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. Brian Epstein & the Beatles - what he did and what he hid

    7 hr ago

    Brian Epstein & the Beatles - what he did and what he hid

    Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme personal and professional obstacles in the dramatic path of his short life, the man who built a shield around them but couldn't protect himself. We talk to him here about ‘Mr Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles’ with particular attention to …   … how he changed Britain’s image and was mortified to get no recognition for it   … the Beatle whose demands he was always fastest to execute   … the level of homophobia and anti-Semitism he had to absorb   … his reckless pursuits in the days when homosexuality could mean life imprisonment   … contract killers, blackmail, rigged roulette wheels and why the Krays said “it wasn’t us” when they heard he’d died   … the way he fashioned his own myth and airbrushed others who’d helped the Beatles succeed   … why McCartney’s 21st birthday party could have ended the band   … his genius (and fraudulence) as a salesman      … the double catastrophe of Brian’s US merchandising deal   … John, Aunt Mimi and “a story about the British class system”   … and the chaperone on George and Pattie’s first date.   Order copies of ‘Mr Moonlight’ here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Mr-Moonlight/Philip-Norman/9781398542266 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.

    30 min
  2. The glorious story of Funk from James Brown to Off The Wall

    6 days ago

    The glorious story of Funk from James Brown to Off The Wall

    Old friend of the podcast Lloyd Bradley wrote Bass Culture, the defining account of reggae, and he’s now turned his attention to funk, from its deepest roots and via the jazz, arts, TV, radio and pop culture that flavoured it. The main 10-year focus of ‘Funk Has Its Own Reward’ is from James Brown’s ‘Say It Loud - I’m Black and I’m Proud’ to Michael Jackson’s ‘Off The Wall’ but free your mind and all this will follow! …   … the importance of radio being “colourblind”   … Cab Calloway’s Jive Dictionary and the impact of DJs Martha Jean ‘the Queen’ Steinberg and Daddy-O Daylie   … how James Brown floor-tested his records and saved a fortune making them     … funk’s deep roots in America’s marching bands   … why jazz is funk’s closest relative and what it stole from white rock     … how the Family Stone’s Larry Graham made bass the place   … how solo singers gave way to the ‘funk gangs’     … how Richard Pryor gave mainstream America a window on a whole new world.   … the influence of Soul Train and Sesame Street (19-year-old Nile Rodgers on guitar!) in bringing funk to the masses   … George Clinton – “I can’t dance, can’t play, people tell me I can’t sing … but without me none of this would have happened!”   … plus the Chambers Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Funkadelic, Bootsy, Quincy Jones, Parliament and the greatest funk record ever made.   Order copies of ‘Funk Is Its Own Reward’ here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/lloyd-bradley-2/funk-is-its-own-reward/9781472123411/ Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear 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.

    43 min
  3. Leo Sayer has met everyone – rock legends, sport superstars, future presidents …

    2 Jun

    Leo Sayer has met everyone – rock legends, sport superstars, future presidents …

    Leo Sayer burst onto national telly in 1973 dressed as a Pierrot with the Show Must Go On launching a 50-year career in colourful company – songwriters, boxing legends, swindling managers, scurrilous socialites – and learning a great deal in the process. “Don’t underestimate the idiots!” is the hard-won advice. He’s touring in October and joins us here from Australia to look back at …   … how he and Linda Ronstadt escaped from Trump’s gruesome penthouse   … walking through Memphis dressed as a clown   … seeing Lonnie Donegan invent skiffle, Dylan at the Albert Hall and Bob Marley at the Lyceum from the side of the stage   … when Paul Kossoff asked him to audition for Free   … designing record sleeves for Marley, Roger Daltrey, Humble Pie and Quintessence   … “I’m the Forrest Gump of the music industry – nearly there!”   … “working with Adam Faith was like having Marlon Brando as your acting coach”   … the advice Paul McCartney gave him in 1973   … “Do you mind if I vomit in your shoe?”   … and a week in a training camp with Muhammad Ali.   Order Leo Sayer tickets here: https://tix.to/LeoLive26   Order the ‘Leothology’ box-set here: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/leo-sayer/leothology-the-studio-albums-1973-now Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear 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.

