wiseacrey teenager" and what you can expect from their autumn tour. Which, incidentally, will include the "pointlessy difficult exercise" of performing Sapphire Bullets Of Love every night in reverse which they'll film and run backwards and then send the clip to audience members so they can gauge its accuracy ("like watching people sing for whom English is a second language"). Some illuminating moments here ...
... the rich vein of '50s music outside of rock and roll. 
... communicating by posting cassettes and how they built a following with an ansaphone.
... working in a record store in Massachussetts. 
... playing on the same bill as Steve Buscemi at New York performance venues in the '80s and gigs involving papier mache hands and masks. 
... why children are "a tough crowd" and the unsettling news that their albums for kids were outselling their usual records. 
... the fine art of survival after a 1990 worldwide hit.
... and Yoko Ono, Pere Ubu, Elvis Costello and the disturbing effect of Frank Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
 
They Might Be Giants tickets here …
https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/they-might-be-giants-tickets/artist/945181
Visit us on Patreon to see how you can help us continue the conversation: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on Patreon
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guy Chambers was a teenager in Liverpool and at John Lennon’s old school - "same headmaster, Mister Pobjoy". He remembers the Beatles, Queen, Abba and Jesus Christ Superstar sparking his interest in the "perfect song package" and went on to work with Tina Turner, Rufus Wainwright, Kylie, Diana Ross and scores of others. He talks here about early shows he saw, records bought and his own tour in the autumn, "An Evening With Guy Chambers", stopping off at various points on the way, among them ...
... how YOU can write a song with him. 
... Bowie's reaction on discovering he was third on the bill below George Michael and Robbie Williams at Netaid. 
... seeing XTC and Generation X at the teen shows at Eric's. 
... Benny Hill's Ernie, the Scaffold's Lily the Pink and other singles bought at Probe Records.  
... "the great harmony bands" like the Eagles, Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas.
..."A Is For Banana", his song about dyslexia.  
... writing a string quartet aged 11 and the magic of hearing four people bring his sheet music to life. 
... "the wastage": composers who write 50 songs and throw 40 away. 
.. the cinematic internal worlds of the Cocteau Twins and Lana Del Ray. 
... the "subversive harmonies" on Strawberry Fields Forever and what makes Eleanor Rigby so perfect.
... everything that now needs to be in place to get a hit record. 
... mass song-writing teams and how he can't operate with more than three people in the room. 
... and what you can expect from his upcoming tour. 
Tickets for An Evening With Guy Chambers here …
https://www.guychambers.co.uk/live
We've been podcasting since 2006 and every bit of support we receive helps us keep the conversation going. Find out more about how you can support Word In Your Ear into the future here: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on Patreon
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve known Alan Edwards since the days when we’d ring him for a quote from Blondie or the Stranglers in the late ‘70s and he’s still one of the key figures in music PR. He’s looked after the Stones, Prince, Michael Jackson, Blondie, Amy Winehouse, the Beckhams and many others. No-one is better positioned to see how that world has changed, from the pre-Google days when you could invent a story and the press would happily buy it to a 21st century where his flat was burgled in pursuit of lucrative celebrity leads. PRs, he believes, "are not messengers but storytellers” and his memoir ‘I Was There: Dispatches From A Life In Rock And Roll’ is full of them. He looks back here at …
 
… striking a £1m photo deal for the Beckhams’ wedding.
 
… Midge Ure, Gen X and other prime examples of fake news.
 
… hotel workers, waiters and airline pilots who sold stories to the press.
 
… the days when a battery-operated portable phone gave you the edge. 
 
… why he was hired by Blondie.
 
… the chilly, manipulative and inscrutable Lou Reed.
 
… Bowie’s disappearance in Berlin in the ‘70s and other things that would be impossible in the age of social media.
 
… Keith Moon in mid-air.
 
… and how it feels to be hacked.
 