    33 min
  4. How Daniel Lanois made those adventurous records with Dylan, U2 and Willie Nelson

    29 May

    How Daniel Lanois made those adventurous records with Dylan, U2 and Willie Nelson

    Daniel Lanois built a studio in his basement in Quebec and began producing local acts when a teenager. Through work with Brian Eno, he went on to record U2, Bob Dylan, Arcade Fire, Emmylou Harris and scores of others with a method that’s unique, cinematic and utterly extraordinary, a brand of sonic architecture that creates settings to accommodate the songs, often in exotic and stimulating places. And he's made nine albums of his own, the latest the magical instrumental suite ‘Belladonna Nocturne’ – “hear this and you may never go home again”. This rich and fascinating conversation includes …   … how the place you record affects the way you think   ... producing Dylan and Willie Nelson in an abandoned Mexican cinema   … why the first record he bought was Wipe Out by the Surfaris   … the process of “printing sound” and his Music Minus One theory   … “Songs are doorways to another dimension”   … Eno’s working method: “he walked round the studio for 45 minutes ringing bells to map out the length of the album”   … drawing song sketches to stop everyone having to crowd round a laptop   … making the Unforgettable Fire with U2, “expanding Slane Castle ‘til there were little critters crawling out of the walls!”   … conjuring the tropical heat of Robbie Robertson’s Somewhere Down the Crazy River   … and what Hells’ Angels like to do to his music.   Order Belladonna Nocturne here: https://artsmusic.lnk.to/BelladonnaNocturne Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear 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.

    38 min
  5. Siouxsie, Nico, Cocteaus, Shangri-Las, Bobbie Gentry … a celebration of the sound of Goth!

    28 May

    Siouxsie, Nico, Cocteaus, Shangri-Las, Bobbie Gentry … a celebration of the sound of Goth!

    Cathi Unsworth was a teenage Goth, enthralled as much by Joy Division and the Banshees as by the Brontës, Bram Stoker and Aubrey Beardsley. We loved her book ‘Season of the Witch’ and she’s since put together a soundtrack album, ‘Dressed In Black’, featuring the Goth divas she most admires and adores. And talks to us here about everything from murder ballads, the Industrial Revolution and Victorian literature to …   … John Peel, Siouxsie, Joy Division and her teenage Goth conversion among the “hedge-goths” and “field-goths” of rural Norfolk   … the phenomenal life, lyrics and mysterious disappearance of ‘Swamp-witch’ Bobbie Gentry   … has Goth eaten Punk?   … why BBC banned Billie Holiday’s “Gloomy Sunday”   … the ‘death discs’ of John Layton, the Shangri-Las and Twinkle   … how Cabaret and Julie Driscoll coloured Siouxsie and the Banshees   … Shirley Collins’ Death And The Lady – “now that’s what I call a pandemic!”   … did Liz Fraser speak fluent Faerie?   … Nico – “if I had a machine-gun I’d kill you all!”   … and how Juliette Gréco looked the devil in the face.   Order copies of ‘Dressed In Black: Goth Divas From The Dark Side’ here: https://acerecords.co.uk/various-artists-dressed-in-black Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear 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.

    31 min
  6. Blondie and Clem Burke remembered by devoted pal Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s

    27 May

    Blondie and Clem Burke remembered by devoted pal Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s

    Clem Burke joined Blondie in 1975. He started writing his memoir 20 years ago and just managed to finish it before he died in 2025, encouraged and assisted by his old friend Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s, “a chance to reflect on all he’d achieved”. We’re thrilled she’s joined us here to talk about his dramatic life and ‘The Other Side of the Dream’, a conversation stopping off at …   … falling for her “teenage crush” when she saw Blondie on TV, the man who wore red shoes at his audition   … Clem Burke, eternal fan who idolised the Beatles, Bowie and the Stooges, and the brief moment he became Elvis Ramone   ... do bands talk to each other? … Blondie was not a democracy … “in fact bands are an example of how democracy doesn’t work”   … Clem’s powerhouse drumming and showmanship: “you couldn’t take your eyes off him”   … “the night we met we each had a limo and he introduced me to Andy Warhol”   … how it felt to hear Blondie record one of her songs   … how their lives connected: “we both achieved a dream and had it taken away from us”   … why drummers tend to see groups differently   … and life in the Go-Go’s - “married to four girls!”   Order copies of Clem Burke’s ‘The Other Side of the Dream: My Life in And Out of Blondie’ here: https://lnk.to/theothersideofthedream Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear 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.

    34 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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