Order Alan’s book here …
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-There-Dispatches-Life-Rock/dp/1398525243
 
The Outside Organisation …
https://outside-org.co.uk/
Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on Patreon
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s items slapped on the rock and roll barbecue and lightly grilled include …
 
… why Eurovision will never avoid political controversy.
 
… when AI does David Hepworth!
 
… what’s the secret of NTS radio?
 
… “there are two types of wedding disco, ones that start with Abba's Dancing Queen and terrible ones.”
 
… Tony Hall’s prophetic preview of Revolver in May '66 – “they shatter convention and may well have a far-reaching effect on the whole future of music”.
 
… when listening to the radio was a group activity.
 
… Daniel Kramer, Dezo Hoffman, Robert Freeman, Anton Corbijn and other photographers who shaped the way music looked.
 
... the rogue punctuation of "Paint It, Black".
 … songs that start with the chorus.
 
 … Elvis’s unrepeatable train journey from New York to Memphis in 1956.
 
… “there’s glass in the back of my head and my toenails don’t fit properly” – Dylan’s ’66 London press conference.
 
…. and hurry hurry hurry to Lot 71 in Danny Baker’s record auction, a snip at only £70!
 
Danny Baker’s record auction …
https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction/details/a230a-the-danny-baker-collection/?au=162&g=1
Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on Patreon
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve followed Paul Carrack for 50 years, a big hit single – How Long – when he was with Ace, 19 albums, countless sessions (the Smiths, Eagles and Pretenders among them) and a touring band member with Squeeze, Roxy Music, Roger Waters and Nick Lowe. He once put out an album called ‘I Know That Name’ as for so many people he’s still under the radar. His newsagent assumes he’s called “Mike” as he was the singer in Mike & the Mechanics. He's touring the UK in the autumn and looks back here at …
 
… seeing the Beatles, Chuck Berry, the Stones, Dylan and the Shadows at Sheffield Town Hall. And Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band at Mojos promoted by Pete Stringfellow.
 
… playing Cologne, Frankfurt and Hamburg clubs in the early ‘70s.
 
… his time with earnest prog adventurers Warm Dust – “please don’t look them up”.
 
… the value of having your own label in the world of streaming.
 
… when Elvis Costello got him to sing the vocal on Tempted by Squeeze.
 
… supporting Fleetwood Mac and Free.
 
… playing Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and Sinatra tunes with a big band.
 
… how it feels to be “dropped like a stone” by Radio Two when you no longer fit the demographic.
 
… the real meaning of the song How Long and what he has in common with Troy McClure of the Simpsons.
 
Paul Carrack tour dates here …
https://paulcarrack.net/
Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on Patreon
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nige Tassell used to go to school in full donkey-jacket-and-woolly-hat ensemble to express his boundless devotion to Dexys Midnight Runners. Forty years later he set out to find and interview everyone who’d ever been a member. For some, their time in the ranks was a joyful, career-launching delight. Others felt it was like a slightly chilly and controlling cult. They all took a while to recover and they all had extraordinary stories to tell in his latest book ‘Searching For Dexys Midnight Runners’. Here’s a flavour of what gets discussed …
 
… ‘No drugs or alcohol! No smiling! No eye contact with the audience!’ and other unsettling Dexys mantras.
 
… examples of Kevin Rowland ‘snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’.
 
… the many ways the band made themselves deliberately different’.
 
… the event supporting Bowie that got their power cut onstage in Paris and had them thrown off the tour.
 
... the heavy-handed recruitment of Helen O’Hara.
 
… Geno Washington and other strands of the Dexys DNA.
 
… the ad they took in the NME that soured their relationship with the music press.
 
… and how Rowland’s approach today remains resolutely unchanged.  
 
Order Nige’s book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-Dexys-Midnight-Runners-Tassell/dp/178512059X
Subscribe to Word In Your Ear on Patreon for early - and ad-free - access to all of our content, plus a whole load more!: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Get bonus content on Patreon
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.